American bankers, British business moguls, New York Jewish Rabbi, Dual Israeli American nationals, western multinationals CEO’s, and a host of international business executives. They all converged on Mumbai in the hopes of cutting business deals, sizing investment opportunities, and taking advantage of the second largest economy in the world in terms of growth and outlook. Terror hit the financial district and its most lucrative locations. But Foreigners were not the only ones targeted in hotels and the cafe by the attackers; One hundred and counting local Indians were gunned down in the main train station just as they were heading for the platforms in the second busiest station in India.

The message seems to be directed at the Indian Government first and foremost. It is obviously meant for the British, American, and Israeli business and defence contractors to take their begging hats out of the country as well. The choice of city, sites, and execution plan suggests the target is the Financial elite, and defence contractors. The Mumbai financial district is an aspiring target for militants in Pakistan whose beef with the Indians, Americans, or British is political rather than financial, and there are plenty of easier to attack sites between Pakistan and Afghanistan to cause the desired collateral damage, so have Pakistani militants changed tactics all of a sudden?

Equally puzzling would be to consider an ideological Muslim group inside India for the same reasons.

Here is what journalist John Pilger observed and wrote in May 2002 shortly after high-level tensions erupted between India and Pakistan:

“With nuclear powers India and Pakistan on the edge of war, the role of the Blair government in fuelling the conflict has been critical. In the year 2000, the Government approved nearly 700 export licences for weapons and military equipment to both countries. These had a total value of £64million. India, which gets the great majority of British weapons, is building under licence Jaguar bombers that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

“In January, as the two countries prepared for war, Tony Blair arrived in the subcontinent on what was called a "peace mission." In fact, as the Indian press revealed, he discussed the opposite of peace - a £1billion deal to sell India 60 Hawk fighter-bombers made by British Aerospace. "The issue of India acquiring the Hawks," reported the periodical Outlook India, "was raised by Prime Minister Blair with Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, defence minister George Fernandes said today."
Three weeks later, the British High Commission in New Delhi threw a party for a group of British arms salesmen in town for a major weapons fair called Defexpo, whose organisers made no secret of their aim to exploit the "recent developments taking place in south-east Asia" - in other words, the conflicts in Kashmir and Afghanistan.”

”So keen has the Blair government been to exploit this opportunity of war that a British official has the full-time assignment, in New Delhi, of "defence supply". He works with the Defence Export Sales Organisation (DESO) in London, an arm of the Ministry of Defence, whose sole aim is to sell weapons to foreign armies. A secret list of 22 "highly valuable priority markets" targeted for British arms sales has India and Pakistan near the top. British missiles, tanks, artillery, howitzers, anti-aircraft guns, small arms and ammunition are all available on buy-now-pay-later terms.”

“Arming both sides is, of course, as British as pith helmets. In the horrendous war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, Britain did just that in company with other Western countries. At least a million people were killed. Britain is the world's third biggest arms trader. Under Blair, sales of weapons and military equipment have become the most heavily subsidised sector of the UK economy apart from agriculture. This means that taxpayers underwrite loans-for-arms to dictators oppressing their people. The argument that the Government is "protecting jobs" is demolished by the writing-off of billions of pounds, which could create jobs in peace-time industries.”

“Arms sales and the development of multi-billion dollar warplanes, ships and missile systems, have an essential place in the "global economy". They invariably lead to an American economic "boom" or "recovery" which influences the economies of Europe and much of the world.”

“When the New York Stock Exchange re-opened after September 11, the stocks of arms companies were almost alone in showing an increase in value. Raytheon, the missile maker and contributor to New Labour, was one of them.”

”Tony Blair's close links with Israel - many of them forged by his friend, the deal-maker Michael Levy, whom he made Lord Levy - are described as "the Government's tireless efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East." The opposite is true. Business is business, and it never stops. On September 11, at an arms fair in London's Docklands, there was not even a respectful silence in honour of the victims of the Twin Towers. The Israelis had a whole pavilion; one Israeli company, Rafael, was here to sell the Ministry of Defence the Gill-Spike Anti-tank missile, a weapon distinguished by its history of use against civilians in Palestine and Lebanon. One of the main causes of poverty in Africa is the amount spent on arms by regimes offered a variety of enticements by Western business and governments.”

And what Wall Street and America’s drooling bankers see in India today is the only friendly growing economy where money can still be made, and gold and cash reserves are high. India’s economy enjoys a firm 7% growth rate at a time where most advanced economies are contracting, and emerging markets can’t sustain their growth. The majority of IT firms in India are vulnerable to the global financial chaos, 70% of India’s $40 billion software exports is to the US and 40% of it is in financial services which is dwindling fast. However, together with China, India can hold its own very well, and its growth prospects won’t be badly damaged, that is not what the US and Britain have in mind as Fortune magazine Nina Easton reveals in “Paulson Hot on India”: (http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/26/magazines/fortune/easton_treasury.fortune/index.htm)

Whether Pakistani militants played a hand in the Mumbai attacks or not, I believe that the response of the Indian government may take many by surprise, and we could see emerging a solid friendly relationship and cooperation with Pakistan as the best answer to set a precedent in dealing with massive attack and with a conflict that traces its roots to British India. That is not to say that the Indian government won’t sort its own internal problems and political rifts as well; surely it will, but without using Pakistan as a scapegoat. And if there are links to local Muslim groups, then it is time to reconcile differences with its 15% mostly impoverished Muslim population and in the broader context of improving the standard of living for millions of poor and unequally treated Indians in tens of thousands of villages and towns.

Into its third day, the standoff at the Taj Hotel may continue for a while, and it does look like apart from the apparent loss that India will incur, this will be a big blow to British and American interests in particular in a time both countries have rapidly collapsing economies.

The Indian government is, as I write, negotiating with the terrorists, contrary to all news media reports, and that has not been going very well judging by the number of dead hostages that continues to rise. This massacre may cause the government in India to resign or at least face the wrath of an angry country. The pressure is on to provide a secure environment around the Indian business community, and to drop economic measures that may hurt the common Indian.

Washington’s hegemonic strategy made it the chief adversary of social progress, peace and democracy. Contradictions of America’s capitalism are getting sharper, and the language of force and total destruction is hardly absent from delivered statements by White House officials and some members of congress. Can we justifiably signal Israel for using the US as proxy for war and for its chief role in manipulating the American public?  

There is a great sense of anticipation for what could transpire following the recent publication of  “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” – an academic paper by two Harvard professors. What prompts John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt to come forward with their discussion on The Israel lobby and US foreign policy is likely their well deserved conviction that the Project of The American Century is not in the interest of the United States, and that the entire premise of a prolonged series of current and coming wars, interventions and nation building falls back on only one justification – securing Israel’s realm as advanced by AIPAC and other loosely coupled lobbying organizations on behalf of the tiny nation. The authors didn’t deny Christian Zionists’ their due credit and contribution.

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George W. Bush was appointed president to eventually give way to one of the most oppressive regimes in American history. In November 2000, the dream has finally come true for a political constituency that in 1981 saw it’s first real chance to hold power in the highest office of the nation and the world come true. The ambiguous character of the new revivalism of religion of Bush’s political constituency is underlined by all the missteps taken during the past five years. It’s clear by now that Mr. Bush and his supporters personify the most conservative side of the return of religion – both religiously and politically – one is likely to find anywhere in the world today.

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, had pushed hard, in 1982 after helping to elect Ronald Reagan, to use religion as a potent political force, they had failed at that time to restore prayer in schools, ban pornography, outlaw abortion or abolish the immorality of the media. This political fundamentalism vowed to hold power at all cost. What is unique about Mr. Bush’s agenda for social change today is that it is not derived from liberal or conservative social agendas, but directly from the scriptures.

George Bush was hand picked for the role of the administration’s salesman and spokesman, a role he probably thought would fit him just fine, long as Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, other advisors and speech writers are taking care of the hard work. Mr. Bush felt confident to handle domestic politics and issues while others in the administration prepare for a show of force around the globe, with Iraq being the centerpiece.

Mr. Bush has failed, by any standard, to deliver security, social and economic welfare to Americans, to guard civil liberty, or to cooperate with other regional powers on intervention and trade issues. The majority of Americans is not in favor of Mr. Bush’s policies and has many unanswered questions. Despite two questionable presidential elections and never ending political and ethical scandals, the corporate media and Gallup forcefully resist calls to survey Americans on impeaching the president.

A Near Collapse White House

The government “9/11 roller coaster” will not stop voluntarily, but it seems heading for an immanent crash. Bush and the Neoconservatives have grossly miscalculated every step since they took office in 2000. They haven’t expected their lies to chase after them. 9/11 has exposed American foreign policy for what it really is, a front for corporate greed and build up of empire achieved by pushing others around, a policy of exploiting other nations’ national sovereignty, of assassinations and war crimes. Katrina is unveiling the malaise of American society and government exploitation of its minorities and poor. The emerging images from New Orleans coupled with the incompetence of a clueless government showed people around the world and many Americans a totally different picture from what they perceive to be the most humane, rich and powerful nation on earth.

What Americans and the rest of the world have been waking up to since 9/11 are sheer corruption, brutality, deviance and bias that defines American foreign policy makers, the Pentagon and their corporate backers. What Americans and the rest of the world are waking up to since Katrina struck are failed domestic policies, inept politicians and legislators, slashed budgets, and reluctance to let the best of National Guard troops back from Iraq, which is directly responsible for the instant killing of thousands of Americans, displacing hundreds of thousands without adequate food and shelter, the sinking of an iconic American metropolis, and a serious doubt about a manipulation of the levees. A policy that has always favored whites and the wealthy over African Americans and the poor. The desperate, distressed, and frightened of New Orleans was met by hostile stressed soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders! A very familiar scene to Iraqi civilians who are still unable to feel liberated.

The continued rhetoric of the Bush administration is directly leading us to the outbreak of nuclear war and to ecological destruction. The White House Empire is bipartisan; it seeks to exercise sovereign authority over the planet.

Today, Bush has the fastest free fall approval rating in presidential history. His latest Rose Garden appearance and interactive ness with reporters points to a very disturbed and disconnected president, a man not in control of his faculties; the salesman has lost his pitch.

It is not only enough to lead G. W. Bush in handcuffs, but also to remove corrupt corporate magnets and religious zealots, who continue to write the job description for the position of the White House salesman, from the social and the political spectrum.

Amr Ismail is a Canadian writer based in Europe. He edits Leadaship.com