Chapter 31

Chapter 31

America the Beautiful.

Starting in the sixteenth century North America was progressively settled by Europeans. Majority of immigrants were victims of religious persecution and famines. Fertile lands had lured a substantial number. They found a relatively sparsely inhabited country and friendly natives who were technologically underdeveloped. By a process of creeping substitution, aggression, treaties, germ war fare and other subterfuges the new comers were able to displace, supplant, degrade and to a large degree exterminate the natives. Remnants of American Indians, now bowing to political correctness renamed Native Americans, were confined to reservations where they lived a life of despondency and despair. Like all new comers each batch of Europeans resisted further additions to the numbers and discriminated against other nationalities, the British against the French, both against Germans and Italians and so on. Eventually they settled down into a relatively comfortable coexistence.
But Europeans powers did not regard the region as a colony in the same sense as they did India, Indonesia and parts of Africa. The reason was racial similarity. Productivity was high so capital flowed in. The region entered the mercantilist and capitalist phase nearly at the same time as European countries did.
Britain controlled all of North America. Europe was entering imperialist phase in which capital of one nation competed with that of others in international arena. France and Spain contested British dominance and for reasons out side the scope of this presentation filed in their quest. Eventually American capital started to chafe under the restrictions of British capital. It rebelled. France helped it. The British were thrown out. For reasons of climate and consequent low productivity Canada was sparsely populated and capital of the region less developed. Loyalists fled to Canada and managed to keep the territory under the British crown.
Not confident of its military prowess yet and for reasons of political prudence the USA had maintained a neutral stance in Napoleonic wars and saved its merchant navy which at the end of the day emerged as the second largest in the world.
Industrial revolution arrived in the USA simultaneously with that in Europe. Iron, steel and shipbuilding were already well developed by the time of independence in 1776. Textile machine industry was set up in 1820s. The country was well endowed by nature. The south had exportable agriculture products for which slaves labor was plentiful and mid-west supplied food. The East developed industry,
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century thanks to new technology, production increased several fold. Domestic market was no longer sufficient and the country launched into expansion. Monroe doctrine declared South America as US zone of influence. Inter-imperialist conflict was in full swing. Hawaii and Puerto Rico were captured. Philippines were colonized and large swathes of land captured in South America. But the country remained insular and its denizens wished pox on all the combatants in Europe.
Immigrants of other races and religions, Chinese and Japanese in the first category and Jews in the second had a much harder time. Jews were discriminated against till late fifties . Citizens of Japanese origin were interned in WWII; those of German and Italians ancestry were not though the three countries were equally at war with the USA. Racism always under the surface was blatantly adopted as official policy.
The first international adventure of USA was participation in WWI. American capital had matured and wanted to spread out. Socialist upsurge in the Russia was looming as a threat to capitalist hegemony. Britain and its allies won, but could not extinguish the flame of revolution in Russia.
Germany though a leader in industrial revolution had consolidated into one country much later and had lagged behind in capturing as many colonies and sources of raw material. It had highly developed financial sector, education, technology and industry. Post WWI anarchy and rapaciousness of the victors drove it into fascist arms. Blessed with an educated and hard working citizenry it regained strength rapidly and wanted colonies for raw material and market for its surplus production. Not having been exposed to plenty from colonies its people were hardy too. French and to a lesser extent the British had been rendered effete by the sweat of captive people. Under Hitler the country started pushing its boundaries out. Britain saved by the channel lay supine, France fell like a rotten apple and most of eastern and northern Europe lay at its feet.
Socialism was a bigger anathema for fascism than capitalism was. But for tactical reasons Hitler signed a no-aggression treaty with Russia. That gave time to the latter to prepare for a certain future conflict and the former to mop up continental Europe. Capitalists of America waited in the wings so that socialists and fascists would annihilate each other. Unable to risk further enhancement of military capacity in Russia, Hitler attacked the country. Contrary to bourgeoisie propaganda Stalin had not weakened army or the industry . In any event Russians adapted scorched earth policy, Nazi columns pushed on, winter set in, communists took a stand in Stalingrad and it all resulted in an unprecedented rout of the aggressor; no thanks to allies who refused to open a second front in the West.
Americans public still wished pox on both allied and axis houses. But capital could not countenance triumph of fascism. Between Roosevelt and Churchill they contrived drowning of a US ship, downing of a US plane and the latter ignored warnings of an impending attack on Pearl Harbor. Public opinion was inflamed. America entered the war .
Racism continued to raise its head. Atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Berlin and Frankfurt were spared.
USA escaped depredations and its infrastructure remained intact as WWII was fought in Europe, Africa and Asia. British empire was brought to its knees and was preparing to scuttle in India. The French could not even hold on to Viet Nam. The Dutch were thrown out of Indonesia and Chiang Kai Shek the premier satrap of the West had to take refuge in Formosa, now Taiwan. Enfeebled Europe handed over the mantle of imperialism to the USA, which emerged as a super power. Its only competition was from the Soviet Union, which had captured Eastern Europe where socialist parties had taken over. It appeared that in France, Italy and Greece the communist party might emerge as the leading force. In England Churchill had been thrown out to be replaced by the Labor party, which had several left leaning persons in position of authority. Even in the USA the communist party had considerable following . If all of Europe fell into the hands of socialists, Marx’s dream would be near fulfillment. Capitalism faced an imminent threat and would fade if it did not fight on all fronts.
Europe had to be saved for capitalism. Billions of dollars were poured in courtesy of Marshall plan named after the then Secretary of state, to prop up regimes in the continent. Britain and much of northern Europe adapted welfare state legislation. France did too. “Moderate” parties joined hands with the right to confront communist party in France and Italy. West Germany was a protectorate. Fascists in Greece had active support of democracies. The Soviet Union was unwilling or unable to help . Progressive cadres in the country were massacred.
An extensive network of CIA sponsored fifth columnists was organized through out the world. Kermit Roosevelt grand son of Theodore, President at the turn of the twentieth century and cow boy imperialist par exellance, presided over the overthrow of the democratic government in Iran. Israel had been implanted in Mid-East. Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Turkey were entangled in “mutual” defense pacts. Satraps were already in place in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and the Gulf states. Much of North Africa was already under control of western colonists. South Africa was groaning under a racist-fascist regime. America replaced France in Viet Nam.
The USA justified its control of seventy five percent of the resources of the world.
Post WWII international capital led by its USA wing entered the neo-colonial phase of and accelerated the process of suborning power brokers in the third world and creating crony capitalists. Aided and abetted by the World Bank, International Monetary fund and other vehicles of financial coercion they won control over the assets of the world through Multi National corporations (MNCs). In case the natives were not amenable to persuasion saboteurs were unleashed and as the last resort naked force was used. In the mercantilist and imperialist phase capitalist countries invaded and conquered concrete space. Now they occupied abstract space and managed it from corporate Head Quarters in the USA (and to a smaller extent in Europe and Japan). MNCs decentralized into divisions with their own HQs all controlled from home base. (Thomas Sebastian in his book Globalization and uneven development characterizes MNCs an octopus with central HQ sending signals to tentacles. I have discussed the topic at some length in the chapter on Globalization).
Secretary Dulles who was a true blue warmonger followed Marshall. He transformed Soviet phobia into an art form and developed the so called domino theory under which every tiny enclave had to be defended otherwise all the countries will fall under communist influence like so many dominoes. Viet Nam was the first domino.
The biggest threat was the growing ideological and economic influence of Soviet Union. It had to be confronted and undermined. Numerous religious and opportunist groups were funded, the former especially the Muslim ones willingly fell in line as communism was presented as a bigger threat than the Christian West . Combating ideological influence of Soviet Union though remained an unsolved problem. As already mentioned USA itself had a communist party whose influence exceeded the number of members, many of whom were Jews. Love for Israel was effectively used to alienate many. The infamous senator McCarthy conducted a witch-hunt. The Rosenbergs were executed.
Soviet union had been able to explode an atomic bomb soon after WWII, and with control over Eastern Europe and its huge size straddling Europe and Asia had far greater physical reach than USA-Western Europe combine had. I had to be surrounded by military bases. Japan and Germany were already occupied and presented no problem in continuation of already existing bases. Reactionary government of Turkey ever dreaming of acceptance by the West and Europe welcomed US bases. Other mutual defense-security pact countries also allowed secret US installations.
After the Soviet Union developed the atomic bomb all kinds of measure were proposed to control further spread of atomic power. Non-proliferation treaty (NPT) was one under which atomic powers pledged to prevent further spread of the technology to make bombs. They also promised to provide help and assistance to other countries in converting atomic energy to electricity generation. Eisenhower’s atoms for peace was one such project. It actually backfired. Recipient courtiers did not have any compunction in using the knowledge to make bombs. Not all countries signed NPT. The signatories did not abide the conditions either and kept on developing bigger and more powerful bombs till at one time the USA and USSR had some sixty thousand atomic and hydrogen bombs between themselves; enough to incinerate the world several times over . The other major injunction of NPT was non-nuclear powers not be attacked with nuclear bombs.
Communists had taken over in next-door Cuba. . Kennedy had inherited Eisenhower era soviet phobia. During the election campaign Nixon had accused him of not being tough enough on communists. Goaded by reactionaries, he walked into the misadventure of Bay of Pigs. Hundreds of Cuban reactionaries and irregulars of the US army were slaughtered. Countervailing force and reach of Soviet Union would not permit a direct assault. He did manage to regain prestige by standing up to Khruschev in the missile crisis. But he did allow escalation in Viet Nam. Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson took over. He enhanced US involvement in Nam.
In other countries subversion was worked through fifth columnists, saboteurs and military adventurers. Iran had already fallen. Regimes in Iraq and African countries were undermined through military agents. Arif killed Kassem in Iraq and Tshombe murdered Lumumba in Belgian Congo. A coup took care of Guatemala. Unsuspected at the time revisionists were doing imperialist work right in the citadel of Communist movement and successfully created Soviet-China split which paralyzed such vibrant movements as the ones in India and Indonesia.
Another hard nut to crack was the non-aligned movement. Led by men of such unquestionable credentials as Nehru, Zhou en Lai, Soekarno, Nasser and Tito, they could not be accused of subservience to Soviet Union. Nehru presiding over a country with fairly well developed capitalist class, a product of British universities and per his own description the last Englishman to rule India was above reproach. Dulles passionately hated him for his independent stance. He had to be cut down to size, some how. Border conflict with china was the answer to the most fervent prayers of the Capitalists. It is highly likely that agents in place in the Indian army incited a border skirmish with China. That took care of Nehru and India. Israel demolished Nasser. The military over threw Soekarno. Tito was isolated. The army ousted smaller fry like Ben Bella of Algeria.
But the Soviet Union had got rid of revisionists. It was still making inroads in India, Arab and African countries. Aid with out strings proffered by the USSR was in sharp contrast to western offers of help, which came with a baggage of conditions, that supplies, consultants and ship of “donor countries” be used. That in the final analysis meant that little was left for the recipient country. Financial servitude was on top of it all. Even Pakistan an implacable ideological enemy got a huge steel mill. After “punishing” India China had also started flexing its muscles and was making welcome overtures to Pakistan. It was helping African countries by technical and other assistance in laying down railway lines.
US had poured in troops and materiel in Viet Nam. At one time there were half a million American soldiers in the tiny country. They were not getting anywhere and were eventually humiliated . It took Nixon an acknowledged cold warrior to accept defeat. He was later to make overtures to China and paid the price by becoming the first and so far the only President to be forced out of office. American public openly advocated withdrawal into its own commodious boundaries.
Now the most ardent longings of American cold warriors were fulfilled. Purists would disagree and rationalize Soviet adventure into Afghanistan but the fact remains that the Taliban the frenzied zealots manufactured by Pakistan with Saudi finding, Zia of Pakistan who harbored a messianic vision, Afghan religious warriors, Al-Qaida funded by the USA, all trained and equipped by US, arms bled USSR dry. That the combine would come to haunt dreams of US administration was not known at the time.
US influence suffered a terrible set back when Mullahs ousted the premier Asian satrap the Shah of Iran. Imperialism and clergy, Islamic or otherwise, have always been comfortable with each other. CIA had planted operatives in the higher ranks of Khomeini’s advisers. It reportedly had more personnel in Teheran than in its HQ in Langley VA, USA. The country was strewn with bases most of which were not known to the Shah’s government. (Revolutionary forces kept on finding listening posts at the country’s border with Soviet Union for a long time after take over). Iranian Jews and Bahai, a dissident sect of Islam, ran security services of the country.
But Ayatollah Khomeini and his cohorts were made of sterner stuff and were fired by religious zeal. They soon uncovered the first President Bani Saddar and the first foreign minister Qutub Zadeh, both in pay of CIA. The latter had served as head of Khomeini’s security detail. Mullahs turned out to be most resilient and survived a bombing of the parliament in which most of the members and ministers were killed. They meant business too, occupied US embassy building, took the staff hostage and undertook the Herculean task of putting together shredded documents
Jimmy Carter launched an abortive attempt at rescue and lost re-election as a result. Soviet Union was still a force to be reckoned with and direct assault on Iran was not in the realm of practical politics. But another agent Saddam was used to nearly destroy Iran. At the point when it appeared that Iranians would over run Iraq an American gunboat shot a civilian Iranian with some three hundred passengers out of the skies. The patently lame excuse was that the huge Jumbo airliner was mistaken for a tiny jet fighter . Iran, which had insisted on the pre-condition that Saddam be removed, now agreed to an unconditional cease-fire.
In the USSR a revisionist Gorbochev was at the helm now. Still another imperialist plant Yeltsin who was an alcoholic , was also chafing at the bit. The first tried to ease the Soviet Union out of socialist controls. He was made much of by the West and won a peace Nobel Prize. The latter overthrew him. USSR imploded on itself. Yeltsin literally handed it over to mafia like gangs who proceeded to destroy the economy of the country and took away assets to the West and Swiss banks .
Eastern European states shorn of support from Soviet Union fell like the proverbial dominoes. (Dulles would have cried for joy). Henchmen of capitalist powers took over the countries as well as those in central Asia. Global Corporation were now free to move over and extract wealth.
Ronald Reagan had capitalized on US humiliation over the Iran hostage crisis and defeated an incumbent President. He functioned as the chairman of the board and let his minions do what they wanted. Short on analytical or for that matter any intellectual endowments, he allowed outrageous acts of aggression with out a care for consequences . Coups, insurgencies, assassinations and other measures of subversion were applied in all the countries, which did not toe the neo-imperialist line. (Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, El Salvador, Haiti, several African and Asian countries). Tiny Granada was invaded.
Bush senior had succeeded Reagan largely thanks to dirty tricks campaign against a far more popular nominee of the Democratic Party, governor Dukakis of Massachusetts. He had allowed a convict out on parole. The man returned the favor by committing a murder. Dukakis was slandered as soft on crime and security. For a country with such high level of crime and such a high percentage of citizens in jail, I suppose it is natural that they would be sensitive on the issue of crime control.
Coincidentally with the demise of Soviet Union, the first Gulf war or as some would have it accepting the reality of a uni-polar world, India finally succumbed to the blandishments of globalization early nineteen nineties. China adapted capitalist mode of production but kept inner controls and universal education and health care. That was a major advance for Multi National corporations (MNCs). China followed suit but kept a tight lid on its own people.
The US power was uncontested. To test waters as it were the US ambassador beguiled Saddam by telling him that USA had no “position” in Iraq-Kuwait conflict. Iraq had bankrupted itself in eight years of war with Iran during which the USA had supplied it with war material including chemical and biological laboratories. German and other European firms had also chipped in with supplies. Rumsfeld, who served under Bush senior and was to be elevated to the position of defense secretary under Bush the junior, was a frequent guest of Saddam. After the cease-fire financial backing of the Arab satraps dried up . Saddam justifiably felt that he had fought on behalf of the satrapies that had been mortally afraid of Khomeini’s influence and should be compensated at least in money. To add insult to injury Kuwaitis taking advantage of the perceived weakness of Iraq took over a few oil fields on the Iraqi side of the border . Saddam went into Kuwait and easily overwhelmed the opposition.
Propaganda machinery went into full swing in all the Western countries. Graphic and largely fake pictures of Iraqi atrocities were shown on all the media. A daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the USA cried on a TV screen that she had witnessed babies snatched out of incubators by Iraqi soldiers and had surreptitiously taken photographs which were prominently displayed on the screens. It later turned out that the girl had never left the US for months prior to the invasion and was nowhere nearer Kuwait than the US president had been.
Bush the senior, scion of a “political” and in the eyes of Texans an effete family from the despised East-his father Prescott had been a long serving senator from Connecticut- had moved to the west in quest of oil wells and had done well. Now he had an opportunity to combat his “wimp” image. Though faced with little opposition he still needed Margaret Thatcher to hold his hand. He got a resolution from the UN security council, gathered a “coalition” of subsidiary countries including a few soldiers from Arab satrapies and threw the Iraqis out of Kuwait, allowed the soldiers to cross over into Iraqi territory, but stopped short of overthrowing Saddam. He wanted to give his agent another chance and allowed the latter to ignore the no fly zones to incinerate and gas Shias and Kurds who had risen in revolt at the instigation of CIA agents with material supplied by chemical industries in the USA and Germany. Bush senior was intelligent and understood that occupying concrete space was no longer necessary.
With a “victory” under the belt one would have thought the incumbent President would not have to worry too much about re-election. And so it seemed for quite some time. Bush’s favorable ratings were in the upper eighties. But it was not to be. Terribly confident he took on the Jewish lobby. Israel wanted a ten billion loan guarantee. Bush asked for and got the congress to endorse the conditionality. Jewish lobbies were in uproar. I recall Hasidic Jews being shown on TV shouting “ we will see you at election time or words to that effect”. I do not particularly subscribe to conspiracy theories, but from that point on the President started getting a bad press. The incident that he had stumbled while jogging was played up. He got sick and threw up over the Japanese PM during a state dinner. Broad hints were dropped that he was physically past it .
Democratic party was also under the misapprehension that Bush was undefeatable. They let Clinton capture the nomination . Governor of a small and poor state encumbered with juicy sex scandals it was supposed to be in the nature of token opposition. His own inner circle regarded it as a trial run. As the campaign picked up democrats were initially taken aback by the polls that their nominee stood a fair chance. They were emboldened and the media helped along by down playing Clinton’s affairs with secretaries, policewomen and any other female he could lay his hands on .
Bush however remained cocksure till nearly the very end and ridiculed Clinton that his poodle knew more of foreign policy than the latter did. Re-energized democrats took full advantage of the deteriorating economic conditions and disaffection with the administration. Intense lobbying efforts of minority groups, intervention of Ross Perot and surprisingly good performance of Clinton in debates helped him defeat a sitting president who did not have a black mark like Carter did .
Clinton’s first term was unremarkable. He was hamstrung by republican majority in the congress. Hillary’s health initiative fell flat on its face. Clinton learnt the lesson and promoted the interests of Global corporations. Taking advantage of the collapse of Soviet Union MNCs tightened their grip the third world. NAFTA was born. These topics properly belong in the chapter on Globalization and are discussed there). Democrats regained control of the congress during his second term but he was soon embroiled in Monica Lewinsky affair. If he had any egalitarian ideas, they were scotched.
The Al gore had been smeared by the scandal. But he was the sitting Vice President, heir apparent and had no credible rivals in the party. Republican Party nominated Bush junior as he prescribed to the views of Christian Right, was gullible and could be easily controlled. Ralph Nader disdainful of Gore put his oar in. Gore turned out to be a poor debater and could not overwhelm an inarticulate person like Bush JR. He lost his home state. In the event the latter won thanks to a Supreme Court decision. Machinations of his brother, the Florida republican machine and the Muslim vote in the state were not enough to put him over the edge. Muslims had been put off by the Gore’s running mate Joe Leiberman was Jewish. For once they had taken a right decision for wrong reasons .
Bush in office appeared to be headed to well deserved oblivion, but powers that be had decided otherwise. Al-Qaida operatives who had attempted demolition of the Trade Towers in 1993, and had made practice runs on US embassies and interests elsewhere crept through the gaping holes in the security net in the US on 9/11.
The whole western world was shocked. Leftist reaction was muted. A few did dare to attribute the attack to an understandable though not justifiable reaction to US support of dictatorships and satrapies in the Middle East and its unquestioning support of Israel in defiance of world opinion and UN resolutions, but were overwhelmed by public out rage. Muslims by and large rejoiced in the humiliation of America. The highjackers had hit the two main citadels of US hegemony- the World Trade Center and its chief beneficiary the Pentagon. But the US did gather a huge harvest of sympathy.
Bush’s handlers held his hand, consoled him and finally he got his act together. He gave an ultimatum to Afghanistan to hand over Osama Bin Laden and a belligerent notice to Musharraf “you are with us or against us”. To Musharraf it was a call from the object of passion; the haughty loved one, the cruel damsel. He offered ecstatic welcome “hum ne palkain bicha dee hain-sar ba qadam” a tepid translation would be you are most welcome and opened the air, ground and sea space to the forces of the lord and the master.
The Taliban government rejected the ultimatum. I do not think they were in a position to hand Osama over even if they wanted to. His forces were stronger and he was an icon. Americans went into Afghanistan and made short work of organized resistance. Nearly every one welcomed their success. They failed to get Osama. It was not quite clear if the invasion force blundered or the fugitive was too clever for them. It probably was a bit of both.
It would all have been well if the US had left it well alone. But Bush had been empowered. The Christian fundamentalists and hawks in the administration and his Corporate masters persuaded him that now was the time to pulverize Islamo-fascists and hit at, root out and end for all time the terrorists. He would earn a shining legacy too. By a curious quirk of logic they chose officially secular Iraq, a country led by a dictator Saddam who would slink back to DC as call girls do to their sadistic agents. His opponents were hamstrung. They took the lies that Iraq had WMDs hook, line and sinker. They could in any case not look too closely into “proofs” lest they be accused of lack of patriotic fervor. The US defense budget at 451 billion dollars already exceeded the combined defense spending of the rest of the world. It went up further reaching well above half a trillion mark. Security agencies took advantage of the panic to reach into private telephone conversations, Internet messages, financial records and even the record of books one borrowed from public libraries.
Iraqi adventure has been poorly conceived affair from the word go. It was taken as given that Iraqis will turn to Americans as saviors and out of gratitude hand over the oil wells to MNCs, elect a “democratic” government with a PM in the image of Tony Blair and all will be well. Spinmeisters even staged the ecstatic scenes of Saddam’s statue being toppled. The possibility of resistance was completely discounted. In the arrogance of power the resentment of Shias and Kurds who had been massacred by Saddam with air strikes in no fly zones was not even considered. There was no discussion of any exit strategy. Unable or unwilling to control rampant violence, US forces have been bogged down in Iraq. They cannot control insurgents. The country has slid into a civil war.
But lucky Bush still won re-election. His opponent John Kerry exceeded Al Gore in verbosity. He could not come out and say openly that his pro war vote had been based on lies. Republicans took a leaf from his father’s book and conducted a smear campaign against a distinguished war veteran who was restrained by his handlers from blasting at the detractors. It still took finagling by Ohio state republicans to put him over.
The US public had finally had enough and elected democrats in the mid-term 2006 elections. But there was no stopping Bush. He sent more troops to Iraq, (though his lap dog Blair wants to bring British troops back) and wants to attack Iran on the pretext that it is developing nuclear arms for which there is not an iota of proof. Even the International Atomic Agency, which like all UNO and all other agencies serves as a handmaiden to the US, could not go to the extent of concocting such proof. Iran as a signatory of NPT is with in its rights to develop atomic energy for civilian purposes.
2008 election campaign has started early. Hillary Clinton is the democratic frontrunner. She has been shifting to the “middle” ground since early days of her senate run. Frightened out of her wits that the money was tainted she returned the contribution of a Muslim group and has announced that if elected she will keep the troops in Iraq . The new congress is taking timid steps to curtail the progress of US involvement in Iraq. No one has said much about the nearly a million Iraqi dead, several million injured and greater number displaced . Warrior McCain who had disdainfully ignored the Christian right in 2002 is now paying them homage. Obama who rose like a shooting star has unequivocally indicated that he is all for Globalization, preponderance of MNCs and has paid his dues in an appearance in an address to the Jewish congress.

My personal experiences

When I arrived in the country in 1974 the United States of America was still more friendly to immigrants and diverse ethnicities than any other country in the world. I should know, I have lived and worked in three countries besides the USA-Pakistan, the UK and Canada- and have assidously documented and analyzed the treatment meted out to new comers and minorities in many other countries in the East and the West.
I was born and spent the early part of my life till 1951 in India and was in the ninth grade when we left for Pakistan. Muslims were taunted, harassed mentally and sometimes threatened physically too. They were discriminated against in jobs, businesses, public and private life. It was usually subtle, though overt incidents were not uncommon. The usual refrain was that you got Pakistan, go there.
Redeeming features of the society were teachers and the judiciary. Higher political leadership was also scrupulously fair. That had a sobering and restraining effect on local commissars, but could not do much to alleviate the apprehension of minorities.
. In early years of Pakistan immigrant bureaucrats dominated all administrative, technical and security services. They also occupied more than their “fair” share of slots in the officer corp. of armed forces.
With advent of Ayub’s martial law, discrimination against refugees, sporadic hitherto, was institutionalized. Ayub, at one stroke, sacked nearly all senior immigrant bureaucrats. These gentlemen had stood between overt acts of official partiality and the general mass of immigrants who though not direct beneficiaries yet took solace that their own kind were in charge and could on occasion find tenuous links with the high and the mighty. Yahya the military successor of Ayub and Z.A.Bhutto who took over what was left of Pakistan after the secession of the eastern wing continued in the same vein.
England was my next land of sojourn. In 1965, the generation of Britishers, which had last ruled India, was approaching middle to old age. I worked and lived in hospitals, so did not feel the full brunt of the worst excesses of racial discrimination. But I could not escape their patronizing attitude. They often told me, how blessed we had been that the British had given us education, industry, law and order, and Railways. How the better amongst us had availed of the opportunity and had come to the U.K. for higher education.
However hard we worked, we could not get senior positions in the profession. Many Doctors after qualifying specialty examinations got frustrated by the dead-end trainee status in popular specialties and opted for General Practice which they could have gone into with out “wasting” time on examinations or changed specialty to such unfashionable fields as psychiatry and Geriatrics (dealing with old age).
Outside the hospital we were invariably taken for manual workers, spoken to in Pidgin English and at times physically assaulted. In the sixties the term Paki-bashing was in vogue. Skinheads (young men with shaved heads) would beat up brown people- they were impartial, and called everyone including Indians Pakistani, causing a lot of heartburn in the latter.
Situation has not much improved with time. There were major riots in 2001-2 in Bradford and neighboring towns in northern England. But Indian food has overcome all the hurdles. It was not much of a struggle. British food is so bland that nearly every culinary system-Spanish, French, Greek, Arab you name it, was preferred to the native one
I have first hand knowledge of the medical profession in the UK, but had many friends in other fields. Very few south Asians ever got go to senior positions in any vocation. An elder brother of one of my friends was a brilliant research worker had trained in Tata institute in India. Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation would not give him a job, as he was not “foreign” trained. India was not a foreign country when it suited them. He migrated to England. His employers in the UK appropriated his research work as he had surrendered the relevant rights to the employer who gave him a tiny sum as compensation. He moved to USA and was immediately given an executive cum research position. They gave him generous compensation for all his original work.
I have not worked in other European countries, but every well-informed person would know how immigrants were treated as second-class citizens in France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland etc.
Canada, I must say was an improvement over England. Discrimination was not as overt, though a South Asian with a medical degree from a university back home, and British training would often be denied the privilege of performing some types of surgery or even denied license to practice, while a European with equivalent qualification and training would be so favored. One Indian Physician contested the denial in a court of law in Ontario province of Canada, only to be told that permission to treat patients in a Hospital was a privilege .
The U.S.A. was entirely different. I was offered a senior position in a good Hospital on the basis of my British qualification and allowed to appear at specialty examination with out further training at the recommendation of my department chief. This permission was denied in Canada where the Royal College insisted that I train for another year. They would not allow me to appear at the examination even after I had passed the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery examination. I was by no means unique. Many other Doctors were given similar advantages in the land of “hope and fulfillment”.
At one time some “high brow” US hospitals used to deny privileges to foreigners who had trained in less exalted sub-urban training centers. U.S courts routinely ordered them to do so. Now denial of privileges on basis of race, color, ethnicity or religion is virtually unknown.
I was made to feel at home in Brooklyn, NY, was invited to homes of my co-workers, encouraged to develop a private practice and assisted in many other ways. I was soon able to make more money than many who had been around longer, eliciting professional jealousy. I also came across several physicians of sub-continental origin (and heard of others) in positions of authority in my Hospital and other Hospitals in the area.
Over the years more and more South Asians achieved notable success, position of prominence and high rank in different walks of life; Finance, Industry, commerce, Education and Medicine etc.
Immigrants from the subcontinent count business tycoons, corporate heads, banking chiefs, partners in investment firms, members of think tanks and elected officials among their ranks. My own daughter and son-in-law, alumni of the premier business school of the USA, Wharton, of the University of Pennsylvania, achieved high corporate rank while still in their twenties. (A rough estimate of the proportion of high achievers of South Asian origin in USA, Canada, and UK would be 10:5:1).
People looked up to us. That could in part be explained on the basis of the high proportion of educated people who migrated to USA and Canada. Immigrants to the U.K. were, in the early years, by and large uneducated. The British themselves had encouraged manual workers to immigrate to the UK during the post WWII manpower shortage years.
By the waning years of the twentieth century Muslims had made great political headway in the USA. Expatriates, and local followers of the faith had united on a broad based platform. Professionals especially doctors who generously contributed to electoral campaigns had made played a great part in raising public consciousness of the faith and its roots in Judaism and Christianity were played up. Interfaith dialogue had become fashionable. Organizations like CAIR and AMA earned public recognition and the former had access to the White House. Grass roots work made the community a force to reckon with. Muslim haters like former congressman Suarez and a senator from South Dakota lose re-election races largely due the work of Muslim activists, not the least among them the cabbies in NY City who transported voters to vote against Suarez. A US senate candidate refused to accept a platform presented to him in NJ. A corp. of volunteers manned the phones for seventy-two hours non-stop. The man lost.
I do not want to give an impression all was well in the USA. Streets were safer at the time in the UK than in Brooklyn N.Y. But-and it is a big but- South Asians were singled out for violence in the UK, whereas in Brooklyn (and the rest of the USA) violence was “Even Handed” non discriminatory- white, yellow, brown, black were given equal treatment-mugged impartially.
USA has been ascendant since WWI and is still in its resplendent imperial youth. But it has started showing signs of senescence. Youth, misspent in dissipation, brings on early decrepitude. The country is wasting its political youth in arrogant pursuits. It poured men and material in the senseless Vietnamese conflict. It is shoring up the fascist regime in Israel. It has gone to war in Mid-Eat twice in less than two decades. Its policies not only vis a vis' Israel, but more so in supporting military dictatorship and imposition of satraps in “civilian” governments, its patronage of decadent monarchies and one party states in the third world and Latin America have bred international terrorism. It has failed to realize that social and political awakening follows acts of group and state terrorism Third world countries will in time be able to throw off the yoke of corporate capital. USA will lose control over the resources of the world. Bereft of the where with all of waging imperialist wars it will, like an addict, not be able to kick the habit in time to save itself.
U.S.A. society is rather insular; though post 9/11 their perception of out side world has undergone an earth change. Pre 9/11 an average person had little knowledge of anything outside his/her area. New York city was as much foreign to some one from Wichita; Kansas (a city in a southern state) as to one from Nagpur, India and both species were treated the same way in the big apple (nick name for NY city). East, West, South, and North of the USA could easily be different countries, not just because of size, but also because of attitudes, mores and norms.
The reasons are many: the salient ones being vastness and self-sufficiency of the country. It shared no borders except with Mexico and Canada. The two countries and others in South America accepted its political and economic tutelage. Exposure to other societies, till the advent of steam ships, was very limited. Vast oceans all around the country kept invaders at bay. No one had been able to attack the main land since 1812 when the British burnt the White House and most of Washington DC with it. There was only a sneak assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
It is only since mass air travel that Americans have come to know a bit about other people. They used to harbor, and a great number still do, naïve notions about other people. President Roosevelt during World War II sent a mid westerner (a heavy political contributor) to China to meet Zhou en Lai. The gentleman, on getting off the plane, shouted “Yahoo”. Zhou en Lai- though more sophisticated and imperturbable than most politicians- was visibly taken aback. When asked later, the mid western gentleman apologized and stated that he thought everyone expected Americans to shout Yahoo .
One of my friends, a Psychiatrist in Columbia Missouri, a mid-western state in the USA, was once asked if they had phones in Pakistan. He replied, with a straight face, that they had hills all over the place, which they climbed and screamed at the top of their voice through long and hollow bamboo poles. The sarcasm went over his interlocutor’s head. He took my friends statement literally. My friend thought that he was being patronized, till I told him the story of a Brooklyn New York Orthodontist (a highly qualified specialist dentist) who on discovering that I had recently come from England asked me if they had enough to eat there. I was flabbergasted and asked him “enough of what”. He said bread, butter, meat etc. I asked him why he was asking the question. It turned out that he had been in the UK during WWII and there was rationing in Britain then. This was in 1975!
9/11 as it is appropriately repeated over and over again, changed all that.
The illusions of invulnerability and invincibility were shattered. It was a body blow to the US psyche. Everyone from the President down to ordinary man on the street was stunned and numbed. I, for one, do not blame Bush and his handlers for keeping him under wraps for many hours. No body was certain about what would happen next.
USA responded with panic. All air space and harbors were closed. Measures taken since have not been very rational either; unless you accept the thesis that 9/11 is being used as an excuse to further global corporate agenda. An attack on Afghanistan can be explained. But aggression on Iraq and recent “encouragement of Israel” to bomb Lebanon to middle ages, witch hunts all over the world, limitations placed on Americans under Patriot act, whole sale harassment of immigrants, all have been found to be counter productive.
The fiasco in Iraq has not led to dispassionate and reasoned reassessment. USG continue on its irrational excesses. All kinds of illegal and unconstitutional acts were perpetrated under the blanket cover of national security Private phones were routinely tapped, detainees at Guantanamo Bay kept in legal limbo, suspects abducted at random and sent on to countries which practiced torture as a matter of course. Syria otherwise an enemy offered the services of its sadistic security agents. The USA for all its professions of respect for Human rights cordially accepted the offer. The process is euphemistically called extra-ordinary rendition.
On 9/11 I was working in an outpatient’s clinic in a hospital in Scotland. A nurse told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. In a patronizing tone I told that the towers were not on any air routes and NY had two large airports. She came back a while later, visibly shaken and blurted out that another plane had crashed into the second tower. The clinic did not have a TV. We congregated around a radio for a few minutes and returned to work.
Then it hit me. My eldest daughter worked next door in the world finance center. I was frantic. I called the Hospital phone operator and told her about my daughter. That good soul kept on trying all my USA phone numbers, but all the lines were down. It was about 2.30 PM in the UK. I heard from my wife five hours later that my daughter was safe. She had not been feeling well and had not gone to work that day.
After the disbelief, terror and numbness had worn off, unprecedented outrage took over in the USA. Every foreign looking person was suspect. Muslim women with the traditional Hijab were harassed. A teacher taunted my son in very rural Bath NY. But there was still no dearth of thoughtful citizens, who called their South Asian friends, neighbors, students and employees to reassure them. Times were terrible, they were to let them know them if anything untoward happened.
Rumors abounded. People guessed at the nationality of hijackers. Jew haters gave currency to a report that followers of the creed had not gone to their trade tower offices on the day. One T.V. network claimed that Mossad, the Israeli secret service had advance knowledge and had failed to inform FBI/CIA. Another showed a picture of orthodox Jews (ones with the skull caps) rejoicing over the disaster. Mubarak of Egypt was supposed to have told Bush that something catastrophic was going to happen. That there was gross mishandling and misjudgment of available information has been well documented and established by 9/11commission. There was very poor dissemination of information to public as well.
Indiscriminate rage, as it had to, soon followed. Public perception tends to lump people of a faith, color, and race together. A Sikh was killed because he had a long beard and a turban- like Osama Bin Laden’s. People of all shades of complexion between white and black were targeted. There were many acts of thoughtless violence. Many Asians kept to their homes for weeks and did let not children not go to school either.
Government agencies failed to impress adequately upon the public, that this was an act of a group of demented, and bigoted individuals who happened to be Yemeni and Saudi. All Arabs/Muslims/Brown people were not the same. George Bush made an irresponsible remark about crusade against terror. Ignorance of the connotation of the word crusade was no excuse. Subsequent clarifications did little to reassure the affected people.
The facts that a) the high Jackers were beneficiaries of Saudi largesse, who not too long ago were funding 22,000 religious seminaries in Pakistan and b) Saudi ruling junta were as close to American establishment as could be and acted as their surrogates in the region c) Members of Osama’s family and other high profile Saudis were immediately flown out of the country with out any interrogation by US security agencies d) high Jackers had been associated with star pupils of US security agencies who had been trained to fight Russian occupation of Afghanistan, were all glossed over. Also ignored was the fact that US Government was supporting Israel in perpetrating a reign of Terror on Palestinians. Israelis were practicing ethnic cleansing. Gross injustice breeds terrorism.
American governments, prior to junior Bush have, with in limits of the electoral reality on ground, tried to help find a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian problem. No American can afford to be even handed between Palestinians and Israelis and retain hope of winning a political office. I once heard a politico ruefully declare, that one cannot get elected to office, even as a dogcatcher in a remote village, if one is not ostentatiously pro-Israel. He was right. One bright, dynamic and important Texas politician John Connolly, a former governor of the state and later treasury secretary, was running for his party’s nomination for the office of the President of the USA. He made a casual off the cuff remark that US Arab/Israeli policy should be more balanced. That was the end of his campaign. Mayor Koch of NY, a member of his party and himself a Jew, with drew the city’s invitation to address a meeting. Journalists competed with each other in condemning the man, calling him a racist, fascist and anti-Semitic (In the USA only Jews are designated Semitic in the popular mind. Arabs who share the same genetic pool are not). For thirty million dollars, he had one vote in the nominating convention.
. Successive US governments have also failed to deal adequately with their erstwhile clients such as Al-Quaida, Taliban, and Saddam Hussain. They had used them as surrogates to secure U.S. interests. All these agents were, to various degrees, mentally unbalanced. That was discounted at the time. It made pragmatic sense, we were told. These kinds of people are very useful when working for you. But no one likes being ditched after they have been used. Unscrupulous acts tend to boomerang. Thugs require extra after care. US government agencies failed to do that.
Late after math of 9/11 was even worse for non-white foreigners. Smarting from their monumental failure, the security agencies went after high profile clerics, community leaders, charity workers and the most vulnerable among the foreigners, people who did not have clear legal status. Most had over stayed their visas etc. There were hundreds of thousands of them running grocery stores, cabs, restaurants, and doing other odd jobs. They were rounded up wholesale, and held incommunicado. Families were desperate, and in many cases, had no knowledge of the whereabouts of loved ones for weeks, even months.
Economy suffered. These workers had lived here for long time, doing what others shunned. Whole neighborhoods were rendered desolate. To cite one example out of score of hundreds, in Coney Island Avenue- Brooklyn New York, numerous shops were shuttered and whole blocks of apartment buildings abandoned. None of these people supported terrorism. They invariably abided by the law. They were here because U.S was a land of opportunity, and they were unable to support their families if they stayed in their native lands.
But the biggest loss was that Civil rights were greatly compromised. The congress passed the draconian Patriot act, which gave law enforcement agencies a great leeway. They could tap phones, censor correspondence, go into Internet, coerce communication network to divulge information and ask public libraries on what books a person asked for. Some security officials went over board. Legal Muslim charitable organizations sent money to the destitute in Middle East and South Asia, as Oxfam and others did to South America etc But the former were targeted, harassed and intimidated. Their leaders were often arrested and held without bail. Many had to stop all work. People fought shy of contributing to humane causes lest their motives be misconstrued. Two Muslim Doctors in my area (Upstate N.Y.) had their homes and offices raided by agents of Homeland Security, Tax Service and Customs recently in 4/2005, because they had sent money to another physician ten years ago. The latter was being investigated for illicit transmission of funds to an Iraqi children’s charity. Such examples are numerous.
Physicians working in the USA on different kinds of visa, accept appointment in acutely under-served remote and poor areas under an assurance that their status would be adjusted and they would be rewarded with a “green card” after four years of work in adverse conditions. Along with all other non-permanent visa holders they were ordered to report to INS offices all over the country for “validation of visa” and were interrogated and harassed. It was highly intimidating. They would be interviewed in a room next door to a hall with a prominent sign-detention cell. Students were arrested. People who bore grudges reported on many they did not like. One house in Pittsburgh, PA was raided because a neighbor has seen the woman of the house putting some thing “suspicious” in the garbage can. They had exchanged harsh words a few months ago. The suspicious material turned out to be spoiled beef curry.
A physician driving back to NYC from Florida stopped at a restaurant on the way. The waitress was not happy with the tip. She called FBI that he looked like a terrorist. The man was picked up and held with out the benefit of legal counsel for two weeks. His wife happened to know an attorney who had been a public prosecutor. He pulled strings and got the doctor out of jail. One of the doctor’s patients admitted in a hospital sued him for abandonment!
Crossing the border from Canada used to be a breeze. Now one is stopped at random. My van was once checked for radiation and we were made to wait for a long time. Driving back on my next visit I told the immigration agent that I had bought a bottle of whisky. He waved me on with out a question. Alcohol had conferred good citizen status on me!
People are scared of visiting USA. An Oxford University student (of Indian Origin) and his English girlfriend boarded a plane in London to attend a music festival in New York. The check in girl told her supervisor that the man looked like a terrorist. It was panic stations and the Canadian and US governments were immediately warned. Canadian air force planes escorted the flight to the US border where US F16 fighters took over and accompanied the airliner to JFK. Both passengers were arrested and kept in jail for three days. One of my friends Sibghat U. Kadri a barrister on Queens counsel no less was interrogated on arrival at Chicago airport and quizzed on an anti Musharraf speech he had given. Criticizing satraps is also terrorism! Things have become so unpleasant that Europeans of sub-continental origin have taken to visiting Canada and asking their relatives and friends to meet them there.
Airlines are going bankrupt. US embassies issue visas to workers essential to US economy. Homeland security holds them up for months. I know of several businessmen who were grilled because they had offices in South Asia and had to, of necessity, transfer funds overseas for employee’s salary etc. Their clients panicked and the businesses failed adding to unemployment.
The quality of life of all South Asians and others has been badly affected. The image of society has been tarnished and it is highly debatable if security has been enhanced. Those who aid and abet terrorism are usually too sophisticated to get caught in the net. The faceless ones suffer. I had never heard of a South Asian second-generation student in the USA contemplating a future career in Canada, Europe or South-Asia. Very few first generation immigrants ever planned to return to their native land either. Now most of them are giving serious thought to the matter. We might have to face the prospect of a reverse brain drain. One conspicuous casualty has been the doctors from Pakistan. After passing the requisite tests to qualify for a training program in this country fully a third are denied visa. The usual excuse is that the Homeland Security Department denied clearance.
Though the initial panic has subsided, conditions remain uncertain. Random harassment continues. Ill-considered and imprudent military adventure in Iraq has enhanced the sense of insecurity. Saddam was a brutal, fiendish and unregenerate tyrant. His removal was an undoubted act of humanity. But perpetuation of occupation is an unmitigated disaster. It is a vicious circle. Campaign to secure US troops inevitably leads to Iraqi casualties. They and fundamentalist cohorts react in kind. That escalates the conflict to other countries. The US has to react.
Afghanistan is an exact parallel. Afghans are veterans of innumerable resistance movements. They humiliated Russians at the height of their power and the British when the sun never set over the Empire.
Immigrants always carry a baggage of norms, mores, traditions and customs from the old country. I have used the term baggage advisedly though not in any derisory or a qualitative sense. It is a heavy load that they carry and it keeps them from moving ahead. Racial, linguistic and religious differences burden was even heavier. They were Vegetarians, Halal meat eaters and had other fads in food. By and large they were comparatively sexually repressed. They conformed more to their respective religions and their culture and religion discriminated more against women. Their “home” environment was post-colonial, feudal or tribal. They were caste in addition to class ridden. Some came from countries ruled by satrapies in the Mid-East. Others had been ground down by fascist regimes. Only India had representative government which was substantially marred by covert and lately overt mistreatment of Muslims and untouchables, which together comprise roughly fifty percent of the population. Because of the baggage the first generation of all immigrants tend to ghettoize. That alienates them further from the natives. The second generation rebels and tries to assimilate. Insecurity breeds intolerance and fundamentalism widening the divide more.
Asians were easily compartmentalized into Indian sub-continental Muslims and Hindus, Arab, Iranian, Chinese and several others. European immigrants, by contrast were much more homogenous.
Muslims do not assimilate easily. They do not drink; they are not very tolerant of other faiths. Interest is proscribed in their dogma. Remove interest and the whole economy of the world will come crashing down. They are forced to rationalize, keep the money under the mattress and get into trouble when they offer thousands of dollars in cash when buying a car. Mortgage involves interest so they stoop to such subterfuges as getting a loan with mark up included calculated on what else but interest rate. In Pakistan they actually call it mark up. Saudis invest in interest bearing accounts in USA and spend it interest free in their own and other countries. Saudi women wear dresses from the most expensive boutiques under the traditional dress. They insist that women wear Hijab, so hoodlums have no problem identifying them. They are emulating Nazi fascists who had forced the Jews to wear the cross of David . Hijab is shed as soon they arrive at a Western Airport. Saudi princes import liquor in boxes declared as furniture. One crate crashed in Jeddah. Whisky started pouring out. The poor customs man called the palace “Your highness, your furniture is leaking”. This leads to schizophrenia of the “Ummah. Politics and religion cannot be sequestrated from each other in the faith. A large number are possessed of messianic zeal. Charlatans common in any group taint their image too. They easily lend themselves to victimization in public affairs. They would support Arabs right or wrong just because they are Muslims. Arabs are actually more pragmatic and have traditionally supported Hindu India against Muslim Pakistan.
As though they had not enough to contend with, they got right in the middle a global conflict. The West was threatened by communist regimes. Islamic countries, in a self-defeating exhibition of solidarity with followers of another divine faith supported the neo-imperialists and suffered for it in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Jews wanted to return to Jerusalem and shrewdly used the collective guilt of the West over the holocaust. When that capital had been spent, they dug up old Christian dogma that Messiah will come only after Muslims have been driven out of all the lands of old Israel.
Muslims are sitting over the greater part of energy resources of the world. Neo-Imperium wants control over the resources. Israel comes in handy as the agent in place.
I have gone over the situation briefly to indicate the problems South Asians are beset with in the land of hope. Among them Muslims have played into the hands of neo-cons by resisting all efforts at assimilation by their own kind and by spurning the assistance of “regular” Americans. If perpetrators of 9/11 had planned it to marginalize Muslims in USA they could not have done better.
They are exposed to a new milieu quite different from the one they have been used to. Language, climate, food and clothes all present a challenge. They are insecure and tend to adhere to each other. They adopt “ghetto” mentality for group protection. Italians, Poles, Spaniards, Jews and other people from small nations resorted to this collective behavior in the USA. British and French were exceptions. They came upon technologically less developed people and overwhelmed them. All more or less homogenized over several generations.
Black people were exception in another sense as they were brought as slaves and were treated as a sub-human species. They were to seek empowerment through civil rights movement. They have made great strides, but remain very much second-class citizens and continue to be discriminated against; post Katrina callous behavior of US government is only the latest in the never-ending list.
Europeans were essentially from the same racial stock. Jews, though technically Semitic, have had so much cross breeding that they look like white Europeans .
South Asians enjoy certain advantages, which their predecessors did not. They were, by and large educated and brought much needed skills in medicine, engineering and trade and were welcomed and made much of in early years. They worked hard and distinguished themselves in medical, financial and commercial fields. In the beginning they were far too few in numbers to congregate in ghettoes, which were to mush room in NY, NJ, PA, IL and many other states.
But with success came jealousy of the natives. Some South Asian students in university campuses were manhandled and called new colonizers by black youth. South Asians can help by being more careful and circumspect in discussions and impressing upon all, that they are as loyal to the country as the progeny of those who migrated a few generations before them. They should participate in civic affairs, shun and deplore extremist views vehemently, and counsel people with nefarious views to either shape up or ship out. There is little merit in ostentatious exhibition of such social customs as the Hijab. They should also try to grow out of deliberate ghettoization of their communities. They must above all learn to separate religion from politics.
Efforts to overcome the prejudice have been made. Some enlightened security officials did invite community leaders to give lectures and explain that 9/11 highjackers were an aberration and not the norm. Congresspersons have helped a great deal by reassuring their constituents and arranging seminars. I had an opportunity to address a group of state troopers in my area. One trouble question was if Islam was a peace loving religion why did the clerics not condemn the atrocity publicly. I could only say that they were scared of the terrorists.
Muslims should also keep in mind that U.S. is still a more open and tolerant society than that any in South Asia or Mid East, Europe and other continents. Incidents much less earth shattering than 9/11 have led to annihilation of suspect communities- Iran in 1953, Indonesia in 1965, the then East Pakistan in 1971, Karachi and Jordan in the eighties, Syrian town Hammas in 1986, Bosnia in early nineties, Gujarat in India in 2001. The list is endless. Ethnic cleansing is endemic in Israel, India, Pakistan, several African countries and sporadically elsewhere.