- Introduction
-
- Empires are built through the promotion and
backing of local collaborators who act at the behest of imperial
rulers. They are rewarded with the outward symbols of authority and financial
handouts, even as it is understood that they hold their position only at
the tolerance of their imperial superiors. Imperial collaborators are
referred to by the occupied people and the colonial resistance as "puppets"
or "traitors"; by western journalists and critics as "clients";
by the imperial scribes and officials as "loyal allies" as
long as they remain obedient to their sponsors and paymaster.
-
- Puppet rulers have a long and ignoble history
during the 20th century. Subsequent to US invasions in Central America
and the Caribbean a whole string of bloody puppet dictators were put in
power to implement policies favorable to US corporations and banks and
to back US regional dominance. Duvalier (father and son) in Haiti,
Trujillo in the Dominion Republic, Batista in Cuba, Somoza (father and
son) in Nicaragua and a host of other tyrants served to safeguard imperial
military and economic interests, while plundering the economies and ruling
with an iron fist.
-
- Rule via puppets is characteristic of most
empires. The British excelled in propping up tribal chiefs as tax collectors,
backing Indian royalty to muster sepoys to serve under British generals.
The French cultivatedfrancophone African elite to provide cannon
fodder for its imperial wars in Europe and Africa. "Late"
imperial countries like Japan set up puppet regimes in Manchura
and Germany promoted the Vichy puppets in occupiedFrance and
the Quisling regime in Norway.
-
- Post-Colonial Rule: Nationalists and Neo-Colonial Puppets
-
- Powerful national liberation, anti-colonial
movements following World War II, challenged European and US imperial dominance
in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Faced with the enormous costs of reconstruction
in Europe and Japan and domestic mass movements opposed to continuing colonial
wars, the US and Europe sought to retain their economic holdings, military
bases via 'political collaborators'. They would assume administrative,
military and political responsibilities, forging new links between the formally
independent country and their old and new imperial masters. The economic
and military institutional continuities between colonial and
post-colonial regimes were defined as 'neo-colonialism'.
-
- Foreign aid gave birth to and enriched an
'indigenous' kleptocratic bourgeoisie which provided a fig leaf to imperial
resource extraction. Military aid, training missions and overseas scholarships
trained a new generation of military and civilian bureaucrats inculcated
with imperial-centered 'world views' and loyalties. The military-police-administrative
apparatus was perceived by imperial rulers as the best guarantor of the
emerging order, given the fragility of neo-colonial rulership, their narrow
base of appeal and the demands of the masses for substantive socio-economic
structural changes to accompany political independence.
-
- The post-colonial period was riven with long
term large-scale anti-imperial social revolutions (China, Indo-China),
military coups (throughout the three continents), international civil wars
(Korea) and mostly successful nationalist-populist transformations (Iraq, India, Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Ghana,
etc.). The latter became the bases for the non-aligned movements. Outright
'colonial settler regimes' (South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Southern
Rhodesia/Zimbabwe) were the exception. Complex "associations",
depending on the specific power relations between empire and local elites,
generally increased income, trade and investments for the decolonized newly
independent countries. Independence created an internal dynamic
based on large scale state intervention and a mixed economy.
-
- The post-colonial period of radical nationalist
and socialist uprisings, lasted less than a decade in most of the three
continents. By the end of the 1970's, imperial backed coups overthrew
national-populist and socialist regimes in the Congo, Algeria, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and
in numerous other countries. The newly independent radical regimes in
the former Portuguese colonies, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and the
nationalist regimes and movements in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Latin
America were severely weakened by the collapse of the USSR and China's
conversion to capitalism. The US appeared as the sole 'superpower'
without a military and economic counterweight. US and European military
and economic empire builders saw an opportunity to exploit natural resources,
expropriate thousands of public enterprises, build a network of military
bases and recruit new mercenary armies to extend imperial dominance.
-
- The question arose as to the form the
new US empire would take: the means through which
the remaining nationalist rulers would be ousted. Equally important: with
the demise of the USSR and China/Indo-China's conversion to capitalism,
what ideology or even 'argument' would serve to justify the powerful thrust
of post-colonial, empire building?
-
-
-
-
-
- Washington's New World Order: Colonial Revivalism
and Contemporary Puppetry:
-
- Western imperialism's recovery from
the defeats during the national independence struggles (1945-1970's) included
the massive rebuilding of a new imperial order. With the collapse of the USSR,
the incorporation of Eastern Europe as imperial satellites and the subsequent
conversion of radical nationalists (Angola, Mozambique etc.) to kleptocrat
free marketers, a powerful thrust was given to White House visions of unlimited dominance,
based on projections of uncontested unilateral military power.
-
- The spread of 'free market ideology' between
1980 2000, based on the ascendancy of neo-liberal rulers throughout
Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and a large swathe of Asia opened
the door for unprecedented pillage, privatizations (mostly the same thing)
and the concentration of wealth. Corresponding to the pillage and the
concentration of a unipolar military power, a group of ultra-militarists,
so-called neo-conservatives ideologue, deeply imbued with the Israeli colonial
mentality entered into the strategic decision-making positions in Washington,
with tremendous leverage in European spheres of power especially
in England.
-
- History went into reverse. The 1990's were
inaugurated with colonial style wars, launched against Iraq and Yugoslavia,
leading to the break-up of states and the imposition of puppet regimes
in (Northern Iraq) 'Kurdistan', Kosova, Montenegro and Macedonia (former
Yugoslavia). Military success, quick and low cost victories, confirmed
and hardened the beliefs of the neo-conservative and neo-liberal ideologues
that empire building was the inevitable wave of the future. Only
an appropriate political trigger was necessary to mobilize the
financial and human resources to pursue the new military driven empire.
-
- The events of 9/11/2001 were thoroughly exploited
to launch sequential wars of colonial conquest. In the name of a "word
wide military crusade against terrorism", plans were made, massive
funds were allocated and a mass media propaganda blitz was launched, to
justify a series of colonial wars.
-
- The new imperial order began with the invasion
of Afghanistan (2001) and the overthrow of the Taliban Islamic-nationalist
regime, (which never had anything to do with 9/11). Afghanistan was occupied by
the US NATO mercenary armies but not conquered.
The US invasion and occupation of Iraq led to the
regroupment of Islamic, nationalist and trade union anti-colonial forces
and prolonged armed and civil resistance movements.
-
- Because of widespread nationalist and anti-Zionist influence
within the existing Iraqi civilian, police and military apparatus, neo-conservative
ideologues in Washington opted for the total dismantling of the
state. They attempted to refashion a colonial state based on sectarian
leaders, local tribal chiefdoms, foreign contractors and the appointment
and 'clearance' of reliable exile politician as 'presidential or 'prime
ministerial' national fig leafs for the colonized state.
-
- Pakistan was a special case of imperial penetration,
military intervention and political manipulation, linking large scale military
aid, bribes and corruption to establish a puppet regime. The latter sanctioned
sustained violations of sovereignty by US warplanes ("drones"
and piloted), commando operations and the large scale mobilization of the
Pakistan military for US counter-insurgency operations displacing millions
of Pakistan 'tribal' peoples.
-
- The Puppet Regime Imperative
-
- Contrary to US and EU propaganda, the
invasions and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and
the military interventions in Pakistan were never popular. They
were actively and passively opposed by the vast majority of the population.
No sooner were the colonial civil officials imposed by force of arms and
efforts began to administer the country then passive popular and sporadic
armed resistance emerged. The colonial officials were seen for what they
were: an alien, exploitative, presence. Treasuries were looted, the entire
economy was paralyzed, elementary services (water, electricity, sewage
systems, etc.) did not function, and millions were uprooted. The wars
and occupations radically decimated the pre-colonial society and the colonial
officials were hard pressed to create a replacement.
-
- Billions in military spending failed to create
a civil service capable of governance. The colonial rulers had severe
problems locating willing collaborators with technical or administrative
experience. Those willing to serve lacked even a modicum of popular acceptance.
-
- The colonial conquest and occupation eventually
settled on establishing a parallel collaborator regime which would be financed
and subordinate to the imperial authorities. Imperial strategists believed
they would provide a political façade to 'legitimate' and negotiate
with the occupation. The enticement to collaborate was the billions of
dollars channeled into the colonized state apparatus (and easily plundered
through phony 'reconstruction' projects) to compensate for the risks of
political assassination by nationalist resistance fighters. At the pinnacle
of the parallel regimes were the puppet rulers, each certified by
the CIA for their loyalty, servility and willingness to sustain imperial
supremacy over the occupied people. They obeyed Washington's demands
to privatize public enterprises and supported Pentagon recruitment of a
mercenary army under colonial command.
-
- Hamid Karzai was chosen as the puppet ruler
in Afghanistan, based merely on his family ties with drug traffickers
and compatibility with warlords and elders on the imperial payroll. His
isolation was highlighted by the fact that even the presidential guard
was made up of US Marines. In Iraq, US colonial officials in consultation
with the White House and the CIA chose Nouri al Maliki as the "Prime
Minister" based on his zealous "hands on" engagement in
torturing resistance fighters suspected of attacking US occupation forces.
-
- In Pakistan the US backed
a convicted felon on the lam, Asif Ali Zardari as President. He repeatedly
demonstrated his accommodating spirit by approving large scale, long term US aerial
and ground operations on thePakistan side of the Afghan border. Zardari
emptied the Pakistani treasury and mobilized millions of soldiers to assault
and displace frontier population centers sympathetic to the Afghan resistance.
-
- Puppets in Action: Between Imperial Subservience and
Mass Isolation
-
- The three puppet regimes have provided a
fig leaf for the imperial savaging of the colonized people of the countries
they preside over. Nouri al Maliki has over the past 5 years, not only
justified the US occupation but actively promoted the assassination
and torture of thousands of anti-colonial activists and resistance fighters.
He has sold billion dollar oil and gas concessions to overseas oil companies.
He has presided over the theft ('disappearance' or "unaccountable")
of billions of dollars in oil revenues and US foreign aid (squeezed
from US tax payers).
-
-
- Hamid Karzai, who has rarely ventured
out of the presidential compound without his US Marine bodyguards, has
been ineffective in gathering even token support except through his extended
family. His main prop was narco warlord brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, killed
by his CIA certified Chief of Security. Since Karzai's domestic support
is extremely narrow, his main functions include attending external donors
meetings, issuing press statements and rubber stamping each increase ("surge")
in US troops. The intensified use of Special Forces death squads and drone
warplanes, inflicting high civilian casualties, has further enraged Afghans.
The entire civilian and military apparatus nominally under Karzai is unquestionably,
penetrated by Taliban and other nationalist groups, making him totally
dependent on the US troops and warlords and drug traffickers
on the CIA payroll.
-
-
-
- The Pakistani puppet Arif Ali Zardari, despite
strong resistance from sectors of the military and intelligence agencies,
and despite 85% popular hostility to the US, has plunged the country
into a series of sustained large scale military offenses against Islamist
communities in the Northeast territories, displacing over 4 million refugees.
Under orders from the White House to escalate the war against
Taliban sanctuaries and their Pakistan armed allies, Zardari
has lost all credibility as a 'national' politician. He has outraged nationalist
loyalties by 'covertly' approving US gross violations of sovereignty by
allowing US Special Forces to operate from Pakistan bases in
their murderous operations against local Islamic militants.
-
-
- The daily US drone bombing of
civilians in villages, on highways and in markets has led to a near universal
consensus of his puppet status. While puppet rulers provide a useful
façade for external propaganda purposes, their effectiveness
diminishes to zero domestically, as their subservience before the imperial
slaughter of non-combatants increases. The initial imperial propaganda
ploy portraying the puppets as "associate" or "power-sharers"
loses credibility as it becomes transparent that the puppet rulers are
impotent to rectify imperial abuses. This is especially the case with
pervasive human rights violations and the destruction of the economy.
Foreign aid is widely perceived as nurturing widespread extortion, corruption
and incompetent administration of basic services.
-
- As the domestic resistance grows and as the
imperial countries 'will' to continue a decade long war and occupation
wanes, the puppet rulers, feel intense pressure to make, at least, token
expressions of 'independence'. The puppets begin to "talk back' to
the puppet-masters, attempting to play to the vast chorus of mass indignation
over the most egregious occupation crimes against humanity. The colonial
occupation begins to sink, under the weight of one-billion-dollars-per-week expenditures
from depleted treasuries. The token troop withdrawals signal the growing
importance and dependence on a highly suspect 'native' mercenary force,
causing the puppets increasingly to fear for loss of office and life.
-
- Puppet rulers begin to contemplate that it
is time to probe the possibilities of making a deal with the resistance;
time to voice popular indignation at civilian killings; time to praise
the withdrawal of troops, but nothing consequential. No abandoning the
protection of the imperial Praetorian Guard or, 'god forbid', the latest
tranche of foreign aid. It's an opportune time for Ali Zardari to criticize
the US military intrusion, killing Bin Laden; time for Al Maliki
to call on the US to "honor" its troop withdrawal in Iraq;
time for Karzai to welcome the Afghan military takeover of a province of
least resistance (Bamiyan).
-
-
- Are the puppets in some sort of 'revolt'
against the puppet master? Washington apparently is annoyed:
$800 million in aid to Pakistan has been held up pending greater
military and intelligence collaboration in scourging the countryside and
cities in search of Islamic resistance fighters. The Taliban assassination
of Karzai's brother and top political adviser Jan Mohamed Khan, important
assets in buttering the puppet regime, signals that the puppet rulers'
occasional critical emotional ejaculations are not resonating with the
Taliban "shadow government" which covers the nation and prepares
a new military offensive.
-
- The puppet 'revolts' neither influence the
colonial master nor attract the anti-colonial masses. They signal the demise
of a US attempt at colonial revivalism. It spells the end of
the illusion of the neo-conservative and neo-liberal ideologists who fervently
believed that US military power was capably of invading, occupying
and ruling the Islamic world via shadow puppets projected over a mass of
submissive peoples.
-
-
-
- The colonial example of Israel,
a narrow strip of arid coastline, remains an anomaly in a sea of independent
Islamic and secular states. Efforts by its US advocates to reproduce Israel's
relative consolidation through wars, occupations and puppet regimes has
instead led to the bankruptcy of the US and the collapse of the colonial
state. Puppets will be in flight; troops are in retreat; flags will be
lowered and a period of prolonged civil war is in the offering. Can a
democratic social revolution replace puppets and puppet masters? We in
the United States live in a time of profound and deepening crises,
in which rightwing extremism has penetrated the highest office and has
seized the initiative for now but hopefully not forever. The overseas
colonial wars are coming to a close, are domestic wars on the horizon?
|
