The Nation, Pakistan
America's Chronic Betrayal of its Birthright and Ideals

By Roedad Khan*  
July 15, 2006
Pakistan - The Nation - Home Page (English)    

On July 4, 1776, the Congress at Philadelphia adopted the historic Declaration of Independence . Drafted mainly by [Thomas] Jefferson , it was the expression of the "American mind." The time to separate from the mother country had arrived. The umbilical cord had to be cut. The die was cast.

When America engaged in the struggle of a people escaping from another people's yoke to create a new nation, the most just of all struggles, outstanding men came forward to lead. Three Americans: George Washington , John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, conservative members of the colonial elite turned revolutionaries, set the world ablaze and changed the course of history. More than any others, these three men helped end British rule. They transformed His Majesty's American colonies into a sovereign, independent nation.

The preamble of the Declaration asserts that under certain circumstances, revolution is justified. Governments must rest upon "the consent of the governed," for they are set up to protect certain inalienable rights - "The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It was a revolutionary document in the sense that it justified a revolution which had already begun.

Years after the colonies had won their independence, John Adams noted that "The Revolution was affected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people." Before the first shot was fired at Lexington, Americans' loyalty to the crown had been undermined by years of struggle and agitation.

"All men are created equal," the Declaration asserts, but neither Jefferson nor the others were thinking of people who had no property or chattel – in other words, slaves. Neither were they thinking of women. It took America - the greatest democracy in the world - 86 years to abolish slavery, 144 years to enfranchise women and 189 years to assure the vote to black people!

In an Independence Day speech in 1852, black orator Frederick Douglass would ask, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? ," and would answer by saying, "Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. ... You may rejoice, I must mourn." Of the 2.5 million colonists at the time of Independence, African-Americans accounted for 20 percent, rising in Virginia to as much as 40 percent. Jefferson's attempt to write-into the Declaration a paragraph critical of slavery was struck down by Congress!

America, for all of its nascent idealism, began as an instance of brutal European imperialism, with the extermination of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans. The invasion of Iraq was, therefore, not an isolated episode. It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which Americans overthrew 14 governments for various ideological, political and economic reasons. The first foreign leader to be overthrown (January 1893) was Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii .

In Puerto Rico, Americans crushed the elected government of Louis Munoz Rivera in 1898, after he had held power for just 8 days.

In the Philippines, the Americans fought poorly-armed Filipino rebels in a war of resistance that lasted for three and half years. More than 4,000 Americans and 35,000 Filipinos were killed .

President Jose Santos Zelaya  was the most formidable leader in Nicaraguan history. His attempts to regulate the American mining companies and his insistence on seeking loans from European rather then American banks, led the United States to overthrow him in 1909.

In 1911, Miguel Dávila of Honduras was overthrown in an operation staged jointly by the United States Navy and a band of rebels led by the American mercenary Lee Christmas.

[Editor's Note: In 1911, U.S. troops landed in Honduras in support of former president Manuel Bonilla against the legitimate regime of Miguel Dávila, whose liberalism was opposed by Washington. Bonilla's revolt was financed by American banana tycoon Sam Zemurray and led by the American mercenary, Lee Christmas, who became Commander-in-Chief of the Honduran Army].

The CIA staged its first coup in Iran, when Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized his country's oil industry. Mobs paid by the CIA rampaged through Tehran in the summer of 1953. Mossadegh surrendered. A grateful Mohammad Reza Pahlavi told Kemit Roosevelt, the CIA operator who had masterminded the coup, "I owe my throne to God, my people, my army - and to you."

When President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam refused to promise the Americans that he wouldn't negotiate with communist-led insurgents, he was overthrown and killed, just six weeks after meeting [Defense Secretary Robert] McNamara and [U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot] Lodge.

President Salvador Allende of Chile was overthrown in an American-sponsored coup. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met afterward with the country's new leader, General Augusto Pinochet . These are just a few examples of the most direct form of American intervention - the overthrow of foreign governments. It is an apparently never-ending process which continues to today.

Long before September 11, Secretary of State Madeline Albright defended the use of cruise missiles against Iraq by declaring, "If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future." Hubris and hypocrisy are a deadly combination.

Muslims today who are not connected with Osama bin Laden, consider the United States to be on a moral par with Genghis Khan, and genuinely believe that the War on Terror is just a euphemism for stealing Iraqi oil  and extending American control over the Islamic world. Afghanistan and Iraq have ceased to be sovereign, independent nations, and are now under American military occupation. Iran is now in the gun sight. Nuclear Pakistan has been turned into a "rentier state," currently engaged in a proxy war against its own people in the [Northwest Frontier Province of] Waziristan.

For a nation that honors democracy and freedom, the United States has a nasty habit of embracing dictators it seems to serve U.S. interests, and is one of the least appealing traits of U.S. foreign policy. Like his predecessors, Bush has fallen for the illusion that tyrants make good allies. When Washington preaches democracy while tolerating the tyranny of its allies, America looks two-faced.

Look at the Islamic world. It contains the world's greatest concentration of un-elected monarchs, military dictators and usurpers, all supported by America. None would survive without American help. No wonder America has become the object of hatred in the Islamic world. We in Pakistan have suffered four military coups, all supported by the United States of America. The result is what we have now: A General in uniform sitting on top of our sham democracy! If America allowed democracy to flower in Pakistan, which it controls today, it would begin acting in accord with its own interests rather than the interests of the United States, and American interference would diminish. Why should America promote democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else in the Islamic world?

The United States uses a variety of tactics, mostly strong-arm techniques, to "persuade" third world countries to do its bidding, and sometimes it defends friendly, despotic regimes against popular anger or revolt. In her confirmation hearings, Secretary Condoleezza Rice described Iran and Zimbabwe as "outposts of tyranny." Pakistan, she said, was a state in transition to a moderate and democratic future! She praised General Musharraf's dynamic leadership and enlightened moderation. Isn't it ironic that Pakistan, which has an "elected" all powerful President in uniform who is also the Chief of the Army Staff; which has a toothless parliament; a figurehead Prime Minister and a compliant judiciary; which is not the bulwark of liberty but a shameful link in the chain of despotism in the Islamic world, was not included by Secretary Rice in the category of "outposts of despotism?" The people of Pakistan were denied their right to elect their President in accordance with the Constitution. The present incumbent literally appointed himself as President of Pakistan!

The only meaning, "Freedom" can have in Pakistan right now is "Freedom" from military rule, the bluntest effrontery to the very idea of freedom. That is why, when I heard President Bush speak of freedom and declare that, "all those who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors," I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Liberty," President Bush said recently, "is on the march. Democracy is spreading in the Islamic world!" But not in Pakistan.

Pakistan, which started as a modern, progressive democratic state 58 years ago, is drifting away from the democratic path and sliding into darkness. Thanks to the United States, the engine of history is moving Pakistan backwards. For years, America has been indifferent to democracy in Pakistan. It supported and continues to support military dictators who topple elected governments in Pakistan. But for this support, the political history of Pakistan might have been different.

Independent America, it was once hoped, would become an "Sanctuary for mankind," and offer refuge to the world's oppressed. Like a shining beacon, America, it was hoped, would herald the "birth of a new world," the beginning of an epoch in which humankind across the earth could "begin the world again." But alas, this was not to be! The American dream has turned sour.

Two hundred years ago, America caught the imagination of the world because of the ideals it stood for. Today its example is tarnished with military adventurism and conflict. Today America is symbolized not by the Statue of Liberty, but by the naked, black hooded Iraqi man connected to wires and told to stand on a box by his American captors. The photo of this naked, hooded, wired, Iraqi prisoner, standing on a box after having been told he would be electrocuted if he stepped or fell off, may well become the lasting emblem of this cruel, unjust war, much as the photo of a naked, fleeing, napalmed little girl became the emblem of the Vietnam war.

In the past, some envied America, some liked America, some hated America, but almost all respected her. Very few respect America today. All fear America. Today Muslims perceive America as the greatest threat to the World of Islam since the 13th century. The irony is that, despite all the untold crimes committed by successive American governments against poor, powerless, third world countries, the American Declaration of Independence remains, even today, an effective force and a source of inspiration for people like us, who live under despotic rulers - hereditary monarchs or military dictators. They see in the American fight for liberty an encouraging precedent for their own struggles.

*Roedad Khan joined the civil service of Pakistan in 1949 and held several important positions, including Chief Secretary of Sindh Province; Interior Secretary; Ministry of Interior Secretary General; Federal Minister in charge of Accountability; and Advisor on Accountability to the Prime Minister.