The main Middle Eastern issue being discussed in the United States these days is not Iraq, Arab-Israeli peace-making, or Turkish-Kurdish-Iraqi tensions, but rather what to do about Iran and its perceived threat to the region, the United States and the world. The Bush administration sets a shrill and aggressive tone on this and is taking action, including this week’s new sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, its Quds force, and several banks.
Possible American moves against Iran should be considered in light of the 2001-2007 lessons of US-led wars to change regimes and remake national governance systems in Afghanistan and Iraq — and indirectly in Palestine and Lebanon. This is not just a Bush-Cheney problem; this is an all-American problem, since most presidential candidates in both parties do not stray far from the administration’s aggressive policy options.
The post-2001 experience suggests that American military attacks against Iran would probably result in more turmoil in the Middle East and Asia, and greater anti-American sentiments and actions around the world. The American-led wars and aggressive diplomatic stances vis-à-vis Iran, Hamas, Hizbullah and Syria have already generated two specific phenomena: widespread criticism of the United States in public opinion around the entire world (see the recent BBC and Pew polls); and, a determination by many Middle Eastern actors to actively resist and defy the United States, and to militarily combat it (or its Arab and Israeli proxies) when such an opportunity arises in Lebanon and Iraq, rather than to react with the expected acquiescence and compliance.
The six-year-old US-led “global war on terror” has expanded terror networks and their threats, hastened weapons of mass destruction proliferation by assorted regimes, bolstered Arab-Asian dictators, weakened indigenous democracy movements, mangled nascent rule of law traditions, badly isolated and weakened the United States diplomatically, and virtually nullified the deterrent power of American-Israeli military might. Attacking Iran will only exacerbate these trends in the short term.
Americans should grasp precisely why a US-led war on global terror has backfired and isolated the United States as much as the terrorists. The main reason, simply, is that every aspect of Washington’s “global war on terror” is perceived by the majority of people in the Arab-Asian region as reviving, reaffirming, expanding, and accelerating all the negative Western policies that have devastated the people of the Middle East for nearly a century.
Here is a quick summary list of these issues:
From the days of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt two centuries ago to the birth of the modern Middle East state system at Euro-colonial hands a century ago, a steady stream of Western armies invade, occupy and seek to remake the Middle East to suit Western strategic aims.
n European — and now American — policies blatantly favour Israel at the expense of Arab rights, and turn a blind eye to Israel’s continued colonisation of Palestinian land.
n Persistence in marginalising Palestinian rights and collusion in barbaric Israeli policies against the Palestinians, such as this week’s move to cut electricity supplies to civilians in Gaza.
n Supporting autocratic Arab regimes and police states, and showing chronic disdain for the democratic aspirations of Arab citizens.
n Promoting the ethnic and sectarian division of the region in order to enhance American hegemony and Israeli control. (For example, why is the United States today the only source of apparently serious proposals to divide Iraq into three smaller units?)
n Demonising Islam and Islamic values, to the point that 75 percent of Arabs and Muslims surveyed recently express an astounding fear that the United States actually wants to dominate or destroy Islam itself.
n Attacking any Arab or Islamic power or mass popular force that rises in the region, such as Nasser’s Egypt, Baathist Iraq, Iran, Hizbullah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others.
n Dictating economic, political, social, educational, and religious norms and values that should define Arab-Asian societies, and trying to enforce those values through military power and political force.
n Pursuing blatant double standards in implementing UN resolutions and international law, such as relating to Israeli occupation and colonisation of Arab land, Iran’s nuclear industry, recognising or rejecting democratic elections, and other issues.
n Exploiting local leaders and movements to suit Western policies, then dropping these erstwhile allies and friends when they are no longer needed.
n Controlling Arab-Asian natural resources, such as oil, gas and strategic geography.
This is what ordinary Arabs, Iranians, and other Middle Easterners see when they hear about American plans possibly to attack Iran. This is not because people in the Middle East have fertile imaginations, but rather because this is the actual history that they have experienced for the past century at the hands of once colonial masters who have now turned into post-colonial and neo-colonial nightmares.
They see America’s “global war on terror” as a frightening renewal and continuation of foreign threats and predatory intrusions at the hands of powerful Western armies and political demagogues.
Rami G. Khouri is an internationally syndicated columnist, the director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award