America's Military Bases in Muslim Countries are an Occupation
News:
On the 23rd of this month, Iran announced that it had launched a missile strike on the American base in Qatar. Qatar confirmed that its air defenses successfully intercepted a missile attack targeting Al Udeid Air Base, considering that attack a blatant violation of its sovereignty, airspace, and international law. It was also reported that it reserves "the right to respond directly in proportion to the form and size of this blatant attack."
Comment:
After the Iranian response by bombing the American base in Qatar, the discussion and handling of the news focused on the details of the strike, its merits, and its context in the war of the numbered days between Iran, the Jewish entity, and America. However, the serious matter, and perhaps more serious than the strike itself and more important, is the issue of the American base's presence in Qatar. And what is most dangerous of all is dealing with the presence of that base, and even American bases in general, with a degree of coexistence that does not correspond to the seriousness and enormity of the presence of these bases in Muslim countries and in our region in particular.
The prevailing impression among people was, and still is, that colonialism ended militarily in the middle of the last century. Although there is general awareness among them of the issue that military colonialism has been replaced by a non-military colonialism with multiple aspects, this impression must be scrutinized or rather corrected in light of the presence of American bases in the region.
America's military bases in Qatar, Bahrain, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey are in reality an actual military occupation, and an enemy concentration in the heart of the Islamic countries. There is no explanation for the existence of those bases other than the rulers' justifications for what they call defense agreements, which are justifications invalidated by the fact that the countries in which the bases are located are only surrounded by Islamic geography. So against whom are these treaties then?! It is also belied by the fact that in recent decades, there has been no enemy that has shed Muslim blood and attacked them as much as America itself, the owner of the bases, and its protégé, the Jewish entity, and they still do, so that the picture becomes clear that the rulers mired in collaboration and betrayal are using America to oppress their peoples and preserve their seats, even if it means bringing in military colonialism. As for the scarecrows, they realize, as everyone realizes, that their reins are in America's hands.
These military bases are occupation forces, and their mere presence is a violation of sovereignty, not as Qatar claimed that touching them is a touch to the sovereignty of the state. This sovereignty only appears when those bases are attacked, while its owners disappear and are silenced when those bases send death, bombing, and destruction towards Muslim countries, as they did in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, or supply the Jewish entity with ammunition and lava to fall on the heads of Gaza's children. What sin have the Muslim rulers committed, and what betrayal is it that they have indulged in when they were not only agents of colonialism, but rather bringing in its army to re-occupy the country once again?!
Written for the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Yousef Abu Zar
