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The Destiny of This Pageant Lies in the Kingdom of Oil
The Middle East earthquake of the past five weeks has been the most tumultuous, shattering, mind-numbing experience in the history of the region since the fall of the Ottoman empire. For once, "shock and awe" was the right description.
The docile, supine, unregenerative, cringing Arabs of Orientalism have transformed themselves into fighters for the freedom, liberty and dignity which we Westerners have always assumed it was our unique role to play in the world. One after another, our satraps are falling, and the people we paid them to control are making their own history – our right to meddle in their affairs (which we will, of course, continue to exercise) has been diminished for ever.
The tectonic plates continue to shift, with tragic, brave – even blackly humorous – results. Countless are the Arab potentates who always claimed they wanted democracy in the Middle East. King Bashar of Syria is to improve public servants' pay. King Bouteflika of Algeria has suddenly abandoned the country's state of emergency. King Hamad of Bahrain has opened the doors of his prisons. King Bashir of Sudan will not stand for president again. King Abdullah of Jordan is studying the idea of a constitutional monarchy. And al-Qa'ida are, well, rather silent.
Who would have believed that the old man in the cave would suddenly have to step outside, dazzled, blinded by the sunlight of freedom rather than the Manichean darkness to which his eyes had become accustomed. Martyrs there were aplenty across the Muslim world – but not an Islamist banner to be seen. The young men and women bringing an end to their torment of dictators were mostly Muslims, but the human spirit was greater than the desire for death. They are Believers, yes – but they got there first, toppling Mubarak while Bin Laden's henchmen still called for his overthrow on outdated videotapes.
But now a warning. It's not over. We are experiencing today that warm, slightly clammy feeling before the thunder and lightning break out. Gaddafi's final horror movie has yet to end, albeit with that terrible mix of farce and blood to which we are accustomed in the Middle East. And his impending doom is, needless to say, throwing into ever-sharper perspective the vile fawning of our own potentates. Berlusconi – who in many respects is already a ghastly mockery of Gaddafi himself – and Sarkozy, and Lord Blair of Isfahan are turning out to look even shabbier than we believed. Those faith-based eyes blessed Gaddafi the murderer. I did write at the time that Blair and Straw had forgotten the "whoops" factor, the reality that this weird light bulb was absolutely bonkers and would undoubtedly perform some other terrible act to shame our masters. And sure enough, every journalist is now going to have to add "Mr Blair's office did not return our call" to his laptop keyboard.
Everyone is now telling Egypt to follow the "Turkish model" – this seems to involve a pleasant cocktail of democracy and carefully controlled Islam. But if this is true, Egypt's army will keep an unwanted, undemocratic eye on its people for decades to come. As lawyer Ali Ezzatyar has pointed out, "Egypt's military leaders have spoken of threats to the "Egyptian way of life"... in a not so subtle reference to threats from the Muslim Brotherhood. This can be seen as a page taken from the Turkish playbook." The Turkish army turned up as kingmakers four times in modern Turkish history. And who but the Egyptian army, makers of Nasser, constructors of Sadat, got rid of the ex-army general Mubarak when the game was up?
And democracy – the real, unfettered, flawed but brilliant version which we in the West have so far lovingly (and rightly) cultivated for ourselves – is not going, in the Arab world, to rest happy with Israel's pernicious treatment of Palestinians and its land theft in the West Bank. Now no longer the "only democracy in the Middle East", Israel argued desperately – in company with Saudi Arabia, for heaven's sake – that it was necessary to maintain Mubarak's tyranny. It pressed the Muslim Brotherhood button in Washington and built up the usual Israeli lobby fear quotient to push Obama and La Clinton off the rails yet again. Faced with pro-democracy protesters in the lands of oppression, they duly went on backing the oppressors until it was too late. I love "orderly transition". The "order" bit says it all. Only Israeli journalist Gideon Levy got it right. "We should be saying 'Mabrouk Misr!'," he said. Congratulations, Egypt!
Yet in Bahrain, I had a depressing experience. King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman have been bowing to their 70 per cent (80 per cent?) Shia population, opening prison doors, promising constitutional reforms. So I asked a government official in Manama if this was really possible. Why not have an elected prime minister instead of a member of the Khalifa royal family? He clucked his tongue. "Impossible," he said. "The GCC would never permit this." For GCC – the Gulf Co-operation Council – read Saudi Arabia. And here, I am afraid, our tale grows darker.
We pay too little attention to this autocratic band of robber princes; we think they are archaic, illiterate in modern politics, wealthy (yes, "beyond the dreams of Croesus", etc), and we laughed when King Abdullah offered to make up any fall in bailouts from Washington to the Mubarak regime, and we laugh now when the old king promises $36bn to his citizens to keep their mouths shut. But this is no laughing matter. The Arab revolt which finally threw the Ottomans out of the Arab world started in the deserts of Arabia, its tribesmen trusting Lawrence and McMahon and the rest of our gang. And from Arabia came Wahabism, the deep and inebriating potion – white foam on the top of the black stuff – whose ghastly simplicity appealed to every would-be Islamist and suicide bomber in the Sunni Muslim world. The Saudis fostered Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. Let us not even mention that they provided most of the 9/11 bombers. And the Saudis will now believe they are the only Muslims still in arms against the brightening world. I have an unhappy suspicion that the destiny of this pageant of Middle East history unfolding before us will be decided in the kingdom of oil, holy places and corruption. Watch out.
But a lighter note. I've been hunting for the most memorable quotations from the Arab revolution. We've had "Come back, Mr President, we were only kidding" from an anti-Mubarak demonstrator. And we've had Saif el-Islam el-Gaddafi's Goebbels-style speech: "Forget oil, forget gas – there will be civil war." My very own favorite, selfish and personal quotation came when my old friend Tom Friedman of The New York Times joined me for breakfast in Cairo with his usual disarming smile. "Fisky," he said, "this Egyptian came up to me in Tahrir Square yesterday, and asked me if I was Robert Fisk!" Now that's what I call a revolution.
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32 Comments so far
Show All"And democracy – the real, unfettered, flawed but brilliant version which we in the West have so far lovingly (and rightly) cultivated for ourselves ..."
Western democracy, flawed but brilliant?! I suppose it might be if there was any real democracy to be found. On the other hand, it's hard to equate the actual system of plutocratic corporatist governance with real democracy of any description -- flawed or otherwise.
Its Western formats may be somewhat more subtle than some of the Middle East's outright dictatorships, but the common sponsors of both ensure that the outcomes for the plebians are essentially the same wherever their collective will determines the governing agenda. What name tag is applied to it hardly matters except in the context of myth and propaganda.
Do you suppose it would help if we called it The Empire of the People's Democratic Republic of the United States of America? It still seems to deprive many (if not all) of its subjects of any meaningful and effective voting rights.
My personal favourite is where Gaddafi blames the protests on al Qaeda feeding teenagers drugged milk, coffee, Nescafe.
Democracy in the US and UK is not a very great model to follow is it? Democracy in the US/UK is simply a public relations management tool and has little if anything to do with rule by and for "the people".
The enthocentric Orientalism, that Edward Said wrote about so many years ago, is alive, well and as strong as ever. The hypocrisy is chokingly thick as usual. The imperial powers in the region (US/UK/Israel) are busy trying to set up new puppet regimes with at least a bit more trappings of "democracy" this time around, while serving the interests of the oligarchy more effficiently than the previous regimes.
Calling democracy in the US and UK "flawed" is like calling a beheaded corpse "flawed." The corpse we need to kick around and bury is capitalism. Then perhaps democracy can be conceived, gestate, and be born. Capitalism needs to be outed as the continuous democracy killing abortion that it is.
"Democracy – the real, unfettered, flawed but brilliant version which we in the West have so far lovingly (and rightly) cultivated for ourselves."
How deluded can a person be?
I think he's being selectively positive only towards the truly valid developments that have occurred in many countries of the West. I have no doubt Fisk would be right there with you acknowledging the very undemocratic nature of our 'Democracies'.
However, I assume you may have some criticism of democracy, even when practiced in good faith and form. Is this incorrect?
Is there just a little red baiting going on here?
The "valid developments" which you trumpet are about to undergo a severe test. Those valid developments must be taken a few steps further and utilized to bring about an end to militarism, empire and the economic savagery known as international capitalism.
I know that you are a left liberal, and not a marxist, but you must at least recognize the extreme fragility of the modest social democratic gains that have occurred in the last 90 years.
Working class people have to directly challenge our bankrupt system and will need "left liberals" as a kind of ally within. And yours is a faction that can often provide pro bono atty's and bail money, no?
maybe you'd also like to guard the dance in the revolution as in "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
with a nod to the ghost of Emma Goldman
From an article in Counterpunch today:
As the astute foreign policy analyst Jason Ditz recently pointed out, “the resentment is spreading beyond Mubarak and his immediate underlings, and toward the United States and Israel.” This means that the uprising represents something bigger than the buzzwords of abstract, decontextualized personal freedoms, or the money-driven, carefully-scripted bogus elections – called democracy. It represents a growing culture of resistance to neocolonialism that started with the great Iranian revolution of 1979.
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
--------------------------------------------------------------
And Tom Friedman is an old friend? I believe in the context Fisk speaks of him, he is using irony to describe him as an old and current enemy of anyone but his neocon pals at the pentagon.
Iranians aren't saints either, but they don't go around invading other countries.
Basically I see it the same as Fisk...
There are three main countries that will determine the extent and outcome of the uprisings in the Islamic world. The USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia. A dubious axis of nations if you ask me – and in dire need of a challenge to their moral authority. They represent no more than three great albatrosses joined in a chain upon the neck of the world.
It is within the borders of these three countries that the real revolution must take place. Barring that, we will forge into the new millennium with essentially the same false leaders and paradigms of the past millennium.
Certainly, overall industrial/ecological reform must come to all peoples adjusting to modern world realities (China and India come to mind) but in regards to this current burgeoning of the democratic spirit in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is the maker or breaker.
I say all power to the downfall to the abhorrent Saudi royal family!
Revolution For America, Israel and Saudi Arabia!
I've got some issues by Fisk's (Fisky?) article, but he's got it right when he states: "I have an unhappy suspicion that the destiny of this pageant of Middle East history unfolding before us will be decided in the kingdom of oil, holy places and corruption. Watch out."
That sick man of the Middle East (Saudi Arabia--named after a family, dammit!) has got to go into the history books, and fast.
The most the most tumultuous, shattering, mind-numbing item in this article is the idea of Robert Fisk cheerfully sitting down to breakfast with a bloviating reptile like Thomas Friedman.
If you have a lifestyle that allows you to never shake hands with bloviating reptiles, you should let us all in on it.
Oh, I know that the Fisks of the world have a stronger stomach than Yr. Obd't Servant. I can still barely steel myself to have holiday dinners with my well-meaning but overbearing brother-in-law, and I've been doing it for decades.
I hope that the well-to-do Friedman picked up the check.
Yeah me too OS. Maybe it is just me, but there might be just a bit of dry sarcasm in the closing sentence.
all i can picture is a version of the last supper.
I see norquisling, palin, our dutiful secdef
gates, and the whole panapoly of reptilians that
have brought this fate on us...sort of a modern
version of dantes inferno
I'd love to list the scum but that would require
prioritizing and finally taking my own responsibility
for contributing by not preventing it....this sort of
nightfmare is recurring and infinite.
What?
He has a designated successor. Now, the issue is that ihs designated successor(s) is/ are his brother(s), so at best, that would only be a temporary short term succession.
Seems like people frequently misunderstand the "subtle" nature of your posts. You aklways chalk that up to their lack of intelligence.
Maybe you could turn off your arrogance for a few minutes and take a good look in the mirror.
The 'leaders' you see in office in the USA, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Ireland, Austrailia etc, are not any better what-so-ever than the ones recently kicked or about to be kicked - to the curb in the ME...
This speaks volumes about our much lauded 'democracies'.
To quote the Who - we'll be fighting in the streets, with our children at our feet (Won't Get Fooled Again) just like those in the ME are doing now.
We owe those people a huge debt of gratitude for showing us that it can be done.
Fisky?
Fisky points a finger at the Turkish militray coups, but the last time there was a successful coup in Turkey was 1980. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the influence of the generals in politics diminished.
I do recall an unsuccessful coup attempt recently in Turkey that changed Erdogan's attitude towards the zionists.
Egypt would be doing well if it could emulate Turkish democracy.
Ataturk Lives!
I figure this is as good of a thread as any to ask:
CD, Where are the articles on the Davis affair in Pakistan??!
That's important news.
"my old friend Tom Friedman"? That's troubling..........
You don't seem to unsderstand the satire and sarcasm Fisk's remark represents. Fisk and Friedman are at opposite ends; the latter defends Israel while the former attacks it.
It remains to be seen if this will put the "Orientalists" out of work. Their thinly disguised racist anti-Semitism deserves considerably less intellectual market share than during its glory days in the past.
It may be the case that the most of us dont give a hoot to democracy as long as our needs of sex,food,shelter,and freedom to scream at someone in games and in local bars are met.
The way the dead neocons have been resurrected by themsleves by the events of ME, it seems very soon Mubarak and Hamid ,and Ben Ali will justifiably demand credit for the revolution from American media
To my surprise, I've become a "9/11 truther," and relieved to be one.
Mr. Fisk says, "The Saudis fostered Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. Let us not even mention that they provided most of the 9/11 bombers."
From the evidence I can see, the three WTC buildings were brought down by explosives, controlled demolition. Check out www.ae911truth.org to see the evidence for yourself. So, Mr. Fisk - who provided most of the bombers? I'd say we need a new investigation to answer to that question - really, who did plant those bombs?
I do agree with the concern for the Saudi regime in this time of courageous uprisings.
Saudi Arabia provided most of the patsies.
911 conspiracy buffs fasten your seat belts...the sands have shifted and the game is afoot.
and...it's only 2 yrs until the Kennedy Assassination archives are opened.
"And democracy – the real, unfettered, flawed but brilliant version which we in the West have so far lovingly (and rightly) cultivated for ourselves ..."
Hightly amusing, yes and verging on drooling idiocy. It was at this point I gave up. Cut Fisk some slack, though. After all, he does write for The Dependent.