There is a word for the current Saudi push against ‘terrorism’ in the Middle East. It is tyranny. Juan Cole points out that the recent spate of state accusations against other states (the Saudis against the Qataris, the Iraqis against the Saudis etc.) of essentially being (by supporting) terrorists and, in the Egyptian case, the same accusation against a popular Islamic movement represents the final triumph (or catastrophic result) of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their global war on terror in the Middle East. Its a point well worth considering. Tom This outbreak of accusations of terrorism represents the final victory of Bush-Cheney rhetoric in the Middle East. “Terrorism” in this sense is not being used as a meaningful technical term, it just means “you are taboo, your ideology is unacceptable, you are beyond the pale.” The Israelis pioneered this way of speaking about political enemies, attempting to smear all Palestinian (and later Lebanese) resistance to Occupation as mere terrorists. Bush-Cheney applied it widely. Sarah Palin threw this kind of rhetoric around about Barack Obama himself. It is a profoundly undemocratic discourse, since democracy is about the reworking of disputes into political compromise or at least into civil voting on issues. Castigating a competing political current as “terrorist” is a refusal to engage in civil politics... Middle Eastern, Muslim-majority states are now categorizing large, popular movements of political Islam as mere terrorist groups (it was the Neoconservatives who pushed the idea that the MB is a terrorist group, because of its harsh views on Israel; though note that when the Brotherhood was in control of Egypt, it did not abrogate Camp David). And some Muslim countries are accusing other Muslim countries of being state backers of terrorism. The nightmare that was proto-fascist America under Bush-Cheney has now battened onto the Middle East. This kind of discourse and tactic has derailed Egypt from any meaningful democratic transition, perhaps for a long time. Now an attempt is being made to close down the freewheeling debates of Aljazeera, which has a philosophy of letting all sides of an issue have a voice. (The Bushies did not like that any more than Riyadh and Cairo now do). There is a word for the current Saudi push against ‘terrorism’ in the Middle East. It is tyranny.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:31:24 +0000
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