MID-POINT IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

Tariq Ali in the New Left Review:

Looking down on the world from the imperial grandeur of the Oval Office in the fall of 2001, the Cheney–Bush team was confident of its ability to utilize the September events to remodel the world. The Pentagon’s Vice Admiral Cebrowski summed up the linkage of capitalism to war: ‘the dangers against which us forces must be arrayed derive precisely from countries and regions that are “disconnected” from the prevailing trends of globalization’. Five years later, what is the balance sheet?

On the credit side, Russia, China and India remain subdued, along with Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Here, despite the attempts of Western political science departments to cover the instrumentalist twists of us policy with fig-leaf conceptualizations—‘limited democracies’, ‘tutelary democracies’, ‘illiberal democracies’, ‘inclusionary autocracies’, ‘illiberal autocracies’—the reality is that acceptance of Washington Consensus norms is the principal criterion for gaining imperial approval. In Western Europe, after a few flutters on Iraq, the eu is firmly back on side. Chirac now sounds more belligerent than Bush on the Middle East, and the German elite is desperate to appease Washington. On the debit side, the Caracas effect is spreading. Cuba’s long isolation has been broken, the Bolivian oligarchy defeated in La Paz and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has assumed a central role in mobilizing popular anti-neoliberal movements in virtually every Latin American country. [1]

More alarmingly for Washington, American control of the Middle East is slipping.

More here.

Comments

[aguy109]

Tariq is still going strong, it seems. In '60s Britain he was publishing pamphlets on how to make Molotov Cocktails, now he provides incredibly astute analysis of how the Hamas and the Syrian Baath are bravely leading the seething proletariat in the glorious struggle against Imperialism and Der Flufluchteh Judenschwien (sorry, he means the Zionists).
The outstanding success of this deeply intelligent Marxist analysis is enshrined, of course, in the glorious perfection acheived in that model state - North Korea, whose model comrade citizens have voluntarily gone on permanent hunger strike, until the day when the entire globe shall finally adopt the Holy Beloved Leader, Kim Il Sung, as its figuerhead.
Heil Kim, Heil Tariq.

[Bild]

Aguy109, Ian Buruma seems to have made similar observations about Tariq Ali:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-525-2179115-525,00.html

To modulate my own knee-jerk enthusiasm for Ali's always illuminating brilliance, I have to ask myself a hypothetical question: Is there any crime at all that any Third World leader could commit that would disqualify him/her from Ali/NLR praise, provided only that he/she faithfully hews to the approved anti-American, anti-capitalist line?

I also wonder, if there was some way in which one could wager real money on whether Chavez's brilliantly unorthodox economic policies will produce a real payoff for the Venezuelan masses, how much of their own money would Ali and the NLR be willing to put down behind the Magnificent Bolivarian?

[John Powers]

" Is there any crime at all that any Third World leader could commit that would disqualify him/her from Ali/NLR praise"

This, along with the North Korea as true Marxists line are really wonderful. Asserting Tariq's support for the leader of North Korea is a brilliant remark which I am sure you have plenty documentation to back (no need to cite that though, of course). I have always been against facts personally. Keep up the good work gentlemen, I am sure the NSA has already informed the higher-ups of your devote commitment to the cause. Personally, I am saving myself up for "Hate Week", but it is good to see you two still at it. And always remember, any who speaks ill of the state of Israel's policies is an anti-Semite and likely Nazi sympathizer. Please be sure to include that in your newsletter and I would then be interested in subscribing. Thank you good sirs.

BTW, as someone who has toured Iraq, I wonder how many times you too Middle East experts have been over there, or if you even sought to serve in all your fervent support. To be honest, I could take or leave the accounts of Tariq, but guys like you always crack me up, with your insecure and illogical ramblings and attempts at arguments. Perhaps you should stick to preaching to the choir. Thanks again for a laugh.

[aguy109]

I havent been to Iraq, but ive had rockets fired at me by the PLO and by Saddam Hussein. Every side commits brutal acts, but Tariq's heros make brutality their only goal and have acheived nothing else.

[aguy109]

John, here is Tariq's implicit support for North Korean Freedom Fighters:
...the Bush regime is now trying to stop Korean reunification because they are fearful that a unified Korean peninsula with nuclear weapons would make the Japanese go for nuclear weapons....They failed in Vietnam. They succeeded in dividing Korea. But they couldn’t rule South Korea democratically because no lackeys could be found who could be elected. So when you don’t find lackeys who can be elected democratically, you put the army in power. http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Apr2003/ali0403.html.

[anon]

aguy109: You are truly an idiot. The last sentence of that quote refers to the South Korean army. You haven't answered Powers' demand for evidence of Ali's support for the North Korean dinosaurs. Such evidence doesn't exist.

And of course, Palestinian militants have "brutality as their only goal" - it has nothing to do with the decades long military occupation of what was left of their homeland in '67. Blah!

[aguy109]

John + anon
Keep up the personal abuse guys: its your strongest argument.