Route
Map Of Imperial Army
By Ram Puniyani
13 August, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Despite
the claim of Pakistan establishment, George Bush did not rule out military
strike in Pakistan. This clarification was issued by the White house
officials in the aftermath of the phone call by Bush to Musharraf. It
was propagated that President Bush in contrast to the Presidential aspirant
Obama, who has called for the withdrawal of US army from Iraq and its
deployment in Pakistan, has promised not to do so. With the clarification
coming from White house the hints are there that US will intervene in
Pakistan to get rid of Jehadi terrorists, the Lal Masjid, Al Qaeda variety.
It is another matter that the bombings by US forces are already on in
Pakistan but it is not being made public as far as possible to avoid
public embarrassment to President Musharrf.
This whole episode of US
already bombing in the Pakistani territory, some of US leaders calling
for open attack on Pakistan, smacks of the old imperial times, when
the kings of greater might were marching with their armies to wherever
they pleased with the dictum, might is right. In the era, where national
sovereignties are clear cut and should matter as an interregnum to the
World without boundaries, the unilateral decisions involving other countries
and that too attacking them on one or the other pretext is a big set
back to global politics. In the decade of mid twentieth century the
World looked to be evolving towards a system where different countries
were aspiring to relate to each other on equal terms. They were mediating
their disputes through international bodies, United Nations. The eclipse
and decline of UN and its different wings on the World scene is a matter
of grave concern for those longing for a peacefulworld.
During last couple of decades,
with the end of cold war era, with the decline of other major superpower,
the Soviet Union, the US has been behaving as a hegemon, invading one
after the other country. This highhandedness began with the 1991 Gulf
war against Iraq. Iraq was armed to the teeth by US, to fight against
Iran which had overthrown US stooge Raza Shah Pehlavi. The seven years
war between two Muslim countries had deeper dynamics, overall reflecting
the change of political paradigm from the era of national liberation
movements to the ones veering towards politics around identity issues.
Iraq had been claiming that Kuwait is its twenty second state. Also
Kuwait was indulging in unethical pumping out of oil from its wells
and this was to the detriment of the interests of Iraq.
In full knowledge of US,
Iraq invaded Kuwait and declared it as its own integral part. US turned
around immediately and cried wolf, the sovereignty of the Kuwait Sheikh
has been violated. Iraq asked for compromise and retreat, US refused
to negotiate and launched the major attack on Iraq, Gulf War, to uphold
the rule of Sheikh. This war, crippled its civic installations, water;
sewage plants, electricity and what have you. Apart from others over
half a million children also died due to the war and the sanctions which
were imposed after that. Madeline Albright, US Secretary of State, defended
this massacre on the ground that it is worth paying this price to protect
the sovereignty of Sheikh. The sanctions on Iraq crippled it totally.
The decline of UN was visible from this point. US aggressively went
ahead and did something which should be beyond the preview of any nation
in the world.
Following 9/11 attack on
twin towers, US demanded that Afghan Government hand over Osama bin
Laden to them. The Afghan Government pleaded for the proof of bin Laden's
involvement in the act. Without bothering to produce the evidence or
to let the UN take charge and punish the guilty it launched a war against
Afghanistan on the pretext of catching Osama, live or dead. While Osama
continues to be hale and hearty, over 60000 Afghans, majority innocent
civilians lost their lives. US installed a puppet Government and the
work of laying of pipe line from Caspian Sea to Arab sea began in due
course.
In couple of years Iraq was
singled out for attack once again. Despite the UN inspectors saying
repeatedly that there are no weapons of mass destruction, US went ahead
in preparing its planned attack. From weapons of mass destruction, it
shifted ground to say that it wants to eliminate the 'Arab Hitler',
Saddam, to 'plant democracy' and to liberate the people of Iraq who
are suffering the atrocities of Saddam. US army was projected as the
liberating army. The later fate of Iraq is too well known, Abu Ghraib
prison atrocities, thousands of US conscripts and regular soldier's
dead and lakhs of Iraqis vanquished.
The threats are also dished
out on regular basis to Iran. It's logical that after seeing the fate
of Iraq that Iran might have boosted its nuclear weapons program. That
is the pretext for its coming under the scanner, and the probable reason
as to why it has not been attacked despite so many threats.
The terrorists on whose pretext
the present 'quiet bombings' are going on, the one's who were attacked
in the Lal Masjid were the one's who were the ideological and logistic
support of Al Qaeda, when it was engaged in taking on Soviet armies
in Afghanistan. At that time these Jehadi terrorists were fully funded
and armed by the US itself. The clock turned full circle and the same
indoctrinated force turned its guns against the US, WTC and other attacks.
Needless to say these acts of terror of Al Qaeda are heinous, against
Islam and against Humanity. They need to be condemned and opposed to
the hilt. They need to be rooted out through the global attempt for
peace. Any single nation can not be relied upon to solve this problem
as vested interests motivate the actions of the nation states. There
is an urgent need to oppose these hegemonic designs of US, or any other
country for that matter. An objective World body needs to be restored
and empowered to bring and end to the present dark tunnel which is permeated
by the darkness of terrorism and imperialism.
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.