Masopher's Mind

In the middle of a recession the last thing you would think the US would do is pay 1.5 billion dollars to a country that systematically trains, harbours and sponsors terrorists. In a January OP ed in the Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari tells CIF Obama, “we don’t want your advice just your money”. Ali, the more criminal half of the Bhutto dynasty blames the US for not giving enough to Pakistan after Al-Qaeda and the CIA drove out the Soviets. According to the President Pakistan was “abandoned” to criminals (namely himself) radicals (his coalition partners) and military dictators (former president Musharraf). Zardari’s message is the typical mix of contemptuous pride, self-pity and begging. His commitment to the Pashtun problem is weaker than his concern for reclaiming Kashmir and Jammu and building a military to rival India. Also implied was that failure to pay for Pakistan’s problems will lead to more terrorism, which can be interpreted as
a) a threat
b) an admission of his governments impotence
Either way, President Zardari is asking for quid without promising quo. He hopes that the US will as usual haphazardly throw money at the problem hoping that it will go away for a little. It will remain Masopher’s opinion that the Afghan-Pak area as a whole needs full pacification. The continued recognition of the Duran line only leads to a situation where a doctor treats only one side of a patient hoping that the other will get better on its own.
Just as Musharraf before him Zardari is unable to please anyone because he is trying to please everyone. Above all he is all too eager in pleasing himself with America’s tax payer’s dollars.

There is something profoundly reassuring to me when I heard that Obama was so pedantic about putting the word “faithfully” in its proper place. It cannot be said enough how September 11, 2001 was the day that America could have achieved full ascendancy over the entire earth. It could have been that day that America could have put the freedom, moral fortitude and perseverance of the American people into the limelight for good. Instead, a mistake was made. Instead of seeing the attack on the World Tradecenter as the last gasp of dying fundamentalism attacking the institution of globalization, America saw it as a show of a growing strength and a stab at the American people.

Bin Laden with all his hangups about Saudi Arabia, and modernized Muslims attacked America to create enmity and fear in Muslims. He attacked the USA because he could never have gotten away with attacking Medina or Riyadh. New York and Washington was his proxy and the proxy of the Saudi’s flying those planes. America became the projection of the perceived evil in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Arab countries everywhere.

If America knew this then they may not have attacked Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction. America would have stepped up modernization of the regional powers looking for common bonds and common interests. Radical Islam, Wahabism and the like could now be dead and President Bush may have been the hero of the 21^st Century.

Instead under the illogical precepts tactics and leadership developed in a Cold war era, America and its few allies embarked upon an 8 year campaign of labelling, blanket statements and ostracizing; playing right into the hands of Al-Qaeda, Afghan Warlords and Pakistani politicians. There is no bigger statement than killing and no bigger blanket statements than sending missiles and adrenaline filled young men into villages of women children and angry men trying to protect their pride and families.

America failed to take advantage of the political capital gained by 9/11. Iran one of the first countries to condemn the attacks has emerged as the next threat under the Bush administration. Russia has moved away from its apprenticeship in US style free markets into oligarchic capitalism, mistrust and sulking enmity. The United Kingdom which once acted as a common bond between Europe and the US has become subjected to US geopolitical views and the US is seen as an enemy of freedom, the very thing that was attacked on that September.

We will destroy terrorism not by turning America’s young men and women into terrorists; we will destroy terrorism not by paying and empowering factions to fight other factions; we will destroy terrorism by showing alternatives to armed struggle, by spreading democracy and showing that this method of rule is by far the most humane, fair and best system of government.

A grave mistake was made, one which snowballed into a state of constant economic and political uncertainty and now, one hopes this will be corrected. This mistake caused hundreds of thousands of needless lives to be lost and the shattering of any possible façade of American benevolence. This mistake can not be left uncorrected.

Barak showed up in front of George Bush’s appointed Chief Head Justice to correct a comparatively smaller mistake. He has embarked on correcting the mistake of Guantanamo and he may try to correct the mistake of America’s post 9/11 reaction to the world. Despite being realistic about Obama’s background and backers I foster that hope that his administration will put America in its proper place.

Today Barak Obama wakes up to a world of new hate. Forget about being a “black” man or a lawyer, now he becomes the president of the United States of America in a world that is both awake to what the USA is and a world that imagines the USA to be a whole lot worse than it actually is.

What the USA is, is a land of opportunity. A land that provides opportunity for anything. While some of the greatest things in modern history has been born out of this freedom and opportunity. Opportunity is provided for events like 9/11 and people that sell on toxic assets to other banks around the world. Because of the USA being what it is, the most ugly sides of the human psyche can come to light and get its 15 minutes in the glowing buzz of paparrazi and 24 hour news channels.

Now that all of the great PR has brought him this far Obama now faces a world where he has to do it without a .6 Billion dollar campaign.

Already the Washington Post has popped up with stories about Obamas elite backers. We know of Obamas more unsavory backers but now spreading like wildfire in Muslim communities are stories of Obamas “hidden” backers.

This video and its sequel for instance.

Obama who was once smeared as a Muslim is now being smeared as a “zionist illuminatist” with all the anti-semetic acoutriments that organizations like Hamas embed into their way of life.

Unfortunately the very fact that so many of Obamas rich contributers are rich Jews won’t be received well by poor arabs and muslims especialy ones who are on the receiving end of a lopsided Jewish war.

Ref:

The Donors Who Gave Big, and Often Washington Post Staff Writers

By Kimberly Kindy and Sarah Cohen