@@ Jew neo-cons - greatest con of all @@
Arash
January 12, 2004
Op-ed: Neo-Cons and the greatest con of all
By Farish A Noor
These latest security measures have merely confirmed the suspicion of the US
' detractors that the country is making a slide towards authoritarianism,
with its government showing decidedly fascistic proclivities
There is a saying that has been attributed to Adolf Hitler: "If you want to
tell a lie, then tell a big one." Granted that telling the difference
between lies, half-lies, half-truths and truths deemed too truthful to be
told is growing ever more difficult these days, but one still needs to have
the will and courage to speak the truth to power as was shown most
explicitly in the exemplary life of the late Edward Said, who did so with
conviction and not to mention a fair amount of eloquence to boot. But these
days the lies are raining down on us thick and fast, and nowhere is this
hailstorm of lies so strong as it is in the corridors of power in
Washington.
For it is there that we will find Mr. Bush Junior - the man whose claim to
the presidency of the United States of America remains in question for
many - and his coterie of neo-Conservatives concocting some of the most
audacious red herrings that have come our way of late. Talk of 'homeland
security' has blurred the distinction between democracy and a police state,
and the newly introduced regulations and procedures regarding the monitoring
of foreigners into that country had turned the US into the closest living
model of the Big Brother state envisaged by George Orwell. Not even in
Stalin's Soviet Union or the many petty banana republics and dictatorships
of the Third World (many of which were sponsored and backed up by the US,
mind you) have we seen the development of a state security apparatus as
intrusive and obnoxious as what we see in the United States today.
The so-called 'security measures' that are designed to protect the US from
suspected terrorists has underscored the belief held by some that it is the
US itself that is the biggest threat to fundamental human rights the world
over. Coming at a time when US aid agencies are bold enough to tell their
Iraqi clients that references to the Qur'an should be deleted from school
textbooks in the 'newly liberated' Iraq, the move to fingerprint and
photograph every single foreigners who comes to the country seems more in
keeping with the age of the Fascist ghettos or Gulags of Siberia. One
wonders what will come next: tagging foreigners or forcing them to wear
badges designating their alien status throughout their stay in the so-called
'land of the free'? Why not designate Guantanamo Bay as the only resort
where foreigners can pay to visit?
Repulsive and nauseating though the measures may be, the most nauseating
thing of all is the apparent lack of principle and guts on the part of other
countries to protest and expose the shenanigans of the US for what they are:
This is nothing short of the construction of an expansive police state
apparatus that will, undoubtedly, soon be universalized and replicated in
other parts of the world, including those states that have been roped into
what is called the 'coalition of the willing'.
Thus far the only country that has had the gumption to hit back is Brazil,
which has imposed the same restrictions and security measures on Americans
coming to their country. Portugal, Sweden and Denmark have also stated that
they will not comply with America's demand to have 'air marshals' on planes
bound for the US. However other states are more likely to meekly acquiesce,
fearful of the prospect of losing US dollars and much needed investment
should they take a stand.
But despite these measures, nobody has asked the most obvious questions of
all: Has America become a safer country as a result? Do Americans feel safer
in their daily lives? And has the image of America improved worldwide,
living up to its oft-repeated claims of being the herald and defender of
democratic principles and fundamental human rights? If anything, these
latest security measures have merely confirmed the suspicion of the US's
detractors that the country is making a slide towards authoritarianism, with
its government showing decidedly fascistic proclivities. How's that for a
diplomatic own-goal?
It is astounding, to say the least, that the country which claims to promote
and defend democratic principles worldwide and in its foreign policy can
think that it can get away with the things that it is doing now, all being
done in the name of the struggle for freedom and justice. Since 11 September
2001, the government of the US has trampled not only on the rights and
sovereignty of other nations but even its own people with impunity - and all
of this done in the name of 'national security' and the 'defence of the
homeland'.
In the course of doing so the Bush administration has alienated itself and
the American nation from the rest of the Muslim world and the developing
world as well. Its treatment of foreigners - which can only be described as
contemptuous, arrogant and based on the most selfish and short-sighted of
motives - speaks volumes about how America sees itself and its role in the
world today and in the future.
To cap it all, we are now fed the greatest lie of all: that all these
measures that have curtailed the rights of foreigners and Americans alike
are necessary to ward off the evil threat of the dreaded Osama bin Laden,
whose appearance on the stage of global politics to date has been little
more than a few random video clippings, showing the elusive pimpernel
trekking across the mountains as if he was being featured in some karaoke
video.
Can one man (even if he happens to lead a motley crew of desperados and ne'
er-do-wells) threaten to destroy the entire economic, political and military
apparatus of the world's greatest superpower? And can the mere existence of
this one man justify the host of repressive security laws that we see being
introduced in the US by Mr. Bush Junior and his cohort of neo-Cold Warriors?
Apparently Mr. Bush and co seem to think so. And if that is not the greatest
con of the twenty-first century, I don't know what is.
Dr. Farish A Noor is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights
activist
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_11-1-2004_pg3_4