On Zbigniew Brzezinski’s ‘Bush suicidal statecraft... the ultimate cause of imperial collapse.’
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Oversimplification of history is the hallmark of people like Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national security advisor. Quoting Arnold Toynbee, he accuses the Bush administration of "suicidal statecraft... the ultimate cause of imperial collapse. In “THE IRAQ WAR,” Bill Bonner picks on Bush and quotes as a reinforcement of his argument the recent speech of Harold Pinter, yesterday's winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Most of these quotations are out context and examples of great acts of intellectual dishonesty. ‘Every great empire - from the Assyrians to the Mongols to the British had taken Baghdad. America had to do it too.’ Perhaps Bill Bonner and Pinter failed to notice that neither the Mongols nor the Assyrians or the British could pull off elections in Iraq. Mongols were busy burning Baghdad and creating mountains of chopped heads. Rolling the caliph in a carpet so as to avoid the shedding of holy blood in the caliph's palace was the best Mongols did. Neither did they bring the Caliph of Islam to face a panel of judges; he was rolled up in the carpet and barbarically killed.
Neither they nor the Brits could have put the warring factions together. The time was not ripe. Until then the ‘Shiite marjiyah and hawzaha almiah’ were divided; the restive Kurds were on the edge suffering persecutions at the hands of Ottomans. None of the past occupiers made efforts to provide Iraq with a civil authority. Neither had had two elections in succession, nor did they have the luxury of mass participation in those elections. Mongols burnt Baghdad down; here, in this ‘’occupation,’’ the enslaved majorities in millions are standing in line, defying death by suicide bombers, calling to be freed from the tyranny of the minority thugs of the past – the ones these liberals call the stable tyrants. "Nobody likes armed missionaries," said Robespierre when the French tried to export their democracy, at the point of a gun, throughout Europe. Unfortunately, little do they realize that this revolution is supported by the popular will of the people, millions voting nay or yes to measures taken by the occupying forces?
The constitutional achievements of Iraq are no mean feat. This is the heartland of Islam and repercussions of this free vote shall be felt from Hijaz to Maghreb. A new era has dawned; the vandals and terrorists are fighting their last ditch battles in the stronghold of ex masters in the Sunni triangle but popular resistance and popular hate are missing. They are reading the wrong script. If the voting places were deserted and Iraq was in the grips of civil war, it would be different. Here 66% of the registered voters turn out to accept the verdict of those who created this constitution.
Iraq was in infancy and could not have formed an alliance of the ablest to bring to reality the dream of Iraqi nationalism. Oil in North and South was not a certainty; the brains of the Sunnis, the oil richness and dexterity of the Kurds and love for Iraq by the Shiites were just not big enough factors to unite Iraq. Iraqi insurgency is not a freedom fight against the occupiers, but a fight of the disgruntled against rehabilitation of old privileges. Iraqi wealth has been squandered; it was spent on palaces and a few henchmen of Saddam. Those henchmen of the Sunni triangle today find great source of inspiration in the arms of Alqaeda militants to demolish Iraqi dreams and drag Iraq into the ignominy of the Baath regime. This is no freedom fight, otherwise the queues at the ballot boxes would have disappeared! The will of Iraqis to vote in face of death is the clarion call of a nation that yells for the world to see ‘we want to live.’ Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Poland did it under Lech Walesa. Iraq will find its Lech too. Iraq has gone through a revolution, and not only Iraq, but the heartland of the Islamic world is witness to this change of regime through ballot boxes.
Revolutions are not a bed of roses; no revolution has been peaceful in history. Before ‘Liberty Leading the People’ Jacobins unleashed the Reign of Terror (1793-1794), thousands met their deaths under the guillotine after accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. Until July 27, 1794, the French people revolted against the excesses of the Reign of Terror in what became known as the Thermidorian Reaction. It resulted in moderate Convention members deposing and executing Robespierre and several other leading members of the Committee of Public Safety. Civil war as yet is anticipated in Iraq but none so far has occurred. Yes, by pressuring Bush to withdraw, the chance of civil war is immense. Leaving Iraq at this juncture is like a quick withdrawal from an Indian subcontinent; an orderly withdrawal is necessity of the day.
Let me digress for a moment and make a quick comparison between Bush and his predecessor. Why has Bush been able to achieve so much? His biggest achievement being the global alliance of the most stubborn nations against Alqaeda! In this War on terror it really did not matter where the Europeans stood; they are anyway engrossed with pacifying their own growing Muslim populations; it was nations like Saudi, Pakistan, China and the Russians who had to be harnessed, cajoled and carroted. He created an alliance that has rocked Alqaeda to its core. Within European Union the entire Eastern Europe look at the US policy with great admiration; the Anglo-Saxon alliance has brought a change in Afghanistan and Iraq through guns and ballot boxes today. This change through a ballot box is a new change, guns were used but the freedom of people has been ensured and the very freedom that can bring Islamic government within Iraq. But that was really never the point, it was about a government that is answerable to its people.
He transported the war on terror from around 1-Liberty Plaza to the hinterlands of terror, like Waziristan, Sunni triangle of Iraq and Saudi heartland. The gun battles are heard in downtown Jeddah, young brainwashed eager Saudis poisoned with the message of Ladenism queuing up for visas to USA are now forced to fight their own survival battle with their own kin. Was the battle really not about Saudi royalty and Saudi freedom? Even on that count freedom-lovers should rejoice that the outcome of this may be more freedom for Saudis but the emphasis of shifting the war to the west has been definitely blocked and made difficult. All this needs a lot of courage and faith may be less thinking or intellect!
Clinton was an immensely thoughtful and a bright leader. The book ‘Agenda’ is an eye-opener and provides insight to his philosophy. Clinton was a thinker, he used to reflect, consider and sense the pros and cons, and ended up most of the time doing nothing in matters of strategic responses. He left a ‘peaceful world,’ but as he left, a lot was happening around under simmering melting pots about to blow up, and all of that did blow up. Sometimes, leadership is about 'impulse' more than intelligence; it can be ideal if we have a combination of the two, like Churchill, but it is rare. Sometimes confidence in eradication of ‘evil’ in the absence of raw intellect needs impulse and faith and some doing. Hitler could not have been taken out by good wishes of Chamberlain, much as the world around him and he would have loved.
It is here where Clinton’s virtue of a great thinker fades against the mediocrity of Bush. Bush due to his accommodating temperament and genuineness has core strength of building workable alliances. He can seize on delicate judgments and has the ability to make quick decisions. His art includes making and building consensus of responsible allies around a policy that is ethical and principled. His core competence is bringing about a change and breaking of a status quo. One classic example is the handling of ‘Jenin’ intrusion in 2002. The threat of UN enquiry into the Jenin ‘massacre’ which Israeli COAS refused and Sharon acquiesced to COAS but the inquiry had the support of Powell. The delicate ultimatum of Prince Abdullah in Crawford to remove the Israelis from Muqata and Jenin, then Arafat’s besieged headquarters or else he shall leave. Instead of losing one ally against the other, that is Israelis against the Saudis, both of whom he needed for the forthcoming invasion of Iraq. In Crawford he promised Prince Abdullah that he would make the Israeli withdrawal possible, and that he did, by caving into Sharon’s request of suspending the UN inquiry of massacre that any way had not happened to the extent of ferocity claimed by the Palestinians.
The art of keeping and building alliances makes a good leader. Much as the world continues to concentrate on his weaknesses, they totally fail to realize how much he is accomplishing without grandstanding. The referendum that no one believed would be passed. It is the people of Iraq who once again surprisingly shocked the world with their love of freedom from anarchy and constitutional democracy waving a final good-bye to tyranny of the past. It is disgraceful intellectualism to make comparison of insurgents of Iraq and Afghanistan with ideological communist uprising of Vietnam that any way is now one of the biggest capitalist partners of the west.
The Kurds and the Shiites form the core of Iraq; they provide the brawn and Sunnis so far had been the brains, they were so as the other two were censored. Today, oil riches of the nation are for the sake of unity being agreed by the majority of the factions, to be split equally between the factions irrespective of their race and only with regard to Iraqi union. Unlike before, where handful of baathists devastated the oil income, it will now be available to all. Denazification was a painful process, so was bringing Japan into the fold of peaceful nations after the Second World War.
The persecuted minorities of Iraq today are not vengeful; they are free from oppression. It is the ex masters who are bent on killing and maiming anyone who wants to break the status quo whereby a new system beneficial for all takes it place. The oppression Brzezinski talks about is the oppression of ‘Alqaeda’ joining hands with ex baathist to punish Iraqis for throwing away the yoke of slavery. This ‘popular uprising’ is being glorified as Vietnam in Iraq although it is combination of thugs and suicide bombers and the last sigh of those who ruled Iraq as masters without any recourse to ballot box or consent of the populace. |
