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The Palestine Chronicle is an independent online newspaper that provides daily news, commentary, features, book reviews, photos, art, etc, on a variety of subjects. The Palestine Chronicle is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization.
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FEATURE ARTICLE
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Syria as a Game-Changer:
US Political Impotence in the Middle East
Limitations of US military power became quite obvious in later years.
By Ramzy Baroud
In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, "Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria."
Those limitations are palpable in both language and action. A political and military vacuum created by past US failures and forced retreats after the Iraq war made it possible for countries like Russia to reemerge on the scene as an effective player.
It is most telling that over two years after the Syrian uprising-turned bloody civil war, the US continues to curb its involvement by indirectly assisting anti-Bashar al-Assad regime opposition forces, through its Arab allies and Turkey. Even its political discourse is indecisive and often times inconsistent.
Concurrently, Russia's position remains unswerving and constantly advancing while the US is pushed into a corner, demonstrating incapacity to react except for condemnations and mere statements. This is to the displeasure of its Arab allies. Russia's recent delivery of sophisticated anti-ship missiles and its own buildup of warships in the eastern Mediterranean is a case in point. The move was condemned by the Obama administration as one that is "ill-timed and very unfortunate," according to a statement by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as reported in the LA Times on May 17.
But this American attitude in the region is fairly new. Behind it stands a history so bloody and filled with imprudent foreign policy. Regardless of how the US decides to move on Syria, the chances are that a return to its old dominant approach is no longer an option.
Indeed, the current American political impotence in the Middle East is unprecedented, at least since the rapid disintegration of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990's. The dissolution of the Soviet Union had ushered in the rise of a unipolar world, wholly managed by the United States. The rise of the uncontested American hegemony represented a shift in historical dialectics, where great powers found their match and the rest of the world, more or less, accommodated the ensuing competition.
Then, the US acted quickly to assert its dominance starting with hasty military adventures such as the invasion of Panama in 1989. A much more calculated move followed with a devastating war against Iraq in 1990-91. In Panama the objective was to remind the US's southern neighbors that the region's cop was still on duty and was capable of intervening at a moment's notice to rearrange the entire political paradigm in any way that Washington deemed necessary - As this has been the case since the CIA-orchestrated coup and war in Guatemala in 1954 and even earlier.
The US's massive military involvement in Iraq, however, was that of a conqueror who arrived with an entourage of many countries - regional and western allies - to claim the spoils resulting from the end of the protracted Cold War. It was an arrogant show of force since the target was a single Arab country with humble military and economic means vs. major military powers from near and far. The war devastated Iraq, as its initial aerial bombing campaign alone involved the dropping of 88,500 tons of bombs. Many new weapons were used and tested, while the US media and public celebrated the prowess of their military. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died or were wounded as a result of one of the most asymmetrical wars in history.
Trying to capitalize on its military triumph, Washington quickly pushed for a political settlement between its closest ally, Israel, and Arab countries. The logic behind the Madrid Conference in 1991 was achieving pseudo peace that catered to Israel's interests, while opening up the gate of normalization between Israel and its neighbors. Moreover, the US hoped to achieve some sort of 'stability' that would allow it to manage the Middle East region and its ample resources in a less hostile environment. Eventually, Israel managed to negotiate its own political deal with the Palestinians, thus dividing Arab ranks and ensuring that the 'peace talks' outcome was entirely consistent with Israel's colonial ambitions.
As years passed, the US and Israeli political visions moved even closer, but with Washington eventually becoming a mere conduit to Israeli colonial objectives. This fact was underscored repeatedly under the George W. Bush administration, which compounded US failure in the region with even more disastrous and dangerous wars.
A major fault in US foreign policy is that it is almost entirely reliant on military power - as in the ability to blow things up. The US war on Iraq which, in various forms, extended from 1990 to 2011, included a devastating blockade and ended with a brutal invasion. This long war was as unscrupulous as it was very violent. Aside from its overwhelming human toll, it was placed within a horrid political strategy aimed at exploiting the country's existing sectarian and other fault lines, therefore triggering a civil war and sectarian hatred from which Iraq is unlikely to cover for many years.
But limitations of US military power became quite obvious in later years. The empire was no longer able to bridge the divide between translating its dominance on the ground - itself increasingly challenged by local resistance groups - into a level of political progress required to achieve the minimum amount of 'stability'. Moreover, an economic recession, coupled with the Iraqi retreat and an equally costly debacle in Afghanistan - forced the new administration in Washington, under the leadership of President Barack Obama to rethink Bush's earlier quest for global hegemony. Massive military cuts were soon to follow. Concurrently, the imbalance of global power was slowly, quietly but surely being equalized with the rise of China as a new possible contender.
In the midst of the US transition and policy rethink, an upheaval struck the Middle East. Its manifestations - revolutions, civil wars, regional mayhem and conflicts of all sorts - reverberated beyond the Middle East. Shrinking and rising empires alike took notice. Fault lines were quickly determined and exploited. Players changed positions or jockeyed for advanced ones, as a new Great Game was about to begin. The so-called 'Arab Spring' was rapidly becoming a game-changer in a region that seemed resistant to transformations of any kind.
The transformation of the Middle East - promising at times, very gory and bloody at others - arrived at a time when the US was making forced adjustments in its military priorities. Putting greater focus on the Pacific region and the South China Sea are such examples. Without much notice, it was forced to reengage with the Middle East, as a whole - not a country at a time. Only then, its weaknesses were seriously exposed and its lack of influence became palpable.
Bankrupt is maybe an appropriate term to use in describing the current US policy in the Middle East. Imprudent military adventures devastated the region but achieved no long term objectives. Reckless policies that are predicated on trying to exploit, as opposed to understand the Middle East and its complex political and historical formation and the insistence on keeping Israel a main priority in its approach to the vastly shifting political lines, will unlikely to bode well for US interests.
However, unlike the early 1990's, when the US moved to reshape the entire region and established permanent military presence, new dynamics are forcing US hands to change tactics. In this new reality, the US is incapable of reshaping reality but merely trying to offset or control its unfavorable outcomes.
"What the United States (and western Europe) want to do is 'control' the situation,' Immanuel Wallerstein argued. "They will not be able to do it. Hence the screams of the 'interventionists' and the foot-dragging of the 'prudent.' It is a lose-lose for the west, while not being at the same time a 'win' for people in the Middle East."
This 'lose-lose' scenario might not necessarily translate to a complete American foreign policy meltdown in the near future, but will certainly open the possibility for new/old players to main serious gains, Russia being a lead example. This will likely compel the US to change tactics, despite the incessant objections of neoconservative forces and the Israeli lobby.
http://palestinechronicle.com/syria-as-a-game-changer-us-political-impotence-in-the-middle-east/#.UZ1rWcqy3lk
- Ramzy Baroud (ramzybaroud.net) is a widely published and translated author. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).
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SELECTED ARTICLES
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British-Danish security firm G4S has been severely criticized for its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories and in prisons and detention centers in Israel, including those housing children and "administrative detainees" held without charge or trial. On 17 April Palestinian organizations called for action against G4S for its role in Israeli prisons where Palestinian political [...]
May 23 2013 | Posted in Articles | slider | Videos | Read More �
By Ramzy Baroud In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, "Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria." [...]
By Kathy Kelly - Kabul Since 2009, Voices for Creative Nonviolence has maintained a grim record we call the "The Afghan Atrocities Update" which gives the dates, locations, numbers and names of Afghan civilians killed by NATO forces. Even with details culled from news reports, these data can't help but merge into one large statistic, [...]
May 22 2013 | Posted in Articles | Features | slider | Read More �
By Ali Younes - Amman A large majority of Jordanian Members of Parliament (MPs) voted last week to pass a resolution to force the government to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman over Israeli settlers attacks and attempts to occupy the Islamic holy site Al Aqasa Mosque in Jerusalem. The resolution was sponsored by MP [...]
May 22 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Rana Abdulla An accountant by training and practice, I was forced by circumstances to learn how to cook, and to enjoy it too. My mother says that every decent woman must know how to cook, and that is where this story starts, with the search for a vast selection of my authentic recipes from [...]
May 21 2013 | Posted in Articles | Features | slider | Read More �
By Ira Glunts Palestinian-American Raed Zidan became the first Palestinian to reach the summit of the earth's highest mountain last Saturday, dedicating his climb to Palestinians - especially political prisoners. Zidan was one of 35 foreigners, along with 29 Nepalese Sherpa guides, intent on reaching the summit and raising a million dollars to promote education [...]
May 21 2013 | Posted in Articles | Features | Read More �
'Sons of Lifta' follows refugees from the village as they return to Lifta on Land Day 2013, more than 65 years after their original forced displacement. Through the eyes and actions of Lifta's new generations, following in the footsteps of their ancestors, it becomes clear that the Zionist belief that 'the old will die out [...]
May 21 2013 | Posted in Articles | slider | Videos | Read More �
By Pamela Olson (The following is part of an outtake from Pamela Olson's book Fast Times in Palestine, published by Seal Press in March 2013. The full story, with photos is posted on her blog.) A friend from college named Cameron was in Israel visiting family for Passover. He was an adventurous soul, a world [...]
May 20 2013 | Posted in Articles | Reviews | Read More �
By Greta Berlin Three years ago, the Free Gaza movement was wrapping up final preparations for a flotilla of eight ships to head out to Gaza, determined to break Israel's illegal siege on 1.5 million Palestinians shut into an open-air prison. Most of us were already in Cyprus or Turkey or Greece, as we were [...]
May 20 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Stuart Littlewood The Church of Scotland's revised report 'The Inheritance of Abraham?' has now been released ahead of their Assembly. The Church felt obliged to change some of it after Jewish leaders sought to interfere, one complaining that it was "an outrage to everything that interfaith dialogue stands for... and closes the door on [...]
May 19 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Yousef M. Aljamal, CPDS - Gaza The Kuala Lumpur Palestine Film Festival (KLPFF), organized by Viva Palestina-Malaysia, in collaboration with the Malaysian Information, Communication and Culture Ministry and the Malaysian National Film Development Corporation kicked off on Friday 18 May, 2013 with remarkable Palestinian participation. 5 Broken Cameras, By Imad Burnat, nominated for a [...]
May 19 2013 | Posted in Articles | Features | Read More �
By Ghada Ageel On the 65th anniversary of the Nakba (what we Palestinians call the catastrophe of dispossession), Palestinians who were born in historic Palestine and are currently growing old in refugee camps - remain determined to return to the homes and lands from which we were expelled in 1948. My grandmother, Khadija, is one [...]
May 18 2013 | Posted in Articles | Features | Read More �
By Jeremy Salt - Ankara While all options are said to be still on the table, Barack Obama is clearly backing away from any deeper involvement in Syria now it is clear that nothing but direct intervention is going to bring down the government in Damascus. In the past few months alone the armed groups [...]
May 18 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Rima Najjar Merriman "Calamity either destroys a people or makes it stronger. In the past half century Palestinians have transformed catastrophe into strength. They have done so through education and through their exposure to the world. They have done so by rebuilding their shattered lives in exile, by recovering their history, folklore, customs and [...]
May 18 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Jamal Kanj Palestinians are this week commemorating the 65th anniversary of Al Nakba (the disaster or catastrophe). On May 15, 1948, Israel was declared a nation on the ruins of more than 500 townships and 800,000 expelled Palestinians. In December 1948 the international community adopted UN resolution 194, calling on Israel to allow the [...]
May 16 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Dr. Ahmed Yousef - Gaza The "Arab Spring", as we now have come to know it, has seemingly changed the nature of politics and the balance of power in the Middle East forever. The West was caught off guard and after initially grappling with the new situation, are now dealing with Islamist parties whom [...]
May 16 2013 | Posted in Articles | Commentary | Read More �
By Ramzy Baroud It is an event 'of cosmic proportions', said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawking's decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call which was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor. Hawking is a [...]
May 16 2013 | Posted in Articles | Editorials | Read More �
By Noura Khouri "They old will die and the young will forget." declared, David Ben Gurion, the ideological father of the European colonial/settler project, Zionism. Few quotes so succinctly sum up the stated goal/vision, idealism and the delusional nature of Zionism - which can only reside in the realm of cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, nothing more [...]
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LATEST NEWS
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Fighting Displaces Most Palestinians in Syria: UN
May 23 2013 / 12:37 am
The conflict in Syria has displaced more than two-thirds of Palestinian refugees living in the country, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees said on Wednesday.
"We have registered approximately 530,000 Palestinian refugees. We believe that almost all of them, certainly maybe 70-80 percent, are displaced from their normal homes," UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi told AFP on a visit to Syria.
Between 12 and 15 percent of the Palestinian refugee population has fled the country altogether, Grandi added.
"You can say that 12-15 percent of the refugee population in Syria is now (made) refugee again in another country," he said, speaking after meeting Palestinian refugees at a camp in central Homs province.
UNRWA has nine registered camps for Palestinian refugees in Syria, housing those who fled or were forced from their homes when the state of Israel was created in 1948, and their descendants.
Some of the camps, including Yarmouk in Damascus, have been the scene of heavy fighting in the conflict that began with peaceful anti-government demonstrations in March 2011.
Grandi said the Palestinians were neutral in the conflict, and urged both government forces and the rebels to respect the neutrality of the refugee population and their camps.
"I really want to appeal to the parties to this conflict, to the government, to the armed opposition groups, to respect the sanctity and the neutrality of the Palestinian refugee camps and not to involve the Palestinians in fighting," he said.
"The Palestinians are refugees in Syria and as such they must remain neutral. My appeal is also to the Palestinians themselves, they have to remain neutral, otherwise the situation, which is already very difficult, will become even more difficult."
Grandi also appealed for an end to kidnappings and arbitrary detentions, saying: "Every household, every family has a story to tell in this respect.
"I find this situation unacceptable and this is for Palestinians and for Syrians. This is a grave violation of human rights, whoever is perpetrating that violation. It must stop."
More than 90,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog.
There have been reports of Palestinians killed, as well as incidents in which refugees have joined the fighting, battling alongside either rebels or the regime.
(Ma'an and Agencies - http://www.maannews.net)
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SELECTED NEWS
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Israeli forces detained three PA security officers overnight Tuesday accused of being involved in the 2011 death of a settler in Nablus, locals said. Israeli military vehicles raided the Tubas village of Tammun and detained Sergent Nawwaf Fahd Bani Audah, 25, after ransacking his home. Local village youths threw rocks at the Israeli forces, witnesses [...]
May 23 2013 | Posted in News | Read More �
The conflict in Syria has displaced more than two-thirds of Palestinian refugees living in the country, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees said on Wednesday. "We have registered approximately 530,000 Palestinian refugees. We believe that almost all of them, certainly maybe 70-80 percent, are displaced from their normal homes," UNRWA Commissioner General [...]
May 23 2013 | Posted in News | Read More �
The Hamas government in Gaza is willing to close down all smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border once a commercial crossing opens, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday. "We do not want the tunnels in the first place," said Ghazi Hamad. "They burden citizens and cause hundreds of fatalities, but they [...]
May 22 2013 | Posted in News | Read More �
The father of Muhammad al-Dura, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in 2000, said Monday that he was not surprised by Israel's refusal to take responsibility for his son's death. "Every year the Israelis come up with a new narrative," Jamal al-Dura told Ma'an. "Yes, Muhammad is still alive in our hearts and in [...]
May 21 2013 | Posted in News | Read More �
PLO official Hanan Ashrawi on Sunday condemned the European Union's decision to delay the labeling of settlement products following a request from US Secretary of State John Kerry. "This once again brings into question the American role in negotiations as a credible mediator," Ashrawi said in a statement. "Rather than providing Israel with immunity, the [...]
May 20 2013 | Posted in News | Read More �
Gaza's Interior Ministry announced a state of alert along its border with Egypt on Thursday after gunmen kidnapped seven Egyptian soldiers and police officers in Sinai. The Hamas-run ministry said security was heightened in case the kidnappers tried to smuggle the Egyptian servicemen into the Gaza Strip. Witnesses told Ma'an that Egyptian forces closed seven [...]
May 16 2013 | Posted in News | Read More �
Clashes broke out across the West Bank on Wednesday as Palestinians marked the 65th year since the Nakba in 1948, witnesses and Israel's army said. In east Jerusalem, police clashed with demonstrators outside the Old City's Damascus Gate, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, saying three policemen were injured and eight Palestinians arrested. Some 1,000 [...]
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FEATURED VIDEO
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Video: Sons of Lifta - BADIL Production
'Sons of Lifta'
'Sons of Lifta' follows refugees from the village as they return to Lifta on Land Day 2013, more than 65 years after their original forced displacement. Through the eyes and actions of Lifta's new generations, following in the footsteps of their ancestors, it becomes clear that the Zionist belief that 'the old will die out and the young will forget' never accounted for the strength of Palestinian sumoud (steadfastness) or the deep-rooted connection to home.
This new short-film was produced by BADILs Ongoing Nakba Education Center which uses multi-media advocacy tools to document Palestine's Ongoing Nakba. To view more films, photo-stories and audio pieces, please see the project website:
www.ongoingnakba.org
For further in-depth information about Palestine's Ongoing Nakba please see BADILs main website: www.badil.org.
 | | Sons of Lifta |
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The Palestine Chronicle is an independent online newspaper that provides daily news, commentary, features, book reviews, photos, art, etc, on a variety of subjects. However, it's largely focused on Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East region. The Palestine Chronicle is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. To contact the editor, submit an article or any other material, please write to: editor@palestinechronicle.com. For other inquiries write to: info@palestinechronicle.com. |
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