The US Empire & the Muslim World

Let's begin in 1945. When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower later admitted in his memoir that the bombings were militarily unnecessary. So why did they happen?

Primarily, to send a chilling message to the Soviet Union. The seeds of the Cold War were being planted-seeds that would grow into a global architecture of domination, surveillance, and intervention.

Following World War II, the U.S. began reshaping itself-not just as a nation, but as a permanent imperial entity. The National Security Act of 1947 institutionalized this change, establishing the Department of Defense, CIA (from the OSS), and the National Security Council (from the War Resources Board). These were no longer temporary wartime agencies; they became permanent structures designed to keep the U.S. in a constant state of war-readiness.

Military Interventions: A Global Pattern

With these new institutions in place, the U.S. embarked on a campaign of covert and overt interventions under the pretext of national security. This justification became a blank check for imperial action. The CIA alone was involved in the overthrow or destabilization of governments in:

• Iran (1953)
• Guatemala (1954)
• Congo (1961)
• Chile (1973)
• Nicaragua (1985)
• Libya (2011)
• Ukraine (2014)
  ...and many more.

This wasn't just Cold War politics; it was the birth of a new neocolonial order. Formerly colonized nations in the Muslim world-Lebanon (1943), Syria and Jordan (1946), Pakistan (1947), Egypt (1952), Sudan, Tunisia, and Morocco (1956), and others-were now targets of imperial influence through different means.

Three Dimensions of Empire: Military, Financial, Legal

To fully grasp the U.S. empire, we must view it through three key dimensions:

1. Military Dimension: This includes direct intervention, CIA coups, drone warfare, military bases across the globe, and military alliances like NATO (established 1949) that serve imperial interests. It legitimizes violence through the discourse of "security" and "freedom."
2. Financial Dimension: The Bretton Woods Agreement (1944) set the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency and created institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Through these, the U.S. weaponized debt and credit, forcing structural adjustment programs (SAPs) on developing nations. These programs often required:

• Currency devaluation
• Market liberalization
• Cutting subsidies and increasing taxes

For example, Egypt was forced in 2016 by the IMF to devalue its currency, cut food subsidies, and introduce painful tax hikes-measures that burdened the poor while favoring foreign investors.

3. Legal Dimension

Empire is not only enforced through bombs but also through laws. Colonial powers once used terms like "protectorate" or "mandate" (e.g., British Mandate in Palestine) to legally justify occupation. After WWII, the UN, ICC, and ICJ emerged, but their legal frameworks have proven weak or entirely absent when it comes to accountability for Western or Israeli crimes.

These legal structures have been used not to defend the oppressed but to criminalize resistance. The U.S. created sweeping anti-terror laws to police dissent, especially Muslim resistance.

Post-Cold War Shift: Muslims Become the New Enemy

Once the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. needed a new "other" to justify its imperial machinery. That other became Muslims.

• 1992 Anti-Terrorism Act: Allowed lawsuits against alleged international terrorism. Zionist groups have used this law to sue Palestinian organizations in the U.S., including the Holy Land Foundation.
• 1995 Law on Material Support: Criminalized giving any aid to a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)-even humanitarian aid.
• 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act: Enabled the Secretary of State (an unelected official) to designate FTOs, broadening what counts as material support-even advocacy.

All of this happened before 9/11.

After 9/11, the Patriot Act, Department of Homeland Security, NSA surveillance programs, and a global war on terror were unleashed, leading to widespread criminalization of Muslim charities, activists, and resistance groups-particularly those advocating for Palestinian liberation.

Zionism and U.S. Empire: A Symbiotic Relationship

You cannot separate the anatomy of U.S. empire from the architecture of Zionist expansion. Israel has leveraged every legal, financial, and military structure to silence resistance and criminalize solidarity.

Two main strategies:

1. Fruitless Negotiations: From the Camp David Accords to the Abraham Accords, the goal has often been to distract, demobilize, and delegitimize Palestinian resistance.
2. Legal Suffocation: From anti-boycott laws to "material support" prosecutions, Zionist groups have created legal tools to punish Palestinian advocacy and funnel aid to Israel's genocidal campaigns.

Post-Cold War, the U.S.-Zionist alliance went into overdrive, branding all Islamic resistance as "radical Islam." The U.S. adopted colonial European narratives of Muslims as inherently violent, irrational, and in need of control.

Where Do We Go from Here?

This is the moment we live in-a moment shaped by decades of imperial architecture. The Muslim world has not only been invaded and destabilized, but its sovereignty has been rewritten through foreign legal frameworks, financial dependency, and perpetual war.

To understand Palestine today-or the broader condition of the Muslim world-you must understand this imperial anatomy. Resistance cannot be compartmentalized. It must be holistic, targeting not only the violence we see, but the laws, markets, and narratives that sustain it.

The task ahead is daunting-but clarity is a form of power. When we recognize the structure, we can begin to dismantle it.