(Dr RK Chadha)
Two very pompous claims are made by the former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in his book “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for America I Love” which hit the stores on 24 January 2023. In the first claim, he pats his own back as the sole harbinger of peace and projects America as the savior of the world for averting a possible nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan in 2019. He writes in his book that during a visit to Hanoi for a summit he was woken up at night by late Sushma Swaraj’s call informing him that Pakistan is preparing for a nuclear attack after India’s Balakot surgical strike and India intends to respond in equal measure. In response to her call, he claims to have told her to wait and do nothing till the US sort out things.
He then goes and writes, “I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019” and how his efforts helped diffuse the dangerous situation. This claim is put very intelligently in the book to boost his image, globally as he knows that it will not be challenged as Sushma Swaraj is no more in this world. His intentions come out loud and clear when he blabbers and heaps insult on late Sushma Swaraj who is not present to defend her. He writes that he never saw his counterpart as an “important political player” but got along well with his successor S Jaishankar. He describes her using American slang and calls her a “goofball” meaning a naïve or a stupid person. In a strong rebuttal, Mr. Jaishankar responded to the comments in the book and set the record straight when he said, “I have seen a passage in Secretary Pompeo’s book referring to Smt Sushma Swaraj ji. I always held her in great esteem and had an exceptionally close and warm relationship with her. I deplore the disrespectful colloquialism used for her.”
The timing of publication of this book looks suspicious as it comes out shortly after the release of a BBC documentary on the 2002 Godhra incident that attempts to tarnish the image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The intentions of America and its ally UK are clear to play mind games with the people of our country by creating confusion about the capabilities of their tall leaders in the government by creating a negative image and initiating controversies and discussions before the 2024 elections in India. Their grand plan stands exposed.Mr. Pompeo is a smart operator and wants to hit two birds with one stone. He cataloged his wicked intentions while he praised S Jaishankar and insulted his predecessor on one hand, and on the other, he made an attempt to create a larger-than-life image for himself as he plans to run for the next USA Presidential elections in 2024. He tried his best to play smartly, but his intentions did not escape the hawk eyes of top Indian leaders who are way ahead in such mind games and consider such tactics as primitive. The obsession to be frontrunners in the race of the world’s peacemakers is not new to American Presidential hopefuls even if it comes at the cost of human lives as collateral damage during their wars in regions far away from their borders. A shining example is former President Barak Obama who became the 44th President of America on 20 January 2009 and received his Nobel “Peace” Prize on December 10, 2009. A remarkable distinction within 10 months of his Presidency, worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records for expanding the “war on terror” that he inherited from his predecessor President Bush for world peace. The rise of the armed drone empire under Obama’s watch was merely the symbol of the extension and expansion of endless wars, killing several thousand innocent people as collateral damage.
Contrast this with Obama’s ancestor Martin Luther King who shunned the President’s ship of America and rejected war when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 with the message that violence “solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” But neither King nor Mohandas Gandhi, the two great apostles of peace before him ever led a great nation. These sentiments resonated in September of 2022 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Putin during the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and told in his globally televised opening remarks, “I know today’s era is not of war. We discussed this issue with you on phone several times, that democracy, diplomacy, and dialogue touch the entire world today”. Mr. Modi’swords carries the legacy of Indian virtues of peaceful coexistence in this diversified world.America is known for its hegemony and arm-twisting techniques to dominate the world during the cold war era. It had been successful so far, but slowly it is losing its hold in Asia with the emergence of India with strong and decisive leadership and that is not palatable to them. India did not toe the line of America in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war despite indirect threats and placations. A very bold decision to buy oil from Russia at subsidized rates despite US sanctions has irked them. First, they tried to blackmail India in September 2022 when Biden Administration approved $450 million
F-16 fleet sustainment program to Pakistan by reversing the decision of President Trump in 2018. President Trump had stopped all defense and security assistance to Pakistan alleging that Islamabad was not a partner in its fight against terrorism. Biden offered flimsy reasons for the American support to sustain Pakistan’s capability to meet current and future counter-terrorism threats by maintaining its F-16 fleet. This is the most ridiculous justification and exposes the double standards of America knowing fully well the involvement of Pakistan in global terrorism that has affected badly India in the last few decades. In American slang, it is an “either you are with us or against us” attitude to browbeat opponents that stand in its way. It is not in their interest to see India emerge as a great power in Asia. So, it is not surprising when the twin events of the BBC documentary and book release of Pompeo emerge in early 2023, a year ahead of elections in India. There looks to be a sinister design behind these two carefully crafted events within a short period to push back India and its strong leadership on the defensive, as they feel threatened by a new resurgent India. But, the efforts of America with its ally in toe have no moral standing when it comes to global peace. Both these countries have the unique distinction of exploding atom bombs to annihilate the majority population in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; they cannot be the torchbearers of peace in the world. The only country that can claim this position is India as it has always followed the path of peace and history supports the fact it has never invaded any country on its own. In case there is an Indo-Pak conflict again, India can wipe out Pakistan within a few days. India need not use nuclear weapons to defeat Pakistan as it is already on the verge of economic collapse.
