PAKISTAN SEES BUSH RULE IN US AS LOW POINT IN OUR HISTORY
By Dr S. M. Rahman Senior Research Scholar, FRIENDS
The glory of a great power has a propensity to diminish, if its leader loses the quintessential value that sets the direction of history, which according to Nixon ‘requires a great vision, one that inspires the leader and enables him to inspire the nation. People both love the great leader and hate him; they are seldom indifferent to him.’ (Leaders by Nixon, p.5) George Bush earned the reputation of being an obnoxious leader and consequently the most despised one, who rose to achieve the Presidency quite surreptiously and was practically shoed out, the most ignonimous end that any leader of USA has ever encountered.
Jefferson and Lincoln stand high on the pedestal of history, as great winners, who looked “beyond the horizon.” to achieve what was achievable and did what was right and in the right manner. Bush on the other hand failed on all counts.
He has ruined USA’s booming economy which former President Henry Clinton had so assiduously built. Leslie Gelb is rather unkind to Clinton’s great achievements by contending that his administration being “fixated on domestic politics and overawed by the curative powers of globalization – squandered American power.”
In fact, he achieved what led to the economic resilience and US citizens’ general plight was markedly improved. If there were provision for a President to occupy the White House for the third term, Clinton would have comfortably won the elections.
Globalization would have woven the countries and promoted a paradigm of inter-existence, but it failed to do so, as it lacked the human face. It had latent imperialistic ambition to augment wealth for the rich nations and push the impoverished countries into the abyss of greater poverty and deprivations.
The real US traditional democracy was not a party to such a de-humanized sensibility. What Gelb says, about Bush is partially true: “The Bush administration blind to the limitations of military force and carried away big the idea of democratizing heathens – plunged America into the deepest international hole ever?” (A Realist Rally – The National Interest, Number 97, Sep-Oct 2008 p.7) One would not agree that Bush was “carried away by the idea of democratizing heathens.”
Not at all. In the first place, he himself assumed the first term Presidency of USA, through undemocratic means, defying the norms of fair and transparent elections. This has been confirmed by a Florida judge (black) for favouring George Bush, as he was given unexpected promotion.
Democrats relatively as compared to the Republicans have favoured democracy in the world, but the track record of the Republicans is abysmal in this respect. They have favoured military dictators and obstructed the path of ‘democracy’ if the popularly elected leader was not to their liking.
There are numerous examples where the Republicans manipulated ‘regime change’, as a foreign policy option. Besides Algeria, Turkey, Iran, where the Shah was the US stooge, and in many other countries, ‘dictators’ were planted to serve the US interests.
Who could be greater victim than Pakistan? There was a perfectly genuine elected leader of Chile, against whom Henry Kissinger manipulated a coup to enthrone Pinochet – a worst tyrant no less in magnitude than Sadam Hussein of Iraq.
Ironically, the coup also occurred on 9/11, except for the difference that it was the year 1973, where the human casualty was around the same number, as it was in the Trade Centre tragedy.
But who talks about Chile? 9/11 exclusively the US tragedy, unleashed unprecedented rage and arrogance and Iraq and Afghanistan became the victims for no rhyme or reason. Not a single hijacker was either Iraqi, Afghani or Pakistani.
They were Arabs not the least religious fanatics mostly reared in the liberal cultures of the West. But they were utterly committed to take revenge for the injustice done to the Palestinians and Israel was given a free hand by USA to do the ruthless massacre of the innocent citizens, men, women and children and grab their lands for settlement of Jews, contrary to the UN resolutions. 9/11 was essentially a reaction against injustice being perpetuated against the Palestinian Muslims.
Though the hijackers were Arabs, but who were the abettors of such a high tech terrorism, is still shrouded in mystery. Algore, has quite candidly revealed that the US establishment had full information about the Trade Centre and Pentagon’s impending attack as it was in full knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese in the Second World War.
In other words no preventive measures were taken in both the cases, as USA wanted an excuse to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki to impress upon the former ‘Soviet Union’, of its great military power augmented by nuclear weapons, not realizing that nuclear technology can not remain the monopoly of any nation. The real proliferator of weapons of mass destruction was USA itself.
The role of USA, France and Great Britain in providing Israel the necessary nuclear material to prepare the bombs besides the technical know how are no secret. It is the ‘double standard,’ which has completely eroded the credibility of the West. With respect to non-proliferation issue, Pakistan is being hounded for acquiring this capability and Iran is being pressurized to abandon its peaceful nuclear programme, despite the firm assurance that it has no weapons-making programme.
But Israel is itching to attack Iran in order to make it militarily weak so that it is pushed back by several decades, to re-emerge as a regional power. The ‘war on terror’ had altogether different design than what was professed.
The oil wealth of Iraq was the special target so that it could come under control of the oil barons of USA. Apart from some hidden wealth, perhaps uranium in Afghanistan, it had to be transformed into US base to oversee the rising China and contain it, besides Russia and Iran, Central Asian rich energy reservoir, are also very attractive targets.
US ‘military might’ has been harnessed for great economic bonanza that would go to force-multiply US prosperity, besides using ‘unipolarity’ as a means to consolidate its neo-imperialistic hold over the world. Far from achieving the grandiose foreign policy fantasies, it has regressed into the most deplorable period of its history. The Iraq and Afghanistan war has caused great humiliation to the mighty military power on the earth because of its ignominious defeat at their hands.
The failures of US foreign policy as well as its image are the practioners of real- politik, like Henry Kissinger and the great exponent of imperialistic ethos to prevail, is George Kennen. Containment was the basic construct deemed necessary to promote USA’s preponderance.
According to him, “The most serious fault in US foreign policy was a tendency to take a “legalistic moralistic approach to politics.” The Republicans, the neo-conservatives and a brand of democrats like Truman and Acheson, follow more or less similar orientation. Will Obama be different?
The rhetoric used during the elections was only an icing on the war-oriented-policy-cake baked by the Neocons and the die-hard Republicans. He promised change, but change is not in the offing. Obama is constrained to follow what he is directed covertly to accomplish. The “great” democracy of USA does not represent the will of its people, who want an end to war and their soldiers to come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Ironically, he has conceded to send more troops to Afghanistan due to the powerful Zionist lobby, which will make hardly any difference.
Afghanis inbuilt repulsion to foreign soldiers on its soil has a deep imprint on its trait and character. The history will reassert itself.
Dr S. M. Rahman is a senior research scholar and Secretary General FRIENDS based at Rawalpindi
Article furnished through VT Correspondent Raja Mujata.
His website is www.opinion-maker.com
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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