Has regime change boomeranged?
M Shahid Alam describes how the ultra-nationalist Americans have met their Waterloo in Iraq
There were two components to the neo-con plan. First, they began to work on plans to extend US military superiority to a point where no potential rival would dare to challenge its hegemony in any region of the world. In violation of international laws, the US would enforce its total hegemony by waging preventive wars against any country that acted contrary to its economic or political interests. But these plans had to be put on hold. President Bill Clinton was not ready to fully embrace their plans, even though his war and sanctions against Iraq prepared the base on which the neo-cons would build later on. The neo-cons were back in the saddle with the election of George W. Bush in 2000. They waited for the right time to unleash their wars in the Middle East. The events of 9/11 arrived as their Pearl Harbor. The Americans could now be bamboozled to support the neo-cons' dreams of creating a global and everlasting American Empire. In the aftermath of 9/11, matters appeared to get worse in the periphery. Under the pretense of waging "war against global terrorism," the neo-cons launched their plan for establishing global dominance. Overnight, following the lead established by Israel, the US defined all resistance to American hegemony as terrorism. It was now licensed to carry its preventive wars to all corners of the globe. It also licensed regional powers and local despots to expand their violation of human rights under the cover of the "war against global terrorism." In the weeks after April 9, 2003, when US troops captured Baghdad, it appeared that the United States was on a roll. Iran, Syria, and North Korea could count the days to their own quick demise. Israel was getting ready to complete its ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians. Pakistan would be asked to liquidate its nuclear arsenal, or prepare to be bombed back to the stone age. In time, Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be dismembered into smaller client states. At some point in this sequence, the oil resources of the region would be privatized and sold for a song to US oil corporations. Finally, with a firm American grip on the Middle Eastern oil spigot, Europe, Japan and China would take their humble stations under the shadow of American hegemony. In the weeks after launching their war against Iraq, the neo-cons began to imagine that the world was theirs for the taking; the new American century had begun. Yet, how their plans have gone awry. All because a few thousand damned Iraqis decided to rob the Americans of the richly-deserved fruits of victory. M Shahid Alam teaches economics at a university in Boston. He is the author of Challenging the New Orientalism (IPI: December 2006). To read the full version of this article please ask your hawker for a copy of this month's Forum.
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