The Modern Story Of O

The Modern Story of O



This meditation on O is not about that delectable 1954 French erotic classic on dominance and submission, The Story of O. Even if one wishes it were; because that kind of dominance and submission is pleasurable to all participants.

It also isn’t about the supremely influential Oprah Winfrey, or about her magazine O. This, even as Oprah fades, like magic ink, gradually but inevitably, both from the stage and page, as earnestness, gone formulaic, turns into parody.

It is certainly about Obama and Osama, the Holmes and Moriarty of our times. But we won’t see them, last of all, locked in mortal combat, hurtling down Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls.--lost, both, finally, to the enveloping mist…

Let us make no mistake however. It is an end-game the two O’s are embarked upon. Notwithstanding, of course, New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd’s snide and snarky labelling of Obama as O Bambi.

Thing is, if Obama does not kill Osama, after bull-bellowing that he would, Captain Ahab fashion, Osama and his followers are unlikely to spare Obama or his people. In the impressive hyperbole that Arabic lends itself to, Osama has recently spoken of his undying commitment to: “another seven years, seven more after that, and even seven more after”. It is Jihad, counted out in lucky sevens, one more sign of our twisted times.

And the footnote, a little damp perhaps from the hope-dashing waters of the Palk Straits and Indian Ocean, features a tired, tattered “tiger” called Vellupillai Prabhakaran and his nemesis Mahinda Rajapaksa.

There is indeed quite a lot of Moby Dick parallels about these long-winded, epic, personalised, almost gladiatorial battles to-the-death. Man and Whale but what a Whale! The blood and guts are garnish to the monumental ambitions of the protagonists. Even if one is, or is considered, inhuman.

The more things change the more they stay the same. It is probably no coincidence that Obama counts American Herman Melville’s masterpiece as one of his favourite books. And paralleling O’s end-game with O, Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, did swear, clear-eyed and determined, right from his election campaign bid to power, that he would certainly destroy the LTTE and kill their leader Prabhakaran.

End-games must necessarily involve the death of one of the protagonists, or Holmes and Moriarty fashion, that of both. But barring the truly unexpected, Barack Obama, fresh in youth, energy, with the laurel of Caesar still glistening on his head, outclasses the kidney-diseased fugitive in the cavernous labyrinth of the North West Frontier Province. The ageing Osama is also plagued, of late, as pointed out by The Economist, by the lack of a spectacular strike in the West since 2005. Repeatedly striking soft targets in India has neither sparked the hoped for communal conflagration, nor covered the jihadist cause in glory.

And internally, keeping the Al Qaeda flock together, even with the able assistance of deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, is proving difficult. Dissidence, from leading jihadist ideologue Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, a founding member of Al Qaeda, as it happens, who writes under nom de plume Dr. Fadl, meaning Doctor Please, doesn’t help. Dr. Fadl derides Al Qaeda’s pan-Islamic credentials and says it has made no contribution to the Palestinian cause. Ergo, it shouldn’t climb on to that bandwagon.

There are financial problems too, what with supporting the families of an ever growing list of “martyrs”, paying salaries to legions of rag-tag killers for hire, and keeping supplies of the all-important arms and ammunition flowing. But, these fiscal issues, of course, are not exclusive to the Al Qaeda in 2009.

And coincidentally, just last night, juxtaposed with news of Rajapaksa’s assurances that Prabhakaran will not get out of Sri Lanka alive, they ran that old dinosaur Rambo III, starring Sylvester Stallone, on satellite TV. It is like bumping into Banquo’s Ghost, last seen in the eighties. And then we’re off, being treated to an ironic retrospective on the creation of the Mujahideen, (God’s Warriors), by the self-same Americans, led today by one of the O’s in contention. In America’s numerous re-enactments of Frankenstein, here is one more, replete with Stinger missiles and the every-man-is-an-independent–republic temperament of the Afghan, used, ably enough, to displace the heavily armed occupational force of Soviets.

Rambo III also shows the spectacular natural caves, cathedral size, practically impervious, interconnected with passages high enough for man and horse, that Obama will have to conquer. For it is in these caves that connects the Peshawar region in Pakistan to the border areas in Afghanistan, where Osama and friends are.

It is a public battle with declared intent on the part of Rajapaksa and Obama. It is a surreptitious survival game for Prabhakaran and Osama, one in the jungle, the other in the mountains. But if it comes to running away, as fugitives, sequestered from their followers, it may have to suffice, besides prolonging the end-game.

Obama and Rajapaksa want to end this quickly. Obama will double the American troop strength to 60,000 and pursue the Taliban and Al Qaeda into the bad-lands of Afghanistan and Pakistan as necessary.

Rajapaksa will comb through every bush and dug-out and watch every boat on the coastline. But will Osama Bin Laden or Vellupillai Prabhakaran wait patiently till their sworn enemies come in to kill them?

Because, with battle strength moves backed by clear political directives, there is little doubt that Obama and Rajapaksa will succeed, unless, that is, Osama and Prabhakaran run away. Where to? To another Islamic haven, presumably.

It is said Prabhakaran, not yet converted to the “true faith”, is headed for Indonesia too. Obama, as it turns out, once lived in Jakarta and knows Indonesia is the most populous Islamic nation in the world, as he stated in his very first Islamic moderate targeting interview to Al Arabiya of Dubai.

The story might yet go on. The hunted may become beacons of hope for their followers
from other, safer, digs. That is how Arthur Conan Doyle responded to unexpectedly strong demands to resurrect Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty. After all, nobody saw them die after the alleged tumble down the Reichenbach Falls. There were no witnesses to the scuffle as the faithful Doctor Watson was called away on a fake call. And there really were no bodies. So no Habeas Corpus, and no Saddam Hussein emulating dictators hiding in holes.

(1,055 words)

28th January, 2009
Gautam Mukherjee

Updated version published in The Pioneer on 6th February, 2009 as "A modern story of O" and also online at www.dailypioneer.com. Archived under Columnists online at www.dailypioneer.com