-Caveat Lector- Print this article | Close this window Ironic if Bush himself causes jihad http://www.smh.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl? path=/articles/2002/09/09/1031115997448.html September 10 2002
On September 5 and 6 the United States State Department held a high-powered conference on anti- Americanism, an unusual step indicating the depth of US concern about this increasingly globalised phenomenon. Anti-Americanism can be mere shallow name-calling. A recent article in Britain's Guardian newspaper described Americans as having "a bug up their collective arse the size of Manhattan", and suggested that "'American' is a type of personality which is intense, humourless, partial to psychobabble and utterly convinced of its own importance". More seriously, anti-Americanism can be contradictory: when the US failed to intervene in Bosnia, that was considered wrong, but when it did subsequently intervene in Kosovo, that was wrong, too. Anti-Americanism can be hypocritical: wearing blue jeans or Donna Karan, eating fast food or Alice Waters-style cuisine, their heads full of American music, movies, poetry and literature, the apparatchiks of the international cultural commissariat decry the baleful influence of the American culture that nobody is forcing them to consume. It can be misguided: the logical implication of the Western-liberal opposition to America's Afghan war is that it would be better if the Taliban were still in power. And it can be ugly: the post- September 11 crowing of the serves-you-right brigade was certainly that. However, during the past year, the Bush Administration has made a string of foreign policy miscalculations and the State Department conference must acknowledge this. After the brief flirtation with consensus-building during the Afghan operation, the brazen return to unilateralism has angered even its natural allies. In the year's major crisis zones, the Bushies have been getting things badly wrong. A Security Council source says the reason for the lamentable inaction of the UN during the recent Kashmir crisis was that the US (with Russian backing) blocked all attempts by member states to mandate the UN to act. But if the UN is not to be allowed to intervene in a bitter dispute between two member states, both nuclear powers of growing political volatility, in an attempt to defuse the danger of nuclear war, then what on earth is it for? Many observers of the problems of the region will also be wondering how long Pakistani- backed terrorism in Kashmir will be winked at by the US because of Pakistan's support for the "war against terrorism" on its other frontier. And as the Pakistani dictator, Pervez Musharraf, seizes more and more power and does more and more damage to his country's constitution, the US Government's decision to go on hailing him as a champion of democracy does more damage to America's already shredded regional credibility. Nor is Kashmir the only South Asian grievance. The massacres in the Indian state of Gujarat, mostly of Indian Muslims by fundamentalist Hindu mobs, have been shown to be the result of planned attacks led by Hindu political organisations. But in spite of testimony presented to a congressional commission, the Administration has done nothing to investigate US-based organisations funding these groups, such as the World Hindu Council. Just as Irish-American fundraisers once bankrolled the terrorists of the Provisional IRA, so, now, shadowy bodies across the US are helping to pay for mass murder in India while the US Government turns a blind eye. Again, the supposedly high-principled rhetoric of the "war against terrorism" is being made to look like a smokescreen for a highly selective pursuit of US vendettas. Apparently Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are terrorists who matter; Hindu fanatics and Kashmiri killers aren't. This double standard makes enemies. In the heat of the dispute over Iraq strategy, South Asia has now become a sideshow. And it is in Iraq that George Bush may be about to make his biggest mistake and to unleash a generation-long plague of anti- Americanism that may make the present epidemic look like a time of rude good health. Inevitably, the reasons lie in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like it or not, much of the world thinks of Israel as the 51st state, America's client and surrogate, and Bush's obvious rapport with Ariel Sharon does nothing to change the world's mind. Of course the suicide bombings are vile but, until the US persuades Israel to make a lasting settlement with the Palestinians, anti-US feeling will continue to rise; and if, in today's highly charged atmosphere, the US embarks on the huge, risky military operation suggested by the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, then the result may well be the creation of that united Islamic force which was bin Laden's dream. Saudi Arabia would almost certainly feel obliged to expel US forces from its soil (thus capitulating to one of bin Laden's main demands). Iran - which recently fought a long, brutal war against Iraq - would surely support its erstwhile enemy and may even come into the conflict on the Iraqi side. The entire Arab world would be radicalised and destabilised. What a disastrous twist of fate it would be if the feared Islamic jihad were brought into being not by the al-Qaeda gang but by the President of the US and his close advisers. Do those advisers include Colin Powell, who clearly prefers diplomacy to war? Or is the State Department's foregrounding of the issue of anti-Americanism a means of providing hard evidence to support the Powell line and undermine the positions of the hawks to whom Bush listens most closely? It seems possible. Paradoxically, a sober look at the case against America may serve US interests better than the patriotic "let's roll" arguments that are being trumpeted on every side. Salman Rushdie is the author of more than a dozen books, including Fury and the essay collection Step Across This Line. This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/09/1031115997448.html <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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