In the not too distant a past, announcements like the following were a routine matter in the United States of America: "Public Sale of Negroes" Tuesday, March 5, 1833 at 1 p.m. The following slaves would be sold at the Potter's Mart in Charleston, S.C: Miscellaneous lot of Negroes, mostly house servants, some for field work. Conditions: 1/2 cash, balance by bond bearing interest from the date of sale. The amount will be payable in one to two years, to be secured by a mortgage of the Negroes, and appraised personal security. Auctioneer will pay for the papers. A valuable Negro woman, accustomed to all kinds of housework. She is a good plain cook and excellent dairymaid, washes and irons. She has four children: one a girl about 13 years of age, another 7, a boy about 5 and an infant eleven months old. Two of the children will be sold with the mother, the others separately, if it suits the purchaser. A very valuable blacksmith with wife and daughters: the smith is in the prime of life and a perfect master at his trade. His wife, about 27 years old and his daughters 12 and 10 years old, have been brought up as house servants and, as such, are very valuable. Also for sale: 2 likely young Negro wenches, one of whom is 16 and the other 13, both of whom have been taught and accustomed to the duties of house servants. The 16 years old wench has one eye. A likely yellow girl, about 17 or 18 years old, who has been accustomed to all kinds of house and garden work. She is sold for no fault. Sound as a dollar. House servants: The owner of a family would sell them for a good price only. They are offered for no fault whatever, but because they can be done without and money is needed. He has been offered $ 1,250. They consist of a man 30 to 33 years old who has been raised in a genteel Virginia family as house servant, carriage driver in which he excels, his wife, a likely wench of 25 to 30, raised in like manner as chambermaid, seamstress and nurse, their two children, girls of 12 and 5 years. They are bright mulattoes of mild tractable dispositions, unassuming manners and of genteel appearance and well worthy of the notice of a gentleman of fortune. Also 14 Negro wenches ranging from 16 to 25 years of age, all sound and capable of doing a good day's work in the house or a field." Read Vietnam for Negroes, Afghanistan for house servants and Iraq for field workers and one would get a fair appraisal of the degradation that plagues the current US approach to the world. The question is: has the US mindset transcended the concept of enslaving human beings, using them in a barbaric fashion and their subsequent sale at public auctions? Going by what their leadership is out doing to the world, it appears that such is not the case - not by a far distance The only perceptible change that one notices is that, instead of enslaving individuals, the US now prefers to enslave countries and nations through an immoral and illegal use of naked and brute firepower. The practice has been on display for decades and the last few years have been witness to a sharp increase in the intensity as well as scope of this malevolent penchant. The nauseating memories of Vietnam still rankle the brain. The stark images of the 'Killing Fields' continue to prick the human conscience. US shenanigans in the South Americas drove the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust while their evil machinations in the Middle East have seen the region lacerating profusely and endlessly over the last sixty years. Their assault of Afghanistan has plunged South Asia hurtling into chaos and a wave of extremism, militancy and terrorism is colouring the region red while their illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq has resulted in the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of people over the last 5 years. The problem is that there is no stopping the marauding US juggernaut as their recent unprovoked attack against another sovereign state, Syria, has so clearly demonstrated. Having partaken gratuitously of the blood of the slaves, they now seek the blood of the world. Let's not forget that, to date, America remains the only country in the world that has resorted to the use of the nuclear device during a war. It also has the dubious distinction of having brutally planned the extermination of a whole race - the Red Indians. What is the guarantee that they would not do all this again in their evil bid to enslave the world? While the news of freedom knocks at every door and the movement for the empowerment of human kind is a sweet knell for the ears, the American war machine is on the rampage, trying to crush these inherent instincts. And all this is being done in the name of freedom - so akin to the rationale behind our very own National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that was promulgated to advance the concept of 'democracy and reconciliation'. It is the same NROed leadership that is in the forefront of advancing the nefarious US agenda for this region. Of late, the US leadership has given a different dimension to their approach to enslaving the world: they anoint their stooges in client states, giving them a faade of democracy, with the sole intention of using them for the furtherance of their policies and objectives. So, they have their Jalal Talibanis in Iraq, Hamid Karazais in Afghanistan and a vast and colourful variety of sycophants in Pakistan. What these so-called leaders don't seem to realise, or don't want to realise, is that they, and with them their countries, would be the first victims if the US dream of the enslavement of the world were to materialise. So, how do we proceed to blunt this unending naked US aggression against the people of the world? We could do so by asserting our moral authority in projecting the absolute urgency of all illegal occupations of foreign lands vacated, invoke the Parliament to move swiftly for the annulment of the unconstitutional proclamation of November 3 leading to restoration of an independent judiciary and 'revisit' the 17th amendment and 58-2(b) for their scrapping without delay, begin to voice our feelings regarding all matters of the state and refrain from leaving them to be addressed by our myopic leaderships who have their millions and billions to rush back to. Pakistan and its welfare are inconsequential in their priorities. It is the people who would have to rise if Pakistan and its destiny are to be salvaged. The writer is a media and political consultant based in Islamabad E-mail: raoofhasan@hotmail.com