Global Peace and Conflict Management:  Power Makes America Powerless

Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

America Needs Visionary Leader not Warriors

The global warriors have infested mankind with tyranny and transgression. The resulting corruption, cruelty and global disorder are widespread across the Iraq-Syrian war zones and go unchallenged. All tyrants get corrupted by their own tyranny. America needs to be wise, not a warrior empire in global political affairs. The US economy is bankrupt because of the decade-old wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Could America be using the myth of “power” to escape the imperatives of historical change process? The dialectical materialism shares a concept of power that is exhaustible in global affairs. Late Professor Hans Morgenthau (Politics Among Nations) was a realist visionary to imagine a different America than what it is today. American leaders are implying “power” in absolute terms throughout the Iraq-Syrian sectarian warfare. To Morgenthau, the concept of ‘power’ is a condition related to the psychology of mind. In a nation state, leaders use their mind to transform the vested power into political acts. Morgenthau was not just an individual but an institution of thoughts and proactive vision to substantiate political understanding in a world torn apart by greed, ignorance and political wickedness. So, he offered proactive intuition and leadership in revitalizing the essence of realism in politics and to search for peace and global relationships. Perhaps Morgenthau never imagined an America - the historically conscientious and enriched in moral and intellectual values could become an intellectual and moral wasteland devoid of basic precepts and tenets in real world political affairs. America is not what it used to be in search of its own freedom. Wickedness and piety cannot be combined in one leadership characteristics.

Obsessed with material power and weapons, American leaders have embarked on to reinvent global disasters by bombing the Arab Middle East relentlessly. American-British occupation created sectarian divides and now bombing the perpetuated animosities.There is no check and balance strategy open to accountability. Contrary to official statements, America holds free unilateral stance to bomb any and all. Arab masses are ruled by tyrants and America simply adds a new dimension to enhanced tyranny. The daily killings of the civilians go unabated across Iraq and Syrian war theaters. The end goal is to destroy the Islamic culture and civilization. Millions of Arab civilians are becoming refugees in their own homes and extended graveyards are cropping up fast. The UNHCR is abandoning many refugee centers and food assistance program due to lack of funds. There are no Arab thinking hubs and proactive leaders to safeguard the interests of the Arab people and offer moral and intellectual sense of security against foreign military interventions. None can imagine the ultimate consequences of their own follies. The ISIL- a by-product of the US policy seems getting more settled in its resolve to conquer many more authoritarian states in the Arabian oil producing landscape. For the last few weeks, there is emerging rethinking that America and Europeans are the 21^st century crusaders. Increasing number of Iraqi Shiite-Sunni parliamentarians are questioning the intent and involvement of the American and European forces in their country as ISIL continues to gain more territory and recruiting influence.  The failure is obvious as the sectarian warfare is rekindled by foreign military interventions.

Is American politics glued to wrong thinking and doing the wrong things?

American foreign policy is not outcome of rational thinking and end-results. America is glued to its own failure and ultimate downfall as a nation and a state.  America became an insane - a victim of its own obsession with power and fearful of its future. All of America's technological advanced weaponry on earth and secretive intelligence resources placed out in space are weapons of mass destruction meant to be used against the people on Earth and nowhere else. Global mankind has passion for peace, not wars. The warriors lack political imagination except being men of universal hatred and fear to claim transitory success leading to their own degeneration and viciousness in political affairs. Dreadful are becoming as abnormal frequency of violent killings, internal insecurity, drug-abuses and political mismanagement, several thousands Americans killed in global bogus wars and others wounded and crippled for life. And why do 18-25 war veterans daily commit suicide: (“Why do soldiers commit suicide and Global Warlords.” Uncommon Thought Journal: 4/14/2014). What does it tell about America’s leaders and the Congress making bogus wars on others?

Coming to Terms with Facts not Fiction to Understand the Universe in which Mankind Lives

Many Western scholars falsify facts and articulate media-based fictions about the US-led wars on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sherwood Ross (“US Sponsored Genocide against Iraq 1990-2012 killed 3.3 million including 750,000 children.” Global Research: 12/06/2012) outlined many such pertinent facts. The encompassed picture shows Arabs and Muslims as if were born in the eyes of dangerous storm that should be crushed by advanced American technology available to pilots when bombing the Iraqi-Syrian landscape. The crush for war is instinctively part of human ignorance and arrogance. Wars contradict the human nature and the Nature of the living Universe. It is co-existence and peace that brings people and nations together and helps to flourish life and relationships befitting to the human Nature and the Nature of planet Earth and the larger Universe. Civilizations grow out of peace not fear and conflicts. The Western leaders are obsessed with war. They need to learn how to co-exist in universal harmony. They should take a trip to outer space to view the existence of the Earth and how the all Powerful God has created it and continues to manage it harmoniously despite large scale human ignorance and violations of the Laws of Nature. Could the warmongers grasp the basic knowledge - how the planet Earth exists and moves at its axis and rotates at 1675 km per hour or 465 meters per second that is 1,040 miles per hour. The Earth’s circumference at the equator is 40,075 km. And the length of time the Earth takes to complete one full turn on its axis is 23.93 hours. And how all the living beings get lifelong nourishment within the splendid Universe? Do people ponder and realize how human beings are created by the Divine process and how societies flourish since time immemorial? This understanding is critical towards peacemaking and peaceful co-existence within the Universe. The history speaks loud and clear how in every age and time few powerful warmongers often mentally retarded individuals have always driven the mankind to large scale slaughters,  victimization, deprivation and long term ripple scars that it never goes away from the human memory and written pages of human history.  James Howard Kunstler ("America the Horror Show." Clusterfuck Nation comment on Current Events by the Author of "The Long Emergency" 12/17/2012) strikes a staunch reminder to American politicians for critical thinking and self-analysis to encompass a better sense of humanity:

 Let me remind you that there is a range of thought and feeling evinced in human culture that no longer exists in America. These things were called virtues. They are qualities in thought and action related to goodness and excellence, and they are in very short supply these days in the USA, though we are well-supplied with fakes and approximations of virtue -- such as the moments of sham heroism witnessed yesterday afternoon and evening by men watching televised football. What matters now is that an epochal undertow of events is dragging this enormous nation into an economic convulsion that will inevitably turn political. I don't think that our society can be redeemed in its current form.

Towards Global Peace and Conflict Management

How should the global community oppose the favorite perversion to torture and bomb the innocent people anywhere on this planet? The Universe and all it encompasses are the products of God-given command; and do not operate in concert with man-made laws, constitutions, foreign policies, judgments, hopes and desires. Light is One, and darkness are many. Life and the Universe exist because it is ordained by God - the Creator of the Worlds. Be it a reminder or an advice that human life is precious and we are accountable and we must all try to pursue peace and harmony, not wickedness and extermination of life and habitats from the planet Earth. If history is relevant and is seen as a source of learning and warning, undeniably all those superpowers well equipped with weapons and animosity to destroy others or all have met the same fate of self annihilation. It is beyond doubts that when they challenged the sanctity of the Laws of God governing the Earth and the living Universe, and invaded other nations in distant lands, they ultimately met their own end by natural causes such earthquakes, flooding, tornados, exploding lavas, sound blasts, lightning and lot more. America could soon be replaced by another morally, intellectually and economically feasible nation or group of small nations to be next house of global power and influence. Every beginning has its end. America and the European warriors need a formidable political challenge as was Sultan Salahudeen (Saladin). But all the Arab puppet leaders have no sense of time and history. According to James Reston, Jr. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade (2002), in October 1189, German Emperor Frederick Barbaross threatened Salahudeen in these words: “Restore the land which you have seized. We give you a period of twelve months after which you shall experience the fortune of war. You, God willing shall learn the might of our victorious eagles and shall experience the anger of Germany which has been a point for the triumph of Christ’s cause.”

How did Salahudeen respond?  “If you court the Christians, my Arabs are many times more numerous. If the sea is between the Christians and us, there is no sea to separate Arabs who cannot be numbered. Who will fight bravely against nations who should come to involve our country? We will meet you with the power of God. And when the Lord by His power shall have given us victory over you, nothing will remain for us to do but freely take your lands by His power and with His good pleasure.”

Ironically, there are Western crusaders all over the Arab Middle East but there is no Saladin embodiment of moral and intellectual leadership to challenge them. The Iraqis, Syrians and Iranians and other Arabs have no sense why are they fighting and what this has to do with Islam?  And what consequences will endanger their future? How could the political cruelty, deceit and conquest be stopped and global affairs be set free of warrior’s belligerency and occupation? The 21^st century new-age complex political, economic, social and strategic challenges and the encompassing opportunities warrant new thinking, new leaders and new visions for change, conflict management and participatory peaceful future-making.

Felicia Gustin (“3 Reasons Why U.S. Strikes on Iraq (Again) Are a Terrible Idea.” Common Dreams: 6/24/2014), works at SpeakOut, a long-time activist in international solidarity, peace, racial justice and labor movements. She reminds the US policy makers of three vital policy attributes: (1) Bombs will make the situation worse (2) More war is no way to honor U.S. soldiers; and (3) Iraq needs reconciliation and reconstruction, not reintervention and the rebooting of war. Felicia Gustin sums up with Ross Caputi’s writing in Common Dreams:  “These fractured communities within Iraq must decide their own future, without the interference of Washington or Tehran. Most importantly for us, as Americans, we must make an effort to analyze this issue outside of the paradigm of US political thought and try to see this issue through the eyes of those most affected by it. We must respect their ideas and values, their politics and culture, and their right to determine their own future, unimpeded by foreign interference.”

To challenge the deafening silence of the US, Europeans, and of all the authoritarian rulers of the Arab Middle East for global peace and security, the global community must find ways and means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few warlords and continued to be plagued by daily massacres, displacement of civilians, barbarity against human culture and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were no rational being and people of reason populating the God’s created splendid and living Universe. The global human conscience feels an urgent need to organize peaceful public protests and sit-ins against the warmongers. What happened across Iraq proceeding to the 2003 American-British invasion are no coincident but reactionary outbursts of vengeful killings and sectarian atrocities viewed indifferently by all the global war players. Iraq and Syria and all the authoritarian Arab regimes need people of new ideas to cope with multiple scope of the political and humanitarian crises and to find peaceful and workable solutions away from the entrenched political box of the few global warmongers.