America’s new villains

A video which was leaked through social media, including Youtube and Myspace, exposes some slides which characterises certain moderate Islamic groups as having infiltrated the public space, including media, education, government and military. In a slide, Al Jazeera reports, the photo of Al Qaeda militants beheading someone was shown with the caption: Violence of Muslim Brotherhood.

When the war on terror was declared by George W Bush in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the US on a morbid September morning, dubbed 9/11 in all media debates, most people the world over backed the government’s claim for retribution because of the worldwide sympathy wave. This was despite the slip of the tongue’ of the President to the effect that he was sending an army of Crusaders, thereby evoking memories of blood and death which the centuries-long inter-religious strifes had let loose and which many people in the east and west had almost forgotten. There President however won widespread support despite his unjustifiable selection of enemies and lack of introspection and clarity.

None took the Crusades point of Mr Bush, who ‘was’ a known ignoramus on many issues that matter, seriously. Though there was the thesis of Samuel Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilisations’ which alluded that the American war on terror was much more than an act of retribution, the plight of innocent victims of 9/11, and the sheer numeric scale of the casualty made many stand by the US claim. And only when the US military exercise went out of control, and it reached beyond the so-called hideouts of Afghanistan, did the anti-war movements come to become active and strong.

Military Theory Classes

For a week, the Pentagon has been trying to set the diplomatic apple cart in order. The cart had been upset by the leaked materials that were used to teach the senior US military officials about the nature and characteristics of their enemy. A video which was leaked through social media, including Youtube and Myspace, exposes some slides which characterise certain moderate Islamic groups as having infiltrated the public space, including media, education, government and military. In a slide, Al Jazeera reports, the photo of Al Qaeda militants beheading someone was shown with the caption: Violence of Muslim Brotherhood.

Two days before the slides were leaked, the BBC carried a report about the statement of General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who went red at some study materials used to teach senior military officials. Weird News, an online news resource, broke the story of some slides which say that there is no such thing as moderate Islam and the military officials should consider Islam as their enemy. The slides exhorted the officials to ‘declare a total war against all Muslims in the world, including possible nuclear attacks against the holy cities Mecca and Medina, thereby wiping out the civilian populations. What mattered was that the Pentagon had cleared the whole materials as authentic, the BBC reports. Let. Col. Dooley, who was considered to be the author of the slide, was interrogated and was asked to leave.

It is highly likely that the Islamophobic machinery in the American establishment has become hyper-active after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden and in search of a new villain. This is corroborated by the expose of the Weird News and the leaked video. That the materials have been okayed by such an establishment as Pentagon gives strength to the suspicion.

White racists

The inside story of the American military has ceased to be inside with many former soldiers coming out with allegations against the establishment. Jonathan Hutto, who wrote the book ‘Anti-War Soldier’ is a case in point. In an interview he gave to the online portal Alternet he exposed the racist characteristics of the establishment he had once served. ‘This global imperial ideology,’ he said, ‘requires racism, religious intolerance and xenophobia.’ ‘The major motivation for the US,’ he added, ‘for the US ruling class missions abroad is hegemony, power and leverage over its rivals such as Russia, Japan, China, Iran and countries in Latin America such as Veneuzuela. The Iraq war was based on the Carter doctrine, named after the US president Jimmy Carter. In his 1980 state of the Union address, Jimmy Carter stated that any attempt by an outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf would be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the USA and such an assault would be repelled by any means necessary.’

Hutto said that most of the senior officials in the US army are white racists and anti-Arab ideologues.

Strategic Importance

The importance of the leaked course materials lies in the nascent democratic spirit visible in the Arab countries that had once been ruled by the staunch supporters of the US administration. The frustration over the exit of Hosni Mubarrak and the pivotal role played by the Islamists including Muslim Brotherhood can be understood by an impartial observer. At the same time being an Islamist outfit, the Brotherhood has been read to have reconfigured itself in the recent past so as to share the space of protests with other democratic movements all over the world.

What can be understood from the speedy response of the Pentagon to the issue by covering up the whole issue, ordering probe and taking action against the official involved (though he was reinstated sooner or later) is that the bureaucracy helps the Obama dispensation to retain its image of being moderates and democratic. While Obama is all out to win brownie points in the debates for next Presidency, any adverse publicity will have adverse impact.

But the fact that America’s list of villains is being redrafted every day even after the exit of Bin Laden bodes ill for a multi-cultural world which dreams of a shared existence.