AMERICA AND WORLD POLITICS

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

This paper is an adaptation of an earlier one I delivered on the Cameroon National Radio Television Station on the 17th of September 2002, as a spontaneous reaction to the condescending foreign policy of America, notably under then President George Walker Bush. The paper was one of the daily political commentaries I delivered on the 6.30 a.m. prime time national and world news on Cameroon Radio Television between 2002 and 2005.
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There is no doubt that very increasingly the world is becoming a global village, not just economically and environmentally but also politically. Thus, what one country does, even internally, is bound to have repercussions on the other countries of the world. In the case of the United States of America, this is doubly true, considering Washington’s prowess and might which make it the world’s most influential country.
America went wild so to speak, when terrorists drove planes into the twin towers of the world Trade Centre in New York on September 11 last year and brought down the buildings which were the symbol of American might, killing thousands of people in the process. No one in his right thinking mind would help sympathizing with those who lost their lives, especially when one considers the colossal extent of the damage cause.


Washington waged a merciless was at Afghanistan in the name of flushing out Ben Laden, the Saudi tycoon who was being sheltered by the then Afghan leaders. The war quickly degenerated into one that saw America changing the regime in place but still not finding Ben Laden. In the process, some innocent Afghan’s were killed and many families were bereft and embittered. They will live with those scarce for ever.
If America attacks Iraq, perhaps as president George Bush has boasted, with or without the support of the international community, considerable human, material and financial damage will be done to Iraq. It is certain that Britain which has turned out to be a poodle of America`s will be right behind America. It now seems that British policy towards solidarity with America is: America, right or wrong
The Americans have shown little understanding of the Arab and especially Iraqi mind set. Even if Saddam Husein is removed from power, there is no guarantee that another Saddam Husein will not rise rapidly and take his place in which case the American and British would have labored in vain.


Even so, that does seem to matter to Washington. George Bush’s country is so obsessed with posing as the world’s gendarmes that they now look like bully boys who feel insulted, hurt and humiliated to find that the likes of Saddam Hussein are waxing strong whereas they ought to be silenced and pigeonholed. Saddam Hussein survived the clamping down of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Brush and Bill Clinton, before George Walker Bush came to power. By the look of things by the time Bush leaves the White House, Saddam may be having the last laugh.


Cameroon, and by extension, Africa, has a major role to play in bringing America to reason. Thus is through the role our country now enjoys in the Security Council. Already our president has added his voice to that of those who want America to have the backing of the U.N before making any move against Iraq. That is the voice of reason which America ought to heed.


Copyright 2011