Beware ‘Sunni-Stan': Neocons are Back and Their ‘Vision' is Darker than Ever
21 January 2016By Ramzy Baroud
John Bolton is a tarnished character. The once United States Ambassador to the
United Nations is now promoted as a ‘scholar' in the pro-Israel lobby group,
the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Bolton is not a peacemaker, nor, in his defense, did he ever try to appear as
if one. When he was appointed as the US Ambassador to the UN by George W.
Bush, his stint lasted for only one year, starting August 2005. His time in
this position was marked with discord and conflict. He stole the limelight
with such statements as ''The (UN) Secretariat building in New York has 38
stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.''
When the Iraq war failed to achieve any of its objectives, thus signaling an
American retreat in the Middle East, neo-conservative politicians like Bolton
retreated to their right-wing, neo-conservative institutions. Those who did
not have one, established an organization of their own and began issuing press
releases at random, hailing Israel at times, and chastising their President,
Barack Obama, for one thing or another.
When the so-called ‘Arab Spring' took place, neocons, like Bolton, saw in it
an opportunity, but one that was difficult to discern. On one hand, they
understood little of the mechanisms that propelled popular actions, for they
are used to operate at the highest level of power with total disconnect from
the people. On the other hand, it was clear for them from the start that Obama
was taking no chances by stepping back into a Middle East quagmire that was
originally designed by his predecessor.
Unable to affect much change in the region, as they once envisioned under the
leadership of the likes of Richard Perle and his Project for the New American
Century (PNAC), the neocons mounted a strategy predicated mostly on
discrediting their administration's lack of strategy.
In a sense the ‘Arab Spring' invigorated the neocons, but also reminded them
of their political impotence. Gone were the days of concocting foreign
policies from neo-conservative think tanks such as the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy (WINEP), the Center for Security Policy (CSP) and the
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), of which, among
others, Perle is an active member.
In fact, Perle is quite a cherished member of the American Enterprise
Institute, where Bolton often mounts his occasional articles in mainstream US
media, offering a ‘vision' regardinghow to take on Iran, how to reform Arab
states and how to redraw the map of the Middle East in ways that are conducive
to US foreign policy interests.
The latest of such intellectual charges by Bolton was published in the New
York Times on November 24. Under the title, ''To Defeat ISIS, Create a Sunni
State,'' he theorized once more, raging against ''Obama's ineffective efforts''
to destroy ISIS and demanding, instead, a ''clear view shared by NATO allies.''
The main drive behind his logic is that once ISIS is destroyed, the region
that the militant group designated as a ‘state' should be turned into a Sunni
state, which, as a working title he called ''Sunni-Stan.''
Bolton's reasoning is as predictable as it is arrogant. It is predictable in
the sense that, like other neocon initiatives in the past, it has no respect
for the wishes of the people of the Middle East. His arguments are constructed
upon the same world view that sees conflict as an opportunity, and warring
nations as pawns in a larger game, aimed at subduing people to achieve
‘security' and ‘stability' for the US and its supposed allies.
It is also arrogant for the obvious reason that he believes the world should
be designed to fit the narrow, self-serving and often violent visions of
failed politicians like himself, who, alas, has access to the US's most
respected newspapers.
Bolton's conceit has completely blinded him to the failures of the Bush
administration and the entire collapse of the neo-conservative's intellectual
discourse during, and following the Iraq war. On the contrary, he is asking to
repeat exactly what went wrong in Iraq.
''As we did in Iraq with the 2006 ‘Anbar Awakening,' the counter-insurgency
operation that dislodged Al Qaeda from its stronghold in that Iraqi province,
we and our allies must empower viable Sunni leaders, including tribal
authorities, who prize their existing social structure,'' he wrote.
Only an unreasonable person cannot appreciate how the sectarian seed that the
US has sowed in Iraq, based on the recommendations of the likes of Bolton, has
resulted in the disfiguring of the Iraqi nation. This massive tampering with
the social, cultural, religious and political fabric of society – by first
empowering the Shia, oppressing the Sunni, then turning the Sunnis against one
another, and so forth – has paved the way for unity among various Sunni
groups, which ultimately formed ISIS.
It is the grand experimentations of Bolton and his peers that made ISIS the
‘state' that it is today, which he is proposing to replace with yet another
sectarian state, thus slicing up two Arab countries that were once the seats
of the two most prominent Caliphate civilizations in history, the Abbasid and
the Umayyad.
But for what purpose and at what price? If meddling at a relatively small
scale has turned the Middle East into a perpetual inferno, and roped in
regional and international rivals into a war that seems to be in constant
expansion, one can only imagine what such a large scale reconfiguration of the
region could lead to; and for what? So that Bolton can ensure the complete
dismantling of the region in favor of Israel and that a buffer state can be
established to block the Iranian influence in Syria and Lebanon? So that his
country could gain access to more oil supplies? So that Russia's attempt at
having a stake in the future Middle East would be thwarted?
Whatever it is, the neo-conservatives should never be allowed access to the
Middle East discourse, and their visions, those of doom and destruction,
should remain confined to their ever mushrooming think tanks.
True, it is the perpetual war and horrific rivalries in the Middle East that
have finally empowered the neocons to stage a comeback; but considering the
damage that these groups have already done, one is certain that no good can
possibly come from Bolton and his clique.
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an
author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books
include ‘Searching Jenin', ‘The Second Palestinian Intifada' and his latest
‘My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story'. His website is:
www.ramzybaroud.net.
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