The Current Wars Against Imperialism
Understanding What the "Titanic Geopolitical Struggle" Against Russia, Iran, and China Is Really About. And Why Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine Matter So Much.
Although adding further insight to a Thomas Friedman article can sometimes seem like “clinging a cowbell at the end of Shostikovich's 7th [Symphony],” I thought I might as well give it a try.
So here goes: Friedman’s most recent column, entitled “A Titanic Geopolitical Struggle,” discusses how Russia’s war in Ukraine and the current conflict in the Middle East are part of a much greater geopolitical struggle. That struggle, as Friedman points out, is one that will determine the future of this post-post Cold War era.
Will the world fall under the dominance of nations like Russia and Iran? Will the most influential governments of the world be run by autocrats dedicated to preserving all the worst of their problematic pasts? Or will the world follow the model of “the Inclusion Network,” nations that make firm commitments to truly better the lives of their people and preserve the hope of a better future?
Yet this is also a larger war against imperialism, a war the United States—and the whole free world—must take charge in.
Take Russia’s war in Ukraine. It is first and foremost a war against Ukrainians as a people and as a culture. It is part of a centuries-long effort to “crush cultural figures promoting Ukrainian independence by killing them.” Russia’s war is against the Ukrainian spirit, for they know that killing a nation’s artists means killing those who truly understand what makes their nation worth dying for.
One of the more recent Ukrainian casualties in this effort was 33-year-old poet-soldier Makysm Kryvtsov. But even the tragedy of Mr. Kryvtsov’s death fails to capture the full scale of Russia’s planned cultural erasure of Ukraine. If you wonder what exactly that could entail, explore the stories of Russia’s new anti-Ukrainian “re-education camps.” Tour the remains of the town of Bucha, or listen to the many horrible stories of the Bucha massacre.
As tragic as Kryvtsov’s death is, and as tragic as many of these stories of Russian brutalities are, I am confident that the Ukrainian people will stand strong against imperialist Russia. Like Kryvtsov himself, I look forward to the day when the Ukranian people “[w]ill sprout as violets in the spring.” Because the Ukrainian people will forever remain unconquerable. Which is why we Americans should remain firm in our commitments to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.
The fate of the free world may depend on it. Because Russia is currently trying to spread its model of imperialism across Africa. And if Russia is so willing to treat its neighbors like it has in Ukraine, how will it treat the more distant peoples of Africa?
The war in the Middle East is also a war against imperialism. Namely, it is a war against the imperialist ambitions of Iran, a nation dedicated to the destruction of Jews and the repression of women. Remarkably, Iran and its imperialist stooges (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis) have gained their notoriety by passing themselves off as the liberators in these stories. They are not. They are actors, pretend resistance fighters. In fact, in different circumstances, their performances might be worthy of Academy Awards.
So let’s set the record straight: Israel is not the problem. Netanyahu and his dangerous plans for West Bank settlements are the problem. Radical Israeli minister Ben Gvir and his anti-Arab policy positions are the problem.
I repeat, the state of Israel—as it was originally conceived—is not the problem. Jesus was a Palestinian, yes. But he was also a Palestinian Jew. His Jewish kinsmen once walked the soil of Palestine, and their descendants later surrendered their homes and their land to the whims of imperial Rome. But the fall of Rome brought the Jewish people no comfort, as they soon became the victims of statelessness, persecution, and slaughter at the hands of Rome’s “civilized” successors in Western Europe.
The culmination of that abuse, of course, was the Shoah (i.e., the Holocaust), the systematic murder of 6 million Jews at the hands of a fanatical racist imperialist Nazi regime. Is it any wonder that the Jews that survived this horrific era should seek a refuge from persecution in their very own nation?
Is this really what we should be calling “settler colonialism?” If it is, I wonder what the legacy of Black nationalist and Back-to-Africa movement leader Marcus Garvey will be. Was he a settler colonialist too?
Clearly, thinking of Israel and Palestine as just another straightforward oppressor vs. oppressed situation is to misunderstand it entirely. In reality, Israel and Palestine are two victims of imperialism and colonialism each seeking some measure of justice—however long delayed. Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle now in both peoples getting that little bit of justice are the understandable suspicions and grievances they harbor towards each other.
To overcome these suspicions and grievances, we must imagine an Israel post-Bibi. In that Israel, far right politicians will not manipulate the Israeli Jewish public’s legitimate fears of mass slaughter (i.e., as happened during the Shoah, or the Holocaust) to gain support for “indiscriminate bombing” campaigns.
Yet that will not be possible if Iran and its imperialist stooges have their way. They want a two-state solution even less than Netanyahu does (if such a thing is possible). Iran’s goal is nothing less than the annihiliation of Israel; everything else, including the fate of Palestinians and Arab Israelis, comes second. If at all. Which is why protesters in Iran—remarkably enough—have been “popping up to express support for Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and against Tehran’s [i.e., Iran’s] imperial adventures” (emphasis mine).
Iranian protesters know full well the stakes of this fight. Iran should not win this war. More than a thousand Israelis and tens of thousands of Palestinians should not die in vain. The United States must continue to actively seek a two-state solution, and a lasting peace for Israel and Palestine.
As you can see, the stakes of the current wars against imperialism could not be higher. And, if we make the right choice, then we can look forward to a day when Ukrainians, Israelis, and Palestinians alike “will sprout as violets in the spring.”