henna of the wounded heartshenna of the wounded hearts Analysis of the popular discontent against the war. The wounds of the ‘war on terror’ has not healed completely. The conscience of humanity is not satisfied with the excuse brought forth by Uncle Sam. The war on terror has only poisoned the Eastern mind more and more. Everyone is asking questions. The authorities may have silenced the networks and the press (which may be necessary in such times). But the unalloyed human heart has the capacity to think beyond the verdicts of the media muftis. Perhaps that is why a third-grader GIRL asked a sensible question that left her elder brother speechless : “Bhaiya! Only two or three buildings were destroyed in New York. But how many buildings, hospitals and schools were bombed in Kabul?”. For a kid, he may view this war as a kind of playing with his LEGO toys. First scramble the whole structure and then RECONSTRUCT. Like how during the World War I, the vast Ottoman empire was SLICED up and shared between the Western colonialists. And then INSTALL puppet regimes that support them. First bombard the entire land and then install an INTERIM government. First drop cluster bombs and then drop gifts of food packets. Now that the war is almost over, it is high time that the world arrive at a conclusion, at least in facts. The only question remaining is: Wasn’t the bearded mullahs behind the attacks of Sep 11? Let’s answer it in the affirmative first. Supposing that the videotape left by the beard-and-turban-clad terrorist leader and his men (who’re stupid enough to do so) is true as is claimed by the US Defense Department, we believe that he and his band of hooligans must be behind it. And let us, for time being, ignore the sophisticated visual technology available in the likes of Hollywood studios. Anti-war protesters in the west. However, in a recent development, when the Indian parliament was attacked by militants, the US secretary of state issued a humorous statement that ‘Indian intelligence agencies along with those of Pakistan and the US probe the terrorist attack on Parliament’ as if the Indian intelligence did not have proper knowledge to do it. The spokesman of BJP, the saffronised party, reacted strongly saying “It does not behove Colin Powell to make such statements. Did the US have any proof of involvement of Taliban in the September 11 strikes before attacking Afghanistan?” party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters. Stating the US now wants proof of the organisation involved in the attack on Parliament, he asked whether America had any proof of involvement of al-Qaida in the September 11 attacks. [Rediff.com, December 18, 2001] Anyway we will assume that the terrorist network was behind the attacks. In that case we have a picture of a battle between a MULLAH versus the CIA. The former is motivated by the DEATH-INSTINCTS of a few die-hard private individuals, self-financed and self-possessed, who are more in a hurry to go to HEREAFTER than to live with the trials of this world. Protests in the Far East. The CIA, on the other hand, are LIFE-LOVING individuals who are GOVERNMENT FINANCED by billions of annual funding taken from the tax dollars given by a common citizen of the country. Is this the irony of modern humanity that a pack of armed individuals inspired by a barbaric interpretation of their faith go blow up the heart of the fort that is SUPPOSED to be guarded by the most intelligent spy network in the world? Now, suppose it wasn’t those cave-dwellers who masterminded this attack. What does that imply? The lives lost during the war, the hundreds of thousands made homeless, the mammoth expenses incurred in bringing all those warships and warplanes to this part of the world- WHAT FOR? To get hold of a Bedouin who is a SUSPECT (only) in this attack? Thanks to the media brainwashing, that rich man from the desert is made the mouthpiece of Anti-US sentiment. His popularity (unpopularity) ratings maybe far higher than any celebrity in the world. The Asian world never had a unifying figure for its suppressed frustration against the economic superiority of West. There is nothing as common as Disunity among the peoples of Asia. Now the West has, knowingly or unknowingly, gifted the Asian world with a figurehead for their burning aspirations. And the irony is that the man on the streets of Asia is subliminally ‘expressing’ his Anti-US sentiment through mobile SMS, email forwards, PC wallpapers, posters… and even while putting on henna on the palm. Perhaps he is only trying to avenge his humiliation at the hands of Uncle Sam. He has no other way. Maybe.