A Fourth Of July Perspective

The US celebrated the glorious Fourth, the nation’s independence day and the myths going along with it.  As with most wars, the elite prospered, the poor shed blood, and most shamefully in this case the slaves remained slaves.  Dissenters in this war dubbed Royalists were killed or fled to Canada, a country later peacefully independent from Britain and none the worse for it.

Back to the revolutionary war, let us not forget the French, their navy, their army without which, well … .  Having suffered a reverse against the British in India, the French were thirsty for revenge, and America gave them the ideal opportunity.

Oh yes, India.  It, too, celebrates independence from Britain a little more than a month hence.  However, in the process it managed to shoot itself in the foot and elsewhere severing itself into three countries and a very painful digit called Kashmir that still has not healed.  How did England manage to conquer such a large sub-continent?  Well, in actual fact, it didn’t.

We have heard of the Rajahs, Maharajahs, Nawabs and so forth.  Large sections remained independently run by these rulers under certain restrictions.  This included Hyderabad and its Nizam (ruler) who allied himself with the British in the 18th century Deccan peninsula wars against Mysore, which fought the British and its Indian allies until its ruler died fighting.

The British used skillful political manipulation and Indian soldiers in a land divided by language, custom, religion and even race.  America on the contrary favors force, often brutal force, usually effectively as in the Philippines.  It did not work in Vietnam but Central and Latin America have been another story.  If Cuba bucked the trend, Venezuelan and Ecuador have tried, and their story continues to unfold.

Just the 21st century list curdles the blood.  Afghanistan, its people and its government, had nothing to do with 9/11; so why attack them, when a maverick from Saudi Arabia and Arabs mostly from Saudi Arabia were the perpetrators.  Yes, the leader Osama bin Laden, fostered by the CIA, was based in Afghanistan, but then why not attack his base, instead of making new enemies and getting trapped in the US’s longest war.

Why Iraq?  Why Libya?  And many others including a coup to remove an elected government in Ukraine.  The extremist fundamentals are no longer kept in check by Libya’s secular Gadaffi and are mushrooming in Africa, while China might get the oil, and it looks like Iran has become the big winner in Iraq.  The answer?  Why, of course, another war.  This time with the Saudis against Iran despite the Syria misadventure.  Can reason and foresight prevail as dead bodies pile up and refugees scatter?

So here we are 242 years later … in a land governed by corporate greed and economic malfeasance centered on unsustainable growth; facing rising global temperatures; an earth already in the sixth mass extinction with rapidly declining wild life.

Have you seen many butterflies this year?  I notice the milkweed bush outside in the yard is still awaiting its first monarch.  But I cannot end a Fourth-of-July piece on a sour note.  The robin pair visiting us annually, nesting under the eaves in the crook of a storm drain pipe, has been particularly successful this year, hatching its third brood a few days ago.

Dr. Arshad M. Khan
Dr. Arshad M. Khan
Dr. Arshad M. Khan is a former Professor based in the US. Educated at King's College London, OSU and The University of Chicago, he has a multidisciplinary background that has frequently informed his research. Thus he headed the analysis of an innovation survey of Norway, and his work on SMEs published in major journals has been widely cited. He has for several decades also written for the press: These articles and occasional comments have appeared in print media such as The Dallas Morning News, Dawn (Pakistan), The Fort Worth Star Telegram, The Monitor, The Wall Street Journal and others. On the internet, he has written for Antiwar.com, Asia Times, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Countercurrents, Dissident Voice, Eurasia Review and Modern Diplomacy among many. His work has been quoted in the U.S. Congress and published in its Congressional Record.