Juan Cole Points at Failures in United States
Foreign Policy

Professor Juan Cole

In his lecture entitled "The Great Unraveling: United States Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Middle East," Professor Juan Cole argued that United States foreign policy failures largely outweigh the successes of the Bush administration's war on terror in the Muslim and Arab East. Held on December 18 in West Hall, the talk was arranged by the Prince al Waleed bin Talal Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR).

Cole, who is a professor of history at the University of Michigan, said there are two misconceptions that the United States has systematically disseminated about Islam in "an insidious attempt to demonize the Muslim world as a breeder of terrorism." He pointed out that contrary to their portrayal in the American media, Middle Eastern regimes are actually opposed to radical Muslim fundamentalism, even if their Muslim citizenry has become "a recruitment pool" for terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda. He also pointed out that as 2007 closes, the world's Muslim countries, with the obvious exceptions of Syria and Iran, are either pro-American conservative or pro-American secular countries. Therefore, for the United States to view the Middle East as "a menace to American security" rather than as "a region bristling with friends" is holistically inaccurate.

Cole reminded the audience that America's only enemy in the world today, Al Qaeda, was once supported by the United States. at the peak of its cold war with Russia in a bid to curb Russian influence in Muslim Afghanistan. He delineated the tactical victory of the Bush administration in Afghanistan and said this victory has been severely compromised by the continued impunity of Al Qaeda leaders Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri, as well as by the immediate emergence of warlord rule and large-scale poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

The American-led war on Iraq was waged on "extremely shaky pretenses", according to Cole. He explained that this war stirred a wave of Sunni Muslim anti-United States sentiment worldwide, resulting in incidents of "Iraq-related terrorism" like the attacks on Spain in 2004. Cole concluded that the deadly blow to United States credibility came with the American announcements of American national intelligence in the fall of 2007 regarding Iran's nuclear research program.

In clearly stating that Iran had ceased all nuclear weapon research since 2003 and was only interested in creating a nuclear reactor to produce an alternative to its rapidly depleted petroleum reserves, American intelligence dissipated the "George Bush and Dick Cheney hoax" aimed at garnering public support for a war against Iran.

Professor Cole has written extensively about modern Islamic movements. His most recent book, Sacred Space and Holy War, was published in 2002. He has also written prolifically about modern Egypt, including a book, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's 'Urabi Movement.