Scott Horton Interviews Eric Margolis
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Eric Margolis, foreign correspondent and author of War at the Top of the World and American Raj, discusses the US preference for new Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman as a successor for Mubarak; why the Egypt/1979 Iran comparisons fail despite the dire warnings of neoconservatives; the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now dominated by moderates and old men; how Egyptians are disgraced by their government’s abandonment of the Palestinian cause; how the Palestine Papers lay bare the charade of “peace talks” and expose PA officials as stooges of the US and Israel; and how Turkey, not Tunisia, began the revolutionary push in the Mideast.
MP3 here. (28:04)
Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles appear in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times and Dawn. He is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. He appears as an expert on foreign affairs on CNN, BBC, France 2, France 24, Fox News, CTV and CBC.
As a war correspondent Margolis has covered conflicts in Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Sinai, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India, Pakistan, El Salvador and Nicaragua. He was among the first journalists to ever interview Libya’s Muammar Khadaffi and was among the first to be allowed access to KGB headquarters in Moscow. A veteran of many conflicts in the Middle East, Margolis recently was featured in a special appearance on Britain’s Sky News TV as “the man who got it right” in his predictions about the dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq.
Margolis is the author of War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet and American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World.
Edward
February 2nd, 2011 at 4:54 am
Egypt actually used to be a wheat exporter. I think the current dependence on U.S. wheat is the result of "economic hit man" policies that were engineered after the Camp David treaty.
Peter
February 2nd, 2011 at 5:31 am
Scot please stop making these racializing comments. They are offensive to all parties involved.
Advocate4LIberty
February 2nd, 2011 at 7:06 am
"racializing "… Huh?
Bruce Richardson
February 2nd, 2011 at 7:10 am
Eric Margolis is a "Master of the Genre." I have both of his excellent books and access his learned articles whenever possible. I wish that he, Ray McGovern, and Dr. Phil Geraldi were in charge of US foreign policy. These voices therefore must continue to resonate, and who knows, perhaps, just perhaps, someone in power may be listening and act upon their sage advice.
Roger Lafontaine
February 2nd, 2011 at 8:08 am
I listened to the entire interview and I missed the 'racializing' somehow. Is that a way to 'cut off' discussion or what ? Frankly I think perhaps some degree of 'racializing' is probably unavoidable in any truly honest discussion. Otherwise you just have people trying to dodge the 'elephant in the room' with all kinds of verbal shadows and obscurations. I can sum it up in one word: bullshit! with an exclamation mark. Sorry if I offended.
The Gorbachev comment was very apropos too. That is exactly what we need. He opened the door to a new awareness which the US has done everything to close since.
abiman
February 2nd, 2011 at 11:10 am
As is the case of Haiti.
Claus Eric Hamle
February 2nd, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Trident missile engineer Bob Aldridge -www.plrc.org-resigned because the Pentagon aims to achieve a disarming first strike capability and wrote First Strike! The Pentagon´s Strategy For Nuclear War and Nuclear Empire (ch. 9 on anti-submarine warfare). Bob Aldridge wrote on the missiles to be deployed on ships in the Black Sea in Bulgaria and on land in Romania and Poland by 2015: "Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike".
David4Peace
February 2nd, 2011 at 12:47 pm
It's so amazing. US "conservatives" are crowing about how Bush's "efforts to spread democracy" led to these revolutions, and at the same time the Neocons are screaming about how they are a bad thing and need to be crushed.
Sans Flag Pins
February 2nd, 2011 at 1:45 pm
What is the American interest? I say American Sovereignty (Control of OUR own destiny). When we have other nations (or Americans with foreign loyalties ) pushing us this way or that way, what benefit do 'we' get?
Egyptian is pushed against Egyptian. American is pushed against American for foreign factions. They call you 'isolationist'? Its impossible to be in isolation from the rest of the world. Yet, what good does constantly picking favorites, get us, especially when they are against Democracy?
Before you go all crazy for Egyptian business interests consider its neighbor, Southern Sudan, who are having a independence vote this year, Egypt was stealing their water by building up a dam until the Southern Sudanese stopped it by attacking it. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/11/souther…. Much of the riots are over food prices and the economy. The fundamentalist Islamists want to have tons of kids, when they can't feed them – what do you think is going to happen? Migration.
When you dangle in these foreign countries again and again, America goes broke, and you pick favorites. America must get strong again here at home. I say OK, there is a limit, South Korea, Taiwan, then its Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, it just keeps going and going. The British over extended itself, and had to realign to the world after WW2, its time that Americans take their own medicine and realize sooner or later you can't raise the world. Every family has a limit to the amount of dependents it can handle.
Don
February 2nd, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Facts need work…
Saudi does not supply 13% of our oil. It's more like 13% of our imports. Perhaps 7% of total.
The #1 "foreign" supplier is Canada.
We spend a lot to protect Europe's supply…more to keep the price stable than anything else.
Raise the rest of the world? What a joke. We destroyed our competition in WWII and haven't recovered from the delusions that followed. We try to keep the rest of the world down…just enough.
Gina
February 3rd, 2011 at 2:01 am
The Saudi role as far as USA is concerned is not a direct export of oil to USA, it is more than that
Saudi trade it huge oil in DOLLARS that's why Saudi is f more important to USA than any country that includes Israel.
You think Saddam was killed for WMD, the US ferocity against Saddam and Iraq as whole because Saddam was trading oil in Swiss currency and that was a direct threat to dollar supremacy.
mikesler
February 3rd, 2011 at 8:08 am
ABC News – Feb 1: Suleiman oversaw torture of US rendition victims:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/egypt-crisis-omar-suleiman-cia-rendition/story?id=12812445
Joel Levy
February 4th, 2011 at 8:10 am
Right on the money Gina. The day oil is traded in another currency than the dollar, that will be the end of the US economy and world supremacy.
WarNerdSpooge
February 5th, 2011 at 10:45 am
http://exiledonline.com/war-nerd-spartacus-live-on-al-jazeera/
The war nerd was pants-down wanking to the Egyptian Riots. Still some insightful war commentary and amusing russian cynicism there.
I sometimes hope he gets a taste of it himself.
Robert Haymond
February 6th, 2011 at 8:25 am
Yes, the Muslim Brotherhood is nothing but moderates and old men: The "Brotherhood" promises to destroy the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel and, still the same. to destroy the "Zionist entity". Does Margolis even read about the subject he writes about? Even less can be expected from Talkbackers, of course.
Carol
February 6th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Scott, thank you so much- i really enjoyed listening to this interview.