Interview Colin Cavell, 17 June , 2011 – The United States reverse policy on the Middle East will backfire

The United States reverse policy on the Middle East will backfire as regional autocrats, traditionally backed by the US, find out that the American administration is an existential threat to them.

Press TV talks with Colin Cavell, a former assistant professor at the University of Bahrain, who points out that Arab autocracies fear US foreign policy that seeks to transform regimes in Mideast once popular uprisings take hold.

Press TV: Let’s reflect on what American political activist Noam Chomsky has said – “The US and its allies will do anything to prevent democracy in the Arab world. It (the US) says it supports democracy so why should it want to stifle pro-democracy movements in the Arab world”. Can we have your opinion on that?

Cavell: US principles are in support of democracy when it speaks as a government; US actions on the other hand are often anti-democratic as is the case with its current support for all of the autocratic regimes in the Gulf region, Middle East and North Africa.

What is happening now is that the US fears that if they continue to support the creations that they have endowed and financed and supported with weaponry over the past forty to fifty years that they will lose all control in the region.

What is happening now with the initiative of the Obama Administration and the State Department – and I know some of your viewers will object to this, but – they are trying to refashion the governments of the Middle East, to change the rulers that they have supported in the ME. They did not initiate this, but it is what is happening.

To get ahead of the game they are trying to install client regimes in these particular states who will continue to serve US interests and have a semblance of democracy, but as in all democracies it will be a very limited democracy.

Press TV: When we look at what Robert Gates said about Iran, Syria and Libya; it’s interesting that they don’t put Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or Bahrain into the equation as if they are model democracies. I’d like you to reflect on what Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor has said regarding Bahrain (audio extract played). Basically this message says that the repression goes on, but we’re still a supporter of Bahrain. Would you please provide your comments to what you’ve just heard?

Cavell: US policy in the region is selective, it’s biased, it’s uneven, it’s hypocritical absolutely. It’s trying to gradually push for transformation of the autocratic regimes in the ME without losing its traditional allies and it cannot do that all simultaneously at one point and so it’s been very quiet when it pushes for democratic reforms in Bahrain whereas in regards to Egypt or Tunisia it can support those quite quickly.

This is a policy that is based upon gradual change in the region and it’s a policy that is going to backfire. Why will it backfire? – Because the remaining autocratic regimes see President Obama as a threat to their existence. Obama’s administration is an existential threat to their existence.

In the US there are different factions to the political system. The Bush administration would let the Gulf monarchs do whatever they wanted to; they would have a wink of the eye and they may spout democratic slogans at some point, but nothing would ever happen and no one ever expected anything to happen.

In the Obama administration there is a slight difference and people are seeing change happen. And as our other guest, Sara Flounders admitted that the US is behind much of the military action in the region and the financial subversion of the existing autocratic regimes that is going on. So we do see a difference between the policies of Obama and Bush and the autocratic leaders in the region know this. And they will spend lots of dinars and rials in the upcoming election to unseat Obama. …source