Trample the Weak and Poor

22 October 2013 06:51 pm Views - 1888

What would the reaction of the United States of America and its ‘lap-dogs’ such as the once `Great’ Britain and now, India, have been had little Sri Lanka:-
n Sent a gang of armed sailors to enter India surreptitiously and illegally and murdered Prabhakaran while he was resident there? [As the Americans murdered Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan]

n Kept a number of prisoners suspected of having been members and/or activists of the LTTE on detention indefinitely without trial and expressly refused to try them or release them? [As the Americans keep several persons many of whom are foreign Nationals whom they allege they suspect to be members of Al Quaida, in illegal detention at Guantanamo Bay]

"The so-called world powers will don the cloak of righteousness and condemn our activities wholesale calling for the so-called `International Community’ to take
joint action against us"

n Used nuclear weapons to murder hundreds of thousands of civilians of our own or another Country and later preached sanctimonious sermons against the use weapons of mass destruction? [As the Americans did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki]
n If Sri Lanka aided, abetted and joined a powerful foreign Country in encouraging and/or assisting another Country to use poison gas on a section of its fractious populace?[As the Americans did with their former ally Iraq]

n If Sri Lanka used Drone aircraft to murder or otherwise murdered People on the territory of Foreign Countries on the pretext that we had intelligence that they were members/activists of the LTTE?  [as the Americans do on a daily basis in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan etc. on the purported basis that the murdered were members of Al Quaida]

The answer to these questions is too obvious to state.  However, I will state that they will don the cloak of righteousness, which doesn’t fit anybody but them, and condemn our activities wholesale calling for the so-called `International Community’ to take joint -action against us and/or take action against us together with a few of their sycophants without the rest of the `International Community’ as they have done in so many other Countries by combining their partners in crime in what they term a “coalition of the willing”.  However, it is also obvious that though the United States of America has committed all the abovementioned crimes against humanity and is currently committing some of them and/or ready to commit any of them at any time of its choosing, no Country in the World has yet condemned it for so doing or called upon the so-called `International Community’ to take action against them.  

Indeed while these powerful Countries seek to invoke a so-called doctrine named `R2P’ (which sounds to me like an advertising slogan for a brand of toothpaste!!) to call for the intervention of the powerful in the affairs of the weak on the ground that the weak are committing crimes against humanity, not one of them has called for the invocation of this so-called doctrine against a powerful Country like the United States.  Thus, they have reduced the so-called doctrine of `R2P’ to being one which may be invoked by the strong against the weak leaving the strong to do whatever they wished, to whomever they wished, whenever they wished.  

What is most tragic is that the Countries of the World which do not regard United States and/or its partners in crime from among the affluent nation of the West to be global Policemen or teachers to teach us how to behave, they (including Sri Lanka) have all acquiesced in the various proposals put forward by the United States by a process of sheer blackmail.  

Thus, the accord relating to Syria and that which John Kerry proudly announced to be the one occasion where the entire Security Council acted in unison  in adopting a set of principles, was adopted after much negotiation and arm twisting whereby the United States of America with its bombs, rockets, missiles and other weapons of mass destruction which it has used and is always ready to use against a small and weak State, `blackmailed’ Syria into agreeing to its proposals to destroy or hand over its arsenal of chemical weapons to the so-called  `International  Community’.  

What is tragic in this exercise is that not one Country which approved of or agreed to this accord or this resolution even called upon the United States to also destroy or make available to be destroyed all or any of its  arsenal of chemical weapons.  All concerned had evidently `forgotten’ that “what is sauce for Syria is sauce for the USA”.
Chemical weapons are no doubt some horrendous instruments of mass destruction that must be destroyed by whoever possesses them.  Thus, the possession of chemical weapons by the United States which, by its past conduct, particularly in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Vietnam and in Iraq, has proved to the World that it is not a Country that can be trusted to any degree to possess weapons of mass destruction and use them judiciously only when necessary is manifestly detrimental to peace. No Country in the World including Russia and China dared to even suggest that the resolution of the Security Council in respect of Syria’s chemical weapons should also include a provision that all Countries possessing chemical weapons should, like Syria, agree to their destruction.  

The same can be said about the discussions and the forthcoming arrangements and agreements between the United States and Iran regarding nuclear weapons.   The United States of America was no doubt the first Country in the World to possess and use nuclear weapons.  Indeed it is the only Country which has used nuclear weapons to-date.  The effects on their use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were felt for several decades after they were used and wholly innocent civilians who had nothing whatever to do with the alleged conduct of Japanese forces during the Second World War suffered indescribable agonies as a result of America’s tender nuclear attentions.

These facts do not by any stretch of imagination give the US the right to continue to possess, use and/or develop nuclear weapons and/or to prevent other Countries from acquiring them.  However, even Iran did not insist on the United States destroying and/or disclosing the extent of its nuclear arsenal and/or demand that it desist from the continued possession and/or development of nuclear weapons and agreed to the destruction of its entire nuclear arsenal.  Indeed neither Iran nor even the United States nor any Country has insisted that Russia or China or the once `Great’ Britain or even the newcomers to the `Nuclear Club’, namely, India and Pakistan also destroyed their nuclear arsenals.  The reasons for such reticence relating to the United States, Britain, China and Russia are patently apparent.  Iran can be hurt and is being hurt badly by the economic sanctions imposed upon it.  

However, if the United States gets too ‘bold’ or `ambitious’ and seeks to extend those sanctions to Countries such as Russia and China, there can be little doubt that those sanctions would boomerang upon America and their partners in crime.  Accordingly, there has been no call even by the USA that China or Russia or any other Country possessing nuclear weapons should disclose the full extent of their nuclear arsenals or that such Countries should agree to their total dismantling and/or destruction.  

The moral of the story, therefore, is that the teaching of Jesus Christ,”The meek shall inherit the earth”, is nothing short of nonsensical in that the meek and the weak will only be trampled upon by the rich and the powerful who in fact control the earth will continue to do so.

What then can we do about it?  Regrettably we, the former colonial possessions of the West and Countries that were formerly oppressed directly by them are in no position to `take them on’ individually.  However, in unity lies strength, and as I have suggested earlier what is necessary is that those Countries that have been oppressed by and/or are in danger of being oppressed by their former colonial masters or other powers such as the United States should get together in a grand coalition to oppose the powerful Countries, of the West or from whatever part of the World they may be, who seek to dominate and/or oppress them.  How can this be done?  The answer to this question is not difficult to find – at least in theory.  

The wealthy Countries of the West live or `prosper’ by selling their finished products to the People of impoverished Countries such as ours.  Indeed, their economies depend largely on what they can sell to that which is termed the `Third World’. If therefore, we join together in one grand enterprise and oppose these predators and oppressors of the weak and demand that they stop this oppression, mind their own business and live by the rules which they themselves have sought to impose on Countries such as ours, I can see that they would have little option but to comply, of course, with some ‘face saving’ devices.  

Such a plan of action, though it does seem simple on paper, will not be so in fact because those who seek to ‘bell the cat’ and/or propose such measures will have the full force of the wrath of the powerful on them, and will be singled out for oppression.. In such an event who will go to their aid or support? We in Sri Lanka have bitter experience of such a tragedy when not the United States of America nor the once `Great’ Britain, but our giant neighbour India, which strangely, was once a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, armed and trained young Tamil thugs to commit murder and mayhem on our soil while the rest of the World said and did nothing to save us from Indian oppression.

When that same India interfered to an unbelievable extent in our internal affairs and by the use or threat of force, invaded our air space with their War-Planes and prevented us from saving hundreds of thousands of lives of our citizens of all races by destroying the Tigers root and branch in 1987, the World did nothing.  
The only Countries that dared to say something in our support were China and Pakistan, and that no doubt, was not because of moral outrage or concern for us, but because neither of them had any particular liking for India.  Had India been the ally of these two Countries there would have been no voice raised in our support from among the Countries of the World.  

Thus, today, when the World leaders meet in New York and expound various high sounding platitudes, it is worthwhile to remember that we the weak are being oppressed and oppressed severely by the powerful and rich in the form of the United States of America and its lapdogs of the West such as the once `Great’ Britain, and that while the only solution to this horrendous situation is for the Countries that are and/or have been oppressed and/or are in danger of such oppression getting together, the prospects of such an event actually happening are so remote as to be nonexistent so that the probabilities are that the rich and the powerful will continue to rule the World as they are, and have been doing, and that we the poor and the weak will have to suffer from  their oppression for at least the foreseeable future.
Backbones, let us remember, are in short supply, not only in Sri Lanka, but in the rest of the World as well.