← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Jack Cassidy
Thread ID: 17173 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2005-03-07
2005-03-07 18:39 | User Profile
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[font=Times New Roman][color=#990000]The Next Crusades[/color]
[font=Times New Roman][color=black]By URI AVNERY[/color]
[color=#990000][font=Verdana]M[/font][/color][font=Verdana]any years ago, I read a book called "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene. Its central character is a high-minded, naive young American operative in [/font]
[font=Verdana]I have the feeling that this is happening now in [/font]
[font=Verdana]Civil war: [/font]
[font=Verdana]Such a situation invites, of course, interference by neighbors and foreign powers, each wanting to stir the pot for its own advantage. [/font]
[font=Verdana]Exactly 50 years ago a secret, heated debate took place among the leaders of [/font]
[font=Verdana]At the time, Sharett won. But 27 years later, Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon did exactly what Ben-Gurion and Dayan had proposed. The result was exactly as foreseen by Sharett.[/font]
[font=Verdana]Anyone who follows the American and Israeli (there is no difference) media, gets the impression that the present situation in Lebanon is simple: there are two camps, "the supporters of Syria" on the one side, the "opposition" on the other. There is a "Beirut Spring". The opposition is a twin sister of yesterday's Ukrainian opposition, and loyally imitates all its methods: demonstrations opposite the government building, a sea of waving flags, colorful shawls, and, most importantly, beautiful girls in the front row.[/font]
[font=Verdana]But between the Ukraine and Lebanon there exists not the slightest similarity. The Ukraine is a "simple" country: the east tends towards Russia, the west towards Europe. With American help, the west won.[/font]
[font=Verdana]In Lebanon, all the diverse communities are in action. Each for its own interest, each plotting to outfox the others, perhaps to attack them at a given opportunity. Some of the leaders are connected with Syria, some with Israel, all are trying to use the Americans for their ends. The jolly pictures of young demonstrators, so prominent in the media, have no meaning if one does not know the community which stands behind them.[/font]
[font=Verdana]Only thirty years ago these communities started a terrible civil war and all of them massacred each other. The Christian Maronites wanted to take over the country with the help of Israel, but were defeated by a coalition of the Sunnis and Druze (the Shiites played no significant role at that time). The Palestinian refugees, led by the PLO, who formed a kind of fifth "community", joined the battle. When the Christians were in danger of being overrun, they called on the Syrians for help. Six years later, Israel invaded, with the aim of evicting both the Syrians and the Palestinians and imposing a Christian strongman (Basheer Jumail).[/font]
[font=Verdana]It took us 18 years to get out of that morass. Our only achievement was to turn the Shiites into a dominant force. When we entered Lebanon, the Shiites received us with showers of rice and candies, hoping that we would throw out the Palestinians, who had been lording it over them. A few months later, when they realized that we did not intend to leave, they started to shoot at us. Sharon is the midwife of Hizbullah.[/font]
[font=Verdana]It is difficult to foresee what will happen if the Syrians accede to the American ultimatum and leave Lebanon. There is no indication that the Americans are concerned with the creation of a new fabric of life for the Lebanese communities. They are satisfied with babbling about "freedom" and "democracy", as if a majority vote could create a regime acceptable to all. They do not understand that "[/font]
[font=Verdana]The re-ignition of the bloody civil war is a distinct possibility.[/font]
[font=Verdana]Civil war: [/font]
[font=Verdana]The only effective military forces in [/font]
[font=Verdana]Now the Kurdish forces are waging a war against the Sunnis and Turkmens in the north of the country, in order to take hold of the oil-rich areas and the town of [/font]
[font=Verdana]How can such a war be practically ignored by the media? Simple: everything is swept under the carpet of the "war against terrorism".[/font]
[font=Verdana]But this small war is nothing compared to what may happen in [/font]
[font=Verdana]Civil war: [/font]
[font=Verdana]It is not likely that a full-scale civil war will break out there. But a prolonged situation of total chaos is quite likely. [/font]
[font=Verdana]Religious fervor: [/font]
[font=Verdana]The religious fervor of the Ayatollahs has been flagging lately, as happens with every victorious revolution after some time. But a military attack by the "Big Satan" (the [/font]
[font=Verdana]And here, too. [/font]
[font=Verdana]In the Galilean village Marrar, where a Druze and an Arab Christian community have been living side by side for generations, a bloody incident suddenly erupted. It was a full-fledged pogrom: the Druze fell upon the Christians, attacking, burning and destroying. By a miracle, nobody was killed. The Christians say that the Israeli police (many of whose members are Druze) stood aside. The immediate reason for the outbreak: some doctored nude pictures on the Internet.)[/font]
[font=Verdana]It is easy to ignite a civil war, whether out of fanaticism or out of intolerable naivete. George Bush, the (not-so-) Quiet American, runs around the world hawking his patent medicines, "freedom" and "democracy", in total ignorance of hundreds of years of history. Hard to believe, but he draws his inspiration from a book by our own Nathan Sharansky, a very small genius, to say the least.[/font]
[font=Verdana]Every human being and every people has a right to freedom. Many of us have shed their blood for this aim. Democracy is an ideal that every people has to realize for itself. But when the banners of "freedom" and "democracy" are hoisted over a crusade by an avaricious and irresponsible super-power, the results can be catastrophic.[/font]
[font=Verdana]Uri Avnery[/font][font=Verdana] is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom.[/font]
2005-03-07 18:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE]It is easy to ignite a civil war, whether out of fanaticism or out of intolerable naivete. George Bush, the (not-so-) Quiet American, runs around the world hawking his patent medicines, "freedom" and "democracy", in total ignorance of hundreds of years of history. Hard to believe, but he draws his inspiration from a book by our own Nathan Sharansky, a very small genius, to say the least.[/QUOTE] :yes:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!