Doublespeak of the West

Gomin Dayasri

Doublespeak is a double barrel name for Western Foreign Policy. Lets examine the varying stands shown to the LTTE and the Talibans-Sri Lankan and Pakistan civilians by the West.

Hillary Clinton says (in a bout of doublespeak?) she “deeply regrets Afghan casualties” in the Afghanistan theatre of war due to overhead bombing by US fighter planes.

Pakistan has declared war on the Taliban militants at the bequest of America. The fighting on the edge of Swat Valley has led to the inflow of nearly 500,000 refugees from the war zone.

It is a war designed by United States with active participation and heavy funding against ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in the North West frontier carried out by Pakistan on the instructions of White House. These are the tribes that sheltered Osama bin Laden and the Talibans after the attack on the Twin Towers which led to the invasion of Afghanistan.

CIA funding

It was America that assembled the Talibans as an effective fighting formation to be their proxies in their war against the occupying Soviet forces, with CIA funding. The madrasas (Islamic schools) in Pakistan which is alleged to breed terrorism in the Islamic world was created by funding originating from US, Britain and Saudi Arabian sources.

To the United States, the terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan on the borders of the North West frontier must be mowed down by helicopter gun ships and heavy armour. Otherwise it is detrimental to Western interest.

Taliban must be eliminated comprehensively, is the Western military anthem.

Yet Miliband or Kouchner have not opted to visit the devastated regions in Pakistan and make a humanitarian plea to save the civilians trapped in a war zone where heavy weaponry and air strikes are the order of the day. They have not made an appeal on behalf of the civilians who cannot flee due to a round the clock curfew. The West is not seeking Pakistani military assistance to save the civilians from a war situation. They show no concern for civilians unlike in Sri Lanka.

The Pakistanis or the Afghans do not have a vocal Diaspora with a vote catching machine to deliver voters in the West on polling day.No Western Power is seeking an amnesty for the Islamic militants.

Instead there is rendition to torture camps to elicit confessions. It is conducted on foreign soil to escape from the due process of the law under American territorial jurisprudence.

No calls for ceasefires

There are no calls of ceasefires from America instead the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the President of Afghanistan are summoned to Washington and demanded the war be intensified to wipe the Talibans from the face of the Earth.

The West is calling on Sri Lanka to enable the LTTE to surrender to an international third party. In Afghanistan more Western fighting forces are inducted to fight the Talibans-there is no call for a pause for negotiations or opportunity to surrender to a friendly force.

The Nordic countries are not sending emissaries to talk peace. Instead efforts are being made to enlarge the fighting contingent and arming them with modern sophisticated weaponry.Are we stupid as the West to create Madrasas and Talibans and bin Ladens as surrogates and then be the target of attack and undergo a metamorphosis after 9/11 and then declare war? Is it smart foreign policy that in the American backyard the bulk of the Latin American nations are electing by popular vote administrations hostile to the US? Did not America have to bail out of Vietnam and Laos?

In the humanitarian lexicon is there a difference between Sri Lankan refugees from Wanni and the Pakistan refugees from the SWAT Valley? They are civilians by status and the West sadly is not sending emissaries to speak on their plight.

Why not a call for a ceasefire for those innocent civilians in the SWAT Valley on whom the West has turned a blind eye and are instead firing to kill? Indeed Hillary Clinton admits US helicopter gun ships had targeted innocent civilians. How many children and women died in these attacks? In fact America is persuading the Pakistanis and the Afghans to intensify the attacks.

Has the west forgotten we are providing food and medical facilities to the civilians including the terrorists for the last 25 years during the entire course of the War? Has the West carried on a war while supplying provisions free to the enemy? The bottom line is what is good for America is not what is best for Sri Lanka.

Interfering West do not have our interest in their agenda. We have to steer our ship to suit our voyage.

The West will sail with the flag of skull and bones to navigate any country to dangerous waters to extract the best for themselves. We must be circumspect to work on the lines of our priorities.

National Interest of two countries can never be the same.

Courtesy: defence.lk