DURING the 20th century the fate of the predominantly Arab Middle East remained in the hands of the Imperialist powers, Britain and France. Before the end of tne World War-I the geopolitical map of the region had already been drawn up. Under 1916 Sykes Picot Agreement the two imperialist Kwers had appropriated the entire region tween themselves. It was only after the Second World War that the United States appeared in Middle East scene and has been exercising great influence in the region from the time of the Truman Doctrine (1947) and especially since the days of Eisenhower Doctrine (1957). During the cold war period she catalysed important changes taking place in the area while the former Soviet Union remained a countervailing force. After the cold war and with the Soviet retreat from the Middle East the US, the sole superpower of the World wields with her overwhelming clout an influence in the region never experienced before.

A US role in carving out a place for Israel in Arab heartland in the late 40s. its hobnobbing in the Internal affairs of Iran overthrowing Dr Musaddeq in early 50s, constant support to conservative Arab Camp to contain a popular wave of anti-West Pan-Arabism. strengthening Israel as her strategic outpost and propping up Saddam Hussein ouring the 80s as a bulwark against revolutionary Iran were all pointers to long standing interests of the US in the region. They did hurt local sentiments and fuel discontent but an increasing American role and presence in the area went largely unnoticed at least in the Initial stage. To a people long accustomed to years' of colonial subjugation it

was another experience of extra regional influence. But when such experiences were stitched together to form a composite whole with the back-drop of a bigger time frame the emerging picture

was not pleasant. The American role in the region once thought to be Innocuous and even benign gradually turned out to be monstrous with its imperial grip firming up in the whole of the Middle East.

The US. even during the Cold War, accorded the Middle East an Importance, sometimes surpassing the one given to the area of central strategic balance — Europe. The Middle East is only one region of the world in which the US military has grown in the post Cold War era as exemplified by the institutionalisation of the US central command and the forming of the US Navy's fifth fleet for patrolling the Persian Gulf, in addition to as many as four aircraft carriers positioned in the Gulf at the height of the tension in last February. All these were done in the face of no visible threat to the US. By now many of the region's states have virtually become American protectorates whether because the US would defend them and help deter their adversaries on a day to day basis as with Saudi Arabia. Kuwait. Bahrain. Oman, the UAE, Jordan and Israel or whether it exerts Influence through the power of its purse as with Egypt. The US has also "access to the facilities' ofsome of these countries like in Qatar and Bahrain. All these arrangements are not for nothing and. In fact, the US pursues her cold blooded strategic objectives through them. Evidently.' the- US -today has,.after Dft,y(,yea$a.pf.hide and seek, openly assumed the imperial mantle in the Mitjdlq.SasL > „ ny;. il o v n > J ,< : rf b :

The American Middle East policy clearly smacks of a brand of arrogance that was possible only during the Imperial era. By amassing huge body of troops and a formidable arsenal in the Gulf, the present US administration has revived the naked gunboat diplomacy and imperial prerogatives. The US is exactly doing what the imperial seats of authority did in the past: Despatching the generals to the front to cut to size the rulers it did not like. Moreover. America's military-industrial complex itself is an empire nourished by such warlike activities. Yet. during the last century the European imperialists often responded to public sensibilities with the talk of the white man s burden' to give law to the lesser breeds' of the human kind or 'la mission civilisatric’ to justify their imperialism. For the US. however, her military superiority, economic prowess, soft power' born of the appeal of American values and of course her relative tenacity are good enough for imperial policy to promote her strategic pursuit: hegemony and control over the Middle-East and supremacy of Israel over the Arabs. She owes no explanation to any one for the imperial policy she pursues in the volatile region.

However, the Americans pursue and practice imperialism in the Middle East with a subtle difference. It is not an imperial vocation identical to that of 19th century empires of Europeans. There is no intention to annex or colonise. There Is no plan to stay in perpetuity. Rather the US military projection is conceived of both In terms of assurance and deterrence. There is no master plan that considers influence in peripheral areas — the Balkans or Central Asia, as necessary to firm up control over the core imperial zone as the British, for example, sought Influence over Ottoman empire to control the route to India. The key economic motive is

also indirect. It Is not the corporate but a devotion to preserving the scope and vigour of an order created by the US Itself. But can an American imperialism In the Middle East sustain it for long — even in spite of its size and potential?

It cannot. Because the size and authority are not the same thing. The authority, to a great extent, springs out of its moral content with which a nation pursues its policy, the US has since jettisoned that content at least in the Middle East. Having for years behaved like an international gangster, flouting international law. bullying the weak, supporting its clients in the most blood thirsty exploits, resorting to subversion in order to destabilise the adversaries and displaying a series of double standards in its dealings, the US is suddenly trying to play its role as a moral arbiter in the Gulf region of the Middle East. The US, after all, is the country which killed three million Vietnamese, which was behind the massacre of the 10 per cent of Guatemalan population during the 50s. which collaborated with Suharto both in the invasion of East Timor and killing of half a million Indonesians suspected of communism. which connives daily in Turkish attack on Kurds, which illegally engaged itself in the mining of Nicaraguan ports and funded subversion against the Sandanistas throughout the 80s. which invaded Panama and Grenada and which subsidises Israeli conquests and pillage without any restraint. That it has done and continues to do all these and. at the same time, arrogates for itself the right to speak of international law and Justice to the Arabs while

searching a ph-■ an tom weapon ; in Iraq, not । traceable for long eight years I is nothing short • of a hypocrisy of

its kind.

And the only ‘ authority she 1 uses for It is her own dictates op-

portunely expressed in a handful of resolutions of the UN whom she treated with utmost cynicism. So much so that she was delinquent in its back payment to the world organisation amounting to more than one billion dollar. No other member state has used the veto to defend internationally condemned behaviour as she did for Israel for all the latter’s crimes which also like no other state openly vented its contempt for the world body. The same UN — the Kliant one — is now her vehicle to push forward

er designs in Iraq. What a mockeiy!

An embattled President Bill Clinton — squirming under a whole series of investigations as to his sexual and financial misadventures — had the remarkable gale to address the Arab people treating them more like a collection of morons. He told them that the US had no quarrel with the Iraqis; the quarrel was with Saddam Hussein. But so far all the punishments were incurred by the people of Iraq while Saddam remained immune to all the punitive actions directed against Iraq. During the operation Desert Storm' alone more than three thousand fighter planes took part in the war alongwith half a million heavily mounted troops. America utilized 70 per cent of its entire global airforce and 40 per cent of its total tank force to kill the Iraqi sparrows'. It used 6800 tons of bombs over Vietnam during eight and half years while in Iraq 106,000. bombs were dropped .within 43 days thus turning Iraq almost into an occupied land. Waft ft for,any love /or, the Iraqi.people? Since-1991 Gulf War 1.5 million Iraqis were killed either during the war or as a result of its aftermath including sanction. Children under five years of age whose mortality was 500 per month has risen to 6500 per month and those of above five years has increased from 1600 per months to 1800 per month. Isn't It a cold blooded genocide!

Discovering the 'underground' Iraqi weapon of mass destruction is another scandal. It has already taken seven years for more than 450 weapon inspectors. They have destroyed nuclear potential of Iraq while Israel's is still thriving. As many as 36,000 chemical bombs and artillery shells. 690 tons of chemical agent and 817 out of 819 scud missiles have been destroyed Ix sides total annihilation of most of the industrial plants. The irony is that the prices of these ’services' is also cleverly and cunningly charged not only from the Arab rulers but from the poor Iraqis also who themselves are deprived of even life-saving drugs and food for there infants as a result of crippling sanctions imposed after 1991 Gulf War.

It is not surprising that the moral veneer of the US is fast wearing thin. Even her Arab allies except, of course. Israel are turning away from her. Doha summit of November last was a fiasco as was the more recent attempt to mobilise Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan into anti-Iraq. military action. The brazen duplicity of American rhetorics embodied in the US Middle East policy no more impress its earlier adherents. Within the UN Security Council Russia. France and China have taken positions that are at variance with the diktat from Washington and most EU nations are keen to resume their business with Iraq. Would then the end of the tunnel be visible soon for the hapless people of Iraq?