Re: Recognition of governments (was:: A Russian view of the war (April6)

["Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Henry:

>>During the Cold War, Arab nationalism, particularly pan Arab
nationalism, was subdued by US nurturing of Islamic fundamentalism as a
weapon of choice against communism.<<

It was subdued by its own failures and by an inability/unwillness to
mobilise the people against Zionism. Nasserism was fatally weakened long
before fundamentalism become a key player. The Baath regimes in Iraq and
Syria were corrupted by power long before we began hearing about
Ayatollahs.


>>Saadam has been drifting away from the Baath Party's socialist base<<

Drifting? This is a man who killed Communists on a major scale. Socialist
base? Not at all, it was an essentially populist-nationalist force,
comparable to Nasserism or Sukarnoism, as proven by what it did once in
power.


>>Isreal is scared out of its wits.<<

I seriously doubt it.


>>The Arabs defeated three European crusades ...<<

I suggest their record against Israel itself is a bit more relevant right
now.


>It does not matter if Saadam is not actually a revolutionary fighter.
History will make him one.<<

History does not do anything. People make history, though under conditions
not of their own choosing. He is a capitalist dictator, and will remain
one.


>>War is always the midwife of revolution<<

So what revolution was born of the long Iran-Iraq war, or the 1991 Gulf
war?