Return-Path: <sentto-279987-2957-1003156016-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 15 Oct 2001 07:28:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 5944 invoked by uid 510); 15 Oct 2001 14:26:40 -0000 Received: from n22.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.72) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 15 Oct 2001 14:26:40 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-2957-1003156016-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.1.224] by n22.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 15 Oct 2001 14:26:56 -0000 X-Sender: Ross.Leo@csoconline.com X-Apparently-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 15 Oct 2001 14:26:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 97706 invoked from network); 15 Oct 2001 14:26:55 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by 10.1.1.224 with QMQP; 15 Oct 2001 14:26:55 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO csoc-fire1.csoconline.com) (140.169.2.142) by mta2 with SMTP; 15 Oct 2001 14:26:55 -0000 Received: from csoc-mail-imc.csoconline.com by csoc-fire1.csoconline.com via smtpd (for mta1.onelist.com [208.48.218.7]) with SMTP; 15 Oct 2001 14:26:55 UT Received: by csoc-mail-imc.csoconline.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) id <4614RZL9>; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 09:26:36 -0500 Message-ID: <72222DC86846D411ABD300A0C9EB08A1079C2FCE@csoc-mail-box.csoconline.com> To: "'iwar@yahoogroups.com'" <iwar@yahoogroups.com> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) From: "Leo, Ross" <Ross.Leo@csoconline.com> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 09:26:56 -0500 Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [iwar] Clash of interests Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit More proof that the perfect vision granted by hindsight is a marvellous thing. No government that ever existed kept the majority of its promises, and the governments of the Middle East are no exception. Every one of them has always claimed that it operated in the best interests of its people, when in fact it had to balance such needs with other interests. Theocracies have just as bad a record as any other form with the exception of the Soviet Government that followed the 1917 Russian Civil War. It is because they have all been run by humans that are run by their passions and fears. Theocracies are worse only in that they use the "divine inspiration" or "divine edict" as their excuse, claiming to know the mind and desires of God, and using that as cover for whatever acts, no matter how atrocious, they might commit. The pagan Romans did it, the new world Indians did it, the ancient Egyptians did it, the Christians have done it, the Muslims have done it. Some still do it today. There is no end of examples, and all are guilty. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". This kind of hypocrisy only serves he who proffers it. So when does the finger pointing end? Ross Leo "An eye-for-an-eye only leads to more blindness" - Margaret Atwood -----Original Message----- From: Ozair Rasheed [mailto:ozair_rasheed@geocities.com] Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 21:18 To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] Clash of interests http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag1.htm Clash of interests By S.A. ABIDI American interest has always remained poles apart from world interest. It is high time Washington took a cue from history. How many times the presidents of the United States of America have vowed to protect American interests the world over with the resolve of 'whatever it might take'? Was it not in 1853 when Japan, living peacefully and wishing to be left alone, was forced by the American gun-boats to open up its trade to satisfy American interests? When they obeyed, and bought the new technology and developed it for a century, it turned out to be too much for American comfort! The same American interest required the destruction of two industrial cities of this defeated nation, killing a large number of innocent civilians, as America tested a newly developed weapon of mass destruction. As soon as America mass-produced Automobile, the entire oil reserve of the Middle East turned into an American interest and still remains so, with the addition of Central Asian reserves and the access route to them through Afghanistan. Manipulating oil purchases for a pittance, America grew filthy rich and contrived a proxy state to terrorize the people of the oil-yielding area to keep the oil prices low. When the excessive use of cheap oil threatened life on earth and the mankind screamed, the incumbent president of the largest polluter nation found in his great wisdom that it would not be in the American interest to spend money on reducing the undesirable emissions. It proposed an International Criminal Court, but wanted to be excluded from its jurisdiction ostensibly for being a super-power assuming the policing role, but actually claiming license to use all devices outside the pale of law in self- interest. It is the political and democratic norm for every presidential candidate to promise greater riches to the already prosperous American citizens endlessly, with no concern for the rest of the world. It may be satisfying to feast over the resources of the world in the short term, but over-consumption by itself is not a sustainable activity. In the scheme of nature, the Law of Natural Selection does not favour overgrown organizms. When the crunch came on food supplies, the dinosaur was the first to become extinct while the smaller animals lived on. In the realm of human society also, we find that the State is a self- limiting system in terms of its size and magnitude of power. Super- power may be a new name but an old phenomenon. History has witnessed such unchallenged powers as the Roman Empire and the Arab Empire collapsing under their own weight, not being able to keep the state apparatus integrated and operational due to their enormous sizes and complex needs. The USSR was the latest causality, which has left behind the rival USA on the anvil of history, to be hammered and reshaped into a more acceptable member for the world community. Call it natural justice or the process of cause and effect, strange things happen to super-powers. The leadership become complacent and arrogant, losing touch with the pains of those who suffer at their hands. The citizens getting used to secure and easy living tend to become indolent, pleasure-loving and negligent towards serious aspects of life. The individual, who is the brick that build the edifice of society, thus deteriorates in quality. No wonder the half-wild soldiers fighting for Hannibal found the well-drilled Romans soft and frightened in the battlefield, and Changez Khan's barbarians saw the famous Persian and Chinese armies run away along with their emperors after giving a brief fight. The contemporary scene seems to be not too different, and shows the quality of individual in poor light. The myth of the great Russian Army and its state-of- the-art weapons exploded in Afghanistan as did the mighty American forces in Vietnam. The incidents of American helicopters hitting against their own troop carrier in the desert of Iran; their planes shooting at their own forces and the Navy destroying a civilian passenger plane during the Gulf War; the greatest intelligence and surveillance network in the world not knowing what was happening under its own nose a few weeks ago, are all indications, if not the proof, of the malaise their society suffers from. The great American industrial juggernaut also finds its own human product deficient and unable to run without the contribution of the vibrant intellect imported from the so-called backward countries. Terrorism, like super-power, is also a new name for an old phenomenon. The Vikings, the Vandals, the Huns and the Mongol herds terrorized the civilized world for excluding them from the march of progress. The fact that they dissolved themselves in the vanquished societies after breaking through the closed doors, is proof that their aim was not to impose their beliefs on others or to hate the way of life of the rest, but to join them as equals. Terrorism, therefore, is not a disease, but a symptom, although painful and undesirable for the victim as well as the perpetrator. Centuries ago, when leaders of terrorist clans could not be bought and compatible weapons were available to all, it took pitched battles to settle the issue. In the modern context, however, the covert acts of the super-powers to deprive others, and to overwhelm them by their superior power, leave no option for their humiliated victims, but to sneak and strike at their oppressor to make them think, if not to obey. Let us think and conjure up a scenario that the US fears most, to find how bad it could be: it has withdrawn its arms supplies, diplomatic and financial support from Israel. The under-developed world is helped to develop without any covert intervention in pursuit of American interest. People have been able to establish democracy in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states following the withdrawal of US forces and the removal of threat from Israel. If the above does happen, the fallout of the transformation may no doubt be colossal the world over, but will it be universally disastrous or intrinsically benign for humanity? If the American ideals are as good for the rest of the world as they are for themselves, it should be latter rather than the former. Among other things, Israel will start listening to the UN and the world opinion. Millions of Arabs and Jews will live in peace and dignity by compromising on their respective claims. The Arabs and Latin Americans will decide to raise the oil prices by curtailing production, and other producers will join in. The lot of the poor in oil-producing countries will improve, and they will not be forced to cut down forests to make a living. Their proud youth will be occupied with nation-building instead of taking out heat on others.On the other side, the American economy will get a jolt the like of which it has never experienced before. There will be huge job losses, enormous fall in the family income, and sharp drop in federal revenues. The American and, indeed, world stock markets will plummet down to rock bottom. But will it be an unmitigated disaster as we are conditioned to think of ways to re-adjust economies and re-structure societies? Life will still be possible, if some families have one car, one TV, one stereo and one PC instead of two or three of each. The chimneys of some of the factories manufacturing luxury goods will go smokeless and there will be fewer cars on the road, but it will give an impetus to the development of Renewable Energy, and, thus, Carbon dioxide emissions will reduce, saving the world from the disastrous global warming. And, if all this happens, one of the parents will stay at home and the other will have less time and money to flaunt looking for new partners. The endangered nuclear family will, thus, be rescued with reduced divorce rate. The children will get the much-needed warmth of parental attention, which nourishes valuable human capital instead of the delinquent hordes of drug addicts and criminals roaming the streets of America now. Savings from the reduced demand of drugs and law-enforcement expenditure will make up for other losses not counting the benefits of raising happier and more productive citizens. The consumer, who is encouraged to purchase more and be wasteful in order to boost the economy, will have less to spend and the industry will no doubt suffer temporarily. But it will result in conserv- ing the natural resources of the world which are depleting at a dangerous rate to meet the exploding market demand of luxury goods. Protecting nature will pay greater dividends to the Americans and the rest of the world in the longer term as compared to the year-ending bottom line of its monstrous corporations. The hypothetical scenario may not offer a complete recipe for success, but hopefully some food for thought for America which finds virtue in maximization of wealth and pleasures within its closed system. It is time America recalled the simple values and higher thinking of the Pilgrim Fathers, and considers opting for a paradigm shift by including the world in application of its own value system. The world has further shrunken from a village to a family, making it impossible for one member of the family to prosper at the expense of the other. America still has the potential to lead the world on a nobler path with the moral strength of finding the world interest in the American interest. ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE VeriSign guide to security solutions for your web site: encrypting transactions, securing intranets, and more! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UnN2wB/m5_CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 20:59:55 PST