THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA

An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 31, January 30, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
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WAITING & WATCHING EGYPT
By Alan Caruba

THE CONTEXT OF THE TURMOIL IN THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST:  THE CULTURE & HISTORY, PAST & RECENT, OF THE COUNTRIES & PEOPLES COMPRISING THE MIDDLE EAST -- GEOPOLITICAL RELEVANCE OF THE MIDDLE EAST TO AMERICAN & WESTERN INTERESTS -- LOCATION, PEOPLES, & NATURAL RESOURCES -- WESTERN IMPERIALISM -- THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE -- WORLD WARS I & II -- THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT -- ARAB NATIONALISM & PAN-ARAB NATIONALISM -- ABSOLUTE MONARCHIES & DICTATORSHIPS -- RISE OF THE ISLAMIST MOVEMENT -- JIHADIST ORGANIZATIONS -- RISE OF AN ISLAMIST IRAN SEEKING TO BECOME A NUCLEAR POWER -- A BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN EGYPT
FULL STORY:   It took several weeks for word of the British defeat at Yorktown to reach the King and Parliament. Not long after the end of the American Revolution, the U.S. government led by President George Washington dispatched diplomats to London to negotiate a trade treaty.

Today, we watch events unfold in far off places, often in real time. What we lack, however, is context. Most Americans and, I suspect, peoples comprising other Western nation-states are frequently at a loss when it comes to knowing anything about the culture and history, past and recent, of nations in the Middle East, Africa, or Asia.

What we do know about the Middle East is that, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, along with the rise of al-Qa'ida and other jihadist organizations, things have not gone well for American and Western interests.

How different everything might have been if U.S. troops had occupied Tehran in 1979 and demanded the return of our diplomats after they had been taken hostage.

After World War One, what was once the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Middle East and areas of the Maghreb in northern Africa, the French and the British got out their maps at the Versailles conference to literally draw new lines on it and create new countries that were, in fact, colonies. They included Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and a strip of territory called the Palestinian mandate. The chief prize at stake was oil.

After World War Two was concluded, many of the former British and French colonies, including India, and much of Africa declared their independence. The Saudi Royal family had already thrown in its lot with America. In Egypt, the Suez Canal, opened in 1869, was jointly owned by the British and French. The British called the shots there through their manipulation and control of the Egyptian royal family.

The Egyptian defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which commenced in response to the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel, stirred discontent among Egypt's military leadership. Gamal Abdel Nasser ultimately emerged as Egypt’s top leader, taking over from General Muhammad Naguib, who had become the first President Of Egypt, following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, a bloodless coup d'etat instigated by the Free Officers Movement, the coup which overthrew King Farouk and the royal family. In 1956, President Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.

Here’s where it gets very instructive. In 1956, the British and French, with Israeli involvement, sent troops to seize the Suez Canal. That operation was quashed by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, who made it known that the United States would not support it. The era of colonization was over.

What had been occurring, however, was an era of pent-up anger throughout the Middle East, focused on the establishment of Israel and resentment of the former colonial powers. The British had earlier installed a royal family in Iraq. A new component was opposition to the dictators (like Saddam Hussein) who emerged to run Iraq. Another example is the fact that, first, the British and, then, the Americans had controlled Iran’s oil through its royal family. Other royal families continue to control Mideast oil.

Ironically, it took U.S. President George W. Bush to rid Iraq of three decades of despotic rule by Saddam Hussein. However, this has to be balanced against the fact that the U.S.A. has also supported the authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. It was, however, Egypt, as well as Jordan, who made peace with Israel.

Arab military defeats gave way to support for the socalled Palestinians as pawns in the war against Israel. The main support of the Palestinian "refugees" is the United Nations, sixty-three years after 1948 and subsequent wars to destroy Israel. Iran has funded two Palestinian terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas.

At the heart of the turmoil in the Middle East is Islamism, a movement to restore Islam to its former glory when it literally knocked on the doors of Europe. The jihadists (such as Usama bin Ladin) dream of a worldwide Islamic caliphate. As in the early spread of Islam, it would be achieved through war, but the tactics employed would be use of terrorism and expanding Islam’s population worldwide.

An irony of the Islamist movement is its opposition to the monarchies ruling Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, all of whom have proven to be good allies to the United States at the same time they have funded the spread of Islam. In Egypt, under Mubarak, the jihadists known as the Muslim Brotherhood were ruthlessly suppressed. The Saudis actually exiled bin Ladin.

What the world has witnessed has proven to be very bad news for the West. The 1979 Iranian Revolution has given us Mamoud Ahmadinejad and a regime plotting through proxies to control Lebanon via Hezbollah and Gaza via Hamas, while it plots to control Iraq and eyes the Gulf States as well. Its closest ally these days is Syria. The Iranian regime has long sought to become a nuclear power. Its proclaimed goal is to destroy Israel.

Democracy has not turned out to be much help in the Middle East. Rigged elections in Egypt kept Hosni Mubarak in power for three decades. Saddam Hussein used terror and the Baath Party to achieve and hold on to power. Elections were rigged in Afghanistan. Pakistan has been mainly ruled by its military.

Lebanon was a democracy, but now its Prime Minister comes from the ranks of Hezbollah. Turkey has had a long run of real democracy, but only because its military ensured that Islamists did not take over.

Americans have a lot at stake and, of growing concern to many, a President, Barack Hussein Obama, whose first television interview was with Al Jazeera, who bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, and whose first global outing was a tour of the Middle East to demonstrate how friendly he was to their cause.

© Alan Caruba, 2011


LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East

American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East

North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa

The Middle East & the Arabs

Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three    Page Two    Page One

International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security

   Page Two    Page One

Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.

Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization

Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies

U.S. National Security Strategy



Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer, he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and public policy.




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