By IRNA,
London : One of the consequences of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt is for the UK and US governments to change their policies in the Middle East and North Africa, according to British architect and archaeologist Nicholas Wood.
“The Americans and British must not be allowed to support dictatorships any more,” said Wood, who is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and author of ‘War Crime or Just War 2003 – 2006, The Case Against Thony Blair.’
“What we have seen in Tahrir Square is the monumental realization that American and British power has been dealt a savage blow, and their support of dictators is in decline,” he said.
In an interview with IRNA, he also referred to other ‘marionettes of the west, including Farouk, King Idris, King Faisal of Iraq, and Shah Pahlavi also being deposed, saying that “now their friends are packing their bags.”
One particular concern of Wood, who is an active peace campaigner, is the devastation and desolation left in the wake of war and conflicts around the world.
“The worst possible outcome of the power vacuum caused by Mubarak’s departure would be the sort of anarchy that has been allowed to happen in Iraq with the demolition of the administration, police and army contrary to the Geneva and Hague Conventions,” he warned.
It led to four million refugees driven out of the country leaving their homes and institutions in tatters, with the city of Baghdad divided by concrete walls and check points, the archaeologist said.
“The second worst outcome would be that the vacuum is filled by the Egyptian army alone on a permanent basis, a double cross of the aspirations in Tahrir Square,” he said.
His argument was that there must be a strong mechanism in the new Egypt which “allows the spirituality and great historical intellect of Egyptians to flourish, and The Muslim Brotherhood to coexist with atheists, Christians and other groups. “
“The government of large populations with diverse desires presents problems which may never be fully solved. That is the human predicament,” Wood said.
But he believed that the injustice of extreme wealth and extreme poverty can be overcome, and the resort to imprisonment can be used as a last resort.
“Western democracy is not a panacea for all ills. The minority can be the perpetual underdog, as in America, where it has taken a hundred and fifty years before blacks have any sort of power, but still do not have the sort of health care and decent homes of the majority. Indigenous Red Indian tribes have been treated as untermenschen (sub-human) since their massacre at Wounded Knee in 1893.”
Wood went as far as suggesting that the best hope for the North African States is adopt a united federalism similar to the EU with local referenda on the Swiss model.
“Perhaps the greatest thing that could happen would be the construction of a high speed railway line from Istanbul to Cairo, to Benghazi, to Morocco, breaking down the artificial boundaries of nationalisms,” he suggested.
The boundaries, he said, were “largely drawn up with wooden rulers by French and British imperialists in the 1850s to 1920s, dividing Arab from Arab, and Turk from Arab.”
“Materially and psychologically it would unite the Arab world like nothing else since the expulsion from Spain in 1492 AD. It would also form a boundary to the growing aspirations of Israel,” Wood argued.
“One considerable advantage of the fall of the American puppet Mubarak is that the border between Gaza and Egypt can be now opened and the tragic sufferings of the Palestinians brought to a swift end,” he also said.