America: Wrong Focus, Wrong Direction
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
CA
If anyone needed proof that America has the wrong focus and is headed in the wrong direction, he needed only to watch the nationalized televised presidential debate in New Hampshire on Saturday, January 6.
Make no mistake about it. The presidential debates have given political legitimacy to Muslim bashing in the United States. Diatribes against Islam that were once the exclusive privilege of the right wing radical press have found acceptance in the mainstream media.
Sponsored by ABC News, Facebook and WMUR, the debates were a carefully orchestrated affair with the questions crafted to steer them towards pre-selected issues. In response to a question about the Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes, Mayor Giuliani seized the moment to launch a long diatribe against “Islamic terrorism” calling it an “existential threat” to America. Not to be outdone by the Mayor, Senator McCain stretched the hyperbole and said that the threat from radical Islam was the “titanic, transcendent struggle” of the 21st century. Other presidential hopefuls chimed in.
It was left to Congressman Ron Paul to inject a degree of realism into the debate and point out that much of the animosity in the Middle East towards the US was the result of a long series of missteps in United States foreign policy.
The Democratic hopefuls were even more hostile. Senator Obama reiterated his earlier assertions that he would go into Pakistan if he had “actionable intelligence”, “whether or not the Pakistani government agreed”. Senator Clinton showed somewhat greater understanding of South Asia when she said she would inform the Pakistan government “when the missiles have been launched” because “there is inherent paranoia about India in the region in Pakistan”.
Islamophobia hits you in the face like a gust of hot air if you return to the United States from a trip abroad. It used to be said at one time that America was an air-conditioned theatre. Today, it is like a hot oven with a tight lid. The news is so carefully orchestrated that most Americans do not even know why so many in the world distrust them.
Is “Islamic terrorism” the “transcendental” issue of our times? Can a bunch of ragtag extremists hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan cause the American dream to derail?
Has our vision become so clouded by the smoke generated by extremist rhetoric that we have lost our own bearing?
America is a unique experiment in human history. Animated by a universal vision of liberty and equality, America became a beacon for all races and nations. Here came all the children of Adam, Africans and Europeans, Asians and Latinos, by the shiploads and now by the planeloads, in search of human dignity and economic opportunity. Lately this vision has become cloudy. The pursuit of liberty has been sidelined by a chase after “Islamic terrorists”. Freedoms have been compromised. The resulting atmosphere has given ample room for the hate mongers to bash Islam and sow the seeds of suspicion against Muslims. The most diabolical among them have even tried to hoist a theory of perpetual confrontation across civilizational interfaces.
While America has been preoccupied with a “terror hunt”, the world has marched on. A resurgent China has built up its industrial base and has cornered vast segments of global trade. The American industrial base shrinks and recoils under the double hammer of quality and productivity deficits. The Chinese economy grows by double digits while the American economy falters and slides into a recession dragged down by a falling dollar and unsustainable deficits. India moves forward, building its economic muscle with an army of educated engineers and scientists, while American education is squeezed by a dearth of good teachers and a deteriorating infrastructure. Russia flexes its muscle capitalizing on its energy resources while America exhausts itself attempting to corner the oil resources of the globe.
If present trends continue, the Chinese economy will overtake that of the United States within a generation. The Indian economy will follow in the next generation. Political pre-eminence is supported by economic pre-eminence. A United States that is second in its economic prowess cannot but be second in its political prowess.
The transcendental issue of the 21st century is technology and trade. A country that builds its prowess on technological superiority and trade dominance based on quality and productivity will dominate the world. In a shrunken world, war is counter-productive as an economic tool. Modern wars sap the material and spiritual resources of a nation with such intensity that they cannot be justified by cost-benefit analysis. Certainly, the devastations wrought by modern warfare negate any moral justification for war.
The presidential candidates bemoan the billions that we spend importing oil but offer no concrete plans for energy self-sufficiency. There is plenty of energy on God’s earth, in the surging waves of the ocean, in the howling winds, in the blazing sun, in atomic fusion that leaves no radioactive waste. But politics in America is beholden to big oil. As long as huge profits are to be made in oil, research and development in alternate energy resources will remain marginalized. Bashing the oil sheikhs of the Middle East who receive billions in royalties and support their lavish lifestyles may earn some political dividends. It may be good short-term politics. But the absence of a long-term energy policy is economic suicide.
America dominated the second half of the twentieth century because of its economic muscle built on a solid foundation of technological innovation, worker productivity, and emphasis on quality. Students around the world flocked to its universities to learn. Its manufacturing techniques were emulated in Europe and Asia alike. Economic dominance brought with it political and military dominance. Can we maintain this economic and military dominance with a second rate, debt-ridden economy and a devastated manufacturing industrial base?
Yes, America has lost its focus and its bearing. The presidential hopefuls repeat a mantra of “Islamic terrorism” that may placate certain interested parties and land some votes. But it offers no vision for the future. The transcendent issue of our times is not “Islamic terrorism”, although some may argue that it is an important issue. The transcendent issues of our times are technology and trade. The presidential hopefuls must offer a vision of America that blends the American ideals of liberty, equality and economic opportunity with the practical issues of technological pre-eminence and a re-energized, quality based educational and industrial infrastructure.
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