Hypocrisy Big

The lead-in to the article asks: ``Is America an Empire? Is the Pope Catholic?``

The real question is: ``Is Haroon Moghul? Really?``

Re: Haroon Moghul

The United States of America is an empire; it has all the attributes of an empire. The Pax Americana started to emerge as a natural consequence of the the vacuum created, in the global balance of power by the First World War, and had matured into its early manifestions by time the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919.

The real imperuim of the United States started in the post-1945 international environment and the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1992, established the United States as the most technologically advanced economic/military power with an influence greater than the Roman Empire.

In this sense, Jay`s observations about the intent of the American power are apt, because this American imperial age is based on the notions of an economic power capable of projecting the political interests of the United States to safe guard its enegry sources, upon which that economic power is predicated. Technology and economics are the twin pillars of this new imperial age and any challenge to these founditions of the American will be resisted. Whether America has the capacity to ``pasturalize`` Iraq and Pakistan is another debate, because in the interational system, which is based on the idea of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), multilateralism is more in vogue than unilateralism. For the United States to embark on a policy affectation, as Jay suggests, would depend on how the rest of the world reacts to American unilateralism.

Iraq was a test case and the limits of that unilateralism was that the United States had to cover its actions under the cloak of the United Nations; a sanction of consensus based on a multilateral approach towards solving international problems.

Since 1898 and the American invasion of Cuba and the American interests in the slicing the western hemisphere via the Panama Canal (1900), the United States has always been an imperial power. In fact, Rudyard Kipling`s ``White Man` Burden`` was written as an ode to the American quest for an imperial glory.

The arguments that the United States is behaving like an imperial power are outdated; people have only now accepted the reality.

Ciao

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Hear hear!

I dont agree with those Chowkies who say that non South Asian matters are not a matter of concern on Chowk. The impending war on Iraq and concurrent ``war on terrorism`` is cause for deep concern esp. in light of our Constitution and the UN being wasted in dilletante politics.

Of course, as I type this, I am aware that John Poindexter is probably accessing this page right now, Haroon, with his big electronic tracing system...Hello Mr. Poindexter! Why dont you do something more constructive with your time like looking into Ken Lay`s files, rather than harrassing a bunch of Iraqi citizens in the US, hmm?

Also, are you aware of the student movement at Columbia that is calling for the university`s divestment from Israel? If so, can you let us know what that`s about?

Haroon,

Another poor soul unable to understand the working of human mind. People operate under a domain called bounded rationality. They have no capability nor time to understand the complex rational positions, they operate under some thumb rules. Killings in bali, kashmir, 9/11, yemen, ahghanistan, philippines, yes the rule is set, it is islamic terrorism. That is bounded rationality, supported by the notion of jihad from the book.

Next is the economics of terror/jihad. jihad is a leasure activity for the rich, when one is struggling for food, there is no money to support jihad. It is the rich, the middle class that are the root cause of jihadic killings. 9/11 can only be supported by saudi, not by poor yemenis. osama has to be a suadi, not a ppor pakistani. So the essence of attack on iraq is to dispocess the muslims of another sounrce of wealth.

Next is the technology. Iraq and pakistan are the only two muslim countries with some sembelce of technological capability. Pakistan is already a US colony, the capabilities will be stripped slowly. Focus will change to agriculture and the military infrastructure of pakistan will quickly vanish. That leaves only Iraq and has to be catrated to contain terrorism.

It is all so simple, but through green tinted glass, hard to decipher.