Silly season again for America next year?
The attack on the Indian parliament was a fitting
culmination for an year of audacious attacks and general global destalbization.
Strange how "global destabilization'' rhymes with "globalization.'' Those
who advocate globalization, and their propaganda were first termed "globaloney''
by an inspired critic.
"Globaloney'' received a kidney punch with the WTO attacks this year,
and the attack on the Indian parliament and the general destabilization
of the Middle East etc., However, western capitalism is still on high dudgeon.
The markets are supposed to have sprung back to "higher than September
11the figures;'' and free-marketeers are in moksha.
The Indians are disturbed that the Americans have embraced Pervez Musharaff
and the Pakistanis, in a bid to use Pakistan as a gateway to Afghanistan.
Pakistan got the quid pro quo, they say, by being given a freer hand by
the Americans to flex its muscle. The Indians therefore seem to be sure
that the aborted attack on parliament was Pakistani inspired.
This was, in a strange way, the year of Islam. The religion that was
always in the shadow of the Western anglo-saxon Protestantism or Catholicism,
was this year parleyed into the popular imagination — not by Osama bin
Laden, but by the Americans.
The Americans have romanticized Islam in such a way that today, the
Mullah is the universal figure of "dissent'' In this way, Islam has acquired
a mystique of wholesomeness which it never had.
For instance, even some American correspondents in Afghanistan are constrained
to show Muslim traders in Kabul greeting each other with bear-hugs and
laughter, in typical "you are my Muslim bother'' fashion. Then the correspondent
has to add in voiceover…. "maybe in a land that is ravaged by war, people
have to go that extra length to be nice to each other.''
America is mystified by normal life in the rest of the world that is
not overcome by "globaloney.''
The present American sentiment is to kill till it hurts. This is the
typical response of a dominant power in any age. Any dominant power takes
time to notice its decline, but America is already seeing the cracks underneath.
There are calls for restraint from within America, and already it has been
said that the Americans have put the brakes on Jewish expansionism in the
Middle East, after the events of September the 11.
But the fact is that the Americans never felt so insecure. The WTO meetings
had to be held this year in Qatar, which paradoxically was a Muslim enclave
in a regimented Muslim theocracy. But the WTO chose this as the venue,
because this was supposed to be the most secure place for a meeting of
the organisation — as opposed to any Western capital or the capital city
of a third World proxy state.
Though there will be very few who will condone the September 11 attacks
on the WTC buildings in New York, what these have done is to bring America
down to the level of the general tumult. Earlier, it used to be that America
had this huge arsenal, and didn't know what to do with it. It's like the
big boy who had the air-gun, and was loathe that he didn't know where he
can use it.
So with this huge arsenal, America seemed always to be itching to drop
bombs somewhere, send cruise missiles hurtling to some godforsaken capital
on earth. When Clinton had trouble with Monica Lewinsky, he diverted attention
by ordering a missile blitzkrieg on Bhagdad.
But, after September 11, it seems, somebody out there thought, as long
as the Americans want to use their arsenal, let them use it for themselves.
For once, America seems to be using its sophisticated war machinery to
defend itself.
In this way, the whole crusade against bin Laden is having the effect
of concentrating America's pent up energies on one thing. It is better
to have the globo-thug tied down, than have him showing off his weapons
in several other locations on the globe.
Small wonder then, that this year, there were less smaller trouble spots
on earth. Even here in Sri Lanka, Prabhakaran, coincidence coincidence,
seems to be in a conciliatory mood. ( Guess what — the armament people
are in Afghanistan….)
Once Afghanistan is completely pulverized, this situation will not obtain
anymore. America will again have a huge arsenal on its hands, without knowing
what to do with it. America will again start dropping small bombs elsewhere
and sending smart bombs hither and dither – and not for its own cause.
There will be many more small trouble spots in many parts of the world.
Perhaps, then, the Americans will even be able to have the WTO meeting
again in Nevada or someplace. Want to bet on it? |
