Daily Archive

In the crazy fun house world of imperial politics nationalist regimes are less preferable than radical religious ones.   Noam Chomsky and Andre Vltchek discuss the motivations of empire in the Middle East in this selection from the book: On Western Terrorism – From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare.

“Noam Chomsky:

“Anyhow, going back to the Middle East after World War II.  The British role in Iran was reduced and the US began to take over.  IN Iraq in 1958, there was a so-called independent government, but it was basically British-run, and it was overthrown in a military coup.  A couple of years later the US was able to engineer a coup that overthrew the Nasser-type nationalist government, and that’s where Saddam Hussein comes in.  The CIA handed the new Ba’athist government a long list of Communists, radicals, and teachers, and then they all got assassinated.  Then you come to the present; the US expects to run Iraq.  In Saudi Arabia, the British were the junior partner,  Finally the British pulled out, and left it to the United States.”

Andre Vltchek:

Of course Saudi Arabia is a tremendously destabilizing force in the world and its influence spreads from Bahrain to Indonesia.  In Bahrain there is the fear that the country may be annexed by Saudi Arabia,  The Saudi Army is and out of Bahrain.

Noam Chomsky:

The Saudis are pouring money all over the place to sponsor the most extreme forms of radical Islam – Wahabbism – in Madrasas, in Pakistan, pouring money into Egypt to support the Salafis, all extreme Islamic elements.  The United States is happy with that; it doesn’t try to prevent them.

The idea that the US is opposed to radical Islam is ludicrous.  The most extreme fundamentalist Islamic state in the world is Saudi Arabia, which is the US’s favourite.  Britain also has consistently supported radical Islam.  The reason was to oppose secular nationalism.  US relations with Israel reached their current close state in 1967 because Israel performed the huge service of smashing secular nationalism and defending radical Islam.

A British diplomatic historian, Mark Curtis, wrote a very good book a few years ago called Secret Affairs: British Collusion with Radical Islam (review here).  Curtis went through the British records on Islam.  It turns out the British had consistently supported radical Islamist elements, pretty much was the US has been doing.  They may not have liked it, but they prefer them to the secular nationalists.

Secular nationalists threatened them – they threatened to take over the resources and use them for domestic development and that’s the worst sin; so we support radical Islamists.”

-Excerpt from “On Western Terrorism from Hiroshima to Drone Warfare p.115 – 116

It would seem that Geo-political decisions are quietly being adjudicated by the imperial powers of the world.  It would also seem that they are quite separate from the political fodder being offered to their respective populations.