Sunday, November 25, 2001		Article

The great unsavoury story

AMERICA is no longer what it was. Till yesterday, it was the mightiest power of the world. Its people were a proud lot. Today, there is gloom everywhere. It is as if the country is in the midst of mourning, in a state of paralysis.

September 11 will go down as the blackest day in American history. It is also a watershed. It changed the outlook of America, of every American citizen. The country will never be the same again. Even in its dreams America could not have thought that some mad men nursing bitter hatred would commit that black deed of bringing down the World Trade Centre and attacking the Pentagon, the seat of America's military might. And yet that did happen!

Worse, it was followed by the ultimate in barbarism — the biothreat. It is not clear whether the perpetrators of these heinous crimes will unleash a chemical attack or whether their intention is to spread fear psychosis.

Whatever it is, the moment of reckoning has come. America has realised that its military power cannot be of much avail against these new forces of evil and that its vast wealth cannot buy peace and tranquility.

Has this tragedy given rise to introspection?Has America realised why this has happened?Does it know why Islam alone has this hatred of America?Does it know that there is growing discontent with America's arbitrary ways in the world?It is time to reflect.

If it does so, it will discover that the world could have been better with a little more care and compassion. But these were wanting. Materialism had made Americans blind to their own values and insensitive to the sufferings of others.

To be the leader of the world, the values were supposed to be a constant leitmotif for all American actions. Being the leader meant more responsibilities. Was it not expected to create a new world order — a kinder and gentler world ?Or, was such a world only for Americans and not for the rest of humanity?

Perhaps, being a super power does boost the country's ego. But look at the responsibility!Was America committed to honour that responsibility? It was not. All that it wanted was the prestige and the national advantage that it brought.

It is not that America was not aware of the growing criticism against it. It was, but it thought that it arose out of jealousy. It still thinks so. There is only one reason for this: the Americans are the most ignorant people about the world, thanks to their media and their reluctance to see the ground realities and hear the truth. They have their own time-table for understanding or not understanding harsh facts. Who cares if the damage is done meanwhile? There was a steady buildup of anger against America. And it exploded in the only way it could — in the most barbarous way, for other ways were blocked.

The Islamic world thinks that the West is responsible for the decline of Muslim power and the backwardness of the community. Facts may be otherwise, but that is how they perceive. More so, the Arabs.

Today the Arab is a rich man, thanks to the oil boom. He is even educated. But he lacks freedom and democracy. He has no hand in the way his destiny is being shaped. Whose fault is this?

America is the most vociferous advocate of democracy. And yet by supporting the tyrannical monarchies of the Arab world, it has denied the benefits of a democratic order to their people. And America has done it in its own national interest.

It is this pursuit of national interests by the USA to the detriment of a large number of countries, which has, in a way, created the monster of terrorism. The Taliban movement was a CIA creation. Bin Laden was an American creation. Their guardian was Pakistan's ISI and its army. All in the pursuit of what America and Pakistan thought to be their own interests.

And having created these monsters, America felt no responsibility to contain these evil forces. That India became a major victim of these monsters was brushed aside. In fact, America denied the very existence of terrorism till September 11. But it felt no compunction in directing these forces to Chechnya to bring about the balkanisation of Russia. Such is the unsavoury story.

Today America wants the world to join forces with it to quell violence and terrorism. And rightly and understandably so. Looking back, one also recalls how America mobilised the world against communism in the name of democracy. What happened after the debacle of the Soviet Union? Did it lead to a new and better world order?It did not.

Terror is a new phenomenon. It has replaced the democratic process. It had its causes — first of all in the Arab-Jewish conflict. America could have resolved it. But it allowed it to fester. So terror spread. Everyone with a cause began to take to terrorism. It became a global problem.

It should have been the UN's job to contain this new scourge. Instead, America took it upon itself, for it had other things in mind. For example, how to use the "moderate" Taliban in Central Asia to attain its long-term goals.

In the meantime, terrorism flourishes in the mother country of all forms of terrorism — Pakistan. But, then, Pakistan is an old ally and has still its uses, especially the military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf. What an irony!We live in a world of ifs and buts. In fact, the fate of humankind rests on innumerable unknown factors — from Kandahar to Peshawar to Islamabad, Moscow to Beijing and from New Delhi to Washington.

— H.J.