www.globalresearch.ca
Centre for Research on Globalisation
Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation

 

Unfolding Middle-East Quagmire:

America is Buying Time 

by Soula Avramidis

www.globalresearch.ca 21 April 2005

The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KHA504A.html


What UN resolution 1559 (regarding the presence of Syrian troops inside Lebanon) has done until now is to squeeze the Syrian regime back to its territory and make it more responsive to the demands of the Sunni majority for its survival. This means that it will be difficult for Syria to enter negotiations with Israel or halt support for the Iraqi resistance because it has in the past drawn its legitimacy from hard line positions in a populist response to its Sunni majority constituency. In Lebanon the overwhelming majority sees no harm in the weapons of Hezbollah and much of the opposition is vehemently anti-Israeli.

Lebanon is at a critical crossroads: anarchy or seclusion (removal from the Near East quagmire or a neutral status). The Lebanese Lira could hardly hold on account of 37 billion US$ internal debt and the spates of recent bombings may appear to be tilting the scale towards the former option. Deconstructing Lebanon and Syria on the basis of a sectarian model will buttress Israel's security position and support its raison d'�tre as a Jewish state in a would-be predominantly theocratic milieu.

The American/Israeli agendas join together regarding the pursuit of a regional state of anarchy. The latter is also based on necessity to draw NATO and possibly Arab proxy armies into the war, with a view to exacerbating sectarian divisions in Iraq as well setting the stage for an offensive on Iran. The latter objectives are on balance inconsistent with the European agenda. In other words, the EU and US/Israeli agendas tend to diverge when the question of Iran comes into the picture. And it is specifically Iran and its Mullahs' regime that have been extremely short-sighted ever since they facilitated the US invasion of Iraq. And, worst yet, they have acted in a counterproductive way with regard to regional security by encouraging a Sunni/Shiite schism that plays directly into the hands of the US ruling class and its allies in Israel.

The US needs to control the region not solely for its oil reserves, but more importantly to uphold its global economic hegemony. Under this design, regional states have to be molded into weak sectarian sheikdoms with little or no sovereignty and, by implication, a dismal economic development agenda if any. Regional chaos thus favors a credo of Islamic fundamentalism, which in turn reinforces the process of US sponsored political and social disintegration:

1. Iran's role in fomenting Islamic divisions and delaying resistance in Iraq is playing right into the hands of US foreign policy since the latter is buying time to end all forms resistance to occupation in Iraq. 

2. Iran's role in insisting on an Islamic cover for the ideology of resistance is providing the Israeli establishment with plenty of ideological hubris for it being a purely Jewish state and the continued purging of the Palestinian people. 

3. If the region begins a steep descent along sectarian fault lines with a deepening crisis, the political map will be necessarily redrawn with Israel coming out as the suzerain of the US hegemon. 

4. If, however, the opposition to US/Israeli aggression self-reinforces via a process of secularization and popular fronts, the 150,000 US soldiers will be but hostages in the hands of freedom fighters who will put an end to the world's biggest empire and its crony regimes and pariah states, with Israel going down into the trash can of history first.

Where do we stand now in the Near East? 

One should not underestimate the level of consciousness prevailing in the region vis-�-vis the dangers of the US/Israel aggression. 

An open sectarian conflict in Iraq has not yet occurred despite American induced killing- under the fictional Zarqawi, on both sides aimed at fomenting full scale civil war. 

In Lebanon,  the opposition is realigning its position so as to designate Syria as a strategic partner in the region despite the horrendous past mistakes of the regime in Lebanon. In Syria, open sectarian warfare is highly unlikely given that it has no prior history of sectarian conflict. 

In Israel and the US, peace loving forces are on the move. In all, a cursory assessment of the status quo etat d'esprit in the Arab Mashreq exhibits healthy signs of awareness of the dangers of American laced democracy. 

America is in the Iraqi hole. 

Soon Israel will be drawn in to assist in the open. 

When that happens, the Iraqis will prove that they not only were at the start of civilization but also at its rebirth by putting an end to American imperialism.

Dim-witted Iranian clerics are playing for time to build nuclear bombs thinking they can outsmart the Americans and their Israeli allies. They have unnecessarily prolonged the war in Iraq in the past and cost the region untold suffering and agony based on the faulty premise that 'the Iraqis attacked first and so we should finish them off strategy.' They are delaying open resistance in Iraq by keeping the Shiites at bay while the Americans try to finish off the Sunni triangle very much like they did in the late nineteenth century when they assisted the European imperialists against the Ottomans. No matter what happens, if the US pulls itself out of Iraq,  they will be next and not solely because of their nuclear facilities. The US has a congenital intolerance to semi-sovereign [oil producing] states in the Middle East. 

It is not Iran that is buying time. It is the US. 

While Iran waits for an outcome in Iraq, a waiting with Persian anti-Arab sentiment as tolls of people go down, one is reminded that "all waiting is a crime."


Email this article to a friend

To become a Member of Global Research

The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) at www.globalresearch.ca grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles in their entirety, or any portions thereof, on community internet sites, as long as the text & title are not modified. The source must be acknowledged and an active URL hyperlink address of the original CRG article must be indicated. The author's copyright note must be displayed.  For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

To express your opinion on this article, join the discussion at Global Research's News and Discussion Forum

For media inquiries: [email protected]

� Copyright Ali Khadri GLOBAL RESEARCH  2005.


www.globalresearch.ca

return to home page