| by Mahboob A. Khawaja
US Flawed War Strategy at Work
( October 6, 2014, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) After failure of the bogus War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, America has embarked on a new war to support the war economy, re-enact failed global leadership imagery and destroy the entire Arab region to define unilaterally the fate of the people of Palestine. The Arab coalition leaders supporting the US war efforts to bomb ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria have no sense of reality and lack popular backing in their homeland. The authoritarian Arab leaders live in palaces, not with people to understand the outcomes of their political folly. Ironically, the US air strikes and killings of the civilians will instigate reactionary opposition and increased insurgency to topple the puppet regimes. Daveed Gartenstein-Rosss writing in Foreign Policy (“Thank you for Bombing-Obama- Why al Qaeda might be the biggest winner of America's airstrikes on the Islamic State.” 9/24/2014), argues that President Obama is using wrong strategy to attack ISIL: ‘But an emphasis on degrading and destroying IS while giving a pass to other jihadist groups in Syria could have serious consequences that could leave al Qaeda in the catbird seat.’ America enjoys a record of failure in strategic thinking and practices if you view the war theater in Afghanistan and Iraq and now crossing the limits to Syria. The renewed American-led wars in Iraq and Syria have unthinkable ripples effects to the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. America and its European allies are super imposing the unknown sectarian divides of Sunnis and Shias to make headways in street violence and enlarged societal conflicts across the Muslim world. Did the Arab leaders not know that violence and wars are prohibited by Islam during the sacred months of Dul-Qaidah and Dul-Hajj? Even during the age of ignorance (Jahiliyia), Arab culture showed restraint and respected human values during these months not to engage in fighting against worst enemies, allowing free movements of people across the Arabian culture. No wonder why according to the pools of AlHayat newspaper of Saudi Arabia, 93% masses are against fighting the ISIL at this time. Did the Saudi King have common sense to join the coalition to bomb fellow Arabs during the sacred month of Hajj - pilgrimage? Viewing the consequences of the Arab economic prosperity bubble, the Western oil importing industrialized nation have transformed the Arab world into impotency and a dehumanized culture of thinking and living.
American war strategy is aimed at large scale deaths and destructions of the entire Arab region enabling American corporations to attain direct control over the oil reserves and exports. Another vital aim of the strategy is to camouflage the freedom of Palestine. America is not engaged in wars of humanitarian principles and values of any kind. President Obama -The Commander-in-Chief, would not dare to recall how the American troops deliberately burnt copies of the Al-Qura’an; and urinated on the dead corpses of Afghan freedom fighters and massacred innocent men, women and children throughout the decade of military occupation. Those opposing the American intervention in Iraq-Syria know well how much America is feared and hated by the common Arabian folks. President Obama does not have a strategy to “defeat and destroy ISIL” in the Arab Middle East. If he claims to have crafted a new strategy by launching air strikes on the civilian population across Iraq-Syria and enlisting coalition of the worst than useless Arab authoritarian leaders, he is in a political quagmire of his own. America will lose more by military interventions in the complex societal conflicts overwhelmingly dominating the Arab world. The US strategists do not have the political imagination or moral and intellectual power to determine the political future of the Arab region. America operates in complete disconnect and does not have the knowledge, weapons or strategy to fight the morally and culturally embedded Islamic revolutionaries in the Arab world. More air strikes and foreign boots on the ground will increase the popularity and organizational strength and fighting capability of the ISIL in Iraq and Syria. If American intervention is put into microscopic analysis, it fails to produce any signs of effectiveness and success against ISIL at least under the present circumstances.
American War and the Global Mankind
Despite news media’s sensational videos of the killing of hostages in the conflict zone, American masses do not support another war in the Arab region. Unpredictable but paranoid and vengeful political monsters have incapacitated the in-born faculties of American lifelines to be a morally and intellectually crippled and more of a redundant nation in global affairs. This was not accidental but a planned scheme of things although unknown in its short-long terms consequences over its ability to cope with the change phenomenon for a sustainable future. America became an insane – a victim of its own obsession with power and fearful of its future. All of America’s technological advanced weaponry on earth and secretive intelligence resources placed out in space are Weapons of Mass Destruction meant to be used against the people on Earth and nowhere else. Global mankind has passion for peace, not wars. Those mindless politicians claiming to have accomplished the mission in the War on Terrorism did so at the cost of ruthlessness, killings of millions of fellow mankind in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sherwood Ross (“US Sponsored Genocide against Iraq 1990-2012 killed 3.3 million including 750,000 children.” Global Research: 12/06/2012), recalls the statement of Professor Francis Boyle (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal) and many other investigative reports clearly blaming the US led forces to have massacred more than three millions civilians in Iraq. The US and British are responsible for much of Iraq’s planned destruction, increased sectarian violence and dismantling of the political governance. Dreadful are becoming as abnormal frequency of violent killings, internal insecurity, drug-abuses and political mismanagement, several thousands Americans killed in global bogus wars and likewise wounded and crippled for life, 18-25 war veterans daily committing suicide (“Why Do Soldiers Commit Suicide and Global Warlords.” Uncommon Thought Journal: 4/14/2014), common Americans feel a terrible sense of helplessness and are fearful of the consequences of their leader’s triviality and viciousness against their own masses and global mankind. America is entrapped and entrenched by dirty politics of the few. It needs a formidable challenge to rethink about its apparent hegemonic viewpoint of the globe. Wars and killings of the innocents will not produce peace and global harmony.
Arguably, the Washington-based major military-industrial complex orchestrated the bogus War on Terrorism, American politics in one-sided syndrome for unknown present and futuristic disasters. If America cannot deal with its own domestic problems of unusual violence, killings of the innocents, natural disasters and fear-mongering politics, how could it be helpful to few puppet clients in the Arab world? One wonders, what went wrong with America? William Boardman (“A Country At War With An Illusion.” Information Clearing House: 8/19/2013) spells out that America is at war with itself: “We are waging war on terrorism even as we embody terrorism. …No wonder we seem sometimes to be at war with ourselves, and have been for most of the 21st century….No American Under 12 Has Lived In A Country At Peace….America’s Main Enemy Is Nameless, Shapeless, “Associated Forces”… The American Enemies List Is Decided Anonymously and Secretly.
Since the US-led air strikes are launched in support of the failed sectarian regimes in Iraq and Syria, thousands of innocent people are charcoaled every day across the Arab world. The apparent military intervention defines the strategy if at all it is a strategy to “defeat and destroy ISIL” but its real agenda pursuits are aimed at deaths and wholesale destruction of the entire Arab people and culture. This would incapacitate the Arab countries to consider US-Israel synchronized agenda for the future of Palestine. A future without resolution of the freedom of Palestine. Did President Obama learn anything useful to honor his major global commitments to the humanity?
America Needs Navigational Change or War Hysteria will Destroy it
David Swanson (“ISIS, Weapons Makers, Thugs Benefit from This Crime.” Dissident Voice: 9/23/2014), explains how Medea Benjamin, an international anti-war and peace activist made the voice of reason heard across the globe at the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance - a non-violent protest rally outside the White House: “This is exactly what ISIL wants. They’re trying to get the U.S. involved in a war. There are already U.S. troops in combat and this will mean more. We shouldn’t fall into the trap of another immoral and unwinnable war.”
History speaks its own language that all those nations claiming to be most powerful on the planet were destroyed by their own designs and wicked strategies. America is no exception but it does have the breathing space to take heed and make a Navigational Change. We live in One World and on One Planet - Earth and America is one of the most scientifically and technologically advanced nation to encompass the globe. The planet Earth is not a dead orbiting object but a living entity providing continuous nourishment to human life and existence and to all other living beings. Its governing laws are defined by its Creator. Dead things do not sustain life in this context but livings do make the difference. When individuals and nations start acting like wild beasts in complete disregard to the accepted norms of human values and ethical principles, surely, it impacts all and everything whether we acknowledge it or not. No humans can become God or act like God - a plain fact of life. American politics is increasingly showing perpetuated ignorance and willful arrogance in its global policies and practices. America as it appears is not heeding to warnings from God. When people and nations challenge the sanctity and limits of the Laws of God and violate all known norms and principles of human behavior, they could well become an object of unthinkable natural calamities and disasters. The Holy Bible and Al-Qura’an are full of such revelations and warnings as Reminders to those people who are wise enough to listen and learn and care for accountability and sustainable future.
Do politicians having small wisdom and big mouth and no rational knowledge can determine the future of mankind? How could the mankind be protected from the sadistic mindset of the few warmongers? The Universe and all it encompasses are the products of God-given command; and do not operate in concert with man-made laws, constitutions, foreign policies, judgments, hopes and desires. Light is One, and darkness are many. Life and the Universe exist because it is ordained by the Creator of the Worlds. Be it a Reminder or an Advice that human life is precious and we are accountable and we must all try to pursue peace and harmony, not wickedness and extermination of life and habitats from Earth. If history is relevant and is seen as a source of learning and warning, undeniably all those superpowers well equipped with weapons and animosity to destroy others or all have met the same fate of self annihilation. It is beyond doubts that when they challenged the sanctity of the Laws of God governing the Earth and the living Universe, and invaded small and poor nations in farfetched lands, they ultimately met their own end by natural causes such as earthquakes, flooding, tornados, exploding lavas, sound blasts, lightning and lot more. Are there any Thinking people to take heed from the prevalent facts of human history?
In Search of Political Negotiation Or to Ensure Coming of the Age of Arab Upheavals
Hypocritical despotism overwhelms the US military intervention strategy across the Middle East. None of the combatants appear to think intelligently about the future. Could wrong people, with wrong thinking and doing the wrong things manage the global peace and conflict resolution? Questioning American complacency and arbitrary bombing mission in Iraq and Syria, George Monbiot (“Why stop at Isis when we could bomb the whole Muslim world?” The Guardian, UK: 9/30/2014): wonders about the Humanitarian arguments, if consistently applied, could be used to flatten the entire Middle East. … How about blasting the Shia militias in Iraq? One of them selected 40 people from the streets of Baghdad in June and murdered them for being Sunnis. Another massacred 68 people at a mosque in August. They now talk openly of “cleansing” and “erasure” once Isis has been defeated….. What humanitarian principle instructs you to stop there? In Gaza this year, 2,100 Palestinians were massacred: including people taking shelter in schools and hospitals. Surely these atrocities demand an air war against Israel?.... Is there not an urgent duty to blow up Saudi Arabia? It has beheaded 59 people so far this year, for offences that include adultery, sorcery and witchcraft. It has long presented a far greater threat to the west than Isis now poses…..Already Obama’s bombings have brought Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, a rival militia affiliated to al-Qaida, together. More than 6,000 fighters have joined Isis since the bombardment began. They dangled the heads of their victims in front of the cameras as bait for war planes. And our governments were stupid enough to take it….. Yet our politicians affect to learn nothing. Insisting that more killing will magically resolve deep-rooted conflicts, they scatter bombs like fairy dust.
Why can’t President Obama engage ISIS in diplomacy? Asks David Swanson (“ISIS, Weapons Makers, Thugs Benefit from This Crime.” Dissident Voice: 9/23/2014):
“What’s needed is diplomacy. The U.S. government is happy to talk with Syria or Iran or Russia when the object is war. Why can it not talk to them when the object is peace?” If the coalition of the willing had working intelligence, they should engage ISIL in a political dialogue to determine the future of the Arab Middle East. Obviously, ISIL’s cold-blooded killings of few foreign prisoners cannot be accepted as precepts of the Islamic behavior and values of the Muslim world, but the group is gaining ground and attracting large number of recruits across the Arab countries. Bombing ISIL will kill more non-combatant civilians but will not deter ISIL or other groups from aggressive reactionary practices. America and its allies are overwhelmed to bomb and destroy the Arabian economic infrastructures and human habitats, and absolutely nothing is initiated to address the critical political and humanitarian problems emerging out of the fixed strategy against ISIL. “It is Perfectly Reasonable to Negotiate with Villains like ISIS So, Why Don’t We Do It to Save Some Lives” The Independent: 9/28/2014), asks reputable international journalist Robert Fisk. “Perfectly reasonable, respectable governments swap prisoners. Take Israel. It hands over Hezbollah fighters for just a few captured Israeli soldiers. It’s done this many times. Nobody criticises the Israeli government. David Cameron certainly doesn’t. All over the Middle East, captives are freed for other captives. The release of lords and seigneurs and soldiers in return for other captives goes back to the time of the Crusades.” Obama says, No at the UN and adds, we do not negotiate with Evil. An impartial observer would question President Obama if the Evil is one-sided. No wonder, why America is using the logic of power and not the power of logic to respond to a critical global humanitarian crisis. Even conventional wisdom assumes that America and the hired coalition partners are on the wrong side of the history.
Wars suck out positive human thinking and creative energies to articulate a sustainable future. How should the global humanity view the contemporary Arab societies, their war-torn bloody cultures operated by foreign mercenaries and few authoritarian dictators? What kind of message of civility, moral and intellectual values do they convey to the watchful eyes of the global community? Why did the Arab leaders ignored societal progress and failed to develop viable public institutions and people-oriented system of Islamic democratic governance? Throughout the oil exporting Arab countries, not a single institution or university exists to educate and train people in conflict management and peacemaking. This contradicts the Arab history. This discipline deserves utmost priority and preference to enhance political system of governance. What kind of role model do the Arab leaders portray to the present and future generations? Is there a future for the present generations to imagine political change and human development out of the superficial oil-based economic prosperity?
Does American or the Arab leaders know what the end-game is? Aftermath of the American-led bombing campaign, what kind of political landscape and geography be in-waiting for the Arab Middle East? Time is critical for self-reflection and finding out ways and means to critical thinking and be able to grasp the comprehensive outlook to sort out political means and feasible strategies for peacemaking. The wars between two opposing entities and ideologies have devastated the region. None appear to carry any weight on a rational scale of critical analysis. The US leaders and the neo-colonial Arab monarchs defy logic and reason. The Arab coalition leaders breathe oxygen in a complete disconnect to the interests of the Arab masses. The bombing campaign could strengthen ISIL and other groups in their reactionary pursuits to gain public legitimacy. What is the cure to raging indifference and cruelty to the interests of the people of Iraq, United States, Syria and Europe and for that matter to the whole of the mankind? The 21st century new-age complex political, economic, social and strategic challenges and the encompassing opportunities warrant new thinking, new leaders and New Visions for change, conflict management and participatory peaceful future-making. But change and conflict resolution and new visions will not grow out of the obsolete, redundant and failed authoritarianism of the few insane and egoistic leaders. Be it the Obama, dying Saudi monarch, David Cameron, the Prince of the UAE- Qatar or Bashar al-Assad, none have the understanding of contemporary societal peace or understanding of human interests seeking peaceful co-existence in a God-given splendid and living Universe. Once in power, they engage to assert one-way self-serving polices and practices discarding the interests of the people and their sense of peace, solidarity and happiness. To challenge the deafening silence of the US leaders, West Europeans, and all the readily available neo-colonial monarchs of the Arab Middle East for global peace and security, the humanity must find ways and means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few warlords and continued to be plagued with massacres, barbarity against human culture and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were no rational being and people of reason populating the God’s created splendid and living Universe. The informed and mature global community looks towards to those thinkers, educated and honest proactive leaders enriched with coherent unity of moral, spiritual, intellectual and physical visions and abilities to be instrumental to lead and rescue the mankind from the planned encroachment of the few global warlords.
(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 Academic Publishing, Germany, May 2012)
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