Sounds familiar? The version that is currently in your head is a little bit different , we all heard about this famous quote “ Money is the root of all evil” because trough out history people did unthinkable things in order to make money , they lie , steal , kill even start wars just to access to more resources and become richer. But since the beginning of modern politics, we faced so many corruption scandals, accusations and been forced to endure the results of their bad governance. They also been famous by promising endless propositions by telling people what they want to hear in order to get elected and this pattern is being observed in every country no matter the type of political system in place.
After thinking about it I wanted to answer this problematic:
Is Politics become the root of all evil?
To answer this problematic I am going to tell you 3 stories so you can forge your own opinion about it.
The first one is about the USA and the middle east.
The second one is about what the Algerian regime and how he ruled the country for 20 years.
The third one is about how the Arab countries accepted the existence of Israel.
Iraq War, or Second Persian Gulf War, (2003-11) War in Iraq that consisted of two phases: a brief conflict in 2003 between Iraq and a combined force of troops largely from the U.S. and Great Britain; and a subsequent U.S–led occupation of Iraq and protracted Iraqi armed insurgency against it. The trade embargo and weapons-inspection process that the UN imposed on Iraq following the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) had partly fallen into abeyance by 2001. U.S.
Pres. George W. Bush argued that the September 11 attacks on the U.S. in that same year highlighted the threat to U.S. security posed by hostile countries such as Iraq. In November 2002 the UN issued Security Council Resolution 1441 demanding that Iraq readmit weapons inspectors and comply with all previous resolutions. Although inspectors did return to Iraq, Bush and Blair declared in early 2003 (despite objections by many world leaders) that Iraq was continuing to hinder UN inspections and that it still retained proscribed weapons. On March 20 the U.S. and Britain (with smaller troop contingents from other countries) launched a series of air attacks on Iraq, and a ground invasion followed. Iraqi forces were rapidly defeated, and on April 9 U.S. forces took control of the capital, Baghdad. British forces completed their occupation of the southern city of Al-Basrah the same day, and by May 1 the major combat operations of the invasion had been completed. However, the U.S. and other occupying forces were soon embroiled in escalating guerrilla warfare in Iraq that hindered Iraq’s recovery and killed thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians. The war, long opposed by many throughout the world, also became increasingly unpopular in the U.S. Sectarian fighting and insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces peaked in 2006 and 2007. In early 2007 the U.S. implemented a strategy that came to be known as the “surge”—temporarily increasing the number of troops in Iraq by more than 20,000 in a bid to stabilize the country. By the end of the year, violence had decreased substantially, although the role of the surge in improving security remained a source of debate. In 2008 the U.S. began to gradually reduce the number of its troops in Iraq, completing its withdrawal in December 2011.[1]
The 2019 Algerian protests known as the Hirak began on February 22, 2019, 12 days after the country’s aging and ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his candidacy for a fifth presidential term. The peaceful protests compelled the military to insist on Bouteflika’s immediate resignation, which took place on April 2, 2019. By early May, a significant number of powerbrokers close to the deposed administration had been arrested, including the former president’s younger brother Said. But protesters have not gone home, and many have vowed to stay until the underlying structure of rule in Algeriа changes and its ruling elite–known as Le Pouvoir (the power)–are expelled from power. The protesters are demanding that an entirely new system–which some call a new revolution–be put in place. The immediate trigger for the protests was the February 10, 2019 announcement that former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika (19992019) would stand for a fifth mandate. But the Hirak reflects an accumulation of grievances with the political system that evolved out of the Algerian civil war and with that system’s management of state resources, especially following the president’s 2013 stroke. Most observers, including myself, were surprised by the intensity and scope of the protests—which have occurred every Friday since February 22 (and on Tuesdays for students). But Algerian citizens have frequently shown dissatisfaction with the political system through both exit and voice strategies, although not at this level of national public protest.[2]
The decision by four Arab countries to forge ties with Israel in 2020 was not about peace, love, or understanding. The United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, and (to a lesser extent) Bahrain were all motivated by narrow interests—including the promise of either advanced weapons or diplomatic favors from the United States.
And yet, the normalization deals stand as the most significant breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict since the 1990s. Already, Israel’s interactions with the UAE appear to be warmer than its ties with Egypt and Jordan, Arab countries that forged peace with Israel decades ago. Thousands of Israeli tourists have visited Abu
Dhabi since direct flights were inaugurated in late August. And earlier this month, an Emirati royal bought a large stake in an Israeli soccer team (which, perversely, is known for its racist shunning of Arab and Muslim players)—in the kind of high-profile investment that until recently seemed unimaginable.
For Palestinians, of course, the deals amount to more tragedy and betrayal. In peace talks over the years, Arab normalization was held out as a prize Israel would get only once it allowed independence for
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Instead, Israel has gained acceptance in the region without making significant concessions in return. (While it backtracked on imposing sovereignty over parts of the West Bank, many analysts believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was never serious about annexation.) In the political scorecard of the Middle East, Palestinians were once again the big losers.[3]
With those three stories I think we can agree that politics is not something that people should be avoiding specially our youth , I fundamentally believe that with politics we can make a nation stand up and become a really strong and respected nation in this world but the problem is that we can never know who we are voting for and it’s really a problem considering that democracy is here to avoid people staying in power for too long and help people choose between the best political program so how do you make the person with really good attention access to power and make a change?
The answer is you can’t because currently no matter if you’re living in a democracy or an autocracy, you’ll always have leaders that promise you the impossible and when the power is in their hands, they come up with prefabricated excuses to justify their unkept promises. And that’s why I encourage the Youth to be more in politics and create more organizations in order to have more influence and power because if the gap between people and their leaders in term of Power keep growing this nation will end up in the hands of a minority that will steal all the resources and abuse power to the limit. To finish I want to leave you with this quote of John Emerich Edward Dalber:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupt absolutely”
[1] “Iraq War” , Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, 8
Nov. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/event/Iraq–War, Accessed 2 December 2022.
[2] Robert Parks, From Protesta to Hirak to Algeria’s New Revolutionary Moment https://merip.org/2019/12/from–protesta–to–hirak–to–algerias–new–revolutionarymoment/ , Accessed 2 December 2022.
[3] By Dan Ephron, How Arab Ties with Israel Became the Middle East’s New Normal, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/21/arab–ties–israel–diplomacy–normalizationmiddle–east/ , Accessed 2 December 2022.