Obama's victory over Osama

The Americans are jumping out of jubilation around the White House, and this time it's not just that another festive occasion has infected their collective spirit, rather it's because of an unprecedented victory of America in the continuous war against terrorism. A moment that the US President Mr. Barack Obama clearly articulates with extreme precision from the White House through an officially televised statement: Justice has been done for 9/11 families. Under Mr. Obama's supervision, a selective military attack was carried out on the hideout of Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda chief and the mastermind of 9/11 terror, and eventually killed Osama and his other aides. Of course, this is the most exciting moment for the families of innocent victims who were killed in 9/11. And Mr. Obama is absolutely correct in saying that "justice is done."

The stunning point here is that the hideout of Osama is located in Abbottabad, approximately 51 km from Islambad, the capital of Pakistan. Now this clearly indicates that how treacherous these Pakistani leadership who were constantly denying the fact that they have no connection with Al Qaeda or similar terror outfits. This is a shocking revelation of Pakistan's hypocrisy in protecting terrorists in its territory.

After ten years of that horrific moment, when thousands of innocent Americans and citizens from other countries were killed by a terrorist strike on World Trade Center, America has triumphed the war against the highest act of terror and emerged as the true superpower. This may be a significant achievement for Mr. Obama in the war against terrorism, but it's still a beginning and the world citizens expect many more results from him in the years to come.

Can Indian leaders now learn some lessons from Mr. Obama's strategy in handling terror? The sad part is that despite all hard evidences against the terrorists who plotted 26/11 ghastly terror attack in Mumbai in broad daylight are still at arm's length and hiding in the safe haven of Pakistan and our leaders are passing the buck as usual, which is absolutely unacceptable by Indian citizens anymore. The Indian leaders must now stop delivering meaningless talks and act tough against the 26/11 terrorists.

Mr. Obama's “cheap” tactics

In a recent speech at a community college in Virginia, Mr. Barak Obama, the president of US, went a little further down the popular, colloquial political speech on the upsurging healthcare issues in America, living behind world political hypocrisy to its shameful nadir. In fact, what Mr. Obama reiterated was nothing more than a political rhetoric that almost all politicians bank on to woo their voters. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Obama wants the Americans shouldn't leave their country to avail “cheap” healthcare facilities in India and Mexico. There are two aspects what Mr. Obama wanted to explain his citizens: one, the Americans shouldn't forget that “cheap” necessarily connote poor quality service because the “costly” in a capitalist society is undoubtedly reserved for “class”; two, even if the healthcare service in the US comes at a higher price, so be it, anyway it goes to America's economy in a sense that when outsourcing debate in certain states of the US is getting hotter, this could be an absolutely cool, politically-correct statement. We emotional, patriotic Indians shouldn't take it as an offense because our politicians too engage themselves in “cheap” talks to feed us with irrational concepts to drive us to a point where we would be compelled to think how caring these politicians for our causes. After a certain degree of rationality, all politicians across the world are public charmers, they know how to deceive people with gullible talks.

Well, the “cheap” healthcare facilities in India have many fringe benefits that attract patients from allover the world including the US. Apart from availing quality medicare at a throwaway price, the patients also get a chance to enjoy their trip to various monumental sites & tourist places and take part in a pluralistic culture curry, which is a bonus point for them. In fact, the healthcare facilities in India are far ahead than those in the US or other developed countries. Indian doctors are world-class and have proved their mettle in every medical specialty. And the ground reality is that the rate of success in critical medical treatments in India is much better than those in the US.

So, if Mr. Obama really wants to overhaul the America's healthcare segment and promises to deliver a better quality of service at a comparatively cheaper price, no one can stop him doing that; however, he should not just behave like another politician to garner brownie points for vote-bank by resorting to “cheap” talks.

Obama's misadventure

The Middle East is literally burning. The upsurging civil war in Libya against the defiant Col. Gaddafi, who has been in the power for over 40 years, has finally caught the attentions of western military coalition including the US, UK, and France, and this time again they give a much convincing reason for military actions – extreme humanitarian crisis – to engage them in a full range airstrikes across the coastal periphery of Tripoli, the capital of Libya. Though the coalition forces claim that their intention is not to bring in large scale human loss, the offensive attacks prove otherwise. There are reports of killings in Tripoli due to airstrikes. The mindless airstrikes even pose a more dangerous situation than an uprising civil war in Libya.

But the key question here is what strategic parameters did incite President Obama to jump into the action when the UK and France were leading the stage with UNSC's call for a NFZ on Libya? Is it a deliberate action to make one's mighty presence felt across the polarizing world when other super powers intervene, or a deeper understanding of the gravity of the situation that has not only inflicted Libya, but also other nations in Arab world? The intention is still unclear.

When the US is passing through a painful recession and still not recouped from the economic crisis, why did then Obama intervene in a Libyan civil war where he would not gain much, given the strategic interests of UK and France? It seems the US is also equally interested in the Libya's oil resources and to position its strategic military base out in the Middle East. Historically, the US has attempted to control the internal crises in the Muslim countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, or the recent incident in Libya, the single most priority other than a presumed world peace has been acquiring the energy resources. But in Libya's case, the US won't get much benefits as it expects due to other coalition forces those have already pinned their hopes, rather it would meaninglessly waste few billions on mindless airstrikes.

There is another angle to huge loss that Obama would procure from this military reaction. Perhaps, the President has forgotten his responsibility as a recipient of Nobel Peace Award, and this honour has a large stake in his intentions and actions that he would plan to execute for international forums. At least, in the recent scenario he has failed miserably to display his custodianship of an award that has primarily bestowed upon the personalities who truly not only believe in global peace, but also take immense measures to ensure that any kind of world conflict however complex can be resolved through continuous dialogues, not through military actions or blanket bans.

Especially, for Obama, it was a great opportunity to disengage him from the banal politics and work towards a better statesmanship in restoring internal peace in Libya and eventually transitioning the state from a highly conflicting civil war to a lasting democratic nation, as he always vouches for democracy in many of his international speeches. Even doing that he could have won the trust of the Libyans and also he could have nurtured his long term strategic dreams.