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When Broken Promises Abound
By Hwaa Irfan
08/11/2001
Lately, we have been deluged by words from leaders purporting to be fighting the war on terrorism. Perhaps it is high time we realize that the promises these words imply are going to be broken. We will have to dig deep to figure out just why it is so.
Every time I hear the words in "our best interests", I see President George W. Bush's facial expression, which somehow belies his words. Even the supposed video-recorded words of bin Laden are questionable and seem rather like a man who wished he
had engineered and instigated September 11 and is now trying to seize the moment. The disappointing words of certain Arab leaders reflect how much they cannot see beyond their own self-interest. Perhaps all these words being thrown around in some attempt to distract us from the true intentions of those who speak them.
Perhaps the reflective words from columnist George Monbiot of the British mainstream daily the
Guardian can better illustrate. "I can't help suspecting that intelligence agents have assembled the theory first, then sought the facts required to fit it…I think we have some cause to regard the new evidence against bin Laden with measures of skepticism…" (Ratnesar, p.64).
Maybe Monbiot is referring to Uzbekistan, which agreed to allow the U.S. to deploy 1000 troops to be based at Khanaland under the pretense of "American support of Uzbek groups in Afghanistan's Northern Alliance"; or to Oman, which lent its airbases in return for U.S. military hardware; or to Pakistan, lent its air bases in return for lifted economic sanctions and a $50 million aid package (Duffy, p.37, 38) and assistance against India (Duffy, p.37, 38); or to Jordan, which lent assistance in return for help in a modernization program (Ramo, p.38 -42). The Saudis won't say what they agreed to, but they have made it known that they want Saudi dissidents to be extradited back to Saudi Arabia.
Ignoring the voices of their respective populations, what message do these governments send out to Muslims? Is this honor among men to be at the beck and call of an element that plays us like a game of chess?
Unlike the political game of chess, traditional chess does have internationally recognized rules and hurts no one.
A U.S. administration official described the efforts to get support as follows: "Wednesday we were still making sure we could move the money around and get something big… The public impact had to be large, so we went from numbers in the area of $100 million to $125 million, to bam! - $320 million. Let's do it right," (Duffy p.39).
The U.S. is giving $25 million in aid to the Afghans and the rest will come after the bombing as the killing with one hand and "feeding" with the other continues. If this is approach is acceptable to those Arab leaders it is no wonder that their countrymen, women and children continue to flee to Western shores. At least there are no illusions about what they will find in the West.
Maybe these Arab states should be concerned now because of some other recently uttered words. The new U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Negroponte, delivered a letter to the world body stating that "We may find that our self-defense requires further actions with respect to other organizations and other states" (Borger, p.1) The end doesn't always justify the means and I doubt at this point in time we can rightly say what the end will be. Without a doubt, the whole of the Muslim world has been compromised psychologically, emotionally and economically, and we are to blame for putting up with broken promises.
Suddenly, after all these years, the U.S. Administration agrees to settle $1.67 billion of its $600 billion U.N. debt by December whilst
"informing" the U.N. that its key role in fighting terrorism is to build the future Afghanistan government. It was on September 10 that Bush was warned that U.S. allies would view the U.S. as "an arrogant solo player who doesn't care about the rest of the world" if it didn't approve the new ambassador and pay its debt to the U.N. (Lederer, p.1, 2). In perhaps the greatest about-turn, the U.S. approved the appointment and agreed to the debt repayment.
Promises of building an anti-terrorism coalition have even extended to building other far-reaching coalitions. "What most people don't know is that there is a parallel economic coalition being assembled that mirrors the political loyalties and ambiguities of the war" (Barlow, p.1). The South's response to globalization contributed to the failed World Trade Organization economic program which before September 11 had almost died due to related social and economic problems. In addition, there is the U.S.'s economic downward spiral. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stated, "This president and this administration will fight for open markets. We will not be intimidated by those who have taken to the streets to blame trade - and America - for the world's ills. The global trading system has demonstrated from Seoul to Santiago, that it is a pathway out of poverty and despair" (Crutsinger p.1, 2).
The former Chief Economist of the World Bank states appropriately that, "there never was economic evidence in favor of capital market liberalization. There still isn't. It increased risk and doesn't increase growth. You'd think [defenders of liberalization] would say to me by now 'You haven't read these 10 studies,' but they haven't, because there's not even one. There isn't the intellectual basis that you would have thought required for a major change in international rules. It was all based on ideology" (Globalexchange, p.2).
On September 11, 35,000 children died of starvation (Barlow, p.3) as the world starves of common sense, respect and love. As Muslims we had better fasten our seat belts in the midst of this tornado, for only whoever struck America on that day knows what's really going on and we have been warned in the words of Ali (radiallahu anhu):
"By Allah, He will disperse you throughout the earth 'till only a few of you remain, like kohl in the eye, You will continue like this 'till the Arabs return to their senses. You should therefore stick to established ways, clear signs and the early period, which has the lasting virtues of the Prophethood. You should know that Satan makes his way easy, so that you may follow him on his
heel…" ('Ali ibn Talib, Sermon 137).
Sources:
Barlow, Maude. "35,000 Children Died of Starvation on Sept. 11." Globe and Mail. 10/10/01. 1-3. News Update. Globalexchange.com. 10/15/01.
Borger, Julian & Black, Ian. "US Hints at Iraq Attack after Hitting Taliban." Guardian Weekly. 165:16(2001) 1.
Crutsinger, Martin. "US Govt. Misuses
WTC/Pentagon Attacks to Defend Fast Track and New WTO Round." Associated Press. 09/27/01.
Duffy, Michael. "The Strategy: War on All Fronts." Time Magazine. 158:16(2001) 34-40
Globalexchange.com. "The Global
Rulemakers." 1-2. Global Economy.
Lederer, Edith. M. "Bush Moved Quickly to Pay UN Debt." Associated Press. 10/16/01. 1-4.
Ramo, Joshua. Cooper. "Inside the Hunt." Time. 158:15(2001) 38-42
Ratnesar, Romesh. "The Case against Evidence." Time. 158:15(2001) 38-42
Talib, 'Ali ibn. "Naghul Balagha [Peak of Eloquence]." USA: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc. 1985.
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