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EDITORIAL: 1-15 October 2001
Terror behind Black Tuesday
The level of violence that shook the US on 11 September has shocked all
civilized people around the world. Muslim leaders and scholars all over the
world, including India, have condemned these terrorist acts and very rightly
considered their perpetrators as criminals, terrorists and murderers.
By the time these lines are out in print the US may have started its
‘Crusade’ against Osama bin Laden and his host country, Afghanistan. It is
here that we and many Muslims around the world disagree with the US. We do not
support Bin Laden or an Afghanistan indulging in terrorism within or without its
borders. In fact we have been rather outspoken in our criticism of
Afghanistan’s current rulers as well as the terrorist activities of some
Muslims.
Two things are not acceptable: Osama and Afghanistan have been indicted without
almost any evidence so far. The world, including the UN, has not been found fit
and worthy to be told of the ‘facts’ that the US seems to possess. In the
absence of clear-cut evidence there is no case for selecting Osama and his host
country for retribution by the world’s sole superpower which does not tire
sermonizing all about rule of law, democracy and human rights.This serious flaw
in the US approach, as a British MP said, will create a thousand Bin Ladens. And
here lies the second unacceptable aspect which has been meticulously avoided by
the west-dominated media: the US record in recent times, especially since the
end of the second world war, is highly questionable. Its cowboy diplomacy has
left behind a trail of misery, injustice and suffering all over the world. The
general American public is blissfully unaware of these serious violations of the
same slogans their rulers do not tire of raising every now and then.
It is the accumulation of an unending chain of injustices that has angered many
people around the world against the sole superpower. This includes such historic
injustices as sustaining, aiding and abetting Israeli terrorism and propping up
dictatorial regimes around the world. Over the past half a century the US has
stepped on many wrong toes in Cuba, Vietnam, Chile, Guatemala, Iran, Iraq,
Libya, Sudan to name a few. In 1989 it invaded a sovereign country, Panama,
kidnapped its president (Manuel Noriega) and still keeps him in a Miami jail. It
helped Iraq destroy Iran. It brought down an Iranian civil airliner in the Gulf
in 1988. It has blindly supported Israel kill, maim and devastate Palestinians
after making most of them refugees and occupying their land since 1948. It
protected Israel during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 which led to the murder
of tens of thousands of innocent people including such infamous massacres in the
annals of history as Sabra and Shatila under the supervision of the war criminal
who now rules Israel. Bush Senior helped Israel out of the US treasury with $10
billion to build and expand illegal settlements which are the biggest hurdle to
any compromise even by the most lenient Palestinian negotiators. US veto has
always saved Israel from world censure in the UN. Most recently the US was the
sole country in the world to stand by and walk out with its protege, from the
Durban Racism Conference. It used the Afghans to bring down the Soviet Empire
and once that goal was accomplished conveniently left the Afghans to fight each
other in a devastated country.
It is very important that the US and its hasty allies think over these facts to
discover why Uncle Sam is detested and perceived as ‘ugly’ around the world.
No peace is possible in the world and there is no certain way to stop the
recurrence of the Black Tuesday again and again unless the basic flaws in the US
foreign policy are addressed and more equitable and just world system is ushered
in which all have a stake. It is very important that the beautiful slogans of
democracy and human rights are not practiced in the west only while the same
western countries help their puppets around the world flout them with impunity
and the only people who are punished in various ways are those who are not in
the good books of the west for one reason or the other. q
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