The skies gave us what we did not expect… This was the phrase that they repeated in their own hearing, those "Neo-conservative Hawks" in Washington behind closed doors, after having shed crocodile tears before news cameras expressing their grief for the innocent victims of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
They forgot, however, that that event was the tragic consequence of the policies of the globalization of neocolonialism that served to strengthen terrorism to the point that it touched their own home.
The government of those Washington "Neo-conservatives" discovered, following September 11, 2001, the golden opportunity to proceed with imposing policies over and above national and international law. In their zeal, they pushed forward to exercise hegemony around the world, blinded by the illusion of their representing the final and definitive force, leading "triumphant capitalism – the ultimate social system in human history."
US policies of globalization, cloaked in democratic slogans, fit Karl Marx’s description of being mere phrases that proclaim “formal rights." They have stripped freedom of its absolute humanitarian value and have simply transformed it into cheap and bewildering propaganda for the purpose of dominating the world. If it were not as such, how could it be possible—under the mantel of proclaiming democracy—to speak of a "Clash of Civilizations," as outlined by Samuel P. Huntington. His theory can be summarized as "the future cannot be defined by looking at divergences between social systems, as occurred during the epoch of the Cold War, but as a result of civilizations thrown into conflict by racial and ethnic strife."
From the above, we can conclude that hegemonic US policies that are on the offensive against our Arab region are an inseparable part of global policies directed against the planet. From that one can conclude that the strategy of US imperialism is to take the world back to the time of direct colonial rule, as shown by the occupation of Iraq. This continues to be based on Thomas Hobbes’ racist approach which proposes that "man is the wolf of man" and that "nothing compels states to meet and cooperate." Consequently, the countries of the world should submit—openly or implicitly—to the will of a central power, that is to say, to the will of the United States of America.
Generally, Arab and Islamic regions fall within the sphere of interests of US imperialism, especially in relation to gas and petroleum. The existing state of affairs within countries of those regions offers warm and fertile grounds for ferocious attacks against them, since they suffer from the underdevelopment of their socio-economic and political infrastructures. In addition, ethnic, racial and religious conflicts make them weak and vulnerable while keeping them removed from the world of modernity, democracy and independently sustained demographic and economic progress.
Because of this, US policies toward the area are based on the intensification of pressure and heightening contradictions. The aim is to subjugate the entire region and transform it into an appendage of the United States. With that objective, Washington is seeking the annihilation of the Palestinian national cause and an end to Palestinian and Iraqi resistance, which continue to act as impassable barriers to the US plan of imposing its control over the region.
We cannot say that the US strategy has undergone basic or fundamental changes. Since September 11, 2001, they have only varied in the methods applied, albeit radically. Starting from that moment, the United States openly declared its hostility to the principles of peaceful coexistence and sought, through all possible means, to continue stirring the flame of conflict between countries and societies of the world. This has been done under Huntington’s slogan of "the clash of civilizations and religions" and with the support of the thesis of the Americanized philosopher Francis Fukuyama concerning "the end of history and the exit of massive groups of humans from the same." This refers to peoples of the Third World who, according to Fukuyama, will be left behind in history.
The Bush administration responded to the terrorism that targeted the World Trade Center with the unparalleled escalation of organized state terrorism, which the United States has practiced for years against many peoples of the world – Palestine, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. One of its direct results is the occupation of Iraq, and previously Afghanistan, as well as placing the entire Gulf region under the direct authority of its military bases and the high commands of its armies. These are done in addition to increasing the level of support and coverage that the US provides to the bloody and expansionary policies executed by Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
Since the end of the Cold War, the US government established the basis of the policies that it is carrying out today. Following the abrupt imbalance experienced in the correlation of world forces in a semi-absolute way, and to the US’s advantage, there was a return to traditional methods of colonialism – such as colonial occupation and later direct military occupation. The US government continues applying these policies of seduction and intimidation. These policies reached their apex with the arrival of Reagan to power. His administration led the great change in US post-McCarthy policies and became the cradle where were born the "Neo-conservative" policies that have materialized in practice today. During President George W. Bush's command, the White House became a true general staff from where military actions were directed on all fronts and in all wars: classic, economic, computer science, religious, etc. The final objective for "victory" aimed at "the clash of civilizations and religions" involves no hesitation on their part in resorting to whatever immoral methods in the conducting of war, as these are not based on any principles or ethical justifications. Therefore, the battle will move from an attempt to impose savage conservative ideology and thought promoting the unilateral exclusion of Third World peoples to wars of their mass extermination.
There is a question that is murmured in the lobbies of Arab government offices and news stations: “How are we to react to the current mire faced by the United States, rejecting it or dealing with the US’s political agenda?” The formulation of the question correctly reflects the crisis in which most of the official Arab authorities and wide sectors of Arab intellectuals are irrefutably immersed. Others reformulate the question, asking, “Can we possibly confront US policy?” As it is logical, the answer to the question formulated in that way is prepared ahead of time. They will say, “Confrontation? No! That is suicide so we should try to work with the US agenda in order to sustain minimal losses!” However, we will look at the things as they are. Don’t US policies leave us the option of "self-defense”? The logical and scientific answer is: definitively not.
Faced with the absence of dialogue concerning the US’s political agenda, the only alternative to the resistance is submission, with the familiar price of abandoning our national causes and renouncing our rights to our native lands and sovereignty. This price consists of giving up our wealth and putting our states and societies under the sword of a unilateral and globalized market system. We would become prey to transnational companies advising us how to reconstruct our societies and our political and economic systems so that they serve the interests of these gigantic economic entities – all with the objective of institutionalizing plunder. This is how we will be deprived of the resources for sustained and independent development as we clear the way for greater deterioration and impoverishment in our societies, greater poverty and marginalization and new ethnic, religious and denominational conflicts. Our societies will only be reservoirs into which social violence and terrorism drain.
We have no other option other than national resistance and preparing the path to it by means of a process of radical and comprehensive structural reforms that will embrace all the Arab societies. These radical reforms will place us on the track to modernization, with state-of-the-art technologies in the era of the computer revolution. That can only be achieved through governments that lead our societies on the basis of democratic elections, the peaceful transfer of power and the establishment of institutions of civil society. In this way we will be strong and able of recover the rights that we have been deprived – able to face the impetuous advance of Zionist colonial efforts and stand up to US hegemonic designs. We must be conscious that no mechanism would serve without the reestablishment of a healthy system of governments in our countries: bodies that emanate from and submit to constitutional institutions elected freely, democratically and directly and based on forms of collective work.
Reform is not an option; it is a mandatory step toward which we must direct everything. If we do not do this ourselves, we will be dragged along under the conditions and dictates of others. Some Arab official powers continue gambling on the possibility of rebuilding the bridges with the help of the US government through incorporating themselves into the White House’s political “agenda” for the region and once again playing the role of agent in these policies in accord with new changes having taken place since September 11, 2001. These are simply vain illusions of worried minds that are far from ever being achieved by these repressive totalitarian governments, since their policies of repression and persecution destabilize their own societies that they maintain, subject to great tension and disruptions at all levels. With much sorrow, one could say that, although paradoxical, the level of misery produced by those government policies—due to the backwardness in all fields of political, economic and social life—does not allow transnational companies to achieve their objectives of plundering with the required speed and ease. They therefore try to impose comprehensive changes (from the point of view of their interests), impose their domination of the region and take possession of the wealth of its peoples. That is the essence of the reforms that the Bush government is demanding in its plan for redrawing the geo-political map of the region titled “The Great Middle East Initiative." For that reason, it is in our national interest to take up the cause of reform in our own hands and to begin that task immediately. Otherwise, the price to be paid will be very high and at the cost of our rights to our native lands, independence and the enjoyment of our riches.
If we do not regroup our forces and arm our societies with democracy, the imperialistic onslaught will be more ferocious and will win additional battles. The occupation of Iraq, the practices of the occupying forces and the escalation of Israel’s sanguinary violence are the best examples of this.
Perhaps the destinies of Palestinian and Iraqi resistance will be able to sustain themselves on their own. We do not know how long they can be sustained in the context of national defense directly facing Israeli-US hegemonic, colonial and genocidal efforts. However, and in the end, those colonial policies are digging their own grave. The United States has become an empire that—due to its own policies—is going into a nagging decline because it put the interests of a handful of transnational capitalists above the interests of the peoples of the world. The anti-globalization movement is attracting and polarizing a wide movement against US policies. Soon, Arab peoples will take the reins in their hands and assume their rightful position in the battle against US aggression and the policies of world hegemony.
*The secretary general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine Source: Palestinian newspaper Al-Massar. (October 2004)
