The Benghazi-Botch And No Retreat Now

A few unresolved old questions have once again been raised by the tragic incident in Benghazi.

Pankaj Mishra in his article “America’s Inevitable Retreat From the Middle East” in the September 24, 2012 issue of The New York Times said: “The drama of waning American power is being re-enacted in the Middle East and South Asia after two futile wars and the collapse or weakening of pro-American regimes.”

Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, continued with his dissection: “[T]he United States […] missed the central event of the 20th century: the steady, and often violent, political awakening of peoples […] This strange oversight explains why American policy makers kept missing their chances for peaceful post-imperial settlements in Asia.”

He pinpoints a few embarrassing facts: “[President Woodrow Wilson], a Southerner fond of jokes about ‘darkies’, believed in maintaining ‘white civilization and its domination over the world’. Franklin D. Roosevelt was only slightly more conciliatory when, in 1940, he proposed mollifying dispossessed Palestinian Arabs with a ‘little baksheesh’.” Roosevelt changed his mind after meeting the Saudi leader Ibn Saud and learning of oil’s importance to the postwar American economy.”

A practical problem is identified by Mishra: “Given its long history of complicity with dictators in the region […] the United States faces a huge deficit of trust”.

He mentions another embarrassing incident that expresses a dilemma also: “It is not just extremist Salafis who think Americans always have malevolent intentions: the Egyptian anti-Islamist demonstrators who pelted Hillary Rodham Clinton’s motorcade in Alexandria with rotten eggs in July were convinced that America was making shady deals with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

On the basis of a trend Mishra assumes “a strategic American retreat from the Middle East” as he observes, “the limits of both American firepower and diplomacy have been exposed. Financial leverage, or baksheesh, can work only up to a point […]”

This leads Mishra to conclude: “It is the world’s newly ascendant nations and awakened peoples that will increasingly shape events in the post-Western era. America’s retrenchment is inevitable. The only question is whether it will be as protracted and violent as Europe’s mid-20th century retreat from a newly assertive Asia and Africa.”

The opinion is accompanied by a report in the September 24, 2012 issue of The New York Times: “Attack in Libya Was Major Blow to C.I.A. Efforts”. The report said: The attack in Benghazi “has dealt the CIA a major setback […] at a time of increasing instability in the North African nation.”

It informed: “Among the more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from the city after the assault […] were about a dozen C.I.A. operatives and contractors, who played a crucial role in conducting surveillance and collecting information […]” The CIA’s surveillance targets include Ansar al-Sharia and suspected members of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa. “Eastern Libya is also being buffeted by strong crosscurrents that intelligence operatives are trying to monitor closely”, said the report.

Quoting an American official the report said: “It’s a catastrophic intelligence loss. We got our eyes poked out.” “Senior American officials acknowledged the intelligence setback, but insisted that information was still being collected using a variety of informants on the ground, systems that intercept electronic communications like cell phone conversations and satellite imagery. ‘The U.S. isn’t close to being blind in Benghazi and eastern Libya’, said an American official.”

The NYT report informed: Within months of the start of Libyan upheaval in February 2011, the CIA began building a meaningful but covert presence in Benghazi. American intelligence operatives helped train Libya’s new intelligence service. Though the agency has been cooperating with the new post-Qaddafi Libyan intelligence service, the size of the CIA’s presence in Benghazi apparently surprised some Libyan leaders. The deputy prime minister, Mustafa Abushagour, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal last week saying that he learned about some of the delicate American operations in Benghazi only after the attack on the mission, in large part because a surprisingly large number of Americans showed up at the Benghazi airport to be evacuated. The CIA personnel carried out their missions. The New York Times agreed to withhold locations and details of these operations at the request of Obama administration officials, who said that disclosing such information could jeopardize future sensitive government activities and put at risk American personnel working in dangerous settings.

Mishra will appear logical if one listens to Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s president, and Barack Obama, US president, along with the NYT’s Benghazi-report and recent incidents in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

On the eve of his first visit to the US as Egypt’s president, Mohammed Morsi said he will demonstrate more independence from the US in decision-making. He told Washington not to expect Egypt to live by its rules. Morsi’s message was through an interview with The New York Times. The NYT asked Morsi if the US was an ally, “to which he replied with a laugh by saying: ‘That depends on your definition of ally.’ However, he quickly followed by saying he wants a real friendship with the US, ‘real friends’.”

On the other hand, President Obama responded at Mitt Romney’s criticisms of his handling of Syria and Iran, saying that if the Republican standard-bearer “is suggesting that we should start another war, he should say so.”

The tones of two presidents, one of independence and another of conciliation, may sound strange. Further developments in New York and Libya followed.

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, offered Libya more help stressing that Washington will remain a firm partner. Mrs. Clinton met Mohammed Magarief, the interim Libyan leader, in New York, and received his personal apology for the Benghazi attack. Citing a senior US official media report informed: Clinton reviewed US assistance to Libya and crack down on armed militia groups. “The secretary offered to intensify our support and help for the Libyan government in all of those areas”, the official said following the meeting. Despite a temporary drawdown in US personnel following the Benghazi attack, the official said security cooperation and training was ongoing and would expand.
In Libya, the country’s army has removed the heads of two of Benghazi's main militia groups, The February 17 Brigade’s Bukatif and Rafallah al-Sahati’s Ismail. The Ansar al-Sharia group was driven out of Benghazi. Two militant groups based in Derna were disbanded on Sunday. Magarief, on Sunday, issued a 48-hour deadline for militias to vacate state property. Magarief asserted: “[We want to] dissolve all militias and military camps which are not under the control of the state.”

In the Middle East, days of disorder lie ahead as competing capitals are trying to gain control. Africa, actually, is being re-conquered by the same competing interests. Interference, covert war and secret backing to bands are parts of regular activities by powerful players. Possessions are changing hands, and positions are being strengthened and widened in the continent. Business and investment reports, trade agreements and contracts, and political, diplomatic and military maneuvers in the region reveal the fact. Incidents in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Sudan are not isolated developments.

A single example: Hollande, the French leader, in his first appearance at the UN general assembly, is expected to call for backing for an international force to be sent to Mali to help dislodge Islamist militants who have taken over the north of the country. Examples of maneuver, to deepen involvement and extend hands, are abundant in the region and the continent. The continent carries lucrative promises for capital.

Neither the competition nor the contradiction is with the militants. Interests are there, who arm and train bands. The interests are competing, and competition is accelerating and intensifying.

In a time of compounded competition, the question of retreat is difficult to consider, at least now. Decline within doesn’t always lead to retreat. Arrangements, deals and agreements, widening area of operation, being done by competing interests don’t signal: It’s time to retreat.

The Benghazi-botch, the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi and murder of four Americans there, is not equal to the Tehran-thorn, seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. The situation is not also equal to the fall of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, in 1975. These are neither in terms of local condition nor in terms of international array of forces.

The latest one, Benghazi incident, shows a number of limitations that may appear strange but not strange in real perspective. Is the incident a mere technical, security and intelligence, failure or assumption and management mistake? Are there shadow players, deeply entrenched, in the “game” with a long term agenda? Is there any trace of factionalism, not only in Libya and Egypt, elsewhere also? Unattended questions related to involvement, contradictions, imbalance of power, decline and aggressiveness move around while instigations are made and lives are lost.

All These Volatile Days

The days now are volatile and uncertain. Assange-incident now seemingly has gone to backyard. Same is the Occupy Movement anniversary. Flaring incidents in regions around the world are engulfing days and attention. Implications of the incidents are long-term. And, exposed are the perpetrators.

Iran front is tense since long. A shadow war is going on there. As goes the cyber war. That’s part of a great game. With expanding hands Iran is still holding its position.

Interventionists are flaring up Syria. That’s also part of a grand strategy. Stakes are higher in the area.

The war, virtually, is being waged from Pakistan to Syria, a large theater that touches fringe of Europe. Lebanon, Jordan, Kurdistan, Turkey, all have been made active party to the conflagration. Turkey has started taking hits. Lebanon is charged. The moment of formal burst out is unknown there.

Iraq and Afghanistan are regular headlines with deadly strikes and deaths.

Neither central Asia nor the Caspian region is cool. The Pacific, the South China Sea, the Far East are turning tense with each passing day and with each move by the jealous actors. Military moves are there in Australia and Indonesia. There is renewed military engagement between New Zealand and the US. Competition is beating war drum. But, war is not an easy strike.

Near to China, the island-trade by Japan isn’t a stray one. The customer, Japan, was well aware of the follow up tension. China’s reaction is fitting to the innocent appearing business deal. Not only China, any one will find provocation in the trade. The business has provided pretext to mobilize weapons and for conducting test of hybrid aircraft, defensive in appearance, in Japan.

Japan’s China invasion anniversary is an annual event. The Chinese people reiterate their independence and denounce the aggressor. But the assault on the US ambassador’s car in the Chinese capital is unprecedented. It’s a strong and loud message.

Neither the island- nor the car-incident happened without much exercise. None of these were thoughtless act.

From Moscow, news is dispatched: office of the USAID, the US official aid agency, in the Russian capital has been asked to close down. Moscow’s tone is strong. After the 90s, it’s unprecedented incident in Moscow. It’s also a significant message from the Kremlin bosses. The Kremlin has gone through much change. Change is also in Russian money-power. The change in attitude follows.

In Africa, maneuvers and incidents are many. Very significant initiatives are being taken by the world players there. Tough, almost cut throat competition is going on in the continent.

Europe is occupied with pains and problems of one of its biggest projects – the Union. Bankers’ interest is playing the biggest role in the present day Europe. Competitions are powerful. There are budget constraints, unemployment, sufferings. The electorates in Europe are frustrated, and turning restless. A section of the Europeans are migrating to Africa in search of employment. An astonishing shift!

Gloomy economy is charging political battle in the US. Its citizens are turning tired with wars. Painful news from Afghanistan is reaching the land. Expressions are not happy. Teachers’ strike, historic, emerged there.

Royal photo episode is trying to keep citizens busy. But, ultimately it attracts only the saucy news seekers, not the job seekers. There is legal action to secure royal dignity. The legal initiative shows there is limit to expression.

Suddenly, portions of a film mysteriously emerged. Its path of publicity is equally mysterious. Situation, from Indonesia to Tunisia, suddenly flared up. An analyst expressed doubt about the existence of the entire film. But, there is no doubt that portions of the film exist. Some aspects of the following events were unprecedented.

Impact of following events – in countries, in areas of election, military mobilization, geopolitics, alliance, political career and political equation – don’t miss any onlooker’s eyes. Along with loss of valuable lives burning questions of life in societies turned blurred and volatility emerged starkly.

Societies, in the North and in the South, reeling under crises – from financial, food and energy to climate and environment – are passing uncertain days overwhelmed with fundamental questions of survival. Hospitals and educational institutions are feeling burnt of the crises. So, the patients, physicians, students, teachers and guardians are. Profit seekers are taking hold of health care and education. Strikes are regular feature of citizens’ struggle in Europe. At times, the strikes with economic demands are turning political.

Food crisis is looming over the lives of millions. There is water crisis. Vanishing polar ice and rapidly retreating glaciers are sending alert messages. Extreme weather is declaring uncertain yield and time. The situation carries elements of volatility.

Arms traders need profit, the unquenched thirst. Strife and war are their requirement as they always require. State of some economies is hastening the requirement.

Is it that elements of volatility are rushing together? Or, are factors trying to create pretext for widening area of operation? Or, are efforts being made to influence election or geopolitical move? Or, is peoples’ attention being diverted? Answers to the questions are essential.

Answers to the questions are indefinite to many. Hatred charged situation harms peoples’ democratic struggle. Common problems of bread, peace and democracy are missed with spread of hatred and divisive force among people. Democracy faces new challenge as peoples’ solidarity and fraternity are breached, an act that capitals perform efficiently in societies during fickle time.

Powers initiate desperate projects as they realize self-limitations. It’s a desperado-game. They need diversionary tact. But, should people step in into the trap?

An Exercise In Imagination

Let’s imagine, the days are pre-’90s, 1969 or ’84 or ’88. The name of the country, in imagination, is USSR, popularly known as the Soviet Union, or GDR (DDR), popularly known as East Germany, or Bulgaria or Hungary or some other country with a post-revolutionary society.

Let’s imagine, the name of the ruler, termed dictator in mainstream parlance, is Brezhnev or Kosygin or Podgorny or Chernenko or an X, Y, Z considered as adherents of centralized planning and opposed to a world propagated free.

Let’s imagine, hundreds, thousands of citizens of that society have been pushed out of their homes and many of them are living in tents set up between railway tracks or living in subway stations or on pavements while thousands of homes silently stand vacant. Many of them are going hungry and they rely on breadlines to have their barest minimum human existence. Hundreds, thousands of children go hungry, they drop out of schools. Hundreds of schools are being closed down as revolutionary politicians are failing to arrange money for running the schools. The same reason pushes hundreds of teachers out of jobs. The post-revolutionary societies can’t arrange health care for hundreds of its citizens. The numbers may be more than hundreds or thousands. The numbers probably reach to millions. The centralized economy is throwing away, to mention in a sober way, thousands of its workers as it is failing to run its manufacturing units. But, the speculation market in this imagined society of dream is trading, actually gambling with, let’s name it, revolutionary bonds, worth of trillions of dollandro. The trillion dollandro transaction goes on only within a few days, not in a year. The centrally planned economies are of old age, keeping the count low, 200 years.

Let’s imagine, a number of towns, cities, municipalities in the post-revolutionary society has gone bankrupt or filed for bankruptcy due to bickering among the municipal revolutionary leadership or mismanagement or inefficiency or debt. In at least a municipality in the vast Soviet land citizens gathered and demanded pay cut of municipal leadership as it turned out that the revolutionaries were drawing salary of illogical and irrational size, too big. Individuals frustrated with the revolutionary tax officials have protested. At least one frustrated and desperate revolutionary guy tried to hit a tax office with a small plane. A number of schools in the Soviet land experienced incidents of shooting by students and number of students died. The type of the shooting is almost a regular event. And, the society regularly produces frustrated but trigger-happy shooters.

Let’s imagine, workers with revolutionary zeal have defied their Marxist trade union leadership and occupied at least a plant. And, in the land of revolutionary freedom at least a law can be found that stands on the way to organize unions and makes striking difficult, sometimes impossible.

The imagined land of revolutionary hope witnessed riots, sometimes by immigrants invited to run its factories, sometimes by youth and children. A number of those rioting young boys were in the age group of 11-14.

Institutions of higher learning in the imagined land are controlled by the state enterprises. There in the land, a lot of students are debt burdened. Sometimes, cases emerge that the debtor-student has completed her or his student life and has tuned old, but the debt is yet to be repaid as the former student failed to repay as the former student lacks capacity to repay.

Strange is the imagined revolutionary society! Sometimes, case emerges that this or that famous artist, film star or singer, turns drug addict, turns frustrated, commits suicide or dies in mysterious circumstance. The society produces such frustrated celebrities facing a hopeless horizon.

An amused environment, in truest sense, dominates the imagined land. Jovial persons are there in the society. They spend a lot, unimaginable amount of money, for drinks-dinning-dancing and all related activities while noteworthy number of children languish in den of misery.

Amazing vigor the society produces! One can always find some persons spewing hatred; sometimes against color, sometimes against religious belief.

Let’s forget these lower parts of these societies that propagate a nice world of revolutionary liberty and freedom.

Suddenly, it comes to light that an East German or a Hungarian revolutionary leader was provided with money by a despised dictator in Africa to smoothly conduct revolutionary election in the polit bureau or in the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body. Suddenly, it comes to light that another revolutionary leader from another revolutionary land was provided with money by an old lady equipped with revolutionary ideology. Suddenly, it comes to light that a section of members of the Supreme Soviet were tricking with bills they submitted with the authority. Suddenly, it comes to light that number of scandals with Supreme Soviet members is not a few.

Wise is the Supreme Soviet Court, the imagined highest revolutionary legal office that delivers justice! The court finds: Collective farms or state-run super-industries are person; so these are entitled rights of persons. As these turn persons, these production or business bodies contribute money, huge in amount, to elections so that their candidate of choice gets elected so that they can repay by formulating laws favorable to the collectivehood or industryhood.

The year 1984 was near to nose of citizens. Pravda, Izvestia, the main section of the press in the Soviet land, Tass, the main news agency of the country, Radio Berlin or Budapest TV, the main broadcaster or telecaster of the land started discussing the touted Orwell-novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. They were also discussing Animal Farm. Their media-comrades in other lands joined them and an inter-continental orchestra, at least 12-month long, was organized. The purpose was to make the world alert of big brother in a tyrannized land, who was always keeping eyes on its subjects, controlling and manipulating brains of citizens. It was a noble mission to alert ordinary citizens about dictatorial rule. But suddenly it came out that the imagined land of freedom was having a bigger eye, stronger manipulation, and an all encompassing ideology – greed and accumulate.

Anyhow, the revolutionary leadership organized an international sport event. To ensure safety of the event, the revolutionary leadership decided to mobilize missiles, but not the ICBMs, on rooftops of civilian citizens in Moscow or Warsaw.

Anyway, the Soviet polit bureau failed to forget the Roman rulers’ tact: Invade a country or wage a war anywhere whenever there is possibility of a rebellion in home. They were faithful to the Roman ruling tact.

Whatsoever, the economy in the imagined Soviet land required the wars. Those were not only for distracting and demobilizing the citizens. Wars were like life lines to the revolutionary economy claiming to be the best.

Whatever goes in the economy, there was revolutionary politics, and the politics inspired the Soviet Blackmail & Hacking magazine editor to press the chief of the imagined state to hasten the decision to invade a country.

The economy, wisest and most efficient in the world, was successfully keeping in abeyance contradictions with the society. That was the revolutionary efficiency. And, it was happy with its efficiency of keeping contradictions unresolved. It was more than confident that contradictions within can be kept unresolved for indefinite period. It was a hope-infinite.

This story can move on and on as it was a story of a system destined to bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the world humanity, as it was a society Conceived in Liberty. It will be an affront to the society and its leadership to compose short stories on the system. It requires epics. It’s a justified expectation.

Should not humanity prefer this society? If the imaginary exercise nose dives and finds the ground reality? And, if the ground reality shows that the society is capitalist society hundreds of years old? Should humanity prefer it?