A war is being fought at the heart of every establishment of the world. Traditionally the establishment is the force of inertia and conservatism in any group or society. Yet the rise of neo-conservatives everywhere during the outgoing decade has taught many a lesson. Osama bin Laden, the US neo-cons and the Fox News phenomenon have all shown us to which extent blood-thirst and selfishness can lead some groups to demolish everything precious and humane. I name Osama and Bush’s clique in the same breath because if you see carefully they are two sides of the same coin. All we know is that thanks to al Qaeda and the neo-cons the world has lost trust in the multilateral concepts of collective security. The so-called war on terror was perhaps the crudest attempt at engineering a false clash that would have ruined the human race for generations. The attempt seems to have failed and now the neo-con cabal seems to be passing silently into history. Or is it really?

It is true that Dick Cheney, perhaps understanding his unpopularity and bad health, never showed interest in entering into the presidential race. This decision ensured that his neo-con friends would never get a serious chance of regaining power at the centre. But that is not where the real damage has been done. The radicalisation of politics is not a great issue for in a democracy that is always reversible. The actual threat of such deformation is usually to the state institutions which in nature are already quite hostile namely the bureaucracy and the armed forces. I am sure when the American armed forces have produced men like FDR, Colin Powell and Senator McCain there should be some lofty tradition in place yet soldiers the world over usually are taught to be supremacist both in profession and in nationalism. And that is not all. When you have Fox in media and neo-cons in power it is easy to open up to more radicalisation. It is Pavlovian really. When every kind of commendation and promotion for eight years is possible through reiterating the neo-con values it really takes quite a while to undo the damage. Two examples are already in front of us. One of the Indian establishment under the BJP and the Pakistani establishment under Musharraf.

Those who look at the Congress rule in India cannot understand the paradigm shift that has taken place already owing to the BJP rule. Bureaucracy during those days was stuffed with saffron clad bonkers who further radicalised the establishment. How can we forget that in uncountable public gatherings cow’s urine was served instead of water? Even after Congress rose to power the space it has lost to the extremists like Narendra Modi seems impossible to reclaim even though it has to pose radical contestants.

Likewise in Pakistan, the establishment under Musharraf lost all self-esteem and became almost a vessel of the US belligerence. When we pointed that Pakistan should calculate each and every concession made to the Yanks based on the national interest we were reminded that Washington was our paymaster. The slant we had to endure was almost obnoxious. The same retired army officers who are ready to gouge our eyes for advocating some patience towards Musharraf, used to skin us alive whenever we suggested that the army was enduring huge losses owing to its prolonged stay in politics. Unfortunately today when it is proven the same folks are over the top without paying any heed to what we say. The damage done to our establishment during the last military rule may not pose any serious threat to any of our neighbours but it has ensured a permanent risk to democracy in the country. For almost nine years now supporting Musharraf could take you to any coveted post. That ensured that quite a few servicemen inhaled the official propaganda of their chief being the promised Messiah and then regurgitated it whenever they got a chance. Now apparently the state of things have changed a bit and these men have stopped chanting pro-Musharraf slogans but almost a decade of service is quite a long time and the middle tier of the officers corps has to live with the same biases for its entire service life. The facts that the circumstances are daunting and that the democratic government is being pressured not to make fast paced changes are not helping even a bit.

We then cannot be too hopeful about the change in the US establishment. Those endowed with wisdom who have seen the peril without any spin are already fighting the establishments the world over. Again the fact that except for a lunatic fringe no one is averse to Senator Obama’s election to the coveted throne purely on racial basis shows that there might be some hopeful sparks in the air already. Obama’s own talk is also very impressive and promises hope and change. But I am afraid that whosoever is brought to power in November will have to endure almost an instant propaganda that the People’s Party had to face in Pakistan or the Congress in India. While we can tolerate the neo-cons, the BJP and in our case a dictator for almost a decade we are not ready to give the true standard bearers of democracy, moderation and humanity any chance to survive. Senator Obama my prayers are with you but you need to be please just as good as you seem for otherwise the future of the species hangs truly in balance.

As for the neo-cons I have this to say. It is wrong to consider them a group of psychopathic Dr Strangeloves. They are not mental. They are opportunistic and mean. I don’t know whether this contagious political disease of taking things to the very brink for personal gains has spread from India during the BJP rule or has evolved from Enron. Yet I have no problem in believing that all this global reign of terror is not merely for psychological issues alone. They are the prophets of crony capitalism. They want the world to be restructured so that the business on whose board they sit next may not have any problem in rising to the top. Their purpose of entering Iraq, Afghanistan and quite soon it seems Pakistan is not to crush some rising radical cult but to restructure the entire resource rich region. If you view carefully Osama bin Laden is equally an ambassador of the Saudi BinLadin Group as are Bush and company the standard bearers of the crony capitalism. If you can trust my drift it is Pakistan which should fear a likely invasion from the US in the coming days rather than Iran. They have not forgotten that a poor country like Pakistan equipped with the nukes and a professional standing army can really become a mid range power once it succeeds in establishing trade and strategic ties with the Central Asian Republics. This is where Musharraf and Karzai figure in. Musharraf during his rule paid considerable lip service to the idea but always vetoed anything practical that could give Pakistan some alternative breathing space. Karzai’s presence in Kabul has ensured that the Taliban insurgency never dies down and Pak-Afghan border is never peaceful. While I do not see how Pakistan, an almost slavish US ally, could pose any serious threat to the US had it succeeded in establishing strategic ties with the CARS, I am deeply concerned that the US establishment cannot see the most probable fallout of its blind policies in the coming days. The fear now is that the two band brothers across this border are now ready to stage a drama in the coming days which will lead to the annexation of Pakistan even before November. Before November because it will be far easier for the new administration to tolerate another foreign colony because then it becomes a management problem and not imperialistic. If not removed as soon as possible or his powers truly curtailed our man can prove to be another Gorbachev. You have already been warned.
(Courtesy The Post)

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