IFTEKHAR A KHAN George Orwell in his essay Shooting an elephant wrote When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. White men have waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and inflicted tyranny against the defenceless nations. And the white man, beginning from Iraq to Afghanistan to Yemen, seems to stop at nothing. Since the beginning of two wars - Iraq and Afghanistan - the western corporate media have played a dominating role to justify and to promote wars against the weak Muslim states. And these wars are waged under the pretence of security threat to western countries. What security threat did Iraq pose to the west? Similarly, what security threat does Afghanistan pose to the US? Indeed, what security threat any nation can pose to the US with its defence outlay of $708 billion, which is many times more than the budgets of the largest armies in the world combined? An excerpt from Bill Van Aukens report would help reveal the scale of atrocities committed against the defenceless Iraqi civilians and the inhuman treatment meted out to them: The Marine assault on Fallujah in November 2004 reduced most of the city of 3,00,000 people to rubble, as the warplanes dropped thousands of tons of explosives and gunship helicopters and battle tanks fired missiles into buildings and strafed the area with canon fire. It also reminds of Gen Norman Schwarzkopf swagger during 1991 Iraq war - Desert Storm: When our forces unleashed the full potential of their firepower, Baghdad was illuminated. It looked beautiful. Did the barrel-chested General spare a moment to realise the scale of carnage the illumination would cause to the Iraqi men, women and children? US army has now planned a Fallujah-style attack in Majrah, Afghanistan, a centre of civilian population of about 1,80,000 inhabitants who are one of the worlds most impoverished people. The aim is to terrorise local population to either submit to the occupation forces or face imminent death. No third choice. Turning the population centres to rubble is meant to send a message that resistance is unacceptable and it will be met with death and destruction. This shows that the white man hasnt spent his fury yet; his appetite for more Muslim blood remains un-sated. Then theres a case of tyranny against Dr Afia Siddiqui, a daughter of the nation, which is in the vanguard of the US war on terror. She was abused in every possible manner during her incarceration (2003-2008) at Guantanamo-style torture centre at Bagram before her rendition to the land of justice. Dr Siddiqui was charged for snatching M4 rifle from a burly US soldier and trying to kill other US soldiers and FBI agents who had come to interrogate her. The charge against Siddiqui looks most frivolous if not outright risible. However, the jury in New York consisting of both genders found her guilty. One of the charges against Siddiqui was that she carried manuals on bomb-making when she was found loitering around the Afghan capital when the Afghan police arrested her. Ostensibly, the documents she carried revealed plans to bomb New York City, Statue of Liberty, and other landmarks. The charge boggles the mind. How could she be in a country whose language she didnt understand or speak and that too along with her young children, two of whom are still missing? As expected, the jury didnt have the courage to go against the prosecution. Had it declared Siddiqui innocent by turning down the fabricated charges against her, the whole mendacity would have been exposed, and US soldiers who were the witnesses would have stood as a bunch of liars. Therefore, the jury was already determined to indict Siddiqui than to pronounce the case a sham. Is it not a proven case of tyranny against an innocent woman by the white mans system of justice? Moreover, setting Siddiqui free would create serious complications as she would reveal the names of the local and foreign actors involved in the perfidious drama. Perhaps its the reason why many missing persons are not being set free despite the Supreme Court orders to produce them. Email:pinecity@gmail.com