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Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, at a time when there is much talk of the need for austerity and cutting back on expenses, has taken a delegation of some 90 plus people to India. We do not yet know who these people are, but it can be safely assumed that not all of them have played a part in assisting with talks or performing other vital business. They can then be assumed to be ‘joy-riders’, paid for with tax-payers’ money, who have tagged along only to engage in some cricket watching and perhaps some shopping. Before the giant contingent set off, there was talk of bitter wrangling to get aboard, and journalists were said to have participated in it.
Trips overseas are everyone’s right. So is enjoying cricket. But wasting public money at a time when we are in such dire economic straits, doesn’t say much about the government’s priorities. Surely, the prime minister is aware of our financial struggles. He must set a personal example of tightening the belt, keeping expenditures to the minimum, thereby demonstrating that his administration is capable of resisting pressure and doing everything it can to lead from the front in these difficult times. Doing so would win for it far greater respect than merely loading as many people as it can on the plane bound for India and in doing so, undoubtedly earning the scorn of many. This then, is the price to be paid for trying to please many, at the cost of the welfare of millions of citizens who cannot even dream of a ride to Mohali or any other place in the world, for that matter.
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http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39049&Cat=9
The rising militant activities in the Kurram Agency have once again put the credibility of the recently concluded peace deal in danger. A lethal suicide attack on the Doaba Police Station in Hangu, which left eight people dead and 25 injured on March 24, was one of the deadliest acts of violence to hit the area in the past few weeks. A collapse of the peace agreement could lead to events whose consequences and ramifications are too frightening to imagine at the moment.
It was the recent killing of a Shia community member in the busy Qissa Khwani bazaar in Peshawar triggered off the new wave of terrorism and violence. The following day, an attack on an Attock-bound vehicle near Mamu Khwar in Doaba left four people, including a woman, dead. On March 13 members of the Mangal tribe attacked a passenger vehicle killing 12 members of the Turi tribe. A police party led by station house officer Haleem Khan killed three of the attackers. The SHO had to face consequences for his action in the form of a remote-control bomb attack on his mobile party. The SHO was one of the 11 members of the police force who sustained injuries in the revenge attack.
On March 25 the militants attacked three passenger vehicles, killing and injuring eight persons. The militants commandeered the three vehicles and kidnapped 45 passengers from the Bagan area of lower Kurram. This was the third attack of its kind since the peace deal was concluded on Feb 8 this year, with passenger vans carrying people belonging to the Turi tribe being hit. A few days ago, armed men led by a militant commander, Sattar Wazir, abducted 20 men from the same area in Bagan and another four from a neighbouring area at gunpoint. The fate of the two young men belonging to Turi tribe who were abducted from Makhezai area a few days ago is still not known. The suspense has added to the bitterness and tensions in the area.
The rising militant activities in Kurram Agency have sent a shockwave among the residents of the area, especially alarming the Shia community. Tribal elders convened a jirga and demanded immediate action against the persons involved in the violence. A Shia leader, former senator Allama Abid Al Hussaini, has urged the government to take action to save the peace deal. He warned that if the government failed to recognise the gravity of the situation it would be unable to prevent it degenerating into a crisis. The agreement had come after a yearlong conflict in Kurram, the resumed militancy has shattered the hopes arising from the peace deal and put the agreement in danger of being jeopardised.
According to the agreement, the main Tall-Parachinar road was to be opened immediately to all kinds of traffic. This was to be followed by the rehabilitation of the displaced people (Shias from Sadda and Sunnis from Upper Kurram), a process which was to begin on March 5. A committee consisting of Sunni and Shia leaders, parliamentarians and officials of the political administrations was assigned the task of working out arrangements for the relocation and rehabilitation of people displaced by the conflict and pay damages to those who lost family members and had their properties destroyed in the past few years of the conflict.
Following their last meeting with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad members of the jirga announced a package of Rs1 billion for this year and Rs700 million for next year as compensation. But elements which did not want the return of normalcy in Kurram sabotaged the peace efforts once again.
Due to its strategic location, Kurram Agency has always been critical for the militants. It connects the tribal areas of Pakistan to Afghanistan through lower, central and upper Kurram, providing the militants easy access to and from Afghanistan and far greater freedom of movement than they now have. In lower Kurram, Shaheedano Dand and Ahmadi Shama points provide the militants convenient points of exit to Zazi Maidan in Afghanistan’s Paktia province and to Maqbal areas of Khost province. The three Managl routes under their control give them a passage to Zazi area. It is alarming fact that the other outlet from central Kurram that passes through Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency is already under the control of the Taliban.
The Taliban, led by Fazal Saeed Haqqani, made every effort in Kurram Agency to gain control of the Borki and Kharlachi outlets that connect Parachinar in upper Kurram with Afghanistan. But the locals, who knew their intentions, are not prepared to let the Taliban succeed in their objective. For their part, the militants are doing everything possible to get control of Borki and Kharlachi outlets.
If the militants wrest control of the Borki and Kharlachi posts, they will find Kurram Agency as an extremely useful sanctuary, both in terms of safety and logistics. Once this area is at their disposal, the Taliban will gain access to important routes leading from North Waziristan to Afghanistan through the troubled Orakzai Agency. That, in turn, will make it easy to melt away among the locals. Khyber Agency will still be a good option for the Taliban, but control over Kurram Agency will make them virtually invulnerable in the strategic sense.
To save the agreement from being jeopardised, the government should immediately start making active efforts to get it implemented, in its entirety and in letter and spirit. This it can do by securing the roads, devising a transparent system for the compensation money to be paid out to those effected and displaced by the conflict and making a practicable and sustainable arrangements for the relocation of the displaced people. Otherwise, once things go really wrong, the situation will spin out of control, and restoration of normalcy will become a formidable and daunting challenge which the authorities may not be able to meet in the near future.
Indeed, the situation is already so grim that the leader of an anti-Taliban militia, Dilawar Khan, made the threat that his militia will be forced to join the Taliban if the government did not come to its assistance. Dilawar Khan’s statement came after a suicide attack on the funeral in Adizai that claimed 37 lives and left more than 60 people injured. A statement from the members of the Grand Tribal Jirga of North Waziristan in response to the Dattakhel drone attack conveys the same alarming message to the authorities.
At a press conference in Peshawar, flanked by other tribal elders, Malik Jalal Khan Wazir, swore vengeance and declared that the elders had given permission to members of their families to carry out suicide attacks against the Americans to avenge the killings in the drone attacks. This declaration should not be taken as an ordinary threat because, once suicide attacks become socially permitted, the consequences of the violence would be ruinous for the area.
The government must start taking measures to rescue the Kurram peace deal. It cannot afford to waste any more time.
The writer heads the Fata Research Centre. Email: khan45@ gmail.com
Source :
http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39050&Cat=9
An utterly bland banner hanging outside the closed shutters of a bookshop in the Peshawar Cantonment makes a foreboding announcement: the owners have shut down the shop and could now be approached for business in Islamabad. It is more than a month now since the mournful notice was hung. Pedestrians and motorists pass by it at all hours of the day, but give it little more than a casual glance.
It was the biggest and one of the oldest bookshops in the town, nay in the entire province, and a repository of stationery and books from around the world. The elderly owner, who had lately disappeared into the basement leaving the counter on the ground floor to his son, appeared to be distinctively aware of the literary sense of his visitors. One could thus find nearly all major works of renowned authors, otherwise unavailable even in cities like Karachi and Lahore, prominently displayed on the racks.
The bookseller was also quite daring; one would often observe the gradually diminishing copies of titles as enticing and controversial as Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ being replaced with a gusto. Glossy fashion magazines for men and women including GQ and Cosmopolitan would also be found spread invitingly on tabletops in addition to a continuous supply of several US, UK and Middle East-based daily newspapers.
The protracted Afghan conflict and the resultant rush of Western journalists to the region added another chapter to the success story of the bookshop. The raging fury of the conflict, its myriad interpretations, and paradoxical dimensions suddenly found their way to the bookshop on Arbab Road Peshawar.
The enterprising bookseller made most of the opportunity as titles on the Afghans and Pakhtuns, long lost to memory, suddenly reappeared in new jackets. And the bookseller knew perfectly well how to flaunt those titles: a shelf right at the entrance decked with eye catching colourful covers would welcome the visitors. But these windfalls alone could never have enabled the bookseller to set sails for the higher climes.
The business fortunes of the booksellers had in no small amount been propelled by local purchases, more specifically purchases in the public sector. The bookshop had virtually served as the single source in as far as supplies of all types of books to the libraries in the government and non government sector were concerned.
A casual visit to one of the more than half a dozen libraries in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province may provide irrefutable evidence to this effect as every next book could be found indelibly stamped with the seal of the closed bookshop. The burgeoning growth of English medium schools in the private sector also spelled a bonanza of sorts for the increasingly reclusive bookseller.
What then forced him leave his long held fort for good that set tongues wagging? One of the probable reasons bandied about referred to the prevailing fluid law and order situation in the province, particularly in Peshawar. The ever present threat of kidnapping for ransom has left the rich and famous of the town confined to their cavernous quarters. Some accounts also referred to boredom induced by the age-old routine as the likely cause of the closure that came like a bolt from the blue for the fast dwindling club of book lovers. The latter believe that the sad event should not go unnoticed.
The bookseller on his part could hardly be faulted for shifting his place of business. The undesirable security situation in Peshawar makes his decision understandable. Islamabad is teeming with affluent refugees from Peshawar. ‘Run with your money to Islamabad,’ is the fad in Peshawar these days. The bookseller and his ilk have one common denominator: they all accumulated their riches in Peshawar. Selling books in an embattled town with the wealth thus hoarded could be the last wish of the hoarders.
Those addicted to books will continue to get them from all quarters of the world. But for students and, above all, the image of the land, the closure of the town’s premier bookshop is a matter of inconsolable grief.
Recent events in the area have seriously impaired Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s image as a civilised place. The place that for decades has been home to Edwardes, Islamia and Burn Hall schools and colleges and the lush green sprawling campus of Peshawar University is under attack from bigotry brigades. The morning news bulletins invariably begin with news of bombings in more schools in this godforsaken province. Why, for God’s sake, is there no word of protest from those who perceive the militants to be angry only with American presence in the region?
A small segment of the Pakhtun literati recently circulated an article that draws reference to an inflammatory account of the Pakhtuns by Jules Stewart under the title ‘The Savage Border.’ The book has dubbed Pakhtuns as wild, savage, barbarians, not versed in the civilised ways of the world. One may not like it, but the bombings of schools and the closure of the bookshop provide ammunition to Stewart and vindicate him and his ilk.
Why is Alexandria and Cordoba being done to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa? No one appears to be ready to answer this, and this is the saddest tragedy to befall the Pakhtun nation.
The writer is a Peshawar-based freelancer. Email: nasseryousaf@gmail.com
Source :
http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39051&Cat=9
The feeling of one’s being forced to view the plethora of advertisements has reached a point where one begins to wonder: is there any control over what we watch on TV? Do we have the choice of watching our favourite shows without all these advertisements? Especially, is there anything we could do about it?
Then there is the dissatisfaction with some of the content being aired on our screens. Our television adverts always become a topic of discussion whenever the TV is on at home, or at the office, say, during the World Cup. A recent survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan revealed that 56 percent of Pakistanis from across the country feel that indecency on TV has increased, up from 41 percent ten years ago. You feel that our social fabric is slowly being moulded by a tiny group of powerful businesses. And we, the viewers, have little choice but to adapt ourselves to the new trends, regardless of whether we like them or find them acceptable.
A friend, who is a lawyer by training, recently decided to take a stand. He sought to move the authorities to get them to regulate the content on our television screens in accordance with “accepted cultural norms.” So he appeared before the Council of Complaints. The council is a body set up by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) comprising six “eminent citizens” to judge the merits of complaints.
There are many interesting aspects to his story which are worth sharing.
First of all, there are a lot of people out there who are unhappy with the content of some of the TV advertisements. In the case of films, dramas and comedy shows one at least has the option of simply switching off the channel. Advertising, on the other hand, is virtually unavoidable, no matter what type of programme one is watching. Due to this, my friend focussed his complaint on a single advertisement, so that whatever decisions was taken by the authority concerned would establish a yardstick for similar advertisements in future.
It is not worthwhile specifying or describing the advertisement itself, so I will just mention the key points of the complaint he lodged.
There exists a legal code which caters to the subjective, seemingly unimportant, opinions of individuals regarding the nature of TV programmes in Pakistan. The legal code is detailed, and is not based on any other principles but those of basic Islamic edicts.
The complaint begins with some everyday language expressing the sentiments which many people increasingly share with regard to the “overwhelming majority of Pakistanis, particularly our young, [who] spend several hours a day” watching television programmes, whose content would be considered by many as “vulgar, indecent and likely to deprave, corrupt and injure public morality.”
It then cited the Pemra Ordinance of 2002, which mentions “the preservation of the national, cultural, social and religious values and the principles of public policy as enshrined in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” and tries to make sure that “programmes and advertisements do not contain or encourage violence, terrorism..., obscenity, vulgarity or other material offensive to commonly accepted standards of decency.”
A Code of Conduct for media broadcasters and cable TV operators formulated by Pemra itself goes further. It prohibits broadcasters from airing any programme which is “obscene or indecent, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality.” It states that “no advertisement shall be permitted which...glorifies adultery, lustful passion or non-Islamic values; contains indecent, vulgar, or offensive themes; [and] contains material which is repugnant to...Islamic values.” But who is to judge what constitutes “Islamic moral standards”? And what our “cultural, social and religious values” are?
Someone needs to clarify the limits that TV content may not cross. There is also the increasing need for regulation of the times at which certain programmes can be aired. The same applies to advertising. There must be a regulation on the themes that can be used to attract customers. It may ultimately be for the judiciary to make these decisions, but someone has to begin active regulation of the content of what is aired on our TV screens.
My friend’s action is a reminder of the need for active vigilance on the part of ordinary citizens; in this case, television viewers. Viewers must have a choice in whether or not they are to be exposed to one kind or another of advertisements, which are placed by those who wish to make profit out of them. The Council of Complaints, he notes, is entitled to entertain the complaint of “any person aggrieved by any aspect of a programme or advertisement.”
Contrary to our negative expectations, the council, particularly its chairperson, the poet Kishwar Naheed, was supportive. In fact, as she said, the council had been waiting for “raushan khayal” (enlightened) young people to bring such issues before it.
The complaints cell is eager to forward the views of the complainants and wants citizens to come forward. You too have a voice and your active participation will make the job easier for the council. Pemra and other such government bodies must make it easy for an individual to register his or her complaint. And the common man must actively use such outlets in the interest of Pakistani society.
The writer is an Imperial College London graduate and an alumnus of the BHSS Pakistan. Email: zirgham@gmail.com
Source :
http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39052&Cat=9
Recently, I happened to spend a month in Singapore. A first time visitor cannot help but be impressed by Singapore’s Changi Airport. Not only by its vast size and the amenities it provides, but also the ease and efficiency with which passengers are processed. On average, an incoming passenger is out of the airport and into the waiting car in 25 minutes minutes – alongalong with the luggage. The airport ranks as one of the world’s best airports.
It’s not just the airport that impresses the visitor. It is also the general cleanliness and orderliness of the city, its buses and the subway that run like clockwork, the gleaming shopping malls, its well maintained parks, civic services and other facilities. Economically, Singapore ranks ahead of many developed countries of the world. Its GDP growth last year was 14.5 percent and GDP per capita purchasing power parity (PPP) was US$62,000. (For comparison, the figures for the US, UK, China, India and Pakistan are 47,000, 35,000, 7,400, 3,400 and 2,600, respectively.
If you are one of those people who believe GDP is economic nonsense, take a look at Singapore’s other indicators: Unemployment is two percent; homeownership is nearly 90 percent, financed through a cleverly designed Central Provident Fund; and an affordable healthcare system is accessible to everyone. Corruption and crime are very low.
Literacy rate is 97 percent, and over 90 percent of the population aged 25 and above have secondary education. The quality of education is good. Singapore school students rank at the top in the international education scores in science and math. Two of its universities, Singapore National University (SNU) and Nanyang Technical University (NTU) rank among the top 100 universities in the world.
How did all this happen? How did this tiny island, a dot on the world map, with no hinterland or natural resources – not even water and construction sand, which have to be brought in from Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively – was able to transform itself from a colonial backwater to an economic powerhouse, and such a nice place to live in? How did a multi-racial and multi-religious society with a history of racial tensions, and even bloody racial riots, in 1964, transform into a peaceful, productive and politically and economically secure society?
Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister and the architect of modern Singapore, answers these questions in his memoirs, written some years ago. In spite of the size – two volumes and nearly 1400 pages – the books, titled The Singapore Story and From Third World to First, tell a gripping story. The memoirs, particularly the second volume, From Third World to First, can be a useful handbook for the leaders of developing countries in general and of Pakistan in particular, that is, if they were inclined to read.
Basically, what Lee Kuan Yew did was, he invested in and capitalised on the only natural resource he had. The people. (Singapore’s population at independence, in 1965, was 1.5 million. Today it is five million including the permanent residents.) Mr Lee writes in his memoirs: “I was gradually forced to conclude that the decisive factors were the people, their natural abilities, education and training. Knowledge and possession of technology were vital for the creation of wealth.” Therefore, he proceeded to create a system of education that provides quality education and training to all its citizens, both men and women. To ensure that no racial group feels excluded, four languages, English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil are taught in all schools. English remains the working language.
Elsewhere in the book, Lee Kuan Yew observes: “when misguided policies based on half digested theories of socialism and redistribution of wealth were compounded by less than competent government, societies formerly held together by colonial power splintered, with appalling consequences.” That belief seems to have guided his economic policies, which strived to create a fair state as opposed to a “welfare state”. Also, Mr Lee seems to believe that the age-old wisdom of keeping the expenses less than the income is not only good for individuals but also for states.
Lee Kuan Yew also talks about Pakistan in some detail, in his memoirs. He writes: “I spent a week in Pakistan from 28 February 1992. I had two meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his key cabinet colleagues, including his finance and economic minister, Sartaj Aziz, an irrepressible optimist. After I returned I sent Nawaz Sharif a report together with a personal letter to summarise the actions he should take.
“It was soon obvious that they faced dire and intractable problems. They had a low tax base, with income tax yielding only two per cent of their GDP. Many transactions in land sales were not documented and tax evasion was widespread. They subsidised agriculture, railways and steel mills. Defence took 44 percent of the budget, debt servicing 35 percent, leaving 21 percent to administer the country. Hence their budget deficits were 8-10 percent of their GDP and inflation reaching double-digit figures. The IMF had drawn their attention to these parlous figures. The solutions were obvious but political will was difficult to exercise in a country without an educated electorate and with the legislature in the grip of landowners who controlled the votes of their uneducated tenant farmers. This made land and tax reforms near impossible. Corruption was rampant, with massive thievery of state property, including illegal tapping of electricity.” Pg 468
Mr Lee goes on to say: “[Nawaz Sharif] was a man of action with much energy ... He always believed that something could be done to make things better.” And then, as if in exasperation, Lee Kuan Yew writes: “The problem was often he had neither the time nor the patience to have a comprehensive study made before deciding on a solution.”
And, yes, one more thing that helped make Singapore what it is. While its constitution ensures that every person has the right to profess, practise and propagate his religion. It also ensures that religion is not used to disturb public order, public health or morality. In other words, any one using religion to create hatred and disorder will be processed through the Singapore’s justice system as efficiently as incoming passengers are processed at Changi Airport.
The writer has worked in the area of Human Resources with multinational companies. Email: azizakhmad@gmail. com
Source :
http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39053&Cat=9
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
In today’s world, events in one place almost always influence those in others. The age of instant news means details of developments of every kind reach people flicking through TV channels quite literally the moment they occur.
And more than any other time in human history, we now live in a massive global village where everything that happens is connected to the other in a long chain. A tug at one end instantly sets off motion at the other. It is hard to stay disconnected.
Small amounts of radiation released by the crippled nuclear power at Fukushima in Japan are reported to have drifted across to China, triggering mass panic. The drift, in terms of other events, may not be so literal or so easily discernible through the use of scientific equipment, but the same kind of influences make their way across the globe from one country to the other, from one region to the next.
We saw this happen in the 1990s as countries in Eastern Europe changed forever one after the other. Happenings in one place had an almost instant effect on those in others.
We see the same phenomenon today in the Middle East where an unruly storm rages across the region with, even islands where the breeze hardly moved, such as Bahrain, getting caught up in the gusts.
The desperation of leaders is demonstrated by actions in Libya and also Yemen where there is an attempt to hold onto power and resist the changes that people are determined to usher in.
What is curious is that even gales that blow quite close to our borders, creating the events we see today in North Africa and surrounding areas, caused little more than a ripple at least as far as the electronic media goes in Pakistan.
The events taking place in these nations have received only passing mention in terms of talk shows and other programmes that dominate the dozens of TV channels competing with each other to win over viewers and attract maximum attention.
The channels, of course, have a right to decide their own policies and priorities. But the demonstration of the increasingly insular view we take of the world, is somewhat alarming.
Like the prima donna in a ballet performance, we seem to have become obsessed with ourselves, constantly peering into the mirror to see how we look, rather than gazing out the window at the world outside. The problem with this is that it gives us only a very narrow vision of the world and all that is out there.
Even the events that gain the attention of news anchors in the country are becoming more and more limited. There is an unchanging focus on political wrangles and the ongoing power-play in various places.
Matters that deserve far greater attention, such as the issue of food security, are hardly ever taken up. The warning by a senior UN official that many people could no longer afford to buy food to eat because of the high prices attracted some newspaper headlines but little further discussion.
There are some dangers inherent in this. We need to see ourselves as part of the global community rather than as a single, isolated country that stands and acts alone. This is, in many ways, tied in with the need to develop a broader vision that can enable us to take in more of the world and occupy a place within it.
This reluctance to draw up the blinds and look outside at the wider spaces – rather like a person who has developed a bad case of agoraphobia – is one reason why we have become so unhealthily obsessed with issues such as blasphemy or why even the most trivial political discord draws instant attention.
It is time we recognised the dangers of living within a virtual reality created by the few who set the agenda and moving outside into what is actually taking place.
The events in the Middle East, to the extent that they take up issues such as inflation, poor governance and general disorder, certainly hold relevance. But we should also be looking beyond the obvious and ignoring the depictions of a western media – which like our own, offers only what it chooses to put out before viewers.
It is worth noting that, in Egypt for example, while a dictatorship has gone, fundamentalist groups attempted to prevent women in that country from celebrating International Women’s Day or gathering at Tahrir Square to do so.
Change can lead to events that are both positive and negative. This too is worth remembering.
A single line of focus is a dangerous thing. We seem, at this time, to have donned a set of big, thick blinkers. They prevent us from even looking back into our own past, at a time when we were not so occupied with ideas of religion, morality and the bigotry that is now fed to children almost from the time they are born.
The result is the creation of a kind of disabling hatred that leads people to consider those who follow other religions to be enemies, worthy of nothing other than death. The extent to which such views are expanding is in more ways than one, quite terrifying.
It is no longer easy to dam a river that flows forward fast and furiously. Yet, if we are to save ourselves, this is something we will have to learn to do.
The question to be asked is how this will happen. There are, of course, no instant answers. None are available given the complexity of the issues we face.
But the undoubted fact is, we need to keep pace with the world and continue the process of moving forward. We must look towards others – both to our east and to our west – and learn from what they are doing.
If we are not able to do so, there is a risk that we will be left behind while the rest of the world moves forward at an accelerating pace that prevents us from catching up.
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com
Source :
http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39054&Cat=9
What does the world think? Obama has been using air strikes and drones against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and probably Somalia. In his March 28 speech, Obama justified his air strikes against Libya on the grounds that the embattled ruler, Qaddafi, was using air strikes to put down a rebellion.
Qaddafi has been a black hat for as long as I can remember. If we believe the adage that “where there is smoke there is fire,” Qaddafi is probably not a nice fellow. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that the current US president and the predecessor Bush/Cheney regime have murdered many times more people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than Qaddafi has murdered in Libya.
Moreover, Qaddafi is putting down a rebellion against state authority as presently constituted, but Obama and Bush/Cheney initiated wars of aggression based entirely on lies and deception.
Yet Qaddafi is being demonised, and Bush/Cheney/Obama are sitting on their high horse draped in cloaks of morality. Obama described himself as saving Libyans from violence while Obama himself murders Afghans, Pakistanis, and whomever else.
Indeed, the Obama regime has been torturing a US soldier, Bradley Manning, for having a moral conscience. America has degenerated to the point where having a moral conscience is evidence of anti-Americanism and “terrorist activity.”
Washington, focused on its newest war, is oblivious to America’s peril. As Joseph Stiglitz, former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers notes, the costs of the Iraq war alone could have kept every foreclosed family in their home, provided health care for every American child, and wiped out the student loans of graduates who cannot find jobs because they have been outsourced to foreigners. However, the great democratic elected government of “the world’s only superpower” prefers to murder Muslims in order to enhance the profits of the military/security complex. More money is spent violating the constitutional rights of American air travellers than is spent in behalf of the needy.
The moral authority of the west is rapidly collapsing. When Russia, Asia, and South America look at Europe, Australia and Canada, they see American puppet states that contribute troops to the aggressive wars of the Empire. The French president, the British prime minister, the “president” of Georgia, and the rest are merely functionaries of the American Empire. The puppet rulers routinely sell out the interests and welfare of their peoples in behalf of American hegemony. And they are well rewarded for their service.
In his war against Libya, Obama has taken America one step further into Caesarism. Obama did Bush one step better and did not even bother to get congressional authorisation for his attack on Libya. Obama claimed that his moral authority trumped the US Constitution. The hypocrisy reeks. How the public stands it, I do not know:
The American president, whose drones and air force slaughter civilians every day of the year said Libya stands alone in presenting the world with “the prospect of violence on a horrific scale.” Obviously, Obama thinks that one million dead Iraqis, four million displaced Iraqis, and an unknown number of murdered Afghans is just a small thing.
The writer was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an assistant secretary of the US Treasury. Email: PaulCraigRoberts@ yahoo.com
Courtesy: www.counterpunch.org