Egoistic Empire strikes again
(Victim No. 216: Republic of Iraq)

“It’s gonna be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringin’ her bell”
(The Angry American) – one of the most-played songs
on American country music stations these days.

Columnist Muhammad Irshad calls the US an aggressor nation.

Ninety minutes after the deadline given to Saddam Hussein by President Bush to leave Iraq, the United States and her allies launched a devastating attack on the Arab country. The initial attack of bombs and missiles targeted locations, where top Iraqi leaders were known to be present. Massive aerial bombardment and ground attacks followed in the later days.
As the world watches in helpless horror, bombs continue to blast the lives and limbs of the people of Iraq in a war which is much more farcical mismatch of power than it was in 1991. The final human toll by this naked display of man’s worst instinct may never be known, as it was not in Afghanistan. It is only the victors who count and mourn their dead, the vanquished bury their’s in mass graves. Millions and millions across the continents cried for “No war” and prayed for giving chance to diplomacy and peace efforts, but the United States of Arrogance refused to care for their sentiments. The United Nations refused to endorse the attack on Iraq, which the head of the Egoist empire wanted almost at gunpoint, and when three of the five permanent members (France, Russia and China) refused to oblige, President Bush rudely brushed aside the august organisation by making it clear that the attack shall be there, with or without the consent of United Nations.
The American president talks of a vast silent majority with him, but it appears to be an attack where America and its only two allies are on one side and almost the whole of the world, on the other side. So serious is the split that some consider it as the start of the Third World War. Those believing in numerology are quoting an interesting coincidence. The war started on the third day, of the third week of the third month of the third year of the third millennium. The three As (Aussie- Anglo-American) are hell bent on destroying Baghdad which is being destroyed for third time in the recorded history since the year 762 AD (The Mongols attacked it in 1258, the Americans in 1991 and again in 2003). And this time the attack may well ignite the Third World War.
This certainly will not be the first time America is embarking on a military crusade of interfering in others affairs. America has a long, rather the longest history of making such interferences. Motivated by its self-interests and believing that might is right, America has proved to be a modern day demon. The United States of Arrogance has sent troops abroad and its military has struck other countries for 216 times since its independence. Its secret agency CIA is known to have conspired to overthrow popular world leaders or kill them if they were not working for American interests on more than 100 occasions. The Americans have actually dropped bombs on 23 countries. Obviously the sufferers include millions of people of different religions, colours, races and regions. The full details of American atrocities probably exist in many books, one such research has been done by a North American Muslim researcher Dr Amir Ali and his paper is available on the internet.
All the reasons given by US to attack the country which once was the cradle of civilisation, turned out to be “mere reasons”, and President Bush has been too quick to keep changing the reasons. Firstly, the attack was necessary because Saddam Hussein was a dangerous man who even tried to kill Bush (Sr) during his visit to Kuwait, then Iraq was declared as a part of “Axis of Evil”, then Saddam was a dictator who used chemical and biological weapons against his own people, then Saddam Hussein had links with Al-Qaeda, and lately it is because he has weapons of mass destruction. The cry about the disarmament of Iraq was always a hollow and cynical pretext. No one with any real knowledge of the situation believed that Iraq, on its knees from two disastrous wars and from 12 years of punitive sanctions, presented any sort of “imminent threat” to anyone. In fact from the start last November, when the UN inspectors returned to Iraq under Security Council Resolution 1441, the Washington hawks wanted the inspectors to fail and then pressed impatiently for war once the inspections showed not enough juice in Iraq to seriously hurt the American forces.
The talk of “Liberating Iraq” and giving “real democracy to Iraqis” must be considered as a cruel joke. Let there be no doubt that Iraqi people will be butchered, its resources plundered, its land devasted and its soil will be used as testing ground for the latest lethal weapons, all in the name of Liberation. Also, America has a long history of crushing democracies and supporting and installing dictators who would dance to her tunes. For example, In 1973, in Chile, the CIA orchestrated a coup, killing President Allende, who had been popularly elected and helped to establish a military regime under General Pinochet. In 1954, the CIA overthrew in Guatemala, the democratically elected government of Arbenz and placed Colonel Armas in power. Earlier in 1953, CIA had orchestrated the democratically elected Mossadegh and restored the Shah of Iran to power in our neighbourhood. The sole superpower shall carry its tools of democracy on tanks, battleships, B-52s, Tomohawks, MOAB and many other ordinances for the poor oppressed and disarmed Iraqis absolutely against their will.
Oil must be an important reason, as Iraq is the world’s second largest reservoir of oil after Saudi Arabia. Thus all the contracts, concessions and bright business opportunities for America’s big oil industry will be there, whenever Saddam is replaced by America-loving Iraqis. Also in reconstructing the Iraqi economy, use of Iraqi oil will not only pay for rebuilding the war-ravaged Iraq, but also the cost of US invasion – A time honoured practice of all imperial powers that use the victim’s resources to recover the cost of the invasion. US oil giants will make lots of money and gas will be cheap in America. The security of Israel is another important factor which every president of America wishes to ensure, much more than ensuring the safety of his own family. Yes these two must be the reasons which were considered more important than crushing an estimated 50,000 Iraqi civilians and an uncalculated amount of devastation caused by the war attacks on Iraq. However, the real reason of war has much bigger aims. It is about implementation of a vast strategic plan.
Washington is intoxicated by the vision of imposing a Pax Americana on the Arab world, on the model of the “Imperial order” which the British imposed on the entire region in an earlier age—-having Gulf and South Arabian strong points protecting the route to India, its occupation of Egypt in 1882, and then the extension of its rule after the First World War to some of the provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire. The result was the creation under British auspices of Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan.
With bases across the region from Oman to Central Asia , America is now seeking to recreate the British Empire at its apogee. The occupation of Iraq, a major Arab country at the strategic heart of the region, will allow the United States to control the resources of the Middle East and reshape its geopolitics to its advantage – or so the Anglo American strategists hope.
American dominance on the world stage is hardly new: the United States was the richest country in the world way back in 1910, and was possibly the deciding factor in both world wars. It is certainly true that in the years following World War II, America’s GDP was fully 50% of world wide production. The present American military might and economic size is awe-inspiring. The United States will spend as much next year on defence as the rest of the world put together (yes, all 191 countries). And it will do so devoting 4 percent of its GDP, a low level by post-war standards. American dominance is not simply military. The US economy is as large as the next three – Japan, Germany and Britain – put together. With 5 percent of the world’s population, this one country accounts for 43 percent of the world’s economic production, 40 percent of its high-technology production and 50 percent of its research and development.
Such a tremendous military and economic might is making her leadership drunk in power pursuit. The nice things one is taught in school and the nice things one expects from a man of stature do not exist with the American leaders. The signals being transmitted by them are almost close to the signals the world has listened on many early occasions. Like the ones from Pharaohs, Namrood, Hitler and Halaku Khan. The attack on Iraq was a clear indication that America has no more need for the United Nations, unless UNO is willing to be a good rubber stamp of the American thinking. It also gave signals that it does not care for the Western Alliance and European unity. Also the global order that Law of Jungle does not prevail was established by great efforts, but the recent attack on Iraq without any UN backing is nothing but a manifestation that Law of Jungle or “Might is Right” is the only prevalent law. This thinking alone is going to make the world a very difficult and uneasy place to live, particularly for the weak nations.
The perception abroad of a new American egoistic attitude is even more serious. A number of US actions — rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming; refusal of initial offers of NATO help in Afghanistan; rejection of agreements to create an International Criminal Court, banning land mines and restricting chemical and biological warfare; as well as the US declaration of a “first strike” policy — have convinced foreign observers that the United States no longer feels any need to consult its friends or, indeed, any need for friends at all. The above are the international agreements to which the majority of the world agreed but the Americans did not, but another serious side of the story is that America does not even care for many agreements signed by her. For example, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, forbidding the development of shields such as the Star Wars fantasy, which the United States did actually sign is now being refuted. Ah, says the Bush people, we didn’t sign that treaty with Russia. We signed it with the Soviet Union which is no more there! There is a list of about a dozen more such agreements.
Rather being ashamed of it, the American leadership is proud of all such actions. The word for this might be unilateralism – a superpower that openly proclaims that it recognizes no interests except its own. The so-called Powell Doctrine, named for Colin Powell himself, states with beautiful simplicity that the United States reserves the right to act only in its own interests, to do so with overwhelming force, and to disregard any tedious legalisms that might stand in its way. (This also exempts the United States from participating in bleeding-heart humanitarian missions it doesn’t like.) Such views are being discussed openly by many American leaders, for example, at LA’s Shadow Convention in July 2000, Sen. John McCain said: “I believe in American exceptionalism. I believe we were meant to transform history. I believe that the progress of all humanity will depend, as it has for many years now, on the global progress of American interests and values. I believe we are still the last, best hope of earth”. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell share this position. These views on “exceptionalism” and America’s superiority are dangerously self-delusionary. They may see this role as the promulgation of the refined American way across the world, but the rest of the world is unlikely to be receptive.
Thus although because of American technological advancement, great military potential and strong financial backing, the results of the war are almost known, the world still cheers at any Iraqi resistance to express the sentiments of millions whom the American masters had treated with tyranny, arrogance, bullying, conceit, deceit and bad taste, and the world shall remember this war as a criminal enterprise, unjustified, unprovoked, illegitimate, catastrophic for the Iraqi victims of conflict. The United States, once so admired over most of the earth, is now seen as a nuclear bully. And President Bush thinks they hate us for “our freedom, our democracy”?
When America acts like a wild beast, the world is horrified, but there are two countries which really rejoice. Israel and India. The men driving Bush to war are mostly former or still active pro-Israeli lobbyist. For years they have advocated destroying the most powerful Arab nation. Richard Perle, one of Bush’s most influential advisors, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and Donald Rumsfeld were all campaigning for the overthrow of Iraq, long before George W Bush was elected – if he was elected—US President. And they were not doing so for the benefit of Americans or Britons. A 1996 report, A clean Break: A new strategy for securing the realm (http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm) called for removal of Saddam Hussein as a key Israeli objective and as a means of weakening Syria. It was written not for the US but for the incoming Likud Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and produced by a group headed by Richard Perle (Yes! Same person who is now chief advisor to President Bush). Attack on Iraq is a fulfilment of the Jewish dream. The destruction of Iraq will of course, protect Israel’s monopoly of nuclear weapons and allow it to defeat the Palestinians and impose whatever colonial settlement Sharon has in store for them.
Unfortunately, USA and Britain have set up such a horrible precedence of attacking a country beyond UN sanctions that others can very easily follow suit. Israel is already continuing its gory plot to attack and kill Palestinians, destroy their homes and bulldoze their streets at the slightest provocation and the UN and the rest of the world take no notice. India was always spearheading the world in inflicting horrible torture on its own people particularly the Muslims. The American illegal action and the world’s inaction will give India a lots of encouragement to go unrestrained in committing atrocities on the so-called its own Kashmiris. The hapless Kashmiris under Indian occupation forces who are miserably suffering since many decades are now likely to be victims of Indian bio and chemical warfare. These weapons are so lethal that they will not only destroy humanity but also maim and mutilate future generations. India itself should know better from what its own citizens faced in Bhopal and continue to suffer after the Union carbide disaster.
Startling revelations have been made by an unlikely but authentic source. Dr Ken Alibeck, formerly the first deputy chief for the Soviet/Russian Offensive Biological Weapons programme, known as Bio Preparat, in a recent interview to “Homeland Defence Journal” disclosed that “India has continued to pursue a strong and active development and storage of biological weapons programme, despite being a signatory to 1975 convention banning development and storage of biological weapons. According to him, Indian Weapons Research Centre at Gwalior and Defence and Reasearch Organisation (DRDO) are engaged in research and production of biological weapons which can cause various deadly diseases like Anthrax, Plague, Small Pox and Epidemic Tyohus. Being a signatory to 1975 convention, India does not maintain any stockpile of biological weapons in the country. However, it is hoodwinking international authorities by maintaining stocks of these prohibited weapons in Bhutan, under strict vigilance of Indian Army troops. Emboldened by the US-British war mongering, the sabre rattling BJP leaders armed with their nuclear arsenal can take up arms against any neighbour at the slightest pretext. World sanctity must unite to put an end to the misery of the Iraqi civilians and ensure that no war mongering nations, India and Israel inclusive, can take punitive action against other countries under false and trumped up pretexts
The American attack has spread great anxiety among the Arab world. The Sheikhs, kings and Presidents are falling over backwards to placate the new lord of imperialism. Whose turn it will be next? And in this speculation, Pakistan is no exception. The nuclear capability with which it deterred India for more than two decades, was always seen by the west with a malicious eye. Abandoning Muslim brother Talibans was a very high sacrifice given by Pakistan, which may still be considered too less by Washington. Islamabad got away relatively cheaply in the Security Council recently by sitting on the fence and offering only an abstention in case the US-UK second resolution was put to vote. A bigger test is waiting when the question of aggression against Iraq is raised in the General Assembly or the Security Council. If Pakistan abstains then it would forfeit the right to seek UN help when it is the target. So the chess board is filled with all tricky situations. Pakistan government obviously needs to take every step with wisdom and precautions. The third millennium was to be an era of peace but we are off to an indeed disastrous start.