Sympathy for the Devil

I am very anxious not to show disrespect to the 3000 Americans who died on 9/11, not to mention the 300 English people who were also in the twin towers or the 700 Londoners who were maimed or killed on 7/7 so I hope that is taken as read.

There is a faction, possibly even a majority, in the Middle East who hate the West with a depth and vigour that we ignore at our peril. And it is not difficult to see why. It has nothing to do with hating our freedom or our success or our way of life or any of that nonsense. It has to do with how the West has behaved. It is much easier to see this if you take the West as a Bloc rather than looking at what Britain did, or what France or the US did. And I have to say that if someone had done to Europe what the West has done to the Middle East then I might be a hater, too.

In 1918 the West gained control of the whole Arab world from Morocco to Persia including EVERY country in between – Libya, Egypt, Lebanon – you name it. Much of that was Britain but the Italians and French were big players, too. Let’s just say The West. The West then ruled the Arab world until the early 1950s. During that time it enforced unpopular and unelected puppet governments on the people: the Saudis in Arabia, Feisal in Iraq, the Shah of Persia, the Hashemites in Jordan and so on. It then announced around 1920 its decision to set up a Jewish homeland in Palestine (The Balfour Declaration) and it began to pour Western migrants into that territory. Now I know that Jewish teaching says that this land was promised by God etc but if you don’t know or care anything about that you simply see a mass of Westerners arriving and setting up home in your country, protected by the might of the West. The Jew/non Jew distinction is probably lost on you and, anyway, the reason for the migration was largely driven by an internal Western problem – Germany.

After the second world war the West, now led by America, supported, indeed made possible, the existence of what would have seemed an alien state and also propped up hated and undemocratic regimes in order to secure its supply of oil and its strategic interests versus the Soviet Union.

In Bin Laden’s case the straw that broke the camel’s back was the arrival of Western troops in the religious heartland of Islam during the first Gulf War which was brought about because the West had made possible the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Consumed by anger and hatred he set out to hurt The West in any and every way that he could.


Now we have killed the guy. But whereas killing Saddam or Gadaffi removes a tyrant, you cannot kill a feeling or an idea. The removal of Bin Laden will have no effect on hostility to the West and Palin’s idea that releasing the pictures will teach America’s enemies a lesson is ridiculous. These people are not like Blofeld in the James Bond movies. They are driven by an idea and a feeling. And the idea will live on and gather strength and we will never defeat it by force. The Arab Spring is a very hopeful sign for us because it may lead to democracy which is independent of the West and this would remove one of the driving forces of anti-Western sentiment. But we won’t get out of this situation and live in peace until the hopes and dreams of the Arab peoples stand a realistic chance of being fulfilled. And that is what we should focus on if we want peace and security.