Do Less

• That’s what he means

A lot must have been done in the past decade that prompted Donald Trump to use the slogan: “make America great again”. What has happened to America? Where and how did it loose its greatness?

When the Europeans colonised the American continent, their power meant death, deceit and destruction for native Americans. The ruthless ethnic cleansing of the Red Indians could have only come about through the rise of a “great” nation, if only greatness is to be attributed to the use of blind, inhumane and unjustified force.

History witnessed the making of a power whose grandeur put all morality under its feet in upholding the notion of a superior race, thereby justifying the genocide of “inferiors” blotting the face of humanity by displaying the audacity to walk on two legs side by side with the white European invaders. Hence at the conception of the American dream, invading Europeans asserted their exceptionalism and might by giving America the blood bath through the abundant sacrifice of Red Indian souls at the mercy of their technological superiority.

But British America was too enormous for the New World to contain, and, therefore, it spilled into another continent, and, thus blessed Africa with the fruit of this new found civilisation. In its march of pride, British America was to build its economy through the vicious act of oppressive slavery that the poor Africans were subjected to. The United States of America happily inherited the role of slave master from British America and continued on its merry ways of progress and ‘civilisation’.

Since the dawn of its history, American greatness has been marching uninterrupted and boasts monumental achievements in Vietnam, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and of course the Africa was always its cherished child, receiving the maximum share of benefits from the spread of European civilisation from a new continent.

History witnessed the making of a power whose grandeur put all morality under its feet in upholding the notion of a superior race

America has been touching greatness equally at home and abroad. In 60s and 70s, after about two hundred years of democratic rule, America finally started considering, reluctantly so, the Afro-Americans as equal humans after a tireless American Civil Rights Movement. Though, already, the rights gained by blacks, not having delivered required social and economic equivalence, are facing backlash from white supremacists. Within half a century of relative ease, the truth of malicious “American Dream” is materialising to haunt Afro-Americans again and riots by Black activists across America are a testimony to that.

This spread of “American way of life” has recently faced unprecedented challenges from the wider world. In picking and choosing destinations across the world to deliver the message of democracy, progress and human rights, encapsulated in cruise missiles and daisy cutters, America has recently been hampered badly. The flow of exemplary American ways has been blocked in Syria by an all too uneducated and uncivilised Vladimir Putin who was not much impressed by America’s earlier attempts to bring liberty and human rights to Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. Hence, Vladimir Putin decided to stand tall in the way of America’s greatness touching ground in Syria. Though neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and also previously Egypt under Morsi tried mobilise sectarian elements and militant outfits to help America bring its unmatched track record of humanity and benevolence to the benefit of all Syrians.

Pakistan has also witnessed the remarkable avalanche of human values, under American patronage, devouring Afghanistan in its neighbourhood. While Pakistan unwittingly rode the tide of timely gains in embracing the forced partnership with America, after the incident of “Abbottabad Operation” America’s uneasy marriage with Pakistan was about to end in a disaster when China stepped in and made America realise that it would not stand down in an event of aggression against Pakistan. That made America and Pakistan tie the knot again but only ceremonially so, to say the least. One partner, in this marriage of sorts, all too willing to smell the fresh dollar bills and the other all too willing to keep strings attached to Pak-China relations.

In recent history, in Syria and in Pakistan, America could not make its exceptional status felt like it could manage in Iraq and in Libya. Hence, Pakistan has been bullied by a frustrated America into a list of those countries who have not been conforming to American global agenda i.e. the list of countries like China, Syria, Iran and Russia. Rather, America, to boost its spirits and to test its weapon delivery systems, sought a weak Yemen and pounded its cities and suburbs with its democratic vision and philanthropic spirit and used its franchise operation in Saudi Arabia to help its cause. To make itself feel confident of its superior world status, America also sped up its tirade against North Korea, but, even here, it could not get guarantees from China and Russia, that they would adopt the role of mere spectators in case of any escalation.

Trump certainly feels the need to make America great again as it is losing its grip over the helm of global affairs. It can no more point at the map to turn to a country like Iraq and then to mobilise and bank on its deafening media propaganda, depending on false claims as the pretext of new wars.

Trump has made a full circle global navigation and has tried his best to “make America great again” by trying to spook anyone he could. If Pakistan has been mentioned in a tweet by the American president, it should evoke sympathy along with some serious concern. Sympathy because Donald Trump is unable to revive his nostalgia of American greatness that started from the barbaric oppression of Red Indians and continued for centuries, and concern because such a dilapidated status of an arrogant nation can make it do anything desperate.

It seems hard for America to realise the presence of other powers on the global stage, which are now able to present alternative solutions to the global crisis. An out and out hegemony in global affairs that America received after the second world war, and again after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is history now. When today America asks Pakistan to “do more” it tantamount to, “do less… of collaborating with regional powers which have shattered our dreams of global dominance”. It seems that repeated blockade of desired American aggression at global level has made it insipidly verbose. If such a desperation continues, America may find itself locked in potentially suicidal and globally catastrophic wars against other nuclear powers, and, unfortunately, it has the right person in Trump to escalate such frivolous thoughts.