Will He Pursue Even-Handedness?

[Larkspur]

Kerry and the Middle East
http://www.counterpunch.org/gordon08312004.html
by Neve Gordon

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Despite apparent differences distinguishing the two administrations, Clinton's and Bush's Middle East policies share a few common denominators, which are ultimately inimical to vital long-term U.S. interests. Rhetoric aside, the two administrations have mistakenly conceived authentic democratization of the Middle East as a threat to U.S. hegemony, both in the domestic and international spheres.

This, more or less, is why both administrations have opposed grassroots democracy. A democratic Saudi Arabia, for example, might ask the U.S. to dismantle all American military bases operating on its soil, or may even curtail the business of U.S. oil corporations stationed in the country. Such actions would, according to the prevailing logic, endanger U.S. control over the world's resources and therefore should not be tolerated. The solution, therefore, has been to support authoritarian regimes, simply because they appear to be more predictable and easier to handle.

Along the same lines, both administrations have been against the democratization of the international realm, excluding such bodies as the United Nations and the European Union from playing a meaningful role in the Middle East. Again, the rationale is that the international democratization of power would threaten U.S. hegemony.

The anti-democratic strain informing U.S. foreign policy is, however, shortsighted for it does not take into account what Cornell University political scientist Susan Buck-Morss has called the "dialectic of power." In her book, Thinking Past Terror Buck-Morss shows how power actually produces its own vulnerability. The ongoing occupation and control of Middle East countries, alongside U.S.'s unflinching support for brutal military dictators, oppressive feudal kings, and the occupation of Palestine, will eventually engender violent forces that will end-up attacking the U.S. Think of Osama Bin Laden, who was initially trained by the U.S. to attack Soviet troops. Isn't he a clear manifestation of the idea that power creates its own vulnerability?
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I agree with Gordon that the US, regardless of which party is in power, has not really sought to help promote democracy, that is homegrown democracy, in the Middle East. True democracy, like Iran 1953, would do things similar to what Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is doing -- provide for the commonwealth first, and demand that foreign investors be just in their business dealings.