Opinion Editorials, December 2015

Share this article with your facebook friends

America’s Failed Strategy Enflaming Sectarian Conflicts in the Arab Middle East 

Is America at war with itself?  For more than a decade, American-led war on so-called "terrorism" continues from Afghanistan to Iraq, Syria and soon to other oil producing states of the Arab world. Its aims are global hegemonic control of the Arabian natural resources and people. None of this strategy carries any weight on a rational criterion of critical thinking. Andrew Gavin Marshall (“Empire under Obama: Part 3-America’s “Secret Wars” in Over 100 Countries Around the World” The Hampton Institute), is a well known international researcher and co-editor of The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century, points out that:

….. Obama’s global ‘war of terror’ has expanded to roughly 100 countries around the world, winding down the large-scale military invasions and occupations such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq, and increasing the “small-scale” warfare operations of Special Forces, beyond the rule of law, outside Congressional and public oversight, conducting “snatch and grab” operations, training domestic repressive military forces in nations largely run by dictatorships to undertake their own operations on behalf of the ‘Global Godfather.’…… The CIA hired Blackwater to aid in a secret assassination program which was hidden from Congress for seven years. 9 These operations would be overseen by the CIA or Special Forces personnel. 10 Blackwater has also been contracted to arm drones at secret bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan for Obama’s assassination program, overseen by the CIA. 

Ostensibly, the Arab Middle East is controlled and managed by the US intelligence network; otherwise, Arab leaders would have hard time to stay afloat. The authoritarian Arab leaders live in palaces, not with people to understand the outcomes of their political folly and ignorance. Ironically, the US-Russian air strikes and killings of the civilians in Syria and Iraq 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.”), 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 the forged battleground is Syria.

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 supplies. Another vital aim of the strategy is to camouflage the freedom of Palestine and entangle Palestinians into violence and street battles as the issue of Palestine freedom is distracted by other sectarian rifts. America is not engaged in wars of humanitarian principles and values of any kind. Those opposing the Russian and American interventions in Syria and Iraq know well how much Russia and America are 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. 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.  

Western Wars are against the Global Humanity 

Professor Michel Chossudovsky (The Globalization of War - America’s “Long War” against Humanity. Global Research: 2014), is a reputable international scholar and leading analyst of the New World Order and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization. Professor Chossudovsky attempts to explain the pertinent facts of contemporary global warfare: 

While Washington wages a Global War on terrorism (GWOT), those who forcefully oppose America’s war of aggression are branded as terrorists. War becomes peace a worthwhile “humanitarian undertaking.” Peaceful dissent becomes heresy. With unfolding events in Ukraine and the Middle East, humanity is at crossroads….A culture of killing and violence has become imbedded in human consciousness….War is broadly accepted as part of a societal process. The Homeland needs to be “defended” and protected. …A “humanitarian war” is upheld by the so called international community. It is not condemned as a criminal act. Its main architects are rewarded for their contribution to world peace. 

Is that’s how President Obama gained a 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing to promote global peace and security? According to Andrew G. Marshall (“Empire under Obama: Part 3-America’s “Secret Wars” in Over 100 Countries Around the World” The Hampton Institute),   

Indeed, America has long been the Global Godfather applying the ‘Mafia Principles’ of international relations, lock-in-step with its Western lackey organized crime ‘Capo’ states such as Great Britain and France. Yet, under Obama, the president who had won public relations industry awards for his well-managed presidential advertising campaign promising “hope” and “change,” the empire has found itself waging war in roughly one hundred nations, conducting an unprecedented global terror campaign, increasing its abuses of human rights, war crimes and crimes against humanity, all under the aegis of the Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack Obama. 

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. The continuing wars are adversely affecting the human lifelines, habitats and causing massive disruption in climate change. 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 Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. 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. The common American folks 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. 

America Needs Navigational Change or Warmongering will Destroy all 

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.   

The Universe and all it encompasses are the products of God-given command; and do not operate in concert with man-made legislatures, 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 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?

Are there any Arab Leaders of  Intellectual Integrity and Proactive Imagination to Think of Political Change and Future-making?

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 Syria and Iraq, George Monbiot (“Why stop at Isis when we could bomb the whole Muslim world?” The Guardian, UK): wonders about the Humanitarian arguments, if consistently applied, could be used to flatten the entire Arab Middle East. Why can’t President Obama engage ISIS in diplomacy?  Asks David Swanson (“ISIS, Weapons Makers, Thugs Benefit from This Crime.” Dissident Voice): “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 could have engaged ISIL in a political dialogue to end the aggressive sectarian warfare and encroachment of land. 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. Russia, America and their allies are overwhelmed to bomb and destroy the Arabian economic infrastructures and human habitats, and absolutely nothing is initiated to address the menace of Arab authoritarianism, political freedom and change and humanitarian problems emerging out of the fixed strategy against ISIL.  

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. Is there a future for the present generations to imagine political change and human development out of the superficial oil-based economic prosperity?   

Do the American or the Arab leaders know what would be the end-game? Aftermath of the Russian-American 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. Now the Western hypocrisy has willingly embraced Russia in partnership to destroy the Arab world. To deceive the humanity, they announced a Peace Plan for Syria approved by the UN Security Council. How and who will implement this so called Peace Plan? The Plan keeps the bloody Bashar al Assad in power- the crux of the problem, and foresees public elections after the ceasefire. Strange as is that 60-70 % of the Syrian population is displaced, the country’s economic and political infrastructures are in complete ruin, millions of civilians killed and pushed to the European oceans and countries as refugees and asylum seekers. Who will elect who? Could the large Syrian graveyards be places of ballot boxes for the dead souls?  Do the Americans and Russians think that global community is just digits and numbers without human conscience and rational thinking?  

How to Articulate Peace and Security When Superpowers are Accused of War Crimes?

The Amnesty International calls to attention that Russia and America are bombing the civilian habitats in Syria and Iraq and accuses them of committing crimes against humanity. There is no exact data available about the civilian war causalities across Syria and Iraq. Thousands and thousands are killed, charcoaled by the bombing every day. This is the inhumanity of the human beings exercising absolute political power. What is the cure to the raging indifference and embolden cruelty to the interests of the people of Syria, Iraq, United States and Western Europe and for that matter to the whole of the mankind?  Millions have been forcibly displaced and made refugees to seek shelter across the oceans and in hostile European continent. The UNO failed to provide a place of safety and protection to the civilian population of Syria and Iraq. The global institutions are an insult to rational thinking of the global citizens. Ordinary people from Syria and Iraq are not the economic migrants but victims of humanitarian crises propelled by the superpowers. Where should these victims of global crises go and seek humanitarian asylum and safety? Arab leaders are incapable to extend any moral and intellectual security to the civilian victims of the wars. The EU is still arguing to define who economic migrant is and who is a humanitarian refugee? Germany and Sweden are the only two European nations offering humanitarian assistance and publicly welcoming the displaced Arabs. Who should resolve the complex humanitarian issues and outcome of the global failure to stop the bogus war on terrorism? 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 emerge out of the obsolete, redundant and failed authoritarianism of the few insane and egoistic leaders. To challenge the deafening silence of the US and Russian 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 sadistic 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, and intellectual visions and abilities to be instrumental to lead and to rescue the mankind from the planned enslavement and victimization of global warriors.

“The greatest threat to our world and its peace” stated Hermann Hesse, the author and political activist (1877-1962) … “comes from those who want war, who prepare for it, and who, by holding out vague promises of future peace or by instilling fear of foreign aggression, try to make us accomplices to their plans.”

Long time ago, Eric Bogle synthesized the poem- The Green Fields of France and many have sung it to remind the mankind of a just cause in waiting at the global table of the contemporary war racketeers and sadistic warmongers: 

Did you really believe, when they told you the cause, Did you really believe that this war would end wars? Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame, The killing and dying it was all done in vain Oh Willy McBride it all happened again - And again, and again, and again, and again.” 

(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)

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org