The Myth of the Clash of Civilisations.

Since 1993, when Samuel Huntington proposed his 'Clash of Civilisations' model to describe a new phase in global relations, the term has been bandied about in reference to the Middle East. The attacks of September 11th in the US have caused many people to revisit this idea. The media, in particular, has seized on it, and despite protestations by George W. Bush that this current war is not an attack on Islam, there is a general perception that there is some sort of deep-rooted idealogical difference between 'The West' and the predominantly Muslim countries of the Middle East.

For a country looking for an answer to the question 'why?' in the aftermath of the attacks, the Clash of Civilisations model is an easy answer. It reinforces America's belief that its way is always the right way, while painting the enemy as some embodiment of evil who hates the US simply because the US is a democracy. If the enemy is a bunch of freedom-hating and progress-hating fundamentalists, then it's easier to hate them back.

However, this view is false, and could turn out to be dangerous if Americans use it as an excuse to avoid looking for an answer to that question in their own actions. Because the truth is that any hatred of the US is not due to some idealogical difference, but due to American Foreign Policy, past and present.

Iran

For a long time Britain dominated in Iran and controlled the vast oilfields of the country. After WWII the British choice for ruler, Reza Shah was deposed by the Iranian parliament and Mohammad Mossedegh elected as Premier. He set about nationalising Iran's oilfields, upsetting the British, who, along with the US, ousted him in 1953. Reza Shah was returned to power where he ruled in true dictatorial fashion, funded by the US. His regime was corrupt and brutal, with little of the vast wealth amassed from sales of oil going to the Iranian people. Eventually he was forced to abdicate due to unrest in the country. This left a vacuum into which the radical Islamist Ayatollah Khomeini stepped to take up the reins of power. Alarmed at the emergence of a fundamentalist revolution in Iran, the US backed and armed Iraq to fight Ayatollah Khomeini leading to the Iran-Iraq war which lasted eight years and left one million people dead.

So the Iranians hate the US 'cos they deposed the Nationalist Mossedegh and put the brutal dictator Shah back in, then supported Iraq in a war, the stated purpose of which was to capture the Iranian oilfields for Iraq.

Iraq

During the course of the Iran-Iraq war the US supplied more than $5 billion worth of military equipment. Inevitably an imbalance of power developed in the region and Iraq began to see more expansionist possibilities. To this end Iraq occupied Kuwait, another country rich in oil, in 1990. There followed the Gulf war, wherein the Iraqis were not only forced to withdraw from Kuwait, but much civilian infrastructure in Iraq was targeted by the US. Once the war had ended sanctions and an embargo on oil trade were imposed on Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis have died from malnutrition and preventable disease since the war, due in part at least, to the harsh sanctions and occasional bombing to reinforce them. In 1998 UN weapons inspectors were withdrawn (not expelled as some US media outlets have claimed - USA Today, August 8th 2002), and these same inspectors later admitted collecting intelligence to help undermine the Iraqi regime (that's spying to you and me).

Under those circumstances it's not inconceivable that Iraq might not want to readmit inspectors simply because it fears they will resort to spying again. The US however, takes the refusal to readmit weapons inspectors as definitive proof that Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction, and has recently decided that regime change is required in Iraq whether weapons inspectors are readmitted or not, though Bush's speech to the UN on the 12th of September may signal a softening of that line.

So the Iraqis hate the US 'cos while the US supplied them with huge amounts of weapons and turned a blind eye to their nuclear programme while they were of use, they now claim that the suspicion that Iraq possesses such weapons is reason enough to attack them. The hawkish voices in the US who claim that even if Iraq readmits those spying inspectors this will not be enough to avoid an attack don't help either.

They also hate the US because of the Gulf war when they attacked (albeit in defense of Kuwait), and subsequently imposed draconian sanctions that are hurting innocent people instead of the dictatorship at which they are aimed.

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the US encouraged, financed and armed Mujaheedin fighters, many of them from Pakistan and other neighbouring countries, in a fight against the USSR. In fact, as Carter adviser Zbigniew Bzrezinski revealed, this began before the USSR attacked Afghanistan, in an attempt to provoke the USSR into its own Vietnam. Then once the cold war was over the US abandoned the Afghanis to rebuild their crippled country on their own. The two warring Superpowers between them left 10 million land mines, and the UN has estimated that the war and subsequent deaths by unexploded ordinance have left 500,000 disabled orphans. A reconstruction fund for Afghanistan was proposed by a few US congress members, but it was never agreed on.

After the war with the USSR, Afghanistan plunged into a brutal civil war with Warlords across the country fighting for supremacy. When the Taliban finally took control, the Afghanis thought they might see an end to the horror they had endured for almost 20 years. They were to be disappointed, as history has shown.

So, the Afghanis hate the US because they were used by the Superpower to tempt the USSR into a long and destructive war from which Afghanistan has never recovered.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is ruled by the corrupt and fundamentalist House of Saud, controlled by Crown Prince Abdullah. Moderate and reformist voices do exist among the Saudi Princes, but those voices have little power because Crown Prince Abdullah is protected by US troops stationed within Saudi Arabia and by weapons provided to his own army by the US. This allows the House of Saud to rule with an iron fist. Popular reformist movements are brutally crushed and the Saudi people live in subjugation.

So the Saudis hate the US because they prop up a brutal dictatorship and block reform. Interestingly, it was here that Osama bin Laden learned to hate the US.

Palestine

The Palestinian people were promised a state of their own in the 1947 partition plan, which split the region, then under British control, into Palestine and Israel. However, Israel (not unprovoked; neighbouring Arab countries were massing troops in a threatening manner) invaded Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq in 1967 and won a war which resulted in them seizing a lot more territory from the Palestinians. Since then they've continued to occupy Palestinian Territory, and refused Palestinian refugees the right of return to which they are entitled under international law. Israel's successes have been made possible by the support they receive from the US. Along with huge amounts of weapons, the Israelis can count on the US using their veto on the UN Security Council to stop most Resolutions against Israeli actions. Even with the veto several resolutions against Israel have been passed, and Israel continues to defy them.

So the Palestinians hate the US because they support an Israeli policy of slowly taking over more and more Palestinian land, bulldozing houses and shooting children on their way.

This has been the briefest of summaries of US actions in the Middle East, yet it highlights ample reasons for the countries and people of this region to hate the US. None of the issues above have anything to do with a culture clash. They have to do with repeated wars against the Arab nations, attacks on legitimate governments and attempts to prop up ones who should be allowed to fall. They have to do with US contempt for the people of the region who are seen as unimportant next to the necessity of retaining access to and control of oil. They have to do with US contempt for democracy in this region. There is no clash of civilisations, just a meddling superpower who has spent 50 years trying to control a region that it has no right to control.