The death of the nation and
the future of Arab Revolution
It is one of
the best books detailing the root causes behind the conflict in Middle East.
In the first
Chapter, author Vijay Prashad explains how during the times of Arab Spring,
Saudi Arabia snuffed its disgruntled population with jail sentences to instill
fear in them so that they never rise in protest against the kingdom. Saudi
regime entered Bahrain to crush its Pearl Monument encampment. The biggest blow
to Arab Nationalism came not directly from either the West or Saudi Arabia, but
from the defeat of Arab armies in the 1967 “Battle of Destiny” against Israel.
It was this defeat that broke the spirit of Arab possibilities.
While the political Islam had a growth spurt
in 1980s, but in Syria, it was severely repressed. An ill-fated attempt at
political power, which was driven by gun, in the 1970s ended for the Syrian
Brotherhood in the ash-heap of Hama. The Syrian Brotherhood was the only Muslim
Brotherhood group of any capacity in West Asia. It was crushed by 1982 and
never recovered after that.
The
phenomenon of regime change is easier to give effect, but on the ground,
implementation of this new regime is a complex process. The overthrow of
autocratic Government occurs in a short term, the consolidation of new regime
takes place in medium term, and then the economic and cultural changes required
to setup a new dispensation take place in long term. The Arab Spring, was the
first phase of short term. The region poised to enter the medium phase, with the
fights to establish the new Governmental authority that would be loyal to the
spirit of Arab Spring, took place. Now, the ledger is unbalanced. History
oscillates between a return to the time before 2010 and to the edge of the next
moment.
The author aptly
asks, “if the old regimes seemed incapable of solving the problems of the
present, what political forces today have answers to current challenges?”
Origin of Hezbollah:
Iraqi cleric
Al-Sadr studied Marxism and Communism as did many others Islamist thinkers. Al-Sadr’s movement drew from Bolshevism and
Islamic socialism. Adoption of socialism’s idioms allowed this branch of
political Islam neither reactionary nor lethargic. Out of these initiatives
grew Hezbollah in Lebanon and Sadr movement in Iraq.
Arab
Nationalism might have developed alliances with communism as both had taken
antagonistic position against imperialism and colonialism. But this was not to
be. The communists endangered the status quo as they rose in struggles against
the tendency of Arab nationalists to favor domestic bourgeoisie over the
peasants and workers.
Arab
communists felt compelled to follow the Soviet Union’s recognition of Israel in
1948 cutting them off from the greater mood of anger at the Palestinian naqba. This association undermined the
principled critique of Arab nationalism by the communists.
The
combination of Arab Nationalism and communism threatened the sultans of Saudi
Arabia and their US backers. In 1962, the Saudi regime created the World Muslim
league as they felt that Islam formed a significant bulwark against communism.
Saudi
intelligence and the military forces provoked uprisings in Oman and in Yemen to
push petty claims of land, and get rid of communists in both these nations. OIC
was created in 1969 to provide counterweight to NAM.
Birth of 9/11
Bin Laden
formed al-Qaeda in 1989 and strengthened it over time. Worried that Saudi
monarch would allow US troops to eject Saddam Hussein’s army, Bin Laden
recommended that the al-Qaeda men do this task. On the refusal of Saudi king,
Bin Laden set onto a course of permanent war against both the near army (Arab
leaders) and the far enemy (US). Thus, 9/11 was born in that refusal.
First aerial
bombardment in world history – in 1911, when Italians bombed Libya, a hundred
years later, West retuned for a sequel in Libya.
Syrian war
The author
quotes a senior Kurdish commander of YPG as saying that Turkey was to Syria,
what Pakistan was to Afghanistan. Like Pakistan, Turkey allowed itself to
become a base for foreign extremists eager to go across the border and
destabilize it’s neighbor. Trucks with World Food Org. logos were seen to be
carrying ISIS fighters into Syria. Even Qatari charities sent aid and
assistance to ISIS controlled areas in Syria.
Yemen crisis
The conflict
in Yemen-with no outcome in sight-will possibly draw ordinary Yemeni Sunnis to
consider Al-Qaeda-in-Arabian-Peninsula a positive influence on the country.
This is the danger of sectarian wars that have no endgame. They will not end
with a utopian outcome. They can end only where life becomes evil.
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