By Raffique Shah
August 05,, 2007

Nowadays, every politician who wants to enhance his image, hold on to power or find a way to come to power, mounts a crusade of some kind that he hopes would work magic for him. In George Bush’s case, he has convinced most governments in the world that his war against global terrorism, which can be translated to a war against “Islamists” or “Jihadists”-is THE war to end all wars. In other words, if we rid the world of the bearded mullahs who preach hell and damnation against Western societies and their values, or lack thereof, we’d make Mother Earth the peaceful paradise God intended it to be.

And what success he has had. I don’t mean in his punitive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where, if anything, he has exposed the soft underbelly of the world’s only superpower. Five years after the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan, followed by similar action in Iraq, the US and its allies have lost some 5,000 military personnel, with another 30,000 or so wounded in action, most of the latter physically or mentally scarred for life. The cost of these wars to a country steeped in unimaginable debt runs into hundreds of billions of dollars. Of course, in the Bush scheme of things, the million-plus Afghans and Iraqis who have also died, and the tens of millions who have been wounded, displaced or otherwise adversely affected, count for nothing.

Bush’s crusade has been the costliest war in history. Worse, it has not made the world a safer place. If anything, countries that have hitherto enjoyed a peaceful existence now find themselves targets for the very terrorists Bush has spent billions trying to exterminate. And while I’m still “in the bush”, let me add the billions that every country that trades with America (which is most of the world) has had to spend to meet US security requirements.

In little Trinidad and Tobago, we had to install security systems and measures at our ports and airports that cost us huge sums, with no visible returns by way of security. Guns and narcotics still enter or pass through this country more than ever before. And we are safer from “Jihadists” than we are from common gun-toting criminals who make our lives sheer hell.

But one can say what about Bush being the “worst US president ever”, email however many jokes that portray him as a bungling, stupid man, his impact on world politics has been unprecedented. As the US gears for presidential elections against a background of a war-weary country that is dying to move on, to cease being the global policeman, candidates vying for office are saying and doing strange things in their bid to gain popularity.

The Democrats’ Hillary Clinton, for example, has made no secret of her intention to continue the wars without end if she is elected America’s first female president. In fact, she not only supported the invasion of Iraq back in 2003, but thinks she has more balls than Bush. Her position on Iran, North Korea and Cuba is clear: these countries are America’s enemies, and that they will remain in a Clinton II administration.

Up comes Barack Obama, the bright Black hope, who jumps on the presidential wagon, going two-up on Bush and Dick Cheney. Obama’s bomb last week was that he would invade Pakistan in pursuit of the goal set by the very man he’s trying to unseat. Thus far, for all his gung-ho stupidity, Bush has steered clear of alienating the country whose government helped America create the “Jihadists” back in the 1980s. We must never forget that the Taliban and Osama bin Laden were spawned by Pakistan and the USA. The former facilitated the training grounds, the latter the arms, the money and the instructors, in their joint operation to get the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.

Barack, like most of his countrymen, seems not to know or understand history, not even recent events. He wants to appear to be macho, a potentially strong president, and like a fool he rushes in where angels-and devils-fear to tread.

French philosopher Voltaire wrote: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” It is beyond absurd for America, stuck as it is in the sands of Iraq and the mountains and caves of Afghanistan, to even consider any further military engagements. All its best generals have said as much. Yet, here’s the not-so-Black boy, wanting to appease his puppet-masters and prove that he is “de baddest”, saying he would engage the US in a war against an ally, albeit a shaky one.

Many years ago, a Jamaican friend of mine who was a professor at a university in New York, said to me: “Raf, if ever a Black American were to come to power in Washington, he would be ten times worse for the world than any White!” I did not understand his point then. Now I do…thanks to Obama.

http://www.trinicenter.com/Raffique/2007/Aug/