[ Silence ]
>> Professor Noam
Chomsky: The United States
and its Western allies are
assured to do whatever they can
to prevent authentic
democracy in the Arab world,
and the very simple reasons
for that, to understand why,
it's only necessary to look at
the studies of Arab opinion,
which are conducted by the
most prestigious U.S. polling
agencies, released
by major institutions
like the Booking Institution.
They reveal that by
overwhelming majorities,
Arabs regard the U.S. and Israel
as the major threats they face.
The United, in Egypt, the
United States is regarded
as the major threat by
90 percent of Egyptians,
and the region generally
not much less than that.
Some regard Iran as a
threat, ten percent.
Opposition to U.S. policy is so
strong that a majority believe
that the region would be, that
security would be improved
for the region if Iran
had nuclear weapons.
In Egypt, that's 80 percent.
Other figures are similar.
If public opinion were
to influence policy,
the United States would not
only not control the region,
but it would be expelled
from it.
Britain as well along
with its allies.
Now that would undermine
fundamental principles
of global domination
that have been operative
in their current form
since the Second World War,
and as far as Britain's
concerned,
back long before then.
In general, support for
democracy is the province
of ideologists and propagandas.
In the real world as the
more serious scholarship has
conceded, the U.S. and its
allies support democracy if
and only if it corresponds
to strategic
and economic objectives.
Actually, Stalin would
have said the same thing.
Elite contempt for democracy
was revealed very dramatically
in the reaction to the
recent Wiki leaks exposures.
The ones that received
the most attention
with euphoric commentary
were the cables that reported
that Arabs support the
U.S. stand on Iran.
Really important.
Now the reference
was reflectively
to the ruling dictators.
Now the attitudes of the
public were unmentioned.
The guiding principle
behind this apart
from the obvious contempt
for democracy on the part
of the general intellectual
community,
the guiding principle was
articulated quite clearly
by a Carnegie endowment Middle
East specialist, Marwan Muasher.
He's formerly a high official
of the Jordanian dictatorship.
The principle is
there's nothing wrong.
Everything is under control.
In short, as long as the
dictators support us,
what else could matter.
The Muasher doctrine is
rationale and venerable.
To mention just one case
that's highly relevant today,
and my opinion ought to be
in the front pages, in 1958,
President Eisenhower expressed
an internal discussion
since declassified,
he expressed a concern
about what he called
the campaign of hatred
against us in the Arab world.
Not by governments
but by the people.
The National Security
Council explained
at the same time
the reasons for it.
It's the highest planning body.
Well, they said there's a
perception in the Arab world
that the United States
supports dictatorships
and blocks democracy and
development, and that we do
that so as to ensure control
over the resources
of the region.
And, furthermore,
they went on to say
that the perception
is basically accurate,
and that that's exactly
what we should be doing.
The relying on the
Muasher doctrine.
As long as people are quiet,
everything's under control.
It's fine.
The, after 9/11, there were
internal government studies,
U.S. government studies which
confirmed that the same is true.
They responded to George
W. Bush's plaintive plea
that they hate our freedoms.
They concluded that no, they
don't hate our freedoms.
No, they hate our policies
and with good reason.
Same reason they
did in the 1950's.
Actually, 1958 was a
particularly interesting moment
because that was just two years
after Eisenhower had
expelled Britain, France,
and Israel from Egyptian
territory, and not incidentally
because he disapproved
of the invasion.
He thought that was OK,
but the timing was bad.
It interfered with a U.S.
planned coup in Syria,
and he didn't like
the disobedience.
That Britain, France,
and Israel were supposed
to understand who's boss, and
not to carry out operations
like this without
informing the master.
So they were summarily expelled,
and you might have guessed
that Arabic public opinion
would be favourable to the U.S.
after this, but they perceive
things a little more deeply
than Western ideologists.
So, yes, there was a campaign
of hatred for the reasons
that the NSC, National
Security Council articulated.
The current polls,
which I mentioned,
indicate that how little
anything has changed
in this regard.
Not at all, in fact.
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