Help, help, I'm being repressed!
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 give him his due, (Dancing Elephant deity?) Justin's not much of a big 'statist'. He'd probably prefer that the Confederacy had won the American Civil War. But then he's not much on 'diversity', in general, or 'multi-culturalism', in particular.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!
I wish that Free Republic would enforce the rules of posting liberal trash, and pull these posters who either are all Justin or kiss up to Justin. I'd find everything he posts humorous if it wasn't so incredibly sickening.
Do you know how asinine you sound? There is only one Justin Raimondo and he posts under Justin Raimondo. Since you don't know him, you can make these ludicrous accusations.
M.A.
Isn't he simply amazing:-) He posts nothing but lies and twisted half-truths in attempt to manipulate other's vulnerabilities, (like religion) spreading dissension and hate by doing so, and for what end? He's the antiwar.com guy?? (Imagine the damage he could do if he wasn't "anti-war.")
Is it really possible that the "ex-Colonials" have learned SO LITTLE??
MY GOD! Those of us "In the WEST" have LONG thought that the beneficiaries of "British Colonialism" would have "Long Since" benefitted from both the mistakes & the "Triumphs" of their former "Keepers!"
British Imperial Rule wasn't ALL bad!
The British taught the Indians how to prosper in a hostile world--perhaps a little "Remedial Education" might be in order!
India SHOULD BE a "Superpower," but "Blowing up your neighbor" is unlikely to affirm "Superpower Status!"
Doc
Nuclear rivals Pakistan and India have come to the brink of war following an assault last month on India's parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatists.
``Whatever weapon is available, we will use it to defend ourselves,'' Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in his constituency of Lucknow in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
``And if because of that weapon the attacker is defeated ... if he is killed, we should not be held responsible,'' said Vajpayee, who analysts say is under pressure to appear tough ahead of state elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
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