To understand why the Americans consistently fail to understand the people whose cultures they try to turn around, we should keep in mind two realities.
First,
most of the cultures that America tries to interfere with, have roots that go
back thousands of years. They would be difficult to turn around even if they
were understood, which is almost never the case.
Second,
opportunistic charlatans who contribute nothing to society but live the good life
at the expense of gullible suckers, are always working to confuse the Americans,
whether they have a plan to exploit the situation or not. And they do a good
job at confusing the situation, which can at times be an end in itself.
This
was not the case right after the Second World War when America was triumphant
and confident. But then something happened that began to change the existing
paradigm. The Brits, headed by Churchill, convinced the Americas that the
Soviet Union was working to turn the world into a communist hell. And America
turned paranoid.
To
make sure that the Soviets will fail, the Americans devised a system of global
surveillance to detect and identify the individuals who might lead a communist
rebellion anywhere in the world — and worked on eliminating him. This policy
lasted till it was prohibited by the Church Commission that unveiled details of
its horrible consequences, and devised safeguards to restrain the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). But the effect of the policy remained, and took on a
different look.
America
maintained its surveillance of the world but dealt with potential troublemakers
differently. Instead of assassinating the people whom the CIA identified as
dangerous, they invented a fake story about those people, and got the Congress
to pass resolutions authorizing a military action against the country harboring
the potential troublemakers, now accused of preparing to hurt America.
Later,
America’s global surveillance was revamped in accord with the Jews gaining more
influence in America’s foreign affairs. Instead of taking at face value what is
seen, America was now taking things in accord with the Jewish interpretation of
what they see and what they speculate. This is when, the world became a totally
confusing place for the Americans to watch and for them to understand and deal
with.
You’ll
realize the extent of that confusion when you go over the article that came
under the title: “Iraq Is the Middle East’s New Power Broker,” and the
subtitle: “After decades of offering only chaos, Baghdad is trying to become a
leading force in the region.” It was written by Steven A. Cook, and published
on August 23, 2021 on the website of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Steven
Cook’s subtle message is that because the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mustafa
al-Kadhimi has called on a number of Arab leaders and the European Union to
meet in Baghdad and discuss security issues that pertain to the region, he is
trying to accomplish something that’s more personal than the greater good he
pretends to serve. What Mustafa al-Kadhimi is trying to do, says Steven Cook,
is change the image of Iraq from that of instability, violence and corruption
to that of a country that has the clout to improve things for itself and the
surrounding countries.
Iraq’s
clout, says Steven Cook, rests on the fact that Mustafa al-Kadhimi used to be
the head of Iraq’s intelligence services. This gave him the opportunity to
foster solid relationships with many of the neighboring countries. Good for
him. But why is Steven Cook relying on the old mentality of fixating his
attention on a single individual, and speculating on what will happen in the
future by what that individual might do or fail to do? This method of trying to
understand how a nation will behave never worked in the past, and is not
working today either.
In
fact, having concentrated the spotlight on Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Steven Cook
could no longer sustain the narrative he invented about what’s going on in Iraq,
and was forced to mention what has been happening in the Middle East for some
time now. To do so, he revealed what has been under discussion among several
countries for many years already. He thus showed that the Iraqi Prime Minister was
not on a personal ego trip, but was trying to urge his Arab and European counterparts
to resume the dialogue they had started long ago, urging them to reach the kind
of agreements that will be useful to everyone.
Here,
in condensed form, is how Steven Cook explained what has been happening:
“The first indication of the Iraqi
government’s new and more constructive approach to the region actually predates
the arrival of Kadhimi. In the spring of 2019, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq
announced their intention to establish a mechanism for economic and
geopolitical cooperation. At the time, few noticed and those who did
tended to dismiss the effort. Two years and four leadership meetings later, the
Iraqis, Egyptians, and Jordanians have agreed to build a pipeline from Basra to
Aqaba with plans to extend it to Egypt, link up their electricity grids to
reduce Iraq’s dependence on Iran, and provide Egyptian and Jordanian firms the
opportunity to participate in Iraq’s reconstruction. Even if these plans are
only partially realized, they are likely to accrue to the benefit of Iraqis”.
What this says is that America needs to reject the anachronistic method of looking at the world as if it were made of individuals who rule to implement a personal agenda, and begin to see the reality that most rulers have the greater god at heart, and are doing the best they can to improve the lives of the people they serve.