IS AMERICA BLIND OR LESS MORAL?
Viewpoint: For publication and distribution without permission
By Nassir M. Al-Ajmi:
Former: Executive Vice President, Saudi Aramco and Former President, Saudi Railway Org.
The Middle East, home of honored human cultures, intellectual thought and monolithic faiths, has become the battle ground of evil forces. The air is infected with the smell of corpses, burning homes, debris, US depleted uranium weapons and thick dust caused by Israeli bulldozers tearing down Palestinian homes and refugee camps. These evil actions and reactions have altered lives, displaced families in huge numbers and created tremendous fear, sadness and despair.
The American/Israeli atrocities are viewed in the region and most of the world as complementary strategies intended to humiliate and subjugate the Middle East landscape. These oppressive American/Israeli actions have dominated the region since World War II and have hatched the perverted child named terrorism. It is very sad to witness the cradle of civilization crumble down in smoke under the cruel and shameful boots of those who claim the guardianship of liberty and civilization. America, the most powerful nation on earth still practices western style to settle differences only with bigger guns and weapons of mass destruction.
Although the world over knew for quite sometime that the current US administration had a pre-set contemptuous attitude and hostile policies towards the Middle East, no one in the world could have contemplated that American armed forces were capable of such contemptible atrocities! Most of us in the Middle East never gave much credence to the American Mission in Iraq, because the current US administration has been less truthful, flagrantly unjust and perhaps less moral in its handling of Middle East issues. The unfolding of the Abu Ghraib scandal has turned ‘Operation Freedom’ into a futile exercise of contrition and damage control as the world watches in shock and America is in a painful state of self-denial.
As a result of their war blunders and Abu Ghraib prison criminal scandal, the guardians of freedom and democracy have found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time indeed. In the eyes of the World, President Bush and his clique have managed to humiliate themselves politically and morally through their war blunders, diplomatic arrogance and, as a result have damaged America’s international posture. The following quotation from an article published by the ‘Mirror.co.uk’ depicts the world view of the current US administration:
‘Unelected in 2000, the Washington regime of George W. Bush is now totalitarian, captured by a clique whose fanaticism and ambitions of ‘endless war’ and ‘full spectrum dominance’ are a matter of record. The entire world knows their names: Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Cheney and Perle, and Powell, the false liberal. Bush’s State of the Union speech last night was reminiscent of that other great moment in 1938 when Hitler called his generals together and told them: ‘I must have war’ He then had it. The current American elite is the Third Reich of our times, although this distinction ought not to let us forget that they have merely accelerated more than half a century of unrelenting American state terrorism: from the atomic bombs dropped cynically on Japan as a signal for their new power to the dozens of countries invaded, directly or by proxy, to destroy democracy wherever it collided with American ‘interests’, such as a voracious appetite for the world’s resources, like oil.’
Source: http:/www.mirror.co.uk/printable_version.cfm?objectid=12581179&siteid=50143
Embarrassed by its dismal performance on the war front, shameful war crime scandals and pressured by re-election schedules, the Bush administration is in a state of disarray to say the least. The order of the day is damage control by any and all means. President Bush and his Secretary of Defence, Mr. Rumsfeld have told the world, including Americans, that the extent of the American war crimes in Iraq is not yet fully known, but they insisted that such war crimes are isolated and involve a very small number of misguided individuals. How do they know that these war crimes, which include homicides, rapes and torture, were small and isolated if they did not know the extent of these criminal scandals?
I watched and listened to President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, Richard Perle and Senator James Inhofe minify barbaric American treatment and torture of Iraqi prisoners (in American custody) and describing such actions as un-American, isolated and committed by a few low ranking soldiers. As I listened to their highly defensive explanations, it sounded as if they expected the Arabs, Muslims and the World over to believe and accept their point of view and move on. I was amazed and disappointed to listen to the President of the United States of America and his colleagues comparing American interrogation standards and treatment of war prisoners to those of Saddam Hussein and to the standards of mobs and terrorists. How low can they go?
The words un-American, isolated and small struck a sensitive and doubting nerve in my brain. So, I decided to open Yahoo search and look up the history of American war crimes and found a long official roster of the rich history of American war crimes going as far back as the American Revolutionary War (1776). The Yahoo search roster includes American State Terrorism and war crimes in almost all wars fought by American Armed Forces. Are all these war crimes un-American, isolated and small? Listening to President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld, one might think that the Abu Ghraib scandal is the first war crime committed by US Armed Forces.
Unfortunately the Abu Ghraib criminal and moral tragedy is turning into a political football between democrats and republicans in a highly publicized election year. It is therefore difficult to judge, how much does this moral tragedy truly weigh on the American conscience? Should Christianity, Western/American culture, American democratic principles and the American way of life be accused, tried and convicted on the basis of these war crimes? I raise this question because I believe in the American expression ‘what is good for the goose is good for the gander’. To pretend that these war crimes are un-American, isolated and small is simply not true and not enough. The people who committed these immoral and criminal atrocities are in the chain of command of the American Armed Forces and wear the military uniform. They are not mobs, outlaws or terrorists.
In order to put important events in perspective, allow me to go back to the aftermath of September 11, when it became known that nineteen (19) misguided Arab terrorists were found to be responsible for that evil and deplorable tragedy. Official American attitude was turned into a vindictive campaign of unparalleled proportions against Islam, Muslims and Arabs. The American campaign fury against Arabs and Muslims before and after September 11 took different shapes and forms and was downright ugly and shameful:
Before September 11
• The Arab World is an Anti-Christ world – Webber & Hutchings, Is this the Last Century?
• If the US ever turns its back on Israel, we will no longer exist as a nation – Writer-Lectureer Hal Lindsey
• Theologically any Christian has to support Israel… if we fail to protect Israel, we will cease to be important to God – Jerry Falwell
• Dispensational beliefs reduce ‘the complex and diverse societies of Africa, Asia and the Middle East to walk-on roles as allies of Gog in God’s great end-time drama…the consensus was clear: prophetic imperatives required the elimination of Arabs not only from (Jerusalem) but from most of the Middle East…they stood in the way of God’s promises to the Jews.’ – Paul Boyer, When Time shall be no More.
My suggested response to those who define Arabs and Muslims as Anti-Christ Gogs, is to read and study the Holy Koran and to see how Arabs and Muslims dignify and glorify Jesus, Mary and all God’s prophets and messengers.
After September 11
• ‘We should invade (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity’, columnist Ann Coulter.
• ‘Just turn (the sheriff) loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the State line’, Rep. C. Saxby Chamlilies (R-GA).
• ‘Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith where God sent his son to die for you.’ Attorney General John Ashcroft.
• ‘(Islam) is a very evil and wicked religion, wicked, violent and not of the same God (as Christianity).’ Rev. Franklin Graham.
Although I have been a devoted student and supporter of Arab/American rocky relations for many years, I have never observed them in such a state of deterioration. The goodwill of the majority of Arabs and Americans is being held hostage by arrogantly unjust American foreign policy/occupation and vicious Arab terrorism. The more I dig into the history of these two apposing forces (American Middle East policy/occupation and Arab terrorism), the closer I come to the logical conclusion of cause and effect relationship. Again, as I try to establish which force is the cause and which force is the effect, I come to the factual conclusion that American Middle East one-sided policy, in favor of Israel, preceded Arab terrorism by more than thirty (30) years of deprivation and injustice.
The ceaseless usurpation of Arab land,, constant displacement of Arab people and the perpetual American support of Israel have been the source, the Mother and the Father of the unwelcome Arab terrorism and regional upheavals. In this regard, the United States has used the veto more than seventy (70) times nearly half of these Security Council vetoes were in support of Israel against the will of the World over. What is happening in Iraq and Palestine today is American foreign policy in action on the ground and in prisons.
President Bush is not likely to win his war on terrorism unilaterally or by employing American weapons of mass destruction. Yes, Mr. Bush will likely waste billions of dollars, kill thousands of Americans and innocent civilians, change governments, decimate civil societies but will never gain the hearts and minds, wipe out terrorism or win the peace unless the underlying causes of terrorism are acknowledged and justly addressed. As a result of his unilateral and ‘rush to judgment’ approach, the international coalition against terrorism has stumbled; international opinion provoked worldwide anti-American sentiment and increased war costs with comparatively modest outcomes. President Bush must recognize that the distance between success and failure is the American international credibility which has been freefalling to unprecedented levels.
Does this mean we should not fight terrorism or submit to the law of the jungle? absolutely not. The question is not whether we should or should not fight terrorism. It is how should the world fight terrorism? The answer to the question will become obvious when the World recognizes that terrorism is a conveniently misnomered phenomenon of complex social, political and criminal issues. The intentionally and erroneously coined simplification (terrorism) made it impossible to develop appropriate solutions to these intricate issues, within the civilized codes, democratic principles and the due process of law. The answer is not the American/Israeli marching armies, tanks, bulldozers and weapons of mass destruction – the answer is plain and simple – justice. The World must recognize that terrorism is not faith related, it is not culture related, it is not race related but atrocious hegemony related and it is political and socio-economic related.
Having said all that, I wish to add that America is a great nation with many wonderful and compassionate people and it has a similar proportion of bad apples (people) as do other human societies on planet earth. I say this, not as an adversary, but as a student of truth, wisdom and human understanding. Many good Americans and Arabs have tried, for many years, to bridge the cultural gap and further Arab/American understanding and mutual co-operation only to find their efforts repeatedly frustrated and destroyed by arrogant and hostile American Middle East Policies. American submission and perpetually unlimited and unfair support of Israeli occupation and atrocities over the years has become the bedrock of Middle East terrorism and instability.
I guess the Arabs, Americans and the rest of the World are now living the prediction/prophecy of the great American – Benjamin Franklin!
e-mail: nassirajmi@hotmail.com |
