US President Donald Trump demonstrated his self-proclaimed honourable title ‘Man of Peace’ by first taking over Venezuela and thereafter attacking Iran. When Venezuela’s president and his wife were kidnapped from their country, nothing much stirred on the international scene. To further prove himself deserving of the title, he, at Israel’s behest, attacked Iran. Does his decision show any respect for the democracy of which the superpower claims to be an upholder in the world?
For the first time in US history, a man without prior experience in public office was elected US president in 2016. His defining characteristics were authoritarianism and tyranny that he amply demonstrated by failing to consult the Congress before taking a major decision to attack Iran. It clearly supports the arguments presented by Harvard political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, who wrote a book, ‘How Democracies Die’. Trump seems to follow the book devotedly.
The writers question if they are living through the decline and fall of one of the world’s oldest and most successful democracies. They might have penned the book to cite some world leaders, without realising that there would appear someone among them who wouldn’t mind ordering his forces to kill young girls in a school of another country – taking the lives of 160 young girls aged seven to twelve years. Isn’t a medal of bravery due for this?
The US has spread its tentacles almost everywhere, especially in the Middle East, by establishing its military bases. America sells military hardware worth billions of dollars to Gulf countries, even though these countries don’t really need such huge quantities of military equipment.
The reality is that manufacturing and marketing military hardware are the main businesses of the US. It must either launch wars or manipulate wars between other countries to sell the military equipment it manufactures. In other words, manufacturing and marketing are the only businesses of the superpower. Reportedly, the US manufactures and markets 47 per cent of the world’s military hardware. How would it want to maintain peace in the world when dealing in weapons of death and destruction is its main business?
The predominant purpose of US defence and foreign policy, therefore, is to launch wars to promote the interest of the arms industry, which is controlled by the America Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC was established in 1954 and is based in Washington. Its sole aim is to influence the Congress and executive branches of the government in favour of Israel. The fabulously wealthy Jewish community, which manufactures and markets military hardware, contributes huge amounts during the election campaigns of congressmen and senators.
People usually observe the outcomes of events without delving into their causes. AIPAC, formed decades ago, has entrenched itself so resolutely in the US that it manages to dictate the superpower’s foreign and defence policies. By observing Israel’s influence in US foreign and defence policies, it appears as if Israel is the 51st state of the superpower.
If we study the American-Israeli attack on Iran, Palestine seems to be the basic cause of it. Israel killed thousands of men, women and children there and forced innumerable others to die of hunger. President Trump didn’t stop Israel from carrying out the massacre. Neither did the fabulously rich leaders of some Muslim states attempt to save their Muslim brethren dying from hunger. What a pity.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. He can be reached at: [email protected]
