Resurrecting Empire by Rashid Khalidi - Book Report/Review Example

Resurrecting Empire The of his book, Resurrecting Empire, succinctly sums up the primary contention in Rashid Khalidi’s analysis of the current conflict in Iraq. Approaching the topic from an angle that most Americans have neglected to investigate, attempted to truly understand and conveniently ignored, Khalidi outlines the important points to consider when attempting to discern why Middle Eastern resistance has been so stubborn and uncooperative. More than just a simple misunderstanding between what is actually happening in Iraq and what Americans know of what’s happening in Iraq, Khalidi illustrates the long history of abuses that have been committed on Arab people’s historically by Western power nations. These start with imperialism, involve a great deal of violence committed on innocent Arab civilians as a means of controlling the more fractious elements and become complicated when the British and French begin tampering with national governments to suit their own purposes rather than attempting to form stable, beneficial societies for the communities involved. This political tampering and violence upon the innocent was only increased with the discovery of oil in these nations, yet the continuing struggle took their toll on the Western nations and eventually forced them to withdraw. It’s a familiar pattern that Khalidi sets up leading to his discussion of the United States’ involvement in the Middle East and a pattern that has too familiar a ring when he begins getting into details. With this kind of history, and the memory of the population well aware of it, Khalidi emphasizes that there is no reason for the Iraqi people to feel that the United States will treat them fairly, are working with their own best interests at heart or that the United States will be successful where so many others have failed. In the end, Khalidi successfully demonstrates that the current U.S. action in Iraq may be called many things to make it sound politically correct or generally acceptable, but all these terms will mean the same thing in the end – imperialism for national (personal) gain. A great deal of the problems faced in the Middle East are not necessarily only shared by Afghanistan and Iraq. They are fueled by events that have occurred and are still occurring in other areas of the Middle East and Central Asia as well. The reason this discussion into other Arab and even non-Arab regions is important in trying to understand what the Iraqi people are thinking is because the U.S. response to issues in places such as Palestine have provided the Iraqis with a sense that the United States is not any different from the British or the French in terms of their motives for offering aid or for invasion. While the U.S. remained the one Western power that the people of the region were cautiously optimistic about, the United States’ demonstrated heavy Israeli bias since the beginning of the Reagan era has reinforced already held beliefs that the West is not concerned about humanitarian issues as much as they are about personal gain. This belief is founded, however, on the West’s demonstration, through Britain, of how larger powers dominate smaller ones with their treatment of Iran at the discovery of oil. In relating the problems of Iraq and Afghanistan to the problems of the rest of the Middle East, Khalidi discusses not only the problems with commonly-held Arab beliefs regarding the motives of the United States in Iraq and elsewhere, but also the problems of internal strife between differing factions, problems with imposed governments with little to no concern for the rights or needs of the people, failed or sabotaged democracies and power bids for control of oil or other resources in the region. With an understanding of how the various activities that have taken place in the Middle East since the beginning of the 20th century and a realization that this history is a lived history still in the minds of the people living there, Khalidi highlights several important issues that should have been considered when determining a course of action in the region and that should still be considered now while planning for the future. Concerning the entire region, he emphasizes the importance of respecting these nations as independent sovereign nations. It is only by ruling themselves that any true progress can be made as all of the larger nations of the world have already proven themselves unreliable; and it is only by having the power to disagree with the Western nations that the people will truly believe they are ruling themselves. Many governments that have been in power in the region in the past 100 years have been little more than token authorities acting only upon the approval and for the benefit of one Western power or another. These governments have been enforced by and removed through the presence of occupying troops, ostensibly to support and maintain, but effectively threatening and coercing. The lack of trust on the part of the Arab people toward the West is well-founded and individual and continues to be proven in almost every action that has been taken in recent decades. Concerning Iraq in particular, Khalidi points out that the nation was created through an agreement between the Western powers as a means of controlling the suspected oil. As a result, it is necessary to take an international approach to solving the problems that have arisen as a result of Western interfering and allowing the Iraqi people leverage to rebuild what the West has destroyed. One of the internal conflicts of the region that Khalidi points to is the history and political conflicts that have occurred between Iran and Iraq. The conflict was present from the earliest days of Iraq’s formation as it was the rich oil fields of Iraq that gave the Western powers the leverage they needed to subdue Iran’s attempts toward independence. Religious differences are also a factor in this conflict as Iran is a non-Arab country and much of Iraq is Arab, although they, too, have differing factions among them. As Khalidi discusses the history of the region, he illustrates how the United States backed shah of Iran had agreed to sweetheart deals with the U.S. for oil but was then overthrown by the Iranian people who wished to have true autonomy. The resulting oil crisis of 1973 further soured American opinion of Iran and, when Iraq, who furnished the oil necessary to force Iran into capitulation to the West, expressed a desire for expansion, the United States provided them with the means to do so, justifying their actions upon the need to restore freedom to this area of the desert. This support included weaponry, strategic information and political support with other nations. When Iraq, too, failed to become a puppet government for their supporters following the end of the Iran-Iraq war and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United States withdrew its support and undertook punitive measures by invading Iraq. This was sold as a police action to the people back home, but again proved to be about who had the real control over the oil fields. Despite the bad blood between the two nations, which would have been in existence had the United States not become involved in their politics, these issues were exacerbated and brought to a head by the interference and attempts at control of outside forces. Throughout the novel, Khalidi presents a very different picture of the Iraq war and the Middle East in general than what has been presented to the American public. Rather than appearing like the mindless zealots completely lacking in common sense and simple human dignity that has been suggested through the various right-wing media outlets and primarily but not necessarily exclusively Republican politicians, the people of the Middle East emerge as being a very downtrodden yet proud group. Each region has its own issues, both internal and external, but these problems have been exaggerated thanks to the intervention of more powerful countries interested in their own profit through exploitation of the oil reserves found in these regions. While the Israeli-Pakistani conflict is not regarding the natural resources of oil, the issue of land rights remains among the chief concerns and the tendency of the Western nations to support Israel regardless of the blatant injustices inflicted upon the Palestinians only serves to convince the Middle Eastern peoples that the West does not have their best interests in mind. Khalidi uses a conversational tone that cuts through a lot of the diplomatic sugar-coated phrases to paint a concise, understandable picture of the region and the people who live there, illustrating in the process the various ways that the Western nations, beginning with the imperial expansion efforts of Britain and France in the beginning of the 20th century and continuing with the United States through the latter half of the 20th and entering into the 21st century, have completely undermined any hopes that these peoples would trust them to help establish new, free and independent governments for themselves. Overall, it’s very sad to think of the many missed opportunities each of these nations had, especially the United States, to make this region of the world a little more stable, a lot more developed and greatly benefiting the people of the world. Works Cited Khalidi, Rashid. Resurrecting Empire. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2005. Read More