The real ‘arc of extremism’

Tony Blair claims there is an “arc of extremism” in the Middle East, which is dominated by “reactionary Islam” and sponsored by countries that include Syria and Iran. It can only be defeated, he says, by replacing extremist ideas with “values” that we apparently treasure so much in the “civilised world” of the United States and Britain.

To be fair to Blair, an arc of extremism really does exist - except that it has a different location to the one he describes. It actually runs through Washington and London, by way of Tel Aviv. These are the capitals that in the last decade have organised the bombing of Belgrade, the invasion of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the repression of Palestinian aspirations and now the destruction of Lebanon as a functioning state.

These same extremists have constructed authoritarian, dictatorial states to suppress the rights and liberties of their citizens in the name of the “war on terror”. Even while Blair was addressing his well-heeled audience in California, the Appeal Court in London was ruling that the detention of suspects without trial through control orders breached human rights legislation and was unlawful.

In London and Washington, the extremists have sabotaged public services and brought the corporate sector right into the heart of the state. They have disenfranchised the population by turning the parliamentary, democratic process into a farce and refused to act on the ecological crisis. In summary, the extremists have succeeded in creating a market state where the bottom line rules and which will use maximum military force as a first resort.

These are the “values” which they want to impose on the Middle East. As the infamous extremist Condoleeza Rice put it: “It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail, they will not." Unsurprisingly, there are few takers. In fact, the action of the extremists in London and Washington simply lengthen the queue of those prepared to fight on behalf of “reactionary Islam” against the new crusaders. Throughout the Arab world, Hezbollah is seen as a resistance movement that has stood up against the Israeli state while Egypt and others said and did nothing.

Blair’s call for a “renaissance” in foreign policy is desperate stuff. The extremists’ spurious “war on terror” is a disaster, whichever way you look at it. Their “values” system deserves nothing but contempt. Only an entirely different state, one founded on a new economic and political democracy, can offer the hand of friendship to the people of the Middle East. It’s time to deal with the “arc of extremism”!

2 August 2006