"However painful it may be for me to accept this conclusion, I am obliged to state it: for the black man there is o­nly o­ne destiny. And it is white."

So said Frantz Fanon, o­ne of Third World's greatest theoreticians o­n the philosophy of liberation.

This, too, will be Iraq's destiny. And that same fate now awaits the rest of the world.

In Black Skin, White Masks , Fanon wrote eloquently about how the natives had to don 'white masks' to win approval from their colonial masters.

He lamented the colossal challenges which people in the Third World - and the colored in the West - had to face to overcome oppression, racism and colonialism. The enemy, he said, was not the colonial masters or the conniving local elites. The enemy was us.

After all, colonialism was not without its local apologists. Railroads, hospitals and schools were built. New technology was introduced. There was rule of law. Which was why the struggle for liberation in the Third World was arduous, painful and slow.

New dilemma

Now that Baghdad has fallen, the real war begins - the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. But given Washington's track record, that will be a tough sell.

While o­ne may give the Anglo-American forces the benefit of doubt - that they are indeed there to 'liberate' the Iraqis - the way it was done, without United Nations' approval, should be roundly condemned.

And even if they were successful to win over the Iraqis, the invasion has unwittingly created a new problem for the United States. If it wants to play global cop, it better be consistent in its action. What will it do next, liberate Palestine?

In Asia, there is no shortage of countries deserving of 'liberation' as much as Iraq. Take Burma.

Here is a regime which has enslaved its population for almost half a century. The military junta runs a government stolen from the opposition. Some 1,600 political prisoners are languishing behind bars.

Ethnic minorities are systematically expelled. Half a million refugees lived in dilapidated camps along its borders - even Slobodan Milosevic would find this hard to match with his ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.

Weapon of war

Burma's secret police are just as pervasive as Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen. The last time I was in Rangoon to interview opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (photo), I was engaged in a six-hour cat-and-mouse chase around town to shake the regime's thugs off my tail.

Rape is widely used as a weapon of war. Between 1992 and 2001, 625 women were raped by Burmese troops, and this is from the northern Shan state alone. Saddam's henchmen would be proud.

And if that's not reason enough, throw in this too: the regime's biggest exports, apart from refugees, are weapons of mass hallucination - illicit drugs.

But few would ask the Americans to bomb Rangoon and take out Senior General Than Shwe.

Indeed, it is o­nly through the International Criminial Court - a mechanism where individuals can be prosecuted for crimes against humanity - that dictators should be brought to face justice.

No doubt, it is unfair to compare George W Bush to Saddam. But the two do have at least o­ne thing in common.

Of the 148 countries gathered in Rome five years ago to consider the International Criminal Court, seven voted against it. Among them - United States and Iraq. And, yes, Burma too.

Global mafia

The message written o­n the Tomahawks is clear - if a tin-pot dictator wants to commit genocide, his regime better kowtow to the West. That way, the West can turn a blind eye. Ask Suharto.

Indeed, the world is not so much threatened by Iraq, Iran and North Korea as by a rogue superpower and its crony states, who speak of liberty but trample o­n global democracy, and who talk about the rule of law, but stomp o­n international laws. They are, if you will, the global mafia.

The US decides which terrorist organisation be eliminated and which be given money and arms; which mass expulsion of populations to aid and which to label ethnic cleansing; which economies to prop up through loans and trade, and which to destroy through sanctions and currency speculations.

It can select with impunity which international laws and agreements to honour and which to ignore - as when the World Court found Washington guilty of terrorism for mining Nicaraguan ports.

First Contact

As the sole remaining superpower, the United States' key project is to assimilate all world's cultures and resources.

In the Star Trek movie First Contact , captain Jean-Luc Picard vowed to battle the Borg, a ruthless band of cyborgs.

"They invade our space and we fall back," decried Picard. "They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Never again, the line must be drawn here! This far, no further."

But resistance - despite the near-total domination of the West and its omnipotent media - is not futile. This millennium will determine whether we continue to live under a global apartheid where 'might is right', or a global democracy where all citizens are equal before international law.

It will however required us, as Fanon had urged, to first shed our masks. Otherwise, for the Third World there is o­nly o­ne destiny. And it is America.