Criminal
01-01-2003, 11:27 PM
From the Judas Goad Quarterly, Fall 2002
A Short History of US Goodwill in the Middle East
Fifty years of US foreign policy in the Middle East broken into some highlights by Eric Margoliis of the Toronto Sun. It’s a handy little play-by-play to consider in case you have lingering doubts why the Arab world is unhappy with US help.
1947: CIA helps to mount a coup in Syria putting in power a dictator who they call “our boy.” Dictator doesn’t like it. US has never had good relations with Syria since and two US backed coups have failed.
1952: US helps in coup by Gammal Abdel Nasser. Nasser later becomes the Saddam Hussein of his era but CIA attempts to overthrow or assassinate him fail.
1953: CIA puts Shah in control of Iran. Shah uses US-trained secrete police to suppress dissent helping to create the Islamic revolution.
1958: US installs a puppet regime in Lebanon, thus beginning 35 years of instability and civil war.
1960: Anwar Sadat goes on CIA payroll and the agency helps put him in power after Nassar’s death. He is eventually assassinated.
1969: CIA overthrows Libya’s British puppet King Idris, replacing him with young reformist colonel, Muammar Khadaffi.
1976: US,Iran and Isreal arm Iraqi Kurds in an effort to destabilize Iraq. One result: the Iran-Iraq war in which one million die.
1980: Hussein becomes America’s most important ally against Iran. Assistance includes access to biological and chemical weapons.
1983: Efforts by US to install a Christian fascist in Lebanon and drive out Syrians backfires when 309 Americans die in a bomb blast.
1996: Clinton orders a CIA coup against Hussein but plot is discovered by the Iraqi government, which destroys the whole CIA operation in Iraq and leads to the firing of CIA director John Deutch.
Keep in mind, US and British forces have been keeping a “no-fly” zone over large sections of Iraq since 1991. Rumsfeldt, always looking for success on the battlefield, has picked yet another country that can’t afford to shoot back. The real danger remains that Bush has come to accept these invasions as his foreign policy. As long as there are little countries to push around without mass objections, these little wars will continue, as promised, for generations, as the War on Terrorism drags on forever. If we want to stop the next terrorist attack, perhaps we should start by preventing more US terrorist acts. We could try to defuse the bomb instead adding another to the stock pile. We could try to be what Bush claimed we were: a peace loving nation. It would be a novel approach.
A Short History of US Goodwill in the Middle East
Fifty years of US foreign policy in the Middle East broken into some highlights by Eric Margoliis of the Toronto Sun. It’s a handy little play-by-play to consider in case you have lingering doubts why the Arab world is unhappy with US help.
1947: CIA helps to mount a coup in Syria putting in power a dictator who they call “our boy.” Dictator doesn’t like it. US has never had good relations with Syria since and two US backed coups have failed.
1952: US helps in coup by Gammal Abdel Nasser. Nasser later becomes the Saddam Hussein of his era but CIA attempts to overthrow or assassinate him fail.
1953: CIA puts Shah in control of Iran. Shah uses US-trained secrete police to suppress dissent helping to create the Islamic revolution.
1958: US installs a puppet regime in Lebanon, thus beginning 35 years of instability and civil war.
1960: Anwar Sadat goes on CIA payroll and the agency helps put him in power after Nassar’s death. He is eventually assassinated.
1969: CIA overthrows Libya’s British puppet King Idris, replacing him with young reformist colonel, Muammar Khadaffi.
1976: US,Iran and Isreal arm Iraqi Kurds in an effort to destabilize Iraq. One result: the Iran-Iraq war in which one million die.
1980: Hussein becomes America’s most important ally against Iran. Assistance includes access to biological and chemical weapons.
1983: Efforts by US to install a Christian fascist in Lebanon and drive out Syrians backfires when 309 Americans die in a bomb blast.
1996: Clinton orders a CIA coup against Hussein but plot is discovered by the Iraqi government, which destroys the whole CIA operation in Iraq and leads to the firing of CIA director John Deutch.
Keep in mind, US and British forces have been keeping a “no-fly” zone over large sections of Iraq since 1991. Rumsfeldt, always looking for success on the battlefield, has picked yet another country that can’t afford to shoot back. The real danger remains that Bush has come to accept these invasions as his foreign policy. As long as there are little countries to push around without mass objections, these little wars will continue, as promised, for generations, as the War on Terrorism drags on forever. If we want to stop the next terrorist attack, perhaps we should start by preventing more US terrorist acts. We could try to defuse the bomb instead adding another to the stock pile. We could try to be what Bush claimed we were: a peace loving nation. It would be a novel approach.