Global Focus

Stand by - the mother ship will now assimilate you

Hajira Talbot, South Africa, Saturday 8 December 2007

It’s easy to perceive the United States as a huge alien ship hovering over Earth, threatening us with assimilation. Reality, sadly, is always more complex than our idealistic imaginings. For those of us who have friends who are American, or friends that work and live in America, we may feel baffled or torn by the dichotomy between the carefree, friendly face of the American people we know and the illogical, overbearing attitude that is the hallmark of the current US administration.

It seems, to many who have an eye on American politics, that the US’s political framework is rolling into an abyss like a juggernaut with brake failure. In a political system when it’s all about who has the most money to woo congressional candidates with, politicians are often too busy making underhanded policy deals with sponsors to care about the views of the people they are supposed to represent. While the tanks roll across the desert plains of Iraq, crushing the sovereignty of the country beneath its wheels, and gun turrets swinging steadily towards the Iranian border, the people of America dream full-bellied dreams in their beds without the fear that an explosion may destroy their homes.

Political propaganda plays a huge role when it comes to the US’s foreign affairs, as many Americans seem to have a lack of interest or understanding of all things “foreign” to the American Way. Vociferously blaming Al-Qaeda (among other bearded suspects) for all America’s woes abroad serves the interests of the Republicans desperately trying to retain a foothold in the now-urgent scrabble for power ahead of the 2008 presidential elections.

There is no simple cure for this malady that afflicts the United States, and by inference, the rest of the world. Putting more horses into the current two-party race would certainly broaden the scope for change, but politically speaking, Americans generally seem to be pedantic in nature and tend not to test the waters of the unknown. The major push within the Democratic Party is towards no-holds-barred liberalism, which may not necessarily herald positive change in America’s foreign policy towards the Middle East and surrounds. If the Democrats win the next election, they may pull out of Iraq, but what will they focus their attention on instead? “Liberating” every oppressed Muslim woman from her headscarf?

Whether it’s ignoring the Kyoto protocol, vetoing every draft resolution ever conceived at UN headquarters or trying to find an excuse to invade Iran or Syria, there seems to be a severe lack of respectable political figures to put in some criticism to balance media reports. The father of our nation, former President Nelson Mandela, was treated like a senile patient who had escaped from an old age home after criticising the US for ignoring the United Nations prior to dropping the match in the Iraqi oil well.

Expecting the US to stop riding roughshod over everyone else in the world may be nothing more than a pipe dream, no matter who wins the election. Expecting them as a people to get over their dislike for Muslims and a religion they cannot understand may be even more remote. The September 11 attacks jolted US citizens violently from their comfort zone and already patriotic to a fault, the man on Fifth Avenue became psychologically traumatised enough to want to force the world to think, act and behave like him. George W Bush seems to have capitalised on that trauma as an opportunity to further his stockpile of crude oil. Electing someone who can actually read and write this time around may prove to be even more dangerous.