"Dawn is the largest and oldest English-language newspaper in Pakistan and the country's newspaper of record.[3]"
A Pakistani friend of mine sent me a link to this Dawn piece - Who Lost America? - today . I don't think there is anything too startling in here for people who pay attention and have opened their minds to the views of people of different cultures. Here's a brief bio of the author from the Middle East Institute:
Touqir Hussain is a former senior diplomat from Pakistan who has served as Ambassador to Brazil, Spain, and Japan. He also held senior positions in the Pakistani Foreign Office, including that of Additional Foreign Secretary, heading the bureaus of the Middle East and of the Americas and Europe. From 1996 to 1998, he was the Diplomatic Adviser to the Prime Minister. Additionally, he was a Senior Fellow at the US Institute of Peace in 2004–2005, and subsequently has been a Research Fellow at the George Washington University and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and the University of Virginia. Currently, he is Senior Pakistan Visiting Fellow at SAIS besides teaching at Georgetown.
Here are several excerpts:
"At its heart, the loss is of democracy at home and hegemony abroad. For much of its history, American democracy has been led by elites. The system helped America’s rise as a great power but worked only when the elites were committed to public service, and the United States led the world. But much has changed. Both the domestic and international orders have been under challenge. And America has been courting failure at home and abroad. There can be no more apt expression of this failure than the shame and infamy of the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and the desperate scenes of chaos during evacuation at Kabul airport."
"The historical experience of Americans had made them self-centred and often overbearing and thus unable to understand the cultural and political substance of other societies. No wonder America failed in every war that it started, especially following the history-making changes that had taken place since the end of the Cold War, the rise of globalisation and 9/11. "
"The failing elite-led system has now merged with mass politics that is causing its own set of problems. It has enhanced the influence of money and media on politics. As money and politics began chasing each other, it gave a new opportunity and role to the mushrooming 24/7 cable television to be a broker between special interests, politics and the public. The commercially motivated media, joined by social media now, interpreted the world around people, and made choices for them, even choosing their politics. And often it did so by misinforming the public."
"America long lost the status of the indispensable power, but for all its moral failure, political dysfunction and perceived ‘decline’ it was still a consequential power. Even that America is lost now."
This is a man who, presumably, watched from a colony as Great Britain gave up its empire. It's a perspective most American neither know nor understand.
As to your last sentence above, Steve, I am one American-born, former-citizen who does. It takes a bit of distance & time to see a large country.
ReplyDeletePretty obvious it was alleged patriotic conservatives who cost America the most in world prestige and being trusted to uphold our end of treaties of mutual protection around the world and at home.
ReplyDeleteYou get around, Sir. Juanita Jean's? epo is my alter ego, there.
ReplyDeleteAh, so you're the spreader of Arendt tracks.
DeleteGuilty, in a benevolent way,I hope.
DeleteI had earlier reported on you to Cory Allen Heidelberger, Master of Dakota Free Press. He is a teacher, a blogger, a debate coach, a rabble rouser, a fighter for justice and, most of all, an avid bike rider who rides in the wintertime in South Dakota. He is a Jewish atheist married to an ordained Minister and rides bicycles. Did I tell you he rides and advocates for better safety rules and bike trails. My humblest apologies for going way off topic.
DeleteSounds like an interesting soul. I used to ride more during the winter, but that was when the snow stayed snow all winter and we didn't have the frequent thaws and refreezes we have now.
Delete1. America did not lose every war it started, Desert Storm was a success.
ReplyDelete2. A little disingenuous when you realize how much money they received from the U.S.
In total, the United States obligated nearly $78.3 billion to Pakistan between 1948 and 2016 (adjusted to 2016 value of dollar)
3. every country has its elites.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326985062_Role_of_Elites_in_Pakistan
Oliver
Oliver, Good to hear from you. 1. If I recall correctly, Saddam Hussein started that war by invading Kuwait and we had lots of oil in Kuwait to protect. 2. What part is disingenuous? 3. Absolutely, every country has elites. There was no country of Pakistan before India was partitioned in 1947. Britain colonized the area and used locals to help administer their empire. But even the most westernized Indians were always subordinate to their British rulers Today, I'd argue that the Pakistani elite tend to have a more realistic view of the world than US elites because they are as fluent in English as they are in Urdu and other Pakistani languages. They can see the world from a Pakistani view, British view, and US view. They don't need translators. What point were you trying to make about them having elites?
ReplyDeleteSteve, your comment started me thinking about that time period in Iraq. My memory tells me Kuwait angle drilled into Iraq's oil fields and Hussein asked Ambassador April Glaspie what America thought of his plans to invade Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteShe read an ambiguous statement basically claiming America had no thoughts one way or another. Hussein invaded and Bush got his little oil war.
I remember a time when there was an East and West Pakistan, one which is Bangladesh, I think. I also remember when Sri Lanka was Ceylon.
Almost forgot, while Hitler Weasel Bush was caught up in skullduggery over whether he gave Saddam Hussein permission to invade Kuwait, the Kuwait ambassador to the US daughter got on telly and swore she witnessed Iraqi soldiers tossing babies out of incubators in the hospital.
ReplyDeleteTurns out this was a PR stunt to ramp up American civilian support for the war effort. All a big lie, like the one dumbass dubya perpetrated when he illegally invaded Iraq years later and said an American service woman, Jessica Lynch, fought off Iraqi troops until she was out of ammo, upon which she was raped and tortured. In fact, this was another PR stunt which blew up badly. Another magat big lie trying to gin support for another illegal war.