Civilisations are created by poets, writers, painters, architects, but are destroyed by politicians and their armies. We would do well to remember this truth at a time when an existential civilisational war is taking place almost on our borders, in West Asia. Make no mistake, the illegal assaults on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran are not just about Greater Israel or oil or uranium enrichment: these are just the cover for a new Crusades against the non-Christian, non- Caucasian world, a new religio-colonial imperialism by the USA and Israel, given wink-wink support by most of Europe. Large numbers of Christians in these countries appear to have embraced the spirit of Zionism too.
The sheer temerity and audacity of this is hard to grasp. Here we have two countries, one barely 75 years in existence and the other whose cultural pillars are hamburgers and Kentucky fried chicken, presuming to destroy genuine civilisations thousands of years old. As the Iranian Foreign Minister reminded Trump: the Persians were inscribing the laws of human rights on the Cyrus pillar when the Europeans and Americans were still living in caves. The blood thirsty Zionists of today are probably not even aware that it was a Persian mathematician who invented Algebra in the 9the century AD, that the Jews exist today because Persian kings like Xerexes ( 6th century BC) and Cyrus (5th century BC) had ordered that the Jews should be allowed to live in peace in their kingdoms and should not be harmed in any way. That today's Jews should now to seek to slaughter the descendents of these Persians says all that is needed to be said about true civilisations and barbarians.
The evidence for this attempted civilisational supremacy is mounting by the day. This policy was officially declared by that Cuban immigrant who, like a snake which has lost its bearings, tries to devour its own tail; I speak of Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State. At the Munich Security Conference in February this year he unashamedly laid out Trump's new Maga Carta, to the accompaniment of a standing ovation by other European leaders. He expressed nostalgia for the past, when Europe's "missionaries, pilgrims, soldiers, explorers poured out from its shores to settle new continents". He called for "a new age of western dominance", to reverse the decline of the West since 1945, in effect proclaiming the launch of a new era of neo-colonialism. USA, he stated, is "fixing" the problem, and in doing so will have no hesitation in rejecting the core elements of the existing international order.
This has been amply demonstrated by the fact that the USA has between 750-800 military bases in 80 countries to maintain its hegemony; by the bombing of 41 countries in the last 80 years, and all but one of them (Serbia) are in either Asia or Africa. One expert estimates that these assaults, and the sanctions that have accompanied them, have killed at least 32 million people. Gaza, Lebanon and Iran are only the latest expressions of this attempted neo-colonialism. Trump has openly boasted that he has taken the Venezuelan oil, that he wants Iran's oil reserves and a share in the toll revenues from Hormuz. He has shown utter racial contempt for one of the oldest civilisations in the world by killing its leaders, calling them bastards who belong to the stone age. The Israeli Defence Minster has described Palestinians as "worse than animals" and called for their extermination.
The West Asia genocide by Israel and the USA has been fully, though more quietly, supported by Western Europe and the G7, with the exception of a couple of countries like Spain and Ireland. Their continued trade with Israel hovers at about US$ 50 billion annually, they have sanctioned Iran and Venezuela but will not dream of sanctioning Israel, they continue to arm the rogue terrorist state to the teeth, they have formed a coalition of 12 European states to open the Straits of Hormuz but will not do so to protect either Gaza or South Lebanon. Even worse, they will not allow their own citizens to protest against Israel: UK has arrested thousands of protesters and France has just introduced the YADAN law that criminalises any anti-Israel public protest with a five year jail term! The West's war of civilisations is being waged in full earnest.
This is the context in which we should view Iran's tenacious defence of its sovereignty and its peoples. Iran is fighting to DECOLONISE the Global South. It has effectively reversed and turned on its head the western narrative of the southern nations being the "barbarians" and "terrorists": the emerging global perception is that Israel and the USA are the biggest terrorist nations, that it is they who constitute the biggest threat to peace and the world order, that its leaders are declared war criminals. The barbarians have lost this war but by definition are too stupid to admit it.
Excellent take on a very real and distressing situation. Well written!
ReplyDeleteA hard hitting and completely accurate analysis... Thank you
ReplyDeleteFabulous well written.
ReplyDeleteExcellent, accurate & scary
ReplyDeleteSpot on. Most writers will be shy to outline the deep racism and religious bigotry that underlies contemporary American foreign policy. And, ironically, the bhakt brigade has formally signed up to this led by the most bigoted dispensation India has seen since independence. Tragic.
ReplyDeleteThe following comment is from Alarmin Banaji who has requested me via email to post it on the blog since, for some reason, he has been unable to do so himself in spite of a number of attempts.
ReplyDelete"I am usually a great admirer of your writing but in this case, I find the content serving nothing but a dog-
whistle to those, who rightly, oppose what is happening in the Middle-East.
But, let us not conflate issues.
All the ‘glorious’ deeds of the Persians you mention, took place before the Islamisation of Iran and
whether basking in the past glory of a civilisation gives any context to the present, I would consider
debatable.
Though the overthrow of the Shah (a puppet of the West) was brought about by a popular uprising, the
Mullahs in charge since then, have not covered themselves in glory by their authoritarian theocratic rule,
thereby giving one of the ‘lame’ excuses for the two chumps who head Israel & the US, to do what they
are doing.
Any analysis of this conflict, at least requires the following perceptions/questions to be kept in mind.
1. Condemnation or praise should be confined to individuals and not spread across, race, ethnicity or
nations.
2. In all the commentaries & debates proliferating, I have never come across the question, would Iran
even have considered the path of acquiring a nuclear weapon, if the West had not turned a blind-eye to
Israel acquiring one decades ago (albeit still unacknowledged)?
Double standards and hypocrisy? You bet.
3. If a country with an authoritarian/despotic regime is to be opposed and prevented from acquiring a
nuclear weapon, why is there a deafening silence about North Korea? The rotund despot there, has
subjugated his citizens to a cloistered, unfree life to a far greater degree than the IRGC or Mullahs have.
In this case, added to the hypocrisy is the hallmark of bullies.
In the end, there is no denying the intimidating behaviour of T & N. Who both in their own way are
diverting attention away from domestic issues, the former from the Epstein Files and the latter from
facing criminal charges for corruption (echoes of our aggression towards Pakistan close to elections and
running scared from China), just because they have the means but in all of this, why ignore the fact,
evident throughout human history, that it is religion of any kind and/or faith in a leader, which has caused
the most suffering for the human race?
This is neither the place or forum to suggest possible causes and remedies but just to point out that no
matter how detestable a situation, I repeat, praise or blame individuals and not any people as a whole.
Looking forward to your continued writing on different subjects."
Brilliant piece. Persia was the cradle of civilization as is Iraq. No country has attacked others as America has over the years and now Israel. These are the terrorists and must be so declared. Not what they tried to portray other states or religions. India must stop playing up to America and stop the supply of arms to israel! Companies who do this must be named and boycotted! Imagine America hits a elementary school , so much for their sophisticated surveillance. Trump has blood on his hands as has Netanyahu. Tragic!
ReplyDeleteSome weeks back Mr. Shukla had attempted to explain the West Asia crisis when Donald Trump was casting acquisitive glances at Greenland. The US - Israel duo was the conscienceless predator then, Palestine was the prey; Gaza, the hunting ground and Greenland, the improbable bounty.
ReplyDeleteOne had countered it, venturing that the issue was far more intricate, with a layered historical background that resisted its unboxing as a simple binary. In response Mr. Shukla recommended a consultation visit to the Ophthalmologist. One suspects it was more from crossness than concern, for the bill, alas, remains unreimbursed by him.
Cut to the present:
That over-simplification is being applied once again. While the predator remains the same, the prey is now Iran; the hunting ground has shifted to the Strait of Hormuz, and the bounty is everything in the region from oil to shipping lanes.
Iran is the lamb with pristine white fleece. The US - Israel duo expectedly reprises the role of the big bad wolf. Mr. Shukla’s unravelling of the region starts from this premise, and what follows is a series of commendations and denunciations.
Iran is elevated as the civilisational counterbalance – the ‘decoloniser’ of the Global South – as it shows a mirror to the West. It is the custodian of algebraic logic; the heir to antiquity, the claimant to Knowledge. It is a nation that we are invited to believe, throws the charge of barbarism and terrorism back to the West.
This is a selective portrait that Mr. Shukla would like his readers to admire. For he wants them to gloss over Iran’s own patronage of militant proxies across West Asia; its intolerance for dissent; worse – its system of justice and retribution that has the unmistakable shadow of mediaeval cruelty. A civilisation may be ancient, its civility must be contemporary.
None of this absolves the US and its allies - the Arabs and Europe. Their interventions have often been overbearing, occasionally forceful. Their posturing has been confounding; their politics transactional – particularly under the unpredictable stewardship of US President Donald Trump.
However, for any critique to be credible, it must be balanced in its scepticism, even-handed in its castigation, and level in its indignation. To darken one side while bathing the other in fresh white is not a reliable depiction of a crisis; it serves more to comfort than to analyse. It may draw attention, not acceptance. Mr. Shukla must either redraw his West Asia canvas, or moderate his rhetoric by diluting exaggeration.
I shall do neither, Mr. Patankar, though I thank you for your unsolicited advice. I shall continue to "denounce" war criminals, genocidal leaders and mass murderers of women and children, violators of international law, hypocrites, racists and religious nationalists, without any caveats or ifs and buts. I shall leave it to rationalists and eternal contrarians like you to provide them the covering fire of misplaced logic, incomplete history and Hamletian equivocation.
ReplyDeleteMr. Shukla’s denunciations of the West are not objectionable, only predictably explosive and partisan. It is his commendations that jar.
ReplyDeleteIn extolling Iran as the lone challenger to American hegemony, he appears to ignore scrutiny of its own record – its patronage of militant proxies across the region and its hardline, even mediaeval treatment of indigenous dissent. So immersed is he in praise that caveats find no place. The tone sharpens; the substance thins; the din drowns the data.
The problems of West Asia are layered – historical, political, and religious – disabling any reduction to a single frame. Yet Mr. Shukla persists with a familiar pattern: when Gaza was under attack, Palestinians were cast as the virtuous; now that Iran is under pressure, the moral spotlight shifts accordingly.
Is this analysis – or alignment?
Mr. Shukla is the polemicist who covers complexity with moral certainty, when the task is to confront it with reality.
Rhetoric amplifies; it does not explain.
Dante Alighieri:
ReplyDelete" The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."
Danté Alighieri’s best line is among the most misused cudgels to batter an argument to the ground.
ReplyDeleteWhen Mr. Shukla swings it with full might, he is saying that if one does not condemn his chosen villain, then one is complicit in the perceived injustice: First, one is plainly wrong, then, one is enabling evil, and finally, one is damned for not choosing his side. How does that follow?!
The Danté line is about condoning injustice – moral cowardice. At the core of the ongoing debate, one is confronting the protagonists by analysing their roles in the conflict. The attempt is to study the complexities involved rather than simplify them as a moral binary. For by doing so and amplifying the conclusion, the result only leads to a distortion of Good and Bad.
On invoking Danté, Mr. Shukla is conflating nuance with neutrality; analysis with evasion.
One will duck the swing and leave it there.
HAMLET. Queen Gertude: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
DeleteWhy have you written for two weeks now? I hope and pray that the Fascists have not locked you up,
ReplyDeleteNot yet, Mr Shariff! I was travelling and unable to put pen to paper. Will be back this weekend.
ReplyDeleteVery insightful piece on a sinister, insidious design by the T&N double engine combine. They consider the globe their private chess board where they play both sides and enjoy the ensuing mindless, bloody massacre. The globe is waiting with bated breath to see the last of them.
ReplyDelete