Blaming America for Every Thing.

posted 24/11/07

Ever since I was a young boy growing up in Palestine, I heard the standard and often spoken words” America is always to blame”. The Majority of Arabs and Muslims blame America for every thing from failure of political systems and institutions, to failure in crops , failure in accountability and transparency, failure to tackle the presence of corruptions and incompetence, and of course failure to bring about political reforms and much needed changes.More…

Yes, America is to blame for some things, but not every thing. Why no one in the Arab world take the blame for centuries of failures? Why no one in the Arab world whether citizens, intellectuals, professionals, businessmen, and political and military leaders do not accept, perhaps lacks the courage to accept the responsibilities for such failures?

In Lebanon, political leaders and citizens blame America for failure to elect a new president, yet no one ask the question, “what about blaming a failed and outdated political system and blaming the war lords and family lords for such failure”?

Yes, American did supply the weapons and the bombs that killed thousands of Lebanese and destroyed Lebanon, but America did not force an outdated sectarian system on the Lebanese and is not responsible for the fleecing of the country.

With the exception of Professor Clovis Maqsoud of the American University in Washington, and Amin Al-Naqash, an intellectual and political analyst, NO Lebanese politicians or citizen whether from the majority and minority dare to speak out and come out openly and frankly and say, “Hey, this sectarian political system did not serve Lebanon well and must be changed”. It seems keeping a defunct sectarian system that serves the narrow interests of certain established political families but does not serve the interests of Lebanon, all of Lebanon with its entire 17 different sectarian group is ok. Do not understand why the citizens do not force change?

In Palestine, the story is no different. It is true that America did cancel the democratic vote that brought Hamas to power through political and economic boycott of the new government, but no one blame Fatah for also canceling the results of the election with its consistent failure to admit, it lost the election and for its refusal to hand over the government to Hamas. Every one blame America for the corruption of the Palestinian Authority, but no one blames those within the Palestinian Authority who robbed and fleeced the entire nation and stole billions of the people’s money.

Every one blame American for supporting a police state within the Palestinian Authority, yet no one blame those Palestinians responsible for running and operating such a police state and operate a security organization whose sole function is to terrorize the citizens.

In Iraq, the Arabs blame America for the terrible problems in Iraq, yes, of course, America is to blame for war on Iraq, blamed for the occupation and mismanaging the occupation and for corrupting the system. Yet, no one dare to speak out about the crimes of Saddam over 30 years. No one blame Saddam for taking Iraq and its wealth and people to the abyss with his dictatorial and criminal enterprise.

Every one blame America for the war between Iraq and Iran, yet no one dare to blame Saddam for agreeing to be the tools for taking both countries to war and ruining the economy of both countries, killed and murdered millions and of course took the country to the poor house. Every one knew Saddam was America’s boy yet no one blame Saddam for all of the ills of Iraq. Moreover, never understood why the Iraqis and the Palestinians do not take and accept the responsibilities for accepting and allowing such corrupt, dictatorial regime to co-opt them and undermine them and simply stated” bought the silence of every one”.

The same is true of Syria, Egypt, Sudan and many of the Arab countries. Every one from the average citizen to political leaders including opposition blame American and its interventionist policies. Yet no one blame the leaders who failed to properly manage and carry out the reforms needed and failed to bring about modern nation states. Every one blame America, yet no one blames the likes of Assad, Saddam, Arafat, Abbas, Qadaffi, Al-Bashir, and Mubarak for the ills and misfortune of their respective countries.

American is to blame for not living up to its ideal of promoting democracy and transparency and supporting honest governments, and for supporting Israel and supplying it with the missiles, jet fighters and cluster bombs to kill Arabs. America is also to blame for its stupid and reckless international policies that brought nothing but disaster for America and the world. But America is not to be blamed when political systems and leadership in the Arab world makes it possible for America to manage and operate dictatorial regimes and suppress freedoms and democracy. We can blame the Zionist, the NeoCons, Marion Robertson, Bibi Netanyahu, Israel, George Bush and Dick Cheney all we want, and that does not change a thing. We need to keep in mind the millions who were killed by dictatorial leadership and the thousands of billions wasted on stupid useless wars doomed to fail from the very start. It is time for the Arab people to accept total responsibility for such continued failure.