Home
+
Published : 27 Jan 2017, 08:17 AM
It may sound superficially like a scientific truth, which it is not; but there is a ring of inevitability to it. When a society or a state partakes of a well-honed practice, whatever that practice may be, to garner its selfish ends, there is every chance that the same practice will come back at some time or other applied by others on the initiator. This may be dubbed facetiously as the 'boomerang effect'. No country should feel immune to this reciprocal effect, regardless of how powerful or dominant it may deem itself. America is no exception.
America for decades, from the end of World War II up to the present time, had been following a policy of blatant interference, covertly or overtly, on the internal matters of other sovereign states. This interference the American policy makers justify as desirable action to maintain its world supremacy and hegemony! Moral compunction does not deter them or constrain them from such heinous actions. In fact, ex-president George W Bush even went as far as proposing "preventive strike action" on others, lest other parties (a state or an organisation) feel strong enough to take hostile actions against America. Fortunately,this preventive strike action did not get incorporated in American foreign policy, but the underlying idea remained the guiding principle.
Civilised norms exalt the idea, 'Treat others the way you want to be treated'. On this basis, American behaviour of blatant interference indicates clearly how others should treat America. The recent story of alleged interference by Russia in the American presidential election is undoubtedly regrettable and condemnable; but one must ask — is it the first time that a state has interfered in the internal matters of another state?
Over the last six decades or so, America has interfered overtly through its deceitful intelligence arm – the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – in the internal affairs of foreign countries at least 70 times. In fact, from the 1950s right up to the collapse of the USSR, the CIA was synonymous with American power and became the operating arm of American foreign policy. Blatant interference in foreign states included America's choices of heads of state, conduct of national elections, operation of political parties, etc. If covert operations are included, then the number will escalate significantly even to the embarrassment of America itself.
From the overthrow of the democratically elected secular prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddeq, in 1953 and installment of the Shah; the brutal murders of over a million Indonesians in the 1960s to overthrow a democratically elected president Sukarno and install the stooge Suharto as president; the most barbaric killing and bombing of civilians in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s; the violent overthrow of Salvador Allende to put Augusto Pinochet in power in Chile in 1973; the illegal regime change in Iraq on false and totally trumped-up charges of Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction; the military overthrow of Honduras's Manuel Zelaya in 2009; the illegal occupation of Afghanistan, Libya, Syria – the list of America's brutal interference in the affairs of other nations goes on and on.
The covert operations (and occasionally not so covert operations) of America worldwide are endless.There is hardly any state which has not experienced American meddling in its internal matters. American interference along with that of the Saudi-Israel clique in Syria in the name of supporting democracy is an insult to human dignity. How could America state that the Jihadists who butcher civilians shouting "Allah hu Akbar" are fighters for democracy, not soldiers fighting for Allah to establish al-Baghdadi's Islamic Caliphate? Democracy is used as a red herring to interfere in the internal matters of a country.
America took the credit of dismantling communism in the USSR in 1991. When the communist regimes in East Germany, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, etc., collapsed, America could not contain its triumphalism and declared that the end of evil regimes had been accomplished. Ronald Reagan patted himself on the back as the most powerful man of the only super power of the world. America rubbed salt into Russian wounds at the time by trying to give friendly (!) advice on how to run a democratic system! America supported the alcoholic Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 election through the covert support of corrupt Russian oligarchs. When Yeltsin won the election, Time magazine ran a cover story, "Yanks to the rescue"! This was the time when Russians were left feeling utterly humiliated and dejected and Vladimir Putin, a KGB officer, took steps to get into politics and regain some vestiges of national honour.
So, Russian actions now, even if Russian interference is proven true, should be considered in the context of Moscow's past bitter experience and humiliation. America has interfered, without exception, in the internal affairs of almost every nation of the world. Should America be surprised now if the tables are turned and America happens to be at the receiving end of the stick?
How is it that the hunter becomes hunted within a matter of two decades, especially when America declared itself as the only superpower in the world? To find an answer to this question, one has to look at what drives or motivates America. Greed is obviously the name of the game and anything else is subservient. Industry after industry had been relocated in overseas countries to enhance profits. Military machinery went into overdrive to start conflicts abroad and thereby increase the arms industry's profits. Politicians were utterly divided – Democrats and Republicans behave as if they come from different planets. On top of all these, the egregious behaviour of politicians of all colours has alienated the public tremendously.
In a situation like this, it is hardly surprising that a usurper like Donald Trump, who stands against all civilised norms, could emerge and take centre stage through taking the bull of the American political establishment by the horn. A multi-billionaire who has paid no tax at all over the last ten years or so became the darling of the American underclass and unemployed! A self-confessed sex predator became the preferred candidate over Hillary Clinton for American women! The world seemed to have begun moving in the wrong direction.
Donald Trump exploited the pent-up anger and disdain of the people, particularly the white supremacists, against the establishment. Vladimir Putin, for whom Donald Trump had high regards, gave him a little helping hand by not only drumming up support for him but also by going for a character assassination of his opponents. What could be a more befitting reply by Vladimir Putin to America than placing a detested usurper with no political experience whatsoever in the highest political seat that the Oval Office is?
Donald Trump, despised by a majority of Americans, may find solace in the arms of Vladimir Putin. That is the reward Russians will enjoy very much and that is the reward of covert support for Donald Trump. Needless to say that the Russians and the rest of the world have learnt from America itself that interfering in the internal affairs of other countries does pay high rewards. And so one can say that what goes out comes back sooner or later.
