Uncle Sam’s diplomacy, masked in smiles, hides Shylock’s greed—fueling conflict, exploiting allies and manipulating global politics for imperial dominance
Himanshu Patnaik
Donald Trump’s statement, “I love Pakistan”, is viewed here as a chilled beer that perspires, yet it is a tacit admission, for the 1st time, by a US policy since 1947. It gains obvious credence in the present West Asian situation when Pakistan is tilted towards Iran, an arch enemy of the USA.
It puts Pak today, amidst a paralyzing collision of heart and mind, poised atop a wave of brinkmanship and indiscretion as to whether to side with the USA in the teeth of seething American hostility towards Iran or stick to its subservience to the USA, given the present South Asian imbroglio. Of course, Pak is adept at double games.
West Asia (erstwhile Near East/ Middle East) was in turmoil everyone the mid-19th century Crimean War. Palestine, historically, has been the nursery of major world religions like Hebrew, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic ones. From Cyrus to Cyprus, history shows how it has been in international contention. The present international issues are predicated upon a fortuitous chain of circumstances and pitiless exactions of time.
The British have been the traditional villain-in-disguise here as well as elsewhere throughout the world. History shows how, between 1917 and 1947, they promised the Palestine area to the Arabs and the Jews while maintaining their monopolistic stranglehold over there.
It isn’t as remote in point of time as to have any possible bearing on the present, particularly being the 2nd State after the US in diplomatic recognition of the Jewish State of Israel in 1949. Before that, they had stolen enough from there (as was their habit in India, China, Africa, and the American World) to make restitution impossible. So, since the 1950s, they have been in dissimulation under a diplomatic camouflage.
Islam, being a radical religion that believes in proselytism, consolidated itself in the region and put a premium on fidelity as the sister of justice. So the region has always witnessed a situation loaded with emotional dynamite. In the unipolar world scenario, after the US-engineered eclipse of Iraq and other Islamic States of the region, as Iran emerged as the leader of the Islamic world, a new situation was made to emerged around the region by American hypocrisy.
The US has long since been posing itself as the ‘ Big brother’ or ‘half-brother’ of the world; the UK being so subservient to it in international politics that it is deemed as the 51st State of the USA. The latter is guilty of so many crimes and manipulations of international law.
It is the first and worst perpetrator of genocide; it killed innumerable Red Indians in the 19th century amidst its ‘ westward expansion ‘ for the ‘gold rush’ and is the only country to have used the atomic bomb for the genocide of the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Vietnam is another ignominious example in recent memory.
Nuremberg trials were justified, not the Jallianwalabagh slaughters. The open door in China at the onset of the 19th century was a prelude to economic imperialism through ‘dollar-diplomacy’; even its allies of 1st World War were not exempted on the grounds of being their associates were given loans and not allies entitled to war aid. Today’s US arms deals smell foul; instigating wars and sponsoring their continuation to fill its coffers is an open secret.
Maintenance of military bases nearer to its foes’ location continues unabated, as around Russia and now more sharply around Iran is acceptable, but not the USSR’s bid to arm Cuba (1963). Another vicious crime is the physical elimination of rivals, like many in Mexico, South America, Africa, and West Asia. After Saddam, Idi Amin, it now turns to Ayatollah Khomeini. Divide and dominate is the British lesson it has learned and effectively implemented in West Asia; Jordan and Saudi Arab Qatar are a few such instances. The US is a shark patrolling the moonlit bays of West Asia.
Where is the UN, and what is it doing? Is it not a pawn in US hands, while pretending to pull stunts of righteous indignation, oblivious of its basic motto that political activity is the process of accommodating the conflict that stems from diversity? Ceasefire, for it, is like a ‘time-out’ in the course of a match that has not ended.
And ‘Uncle Sam’ romps home as Uncle Shylock.
(The writer is a retired professor of history. Views are personal)
