From Thomas Harrington at antiwar.com:
Imagine going to your doctor and being told that, based on an initial examination, you may very well have a serious and fast-moving form of cancer, and then being a handed a referral to see a heart specialist first thing the next morning.
I think you’d agree that a doctor acting in this way is either deeply incompetent or flat out crazy.
Either that, or she has bigger plans on her mind than actually curing you, like say, pumping up the profits at a cardiology practice where she is a silent partner.
I am reminded of this fictional doctor when I consider the actions undertaken in the Middle East by the US and its allies over the last 14 years.
We are told again and again, in both explicit and implicit ways, that we are locked in an existential struggle with Islamic extremists in that region and the rest of the world.
Assuming that this is, in fact, the case, a number of strategic emphases in that battle are – or at least should be – axiomatic.
The first would be a clear priority on attacking those places in the Islamic world where Islamic fundamentalism is most powerful and well financed.
The second would be to actively prop up those governments where the cultures of secularism, and from there, inter-group tolerance, are most highly developed.
So, which country in the Islamic world is the place where aggressive and repressive fundamentalism is most well-financed and well-institutionalized?
The answer is absolutely crystal clear: Saudi Arabia. No other country even comes close.
Moving on to the realm of secular regimes, which countries were most advanced in this regard previous to the new wave of US-led and/or US-supported interventions that began in 2003? Here again, the answer is easy: Syria, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon.
So, which country has the US supported most heartily and unquestioningly in the last 15 years?
The answer, of course, is Saudi Arabia.
If you need any confirmation of this just Google stories related to the funeral of its hereditary dictator King Abdullah in January to see how American officials of the highest rank broke off whatever they were doing at that time to go to Riyadh and snivellingly praise this very brutal ruler.
Or simply register the fact that Saudi Arabia’s nasty and bloody assault on Bahrain in 2011 and its present bloody assault on Yemen barely get any press coverage in this country or Europe. Nor do we hardly see any mention of the fact that, in addition to providing the overwhelming majority of the terrorists that carried off the 9-11 attacks, they are the prime financiers of the constellation of Islamist groups currently fighting in both Syria and Iraq.
And who, in the Arab world have the US and its allies attacked during the same period? The answer here is Iraq (2003), Lebanon (2006), Libya (2011) and Syria (2011-present).
That’s right, we have systematically attacked those societies where women can walk around uncovered in public and drive cars, where you can have a beer or a glass of wine when you want, and where Christians and other non-Muslims have lived fairly freely for centuries, while at the same time giving virtually unlimited and unqualified diplomatic and military support to the country where almost none of these things are possible.
A case of craziness? A case of rank incompetence?
To continue reading: At War With Islamic Extremism?
