The American Paranoia

Raju Korti
The Americans are always obtained on when to mince words, use officialspeak and when to draw from political humour that borders on subtle satire. One does not know whether it was his rigorous stint with the Marine Cops or his diplomatic skills that he kept honing while doing duty for President Reagan and Bush (Senior), but the then Secretary James Baker was sure a class act.On his numerous failed attempts -- like the North Korean Missile Programme -- to broker peace in the conundrum called Middle East, the suave juggler had termed the region as a theatre of the absurd, which indeed it was. When asked by a posse of we-know what-you-would say journalists on what were the guarantees of a conciliation from the US intervention, he reparteed with the trademark non chalance a la Sean Connery, "No guarantees. This is Middle East".Baker's influence may have been replaced with Hillary Clinton's tepid responses as far as the Americal foreign policy is concerned, but the pronounced contrast in the American perception is clearly discernible. That, of course, is quite understandable given the otherwise Big Boss status that the United States has arrogated to itself, more so after the fragmentation of the erstwhile Soviet Union. What amuses, however is the paranoia that it displays when it comes to North Korea and Iran.Pyongyang's latest attempt at acquiring a 6000-9000 km range Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) may have come a cropper, but the Americans believe, rightly or wrongly, that the missile could have been punched with a nuclear warhead.Having been witness to how then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's smiling jaws had dropped to his knees when an Indian rocket launch went kaput, I can also visualise how the American think tank must have took in a long sigh of relief at the failed missile test. But the US also knows, it will be sooner if not later before the reclusive rogue state sends another one soaring to the consternation of millions of gasps.The North Koreans may be still way off a smooth test, but before things degenerate to a head, the Americans need to drop all sense of anxiety and first call the Nokor's bluff before taking any action on the ground, considering it musters the courage to do so. And this is where the crunch lies. Having flopped in most of its military exercises, including the not-so-honourable one when India and Pakistan stood perilously on the brink of a nuke war in 1971 war, the US also needs to reduce its dependence on umbrella organisations like the NATO. Each time it cannot draw support and sustenance from a host of allegiances like it managed to during the war (ostensibly) to rescue Kuwait. Recall how some stooge nations were vociferous in their protest against the US when the UN inspectors did not find even a grain of evidence on the existence of weapons of mass destruction(WMDs) in Saddam's Iraq.The problem is the US has remedies worse than the disease and with its sometimes esoteric approach to handling foreign relations -- expediencies granted -- it only succeeds in isolating itself. The post bin Laden killing is a case in point. Half cock measures don't work in international issues, not in the longer run anyway.Weighed down as they are with the might of China, the implacable North Korea and Iran, and the obdurate Cuba, its time the Americans saw a mirror image in India and deal with the unpredictable Pakistan accordingly. A meandering Pakistan rife with uncontrolled religious extremism is a far more dangerous proposition not only for South East Asia but to the whole world.The North Koreans may or may not reach the Americans, but the Pakistanis have already placed themselves in that situation. Dabbling far too much in others' affairs is fraught with dangerous consequences and the Americans know it. Only they do not learn.Ariel Sharon got it right when he said "Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people control America and the Americans know it."