Round The World

New Delhi, 4 September 2013

American Arrogance

CHRONICLE OF WW-III FORETOLD

By Dr Chanchal Chauhan

Is the hostile attitude of the US towards Syria leading to another World War? While the question may seem outright absurd, the American arrogance reminds one of the theme of a novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by well-known Latin American novelist and Nobel laureate. Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The novel describes the murder of a young man, Santiago Nasar, an Arab youth who is targeted for allegedly rupturing the hymen of a girl. The murder occurs following Angela Vicario's honeymoon, when her wealthy husband, Bayardo San Roman, discovers that the bride's hymen is not intact. San Roman returns Angela to her family, where she is brutally interrogated for two hours. Under duress she finally points her finger at Santiago Nasar, perhaps to save her real lover.  Much evidence throughout the story suggests that this accusation is false. However, Angela's two brothers, Pedro and Pablo Vicario, take her word to be true and kill Santiago in broad daylight in a crowded public square.

The theme of this novel is enacted in the gulf countries now where US administration uses its military might to do away with those regimes that do not follow its diktats and resist the takeover of oil resources of their respective countries. Iran and Syria still resist assisting the US companies to take over their rich oil resources and earn huge profits apart from maintaining economic hegemony over the rest of the world. This is the real reason why US administration is adopting the same posture as it did under George Bush to take over Iraq by assassinating Saddam Husain, even when UN inspectors reported clearly that there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq even though the search team ransacked his bedroom too. But it was a death foretold.

Now the similar allegation is being propagated against Assad regime of Syria. They again tell lies to the world community that chemical weapons have been used to kill the rebel forces. The UN Security Council has not passed any resolution to attack Syria because there is still no proof to substantiate the allegation on Assad regime. On the contrary, there is a ‘proof’ that the rebels used sarin gas to kill the armed forces and to stop their advance. The Russian government provided the proof to the United Nations. The rebels are supported by the western imperialist countries with the narrow and inhuman economic interests for capturing oil resources of Syria if only the conservative communal forces take over the secular Assad regime.

But even after more than two years of internal war and conflict, the hopes of the United States and the West that the Assad government can be toppled remain a mirage in the desert land. The internal conflict, of course, is caused by the economic reasons but the people's anger is utilised by fundamentalist forces active in all Islamic countries, it is therefore fuelled by the support given by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, the rebel forces are unable to advance despite the widespread destruction and loss of lives.

The Syrian armed forces recaptured Qusayr town a strategic point near the Lebanon border, which had been under control of the rebels. Syrian rebel forces are mostly disunited. However, a considerable lot of its fighting forces consist of the foreign Islamist fighters running into thousands drawn from Tunisia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya. They are another version of the Taliban.

The US President exposed his intentions in June that arms would be supplied to the rebels since the Syrian armed forces have used chemical weapons. This is again a lie and cannot fool the peace-loving world community. The Syrian government has got the firm support of Russia and Iran. The Syrian government is not opposed to any peace process, and it had agreed to the talks in Geneva which was to be sponsored by Russia and the US. However, the Syrian rebels have refused to join the talks with the implicit backing of the Western powers.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey with the full backing of the Western powers support the Islamist network and terrorist groups. This dubious role has exposed the hypocrisy of the US that claims to be the champion of democracy and secularism and declares war against terrorist Islamic elements showing to the world the drone attacks on the Al Qaeda and other extremist forces in Afghanistan, Yemen and North Africa. But the very same forces are being encouraged and assisted in Syria.

The US administration should not forget that history is repeating itself with American actions encouraging and supporting the Islamic fundamentalist forces. They played a similar role in Afghanistan when the Americans financed and armed the jihad against the progressive and secular regime of Afghanistan supported by the Soviet Russia. The rise of the Taliban was the result of that pursuit.

In Syria today, fighters from Afghanistan are well-entrenched against the secular Assad regime. And the US administration is helping them. It ruptured the secular political fabric in Iraq and Libya and now these countries have become the breeding ground for the Islamic fundamentalists.  Iraq is today bleeding by sectarian conflicts and terrorist attacks which is the result of the American occupation of Iraq.  The American intervention has also plunged this region into the quagmire of Sunni-Shia conflicts. The rebellion against the Assad government is not of a popular character, it has clearly a sectarian character as Sunni extremists are enemies of the Alawite minority headed government which also has Christian and secular Sunni support.

All indications and postures of US administration show that the warmongers may ignite the third world war and the arena might be gulf-countries. Although the British Parliament has not allowed its government to take part in the war, yet it may be pressurised by the warmongers. The two world wars were fought for capturing colonies by imperialist countries, this time it may be fought for capturing oil fields to establish economic hegemony over the world in the era of the worst economic crisis. The war may lead to the worsening of the economic crisis in the poor countries that will bear the burden of the war. This is the time when BRICS must come together to save the world and its beautiful creations on earth from the devastations of war. Amen! ---INFA  

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)