The Age of Robber Barons

The plutocracy in the US and in the rest of the world is facing unprecedented tremors against its superstructure which it so carefully built on the backs of the common people robbing them of as much wealth as they could in past several decades. The epicenter of these tremors lies in New York City where over 100,000 people have come together for ‘Occupy Wall Street’ (OWS) protest. The people have camped themselves in Zuccotti park in lower Manhattan, only blocks away from Wall Street and have continued to occupy Wall Street, Times Square and other part of wealthy Manhattan on a daily basis since over four weeks. The protesters who claim to represent 99% of the population, essentially the working class, are demanding their fair share from the top 1% who have gotten super-rich in the past few decades by the most blatant money-grab ever experienced in the American history. The OWS protest, which was started mainly by poor whites comprising mainly unemployed youth and students has now attracted support of labor unions, people of color and suppressed classes who commonly see themselves as victims of Wall Street with the US government not only an accomplice but aiding in the loot. As Ralph Nader put it, “It carries the moral outrage and the moral authority of the vast majority of Americans who are excluded, disrespected, defrauded, unrepresented, underpaid and unemployed. The American dream has turned into a nightmare.” It is by far the biggest struggle against corporate greed and gross concentration of wealth the US has ever witnessed in its history. The OWS protests have gone viral and have spread not only to more than two dozen cities in the US including major cities like Chicago, Oakland Portland, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington DC but also over 1000 cities around the world. The movement world over is now being called ‘Occupy Together’ and is turning out to be a major class struggle against corporate elites.

The protesters have organized themselves peacefully and have sustained themselves week after week with thousands of supporters bringing food and other supplies. The spontaneous, leaderless movement is now widely supported and people speak, sing, dance, live, share and protest together. It is remarkable how a few thousand people are rattling corporate supremacists and their oligarchic servants in Congress. This big group of people is a motley crowd of all colors, races, cultures strung together by the common thread of victimization by corporations and Wall Street oligarchs. The protest, which was dismissed by ‘pundits’ as outlandish, incoherent and lacking direction has metamorphosed into a representative struggle of the working class and the message for anybody who wants to see and is not affected by intellectual bias of perfect ‘wordings’ is pretty clear. The message is for equality and fair share. CNBC tried to dismiss the protests as ‘aligned with Lenin,’ incongruous in the American context. The protesters, mainly youth who see no future for themselves in the current system may not know what Leninism is but are doing exactly what Lenin proposed. The long recession brought on by the financial sector and their extremely fraudulent and ponzi schemes actually ultimately benefited the super-rich and the corporations and have pushed major population into unemployment, uncertainty and homelessness.

To see it in economic perspective, it is worthwhile to glance over some numbers. According to a report by Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the total income of top 10% of the wealthiest households jumped from 34.6% in 1980 to 48.2% in 2008. The sharpest increase was in top 1% whose share rose from 10% in 1980 to 21% in 2008. But that is just income. The fraction of wealth now owned by top 1% is 40% of the nation’s wealth. That is a staggering number, making America one of the most unequal countries in the world. The wealth has concentrated in the hands of business tycoons, CEOs and financial sector. The financial sector managed to pull the greatest scam in financial history but still managed to get the bailout money from the US government. The rich were helped on the backs of the poor; it was a bailout of the rich from the poor. This is a legacy of Reganism in 1980s when he started cutting taxes on the rich and made policy changes to benefit only the rich. Clinton did away with welfare and with Bush-era tax cuts for the rich and Obama endorsing it, the policies favoring the rich further entrenched. This was too blatant for anybody not to see but still the working class in the US, heavily propagandized took some time to respond. But now we see the response in form of OWS and political pundits are irked as they are aligned to no political party. The Wall Street elites are hysterical. As Noam Chomsky puts it, “The US business class is highly class conscious, and their members have long seen themselves as fighting a bitter class war, except they don’t want anybody else to know about it.” Now that the war has come out in open, plutocrats have panicked.

Despite being a beacon of capitalist society, modern American history is fraught with class wars. It has been dormant since the 1930s but the current turmoils in the US (labor protests in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania etc.), especially the protests around Wall Street show clear signs of brewing class struggle. Class warfares are manifested in many rebellions and mutinies that started occurring in the colonial America before the American Revolution in 1776. This is excluding the struggles between American Indians and English colonists and rebellions against slavery which was quite systematically crushed. It was the poor whites who emigrated from Europe to escape economic hardships that often revolted against rich land owners and propertied class. Among the many examples that can be cited, one of the major ones was Bacon uprising of Virginia in 1676, where the poor whites rose up against rich colonists who had grabbed and controlled most of the land and resources. This rebellion later attracted blacks and other groups. Class lines were deeply drawn in colonial America which often resulted in violent clashes between rich and poor. This gave the founding fathers of America who were extremely wealthy land owners a lesson in protecting their property and subverting class warfare which could have been ultimately detrimental to their interests. They invented a clever tool of liberty, equality and democracy which could unite just enough poor whites to fight England but maintain the status quo of slavery and inequality. With this tool, the ruling elites allowed a middle business class to develop which acted as a buffer between them and the very poor. The tool has worked wonderfully over two hundred years since the founding of the United States.

It was this business middle class which expanded and grew over decades, though social injustice, slavery and inequality was maintained and guarded quite carefully. Any uprising since the American Revolution was more or less deemed unlawful and was brutally crushed. In the words of Samuel Adams, “treason against a king might be pardoned but the man who dares rebel against the laws of the republic ought to suffer death.” The Revolution led to a Republic in which revolution was banned. The protection of business class by the ruling elites ushered the Age of Robber Barons in early 19th century when the American business and finance gained wealth and power through most unethical means. It has continued till date. The fear that the poor would demand a share from the rich was the basis on which the constitution was written. The constitution was crafted to protect property which about a third of the population had, little or excess. The gap between rich and poor was maintained and hence the class wars. The rebellious energy of people had to be absorbed to continue a class based society which was projected by its leaders as classless society with ‘equal’ rights and freedom. The rebellious energy came to be partially absorbed by ‘wars.’ “I should welcome any war, for I think this country needs one,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt in 1897 who went on to became the President of the United States. A heady mix of nationalism and capitalism gave rise to a ‘War Nation,’ which sealed imperialism as a policy with Monroe Doctrine of continuous expansion and ‘natural right’ to western hemisphere.

The ‘war nation’ profited the elite, who reaped profits from foreign markets, filled their coffers, but allowed the poor to toil and barely survive. The revenue from taxes went into war, leading the country into cycles of recessions, also inherent in capitalism which so much relies on militarism. The innumerable wars the US waged can be directly linked to recessions. Major troubles were witnessed in 1890s when the labor clashed with the rich. The Great Depression of 1930s brought forth class riots and growth of strong labor unions which ultimately led to the ‘New Deal,’ literally forced by people. The communist movement played a crucial role in organizing and galvanizing labor movements. It saw its crescendo in 1960s in the wake of Vietnam War when some benefits and welfare was extracted from the ruling elites. Post-war period was calm, when due to progressive policies wealth was shared in the middle class. However, Reagan, in 1980s, set on a path of reversing a welfare society. Bill Clinton took away welfare and Obama has gone after social security and medicare while waging three major wars and several small skirmishes. The ‘war nation’ remains in force benefitting the rich and the corporations, while the country reels under recession.

What we see in the OWS protests is a continuation of the trajectory of class struggles which has been a historical driving force in the US polity. Seeing this struggle in historical perspective brings out similarities to earlier struggles that are quite striking. The intellectuals like Cornel West, Slavoj Zizek, Naomi Klein and others have now thrown their weight behind these protesters who at the moment don’t seem to budge unless some systemic change is initiated. Nobody knows where it will go but the protests have been welcomed all over the world especially in Europe where similar struggles like against austerity measures have been going on since quite some time. The rage of the ruling elites over these protests is reflected in the police brutality when peaceful protesters were corralled, shoved to the ground and pepper-sprayed without any imaginable provocation. JP Morgan gave over 4 million dollars to a New York Police Department charity fund. The police have been constantly looking for some sign of riot, but the protesters have been tenaciously non-violent and peaceful denying them any opportunity of foul play. Still, over 700 protesters were arrested in one day in a march on Brooklyn Bridge in New York. More were arrested in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. The arrests, harassment by police has continued but the still people are traveling from all over the country and joining in the protest. The disenchanted youth has laid bare the ugly face of corporate America who have displayed their sole interest in accruing profits with minimal or no regard for human life and misery.

The corporations are sitting on over three trillion dollars in cash and the profits of many, especially oil and financial sector have been unprecedented. This really cuts through the charade of the country being broke and downgraded by S&P over debt payments. The US is definitely not broke as the ‘eminent economists’ have pointed out, but the money and wealth have become so highly concentrated that even champions of ‘free market’ like Milton Friedman might wonder to the extent, the oligarchic, crony-capitalist and imperialist system has gone to rob the people. The difference between the rich and poor today is unprecedented and unparalleled in the American history. In 1960s, when the rich paid around 90% in highest marginal tax rates; today they pay less than 30% in highest marginal tax rates. The focused and blatant robbery, especially for past 30 years has finally roused the working class. One of the placards on Wall Street says, “It’s not recession, it’s robbery;” which quite sums up the tone and basic character of this struggle. The age of Robber Barons has not passed; the robber barons have only changed their masks.

Cornel West loosely likens the struggles and the protests that have engulfed the US to Arab Spring, calling them as the US Autumn. This is right after about a month of labor protests in Wisconsin where the state employees fought tooth and nail for their collective bargaining rights. The disillusion with the two party system has never been so stark than now. As the Democrats resolutely refuse to be progressive on any issue, the line between them and the Republicans has blurred to a non-distinguishable degree. Both have proved themselves to be servers of corporate interests and as a consequence of it, people are left with no choice but to take to streets. Whether it is Arab Spring, or the US Autumn, or the turmoils in Europe, or the uprisings in Greece, Yemen or wider Middle East; this rebellious energy needs direction to establish people-centric societies. It can only be done with concerted communist movements which can lead the world towards a more just and egalitarian society. The first part of the twenty-first century is providing opportunities very similar to the ones in the first part of twentieth century, it’s déjà vu, a second chance, to re-build a better world, which the progressive and left forces should not miss at any cost. The grounds are increasingly becoming ripe worldwide for social transformation and it provides a definite window to get past the age of Robber Barons to more equitable and just societies.

Underlying Dissensions

The color of Europe has changed; it is no more pale white but has many more hues now. The demographics has changed. The erstwhile colonial countries like Britain, France, Spain and Portugal were one of the first to experience this change in demographics as people from their colonies started settling down there. Northern Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries were slow in experiencing such change. Though the diversity was recognized, the process of assimilation of immigrant population never really took place. Different races, culture, ethnic groups co-existed but never truly integrated with each other. That is one of the primary reasons why Europe sees separatist movements all over and so many countries including the former Soviet Union broke down into many smaller countries. India, where a multitude of races, castes, cultures and religions have co-existed is still rife with rampant racism, casteism, communalism, regionalism, bloated cultural identities, class differences, which are all evidences that despite living together for centuries, we are not truly integrated. Creation of different states in India can be seen as a local parallel to the creation of countries in Europe. The dominant race and class was always able to suppress and subjugate the weaker class and separatist movements sprouted as a reaction to that reinforcing their own identities. But we have learnt to exist together, exist with people who might be different from us, accepting different cultures as part of our own existence and in the process becoming multicultural societies. We have gained this wisdom after many wars, in-fighting, occupations, colonialism, and human catastrophe. With the world shrunk with technology, most societies are multicultural with disparate groups existing within its folds.

This multiculturalism is seen as a threat by people like Anders Behring Breivik for whom ‘homogeneity’ is at stake. This is more true for Scandinavian countries who have been tolerant but ‘homogeneous’ societies. Breivik, who went on a killing spree, gunned down 76 people in Norway (68 on an island in Norway and 8 in Oslo) mostly in a youth camp of the ruling Labor party. Breivik wrote a 1500 page manifesto which he calls “A European Declaration of Independence.” It is filled with right wing hate rhetoric and blames Muslims, Marxists, multiculturalists and feminist women for the decline of the ‘old Europe.’ Conservatives condemned the violence but came out to defend Breivik’s manifesto and his basic philosophy of hate. In his manifesto, Breivik draws inspiration from several right wing groups in the US and Europe, refers to the right wing Hindu nationalists and actually praises the extreme anti-Muslim Hindutva ideology of RSS/BJP. The undertone is of fascism which rides on false fears and preys on economic deprivation and hardship when people are desperate to survive. People like Breivik fear Muslim takeover of Norway when Muslim population in Norway is only 3% and most of them speak fluent Norwegian. It is instructive to reflect on Nazi Germany where economic hardships led to the success of extreme demagoguery resulting in irrational hatred against Jews. Breivik by no means is alone or isolated in this extreme ideology. The far right nationalist and anti-immigrant parties in Norway receive more than 22 percent of votes. The figure is 29 percent in Switzerland and 19 percent in Finland with countries like Belgium, France, Italy, Denmark and Austria around 10 percent. Similar to the US, the far right, ultra-nationalist, fascist groups are on the rise in Europe. The myth of ‘white Christian nation’ is under threat; it is a reflection of deep seated resentment against non-white cultures and races. One of the more famous Norwegians, Stieg Larsson, of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ fame spent his lifetime researching right-wing groups in Norway and Europe and expressed deep concerns for this trend. He edited ‘Expo’ that routinely published his findings.

The fawning corporate media immediately jumped at the conclusion that the attacks must have been carried out by Al-Qaeda or other extremist Islamist groups and was another heinous terrorist attack. Among others, Jennifer Rubin of ‘Washington Post’ wrote that “it’s a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too expensive to wage a war against jihadists.” It is important to note that according to Europol, between 2006 and 2008, only 0.4 percent of terrorist attacks in Europe were from the Islamist groups. The lion’s share (85 percent) of such attacks goes to the separatist groups. However, when Breivik’s identity was discovered, the entire episode fell off their radars. Had Breivik turned out to be a Muslim, he would have been ‘unanimously’ accepted as a terrorist. But for a Christian like Breivik, the attacks were no longer terrorist attacks but the attacks of a madman (a Hindu terrorist likewise is unthinkable). Though Breivik had fantasies of being a Knights Templar crusader who along with other anti-immigrant groups would seize power in Europe through coups d'etat; Breivik, by no standards is a madman. This is only a manifestation of his ultra-religious, medieval, right wing ideology and is particularly a vile strain of that trend. If he is a madman, then everybody on the extreme right must be put in asylum and should not be allowed any public space in any form, let alone practicing active politics. The kingpin is always more responsible than his hit man and so is the case here. Breivik was just a hit man who got deeply affected with the flagrant hate rhetoric of right wing groups and parties. People like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Robert Spencer, Pat Buchanan of ‘The American Conservative;’ and organizations like ‘The Family,’ an American Christian Right group with the idea of founding a Christian government and a Christian nation critically affected Breivik’s thought process.

If Breivik is no longer a terrorist, then the question arises as to who is a terrorist? Is the definition come to be attached to the religious, racial identity of a person? Is indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians not an act of terrorism? A stray rocket fired by Hamas which often misses its target is considered an act of terrorism but not targeted bombing of Palestinians by Israelis. More than half million civilians dead in Iraq is not considered an act of terrorism; nor are the night raids and incessant killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When propped dictators in African continent brutalize their own populations, slaughtering people at will; that is not terrorism. The acts of violence by state against its own citizens, India being one of the shining examples with its record in Kashmir, Gujarat or against tribals, where thousands have died at the hands of armed forces and law enforcement agencies is again not an act of terrorism. When people are terrorized by genocide to vote for their own tormentor, is that not an act of terrorism and the tormentor a terrorist? The term ‘terrorist’ has come to be selective, conveniently employed in perspective and distorted by the powerful class to meet propagandist ends.

With such growing trends, a society must not succumb to misrepresentations and demagoguery. We must ensure that the economic depression worldwide does not result in repeating of the worst times of human history and any such trend must be nipped in the bud.

The Empire Strikes Back

The lust for blood is partially satiated. Osama-bin-Laden was shot at point blank range by the US Special Forces called Navy Seals in his mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan in front of his young daughter and one of his many wives. He was sick and almost immobile. The news sent many Americans in frenzy who poured on streets heady with vicarious feeling of power and dominance. Ground zero swelled with people with many flexing their muscles and chanting U-S-A, it was a revenge justified. The mainstream media covered the event with great enthusiasm and euphoria with ‘experts’ elated at the unique feat of killing one unarmed man. You can run but you cannot hide, the Empire sooner or later will hunt you down. Justice is now an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, blood for blood and lives for lives. We have receded into dark Middle Ages. The rule of law is only for the weak and powerless, it does not apply to the all powerful, highly militarized Empire and its cronies. The Empire can invade your land, kill people at will, take all resources and occupy as it pleases. In our unprecedented unipolar world, the Empire has assumed the role of world police whose aim is not to apprehend and bring the guilty to justice but to kill. As Chris Hedges, in his latest book The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress that explores the problems of a crumbling Empire, writes, “we have become the monsters that we fight." The blood is going to continue to spill.

It was an ideal moment for proponents of torture to resurface trying to redeem themselves by linking enhanced interrogation techniques to assassination of Osama-bin-Laden. This view is however widely discredited not only by some former and current FBI interrogators but also war mongers like John McCain who was himself tortured during Vietnam War. His personal experience only made him see the other side, a common syndrome with people on the right. In fact many in the intelligence community argued that it took so long because torture is counter-productive and hardens people psychologically to not reveal any information or at best to give false information. It was only through conventional psychological techniques of interrogation that led to Osama-bin-Laden. The hawks however never relent; with amazing persistence they propagate their fascist agendas. The result of all this ‘intelligence’ was targeted assassination and not a fair court of trial. Though mainstream America saw killing of Osama-bin-Laden as justice delivered, most of the Muslim and Arab world saw it as another instance of deep atrocity and felt deeply offended when Osama’s body was dumped in the ocean and was called a ‘deep sea burial.’

It has never been credibly proven that al Qaeda carried the 9/11 attacks, neither did al Qaeda ever own responsibility. A year later after 9/11, the FBI even after most intensive investigation had no hard evidence that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan; there was only a ‘belief.’ Noam Chomsky in his article on bin Laden’s death notes that, “What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t know eight months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have.” After the killing, Obama in his White House address proudly owned the event and mentioned how al Qaeda was behind 9/11 and justice was duly served. The Master of Deception was again at his rhetorical best, presenting a lie as truth. Obama has embraced Bush's doctrine that nations that harbor terrorists open themselves to invasion and destruction. Following the logic, the U.S. is one of those nations. If bin Laden was a criminal and “inspired attacks of 9/11” as the right wing columnist Thomas Friedman put it in his NYT column, then by that standards Bush and Obama overshadow bin Laden in criminality by huge proportions. Osama-bin-Laden was at best a ‘suspect,’ whereas the former are directly responsible for over a million lives in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Should they be dealt in the same way? Or probably in some way worse, given their magnitude of criminality? Noam Chomsky quotes in his article The Nuremberg Tribunal for Nazis that “the ‘decider’ who gave the orders to commit the supreme international crime differs only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” If bin Laden radicalized a small part of Muslim population, these two Presidents have radicalized and pushed American population to far right. Even Nazis were brought to the court of law and tried. There was more civility after World War II. Although this just adds to the long list of political assassinations done by US in other countries (e.g. El Salvador, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina etc.), it needs to be pointed out every time how international law is a puppet in the hands of the Empire.

The goodwill and empathy the US gained after heinous 9/11 attacks was lost in the unjust and monstrous wars it waged in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed civilians many times more than 9/11 and relegated these countries several decades back with destruction of their infrastructure. Now the war has expanded to Pakistan where before killing of Osama-bin-Laden, hundreds of civilians were killed by drone attacks on north-west border of Pakistan on mere suspicion. The Pakistani government as revealed by WikiLeaks remained fully complicit and allowed the US to infringe its sovereignty and operate and invade its lands. The ruling political class in Pakistan however maintained the anti-US and sovereignty rhetoric. The military and intelligence establishment of Pakistan must have known about bin Laden’s whereabouts but they did not let Americans know of it. They play their own double game and cherry pick people to protect who can serve their interest. Anti-American sentiments already run quite high in Pakistan especially after loss of civilian lives in continuous drone attacks and such incidents are only going to exacerbate the already explosive situation. But that is hardly of concern. As far as the corrupt governments and brutal dictators serve the US interest they are fine and are not interfered with dealing with their own population. It is only when the situation gets out of hand that the democracy rhetoric is parroted. Egypt is the most recent example, where the US supported Hosni Mubarak till the very end until things got out of hand. In Afghanistan after supporting a very corrupt Karzai, the US is now in talks with Taliban leaders. People and their will are obviously never on the agenda.

Al Qaeda has already been a spent force. Even according to CIA there were not more than hundred al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. Still Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan and deployed more than hundred thousand troops and expanded the war. He wanted to wear the crown of a War president; that shows how tough he is! Targeted assassination has become the bottom line of Obama’s war policies. Extremely unpopular night raids by the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan have killed hundreds of innocent civilians. The assassinations, killings and occupation are only going to radicalize more of Muslim population and increase the cycle of violence. Obama has scaled Bush’s policies to new heights. He has donned the role of the accuser, judge, jury, and executioner all at the same time without any due process. Cornel West, an African American University Professor of African American Studies and Religion at Princeton University and moral philosopher who campaigned for Obama but now nurses the betrayal, bitterly describes Obama as “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.” The cultural degradation has touched new lows.

Even if Osama-bin-Laden was captured and brought to trial, there was hardly any chance that he would have been allowed to live, evidence or no evidence. Saddam Hussein, the favored dictator of Iraq when turned rogue was captured and punished with death penalty. The ICC (International Criminal Court) is a partisan court run mainly on the diktats of the Empire. The international laws are again for weak and disfavored rulers and dictators. The ICC recently issued an arrest warrant for Gaddaffi and two others in Libya but they do not possibly have balls to issue such a warrant for Bush or Obama who are much bigger and worse war criminals. The hypocrisy is nauseating. Diplomacy is just a euphemism for bullying that goes on in international politics. Bullies are tyrants only to the weak and so weak nations suffer at the hands of the powerful nations. The reflections of the pattern can be seen locally, e.g. Russia vs Chechnya, India dealing with Maoists, Pakistan dealing with Baluchistan etc. Only popular revolutions everywhere can save us from this oligarchic-corporate-imperial-military juggernaut.

Hopes and Prospects

This is what Noam Chomsky calls his latest book on Palestine. It seems quite pertinent to extend this characterization to the entire world as we enter into the second decade of the 21st century. As we march forward, it is instructive to reflect upon the bygone first decade and learn lessons from its events if there are any. The world in the 21st century has not been particularly peaceful or prosperous. It has been marred by wars, deprivation, unemployment, homelessness, famine like conditions, accelerated climate change, increasing gap between rich and poor and an increasing dystopia in many parts of the world. The bloody first decade has seen hundreds of thousands of lives lost on the altar of Iraq and Afghanistan wars and thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel. This is not counting lives lost in skirmishes in other parts of the world like Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. While America transcends from Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ to Orwellian ‘1984,’ societal conditions in other parts of the world have deteriorated as well.

France and England saw major steps towards erosion of a welfare state despite massive popular protests, Scandinavian countries that used to pride on their social infrastructure are slowly following suit. Countries like Iceland too have been severely affected by economic crises. Many of the erstwhile USSR states have receded into third world status and are ruled by most corrupt governments. The fall of the socialist state has brought more misery and impoverishment than prosperity which has become concentrated only to a few. The torture of Western Saharan population in Africa by its neighbor Morocco supported by the US continues unabated. An aerial view over Western Sahara will show miles and miles of camps where Western Saharan people live with no housing, food or medicine. Moroccan army has used rape as a tool to subdue and torment Western Saharan population. In some ways, their condition is worse than Palestinians who too have a refugee like status in their own land. The latest revelations show the Palestinian population has been deceived by its own leaders in dealing with Israel and how they capitulated under US and Israeli pressures. Conditions in Middle Eastern countries have not been uplifting at all with propped dictators and regimes ruling with iron hands. Populations in Middle Eastern countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Syria are now out on streets demanding regime changes. It started from Iran when people came on streets demanding Ahmadinejad to step down. Sudan, the largest country in Africa is on the brink of partition due to severe repression of South Sudanese by their Northern ‘brothers’ since decades now. The referendum in South Sudan was overwhelmingly in favor of secession. Uganda’s anti-gay stance of its media and establishment led to the slaying of its prominent LGBT activist. Zimbabwe has no respite from inflation running into several thousand percentage points.

The Indian subcontinent has its own significant act in the world play of human drama. It starts from repression and killing of Tamil Tigers by Sri Lankan authorities which also cost thousands of civilian lives caught in cross-fire to Pakistan, whose one-fifth of the land was under floods and its leaders were conniving and indirectly supporting the drone attacks in their own territory. Baluchistan’s struggles have increased to get freedom from Pakistan. Bangladeshi activist Moshrefa Mushi remains behind bars as does Aun Suu Kyi of Myanmar. In our own country India, the conviction of Binayak Sen has made a mockery of democracy and human rights. Maoists in India through armed insurrection have raised the acute problem of tribals and their livelihood to the highest level where the Indian state and the mainstream media are in no position to ignore or shove it under the carpet. Repression in Kashmir has now reached a flash point and Kashmiris now demand nothing less than secession from the Indian state. It is important to note that Kashmiris have nothing against Indian people from whom they in fact seek support to address their long standing grievances and brutal atrocities by Indian army.

These are troubling but promising times. To see the significance of present times, the turmoil in different parts of the world needs to be seen in perspective. However gloomy our current times might seem, there is a very strong silver lining to it. If we compare this first decade of 21st century and the usher into second decade to the beginning of the 20th century, these troubled times in fact represent significant progress in human terms. While in early 20th century, most part of the world was struggling to throw away the yoke of colonialism, the struggles now are for human rights, dignity of life and better conditions of living. While 20th century saw people rising against foreign rule and getting rid of them, 21st century is seeing people rise against their own despotic regimes, seeking regime change and sweeping democratic reforms with their say in governance. The start of 2011 is remarkable for culmination of popular protest in the Middle East. As people poured on streets in Tunisia and forced its dictator to flee, it triggered a domino effect in other countries of the region. Egypt has followed suit with Yemen on close heels with these countries. Tunisia by many is dubbed as the first WikiLeaks revolution. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is almost at the brink of ouster unless the US comes to its rescue with massive military repression. Jordan, Algeria, Syria have followed suit. Popular protest in Algeria resulted in the end of 30 year old emergency rule in the country. Tens of thousands of workers protested in Turkey for labor reforms. The significance of these uprisings can be seen from the comment of John McCain who dubbed these uprisings as ‘virus’ that needed to be stopped. This more or less sums up the response of the imperial America who wants to maintain status quo and dictatorship in the region. Their fear resembles 1960s when the US attacked Vietnam on false pretext of preventing communism from spreading to other countries.

This is what that gives hope. The character of the unipolar world is changing. The cracks and fissures in the unipolar world are becoming visible through people’s protest and unrest. Two other major factors changing the landscape of unipolar world are resurgent Russia and the phenomenon of WikiLeaks. The subverting of secrecy regime by WikiLeaks that exposed thousands of diplomatic cables and secret documents has eroded the US’s so-called moral authority and has laid bare its ugly, imperial, anti-democratic and anti-human face. Its propped dictators are facing music from their own populations and the US is not in a position to do anything but to conform to the turn of the events. So are erstwhile imperial powers. The recognition of Palestine as a state by several Latin American countries is another strong signal of eroding US authority and rising liberal, socialist base in the world. Latin America is under the wave of socialist reform and seems determined to break away from the shackles of US influence. Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile are leading examples. France, England, Spain, Germany (old Europe) have already seen massive protests over war and several social issues like education, employment and degrading social services. Only through turmoil human society can and has transcended to a better, humane and more just world. Unfortunately, it has never been possible without sacrifice of scores of selfless people who have dedicated their lives for the cause. These popular protests are largely leaderless and are forcing significant changes in the power structure of their countries. This is a marked departure from 20th century rebellions and protests when leadership was crucial to organize and lead protests. Had John Lennon been alive, he would have been happy to see his song ‘Power to the People’ being realized in so many countries.

The financial crisis that triggered in the middle of the first decade not only reached its crescendo towards the end of the decade resulting in massive job losses, homelessness and general decline of standard of living in the Western world but has also showed the destructive and unsustainable nature of capitalism. The prosperity of nineties now appears like a far-fetched dream in Western hemisphere. The myth of capitalist prosperity is fast evaporating. This is heartening as undermining of capitalistic society means we are moving forward towards a better and more people-oriented human society where people can have precedence over immoral profits. It is still a far cry from Marx’s call to the workers of the world to unite. Today, the call is more relevant than ever when world has shrunk due to technology and people can stand in support of each other across national boundaries. The call has widened now to include farmers, artisans and other workers outside of conventional heavy industry. As in Egypt and wider Middle East, where people cut across class, religion and ethnic lines to come together to demand regime change and some real reforms, it is not only a victory of the universal brotherhood and rejection of far right and hardline religious ideology but also manifests the most real prospect for development human society can ever see.

The Sham of Democracy

Truth is potent, truth is dangerous. Truth is what most governments fear and over times they have shrouded it from the masses in the cloak of secrecy. Under the garb of secrecy, they have committed most heinous crimes against humanity with an utter disrespect for human life, values and dignity. WikiLeaks, a four year old online non-profit media organization undertook to subvert the secrecy regime that spawn all kinds of evils and expose all such ‘secret’ documents of the governments all over the world. More specifically, it undertook to disclose a trove of secret US diplomatic cables about 400,000 in number, highest ever released in the US history, and that has won it international praise and condemnation. WikiLeaks call themselves ‘transparency activists,’ and in the words of its founder Julian Assange, its Editor-in-Chief, only transparent governments can be just governments. Julian Assange, to shield its employees became the face of WikiLeaks and today faces one of the most vicious and malicious campaign against himself for publishing leaked secret diplomatic cables and documents which have put the most powerful governments to shameful embarrassment. WikiLeaks calls it “scientific journalism” where all their articles have proof alongside. While WikiLeaks has riled some powerful governments who want nothing less than Julian Assange’s head, many other governments have come out to openly defend Assange and have made a case for freedom of speech. Vladimir Putin ridiculed the US administration for its false pretense of upholding democracy and freedom of speech on one hand and filing a criminal case against Assange on the other. Ecuador offered an unconditional asylum to Assange. WikiLeaks exposed how the US staged an unsuccessful coup in Ecuador. It is interesting to note that though whistle-blowing is encouraged around the world, only three countries in the world have laws to protect whistle-blowers, rest all prosecute whistle-blowers.

The gaping hole between what the political leaders and governments say in private and in public has sent a wave of disbelief, anger, frustration, disgust and a deep feeling of deception among general public especially in Europe and Middle East. The US, which comes out as the biggest culprit and a pathological liar in the leaks has not seen as much of mass or media reaction as Europe and Middle East has seen. Instead, the mainstream media in the US (except NYT, that published the leaks) quietly deferred to and stood by the official line and made its contribution in demonizing Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. All major news channels have shown several American leaders (including Canadian) who have in not so subtle terms proposed and demanded assassination of Julian Assange. The US and other West European governments scrambled to implicate Julian Assange by bringing some false charge against him and what they could come up with in Sweden (under intense US pressure) was the issue of use of protection in consensual sex! It was not even a sex crime and Interpol was alerted for it with an international arrest warrant issued! Swedish law should become a laughing stock for the entire world. This is nothing but an extremely vicious smear campaign against Julian Assange. According to Daniel Ellsberg (of Pentagon Papers fame), it’s déjà vu; in one of his recent interviews he said that he was the target of a very similar smear campaign when he released Pentagon Papers which also included false sex charges and vilification. The moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the ruling elites and administration is obscenely displayed by their extremely perverse strategy to frame Julian Assange. They could not come up with anything decent or engage him in any meaningful debate. Assange was finally arrested in Britain but then got bail. Sweden challenged the bail.

The online community vowed to take it to the next level and declared cyber war on organizations that aimed to harm WikiLeaks. “Operation Payback,” as the hactivists (hacker-activist) called these cyber wars have already managed to stall the PayPal and MasterCard websites when these financial firms dropped WikiLeaks from their services. However, an executive of PayPal said in an interview that a US state Department circular intimated PayPal that activities of WikiLeaks were deemed illegal and consequently PayPal was forced to drop WikiLeaks. Amazon was forced to drop WikiLeaks in a similar fashion. The hactivists are setting up and alternative portal to transfer money to WikiLeaks from personal accounts; WikiLeaks runs only on donation. Christine Assange, Julian Assange's mother, was quoted as saying she was worried for her son because ''massive forces'' were ranged against him. Supporters of Julian Assange have been demonstrating for his release. As Reuters reported, WikiLeaks supporters wore masks of the "Anonymous" internet activists and an Assange mask, at a rally in Malaga, Spain. The hactivists have taken to strongly defend the freedom of speech and have changed the rules of engagement in this cyber war.

The leaks are so sweeping that the focus and the propaganda has been to kill the messenger than pay any attention on the message. It reminds of "The Emperor's New Clothes." The leaked cables show how disconnected is the opinion of ruling elite from what masses think. In the Middle East leaders of Saudi region have repeatedly asked the US for waging a war against Iran as they hawkishly see Iran as a threat. This is quite removed from the public opinion in the Middle East where Iran and also Ahmadinejad enjoys support of more than 80% of the population in the region. It is also revealing how some governments like Yemen’s, openly invited the US to bomb their own populations while calling the airstrikes as their own in public. Pakistan falls in the same category where Pakistani authorities supported drone attacks in private saying they did not care much about ‘collateral’ damage but they need to oppose the attacks in their National Assembly. The British government assured the US administration that no case for war crimes would be brought against George Bush or any of his cohorts. The war crimes were constantly shielded whereas the public stance was exactly opposite to assuage huge anti-war sentiment in Britain. If it was not for WikiLeaks we would have never known the death of additional 15,000 Iraqis in the Iraq War. The Iraq and Afghanistan ‘War Logs’ released by WikiLeaks have put in black and white how hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed in these wars; how many times, civilians were targeted under the false pretext of catching extremists. The ‘night raids’ in Afghanistan have been the deadliest attacks on the civilian population of Afghanistan where innocent civilians have been killed in the name of combating Taliban leaders. The torture memos of the US administration are out which are illegal under international law. The revelations have riled the powerful governments to no end especially the US. Its nasty, covert activities in Latin America are well known where it has tried to overthrow every democratically elected government but the leaks also point to its operations in African continent where the US discussed ways to oust Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The leaked diplomatic cables also show how the US supports extremely corrupt Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan (a former Soviet state which now has medieval conditions of living with rampant corruption, indentured servitude and organized crime) because he allows a crucial military line to Afghanistan. It extends to climate talks; the recent WikiLeaks expose’ shows how the US pressured poor countries to accept weak and flawed climate deals in return for miniscule aid.

Barack Obama condemned WikiLeaks in a call to the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, where he expressed “his regrets for the deplorable action by WikiLeaks.” He was trying to mend diplomatic ties with Turkey which was mentioned in the diplomatic cables of US as not a reliable partner despite Turkey’s almost unconditional support to US for decades. It is instructive to remember that Turkey had declined the US request of providing its territories as a base to attack Iraq, under the pressure of its own population. Obama expressed similar sentiments in a call to his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, where he was most forceful yet again against the website. It was President Obama who during his election campaign had said, "For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city,” and had promised end of the secrecy regime. But the charade, a mere political theater to distract and placate the masses wore off under the light of leaks. This is what WikiLeaks has done, to uncover the charade and expose the truth. The diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks show unequivocally that the new administration began lying to the public almost immediately after Obama assumed office, and withheld important information that the US public (and many nations around the world) had the right to know and the need to know.

WikiLeaks has eroded the (so called) moral authority of the US in the world and that has caused the strongest reaction from the corridors of power in the US. Ironically the Attorney General of the US, Eric Holder, filed a criminal case of “spying” against Assange when the leaked cables show that the US itself has been involved in extensive spying of international leaders including UN’s General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon. The US embassies have not only spied to get crucial diplomatic information but also have indulged in collecting most personal information going to the extent of getting DNA samples. The cables reveal that the Secretary of State for the US, Hillary Clinton and her predecessor Condoleezza Rice, both ordered for extensive spying beyond any diplomatic norms. Fortunately, some of the extremely ludicrous demands like of “treason” were not pursued as Assange is not even a US citizen. The cables show in the words of Noam Chomsky “utter contempt of our leaders for anything democratic.” Chomsky along with others has signed an appeal to the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard to give protection to Julian Assange who is an Australian citizen and not shamelessly follow US dictates. She now faces terrible opposition within her own party for towing the US line.

Some other countries and regions where massive corruption and injustices were exposed include Peru, Spain, Australia, Kenya, Germany, Western Africa and Iceland among others. Oil magnates of Peru were exposed, the false Australian law to control websites was exposed, Spanish government’s capitulation to US pressure for not prosecuting torture of its own citizen and death of its own journalist was exposed, capture and torture of a German grocer by CIA was exposed, and the list goes on. The leaks led to investigations and prosecutions of bankers in Iceland who caused biggest financial meltdown in Iceland. It is interesting to note that Assange’s arrest process sped up when WikiLeaks declared that their next big target was to expose financial institutions and big banks in the US. WikiLeaks has committed some minor mistakes and has taken some missteps in its short life span but overall the amount of injustice and corruption that it has exposed around the world in such short period of time is extremely commendable and shows its deep commitment and courage to stand up against powerful factions of the world alone.

The Indian administration in its medieval imperialistic style followed the US line and condemned WikiLeaks. Shashi Tharoor, former minister of state for external affairs, called the leaks "unethical and wrong. The confidentiality of government communications is the lifeblood of diplomatic comfort," Tharoor told a local reporter. He also added, "You do not effectively run a government if your own diplomats cannot report to their own capitals in utter candor." Other commentators however have called for an Indian version of the leak, arguing that the Indian bureaucracy was one of the most opaque in the world and could only benefit from public scrutiny. India was portrayed as a reliable country in the leaked cables.

The WikiLeaks expose’ has laid bare the sham of democracy we live in. Subconsciously, it is quite disheartening and deeply depressing to discover that what we knew all along now has written proof. It is maddening and revolting to know that we have been outraged all along, the oligarchs and plutocrats have replaced the erstwhile monarchies with a clever device of ‘democracy.’ The history and material realities have led the world to evolve in a way where few have ruled over many. Despite stupendous efforts in the last century by masses to achieve some semblance of democracy, the world still seems to be quite far from it. From monarchies to dictatorship to ‘democratic’ governments, the ruling elites have basically treated the teeming populations as ‘rabble’ that they have controlled with a whip. And that’s what WikiLeaks is exposing by publishing hundreds of thousands of “secret” government cables and documents all around the world. It is also important to note that WikiLeaks is just publishing the documents whereas the unsung heroes are those who are leaking these documents also at great personal risk. Bradley Manning, a soldier in the US army who first leaked all the secret cables is now facing trial in the US and credit must go to such conscientious objectors who are doing all in their power to stop their powerful governments and keep the flame of democracy from extinguishing.

The Modern Occupation

The Middle-East is burning; it is one of the few regions of the world including some parts of Africa that has not seen peace since decades. War, violence, impoverishment, lack of any semblance of justice has become a part of the daily lives of the people in the Middle-East. The core issue that has cast its shadow over the peace in the region is the Israel-Palestine ‘conflict’ which involves Arab population living in Palestine, Israel and neighboring countries. The ‘conflict’ is a euphemism for land grab by Israelis that started mainly in 1967 has continued till date. Palestinians have lost virtually all their land to Israel, they now live on segregated isolated dots of land completely surrounded by Israeli territories. The kind of aggression, occupation and mass-murder that Israel has perpetrated in the region is matched and preceded only by land grab and genocide that occurred in the Americas after Columbus landed on its shores. It is déjà vu in human history, where, now in today’s modern world, several centuries later, a similar story of dehumanization and dispossession of an entire indigenous population is being repeated and the US is now its major sponsor. It is compounded by the fact that it has elements of apartheid that existed in South Africa, which was for decades, again supported by the US. A non-militarized Palestinian population completely dispossessed from most of their lands, living as refugees in their own country and completely dependent on foreign aid for their survival are fighting this impossible war for their rights, dignity and sovereignty. There have been a few advances but mostly setbacks for the Palestinian cause in the last four decades and the world has effectively been a mute spectator. In the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict is the issue of settlement of Israelis in the occupied Palestinian lands, now majorly going on in the occupied West bank. West bank and Gaza are the only places where majority of Palestinian population is now cramped and that too is being eroded each passing day. A freeze on settlements is the only way to a dialog for any peaceful and meaningful solution but in the long history of the region, settlements have just expanded. A recent UN human rights report by Richard Falk states that continued settlement construction has gone to such an extent that it will probably make Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land quite irreversible. The occupation tantamounts to de-facto annexation of Palestinian land. Richard Falk also said that this undercuts the assumption behind the UN Security Council that the Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory in 1967 was temporary and reversible. An earlier UN report says that Israel forcibly denies Palestinians access to nearly one-fifth of Gaza Strip land and 85 percent of its naval territory. In 1980, Israel declared occupied Jerusalem as its capital, which has not been recognized by any other country including the US. The historic city has many holy places for Jews as well as Muslims, the latter much larger in number and it includes the third holiest place for Muslims, the al-Aqsa mosque. Israel has steadfastly resisted division of Jerusalem and continues to occupy East Jerusalem. With the far right party led by the extremist Benjamin Netanyahu now in power in Israel, hopes of peace and justice for Palestinians have further been dashed with evictions of Palestinians from the occupied East Jerusalem and demolition of their homes.

In mid-October, Netanyahu offered to ‘partially’ freeze settlements if the Palestinian Authority (PA) were to accept Israel (now most part of the region) as a Jewish state. The Palestinians rejected the offer, pointing that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was irrelevant and detrimental to the peace process. They instead reiterated their long standing demand that the US administration set the 1967 lines as the starting point for negotiations about final borders. The Palestinians recognized Israel through PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in 1993 but have adamantly refused to recognize it as a Jewish state for fear that doing so would prejudge the fate of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. They also note that Arabs make up around 20 percent of Israel's population. This is significant in the light of a recent law passed in Israel that requires all non-Jews to take the ‘oath of loyalty’ if they wanted to stay in Israel. This is also in-line with the constant denial of Israel of the ‘right of return’ of the Palestinian refugees of the 1967 war to their former homes. It sees it as a threat to destroy the state of Israel by sheer demographics. For that reason, Netanyahu is hell-bent on recognition of Israel as Jewish state which will serve the demographics by ignoring the Israeli-Arab citizens of Israel. Replying to Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official’s objections, senior Israeli cabinet minister Silvan Shalom commented that "it was unacceptable to return to the lines of June 1967. There is a very large consensus in Israel on this point." The ‘consensus’ is now routinely flaunted by the Israeli administration shutting off and suppressing alternative voices of peace like that of left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz who calls this a "major diversionary ploy" and the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot accusing Netanyahu of trying to "torpedo" the talks. The peace voices from non-Jews are nearly intolerable for Israeli administration. In September, Israel deported peace activist and Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire (she won Nobel Prize in 1976 for her extraordinary actions to end sectarian violence in her native Northern Ireland) for her ride on a humanitarian boat to Gaza. In her words, “There will be peace in this country, I believe it, but only when Israel ends apartheid and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people."

Netanyahu’s belligerence has continuously increased since Obama’s speech in Cairo when Obama addressed the Arab world right after his election as the President and showed a conciliatory gesture. Israel took great exception to the speech and since then has snubbed the US administration more than once following its own path and aggressively and openly flouting any recommendations for restraint from its protector (the US). Netanyahu in 2001 had openly said that “the US cannot come in the way of Israeli expansionism.” This attitude has proven to be quite a sore in Obama administration’s eyes. Still when President Obama made the Israel-Palestine conflict the centerpiece of his address to the UN General Assembly, it was only filled with hollow words and rhetoric like “vows to end settlements.” After a ten month long moratorium on settlement construction ended in September, the settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem resumed building new homes with bulldozers in action in the settlement of Oranit. The Israeli military reportedly also destroyed hundreds of gravestones in a centuries-old Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. The settlements have aggressively continued in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem in last 17 years since the Oslo Agreement. In this time there has been a 300 percent increase in the number of settlers and the settlements have nearly doubled. The settlers in West Bank oppose any freeze in expansion of settlements and resort to violence and terror if any such proposal surfaces. In early October the Jewish settlers in the West Bank set a Palestinian mosque on fire in the village of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem opposing a call for freeze on settlements damaging parts of the mosque and destroying about a dozen copies of the Quran. The Palestinian Authority condemned the arson but unfortunately, such acts of aggressions are no exception and have become a part and parcel of Palestinian lives. These acts connived by Israeli administration have routinely halted talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli administration. Any efforts by Obama administration to appease Netanyahu and provide incentives for settlement freeze have been completely ineffective. The International Court of Justice and endless United Nations resolutions have ruled that settlements are illegal and should be removed but the settlements have continually expanded. The settlements are only the facade of a complex and profitable system that includes checkpoints, road segregation, security zones, the ‘apartheid wall’ and ‘natural reserves.’ Palestine remains divided, segregated and deprived of most basic living conditions. The Israeli blockade in Gaza and West Bank has prevented flow of basic necessities like food, medicines and water. One of the casual activities of Israeli troops is to target practice at water tanks at the top of Palestinian buildings.

This maze of blockades and check points has for years gobbled the land, water resources and the economic space of the independent Palestinian state supposedly being negotiated in this same period. Nearly 60 percent of the West Bank and 80 percent of water resources have been consumed this way leaving Palestinians cramped and miserable in their own homeland. Any attempt to bring aid to the suffering Palestinians have been foiled by the Israeli forces with hardly any exception. This year is remarkable in the number of attacks on boats, ships and flotilla carrying aid to Gaza. Despite signs of peace and aid on these vessels, the Israeli forces intercepted such convoys and took people on board as prisoners thereby preventing any aid to reach the Palestinian shores. It is notable that even peaceful ‘Jews’ are not allowed to bring aid to Gaza. Jews supporting the right of Palestinian people are now labeled as ‘self-hating Jews.’ Palestinian activists are obviously beyond redemption. Israeli military court routinely convicts peace activists, a recent conviction was of Abdallah Abu Rahma, a prominent Palestinian peace activist who heads a group opposing Israel's separation wall through the West Bank. In late September, nine passengers on board a Jewish aid boat Irene that was prevented from reaching Gaza were apprehended by Israeli forces miles off the shores of Gaza. The passengers accused the Israeli military of excessive force in seizing their ship and the Israeli activist and former Israel Air Force pilot Yonatan Shapira said he was beaten and shocked with a taser gun. They were attempting to deliver a symbolic load of humanitarian aid to break the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. The Jewish Boat to Gaza was the latest attempt to break the blockade since Israel’s deadly attack on an aid flotilla in May. The attack on flotilla motivated British activist Patrick Audai to take part in a convoy of some forty-five vehicles carrying aid to Gaza via Turkey. The convoy, dubbed Viva Palestina, was also stopped and was allowed to pass through only in October end. President Obama had personally warned Turkey in August that unless it shifts its position on Israel and Iran, it could be cut off from future US arms deals.

The stories of aggression and brutality are endless and chronicling them and the misery and impoverishment of Palestinians requires volumes. However, just looking at the recent incidents as mentioned above can give some perspective to the unsuspecting reader, not to mention the carpet bombing of Lebanon in 2006 and massacre of over 1300 Palestinians in December 2008 for which Israel was seriously reprimanded in the Goldstone report, Goldstone himself being a staunch Jew. The Obama administration had vehemently discredited the report as being one-sided; the US was the only country protecting Israel. The so-called “peace negotiations” between Israel and Palestine brokered by the United States have been instruments of continuing and complete subjugation of Palestinians. Israel has never refrained from attacking occupied West Bank and Gaza strip even in the midst of ‘peace talks.’ Negotiations between two unequal parties cannot succeed. On one side there is Israeli government that controls the land, roads, airspace, borders, water, electricity, trade and economy of the Palestinian side, while possessing a powerful military establishment and on the other side is Palestinian Authority that has no military or any perceivable power and exists as a sort of fiefdom within the Israeli matrix of control. Then there is general public in Israel with a ‘consensus’ that has dramatically shifted towards right and on the other hand there is divided Palestinian population with total dependence on foreign aid and declining democracy and human rights. To top it, the Palestinian Authority is continuously pressured to provide security for its aggressor while leaving its own people completely vulnerable to any attack. A stray rocket by Palestinians or Hamas has always been responded with brute and disproportionate Israeli force costing hundreds of lives.

For a casual observer it might appear puzzling as to why the US would support a tiny, parasitical country very much dependent on its massive military, technology and economic aid when the whole world condemns Israeli actions in unison. The curiosity might lead to believe the role of a strong Jewish lobby in US administration, academia and public sphere which exercises this incredible control over the foreign policy of the United States. This however would be a case of the tail wagging the dog. It is a careful and well crafted propaganda that perpetrates the view that the unwavering support of Israel by the US administration is due to the influence of Jews in the US, Jews being in powerful positions and generally a moneyed class in the US. Contrary to the propagandist perception, the US has used Israel as a ‘wedge’ in the middle-east to serve its interest of exploiting the region’s resources (oil). Imperial powers like the US have no ‘permanent friends’ but only ‘permanent interests’ and the US is only pursuing its interests through Israel. Although highly unlikely, the policy may shift against Israel at any point of time. The apartheid in South Africa is a good example which flourished with the US support and aid but ended as soon as the US made a policy shift against it. Israel has served as a watchdog for the US in the middle-east as it was for the French and British imperialist powers in the first half of the twentieth century. It has re-paid the benevolence of the US in kind by performing most nasty acts and covert operations for the US in the middle-east and around the world. In 70s and 80s Israel provided critical support to apartheid when it was inconvenient to Washington. With South Africa, Israel built an electric fence along the Namibian-Angolan border; Namibia was a colony of South Africa and Angola had SWAPO guerillas. During 80s, Israel trained Guatemalan army when it was carrying out genocide against the indigenous population. The Israeli police joined hands with CIA to train Chilean torturers and other Latin American countries. It helped in proxy wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua; gave military aid to Taiwan; undermined Algerian revolution; the list goes on. In the middle-east it has been most beneficial to its sponsors; it has served to check the Arab nationalist movements. Israeli bombers destroyed an Iraqi nuclear plant when Iran-Iraq war was raging and the US was against Iran as the US installed Shah had been overthrown in 1979. In a myriad different ways existence of Israel in the heart of the Arab world has distorted regional development for the benefit of imperial powers. Most leaders in the US view the aid to Israel as money well spent.

The history of inception of Israel can give further perspective to the current nature of the state of Israel. Israel started as a colonial project with political Zionism at its roots, that took shape in the late-19th century Europe under Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist. In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), offering his vision of a future state; the following year he presided over the first World Zionist Congress. The first large wave of "modern" immigration, known as the ‘First Aliyah,’ however had taken place much earlier in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Europe including Russia. The Palestinians helped them settle in the region and mingle with Arab population. The Jews settling were not all Zionists and many were quite progressive and considered Zionism as a fringe movement. The early Zionists had considered several sites as their future homeland like Uganda, Argentina and Palestine but they soon settled on Palestine basing their claims on existence of Jewish kingdoms 25 centuries before! In the words of Jewish writer Erich Fromm, “If all nations would suddenly claim territory in which their forefathers had lived two thousand years ago, this world would be a madhouse.” The two Austrian rabbis who came to investigate Palestine wrote to the first World Zionist Congress that “the bride is beautiful but married to another man;” in other words, another people already inhabited Palestine. Undeterred by this the Zionists indulged in the racist propaganda that Palestine was “a land without people for people without a land.” It had striking similarity to Spanish conquistadors and European settlers in the Americas who claimed America was a vast ‘wilderness’ but at the same time mercilessly slaughtered the natives. A British diplomat at the time had surveyed Palestine and had reported that every piece of arable land in the region was under cultivation. Herzl and other Zionist leaders were aware that settlements alone cannot bring their colonial project to fruition. They actively sought sponsorship and protection of the then imperial powers promising them to support their interests. It was the British who played the key role in giving material shape to Zionist ambitions.

At the start of the twentieth century much of what is middle-east today was part of Ottoman Empire based in Turkey. The shameful World War I which was fought mainly to divide the territories for exploitation had imperial nations Britain, France and Russia secretly signing Sykes-Picot agreement for dividing the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of war. After Russian Revolution of 1917, Russia renounced its territorial designs and made the despicable Sykes-Picot agreement public. This however did not prevent Britain and France to divide the Ottoman Empire after World War I and as a result the French occupied Lebanon and Syria and the British occupied Palestine, Transjordan and modern day Iraq. In November 1917, came the infamous Balfour Declaration in which the British ‘legitimized’ the existence of a Jewish state in the heart of Palestine declaring that the ‘non-Jewish’ people had a right to co-exist. These ‘non-Jewish’ people comprised 92% of the population and were Arabs. After back-stabbing the Arab Hashemite King Hussein with whose critical help, the Ottoman Empire was defeated, the Arab aspirations of having independent state were buried and instead the region was divided into several statelets like Kuwait, Jordan etc. As compensation British made Hussein’s sons Kings of two of its colonies Iraq and Jordan. Thus, the British conquest of most of middle-east in 1918 and Balfour Declaration in 1917 set the stage for the Zionist project to take off. With the help of French, in 1920 Greater Syria was dismembered and Arab nationalism was completely crushed. The British saw establishment of a Jewish state in the heart of Arab lands of immense benefits to them strategically and economically with a means to control Suez Canal. It was under these ‘auspices’ that the project of Israel took roots.

The land for settlement was initially purchased from absentee landlords who mainly lived in Jerusalem, and with the British sponsorship and US funding, the settlements rapidly grew. The Zionist movement had a lot of elements common to reactionary, nationalist and fascist movements in Europe after World War I and it was amenable to British. Though Palestine was a British colony, a de-facto Jewish government was established in Zionist controlled areas. While there were inevitable clashes between Zionist leaders and British (as we see today between Israel and the US) but their essential relationship was of two colonizers, one big and the other small. Ben Gurion who became the major Zionist leader, proudly called the settlers ‘the conquistadors.’ The dispossession of an entire people was not possible without violence and Palestine was no exception. The Palestinians resisted the occupation. The most famous and protracted uprising (Intifada) of Palestinians during 1936-1939 that occurred mostly in rural areas against British colonialism and Zionist settlements was finally crushed with a massive British military force. The defeat and repressive laws post revolt left Palestinians largely eroded of their militancy. On the other hand, World War II greatly strengthened Zionist forces. The US and other western imperial powers hardly paid any attention to genocide of Jews at the hands of Nazis and in fact favored Hitler for their own anti-Semitism and smashing of labor unions in Germany. The mass murder and persecution of Jews made almost 400,000 Jews want to immigrate to the US but the US closed its doors to them fearing they would bring with themselves radical ideas of socialism and communism. As Winston Churchill wrote in one of his articles that there were ‘good Jews’ who were Zionists and then there were ‘bad Jews’ who were socialists. Supporting establishment of Israel as a land of Jews was a more convenient solution and though the US itself being anti-Semitic at the time along with other powers greatly supported the cause of Israel. It deflected the progressive Jews. The World War II left British bankrupt and they handed their colony of Palestine to the UN and the UN without consulting with Palestinians passed a resolution for its partition in 1947. Intense US pressure played key role in voting in UN. The Soviet Union supported this UN resolution 181 mistakenly thinking that Israel would be a friend, most of its population being pro-socialism. The basic colonial character of establishment of Israel and its leaders was overlooked.

The Soviet support of Israel was a death blow to Arab, Palestinian national movements and communist parties in the region. Despite owning only 6% of land and 35% population Israel was awarded 55% of the Palestinian land. 44% of the land was given to Arab Palestinians with 1% being “international zone” which included Jerusalem. It was the most humiliating and debilitating non-military attack on Palestinian identity and sovereignty and the declaration of partition meant war. The armed militia Haganah had already formed by the Second World War under Ben Gurion who came to be the first Prime Minister of Israel. The news of Partition delighted Ben Gurion immensely and from then on the uprooting and expelling of Palestinians continued with full force. For Israel, 55% of the land was not enough, and it immediately began military expeditions to seize as much land as possible. The trained Israeli forces defeated poorly equipped and mostly spent Palestinian forces in the 1948 war and “declared” their independence. The ethnic cleansing and massacre of Palestinians had begun and this was to continue for decades to come. Much emboldened by the UN’s decision of partition, Israeli raids into Palestinian territories resulted in villages being wiped out with unspeakable atrocities. The horror stories of raids of Israeli forces are well documented. The slang terms of “Iron Wall”, i.e. brute force and “transfers” meaning expelling of Palestinians became corner stones of Israeli policy. The colonial project was in place and the modern occupation had entrenched its roots firmly in Palestinian soil with pro-active support of Britain and the United States. India was among the first nations to recognize the state of Israel.

By 1955 France had become a major state ally and supplier of arms to Israel. With the US and France support in 1950s-60s, Israel developed nuclear weapons which Israel to this date refuses to acknowledge (The International Atomic Energy Agency has remarkably succeeded in rejecting resolutions calling on Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty every time). When Nasser of Egypt nationalized Suez Canal in 1955, Israel with the help of British and French launched an attack on Egypt under the false pretext of ‘retaliation’ for a fabricated Egyptian attack. By this time, new and much stronger imperial powers in the US and USSR had emerged on the world scene and their stern threats forced Britain, France and Israel to withdraw their forces in a humiliating defeat. The 1956 Suez War led to bringing of Israel completely to the US camp, Israel recognized its new master. By its next war in 1967 against Arabs, Israel was closely allied and supplied by the US military. In a lightning strike in 1967, famously called the Six Day War, Israel captured the remaining 22% of historic Palestine. It was a coordinated strike against Egypt, Syria and Jordan with full backing of the US forces and its navy. This was another watershed event in the history of the Middle East. Ten years earlier, Gen. Mattiyahu Peled who took part in Six Day War told Haaretz that “the thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only a bluff which was born and developed after the war.” The Prime Minister of Israel of the time, Menachem Begin, an extreme right winger also later exposed the utter falsity of the claim of retaliation. The Six Day War convinced the US that Israel could be a highly effective weapon against the Arab liberation and nationalist movements. Israel proved to be a loyal watch dog of US interests (oil) in the region when the US was pre-occupied with Vietnam War. Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza only in 2005 facing intense criticism and pressure from international community. However, Gaza still remains militarily surrounded and cut-off from the rest of the world. The free movement of Palestinians is almost impossible and it remains as the British Prime Minister David Cameron described as Gaza the biggest ‘prison’ camp in the world condemning the Israeli attack on Gaza aid flotilla. Israel defended the attack.

The resistance to occupation however continued in forms of PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) formed in 1964 and much active after 1967 War, Fatah, PFLP, DFLP and other women’s and youth organizations along with armed resistance. The battle of Karameh, Jordan in 1968 saw about 200 Palestinian backed by some sections of Jordanian army fighting a much powerful and equipped Israeli force. The Battle of Karameh had an electrifying effect on renewing armed struggle and wiping out the memory of defeat in Six Day War. Later Jordan under the regime of King Hussein, a puppet at the hands of the British and the US bombed Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan; the Palestinian refugees comprise two-thirds of Jordanian population. The left-wing Syrian government hesitated to intervene for the fear of air-strikes of Israel and as a result over 15,000 PLO fighters were killed by Jordanian army. Following this defeat the epicenter of struggle of Palestinian resistance shifted to Lebanon. The 1973 Arab-Israeli War was the only one not initiated by Israel in which Egypt and Syria launched coordinated attacks on Israel to regain lost territories and gained some initial victories. They were finally repulsed by Israel owing to massive military and arsenal aid by the US. This war led to a nuclear flashpoint which was prevented only when USSR threatened retaliation. It greatly enhanced the Palestinian cause. The captured Sinai Peninsula was finally returned to Egypt in 1979. The 1973 war finally led to Camp David accord brokered by Jimmy Carter and was a disaster for the Arab world. Though hailed in the West, it led to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and an occupation of Lebanon for 18 years costing thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian lives. No Arab country had the resources to challenge the Israeli army funded and supplied by the US. Later 1987 ‘Intifada’ began in Palestinian refugee camps and became a big movement, in 1991 Oslo accord had to be signed which was to determine status of all parties and regions involved. However, nothing happened. Relentless repression led to al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 and the struggle has continued since then. The US has seen several anti-war movements since then and the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition has spearheaded the movement against occupation.

The Israel-Palestine issue is striking by the fact that when countries were overthrowing the yoke of colonialism in the first half of the twentieth century and gaining independence, Palestine was surreptitiously and insidiously being colonized. It was a calculated and pre-meditated project that kept most of the world population blinded by its false propaganda while the colony grew in the meantime. This colonization and occupation is a deep regression in modern human history where against all odds and supreme difficulties people have stumbled towards a relatively more democratic world. When colonies seem a thing of distant past, here we have live and bleeding Palestinian colony. The difference between Palestinian situation and of Iraq and Afghanistan is that in Iraq and Afghanistan American civilian population is not occupying lands and settling down there. It is a military occupation, which we might hope against all hopes to end in the future. But for Palestine, there is no reverting back to its own free country, the best it can now get is a fractured two state solution carved out from its own lands. It is shameful what has undergone and what is going on, a most demeaning legacy of imperialism thrust on the proud Arab population. The conditions have been created such that the Palestinians accept the second class and slavish status in their own country and subject themselves to the mercy of Israeli troops, who would continue with their unabated atrocities.

Being protégé of the US, Israel has not cared about any international law, treaty or convention and has played its role exactly as the US wanted, being a wedge and a base of the US in the Arab world. Any peace proposal has been consistently and vehemently vetoed by the US in the United Nations and has allowed Israel to indulge into unspeakable atrocities with impunity. It is now impossible to go back to a single state of Palestine which could have been the true justice for the Palestinian people. Still Palestinians want to make peace with Israelis; the wars, aggression, mass-murders and refugee like status have made Palestinians wish for peace and normalcy sooner than later. There is almost a consensus among Palestinians (Norwegian-based group FAFO findings) and in the Arab world for a two-state solution with pre-1967 borders. But the occupation and settlements have gone so far that the two-state solution itself is in jeopardy and this has always been the ulterior motive of Israel. The Israeli establishment is aware of the fact that beating their hard-line positions on issues like Jerusalem and borders mean transforming the idea of Palestinian statehood into something much less: a client state with isolated clusters of land in a system of segregation. The Road Map issued by the so-called Quartet (the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia) in 2003 said that all settlement activities must stop but neither the United States nor the Quartet could exert serious pressure on Israel to stop settlements. The only way to save the two-state solution is for the Palestinians to declare the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem, and to demand that the world community recognize it and its borders as it did in the case of Kosovo. That would also mean supporting the right of Palestinians to struggle nonviolently to end the occupation of their state. Any future negotiations, therefore, would not be about the right of the Palestinians to have their own sovereign independent state, but rather about how to apply and implement that right. This would be a true test of the state-building strategy of the United States and the donor community and would demarcate the difference between support for free Palestinian institutions in a sovereign and viable state, or footing the bill of occupation to maintain the apartheid system denying Palestinians their human and national rights.

On Islamic Center and Burning of Quran

In Gainesville, Florida a pastor Terry Jones of a small insignificant church with hardly any following called for the “International Burn a Quran Day" on September 11th to mark 9/11. He threatened to burn 50 copies of the Quran, which is also his maximum number of following. His purported action was a manifestation of his hatred towards Islam which culminated in this threat over the proposed building of an Islamic Center near Ground Zero. This extremely communal and demagogue preacher wrote a book “Islam is of the Devil” and last year distributed coffee mugs and t-shirts featuring this vicious message. He however could not carry his threat as a result of national and international outcry from media and people but most importantly due to the message from the Obama administration. As the news leaked through the mainstream media, hundreds of Afghans, Indonesians came out on streets to protest against the proposed burning of Quran. Taking lead from this, General David Petraeus warned that burning of Quran may escalate security hazards for American troops in Afghanistan. The Obama administration toed the line and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Press secretary Robert Gibbs and Defense Secretary Robert Gates condemned the proposed act and urged the pastor to refrain from any such action in the interest of national security. President Obama urged for religious tolerance and reiterated American values of religious freedom. More importantly however, along with this, he put national security as a top concern and warned that threats to burn the Quran are a sure and effective way to swell the ranks of al-Qaeda. The FBI finally intervened and spoke to the pastor after which the pastor vowed to not undertake any such adventure in the future. The details of the conversation were not divulged to the general public. Other religious whackos that had joined the hate parade have been silenced for now. One such person who drew significant attention is the evangelist Bill Keller, who has declared Muslims will "burn in hell" along with Mormons and other undesirables. He planned his first "sermon" for a proposed 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero but could not execute it.

Before putting this incident more in context, let us first examine how all this came about. It started with the growing ruckus in the US over building of an Islamic center and a mosque near ground zero in New York City. The site already has a building which has been a center of cultural activity for Muslim population in the city for decades. The proposed building of this mosque has now become a rallying point for the political right in the US, trumpeted by the Tea Party. However, only eight months back there was no controversy on building of this mosque. One year back, the New York Times carried a front page article over this and there was hardly a murmur. The City administration seeing the building of the Islamic Center as a private property right never objected to it, Mayor Bloomberg supported it. In fact the Jewish center in the New York City actively helped in laying out the plan for the Islamic Center. The Imam of the mosque Feisal Abdul Rauf hoped for spreading peaceful message through this Islamic Center. His own niece served in Iraq war. He and others involved are mainstream American Muslims. Even the right wing conservatives did not see anything wrong in building of this mosque a few months back.

However things changed diametrically, when a far right conservative blogger Pamela Geller who has devoted herself in demonizing Islam raised this issue through her blog characterizing the proposed mosque as Monster Mosque to be built at Ground Zero and painted it as a victory symbol for Muslims. The site however is two blocks away from Ground Zero where the Twin Towers once stood. Pamela Geller is the founder, editor and publisher of AtlasShrugs.com, a person so unhinged that she once suggested that Obama was a love child of Malcom X (a prominent and fiery civil rights activist from 60s). She is also the executive director of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and of the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), and is a regular columnist for Andrew Breitbart's blog, another right wing blogger whose edited video post was the primary reason behind firing of Shirley Sharrod. She also promoted an extremely offensive advertising campaign carried on buses in the New York City urging Muslims to leave Islam and constantly hammered on the mosque issue. Her demagoguery with the undertone that Muslims are going to take over the US (very similar to the right wing Hindu propaganda in India) got the conservative newspaper Washington Examiner following and publicizing the issue and then it spread like wildfire. Her blatantly communal and offensive tirade against Islam was given space in the mainstream media. CNN conducted an initial opinion poll according to which 70 percent independents, 54 percent Democrats and 82 percent Republicans opposed the mosque plan. Suddenly something which was a non-issue a few months back snowballed into a national issue with media playing it over and over and giving ‘fair’ space to opponents of the construction of mosque.

The Islamic Center in question has been a center of peaceful cultural activities and its Imam and his wife have resolutely and routinely condemned terrorist activity of any kind. Still, even with the peaceful history and affiliations, the construction of the proposed mosque became so fiercely debated that President Obama issued a statement quoting the US constitution for religious freedom for one and all in the country. However the following day, bowing to the political backlash, in a typical gesture, President Obama rephrased his statement saying that he was commenting on religious freedom, and not the exact location of the mosque. Apologist Obama continues to pander false right wing hysteria on issue after issue and this turns out to be no exception. His political calculations have prevented him from taking clear stand on any issue. What he did take stand on was national security! With looming elections for Congress this year, he is too cautious to take any stand on issues which the right wing portrays as offensive to ‘mass’ sentiments. He is unwittingly digging his own political grave by giving in to crass conservative propagandists whose bigotry have now led more than sixty percent of Americans to think an Islamic cultural center should not be built on "hallowed ground." It is an astounding victory of the propaganda perpetrated by the right wing bloggers.

This extreme propaganda led to the events in Gainesville, Florida and needs to be seen in this context of trumped up Islamophobia. Having lived and worked closely with "a deeply religious Muslim population," a group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has written an open letter decrying the rising tide of Islamophobia, which "goes against the values we risked our lives to protect." The timidity of Obama and his administration to deal with this issue head on and massive right wing propaganda and fear mongering has resulted in a spurt of hate crimes against Muslims. A Muslim taxi driver Ahmed Sharif was attacked by a passenger after being asked if he was a Muslim in New York City. The taxi driver survived the wounds but the incident sent shock waves in New York City. In another incident, a mosque was vandalized in Queens in New York City. In Tennessee, Muslims are afraid of venturing out of their homes. Incidents of vandalization of mosques have increased considerably. The right wing Christian groups are constantly demanding shifting the location of the Islamic Center to somewhere else, which by law is infringement of individual property rights, a value deeply entrenched in American system, constitution and psyche.

The Gainesville, Florida incident though rooted in the Islamic Center, however, has other ramifications. The mainstream media came out in full force in lynching pastor Terry Jones in a self-glorifying, moralizing cheap media stunt. The pastor’s miniscule group obviously has very little power or prestige even in Florida, leave alone Washington and thus became an easy target for royal court journalists. Media figures who treat actual blood-spillers with great reverence thus suddenly found within themselves oh-so-profound concern over "blood-spilling" which this pastor’s act could possibly bring about. The whole media and establishment circus is in such a deep denial of recognizing the fact that the act of war itself is a far more radicalizing catalyst in the Muslim world. The sickening fact is that these people are portraying that burning Qurans is worse than drone attacks, rocket attacks, carpet bombings, mass rape, and so on and so forth. One of the most disgusted appearances on MSNBC (a respected news channel) was of establishment-serving, power-worshipping Newsweek (a respected magazine) editor Jon Meacham among others who proudly flaunted his Christian faith and urged the pastor in the name of Christian principles to avoid being the cause of blood spilling. He would never ever use language like that to condemn American officials who have actually spilled enormous amounts of blood. The self-gratifying moralizing continued on all mainstream news channels with different experts and panelists. CNN invited a panel of war-mongers to discuss if America was safer. In the words of Kathy Kelly, an American peace activist who is currently facing trial for 'trespassing' in a drone-manufacturing plant during an anti-war protest, the mainstream media "does little to help ordinary [Americans] ... understand that the drones which hover over potential targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen create small "ground zeroes" in multiple locales on an everyday basis."

There was also no mention in the mainstream media of the religious groups and people of Gainesville who came out strongly against this bigotry and expressed solidarity and support for Muslim community. National Association of Evangelicals, the nation's largest umbrella evangelical group, issued a statement urging the church to cancel the event, warning it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions. Various Islamic groups started a campaign to sensitize people about Islam and counter the distorted versions through meetings, open sessions in mosques and distribution of copies of Quran etc. This is other than tremendous support of Islamic Center in the progressive section in the American society. The focus was Pastor Terry Jones who is considered insane by many including his own daughter. He was more or less used as a pawn for the fawning media to clean their conscience over ‘blood-spilling.’ The first amendment to the United States constitution gives freedom of speech to anybody and Terry Jones falls well within it no matter how hateful his intents were. He was however not allowed to speak except in the far right news channels. The bigger crime however is sensationalizing such non-incidents and competing against one another as to who can more flamboyantly express contempt for an inconsequential, powerless, joke of a figure like Terry Jones. The Media Figures never comment (leave alone condemn) on blood-thirsty war mongers like Rumsfeld who said “We don’t do body counts” and the official reference to any casualty (running into several hundred thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan) other than US casualties as “collateral damage.”

The burning of the Quran has all the makings of classic psy-ops where people will be brain-washed to believe in the benevolence of the US administration and respect for human life while at the same time carrying the impression that the Muslims are so "irrational" that they would kill people over the burning of a book. This is the impression General Petraeus, President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates have been trying to project that this one action of Quran burning will put their troops in ”harm’s way”, as if years of war, destruction and devastation in these countries is inconsequential in the context. It is as if when US soldiers go on a shooting rampage on innocent civilians in Afghanistan “just for fun” in the night and collect ‘fingers’ of victims as trophies is not horrendous, barbarian or blood-boiling enough for the entire population to radicalize against the US. The American exceptionalism, a delusional faith in benevolence of intentions of the US has given the imperial war machine the false legitimacy to kill over a million in the name of 3000 killed in 9/11 attacks. The administration’s message was mainly to prevent a possible snag in their rolling war machine and not on increasing religious tolerance in the country. Fascism in America is wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.

The Islamic Center issue brought into controversy by a right wing blogger has now captured the imagination of average Americans who now overwhelmingly oppose its construction there; something which would have gone unnoticed or in best scenario praised for enlightening people about Islam. But it led to a series of unfortunate incidents and we see its repercussions in New York, Florida, Tennessee and other states. The Imam has finally given in to the tremendous pressure to move the mosque and has declared that he is open to any option including delaying construction or changing its location. This is quite shameful and makes a mockery of religious freedom in the country. It has been portrayed as victory symbol for Muslims and a ‘clash of religions,’ and as a result, misguided protests in Muslim parts of the world are seen along with attacks on churches. The demagoguery has played to its fullest extent. It is however worth noting that Saudis are best friends of American ruling elites and corporations and this ‘clash’ never seems to occur with them. Only recently the US administration is in the process of signing the biggest arms deal ever with Saudi Arabia amounting to a whopping $60 billion. Never before had the right wing blogosphere exercised such an influence over administration’s actions and national debates. The timidity of Obama who had one rare historical opportunity of pushing the progressive agenda (as in 30s) given the material conditions in the country has proven to be a serendipity for the far right who were quick to fill this political vacuum of inaction and reneged promises.