>>"Unable to get hold of Osama bin Laden and others dead or alive, the US is behaving like a castrated and raging bull. It is a successful example of self-hypnosis by the US media machine - with much help from the political leadership, beginning with Bush. It has even convinced the American public that many, if not most, of the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks were Iraqis, when most of them were from Saudi Arabia and others from Egypt. None was in fact from Iraq. No linkage between Iraq and al-Qaeda has been proved, in spite of the forging of documents by the US and the UK.
Without any casus belli, the US and its allies have now attacked Iraq with all their weapons of terrible destruction. Listening to some US defense experts, one can sense their glee in how the new war weapons and machines being used for the first time have such improved performance. As in the bombing of Serbia, new and better arms are being tested and used.
Look at the way the US treats prisoners of war from Afghanistan in Guantamano Bay. Its media was first to show Iraqi prisoners of wars, but when US POWs were shown on Iraqi TV or the Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera, US leaders started talking about the Geneva Convention and human rights. The US has not even joined the International Criminal Court.
This war on Iraq without support from the United Nations Security Council is illegal. In the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the war is against the UN charter. Yes, the US and the UK do want the United Nations involved in the reconstruction of Iraq, as if the body is a mere non-governmental organization (NGO), one of many. His Holiness Pope John Paul and most religious leaders around the world are opposed to this unjust war. This writer had a ringside view of the 1991 Gulf War in Amman. A clear case of Iraqi aggression against the independent state of Kuwait had been established.
It was opposed by all Arab and Muslim countries. Their governments were able to contain the anger and frustrations of the masses. Since then, they and the world have watched the butchery being enacted daily by the state of Israel. There are daily demonstrations in Arab cities, as well as cities around the world, against the war and the killing of civilians in Basra, Baghdad and elsewhere. With Ariel Sharon in power, a mention of the road map for a solution of the Israeli-Palestinian problem made by George Bush before the war - apparently more as an afterthought than anything else - has not fooled anyone. There could soon be total chaos verging on civil war in northern Iraq, with such little US presence in that turbulent area and no agreement with Turkey.
It was rumored in Amman during the 1991 Gulf War that Saddam Hussein had been warned that Baghdad would be nuked if he used his weapons of mass destruction. This time he, his family and supporters have only one choice - to fight to the finish. He will use whatever means are left in his hands. Iraq is now very much weaker than it was in 1991, but Saddam Hussein and his reliable Republican Guards, fedayeen and other forces will defend Baghdad and other cities and towns to the last. It is strange that the cold warriors in Washington have forgotten that Iraq's Republican Guard troops are battle tested, many with experience of hand-to-hand land battles against fanatic Iranian revolutionaries. It is bringing death and devastation onto the poor hapless long-suffering Iraqi population, and the consequences will be unpredictable. It will fully ignite the Crusade vs Jihad conflict.
Let there be no doubt about it. This war only exposes the bankruptcy of Anglo-Saxon policy, when 19th century methods of "bomb the natives, frighten and numb them by force", are being used to handle complicated 21st century problems of Islamic fundamentalism. In the words of Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Bush is leading the world into unchartered waters, and bin Laden must be chuckling, wherever he might be.
What is being achieved is beyond bin Laden's wildest dreams. "<<
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