[lbo-talk] Qaeda at Work (was the Iraqi resistance at work)

www.leninology. blogspot.com leninology at hotmail.com
Tue Nov 21 14:19:18 PST 2006


Doug Henwood wrote:


> On Nov 21, 2006, at 3:14 PM, www.leninology. blogspot.com wrote:
>
> > The US has pursued sectarianism in order to create a state with weak
> > capacity and legitimacy, (but with a strong counterinsurgency stance),
>
> I don't see how that's in the US interest right now (and I don't get
> the "divide and rule" claim - there's plenty of division, but not
> much ruling). Washington badly needs an effective puppet regime, not
> one in which ministers are shot and their underlings kidnapped out of
> their offices. The present state of the country is a severe political
> problem for the US at home and abroad. And a weak Iraq where
> terrorists can meet and practice seems like a global headache to me.
> You may be giving the Bush admin too much credit; to me, it looks
> like they were ignorant and arrogant and fucked up mightily.

I think that the US wants all client states to have weak capacity. Perhaps instead of listening to me burble about, though, you should try David Chandler's book 'Empire in Denial', which deals with this aspect of contemptorary imperialism. If you must hear from me, I write about it here:

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006/10/ruling-imperialist-argot-partnership.html

You say Washington needs an 'effective puppet regime': but the latter part of that equation is the problem. I precisely said in the statement you quoted that it wants a state with weak capacity and legitimacy but with a strong counterinsurgency stance. If it had strong state capacity and legitimacy, it would be more independent: why the hell would they want to undermine the legacy of the long geopolitical struggles of the Iran-Iraq war, and the Gulf War and the sanctions, namely the destruction of an independent centralised nationalist regime with strong internal legitimacy? Why would they dispense with a crucial fruit of the Cold War, that is? They want a state that is capable of strong internal discipline, but is subaltern and in constant need of Western 'assistance'.

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