Uploaded on November 13, 2020

Short Takes

The Biden win

Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam

The United States, still holding its number one position in the global pecking order since World War II, becomes the focus of everyone’s attention during its presidential elections. Everybody hopes against contrary experience that the new man in the White House will help usher in a better, more just and peaceful order. Such hopes are always and invariably dashed.

The fault lies with our own rampant optimism rather than the US presidency. Let us think for a while about the issue since the last days of Clinton presidency. When the Monica Lewinsky affair got out of hand and Bill Clinton was literally caught with his pants down, he ordered a bombing run over Iraq. The world took no time to realise that Clinton was conducting foreign policy (war) for domestic reasons. 

We must remember that America has constantly been at war in one area of the globe or the other over the last 100 years, and no President ever wavered from this genocidal slaughter of weaker people. Behind this regular massacre America claims is its struggle to promote democracy. To that the people victims of such aggression often retort: “Yes, we are taught democracy with bombs and missiles.” Will this president be different?

After the rampage of Bush, padre and fil, the world foolishly thought Barack Obama would bring a new breeze of peace and freedom. This misleading impression deepened when Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize, for God knows what, right away. Then there was his misleading speech in Cairo, which gave the Muslims (in large numbers) a lollipop to hold on to. By the time Obama left he had dropped one lakh bombs on Muslim peoples, the largest number so far, possibly far more than Clinton, the two Bushes and Trump put together. 

My advice to our readers: Don’t fall over each other fawning over a new US President. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was asked during the Kennedy-Nixon election as to whom he would prefer. 

Instead of a straight reply, Khrushchev asked, “Which shoe would you prefer, the one on your left foot, or the one on your right foot?”

This Short Takes piece is meant merely as a warning to people who expect (foolishly) a breakthrough in US foreign policy. I hope to return to it when the early excitement settles down to a normal daily rhythm of life. After all, Mr. Biden is only the US President, not Indian Prime Minister.