As the curtains come down on 2001, the last image that flickers on the world screen is that of US bombers raining cluster bombs and daisy-cutters on Afghanistan, and hundreds of men, women and children fleeing their homes in panic and fear.

            It’s an image that will continue to haunt many in the days and years to come.  A grim reminder of the fire and fury and, above all, the arrogance of one superpower in punishing an entire nation, a whole country for the sins of one man.

            2001 will go down in history as the year when the self-professed champions of democracy, of human rights and of a free press violated every rule in the book with impunity – and had the gall to defend their actions in the name of civility and civilisation.

            “Collateral damage” became the buzz-word in the Pentagon’s lexicon, never mind that it referred to the senseless murder of hundreds of innocent civilians.

            2001 marked a year when the world’s only superpower unabashedly dropped all its pretences of being the guarantor of freedom of speech.  It was perfectly legitimate for the US Secretary of State to lodge a complaint with the Emir of Qatar against the Al-Jazeera network for airing what, in  newspaper parlance, was a scoop: Osama bin Laden’s interview (the Americans feared it may have contained some coded message for his Al-Qaeda network).  Equally legit to pressurise the US media to stop lifting from Al-Jazeera’s laden footage – and when that didn’t work, to finally resort to bombing the Al-Jazeera offices in Afghanistan and then call it an accident.

            Truth wasn’t the only casualty in the US war against terrorism.  Justice and civil liberties were also frontline victims.  Human rights and prisoners rights flew out of the window.  Indiscriminate bombing of Taliban prisoners of war was justified, independent investigation into this brutal massacre was not.  The US war spawned a new system of justice: secret military trials of ‘suspect’ foreign terrorists was the order of the day.  As was the detention of anyone of Arab or South Asian origin; in  some instances, their American passports just weren’t good enough.  At least 1500 were in custody for interrogation.  The public and private institutions took their cue from their government – it was okay to bump Muslims off flights, bash them on the streets and pass racist remarks.

            And the rest of the ‘civilised’ (read white) world naturally took its cue from the chief whip of ‘civilisation’.  In one of the most outrageous incidents, Mohammed Hanif, a former Newsline  colleague who now heads the BBC Urdu Service, was verbally abused, told to go home and physically assaulted by a gang of whites in a London suburb and subsequently had to be hospitalised.  The incident didn't make any waves in the British media.  Why?  Because of the colour of his skin?

            The US war against terrorism afforded all racists a life-time opportunity to drop their masks of civility and show their true colours.  And that was not all.

            One of the most tragic fallouts of the US operation was that in one fell swoop it provided illegal land-grabbers the justification they needed to brand all freedom fighters ‘terrorists’ and target freedom movements – all in the name of a ‘war against terrorism’.  As the first year of the new millennium drew to a close, the Palestinian dream of a homeland seemed to be receding yet again.  A UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Palestinians right of self-determination and calling for Israel’s withdrawal from the Golan Heights, backed by a record vote of 131 countries, was opposed by Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Tuvalu and the world’s only superpower, the US.

            So much for the American credo of equality, liberty and justice for all.