By Mahboob A. Khwaja
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion" (Thomas Paine)
"Most Americans go along with unaccountable murder, torture, and detention without evidence, which proclaims their gullibility to the entire world. There has never in history been a population as unaware as Americans. The world is amazed that an insouciant people became, if only for a short time, a superpower. The world needs intelligence and leadership in order to avoid catastrophe, but America can provide neither intelligence nor leadership. America is a lost land where nuclear weapons are in the hands of those who are concerned only with their own power. Washington is the enemy of the entire world and encompasses the largest concentration of evil on the planet. Where is the good to rise up against the evil?" (Paul Craig Roberts, "Truth is Offensive", paulcraigroberts.org).
Do American masses find themselves overshadowed by dark Age of unreason while presidential election campaigns are in full swing? Candidates lacking moral and intellectual visions and capacity using power over wisdom to imagine success. Money makes the difference in elections not the imagination of peaceful America. With Bernie Saunders being an exception, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have no rational assumptions to articulate a New America - they claim all along. Arnold Toynbee (A Study of History) noted that "soft countries breed soft men." Paradoxically, since the end of the Cold War, America and West European have not produced any leaders to claim that democratic nations breed leaders of peace and global harmony. The masses cherish thinking to foresee a sustainable future of global peace and understanding. Lessons of history cannot be ignored, no matter how intelligent and smart leaders pretend to be in an election campaign agenda. All contemporary leaders are prisoners of their own ideas and ideals. More so, directed by well paid advisors in words and actions to imagine political success. Record shows that George W. Bush, Obama and Tony Blair and David Cameroon, all had strategic advisors hired to sketch-out public-oriented critical issues, seek attention and sympathy from the masses, and create delusions out of the reality and lead successful election campaigns. Robots are programmed to perform desired functions. Are the 21st century politicians any different? Across North America and the globe, humanity is anxious if the current American presidential candidates will make any difference for the future. Leadership envisages new visions; new ideals to explore new horizons for the good of the masses and promises to change the future for better.
Global Humanity in Search of Peace and Order
In its search for change and progressive future-making, the global mankind is oppressed and victimized by the systematic intransigence and arrogance of the few affluent class of people managing the global institutions, militarization and governance - the perverted insanity lacking basic understanding of the Human Nature and of the working of the splendid Universe in which we enjoy coherent co-existence. Mankind continues to be run down by the cancerous ego and cruelty of the few Western warlords. Killing unjustifiably one innocent human being is like killing of the whole of the humanity. The global warlords represent cruel mindset incapable to see the human side of the living conscience. Madness of the perpetuated war on terrorism and its triggered insanity knows no bound across the global spectrum. Animals do not commit massacre of their kind and species, nor set-up rape camps for the war victims, the Western led wars against the humanity have and continue to do so at an unparallel global scale without being challenged by any global organizations or leaders. Torture and massacres of innocent civilians are convenient fun games to be defined as "collateral damage" and a statistic. Perhaps, they view mankind just in digits and numbers, not as the living entities with social, moral, spiritual and intellectual values and progressive agendas for change and development. Every beginning has its end. It is just that most powerful nations have failed to learn from the living history - a slap to EH Carr's precious thoughts of human history.
America is in the midst of crises of its own not capable to extend global peace and security even being the only leftover superpower so to speak. George W. Bush followed by President Obama to engulf America with the ripple effects of the bogus War on Terrorism. Richard Falk (The Declining World Order: America's Imperial Geopolitics, 2013), is an internationally acclaimed scholar in global affairs and is Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus at Princeton University where he was a member of the faculty for forty years. Professor Falk argues that "the United States has plunged "the world into a struggle between two extremist visions of how to achieve world peace and global justice."
Warmongering as an institution spells out history's malicious mistakes, often irretrievable. America needs a visionary transformational leadership capable to restore democracy, people-oriented system of governance, political accountability and to avert fascism on a global scale. Should such a leader not be equipped with superb insight, originality and verve, to make the masses think about a new and an emerging global civil society away from the existing reactionary onslaught of blame-games and failed institutions, and invigorated by human rights principles and religious tolerance. Does America want another Clinton or Trump to slip toward a geopolitical morass? One wonders if American presidential elections are just a prototype of robotic political model full of incurable resentment and repeated historical ironies to dominate and control the world. Could the next American president envision an apocalyptic ending to humanity's stint on planet Earth?
Tia Ghose, Senior Writer of Life Science ("Doomsday: 9 Real Ways the Earth Could End" 5/30/2013), outlines critical issues that could terminate the world: "global warming, pandemic threats, Asteroid, nuclear war, robot ascension and snowbell" are the some of problems discussed. Strange as is that contemporary politicians do not discuss such vital issues of primary concern to the masses in North America and across the globe. Any apocalyptic disasters will affect all and everywhere on Earth. The question must be faced: do we the humanity should destroy ourselves by our own inventions and deceptions?
"Big Thinking" Can Annihilate the Human Existence
Persistent culture of blame-game is in full gear. If nothing else works, Obama blames Putin for the Ukraine crises and continuing Syrian civilian bloodbath. Ironically, if peaceful solutions are sought, leaders must engage in dialogue and not to block the channels of official communication. You will find that G-8 meetings have has shrunk to G-7, with Russia not invited anymore. NATO is increasingly organizing military exercises in Eastern Europe touching Russian nerves. Undeniably, Russian involvements in Ukraine and occupation of Crimea can be tackled if leaders were to talk and meet one another. There are curious and conflicting mindsets across the divided Western Europe. America is the guide in all polices and practices and the EU follows it. Logic seeks truth and that is if President Putin is treated properly at international conferences, he could show tolerance and some balancing acts in Ukraine and East-West relations. To ignore Russia and insult President Putin is not the morally encouraging approach to move forward in all global crises. President Obama and EU leaders need to rethink about the future. Isolating Russia will increase probabilities of continuing conflicts, military threats and insecurity across the globe. America and Russia both have the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons on earth. None appear to reduce the weapon manufacturing capabilities or to destroy the weapons on their own. The "big thinking" scenario could cause the apocalyptic ending of the world without notice. There are always unseen dangers of accidental warfare. The previous wars of the 20th century have not ended yet. Their ripple effects continue to haunt the humanity and make it fearful of the coming of a third world war. Robert Pape, Professor, University of Chicago's, and author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, 2005, points out the alarmingly failing record of the US Empire in war engagements: "America is in unprecedented decline. The self-inflicted wounds of the Iraq war, growing government debt, increasingly negative current-account balances and other internal economic weaknesses have cost the United States real power in today's world of rapidly spreading knowledge and technology. If present trends continue, we will look back on the Bush years as the death knell of American hegemony."
To Change Animosity and Hatred by Reason and Ingenuity
Future must be anew, not the repetition of the past. While the planned wars and military aggressions have failed to achieve any strategic goals except causing large scale deaths and environmental destruction of the human habitats, political thinkers and intellectuals and experts in conflict resolution should envision new strategies to avert the futuristic wars.
Time and encompassing opportunities warrant New Thinking, New Leaders and New Visions for change and the future-making. But change and creativity and new visions will not emerge out of the obsolete, redundant and failed authoritarianism of the few insane leaders. None have the understanding of neither peace nor respect for human life and co-existence in a splendid Universe. To challenge the deafening silence of the global leaders, the humanity must find ways and means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few warlords and continued to be plagued with massacres, barbarity against human culture and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were no rational being and people of reason populating the God-given Universe. Men of power are simply repeating the history of malicious ironies. The informed and mature global community looks towards those Thinkers, educated and honest proactive leaders enriched with coherent unity of moral, spiritual, intellectual and physical visions and abilities to be instrumental to rescue it from the planned encroachment of the few Western warlords. The March 2011 Japan's natural disasters - tsunami, earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima have further heightened the tormenting uneasiness, pain and anguish of the mankind across the globe. Environmental experts, technological inventors and nuclear scientists seem to invent things but failed to manage the operational outcomes and accidents, essentially signaling major flaws between what is thinkable for the good of human change, progress and advancements and the divide between what could purge the human existence because of the ignorance of their own thinking and action, arrogance, warmongering and inconsistency and continued confrontations with the Nature of Things and challenges to the Laws of God.
Can we think to be human in all of our moral, political and intellectual endeavors? Can we come-up with a remedial imagination to cure the incurable ignorance, sectarian resentment and nationalistic bloody rampage, the malice and perfidy out of the sadistic human plans and priorities? Can we critically look at ourselves - why have we become so stagnated in moral, spiritual and intellectual values to be on a cliff to destroy the cause of freedom, equality and justice to all? Can we see the mirror with a collective conscience - why have we been pushed to resort to animalistic characteristics and behaviors that those who appear to be well educated and morally and intellectually intact but act like agents of the draconian age as if there were no people of reason and accountability populating the Planet Earth?
"If the human nature is in part wicked and in part foolish, how can human beings be prevented from suffering from the result of their wickedness and folly?" C.E.M. Joad (Guide to Modern Wickedness), the 20th century proactive thinker offers a rational context to the prevalent affairs of the 21st century political quagmire:
"Men simply do not see that war is foolish and useless and wicked. They think on occasion that it is necessary and wise and honourable, for war is not the work of bad men knowing themselves to be wrong, but of good men passionately convinced that they are right."
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, May, 2012).
Mahboob Khwaja