(Editorial)
Last couple of years or so, or more years back to even 1990s, as Mr. Engdahl argues in his most recent article (“Egypt’s Revolution-Creative Destruction For A ‘Greater Middle East’?”), Egypt now has become one of the most crucial testing places where America’s so-called “Soft Power” strategy will further advance or not.
Joseph Nye’s ill-famous concept, the Soft Power as America’s most lethal (i.e., both cultural and religious as well) weapon in terms of “cultural imperialism,”[1] can be characterized as in the following:
1) Clandestine in nature;
2) Disguised as so-called “freedom, democracy and human rights-oriented grassroots movements,” particularly in the form of so-called “color revolutions” in third world or in former Eastern European countries where US and Western economic, military and strategic interests are heavily involved in;
3) Hypocritical by birth;
4) Lethal in nature in terms of its degree of almost irrecoverable (or extremely difficult to recover) devastations and/or damages, particularly in people’s way(s) of thinking, life styles (i.e., what they eat, wear, or like to watch or prefer, etc.) and so on.
As well-known now among many social scientists, the Soft Power is the other side of a coin in terms of America’s global domination which has been pursued mainly by its military force which Nye calls “Hard Power.” In postmodern times, colonialists or imperialists have tried to hide or disguise their “imperial ambitions” in their pursuit of colonial interests around the globe. This was the main reason why they began to adopt this deceptive concept, so-called, the “soft power.”
The whole world is now anxiously watching who will after all win in this historic struggle. It could be either Egyptian people or “American Empire which is in process of decline” (Englehardt). If the former wins, it could become “one of the most important geo-political events in this century” (Nazemroaya). If that’s the case to be, it’ll most likely force the present (extremely unfair, unbalanced, and unjust) power structure in the Middle East changed, whether major power players in the region such as US and Israel like or not.
However, if the latter makes another tactical advance in Egypt, as they had made temporarily successful advances in other countries such as Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Georgia, most of the Central Asian nations and so on, it’ll surely be recorded, at least for now, as another setback for the peoples’ anti-imperialist and self-determination struggles against the US/West power.
As it’s been disclosed more and more everyday throughout this historic Egyptian people’s uprising in 2011 against a 30 year-old US-installed Egyptian military dictatorship, however, the America’s “imperial ambition” (Noam Chomsky) in the form of Soft Power strategy, particularly in the form of “color revolution” tactics, seems firmly behind the Egyptian people’s indignant eruption, too.
As noted by many as well, Egypt is the most-populous and strategically most important nation of the Middle Eastern region. That geopolitical and strategic importance must be the main reason why US has mobilized, for a number of years now, every possible Soft Power tools as their clandestine, disguised, hypocritical and lethal weapons in Egypt. According to Mr. Shimatsu’s most recent article (“U.S. Secretly Backed the Brotherhood’s Soft-Power Strategy in Egypt”), “Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MTV, Access 360 Media and Howcast as well as Columbia Law School” have been also deeply involved in/behind the Egyptian people’s uprising.
Of course, the globally most well-known, -active, -funded, and -manned so-called the “non-profit, independent, and grassroots US-based NGOs for (so-called) freedom, democracy, human rights” such as National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Freedom House, which have been created, funded and sponsored by the US government agencies such as US Congress, State Dept, CIA and so on, are also fully in behind.
These revelations US government has been deeply involved with the “supposed to be” Egyptian people’s revolution through its soft but lethal weapons for years should be everybody’s grave concerns, particularly among the leadership of Egyptian people’s uprising. They should remember the human history and the majority populations of the world are dearly paying their appropriate respects and send their utmost supports in solidarity for those who’ve been heroically waging their diehard struggle, finally intending to liberate themselves from the slavery system as the continuation of West’s centuries-old colonial rule.
[1] Cultural imperialism is the act of a nation imposing its cultural values onto another, usually weaker, nation. Cultural imperialism can take the form of an active, formal policy or a general attitude. A metaphor of colonialism is employed: the cultural products of the first world “invade” the third-world and “conquer” local culture. In the stronger variants of the term, world domination (in a cultural sense) is the explicit goal of the nation-states or corporations that export the culture. The term is usually used in a pejorative sense, usually in conjunction with a call to reject foreign influence. (Wikipedia)