Happy 4th, Blame America!

In regards to anti-Americanism and the "blame America" tendencies of many on the left, the late Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick said it best, "When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies. They blame United States policies of 100 years ago. But then they always blame America first." Hyperbole and hypocrisy are two words that best describe most people's views here. Its no different here in the Middle East, America is usually the cause of every ill and the reason behind every failure.

There is a certain Islamic tendency I've noticed to rarely look inward at the source of many ills and instead to look outward, usually at the most powerful non-Muslim empire/state/outside power and express their wrath at it. Some of these reasons are legitimate, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, Russia was encroaching into mainly Muslim territories such as Bukhara, and in the Caucuses (which were Ottoman provinces). As a result Russia was seen as the 'Great Satan' for the later part of the 19th century. Tags such as "Godless Atheists" or "foreign invader" would return to Russia in the 1970s and 80s as they invaded Afghanistan. Still, you don't hear many Muslims calling the Soviet Union the Great Satan, regardless of the fact that they had state sanctioned Atheism, suppressed Muslims, and (if we are being literal here) absorbed "Muslim lands" (the Kingdom of Bukhara or the lands to the east of the Caspian are prime examples) into its great empire. Even today, war rages on in Chechnya, many foreign Jihadists have joined the fight against Russia. Nevertheless the main country that is to blame for Middle Eastern problems is the United States.

The Middle East is a Catch 22. I am paraphrasing, but I heard a number of American soldiers in Iraq say on TV, "if something happens they blame us, no matter if our intentions are good, they just hate us, we can't do anything right." Its quite true, let's take Lebanon for instance. In the US we call it "Taxi Wisdom," the man on the street who is driving the taxi usually has the general views of much of the population and much wisdom to go with it. Here in Lebanon I call it "Security Guard Wisdom." I am friendly with all of the security guards at LAU and we always love to talk about politics. They will ask me, "when will America kill Asad, why haven't they done it already?" My answer is usually, "we don't have the power to do that, and what happens to Syria AFTER he is gone?" It seems the basics (let's say assassinating Bashar Asad) is far more important then the kind of chaos the country would descend into following any such assassination. I am sure the answer I would get AFTER we kill Asad would be, "well why didn't America stop the anarchy? Why couldn't you just leave Asad?"

Personal responsibility isn't big in the Middle East, if a scapegoat is present "everyone is happy." Let's take Syria, a repressive dictatorship, terror sponsor, and all round not so nice player in the "Middle Eastern sandbox." Why must Syria have huge expenditures on its military and be so oppressive against its own people? Easy answer: 'The Zionists and Americans!' Their internal economic problems are never the regimes fault, no, its some huge conspiracy by America and Israel to destroy Syria. No matter the fact that its incredibly implausible this view is, it is somehow curried as fact. As we have seen, Syria has sponsored and STILL sponsors terrorism against the US and Israel, yet the regime is still around, wouldn't this be enough to convince someone on the street that maybe America isn't all powerful? Definitely not.

This myth that America is all powerful is a sham created by the people in need of a scapegoat. Sometimes even their own propaganda gets the best of them, in Iran for instance America is considered the 'Great Satan' and a nation that controlled EVERYTHING in Iran. When Jimmy Carter's rescue attempt of the hostages held in Tehran failed, the answer by the ayatollahs was: HA! America is nothing more than a paper tiger! The Iranians, feeling strong in the 80s upped the ante in the Gulf against the tankers using mines. There decision came around to bite them when the US launched Operation Praying Mantis and sank the Iranian frigate Sahand.

The Hizbollah supporters whom I've met here at LAU are probably the most affected by the "America-did-it Syndrome." They would routinely deny that Hizbollah was EVER engaged in terrorist activities against the United States, "we are just resisting invaders, we don't kill innocent people." I asked if "invaders" included the 63 people, mostly Lebanese, including 17 embassy staff, murdered via Hizbollah car bomb in April of 1983? The answer I received was, "well there must have been a reason it was attacked." Of course, when the facts are stacked up against these sorts of people they always say, "see Phillip your government tells you the opposite to the truth." Whenever a book, article, or anything is produced to say, "hey you guys are wrong," it is deemed as American propaganda.

I once brought up the "War of the Camps", a prolonged bloody conflict primarily between Palestinians and the Shia, and between Shia groups. The two primarily players at each others throat were the more secular Amal Pary and the Iranian backed Hizbollah. Today the two are allies, so I asked these Hizbollah supporters what their views were on that conflict. Their answer was as usual hypocritical, "it was an inter-Shia thing," so I asked, "if you were killed by a fellow Shia it wouldn't be as bad as opposed to if an American killed you?" Considering hundreds if not thousands of Shia were killed in the conflict, one would assume that possibly it would be realized that its not always "America's fault." Of course this fell upon deaf ears. Following that interchange, they told me how the Hizbollah members protesting in Martyr's Square were opposing US influence and control of Lebanon. I asked, "what would make Syrian or Iranian domination or control any better?" Their answer, "we are the same people, and they want what's best for Lebanon." This ignores the fact that Iran is most definitely Persian, not Arab (as the Lebanese Shia consider themselves), and that Syria has killed Hizbollah members before. To quote the MEIB (Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, a more right wing, anti Syria publication), "In early 1987, Amal launched a disastrous campaign against rival Druze and Palestinian forces in west Beirut, prompting Syrian forces to enter the area on February 22. During the operation to secure control of the Basta quarter, Syrian troops killed 23 Hezbollah members who allegedly attacked them."

This isn't a solely Muslim phenomena, many of the Christians of Lebanon blame the US for the loss of Lebanon to Syria. I was speaking to a friend regarding American policies in the region and his answer was, "America sold us out, they let Syria have Lebanon so you could fight in Iraq [referring to James Baker's deal with Damascus, pulling Israeli air cover of the Christian enclave in 1990]." There is much truth to that statement, but to allow all of the blame to fall on the United States ignores many basic facts. For instance Syria was the Soviet Union's main ally in the Middle East following the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreements, they supplied Damascus with thousands of tanks, airplanes, and other weapons. In addition the Christians main enemies (namely the Druze, Sunni Arab Communists, and the PLO) were all Soviet clients. Also regardless of whether America gave the "green light" or not to a Syrian invasion, Damascus already controlled 3/4ths of the country. The Syrian goal, regardless of what the Soviets or Americans told them, was to conquer Lebanon. Even Syria's greatest ally, the Soviet Union, was incredibly mad with Syria for attacking leftist forces (the Soviets backed) and creating tumult in the area. Following Lebanese Army General, Michel Aoun's "War of Liberation," a time when he attacked the Syrian Army, to push them from Lebanon, the Syrians were, air cover of not, going to try to take the Christian areas. Blaming America also ignores that the United States inadvertently preserved Christian power in Lebanon in 1958, and helped stabilize the country, following Lebanese President Chamile Chamoun's plea for American assistance vs. what Chamoun characterized as a Communist takeover.

The question remains, "why is it always America's fault?" Its a number of reasons, it isn't just because we are "the most powerful nation in the world/the world's only superpower."Former vice- chair of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA, Graham Fuller, (again I'm paraphrasing) says much of the hatred against America is because of an Islamic view that they were once the dominant empire in the world, respected and feared, and now they are not united and they perceive they are controlled by outside Western influence, who is the biggest and most powerful of the Western nations? The US. Atlantic Monthly writer Robert Kaplan charts the rise of Islamism (and its anti-American overtones) to rebelling against globalization. Globalization is, of course, primarily pushed by America.

Again, the Middle East is a cocktail of tribal identities, and sometimes the only way to get them to work as one, is by finding an outside enemy. America, with its liberal social policies (as compared to much of the Arab world), massive conventional military power, and strong presence abroad make it a clear target. Arab governments use this to their advantage. If the economy is poor, and in comparison America's is large and booming, it was all an American plot. If the military is too repressive, its only to protect the nations identity and keep it out of American hands: in essence its written off "a necessary evil." In the eyes of a common person here and of course many other places, anything that is large, powerful, and seemingly better in many respects than home will be an instant competitor or potential enemy. An old Arab proverb says it best, "I against my brother I and my brother against our cousin, my brother and our cousin against the neighbors all of us against the foreigner." Now imagine that foreigner is more powerful then the brother, the cousin, and your neighbors. This is human nature, only in the Middle East it often takes a violent turn.

____________________________________________
Happy 4th of July from a place that doesn't celebrate Independence Day, but has enough fireworks to light up 1000 American cities.

I am headed to al arz (this blogs namesake) aka the cedars, and northern Lebanon on Friday. I will visit Batroun, Bcharre, and a number of other locations.