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May 25, 2013
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 New Regimes Have Reason to Resent AmericaPosted on Feb 22, 2011The political scholar Walter Russell Mead recently alluded to more than a half-century of American “world-order-building tasks,” a formulation that I think most Americans would accept as describing the international obligations Washington assumed in 1945-46, and the policy the United States has undertaken since 1941, when it entered the Second World War against Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. Victory in the Second World War was followed by the Cold War, its outcome in the 1980s taken complacently to be another American victory. History was pronounced to be over—another success for Washington. Completion of that American-built world order seemed just over the horizon. Then came the 9/11 Arab attacks on the U.S. Since then, it has been world disorder that we have faced. There are many in Washington and elsewhere who believe that the democratic awakening of the Arab nations, which has been under way since December, will consolidate a predominantly democratic order for nearly all the major states, with the U.S. enjoying a respected leadership role. My own opinion is that nothing is less likely. The American commitment of the last four decades (at least) has been to the reactionary and undemocratic order that has prevailed in the Middle East, and to the three wars and several small and misconceived “Greater Middle Eastern” interventions that sowed the disorder now undoing Middle Eastern and Mediterranean geopolitics. Popular uprisings are the immediate cause of the present disorder, but Washington is clinging to the undemocratic remnants of the past while hoping for more democracy. This is true in Bahrain, where the U.S. Navy’s alliance has been with the Sunni monarchy of Bahrain, which is being held in place by the Sunni Saudi Arabian monarchy, both trembling with anxiety that the exploited Shiite majority in Bahrain, and minority in Saudi Arabia, may find effective support from Iran—America’s and the Sunni monarchies’ nuclear-nightmare state, itself a shaky despotism, but a Shiite one, and just as determined as the Saudi monarchy not to yield to democracy. Advertisement The self-destructive alliance that the Obama administration (like the G.W. Bush administration before it) has forged with the reactionary and expansionist Likud party in Israel is a barrier to American friendship with Arab democracy. Last week’s veto by the U.S. of an otherwise unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution condemning further illegal Israeli settlement-building on Palestinian land advances the moment when the Palestinians will take the issue to the General Assembly, which (not the Security Council) is the U.N. authority that voted to create Israel inside the territory of a partitioned Mandate Palestine. The assembly also guaranteed the well-being of the Palestinians whose land was appropriated. The Palestinians will now ask for recognition as an independent state and government, existing within the U.N.-defined frontiers, and that are under illegal military occupation. They will demand that the General Assembly require enforcement of partition on its original geographical terms (with mutually agreed modifications). If Israel believes itself the victim of an international “de-legitimization” campaign today, wait until that happens! Its only friend will be a U.S., discredited by its abandonment of past Arab allies and rash past commitments, as well as by its frustration in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Israelis should note that even now the U.S. is not a true friend to Israel because its relationship is tainted by hypocrisy. Washington, too, has refused from the very start—and continues to refuse—to accept officially Israel’s violations of international law and its settlement of Palestinian territory. Its actions unofficially suggest otherwise, but they contradict America’s official commitments only because the right-wing Israeli lobby in the U.S. holds a gun to the back of Congress. Israel should take care. The Obama administration itself launched its Middle Eastern policy in 2009 with a demand that Israeli settlements cease. It cravenly backed off that demand after it was contemptuously spurned, but Barack Obama’s successor will inherit the hypocrisy of past American policy choices in the Middle East and find himself the enemy of the governments that eventually will have replaced the unseated Tunisian, Egyptian, presumably Libyan (and other) despotisms of recent memory. He and his electoral counselors may be more disposed than Obama to accept the unsavory but lucid advice of Machiavelli that I quoted in a recent column: “A prudent ruler [make that an American president] ought not to keep faith when by doing so would be against [his country’s] interest.” One should add that, above all, this is good advice when the candidate for betrayal is determined to commit national suicide, as is true of Israel under Likud rule. Visit William Pfaff’s website for more on his latest book, “The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy” (Walker & Co., $25), at www.williampfaff.com. © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.  TAGS:
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By lubomir, August 11, 2011 at 8:14 am Link to this comment
I havent see any good things in WWII… My grandpa which wrote professional essays dead at the front…(((
Report thisBy ocjim, February 24, 2011 at 7:22 pm Link to this comment
Because Obama is continuing a 30 years policy of helping the rich get richer, it is akin to Egyptian leader Mubarak accumulating money that belongs to the Egyptian people, pooling it for a continued life of luxury off the backs of deprived Egyptians.
How can rebelling people relate to a progressively reverse Robin-Hood nation?
Report thisBy MarthaA, February 24, 2011 at 9:11 am Link to this comment
alturn, February 24 at 6:57 am,
What you have stated is the same in the United States. The
Report thisconservative Right is amassing all the wealth of the nation
systematically for the few at the top, the Corporate Elite of the
nation.
By alturn, February 24, 2011 at 1:57 am Link to this comment
American is starting a process which makes many Americans feel very uncomfortable - one where America becomes one among many nations, not the king maker and ruler. One where the people of the world is the superpower, not the rich, corporations or any county.
“Middle Eastern countries are like members of the same family. There can be fights between brothers and sisters, but they are temporary. Afterwards they will get together and forget their differences. In such a situation, the Americans will be ‘the odd man out’.
In the United States, the fear is that if it does not retain direct or indirect control of Middle Eastern oilfields its whole economy will sustain various setbacks.”
“The process of haves and have-nots in the Middle East continues, but it only came to the forefront against the background of outside cultures penetrating the fabric of the Middle Eastern way of life. Maitreya says: An Arab is supposed to be an Arab, with an Arab culture, an Arab background. The masses remain Arab. The rulers lead a double life. This means that at home they show they are Arabs. Abroad they identify with nonArabs. This process guarantees a type of aura which makes one fall apart.
Maitreya says: Look at the Sheikhs. They tell their people they defend and nurture their countries with the Arab way of life. But what have they done? The wealth of the nations has been spent on arms, on personal luxuries and investments abroad, while the masses struggle for existence. . .
Maitreya says to these rulers: “It is time for you to go. Government will be by the people and for the people. The wealth of the nation is for the nation. If the nation is deprived of its health and wealth, it will rise up.”
Maitreya has made it clear to various Middle Eastern rulers that although they have tried to involve the Americans, the consequences spell disaster. Even if war takes place, there will ultimately be no sultans, emirs or sheikhs continuing to rule as they do now.
Everywhere, the politicians are frightened. The people will begin to ask questions about the billions spent on arms, which should have been spent on the people.”
“Throughout the Middle East, people are saying: “I am a human individual and I have rights.” They are questioning the conditions of politics and religion imposed on them. The doors are opening slowly.”
Report this- World Teacher Maitreya through an associate as reported by Share International
By frecklefever, February 23, 2011 at 5:22 pm Link to this comment
COLIN POWELL TOLD THE STORY ABOUT THE FIRST BLACK BUS DRIVER IN THE SOUTH..AND
Report thisHOW THE BLACKS HOPED HE WOULDN’T WRECK…SADLY OBAMA IS DAILY WRECKING AN
OPPORTUNITY THAT HIS VOTERS GAVE HIM…HE SIMPLY IS NOT STRONG ENOUGHT TO ASSERT
HIMSELF AGAINST THE STATIS QUE OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS…PLUS HE IS NOT A STRATEGIC
SEER…HIS ADMINISTRATION IS IN SUM A CARETAKER PRESIDENTCY…AND THAT IS A WRECKAGE
FOR AMERICA..
By berniem, February 23, 2011 at 3:46 pm Link to this comment
Personally, I hope that all of the democratic movements in the ME and potentially elsewhere go contrary to US wishes and that our crises continue to escalate. Why, because, like the alcoholic or drug addict, until the bottom has been hit no real change can be expected in behavior or view of reality. In the case of the US until the economy really crashes and the realization that the insanity of the last 30 years, i.e., unbridled and unchecked privatization, deregulation, greed, and inequality not only in the economic realm, but in the legal arena also, comes home to roost, nothing will change in the race to the bottom for the American population being directed by the plutocrats and corporate elite like some insane perversion of some NASCAR event! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!
Report thisBy Leefeller, February 23, 2011 at 1:31 pm Link to this comment
It is rumored the Norwegians told Obama, they want to take their peace prize back! Those Norwegian givers!
I hear Walker had a phone conversation with Qaddafi and offered him a job!
You have to hand it to the Republicans….. or they will never go away!
Report thisBy copernicist, February 23, 2011 at 1:25 pm Link to this comment
I will me-too MeHere in another BRAVO. Mr Pfaff has seen quite clearly through the self-reinforcing self-congratulators cowering in the corridors of official Washington while blind outriders check the horizon for Them Thar Injuns Tryin’ to Take “Our Land” Away. Yes, those dots of affinities near and far are connected. To save a lot of time and prose, and sum up: Hardly a “Surprise!!” that we will reap what we have sown, sometimes slyly, often smugly, always selfishly – and with that special capacity of the habitual criminal never to be underestimated, for stupidity. So Send not to Ask for Whom the Bell Tolls, friends, ,,,
Report thisBy parkinson, February 23, 2011 at 9:16 am Link to this comment
BARACK OBAMA, the man for whom we all had such high hopes when he gained the presidency of the most powerful country in the world, has proved to be a model of ineptitude and cowardice.
Report thisLast week, he cowered before the power-brokers of AIPAC and bowed to their demands to veto the UN SC resolution condemning illegal settlements by Israel.
He made America stand in isolation against the entire membership of the UN Security Council in a move that will be seen as on of the defining moments of shame, of his presidency - his now ONE-TERM presidency.
How a man could get so far and then achieve so little by meekly acquiescing to the increasing demands of the Israel lobby, is a subject for case study for future students of international politics.
By parkinson, February 23, 2011 at 9:12 am Link to this comment
BARACK OBAMA, the man for whom we all had such high
hopes when he gained the presidency of the most
powerful country in the world, has proved to be a
model of ineptitude and cowerdice.
Last week, he cowered before the power-brokers of
AIPAC and bowed to their demands to veto the UN SC
resolution condemning illegal settlements by Israel.
He made America stand in isolation against the entire
membership of the UN Security Council in a move that
will be seen as on of the defining moments of shame,
of his presidency - his now ONE-TERM presidency.
How a man could get so far and then achieve so little
Report thisby meekly acquiescing to the increasing demands of
the Israel lobby, is a subject for case study for
future students of international politics.
By MarthaA, February 23, 2011 at 3:28 am Link to this comment
The USA is a terrorist nation in the business of making terrorists
Report thisand causing wars for private profit with no benefit
to the populace of their own nation. No one should
give their life fighting in a private profit war that has nothing
whatsoever to do with democracy.
By MeHere, February 23, 2011 at 3:24 am Link to this comment
Another excellent article by W. Pfaff—no redundancies, no wishful thinking, just
reality. Nobody knows what course the Middle Eastern revolts may take in each
country, or how long it will take before the different situations become more
clearly defined. It’s hard not to expect that the US (with Israel and the Arab
dictators) will try to buy influence with the leaders that will be
emerging. They may even succeed at that for a while in some cases and consequently add to the destructive path we’ve been on.
It’s impossible to undo the harmful effects that US policy has had in that
Report thispart of the world. This point has to be well understood by any US government
that may attempt to do the right thing for a change. But first things first, do we
have any politicians in the US today -in a position of power and enjoying popular
support- who can implement a more coherent and intelligent foreign policy?
Those in the streets of Middle Eastern cities don’t know exactly where they are
going but they are asking the questions.
By ocjim, February 23, 2011 at 12:01 am Link to this comment
Obama is a Democrat who functions well to the right of Dwight Eisenhower. In fact he has continued so many George W. Bush policies, not including efforts use government policy to promote the Democratic party, though he does promote Republicans more than Dems (look at his legislation and deals),that he could be mistaken for Bush (other than Bush’s half-wittedness).
New regimes certainly won’t love him for the same reasons. He bends over backwards to please Republicans and dictators we support in the Middle East, at least until they are toppled.
Report thisBy gerard, February 22, 2011 at 9:57 pm Link to this comment
In David Shulman’s review of a new book—“What is a Palestinian State Worth?” by Sari Nusseibeh— (New York Review, Feb.24, 2011) he raises a question widely being played out now in the Middle East: “Can nonviolent political action have an effect on Israelis? I don’t know. I think a generosity of spirit does exist, somewhere, in the collective, fearful, angry Israeli soul. It might even be hiding under the superficial veil of apathy. Nusseibeh closes his book with a paradoxical observation that he himself characterizes as .astounding.’”
Report this“In a situation like that in Palestine, where there is a vast asymmetry in power, the moral leverage to ‘draw out the desired attitudinal change in the other party’ by the nonviolent exercise of one’s innate freedom, and by holding fast to universal values,belongs to the weaker, not to the stronger party.’”
“Some Palestinians, at least, including the current Palestinian governmnent of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, have clearly internalized this truth and are putting it to use in practical ways. These days, Fayyad uses every public opportunity to announce unequivocally that violence is not an option, no longer a part of the Palestinian repertory….Clearly occupying the moral high ground would undoubtedly have intrinsic worth, quite apart from the practical value in solving the tragic anomaly of Palestinian statelessness.”
He then goes on to say that he doesn’t expect this alone to solve the problems, but ...“the more foolish, cussed, and destructive Israel becomes, the better for the Palestinian cause. Maybe someday even the US will no longer be able to ... choose to
exercise its UN veto etc.”
Main point: The value of occupying “the moral high ground” has practical implications beyond mere philosophy, as Gandhi pointed out many times.