Humanitarian

Despite claims by the American government at different times, but especially after 9/11, to be waging a war on fundamentalist Islam, and despite the attempt by America’s elite to capitalize off of anti-Arab sentiment present in the opinions of the American public, fundamentalism has never been an enemy; indeed, the US has promoted religious extremism and on many occasions has supported them with monetary or military denotations.  Similarly, Israel was complacent with the rise of militant Islamist groups in the beginning because they felt that such sectarianism would divide the secular Palestinian resistance.  

In America’s Middle East policy, we are witnessing a new manifestation of the old Marxist truism that states that the elite will attempt to divide the proletariat by racial, religion, and gender prejudices.  In this case, of course, we can substitute proletariat for the Arabic people, the model works perfectly.  The US has been eager to exploit ancient racial and religious conflicts in the Middle East for the precise reason that the bourgeois was eager to divide the proletariat by race and gender prejudices: a divided populace cannot act collectively to destroy the capitalist system, just as division in the Middle East prevents the rise of secular Arabic Nationalism, the true enemy of the US.  By funding fundamentalists, such as Osama bin Laden and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the US has been able to sabotage secular nationalist movements that were threatening American interest.

Fundamentalist regimes are also excellent for American interest, as long as they are willing to do business with the US.  Extremist regimes are by their very nature oppressive and undemocratic, so such a regime will crush dissident and popular rebellions within the country.  Take Saudi Arabia, a prime example of a fundamentalist government working within the neoliberal American system, for example.  Because Saudi Arabia’s government has no regard for human rights and enforces Sharia law, it can easily devastate democratic movements.

Fundamentalism is not something that the US has ever discouraged, and has on numerous occasions, taken advantage of conflicts between religious extremists; the true enemy is Arabic democracy.