Ali Ahmed Ziauddin

It’s messy, rowdy, bloody, irrational, and bewildering. Yet, it happens, and can happen anywhere when the ruler and the ruled start considering each other enemies. It happened a few days ago in the US.

Theories abound. Bizarre rumours run wild. Apart from extremists on both ends of the spectrum, all rational minds with a heart condemn the divide; yet, it refuses to go away. It’s complex -- at times it gets ugly but, most of the time, a simmering tension over numerous petty differences regarding faith, culture and inexplicable prejudices run deep.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking at an Atlantic Council Front Page event on September 15, called for building an international coalition against China. Meanwhile, Michèle Flournoy, widely expected to be Pentagon chief in a Biden administration, said, “American military and its partners should consider developing capabilities to sink the entire Chinese Navy within 72 hours to deter Beijing.”

Mid April, 1971. A lanky young boy sneaked out of his family home in old Dhaka into the hitherto unknown world of warfare.

Discourse on democracy is so overwhelmingly taken for granted that even the blatant autocrat or invader claims to act in the name of saving or installing democracy.

When the battlefield of Verdun was getting drenched in combatants’ blood from all contending sides, the political leadership, unable to define the stalemate, was trying to sell the war as the war “to end all wars”.

In recent times, the entire western mainstream media and their affiliated outlets have regularly reported China’s alleged ill-treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs.

Border clashes reflect shared suspicion at best and animosity at worst between neighbouring states.