Long live the heroes of creative chaos

It is not true that America is plotting against us, as the basics of a plot involve secrecy and hatching it in the dark. More importantly, it must be unannounced. This definitely does not apply to the US projects we are calling conspiracies.

What sets the Americans apart is the fact that they generally announce their plans in advance, unambiguously so. When US President Barack Obama entered the White House he announced explicitly that he would not follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, George W Bush. He said that his administration would move away from the cowboy policy of direct armed intervention in global affairs towards intelligence-driven conflicts or backseat leadership in order to avoid the financial and human cost of military action.

We have seen this with US policy in Syria. Instead of interfering militarily, the US has depended exclusively on intelligence and foreign groups to achieve the desired outcomes, including conflict, destruction, devastation and “creative chaos”. Obama was successful in his intelligence war, as he achieved a lot in the region without losing one American soldier.

Despite the fact that he used his first speech to announce that his country would not interfere in international conflicts, it seems that the Arabs did not listen; they missed the advance outline of his intended foreign policy. Arabs here, there and everywhere urged the Obama administration to interfere in Syria, Libya and Yemen without knowing that his time as president would be different to that of his predecessor. When they failed to convince Obama to interfere in Syria, they claimed that there was an American plot against us. They were wrong. There are no US conspiracies or plots against us. If the Americans were plotting against us, then we can be sure that they would have announced the conspiracy in advance.

Just as the Arabs failed to listen to Obama’s first speech in the White House, they also failed to hear about the plan launched by Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State under President George W Bush, which she called “creative chaos”. Despite the danger of the American project and its catastrophic effects on the region, the Arabs did not take it seriously;instead, they contented themselves with attacking it in the media, without actually knowing what it was, how it would affect them and how it would change the region’s landmarks, and perhaps even its geography. I most definitely am not saying that the Arab revolutions were part of this“creative chaos”, as even if some foreign parties intervened in the uprisings, they were still legitimate revolutions that were long overdue. Hence, the problem is not in the peoples’ right to rebel against oppression, tyranny and injustice, but in properly executing these revolutions in a manner that prevents them from becoming part of other projects,allowing them to remain our own national project.

Our revolutions provided the US with a golden opportunity to implement its “creative chaos”. It does not care who wins in the revolutions as long as they help the Americans to achieve the goals of this chaos. Hence, the US sat back and did not interfere in Syria or anywhere else, not because it didn’t want to get its hands dirty, but because it wanted to get all of the other parties involved in the revolutions. That was the way to create regional conflict and chaos, regardless of who wins and who loses; the US and the project it announced years before the revolutions began will always win in the end.

Take a look at Syria, for example; the US did not mind anyone getting involved. US intelligence facilitated the entry of some armed groups into Syria in order to fight the regime, and then it gave the green light to many regional, Arab and international parties to interfere in the conflict and fan the flames. America was not content with only allowing opposition forces to enter Syria; it also allowed pro-regime forces, such as Iran and its allies, to enter. It then allowed Russia to get involved and left everyone to get on with it, even though they resorted to all forms of brutality.

Why? Because this is the essence of “creative chaos”. The White House chief of staff was very frank when he told the Wall Street Journal years ago that the situation in Syria is ideal for America because all of the bad guys from various trends are fighting each other and are getting rid of each other in the Syrian pot. This, of course, is the most important ingredient for America’s “creative chaos” dish.

As such, it is absurd to expect the US to punish any of the parties involved in the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen or Libya. All of the parties are achieving exactly what America wants from them for its “creative chaos” to be a success; why would Washington punish them?We should expect the US to reward them and support them for the time being.

Furthermore, do not expect Washington to punish Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, no matter what he does, because he is the commander of its“creative chaos”. The same has to be said about Iran, Russia, Hezbollah or any of the Arab and regional parties involved in the Middle Eastern conflicts; none will be sanctioned because America is very happy with their actions in executing America’s destructive project. When these parties finish the task at hand, only then might things be different. In the meantime, we can almost hear Washington whispering in their ears, “God bless you. Long live the heroes of creative chaos.”

Translated from Arabi21, 8 January 2017

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.