Reference to column, “America in no position to lecture Sri Lanka” (March 24), Aijaz Zaka Syed has drawn the current international political landscape in an eloquent manner. With a marvelous grip over the psyche of different nations, he has rightly portrayed the real intent of each party, which shamelessly crushes and tramples upon human rights in the name of national interest.

If ever the United Nations, a total misnomer though, passes a resolution — without the will of the Western powers — denouncing a nation or organization for its role or involvement in any genocide, I wonder whether it will work.

Did any of the resolutions that were adopted at different times against the flagrant killings and massacres of the innocent Palestinian by the Israeli armed forces yield any result?

In contrast, when the US and its allies contemplate an action against a regime that refuses to follow their edicts, the toothless body suddenly wears on its sharp dentures. Sessions of the Security Council are hurriedly arranged; and lobbying is done at a frenetic space to turn foes into friends in the name of their own national interests. The resolutions are then not only adopted in a jiffy, but are executed without losing any moment of time. All of us have witnessed such overtures by the US at the time of Gulf War, invasion of Iraq and occupation of Afghanistan. The authority and power thus extracted absolves them of carnage after carnage in the name of saving humanity. The responsibility for over one million deaths in the Iraq war went unaccounted and the world was comfortably made to believe that such an action was required to free the world from clutches of the ‘terrorist’ forces.

Of course, as Aijaz has quoted the Indian veteran diplomat as saying, such killings are not termed as genocide, and snuffing out a few hundred thousand people counts little.

The officers and soldiers who had maimed and killed thousands of innocent civilians during the Iraq war were not even tried in the domestic courts, leave alone any talks of international war tribunal to hear the grievances of the aggrieved parties.

Thus, there remains no difference whatsoever between the bloody invasions of the weak nations in the medieval periods or the brutal atrocities by the European imperialists on their subjects and the present day occupation in the name of emancipation of the oppressed people from the autocratic despots. — Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam