On 1/7/07, soula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
i agree but i also add that we need a lot more than regional. more now than before especially as the retreat in humanist philosophy and the ideology of socilism allow the fundementalist to fill a void. the needs could be partitioned at all levels international regional and national... but iraq as you may know is a sore spot and in the order of priorities iraq comes before the mullah regime.
As long as people think that Iraq comes before Iran or vice versa, Washington will have its way. The earlier attempt at regional integration in the Middle East, on the basis of a mix of state socialism and pan-Arabism, was dashed at the shore of nationalism -- Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, contenders for pan-Arabist regional hegemony, could not get along -- conflicts with non-Arab Muslims like Iranians, Kurds, and Turks. Socialists sometimes supported pan-Arab nationalists but were, more often than not, repressed by them. The Six Day War (1967), in which Israel defeated Egypt, Iraq, and Syria as well as Jordan, and the Camp David Accords (1978), signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, killed pan-Arabism. Just as pan-Arabism declined in the Middle East and economic troubles in the socialist bloc, which eventually led to its dissolution, began, Islamism, a new ideology for regional integration, arose: the Iranian Revolution (1978-1979), Hizballah (founded in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon), and Hamas (founded in 1987). That world-historical transition, as well as the fact that state socialism had little to do with humanism, is what we have to take into account, whether we like it or not. The problem of both pan-Arabism and Islamism, as well as of socialism in the Middle East, is that they get distracted by the biggest stinking red herring that the empire has ever come up with: Israel. But the real prize is oil reserves in the Gulf states allied with Tel Aviv and Washington, and the Arabs and Iranians should never forget about that even while they fight the Israeli occupation. If they keep that in mind, they can potentially overcome their multiple sectarianisms. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
