Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) US, UK: Making and breaking global rules

US, UK: Making and breaking global rules
Comment
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:07:00 +0000

THE United States of America and Britain claim to be champions of democracy. They even give human rights awards to people of other countries where they feel their foreign policy objectives are threatened.

This is a very conspicuous US public diplomatic approach to influence the world and present America as the world's saviour. In the last 7 years, the two countries have killed over a million Iraqis and several thousand Afghans in what former US President Bush called "the war on terror".

His predecessor, Barack Obama has shied away from that term, although he has continued as the "War President", despite promising "Change We Can Believe In".

Even Americans are beginning to doubt that change. Mr Obama's popularity dipped to an all-time low of 47% approval rating recently. No other US President achieved that 'feat' in their first year.

He also has another record (on the war front): He has launched more drone attacks in one year than his predecessor George H.W. Bush did in eight. These weapons have killed innocent women and children. They kill indiscriminately.

Mr Obama, apparently, is also the first Black US President. He has set a precedent for future "Black Presidents" - whatever that precedent looks like.

The idea that the United States can impose democracy in other countries is an oxymoron. How can you kill to stop killing? Infact, how can you kill a million people to depose one person from presidency - Saddam Hussein? A million Iraqis were sacrificed to remove Saddam Hussein. Needless to say there are thousands of British and US servicemen who have died, or lost limb, in that mindless war.

Mr Obama, was at pains to try and justify the American war impulse when he was presented the Nobel "peace prize".

Democracy is not a piece of hardware you can hold in your hand and impose on other people. It is a mindset and is relative to a nation.

The idea that Afghans will Americanise in a decade is ridiculous. They have their own social, economic and cultural systems which have evolved over years and are not about to be diluted by US or UK foreign policy.

They have a system of tribes that even the Soviets failed to dismantle. US, Britain and their friends will go on and waste resources in that country and after all is said and done, Afghanistan will still remain the society that it was before they went in.

The Taliban are not a defined group that you can bomb willy-nilly and eradicate. They are a mindset, and mindsets require centuries to change. The Taliban do not look different from anyone else. They are amongst the people they think are their friends. They are the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins, of the people they are training as security and army personnel in that country.

How then can you defeat the Taliban when they are amongst the people you work with; when they ARE the people you work with?

Infact, when do you say, "We have won the 'war' in Iraq and Afghanistan?" What is the benchmark with which that success is measured?

When you extrapolate the expense of the offensive in Iraq and Afghanistan, the return on investment to the UK and US is not worth it.

It costs a million dollars per troop, per year to run the Afghan offensive. This excludes Iraq. When you think of the collateral costs; costs of manufacturing equipment, security, compensation to victims, and social and political costs, the whole exercise becomes a joke.

The inquiry opened up in Britain a few weeks ago over the "war in Iraq" has exposed Western leadership's hypocrisy and their inadequcies.

Mr Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, is accussed of 'lying' to his own country's leadership about "weapons of mass destruction" and there are calls in the UK for him to be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war criminal charges.

If Mr Blair goes, then Mr Bush has to go too.

But, given the fact that these countries make and break global rules, that possibility is still far away.

Infact, an inquiry with no oath on the part of those giving evidence, is totally pointless. In the meantime, African leaders continue to be hailed before that discredited international legal organisation.

One thing is certain though: Iraq and Afghanistan will remain the West's biggest failure, just like Vietnam was America's biggest embarrasment.

Labels: NEOCONSERVATISM, UK, USA

posted by MrK @ 6:00 AM