BY CAPT. ASHOK BANSAL.
Whither United States of America
January 1, 2002. A few dozen villagers were killed when U.S. “smart bombs” tried to smoke out the Taliban and Osama bin Laden from their U.S.-built, U.S.-financed high-tech caverns in Afghan mountains. George Bush calls it ‘operation enduring freedom’. Enduring freedom for whom?
On the same day an Israeli raiding party precisely picked out two ‘suspected terrorists’ and neatly killed them. They call such killings ‘extra-legal’. Killings by Palestinians are described as murders and acts of terrorism. The disintegration of Palestinian civil society is meticulously planned to be a perfect success. It is 1,000 Palestinian eyes for one Israeli eye and 1,000 Palestinian teeth for one Israeli tooth. The AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), with an annual budget of U.S. $19.5 million, sees to it that 70% to 80% of congress members vote according to its wishes.
The First Victory for Bin Laden
The arrogance with which George W. pronounced the existence of an axis of evil, identifying Iraq, Iran and North Korea as anti-American terrorist allies, and adding that ‘if you are not with us you are against us’, was amazing. There is a growing gap of disunity and distrust with America, the U.K., and Israel on one side and rest of the world on the other. Bush should know that the label ‘Axis of Evil’ is aptly being considered applicable by world to these three western countries.
The First Victory for Bin Laden
This is the first victory for Bin Laden.
The Second Victory for Bin Laden
Ever since World War II, security for the U.S.A. was not only based on power, but also on international mutual respect and integrity of its presidents. That security is now endangered by Washington’s politics, not by outside terrorist.
The Second Victory for Bin Laden
This is the second victory for Bin Laden.
The Third Victory for Bin Laden
For sixty years, the term ‘Ugly American’ was mainly applied to U.S. citizens outside their country because of the way they flouted their dollars. This term has now crossed into U.S.A. thanks to the policies of the U.S. government.
The Third Victory for Bin Laden
This is the third victory for Bin Laden.
The Fourth Victory for Bin Laden
It has been quiet on the western front ever since it leaked out that the so called anthrax terrorist is most probably a member of the secret American program under which biological weapons are developed in U.S.A.! And that, therefore, the anthrax terrorists are not Arabs but Americans. Someone should explain why five young Israelis set up a light van in view of the twin towers just hours before the catastrophe, installed movie cameras, and filmed the attack? How did they know? Why did one of them carry thousands of U.S. dollars in his shoes? And after arresting them and finding out that at least two of them worked for the Israeli services, the FBI let all the five go? Why was no information given to the public after the initial press releases?
The U.S. and Preventive Strikes
The U.S. foresees “preventive strikes” against countries owning “chemical, biological or atomic weapons.” These actions would be labelled “defensive interventions.” Why should any other country in the world refrain from pre-emptive strikes if it “feels its national interests endangered?” Why should the Arab countries not attack Israel to safeguard their national interests in the region?
The Fourth Victory for Bin Laden
This is the fourth victory for Bin Laden.
Henry Kissinger a Questionable Role
Henry Kissinger sabotaged peace talks between Vietnam and America, which resulted in the loss of millions of predominantly civilian lives. The world has not forgotten the gases U.S. forces used to kill them. The same Kissinger animated Nixon to opt for war against Cambodia. Decades of war with the support of America destroyed the very fabric of Cambodia. Kissinger also instrumented the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey and for the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
Henry Kissinger a Questionable Role
In 1983, Henry Kissinger was sent to Baghdad by then President Ronald Regan. His mission was to sell Saddam biological weapons so Iraq could poison the hell out of Iran. At the time Saddam bought 2,200 gallons of anthrax spores, 5,300 gallons of deadly botulinum, and hundreds of gallons of germs that could be used to make gas gangrene. The deal was closed with worldwide publicised photographs of Kissinger shaking hands with Saddam. In 1984 Howard Teicher, a high ranking member of Reagan’s security council, travelled to Baghdad to submit a master plan for defeating the Iranians. He travelled in the company of a certain Donald Rumsfeld.
Henry Kissinger a Questionable Role
On March 16, 1988, Iraqi forces bombed Halabja, a Kurdish village in northern Iraq, with lethal poisonous gas bombs acquired with U.S. technology, killing 5,000 people, mostly women and children. The men had fled earlier and were fighting in the mountains. America and the “rest of the world” did not cry out then. Again, in 1995, thousands of unarmed men, women and children were massacred by the Christian Serbs right under the “Christian” eyes of Europeans, the NATO, the U.S., and literally in full view of those who claim to be on “the right side” in the worst genocidal butchering on Europe’s soil since World War II. Just by chance, all the victims were Muslims, killed in fighting, or “crusading,” against the “axis of evil.”
Wars Since World War II
War with Iraq would be the America’s twenty-second since World War II. The others: China, Korea, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, Belgian Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Today it is Iraq, with its oil fields. Tomorrow, Iran and its oil fields. And the day after that the Indonesian archipelago with its oil fields. And thereafter each and every country the U.S. chooses to be “threatened” by, however hideous the basis for these threats may be. Maybe the very mild reaction of the U.S. on discovering the nuclear weapons programme of North Korea is because there is a difference in threats according to the number of barrels of oil lying beneath the soil of the respective countries?
The U.S. arrogance and self-centred way of looking at things could not be better illustrated than with the remark of Richard Perle, advisor to U.S. defence Ministry, “Europe has lost its moral compass and fallen into a dull pacifism.”
Alternately examine the works of an Ex-DIA agent, “It was only another way of killing people. If by bullets or by phosgene, [it] made no difference.”
The “Citizen Protection Act,” just passed by the U.S. Congress, would allow the U.S. to free, with military intervention, any American citizen tried for war crimes by the International Court of Justice at Den Haag.
The UN Convention for the rights of children remains unsigned only by the U.S. The U.S. refused any international control of its laboratories. The very same controls they are asking for Iraq are being blatantly refused by the U.S. It means that even while possessing the biggest arsenal of biological and nuclear weapons, and even after killing millions of people and perpetuating atrocities all over the world in the last 150 years, the U.K. and America are proclaiming to not be rogue States by adopting a holier than thou attitude. But let’s not forget, “Americans don’t commit any war crimes.”
2,948 Official death toll in the attack on WTC on September 11, 2001.
2’948 murders by guns in the U.S.A every 96 days in 2001.
2’948. Number of people dying of hunger in the world every 2 hours and 57 minutes.
2’948. Number of women dying in Afghanistan during pregnancy and child birth every 40 days and 23 hours.
In Washington, a small city of 600’000 inhabitants, over 200 people have been murdered between January 2002 and September 2002. Between September 11, 2001 and September 11, 2002, more Americans have been murdered by Americans with guns made in America than died in the twin towers. But the right of each American citizen to carry his or her own gun is untouchable.
A hunger death or a death in child birth is silent and unspectacular. And why should CNN or the western world bother about hunger deaths or women dying during pregnancy in Afghanistan?
Non-CNN and non-western-media events go almost unnoticed except that it reflects the resurgence of the mighty, ugly and powerful American and the rejection of the U.S. arrogance by the 95.3% of the world’s population not holding an American passport.
Maybe George W. forgot that in 1999 32% of the citizens of his country were living below the poverty line. Maybe he also forgot that in 2001 15%, or forty million Americans, had to rely on soup kitchens for survival. Maybe someone should tell George W. that it is not hunger which contributes to a positive environment for terrorism and becomes a breeding ground for extremism.
An estimated 2,000,000 people have become invalid and have no income whatsoever in Bhopal. The U.S. multinational concern Union Carbide was responsible for the disaster, or should we rather call it an industrial terrorist attack? Union Carbide paid 470 million U.S. dollar as “compensation.” A mere 600 U.S. dollars for each victim. No charges were brought against Warren Anderson, then chairman of Union Carbide. The U.S. government threatened India that large multinational companies would reconsider their activities or their planned investments in India should the cases be followed.
Norman Mailer, grand old man of American literature, offers a few thoughts:
“There are two kinds of conservatives in America. The ones who believe in Christian values, morals and a decent life. The other conservatives believe in the flag, the power of the country, the power of consumerism, and the power of money. Greed is their gospel. Bush is not interested in the world, but in the American control of the world. America is a tough and ugly nation, don’t fuck with them, even though they have never won a war since the defeat of Hitler and even though the ill equipped Vietnamese wearing just lion cloths taught the mighty American a thing or two about not losing a war, if not winning it.”
If our neighbour owns a car, have we the right to destroy his car because of the possibility of him running over our kids? What should we do with all the sexually active men in this world? All are potential rapists, a threat to each and every woman.
The real threats are missing medical services and schooling facilities, which must be fought through poverty alleviation and the redistribution of wealth and resources. Today’s enemies are arrogance arising out of wealth and the might of arms. If America wants rest of the world to check each and every nation which can become a threat to its neighbours because of the might of its arsenal, then it must submit itself to the same regime which it is advocating for other nations.
Posers
• In what way is Islamic fundamentalism different from the European Inquisition of the Middle Ages?
• Is the American way the right way to fight, or is it right only because the world is afraid to ask them hard questions?
• After being involved in 21 wars since World War II, each of which America started, America calls Iraq a rogue state who deserves to be punished. Why?
• If America is not yet a rogue State what if, being the only superpower, it becomes one? Who will punish it?
• Each of the 21 wars which the U.S. has fought have been against small and weak countries. They dared not take on the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War, and they dare not take on China now.
• Only the U.S.A. has used the atom bomb till now. Only the U.S.A has invented biological weapons and has used them. Who and what would prevent the U.S.A from using such weapons again?
• Who and what will prevent the U.S.A. from invading any other country or bullying any nation at their will and pleasure?
The Author is LL.B. (Hons.) London, Master Mariner, Bar At Law and Fellow ICA.