The war in Iraq was not to liberate the people of Iraq, but to liberate Iraq’s massive oil reserves, University of California Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian told a packed lecture hall at McGill this past Friday.
Bazian encouraged the audience to show opposition to the “American empire” and the war. “Never forget that there are two superpowers in the world: the U.S. and the people. The people will always win,” he said.
Speaking to some 500 people, most of whom were Concordia or McGill students, Bazian began with a sardonic attack on what he described as “embedded intellectuals.” He compared them to the “embedded journalists” of the second gulf war, “They are simply in bed with the government,” he said. “Empires need intellectuals to argue for them.”
The lecture, organized by the McGill’s Muslim Students Association, was titled “The New American Empire and its Adventures in the Middle East.” It focused on what Bazian, who holds a PhD in Islamic studies, sees as the four major forces driving American policy on the Middle East.
With the U.S. sustaining a military presence in 37 countries since 9/11, many of which are completely unrelated to the twin towers attack, the United States government has become very demanding in its search for analysts who support the current interests of the White House.
According to Bazian, this has led to the first of the four forces: neoconservativism, a recent shift in right-wing thinking towards increased military spending and unilateral interventions, such as the one in Iraq.
Bazian said the U.S. government has increasingly relied on neoconservative think tanks – “an oxymoron,” he joked – to develop its foreign policy models.
“We are in the middle of an age of empire building,” he said, and the empire is based on power, might, and awe. War is about business, and the business of war is more business.”
Bazian then discussed the second force he believes to be dominating U.S. action in the Middle East: Israel-centred politicians and civil servants.
“All roads in the Middle East must lead to Israel, or they must be bombed,” said Bazian.
He said the charge of anti-Semitism was levelled at any who opposed these policies as a means of distracting attention from the issue.
Listing off virtually every key member of Bush’s inner circle, including Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, former CIA chief James Woolsey and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, Bazian called them Israeli-centric.
“The New York conservatives wanted to make the Middle East a safe neighbourhood, but not for Arabs; they wanted to make it a safe neighbourhood for Israel,” he said.
Bazian described the third force as messianic Christianity. “This administration is beholden to the Christian right,” he said.
Bazian then quoted the deputy undersecretary of defense of intelligence, William J. Luti, who claimed that George W. Bush was “chosen by God to head the fight against Satan.”
“This is an official in the U.S. government, not some wacko on the street,” said Bazian. “Maybe the Bush administration needs to run new ads in the paper: If you see Satan, turn him in!”
Bazian’s fourth force is the first topic on most minds when the Persian Gulf is mentioned: oil.
After speaking briefly about the enormous impact of oil on our society, he quoted Wolfowitz, speaking about American reluctance to punish North Korea despite its open acknowledgement of a nuclear weapons program: “They are not sitting on a sea of oil.”
During the question period, Bazian was asked about the possibility of Osama Bin Laden being innocent. Bazian said Bin Laden’s fatwa made him legally responsible for 9/11 and several other attacks, to the responsibilities of Muslims in the Middle East for changing their own governments.
“Yes, we are responsible,” he replied, but then challenged the audience to change North American consumption attitudes that consume most of the world’s resources through wastefulness.
Bazian predicts that the next victim in the “war on terror” will likely be Syria or Iran, though he believes the key state in the area to be Saudi Arabia.
