| by Mahboob A. Khawaja
( November 4, 2012, London, Sri
Lanka Guardian) The Arabs, once pioneer of knowledge-based advanced
civilization lasting for 800 years - the longest period in human history, are
the victims of a delusional oil-pumping economic prosperity imported as marriage
of convenience forged between the tribal Arab rulers and the Western industrialized
world - more so, the USA and Britain. Throughout the 20th century
and well into the 21st century, the oil richness failed to deal with
emerging social, moral, intellectual and political problems. Instead with
militarization of the region, increasing bloodbaths depicts a havoc political
spectrum. Living without ROOTS and REASON. Islam enriched the Arabs to become
global leaders of a progressive civilization, but the oil enhanced prosperity transformed
them into ‘camel jockeys’ and object of hallow laughters after dinner jokes across
the Western culture. Money cannot buy wisdom, honor and human integrity. The
bogus “war on terrorism” could not have happened if the Arab leaders - the
front line bogyman of the US Empire had useful mind, intellectual capacity and
integrity to challenge the most irrational and cruel act in human history.
Under George Bush and continued with President Obama’s agenda, the oil
exporting Arab leaders became the submissive ‘yes man’ to offer logistic support to US planned aggression
against the innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Waziristan,
Northwest Pakistan. An estimated 3 million people were victimized in the Iraqi
genocide and millions more lost life and habitats in Afghanistan and now in
Pakistan.
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Throughout the oil exporting Arab world, the contemporary rulers have turned out to be complacent in the US –Israeli strategic plans for the future of the Middle East. Ironically, it is hard to imagine if the prosperous Arab rules occupying dusted palaces have any consciousness of the interest of the masses or the real world affairs in their own backyards.
The War on Terrorism was planned
by the US politicians long before the attacks of 9/11 in September 2001. Its
ultimate aims were to occupy and control the natural resources of the Muslim
world. The mindless oil producing Arab leaders were willing complacent in this wicked
strategic game for purely individual survival and nothing else. If the Arab
leaders had any knowledge, understanding and sense of responsibility of the
future and of the devastating short and long terms impacts of the bogus war,
they should have challenged the American policy or sought advice from Muslim
intellectuals and scholars to assess the crisis situation for reasonable
alternatives. There are many Western scholars and politicians who oppose the
Bush led warmongering against Islam and the Muslims and took moral and legal
steps to question the US administration.
"The invasion and
occupation of Iraq was and is illegal. The reasons given by the US and UK
governments for the invasion and occupation of Iraq in March 2003 have proven
to be false. Much evidence supports the conclusion that a major motive for the
war was to control and dominate the Middle East and its vast reserves of oil as
a part of the US drive for global hegemony… In pursuit of their agenda of
empire, the Bush and Blair governments blatantly ignored the massive opposition
to the war expressed by millions of people around the world. They embarked upon
one of the most unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history."
Francis Boyle
(“Bush, Blair Wanted for Crimes against Humanity”: ICH, October 21,
2012), an eminent international jurist and Professor of International Law,
University of Illinois, led the prosecution team in November 2011 at the Kuala
Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal. The Tribunal convicted Bush and Blair of crimes
against peace and humanity, and genocide over their roles in the Iraq war. Professor
Boyle said in a press interview that “We got them both convicted of a Nuremberg
crime against peace,” he added while referring to the US-led invasion of Iraq
in 2003 and the principles of international law recognized in the Charter of
the Nuremberg Tribunal. According to
Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal, planning, preparation, initiation or
waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties,
agreements or assurances are crimes “punishable” under international law. Professor
Boyle took note of the Israeli atrocities against the occupied Palestinian
population in Gaza and condemned the Israeli leaders for “inflicting outright
genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza,”
Throughout the oil exporting Arab world, the
contemporary rulers have turned out to be complacent in the US –Israeli strategic
plans for the future of the Middle East. Ironically, it is hard to imagine if
the prosperous Arab rules occupying dusted palaces have any consciousness of
the interest of the masses or the real world affairs in their own backyards.
Most rulers appear to be missing the essential human conscience – the hub of
Islamic characteristics of human beings to see the unfolding political and
economic realities on the ground. None of the leaders have ever come out to
represent the public conscience on the issue of Palestine and the establishment
of an independent homeland for the people of Palestine. With exception of
Egypt, the Arab world is devoid of critical THINKING, reasoning and proactive
leadership or leadership of any kind to make the presence felt in the global
political arena.
The world is changing but not fast enough for the authoritarian Arab rulers
- fattish fed by the oil revenues and stupid and mindless in thoughts and
behaviors if you view them in the real world of political actions and prevalent
deplorable atrocities imposed on the Arab people. The affluent and oil enriched
indulged in conspiracy to assume power and institutionalize corruption simply
to maintain few tribal powerhouses favored by the ex-colonial masters managing
the power centers from distance. They build sky high towers, mountain high
palaces and used 747 equipped with swimming pools while the people begged for
bread and butter and freedom to speak and be recognized as human beings. Now,
the Arab people have awakened after long slumber of complacency and disorder.
The problem was well defined centuries earlier by Shakespeare “the destiny of
peoples coincided with the destiny of their monarch and nobles.”
This week, the impacts of the SANDY super storm
and its resulting loss of human lives and vast destructions of the habitats
should have reminded the people in America, what it is like to be victims of
the US led wars in other lands. The destruction
in NY and New Jersey clearly resembled to war zones but it was caused by
natural disaster – a staunch warning to realist thinkers what can go wrong when
leaders and nations wage bogus wars against innocent people of the earth. An
honest self-reflection will help America to RETHINK of its futuristic policies
and practices and regain its vital role in global affairs. Michael Hampton asks
“Do American Approve Mass Murder” (Information Clearing House: 6/14/2012). When
humanity is transformed into statistic and is presented by the leading US
opinion polls - the hourly paid dehumanized propaganda industry, it does not
include the human aspects of the real story. Across the United States, common
folks lack the reality check. The NY Times reported (May 29, 2012) that
President Obama maintains a ‘kill list’ and personally reviews it to issue the
strike order, when and where. Hampton
notes that “The reality, widely reported worldwide but rarely in U.S. media, is
that all too often these strikes kill innocent civilians in addition to, or
even instead of, the intended targets.”
In some instances, the US drone attacks do hit the militants fighting
against the war on terror but overwhelmingly, the global consensus indicate
that these attacks are resulting in more reactionary animosity against the US
warmongers. Hampton offers a context to the civilian tragedies: “But by killing
the innocent, the strikes themselves are manufacturing more enemies. Haykal
Bafana, a lawyer in Yemen, writes on Twitter, “Dear Obama, when a US drone
missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed.
Nothing to do with Al Qaeda.
Do American public care about the on-going
massacres of civilians in other lands?
Hampton observes: “So we come full circle. Only a minority of people
show any concern over Obama’s killing of innocent people abroad in the name of
the war on terror (oops, we aren’t supposed to say that anymore). Perhaps the
people who approve of the drone strikes simply don’t know. Or perhaps, like
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), they don’t care. “I am not concerned,” he said.”
America is in a grip of crises, one after another
as legal and political repercussions of the continued wars against Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan. The war mentality has not changed under Obama’s
presidency and much intended political stunt “Yes We Can.” America is bankrupt
in moral, financial, political and intellectual domains. Over the centuries
what was evolved and built by its historical thinkers, philosophers and
political leaders, has been undermined and destroyed by George W. Bush and
Barrack Obama just in a decade.
Dirk Adriansens (“Crimes against Humanity: Iraq’s Mass Graves”, Global Research, October 23, 2012), points out how the US occupation forces planned and trained the Iraqi police to kidnap, torture and kill the civilians.
“US Occupation authorities: guilty. They created, trained and armed the
National Police and controlled the Ministry of Interior, responsible for death
squad policies.
Maliki government: guilty. They acted as local US stooges. They carried
out the US counterinsurgency strategy, protected the kidnappers and prevented
an investigation.
UN Human Rights Bodies: guilty
by negligence. They refused to nominate a special Human Rights rapporteur for
Iraq. They refused to investigate this crime against humanity.”
Michael Hampton (“Do American Approve Mass Murder”)
strikes a logical warning:
“Let’s be perfectly clear. Killing an innocent
person is wrong, whether you’re the lowest criminal or the highest .. excuse
me, president of the United States. What should worry you even more than that,
though, is that in a few years, those drones and their missiles are coming
home, and they will be used here in the U.S. against Americans. Police chiefs
all over the country are drooling at the prospect of getting hold of their own
drones — to be used only for aerial surveillance, of course, and not to kill
people by remote control. At least not right away. That part comes later, after
you all are accustomed to seeing the things flying around.”
How should the global community view the
contemporary Arab societies living under obsessed conspiracies of power and
corruption of tribal authoritarianism for over half a century? They are a
failure on all the major frontlines of global affairs. What happened to their
Islamic culture, values and glorious civilization? Was the petrodollar a
conspiracy (“fitna”) to disconnect the Arab people with the Islamic
civilization? Ironically, how the few
tribal leaders could have managed the time and history on their own unless large
segments of the masses were complacent in making the tragedy? The contemporary global affairs warrant
intelligent and competent leadership not kings, not military dictators or fatty
and dull prince occupying splendid palaces away from the people. Leaders manage
the crisis when facts of life warrant change and adaptability to the future.
Often crisis unity people of reason but not the Arab rulers. They are
comparable to the role of hypocrites when the Prophet of Islam went to
encounter the idolaters- the enemies of Islam. Notwithstanding the requisites
of reason and honesty, many Arab rulers are collaborating with the US-Israel
warmongering against Iran. Time will tell how some of the Arab leaders deserve
the wrath of God for supporting the global warlords. There are no Arab public
institutions of THINKING and no leaders to lead except individualistic
absolutism performing at the theatre of absurdity. One wonders, why the earth
never felt any weight of the oil pumping Arab rulers.
In view of the unstoppable cycle of political
killings and daily bloodbaths in so many Arab states - Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain and spill-over
to other oil producing Arab nations - and reactionary militancy against the
authoritarian rule and dismantling of the socio-economic infrastructures - is the Arab world coming to its own end
because of the sadistic dictators? The
Arab rulers and the masses live and breathe in conflicting time zones being
unable to see the rationality of people-oriented Islamic governance, the worst
is yet to come, surrender to foreign forces as there are no leaders to think of
the future or the Arab armies to defend the people. Are the foreign dictated
rulers and their armies - the bloody killers - the only task they are
accustomed to do? Borrowed weapons and corrupt and failed rulers do not extend
moral or intellectual security. The question is how to decode treachery, greed,
incompetence and dead conscience to tell the world - the real story of the Arab
ruler’s self-inflicted defeat and decline.
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global
security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in
Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of
several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management:
Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany-May,
2012)
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