“… this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice
To our own lips”
Macbeth, act 1, sc. 7
Who could still have doubts about the infamy of imperialism may examine the recent history of the Middle East.
Some may still remember the war of 1991,unleashed against Iraq “to preserve democracy in America” (sic, in the words of G. Bush senior). As well as democracy in Kuwait, where the West-propped emir has even a minister of sex. As an anecdotal reminder, this is when the daughter of the Kuwait ambassador in Washington was engaged by an American PR firm to pose as a Kuwaiti girl crying in a hospital where, allegedly, the Iraqis disconnected the air-supply system to the newborns.
Now after endless other wars, thousands of dead, millions of wounded, reality is in front of us. We cannot any longer take the false shadow of propaganda for the true substance.
It is not just a matter of incredible material devastation. In the second war against Iraq the US armed the Sciites against the Shia, both in Iraq and in Syria. All over the Middle East imperialism has relied on religion and religious fundamentalism to defeat the lay regimes and the national regimes – born out of the anti-colonial revolutions.
Imperialism did so in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Palestine (where Israel supported Hamas against the PLO (Organization for the Liberation of Palestine). Arafat led the PLO and he was subsequently assassinated.
The wake of death and destruction almost defies description. Imperialism is at work to annihilate Iraq, Libya and Syria as independent nations. Without mentioning the charade of a National State for the martyred people of Palestine, whose land is daily expropriated and carved away.
Furthermore, imperialism and its Gulf State puppet satraps fund the civil war between lay and religious forces, and inside religious movements between Christian and Muslims. Even women risk to lose the rights and the advances achieved thanks to the anti-colonial revolutions.
This indeed is the ‘peace dividend’, the ‘democracy’ which imperialism pretends to be the bearer of.
In the imperialism-driven morass of the Middle East, the contradiction is not between lay and religious forces – which, until not long ago was branded as “clash of civilizations” by the corporate media. We are witnessing a systematic destruction not only of nations but of civil society.
Though there are feasible theories and explanations on the recent events in Egypt, it is difficult to judge without accurate knowledge.
The only unifying sentiment in Egyptian society is the hatred towards US imperialism that has provoked this immeasurable catastrophe.
The corporate media describes as ‘fascists’ or “Islamo-fascists” those who are opposed to imperialism and to the US invasion of independent countries. But is not correct to frame as “fascist” those movements – in Egypt or the Middle East – which are affected and influenced by religion.
The link between fascism and imperialism is strong and historically proven. He who wishes to find fascism should look at Washington. And it is the property of empires to eventually turn against their own people – as a host of examples have proved and prove, almost daily.
In the play. Macbeth makes a clear analysis of the consequences of a crime. Fear, let alone remorse, is the price to pay for crime