Re-reading my comments, I got a bit caught up in anger about the whole left-right labelling. The reason this matters to me though is because the only way we can ever justify past 'embarrassments' like these is by convincing ourselves that either (a) this is just one view of the truth, and it can be counteracted by the official version that will make us sleep easy at night again, or (b) our leaders 'made mistakes' but would definitely act differently now.
I'm not convinced it can, or we would.
One thing that is clear: wait long enough, and the most cynical, underhand actions - crimes even - will provoke barely a whimper of outrage among the populace. Time is not just the great healer, it's the great eraser.
Quote:
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Brzezinski's plan was to create an international movement that would spread Islamic fundamentalism in Central Asia and 'destabilise' the Soviet Union, creating, as he wrote in his autobiography, a 'few stirred-up Muslims'.
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A few stirred-up Muslims.
Funnily enough, I think what angers me most isn't the ruthless decisions taken by those playing side against side. It's us, the public. The fortunate, well-fed, generally well-off public. In particular, the sentiment often heard in countries like ours that Muslims only ever have themselves to blame. That comforting post-colonial thing some tell themselves that Muslims must somehow be intrinsically incapable of peace, that they're "even fighting amongst themselves for godssakes!" and just the general snobbery that swishes around about "the natives". I can handle and accept the ignorance, but the sneering and spite and certainty that accompanies it just makes me sick.
Does anyone honestly believe things have changed? That we are more ethical now?
Our (now-deceased) former foreign secretary of the Blair era made a big thing about introducing an 'ethical dimension' to UK foreign policy over a decade ago. Yet we were still arming Suharto's Indonesia to the hilt that same year. In fact we were their biggest arms supplier, with the Blair government approving eleven arms deals with them, all under the Official Secrets Act (obviously such was the UK's 'ethicalness'.
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And it's clear things haven't changed in the UK, with my former employer's deals with Saudi Arabia being hushed up by ministers.
But can we believe in the intentions of Barack Obama?
(Does it even matter if we can? I constantly come back to the question, how far is the PoTUS really in charge of the long term direction?)
Or are figures at that level privy to certain truths about the way the world works - has to work - that the rest of us are simply too incapable of appreciating? Tough decisions, greater good, dog-eat-dog, and all that?
(Yep, I'm having another of those 'don't know what to believe' moments!)
I just find it hard to believe that Afghan women - and Muslims generally - should have to suffer because the slate has been wiped clean of our historical involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon..... and that there really is no other way of looking after our own countries' interests.