THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 162, July 22, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ACADEMIA GOES AWRY: A BOOK REVIEW
By Michael Rubin
BOOK REVIEWED:
Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints & America' Perilous
Path in the Middle East. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004. 233 pages. $23.
FULL STORY:
"The silence of the experts is part of a larger problem," Columbia University historian Rashid Khalidi laments in the introduction to
his critique of American policy in the Middle East, taking policymakers to task for listening to "ill-informed pundits rather than people
who are actually knowledgeable about the rest of the world."
Rather than demonstrating why academics should be consulted by policymakers, however, Resurrecting Empire is a case study
of why they are not. Khalidi's book, which examines the record of Western involvement in the Middle East and analyzes the likely
outcome of the most recent U.S. incursions, rests on questionable sources, a tendency to favor polemic over fact and reflects little
understanding of how policy is made.
In his historical analysis, Khalidi demonstrates little understanding of Iraqi history, failing to mention Saddam Hussein's use of
chemical weapons on the Kurds and the draining of the marshes. Rather, he implies that Arabs think with one mind and hold the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute central to their identity. But, after 35 years of Ba'athist dictatorship, Iraqis have a sense of historical
exceptionalism.
Khalidi, who did no research in Iraq, transplants, instead, an Arab nationalist discourse into a society that has largely abandoned it.
When UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi addressed Iraqis as "my fellow Arabs," they responded with stony silence. Iraqis have not
forgotten that, as Undersecretary of the Arab League, Brahimi did not speak up as Saddam massacred tens of thousands of Arab
Shi'ites.
If historians are trained to evaluate sources, then Khalidi is negligent, if not dishonest. For insight into policy development, for
example, he cites Karen Kwiatkowski. She neither worked in the office of U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith nor was she
involved in Iraq planning, as Khalidi implies. Rather, Kwiatkowski was the Morocco desk officer in the Office of the Deputy
Undersecretary, several layers down. More troubling, Khalidi ignores Kwiatkowski's association with the conspiracy-prone Lyndon
LaRouche organization.
Khalidi cites many speeches and reports in the course of his narrative. But, rather than access the original, he relies on secondhand
interpretations by fringe Internet journalists. The result is repetition of bizarre (and anti-Semitic) conspiracies. He questions the
loyalty of top Bush administration officials, alleging falsely that they were advisers to former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Such
allegations are inconsistent with the primary documents which focus on the American war on terror.
In discussing U.S. policy, Khalidi throws away any pretext of research and relies instead on rhetoric. He condemns U.S. unilateralism,
dismissing the 49 countries which, as the "Coalition of the Coerced," supported Iraq's liberation. The same holds true in his
narrative of Israeli-Palestinian relations. Khalidi cites statistics that count Hamas terrorists killed in firefights as civilian casualties. He
laments the "mythology" of Oslo, and the "nursery fable" of Prime Minister Ehud Barak's "generous offer" at Camp David.
He repeats the canard that Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount sparked the Palestinian uprising, ignoring a string of statements
by Palestinian officials to the contrary. In 1996, for example, then-Palestinian Authority Minister of Planning Nabil Shaath said that,
should Israel dismiss any Palestinian demands, "We will return to violence. But this time it will be with 30,000 armed Palestinian
soldiers."
A month after the collapse of Camp David II, Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein declared: "Violence is near and the
Palestinian people are willing to sacrifice even 5,000 casualties." Palestinian terrorists killed an Israeli soldier the day before Sharon
visited the Temple Mount.
Khalidi's lack of primary source research leads him down the path of flawed conclusions. Rather than interview Iraqis, Khalidi is
dependent upon media reports. He implies that the one-in-six Iraqis who fled the country during the reign of Saddam Hussein lost
their legitimacy within their families and among compatriots. Not only is this counterfactual, but such logic would also undercut
Khalidi's own claim to insight in the contemporary Arab world.
Khalidi suggests a greater UN role, but ignores Iraq's unique history with that body. Had Khalidi done field work, Iraqis would have
reminded him of Kofi Annan's February 24, 1998, press conference, in which the Secretary-General said:
"Can I trust Saddam Hussein? I think I can do business with him."
In Iraq, these words have had special meaning since the Iraqi daily Al-Mada exposed UN oil-for-food program graft. To date,
the UN cannot account for approximately $5 billion in oil-for-food money. Historically, Arab nations distrusted League of Nations
mandates; the assumption that they would welcome a greater international role is based less in the realm of historical analysis than
in Khalidi's own political beliefs.
Khalidi takes his Arab nationalism further, suggesting that Iraq's neighbors play a greater role in its fate. Assuming the Khalidi does
not want to suggest Iranian or Turkish involvement (the former acceptable to no one, and the latter unacceptable to most Kurds), he
underestimates the resentment with which Iraqis view other Arabs. Iraqis blame Kuwaitis for post-war looting. They label all Saudis
as "al-Qaida." Their hatred toward Jordan, which they accuse of profiting from sanctions, is such that petrol station attendants refuse
to fill Jordanian-plated cars. In 1999, the Jordanian director of UNICEF in northern Iraq replaced Swedish teachers with Palestinians
from UNRWA. The local population protested. UNICEF had to reverse the decision because of the "psychological trauma" the
presence of Palestinians caused among victims of chemical weapon attacks who had seen Iraqi state television footage of Palestinian
demonstrations in support of Saddam Hussein.
On June 24, 1982, historian Bernard Lewis published a review of Orientalism, literary critic Edward Said's polemical work.
Lewis's New York Review of Books article was devastating. He exposed numerous errors and omissions. That Khalidi
dedicated this book to Said is appropriate. If Khalidi's analysis is meant to represent what academia can contribute to policy, then
Resurrecting Empire is a damning indictment of academia today.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
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
Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is Editor of Middle East Quarterly. Rubin's review of
Resurrecting Empire was first published in the Jerusalem Post, July 15, 2004, and can be found on the Internet website
maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
July 18, 2004
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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