B L I
N K , B L I N K . . .
U.S.
MANUEVERS TO KEEP EVERYBODY
CONTROLLED
OR CONTAINED
MER - WASHINGTON - 22 July:
The Americans are blinking these days,
but always in continual pursuit of the central goal -- control of the resources
and markets in the Middle East and maintenance of the cooperative client
"Arab regimes" system alongside with, and increasingly integrated with,
a militarily and economically dominant Israel.
BLINK - India/Pakistan. The threatened
sanctions against both India and Pakistan have already been backed off
by both the Congress and the White House. After attempting to bribe Pakistan
with some $5 billion in arms and assistance if nuclear weapons would be
foresworn, followed by attempts to then threaten Islamabad with sanctions
to the hilt, Washington's new gambit is to contain and massage Pakistan's
nuclear weapons program. Looking beyond the recent orgy of nuclear weapons
testing, this more sophisticated policy of carefully tailored carrots and
sticks will now be used to keep both India and Pakistan dependent on American
influence and pressures.
BLINK - Iran. Containment of Iran hasn't
worked so well with the Europeans and Russians ever so eager to fill the
American void. After all Iran remains one of the world's top oil states,
not to mention the huge petroleum reserves yet to be tapped to its immediate
north and east. Moreover the Iranian revolution has stabilized and matured,
the many American/Israeli/Arab attempts to topple it since 1979 unsuccessful.
The new goal is to "engage" Iran and attempt to gradually entangle Tehran
in enough political and economic arrangements that it becomes at least
de facto converted into a status quo power. After all, what really frightened
Washington after the fall of the Shah always was the strength and vehemence
of the new Iran threat to American control of the region through the remaining
system of Arab client regimes. Lessening that threat, and keeping the region
divided, has been among the central goals of U.S. policy for two decades
now.
BLINK - Libya. The Pan Am bombing was
always an excuse to isolate, weaken and contain Libya; and it has been
quite successful. Forgotten are the Reagan year attempts to topple Quaddafi,
culminating in the blatant U.S. military attack against him that instead
killed family members. Now, with American leadership somewhat frazzled,
the U.S./Israeli "peace process" ever-so-fragile, and a few Arab leaders
visiting Tripoli on their own, the Americans are agreeing to the very reasonable
Libyan idea of trial in a neutral third country that they could have agreed
to years ago, but preferred instead to stretch out the sanctions as long
as possible.
Always remember this: No matter what
the rhetorical facades and smokescreens, American blinking
is always self-serving, rarely principled. Washington may at times seem
to bumble around abit, but the U.S. is a very sophisticated society with
many intertwined centers of power and various institutional checks and
balances. Over the years U.S. policies have been surprisingly effective
in keeping the peoples in the Middle East divided, confused, and under
American domination -- even while the U.S. has pursued an overall policy
of building up Israel as the dominant regional power.
