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The United States Must Change Course
Simple words sometimes assume great significance in the lives of peoples and nations. The words "Salt Satyagraha" of Mahatma Gandhi helped lay the foundations amongst the masses for the movement which brought freedom to the Indian subcontinent. The words "Glasnost" and "Perestroika" transformed Soviet Russia from an "All War-No Peace" economy to a consumer society ruled by the market place. At the inception of this process economic and political institutions were hijacked to serve interests other than those of the Russian people. Russia would appear to be now emerging from a dark decade with a potential to exercise its options to best serve the interests of its citizens.
The Anglo-American oligarchy saw in this chaotic process of transition an opportunity for the emergence of the United States as the unipolar superpower (with Britain as its pilot fish), thus fulfilling their long held dream for a "New American Century" of global supremacy.
The buzzwords "Al-Qaida" and "War on Terror" came into being following the tragic events of Nine Eleven. Perhaps never before in human history, with the possible exception of Hitler and Nazism were so many words and media facilities used to promote these scarecrows, including that mascot Osama bin Laden. So much so that these have now become keywords in international political discourse and even instruments of policy. Their repeated use by those in power can influence election results, cover up state-sponsored trade in drugs and arms, launder money, frighten weaker nations into subjugation, instigate civilisational wars and acts of terror whereas the conceptual images conjured by these names have come to play an intrinsic and subjective part in people's daily lives.
And now the entire tragedy of September 11, 2001 and subsequent terrorist deeds lie in the buried in the archives and in the grief of thousands of families. The pre and post Nine Eleven events have been creatively harnessed to trigger a preplanned war on Iraq, resulting in the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of innocents and a loss of livelihood, security and stability for millions...All this to further the cause of freedom, democracy and human rights! The cries of woe creeping out of the supposedly "civilized" torture chambers of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons have added another dimension to human degradation. They have shaken the conscience of people across the globe and sent shockwaves of anger, hate and revenge throughout the Islamic world.
Many questions are now being raised in the State chanceries, at international forums and amongst people at large. What is Al-Qaida? Who is this man, Osama bin Laden who was overnight projected on the world stage as an incarnation of Evil and who are his patrons, friends and supporters who provide the financial, technical and human resources, information and networking infrastructure to commit massive, "hi tech" terrorist attacks on all continents, seemingly at will? Are there are any underlying motives other than hatred for the United States, its allies and client states? Why is the war on terror so casually and selectively conducted? Are there other, unstated objectives behind this war? And why was it quickly turned into a war on Iraq?
All through the ongoing Operation Iraq, most of the frontline Anglo-American media projected totally indefensible images of self-righteousness. In this process they created grave doubts about the force that are behind that war and even perhaps behind Al-Qaida.
High expectations were raised when the US Congressional Commission began to question the events that led to 9/11 and the failures and excesses thereafter. It would appear that the commission may succeed in exposing some of the terror agents within the Government system and even inflict some punishment on the lower-rung operators who committed those crimes, to assuage the feelings of the innocent victims who survived them, but the policy-makers and the master criminals who are behind these acts will predictably escape proportionate punishment, and for the world at large, this cutting edge criminality, responsible for massive war crimes is being reduced to the individual indiscretions of a few departmental operators, thus bringing the fast sliding U.S. credibility even further down.
All these investigations are still based on the implicit assumption that the divine right to civilize, democratise, dominate and exploit other nations rests with the USA, not because it has won any specific moral merit or acclaim but because it possesses weapons of mass destruction which it can use to ruin the lives and interests of others, as in Iraq.
What makes the well wishers of the United States even more sad and concerned is the fact that no one, or almost no one of any real consequence within the Congress or the power structure has hitherto questioned the rising Neo-Imperialist trends within the nation and the American State's right to revile, ostracize and destroy any person, country or culture it so chooses. Above all, those multiple oligarchies mastering sophisticated terror techniques and disinformation systems have acquired extra-constitutional sway over the United States to its own detriment. While the internal affairs of the country are of the concern of American citizens, when they bring out a global tragedy however, they become an issue for all nations and peoples.
Of even greater concern is the damage being done to the spiritual, moral and ethical foundations of society. In the process of pursuing its delusions of grandeur as a superpower, the USA has incapacitated and marginalised the only instrument for the collective resolution of conflicts which is the United Nations Organisation and its various agencies.
The distortion of the definition of democracy and human rights to suit an imperial purpose, the ceaseless glorification of violence, war and destruction, the use of depleted uranium weapons whose circle of deadly radiations is widening over Europe and Asia, the resort to biological and chemical weapons with irreversible effects, the constant laundering of huge sums of money from drugs and arms deals to finance covert and overt operations directed against other countries, all that is making the United States a target of rising worldwide resentment.
The USA cannot indefinitely escape the consequences of these actions and the instruments to commit them. The psychic damage being inflicted on the younger generations will far outweigh the sensorial pleasures provided by the consumer toys that flood the free market society. Meanwhile, in order to seek a new path, other nations are examining the various available options to combine a free economy with a humane socialism according to their needs, resources and lifestyles, while trying to break free from the fetters of unipolar domination.
The matter of concern is however, where does the alienated United States, saddled with a huge destructive - and self-destructive - superstructure go from here? And how much more damage will it inflict on other countries in the increasingly desperate process of trying to hold on to its power and pelf?
For this issue of World Affairs we requested a number of scholars, many from the United States, to provide their insights into this multifaceted crisis, with the hope that the "hyperpower" will change course in time to save itself and all of us from Armageddon.
J.C. Kapur
New Delhi
June 2004