"Uncle Sam" has been vexed recently with annoying events popping up one
after another. The Pentagon and the White House have been constantly bothered by
"fire alarms" and their "firefighters" are awfully busy with missions of
"putting out fires" here and there.
Let's zoom in first on the Pentagon: Ever since the Iraq War, a string of
scandals involving US troops abusing their war prisoners popped up one after
another, which shocked the world no less than the war itself. Abu Ghraib Prison
now has become the synonym for abusing prisoners by US troops. Most recently,
another scandal involving U.S. soldiers torturing an Afghan prisoner to death
was exposed, which was strongly condemned by the UN officials and the Afghan
President. However, all these are dwarfed by the scandal pinning on the U.S.
troops in Guantanamo Base blaspheming the Koran. The New York Post published on
May 20 a semi-naked photo of Saddam Hussein allegedly provided by the US
military raised one more fairly big wave.
Now, let's turn to the White House. There are at least two events that have
been nagging the White House: Its attempts to attack the United Nations by
cashing in on the case of corruption of the Iraqi "Oil for Food Program"
backfired and exposed, instead, its own scandal as a result of the "internal
conflict" between the Republicans and Democrats--- a typical case in which the
cleverness overreached itself. Also, Luis Posada, a "hot potato" figure, posed a
challenge to the White House. Luis Posada was a Cuban native and later became a
Venezuelan citizen. He headed a terrorist group that committed a host of violent
crimes including bombing a Cuban passenger flight. In March 2005, he sneaked
into the United States from Mexico. Venezuela strongly urged the United States
to extradite him back home to stand on trial, which was flatly turned down by
the United States. Then, Venezuela accused the United States of taking Luis
Posada under its wing and practicing double-standard vis-a-vis terrorists. Cuba
faulted the United States for turning the country into a place to support,
train, sponsor and recruit terrorists. Under the external pressure, the United
States arrested Luis Posada, but how to deal with him has become a stingy issue.
The fact that so many events mushroomed in the United States in just ten
days has indeed raised a great many eyebrows. What concerns the world people
most is not how many events have exactly happened to the United States, but why
they have happened to the U.S.? What messages do these happenings deliver?
To reduce the answers to these two questions into one sentence, it will
read: Something has gone awry with the American tenet, which has degraded into
solipsism, haughtiness and arrogance.
The conviction of the ordinary Americans goes: The United States is not
merely one of the democratic countries, but the "pinnacle and model" of
democracy. However, as some US scholars stated that this faith spawned and
connived contempt for the opinions of the people in other countries. Americans
take it for granted that whatever they do is perfectly justified. Once national
arrogance has its own way, it is likely that they smear their own images.
"He who is unjust is doomed to destruction" is an iron law. Should "Uncle
Sam" refuse to do some serious soul-searching homework and change its patterns
of international behavior, "embarrassment" will not be the proper word to
explain its difficult position.
By Dong Guozheng
(Jun.1, PLA Daily)