2004: One Year Closer to Nineteen Eighty-four

mohar11,

Heheh, thank you for showing us that the Americans are indeed thinking like the Terrorists. Well done.

//..Moreover, we need to realize the reality that 9/11 was not without provocation. Decades of intervention..//

you are right - ``decades of intervention`` has led to 9/11. Muslims just had to take the revenge for ``decades of intervention`` and humiliation - it was due.

So now that muslims have extracted their revenge in form of two buildings and 3000+ lives - what should US do? Sit on its hunches and lick its wounds like an impotent buffoon .... or take a counter revenge?

My guess would be - the counter revenge. So there you have it. Iraq, Afganistan is part of the counter revenge. Now then why are you blaming Uncle Sam for taking the revenge which was due? Why are you crying if pakis are deported or searched/profiled at airports?

There are many other ways to confront the 800 pound guerrilla for his ``decades of intervention``. But use of violence against him is NOT one of them. And yet that`s what you muslims did. Well - now there is only one outcome - you get crushed. Crying mummy now won`t help.

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Arjun,

Let me guess...youre a Dubya cocaine-weed-booze republican...that explains your delusions...


soundmeister,

Actually, what`s worse than a boring commie is a capitalist functionary...peon on!

I think US government has every right to impose any law - that may also imfringes on civil liberties - in a war like situation. The only dilemma that Muslims are facing is that they are still not willing to accept that they are also in a warlike situation - a war that has been imposed on them. Sooner they understand this the better. As far as white American population is concerned, I think it is their own prerogative whether they want to understand or not why the principles and system of values of human rights and civil liberties, that they have been so proud of, collapsed like a house of cards, when it faced its first real test. In either case Muslims are in a different boat than them.

What we need is a thoroughfare rise of a strong Left which challenges the options we have today between the Right Wing and the Lesser Right Wing. The Market that represents democracy is also the basic cause of all the ills.

Is Democracy nothing without Capitalism.....

This statement might be true of the US/West`s version of democracy but Venezuela shows that their is an Anti Capitalist Face of Democracy which sprouts from the Roots of a nation. A humane Governmental system that actually focuses on the enrichment of the masses. This requires strong leadership.....

Nina...A well thought out article.

#11 Lt Rathore....Well said...

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Every country has there intrests and most of them do whats best in there national intrest and if its USA , they do what is best for them in long term when if they have to invade Mars . Either its for oil or for stategic reasons Iraq is the best place where US troops should be deployed especially when some of the Saudi family are getting critical of US presence in KSA , so what better then Iraq ? Iraq borders Iran aswell . So where did the Isrealis come from ? Isreal`s best intrest is to install socialist and moderate regimes in close by countries which is been done for them by US , Jordan is one of the examples.

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Sound observation of the day-
The only thing worse than a commie is a boring commie.

Whats also ironic is that few US cheerleaders have a problem with the mo: the ends justify the means...in the mouths of capitalists, its the sound of golden fleece...

Nima,

Well done.

Re:nimashirali#16

The real problem that I have with your article is this tendency to blame US for every problem on this planet. This has become very fashionable and chic, especially in Europe and Pakistan. Let`s look at the facts. In the entire nineties, the US played a reasonably honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians and nearly hammered out a fairly equitable deal. Yasser Arafat decided to walk away from it all and launch his mindless intifada, which is the cause of so much Palestinian suffering. If he had accepted the solution with some minor adjustments, Palestinians would have been all set today.

As far as Iraq is concerned, it is true that US supported Saddam earlier, but it was as a means to contain the Iranian revolution, which was yet another gem of a contribution from the Islamic world. Iranians today are realizing how ridiculous that revolution was but are unable to free themselves from the mullahs. Then Saddam decided to go ballistic and invade his other neighbor for no apparent reason besides megalomania. If that resulted in economic sanctions, is it the fault of the US or the fault of the Iraqi regime?

I am not saying that the US foreign policy has been harmless. Far from it. The US behaves in its own rational self-interest like any other nation and it does make mistakes like its support for the Afghan mujahideen in the eighties. The problem is the effort to demonize the US foreign policy as if it is an evil conspiracy against the Islamic world. That is a bogus argument which enables the Islamic world from avoding responsibility for its own actions. The real focus has to be on why the vast millions of good, moderate muslims all over the planet are not raising their collective voice and taking action against Islamic fundamentalism, dictatorships and other evils in their societies instead of searching for scapegoats all the time.

The entire balance of US foreign policy does not provide any justification for murdering 3000 civilians on 9/11. I can never accept any kind of justification for that because it was a pre-meditated, pure act of evil with the sole purpose of somehow defeating western civilization and creating an opportunity for Islamic fundamentalism to spread its fascist wings. Thankfully the US is not like Russia and it hits back hard.

Nima:

There are two sides of each coin. You have very eloquently advocated the case from one side of the coin. Many of the tings you said are undeniable and the conclusions drwan thereof have merits. The other side of the coin is intellectually equally impresssivee. A person can draw just the opposite conclusions from the other side of the coin, based on equally solid facts and figures.

For every Cuba, North Korea and Iraq, there are examples of the nations who have greatly benfited from USA. The US share of world economy has been constantly declining since WWII and all what you have mentioned about geopolitics of USA since WWII has not helped USA economically. For example what have USA gotten from poring billions into Egypt (alongwith Israel) since the Camp David accord in 1973? I suggest you to look at the economy of Egypt since 1973. It has grown 8-fold since then. In a way, Iraq is a price paid for Egypt although I understand that reasons have nothing to do with recovering some of the billions poured into Egypt as aid.

Jordan is another example with no oil, almost no tourism, exports or anything. So US helped develop a service sector economy.

Most of the foreign exchange reserves of China, India, Taiwan, and other Asian tigers are the result of business relationships with the USA. Almost all the faculty members of Pakistani universities have gotten their higher education in the USA and most of it for free like myself.

In Africa, USA quietly and systematically helped remove apartheid from south Africa through embargoes.

Despite all the prpaganda, US economy is 85 percent internal. Therefore, most of the income generated by US corporations come from within USA followed by industrialized nations of mostly Western Europe. Today, Japanese car, Toyota is the best selling car in the USA.

US does play politics internationally which is not liked by many in the world but US is seldom responsible for the povery of nations. Take Malaysia for example under Mahathir Mohammaed. He was very vocal critic of USA yet US chip makers prefered to invest money in Malaysia and many components of PC are manufactured in Malaysia. Nike is today the second biggest source of foreign exchange after rice in Veitnam. All Philippine economy is dependent on US companies, except local San Miguel beer company.

In Pakistan, US companies have almost monopoly on medicine market. A cough syrup costing 5 dollars by the same manufacturer in Pakistan sells for 20 rupees (33 cents). They make money by selling it for 5 dollars than selling for 33 cents. The combined income of all US pharmaceutical companies from Pakistan is less than 100 million dollars. Lever Brothers of Netherlands have been the biggest company in Pakistan in homecare products. They could have easily make a killing by setting up prices of their choice for all their products since competition could not meet the demand of all Pakistanis. Actually foreign companies are much less involved in price gouging and tax evasion than Pakistani companies.

No super power has ever been angelic towards the rest in the history of the world. So why much more is expected from USA than the trend of world history? Actually USA has been one of least harmful super power in world histoy. I also disagee with US policies towards Palestine but I also understand that Palestine is not the world; it is about 5-6 million people from the world population of more than 6 billions (one tenth of one percent). Palestine is not the biggest concern for US but it is for Muslims and Arabs in particular.

Did US play any role in the most recent holocaust in Rwanda-Burundi? How did US respond? What did US got from Somalia except dead bodies of their soldiers for ending famine and restoring some sense of peace? Afghanistan is not a heaven of justice, prosperity and democracy but it never was. At least now women can get medical attention, education and Kabul has running water and electricity. Should we not thankful to USA for it, in addition to stabilizing Pakistani economy so that every Pakistani tom, dick and harry can claim to be responsible for recovery?

Just imagine if instead of USA, Russia was the sole super power? First of all they would have never let go of so much central Asian land to Muslims. Now there are 5 new Muslim countries in the region and each one is bigger than Palestine. Did USA play any role in bringing USSR down and letting 50 million or more Muslims have independent nations?

How can I forget that President Clinton refused to shake hand with Pakistani military dictator Musharraf on the basis of principles while Supreme Court of Pakistan rubber stamped his anti-constitutional act(s)? Shouldn`t I have more respect for Clinton than idiots like Irshad Ahmed Khan (then CJSC Pakistan) and Musuharraf? I do!!

rahul_capri,

Well yeah, altruism and a bit of selflessness may well do the trick. People are just too retarded to think otherwise....so I beg to differ, the alternatives are what appeal to the people with intellects of 7-14 year olds. And they tend to dominate...go figure.

nima,

How do we discredit the followers of an ideology that deem the deaths of 300,000+ people as necessary,or acceptable, or at the very least ignorable in the name of said ideology? The numbers don`t matter, it`s the cause. How do we reason with this kind of mindset? If I remember correctly, in Orwell`s 1984 he pretty much opines that you can`t...there`s no sanity in the masses.

This is Nima Shirali, author of the article. Before asserting my response to some of the written comments, I must mention two preliminary points. First, my gender is male. Secondly, I am not Muslim, as one commentator apparently thought.

For those who believe I`m an advocate and supporter of Islamic fundamentalism, I advise a quick look at my other work, especially the article entitled ``The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Question of Palestinian Statehood`` (www.merecforum.org). As a victim of Islamic fundamentalism, I have exhausted all my abilities so far to undermine this violent ideology that has justified many vicious acts against humanity. This article was meant to deal with another issue and Islamic fundamentalism was not the topic. Hence, criticizing the work by saying ``the writer failed to speak of fundamentalism`` is parallel to criticizing a mathematics book for not containing chemistry.

Moreover, we need to realize the reality that 9/11 was not without provocation. Decades of intervention in other nations` affairs (i.e. the CIA overthrow of Dr. Mossadegh`s government in Iran--a democratically elected government that nationalized oil, support for dictators like [ironically] Saddam Hussein, etc) have caused inexplicable resentment towards the US. Some of you sound as if you may be concerned about the Third World. If you are, you need to become cognizant of the effects that US-implemented economic sanctions have had in places like Iran, Cuba, and (formerly) Iraq. The UN has estimated that between 300,000-500,000 children under the age of five died as a result of the twelve years of US-backed sanctions.

This is not about being ``left`` or ``right`` wing. It is about considering the facts and making logical conclusions that are not based on CNN news reports. Years of being in war as a child and of living in the impoverished Third World have had their effects on my views. Now, I feel a moral obligation to challenge the oppressors, defend the weak, and speak independently.

The objections of those who defend war, oppression, violence, and killing innocent Iraqi children only serve to strengthen my conviction.