Foreign powers’ intrusions: Yet another destruction

There is a definite backgrounder to the sorry state of affairs in and around Afghanistan. For the last several years foreign powers, including the two superpowers of the world, have been playing ‘political games’ not just in Afghanistan but also intruding in the Middle East, the so called Arab world.

Commentators had been stating that the Arab governments were cautious in their approach but the  Arab masses were talking of the  ‘invisible  army’ of America and  Allies  more than seen  in their lands. In fact, several Arab academics could also unearth the ‘mystery’ to the sudden surfacing of the well-organized terror outfits! Set up by the American and Israeli Intelligence agencies together with the weak proxy governments in the midst of the so called ‘Muslim world’.

Today, with internal strife and civil war accelerating, the masses are left with nil resources to fight the masterminds! Ruled that they are by proxy governments! 

 It gets  more than obvious  that several of these countries stand devastated  by tactical  intrusions of  foreign powers, that have ‘used’ the  age old Western ploy of  creating a  civil war like situation.

See the human tragedies unfolding in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen! Hitting those shots of fleeing citizens …running, escaping, fleeing towards a nowhere of sorts!  Even if they manage to flee all intact and alive, they would have the refugee tag pinned on them for generations to come. Made to run from their   homelands, uprooted and destroyed and demolished and ridiculed! If you recall, French publications like Charlie Hebdo mocked the tragic death of the Syrian child Aylan Kurdi! He and his family were seeking refuge because of the expansionist designs of the  mighty nations of the  world, using the different alibis to establish base before striking.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar  Khan’s  grandson, Asfandyar Wali Khan, had  detailed in an  interview  given to me, “Religion was used by  Americans  in Afghanistan to create their  base,  otherwise  Afghan  struggles  had  been  based  on  nationalism and  not religion.”

And the former  Libyan  leader, Colonel  Muammar  Gaddafi’s son,  Saif -El -Islam was specific when he spoke of “outside  interests”  behind  the  anarchy in their region. In the autumn of 2001, I interviewed him for a national daily, when he was visiting New Delhi.  During the course of that interview when I had asked  him  to  comment on the  ‘terror tags’ heaped by the Western Powers on his  father and  on his  government, that they are  funding  terrorist groups/ outfits, he told me, “It all  depends on your  perception. Many liberation leaders were viewed as being terrorists but later they became heroes. In the sense when Nelson Mandela was in trouble we helped him out, when Mugabe was having problems we helped him too, so does that mean we helped terrorist outfits!  Mind you, both these men fought liberation wars and later emerged as heroes. In fact, in my own country’s war for liberation from the Italians we had lost about three-quarters of our population, so realize the problems involved.  Its all matter of perception and image.”

When I interviewed the well -known Arab academic, Clovis  Maksoud — then Professor of  International   Relations  and  director of the  Centre for  Global  South  at the American  University in  Washington  and  before that he  had served as the  Arab League  ambassador  to India  from 1961- 66  and  later  ambassador to the  United  Nations and  the  US  — he focused  on the fact that people of the Arab countries  had realized that  there were  vested interests of  “outsiders” to  destroy their lands. Clovis detailed why the Arab world  was  not taking on American intrusions, “There is a broad  strategic  dependence of the  Arab States on the  US, based on the  false assumption that the  US  is the  only  power that  can make  Israel  respond to the Palestinian issue. This dependence is flawed because Israel has flouted all international norms. In fact, Israel is the only country that has never declared its boundaries since 1967. It  has  not  acknowledged the  fact  that its  an  occupying  power and  given  itself the  license to  expand its settlements. This has  meant  violating  U.N  resolution of the  4^th Geneva  Convention that  does not allow  any occupying  power to  alter the   boundaries  of the country it occupies…At the  same time  the  US  has  chosen to make  Israel its  principal ally and this has  given  Israel the  license  to  defy the  UN  convention with  impunity.” Clovis was of the view that America’s ‘occupation’ of Iraq was a planned attack. “Yes, it was a planned attack .An attack planned much before 9/11. I would only say that September 11 delayed it. Anyway, its been a disaster…In the  aftermath of 9/11, Arab and  Muslim communities were collectively  held  responsible for the  act.”

And  if  one were  to  focus  on Latin  American countries, its   best  to know what  the  well-known Mexican writer and columnist,  Juan  Miguel  De  Mora,  told me, when he  was  visiting  New  Delhi  in 2004. Hitting out at America,  he began  by quoting   two former Mexican  Presidents, “Mexican President,  General  Porfirio  Diaz, had  said many decades back  (he  was  president till 1910 ),  ‘Poor  Mexico so far from God and so  close to the  US.’ Then another  Mexican  President, Adolfo Lopez  Mateos,  had  said that  the  biggest problem faced  by  Mexico is  ‘the  US.’ ”  Together  with that,  Mora  came  up  with  his  own comments, “But  in  my  opinion  both the Mexican   presidents  were too diplomatic! President Bush’s  democracy is  like  Stalin’s and  I have  been writing  in  my columns that  Bush’s  policies  are  a  danger to  humanity.”                           

As Noam Chomsky detailed, “in  the  Reagan  years  alone  the  US  sponsored  state  terrorists  in Central America  left  hundreds of thousands  of tortured and  mutilated corpses, millions  maimed and orphaned  and four countries  in ruins. In the same years, West- backed South African depredations killed 1.5 million people. I  need  not speak of West Asia or  much  else …All of  this,  however  is  barred from  the  annals of terrorism by a simple  devise: the term ‘terrorism’ like  most  terms  of  political   discourse  has two  meanings, a  literal one and a propagandist one. Needless to add that the propagandist version is preferred: terrorism is terrorism that is directed against the USA, its friends and allies.”

Noam Chomsky also drew parallels between US  and the Nazis:  “The  Nazis, for  example, bitterly condemned  terrorism and conducted what they called  ‘counter  terrorism’  against  terrorist  partisans. The USA agreed. It organized and conducted similar ‘counter terrorism’ in the post -war years.”

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HAPPENINGS HERE!
One could go focusing on the games getting played by the political rulers, here, in our country. In fact, its relevant to focus on the human tragedies taking place in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Going by the reported cases it wouldn’t be amiss to say that caste and communal killings and anarchy are taking place along the patterns of the dark ages. In fact, a naïve soul commented that she was awaiting for any of  the  concerned  Union Ministers to rush towards Uttar Pradesh  to reach out to the traumatized children and women and men! One of the  haunting  scenes was  that of a  rickshaw puller of  Kanpur getting  thrashed by a group of  Right-Wing goons, after forcing him to  chant    Hindutva  slogans. And that poor man’s daughter clinging to him even whilst  he was getting  thrashed and hounded…   Then the rickshaw puller’s family  sitting  back in deep  sorrow as  their tormentors  were left  off from the  police  thana the  very  next  day! What would one say this! Hopelessness spreading out as never before. – India News Stream