March 14, 2008

Not Winning

Opinions differ on the ‘war on terror’. But most agree on one point: the US is not winning. 
Why?
The paramount issue is presented to be one of Islamic ‘extremism’. It is pertinent, therefore, to inquire what inflames and exacerbates this perceived brand of ‘extremism’. Here, it is not just Afghanistan or Iraq which matters. Kashmir matters, Palestine matters, Chechnya matters, and the Balkans matter. And so, too, matters the Western mindset and policies. It is the latter which is most responsible for the inexcusable re-eruption of the cartoon controversy in Europe. 
The cartoon issue is not freedom of speech but the freedom to insult and injure. The issue itself is enwrapped in hypocrisy. For example, in Germany, France and Austria, it is a crime to deny the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust of the Jewish people. British historian David Irving spent a prison term in Austria for doing precisely that. 
Just recently, the Israel Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai, threatened the Palestinians with “Shoah” – the Hebrew word for Holocaust. For Israelis to countenance the use of this word against the background of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews is itself indicative of a Pharaonic mind-set. These words were followed up by a brutal assault by the Israeli armed forces on the coastal enclave of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians dwell. 
In the ensuing slaughter, over 120 Palestinians were killed, including many women and children. 
According to Time magazine, “If anything, the Israeli assault has steeled Gazans’ support for Hamas.” It highlights even more the failure of the International Mideast Conference convened by President Bush in Annapolis, Maryland, during November 2007. To date, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused to press Israel for a ceasefire. 
In this entire scenario, the OIC, the UN, and the European Union remain virtual bystanders. 
In the disinformation game, the term ‘Islamo-fascism’ is yet another canard. Fascism originated in the European hinterland of Mussolini’s Italy. It was picked up by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Franco of Spain and Salazar of Portugal emulated it. It had nothing to do with Islamic teachings. Yet, ‘Islamo-fascism’ is the fashionable flavor on the tongue of many Western politicians who equate today’s tensions with the Muslim world to the Allied conflict against the Axis powers in World War II. 
Here, the meekness and incapacity of the Muslim liberal intelligentsia to counter Western bigotry against Islam has left ample space for zealotry to flourish. 
While Pakistan has lost over 1,000 soldiers along side the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders, America’s much-touted European allies have shown aversion for battle in Afghanistan. This European ambivalence has elicited a deep disquiet among leading US policy-makers. Beneath the façade of the ‘war on terror’ is a lot of discord and disunity.
US policy-makers are not helping their cause by encouraging the Indian presence in Afghanistan. This is one sure way to raise red flags in Islamabad. 
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chaired by Senator Joe Biden, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte described Pakistan as a “vital country” and US ties with it to be a “long-term relationship with a sustainable basis.” He also said that “Pakistan is the third largest recipient of US aid and deservedly so”. 
Juxtaposed against this background, the policy of forging an Indo-US nuclear deal, at variance with applicable international and US law, appears even more unwise given the inseparable US stakes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And, this, too, in an arena defined by US policy-makers as vital to the well-being and security of American soil. 
Therefore, encouraging India into Afghanistan simply exposes the glaring lack of knowledge of the field. These US actions promise to make the problem worse. 
Already, the Afghan people have paid a horrific humanitarian price for the Pakistan-phobic policies of Afghan governing elites which had, in the past, foolishly embraced Indo-Soviet dispensations in the region, forcing Pakistan to respond with its own counter-balancing measures. 
A 2007 hit Hollywood movie, “In the Valley of Elah”, graphically depicts the severe distress which the Iraq imbroglio has inflicted on the psyche and mental health of returning US troops who have served there. 

A key casualty of the ‘war on terror’ may be the US itself. It is a war no one is winning.