Zaheer Bhatti
A sea of humanity has thus far only been an ex
pression to describe a multitude, but witnessed
in reality with the several kilometres long unprecedented congregation in human history, gathered to see off their martyred hero of the Islamic faith to his eternal abode. General Qasem Solaimani who will be dreaded far more dead than when alive is henceforth sure to haunt Trump, not only when he struggles to catch sleep at night but also when he is day-dreaming. Such is the magnitude of the fallout of Trump’s totally irrational ordering of killing the top Iranian General, that his Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo and Defence Minister Mike Esper unable to present justifiable evidence in the classified briefing of the American Congress that Gen Solaimani posed imminent danger to the US, had to leave the briefing in the face of a barrage of questions they could not take.
The US Administration and its leadership indeed has evidence of General Solaimani; the Chief of Iranian Revolutionary Foreign Armed Force ‘Pasdaraan-e-Inqilaab’ being a threat to US interests which it would be damned to admit publicly. Wedded to seeing all foreign troops out of the Middle East, just as the Afghan Taliban are sworn to see them out of Afghanistan, Gen Solaimani’s Forces inflicted a fatal blow on the US by eliminating its proxy Daesh from Iraq and Syria; something Uncle Sam finds hard to swallow. Need one thank the forces of evil whose idiosyncrasies are fast throwing up figures like these which will replicate phenomenally if the Imperial junta fails to see the writing on the wall! Solaimani (may God bless his soul) follows Morsi of Egypt, Mullah Umar of Afghanistan and BurhanWani of Kashmir; the freedom fighting symbols of modern times who have come to be idealized for their courage, commitment, faith and charisma in the face of adversity, and whose mission their countless followers have vowed to follow. These are warriors forced to fight tyranny and exploitation and the forces seeking to usurp their territories and resources. Out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan and out of the region; Yes! The forces of evil must leave sovereign countries alone to sort their problems out themselves, and get out of the Middle East and South Asia where they do not belong.
It is ironical if not pathetic and detestable, that Mike Pompeo the other day over CNN in Trump’s defence of assassinating the top Iranian General Solaimani, boasting of having worked as a CIA Director, pronounced him a terrorist. The US and its lackeys ascribe to themselves the prerogative of defining terrorism the way it suits them without looking themselves in the mirror because the description fits them the most. While Iraq has ordered American forces out of their country, the Iranian Supreme Council has declared the US a terrorist State. Submissions in my last piece in this context have been doubly endorsed; further substantiated by American refusal of visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Jawwad Zarif to attend the UN Security Council. This is rank State terrorism of a reactionary US of which the world is beginning to take stern notice.
Following the US House of Representatives Impeachment vote against Trump cutting him to size, the UN must declare that the United Nations being the Supreme World Body created to protect rights and privileges of member States, none of its members can be stopped from attending its various meetings and forums by the US simply because it happens to be located in that country. Not only is it time to redefine the rules but also to ponder if the UN must continue to be located in a terrorist country whose President does not feel obliged to seek Congressional approval for any of his foreign acts of omission or commission. Iran declaring the US a terrorist State is only an under-statement about its rogue ruling leadership.
Shame appears to be an expression lost and alien to most of the so-called civilized, emancipated and developed world. The discerning eye can well see where ‘the bull in a china shop’ American leadership was leading the world to; much before, but particularly ever since 9/11, the self-possessed United States of America, a country created through extermination of the native (Red) Indian population by a bunch of masquerading and marauding invaders in the name of discovering the land of opportunities and bringing in civility. Totally made up of immigrants with a shamed short history, it has come to style itself as the sole superpower today and committed one blunder after another but refused to accept that it did anything wrong ever; be it its Vietnam debacle, assault on Iraq accused of possessing non-existent WMDs or devastating Afghanistan just to seek out its once blue-eyed Osama Bin Laden, camouflaged as saviours of humanity with the sole motive of establishing its hegemony over the entire world; something that Gen Solaimani and the likes of him stand steadfast against.
Discredited and humiliated in each of its misadventures and suffering embarrassing reversals the US leadership had now become so foolhardy, thick-skinned and blinded, that it has become immune to any kind of embarrassment or shame. Whoever asked the US or NATO to come and intervene in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan? And now that the Iraqis want the US to pack their bags and go, they are asking for reimbursement of their investments, whereas they should be more than welcome to dismantle the costly installations they say they had financed and built (for their own covert use). The cat having come out of the bag with US agenda to keep confrontations alive and destabilizing regions, the time is fast approaching when countries will no longer be sucked into the fear syndrome the US engulfs them to force their patronage. Their war machines and military merchandise will sell nowhere as people around the world begin to find ways to coexist without the need to pick up arms because wars solve nothing.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
