The Four Officers: A New American Failure

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

America can barely be struck by one setback before another follows it, and it is close to setting a record for the number of setbacks and failures it has suffered, both domestically and globally, in recent years. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, America gave free rein to its rhetoric about a new world cast in an American mold, and began to strut about the world stage, exulting and scheming, as if the peoples of the world had become subject to its every gesture. But its globalization projects have begun to collapse, little by little, and the greatest credit for this belongs to the Arabs and Muslims who stood up to American policy with all their strength, and who have practically saved the world from American despotism and tyranny. America has failed in Iraq and in Afghanistan; it is failing now in Pakistan; it failed in Lebanon and in Palestine, and in a number of South American countries. Nor has it succeeded on the domestic American front: the level of education has deteriorated, as has the level of healthcare and civil services. And the financial crisis arrived to place America itself in the dock.

On the Lebanese front, America tried hard, in cooperation with its Arab satellites, to turn Lebanon into a den for the American ambassador, in which he would be the one giving orders and forbidding them, and to eliminate Hezbollah along with the other Islamic, nationalist, and patriotic forces. It threw its full weight behind cornering Hezbollah and Syria with the accusation of killing Rafik Hariri. America mobilized the Security Council, the tools of propaganda and media, and economic, security, military, and legal pressure, all in order to ensure that Syria or Hezbollah, or forces close to them, would be found to have killed Hariri.

Lebanon was drawn into a black vortex of black hatreds. The workings of the Lebanese state were paralyzed for years on end because of the paralysis of its institutions, and because officials were preoccupied with feuds, hostilities, and point-scoring. Long, bitter, difficult days passed over Lebanon because the Americans insisted on pinning the charge of Hariri’s assassination on their own political adversaries.

There was a determination on the part of America, Israel, and their Arab satellites to ignite a civil war in Lebanon, and a storm full of defiance and threat would erupt with every objection raised against Hezbollah, however small; indeed, objections were manufactured and fabricated outright in order to drag Hezbollah into a civil war. But the Party was always wise, and worked hard to play down the importance of the accusations and provocations, sparing Lebanon a bloody conflict. Hezbollah’s wisdom became especially clear when a provocation crossed every red line — the attempt to impose oversight on the Party’s communications network and place it under the Lebanese army. The Party settled matters within two hours, on 6–7 May 2008, and eliminated the possibility of civil war breaking out, with extraordinary speed.

Now matters have been exposed, and America will certainly retreat into itself, swallowing its pain and regret, while Israel will find itself facing new predicaments that its Arab friends cannot offer it serious help in resolving, especially since it misled them regarding the Hariri assassination. The release of the four officers is a historic event, no less significant strategically than Hezbollah’s 2006 victory. This is an event that will negatively affect the whole of American policy in the region, will place America’s allies in awkward and difficult positions, and will lead to a rise in the level of popular support for Arab resistance.

The hope remains that the people of Lebanon will unite, and will come to understand that their problems are not solved by the foreigner — rather, it is the foreigner who compounds them.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الضباط الأربعة: إحباط أمريكي جديد” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.