The Barbarians Within Our Gates. (Arab civilization has collapsed).

[flamingdem]

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/the-barbarians-within-our-gates-111116.html#ixzz3FzLd0wQH

With his decision to use force against the violent extremists of the Islamic State, President Obama is doing more than to knowingly enter a quagmire. He is doing more than play with the fates of two half-broken countries—Iraq and Syria—whose societies were gutted long before the Americans appeared on the horizon. Obama is stepping once again—and with understandably great reluctance—into the chaos of an entire civilization that has broken down.

Arab civilization, such as we knew it, is all but gone. The Arab world today is more violent, unstable, fragmented and driven by extremism—the extremism of the rulers and those in opposition—than at any time since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. Every hope of modern Arab history has been betrayed. The promise of political empowerment, the return of politics, the restoration of human dignity heralded by the season of Arab uprisings in their early heydays—all has given way to civil wars, ethnic, sectarian and regional divisions and the reassertion of absolutism, both in its military and atavistic forms. With the dubious exception of the antiquated monarchies and emirates of the Gulf—which for the moment are holding out against the tide of chaos—and possibly Tunisia, there is no recognizable legitimacy left in the Arab world.

Is it any surprise that, like the vermin that take over a ruined city, the heirs to this self-destroyed civilization should be the nihilistic thugs of the Islamic State? And that there is no one else who can clean up the vast mess we Arabs have made of our world but the Americans and Western countries?

No one paradigm or one theory can explain what went wrong in the Arab world in the last century. There is no obvious set of reasons for the colossal failures of all the ideologies and political movements that swept the Arab region: Arab nationalism, in its Baathist and Nasserite forms; various Islamist movements; Arab socialism; the rentier state and rapacious monopolies, leaving in their wake a string of broken societies. No one theory can explain the marginalization of Egypt, once the center of political and cultural gravity in the Arab East, and its brief and tumultuous experimentation with peaceful political change before it reverted back to military rule.

Nor is the notion of “ancient sectarian hatreds” adequate to explain the frightening reality that along a front stretching from Basra at the mouth of the Persian Gulf to Beirut on the Mediterranean there exists an almost continuous bloodletting between Sunni and Shia—the public manifestation of an epic geopolitical battle for power and control pitting Iran, the Shia powerhouse, against Saudi Arabia, the Sunni powerhouse, and their proxies.

There is no one single overarching explanation for that tapestry of horrors in Syria and Iraq, where in the last five years more than a quarter of a million people perished, where famed cities like Aleppo, Homs and Mosul were visited by the modern terror of Assad’s chemical weapons and the brutal violence of the Islamic State. How could Syria tear itself apart and become—like Spain in the 1930s—the arena for Arabs and Muslims to re-fight their old civil wars? The war waged by the Syrian regime against civilians in opposition areas combined the use of Scud missiles, anti-personnel barrel bombs as well as medieval tactics against towns and neighborhoods such as siege and starvation. For the first time since the First World War, Syrians were dying of malnutrition and hunger.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/09/the-barbarians-within-our-gates-111116.html#ixzz3FzM6Sr6n

[Scootaloo]

1. There is, in fact, a good single explanation for all of this

For over ninety years the Arab world has been under the thumb of oil-dependant Western nations who have managed to use their money and occasional military might to keep the region pliable to their demands for this commodity. This translates into the installment and maintenance of thuggish dictatorial regimes, run by strongmen, imposed monarchs, and presidents-for-life, backed by their respective militaries. Some of these thuggocracies were the result of American or west European support (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran prior to '78), others were the product of the soviet bloc (Libya, Syria, pre-civil war Afghanistan) and others were a little of both at different times (Egypt, Iraq, Israel.) And saber-rattling aside, these thuggocrats are all generally supportive of each other, because so long as they're the ones in power everyone makes out good.

Whatever the state, whatever their respective backers, they all share a common feature; oppression of populism and democratic movement. That's the feature, it's the one thing that all these "sponsor nations" demanded; democracy, populism are destabilizing forces. They throw societies into a tailspin and the result is beholden not to the will of a single strongman, but the population at large. And of course, letting millions of people come together to come up with democratic solutions for this or that issue tends to be really bad if your motive is stripping natural resources from that nation on a budget. No, much better to pay off one guy, and siphon the goods out and still make ginormous profit, than to actually pay the nation fair market value for what you are getting out of them.

So democracy has been crushed at every turn in the middle east, or, in the best-case scenario, restricted to a chosen elite who can be counted on to vote "properly." And with each oppression, the desires get a little more impacted, like a wisdom tooth. With each denial, the populist drive gets a little more ingrown until it's curled deep and infected.

The explosion we are watching is ninety years of frustration, anger, and oppression finally finding something that can lance the boil and let it out - the vainglorious yet invigoratingly unifying sentiments of religion. Straight democracy was crushed and persecuted through the period between the 20's and 50's. Arab nationalism was crushed and destroyed between the 50's and 80's.

so what's left?

Iran has an Islamist revolution and succeeds; not only does the revolution succeed, but it has withstood every attempt to crush it, whether by the west's catspaw Saddam Hussein, or the current efforts to strangulate Iran via sanctions.

Hamas is fighting under an Islamist banner and is gaining ground where the secular PLO has been doing nothing but looting the bank and selling out Palestinians. To the north, the secular Lebanese government happily sat by while the southern half of the nation was invaded and occupied. It took Hizbullah - "The Party of God" - to drive the Israelis south, back over the border again. The latest war between the two resulted in a standstill; a surprising achievment considering that Israel is the region's most powerful military and has pretty much unlimited funding for that military.

In Egypt, a thuggocracy was overthrown by peaceful demonstrations. Fair elections were held and a man who belonged to an Islamist party elected; the result? The west panics and throws its support behind a mass-murdering military dictator who slaughters his way through Egyptians, deposes the democracy, installs goons as governors across the state, and puts himself on the ballot - after demonstrating those who vote agaisnt him will probably be executed. John Kerry has been eating loots of canapes with this guy.

In Iraq, the baathists ruin the entire country, looting it so Saddam can build Malibu Barbie palaces full of Elvis memorabilia. It can't withstand the Americans, and falls. Who rises up to fight against the Americans? Sunni Islamists in the west. Shia insurgents in the south and Baghdad. Result? America, the world's mightiest military, pressed backwards time and time again until it finally pulls a Vietnam, and gives up while claiming victory.

The message taken? Secularism fails. Nationalism corrupts. Democracy is thwarted. And when all of those are ruined and left as rubble, there's just Islam - and by all appearance, that's what is working. Democracy failed. Nationalism failed. Islamism, however, is gaining ground or, at least, withstanding an awesome amount of external pressure. And it's local, it taps into the culture of ummah, which unifies in a way that lines on a map surely can't. So, if this movement is what it takes to throw off that ninety-yer chokehold barring Arabs and others in the middle east from self-determination, that's what they're going to use.

The single explanation? Well, I'll let Langston Hughes and John F. Kennedy explain it.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

[noiretextatique]

2. +10000 excellent post

the trouble with empire...

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Well done. Great quote. nt

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. must read. bookmarking.

No time right now.

[magical thyme]

7. +a trillion or so. Brilliantly stated. nt

[Doctor_J]

9. Outstanding post. Would you say Appalachia has suffered the same fate?

For over ninety years the (Appalachian) world has been under the thumb of (coal)-dependant Western (corporations) who have managed to use their money () to keep the region pliable to their demands for this commodity.

A beautiful, bountiful region now looks a lot like a road that's been stripped for re-paving. Its indigenous people should be filthy rich, but instead live in desperate poverty.

Capitalism is a disease.

[Cal33]

10. There might also be a second explanation: Some religions may need time to grow up and mature:

How many centuries have Catholic and Protestant nations been persecuting and warring
against one another before they finally decided to stop the nonsense? About three centuries?

Islam is some six hundred years younger than Christianity. Muslims most likely will get over it
in time. We could put it to "growing pains."

[Scootaloo]

17. It has dick to do with any given religion

If these people were Jews, Mormons, Hindus, or Wiccans, and all else was the same, the result would be the same. Maybe they might find some other unifying factor, but the reactionary nature of what happens, the anger and the violence, would be the same.

You can't foist a century of oppression on a region saturated with weapons, and expect everyone to be living like Leave It To Fucking beaver.

[adirondacker]

13. +1000. Excellent Post! nt

[yurbud]

19. what you said.

[Blue_Tires]

20. Good points, but a bit of revisionism

in 2011-12, the general consensus on DU was that Morsi was installed as Washington's puppet to keep the status quo

In late 2012, the general consensus on DU was that Morsi was a loose cannon stifling any kind of promised democratic reforms and the people of Egypt were justifiably getting restless

But once Spring 2013 starts, Morsi magically morphs into this innocent democratically elected heroic victim who gets toppled over by a U.S.-backed coup just because he was part of the Muslim Brotherhood (as if Washington didn't already know that years earlier)...

So which is it??

[littlemissmartypants]

3. We destroyed Mesopotamia.

The depth of that metaphor should be glaringly obvious to us all.

But then, I dream deeply.
Excellent read.
Thanks for your post.
~ Lmsp

[DetlefK]

5. The Arab world reminds me of Germany 1918.

The monarch Wilhelm II was deposed and the democrats under Philip Scheidemann were quick to anounce that Germany would be a democracy now, beating Karl Liebknecht's declaration that Germany would be a communist state by only 2 hours. A brief civil-war ensued that lasted for the better part of November and December of 1918. In January 1919 Germany got a democratic constitution.

The problem: Germany had no real experience with democracy and the two most dangerous political players, the extreme left and the extreme right, were anti-democratic. Constantly sabotaged and under attack, democratic rule was replaced with populist rule and then dictatorship.



Same in the Arab world: They have no experience with a working democracy, no connection to it by tradition, no experience living in a regime where conflicts are solved by negotiations.
The French Revolution was lucky that Christianity was already past the era of intra-religious war.

[Cal33]

11. But then, EVERY nation trying democracy for the FIRST time, by definition has had no

previous "experience with a working democracy." Correct?

[DetlefK]

12. Simply being a liberal society is a good start.

When a society works by the principle that each one's opinion and each one's needs are equal, then democracy can work.

In ancient Greece only the men were equal, but at least it was a first step.

[Cal33]

14. Very well put.

[The Stranger]

8. The Arabs have seen the greatest wealth in the history of mankind siphoned from beneath their feet.

And they're quite understandably not very happy about it.

That is the underlying narrative. Beneath shia and sunni and Baathist -- beneath all of that bullshit -- there is one underlying economic reality.

Sure, the West has colonized and taken from other parts of the world.

But the reason why the Middle East is what it is is because of the oil.

[Cal33]

15. If things are left to the sociopathic corporate execs., their greed will ensure that

this world of ours will always be at war for their profit, and misery and death will
be the lot of the rest of mankind.

[polynomial]

16. The Congressional barbarians are here

only an opinion

At any presidents perspective observations can lead to chaos of politics and knowing America has a Domestic and International agreements with influence in both parties, especially those one percenters, that spans unpredictable outcomes, presents this ominous picture of cynicism.

Money talks because the Supreme Court says so.

Our system is broken, more over it is realized now the Islamic system never worked on the basic premise of Democracy with the separation of church and state.

The Quran is the Constitution, then imagine if in America the bible was our Constitution, then it would be self-evident as a social system of tyranny where the Pope will rule, yikes, or we the people elect Imams sinless and infallible, wow or they are appointed by head covered clergy with scaled habits beyond comprehension. That is insanity at the next level and Bush and company knew all the time..

But knowing a severe obstructionism currently expounded by the Republican Party totally connected to the religious right today Americans witness a dumbfounded relentless Islamic society confused not knowing whom to trust even though Allah is great. They have shown the world they take money and run with the politics of terrorism.

Bombarded by previous administrations but now the Bush Cheney military industrial complex that operated from an open wide media propaganda style news system, a system complicit with internal politics and stock market money for intentional profiteering perpetrated success but delivered more chaos in Islam and unpredictability in America.

The complicity is more obvious as time passes by the media the managed lies even though over there and here America maybe in the grips of a meat grinder on going to avoid massive legions of conviction in criminal violations and war crimes.

The president needs to address those issues of war crimes...that means stay out of that war over there, over there, we won't go there til its over, over there...

[yurbud]

18. we overthrew secular elected leaders and fanned the flames of ethnic & religious hatreds

for strategic advantage for our oil companies (whoever runs those countries isn't going to cut off the biggest addict of their biggest product).

We did it in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Libya, and still in Syria and Iraq.

When you box people in on three sides, you can't act surprised that they run toward the fourth.