Fear and hatred coupled with moral superiority: what else can we expect?

The U.S. meddled with the Congolese affairs from the early 60s all the way to the late 80s to an extent that many observers accuse them of being directly responsible for all the ill that Congo has been dealing with since the early years of its independence. The United State famously justified its actions with their commonly used cold war argument. They sold to the public the idea that if Russia gets hold of the Congo, communism will not be deterable any longer. The entire cold war argument (which I personally think was gravely exaggerated) was engineered so well that after a while—according to many analysts—even top CIA officials were no longer sure which parts of their cold war stories were real and which parts were exaggerations. What surprises me the most is how the public bought these arguments with very little critical analysis. And the result, of course, was what the policy makers were hoping for: FEAR!

Instilling fear, coupled with manufacturing of hatred for “the enemy,” has proved to be the best intelligence tactic in avoiding public outrage on imperial policies in the so called “free world.” (in the non-free world, the states don’t even bother justifying, of course!).

I opened the New York Times’ Africa section a few days ago and was once again shocked (although I have been shocked hundreds of times, it never becomes normal for me) by the blatant pursuit of the same policies in just slightly different cover. The first headline was: “Islamic Radicalism Slows Moroccan Reforms” and the catch phrase under the second headline read: “Marc Aubriere, a French security adviser abducted in July, tells of his dramatic escape from his Islamist kidnappers”. How do we expect the population to perceive anything that has to do with Islam? Neutral?

George W. Bush, of whom most Americans that I have met are ashamed, started the “War on Terror” rhetoric to replace the beloved Cold War one. The hatred he created amongst Americans and non-Americans alike has caused the world to want to do away with whatever is associated with him. So the War on Terror rhetoric subsided after Americans “reclaimed” their country, but the substance of it still exists. The demonization of Muslims and the Muslim world is still very alive in major global media outlets and western leaders have no shame in declaring the “otherness” of the Islamic world. In this case, fear is already initiated by the September 11 attacks and the hatred is being instilled everyday by headlines and speeches.

When the number one suspect for the Lockerbie bombing--in which 189 Americans died--Mr. Abdel Basset Al-Magrahi, was released by the Scottish authorities on compassionate grounds (he is an end stage cancer patient), the whole “civilized world” turned their attention to him. How dare the Scottish government release someone who is accused of killing so many of “us?” The reason I say “civilized world” is that the British foreign secretary, David Milliband, shamelessly said recently that: “it is very important that Libya knows, and certainly we have told them, that how Libyan government handles itself in the next few days, after the arrival of Mr. Al-Magrahi, will be very significant in the way the world views Libya’s re-entry into the Civilized Community of nations.” Of course this also reminded me of Mr. Bollinger’s (the president of Columbia University) opening statement for Ahmadinejad’s visit to the campus in which he insulted the Iranian president left and right but reminded everyone that he is doing it because he “feels the burden of the civilized world” on his shoulders! This is while the American guy (John William Yettaw) who swam the lake in North Korea and reached Aung San Suu Kyi’s home in Myanmar and caused her to remain under house arrest for another 18 months (and thus miss the opportunity to run for the upcoming election) was taken back home by US Senator Jim Webb Just because he was one of “us.”

Anyway, what I am trying to get at here is that the west is unashamedly continuing its imperialist agenda using the old tactic of creating hatred and fear and coupling it with a perception of a moral superiority (Milliban’s statement on Libya’s entrance in the civilized world is nothing short of the “end of history” argument by Fukuyama or the white man’s burden or the civilizing mission of European colonists) to conquer and conquest. And this will not stop unless either we, the people, became conscious of it or when there is nothing left to conquer and conquest because we have destroyed it all!