August 18, 2005

The irony is that when you are pro-war and anti-peace you are ‘Right’ but when you are pro-peace and anti-war you are ‘Left’.


The irony is that the world’s biggest hoarder of weapons of mass destruction, the United States of America, moralizes sitting smugly atop huge heaps of these and threatens to lay waste to any other country even dreaming of these.

The irony is that the rationale given for all those WMDs was the Cold War yet the USA continues to deploy 6000 nuclear warheads fifteen years after the end of Cold War.

The irony is that the only ever user of the nuclear weapons, the USA, blames countries not even possessing these of having intent to use them and chaperons the only other country, Israel, that has them and openly threatens their use.

The irony is that North Korea has been shouting from the rooftops for the past so many years that its nuclear program is weapons oriented yet Iran’s declaredly peaceful nuclear program is being targeted.

The irony is that Israel, a state bristling with nuclear weapons, not a signatory to nuclear pacts and baring its nuclear fangs at the slightest of provocations, becomes the prime accuser against Iran. A double irony is that she openly urges the United States to attack Iran without an undue delay and her suggestion apparently falls melodious on certain American ears.

The irony is that Iraq is being blown into smithereens for violating a few trumped up UN resolutions yet Israel, the world’s record holder of violations of UN resolutions, does not even get a rap on the knuckles.

The irony is that the biggest user of chemical weapons, 70 million liters of Agent Orange in Vietnam (1962-1971), the USA accused Iraq of using such weapons against Kurds. A double irony is that those chemical weapons, four deadly strains of Anthrax, were handed over to Saddam from United States’ military Bio Weapons Lab in Fort Dedtrik.

The irony is that the US claims to be the chief champion of democracy the world over and yet was, and continues to be, the biggest friend and sponsor of the most crooked and brutal dictators the world over. Idi Amin of Uganda, General Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Pol Pot of Cambodia are just three names out of more than two dozen such names. A double irony is that, yes, Saddam Hussain of Iraq too was once America’s bosom buddy.

The irony is that in 1983 Donald Rumsfeld, that shuffling little man with a brief case, presented Saddam Hussain a pair of golden spurs as a gift from the government of United States yet is now the most avowed enemy of the ousted Saddam.

The irony is that Iraq’s Saddam Hussain was first ordered through the UN to destroy what few weapons he was left with then attacked when he was disarmed.

The irony is that the US has killed over a million Iraqis in the past decade or so and yet does not tire of advancing the banner of its great liberating tradition the world over.

The irony is that principal champions of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, the United States of America, became the architects of the darkest dungeons in Guantanamo Bay.

The irony is that the despite being the most traditional castigator of human rights violators before the United Nations each year, the United States’ own record of transgressions of civil liberties including arbitrary detentions, torture, renditions and abuse of prisoners of war in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan, shames even those of certain banana republics in the Third World.

The irony is that the current President of United States is able to force his nomination of John Bolton to the same UN, a man known for affectionately keeping a mock grenade in his office and being on record for having said that "there is no such thing as the United Nations" and later that "if the UN Secretariat building in New York lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." A double irony is that there is nary a peep from the Democrats’ Representatives, by now well versed in the fine art of rolling over.

The irony is that the country that holds itself as the “land of freedom” incarcerates a higher percentage of its own citizens, around two million men and women, than any other country in the world.

The irony is that the United States ranks no.1 worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions yet within days of taking office in 2001 the incumbent US administration decided not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases.

The irony is that America’s comic side kick, the Great Britain, once the biggest imperialists of them all that traveled far and wide to colonize peoples all over the world and slaughtered millions of innocent human beings in the process now feigns hurt at the loss of 54 of its own innocent citizens.

The irony is that the United States and Great Britain produce the full range of chemical and biological weapons, export them to dictators the world over and then attack the ones who fall from their favor for possessing such weapons.

The irony is that the world over the United States wants to disarm the unarmed yet continues to arm itself to the teeth by spending almost half of the entire world's military spending on its own defense. A double irony is that despite having the most fearsome military machine on planet earth, it attacks the most defenseless of countries e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq.

The irony is that in the 80s, to decimate the occupying Russian military juggernaut in Afghanistan, the United States raised, groomed and nurtured the Osamas and the Zarqawis and called them heroes. Yet now they term their own self created heroes as ‘terrorists’.

The irony is that the United States has terrorized unarmed civillian populations in no less than 67 places on the globe since WW II and dropped over a hundred million tons of bombs on foreign lands over the last 50 years yet calls a single suicide bomber as the ‘terrorist’.

The irony is that a former slave, the United States of America, has become a party to its former master, the Great Britain, and they together now hunt for new territories and peoples to vanquish.

The irony is that despite telling the American nation lies of almost mythical proportions regarding Saddam’s WMDs, his links to Al Qaeda and 9/11, and which are now fully exposed, the current US president continues to be believed by a significant portion of the US population.

The irony is that a man, who dodged the draft for fear of trudging the silent jungles of Vietnam with a rifle, is now the supreme Commander of the same Armed Forces that he avoided getting into.

The irony is that this Supreme Commander now refuses to see a grieving mother, whose son’s life was brought to a violent end in the sham war in Iraq, with the words that, “I have to get on with my own life”. A double irony is that Cindy Sheehan, the mother of that dead American soldier, is being called a fraud by the pro-Bush yellow bellies rather than calling the Iraq War a fraud that has now been proven as such beyond any shadow of doubt. A triple irony is that a woman who has lost her flesh and blood is being hounded by the American free press, and the Right wingers, and the corporate scoundrals who have gained every thing from this war are being extolled.

The irony is that when you are pro-war and anti-peace you are ‘Right’ but when you are pro-peace and anti-war you are ‘Left’.

The ultimate irony is that there are too many people in this world fully aware of all these ironies yet do nothing but sit on their hands and repeat ad nauseam, ‘the irony is that….’

Courtesy and Copyright © Anwaar Hussain, Fountainhead