A lose-lose scenario in Gaza

In this AFP post, Israel is toying with the fate of the world in its hands. Why so ? Simple logic. By Israel’s use of violence and killings as the action of choice to solve problems, they are teaching the Palestinians and the world how it should be done. The Palestinians and Arabs have been eager students of the Israeli way, that violence does in fact pay and violence will in fact work. Of course they have been less competent than Israel in the use of violence thus having to resort to more primitive means like terrorism ala suicide attacks. But they are learning and catching up. They are waiting for opportunities and openings to inflict ever more damage on the world to get its attention. The cycle will never stop. It’s now tit for tat. The world can try to contain them but like a cancer, it’s hard to prevent it from relapsing again. The problem must be nipped in the bud. The Palestinians must be shown a way forward that does not involve the use of violence for this situation to get better. There is no other choice. If they don’t see another way to address their grievances, they will keep coming back to haunt us. The hardliners who only want more destruction and a lose-lose outcome must be stopped on both sides. Israelis must not only discredit Hamas but also its own hardline leaders. They have to show that they can rise above the provocations of the Arab extremists and push for a just solution to the Palestinians otherwise they are just only playing more and more into the mullahs’ hands. The world needs a radical change of attitude towards this problem and there is little that President Obama can do but I’m hoping against hope that he will try something different.

Letter to Bush

There’s been lots of calls to submit questions for President-elect Obama but I think we should also write to bid farewell to the outgoing president :

Dear President Bush,

Thank you for your hard work and sacrifice leading America for the last 8 years. We all know it has not been an easy task for you and you have indeed weathered a lot of storms starting with the momentous 9/11 event. I think that is probably the watershed event that defines your entire presidency.

For the next few months following 9/11, you have shown strength and resolve and have provided strong support for the fearful population to find comfort in. You have led us out of an abyss of fear, confusion, sorrow and pain. Things are starting to improve and the world has rallied around us. We have a historic window of opportunity and global mandate at that time to start healing a divide that has given birth to the scourge of terrorism. But unfortunately, you didn’t take advantage of it. It started with the occupation of Afghanistan together with support from America’s allies. That initial success took out the Taleban and sent them fleeing. Then comes the critical rebuilding of a broken nation kicked around like a football by decades of big power contests. As in all wars, sending the army in is the easy part, but securing it is the key and much, much more difficult. But things are starting to plod along slowly for Afghanistan.

Then comes I think undeniably the biggest blunder of your presidency of which 7 years later will decide how you will be judged against. You decided to believe in the misguided ideology of the New American World Order envisioned by the neocons. They thought that with the previous Gulf War success and America’s superpower military might coupled with the largest economy, they can sustain and broaden the fight against the terrorists. Unfortunately, it is a flawed ideology centered wholly on the self-interests of America ignoring the complexities of the world. You found an excuse for invading Iraqi by labeling it an imminent threat and then marketing it as spreading democracy and liberty for the Iraqis. History has shown us that any ideology when carried to extremes is always dangerous. Like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is even more so if the practitioners of the ideology blindly resolve to embrace it as core principles and use it to justify their actions. This is the cause for the rise of communism, fascism and now terrorism. Terrorists also firmly believe that they are fighting for a just cause and they probably also feel no guilt about it. This is what makes them even more dangerous than common criminals who are driven by mainly by greed. If you were to look into a mirror, sir, you will find very little difference between the extremes of the neocon ideology and terrorism. Both are fueled by the same misguided and misplaced emotions of patriotism, extreme religious fervor and unquestioned loyalty to their cause. There can be no compromise, no middle ground. Middle grounds are derided as weak and vacillating. It’s either win all or be annihilated. Both does not see the use of force and violence as instruments of the very last resort but as an everyday tool that can be whipped out and used as and when required. Both thrives on ignorance and negative emotions and depends on spreading misinformation and stoking bigoted, prejudicial, hateful emotions to keep their herd in order. I hate to say this but really there are more similarities between your administration and the terrorists than you’ll like to admit. But of course, you don’t go around intentionally killing civilians and destroying lives. But having your finger on the trigger of the world’s most powerful and destructive army will have a huge, devastating effect as you already know with tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead because of the war. This is the humongous human price tag for the Iraqi war but, till now, I don’t believe you have grasp the gravity of it from your fist pumping photo-op landing on the aircraft carrier to repeated self-delusional denials.

Why I say that the 9/11 event is the watershed because it sets in motion so many seemingly knee-jerk decisions by your administration that undermines the constitution and the moral leadership of America. It also distracts you from solving all other highly pressing issues some of which have been on the back-burner for decades. The Iraq war has not only drained the administration’s resources but also the piggy bank. There is simply not much leverage left in responding to economic downturns because of the burdens of the war. All the pronunciations of “The economy is strong” is complete rubbish. The downturn of 2001 have already demonstrated the need for prudence. Unfortunately, because of the need to finance the war and make sure the economy chugs along, you chose to spend beyond our means and keep encouraging Americans to do so to keep the machine running. You have chosen to turn a blind eye to the obviously overheating real estate market, which is pretty obvious by the way according to some economists with enough common sense, letting it run its natural course to the ground. Big problems like health care are neglected. Energy independence is given lip service. Responses to natural disasters like Katrina are botched because of unpreparedness and lack of resources. Yes, of course I know, because there is simply no resource left to address these issues. All because of 9/11. From that fateful day, one string of bad judgements feed on the next and it becomes a domino-effect, finally knocking down all blocks. All culminating now in the string of events now unfolding just before you leave. The machine is starting to crack under pressure and now that broken machine will now be shoved to the next president to repair and overhaul. It feels to me just too convenient and irresponsible.

On hindsight, what we need the last 7 years is actually cool, level headedness and a realistic and pragmatic approach free from ideology or religion. This is even more so because an event like 9/11 which will ignite a firestorm of latent emotions and dormant prejudices needs rationality more than anything else. Cries for revenge and retribution must be calmly put down. This is not countries going to war in the conventional sense but a small group of diehards in the Islamic world who are sick of Western hypocrisy and chose the path of violence to make a point. It has nothing to do with the Islamic world and your administration should have taken pains to address this misconception instead of fanning it for your own objectives. You have also basically overreach yourselves and over estimated America’s resources and under estimated the effort required to help Iraq to stand on their own. There is also fear and mistrust of letting Iraqis be masters of their own fate because they might become another bastion of anti-America sentiment. This causes the US to be perceived as hypocritical and they will become cynical as to America’s real intentions like control of oil supplies and permanent military bases against Iran, Syria, etc. All these problems cannot be addressed simply in a knee-jerk fashion, it needs a higher strategic perspective married with moral ideals. It is a larger war of winning the hearts and minds, more than just a simple matter of killing all the terrorists and setting up military bases. Even if bin Laden is killed, the war is not yet won. The real battleground lies within the minds of the people of America and the Islamic world, not in the battlegrounds of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. The war can only be won when Muslims one day don’t see America any more as hypocritical overbearing imperialists but as neighbours whom they would like to have or, at the very least, can tolerate next door.

Mr President, as a human being I don’t think you are bad and we all know you are generally a nice guy but I do think you and your team are the most unqualified and extremely incompetent for possibly the most important job on this planet. I sincerely hope that President-elect Obama can reverse and heal the damage and redeem your mistakes for all our sakes. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Best regards,

Chern Lai