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19 January 2010 By
Mahboob A. Khawaja "Viewing the global
implications of the war on terror, it is becoming
clearer that the US Government under President Bush
and now continued under President Obama and the UK
leadership coerced others to join the project of
terrorism of wars against the Muslim countries to
instigate internal group fighting and political
disruptions to destroy the Arabs and Muslims from
within." “The global war on terrorism has the hallmarks
of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a
wholly different agenda – The US goal of world
hegemony built around securing by force command over
the oil supplies required to drive the whole project.”
-- Michael Meacher, UK Minister of Environment, the
Guardian, September 6, 2003 (The war on terrorism) … “But much of this
threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and
distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that
has spread unquestioned through governments around the
world, the security services, and the international
media.” -- Adam Curtis, Author and Producer BBC documentary
“Nightmares” Barack Obama is the leader of a contemporary
Oceania ….In Oceania, truth and lies are
indivisible.….. In two speeches at the close of the
decade, the Nobel Peace Prize winner affirmed that
peace was no longer peace, but rather a permanent war
that “extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan” to
“disorderly regions and diffuse enemies”. He called
this “global security” and invited our gratitude. To
the people of Afghanistan, which America has invaded
and occupied, he said wittily: “We have no interest in
occupying your country”….. Behind much of this are the
Israelis, who have long advised the Americans in both
the Iraq and Afghanistan adventures. Ethnic-cleansing,
wall-building, checkpoints, collective punishment and
constant surveillance – these are claimed as Israeli
innovations that have succeeded in stealing most of
Palestine from its native people. And yet for all
their suffering, the Palestinians have not been
divided irrevocably and they endure as a nation
against all odds.” -- John Pilger, “Welcome to Orwell’s World 2010.”
ICH 12/2009 Discard conventional wisdom, forget about the
meaning of rationality and purpose of 21st century
visionary leadership and imagine the listening and
learning podium of the US presidency is out of bound,
just stand still if you want to understand and believe
how and when next the eloquent President Obama will
engage the global audience with his idealistic
oratory. When an elected leader declares publicly to
rebuild the nation, he understands the pros and cons
of the undertaking of a solid and irreversible
commitment. On the eve of the US Presidential
election, President Obama signaled a courageous move
and promise to “rebuild America” – a visionary
outlook- a picture of tomorrow’s New America, from the
Audacity of Hope to the first elected colored and
intellectually viable President of a collapsed
superpower effectively besieged and run down by the
handful of Mujahideen challenging the US war plans in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Reconstruction of a nation
involves rethinking from bottom –up and change of
direction to make it happen. After tough lifelong
struggle to acquire the White House occupancy as
popularly elected President, Mr. Obama was certainly
not acting in a soap opera stage show but consciously
speaking to the well informed global audience across
many continents and defying physical distances and
conflicting time zones to transmit optimism out of
prevalent darkness of lost America that a New America
will come into being with a new zeal and best
opportunities for peace, liberty and freedom away from
the continued wars of greed and institutionalized
corruption. Global humanity is intelligent enough not
to long for political cynicism and dubious
characterization of aims, interpretations and
technical explanations. Someone as intelligent as Mr.
Obama appears to be, must know his strengths and
weaknesses of the people around him and how best he
could perform his new role as a visionary President of
a war-torn and financially bankrupt and morally
exhausted nation. Paul Craig Roberts (“The World’s
Least Powerful Man – the Obama Puppet”: 01/2010),
spells out the Obama’s tragedy in-making: " “Obama also found out that he cannot change
anything else either, if he ever intended to do so.
The military/security lobby has war and a domestic
police state on its agenda, and a mere American
president can’t do anything about it. President
Obama can order the Guantanamo torture chamber
closed and kidnapping and rendition and torture to
be halted, but no one carries out the order.
Essentially, Obama is irrelevant. President Obama
can promise that he is going to bring the troops
home, and the military lobby says, “No, you are
going to send them to Afghanistan, and in the
meantime start a war in Pakistan and maneuver Iran
into a position that will provide an excuse for a
war there, too. Wars are too profitable for us to
let you stop them.” And the mere president has to
say, “Yes, Sir!” " To the informed citizens of the global village, war
is war and peace is peace. It is unthinkable that both
terms could be taken for the same meaning and purpose.
War is not synonymous to peace. After one year in the
office, President Obama attempted to underscore the
intellect and optimism of the global well wishers
while speaking at the Oslo Nobel Peace Prize ceremony:
“to say that force is sometimes necessary is not a
call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history.”
History tells us that force has been used by various
transgressors when they failed to envision their
strategic aims come true through bigotry and
wickedness. So President needs to re-read the relevant
chapters of the living history. Force is necessary
when diplomacy and reason fail to produce results but
none are applicable to the Obama’s Presidency. Obama
came into office with the declared aim to renounce war
as a means for the growth of American capitalism and
the future course of America foreign policy. Yet after
a short span of time in the office, he wants to
justify the use of naked force and bomb the graveyards
of Afghanistan and continues to destroy the left-over
human habitats in Iraq. Seemingly, an entrenched
President, Obama bluntly told the audience that “peace
is desirable” but that is not enough whereas the cost
of the war will be that “some will kill, some will be
killed.” With gruesome outlook, in moments and
crossing over the unthinkable time hurdles, Obama
assumed the role of a War President instead of being a
Peace President. The souls of Thomas Jefferson,
Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. must
have been tarnished and tortured, how the new
President of Hope is fast changing to be a President
off the people and far the people. The thinking people of America, the hub of
organized opposition to the US self-engineered
entanglements in Iraq, Afghanistan onward to Pakistan
and to the implied inhuman interrogation methods and
torture of the innocent civilians at Abu Ghraib prison
and Guantanomo Bay and at so many other secret
locations across the developing world are shocked to
see the real Obama, no different in absurd reasoning
of the wars than his predecessor George W. Bush and
the neoconservatives blunders resulting in
dismemberment of America as a superpower. How could
President Obama ignore the obvious lessons of the
living history? A century earlier Robert Briffault,
Professor at Cambridge University (The Making of
Humanity, London, 1918), described the true human
nature and political wickedness in these words: " “The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression
is paved with good intentions. The men who have most
injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply
sinned against it, were according to their standards
and their conscience, good men; what was bad in
them, who wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to
truth and progress, was not at all in their
intentions, in their purpose, in their personal
character, but in their opinions.” " Coming to the 21st century age of information,
knowledge and enlightenment, it was improbable to
imagine that a majority elected President Obama could
renegade his own publicly claimed commitment for
change and rebuilding of the American edifice for a
New World Order. To transform the pacifists into
optimists, to energize the depressed with new hope and
motivate the soft-hearted and peace loving masses of
the US, you had enliven them with a new vision when
you declared the intent for a new dialogue and
friendship with the Muslim world at the day of your
official inauguration. You articulated courage and
commitment to tell the Cairo audience
enthusiastically: " “I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning
between the United States and Muslims around the
world, one based on mutual interest and mutual
respect, and one based upon the truth that America
and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in
competition…….As a student of history, I also know
civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam -- at
places like Al-Azhar -- that carried the light of
learning through so many centuries, paving the way
for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was
innovation in Muslim communities ---- it was
innovation in Muslim communities that developed the
order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of
navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our
understanding of how disease spreads and how it can
be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic
arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and
cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of
peaceful contemplation. And throughout history,
Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the
possibilities of religious tolerance and racial
equality.” " Surely, you moved the hearts of the people around
the globe and regenerated interest in American
sincerity of political aims including the dumb and
dull Arab leaders from the comforts of petro dollars
built palaces to the people’s street that Obama was
here for change- for a new beginning of better
relationships. They took your words seriously that
continued wars were dead scenarios under the
democratic choices, not knowing that you had finalized
plans to dispatch more troops for the death and
destruction of the innocent civilians in Afghanistan
and Iraq and Pakistan. That questions the intent of
your friendly gestures. President Obama you crafted
the illusion of HOPE to your global well wishers for a
New World of friendly relationship between the US and
the Muslim world: " “That does not lessen my commitment, however, to
governments that reflect the will of the people.
Each nation gives life to this principle in its own
way, grounded in the traditions of its own people.
America does not presume to know what is best for
everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the
outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an
unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain
things: the ability to speak your mind and have a
say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule
of law and the equal administration of justice;
government that is transparent and doesn't steal
from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.
These are not just American ideas; they are human
rights. And that is why we will support them
everywhere.” " Subsequently, the hope was dashed away at the Oslo
Nobel Peace ceremony (December 10, 2009), by the same
person who had proclaimed it worldwide few months
earlier. President Obama you knew well that America is
broke in moral and political standing and that the
nations of the world even some of your closest
European friends do not take the US on its own words.
The crippling images are outcomes of the American
failed war engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Pakistan. How could you consciously agree to dispatch
more troops to kill the living innocents and disturb
the graveyards across Afghanistan under the guise of
false security and terrorism threats? Do you think that the global humanity is totally
dumb or that ignorant to believe in you and the
mockery of your contentious war policy aims? Simply
put, America under Bush and neocons indoctrination
lost the touch of the real world and used the military
force to dominate and control the energy rich Arab
Middle Eastern and other nations of the world.
Contravening the role of history, wars are still
viewed as best means to achieve those ends. According
to Michael Meacher, the British Minister of
Environment in PM Tony Blair Cabinet (“This War on
Terrorism is Bogus”, The Guardian, Sept 6, 2003),
explains that the overriding motivation for the war on
terror has been the scarcity of hydrocarbon energy
supplies and the US and UK will run out of sufficient
supplies by 2010. Whereas, the Islamic world will
control 60% of the global oil production and equally
important, 95% of the remaining oil export capacity.
Minister Meacher concludes that “the global war on
terrorism has the hallmarks of a political myth
propagated to pave the way for a wholly different
agenda – The US goal of world hegemony built around
securing by force command over the oil supplies
required to drive the whole project.” Viewing the global implications of the war on
terror, it is becoming clearer that the US Government
under President Bush and now continued under President
Obama and the UK leadership coerced others to join the
project of terrorism of wars against the Muslim
countries to instigate internal group fighting and
political disruptions to destroy the Arabs and Muslims
from within. Chris Floyd (“Darkness Renewed: Terror as
a Tool of Empire” ICH, 04/2009) remarked pointedly:
" “It is the policy of the United States government
to provoke violent extremist groups into action.
Once they are in play, their responses can then be
used in whatever way the government that provoked
them sees fit. And we also know that these
provocations are being used, as a matter of
deliberate policy, to rouse violent groups on the "Af-Pak"
front to launch terrorist attacks.” " Had the President stayed on course for change “Yes
We Can”, he would have scored high popularity rating
in public perception as an optimistic President
powerful enough to mould and shape the future of the
world with America in lead as a power of influence,
intellect and morally strong political values as was
its history. President Obama claimed optimism to
brining change to America. Yes, he changed the image
of America, first time a colored President of visible
minorities is elected to make a new beginning in
American political affairs. A dot representing the
Audacity of Hope on the ever large social and
political white screen of the White House complex
built with black slave labors. One fundamental factor
is often ignored by most American scholars that none
of these guys waging the wars from their drawing rooms
ever fought on a real war front, they simply know how
to talk, but war is not about talking, it is madness
of killing fellow human beings under the glued labels
of hatred and animosity and nothing else. C.E.M Joad,
the celebrated author (Guide to Modern Wickedness,
1936), noted pointedly: " “War is like a forest fire, once it is started,
none can set bounds to the resulting conflagration
…as when one throws a stone in a pond ripples spread
out in all directions… so in war the professed war
aims are submerged in the waves of fear and ferocity
by which the minds of the belligerents are swept and
in which, presently reason and humanity are
engulfed.” " Why the intents and real purposes of the War on
Terrorism are politically so secretive that none of
the US policy makers would dare to talk in public -
the wars and the 9/11? If the 3,000 dead people of various nationalities
were the real reason for the Bush administration to
invade Iraq and Afghanistan, there was no reason to
argue the presence of bogus WMD scenario in Iraq. If
the actions of President Bush were legally
justifiable, was India not justifiable by the same
legal precedent to invade the US after the Union
Carbide’s plant gas leak had killed approximately
8,000 to 12,000 civilians in Bhopal in few minutes
in1984. Aftermath of the gas leaks affected millions
of others in that state. But India did not threaten
the US with force and opted for reason to prevail over
the perpetuated tragedy. Could it be that human
victims of the Indian tragedy were not viewed as
important and valuable as were the casualties of the
9/11 in American crafted media images? How come for
ages, Italian mafia establishments are actively
engaged across the US in all kinds of illegal
activities causing countless human casualties, why did
the US never send any troops to invade Italy? Drug
trafficking and drug consumption is culturally no
strange to the US landscape but when did America
invade Mexico or Columbia or others in South America
because the illicit drugs kill millions across America
and elsewhere? What makes terrorism of the few so
intimately aligned to the US politics and friends of
the Bush family elite as suddenly undesirable and
marked to be killed along with millions of other
innocent people throughout the world? Is there a
secretive puzzle and political dimension untold and
unknown to the genius of the global community? “It was curious,” wrote Orwell in Nineteen
Eighty-Four, “to think that the sky was the same for
everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And
the people under the sky were also very much the same,
everywhere, all over the world … people ignorant of
one another’s existence, held apart by walls of hatred
and lies, and yet almost exactly the same people who …
were storing up in their hearts and bellies and
muscles the power that would one day overturn the
world.” (John Pilger, “Welcome to Orwell’s World
2010”). Obviously, just in one year, according to Paul
Craig Roberts, President Obama has reverted to become
“the World’s Least Powerful Man – the Obama Puppet” (ICH:
01/2010). Roberts explains that: " “No American national interest is served by the
war in Afghanistan. As the former UK Ambassador
Craig Murray disclosed, the purpose of the war is to
protect Unocal’s interest in the Trans-Afghanistan
pipeline. The cost of the war is many times greater
than Unocal’s investment in the pipeline. The
obvious solution is to buy out Unocal and give the
pipeline to the Afghans as partial compensation for
the destruction we have inflicted on that country
and its population, and bring the troops home.” " Earlier at the historic Cairo gathering, President
Obama reiterated the plausible policy aim in “change”
by using diplomacy, not force to resolve the
conflicts: “Let me also address the issue of Iraq.
Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that
provoked strong differences in my country and around
the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people
are ultimately better off without the tyranny of
Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq
have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and
build international consensus to resolve our problems
whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of
Thomas Jefferson, who said: " “I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power,
and teach us that the less we use our power the
greater it will be.” " The US news media reported that for days President
Obama worked on his own on the Oslo Nobel Peace speech
composition. He must have felt lonely as the America
publics do not seem to share his conviction and
outlook on the bogus wars on terrorism. American
masses oppose sending troops to fight those people who
have done no harm nor pose any threat to the US
security. They view it as a punishment to the US to
cause collapse of the empire and its international
political standing. Paul Craig Roberts points out that
“in actual fact, the American people have no say about
what “their” government does. Polls of the public show
that half or more of the American people do not
support the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and do not
support President Obama’s escalation of the war in
Afghanistan. Yet, the occupations and wars continue.
According to General Stanley McChrystal, the
additional 40,000 troops are enough to stalemate the
war, that is, to keep it going forever, the ideal
situation for the armaments lobby.” How strange that
Mr. Obama was elected enthusiastically by the will and
passion of the American electorates, yet, he is
overriding the primary interest of his own people in
prolonging the wars of aggressions across the globe.
It is estimated that the US and Britain forces alone
have killed 2.5 million civilians in Iraq and
devastated large parts of the human habitats in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Is this on-going bloodbath of the
innocent humanity not the premeditated genocide? Would
President Obama assume the responsibility for the wars
including the possibility of crimes committed against
the humanity? One of the important features of the
21st century effective leadership is to be listening
and learning enabling the leaders to be responsible to
those who have expressed faith and trust in them.
Would President Obama analyze his role and the policy
outcomes for a navigational change? Paul Craig Roberts
offers additional insights how President Obama appears
to have lost the political momentum so abruptly: " “Increasingly the rest of the world sees the US
as the sole source of all of its problems. Germany
has lost the chief of its armed forces and its
defense minister, because the US convinced or
pressured, by hook or crook, the German government
to violate its Constitution and to send troops to
fight for Unocal’s interest in Afghanistan…… The
British are investigating their leading criminal,
former prime minister Tony Blair, and his deception
of his own cabinet in order to do Bush’s bidding and
provide some cover for Bush’s illegal invasion of
Iraq. The UK investigators have been denied the
ability to bring criminal charges, but the issue of
war based entirely on orchestrated deception and
lies is getting a hearing. It will reverberate
throughout the world, and the world will note that
there is no corresponding investigation in the US,
the country that originated the False War.” " What needs to be changed by President Obama to live
upto the stated hopes and commitments made to the
American masses during the elections? Adam Curtis, the
author and producer of the Nightmares, BBC world
famous documentary on the false pretext of the War on
Terrorism streamlines the facts of human affairs and
political manipulation: " “In the past, politicians promised to create a
better world. They had different ways of achieving
this. But their power and authority came from the
optimistic visions they offered to their people.
Those dreams failed. And today, people have lost
faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are
seen simply as managers of public life. But now,
they have discovered a new role that restores their
power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams,
politicians now promise to protect us from
nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from
dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not
understand. And the greatest danger of all is
international terrorism. A powerful and sinister
network, with sleeper cells in countries across the
world. A threat that needs to be fought by a war on
terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which
has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians.
It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned
through governments around the world, the security
services, and the international media.” " To replace peacemaking with the nightmare of the
war, President Obama offered no different discourse at
the Oslo Nobel Peace Prize gathering than what Adam
Curtis is reiterating to the whole world.
Reconstruction of America would have involved the
visionary leadership, a new THINKING to change the
course of the US foreign policy and warmongering and a
new beginning to stop the wars of aggression in Iraq
and Afghanistan but these hopes were mere words, not
part of the current US policy nor rational thinking.
If President Obama was serious enough to rebuild
America, he would need a navigational change and start
THINKING anew, a different perspective to understand
the prevalent realities of the world and put an end to
the bloodshed carried on with active US forces and
support to many self-styled illegitimate dictators and
politicians in those countries implementing the
American war agenda. In his concluding remarks, Paul
Craig Roberts (The World’s Least Powerful Man- the
Obama Puppet”01/2010), shares the prevalent global
trend towards the US standing as is: " “The United States no longer commands the respect
it enjoyed under President Ronald Reagan or
President George Herbert Walker Bush. World polls
show that the US and its puppet master are regarded
as the two greatest threats to peace. Washington and
Israel outrank on the most dangerous list the crazy
regime in North Korea. The world is beginning to see
America as a country that needs to go away. When the
dollar is over-inflated by a Washington unable to
pay its bills, will the world be motivated by greed
and try to save us in order to save its investments,
or will it say, thank God, good riddance.” " The 21st century mass media generated politcal
activism propagates in-house crafted images and
opinion polls rating as the framework of successful
capitalist run democracy.The number game is vital to
politicians how public perceives their acts and role
play. Bill Clinton presidency used the number startegy
but end-up with Monica Lewinsky sexual controversy as
morally and politically devastating to his closure of
the presidency. President Bush and the Neocons used
the news media to keep the public blood pressure
rolling with fear and ferocity of the war on terror.
When masses live in fear, they lose self-respect and
positive thinking to become helpless subservient to
the dicates of authoritarian rulers.The mainstream US
mass media (owned by few families) was accomplice and
Bush used it as a weapon to overpower the American
intellect and resistance to the war. The US masses
lost their history and values during the eight years
of Bush authoritarianism. Is President Obama looking
for similar number games to play with the American
political interests? The living history will caution
him. There is a time and opportunity for an optimist
president to be open to listening and learning to
assume effective leadreship for decisive navigational
change. Leaders create leaders not absurd paper-based
role models. Nation-building is challenging as well as
a serious cause and it is not for the militray
Generals and American troops to bring hopes of
nation-building into reality. Guns and bullets destroy
living things and human habitats as the US is engaged
actively in doing so for the last eight years. It
failed aimlessly to defeat a handful of freedom
fighetrs (mujhaideen) across the planes of Iraq and
rugged mountains of Afghanistan. Historically, all
those leaders and powers challenging the Laws of God
ended up in self-deafeats and got destroyed by natural
causes. The US cannot fight against God and Islam – it
does not have the weapons nor the capacity to achieve
that goal. A Navigational Change should be part of the
vision and strategic direction that America needs
desperately to avert an ultimate military defeat. The
change should come from a responsible leader like
Obama. History will judge the leaders by their
actions, not by their claims.Would President Obama
care to listen to the voices of REASON and honor his
policy ideas and ideals for their true meaning and
purpose what he had declared at the Cairo speech? " “So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of
America. And I believe that America holds within her
the truth that regardless of race, religion, or
station in life, all of us share common aspirations
-- to live in peace and security; to get an
education and to work with dignity; to love our
families, our communities, and our God. These things
we share. This is the hope of all humanity.” |