A tyrant, assailed by tyranny
When words run out it is time for resignation - for being reconciled to the inevitable - or for worse. With Iraq it's the worst now happening - a tyrant at home being assailed by tyranny from abroad.
Only this time there is nothing the Tyrant of Baghdad could have done to avert war. The inspections were a sham, or at least a sham from America's point of view. Hans Blix's team could have discovered an El Dorado of forbidden weaponry and America would still have gone to war.
The US, or rather the war caucus now at the steering wheel of US policy, has its own agenda, something that goes beyond Iraq and predates September 11. The war caucus wanted a war in the Middle East for a host of reasons all inter-connected. Oil, Israel, the entrenchment of US power (as if any more entrenchment were needed) and Christian evangelism have all been at work in priming the US for this war.
Islamic fundamentalism is not the problem here. A form of Christian fundamentalism is. If he lived and ruled in our part of the world Bush's view of religion would brand him a bigot. An ayatollah in the White House - supported by a corps of ayatollahs around him. If Shias take offence at this metaphor, then a mullah in the White House.
Reading about the war caucus and their inter-connecting threads - the ones that bind Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rove, Abrams, and their fellow-cohorts - will give anyone the creeps. And to imagine that they have a sophisticated country, the most powerful on earth to boot, in their grip.
Bush rules the US. These people, Bush's minders, their moment having come, rule Bush.
In a fundamental respect this is worse than Hitler. No one pushed Hitler into any war. He was war's leading advocate and indeed in 'Mein Kampf' sketched a grand theoretical basis for conflict, Germany's need for living space, a good 15 years before the Second World War.
Bush was an isolationist before September 11. Many in the war caucus had laid out their blueprints for redrawing the Mideast map and ensuring Israel's unchallenged dominance much before. Not Bush. He was not even interested in foreign policy. Now he is war leader, the triumph of the war caucus complete.
Nothing could have deflected Hitler from going to war. No appeasement, no Munich. He wanted war at any cost. Nothing could have prevented the onslaught on Iraq. The Bushites (another name for the war caucus) wanted war at any cost. Saddam just happened to be the perfect excuse, with just the right credentials as a domestic tyrant to invoke justifying clauses about morality and human rights. If Saddam hadn't been around, he would have had to be invented. The Bushites wanted war and they've got it.
From their point of view the perfect war. A weak country, or at least a country no match for the US. An Iraqi army in no position to put up a fight. Between Kuwait where the US armored columns were massed and Baghdad, the ultimate prize, the only serious obstacle is the vast desert.
China, even though without air power, taught the US a lesson in Korea. But that was on a different scale, the Chinese analogy not fitting Iraq. Vietnam taught the US a lesson. Even tiny Cuba, dauntless Cuba, taught the US a lesson during the Bay of Pigs invasion. Alas, Iraq is neither the one, nor the other. Nor is its foolish leader a patch on Ho Chi Minh or Castro. Iraq thus is the perfect victim and Saddam with his megalomania, for which his people have paid such a heavy price, the perfect excuse.
Will the annihilation of Iraq satisfy the war caucus? Or will its appetite be whetted for more? What are the limits of American arrogance? Or, in other words, after Iraq, who? No one can say for sure.
Excerpted from "When words run out" by Ayaz Amir of Dawn
Topics: Conflicts And War, History, Iraq, Legislative Branch, War
Views: 2871
Related Suggestions
Palestine (occupied/raped/violated from 1948 - Present)
Lebanon, Palestine (1982, 30k+ muslims murdered)
Libya (1984-86, hundreds murdered, Kadafi's baby daughter murdered)
Iran (1980's - US Puppet Saddam Hussain invades)
Iraq (US Puppet Saddam Hussain massacres Kurds and Shiites while US Govt. sits back and says nothing, does nothing)
Chechnya (Fighting Russian's for Independence being murdered by Russian army to Present)
Balkans (Former Yugoslavia) (US Air raids displace millions of muslims in the region)
Iraq (1991, President watches while Saddam massacres shiite population rebelling against him, and in the process has bombed shelters, hospitals, homes, water supplies, sewage, etc., then slapping them with 12 years of unnecessary Food for Oil Sanctions and carpet air bombings on an average of every 2 days since the end of Gulf War in Northern Iraq by USA and Britain, that have only centralized the power of Saddam Hussain even further than ever before!)
Iraq (2003, President Jr. wants to be like daddy because, "This man tried to kill my father", and because he wants to create a "domino effect" for democracy in the region)
Ignorace is Bliss....
Out of which Arrogance is Born.
WE WILL NEVER FORGET.....................PLEASE ADD MORE ATROCITIES AGAINST MUSLIMS
NO BLOOD FOR OIL
WAGE PEACE, NOT WAR
HOMES, NOT BOMBS
Relations between the U.S and Iran have been better in the past few years, according to the U.S gov't, than at any time during the past 30 years.
If the U.S is really out to destroy Muslims, then why did we sent thousands of troops to Bosnia to stop Milosevic from killing thousands of innocent Muslims? All Arabs seem to conveniently forget that conflict, although they supposed remember the British occupation of Iraq 1915-1922.
A: Iran.
Q: Then who?
A: Arabia - by then the SAUDI might have been removed.
"THEY PLAN AND ALLAH PLANS. AND ALLAH IS THE BEST PLANER"
copy and paste it into your browser window
http://www.msnbc.com/news/889490.asp?cp1=1#BODY
HOW..
IS IT THAT WHEN A ILLEGAL ALIEN GIVES BIRTH TO A CHILD IN AMERICA..THAT CHILD IS CONSIDERED TO BE A U.S. CITIZEN...AND ENTITLED TO FINICAL AID AND HEALTH CARE...AND BOTH MOTHER AND CHILD CAN STAY IN AMERICA...I AS A TAX PAYER DON'T AGREE WITH THIS BUT THAT IS ANOTHER STORY. WOULD THIS
CASE (MOTHER AND BABY)BE TRUE IN IRAQ OR IN MANY
OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD..I DON'T THINK SO. YOU MAY ASUME YOUR POSITION TO BE MORAL....BUT
THEN MOST DICTATERS AND KINGDOMS ARE NOT PUTTING
THIS TO A VOTE BY THE PEOPLE....I HOPE YOU UNDER STAND THAT.
FIVE OR TEN YEARS FROM NOW WILL THE
USA STILL BE IN IRAQ....I HOPE NOT...BUT WILL IT
TAKE AMERICAN FORCES TO KEEP OUT...IRAQI NEIBOUR
FROM HELPING THEMSELVES TO IRAQI OIL FIELDS....
I HOPE NOT AFTER ALL THEY DIDN'T HAVE THE BACKBONE
TO OPPOSE SUDDAM IN THE FIRST PLACE....HE WILL SOON BE GONE ...HISTORY WILL TELL THE BIG STORY OF
THIS REGION OF THE WORLD...WILL OIL RICH ARIB NATIONS HELP IRAQI PEOPLE...OR TRY TO HELP THEMSELVES TO THE OIL FIELDS INSTEAD...IF YOU ASSUME THE WORST...MAYBE TO ASK GERMANS..ITALIANS
AND JAPANESE DO THEY PROSPER UNDER DEMOCERCY OR WOULD THEY RATHER BE UNDER DICTORIAL RULE AS THEY WERE BEFORE AMERICA SET THEM FREE..TO ASSUME...
MAKES ...ASS of U and ME. GOD BLESS YOU ALL...GOOD DAY ....FRANK E. HALL 2232501 USMC RET
Anyone trying to defend the Taliban or Saddam absolutely doesn't have a clue to human misery.
Saddam has a perfect record of brutality, death and starvation while building such beautiful palaces. That makes perfect sense.
Bosnia and Kosovo, would there be any Muslim's alive in those countries today had there been no US intervention?
To read some of these postings a person would believe the US has started carpet bombing the world and nukes will be used while the Imperialist US government turns the Middle East into US territories. And the next thing you can expect is Burger King, McDonald's and a Kroger in every neighborhood.
It's time to reflect upon ourselves and view things from different angles.
But keep talking Rob you are interesting us, we can't get enough of your posts.
Have we ever stopped to ask why Allah keeps punishing us? Could it be because we are not the angelic victims we attempt to portray ourselves as?
As any non-Arab Muslim who has travelled to the middle east would testify, the arabs are as arrogant as a people can be. No Non-arab Muslim would ever be considered an equal to an Arab Muslim. And never would they have the right to live in an Arab country with the same rights of an Arab. The arabs have forgotton the last sermon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The greatest tyrants in the world over are Muslims. Saddam, King Fahd, Hosni Mubarak, etc. Muslims are responsible for the deaths of more Muslims than any other people combined.
Until we face up to what we are and that we are on the wrong path, how can we ever correct ourselves?
It is possible for us to show some humility? To show some gratefullness to Allah for his blessings?
All I see are Muslims grumbling, complaining, cursing and seething in hatred.
Where is the peity, mercy, kindness, and humbleness?
but the Americans are the only people willing to fight for
the freedom of others. Maybe deluded or manipulated by
evil politicians, but American soldiers will still happily go
to their deaths if they think they are advancing freedom.
I think that this article is an attempt to shift the focus of the debate from the real issue of Saddam's sins against humanity to a personal attack upon the personality of our nations leader.
You may dislike the messenger but you can not disagree with the message.
What saddens me more is the the lack of coallition between Muslim states to codemn this illegal war.
As a chold I was told by my mother that a bully's may be bigger and stronger than you but you have faith and you take a stand together you can overcome any bully. WShe was not wrong the USA is a bully and the time has come to say NO, NO more, Enough is enough.
I pray for the innocent Iraqi's
Does it really make sense to die for Jihad and do Muslims really believe they will hook up with all of these virgins in heaven? I really don't care what religion a person relies on as long as they don't try to infect me with it. The nuts on the religous right in America (Robertson, Falwell) are just as disgusting as Rabbi Meir Kahane or Sheik Omar. Of course I pray that Sheik Omar spends every glorious day of the rest of his life behind bars in an American jail. Because he is truly evil.
I totally agree with your commentary. The important question remains is. Why is it that the governments of the region espesially in the Middle East are providing cooperation and facilities for such aggressions. One might go back to historical statement of "Divide and rule". What is needed today in the world in general is cooperation. What Middle East specifically the Arab speaking nations need is unification. So far as Arab leadership is concerned this is a task at distance. What the Arab nations need is true unified leadership. The ideology is there. Islam is most unifying force. What the arab world need is a leadership based on unifying force of Islam to move on. As long as there is division, and deception in the Arab nations the war mongers in Washington and London are apt to take advantage. For those of us who thought the era of colonilism was over were dead wrong. Today we face Imperilism as the economic power and neo-colonialism as the political power of Capitalism. The fall of Soviet Union and collapse of State Capitalist socio-economic power. We face greater aggression because the market division between powers on both side of the Atlantic has to take place. Non of them especially the "Sole Superpower" as eventually becoming a "Hyper power" cares to rule or govern with same old rules. Bacause old rules dose not apply any more. So open hand, more arrogant, and aggrasive.
The war cacus have been there. They have always been there. If up untill today we did not hear a louder voice. It was because the game was different. The rules were plyed with different headlines. Today the curtaines are drawn. the masks are removed. The true faces of Capitalism as we know it is more apparent. The war makers are gonna be busier than ever and that is no surprise. What remaines for the oppressed is unity to oppose. Otherwise, we are doomed to live in our own misery with no one to blame but ourselves.
- Buy French or German products instead
- Fly European airlines
- Do not go to the U.S. on vacation, choose France or Germany instead
- If you have any assets in the U.S., convert them to Euro's in European banks
- IF you can choose between flying in a Boeing or an Airbus, choose Airbus
- Do not buy U.S. made cars, equipment etc.
- We cannot win a "convential" war, but we sure can make a difference: imagine 1 billion muslims adopting some or all of the above recommendations.
"Do not make personal attacks on others. "
My answer to your questions is shed light is better!, but ask yourself, do you know how to shedlight in this situations Mr. AKBAR?
Thereafter, I would expect that the armed forces of my country would be placed at the disposal of that state. In any event, it would surely be fool-hardy for us (Americans) to attack it.
Peace be upon you. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
As for your clearly uneducated comments on religion, Osama Bin Laden, and peace Mr. Mishael, it goes to show that you have no idea what you are talking about, just giving vague and unintelligent comments. When George W. Bush said in his speeches, that "either your with us, or against us", and "God is on OUR side", and this is between right and wrong", of "good versus evil", what sort of message is this lunatic sending to the peaceful, civilized world, and how is the US media using this to brainwash American people are the outcomes which are clear and apparent. Saddam can claim that God is on his side, and Bush can claim that God is on his side...but when it comes down to it, every shred of evidence that teh British Dossier of Tony Blair, and the arguments used by Colin Powell before the United Nations, were literally CUT AND PASTE from some completely out of date university student's essay...even teh spelling mistakes were copied! Let me say it to you like this.....if you are truly a religious individual, then what is better, to curse the dark, or to shed light?? America's complete and outright disrespect for history and other nations of the world, violating the Geneva Convention and International Law, by waging a war on a country, illegally invading it, and occupying a foreign land are what outrage the people who see the truth of the matter. Islam gave peace for more than ONE THOUSAND YEARS to Christians, jews, muslims, and Americas democracy for not even 75 years to be shoved down Iraqi's throats?? Get out of Iraq!!!
And I don't think there is a problem with religions either, no problem with christians or muslims. True christians only wants peace. and I believe that muslim also wants peace. right? :)
I believe that Suddam has more treat to the world, just like Bin laden (terrorist leader)