Islamofascism
Is “Islamofascism” an Oxymoron?…
Or is the Oxymoron really
“Preemptive Defense of Democracy”?
An Analysis of American foreign policy as
Imperialism by Dr. Leonard Carrier, DI In-House
Historian and Philosopher
11 5 07
Ever since the end of World War II, we have needed an enemy to confront. First it was communism, and the red scare took us through two wars and numerous meddling in the affairs of other nations on the pretext that we were holding the line against the socialistic menace. Our toppling of the democratically-elected regime of Iran’s Mossadeq in 1953, and our subsequent support of the tyrant shah Pahlavi (and his notorious SAVAK) was just one example of such meddling, as was our toppling of the Allende regime in Chile.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we invented a new enemy–one with no real borders–labeled “Islamofascism,” an oxymoron if ever there was one. Our invasion of Iraq was about control of their oil, not the trumped-up charge of Saddam’s having “weapons of mass destruction” and his cooperating with Al Qaeda.
Iran was supposed to be the next nation to fall into line, but Iraq didn’t turn out to be the “cake walk” the Bush Administration expected. Yet now we get the same, tired rhetoric about Iran’s nuclear threat, and how we have to do anything–including the use of tactical nuclear weapons–to prevent Iran’s potential for atomic weapons. This, of course, is dangerous nonsense because it might completely destabilize the Middle East. Far better to negotiate with Iran, using other nations as go-betweens as we used China to negotiate with North Korea.
What our government needs to realize–and it doesn’t make much difference whether it’s Democrat or Republican–is that the old way of making the world safe for capitalism (which was the real reason behind our meddling) doesn’t work anymore. If you really are committed to a global economy, then you can’t assume a purely nationalistic political stance. If the United States continues to behave like an empire, using any means at its disposal to feather its own nest while fouling the nests of other nations, then it will suffer the fate of other empires–such as the Roman Empire–with all taxpayer money going to fund far-flung military adventures, while the rot eats its way through the social fabric at home.
