Axis of Resistance: Towards an Independent Middle East

by Tim Anderson

Overview

his book, Axis of Resistance: towards an independent Middle East, follows the author’s 2016 book The Dirty War on Syria. It examines the end of the war on Syria and the wider elements of the regional conflict, in particular the prospects for a democratic Palestine, the character of the Resistance and the role of Iran. It draws attention to these broad leitmotifs underpinning each particular history that are key to understanding both the parts and the whole: A single, essentially colonial impetus drives each particular US aggression from Libya to Afghanistan. These hybrid wars utilize propaganda offensives, economic siege warfare, terrorist proxies, direct invasions and military occupations followed by repression via client states. The aim is to keep resistance forces fragmented. Just as each aggression forms part of a broader Washington strategy, similarly the integration of the resistance in particular remains critical to its success. The Resistance has a common character but no idealized personality or ideology. However the common features are a demand for popular self-determination and for accountable social structures that serve broad social interests. "Western policy has been worse than a crime it’s been a blunder.Tim Anderson’s epic study shows what a crime, what a blunder it has been.And how ugly the monster which now stalks the land. My land, your land, the whole of humanity. It is a must read.” GEORGE GALLOWAY, British politician “Axis of Resistance will take its place alongside the few books worth reading on how and by whom the flickering lights of the imperial twilight of ‘the West’ in the Middle East were finally extinguished.” DR. JEREMY SALT, Middle East historian, former professor Melbourne Universit

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949762174
Publisher:	Clarity Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/01/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	36 MB
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About the Author

Dr Tim Anderson is Director of the Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies. He was for 20 years an academic in Political Economy at the University of Sydney and before that taught at other Australian universities. He researches and writes on development, rights and self-determination in Latin America, the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. He has published dozens of articles in a range of academic books and journals. His most recent books are: Land and Livelihoods in Papua New Guinea (2015), and The Dirty War on Syria (2016, in ten languages).

Read an Excerpt

While the extraordinary pretexts for each war must be studied, with independent evidence, they cannot be fully understood separately. Each aggression forms part of a broader strategy. The separate wars can be seen most clearly with regard to the regional plan, and indeed the globalist ambitions of the patron.

Similarly, the resistance in particular countries can and
should be studied, but their integration into the regional resistance remains critical to their success. No single independent state or people has the capacity to prevail against this onslaught. ...Small states and peoples cannot fight big powers alone; they must form a strong alliance.

The resistance to foreign domination in each country, and regionally, is the historical outcome of particular forces.Resistance has a common character but no idealized personality. It is informed by different cultural and religious principles, historical circumstances and social formations. Yet the common defense is of popular self-determination and maintaining accountable social structures that serve broad social interests. In every circumstance imperial intervention is destructive of that accountability and those interests. So it is that, in the West Asian region, the Resistance combines secular-pluralist, Shi'a and Sunni Muslim, Christian, Druze, socialist, secular and Arab nationalist traditions. Notwithstanding the fact that organized resistance requires strong social structures, the primary contradiction of this struggle is not 'capitalism v socialism' but rather imperialism versus independence. No social gains can be built without an independent and locally accountable body politic; nor can they be defended in face of the sustained onslaught without strong regional coordination and collective action.
As with The Dirty War on Syria, this book addresses the myths created to advance the multiple wars and myths about the resistance. It also attempts some provisional history of the conflicts.

The focus on resistance can help us understand and anticipate the defeat of great powers, something not really possible for those whose analysis begins and ends with power.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 6

Part 1 Imperialism and Resistance

1 The Axis and the 'New Middle East' 11

2 Empires, Resistance and Self-Determination 19

3 Sanctions as Siege Warfare 34

4 Myth and Method in Studies of War 54

Part 2 Collapse of the Dirty War on Syria

5 The Dirty War Revisited 62

6 The Liberation of Aleppo 89

7 The US-Fighting-ISIS Deception: The Crime at Jabal al Tharda 107

8 WMD Take 2: Chemical Weapons in Syria 135

9 The Human Rights Industry in Humanitarian War 150

10 The Pseudo-Left and the 'Syrian Revolution' 200

11 Refugees as Weapons of War 212

Part 3 The West Asian Alliance

12 The Future of Palestine 232

13 Hezbollah and the Regional Resistance 278

14 Why Iran Matters 316

15 Towards West Asia 350

Part 4 Postscript

16 War, Solidarity and Abuse 355

Index 372

Editorial Reviews

"This epic study shows what a crime, what a blunder Western policy has been. And how ugly the monster which now stalks the land. My land, your land, the whole of humanity. It is a must read.” —George Galloway, British politician

“How and by whom the flickering lights of the imperial twilight of the West in the Middle East were finally extinguished." —Dr. Jeremy Salt, Middle East historian, Melbourne University

“...an exceptional author and activist who understands well the shakers and makers of the region within the new world order shaped by rising global forces.” AMAL WAHDAN, Veteran Palestinian activist, Al Quds / Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine

From the Publisher