Letters to the Editor
FredrickBernanke
Published Letters: 170 Editor's Choice: 8
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Topic (3) The Chris Floyd Post: Western Hegemony in the Middle East
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Topic (3) discusses the attempt to establish military hegemony by the US in that paradise we refer to as the Middle East.
As distasteful as it may be to some on the Left, the Middle East is of vital strategic importance to Western Civilization, including but not limited to the USA.
Nixon called this "that God-forsaken region;' but god or whatever blessed that sand-filled, sun-soaked, primitive, brutal, desolate region of the planet with one asset invaluable to sustaining the economic and material progress of the rest of the world: OIL.
That one commodity is the lifeblood of most of the world's economies. And that commodity is controlled by advanced socio-political entities like the House of Saud, the Emirs of Abu Dhabi, the ruling Princes of Kuwait, the Mullahs of Iran and various other antiquated conglomerations of religious or familial tribes, just as the west was not that long ago.
[I am not going to defend in any way the Iraq Super-Blunder: It is likely to be remembered as the single greatest mistake in US foreign policy history.]
With the violent increases in the price of oil, we are witnessing an enormous transfer of wealth from the West to the oil producers in the Middle East. And, of course, with that wealth comes even more power for, say, the House of Saud. It is they who have recently had to bailout Citibank and other major Western financial institutions in the wake of the subprime mortgage and worthless derivatives crisis. But the bailouts come in the form of acquiring significant equity/ownership stakes in these institutions, not in the form of loans.
The point I am trying to make is that Western hegemony, military, social, political, is a worthwhile strategic objective of the USA. The means required to obtain that objective should be the only thing in question.
Sending Marines into all these countries to topple regimes is nothing short of ridiculous and won't work, as witness the Iraq fiasco.
But other modus operandi, equally as cruel but much more duplicitous and sophisticated, need to be employed to accomplish the same worthwhile goal of establishing Western hegemony over a region vital to our civilization.
There would be only one loser if the West triumphed: the ruling oligarchies that current hold sway over this region. Does anyone doubt that the average Abdul and Syban in Saudi would lead more pleasant lives under US hegemony than they currently do under the King and Princes who rule by fiat?
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@Timberman, Aycharaych, Ash
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. I tried to make it clear that I consider the Iraq adventure an unmitigated disaster for the US and especially for the Iraqi people and specifically stated that Nazi-like blitzkriegs of Middle Eastern nations--regardless of their internal political systems--is an unacceptable tactic for the US to adopt. The innocent people of Iraq have been forced to absorb, willy nilly, the technological brutality that only the US is capable of inflicting. The US will bare that stain for generations.
2. The race or color of the inhabitants of the Middle East or of the West is completely irrelevant to me.
3. Because of its oil, the ME is of national security importance to the West, like it or not.
4. The ME is ruled by regimes that I think each of the 3 respondents cited above would find it distasteful to live under.
5. The wealth of the USA and other Western nations is being transferred to these ME regimes in a greater degree as the price of oil climbs, not to the citizens living under their rule.
6. The primary desideratum of ME policy must be to insure a steady, uninterrupted flow of oil from them to the West. But we must not allow ourselves to be relegated to the position of beggars.
7. Western socio-political hegemony in the ME any time in the foreseeable future is extremely unlikely. But the crude (no pun intended) governments ruling this vital region must understand that there will be consequences intolerable to the rulers if oil is used as a weapon against the West.
8. This situation is absolutely a-racial: if the ME was inhabited by blue-eyed blonds who were living under the same anachronistic political and social structures as today's ME, it would make not one iota of difference in my analysis.
9. On a personal note: My father (and maybe Ben's as well) escaped the Nazi slaughter because he could see what was coming while the rest of his/my family could not. They stayed behind and were lined up against a wall at their home and executed. To be tough does not ipso facto make one a Nazi.
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@Timberman
[Read the article: Various items]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I should not have addressed my reply to you, I apologize.
Makes me feel like I'm debating a hamster.