Opinion Editorials, November 2015

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Site of a US air strike on Syria

“Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among Muslims, especially between Sunni and Shiites, have consigned the Muslim Middle East to almost a century of Western control….Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, for the U.S. to invade Iraq, and for the U.S. to rule much of the region through puppets. ….Egypt receives $1.5 billion a year from Washington, which enables President Mubarak to buy off opposition. The opposition had rather have the money than support the Palestinians. Therefore, Egypt cooperates with Israel and the U.S. in the blockade of Gaza….. Another factor is the willingness of some Muslims to betray their own kind for U.S. dollars. ….The U.S. and its NATO puppets have been killing Afghan women, children, and village elders since October 7, 2001, when the U.S. military invasion “Operation Enduring Freedom,” a proper Orwellian title for a self-serving war of aggression, was launched.

Paul Craig Roberts “Muslims are Their Own Worst Enemy.” Global Research: 3/01/2010). 

Western Leaders Have No Strategy to Cope With Arab Sectarian Warfare

The continuing horrors and raging brutality of unwarranted wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are the result of self-inflicted wounds and insanity of the Arab leaders. The Western coalition, Russia and others hired agents continue to bomb the heartlands of the Arab world. After the planned destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq’s ancient societal solidarity is fractured and so are the Yemen and Syria. For almost five years, the raging war has destroyed the civic, economic and human infrastructures of Syria - agriculturally the most fertile and productive landscape in the region. The US-led coalition against ISIL turned out to be a hoax- a self-engineered disbelief of the few to foster long terms crumbling destruction of the Arab world. The authoritarian Arab leaders live in palaces, not with people to understand the outcomes of their political ignorance. Ironically, the US air strikes and killings of the civilians continue to instigate reactionary militancy and sectarian insurgency to topple the puppet regimes in Syria and Iraq. Daveed Gartenstein-Rosss writing in Foreign Policy (“Thank you for Bombing-Obama- Why al Qaeda might be the biggest winner of America's airstrikes on the Islamic State.”) argues that President Obama is using wrong strategy to attack ISIL: ‘But an emphasis on degrading and destroying IS while giving a pass to other jihadist groups in Syria could have serious consequences that could leave al Qaeda in the catbird seat.’ America enjoys a record of failure in strategic thinking and practices if you view the war theater in Afghanistan and Iraq and now crossing the limits into Syria. The renewed Russian-American collaborative wars in Syria and Iraq have unthinkable ripples effects to the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. America and Britain carved the sectarian divides between Sunnis and Shias to make headways in street violence and enlarged societal conflicts across the Muslim world. Consequently, the Western oil importing industrialized nations have transformed the Arab world into impotency and a dehumanized culture of thinking and living.

American and Russian military interventions are aimed at large scale deaths and destructions of the entire Arab region. Another vital aim of the so called strategy is to camouflage the freedom of Palestine and to instigate more Palestinian- Israeli confrontations and bloodbath. This could end-up incapacitating the both parties not to think of a peaceful future and co-existence. The ongoing conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis will give food for thoughts to many American politicians in the 2016 presidential elections. America is not engaged in wars of humanitarian principles and values of any kind. Those opposing the American intervention in Iraq-Syria know well how much America is feared and hated by the common Arabian folks. President Obama does not have a strategy to “defeat and destroy ISIL” in the Arab Middle East. Now, he will send 50 US personnel to train the Syrian free army unity. The US strategists do not have the political imagination or moral and intellectual power to determine the political future of the Arab region. America operates in a complete disconnect and does not have the knowledge, weapons or strategy to fight the morally and culturally embedded Islamic revolutionaries and reactionary groups in the Arab heartland. More air strikes and foreign boots on the ground will increase the popularity and organizational strength and fighting capability of the ISIL in Iraq and Syria. When American and Russian interventions are put into microscopic analysis, they fail to produce any signs of effectiveness and success against ISIL at least under the present circumstances.  

Global Warriors Need Navigational Change or War Hysteria will Destroy All 

For the first time, Russia and America and West Europeans are making collaborative air strikes against the Arab people. None seem to have any tangible strategy to protect the civilians in conflict zones or to provide protection to millions of displaced humanity marching for asylum to European countries. Why is it that Western nations could not arrange a safe or security zone for the displaced civilians to stay in the region and be protected from air strikes and bombardment?  The foreign war agenda in Syria and Iraq does not envisage peace and security of the Arab people. Global mankind has passion for peace, not wars. The US and British are responsible for much of Iraq’s planned destruction, increased sectarian violence and dismantling of the political governance. Dreadful are becoming as abnormal frequency of violent killings, internal insecurity, drug-abuses and political mismanagement, several thousands Americans killed in global bogus wars and likewise wounded and crippled for life, 18-25 war veterans daily committing suicide (“Why Do Soldiers Commit Suicide and Global Warlords.” Uncommon Thought Journal: 4/14/2014).  Common folks feel a terrible sense of helplessness and are fearful of the consequences of their insane leaders as wars and killings of the innocents continue to undermine the collective future of the humanity. 

David Swanson (“ISIS, Weapons Makers, Thugs Benefit from This Crime.” Dissident Voice: 9/23/2014), explains how Medea Benjamin, an international anti-war and peace activist made the voice of reason heard across the globe at the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance - a non-violent protest rally outside the White House: “This is exactly what ISIL wants. They’re trying to get the U.S. involved in a war. There are already U.S. troops in combat and this will mean more. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of another immoral and unwinnable war.” 

Do politicians having small wisdom and big mouth and no rational knowledge can determine the future of mankind? How could the mankind be protected from the sadistic mindset of the few warmongers? Are there any thinking people to take heed from the prevalent facts of human history? 

Peace, the Arab Time Capsule and the Coming Age of Destruction

Hypocritical despotism overwhelms the Russian and US military intervention strategy across the Middle East. None of the combatants appear to think intelligently about the future. Could wrong people, with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things manage the global peace and conflict resolution? If you put the Russian and American strategic entanglements in Syria and Iraq under radar, what do you get at the end of the tunnel?  George Monbiot (“Why stop at Isis when we could bomb the whole Muslim world?” The Guardian): wonders about the Humanitarian arguments, if consistently applied, could be used to flatten the entire Middle East. … How about blasting the Shia militias in Iraq? One of them selected 40 people from the streets of Baghdad in June and murdered them for being Sunnis. Another massacred 68 people at a mosque in August. They now talk openly of “cleansing” and “erasure” once Isis has been defeated….. What humanitarian principle instructs you to stop there? …..Already Obama’s bombings have brought Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, a rival militia affiliated to al-Qaida, together. More than 6,000 fighters have joined Isis since the bombardment began. They dangled the heads of their victims in front of the cameras as bait for war planes. And our governments were stupid enough to take it….. Yet our politicians affect to learn nothing. Insisting that more killing will magically resolve deep-rooted conflicts, they scatter bombs like fairy dust. 

Why can’t President Obama engage ISIS in diplomacy?  Asks David Swanson (“ISIS, Weapons Makers, Thugs Benefit from This Crime.” Dissident Voice: 9/23/2014):

“What’s needed is diplomacy. The U.S. government is happy to talk with Syria or Iran or Russia when the object is war. Why can it not talk to them when the object is peace?”  If the coalition of the willing had working intelligence, they should engage ISIL in a political dialogue to determine the future of the Arab Middle East. Obviously, ISIL’s cold-blooded killings of few foreign prisoners cannot be accepted as precepts of the Islamic behavior and values of the Muslim world, but the group is gaining ground and attracting large number of recruits across the Arab countries.  Bombing ISIL will kill more non-combatant civilians but will not deter ISIL or other groups from aggressive reactionary practices. Russia and America and allies are overwhelmed to bomb and destroy the Arabian economic infrastructures and human habitats, and absolutely nothing is initiated to address the critical political and humanitarian problems emerging out of the fixed strategy against ISIL. “It is Perfectly Reasonable to Negotiate with Villains like ISIS So, Why Don’t We Do It to Save Some Lives” The Independent: 9/28/2014), asks reputable international journalist Robert Fisk. “Perfectly reasonable, respectable governments swap prisoners. Take Israel. It hands over Hezbollah fighters for just a few captured Israeli soldiers. It’s done this many times. Nobody criticises the Israeli government. David Cameron certainly doesn’t. All over the Middle East, captives are freed for other captives. The release of lords and seigneurs and soldiers in return for other captives goes back to the time of the Crusades.”  Obama says, No at the UN and adds, we do not negotiate with Evil. An impartial observer would question President Obama if the evil is one-sided.  No wonder, why America is using the logic of power and not the power of logic to respond to a critical global humanitarian crisis. Even conventional wisdom assumes that America and the hired coalition partners are on the wrong side of the history.

If peacemaking is the goal, bombing Syria and Iraq and sectarian killings are not the instrument to achieve it. Wars suck out positive human thinking and creative energies to articulate a sustainable future. How should the global humanity view the contemporary Arab societies, their war-torn bloody cultures operated by foreign mercenaries and few authoritarian dictators?  What kind of message of civility, moral and intellectual values do they convey to the watchful eyes of the global community? Why did the Arab leaders ignored societal progress and failed to develop viable public institutions and people-oriented system of Islamic democratic governance? Throughout the oil exporting Arab countries, not a single institution or university exists to educate and train people in conflict analysis, crisis management and peacemaking. This contradicts the Arab history. This discipline deserves utmost priority and preference to enhance political system of governance. What kind of role model do the Arab leaders portray to the present and future generations? Is there a sustainable future for the present generations to imagine political change, peaceful culture and human development out of the prolonged war hysteria, deaths and destruction of the entire civic culture and environment?

An impartial observer would question President Obama if the evil is one-sided.  No wonder, why America is using the logic of power and not the power of logic to respond to a critical global humanitarian crisis. Even conventional wisdom assumes that America and the hired coalition partners are on the wrong side of the history. Does American or Russian or the Arab leaders know what the end-game is? Truth-telling and critical rational analysis of the prevalent political imperatives of global political affairs must penetrate to open-up the thinking of the closed Arab leadership mindset. The 21st century oil exporting Arab world is a world of delusion and fantasy floating in its own bubble of economic prosperity in complete disconnect to the mainstream of global compelling political realities.

The voices of reason and human conscience must speak out loud and clear. With unstoppable cycle of political killings, sectarian massacres, unprotection of civilians and  millions of uprooted Arab refugees and daily bloodbaths emerging across the Arabian Peninsula -  is the Arab world fast approaching to the end of history? Ironically, Arab people are skeptical about the Western politically oppressive domination- from George Bush to Barrack Obama. Yet, these are the same political leaders who have helped the Arab masses to get rid off some of the worst authoritarian dictators - Ghaddafi, Saddam Husain, Hosni Mubarak, Abdullah Saleh and Ben Ali dominating most of the Arab Middle East. Could Bashar Al-Assad be the next candidate to go? Strangely enough after more than sixty years of end of European imperialism, the Arab societies do not have any educated, responsible and intelligent leaders to offer sense of moral and political security to the people in grave crisis? Where is the Arab leader’s moral and intellectual consciousness of the gravity of the crises – emerging death squads, politically geared sectarian violence and missing accountability to the people? 

Do any of the Arab leaders realize the plights, pains and sufferings of these innocent people? Why should common people be the victims of authoritarian insanity? The Arab coalition leaders breathe oxygen in a complete disconnect to the interests of the Arab masses. There must be an urgent meeting of all the thinking Arab and Muslim scholars and officials to explore peaceful means towards stopping the raging sectarian bloodbath in Iraq and Syria and Yemen. The whole of the Arab region is losing on all the rational fronts. They lack the capacity to think right and take rational actions for their own peace and security. After five years of warfare, much of Syria’s horror and inhuman tragedies inflicted on the innocent populace drove several millions displaced to neighboring Arab countries and almost 6 millions forcibly evicted to Turkey onward to drown in oceans or become undesirable marching refugees in Western Europe. The UNO is also failure in peacemaking and conflict management. Authoritarian dictators like Bashar al-Assad are not the people to reason with. Russian and American are engaged in a futile effort to support the illegitimate regimes across the Arab Middle East. Ostensibly, change and conflict resolution and new visions will not grow out of the obsolete, redundant and failed authoritarianism of the few insane and egoistic leaders. Be it the Obama, Putin, Saudi King, David Cameron, the Princes of Arabia or Bashar al-Assad, none have the understanding of contemporary societal peace or understanding of human interests seeking peaceful co-existence in a God-given splendid and living Universe.  

One of the author’s recent articles:  “Global Peace and Conflict Resolution: How the Arab, Israeli and the Western Leaders Duped the Humanity.” Al-Jazeerah- Cross Cultural Understanding –Editorial: 6/2010), makes the following candid observation: 

 “The prosperity fantasy bubble is fast approaching to an end with the peak oil forecasts as a visual reality in- waiting.  Power, prosperity and poverty are all trials in human affairs and transitory phenomenon. Was the discovery of oil a conspiracy (“fitna”) for the Arabs to change the originality of their thinking, beliefs, values and passion for Islam as successful system of human life?” 

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, May 2012). 

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org