Bush's religious terminology is shooting his unreligious war in the legs, antagonizing not only the mainstream Muslims but also the non-Muslim large Christian minority in the midst of their ethnic compatriots because this minority feels threatened by his inciting anti-Muslim propaganda, which creates an explosive antagonistic environment that plays in the hands of the same extremists whom he uses as a scapegoat for his unjust pre-emptive wars.
"Ignorance" of the Middle East and its people is a false thesis that sometimes is cited as a justification for Bush's militarist polices and verbal anti-Muslim blunders. But Bush, whose country has been bleeding the region's oil wealth for a century, could not be credited even with the benefit of ignorance.
All the anti-Islamist terminology cannot blur the fact that the issue is oil. There's no question that controlling the oil and the profits from oil is a U.S. top priority in the Middle East, particularly as Washington is not only bracing for a future competition with China and India for that resource, but also is already in fierce race with Europe and Japan to take hold of the strategic asset, which is getting more precious and more expensive by the day, because whoever sets hands on it will decide who is the future leader of the globalized world economy; hence the U.S. war on Afghanistan in the vicinity of the central Asian oil reservoir and on Iraq in the heart of the Middle East oil reserves huge depot.
In his most blatant self-contradiction Bush declared: "Freedom, by its nature, cannot be imposed, it must be chosen."
However he did not hesitate to arrogantly dictate to world leaders and whipping Muslims into line in his U.N. speech: The world "must," the United Nations "must," the nations gathered "in this chamber (U.N. General Assembly) must", the Muslim world "must," the "leaders" of Iraqis "must," the Syrian government "must;" and to the Hamas-led Palestinian government he had an outright order: "Serve the interests of the Palestinian people. Abandon terror, recognize Israel's right to exist, honor agreements, and work for peace."
Bush accuses Islamists of forcing their version of things on others while he unsheathes his sword out and high to dictate a 21st century white man mission to convert Muslims to a version of Islam that serves U.S. interests.
No wonder the National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the "pervasive anti-U.S. sentiment among most Muslims," is a "movement that is likely to grow more quickly than the West's ability to counter it over the next five years." (7)
And Bush still can't come to grips with the question of "Why they hate us." Bush's line: "They hate us because of our freedoms."
No Mr. President, they hate you because your administration and its predecessors have been for decades depriving them of their liberty, freedoms, resources and elected governments, in a historic trend that extends from removing an elected leader in Iran in the 1950s because of his nationalizing the oil and replacing him by the Shah, a brutal dictator, to suffocating the Palestinian people to squeeze out the elected Hamas-led government from power in 2006.
Bush's scare tactics aimed at American public should not blur the divide in Bush's WWIII. The battle lines should be redrawn to be between U.S. and Israeli militarism and military occupation and expansion and the liberation movements that were led by nationalists or Pan-Arabists in the 20th century and now are led by Islamists.
Bush absurdly, unconvincingly and arrogantly postured as the liberator of the Muslim and Arab masses, promoting the U.S. Democracy as a campaign of changing Muslim and Arab regimes, by military force if needed.
However, Muslims and especially Arabs are very well aware that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the former USSR have made Islam a useful scapegoat for tightening the US grip on the unipolar world. Books by the Orientalist Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations became popular in the west because they promoted the idea that Islam was the main threat to Western "civilization."
They are also aware that this war to establish total and lasting U.S. global hegemony, a sort of modern-day Roman Empire, is spearheaded in the heartland of Muslims and Islam, the Arab world, where all the regimes are targeted sooner or later; it makes no difference whether they are Islamic, Islamist, secular, liberal, or Pan-Arab regimes, monarchies or republics.
Notes
(1) Winston Churchill at the Union University on September 26. Reported by the Baptist Press BP on Sept. 27, 2006.
(2) President Bush's speech at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly on September 19, 2006.
(3)"WWIII" is a term used by the former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich in a recent speech at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI); he was quoted by Jim Lobe, Asia Times on September 14, 2006.
(4) Bush's news conference at the White House on Friday, September 15, 2006.
(5) Jim Lobe, Asia Times on September 14, 2006.
(6) Praful Bidwai, Inter Press Service, September 7, 2006. Reported by http://www.snpx.com
(7) The Washington Post on September 27, 2006.
"Ignorance" of the Middle East and its people is a false thesis that sometimes is cited as a justification for Bush's militarist polices and verbal anti-Muslim blunders. But Bush, whose country has been bleeding the region's oil wealth for a century, could not be credited even with the benefit of ignorance.
All the anti-Islamist terminology cannot blur the fact that the issue is oil. There's no question that controlling the oil and the profits from oil is a U.S. top priority in the Middle East, particularly as Washington is not only bracing for a future competition with China and India for that resource, but also is already in fierce race with Europe and Japan to take hold of the strategic asset, which is getting more precious and more expensive by the day, because whoever sets hands on it will decide who is the future leader of the globalized world economy; hence the U.S. war on Afghanistan in the vicinity of the central Asian oil reservoir and on Iraq in the heart of the Middle East oil reserves huge depot.
In his most blatant self-contradiction Bush declared: "Freedom, by its nature, cannot be imposed, it must be chosen."
Bush accuses Islamists of forcing their version of things on others while he unsheathes his sword out and high to dictate a 21st century white man mission to convert Muslims to a version of Islam that serves U.S. interests.
No wonder the National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the "pervasive anti-U.S. sentiment among most Muslims," is a "movement that is likely to grow more quickly than the West's ability to counter it over the next five years." (7)
And Bush still can't come to grips with the question of "Why they hate us." Bush's line: "They hate us because of our freedoms."
No Mr. President, they hate you because your administration and its predecessors have been for decades depriving them of their liberty, freedoms, resources and elected governments, in a historic trend that extends from removing an elected leader in Iran in the 1950s because of his nationalizing the oil and replacing him by the Shah, a brutal dictator, to suffocating the Palestinian people to squeeze out the elected Hamas-led government from power in 2006.
Bush's scare tactics aimed at American public should not blur the divide in Bush's WWIII. The battle lines should be redrawn to be between U.S. and Israeli militarism and military occupation and expansion and the liberation movements that were led by nationalists or Pan-Arabists in the 20th century and now are led by Islamists.
Bush absurdly, unconvincingly and arrogantly postured as the liberator of the Muslim and Arab masses, promoting the U.S. Democracy as a campaign of changing Muslim and Arab regimes, by military force if needed.
However, Muslims and especially Arabs are very well aware that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the former USSR have made Islam a useful scapegoat for tightening the US grip on the unipolar world. Books by the Orientalist Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations became popular in the west because they promoted the idea that Islam was the main threat to Western "civilization."
They are also aware that this war to establish total and lasting U.S. global hegemony, a sort of modern-day Roman Empire, is spearheaded in the heartland of Muslims and Islam, the Arab world, where all the regimes are targeted sooner or later; it makes no difference whether they are Islamic, Islamist, secular, liberal, or Pan-Arab regimes, monarchies or republics.
Notes
(1) Winston Churchill at the Union University on September 26. Reported by the Baptist Press BP on Sept. 27, 2006.
(2) President Bush's speech at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly on September 19, 2006.
(3)"WWIII" is a term used by the former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich in a recent speech at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI); he was quoted by Jim Lobe, Asia Times on September 14, 2006.
(4) Bush's news conference at the White House on Friday, September 15, 2006.
(5) Jim Lobe, Asia Times on September 14, 2006.
(6) Praful Bidwai, Inter Press Service, September 7, 2006. Reported by http://www.snpx.com
(7) The Washington Post on September 27, 2006.
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