The View from India: Americans Facing Fact the Empire Has Lost Control

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20061113&fname=Col+Prem+Shankar+Jha+%28F%29&sid=1



Sandeep Adhwaryu
OPINION
Empire On The Brink
The end of Republican rule draws nigh. Will the Indo-US nuclear deal sink?
PREM SHANKAR JHA

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More disturbing <to Americans> than the mounting violence <in Iraq> is the fact that there is no way to get out of it. Democrats have been promising a time limit for handing over power to the elected Iraqi government and pulling US troops out. But Republicans have pointed out—and this is the only issue on which they gain some political traction—that announcing a date would amount to a post-dated surrender. But staying in Iraq indefinitely is not an option either. There is, overall, an all-pervasive sense of a loss of control. Unlike weak nation-states who are familiar with it, Americans find it deeply unsettling. This is, after all, the richest, largest and the most powerful nation in the world. How can such a thing happen?

The feeling that they have lost control is compounded by a growing dread of the future. Sooner or later, the US will have to leave Iraq, and its departure will be hailed as a 'victory' by the entire Arab and Muslim world. Suicide bombers and terrorists will become heroes sans purpose. They will try to give renewed meaning to their lives by spreading out to other parts of the world.

As if Iraq was not bad enough, Afghanistan is developing into a second node of terrorism. A Pashtoon himself, Hamid Karzai has been presiding over a government that has been killing Pashtoons on the pretext of killing the Taliban. It has left him with virtually no influence in the southern and eastern parts. Instead, the US, and now NATO, forces claim victories in the Pashtoon areas though they're steadily losing the war.One day, the foreigners will depart, leaving the country in chaos.

Loss of control is spreading like cancer to other parts of the world. Israel has still to recover from the shock of winning its battles against the Hezbollah but losing the war. North Korea has taken advantage of Bush's obsession with the Middle East to blow a hole in the NPT, and the cost of attacking Iran is now looking so high that it too may slip through the nuclear net with impunity in the near future. To the neo-cons, who do not believe in dialogue, the temptation to bomb these countries into the Stone Age in order to save their dream of Empire must be growing stronger.

All in all, the world is dangerously close to Hobbes' State of Nature. It's no surprise, therefore, that a majority of Americans feel far more unsafe now than they did before Bush came to power. The possibility that they will make the Republican party a scapegoat is, therefore, exceedingly high. Were the Republicans to lose both houses of Congress, the Indo-US nuclear deal will become the first casualty.

but it involves a pullback, an apology and money to the Iraqi people. When they begin to see improvement in their lives without the intrusion of the US, they'll lay down their guns and put away their bombs.

One of the main things that needs to go is the idea that the military can solve this problem. The Republicans are so far from there, but the American people are way ahead of them on that.

that are about to assume power. It's not only the American people, the rest of the world is expecting a lot from them too. I hope they don't let us down.

Do they mean the USA supporting India's nukes (to keep them safe from Pakistan, or some such)? I need educating on what is meant. Thanks

Just go hog wild with nukes. I don't know the details, but them's the basics. Bush made the deal when he was in India last year (remember that? :wtf: )

exports to them has increased 25%. We are going to give them nuclear technology, they will sell us mangoes, we are going to invest 10's of billions in them, they will suck 100's of billions in production away from us. Great deal, huh?

thank you both.

and sometimes I forget things. Especially after having a couple concussions last yr and getting some brain damage, left memory holes. First 1 I noticed was talking politics and saying "I think there was a president between papa and baby bush but can't remember anything." Person I was talking with looked at me oddly and said "clinton?" and it all came back, like a box opening up that I didn't even know was there. Odd. So now I ask if I don't remember. Thanks.

I meant it to kind of jog your memory, like :wtf:, Bush was in India? And :wtf: does he do when he's there? He encourages their proliferating nuclear technology. :wtf:

been a long couple days and hey! "my du" is back!

and friend to us is a corporate fallacy, declared and implemented by those that profit from the decimation and exportation of our middle-class.