Why India must not fall into the power trap
Kadhim Sharif al-Jabouri: the man who took a sledgehammer to the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in Baghdad and helped in knocking it down, is repenting his act.
He pines for the days of Saddam and says, "I'd like to put it back up… to rebuild it," because "Saddam has gone but in his place there are 1,000 Saddams" - so says an article in the Washington Post.
Proof
If there was any proof needed of the tyranny of unbridled interventionism, this is it. Libya is another stark example, not to talk of Iraq, Syria et al.
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| Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. (AP) |
A Time magazine piece in September 2011 said that countries that opposed a UN resolution for "toppling" Muammar Gaddafi were on the wrong side of history and went on to decry India, which had opposed the motion, as "… not fit for bigger roles in international affairs".
The pointer was to India's push for a seat in the Security Council. Libya is now in shambles, post the Gaddafi toppling.
One wonders whether the reputed magazine would like to run a counter and whether the Blairs and the Bushes (remember the misplaced "Mission Accomplished" statement?) of the "modern" world can be held accountable for the miseries brought about on innocents - people who did not seek intervention.
The recently released Sir Chilcot enquiry report into Tony Blair led UK's entry and conduct of the Iraq war between 2003 and 2009 concludes that intelligence about weapons of mass destruction was flawed and that, "The UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before all peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort."
More damning evidence of misplaced evangelism for human rights would be difficult to find.
It is another confirmation of the truism of the eternal words of Thucydides who in 5 BCE said that, "… the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
It is indeed ironic that the removal of "tyrants" by the "civilised" has resulted in tyranny for the unfortunate.
Reason
One reason for the UK to join the US coalition against Saddam was the inevitability that flows from being a "poodle" to a master.
That the righteousness of India's position to oppose the UN motion to invade Libya in 2011 has been proved correct is no consolation that the founding principles of the Indian State are sound; what is important to remember is that India, by virtue of the growing alignment with the US in particular and the West in general, does not get drawn into games that world powers play for their own interests.
In the cut-throat world of global power politics, nothing comes for free.
As Chanakya told Chandragupta Maurya in 4 century BC, "there is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interest… this is a bitter truth."
So, while India was able to reject requests for becoming a coalition partner in Operation Enduring Freedom after the 9/11 attacks and also to pleas made in the beginning of this year to send troops to Syria to fight the ISIS, the next time may not be easy due to our new alignments.
The favours being sought by India as part of the burgeoning India-US ties and the political capital being expended to become a member of the NSG would demand reciprocal acceptance of commitments by India.
The arrogance of power has shown itself to be an ill of the powerful that affects the not so powerful in a very detrimental way.
However, in the long run, this malady of interventionism has shown itself to boomerang, and from the ills of which the initiator finds it hard to disentangle.
India's intervention in Sri Lanka and the experience of the Indian Peacekeeping Force is an indigenous example.
Reality
It is vital that our feet are grounded in reality, despite certain shrill voices proclaiming that India has arrived.
India's journey has surely started and it would be prudent to remember the assessment of Shiv Shankar Menon, our previous national security advisor, who said in a Prem Bhatia Memorial lecture that it is imperative to understand the difference between weight, influence and power.
Power is the capability to create and sustain effects he said, "Weight we have, our influence is growing, but our power remains to grow and must be used for domestic transformation."
A wrong appreciation of their power by the powerful nations of the world has brought about untold misery on the innocent; military power has been wrongly assessed as having the power to influence and change cultures.
A balanced approach to the notion of "security" is the need of the hour because the virtues of human security as seen by one society cannot be modulated by military power of another to fashion a new paradigm. India must not fall into the trap of overreach.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)