How Humanitarian Imperialism Led to Europe’s Refugee Crisis

Written on February 24th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on ZNet, Interview with Jean Bricmont, conducted by Maidhc Ó Cathail, Feb 22, 2016.

Maidhc Ó Cathail: Do you see Cologne, 2015 as a turning point or the beginning of the end for European civilization?

  • Jean Bricmont: I am not sure what European civilization means, but if it survived the two World Wars, it will survive Cologne 2015. One should not exaggerate what happens with the refugees. I am of two minds about that. On the one hand, I don’t think it is such a big deal; what are a few million refugees among 500 million Europeans? On the other hand, polls show that a majority of people in European countries do not want to “welcome” more refugees and I think it is their right to do so (even if personally I don’t think it is such a big deal).
  • What I call the moral left wants to force the population to be altruistic with respect to the refugees. But the population who is never consulted on the issue of refugees and who is constantly asked to make sacrifices because “there is no money” understandably does not accept this moral discourse.

Maidhc Ó Cathail: How is what you wrote in Humanitarian Imperialism related to the current refugee crisis?

  • Jean Bricmont: Well, the same people who encouraged “humanitarian” interventions and “support” for armed insurrections abroad, that have led to perpetual wars, generating a constant flow of refugees, are now demanding that the population of our countries “welcome the refugees”. They first generate chaos there, then they applaud chaos here. It cannot last forever. One can see signs of widespread popular revolt against that. Now, I am not optimistic about the way this revolt will go, because, since the left has been almost totally won over to the cause of humanitarian interventions and its corollary of welcoming the refugees, this revolt will almost certainly benefit mostly the (far) right.

Maidhc Ó Cathail: Do you believe that guilt over the Holocaust is the driving force behind Germany’s decision to accept over a million refugees? … //

… (full interview text).

(JEAN BRICMONT teaches physics at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He is author of Humanitarian Imperialism. He can be reached here.
MAIDHC Ó CATHAIL is a widely published writer and political analyst. In addition to having written a monthly column for Beo!, his work has been published by Antiwar.com, Arab News (Saudi Arabia), Consortium News, Forward Magazine (Syria), Journal of Turkish Weekly, Khaleej Times (UAE), Ma’an News Agency (Palestine), Middle East Monitor, Palestine Chronicle, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, RT, Tehran Times, The Nation (Pakistan), The Unz Review, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and many more).

Links:

Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo, names no locations to replace Cuba-based prison – report, on RT, Feb 23, 2016;

MADAGASCAR: La hausse des salaires du secteur privé attend son décret d’application, dans Orange.mg, le 22 févr 2016;

Le talon de fer du Médef, dans Médiapart.fr, le 22 févr 2016;

IRELAND: Election 2016 – reaching out to the undecided voters, on The Irish Times, Feb 22, 2016;

Canada must be running low on things to apologize for, and other reasons to fear for humanity, on National Post, by Kelly McParland, Feb 22, 2016;

Why Hipster Dudes Are Pointing the Way to the Future of Work for Men, on Good Men Project, by Thomas Roush, Feb 22, 2016: Men must work. A world of non-working men is a misery. But jobs are to be done in this world of machines?

Demystifying Brexit – the ‘ins & outs’ of the EU referendum, on RT, Feb 22, 2016;

How Humanitarian Imperialism Led to Europe’s Refugee Crisis, on Counterpunch, by JEAN BRICMONT and MAIDHC Ó CATHAIL, Feb 19, 2016;

Special Report: The Hidden History of the Balfour Declaration, on Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, by John Cornelius, Nov 2005;
( Balfour Declaration; (dated 2 November 1917) was a letter from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland …);

Special Report: A 1961 Massacre of Algerians in Paris When the Media Failed the Test, on Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, by James J. Napoli, March 1997, pg. 36;
( Paris massacre of 1961 occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the French National Police attacked a demonstration of some 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians. Two months before, the FLN had decided to increase its bombing in France and to resume the campaign against both pro-France Algerians and the rival Algerian nationalist organization, the Algerian National Movement in France. After 37 years of denial, in 1998 the French government acknowledged 40 deaths, although there are estimates of 100 to 300 victims …);

… and this:

Comments are closed.