Regarding Thomas L Friedman's article,
"India must realise its role in the new world", published in New York Times and republished, by dna.Sunday, Mumbai,( India ), Sunday January 15, 2006, as "Westside Story".
Friedman analyses as to
who, can and should, play an effective role to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. His conclusion is, the
old cops, meaning the US, assisted by EU, NATO and Japan,
"can't deal with the Axis of Evil alone anymore.".
His further conclusion is, having embraced capitalism since the end of Cold War,
Russia, China and India, have become huge players and beneficiaries of global economy, with Russia providing oil and gas, China manufacturing and India software. All three now
have a huge stake in the stability of the international system.
Then there is a charge. Russia, China and India have basically been
cruising along as free riders on a stable international order, which has been
maintained largely by the 'old cops'. Both Russia and China have actually
used their
clout at times
to protect international
bad actors-like
Iran, Sudan and North Korea-out of narrow economic self-interest and a kind of residual third world, gotta-counter the-American reflex.
And then, there is his opinion which is more like a judgment- for their own sakes,
these emerging big three (Russia, China and India) have got to become the Axis of Order. The old cops can't deal with the Axils of Evil alone anymore. Pay attention to how this ends.
Finally, Friedman
warns, the
structure of the post-Cold War world is at stake.
It is difficult for many Americans, to admit that they were much better off during the Cold War. There was competition which helped both sides. The competition in
science and technology helped the advancement of knowledge. The Mir Publication of USSR made available to all the third world countries, apart from the literature on Marxism and Leninism, a large number of books in science and technology well written by some of its best men in science, at very cheap prices. Many people all over the world still remember the role of USSR in spreading science and technology. All of it worked well to spread science and make people come out of the grip of religion. Now it is all gone. This face of USSR never came to be known well, because of the bombarding western propaganda and the torrential vituperation against the communist system.
The type of fear that now grips the Americans after September 11 attacks, did not exist at the time of Cold War. At that time even those Americans, who victimised the sympathisers of communism, only feared the overthrow of their capitalist system. But now all Americans fear for their lives from the terrorists, a term synonymous for Islamic Fundamentalists. Americans do not have the courage to admit that no other system could control the fundamentalist Islam as effectively as the Communism. Throwing all scruples to the wind, American rulers cultivated, trained and equipped the fanatics like Osama Bin Laden, with the sole purpose of bringing down USSR. The collapse of USSR came about from propaganda and from the rearing of Islamic fundamentalists. Till the attack of September 11, the American rulers did not pay sufficient attention to the killing of innocent people in India, Indonesia, Russia and other countries at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist groups. If one applies one's incisive mind, to know what the fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups want from their global terror tactics and human suicide bombs, one can see the same zeal that prevailed in the initial Islamic invaders to spread Islam world wide
Like in all religions there is pretense in Islam. In its rituals and in some of its practicest looks egalitarian in character. But it was built up in cruel ways and was spread to rub the Arabian Desert culture on many parts of the world. Indian sub-continent suffered a lot from the cruelty of Islamic invaders. During the British rule, India suffered from their divide and rule policy. After independence, the hypocritical leaders of all political parties sought to win Muslim votes by all kinds of appeasements to the Muslims which practice continues even now.. When it was necessary for India, to support Israel, Indian rulers did not do it for fear of losing Muslim vote bank. Israel and India together could have played an effective role to contain Islamic Fundamentalism for the benefit of both the countries. No other nation in the world suffered as much as India at the hands of Islamic Fundamentalists. The number of innocent Indians who lost their lives at the hands of Islamic terrorist groups is truly large.
At one time, the evil empire was the land under communist rule. Islamic
Fundamentalists were enlisted to wound that so called evil empire. Time has proved the real evil is terror creating Islamic fundamentalists. When Ayatollah Khomeini issued fatwa to kill Salman Rushdie, the powerful nations did not take sufficient notice of it to act on it. Now again Iran is in the grip of fundamentalist Islam. Iran has the boldness to say, Israel must be wiped out of the world map. Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran will be a real threat to the world. If economic interests alone become the guiding force for Russia, China and India to overlook the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran, the future generations of all countries will pay a heavy price.
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