Madiba’s wisdom: ‘Not all of the West’s enemies are our enemies’

In an earlier article, I questioned whether Donald Trump would protect Benjamin Netanyahu from the ICC arrest warrant and respect and adhere to the international rule of law.

In another, I deliberated whether he would uphold the US House of Representatives’ sanctions against the ICC or drop them.

In a third, I wondered if Trump, like Bibi and Biden, would also succumb to Samson Syndrome.

Well, over the past few weeks, I think I got my answers. And it’s starting to look like a worst-case scenario…

IT’S NOT ABOUT…WHAT TRUMP SAYS IT’S ABOUT

The past few weeks have seen quite the topsy-turvy, hurly-burly hullabaloo in SA politics since Trump and Musk put the glaring spotlight of world attention squarely on our country – for all the wrong reasons.

We’re being told the US is targeting and sanctioning SA because Trump believes our government is “stealing” land from white folks, white farmers are being ethnically cleansed in a “genocide“, and all sorts of other “terrible things” are happening in our country. (Let’s be honest, on that last one, he’s not far wrong – but that’s another conversation).

However, as several analysts and experts have pointed out, it’s not about the EWC Land Act or the alleged “persecution” of Afrikaners.

It’s about something else…

It’s about SA’s genocide case at the ICJ against Israel. It’s about our government’s support for the Palestinian cause, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. It’s about our bond with Russia, China and Cuba. And, of course, it’s about our membership in BRICS.

USA FOREVER BULLYING THE WORLD INTO WAR

America is forever telling us who we should love and who we should hate. Notice that? For almost a century, they’ve made a regular, divisive, filthy habit of bullying the whole world into loving their allies and hating their enemies.

From the Korean and Vietnam wars, when we had to hate those “zipperhead gooks”, to the cold war, when we had to hate those “pinko commie” Russians and Chinese, to the Global War on Terror, when we had to hate those “raghead camel jockeys”, the Arabs.

Now it looks like we’ve got yet another American President and his administration telling the world who to hate and who to love.

“You gotta hate Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, North Korea, Russia and China…but love Israel.” They’re telling us.

MOST OF THE WEST BLINDLY FOLLOWS THE US

And most of the white, Christian Zionist, Western world, including the majority of (white) South Africa, just blindly go right along with the hatred, bigotry and persecution… like Klansmen in a bloodthirsty lynch mob.

You’d think that after centuries of slavery and decades of colonisation and apartheid, (white) saffers would’ve by now learned a thing or two about standing up to discrimination, prejudice and ethno-racial hatred instead of always kowtowing to their Western puppet masters.

Man, it’s times like these that I wish Madiba were still with us. Say what you like, love him or hate him, but at least Mandela had the intelligence, conscience, spine, and guts… to stand up to imperialism.

Nowhere was that more evident than during his anti-war speech in Johannesburg just over 20 years ago.

WHEN MADIBA HELD A MIRROR UP TO AMERICA

Last month was the 22nd anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s powerful smackdown of the US over their push for war in Iraq.

At the International Women’s Forum meeting in Johannesburg on 30 January 2003, Madiba berated then-US president George W. Bush and British PM Tony Blair for defying the UN and pushing ahead with their illegal invasion of Iraq.

Mandela said, “Both Bush and Tony Blair are undermining their predecessors. They do not care. Is it because the Secretary-General of the United Nations is now a Black man? They never did that when the SGs were white.”

Ouch! But that wasn’t the only burn.

USA HAS COMMITTED ‘UNSPEAKABLE ATROCITIES’

Madiba slammed Bush for the idiot he is.

“What I’m condemning is that one (super) power – with a president who has no foresight and cannot think properly – is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust.”

Then Mandela really stuck the knife in. “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world”, he reminded us, “it is the United States of America. They don’t care for human beings.”

Eina! But he wasn’t done yet.

Next, he brought up that uncomfortable, inconvenient, shameful shadow in America’s history…

ONLY ONE COUNTRY IN HISTORY HAS NUKED ANOTHER

He reminded us how, near the end of WW2, when Japan was retreating on all fronts, the US decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands and wounding tens of thousands more, with Japan still feeling the effects to this day.

Madiba also pointed out what few realised or even considered at the time. “Those bombs were not aimed against the Japanese; they were aimed against the Soviet Union, to say, ‘Look, this is the power we have. If you dare oppose us, this will happen to you.’”

He then asked, “Who are they (the US) now to pretend that they are the policemen of the world?”

That was not the first time Madiba schooled the US, and the rest of the West, on doing the right thing…

MADIBA’S KILLER KOPPEL INTERVIEW

In June 1990, less than six months after he was released from prison, Mandela appeared in a Town Hall special features interview with ABC anchor Ted Koppel in front of a packed live audience of at least 1000 people.

During that interview, the audience and journalists got to ask Madiba questions. One MSM political journalist stood up and asked about Mandela’s allegiance to Gaddafi, Arafat and Castro. The sock-puppet stenographer journo was basically regurgitating Western talking points that portrayed these leaders as “dictators” or “terrorists.”

He snidely asked Mandela, “Are these your models of leaders of human rights – and if so, would you want a Gaddafi or an Arafat or a Castro to be a future president of South Africa?”

THEY’RE YOUR ENEMIES, NOT OURS

Mandela flashed the journalist a brief look, then turned to the audience and said…

“One of the mistakes some political analysts make…is to think that their enemies…should be our enemies.”

The room erupted with applause. Many in the audience rose to their feet, clapping like maniacs.

Madiba went on: “That…we can and we will never do”, he affirmed. “Our attitude towards any country is determined by the attitude of that country to our struggle.”

Again, prolonged applause and cheers.

SOMEONE SHOULD TELL TRUMP

Tata continued, “Yassar Arafat, Colonel Gaddafi and Fidel Castro support our struggle to the hilt. There is no reason whatsoever why we should have any hesitation…about hailing their commitment to human rights – as they are being demanded in South Africa.”

Madiba wasn’t done yet. “Our attitude is based solely on the fact that they fully support the anti-apartheid struggle. They do not support it only in rhetoric, they are placing resources at our disposal for us to wage the struggle. That…is the position.”

Arguably, Mandela’s Town Hall interview and anti-war speech were part of the reason why he and the ANC were left on the USA’s terrorist watchlist until 2008.

Maybe someone should show them both to Donald Trump.

WHAT SAY YOU, SA? SHOULD THE WEST’S ENEMIES ALWAYS BE OUR ENEMIES?

Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1.

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