A WELL-KNOWN adage states that you cannot squeeze blood from a stone. You cannot squeeze honesty out of dishonest men. That is why Charlie Brown, the child citizen, is always being tricked. He keeps believing, belief beyond belief, that the ball will be there, some day, some time, when he kicks; but it is always pulled away.

He still cannot believe that it is possible that some people are tricksters, not once, twice, fifteen or fifteen thousand times; but every time. In this world of ‘yanked balls’, probability theory does not function. Charlie Brown will never be ever really given a real chance to really kick the ball.
That is one of the reasons why the indigenous populations of the Americas were conquered by the European conquistadors.
They did not understand the concept of the forked tongue. And if they did, they could not quite grasp, how, despite the most earnest entreaties from this forked tongue – despite all the treaties, agreements, promises – the tongue always kept being forked. This is because the tongue was forked. It could not help being forked. Being forked is part of an incipient strategy for survival and conquest, like a Darwinian protuberance.
This practice of pulling back the ball is routinely applied by the Anglo-American Empire in its dealings with all of its chosen enemies.

A history of its relations with Cuba, Iran and North Korea, for example, quite clearly shows this. Its ‘iron-clad’ dealings with these ‘recalcitrant’ nations are soon undermined by the eddying, scouring underwater sand of betrayal. Whatever its rhetoric, its bargaining position at the table – its ‘every option is on the table’, ‘no option is off the table’ grammar – at the end of the day, in the final analysis, the Empire will betray. Empire will be itself, will be Empire.

Let us look at the single instance of Iran, a nation with whom it is now pursuing goodwill. The Anglo-American Empire imposed monarchic rule in Iran in the 1920’s. It gave a single family, a dynasty, to rule over the lives of a complex body of diverse social and ethnic groups. From the beginning this Pahlavi Dynasty, the Kingdom of the Shahs, the line of King of Kings, was out of touch, literally and figuratively.

When, in the 1950’s the monarchy was challenged by the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh, and the Shah of Iran chose retirement rather than fight, the US tried its best to prod the monarch back to his throne. The Anglo-American Empire, using the CIA, overthrew Mossadegh and re-installed the Shah. Mossadegh was jailed, in a classic act of ‘regime change’.
The Shah became a full-fledged puppet, ever dependent on the US for intelligence, arms, training for his SAVAK, his oppressive secret police. He was given assistance to start his nuclear programme. He relied on the banks of the Empire for vaults to stash gold and billions of dollars.

In the face of popular uprising, the Khomeni Revolution, in the late 1970’s, the Empire tried its best to keep its puppet. They tried their best to persuade France to keep the future Ayatollah, who had been exiled by the Shah, out of Iran. When they did not get this they tried to get the Iranian army to take power. When they did not get this, they tried their best to incite popular revolt, put another puppet. When they did not get this they imposed sanctions. When this did not work, they supported a genocidal war by Iraq against the Revolution. The UN Security Council, dominated by the Empire, refused to call on Saddam to end this unprovoked war; and to condemn his use of chemical weapons.

Today the U.S. is engaged in détente, with Iran, Cuba, and they hope, North Korea. Ironically, in the case of Iran, after engineering a fatal collapse of states in the Middle East, and bringing utter ruin and fragmentation, unleashing the Pandora’s Box of ‘terrorism’, ‘fundamentalism’, aspirations to ‘Sharia Rule’, the Empire has now chosen Iran as their bulwark. Have they given the wink and nod to Iran to enrich uranium?

With the absence of Chavez in Venezuela, and the decline of Fidel Castro, they hope to neutralise both these states, with goodies from the American basket of capitalism: ‘free market’, consumer products, global banking, liberal trade and ‘democratic’ institutions. They are also softening up North Korea for the kill. Chick flicks and gadgets.

Why is the ball being offered for these three nations to kick? It is being offered to further larger geo-political objectives. The Empire is securing peace to establish control, dominance and war in the greater Americas, the Middle East and the Pacific, from the Sea of China to South East Asia. In time, these gestures of goodwill will be yanked away.

Leaving these nations exposed, scourged, violated. This is the ethic of Empire. Sadism. Offer the ball and pull it back, pull it back and offer it. Persuasion, goodwill, demonisation, carrot and stick, gunboat diplomacy.

The planet has enough resources to sustain a Global Village. Good food, health, housing, education, transport, trade, moderation, connectivity. Peace and prosperity. Corporate success and co-operation. But the planet cannot sustain Global Empire. The Empire’s ambition is for overvaulting, over-reaching, long-trajectoried control; agglomeration, amassing, grasping and excess; the filching of fortune. Resource wars. The Empire will always yank back its ball, betray the Village.

WAYNE KUBLALSINGH