When you left even the stones were buried: The defenceless would have no weapons. When the ibex rubs itself against the rocks, who collects its fallen fleece from the slopes? O Weaver whose seams perfectly vanished, who weighs the hairs on the jeweller's balance? They make a desolation and call it peace.
– Agha Shahid Ali, Farewell
The world began to change on '9/20', the day George Bush declared, "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists". Not wanting to be known as a friend of Osama and his in-laws in Kabul, even General Musharraf fell in line. The self-appointed president of Pakistan declared his country the frontline state of America's "War on Terror".
It is now almost a year since daisy cutters started to rain on the desert landscape of the Hindukush, but Bush shows no signs of slowing down. Unsuccessful in nabbing Osama bin Laden "dead or alive", the Texan cowboy is now set to vent his frustrations on Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq. The tone and tenor of Bush's warning to the rest of the world is still the same: do not dare question the White House. The right reigns in the United States, and American unilateralism rules the world.