being able to lick his wounds, and still keep insisting "we're winning" - of course, he's winning - the question is - what exactly is he winning? If he's counting bodies, he's the undisputed king; there's no competition anywhere in the vicinity.
That's why I salute Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the spunky Iranian President. To me, his defiance of the US President asks the one question that has remained unanswered in the raging debate over Iran's uranium-enrichment policy: Who the hell is Bush to tell Iran what to do? Or for that matter, to tell anyone what to do? Where are the WMDs in Iraq? Where is Osama bin Laden? The answer to these questions is painfully simple: the Iraq war is neither about Saddam Hussein nor about WMDs and the Iranian confrontation is not about uranium enrichment for nuclear purposes which Iran has denied; Iran continues to contend that they're enriching uranium only for civilian energy but if pushed to the wall, they can and will hit back. Seymour Hersh writes in the April 17th (2006) New Yorker: “This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.” Now, we're talking.
Bush's foreign policy is an artwork in double standards. His armed forces' human right records are the talk of the globe and these champions of democracy go around setting other people's houses in order. America has befriended some of the world's most repressive regimes when it suits her economic interests. The Americans have created every single Frankenstein from Latin America to the Middle East and then hunted them down with mission accomplished. And they preach to the world about democracy.
America is not answerable to the world that questions its right to run a Guantanamo Bay and an Abu Ghraib from where hundreds of stories continue to pour out every day of people being detained with no charges against them for years on end, of abuse, and of the most degrading treatment man has ever meted out to fellowmen. In the latest revelation, American troops have slaughtered innocent women and children in Haditha in cold blood knowing very well they were civilians, but America's holier-than-thou men and women in uniform, half of who are returning in coffins from their "baby's day out" adventure, will take it as their God-given right to bomb a country, dethrone it's elected President (in the name of Democracy!), and drag him into a trial on charges of human rights violations, among other things! Bush is of course God. And America still claims the right to pre-emptive action in Iran - even after the whole world has seen that his lies and deceit have caused more damage than Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden put together could've hoped to manage in 20 lifetimes.
The problem with America in general and Bush in particular is that they're incredibly ignorant and self-absorbed. America is the world's spoilt brat that demands instant gratification of all its needs regardless of how much it inconveniences its neighbours. As a race, they're brought up on the "I want it and I want it now" principle - even if what they want doesn't rightfully belong to them. America is not the world's policeman -it's the world's pettiest thief. Even the acknowledged saner voices in their population like Thomas Friedman talks about the "sacrifice" of America's young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friedman (Asian Age, June 1, 2006) is outraged with GM because they're offering fuel sops to their clients who will buy a select range of their products. He feels (rightly) that GM is encouraging its customers selfish splurging of fuel when the need of the hour is to conserve it or be prepared to pay higher prices for it. He thinks paying higher prices for fuel is one way of showing his solidarity with his American boys an girls who're bravely "sacrificing" their lives to keep the American flag fluttering on Saddam Hussein's palace. Their sense of self-righteousness and their "with us or against us" rhetoric have pushed the world to the brink of war, but they refuse to see themselves as the problem. In their eyes, America is always the solution even if they're currently the world's greatest jokers with a laughingstock for a President.
The Americans have no knowledge or understanding of other cultures, languages, and what goes on outside America. In fact, they don't even KNOW there's a world outside their own. 60% of American high school graduates can't find Iraq on the world map; forget Iraq, 50% can't even find New York State. That's how myopic and self-absorbed they are. To them, what is good for America should be - had better be - good for the rest of the world. If you don't like it, they'll ram it down your throat. Thank God, the world has people like Ahmedinejad who's throat is a lot more sturdy than, say Manhmohan Singh's.
Day after day, the Iranian President is on people's TV screens around the world exposing and defying the dangerous combination of arrogance and ignorance that Bush is. When the Iranian President offered to come to the table for talks, the ignoramus naturally backed off. Bush doesn't want to talk. Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker (April 17, 2006) "Some operations, apparently aimed in part at intimidating Iran, are already under way. American Naval tactical aircraft, operating from carriers in the Arabian Sea, have been flying simulated nuclear-weapons delivery missions—rapid ascending maneuvers known as “over the shoulder” bombing—since last summer, (a) former official said, within range of Iranian coastal radars."
The other reality is of course, Bush can't talk. Today, the US President cannot match wits with any leader in the world - except of course maybe Blair, the second-in-line dimwit.
Hersh in The New Yorker: "In a recent essay on the Foreign Policy Web site, entitled “Fool Me Twice,” Joseph Cirincione, the director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote, "The unfolding administration strategy appears to be an effort to repeat its successful campaign for the Iraq war.” He noted several parallels: 'The vice president of the United States gives a major speech focused on the threat from an oil-rich nation in the Middle East. The U.S. Secretary of State tells Congress that the same nation is our most serious global challenge. The Secretary of Defense calls that nation the leading supporter of global terrorism.'
Cirincione called some of the Administration’s claims about Iran “questionable” or lacking in evidence. When I spoke to him, he asked, “What do we know? What is the threat? The question is: How urgent is all this?” The answer, he said, “is in the intelligence community and the I.A.E.A.”"
Economically too, America has managed to thrive as a world leader because the Americans have done a splendid job of spreading capitalism and bringing wealth to economies around the world by simply obliterating traditional professions and bulldozing their way into economies while firmly clamping down protectionism policies on their own domestic markets. In their defence, the Americans are generally respectful towards merit. And they're prepared to woo and pamper you to the hilt if they think you have what they want. Once they've pumped billions of dollars into a foreign economy, they'll start re-writing your nuclear policy like they've done with us. It of course helps a lot to have a PM who doesn't know what a backbone is. To him, some white skin will do to bow and scrape - Soniaji or Bushji - they're all the same. Thank God, we're not an oil-rich nation with Manhoman Singh as our PM. Thank God for China and Thank God for Japan.
And Thank God most of all for Ahmedinejad. Till now, Castro was the lone-ranger rebel, but Cuba is treated more as an irritant than a real threat by America. What about Iran? Iran is a great friend to have and a deadly enemy to deal with. Iran to me epitomizes self-respect. The difference between America and Iran is that Iranians are "prepared to die" for what they believe in; Americans are not; they're only prepared to kill others so they can live exactly like they want in an enviroment that is conducive only to America's growth. The US President must now decide whether he can afford an enemy like Iran or would he rather have Ahmedinejad as a friend, but really, that's overestimating his decision-making capabilities.
