Headlines:
- Spain Dismisses Catalonian Government after Regional Parliament Declares Independence
- Tillerson claims to have made no threats to Pakistan
- America Active in Manoeuvres against China
Spain Dismisses Catalonian Government after Regional Parliament Declares Independence
According to the New York Times:
“Spain’s leader fired the government of the rebellious Catalonia region Friday, dissolved the regional parliament and ordered new elections after Catalan lawmakers illegally declared an independent nation.
The showdown escalated the biggest political crisis in decades to hit Spain, which is just emerging from a prolonged economic malaise. Catalonia is a critical part of the economy in Spain, the fifth largest in Europe.”
The experience of Catalonia and the recent experience of Iraqi Kurdistan demonstrate the falsehood of the Western ideals of freedom, democracy and national self-determination. These are in fact political constructs designed to justify those who already hold power and are not meant to be taken literally. The Peace of Westphalia, from which the idea of the nation-state is taken, was in fact merely a compromise on a political settlement between multiple European powers at the end of long decades of brutal war. Spain is a nation because it already exists as a state, and Catalonia is not a nation because it is part of another state. These distinctions are in fact meaningless, just as the Western ideals of freedom and democracy are also, in practise, meaningless when rationally examined. Where is the freedom and democracy for Catalonia? In fact, Europe needs to return to a religious basis for life’s affairs, as was dominant before Westphalia, based on unchanging eternal truths.
Tillerson claims to have made no threats to Pakistan
According to the Dawn:
“US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that he did not visit Islamabad earlier this week to lecture or coerce Pakistanis but he did tell them that Washington is determined to eradicate terrorism from the region with their support or “in a different way”.
“And that’s not a threat. It’s just a matter of fact. We have to deal with the conditions on the ground. And as you know, the entire South Asia strategy is a conditions-based strategy,” he said.
Mr Tillerson said the message he delivered to Pakistan during the visit was: “Here’s what we need for Pakistan to do. We’re asking you to do this; we’re not demanding anything. You’re a sovereign country. You’ll decide what you want to do.””
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is being forced to adopt a new style because of the strong reaction in Pakistan against American arrogance and intimidation, particularly after US President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan speech in August. Pakistani civilian and military leaders presented a united front, meeting jointly with Tillerson’s delegation whereas previously they would have met separately. Tillerson was received at the airport by only a mid-level foreign office official whereas previously top leaders would have rushed to welcome him.
Unfortunately, these changes, though welcome, are changes of style only and not substance. Tillerson is a businessman and knows how to extract what he wants through negotiations, sometimes using threats and sometimes using bribes. And the Pakistani leadership is only too willing to cooperate with America in order to win American support for their ruling and for them personally. Pakistan is already cooperating with the illegal Afghan regime in order to support America’s failing occupation of Afghanistan. Pakistan’s inability to deliver on American demands is more related to capability rather than intent. The affairs of Muslims will not be set in order until we give authority to sincere, indigenous, ideological leadership and throw out the present class of leaders who depend on the foreign disbeliever to support their corrupt rule.
America Active in Manoeuvres against China
The five-year China party congress has hardly concluded as US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis reignites the North Korean issue during his visit to South Korea. According to Reuters:
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday that he could not imagine United States ever accepting a nuclear North Korea, warning that its rapidly advancing nuclear and missile programs would undermine, not strengthen, its security.
The actual target of his remarks is China, which the United States is putting under pressure from multiple angles, including by continuing to incite the North Koreans. And earlier this week, US Secretary of State Tillerson was in India to strengthen American relations there also. It is this that explains the decisions at the Chinese party congress to bestow even greater powers on President Xi Jinping. His predecessor, Hu Jintao, is said to have exclaimed:
[The United States has] strengthened its military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthened the US-Japan military alliance, strengthened strategic cooperation with India, improved relations with Vietnam, inveigled Pakistan, established a pro-American government in Afghanistan, increased arms sales to Taiwan, and so on. They have extended outposts and placed pressure points on us from the east, south, and west.
It was America that enabled China’s rise in the 1970s and 1980s out of fear of Soviet domination, otherwise China would have collapsed along with the rest of the Communist block. But now, it is China that the US wishes to restrain. The Western powers have no sense of moral duty; they play with the lives of hundreds of millions of people only to further their own national interests. With Allah’s permission, the world will soon see the return of the righteous Islamic Khilafah State (Caliphate) on the method of the Prophet (saw) that will return the entire world to peace and justice as was the case during the thousand years that the Khilafah was previously the global superpower.