Eqbal Ahmad Confronting
Empire (Pluto Press, £14.99)
This little book
is an absorbing read. A mere 155 pages long, with 6 pages of
bibliography and a 3 page appendix of other writings, it sets
out in clear and concise language what every student of international
affairs and personalities ought to know. The format is question and answer, where the
author discusses the histories and the underlying causes that
make up these world events as well as the famous progressives
involved in them. The foreword by Edward Said, himself of world
renown on the Middle east and the Arab world, introduces the
reader to Eqbal Ahmad who provides the text.
Ahmad was born in the Indian province of Bihar, in the village
of Irki, in either 1933 or 1934. He has an imposing list of
friends and heroes, to whom he pays tribute in a greater or
lesser degree. He refers warmly to Noam Chomsky, as an "anarchist
humanist", Franz Fanon, (African liberation leader), Mohandas
K Ghandi, Antonio Gramsci, (Italian Marxist thinker), Karl Marx,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Pablo Neruda, (Chilean poet), and Rabindranath
Tagore, (Indian poet). But he is no sycophant, criticising Marx
for instance, for shying away "from saying what shape Communism
would take" in the Eighteenth Brumaire. And Ghandi is criticised
for launching the "Quit India" movement in 1942, Ahmad
describing this as a tactical blunder.
He describes Lenin as "antidemocratic", and Regis
Debray as "radical but wrong". But V.A Naipaul, though
lionised in western circles and winner of the Noble prize for
literature, is dismissed for his hatred of Islam and support
of the military dictatorship in Pakistan, "as fit only
to sell sausages."
But the central theme, as the title suggests, is an analysis
of US strategy since 1945. Clearly and without obfuscation the
author shows how this has been changed to respond to the growing
universal opposition to the administrations grip on their hegemony.
Yet even with all their resources concentrated wonderfully on
the task, in the opinion of this reviewer they are in the twilight
of their supremacy.
Ahmad describes the turning point as the Vietnam war. Whereas
previous adventures in Iran, Guatemala and the Congo were virtually
unknown to the American people, Vietnam cost 57,000 American
lives, 230,000 wounded, nearly $220 billion and thousands of
U.S. aircraft. This singular event forced the administration
to change tactics with the adoption of the "Nixon Doctrine".
Ahmad explains in some detail what this meant.
His view on "terrorism" is worth quoting at some length:
"Terrorism should be defined in terms of the illegal use
of violence for the purposes of influencing somebody's behaviour,
inflicting punishment, or taking revenge, If we define terror
in that way, the first thing we discover is that it has been
practised on a larger scale, globally, both by governments and
by private groups. Private groups fall into various categories.
The political terrorist is only one category out of many others.
When we talk about terror, then, we are talking about the political
variety. When we talk about the political variety, the first
thing to ask is, what are its roots? Who is the terrorist?"
Ahmad is critical of the strategy of the Palestine leadership,
having discussed it unsuccessfully with Yasir Arafat on a number
of occasions, arguing that meeting Israeli force with force
is doomed to failure. Rather they should have emulated and still
can, the peaceful demonstrations of Mahatma Ghandi and the U.S.
civil rights marchers. In this reviewer’s opinion a chance
was missed this Christmas, for a peaceful march on Bethlehem
to enable Arafat to celebrate the mass.
The author’s view of the Tamil/Sri Lankan war, now 18 years
on, puts the blame squarely on Buddhist Sinhalese nationalism,
but concludes that the tit-for-tat violence makes "it difficult
to foresee a way out".
In this connection the author is particularly well informed
about the Indian subcontinent. His views therefore on the current
India-Pakistan crisis are invaluable. The original problem is
that though the Raj left 47 years ago, colonial governance still
rules. Ahmad describes the Indian, Hindu Nationalist government
as fascist and that both they and the Pakistan military rulers
as caught in a medieval military mindset, but now equipped with
nuclear weapons. His answer to this is "You can't put the
genie in the bottle, but you can arrest its growth".
He also deals with Armenian genocide, the Balkans, the CIA,
Islam, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the collapse of the Soviet Union,
the Taliban, and Zionism.
He concludes on the challenge to the progressive forces of individualism,
stating that "The notion of solidarity beyond self and
beyond family, beyond the small group, has become increasingly
alien in modern consumer-oriented American society." This
is an understandable characteristic in a U.S. $7 trillion economy,
that spends $1 trillion on targeting individuals for marketing
purposes.
His answer to this challenge is to transmit ideas and information
as best we can and take risks for the common good.
This is also a useful reference book in following events world
wide.
The
reviewer, George Anthony is a member of the editorial board
of the UK anti-imperialist magazine Liberation and edits the
Islip Unity Group Political Newsletter (see our Magazines list
for both). Find out
more about independent left publisher Pluto’s list of titles
at http://www.plutobooks.com
