On the day following the Nov. 27 terrorist attack in Paris, an anonymous individual arrived on a bicycle at the Bataclan Concert Hall, one of the scenes of the horrific attack; he sat down at the mobile grand piano which had been moved just outside the building; and he began playing John Lennon’s well-known song “Imagine”. Bystanders and members of the press listened in silence to his rendition of Lennon’s classic peace anthem:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
After finishing the song, the unknown musician left the scene in tears.
In the days that have followed, commentators, pundits and political leaders around the globe have imagined many things, but peace has not been one of them. Governors across the US have imagined that the refugees from Syria pose an imminent threat to the safety and security of their respective States, overlooking the fact that the terrorists perpetrating the Paris attack had a closer connection to Belgium than to Syria. Others have imagined that Edward Snowden directly or indirectly aided the terrorists, as if the Islamic terrorists had not been capable of using encrypted emails before they heard about the events made public by the American whistleblower. Then, they are still others who imagine that the Islamic terrorists hate the Western world because of its high ideals and that they are determined to destroy Western civilization.
Then came the December 2nd mass shooting at a social services facility in San Bernardino, California, and with this further attack, the rhetoric of imagining has reached a new level. Not only are some politicians imagining that a refusal to accept Muslim refugees is warranted, but at least one of them is imagining the possibility of internment camps for resident Muslims.
In the midst of the rampant imagining of possible connections and impossible solutions, I would like to add my own version. Just imagine that there had been no oil in the Middle East! Just imagine that oil in this region had not been discovered just prior to the outbreak of the First World War–oil reserves overshadowing the known quantities in other parts of the world. If these oil reserves had not been discovered in 1909, the Brits would not have sought a foothold in Iran in order to control the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It is also unlikely that Great Britain would have been so interested following WWI in obtaining a mandate to control the region of Palestine–a region which had been a part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire for more than 600 years. Furthermore, the CIA of the United States would not have participated in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953, which eventually led to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Had there been no oil at stake, we probably would not have supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988, even making him an honorary citizen of Detroit! Just imagine that there had been no oil in the region. Then there would have been no US-led Gulf War in 1990 in order to “protect” Kuwait. Nor would we have been interested in overthrowing Saddam Hussein when he was no longer of any benefit to us. Was Saddam Hussein a brutal dictator? The answer is unequivocally: yes. Does our government have the policy of overthrowing dictators because they are brutal to their people? Of course not! Who really cares about the brutality of Isaias Afwerki, the President of Eritrea, who is forcing thousands of refugees into Switzerland? Just imagine that there were no oil in the Middle East. Would we really care today whether or not President Bashar al-Assad retains his power in Syria? I doubt it.
Just imagine that there were no oil in the Middle East. But there is! And so for more than a century, Western powers including the United States have interfered in the politics of the region. As a result, we have obtained a lot of oil, but we have also reaped a multitude of problems. ISIS is one of them. Today, we are indeed a long way from John Lennon’s peace, and I don’t really think that anyone is totally clear about a strategy to remedy the situation. I am personally convinced that military engagement is unavoidable, but I am equally convinced that military engagement alone will never bring a resolution to the problem. In spite of our own culpability in the matter, it is unfortunately necessary at this point in time to oppose the Islamic terrorists with brute force, but it is equally necessary to befriend those Muslims who are not radical, lest they too be pushed into the terrorist camp through our discrimination. ISIS is not a country; it’s a movement. People join movements in search of comradery when they are ostracized from their immediate cultural environment. People join movements in search of meaning when they have lost all hope of finding it in their present circumstances. Befriending friendly Muslims is just as important as combating radical ones. In doing so, we might just move a step closer to John Lennon’s vision of peace.
Villager Jack Brush is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
