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Posted by admin in Mahboob A. Khawaja, Mahboob Khawaja, OPINION LEADER on January 4th, 2022
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Do nations and civilizations grow out of the moral mire of military conquests, killings of innocent people, political cruelty and subjugation by imperialism? For more than 800 years, India as a Moghul Empire was an economically well integrated and politically viable entity and west European had strong trade and political relationships. After intrigued conspiracies and planned division, British invaded India in 1857, committing cold blooded massacres of two millions people mostly Muslims opposing the military invasion described just as a “Mutiny” in the British chronicle. Bahadur Shah Zafar — the last Moghul emperor was deposed over night in Delhi, his youngest son head was chopped-off and put on a breakfast plate to strangle the Shah and make him surrender unconditionally. Shah was hurriedly taken to Rangoon (Burma) and imprisoned in a garage and later on died and buried only to write poems in loss of his freedom and beloved country. Did the British overtake India to be a free country for democracy or to support the Hindu domination of futuristic India? British robbed Moghul India and became it became Great Britain and imagined India as an absolute entity of the British Empire.
Leaders like Gandhi and Nehru, Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Khan though educated in British intellectual traditions but articulated new mission and visions for national freedom as a revulsion against the British colonial political traditions and continuity of British Raj in India. Was this violent and ruthless indoctrination part of the British heritage or history-making efforts to besiege India forever? Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy made sure that Indians will remain loyal and committed subservient to the futuristic blending of so called celebrated national freedom after the 1947 partition into India and Pakistan. British failed to deliver the truth of national freedom to both nations in a universal spirit of political responsibility. Both nations continued to engage in military warfare, ethnic conflicts and hegemonic control to dominate each other by undermining their own future.
History could not have confined the tyranny and oppression of divide and rule of British imperialism against the will of the Indian masses. Canons of rationality clarify that national freedom granted to both new entities in August 1947 was a fake chronology of time and history. The so called national freedom perpetuated a hybrid socio-economic and political culture — part human- part vulture, British made no security arrangements to ensure communal peace and harmony which resulted in millions of people been killed in ethnic violence while migrating from one place to another.
Strange as it is, while British imperialism changed the Indian mindset and behavior within a century, but even after 75 years India and Pakistan remain glued to the British colonial systems to this day in thoughts, systems and governance. Does it not signal a naïve and void imagination of national freedom professed by both nations since 1947? They continue to interact with one another as the most hated enemy of time and history, wars, threat of nuclear arsenals, Kashmir dispute and worst of all lack of direct people to people communication or business relationships — all seem to be part of a highly ruptured and purging pursuit of national freedom.
The aerial view of New Delhi reflects an Islamic image of the city — grand New Delhi Mosque, nearby historic and beautiful Taj Mahal, Old Fort and lot more. To foreigners, it is does not look like the capital of Hindu India at all. If this inference has any reality, the future of India and Pakistan should have been collaboration and lasting friendship. India always wanted to subdue Pakistan and its national freedom. Pakistan’s bad luck entailed many military coups breaking its integrity and trust on freedom. Egoistic and foolish Generals created bogus and corrupt politicians claiming to be the leaders of future-making. They lacked the moral and intellectual capacity to imagine its future with a new generation of educated, intelligent and proactive people who could have contributed for a promising future of Pakistan.
India’s political agenda was intact when in December 1971, East Pakistan was disintegrated and Bangladesh was created by Mrs. Indra Gandhi – the Prime Minister – a power conspirator in India. Pakistani governing elite would not dare to admit that it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Genera Yahya Khan both major conspirators who led to the defeat of Pakistan. Even half a century later, Pakistanis still live in delusional and unarguable conclusion of that historic misfortune. As a graduate student, I met General PNK Choudry (the former Chief of the Indian Armed Force) forcibly retired by Mrs. Indra Gandhi and sent as an Ambassador (HC) to Canada. At a local Canadian university campus, we met when he was a guest speaker. Later on, I invited him for a class gathering with fellow students and lunch. During the summer while working at photo store, General Choudry comes in with two cameras on his shoulder and many times we had lunch together and walks and photography together. On weekends, at university library- often I got library books to share with him and we talked about global affairs and his own past and India-Pakistan. He denied any alleged conspiracy against Mrs. Gandhi to oust her and bring a military coup in India. My interaction with General Choudry continued for almost two years. After his diplomatic assignment, he was hired by McGill University as a lecturer and that is where he died in 1975. He was a simple, 6.5 ft approx tall person, humble and spoke openly and truthfully as I recall him. As an Indian top army General he may have been a tyrant but as a human being and a diplomat he was a decent person. He fought wars with Pakistan and knew most of the military establishments. Here is what he disclosed during many conversations and it should be alarming to Pakistanis if they deny it:
Prior to the defeat and surrender of East Pakistan in 1971, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had direct contact with Mrs. Gandhi and wanted India’s help to become the next leader of Pakistan. India was looking for such an opportunity and wanted East Pakistan to become a new entity- Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujib Rehman was nationalist but was enthusiastic for a new homeland except to become the next elected leader of Pakistan. Bhutto-Yahya Khan were competing for power even without elections. ZA Bhutto wanted political power even if Pakistan was defeated, otherwise Sheikh Mujib-Yahya could have become the next governing leaders. Bhutto was a power hungry individual without any political capacity to be a leader. Mrs. Gandhi helped both — ZA Bhutto and Sheikh Mujib and the price was the defeat and surrender of Pakistan. Mrs. Gandhi appointed Bhutto as the next President, Martial Law Administrator and Prime Minister of Pakistan and Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman as the next President of Bangladesh. Some Pakistani would blame General Niazi for the surrender but in reality it was Yahya-Bhutto and the Pakistani Generals who should have faced full accountability and perhaps firing squads for their treachery and dishonesty to national freedom and integrity of Pakistan. None of this ever happened in Pakistan. To see more, please view the articles by this author: “Pakistan: Leaders who Stabbed the Nation” (2009), “Pakistan: Leader or Criminals.” (2014); “Pakistan: Reflections on the Turbulent 69th Independence Day”, “Pakistan: How to change the culture of political corruption and rebuild the Future.” (2014), and “Pakistan and India’s leader mark freedom from British Colonial Rule but Masses look for a Navigational Change.” (2020).
To General Choudry, if the whole Pakistan was captured by India except the Sindh province, ZA Bhutto would have gladly become the Chief Minister of Sindh to co-exist with India. He disclosed, there were five or six “soft hearted” Pakistani Generals willing to align and not to challenge India’s plan for Bangladesh. Shocking as it is, future Pakistani leaders never held anyone accountable for the crimes against the nation. Were ZA Bhutto and Yahya Khan more important than the existence, national freedom and integrity of One Pakistan? Dr. Ishtiaq Qureshi (Editor Urdu Digest) wrote Skoote – Dahaka Say Purdah Uttha Hey (1972), in which he described the details how Bhutto and Yahya khan betrayed Pakistan and stabbed the nation. Dr. Qureshi was imprisoned by the Bhutto Government. This truth remains unacknowledged and districted by the Pakistani governing elite even to this day. Are the Pakistanis still living in any rational denials of their own chapter of history? Moral and intellectual corruption is rampant in both countries. Masses are systematically compelled to bribe officials to get the basic services and official necessities of nationality ID, passports, driver license and lot more in life. The national freedom has changed from the enlarged scope of corruption and exploitation — the legacy of the British imperialism. Both India and Pakistani neo-colonialists look for escape from reality and are allergic to see the mirror of the present and future. Allama Iqbal (pioneer of Pakistani national freedom) did not live to see his dream come true of Pakistan. Mahtama Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist, Nehru died a natural death. Mohammad Ali Jinnah passed away in a broken ambulance on a Karachi street, and Liaquat Ali Khan (first PM) was murdered by the then Pakistani politicians. Mrs. Gandhi was killed by his Sikh bodyguard. Sheikh Mujib was murdered by his military commander and Bhutto was hanged for killing a political opponent.
India has its multiple problems of socio-economic and political diversity. It is unable to counteract the national freedom movement of Sikh Nation for an independent Khalistan. Kashmir was never a part of British Indian dominion and its masses continue to seek freedom from India occupation and violations of their basic human rights. Muslim, Christian and other minorities are oppressed under Hindu-controlled India. Pakistani miserably failed to take proactive initiatives to support the freedom movement for the people of Kashmir.
The old service men-led elite could not imagine new and creative strategies to organize international conferences or effectively communicate to the Western world to share the aspirations of the Kashmiri masses.
The degeneration of the Indian-Pakistani moral and intellectual culture is well in progress. The essence, meaning and purpose of historic British colonial systems are operative across all public affairs, policies and practices in India and Pakistan. The armed forces, the civil service and legal jurisprudence all remain under the sinister influence and disfigured reality of the two so called free nations. Police still beats the protesters and open fire on peaceful demonstrators, be in New Delhi, Kashmir or Islamabad. National freedom does not empower futuristic societies to establish political absurdity, immoral and intellectual decadence and political injustice. Common people in both countries are besieged in obsolete systems of political governance except rich landlords and affluent compete the elections and gain power. There is no change for the people in the colonized landscape except enlarged scope of moral and intellectual corruption guised as freedom. If you will question both elite having many common values of the British Raj, they would deny if there is anything wrong with their thinking, role play and management of public affairs.
The new and young generation who could not imagine a new sustainable future are vanishing fast and migrating to Europe and America in search of better opportunities. The old generations of landlords and retired civilian-military officials manage the governing bodies whereas people of new and educated generation are deprived of any practical participation and migrate to Europe and North America and never return to their home countries. The hub of political culture is divided and delusional about national freedom and a sustainable future-making. There are no wars for the people of the sub-continent to fight but they are fighting wars on several fronts without reason – known and unknown. The compelling realities across the beleaguered sub-continent demand new thinking, new visionary leadership, men of new ideas and plans to deal with the unwarranted exploitation of masses, communal deaths, and deliberate destruction of the historic culture and millions of people looking for change and a new beginning of cordial borders and relationships.
Courtesy –The Author -Dr.Mahboob A,Khwaja
Posted by admin in Mahboob Khawaja, OPINION LEADER on November 3rd, 2021
[Graphic: Ottoman Empire 1481-1683. André Koehne drawn from The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd.]
By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
I have no idea of the historical grounding of European students into their own nation’s roles in imperialism, nor how it is presented if it is taught. Nor do I know what education the nations subject to imperialism know except that many of those countries have no broad public educational systems.
Click map to enlarge.
Ottoman Empire 1481-1683. André Koehnedrawn from The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd.I assume that if you have much knowledge of historical imperialism in even a loose way you got to the way I did – reading beyond the curriculum and beyond “school.” Perhaps you stumbled across the work of Edward Said (1935-2003). Perhaps the critiques that arose out of his post-colonial perspective found you instead. [As a short study, I recommend an excellent 2013 article by Tarek Osman BBC News: Why border lines drawn with a ruler in WW1 still rock the Middle East.
Osman elaborates on the Sykes-Picot agreement and the three problems at the heart of it. I think these are pertinent to the crises we see today, and typical of imperialism across the planet.
“First, it was secret without any Arabic knowledge, and it negated the main promise that Britain had made to the Arabs in the 1910s – that if they rebelled against the Ottomans, the fall of that empire would bring them independence. “
Second, was that the line they drew ignored tribal territories and existing historical boundaries. “But the thinking behind Sykes-Picot did not translate into practice. That meant the newly created borders did not correspond to the actual sectarian, tribal, or ethnic distinctions on the ground.”
Third, which Osman lays on the Arab world: “… Arabs’ failure to address the crucial dilemma they have faced over the past century and half – the identity struggle between, on one hand nationalism and secularism, and on the other, Islamism (and in some cases Christianism).” I do not believe that the identity struggle lies solely at the feet of the various leaders in the Arab world.
I have come to think that we are not in a post-colonial period. Rather both imperialism and colonialism are still very active. Even if the mechanisms have changed, and sometimes pawns are used (as Dr. Khawaja asserts) and/or multinational corporations (backed by major nations) have taken the leadership role, the models are still too applicable to be ignored. I must add that the corporations are legal proxies for the wealthiest of the planet which does indeed place an even more sinister twist to contemporary colonization.
Are the masses aware of the owners of the boots on our necks? If we/they revolt against the obtuse, self-serving rulers of their varying states what do they replace that organization with?
I agree that many around the planet believe that we are one humanity, but we have yet to find a way to assert that. And there are many who are too aware of their lack of access to the necessities of sustainable survival but accept the concepts of winner and losers and wealth acquisition. In other words, they have no challenge for the system that holds them in place, only for those holding power within that system.
Ahh, perhaps I am in a bleak period and there is more hope and promise in the world that I see with my dim and somewhat jaded eyes this day.
Mahboob Khawaja, PhD
The Arab word’s a veritable mess. The cosmic leadership deficit, the absence of legitimate institutions, the lack of transparency, disrespect for human rights, abysmal regard for gender equality, and too much conspiratorial thinking make it impossible to come to terms with the magnitude of the problems. In short, this region will remain broken, angry, and dysfunctional until the leaders who purport to take responsibility for governing these unhappy lands get their proverbial acts together. And that’s … well, a generational enterprise at best, and I suspect something that will take a good deal longer. Aaron David Miller (“Where Have all the Arab States Gone” Foreign Policy: 4/14/2015)
After the US-led crusade in Afghanistan, it was Iraq, then Libya, followed by Syria and Yemen leading to Saudi Arabia under the guise of “war on terrorism.” The US Congress was powerful to sanction the 2003 bogus war against Iraq. The same fate could meet Saudi Arabia if it refuses to compensate the alleged victims of the 9/11 attacks.
The US and some of the West European nations have played a central role in institutionalizing the authoritarian corruption across the oil-producing Arab states. The new educated and thinking generations of Arabs must realize the inherent problems and make a navigational change and set priorities to detach the economy and politics from the oil-fed thinking and consequential militarization and interdependency on the Western nations unto social and economic-political reconstruction of the Arab societies for a sustainable future. The discovery of oil was not a blessing in its totality but its manipulation for superfluous prosperity and economy could turn out to be a natural curse leading to a decadent culture and civilization. Time and history shall not wait for a navigational change in thinking and actions but new generation should be conscientiously powerful and skilled enough in time management to share a new and moving vision and to plan strategies and actions for A NEW Arab world dedicated to informed and responsible people’s governance and living in harmony with the rest of the global community.
Robert Briffault, Professor at Cambridge University (The Making of Humanity, London, 1920). made the following historical observation:
“It was under the influence of Arabian and Moorish revival of culture and not in the fifteenth century, that the real Renaissance took place. Spain not Italy, was the cradle of the rebirth of Europe…It is highly probable that but for the Arabs modern European civilization would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain that but for them, it would not have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution. For although there is not a single aspect of European growth in which the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not traceable, nowhere is it so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which constitutes the paramount distinctive force of the modern world and the supreme source of its victory.”
– The Oppressed Global Humanity is Deprived of Reasoned Voice in Changing the Global Conflicts
Global humanity is continuously oppressed, manipulated, and victimized by the weapons of mass destruction – from thoughts to all kinds of weaponry. Global peace, conflict management, and security are neglected by those who were responsible for their protection and maintenance. Everything thinkable appears to be falling into disrepair and much wanton destruction is reported as non-living statistic. Most leaders operate in a vicious circle of making statements, tweets and speculative wishful overtures as if the whole of mankind was inept and inattentive to the catastrophic challenges of the day.
Good judgments require honesty of purpose, courage and rational thinking. When leaders talk about emerging conflicts and human tragedies, they pretend as if none had ever happened before – as if they never opened the pages of history. History offers lessons to all generations all the time. Human perpetuated tyranny according to late Professor Howard Zinn is “tyranny.” Insanity has no alternative rationale. Look how the UNO leadership and most global politicians witness transgression, forcible displacement, and the killing of tens of millions across Syria, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), and Yemen but do nothing except offer fake UN-Security Council resolutions and dubious statements about crimes against humanity.
Victimized mankind shares a sense of disarray and the loss of being part of global humanity. A view from afar only asserts conspicuous examples of flourishing inhumanity such as the proliferation of anarchy, violations of basic human rights and dignity, the use of chemical weapons, and civilian massacres. However, nobody questions why this is happening now after two World Wars. The world is changing but not fast enough for the authoritarian Arab rulers – fat from feeding on the oil revenues and stupid with mindless thoughts and behaviors. This is even more visible if you view them in the real world of political actions and the prevalent deplorable atrocities imposed on the Arab people. The affluent and oil-enriched indulge in conspiracies to assume power and institutionalize corruption simply to maintain a few tribal powerhouses favored by the ex-colonial masters managing the power centers from distance. Now, the Arab people have awakened after a long slumber of complacency and disorder. The problem was well defined by Shakespeare “the destiny of peoples coincided with the destiny of their monarch and nobles.” The knowledge-based, information age has dismantled some of the illusory borders and demarcation of nobilities and has challenged them to bridge the conflicting time zones between the palaces and the people with the internet, cell phones, facebook, twitter, and instant communication technologies.
The Arab Geography has No Proactive Leaders but Authoritarian Puppets Who Follow the Foreign Masters
“Washington’s enemy is an enemy that doesn’t exist…. it didn’t exist when Bin Laden was alive, it doesn’t exist now…. America is being attacked because of its foreign policy…because of the Saudi police-state, because of its presence on the Arabian Peninsula, because of its relationship with Israel…Israel as a country isn’t the problem. The leaders of the Jewish-American community in the United States who influence and corrupt our congress into supporting Israel when we have no interests there…. The truth is, American and Western foreign policy interests in the Middle East for 50 years have depended on the maintenance of tyranny – a tyranny that gave us access to oil, a tyranny that protected Israel and in the last 20 years, tyrannies that persecuted Islamists to protect us.”
Michael Scheuer, former Chief of the CIA Bin Laden Unit, “We are Fighting an Enemy that Doesn’t not Exist in a War that Doesn’t End.”
Arab geography is the by-product of European colonization. Historically, Arabs were nomadic people free to move and trade all over the Arabian Gulf Peninsula and beyond. Britain, France, and Italy demarcated the national borders and extended superfluous nationalities to keep the Arab people divided and defeated. While Islam offered the unity of One People – ‘One Ummah’, the Europeans indulged in massive cultural and political disruptive plans to ensure that Arabs remained fractured and would not re-emerge as One People again. They were used at will by the then superpowers (British and French) to fight the European national wars during the First and Second World Wars. Could history repeat itself as happened during the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution that Arab people might rise over the agony of intolerable limits of lost freedom and bloody authoritarianism?
The degeneration of the Arab moral and intellectual culture is well in progress. They are divided and defeated. There are no wars for the Arabs to fight but they are fighting wars on several fronts without reason- known and unknown. The compelling realities across the beleaguered Arab world demand new thinking, new visionary leadership, men of new ideas and plans to deal with the unwarranted bombing of the civilian population, wholesale deaths, and deliberate destruction of the Arab people and culture and millions of displaced refugees with nowhere to go.
The emerging crises clearly indicate the Western policies and practices aim to incapacitate the Arab intellectual hubs and limit their ability to create a sustainable future. There seems to be no escape from the current volatile political crises when Arab leaders act as if they had no knowledge of the impact of massive death and destruction aimed at destroying contemporary rational thought. Temptation and compulsion of evil embedded in psychological factors of sectarian rivalries operate in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Egypt to perpetuate in-house fear, death and destruction. After the end of WW2, across the Muslim world, there were two major political problems of global importance, Palestine and Kashmir. Postwar Arab and Muslim leaders neglected the imperatives of these core issues and their failure enlarged the scope of other man-made problems to undermine the basic rights of freedom of the people of Palestine and Kashmir. Millions of Palestinians were evicted from their ancestral homes when the state of Israel was established. Whereas Kashmir represents the failure of India and Pakistan to hold a UNO agreed plebiscite to facilitate the freedom of the people of Kashmir. After the unsettling Palestinian refugee situation, why are there several millions of more Syrian refugees across Western Europe? Who will deal with the pressing problems of life and death facing the Arab masses? Who will deal with the restoration of peace, normalcy and conflict management? Do these leaders have any moral and intellectual capacity to extend security and a sense of protection to the helpless millions of refugees? Rationality is replaced by manufactured insanity. As it stands now, Arab leaders have no other thought and priority except to check the depleted oil prices, and count the dead bodies – soon they could be part of abstract statistics debated and defined by the American and European warriors as to how the Arabs lost their national freedom, human dignity and oil pumping economic happiness. To reverse the naïve blunders for accidental change and to clarify a rational perspective for the future, this author in “Arab Leaders Waiting to Count the Dead Bodies” (https://www.
Once the Arabs were leaders in knowledge, creativity, science and human manifestation, progress and future-making – the Islamic civilization lasting for eight hundred years in Al-Andalusia- Spain. But when they replaced Islam – the power and core value of their advancements with petro-dollars transitory economic prosperity, they failed to think intelligently and fell in disgrace and lost what was gained over the centuries. They relied on Western mythologies of change and materialistic development which resulted in their self- geared anarchy, corruption, military defeats and disconnected authoritarianism. The Western strategists ran planned scams of economic prosperity to destroy the Arab culture with their own oil and their own money turning them redundant for the 21st century world. Today, the authoritarian Arab leaders are so irrational and cruel that they reject all voices of reason for political change and emancipation of people-oriented system of governance only to bring more deaths and destruction to their societies.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012. His forthcoming book is entitled: One Humanity and The Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution
Posted by admin in Mahboob Khawaja, OPINION on October 11th, 2021
“And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
(Howard Zinn, late American historian and distinguished scholar of peace, justice and humanity).
The UNO was evolved to act as a tangible force for change and future-making to ensure the systematic safeguard of humanity from the “scourge of wars”, global peace, human security and a sustainable future for all on this planet. Not so, you watched the leaders speaking from the UN General Assembly podium uttering third-party written words of wisdom and forbearance with overweening pride and prejudice in their own agenda. More often when they claim honor and achievements, they dip into crass materialism, ignorance, violations of basic human rights, disregard of peace and security of mankind, inherent economic greed and perpetuated violence against the vulnerable and innocent habitants of this earth.
Our contemporary acclaimed political morality if there is any to a critical perceptive eye leans toward degeneration of the humanity and leadership claims and counter claims sound irrational and deceptive in pursuit of unbridled egoism and political power to deny reason and logic for transformation of much needed change and a peaceful future. We, the People of the globe must realize the truth and urgency at a time of challenging transformation and our sensual abilities for survival under circumstances of extreme geo-political problems – continuous wars, COVID -19 Pandemic, climate change and violations of human rights and dangers of insane cruelty in policies and practices to endanger our own future on this planet. The global institutions do not operate on human morality and intellect. The disclosure of ‘Pandora Papers’ reflect that reality.
The current global systems of political governance and leadership are overwhelmingly elite-class oriented and all global institutions are operated by pre-screened elite leaders who are disconnected to any relationship to ‘the people, by the people and for the people’ norm. In a rational sense, We, the People of the Planet have become lifeless digits, numbers and seamless legal entities to be used when needed at the ballot box and nothing else. What has changed from the authoritarianism of Hitler, Mussolini and the European engineered Two WW killing millions and millions for their own ideas and ideas of political governance? One wonders, if the advanced and secretive space weapons will be the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in a next overdue war or would it be the much possessed nuclear arsenals to extinguish life from this Plant? It appears contentious to predict scientifically and technologically based criterion to illustrate a logical definition of the end game between the conventional age of life and the beginning of an unknown new age of something beyond human imagination and history.
Looking at the contemporary world of acclaimed democracies, peace and national security of the states, almost everywhere frustration, cynicism and political endemic persists across the board. Political reasoning enforced by unilateral elite judgments view humanity just in a passing phrase for noble ideals of democracy and systems of governance devoid of legitimacy and public interest. Global leaders speak loud as actors at the UNO General Assembly but lack knowledge and wisdom to understand the pains and anguish of the victimized humanity. George Floyd continues to echo his voice across the US mainstream political activism: “I cannot breathe… I cannot breathe.” George Floyd is not dead; he is living in the living conscience and soul of the masses all over the world. You know that “Black Life Matters” is not a poltical slogan but a reality and demand of human conscience all over the planet. Imagine, how 10 million people of Kashmir must be breathing under locked up forcible occupation by Indian occupying force. You won’t hear their desperate voices because of continuous lockdowns under the guise of democracy, security and bogus terrorism. Pakistanis watch them as spectators without any moral leadership. Syria, Yemen and Iraq are bombed and masses are crushed every day – what happened to the UNO Peace and Conflict Management responsibility? The new Arab Pharaohs kept in bondage by the American-European alliances offer no hope of freedom and peace to the masses. Palestinians are flogged mentally and physically by Israeli security strategies to disrupt their freedom and national identity. They are without any proactive or intelligent leadership to escape out of the box of inhumanity. Almost one million Rohinga refugees ask patiently why they were evicted forcibly from their homes in Myanmar. Do the world leaders care about the real human sufferings?
It is awful and a tragedy of conscience to be speaking of politics when mankind urgently needs an effective cure for the Covid-19 pandemic. We are One Humanity – natural disasters and fatalities know not any borders, flags and nationalities but surge like wildfire as being witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Not so, American and the EU still buried in the past would not consider Russian Covid-19 vaccine already prepared and administered or Chinese vaccine because they are manufactured by the politically opposing sides. Again political absolutism heightens animosity and hatred rather than human understanding and cooperation for a precious cause of saving the lives on Earth. To save life of one human being is to safeguard the whole of humanity. We are all born equal One Humanity:- the Divine Message of Al-Qur’an clarifies the truth:
“Proclaim in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created, Created man (human being) out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood, Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful, He Who taught (the use of) the Pen, Taught man (human being) that which he knew not.”
Leaders at the annual UN Assembly compete for fame and honor but share no creative or practical ideas and workable ideals to protect the rights of humanity. Are we living and witnessing another world of global redundancy and foolishness where survival of the fittest is granted but masses are denied the reasoned and legitimate proposition of a sustainable future? Were these not the historic factors leading to the Two World Wars?
Are We Witnessing a Decadent Culture of Human Morality and Intelligence?
We, the People, must be conscientious and attentive to a moral and intellectual compass of global political governance. We are moral human beings- a Creation of God created for a purpose in human life, enriched with intellect and wisdom much different than other animals moving on this earth. Our life, our rights, our dignity, our peace and security, our planet and our future cannot be traded-in at the UNO Forum. It is obvious that facts and truths vary in time and space, human destiny and casualty but human consciousness is waking up to the challenges of the 21st century defining the world of destiny and pulsation and the world of global conflicts and tensions- the world as we see it history linking us all into the nature of things of which we are an essential part; We, the People at the Heart of the God-given Universe, must seek our unity in changing fortunes of time and space or we could be destroyed by our obsessed ignorance and arrogance governing the global politics and human affairs. Leaders failed to lead us to any viable destiny for future-making. We must use an inward moral, intellectual and spiritual eye as being the Chief Creation of God to articulate an new culture of human communication to resolve problems across all the people and lands and to accord equal rights, peace and security to all, not the few arbitrarily conducting the UNO speaking forums.
Recall during the Two World Wars across Europe, millions and millions innocent civilians had perished in aerial bombings, political tyranny and forcible displacements. History is living not dead. We the 21st century conscientious and informed citizens must realize to eliminate insanity, tyranny of destruction, violations of human rights, ethnic conflicts and religious bigotry. Moses, Jesus and Mohammad preached the unity of mankind, respect and tolerance in adversity. None of the Messengers of God taught evil, intolerance and disrespect against the people. If we are witnessing it in the 21st century liberal democracies and immature leadership, it cannot flattened the moral, intellectual and political landscape as “No Man’s land” of any super powers or elsewhere. Violence, killings and maltreatment of the citizens cannot be transformed into virtue of democracy or clash of fanaticism disguised in any political ideals of the individuals, political agendas or so called leaders.
Late Professor Howard Zinn envisaged the future of mankind in the following words of wisdom:
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.
Posted by admin in Mahboob Khawaja, OPINION, OPINION LEADER on July 11th, 2021
“We Are Going to Lose the War in Afghanistan and it will Help Bankrupt us. One of our major strategic blunders in Afghanistan was not to have recognized that both Great Britain and the Soviet Union attempted to pacify Afghanistan using the same military methods as ours and failed disastrously. We seem to have learned nothing from Afghanistan’s modern history — to the extent that we even know what it is. Between 1849 and 1947…” – Chalmers Johnson. Dismantling the Empire – America’s Last Best Hope
After 9/11, America led NATO’s invasion of Afghanistan was a revulsion against truth as it was in complete disconnect to the living consciousness of the global community. David Corn (“Is the President a Pathological Liar? Bush’s unhealthy relationship with reality”: LAWeekly: 12/11/2003), outlines the compelling facts:
“Bush was more likely engaged in the deceit of triumphalism- ignoring facts and saying whatever sounds good to juice up the public. It was hype, extreme rhetoric, utterly divorced from events on the ground….a demonstration to Bush’s penchant to embrace and (peddle) self-serving fantasy over the obvious truth….We will not rest until we bring these committed killers to justice…We must, and we will continue to take the fight to the enemy.”
When falsehood goes unchallenged, it attracts shallow and puppets accomplices into the fold. Pakistan military ruler General Musharaf and many puppet Arab dictators were conveniently hired to promote the bogus war on terrorism, and Afghanistan was the first casualty of this wicked cruelty. General Musharaf and Arab stooges were shameful and disgraced to Islam’s teachings, allowing CIA-FBI to move freely and detain at will innocent people to fill the Guantanamo Bay torture headquarter. From an impregnable truth to a hallow hypothesis carved out by the then US President George W. Bush the “War on Terrorism” – was in his words a “crusade” against Islam. Western war history is full of tragic tensions articulated by mentally retarded leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair (UK) to avoid accountability for the happening of 9/11 events in 2001. Afghanistan was a well-calculated target to be invaded, bombed, terrorized, degenerated and destroyed for all futuristic times in history. To the US and NATO invaders, the war against Afghanistan had several strategic aims:
* To show the American masses that George W. Bush was taking revenge action for the 9/11 attack and killings in NY
* To make Afghanistan a scapegoat for the 19 alleged Saudi attackers on the NY Twin Towers
* To expand the American military control and to denuclearize Pakistan as a threat to futuristic American national interests
Comforting the major paradoxes of history as Arnold Toynbee (A Study of History) described warriors as dreamers devoid of moral and intellectual imagination when they come close to stagnation they jump to irrational outbursts and conclusions about the facts of life. Twenty years later America and NATO cannot claim any victory but were defeated by the Taliban insurgency to hold peace talks in Doha. America under Joe Bidden presidency is moving fast to withdraw its remaining troops from Afghanistan. Taliban excelsior is rising and nobody could predict the peaceful transition of Afghanistan under American or NATO’s occupation after 20 years of deaths and destructions. Afghan Government or Taliban or the occupying foreign forces cannot imagine the future of Pakistan or a peaceful tomorrow for the much-deprived people of Afghanistan. All public institutions of peoples’ participation and political governance are fractured, and masses fear their future. The American aim and will to destroy Afghanistan, its people, culture, and history were all converging factors during the US-led NATO occupation of that country.
They planned and organized Bagram Prison Airbase like the Al-Ghraib Prison in Iraq, and systematically tortured and hanged thousands and thousands of innocent Afghanis, Pakistanis, Arabs and people of other nations who opposed the US aggression. Dr Afia Siddiqui (Pakistan female doctor) and Mozamm Begg (British national of Pakistani origin) were no exceptions as victims of insanity and planned cruelty against the civilians. Guantanamo Bay Prison was set up with hurriedly bought Afghani, Pakistani and other Arab civilians and the Bush administration according to the US news media, paid between $5000.00 to $15000.00 per head for the first batch of 262 innocent detainees to Afghan and Pakistani warlords to populate the Guantanamo Bay torturing facility. American-NATO officials were instrumental for a wide range of socio-economic and political systematic corruption across Afghanistan and Pakistan. Facts and truth will not differ if there is any legal and moral waking consciousness still intact for accountability, Pakistani and Afghani law and justice authorities should hold all those responsible including General Musharaf for crimes against humanity.
Ironically, President Obama called the American soldiers “invincible army” who massacred civilians and cold blood murdered innocent children, women, and bombed funeral gatherings, wedding parties and Afghans sleeping in their beds. None of them ever faced any legal accountability for their crimes against the unprotected civilians of Afghanistan. American –NATO soldiers experienced the trauma of inhuman battlefield and many end up committing suicide- a chronic problem in NATO’s cavalry. Cyrus Massounmi reporting in the MRConservatice:5/23/2013),
Do hypocrisy and cynicism have another name? To invest in favourite perversion, torture, corruption and massacre of the innocent people happening frequently to portray sadistic political governance, and the world can watch the bloody atrocities with deafening silence and inhuman complacency but what kind of glorification would it produce for the generations to come to understand the norms of humanity? Under Bush’s dictum, dead American troops were transported quietly back to America and buried under questionable conditions. Deliberate massacres of the innocents need no explanation or psychological clarification, massacre is a massacre. Under NATO, the Western-allied nations use media as a weapon to manage innovative battlefields and defeat the perceived enemies in lands far away that the US military minds could not understand – its people, their psychology or cultural identity. To put a pattern to the context, first, it was the US marine’s photos of pissing on the dead Afghani corps, then the unknowing burning of the Muslim Holy Book Qur’an, and then the added new massacres of the innocent sleeping children and women. American history narrates that President Thomas Jefferson, the architect of the American Constitution had three volumes of the Holy Al-Qur’an in his library that he used to devise the legal, moral and ethical stipulations for the American Constitution. Does it mean that the American populace is not aware of its own recent history?
When rationality would replace the drudgery, hypocrisy of wars, and killings of innocent people? History will judge the people and leaders by their actions, not by their claims.
America and NATO must be Held Accountable for “Crimes against Humanity” in Afghanistan
We, the People cannot afford a slanted vision of today and the world of tomorrow – the superficial picture evolved by the warmongers. We, the People have lost time and opportunities for a planned change of the global systems of political governance – indeed a loss of time that can never be repaired for the good of mankind. One major factor encouraging the global superpowers to go freely and unchallenged out of their own hemisphere to farfetched lands and commit massacres and destroy human habitats is the obvious corrupt global peace and security system operated by the UNO. We, the People must try to invest in becoming a moral being- a morality of seamless international human bonds to ensure the protection and security of all human beings on this planet as One Community of Nations.
America and its European allies have executed war plans of willful and meditated destruction of the Muslim world disguised as “war on terrorism.” America and NATO should be held accountable and not repeat this tyranny in human history. The International Criminal Court (The ICC at The Hague) had several experienced-based complaints to be investigated against America-NATO for “crimes against humanity” in Afghanistan and Iraq, but Obama and Trump threatened retaliatory action against the ICC if it pursued the complaints. The ICC (Rome Statute 1998) signed by 120 nations but the Statute was denied the logic of universal jurisdiction over all states. A UN Commission should be organized to investigate and hold deliberations to make America and NATO pay for the insanity and war reparations to Afghanistan and some 34,000 civilians charcoaled by US drones in tribal belts of Northern Pakistan.
We live in One World and on One Planet – Earth. The planet Earth is not a dead orbiting object but a living entity providing continuous nourishment to human life and existence and all other living beings. Its governing laws are defined by its Creator. America as it appears is not heeding to warnings from God. When people and nations challenge the sanctity and limits of the Laws of God and violate all known norms and principles of human behaviour, they could well become an object of unthinkable natural calamities and disasters. The Holy Bible and Al-Qur’an are full of revelations and warnings as reminders to those who are wise enough to listen and learn and care for accountability and a sustainable future.
The Universe and all it encompasses are the products of God-given command; and do not operate in concert with man-made legislatures, constitutions, foreign policies, judgments, hopes and desires. It is beyond doubt that when aggressor nations challenged the sanctity of the Laws of God governing the Earth and the living Universe, and invade small and poor nations in farfetched lands, they ultimately meet their own end by natural causes such as earthquakes, flooding, tornados, exploding lavas, sound blasts, lightning, unthinkable pandemics and lot more. Are there any Thinking people in America and Europe and within the planning nerves of NATO to take heed from the prevalent facts of human history?
A long time ago, Eric Bogle synthesized the poem- The Green Fields of France and many have sung it to remind mankind of a just cause in waiting at the global table of the contemporary war racketeers and sadistic warmongers:
Did you really believe, when they told you the cause,
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened again –
And again, and again, and again, and again.
Posted by admin in Mahboob Khawaja on July 10th, 2021
When falsehood goes unchallenged, it attracts shallow and puppets accomplices into the fold. Pakistan military ruler General Musharaf and many puppet Arab dictators were conveniently hired to promote the bogus war on terrorism, and Afghanistan was the first casualty of this wicked cruelty. What General Musharaf and Arab stooges did was shameful and disgrace to the teachings of Islam allowing CIA-FBI to move freely and detain at will innocent people to fill the Guantanamo Bay torture headquarter. From an impregnable truth to a hallow hypothesis carved out by the then US President George W. Bush the “War on Terrorism” – was in his words a “crusade” against Islam. Western war history is full of tragic tensions articulated by mentally retarded leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair (UK) to avoid accountability for the happening of events like 9/11 in 2001. Afghanistan was a well-calculated target to be invaded, bombed, terrorized, degenerated and destroyed for all futuristic times in history.
America under Joe Bidden presidency is moving fast to withdraw its remaining troops from Afghanistan. Taliban excelsior is on the rise and nobody could predict the peaceful transition of Afghanistan under American or NATO’s occupation after 20 years of deaths and destructions.
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