(Japanese Version)
(Arabic Version)
Chapter 4: War and Peace in The Middle East
4-3(31) Populism brings up dictatorship
In common, the dictators in the Middle East were from
the lower class. They joined in military academy and achieved excellent performance.
They climbed up the ladder to officers in the army. At that time only wealthy
people were able to go to college in Arab countries. The poor young guys who had
a strong desire to study aimed for a military academy. Excellent but ambitious guys
gathered at the military academy. They learned state-of-the-art technology and
know-how in the academy. The outstanding students were sent to USSR for further
studying. In USSR, socialistic ideology influenced and inspired the young officers
from Arab countries. Arab nationalism was integrated with socialism. Arab
officers advocated anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism.
Arab officers studying in USSR, however, felt somewhat
strange about the socialistic ideology. They had already been infected with Islam
from childhood. Therefore, they were not completely infected with socialistic
ideology. They could not accept the atheism in the communist society. Though young
Arab officers were rationalist, they were religious Muslims too. They gradually
graduated from the socialism and atheism.
Before World War II Arab countries had been ruled by Western imperialism. After the war, they were fascinated by the socialism of USSR which was linked with the nationalism. And in 1950s, Zhou Enlai of China, Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Josip Broz Tito of Czechoslovakia had deployed non-alliance movement. But in the midst of the cold war between the East and West, the leaders in the Middle East forced to decide whether they belong to the Western ally or the Eastern ally. They had no choice of neutrality in which they didn’t belong to either side.