Daily Times

Have you come across the frustrating situation when your close friend, successful in the past, starts making wrong decisions and begins to unravel, even to your own detriment? Yet you remain speechless, worried that if you were to advise him, he may turn against you? My friend, the United States of America, is behaving exactly like this and I don’t know what to do about it.

Of course, the above metaphor breaks down, as all metaphors must, at some point: the US is a country and I am a person. But the analogy sustains itself at least to some degree. The US has been remarkably successful in the past two centuries. However, it has been making one wrong decision after another in the past two decades. Worse, both society and polity of the US are wrapped up in their own contradictions, oblivious to their friends’ reactions.

Nobody doubts that the US has been a phenomenally successful country ever since it was created out of a British colony. Since then, it has been responsible for some of the most breath-taking technological inventions and popular lifestyle trends. Its prestige reached a zenith when it saved Europe from itself twice in the two world wars. Its epic victory over the Soviet Union put the ultimate leadership cachet on its glorious CV.

But ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has been taking momentous decisions that are plunging its friends into anxiety. Invading Afghanistan and Iraq has de-stabilised entire regions, besides giving a fillip to the wave of global and regional terrorism rather than decreasing its amplitude. Instead of helping the Syrian government destroy the dangerous ISIS, the US is undermining Assad, thus indirectly helping that very same ISIS whose disciples are wreaking havoc across the globe. The US’s role in the Libyan catastrophe cannot be minimised by its pointing the finger at hapless Europe.

The US has been indulging in three projects that are injecting fresh and serious disorder into a world that is already reeling. First, instead of helping China, a country of 1.3 billion peace-loving, hard-working and intelligent citizens, on its steady path to becoming a most important stabilising force in the 21st century, the US accuses it of being “self-isolating.” With its ultimately futile attempt to foment an anti-China coalition of sorts, the US is recklessly trying to trigger a new cold war, ignoring that China’s progress is leading to regional and global peace and prosperity.

Second, the US is needlessly, and again recklessly, pushing NATO into a dangerous confrontation with a Russia that seems set on its path of economic development and political stability. Third, by relentlessly pursuing the deployment of Anti-Ballistic Missile System near the geographical boundaries of its perceived adversaries, the US is pushing the entire globe to the brink of disaster. What choice will Russia, China, India and Pakistan have but to geometrically expand their nuclear and missile arsenals?

The same contradictions that are evident in US’ foreign policy were clearly reflected in the Orlando tragedy. Omar Mateen, a disturbed individual, just as the Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and other shooters were, was able to buy lethal weapons as if one were buying bread. What is impossible for non-Americans to understand is that a spate of such incidents has not persuaded US Congress to pass the bare minimum law to ban guns capable of piercing the toughest police armour.

Secondly, the tragic shooting has given fillip to the Islam-phobic arguments of none other than the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. It would be naive to imagine that Trump is the sole culprit here. At a minimum the American mainstream media sensationalise every tragedy into yet another “us versus them” argument. At a maximum, racism and Islamophobia in the US are on the rise. Should one then not be forgiven for thinking that the roots of US foreign policy aggression lie in its domestic social order?

It would be equally naive to assume that the “Islamic world” is blameless. The so-called Islamic world is fighting a war against itself: Shia versus Sunni, liberal versus fundamentalist, and so on. It will take quite a bit of time before it achieves peace and equilibrium. No wonder the friends of the US are looking up to the US to provide leadership to the 21st century world that is in a tumult. The US cannot become a global leader by isolating Russia and China, as well as marginalising millions of educated and liberal Muslims.

True, it is frustrating when your friend makes major wrong decisions and you cannot do much. But you can hope that one day he will rethink his actions in the light of his well-wishers’ friendly advice.

The writer is a former Rhodes Scholar