By Kollengode S Venkataraman March 2003.
Psychologists say reality shows are popular because people derive pleasure seeing others lose and be humiliated. The better these characters are in youth, beauty, handsomeness, wealth, power, or class, the more vicarious is our pleasure seeing them squirm. That is why people watch Joe, the handsome fake millionaire, picking one chick from among twenty others over several weeks to perky Bachelorette trying to do the same to men.
But even as the new genre of reality shows were being fed to us by networks, the real and scary reality show has been playing out for months with Washington DC as a prime locale, with the locales shifting to UN headquarters in New York, and parliaments the world over with leaders grandstanding in political oratory.
US TV reporters in North Korea, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan in the wee hours of their local times appeared live during our dinner time to give updates.
They showed the European Main Streets with millions protecting George Bush ‘s martial unilateralism against Saddam Hussein. They showed Arab leaders in their native dresses talking in diplomatic double and triple speak about their stand on non stand on the impending US invasion, trying to secure diplomatic escape routes to save their faces, whichever way the crisis ends.
The shifting sands of the Iraqi deserts are a fit metaphor for the US policy. It was first removing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, then regime change in Iraq, then ushering democracy in Iraq, then democracy in the entire region run by ruthless despots, then settling the Israeli-Palestine conflicts, then to break the yet unproven Iraq-Al Qaeda-9/11 link, and finally protecting citizens here in the US.
It is eerie to see the Sole Superpower throwing goodies at and twisting the arms of the non-permanent, nondescript members Cameroon, Guinea, and Angola in the UN Security Council to garner their votes through checkmate French, Russian, Chinese vetoes on the next UN resolution for war, whose outcome in terms of death, devastations, durations, political instability, and cost, nobody in the government acknowledged publicly, even though they have estimates.
Look at the irony in Turkey, the only Muslim democratic nation in the in that part of the world. When some members of NATO dithered about military support to Turkey in a hypothetical Iraqi invasion, US extracted a NATO resolution protecting Turkey. Turkey bargained hard with the US and obtained over thirty billion dollars in grants and soft loans for letting U.S. open a northern theater subject to its parliament’s approval to attack Iraq from Turkey. Turkey, instead of voting on the issue right away in its parliament, dragged its feet because 90% of its people opposed the US invasion of Iraq. And when the Arab League, a nebulous association of despots, opposed regime change in Iraq, the Turkish parliament denied the US the desirable Northern Front.
When the US wants to inject democracy into the region, it cannot openly criticise Turkey for its democratic vote. But a yes-vote from Turkey would have partially legitimized the US invasion of Iraq in the Islamic world. Talk about twists, turns, suspense, paradoxes, and ironies. The sequence of events is so bizarre it is hard to believe it is real.
Winning the war against Iraq, with or without the UN support is easy, given the overwhelming asymmetry between the all-powerful US and emaciated Iraq. But the price for winning will be undermined. Will be an undermined UN, a weakened NATO, and a fractured alliance between Europe ‘s strong powers and the US. Besides, even though the US bashes the UN regularly, it never hesitates to use UN when it suits. So, does emasculating the UN serve US interest?
War and no war against Iraq, with or without UN support, damage is already done to the foreign policy interests of the US. A new alliance is certain to emerge to respond to the sole superpower displaying its raw power in Asia, Africa, and Middle East. The memories of European imperialism of the last century have not faded.
Watching the retired generals on network TV payrolls glibly discussing the different scenarios: three thousand cruise missiles dropped in 48 hours over Iraq. Battle fatigue has already set in without even a shot being fired. If this is not enough, the US economy shows no signs of recovery. Crude oil cost over $40 a barrel, gas prices near $2 a gallon, even while white-collar jobs are being outsourced; and with military expedition to cost in billions, Bush is preparing tax breaks for the rich.
In make-believe made-for-TV reality shows, the producer knows how the show would end. But in the REAL reality show on Iraq, nobody knows how the show would end or when. While there are excellent actors, grand sets, and well-chiselled dialogues, the show has no producer or director. That is scary.
In mythologies, we read stories of one craftily drawing one’s opponents into a battlefield formation from which it is impossible for the opponent to get out. This is called Vyuham in the Mahabharata. Politically, we are getting ourselves into such a formation with our eyes wide open if we haven’t already done so. END