Thursday, August 24, 2006
The Failed Policy - No Wonder They Hate Us
Death of the Neocons' Scenario * Albert Camus and G.W. Bush
They being the people of the predominantly Muslim regions -- Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia. Then there are countries where the presence of Muslims is strong (Britain, India). Some among them participate in acts of terrorism. President Bush described them as "Islamo-Fascists".
Think about what we have done to generate hate against the American government and its policies.
The WMD story used by the neocons to take the nation to war against Iraq is now a dead horse. Operation Iraqi Freedom is a joke but Bush and the Republicans continue to exploit Iraq as the center of al-Qaeda activities. More than 40,000 Iraqi civilians have died, not counting the victims of sectarian violence now raging between the Sunnis and Shias. The much vaunted elections in Iraq resulted in Shiites gaining power. The neocons' scenario for postwar Iraq went up in flames. Yes, majority of Iraqis hate the army of occupation.
We wanted, and encouraged, elections in Palestine. To our consternation the Palestinians voted Hamas into power. We shunned Hamas and allowed Israel to continue military actions against civilian population in Gaza. No wonder that we are detested by the Palestinians.
The recent war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah had our fingerprints all over the map. No American boots on the ground but we were a party "by proxy". An uneasy peace prevails in Lebanon but only after its infrastructure was destroyed and large number of civilians died. Can we expect the Lebanese to love us ?
Now we are taking a leading role in the drumbeat for war against Iran. We don't want them to possess nuclear technology beyond what we consider to be "safe". We describe them as a rogue nation and we want their oil. We rule over a nuclear club with restricted membership. We don't even mention that Israel has nuclear weapons. It does not take much imagination to visualize what is going to happen if we decide to liberate Iran. You can bet that Iranians will not be greeting us with flowers and chocolates.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim's article 'The New Middleast' Bush Is Resisting in the Post goes to the heart of the matter. "President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be quite right about a new Middle East being born. In fact, their policies in support of the actions of their closest regional ally, Israel, have helped midwife the newborn. But it will not be exactly the baby they have longed for. For one thing, it will be neither secular nor friendly to the United States. For another, it is going to be a rough birth."
- What is happening in the broader Middle East and North Africa can be seen as a boomerang effect that has been playing out slowly since the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. In the immediate aftermath of those attacks, there was worldwide sympathy for the United States and support for its declared "war on terrorism," including the invasion of Afghanistan. Then the cynical exploitation of this universal goodwill by so-called neoconservatives to advance hegemonic designs was confirmed by the war in Iraq. The Bush administration's dishonest statements about "weapons of mass destruction" diminished whatever credibility the United States might have had as liberator, while disastrous mismanagement of Iraqi affairs after the invasion led to the squandering of a conventional military victory. The country slid into bloody sectarian violence, while official Washington stonewalled and refused to admit mistakes. No wonder the world has progressively turned against America.
Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker writes about the president's summer reading list. It includes The Stranger by Albert Camus. Wow, the president has hidden depths of which we are unaware. Seriously though, I don't believe he read Camus or can understand Camus. The summer reading list is just another prop used by the White House.
*****
- And all this brings us no further than book one on the President’s stack, with Oppenheimer and Lincoln still to be chewed on. Bush may have emerged from his syllabus as little altered as most undergraduates emerge from theirs. Still, it is encouraging to think that he has spent the summer reflecting on the inscrutable origins of human violence and on the unimaginable destructive powers now available through American science, while contemplating the achievements of a great man who hated wars, made a necessary one, and wandered the halls of the White House agonized by the consequences. It sounds almost like the beginnings of wisdom, or, at least, a compulsory fall reading list for us all.
Comments:
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Dear Musafir,First of all let me congratulate you for your courage to speak out, a priviledge not readily available in the know religious repressed world.
Religion & politics is a well known hot potato by todays standards. It is unfortunate that we as humanity have not matured with tolerance, but rather have stooped down to the lowest denomination available in human behaviour with very grave results.
We can only hope that the moderate populus of any ethnic & religious groups are able to see beyond thier just cause & accept another human being for who they are rather than vilify them by political or religious means. That is the hope.
The main resolve in our human conflict is to letting go of our tendencies for control over one another,& learning to negotiate rather than irritate. We only have to look at the world wide propoganda from every nation on this planet & see for ourselves that we are responsible for our own demise.
Some countries claiming "war on (fill this blank)" are only doing injustice for thier population & thier economies. The average person on this planet needs to be able to express thier autonomy & enjoy the company of thier fellow human being without prejudice. A very long term prospect remaining contentious to the end.
May you find peace in your pilgramage & help another human being find joy in living.
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Religion & politics is a well known hot potato by todays standards. It is unfortunate that we as humanity have not matured with tolerance, but rather have stooped down to the lowest denomination available in human behaviour with very grave results.
We can only hope that the moderate populus of any ethnic & religious groups are able to see beyond thier just cause & accept another human being for who they are rather than vilify them by political or religious means. That is the hope.
The main resolve in our human conflict is to letting go of our tendencies for control over one another,& learning to negotiate rather than irritate. We only have to look at the world wide propoganda from every nation on this planet & see for ourselves that we are responsible for our own demise.
Some countries claiming "war on (fill this blank)" are only doing injustice for thier population & thier economies. The average person on this planet needs to be able to express thier autonomy & enjoy the company of thier fellow human being without prejudice. A very long term prospect remaining contentious to the end.
May you find peace in your pilgramage & help another human being find joy in living.
# posted by 
: 8:41 PM
: 8:41 PM << Home
