Anwar Ahmad

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, public resistance in America to joining World War-II was swept aside by the ensuing outrage. As patriotic fever was whipped up by the media, Japanese-Americans were rounded up, as President George W Bush likes to put it, and actually corralled. Years later, regrets and compensation were offered to the victims of humankind's ancient malady - xenophobia. America, the bastion of Western civilisation, seemed to have learnt from its fit of madness. Besides, the near decimation of Jews by the Nazis was a crime horrendous enough to have buried mass hysteria forever. Led by the ascendant US, humankind appeared to have finally conquered its basest instincts forever.

But then came the Cold War, and the hate-mongers were in business again. Earlier epithets like "the Japs" were replaced by "Commies" and "Reds." The ensuing witch-hunt for communists and their "sympathisers" in the American media, academia and even Hollywood was spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy. This infamy is recorded in history as McCarthyism.

In his play 'The Crucible,' Arthur Miller has drawn a haunting parallel between McCarthy's inquisition and the actual witch-hunts that had swept Puritan America, climaxing in the infamous Salem "trials" of 1692 by Judge Samuel Sewall. It seems unbelievable that America's founding fathers were actually burning "witches" at the stake only 300 years ago. Many innocent women met an agonising death on the "evidence" of captive or capricious witnesses.

As the Cold War was institutionalised, American democracy overcame the McCarthy madness as the Puritan persecution had eventually passed off. Even so, these are not the parts of its short but eventful history that America is proud of. As, indeed, it cannot be proud of the deceit and decimation its founding fathers had inflicted on the "Injuns" (now dignified as "native Americans"). Slavery, the inhuman treatment of "niggers"(now "African-Americans") and the subtle racial discrimination that still subsists is another dark chapter of US history.

To their credit, the Americans learn of this shameful legacy in school. But not enough of them carry the lessons into real life. That, perhaps, explains the moral chip on their shoulder. It is also one reason why their concept of civilisation remains Euro-centric and fails to find a universal meaning. A lack of historical depth of their own, interest in world history, interaction with other civilisations and knowledge of world cultures are some other causes of the self-centred and self-righteous American worldview. Most Americans discover the world only when something goes wrong, often in the ruthless pursuit of self-interest by their own government.

The frailty of America's civilised ethos resurfaced during the Vietnam War. Apart from the devastation rained upon the "coons" (Vietnamese), the suppression of dissent at home was reminiscent of an insecure third-world dictatorship. Images of the police brutalising anti-war protestors - in the US and Europe - seem unbelievable today. Yet, only this year, the Italian police revived these memories by bludgeoning anti-globalisation protestors during Genoa's barricaded G-8 summit.

However, despite these failings, an adverse historical baggage and other flaws, the US-led West has a valid claim to being the ascendant civilisation. More so than the stunning scientific and technological advancement, the evolution of modern democracy is its crowning glory. Though distorted by corporate and other power-groups and the undertones of racism and xenophobia, Western democracies tolerate dissent and accommodate aliens as no other contemporary system.

The commitment to human rights and the due process of law are, in particular, the envy of third world intellect struggling to plant these pristine principles in their own shambolic countries. Sadly, the reaction to the trauma of Black Tuesday has severely strained faith in the depth and durability of these virtues.

The real worth of a system being its ability to withstand stress, dissent became the first victim of the Black Tuesday tragedy. As the warpath was chosen, truth followed inevitably. To ask for evidence and suggest that the UN (and not US-UK) lead the war against terrorism became "terrorism-denial." And, attempts to explain the desperate motivation (causes) driving the alleged terrorists was decried as finding excuses for barbarians. Amid cries of a "clash of civilisations" and the drums of war, xenophobia inevitably raised its ugly head.

"Muslim looking" persons became fair game for abuse and assaults, mass arrests and indefinite detention. The humiliation, horrors and hurt that befell some of them in jail were hauntingly narrated by a Pakistani student, Hasnain Javed. He was lucky. Rafiq Butt died in custody, his pleas of cardiac pains remaining unattended. On reports by their neighbours, gun-totting FBI agents stormed into the houses of Dr Irshad Sheikh and another "native of Pakistan" in Chester, Pa. They found no anthrax. That Dr Sheikh is the city health commissioner and a teacher in the prestigious Johns Hopkins University provided neither credibility nor security.

Perhaps, considering the aggravation, this should be seen as an unfortunate but passing frenzy. The official over-reaction could also be excused if it had yielded investigative results. But some ominous signs suggest otherwise. President Bush has, for example, ordered military trial of "non-US suspected terrorists," thus bye-passing the normal US judicial process. The order targets suspected Al-Qaeda members (past or present), persons having engaged in or conspiring to commit terrorism or harbouring any such suspects. The US may detain them anywhere in the world.

Given the extraordinary situation, even this extraordinary remedy could be overlooked. But the presidential order also waives all normal "principles of law and the rules of evidence generally recognised in the trial of criminal cases" in the US courts. Instead, it authorises the defence secretary to define the procedure, including the modes of evidence, qualification of attorneys, etc, for these secret "trials" which could lead to life imprisonment or even death. And, there is no appeal. Absolutely none! Moreover, "to protect sources and methods of investigation" and "sensitive evidence," no public disclosure of the trial! But, graciously, the captives will be allowed to worship!

Is this not back to Salem and Sam Sewall? To the Japanese incarceration and McCarthy fever? Is this really happening in the world's oldest democracy? How much worse could a tinpot dictator have done? Why was this not done for Timothy MacVeigh? Does this overkill not betray that, despite spending multi-million dollars, the FBI-CIA have found no credible evidence? Is this, then, not a recipe for conferring martyrdom on those who should have been exposed to the world as the pathological mass-murderers that they are alleged to be?

Britain too is crafting a law to lock-up suspect aliens who cannot be deported, and shutters are being drawn across the developed world against undesirable immigrants. Given half a chance, all governments will react the same way - reducing the choice to "liberty or security." What places democracies at a higher pedestal is that public pressure forbids such draconian measures. From Salem to slavery and onwards, condemnation of the evil has emerged from within. But history also says that this often happens long after the suffering has been caused. The present crisis promises to be no different.

Who, then, has won the "war" against terrorism? Those who attacked civilisation, or those who are defending it? George Monbiot (The Guardian) believes civilised values have lost out. "The first and most obvious loss is our repudiation of the very basis of civilisation: human rights. The new terrorism bills in America and Britain have required the suspension of both the US constitution and the UK's human rights act - it seems that in trying to shut the terrorists out, we have merely imprisoned ourselves."

One of the last smart-bombs to hit Kabul, he adds, "destroyed the offices of Al-Jazeera, the only truly independent major television station in the Arab world. Al-Jazeera has consistently provided a voice for Muslims opposed to US military intervention in Afghanistan, as well as airing Bin Laden's inflammatory videos. A few weeks ago Colin Powell sought to persuade the Emir of Qatar to close it down, without success. Its destruction suggests that free speech and dissent have now joined terrorism as the business of 'evil-doers.'"

Due to the disinclination to justify the war by first exhausting the non-violent options opened up by the Taliban overtures, Monbiot concludes, "justice appears to have been redefined as success, and war as the only route to peace." The world has changed indeed; but, in the near-term at least, not for the better.

The write is a freelance columnist

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