Can we say that what is happening in #Afghanistan is the #EndOfAnEra? Yes, in many different ways... (thread) >
First, it's the end of this 20-year era in US/world politics bracketed by 2 searing, much-photographed incidents that each involved (a) airplanes & (b) desperate people falling out of the sky. >
So we can say it's the end of this era of the US's attempt to invade & then completely control/remake #Afghanistan. Many Americans (solipsistic, as usual) compare this solely to #Vietnam1975. However, >
The chaotic nature of the US departure from #Afghanistan has a *lot* in common with numerous previous imperial/colonial collapses since 1947., including >
#France leaving #Algeria, #Portugal leaving Angola, Batista leaving #Cuba, etc... (Read about Angola here: justworldnews.org/2020/05/27/exp…)
> One thing that's distinct about today's #ImperialCollapse episode is the breathtaking hubris of Americans thinking they could remake a country not only distant but also landlocked! So when the attempt fails >
>They're forced to try to get everyone (Americans, their native informants, etc) out *by air*. I realize the whole thing is absolutely tragic but as I've noted before >
The endings of #WesternEmpires involve a lot of violence/suffering, but so too do (a) creating the empire and (b) maintaining it. The only one of these variables that can be substantially altered is the *period during which empire is maintained*. Needs to be as short as poss! >
We can say that what's happening in #Afghanistan is the end of the 20-year era of US in Afghanistan (and derivative violence-based sociopathies like the invasion of #Iraq) but we can also hope >
that it's the end of the era of the unraveling of #WesternImperialism in general, which has continued since 1947. And thus, that it might also be the end of the 606-year era of #WesternImperialism itself. >
As I say, that's still a hope, though its realization depends on all of us, including people who identify as "White", understanding the essentially violent nature of #WesternImperialism since its dawn in 1415 CE, and *choosing* to build a a saner, anti-racist world. >
Growing up in England in the 1950s/60s, I was mis-taught history *so badly*. We just imbibed the idea that "Western values" were moral and wonderful. "Sir" Francis Drake & "Sir" Walter Raleigh were portrayed as great heroes, "explorers", etc >
When in truth they were brutal, for-hire pirates who contracted to Queen Elizabeth to plunder on her behalf & thus built the "English Empire". We were taught about all the amazing (European) "explorers" who "discovered" different sea-routes & peoples around the world, but >
we were never taught that #Columbus, #Magellan, #DaGama, & the rest of them were involved in brutal wars of aggression built on plunder, enslavement, broad use of demonstrative violence ("shock & awe"), rape, etc. >
Those men & the investors & "royal" political leaders who organized their voyages were the people who built the global power of "the West". Its values? >
... were a reliance on #NavalGunnery to impose their wills on distant people, & a rampant "Christian" supremacism that mandated the seizure & use of all the resources (inc. human resources) of non-Christian lands & the conversion of all non-Christians (by force if necessary) >
Those mandates came from the edict "Dum Diversas" issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452. The Portuguese & later the Spanish considered them binding. The English, Dutch, & French, who came a bit later, had their own interpretations but kept the core ideas of #ChristianSupremacy >
> which over time got changed to #WhiteSupremacy, & later still put on a sort of liberal-ish veneer. ("We act as we do for the good of the whole world because we're so smart", "White Man's Burden", etc.) But still >
The core institutions (UN, WTO, World Bank, IMF) created by the Americans in & after 1945 still embody the lingering values of #WhiteSupremacy. Why do 4 "Whit" nations have veto powers at the UN? Why do US & EU always run the financial institutns? >
& how come no internat'l institution has ever held the West European nations or their settler-colonial offspring (US, Australia, etc) responsible in any way for the genocides, brutalities, slaveries, economic wrecking, etc they've inflicted on the world? >
How come the US is able to cripple the economies of #Iran, #Cuba, #Nicaragua, #Palestine, #Lebanon, at will and the "international community" does nothing to stop it?? How come George W Bush & Tony Blair will never see the inside of a jail cell for the wars they launched? >
This is because the "West", these countries that "represent" (v. imperfectly) the interests of only a small portion of global humanity, still controls all relevant "global" institutions. So to build the post-West world that's needed we have a lot of work to do >
and this work certainly involves re-educating as many "Westerners" as we can about the colossal harm our governments have inflicted on the world in the past 606 years... & until today. >
So yes, we can say that what's unfolding in #Afghanistan is the #EndOfAnEra. But what era do we want it to be an end of? Check out my #Project500Yrs here: medium.com/project-500-ye…

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More from @helenacobban

29 Jul
Some ppl welcomed @hrw's latest report on #GazaIsrael fighting of May, saying it was appropriately tough on #Israel. I just gave it a close read & I'm not so sure (thread) > hrw.org/news/2021/07/2…
> One thing that leapt out at me was @hrw's reflexive both-sides-ism, e.g. in 2nd paragraph. Note too that the link they give there goes to a report on website of Israel's foreign ministry! Objective source?? I don't think so... >
> This claim that all rockets, mortars that the Palestinian resistance forces fired twd Israel were sent "toward Israeli population centers" is quite unsubstantiated. It's key 2 remember that all journalists filing from or through #Israel r subject to strict military censorship >
Read 16 tweets
22 Jun 20
I am totally looking forward to my discussion this Wednesday, 1pm, with @BillFletcherJr in our #WorldAfterCovid series... We'll be discussing >
> #BLM, its global resonance (which Bill points out "goes ways beyond just solidarity"), lesson the current pro-justice & anti-racist movements can learn from the struggles against #Apartheid & Portuguese colonialism in Southern Africa, + >
> more fundamentals for building an egalitarian and anti-racist world in this time of rapid global change... which includes the swift deflation or collapse of the United States' previous global hegemony. I'm grateful to @BillFletcherJr that he introduced me to >
Read 8 tweets
5 Jan 20
So here's how deeply the US govt has pissed off many allies including its former ally #Iraq'i PM Abdul-Mahdi. He was due to meet #Soleimani in Baghdad to hear S deliver Iran's response to a #Saudi letter re regional de-escalation. thenational.ae/world/mena/us-… >
2/ So Abdul-Mahdi sent a senior #Iraq'i security official, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, to the airport to meet #Soleimani. But @realDonaldTrump decided to kill both men by drone, near the airport. Later in this thread I'll go into the "thinking" behind Trump's outrageous decision >
@realDonaldTrump 3/ But now just look at the local, #Iraq-#Saudi optics of Trump's kill order. I imagine more than a few ppl in MBS entourage, maybe MBS himself, are really angry? The US-Iran escalation they were seeking to de-escalate carries massive threats for #SaudiArabia. Meantime in #Iraq >
Read 25 tweets
16 Sep 19
Back in the 1970s, for a year or two I taught English to a group of teenage girls in Shatila refugee camp. Most of them, I never found out what had happened to them & their families during the #SabraAndShatila massacre. >
In July 1983, I spent a month in Beirut in the summer, doing final research/interviews for my book "The Making of Modern Lebanon". There was a reign of Falangist/LF terror throughout the whole city then. I told friends who knew the situation in the camps I wanted to go & find >
Read 12 tweets
17 Jun 19
Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi dies in court while facing trial, state television reports wapo.st/2MVRCDs?tid=ss…
RIP Mohamed Morsi. He and his #Ikhwan colleagues made a poor job of governing, were v. naive in their failure to foresee/forestall the military's super-vicious, anti-democratic counter-attack. But he was democratically elected! Small thread...
In Spring 2011 I was one of very few Western analysts who predicted that if there were democratic elections, likely the #Ikhwan (MB) would win. I was right. This was not because I supported their program but becuz I understood & admired their organizing capability. >
Read 9 tweets
31 Dec 18
The @nytimes today had a big piece on the killing of Razan (or as they write it, "Rouzan") al-Najjar in both the print & online editions. They invested a lot of reporting/writing resources in it. It reached some important conclusions. But... > (thread) nytimes.com/2018/12/30/wor…
> it was still clothed in lots of weaselly, anti-Palestinian NYT-speak. First, note the distinctive "braided" structure of the v. long piece, which braided a detailed minute-by-minute of Palestinian medic Razan's path toward her killing by Israeli sniper fire on June 1 with >
> different short sections providing background both on her life & on the situation in Gaza in general. The problematic parts are mainly in those "background" sections & the way @nytimes frames various aspects of them. Let me first highlight the good parts of the piece , which >
Read 30 tweets

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