Cross Talk
From Kilroy to killjoy
Thanks to Rudy Giuliani, ex-Mayor of New York, because what he has recently said about Iran brought back memories. He said that if he were to become the next president of the United States, he would attack Iran if it were to produce the nuclear weapon.
What he said between two subjunctives reminded me of the neighborhood lunatic. The children chased him on the streets, pulled his matted hairs and tattered clothes, often poked him with a stick or threw him brickbats. They loved it whenever the madman turned around to give them a scowl or screamed and hurled flurries of foul words. Every provocation drew a reaction from him. Giuliani has done no less.
But he isn't alone in this reaction. George Bush has already said that should Iran have the nuclear weapon, it would result in "World War III." US vice-president Dick Cheney has used even tougher words, threatening that Iran was to face grave consequences if it progressed on its nuclear program. It now appears that the United States wants to attack every country, which doesn't take US wish as its command.
If Bashar Al Assad, Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and now Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been provoking the United States, the question is whether it should retaliate by going to war against each one of them? If we seriously look into history, only time the United States won a war was when it had unwillingly entered World War II. It was a victory of good against evil and the United States had a huge moral advantage, even after it dropped the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Instead of being reviled for its atrocities, it was recognised as the leader of the free world.
Ever since then, the leaders of the United States may care to check, the giant power may have won a few battles, but lost many wars. The image of the last helicopter lifting off the roof of the US embassy in Saigon still evokes memories of the conclusive defeat, which the world's most sophisticated army had suffered in the hands of a bunch of ragtag guerillas.
It may turn out that the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan will have a similar fate. The United States will eventually withdraw its forces, because in war and sex there is a time after which it starts hurting both sides.
The United States, which ruled the world ruled because it had conquered the hearts and minds. It gave shelter to the immigrants who had fled their countries to escape fear and starvation. Then it was music, movies, literature, fashion, soft drinks, scientific inventions, intellectual and academic leadership, foreign aid, the Peace Corpse, which appealed to the people of the developing countries, who were living in poverty, ignorance, oppression and chaos.
Rudy Giuliani knows all of that, because it happened in his lifetime. It was the time when the United States embodied the image of a dream and inspired millions across the world. Not a tank rolled, not a bullet fired since Kilroy, the legendary super-GI from the United States was seen everywhere defeating the enemies in occupied Europe.
During the Cold War against Communism, it was the promise of the American Dream, the liberated market force, freedom of choice and democracy, which were more attractive than the stifling regimentation of the communist dictate.
Once an emblem of freedom, the United States now stands for an icon of interference. In so much as one would like to regret 9/11, one would also like to regret the American response. The invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the contrived execution of Saddam Hussain and his cronies, the endless confrontation with Al Qaeda, the meddling in Pakistan, even if one would like to ignore the CIA-led coups and assassinations in Asia, Africa and the Latin America, the atrocities in Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, are enough to vouch for the American transformation.
There was a time when the United States was the harbinger of hope. Now it breeds contempt and despair. Kilroy has shuffled and emerged as a killjoy for most of the world.
This transformation also coincides with what looks like the American decline. In the last World Economic Forum, America's position slipped from 1st to 7th as an economic power. In Business Week's ranking of the world's information-technology companies, only one of the top 10 is based in the United States. No new petroleum refineries have been built and no new nuclear power plants have been ordered in the past 30 years.
China is on track to build 108 new airports between 2005 and 2010, including the world's largest. The United States, in spite of stifling congestion, has built only one major airport in the last third of a century. The Los Angeles Times reports that in the past 16 years two high-rise buildings were constructed in Los Angeles as the city executed its accelerated urban-renewal plan. In the past 10 years, 5,000 were built in Shanghai.
The United States ranks 16th in broadband Internet access and 61st in the use of mobile telephony per capita. South Korea has nearly twice the broadband penetration of the United States. The United States ranks 17th among nations in high-school graduation rate and 14th in college graduation rate. Foreigners finance about two-thirds of US domestic investment, compared with about one-fifteenth a decade ago.
Still the United States behaves like an aristocrat whose fortune is dwindling. It likes to throw its tantrums and demand obeisance, keeping elephants in the elephant pen, horses in the stable and dancing girls in the music room, while unfazed in conceit that anyone, who fails to show respect, should be punished.
Nobody wants to defend Iran, but the United States must learn that it can't fool all the people all the time. It is still stewing in its own juice in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is costing US$720 million per day.
According to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard Public Finance lecturer Linda J. Bilmes, this money could buy homes for 6,500 families, healthcare for 423,529 children and outfit 1.27 million houses with renewable electricity everyday. While the situation in Pakistan is boiling, how is the United States is going to lift the burden of a war against Iran?
It may be that the United States in its arrogance for power has lost touch with reality. The world has changed since the battle of Iwo Jima, the fiercest and costliest of all battles in World War II or of any battle in any war ever fought by the Americans. At that time, the United States was fighting against a vicious enemy. Now it has become a vicious enemy itself and others are fighting it in defiance. Today it's Iran, tomorrow who knows many others might stand in queue.
Charles Darwin observed that "it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Be it Giuliani, Bush or Cheney, every time the United States is provoked, it reacts with threat of war. Madness is when the mind stagnates, because the stream of thoughts only reacts but not responds to change.
Going at this rate, the day may not be far when an increasing number of nations will make fun of the madman of the world.
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments