Fires are all over in Arab world. This fire now has spread to most of the Middle Eastern and North Africa region. It seems at the moment non-stoppable or uncontrollable. At the end of last year, when it first started in Tunisia, it looked initially spontaneous. However, it soon became clear it wasn’t the case. It wasn’t a purely innocent revolt only. Neither is it self-initiated or self-reliant only. It wasn’t a solely independent revolt of Arab peoples. It wasn’t the indignant people’s revolt only. There was something else, too. Something is not necessarily very innocent, but instead something very cunning, shrewd, ill-willed and after all imperial!
Reemployment of Colonial “Divide & Conquer” Strategy
At the dawn of this 21st Century, behind the scenes of Arab revolution, according to a number of Arab scholars and Middle Eastern experts,[1] West’s and America’s centuries-old stereotypical “divide and conquer” strategies have been firmly trenched in. It might mean many, if not most, Arab populations have been deceived thereby being badly manipulated again. It could mean a “business as usual.” Status quo of the region could be the case tomorrow, too. The ugly, unjust, and unfair realities as the vicious cycle of hypocrisy, deception, death and destruction may continue, even after these could-be historic uprisings throughout the Arab region.
It means most parts of the world, too, are deceived thereby being manipulated again. It’s gotten much clearer now than the beginning that the still-powerful-enough colonial machines seem the major player in Arab revolution. Until quite recently, it’s been hidden to most populations around the world. It’s been skillfully disguised from the most eyes of the world, particularly from the could-be most Arab populations. American and Western mainstream media call the Arab revolution “democratizations of dictatorial Arab regimes” such as Egypt. Then they called the Tunisian revolt a “Jasmine Revolution.”
However, they don’t ever seriously mention those “dictatorial” regimes are their puppets for over several decades like Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt. Or their house boys or even paid-machineries! They are the ones who take orders to secure by any means necessary their master’s (i.e., the combined US-Israel-EU Imperial Powers) economic, political, military, and strategic interests in the region, while completely neglecting and deceiving their own populations. But, for any reasons and under some circumstances, Arab people’s justified, indignant and much-delayed revolutionary uprisings came about anyway. Even if the American-Israeli-EU Imperial Powers seem still firmly behind the Arab revolution, the final outcomes have not yet been known or fully unfolded yet. No one knows yet who’d be the final winner in these seemingly uncontrollable outbursts as peoples’ historic struggles against the centuries-old colonial captivities. Success of Arab peoples’ uprisings may somewhat depend upon if America’s hypocritical but very cunning and shrewd imperial strategy is going to succeed or not. However, the fate of Arab revolution is and will be solely at the hands of indignant and dignified Arab peoples who’ll eventually determine their own future through undeterred, self-determined, anti-imperialist liberation struggles.
Much More Sophisticated “Divide & Conquer” Tools: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Howcast, Etc.
What makes many wonder and very much puzzled this time, however, is the same colonial but technically much more sophisticated tactics of “divide and conquer” strategy, i.e., the US-based but globalized hi-tech communication machines such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, Howcast, etc. which have been skillfully employed to hijack the Arab revolution.[2] The US-Israel-EU imperial powers, too, seem determined to steal the grassroots-oriented peoples’ genuine uprisings away from the Arabs themselves who’ve been helplessly subjugated for centuries. The fate of the “21st Century Global Empire” is still up in the air, though at the moment they seem still in charge of this “could-be pseudo” revolution in Arab region which they’ve so deceptively named the so-called “democratization of dictatorial Arab regimes.”
During two month-long peoples’ uprisings throughout the region, US and its allies seem to have intended, but unpronounced, to overthrow or at least destabilize those defiant self-determined and anti-imperialist governments such as Iran, Libya, and Syria in that region, China, Cuba, DPRK (North Korea), Venezuela and so on in other regions as well. Lately American and its allies’ mainstream media eagerly identify those nations as either “dictatorships” or “communist dictatorships,” as they’ve done it for so long. Doubtlessly it’s exactly like the same anti-communist war propaganda campaigns throughout (and even afterward, too!) the Cold War era. In that sense, it’s their ongoing and usual “demonization” tactics, too. By doing so, they try to introduce the so-called US-instigated “democratization movements” into those nations. In other words, they try to bring about “regime changes” in those nations. It’s like a US-version of “domino” effects.
“Jasmine Revolution”: “Color Revolution” as US-made “Regime Change” Strategy
US brought the so-called “Jasmine Revolution” to China on February 20, which, as briefly mentioned before in this article, they successfully culminated in Tunisia last month (and also in Egypt, too). Out of a US-based Chinese website, a message was sent out to countless number of Chinese youths through their cellphones and emails. The message specifically called and instigated them to shout “democratization” slogans throughout China. In Beijing, the Capitol City of China, it directed and mobilized people to go to the heart of the city, the place called Wangfujing, the most well-known tourist place where the heaviest crowds come and go all the time. And then, as US did in June 1989 during the US-instigated, -mobilized, -planned, -manned, -funded, coordinated, and -organized pseudo uprising in Tianmen Square, the present US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman was also there present at MacDonald where people were told to go and join the crowd on Feb. 20.
(The present US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman who put sunglass on his face, probably not wanting to be recognized, was physically present at the Beijing site for US-made so-called “Jasmine Revolution” which called for “democratization” of China on Feb. 20, 2011.)
It was exactly the case when the then US Ambassador to China James Lily,[3] former CIA agent for 30 years, in June, 1989, “was present at the Square nearby hotel” from which he “was clandestinely involved,” together with the so-called “human rights and nonviolent demonstration specialists people like Gene Sharp from the Boston-based Albert Einstein Institute in US, with the so-called “Chinese people’s uprising for democratization of China.”[4]
South Korean media and the must-be staunchest anti-communist, pro-US, pro-Japan conservative LMB regime in Korea’s Division history and the likes in socio-economic political circles also identify those fallen Arab dictators with the leadership of North Korea. This type of US-led demonization media propaganda, by identifying those defiant anti-imperialist independent governments like presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela as “dictators,” instigates and mobilizes local peoples to bring them down through the US-based hi-tech communication tools, as they successfully did it through the “democratization” movements in some parts of Arab region. These so-called democratic movements are, without doubt, US-made, -directed, and –coordinated deceptive and pseudo movements to topple governments who challenge and defy US interests. The US employs those same hi-tech global communication tools as part of their “soft power” strategies to destabilize or disrupt in pursuit of their “regime change” card to those above-mentioned nations who dare to challenge American “imperial ambitions” (Noam Chomsky).
The more America (together with Israel and EU) continues to employ old, greedy and imperial tactics to unjustly rule the world, instead together to build a fairer, more just and peaceful world, the more they rely on those mutually-destructive paradigms of imperialistic unilateralism, global dictatorship, arbitrariness, and White colonial racism, the faster the downfall of “American Empire” will further speed up. Consequently much-needed human progress would be further impeded as well. Those well-known universally-upheld values and principles such as harmonious co-habitation or peacefully symbiotic coexistence through the “win-win” paradigm as the only mutually-surviving strategy are the answers to the future humanity, not the continuation of colonial and imperialistic deceptions, exploitations and destructions.
Dr. Kiyul Chung (Editor-in-chief, the 4th Media/Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University)
End Notes
[1] Some of the most distinctive articles are Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya’s “The Popular Uprising in Egypt: The Military Machine Remains Intact, The Political Status Quo Prevails”, Michel Chossudovsky’s “Dictators are ‘Disposable’: The Rise and Fall of America’s Military Henchmen”, and F. William Engdahl’s Egypt’s Revolution-Creative Destruction For A ‘Greater Middle East’?.
[2] Yoichi Shimatsu, “U.S. Secretly Backed the Brotherhood’s Soft-Power Strategy in Egypt” from The 4th Media (Feb. 2011)
[3] Wikipedia: [Lily] “then joined the Central Intelligence Agency, where he would work for nearly 30 years in a variety of Asian countries prior to becoming a diplomat. Before being appointed Ambassador to China in 1989, he was director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the unofficial American diplomatic mission in that country, and as Ambassador to South Korea. Following suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, Lilley was critical of the Chinese crackdown and harbored a prominent dissident in the embassy, but worked to prevent long-term damage to relations between the United States and China. Following his retirement, he published a memoir and worked as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.”“As a CIA operative, Lilley worked in countries across Asia, including Laos, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.[3] In Laos, he worked to undermine the Communist insurgency, and he helped to insert a number of CIA agents into China. By 1975, Lilley was appointed to the position of national intelligence officer for China, which made him the highest-ranked expert on China in the American intelligence community. Early in the administration of Ronald Reagan, he was appointed to the National Security Council, where he served as the senior expert on east Asia. From 1981-1984, he served as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as the unofficial diplomatic liaison to the government of the Republic of China. The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, so Lilley was in effect an ambassador to Taiwan in all but title.” “Lilley was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to be Ambassador to China in 1989, becoming the only American diplomat to head diplomatic missions in both mainland China and Taiwan. Bush and Lilley had a longstanding friendship that began when Lilley was the head of station for the CIA in Beijing in the early 1970s; at the time Bush was the chief of mission there. This personal relationship meant that Lilley often had the ear of the President on issues relating to China, and many of his missives home were read directly by Bush. In order to gain a better understanding of what was happening on the ground, Lilley began to bike regularly through the streets of Beijing soon after his arrival. Thus, he was familiar with the grievances of Chinese students who later that year participated in protests in Tiananmen Square, and sympathized with their interest in a more open government and society. He criticized the Chinese government following the violent suppression of those protests, which garnered widespread international attention and condemnation. In addition, he harbored the political dissident Fang Lizhi inside the embassy for 18 months before the Chinese government allowed him to enter exile in the United States. But despite his sympathy with the students’ cause, Lilley argued against hasty action by the United States government such as the severing of ties, believing that such action would not have the intended effect. He also arranged for a secret trip by two high-placed United States officials intended to reassure the Chinese government that the United States wished to continue a relationship between the two nations. He did so, he later said, out of a belief that, “America…could contribute in constructive ways to a more open China.” “Following his retirement from government service, Lilley became a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focusing on East Asian relations and continued writing and speaking about the relationship between the United States and China.”
[4] F. William Engdahl, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (2008)