Posted on 12/31/2001 1:51:39 AM PST by H.R. Gross
December 31, 2001
My last New Year's column contained a statement that stands out, in retrospect, as a prediction and a warning that, unfortunately, went unheeded. America, I wrote,
"Stands astride the world, a global Gulliver lording it over the Lilliputians. But at the apogee of its power, the US is subject to the irony of world hegemony – increased vulnerability."
Little did I know how vulnerable. Like most Americans, I never imagined that, less than a year later, we would all be staring in disbelief at the smoking ruins of the Pentagon – and a good part of downtown Manhattan. But I knew something was amiss: "In the coming year," I predicted, "the profiteers of empire will be especially busy selling the whole panoply of 'good works' the US is performing overseas," especially in "the Middle East, where we are ostensibly fighting another bogey of the modern world, 'terrorism.' Whether the American people are buying it is another question."
Well, if they weren't buying it before, now they certainly are – and with a vengeance. As the US goes rampaging through Central Asia in search of Osama bin Laden and his Terrorist International, the War Party has been given a blank check – and they're diddling over how much to make it out for. But you didn't have to be a certified seer, a Nostradamus or a Jean Dixon, to see what was coming over the horizon. Reiterating the Clintonian record – a new military intervention every few months – I wrote:
"These days, the brazen belligerence of the US goes way beyond arrogance and all the way to hubris, the old Greek conception of a pride so overweening that it literally begs to be toppled, like Icarus felled for daring to approach the sun."
Yet Icarus hasn't learned his lesson. Still reaching for that bright orb, he doesn't realize he's been blinded. Lashing out, he stumbles about in the darkness, bellowing like a wounded giant, and wreaking devastation across the globe. Already the ripple effect caused by the US military campaign has caused disruption throughout the region, with India moving quickly to destabilize Pakistan. The nutball Hindu nationalists who hold sway in New Delhi have recently acquired a cache of new weapons from Israel – and don't think they won't use them.
India and Israel have a lot in common: not only a mutual hatred of Islam, but also an expressed willingness to use nuclear weapons. It was not for nothing, after all, that Israel recently admitted what it has always officially denied (even though everyone knew the story of Mordecai Vanunu): yes, they have nukes. But why admit this now, at the height of the crisis, unless it is meant as a warning that they won't hesitate to use them?
On the other side of the Middle East, New Delhi's Brahmins are wielding the nuclear stick more openly, explicitly threatening Pakistan with the unthinkable. At issue is the Vale of Kashmir, a section of Central Asia so mountainous and inaccessible that it makes the terrain of Afghanistan look like a golf course. India has always claimed it, in spite of its overwhelmingly Muslim population. If India allowed a real national referendum, Kashmir would doubtless go with Pakistan, but New Delhi's "Great Power" conceit would never permit that, and so the region has been in a constant state of war since the partition of India and Pakistan more than 50 years ago.
From this lair of Islamic "terrorism," various Islamic tribes and groups have launched attacks on India proper, and the Brahmins, asserting their regional hegemony, have decided to follow the good example of the United States in pursuing "terrorism" to its source. Since the Indians aver – without offering any proof – that the terrorist attacks have been organized and directed by Islamabad, and that these groups are little more than proxies for Pakistan, in effect a de facto state of war already exists between the two nuclear-armed nations. And the conflict is rapidly spreading….
The news that China has moved its troops up to the border with India should have hit the headlines like a thunderclap. The dominoes are falling fast, and even rippling outward to the edge of the world, where North Korea – starving, desperate, and demented – teeters on the brink. The "mystery ship" that invaded Japanese waters and was sunk by the Japanese Defense Force sent shockwaves through Japan, and globalized this perilous moment.
Are we standing on the brink of World War III? It all depends on just how crazy are the Hindu nationalists who rule an increasingly bizarre and militant India. Perhaps not all of them are particular devotees of Kali, goddess of destruction – all I know is that Kali holds a central place in the Hindu pantheon, and she no doubt has lots of fans. Here, for example, is an Associated Press story detailing the mindset of the people of Jaisalmer, India, who live near the border with Pakistan, who are "aching for war":
"'Bring on another war, we are ready,' shouts Jagdish Prasad Vasa, a craggy shopkeeper who has lived through the three wars between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947. His war cries draw similar chants from the old turbaned men drinking sweet tea at the foot of the sandcastle-like fort.
"'The Jaisalmeris are warriors by nature, always on alert and never afraid to fight,' says Vasa, spitting out juice from his 'gutkha,' a concoction of tobacco, betel nut and spices. 'It's time to put Pakistan down, for good.'"
We've heard all this highfalutin' theorizing about how Islam, at least in its Wahabist incarnation, is the equivalent of "Islamo-fascism," but how much more explicit can you get than deifying the concept of Destruction? If I were the Pakistanis, I wouldn't rule out the distinct possibility of an Indian first strike – would you?
To prove that it's indeed possible to get members like me to quietly leave without writing an opus?
For telling the truth? Yes, I can easily see how that might offend you and Generalissimo Raimondo.
Outre opinions and commentary should be answered, not ignored or disparaged without a meaningful response.
Well, you know what they say about "The International Jew," don't you, Moustafa?
Now you're rolling out your pickup lines? Ugh.
Maybe that's why I'm predisposed to disgust when I see the same process happening here, albeit on a virtual level.
It's a traditional tactic to leave defective weaponry available for the enemy to "find". :)
When you see something you don't like, fight back! This from one who favors neither Zionism or Islam.
BTW, I grew up in Phoenix, and roamed the whole town in the late 40s on my bicycle - a practice not now reccomended to a white guy without an AK-47.
Speak for yourself, gloryboy. When was the last time you heard of Amish terrorists knocking down office buildings with airplanes, or Pentecostals burning down Synagogues?
I could go on (and on, and on, and on), but frankly, the problem isn't one of ignorance on your part, it's one of bigotry, racism, and a rather perverse brand of hatered.
Make your guys promise not to do to India what they did to the US?
Hmm, that won't work, will it. India doesn't have a World Trade Center.
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the process of turning the US into a third world sewer is irreversable, and nearly complete. Makes me sick to my stomach.
>"...I guess repressing Christianity is something you approve of, eh?
I have no idea why I pulled that line out of context, among the many other replies you made to "India's Amen Corner", but I don't think anyone consistently sticking up for Islam (in general) has any moral authority to swing a leg over that particular high horse. Think pot, surrounded by kettles.
Anyway, I don't know if I hadn't noticed it before, but in today's column you not only bracketed the term "Islamo-fascism", with quotation marks, you went ahead and (at least a couple of times) surrounded the two words, "islamic terrorism", with the same ironic, deprecating punctuation. Was that a first, or have I been glossing over your recent stuff that carelessly?
I liked it better when you and A. C. were attending the "lefty" peace rally, in -mid or -late September, asking everyone where the American flags were?
At the end of today's column, there were a few lines devoted to "the lonliness" of the 'antiwar' stance. It's going to get a lot lonlier for antiwar.com if you keep lining up on the same side of the huddle with the "islamic freedom fighter" fringe. ("One man's 'terrorist' is another man's 'freedom fighter'." Only trouble is there's so often such little breathing room, between those two men.)
I know it's just a couple of punctuation marks, but at this point in time and history, a lot of people are liable to be sensitive to little inflections like that. It's funny to be so passionate about it. Not so long ago, we'd all become so cozy and used to the old, familiar, bi-polar world -- the split between the "Evil Empire" and its minions, and all the "Guys in the White Hats". (Think Slim Pickens, taking that last ride at the end of 'Dr. Strangelove, a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' and wavin' his White Hat.) It's now all been altered [supply adjective of your own choice here] in a huge cloud of dust. No more MAD-ness -- the eminently sane, mutally assured balance of destruction.
The new, asymetric game in town features a completely different cast of players, the suicide bombers and their 'sleeping' pals. Most have arguably genocidal urges, but only limited means. Then there are the governments trying to round them up, who have almost unlimited means, but arguably urges that are a little more carefully controlled.
The only encouraging thing about that is that the overwhelming majority of people on the planet are probably somewhere in the middle, hoping the nutballs will never succeed in their dream -- provoking the Last World War/final Jihad, as they hope that none of our own slightly too-fearless leaders get excessively carried away and accidentally trigger same, or cause provocations of a sort that strengthen the nutballs, continuing to further exacerbate the cycle. There's a whole lot of playing field there, in between those two points of view. (Although, granted, from the standpoint of media access, it's not at all a level one.) But if you're trying to rally support for a "peace" movement, I don't think it's going to be worthwhile to get too close to either of those two, new, polar extremes. The only way to level the media playing field is with the truth. A little bit at a time until it starts to gather momentum and snowball.
...So, stick with what's timely. Forget the old antagonisms. Maybe you're still sore at India for being too chummy with the Kremlin in the old days and too "third world". And as far as Israel goes, how about playing up any of several topics on which the Israeli peace movement is way, way ahead of the curve, compared to the rest of Israeli society (and Sharon and the IDF)? (Speaking of which, is anything forthcoming from Ran HaCohen? He hasn't made an appearance in aw.com in over a month and a half.)
But whatever the sticking points, it's not time to be taking editorial cues or the pulse of the zeitgeist from the Weekly World News. "Satanic cloud over Washington D.C." is only half of it. The cloud those 'islamic terrorists' set off not long ago made the covers of many, many more publications, not all of them used for grocery rack entertainment value. It probably remains fresher in most people's minds for that reason.
[PS--My favorite Weekly World News cover was a recent one: "Ventriloquist Dies. Dummy Continues to Talk."]
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