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Thursday, September 11, 2008

September 11

Today, seven years ago to this date, is the day when the terrorists brought their war on American soil.

As the TV cameras telecast the visuals of the World Trade Center collapsing, there were many people celebrating in some parts of the world.

It was, they argued, appropriate to celebrate: The Great Satan had been inflicted a body blow. It serves them right, said the sympathizers of the Taliban, as they danced in the streets. The Yankees have caused enough harm in many parts of the world and it is time that they were taught a lesson. The Yankees must leave the Middle East and its oil to the locals and not the Zionists or the favoured few families that control the oil wealth in the deserts.

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

An eye for an eye, said the great Mahatma, will merely make the whole world blind.

American policy has indeed been harmful in many instances. Many of us in India are upset at the support given to Pakistan - which most Indians regard as, to use an Americanism, "a terrorist state". The 9/11 attacks were seen by some Indians as an opportunity for the US to work closer with India. The world’s two largest - and self-styled greatest - democracies working together in a new world order.

Well, there is a new world order now.
For decades we had a "uni-polar" world. America was the Empire. To some it was Evil, to some it was great, but it was an "Empire".

It may not have been a fair "umpire" though. US foreign policy was driven by a combination of what the "Zionists" wanted (the Israel policy); what the multinationals wanted (engage China so that its labour markets are opened for building the world’s low-cost factory); and what the local Americans wanted (cheap goods, cheap oil, and cheap money). Somewhere in this equitation were many other important players each with their own angle of ensuring that business interest drove foreign and economic policy.

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