Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Are Obama, Hillary Clinton, Gates, Petraeus and Holbrooke ready to face an international war crime trial if AFPAK war leads to genocide?
Nobody doubts that the US/Nato has the firepower, especially, air fire power to destroy the entire 40 million population of Pakhtoonistan, populated in the area that straddles on both side of Afghanistan/Pakistan border.
The ‘enemy’ that the US ---- not EU ---- has identified is effectively the entire population of the area. No amount of drones or Pak armed efforts can subdue the rightful inspiration of the indigenous people of the area. The only alternative for the US to achieve its goal, however carefully defined by the present administration to fool its own people, in not the world at large, is to destroy the entire Pakhtoon people with a scorched to earth bombing spree.
Short of that solution, the US forces will be engaged in a prolonged operation in this area that will destroy the peace and potential prosperity of the region for decades to come. And if the gradual increment in US war aims finally leads to indiscriminate bombing of Pakistan, even Pakistani civilian casualties will be involved. That is a sure case of attempting the genocide of the people of the region.
In case of carnage on such a scale, US administration leaders from Obama down to Holbrooke should better be prepared for a war crime trial, either by their own courts or an international court. This is besides the anger of the Muslim world. Obama had repeatedly declared that Bush has done a blunder in getting involved in Iraq war and neglecting Afghanistan is the US war against terror. Now that he is in charge, he should get another set of analysts, other than the neo-con infested or rather impregnated thinkers that had taken the US to a path to disaster in the Bush years, in every meaning of the word. He has been given a rarest of rare opportunity to set the course to a more peaceful, more prosperous and equitable world. He should not lose this opportunity by being handicapped by Bush era foreign policy dead ends. It’s absurd to hope that either Zardari of Pak army, or even Indian army, if US has any such designs in future, to subdue the enraged people of Pakhtoon. History is on their side. They can be bought, but they cannot be fought. Unless, by invading Afghanistan and indulging in hot pursuit, the neo-con designated strategy is to take over the entire subcontinent in a neo-colonial upsurge, Obama should stick to diplomacy to solve the problem.
Let there be a regional conference of all neighbours, to propose peaceful means to pacify Pakhtoon and start building up the subcontinent in a larger economic zone, setting a invigorated pace to integration at all levels. The future of 2 billion people, a third of the world population is at stake. War or peace; the choice remains with Obama, as the buck stops at his Oval Office table.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
