<

A Letter to America
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
By Abubakar Gimba
OPINION

The history of the American success story is part of the world heritage. It no longer belongs to the US alone. The US owns the designs of its space shuttles, and is part owner of the international space station, but it has no proprietary rights over the universally accepted notions of justice, freedom, equality, truth, etc. Thus when the US government (or any government at all) acts in a manner that seems to appropriate such ideals and principles to serve only its national interests, the rest of man kind should react to correct the erring nation, undeterred by threats of intimidation or even annihilation by brute force. It is an obligatory duty for mankind to so react in order to preserve the nobility and loftiness of the human specie, as distinct from the arbitrary crude world of animals and other non-humans.

My dear America,

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the New York World Trade Centre (WTC) and the Pentagon, a poignant question asked by an innocent American child was, why do they hate us? And it soon became The Question. A simple yet profound question, the answer (or answers) to which would benefit America and the rest of the world. But the answers must come from honest minds, and they must be true (as the economists would say, any beneficial answer must meet the necessary and sufficient condition).

Amidst the emotions, anger, and high voltage patriotism that swept America immediately after the attacks, President Bush tried to answer the question. He said America was hated because it is a democracy, free, and the civilisation she stands for. Bush the president, politician, and a Republican was honest in the answer he gave, but his answer failed the truth test. His rhetoric for a crusade and military campaign for infinite justice confir-med the president's honesty (and this politician's colours of it). Beneath his honesty, and his apparent definition of "they" who "hate us", Bush betrayed the truthfulness (or lack of it) in his answer. Thus, he under-mined the credibility of his answer, and greatly diminished the beneficial dividends therefrom, which would fall like showers of rain on America (and Americans), and like some gentle spring drizzles on the rest of the world.

Bush's answer was dangerously misleading. His response and subse-quent public posturing had the presumption that had a thin veil which interpreted the "they" of the rhetorical question as, unmistakably Muslims. And that threatened the most unprecedented religious pog-rom the world has ever witnessed; but thanks to the clear thinking, cool-headedness, and wisdom of some Americans in and outside the Washington establishment, as well as the vision and good judgement of some of the courageous US allies, the bloodbath was averted to every-body's relief. "Hate" (if that is the right word, but I shall come to that later) for America is not a monopoly of some of the Muslim countries fingered as bastions of terrorism; Taliban of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Sudan are no more morbid in their disaffection for America than some of the Latin American nations (names withheld). Non-Muslim, America-unfriendly countries are no fewer than the Muslim ones, and are by far more lethal and better armed; the much-maligned Iraq is an ant militarily compared with the deadly weaponry of the North Koreans. Thus, in Bush's answer was (and still is) the wrong identification of the enemy, "they".

Bush, the politician, also skilfully manipulated the rather simplistic innocence (in the name of modesty, I wouldn't call it erroneous belief) of the question that the people (the attackers and all those who share anything with them, even though they deplore and detest the attacks on America) actually "hate" America with so much passion. Bush played up this during his first visit to the WTC site where he addressed the brave firemen and rescue workers: from the smouldering smoke of the collapsed and burning WTC, the president with incendiary rhetoric, successfully ignited the fires of American patriotism. Sadly, the president's magnificent display which drew thunderous applause from the crowd had little content of virtuous words or stately reasoning, but had a generous supply of everything that produced the Third Reich. And that frightened me. Bush openly encouraged the good people of America to go athirst for the blood of the enemy "they" who "hate us." The truth is, people generally (including those amorphous "they") do not "hate" Americans, but do have strong objections to certain policies of the American government. The distinction between the people of America and the government of America is very important. For, even Colin Powell, the Bush administration's Secretary of State, had cause to draw attention to it when he was clarifying the axis-of-evil label which President Bush put on the regimes in Iran, Iraq, and North Korea: Mr. Powell said it was the governments of these countries that were evil, not their people. Even the hijackers who caused the WTC havoc that killed hundreds of innocent Americans and other nationals do not hate the American people, in the same way that the American fighter pilots who in their fight against the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda killed several children and women at wedding parties who had only wedding cakes and not hand grenades, do not hate the Afghans.
(More: AllAfrica.com News Source)
2002 © AllAfrica Global Media.

Dan