THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 190, November 2, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
EVERY DAY IS GROUNDHOG DAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
By Alan Caruba
THE MIDDLE EAST'S REGRESSIVE ISLAMIC FANATICISM: THE PHENOMENON THAT REMAINS A CEASELESS THREAT
TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION
FULL STORY:
In the movie, “Groundhog Day,” the main character wakes up day after day, trapped in the same events, desperately looking
for a way out of that living nightmare. It’s a very good metaphor for the Middle East.
Here are some quotes from a book whose title I will reveal in a moment:
“The only truly transcendent law in the Middle East is that of unintended consequences.”
“Nation-building and the redressing of historic wrongs were in the air….”
“His fighters secured control of key rivers, recaptured Kut, and on (date withheld) stormed victoriously into Baghdad. Still
undecided was how this famous city — and, indeed, most of Mesopotamia — would now be governed.”
“I suppose we have underestimated the fact that this country is really an inchoate mass of tribes which can’t as yet be
reduced to any system. The Turks didn’t govern, and we have tried to govern -- and failed.”
And finally, “Our armies have come into your cities and lands not as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.”
All this and more was said in the 1920s by British imperialists. If it sounds like things being said by Americans, then you must
assume that America has been repeating all the mistakes of Great Britain in the exact same places.
The book being quoted is Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East by Karl E. Mayer and Shareen Blair
Brysac ($18.95, W.W. Norton, softcover), and its five-hundred pages are devoted to the extraordinary personalities of the
1920s who, believing it was Great Britain’s duty was to bring civilization to India, Africa, and the Middle East, devoted
themselves to “Pax Britannia,” the rule of distant colonies representing a fourth of the world’s population.
The book is a reminder that whatever passes for modernity in the Middle East has generally been imposed by the process of
European colonization in quest of its oil and other riches to fatten the profits of various British, French, and American
business enterprises such as the Suez Canal and the oil companies.
Left to themselves, the polyglot of tribes would never have experienced anything resembling modernization.
Afghanistan, today, would look very much the same to the earliest invaders and explorers who passed through it. No roads.
No hospitals. Few schools. No jobs except raising poppies for the heroin trade or serving in the army or police. Men raised
from youth to fight anyone and everyone. Pushtuns, Tajiks, Hazarus, Uzbeks, Turkmen, and Qizilbash.
The Middle East had been ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire for centuries — from Egypt to Persia. Going back even
further in history, the region was no stranger to European invasions. The Crusades were a response against the Islamic
invaders that, at one point, had laid siege to Vienna.
As the authors note, “In his history of Jerusalem, the Israeli writer Amos Elon calculates that, over four millennia, the Holy
City has known ‘twenty ruinous sieges, two intervals of total destruction, eighteen recent reconstructions, and at least
eleven transitions from one religion to another.” In 1967, visitors could find the remnants of “Roman encampments, Crusader
castles, Turkish parapets, and British pillboxes.”
To suggest, for example, that, after more than sixty years of Israeli national sovereignty, Arab neighbor nations (and Iran)
have the slightest intention of allowing Israel to exist is to ignore the history of centuries of old intolerance directed against
both Christian and Jew.
Following World War One, England and France divided the remains of the Ottoman Empire, which had chosen to side with
Germany. It would have died sooner or later of its own dead weight, but it was Sir Percy Zachariah Cox who would take out
“a map and a pencil to draw the boundary between Iraq and the Nejd (now Saudi Arabia). The borders with Syria and
Transjordan were defined similarly.”
There were Arab leaders, but they were generally the pawns of the great powers, frequently assassinated or deposed. With
some exceptions, the nations of the Middle East continue to be ruled by monarchs and despots.
As the British Empire shrank in the wake of World War Two and American power grew, only one thing is clear. Neither of
these imperial powers had any clue, nor way of dealing with the Middle East’s regressive Islamic fanaticism that remains a
ceaseless threat to Western Civilization. And, as in past times, the debates rage about staying in or getting out.
Every day in the Middle East is Groundhog Day.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
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
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Caruba blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. A 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 policy.
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XI, 2009
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity