Americans must take the bull by the horns and put their house in order by acting firmly to initiate criminal prosecution against those who marred its image.
ByJustice (R) M. Shaiq Usmani | February 2021
As the images of invasion of Congress at the Capitol Hill by hoodlums flashed across the screens the world over and in the social media on January 6, 2021, for a moment one pondered which third world country were these from. But unbelievably it was the seat of Parliament, the Congress in the USA, the citadel of democracy. How did it happen and why did it happen is the question that will reverberate in the corridors of power and think tanks the world over for many years to come.
Till the beginning of the 2nd World War, the USA was considered to be a powerful and wealthy but an upstart country and somewhat isolationist even though towards the end of the 1st World War it did break its isolation by joining the Allies. Its contribution was, however, more intellectual than militaristic as epitomized by Wordrow Wilson, the President of the USA at the time. He launched The League of Nations, a precursor of the present day United Nations. Even when the 2nd World War started, the USA was not inclined to take sides and was happy being an isolationist state. However, when Japan joined the war on the side of Germany and attacked Pearl Harbour, the USA was suddenly dragged into the war on the side of the Allies and, given the resources at its command, it soon tilted the balance and eventually the Allies came out victorious.
The war had completely devastated the major countries in Europe, leaving behind Russia and the USA as the dominant powers. Initially there was great bonhomie between Russia and the USA. However, when Stalin started expanding his sphere of influence aimed at subjugating all east European countries and central Asian states and forming the Soviet Union with these as its satellites, suddenly the confrontation between the two countries began and led to the formation of two blocs separated by what came to be known as an Iron Curtain. Nevertheless, it was the bloc led by the USA which had the upper hand and greater reach since the Soviet Union was totalitarian in nature and hence evoked suspicion in most freshly independant states. The USA represented democratic values, free trade and freedom of individuals while the Soviet Union represented exactly the opposite. Thus the USA gained the high moral ground, more so because of its strong political system based on checks and balances.
This was the time when the European colonial powers, considerably enervated due to blood-letting during the war, began to lose their grip on the colonies. The USA took advantage of this and supported the colonies in spite of its people’s Anglo Saxon roots, which inherently imparted to them racist ethos and also a slave owning past. Consequently, when the colonies started gaining independence one by one, they all looked up to the USA which was not lacking in coming to their assistance financially as well as militarily. The USA thus became a role model for the emerging nations and most of them sought to emulate it.
The younger generation in these newly independent countries was completely besotted with the USA because this was a land of opportunity where one was not handicapped on account of the class that one belonged to or due to one’s ethnic or cultural background. All that was required for success in the new world, which America represented, was hard work and initiative. Moreover in spite of its Anglo Saxon roots, America did not display any arrogance and welcomed emigration without distinction of colour or creed. The younger generation thus the world over flocked to the USA. The moral high ground achieved by the USA was supplemented in no small measure by its emergence as the only superpower after the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and later the Soviets being expelled ignominiously, needless to say, with the support of Pakistan. This, ironically, the USA never acknowledged openly. The USA thus became the most powerful country in the world, the only super power with a strong and balanced political system and a champion of the free world. Thus began the rise of the hitherto isolationist United States of America that continued unabated throughout the last half century.
This rise was supported in no small measure by the USA’s political system in the post-second world era which brought forth leaders like Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who were a credit to their country as they were free of all prejudices. However, when Hillary Clinton lost the elections against Donald Trump in 2017 in spite of having won the popular vote, eyebrows began to be raised and questions began to be asked. More so because Donald Trump as an individual represented the white supremacist America and those inhabiting the so-called Bible belt. His values, though disguised by the slogan of “Making America Great Again” were essentially those of a white supremacist who would go to any extent to undermine the non-whites, particularly the blacks and his game plan had definite rightist or almost fascist overtones. During his four years in office, Trump displayed these tendencies by openly sponsoring Islamophohia through curtailing immigration from Asian countries, in particular the Muslim countries, supporting the virulent apartheid regime of Israel and coming down hard on Iran by seeking to completely isolate it. In spite of belonging to the Republican Party, which traditionally supported Pakistan, he tilted unashamedly towards Modi’s fascist regime in India.
The emergence of Trump as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world seems to have suddenly evoked the dormant white supremacist attitudes of the Americans, which essentially entailed disregard for everyone and everything that stood in the way of the Americans and gave rise to adulation of one who represented these values. Trump was what such Americans always wanted to be but were mellowed for a while by the moderate and leftist views of such men as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy and the leaders and intellectuals of post-War liberal Western Europe.
Violence has always been an essential feature of the White Americans’ ethos to be practiced when their interests are thwarted. One only has to see how they annihilated the entire race of the Native Americans, the so-called Red Indians and how they adopted gungho attitudes against anyone who threatened their interests, China being an example. Nevertheless, the strong political system that the architects of the American Constitution had devised held sway to keep the people of the USA united and present a duplicitous view of a large majority of Americans. However, the happenings of the last few months after the 2020 Presidential elections, when Trump refused to concede defeat in spite of Supreme Court judgments against him, brought forth the divisions in America to the fore. The ground work for this had begun to be laid earlier when a Black American George Floyd was brutally treated and killed resulting in the “Black Lives Matter” movement being launched. What was significant was that the American administration led by Trump failed to pacify the fascists and amidst talk of Elections being stolen, used such unrest to build support amongst a large number of the ordinary Americans who were inherently white supremacists. What is more surprising is that in spite of open insidious and racist pronouncements of Trump, the Republican Party continued to back him. All this suddenly blew over in the attack on the Congress on 6th January. It is significant that at the time one could see certain individuals in the crowd waving Confederate flags, which represented the slave owing southern states during the Civil War and thus displaying open espousal of a racist bent of mind.
What happens now? The House has voted to impeach the President. The saving grace is that ten members of the Republican party also voted in favour of Impeachment which shows that the spirits of Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy and Woodrow Wilson still live. This is the second impeachment of Trump, the first being in 2019 when he was impeached for blackmailing the Government of Ukraine by withholding sanctioned aid to force its government to initiate corruption investigations against Joe Biden, the new President, whom he expected to be his rival in the next election. It is obvious that the trial by the Senate which requires two-thirds majority to convict the President will not succeed just as the previous one did not and in any case and it is doubtful whether an impeachment trial can continue now that Trump has ceased to be the President.
But the damage is done. America has lost its moral high ground and the unity of its people is shattered and it will no longer be in a position to lecture to the third world countries and the rising China, who was earlier criticized for interfering with a democratic system of government that prevailed in Hong Kong. In the final analysis it is world peace that will suffer because the one country which had the moral authority and the power to force the delinquent facist countries to maintain peace will be viewed with suspicion and even redicule. Thus it can be truly said that like all empires in the past, the rising star of the USA has begun to wane and a decline has set in. The Americans must take the bull by the horns and put their house in order by acting firmly to initiate criminal prosecution against those who marred its image, including of course Donald Trump and proceed to punish those found guilty of launching what has come to be known as the “Trump insurrection”.
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