14 - 20 March 2002
Issue No.577
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 March 2002 Issue No.577 |
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Naked imperialism
Despite the repetition of reductionist sloganeering, it requires only an holistic analysis to reveal that the emperor, that is the US, has no clothes, writes Ashraf El-Bayoumi*
President Bush, in his quest to fight terrorism has recently named Iraq, together with Iran and North Korea as members of an exclusive club, "the axis of evil". After the quick so-called victory in Afghanistan the US administration lost little time in announcing the nominees for its next phase of the "War on Terrorism". And in the absence of strong condemnation by Arab governments, and their continued suppression of popular dissent, Iraq quickly became the leading axis member.
But exactly what are the objectives of the US administration in attacking Iraq and in changing its regime by force? The question gives rise to several others: Is the planned action in Iraq linked to the dramatic developments in occupied Palestine? Is standing idly by while waiting for showers of cruise missiles to descend the only available course of action for Arabs? Will the Arab Street be allowed to react to US threats as the Korean people did during Bush's Asian tour? Can the global super power be resisted?
To deal seriously with any of these questions requires an holistic analytical framework. Yet many insist on approaching such complex issues in a fragmented, atomised manner and in deliberately de-linking the components. Such a reductionist analysis, by forcing us to view international developments through a narrow hole in time and space, can at best result in an incomplete picture, and more often than not the reaching of erroneous conclusions.
Such an approach, though, is admittedly convenient, since it readily allows key components of the issue to be hidden, and lends itself to the formulation of simplistic rationales and misleading slogans, the "evil empire", the "fighting terrorism" and the "axis of evil" that we are regularly force fed.
In contrast, dealing with the problem holistically puts it in its wider geo- political context, helps expose hidden agendas and goals and therefore allows for an informed setting of priorities of action. The global super- power, the US through its media, has in the past reduced the Gulf conflict to a quest to "liberate Kuwait" and to confront a dictator who "kills his own people." Thus it is that the suffering long-endured by the Iraqi people, which includes the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children as a direct result of the criminal sanctions imposed by the US under the UN umbrella, is somehow deemed worthwhile. Or such, at least, was the judgement of Madeleine Albright when she was the US representative at the UN. Military strikes, with their "collateral damage" and the death of well over a million Iraqis, which eminent international lawyers consider genocidal, have been justified to achieve the "noble" cause of "containment". More death and destruction will likewise be justified to achieve a forceful change of the Iraqi regime.
The goal of "eliminating weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, was used to maintain and prolong sanctions. After years of inspection and destruction, the elimination of the no longer existing weapons, together with unfounded accusations of international terrorism, are now used to wreak further destruction on Iraq and install a puppet regime that will conclude a peace treaty with Israel. Linkage to regional realities, notably Israel's possession of a significant nuclear, chemical and biological weapons arsenal, is not permissible according to the atomistic, no-linkage approach promoted by the US and liberated Kuwait. A blind eye is turned to the unprecedented levels of terror inflicted by the US-armed Israeli military machine on the Palestinian people. And the fact that the continued occupation and settlement of Palestinian land is illegal according to international law is immaterial.
The global media machine, assisted by a few Arab writers, would dismiss such concrete analysis as conspiracy theory. It would never dream of commenting on published American reports, such as "Cruise Missiles: Proven Capability", issued by the US government's General Accounting Office (GAO/NSIAD-(95-116) 04/20/95). This report clearly identifies "five basic categories of target -- command and control, industrial production, infrastructure, population will, and fielded forces -- were encompassed in the plan."
The report goes on to state that "attacks on targets such as television and radio stations and electrical power generation and distribution facilities would degrade the will of the civilian population."
An equally important report, posted on the GulfLink Web site is entitled "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities" and dated January 1991. The report correctly predicts increased incidences of diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid when Iraq is prevented from importing essential chemicals to purify its drinking water supply. Which leads one to conclude that the designation of chemicals such as chlorine, essential for water purification, as "dual usage" items, and therefore subject to sanction, is far from accidental. Such a classification exposes the lie at the heart of repeated claims by the US that it has "no quarrel" with ordinary Iraqis.
Holistic analysis allows us to relate what is happening in Iraq to sanctions and military strikes against Yugoslavia, intimidation and sanctions against Iran and North Korea, the decades long embargo imposed on Cuba, and the punishment of Libya and Sudan, among other non-compliant sovereign nations. The issue is not an Arab one, nor Islamic, nor about combating terrorism: the heart of the matter concerns a global power using its unprecedented military might to dominate the world and impose its version of globalisation by military means. Placing the case of Iraq in its broader historical and regional contexts illuminates the connection between the purposeful destruction/de-development of this Arab country and the Middle East Project, the Israel-centered regional variant of globalisation, NAFTA style.
Prior to the 11 September attacks several reports, articles and books were published with clear indications that the sole superpower is embarking on a new phase, termed by some as militarised globalisation.
The "Project for the New American Century" was established in 1997 in order "to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests." Thomas Donnelly, the deputy executive director of the project advocates an aggressive form of Pax Americana, and shares with similar analysts the belief that the US should be encouraged to practice a "democratic imperialism", "stabilising troubled spots" in the world "without hesitation, embarrassment or shame."
Such statements are simply the extension of the shift of earlier imperial slogans, from "the white man's Burden" to "enlightened colonialism." Michael Parenti, in his new book Against Empire, exposes the ruthless agenda of the US empire and shows how the conversion to a global economy "is a victory of finance capital over democracy."
Given an holistic approach it is not difficult to address the questions posed at the beginning of this article. Briefly, the US objective is world domination, primarily to further the interests of its ruling elite. This runs counter to the interests of the majority of Americans in every socio-political category, and will involve major attrition on civil liberties.
As for the Arab world, the US empire has adopted the time- honoured colonial strategy of fragmenting the region the better to subordinate Arab development to its own globalising agenda. It acts to promote and enable Israel as the regional power, via "The Middle East Project" or one of its variants, at the expense of other countries in the area, including Iran and the so-called moderate Arab regimes. Thomas Friedman, in his article "A Manifesto for the Fast World" in New York Times Magazine of 28 March, 1999 spelt things out clearly: "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist -- McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell-Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."
But US plans can be resisted. In fact such resistance has already begun, manifested in demonstrations against the WTO, World Bank, IMF etc. And such resistance is widening, intensifying, as the disastrous "fruits" of globalisation become more visible, as in Mexico and in Argentina. Arab governments should take notice and begin to empower themselves, first by building alliances with their own people and allowing them to express their sentiments against any planned attacks on Iraq or Iran. Effective Arab solidarity with the Palestinian popular resistance, and with the Iraqi and Iranian peoples, will certainly have a positive impact. As for Arab governments, it is no longer acceptable that secondary conflicts such as those between Kuwait and Iraq, or between Iraq and Iran, should dominate the primary contradictions inherent in the international arena.
* The writer is professor of physical chemistry, formerly at Alexandria and Michigan State universities.
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