The sympathies which the United States was getting from the world opinion have reversed their direction. After September 11 attacks, the whole world was with the U.S. but now all sympathies of neutral and impartial people in the world have turned against America due to her initiation of war on the innocent people of Afghanistan on flimsy grounds of targeting Usama Bin Laden without producing evidence before the world opinion and his 31 Al-Quaida and other military targets in that country.
After experiencing the devastations of the 2nd World War and the inhuman killings of over 350,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the American atomic bombs, the world opinion has shifted its prime target for peace at all costs. The anti-war sentiment has grown strong all over the world. The importance of saving American lives had led America to retreat from Vietnam, Somalia and Beirut. Saddam Hussain was allowed to remain in power despite his retreat from Kuwait, as the American soldiers were not allowed to risk their lives.
Bush has started the first war of 21st century with a big fanfare. It is serving as a negative feedback for all his aims and ambitions, which he wants to achieve by killing people he does not like anywhere in the world. This method of solving disputes has already become worn out and outdated. These feelings have led to the establishment and the promotion of the United Nations and have contributed to its success over its failed predecessor, the League of Nations.
In such an atmosphere of trying to solve disputes among nations through mutual dialogue and discussions and through negotiations, mediation or arbitration, President Bush has resorted to 19th century style of using brutal force to achieve his ends. This style would lead to increasing condemnation by the world opinion. History has proved it time and again that the increased concentration of military power in the hands of one country tends to make it behave like a monster on the world stage. Then the backlash against the use of such brutal force brings down the tyrant from the center of the world stage and brings about unforeseen damaging results for that country.
Bush wants to learn these lessons of the history anew, starting from his present kindergarten level at the expense of hundreds and thousands of innocent lives, since his representative has already informed the United Nations that the U.S. would exercise its right of individual and collective self-defense against several other countries of the world, as Afghanistan is not sufficient for quenching his thirst and insatiable lust for war.
Almost all governments of the world have lined up to support his war-mongering actions to protect their own selfish, national and parochial interests. All talk of justice and fair play, all pretensions of being civilized enough to seek peace over barbarism has been thrown to the winds. Common man is wonderstruck at the death of world leader conscience. While the politicians of the world have come down to such a wretched moral level, this new world order based on the whims of a single and sole world power, the United States, has started showing the signs of having become rotten enough to deliver mankind from its present ills, and of having become untenable to establish justice and peace in the world.
The common people have been left with no alternative but to revolt against such pro-American regimes working against the conscience of the people. The intensity of the anti-war sentiments will continue to grow and gradually the democratic pressures will result in throwing such regimes out of power. The political power will gradually shift to anti-American governments either through elections or through military coups.
General Musharraf has already started feeling this pressure. He had to betray all those three powerful Generals, who had brought him to power while he was hanging in the air struggling for his life during his return trip from Indonesia, when his airplane was not allowed to land in Karachi. In his absence, General Aziz had taken a decision and captured power at the Center in Islamabad and arrested Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan. General Usmani brought his forces to capture and take over the control of Karachi airport to let Musharraf’s plane to land, which was left with only a few minutes fuel before a possible crash.
He has paid back the saviors of his life and power by betrayal of first degree level. He has effectively dismissed two of these Generals, Lt. Gen. Usmani and Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, by superceding their juniors, thus compelling them to resign. He has promoted the third one to the level of a 4-star General, an ineffective ceremonial post, snatching from him the position of a senior-most corps commander, who could have again brought about the downfall of Musharraf on the pattern he had done in case of Nawaz Sharif.
These changes, soon after his own extension of term as the Army chief, portend the disagreements among the Pakistan Army Generals over his pro-American policies. The Guardian has termed these three Generals as Islamists. This became the cause of their downfall. They no more remained in the good books of Musharraf due to their crime of being Islamists. But is there any guarantee that this arbitrary action will not have its backlash in the Army rank and file and the junior officers, where still a lot of Islamists are still holding important position?
The entire training of Pakistan Army is based on the high traditions and Jihad teachings of Islam. To stop the production of Islamists in Army rank and file is impossible. The above three Generals were also the product of the same teaching and training, which has also produced several other Islamists in Pakistan Army. Either Musharraf has to get rid of all of them or find himself one fine morning out of power and behind bars like his predecessor Nawaz Sharif. It was the fear of such a fate that made Musharraf to make a pre-emptive strike by throwing the three most powerful Generals out of his way. But he will not be always successful in his plans in future too.
Similar fears are haunting the pro-American Saudi rulers as well. The bombing in Khobar a few days ago is a latest sign. The bold Fatwa against siding with infidels like Americans in their attack against Muslims of Afghanistan by a popular Saudi cleric, who has already tasted the rigors of Saudi jail sentence in the past, has become a headache for the Kingdom. Out of 19 hijackers on the four American airplanes on September 11, about 14 are said to be Saudi Arabians. There have already been attempts to bomb the American soldiers in 1998. A few years ago, some Islamic fundamentalists, who were all later executed by the rulers, had captured the holy Kaaba with arms and ammunition, planning to kill the then King Khalid during his visit to this holy site. The continuity of all such events show what is the fate lying ahead for the pro-American governments in Muslim countries.
This conclusion is corroborated even by writers like Robert Fisk of The Independence and Arthur Schillinger, a Pulitzer prize-winning U.S. historian. They have already warned President Bush and advised him to refrain from his war-mongering stance.
Among the Muslim masses, this action of America is helping to make Osama Bin Laden a hero. T-shirts are being made in Indonesia and Pakistan with his photograph and the Muslim youth are feeling pride in wearing them. Hosni Mubarak has no choice but to support the American barbarism, but the Egyptian Press is full of anti-American writings and reports and the students are demonstrating. Same is the situation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and almost all Muslim and Arab countries. The governments are siding with the U.S. but the masses are with Bin Laden. Iran has openly come out against American attacks despite its opposition of Taliban rulers.
This is the wisdom of an intellectually incapable cowboy President of the United States of America that he has turned the tables of world opinion in general and the Muslim and Arab sentiments in particular against himself by attacking Afghanistan with his expensive missiles and bombs. His Texas background is prompting him to play the role of a hero in a Texas cowboy film by demanding the capture of Bin Laden (dead or alive), but unfortunately his miscalculated war actions have made Osama a big hero in the eyes of the masses in the Muslim and the Arab world.