anwer.mooraj@tribune.com.pk
One of the many things that President Obama inherited from his predecessor was the sordid melange that exists in the Middle East. At the start of his first term there were distinct signs that Obama would be firm with the Israelis and force them to come to some sort of proper settlement with the Palestinians. But in the fullness of time, like others before him, he championed the Israeli cause and broke many of the promises that he had made before the election. While leading the world’s censure of Iran’s attempts to acquire nuclear power he, as other US presidents before him, pretended he knew nothing about Israel’s nuclear stockpile. As a result, analysts in Pakistan do not see any perceptible change in America’s foreign policy or attitude towards this country. In fact, as a local newspaper wag recently pointed out, ever since Obama took over, the drone attacks have increased threefold.
A local critic has begun to wonder if there is some sort of collective proclivity in the US, towards mass violence. He probably had in mind Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the sheet bombing of Hanoi. In fact, a cynic pointed out to me that there appears to be every indication that Obama might be wanting to emulate the example of his predecessor. And just as George W Bush needed an excuse to snuff out the temporal existence of Saddam Hussein, Obama is looking for some excuse to give the same sort of treatment to Bashar al-Assad. The gap between hope and expectation, however, appears to be widening. The difference, of course, is that Saddam Hussein, a former US ally, was universally despised. Obama, on the other hand, is up against an intransigent Vladimir Putin who has, so far, been outplaying him on the international chess board and is totally opposed to a military strike against Syria.
An issue which has considerably irked critics in our part of the world is that while there is universal condemnation of the use of nerve gas, none of the world leaders appear to be disturbed about the other weapon of mass destruction, the nuclear bomb — now in the possession of nine countries, including Israel — or the fact that both Israel and Egypt also have chemical weapons, an issue on which the US is blissfully silent. The Israeli daily, Haaretz, recently pointed out that Israel is adamant it won’t ratify the Chemical Arms Treaty in the face of hostile neighbours. And so, we are back to square one. We have the zugzwang of the great 20th century Russian chess player, Aaron Nimzowitch. Whoever makes the first move will lose a vital peace.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
COMMENTS (5)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Melange : a mixture ; a medley...............what a cultured way of describing the s_ _ t p_ _t political mess that plagues the Middle East today and I apologise for my parliamentary language ( no its not a mistake - times have changed }
They have them,so they can use them. Their own or someone else really dont matter @csmann:
Thank you dear veteran thinker, intellectual and writer Mr Mooraj. Most likely anyone and everyone in the world knows how the US, UK and EU politicians are terrorised into subjugation for doing what they are doing in this matter. Everyone who wants to know more on this subject is better advised to visit among others : informationclearinghouse.info/ and certainly many do. @Pak Realism who wrote "We have gigantic internal problems of our own so lets concentrate on solving our own problems." Very much true. My question to the learned correspondent is " How many people have you come across, so far who have shown any interest in solving our own gigantic internal problems? When you do come across any, very kindly let this sinner know. Why? Here is a historical fact. I saw a documentary showing the relics of very advanced towns and cities created by the people of Iraq some 3000 years ago. Such towns and the irrigation system for the towns and arable lands around are the true replica of what can be seen today in Moen jo daro. Their water drainange system still exists and a man can stand in it but cannot move easily as these sewers are lined with cut stone on both the sides and certainly narrow. These exist also because they are covered by stone slabs. The archealogists and historians tell us that there is every testimony in the history of that time that the all the wonders of that time was created by those Iraqi people through nothing but self help. So we all can see. If we ever endeavour to bring in self help in our attitude, there is no problem that cannot be overcome by us through self help.
@Anwer Mooraj I respect you very much. However please stop pontificating on international geopolitics. We have gigantic internal problems of our own so lets concentrate on solving our own problems. We have zero influence on the international playing field and I don't want Pakistan to be an big international player.
But Israel and Egypt haven't used them on their own citizens ,or anybody else either.