Another ‘reset’ button please

This is the age of shifting sands. Change is coming faster than we can record it. A black man presides in the White House; Al Qaida is no more as dangerous as is Lashkar-e-Taiba and there is a chance of negotiations opening with the Talibaan. Just six months ago these facts could have made excellent punch lines for a ‘Tales of the impossible’ kind of thriller programme. Of course these are geo-political needs defined by the hour. But so it is and with black merging with white, many defined lines of long standing enmities are changing.

When Hillary Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva during the course of her first European tour as Secretary of State last month, there was speculation as to how far Hillary’s charm would work towards assuaging Russian sentiments injured by her predecessor, Condoleeza Rice. To ensure a new start to the relationship, Hillary went armed with an actual ‘reset’ button to initiate a congenial beginning. It was a canny idea to hand over to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a button in a green box tied in green ribbon, a continuation of Joe Biden's overture that the Obama administration is hitting the reset button with Russia after Bush & co’s ruination of the state of relative peace fostered by Bill Clinton.

The ‘reset’ button strategy however made more headlines than bargained for when the Russian FM received the gift with a label in Russian affixed on the box and told Hillary Clinton, "You got it wrong!" The word her staff had written was — ‘peregruzka’ — meaning ‘overloaded’ or ‘overcharged’ rather than ‘reset’. But the faux pas was taken in good stead by both parties and making light of the foul up, Lavrov’s comment was, "We reached an agreement on how `reset' is spelled in both Russian and English — we have no differences between us any more,” and the two went ahead to push the button together to show they share a desire for improved relations.

The reset button may or may not result in breaking through serious issues between these long-standing rivals but at least the meager attempt will make some dent towards thawing the cold Russian rival. And if Obama’s overt intention of garnering strength to make this world a more peaceful place are real, then perhaps there are a few more reset buttons in the making.

His intentions toward mediating a Middle East peace deal are being repeatedly aired, together with the olive branch extended towards the Muslim Ummah in his inaugural address, it is possible that the commitment of hate unleashed by Bush on Muslims may be ‘reset’ towards a commitment to peace and hopefully Muslims and terrorists might go back to being two separate words. The trick question here is how will the Muslims of the world handle a reset button? Or to put it more bluntly are they ready for a peace deal in the Middle East or anywhere?

The overwhelming desire to draw retaliatory blood has stifled the plea of peace which is the inner need of generations of strife-born people. But it is difficult to forgive years of brutality and with the US history of abetting the might of Israel, it is natural that Obama’s gambit will always appear garbed in covert agendas aimed at fanning Jewish policies and world domination.

But then how to make the blood letting stop? Sometimes a loose straw has to be clutched at to save a life. And if there is even half an intention of peace – imbalanced though it might be – prudence should become the better part of valour. The Muslim world has to redefine itself and must decide to shake hands with the enemy in the name of peace. We have to ‘reset’ our priorities and sign a vow against bloodletting.

The Crusades lasted for nearly 300 years before the Age of Reason descended. The Muslims of the world have to draw on reason to gain a higher moral ground which we have lost in war cries of every brand. Religion has become a prop for land control and freedom fighters now have ‘terrorist’ as epitaph. There is divided sentiment for the Talibaans in Swat and elsewhere as with Hammas’ strategy of guerilla warfare. Why is our pugnacious instinct stronger than our commitment to peace?

The Muslim Ummah desperately needs a ‘reset’ button, two in fact – one for internal reorganization and the other hopefully extended towards them by the West. It is probable that Obama might have one in the offing for us. But it won’t work unless we rediscover our inner harmony and accept the laying down of arms even if it means losing territory. Inanimate land must take second place to human sanctity. This however requires magnanimity of a kind difficult to envisage in the current season of confrontation and hostilities.

But taking a page out of the Russian book, it is time to reassess our more pressing needs. The once giant Republic now stands broken into small territories and still has a significant presence on the world stage. And above that it even has the grace to laugh off a diplomatic blunder which its erstwhile KGB would probably have started a war on! But perhaps that was Hillary’s charm which averted the disaster. I wonder though how Palin would have dealt with her Russian counterpart in such a situation? She’d probably have winked and said it is a new Russian way of spelling and would have promised to wave him goodnight every evening from her bedroom window in Alaska!

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