Tim Anderson

Review

his book, Axis of Resistance: towards an independent Middle East, follows the author’s 2016 book The Dirty War on Syria. It examines the end of the war on Syria and the wider elements of the regional conflict, in particular the prospects for a democratic Palestine, the character of the Resistance and the role of Iran. It draws attention to these broad leitmotifs underpinning each particular history that are key to understanding both the parts and the whole: A single, essentially colonial impetus drives each particular US aggression from Libya to Afghanistan. These hybrid wars utilize propaganda offensives, economic siege warfare, terrorist proxies, direct invasions and military occupations followed by repression via client states. The aim is to keep resistance forces fragmented. Just as each aggression forms part of a broader Washington strategy, similarly the integration of the resistance in particular remains critical to its success. The Resistance has a common character but no idealized personality or ideology. However the common features are a demand for popular self-determination and for accountable social structures that serve broad social interests. "Western policy has been worse than a crime it’s been a blunder.Tim Anderson’s epic study shows what a crime, what a blunder it has been.And how ugly the monster which now stalks the land. My land, your land, the whole of humanity. It is a must read.” GEORGE GALLOWAY, British politician “Axis of Resistance will take its place alongside the few books worth reading on how and by whom the flickering lights of the imperial twilight of ‘the West’ in the Middle East were finally extinguished.” DR. JEREMY SALT, Middle East historian, former professor Melbourne Universit

In the series of 21st century wars initiated by Washington in the name of a ‘New Middle East’, resistance forces are prevailing. like all imperial gambits before it the US-led plan has been to subjugate the entire region

– whether through the direct application of force, or through coalitions or proxies – to secure privileged access to its tremendous resources and then dictate terms of access to all other players.Insofar as the key to a definitive defeat of Washington’s ambitions lies in regional integration of the resistance forces–an integration led by Iran, the undisputed leader of an ‘Axis of Resistance’ to foreign domination and Zionist expansion—Iran has emerged as an ever more central target for regime change.

This book, Axis of Resistance: towards an independent Middle East, follows the author’s 2016 book The Dirty War on Syria. It examines the end of the war on Syria and the wider elements of the regional conflict, in particular the prospects for a democratic Palestine, the character of the Resistance and the role of Iran. It draws attention to these broad leitmotifs underpinning each particular history that are key to understanding both the parts and the whole:

A single, essentially colonial impetus drives each particular US aggression from Libya to Afghanistan. These hybrid wars utilize propaganda offensives, economic siege warfare, terrorist proxies, direct invasions and military occupations followed by repression via client states. The aim is to keep resistance forces fragmented.

Just as each aggression forms part of a broader Washington strategy, similarly the integration of the resistance in particular remains critical to its success.

The Resistance has a common character but no idealized personality or ideology. However the common features are a demand for popular self-determination and for accountable social structures that serve broad social interests.

Axis addresses myths about the wars and the resistance, while attempting a partial and provisional history of the conflicts. A focus on resistance can help us understand the defeat of great powers, something not possible for any analysis which begins and ends with power.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Part 1: Imperialism and Resistance 1. The Axis and the ‘New Middle East?

2. Empires, Resistance and Self-Determination

3. Sanctions as Siege Warfare

4. Myth and Method in Studies of War

Part 2: Collapse of the Dirty War on Syria

5. The Dirty War Revisited

6. The Liberation of Aleppo

7. The US-Fighting-ISIS Deception: The Crime at Jabal al Tharda

8. WMD Take 2: Chemical Weapons in Syria

9. The Human Rights Industry in Humanitarian War

10. The Pseudo-Left and the ‘Syrian Revolution'

11. Refugees as Weapons of War

Part 3: The West Asian Alliance

 12. The Future of Palestine

 13. Hezbollah and the Regional Resistance

14. Why Iran Matters

15. Towards West Asia

Part 4: Postscript

16. War, Solidarity and Abuse

Index

• Contributor: Tim Anderson
• Imprint: Clarity Press
• ISBN13: 9781949762167
• Number of Pages: 380
• Packaged Dimensions: 150x226x23mm
• Packaged Weight: 567
• Format: Paperback
• Publisher: Clarity Press
• Release Date: 2020-01-01
• Binding: Paperback / softback