Tag Archives: Taliban

Trump unravels as do some myths about the USA

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Artwork by street artist Pegasus

Trump 2.0 has gone Bonkers- disrupting the entire world order over the last 12 months. The abduction of the Venezuelan President Maduro by US forces reeks of the Mob Boss underworld. His threat to annex Greenland and walk out of NATO has alienated long-term Western Allies. His mocking of Canada & its PM has destroyed decades of a mutually beneficial neighborly brotherhood. His disparaging remarks to the Holy Pope have angered millions and undermined his own Evangelical base. His bullying with tariffs and sanctions are hurting US consumers the most; other nations are resetting their trade plans through treaty deals with new partners, trade blocks, some major Free Trade Agreements and even through de-dollarization agreements. 70 days into the Iran war and everybody is a loser; the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the oil and gas shortage has upended economies especially in Asia.

Trump himself has become a laughingstock across the world. Nicknames like ‘Mango Mussolini’, ‘The Nod-father’, ‘Don the Con’ are trending whilst memes like ‘Serial Liar’, ‘The Boy who cried Assassination’, TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), NACHO (Not a chance Hormuz Opens) are going viral. But inadvertently, the Supreme Leader of the USA has exposed the grim faultlines within his own country. How have the High and Mighty Fallen!!!

Let it be acknowledged that the USA remains the biggest economy in the world. The troubling fact is that its national debt of $ 31.27 trillion has overtaken its GDP of $ 31.22 trillion. It remains the cutting-edge leader in Hi-Tech & AI; also holds the pole position in Big Pharma, Energy and Financial Services. The roster of the most-valued firms reads like NVIDIA, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, META, Berkshire Hathaway, Tesla, Walmart, United Health Group… The US has also been the Soft Power Narrative Controller through Disney Fims, Marvel Cinematic Universe and Blockbusters like ‘The Godfather’, ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Top Gun Maverick’… Music legends like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears developed massive cult followings worldwide. We owe it to Hollywood for making dance forms like Jazz, Tap and Urban Hip-Hop so contagiously popular. But now, K-Pop groups are topping the charts helped on by Spotify, YouTube and world tours; Japanese Anime is breaking down cultural barriers; Chinese drama and Indian films & song and dance are capturing the imagination of a global audience. Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls deserve the credit for taking basketball from an American sport to a global craze. But this does not mean that the NFL and the Super Bowl represent the world championship of football. The real thing, the world’s most popular sport -football or soccer- will kick-off at the FIFA World Cup in June this year across the USA, Canada & Mexico.

But having doffed our cap to the USA, the world order and perspective is rapidly changing. The Statue of Liberty no longer stands tall. The bumper stickers of ‘Land of the Free & the Brave’ do not ring true. Leader of the Free World??!! Really?!

Let’s start with the Iran War. This unnecessary war was created to divert attention from the Epstein Scandal which threatened to engulf The White House. Some analysts’ take is that this panic was tapped into by Bibi Netanyahu and then a silent nod from MBS sparked the war; they seriously underestimated the Iranian missile stockpile and drone weaponry and least expected Iran to rain missiles on Saudi Arabia, Qatar & Dubai. Please watch the satirical comedy ‘Wag the Dog’ where the President’s men create a war to take the heat of a domestic sex-scandal. Yes, Jeffrey Epstein sex-offender, trafficker and pedophile who was Trump’s close buddy for many years. Donald’s name pops up thousands of times in the Epstein documents. Epstein died in prison in August 2019 under suspicious circumstances (ruled as suicide) during Trump’s first term. In his second term his personal lawyer and Deputy Attorney General has met convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell following which she has been transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison in Texas. The depraved Epstein’s’ partner in crime has even asked for a Presidential pardon.

War mongering has been a dark American truth. In a recent Truth Social post Trump bragged about how he would finish Iran in 24 hours with the US troops taking Cuba on the way back. Back in 1953, the CIA & MI6 (British Intelligence) overthrew the popular democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh as he had nationalized the Anglo-Iran Oil Company in 1951. The monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took over. In 1954, another democratically elected Guatemala President Arbenz was ousted to protect the profits of United Fruit Company, at risk, because of land reforms. In 1973 popular Chilean leader Salvadore Allende was replaced by a brutal military dictator, Augusto Pinochet. Same playbook played over in Congo, Brazil, Indonesia. In 2003, President Bush Jr started the 8-year Iraq war stating that Saddam Hussein had WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction). The despot was killed but no WMDs were found. The people of Iraq paid a heavy price. Cut to August 2024. Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina flees the country to escape a student led uprising. Again, the US Deep State in action. This scenario had been predicted by a Russian Foreign Affairs spokesperson around 10 months earlier. The US wanted control over the St Martin’s island in the Bay of Bengal. The Bangladeshi leader said No. Mohammad Yunus a close acolyte of Clinton and George Soros was installed as interim leader. The Nobel Peace prize winner was soon seen sharing the stage at a Clinton Foundation event in the US with 4 of the so-called student leaders. On October 2nd, 2024, his esteemed guest at Dhaka was none other than Alec Soros, heir of George Soros.

On Truth Social Trump threatened that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again.’  A war crime by itself. The US Air Force killed 160-175 primary school girls in a deadly air-strike in Iran. A war crime. But let’s go back to the 1963-1973 period when the USA dropped more bombs on Vietnam & Cambodia than in the entire Second World War. Mass genocide. Plus, the brutal use of napalm – the scorched earth policy- and poisoning of rivers which killed lakhs of common-people and livestock. No talk about war crimes- no talk of even human rights violations. In the 1980’s the USA funded and armed the Taliban (later a designated terror group); they were trained and nurtured by its vassal state Pakistan to drive out the Russian troops from Afghanistan. Following the 9/11 attack US troops occupied the country for 20 years only to exit with their tails between their legs as the Taliban returned. 100,000 dead and $ 90 billion in military assistance. Also, it was not exactly surprising to learn that the Most Wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden, taken out by US Seals in May 2011, had been safely living for many years in a separate house, next to the Pakistan Military Centre at Abbottabad.

The USA is a military industrial empire. It’s 2026 Defense Budget is a whopping $1.5 trillion focused on AI, drone technology and military dominance. This is up from the 2025 defense expenditure of $ 954 billion- more than the next 6 countries combined. This is to primarily fund the more than 800 military bases it has across 75+ countries. Iran missiles were launched to hit such bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai. It’s also to fund regime change, geopolitical control and access to resources.

Contrast India. India has been the leading contributor to UN Peace Keeping missions. Since 1953, more than 200,000 troops plus medical servicemen have been to 49+ hotspots across the world. Around 160 Indian army personnel have made the supreme sacrifice for the cause of peace.

The USA is not the bastion of democracy. Thomas Jefferson, a founding father and the author of the Declaration of Independence owned 600 slaves. He lived a lavish life and was in heavy debt and as the story goes, he could not free his slaves as they were mortgaged. In the 2016 Presidential elections, Hillary Clinton won the popular votes by over 2.8 million. She still lost to Trump who secured 304 electoral college votes to her 227. Then, there is the common practice of gerrymandering- of carving up districts and constituencies -which enables politicians to choose their voters instead of the voters choosing their representatives. There are also voter suppression laws to target communities like Blacks and Hispanics who are less likely to vote for those in power. It’s also a known fact that a handful of corporate billionaires and Wall Street firms write the Government policies; politicians respond to donors and lobbyists and not to their constituents.

The USA is a deeply divided country. Imagine a corrupt, racist, incompetent and narcissist Trump being elected as President for 2 terms. Especially after inciting a riot on the Capitol where the mob screamed ‘Hang Mike Pence’ (Trump’s VP). A cult leader who has fooled or manipulated a sizable portion of the populace over the years with influential sections of the media and big business being complicit. Am searching for the colorful Trumpian word to describe this ‘State of the Nation.’

Let’s talk about the rigged SCOTUS (Supreme Court). 3 of the Judges (all life-time appointees) were appointed by Trump at the behest of his ultra conservative and evangelical base. In 2022, the Court overturned the 1973 Roe vs Wade judgement ruling that the right to abortion is not protected by the Constitution allowing States to independently regulate or prohibit the procedure. You can guess what the Red or Republican States have done. In 2008, SCOTUS affirmed that the Second Amendment protected individual rights to possess firearms, unconnected with services in a militia, specifically for lawful purposes like self-defense within a home. The 1791 Second Amendment had clearly restricted’ the right to a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free State.’

Is the US still the Wild West or is it the powerful gun lobby NRA (National Rifle Association) calling the shots. Thus, we have more than 433 million firearms including assault weapons- more than the population of the country. Why is it needed in a country with the most heavily funded and armed police forces in the world? In 2026 itself, there have been 131 mass shootings. And all we have are puffed -up TV anchors saying, ‘that this is not who we are’ and ‘that our thoughts  and prayers are with the deceased and their families.’ The US also holds the record for the highest incarceration rates- more prisoners per capita than even China or North Korea.

President Reagen’s deregulation doctrine of the 1980’s to drastically reduce government oversight led to the global financial meltdown of 2008. It grossly increased income inequality; the top 1% control 30% of US wealth and 50% have only 2.5% of the cake. Unbridled Capitalism. ‘Greed is Good’ as Gordon Gekko says in the movie ‘Wall Street’. In developed Western countries, Universal Health Care, subsidized and free higher education and a robust public transport system are the norm. But for the rigidly binary US mindset this is Commie-Leftist mentality. So, we have a student debt at a staggering $1.7 trillion. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) covers around 25 million Americans whilst another 27-30 million have no health insurance. Plus, the private health care system is the most expensive in the world.

For those enamored by the hallowed Ivy League Colleges take a closer look. From 2012 to 2024 Harvard has received gifts and donations of over $ 1 billion from Chinese sources. Have you heard any protests about the brutal persecution of a million Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province of China and about the demolition of thousands of mosques. A Deafening Silence! Show me the Money. The Revolving Door policy between Wall Street, the US Government and top Academia have been a recurrent feature in the Treasury Department, Economic Advisory Roles and Regulatory Agencies. MONEY. POWER. The much-quoted phrase from ‘Hamlet’ – ‘there is something rotten in the state of Denmark’ does not even describe the venality in US power circles. So, we have Larry Summers- Treasury Secretary, Director of the National Economic Council, President and Professor at Harvard being exposed for his close ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law Professor was part of the legal team which defended Epstein in the 2008 non-prosecution agreement- pleading guilty for soliciting underage sex-but shielded from serious federal sex-trafficking charges and again was on the Trump defense team during his impeachment proceedings successfully pitching Presidential immunity. Finally, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and his mysterious relationship with sex-offender Epstein. They met Thorbjorn Jagland in Strasbourg, France in March 2013. Jagland was the Nobel Peace Committee Chair from 2009-2015. Connect the dots.

It will take another 25-30 years for the USA to be reduced to just another major power in the comity of nations. It will remain the ‘land of opportunity’ for millions of aspirant people from all over the world. Americans have the cutting edge in Hi Tech and AI; the dollar remains the dominant currency (especially due to the petro-dollar masterstroke by Nixon and Kissinger in 1973); Wall Street remains the financial nerve-center and trillions of dollars have been invested in the US Stock market, Treasury Bonds and pension plans and properties from China, Japan to Russia, Saudi Arabia to even Finland.

But the decline has begun. The 100 years of the Imperial USA is coming to an end.

First World Hypocrisy

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Photo by Tristan Sparks on https://www.flickr.com/photos/friendly-fire/252169955/

The First World refers to the USA and its Western Allies opposed to the Soviet Union after WW2. Nations characterised by democracy, prosperity, stability and progress. Over the last 7 decades this bloc has called the shots and controlled the narrative. Developing and Third World countries like India have tacitly accepted their superiority, condescending attitude and sermons without question. As an emerging power now, it is high time we shed our colonial mind-set and see the world in starkly real terms.

The game-changing ideas and policies, innovations and inventions from these western countries are richly acknowledged and warmly celebrated. But it is time to show the mirror to capture the less known darker side also. This blog has been triggered by the American debacle in Afghanistan. Recommend that you please take it with A Fistful of Salt.

Geopolitics. Think about the chaotic retreat of the US from Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation. Leaving almost 40 million Afghans (half of them female) to the mercy of a cruel and regressive regime which harks back to the medieval ages. Leaving a huge cache of deadly weapons and armaments for their ready use. Ironically, the Taliban was created by the US and their partner Pakistan to oust the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Mission accomplished in 1989. The land of the free and the brave sponsoring and promoting a terror outfit.  The monster comes back to drive them out in 2021. During these 20 years almost $3 trillion was spent with only a miniscule going to build hospitals, schools and much needed infrastructure.  Funds were splurged on state of the art weaponry and equipment- cheered on by the domestic military-industrial complex.  With generous cutbacks going to the defence contractors and their political patrons.

This super-power also exited Vietnam in ignominy in 1974. After dropping more bombs on Vietnam and Cambodia than in the entire second world war. Napalm was deployed to execute the scorched earth policy. Rivers were poisoned to kill civilians and livestock.  History is generally written by the winners. Here the loser cleverly covered up all the war crimes and misadventures.

Turn the clock back to the late 1930’s when Hitler’s Nazis started the most devastating war in human history-WW II. Italy, Spain played willing accomplices and second fiddle to the Fuhrer. Those long, dark, destructive days and the brutal genocide of 6 million Jews have been well documented. The War ended with the Americans dropping atomic bombs- Little Boy and Fat Man- on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

All the hotspots in recent times have had the signature of the US and its Allies. That there were no WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction) did not deter the old firm of Bush & Blair from toppling Saddam in Iraq with their eyes on the oil-fields.  Syria, Lebanon, Libya and the cursed land of Yemen- the tentacles go back to this Western bloc.  This is not to absolve Russia and the regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Iran who are equally complicit. But the First World nations have left these countries to a worse state and fate than when they first invaded. The geo-political chessboard has been played for ideology, hegemony, natural resources, trade routes and military bases. The Iron Curtain fell in 1989 but today the world is still a very divided and troubled place. The First World has not been the civilising influence it credits itself to be.

Colonial powers. UK, France, Spain, Portugal with vassal states across the world. The dream of an Empire has been a recurrent human theme throughout history. But the driving force was to exploit natural resources and wealth and cheap labour in the colonies and boast of a global footprint. “The Sun never sets on the British Empire.’ The plundering of minerals and crops, cruelty towards the native population and determined efforts to uproot local cultures and traditions are not even foot notes in the history books we read. It has all been white-washed.

Slave trade epitomises how the US, UK and other European empires manned their farms and mines and mansions. Even today statues of glorified and knighted slave merchants dot the United Kingdom. Some of the founding fathers of the US of A owned hundreds of slaves. Slaves were officially traded as cargo and even insured. Claims were paid for the goods lost at sea.  But the colonisers with their rich history are quick to lecture other nations on human rights. Smells of hypocrisy, right!!

Let’s turn back the page to August 1947 and the India-Pakistan independence story. PM Attlee announced in the House of Commons that the transfer of power would happen before June 1948. But Lord Mountbatten, wanted to have it done asap. The 3323 km border line was drawn by Radcliffe, a British lawyer, who had never been to the sub-continent and had no clue about the demography. The mammoth and complex task was completed by him and his team within 2 months in the cool environs of Shimla. IMAGINE!!! It does not take hindsight to see that the additional months would have been very valuable in communicating and planning for the inevitable cross-migration of 12-15 million people. Instead a million died in the panic and violence that erupted. The last Viceroy couldn’t care less. Nor did his political masters at the Whitehall.

The USA is deeply polarised country today. The Trump fan base of 30% voters are largely an alienated tribe who are at odds with their increasingly multicultural land. The main reason why the Brexiteers won was because Russian social media manipulators scared enough of the populace through images of immigrants flooding into their nation, from the hotspots of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.  France, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands (the cradle of liberalism) are sounding the bugle of a clash of civilisations and enacting restrictive laws and social measures. But all these happenings have not been a wake-up call for India and other developing nations . We continue with our mongrel behaviour of constantly putting ourselves down and lapping whatever criticism these elite western nations and their proxies throw at us.

The beacons of democracy. On the 6th Jan 2021 the US Capitol was attacked by an angry, vicious mob goaded on by President Trump who had lost the election and could not take it. This would have been sneered at as” a banana republic episode” in a third world country. But in the US of A the TV pundits kept sagely saying that ‘this is not who we are’ and the Trumpians even dismissed the rampaging crowd as tourists at the Capitol. The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since 1898 and its current President is Joe Biden. But Puerto Ricans remain second class citizens and have no representation and voting rights in the US Congress.  Again, with the most funded and militarised police force in the world in place, automatic guns are available and sold over-the –counter across the nation as a fundamental right to defend oneself.

Across continents, the patronising First World has propped up and supported despots, brutal dictators and puppet rulers. From the Shah of Iran, Libya’s Gaddafi, the Pakistani Generals, Marcos of the Philippines and so on and on. Else, a coup was orchestrated as the one to remove Allende in Chile. The UK grappled with the Irish problem for 70 years. For nearly 25 of those it was a violent cauldron of bomb attacks and guerrilla warfare- ruthlessly dealt with by the British forces. But hey, shrug, shrug. This was an internal matter of the United Kingdom and the English could deal with it.

The fault-lines of racism are now very evident in the fractured societies of the US and Europe. But these have been glossed over for decades as the developing world has been lectured on how to be civilised people. The lid has always been kept on the rape and murder of thousands of indigenous people in Canada. But now corpses of hundreds of native children have been recovered from many Catholic school sites. How many news channels carried this tragic story which played over from the 1890’s to the late 1970’s?!! PM Trudeau merely called for the Pope to apologise. Of course, the State had no role to play. News reports from France state that more than 300000 children have been abused over the last few decades by priests of the Catholic Church. The powerful Church protected its clergy from the law and order arms of the State. On the other side of the world in Australia the aborigines got a taste of hell in their own land as the white settlers discovered their paradise.

Yes, the Industrial Revolution took off in England and the technological one in the Silicon Valley. The world has benefitted in many, many ways. But not in the humane way. Many big brands in the west sourced their material and parts through sweat shops in the poorer countries.  Cheap and exploitative labour was the way to big profit margins.  Why, even in North America today, Amazon runs boot-camps with the workers having little time to pee. “Show me the Money,”  is the corporate war cry. As a whistleblower has recently revealed, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook allowed disturbing messages and images to trend on their platforms as it made them astronomical profits. So what, if it inflamed some racial hatred and divisions or drove more suicides or even put democracy at risk. A lot of good has been done by the charitable Gates foundation. But the halo of the ultimate billionaire do-gooder has paled off. Bill Gates batted to protect the turf of big pharma at the height of Covid. Disparaging suggestions for low-cost generic vaccines to help the world battling the pandemic. And his curious association with the late sex trafficker and power broker Epstein. Presumably to help him get the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the movie ‘Wall Street’ Gordon Gekko says the famous lines, “Greed is good.” Sure. The top 1% of the US rich pay tax at a lower rate than any other segment of the society. In the rush to cover-up the origins of Covid 19 were many top scientists from Europe and the USA.  The stakes were too high. Billions of dollars for the Gain of Function research which possibly led to the leak at the Wuhan Lab in China. The 2008 US financial meltdown featured a lot of Gordon Gekko characters. Banks, Insurers, Wall Street Finance companies, housing corporates, credit rating agencies and big name audit firms all collaborating and looking the other way as the sub-prime and derivatives  fuelled crises unravelled. “Too big to fail” and the Government bailed them out. Deregulation of the financial markets from the Reagan years and lack of oversight caused the global crises. And the CXO’s walked away with fat bonuses as millions across the globe lost their jobs and pensions and savings.

The Volkswagen emission cheating scandal represented an ethical breakdown and would have shut-down a lesser Company. The German Government stepped in to bail out this auto-giant which was poised at becoming the largest in the world. High-level talks with the Americans, some big penalties and back to business as usual. What also came out was the European Union’s somewhat lax attitude in applying emission norms to vehicle manufacturers on the Continent.

Let’s come to the Panama Papers and its latest edition called the Pandora Papers. Most of the attractive tax-havens are in the West. Of course, the scenic Switzerland heads the list which has South Dakota in the US, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Lichtenstein… It’s not only the Colombian and Mexican drug lords or Russian oligarchs or the Arab Sheikhs or super-rich Indians stashing away their money through shell companies. The First World had long earned this rite of passage. It is also not surprising that the UK is a preferred destination for financial scamsters. Perhaps, the tough extradition laws appeal to these criminal fugitives. And  staying with Colombia and Mexico which are derided for their Narcos cartels. Guess which are the most lucrative markets for the drug peddlers??

We can go on and on. The corruption at the highest levels of FIFA. The systematic doping on the Tour de France. Match fixing in football at the Serie A in Italy. These are all malaises associated with ‘those other countries.’

Human nature is what it is. Power and greed corrupts and no nation or peoples are immune to it. India is a work in progress. A huge and complex nation. We have a surfeit of venal politicians and problems of poverty, un-employment, education and public health. Community and regional divides and the scourges of corruption, and casteism.  But we are only 75 years old as a nation and progress is also being made. The young generation will signal the tipping point through its confidence and aspirations.

However, to really discover its own identity India will have to work to protect and serve its interests. That is Realpolitik. Absorb good initiatives and ideas and learn from the failures and blunders. There are positive takeaways from countries in Asia, Africa, Oceania, Middle East and South America. As an emerging power, strive to be a more responsible force both domestically and on the global stage.

The bottom-line is that ideas and philosophies and policies are revisited and revamped or fine-tuned or discarded when actually challenged by ground realities. The world is changing and the struggles and evolution of each nation needs more empathy and a better understanding. The only path towards achieving the Greater Good on the planet.