<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><main id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7853" role="main"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8183"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7984" size="5">Brzezinski’s Biggest Disaster: Camp David </font></div><header id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7983"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7982" size="5">
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Posted By
<cite id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7860">Sam Husseini</cite>
On
<time id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7861">
May 31, 2017
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</span></span></font></header><header id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7992"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8005" size="5"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8004"><span></span> <a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7863" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/31/brzezinskis-biggest-disaster-camp-david/print/#comments_controls"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7864" color="#0066cc">
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</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7866"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7997" size="5">On Tuesday’s “Morning Joe,” Zbigniew Brzezinski was eulogized by
Jimmy Carter along with the MSNBC show co-hosts, Joe Scarborough and
Mika Brzezinski — daughter of the former national security advisor.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7867"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8156" size="5">The segment, of course, avoided issues that Brzezinski has been criticized for, see “</font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7868" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/1998/01/15/how-jimmy-carter-and-i-started-the-mujahideen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7869" color="#0066cc" size="5">How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen</font></a><font size="5">.” Though even the New York Times obit </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7870" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/us/zbigniew-brzezinski-dead-national-security-adviser-to-carter.html?_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7871" color="#0066cc" size="5">noted</font></a><font size="5">:
“But in at least one respect — his rigid hatred of the Soviet Union —
he had stood to the right of many Republicans, including Mr. Kissinger
and President Richard M. Nixon. And during his four years under Mr.
Carter, beginning in 1977, thwarting Soviet expansionism at any cost
guided much of American foreign policy, for better or worse. He
supported billions in military aid for Islamic militants fighting
invading Soviet troops in Afghanistan.”</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7872"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8028" size="5">The shadow cast by such policies quite arguably lead to the 9/11
attacks and a great deal of other pain and suffering in the Mideast and
beyond.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7873"><font size="5">Few have delved into the depths and aims of Brzezinski’s anti-Russian bias. He wrote in “</font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7874" href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/1997-09-01/geostrategy-eurasia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7875" color="#0066cc" size="5">A Geostrategy for Eurasia</font></a><font size="5">”
in the journal Foreign Affairs (1997): “A loosely confederated Russia —
composed of a European Russia, a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern
Republic — would also find it easier to cultivate closer economic
relations with its neighbors. Each of the confederated entities would be
able to tap its local creative potential, stifled for centuries by
Moscow’s heavy bureaucratic hand. In turn, a decentralized Russia would
be less susceptible to imperial mobilization.”</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7876"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8029" size="5">Indeed, two main strains that we see in our current foreign policy
owe a great deal to Brzezinski. One is a desire of much of U.S.
establishment to further neuter — if not actually break up — Russia. The
other — being employed in Syria now — is using militarized fanatics
fighting in the name of Islam for foreign policy purposes.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7877"><font size="5">What was highlighted by Carter and others after Brzezinski’s death
was the “triumph” of the Camp David agreement between Israel and Egypt.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7878"><font size="5">And this is something that few question, though such praise leads to some wild statements, as in this MSNBC interview.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7879"><font size="5">Joe Scarborough claimed: “Mr. President, I was talking to Mika’s
daughters this weekend and trying to explain the impact that you all had
on the world and talking about the Middle East. You hear about the
Middle East peace. But you know, President Carter’s peace efforts
between Israel and Egypt prevented a ground war in the Middle East for
40 years.”</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7880"><font size="5">Huh? Joe Scarborough is unaware of any ground wars in the Mideast
over the last 40 years. He must have tuned out the Iran-Iraq war in the
1980s, the 1991 Gulf War, as well as the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Never mind the numerous Israeli invasions of Lebanon.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7881"><font size="5">And it’s quite arguable that Camp David actually set the stage for all those things. As the late Eqbal Ahmad </font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7882" href="http://durianapocalypse.net/blog/materials/gulfcrisis.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7883" color="#0066cc" size="5">stated in 1990</font></a><font size="5"> (at an event I attended):</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><blockquote id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7884"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7885"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8030" size="5">There has been nothing (that I have seen) in the media
about what compels Saddam Hussein’s extraordinary ambitions. … What has
suddenly in 1990 compelled his ambition, that requires 350,000 American
troops to control? What did it?</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7886"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7974" size="5">No one has named the Camp David Accords. And Saddam Hussein’s
ambitions are directly attributable to the Camp David Accords. I won’t
go into details of it — just in two sentences, remember the following.
Since the decline of the Ottoman Empire (in other words, since the
beginning of the 19th Century) Egypt has played the role of the regional
influential in the Arab World. Politically, culturally, even
militarily, Egypt has led the Arab World (and ideologically). The Camp
David Accords’ supreme achievement was to isolate Egypt from its Arab
milieu.</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7887"><font size="5">When Anwar Sadat signed that piece of paper, his hope had been that
this would lead to the return of Egyptian territory to Egypt. Occupied
territories, one (which he did get). And two, a modicum of justice for
the Palestinians. So that, over time his isolation will be ameliorated.
And that minimum that was promised to Sadat in the Camp David Accords
was not honored. In fact, the maximum was dishonored.</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7888"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8031" size="5">To remind you of one reality alone, Carter, and Saunders, and William
B. Quandt — the three American negotiators from top to the bottom (with
Carter at the top, Saunders in the middle, and Quandt at the bottom) —
have testified and recorded in their books that in the last three days
of the Camp David negotiations, the negotiations had broken down on one
issue. And the issue was Sadat’s insistence that there should be written
in the Camp David Accords that Israel will put up no more settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza. And Begin would say, “I am willing to agree
on it informally, but won’t do it in writing.” And Carter weighs in and
says, “You must understand Begin’s difficult position. I give you
guarantee that there will be no settlements. …</font></div></blockquote><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7889"><font size="5">Now, obviously, Camp David meant moral, ideological, political
isolation of Egypt from its Arab milieu. There would be a political
vacuum in the Middle East after Camp David. And smaller players — like
Syria and Iraq — would love, would aim at, would have the ambition, to
fill that vacuum.</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7890"><font size="5">Similarly, the late Patrick Seale wrote in 2011 in “</font><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7891" href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/02/15/the-future-of-the-destabilizing-israel-egypt-peace-treaty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7892" color="#0066cc" size="5">The future of the (de)stabilizing Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty</font></a><font size="5">“:</font></div><div><font size="5">
</font></div><blockquote id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7893"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7894"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8032" size="5">By removing Egypt — the strongest and most populous of
the Arab countries — from the Arab line-up, the treaty ruled out any
possibility of an Arab coalition that might have contained Israel or
restrained its freedom of action. As Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe
Dayan remarked at the time: “If a wheel is removed, the car will not run
again.”</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7895"><font size="5">Western commentators routinely describe the treaty as a “pillar of
regional stability,” a “keystone of Middle East diplomacy,” a
“centerpiece of America’s diplomacy” in the Arab and Muslim world. This
is certainly how Israel and its American friends have seen it.</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7896"><font size="5">But for most Arabs, it has been a disaster. Far from providing
stability, it exposed them to Israeli power. Far from bringing peace,
the treaty ensured an absence of peace, since a dominant Israel saw no
need to compose or compromise with Syria or the Palestinians.</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7897"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8227" size="5">Instead, the treaty opened the way for Israeli invasions, occupations
and massacres in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, for strikes
against Iraqi and Syrian nuclear sites, for brazen threats against Iran,
for the 44-year occupation of the West Bank and the cruel blockade of
Gaza, and for the pursuit of a “Greater Israel” agenda by fanatical
Jewish settlers and religious nationalists.</font></div><font size="5">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7898"><font size="5">In turn, Arab dictators, invoking the challenge they faced from an
aggressive and expansionist Israel, were able to justify the need to
maintain tight control over their populations by means of harsh security
measures.</font></div></blockquote><div><font size="5">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_7899"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8034" size="5">All these factors deflated Arab Nationalism and ultimately opened the
way for Saudi dominance of much of the region. This helped lead to the
collapse of the three other major secular states in the region: Iraq,
Syria and Libya. Egypt itself has been relegated to the role of puppet
police state and may descend further given the current dynamics.</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8214"><font size="5">
</font><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8047" size="5"> </font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8220" dir="ltr"><font id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8219" size="5"><a class="enhancr2_2a2b9e7e-48a1-2015-d000-be1a899d1e24" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1496285419621_8218" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/31/brzezinskis-biggest-disaster-camp-david/">Brzezinski’s Biggest Disaster: Camp David</a></font></div><div><br></div><div class="yahoo-link-enhancr-card ymail-preserve-class ymail-preserve-style" id="enhancr2_2a2b9e7e-48a1-2015-d000-be1a899d1e24" style='font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 400px;' dir="ltr" contenteditable="false" data-size="medium" data-type="yenhancr" data-category="article" data-url="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/31/brzezinskis-biggest-disaster-camp-david/" data-embed-url=""> <a class="yahoo-enhancr-cardlink" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0) !important; text-decoration: none !important;" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/31/brzezinskis-biggest-disaster-camp-david/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"> <table class="card-wrapper yahoo-ignore-table" style="max-width: 400px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td width="400"> <table width="100%" class="card yahoo-ignore-table" style="max-width: 400px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="card-primary-image-cell" background="https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/IZXv3S8rmWf0W5ej9iTEOA--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/https://i1.wp.com/www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/06/OGFB4.png.cf.jpg" valign="top" style='background: url("https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/IZXv3S8rmWf0W5ej9iTEOA--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/https://i1.wp.com/www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/06/OGFB4.png.cf.jpg") no-repeat center / cover rgb(0, 0, 0); height: 200px; position: relative;' bgcolor="#000000"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><v:rect fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:400px;height:218px;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;"><v:fill type="frame" color="#000000" src="https://s.yimg.com/vv//api/res/1.2/IZXv3S8rmWf0W5ej9iTEOA--/YXBwaWQ9bWFpbDtmaT1maWxsO2g9MjAwO3c9NDAw/https://i1.wp.com/www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone/2015/06/OGFB4.png.cf.jpg"/></v:rect><![endif]--> <table class="yahoo-ignore-table" style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" valign="top"> <tbody><tr> <td background="https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png" valign="top" style='background: url("https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png") left top; height: 200px;' bgcolor="transparent"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><v:rect fill="true" stroke="false" style="width:400px;height:218px;position:absolute;top:-18px;left:0;"><v:fill type="pattern" color="#000000" src="https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/12/overlay-tile.png"/><v:textbox inset="0,0,20px,0"><![endif]--> <table height="185" class="yahoo-ignore-table" style="width: 100%; height: 185px; min-height: 185px;"> <tbody><tr> <td class="card-richInfo2" style="padding: 15px 0px 0px 15px; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;"> </td> <td class="card-actions" style="padding: 15px 15px 0px 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"> <div class="card-share-container"></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!--[if gte mso 9]></v:textbox></v:rect><![endif]--> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table align="center" class="card-info yahoo-ignore-table" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-width: 1px 1px 3px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(224, 228, 233) rgb(224, 228, 233) rgb(0, 0, 0); border-image: none; width: 95%; margin-top: -40px; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; position: relative; z-index: 2; max-width: 380px;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 16px 0px 16px 12px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </td> <td style="padding: 16px 12px; width: 99%; vertical-align: middle;"> <h2 class="card-title" style='margin: 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;'>Brzezinski’s Biggest Disaster: Camp David</h2> <div class="card-description" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 15px; font-size: 11px;">On Tuesday’s “Morning Joe,” Zbigniew Brzezinski was eulogized by Jimmy Carter along with the MSNBC show co-hosts...</div> </td> <td style="padding: 16px 12px 16px 0px; text-align: right;"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </a></div><div><br></div><footer class="footer"><font size="5">
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