The Enemy of my Enemy
George W Bush: Villain of the year. Easy judgment to make, you might think. After all, his has been one of the most calamitous American Presidencies in history. His particular brand of incompetent, reckless messianism combined with a particularly vicious brand of Rumsfeldian realpolitik came together to form a foreign policy perfect storm – the result was the tragedy of post-Saddam Iraq. At home and abroad, Bush will be judged in the tribunal of history as one of the most incompetent men who has ever set foot in the Oval office.
Bush bashing is easy; anyone can take a crack at the Texan oil-man safe in the knowledge that every right-thinking person will agree with them. NME magazine recently saw fit to award Bush for his idiocy, granting him the title of ‘Villain of the Year’.
Fair enough, you might think. A quick look at the BBC News website, and I began to have my doubts. At the time of writing, 40 people had just been killed in Baghdad by Sunni suicide murderers probably linked with Al Qaeda. They are trying to restart the sectarian civil war in Iraq, which has recently abated slightly as Shia militias stood down in deference to the new security strategy being implemented by the Iraq government and its American allies.
These Sunni fanatics are most directly responsible for wrecking Iraq’s chance at Constitutional democracy. In February last year they demolished the al-Askari mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. This was the centerpiece of a concerted strategy by Abu Musab Zaqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, to ferment a sectarian civil war and turn the country into a hellish inter-communal war-zone. He succeeded beyond even his most macabre fantasies. The Shia, who previously had shown admirable restraint and had refrained from serious reprisals, took revenge against their Sunni neighbors. Civil war began in earnest, and it is very unlikely that it will end in anything but large scale population transfer as terrified people flee bloodthirsty gangs of both major branches of Islam, seeking refuge in the arms of their co-sectarianists.
Perhaps, then, a case could be made for indicting the latest Sunni suicide bomber as ‘Villain of the year’. George Bush, despite his criminal negligence and unforgivable hubris (he has completely ignored the Iraq study Group report, for example), is a democratically mandated politician. If one were to draw up a moral scale, a member of the euphemistically titled ‘Insurgency’ would undoubtedly rank below Bush. These people were responsible for murdering, amongst countless others, Sergio Viera de Mello, one of the United Nations bravest officials, as he was busy trying to rebuild Iraq.
Let is be said: the Iraqi ‘resistance’ is a grouping of fascist militias, each determined to impose their brand of totalitarianism on that benighted country. Why is NME not indicting these disgusting fascists and helping expose their crimes to the world? Why is the ‘Anti-War’ movement not demonstrating in solidarity with those Iraqis who are fighting the good fight; the trade unions, the feminist and secular groups who have their backs to the wall against a group of reactionary clerical and Ba’athist fascists who have no respect for human rights?
The reason they are not doing so is because ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. The overarching enemy in this case is, of course, America and the globalizing modernity it seeks to export. If the most active opponents of the Great Enemy happen to be fascists, then so be it. Ideological differences disappear when confronted by a common foe – in this case liberal democracy.
To quote the journalist Nick Cohen from his new book What’s Left? ‘The anti-war movement in Britain has disgraced itself not because it was against the war in Iraq, but because it failed to oppose the Counter-Revolution once the war was over’. It was possible to be ferociously critical of the British and American governments while backing the Iraqis who wanted to enjoy the benefits of Constitutional Democracy, but this was not the position of Stop the War and the rest.
Cohen brutally exposes Stop the War for what they are; a rag-tag bunch of over-the-hill Trots who, so desperate after the death of the USSR (and with it the old certainties) for allies, formed an unholy alliance with reactionary Muslim organizations such as the Muslim Association of Britain, who counted amongst their favorite clerics a man called Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi’s pronouncements on apostates, gays and women’s rights belong in the 11th century, not the 21st. Yet, by joining forces with him and his ilk and refusing to back Middle Eastern progressives, the Stop the War movement sold its soul and repudiated all right it had to be considered the inheritor of the great Radical tradition of the decent Left.
Oppose Bush? Yes. But make sure that you are not so blinded by your rage you forget (or refuse?) to support those who are fighting for their right to live in peace and modernity. Caught between Bush’s incompetent pride and the murderous sectarian murderers of the ‘Insurgency’, they are desperate. Let’s have a million strong demonstration in support of them for a change.
http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/
-posted by Adam
