Reply to Ali Sina  
on

America: Neither a villain nor a savior 

 

     

[Ali Sina wrote] :

America is but one country in a world of over 200 countries. Like any country, America looks after its own interests first. In its dealings with other nations, it has often demonstrated a disturbing willingness to sacrifice human rights for the sake of political expediency and its own material interests. Despite this, can you name one country that would not, given the requisite political and economic power, act in a similar fashion? All countries in the world have been guilty of some abuse of human rights, if not have also engaged in outright genocide against either their own citizens or those of other countries. America is not alone in this regard. The law governing the International relations is the law of the jungle. In jungle each beast is after its own interests.

[Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya]:

This is an irrefutable argument. By this argument of course the acts of every genocide and cruelty becomes justifyable because one can always ask a rhetorical question "Can you name a country which would not act this or that way." Every country has its share of sin but that does not absolve any other country from its own dirty laundry. America is responsible for its dirty acts and pointing fingers at other countries won't help.

 

[AS] :

 {snip}
little children are all now dead. They were killed by Saddam's chemical and biological weapons.  Yes this boils my blood. Yes this makes me angry. But instead of  placing the blame and anger solely at America's feet for what  happened, let us retrace this history to see how it actually  unfolded. When in 1979 the IRI (Islamic Republic of Iran) took  American diplomats as hostages and millions of Iranians were  shouting "marg bar Amrika" , or death to America and were saying  "Today Kabala, tomorrow Qods (Jerusalem)", Iran was at the  beginning of a revolution that would turn it into a rogue nation.  The mullahs, or spiritual leaders of Iran, were not withholding or  covering up their expansionist, political ambitions for Islam. Out  of this revolution this new country, now the Islamic Republic of  Iran, became upfront in its goal of exporting this revolution to  other Islamic countries. In so doing this Iran suddenly became a  threat to the peace and the security of the Middle East as well as   to the rest of the world. For this reason the IRI had to be  contained or the consequences would have been too devastating. 

[NB]

You seemed to have forgotten who engineered the coup to oust Mossadeg, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran and brought in the brutal dictatorship of the Shah.

 

[AS] :

It  is true that America has supported many dictators and evil  characters. The Taliban, the Contras and the terrorists in  Nicaragua, were allies and agents of America. And the list goes on  and on. But America like any other country of the world is after  her own interests. America is neither a villain nor a savior. It  is a player, trying to make the most in an anarchic world. This is  the world we live in and this is our reality. If you don't like  it, don't blame America; let us instead change the world. America  is playing by the same rules that your country and my country is  playing, i.e. no rules. We are all abiding by the law of jungle.  If it is not America it will be other countries.

 

[NB]:

But currently the villain is America- so lets call it a villain and stop finding silly rationalizations.

 

[AS] :

However, given the fact that America is a democracy, it is still  better than most other countries. Imagine if Russia were the sole  superpower of the world? Do you think the Russians would have  respected human rights more than the Americans? What do you think  would have happened if the Chinese were the sole superpower? What  if an Islamic country had the power that the America has today?  Can you imagine the disaster? Some of us would be dead as Kafirs  and other would be paying jizyya as dhimmis. Suppose America  stopped meddling in the world affairs. What do you think would be  the scenario for the Middle East then? Madmen such as Saddam  Hussein would be allowed to engage in their reign of terror  virtually unfettered by outside control. Under such a condition  people by the thousands would likely be killed, on a daily basis.  Don't forget that this man killed more than 30,000 Shiites in  Southern Iraq and massacred innumerable Kurds after the Americans  stopped bombing him in 1991.

[NB]:

Every victor thinks of itself as the epitome of morality. What would have been the condition of the world had say Russia been the sole superpower is at best speculative and at worst is a red herring. Talking of the the murder of Kurds in 1991, I hope you know that America incited them and then denied them support while Saddam slaughtered them.

 

[AS] :

 Let me say I hate America's bullying as much as anyone else, but I  dread even more to think what would happen were America to wash  its hands of world affairs. Then nothing can stop the maniacal  Saddams, Kims, Bin Ladens and Khomeinis of this world from  indulging in wanton terror.

 

[NB]:

If you hate America's bullying as much as you claim to be then you would not have provided these silly justifications. Also do note that Bin laden was given training and put into Afghanistan by the US SIX MONTHS BEFORE the Soviets were to come to that country. Bin Laden was introduced into the country to fight a government which included women ministers. I think had America not intervened there Afghanistan would have had a government with women ministers and Taliban could not have assumed power.

 

[AS] :

 Calling America's military intervention in Iraq (both in 1991  and 2003), in Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan terrorism is like  saying that domestic police forces in every country are also  terrorists because they bully the criminals and use force to  subdue them.

[NB]:

In Iraq and Yugoslavia and Afghanistan (and of course in Cambodia, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Columbia and so on and so forth) countless civilians were indiscriminately killed. That is terrorism.

The solution is contained in the problem. The world needs an international police force. In the absence of such a legitimate, worldly acknowledged peacekeeping authority, America is forced to assume that role. This is on one hand a burden on America and on the other hand a source of resentment for other countries.

Why is America forced to assume this role?

Here is a set of references for you:

1. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn--look particularly for the description of how American's killed 10% of Phiilipinos in an effort to "civilize" their country.

2. 9-11 by Noam Chomsky

3. Rogue state by William Blum

 

Also here is a quiz for you

1.Which is the only country to have been ever convicted by the World court for terrorism?

2.Which country holds the record for violating the most UN
resolutions?

Answers:

1.USA

2.Israel