Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Surge of People Power in the Middle East

A Surge of People Power in the Middle East by M. Shahid Alam

"As a cover for deepening U.S. control over the Middle East – here is the latest civilizing mission for you – the neoconservatives in the Bush administration argued that the Islamic world produces “terrorists” because it lives under autocracies. To solve the “terrorist” problem, therefore, the U.S. would have to bring democracy to the Middle East. This demagoguery only revealed the bankruptcy of America’s political class. It is a shame that the president of the United States and his neoconservative puppet-masters peddled such absurdities without being greeted by squeals of laughter – and shouted down as hypocritical, as farcical.

Which country has been the leading ally and sponsor these past decades of nearly all the despotisms in the Middle East – those of royal pedigree and others seeking to become royalties?

Regardless, the real plan of the United States failed miserably. It was dispatched to its grave by a people’s resistance in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Yet, George Bush and his neoconservative allies can take some credit for the wave of protests that is spreading across the Middle East – from Tunisia and Algeria to Egypt and Yemen. The U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, attacks on Pakistan, interventions in Somalia and Yemen, shamefaced support for Israel’s murderous wars against the Palestinians and the Lebanese, and deepening sanctions and daily threats against Iran have produced one result for sure: they have accelerated the pace of history in this part of the world."


Bill

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