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12 December 2010 By Dr.
Bouthaina Shaaban Under this title, American Vice-President Joseph
Biden wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on November
20, 2010 coinciding with a NATO summit aimed at
confronting the rest of the world, a European endeavor
to salvage Ireland and with American incentives to
Israel to freeze settlements (in reality ethnic
cleansing against the Palestinians) for three months
only. The deal in itself constitutes a shift that
demonstrates the extent of Israeli control of American
decision making on the Middle East. The author wants
to conclude that Iraq is a country consisting of
conflicting and warring factions, that the recent
agreement of the parties to form a government in Iraq
came as a result of concerted efforts on the part of
the United States which does not want to exclude or
marginalize anyone. The actual reality, however, is that the United
States has marginalized Iraq as one of the richest and
most ancient countries of the Middle East. The
American invasion of Iraq is something that Mr. Biden
did not mention. Reading the article, one is bound to
feel that the United States is the power which created
oil under Iraqi soil, endowed it with civilization,
molded its people to become decent human beings, and
will continue to do so until Iraq becomes capable of
survival after seven years of destruction and
terrorism inflicted by the American war on Iraq.
Naturally, Mr. Biden does not identify those who
caused the war or those responsible for waging and
sustaining it. So, in order to unleash the Iraqis' potentials and
talents, the United States, according to Biden, is not
withdrawing from Iraq, but "rather, the nature of our
engagement is changing from a military to a civilian
lead". For the 50,000 soldiers remaining until 2011
have a new task which is advising and assisting their
Iraqi counterparts. At the same time, Biden writes: "Meanwhile, we are
establishing a diplomatic presence throughout the
country and, under the terms of our Strategic
Framework Agreement, building a dynamic partnership
across a range of government sectors, including
education, energy, trade, health, culture, information
technology, law enforcement and the judiciary." The remarkable thing here is that education takes
priority over energy, trade and the rule of law,
because the objective is to effect a drastic change in
the vision and identity of future Iraqi generations so
that they grow up accepting, through brainwashing
processes, this new form of neo-colonialism, which
planned, before the invasion, subjugating Iraq and
blundering its resources for centuries to come. In
order to camouflage this neo-colonialism, the
Americans use terms like "providing intensive
assistance", "sustained American presence" in Iraq,
plans for modernizing Iraqi security forces and
funding the police force, and providing all this
assistance to security forces through civilian efforts
led by the State Department. This means that the
responsibility for the occupation of Iraq is shifting
from the Pentagon to the State Department, which, in
turn, coordinates the efforts of using education, the
judiciary, health and energy in order to colonize Iraq
in accordance with modern methods. Biden concludes by
writing that the cost of the war has been very high
for America; for 4,430 American soldiers have paid
with their lives for it. Of course, the price paid by the Iraqis is of no
consequence to Biden. What does it mean for him, or
for his administration, that a million Iraqis have
been killed, wounded and tortured. That is why we find
him ignoring this price. Biden stresses that it is in
the United States' real interest to maintain the gains
made by Iraq. Of course he means the gains made by the
United States in Iraq. The main objective of the Bush administration's
invasion of Iraq, spending billions and sacrificing
thousands of Americans for that end, is to turn Iraq
into a satellite and a major base for the United
States in a region of vital importance for the United
States. This importance is a code name for protecting
Israel's security. This is the objective of invading
Iraq, destabilizing Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon and
others. What do those who theorize for the West's
impartiality say to Joseph Biden who explains the
United States' objectives and interests in Iraq
without showing in his article any trace of the Iraqi
people, their interests and the hefty price they paid
to achieve the vital American policy objective in the
Middle East – protecting Israel's security? We know, of course, that it is not the task of the
American Vice-President to think of the interests of
the Iraqi people; neither is it shameful for him to
declare the United States objectives. The question is,
however, where is the official Arab regime in relation
to this neo-colonialism whose dangers on Arab national
security have become abundantly clear. All the Arabs, regimes and peoples, governments and
opposition, politicians and intellectuals, have seen
how the NATO summit has closed cold-war shops and
declared unequivocally an alliance between Europe, the
United States and Russia in the face of the terrorist
threat, which is the expression currently used to
transform Muslims into targets of their wars and
neo-colonialism. What is the Arab stand in relation to
the birth of this new world which declares its
hostility openly and threatens us directly? The real independence for the Arabs is achieved
through science and achieving progress in the field of
public participation through the appropriate form of
political democracy. Arab solidarity and harmonizing
efforts constitute the only way to address the
weaknesses of the Arabs and protect them against the
dangers of neo-colonialism. If some people do not
realize the importance of closing ranks, let them look
to Europe, America and Russia. Let them see what
Israel and the United States are doing in terms of
exchanging roles and interests. Let them remember what
Biden has said about our region which he considered "a
vital strategic region" for the United States, because
its ally and our blundered oil happen to be in it. |