Robert Fisk: Middle East dictators always end up bringing their western allies down – now they've got their coils in the White House
Trump, like his
dangerous Middle Eastern allies, doesn’t want to live in heaven. He craves the
pleasures of leadership. He enjoys risk. He believes not in history or
morality. He believes in himself. That is why a lot of Arab despots rather like
Trump. They have much in common.. Except for
understanding. And here’s the problem. Arab dictators, delusional though they
may be, have got us taped. They see through our lies and our arms sales and our
lust for oil and our fraudulent desire that Jeffersonian democracy embrace the
Muslim world. But we simply do not comprehend the Middle East.
Middle East dictators, we like to believe, live in heaven. They have palaces, servants, vast and wealthy families, millions of obedient people and loyal armies who constantly express their love for their leader, not to mention huge secret police forces to ensure they don’t forget this, and masses of weapons to defend themselves, supplied, usually, by us. These tyrants – autocrats or “strongmen” if they happen to be our allies – exist, we suppose, in a kind of nirvana. Their lawns, like their people, are well-manicured, their roses clipped, their rivers unsullied, their patriotism unchallenged. They wish to be eternal.
But this is our
Hollywood version of the Middle East. Having not suffered our own dictators for
a generation, we suffer from mirages the moment we step into the sand. Real
dictators in the Middle East don’t behave or think like this. It is power and
the risks of power and the love of ownership that obsesses
them. The possession of untold wealth or an entire nation, and their own form
of patriotism – and the challenges they have to face to sustain this way of
life: that is the attraction. Their countries -- and
their countries’ histories – are their personal property, to dispose of as they
wish. They may lock up their opponents by the tens of thousands or drop barrel
bombs upon them or chop up an unruly journalist. But they know – and it is true
– that there must be residual support for the beloved dictator from all those
millions who swear that they will sacrifice themselves – “our blood, our soul”
– rather than allow harm to come to them.
How else would the
majority of Egyptians go on supporting their field marshal-president when he
has abandoned all forms of freedom? How else could the Syrian government
survive if its army had not fought on for its country – and saved the regime –
after tens of thousands of deaths? Attribute this to patriarchy, tribalism,
minority fears or – in the case of Egypt – infantilism. Or straightforward love
of country. But dictators cannot survive without some measure of genuine fealty
from their populations.
This provides the
thrill of power, the excitement of domination – or “responsibility”, as they
would call it. It is about personal gratification. The people are not just
loyal. The dictator is their father. Did not Mubarak, in his very last speech
as president in 2011, address Egyptians as “My children! My children!”?.. read more:
