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Iranian protests shed light on America's role in fomenting Middle East tensions
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Iranians provide evidence of brutal crackdown against demonstrators after
recent presidential election (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A remarkable and welcome dialogue emerged last week in the midst of the demonstrations and protests following the Iranian presidential election. Predictably, many Republicans criticized Obama's measured and neutral response to the crisis, but for the most part they were civil, and certainly not unanimous. Conservative columnist/television pundit George Will actually supported Obama's position, for example. Surprisingly the debate, which normally would have morphed into a food fight between right and left to the delight of the ratings-obsessed media, settled into a thoughtful and searching analysis, at least on the few cable shows that I tuned into. Experts were enlisted to explain the long and convoluted history of violence and conflict between the west and the countries of the Middle East. Usually we are treated to hyperbolic confrontations between Republican and Democratic operatives, as if every issue in the universe can be reduced to political polemics.
Most Americans, and I include myself in this mix, are woefully ignorant about the Middle East, the religion of Islam, Muslims, Arabs, Kurds, the Taliban, the long history of enmity and violence between Shia and Sunni, the multi-terrorist organizations, the constant strife and futile quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and the exotic cultures of the peoples which seem so alien to ours. Unfortunately, we allowed George Bush, after 9/11, to characterize the region for us with his simplistic and infamous "axis of evil" metaphor, a senseless condemnation of Iran and Iraq, along with North Korea.
It was all too convenient to think in those terms in order to understand the horror of 9/ll. We see ourselves as a peaceful, benevolent society intent upon spreading the virtues of democracy throughout the world, enriching the lives of those less fortunate than we are. We are Americans, pure as the driven snow, doing God's work, selflessly revealing the gospel of peace on earth and good will toward men of all faiths, races and creeds. Surely anyone who would do us harm is evil incarnate.
So it was refreshing, and enlightening, to learn of another side, a darker side, to our involvement in the Middle East.
Normally it never occurs to us to ask why, if our motives are so noble and pure, we need a thousand military bases around the globe, and the world's mightiest military, powered by a budget that eclipses that of all other nations combined, to accomplish these peaceful objectives. Or why we still need 9400 nukes and a crushing conventional force to defeat a Soviet Union that collapsed fifteen years ago. We don't ask why we're trampling all over the Middle East. We don't ask why we fight these endless wars that kill so many innocent civilians. We don't connect the dots between our meddling and constant intrusion into the region and our gluttonous thirst for oil. We don't ask why we have occupied Afghanistan with no intent of leaving anytime soon. It's got something to do with those al Qaeda guys and the Taliban we tell ourselves, and that's plenty good enough.
We don't ask why bin Laden attacked us. We don't ask why "they" hate us - we simply presume it is because of our freedoms, our way of life, our virtues, our purity. We don't dig into the history books to learn what might have provoked them, what might be behind the seething rage that boiled over into a terrifying burst of death and destruction on our soil that killed nearly three thousand innocent civilians. We don't bother measuring that against the number of innocent civilians who have died in the Middle East as a result of our wars of choice, our retaliations. We can't seem to see it from the point of view of others. We can only see that we are the good guys, that we are advancing peace and prosperity around the world. How can they hate us for it? How dare they resent us, after all we have done for them? As George Bush once lamented, why don't the Iraqis show proper gratitude for their "liberation?"
But there is that other side to it all, a harsher reality that rises like smoke from the smoldering ashes of our deeds, that we so conveniently fan away from our consciousness. Consider, for example, the overthrow of Iran's democratic government in 1953 - we did that. The war in Vietnam. Support of Saddam Hussein in his eight year war against Iran. Then the first war against Iraq, after Saddam got the (mistaken) diplomatic green light to move into Kuwait. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The second invasion and occupation of Iraq. Recent drone attacks in Pakistan. The slaughter of over 100,000 innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Crippling sanctions against Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Cuba, still going strong half a century after they were imposed.
Are these the actions of a gentle, peaceful giant? Or a belligerent bully intent upon having his way on the playground?
As a piece of this puzzle, I recommend this disturbing and probing account of relentless meddling in the affairs of Iran. It's a sobering, searing indictment of an imperialistic foreign policy run amok, a stunning series of revelations that sheds a completely different light on our relations with Iran. No doubt many who read it will recoil in disgust, and denounce the author, Chris Hedges, as the quintessential America hater, but that won't refute the compelling facts and evidence that are presented in the essay, nor help us forge a new approach to finding solutions to problems which have proven intractable for decades. Blind nationalism has led the way long enough. It's time for a change.
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