- A 15th century Ottoman Sultan Murat II arranged for Mehmet
II , not the favourite son , to be trained in the art of governing at the
capital city Edirne ,under an able Grand Vizier. Mehmet II had been a wild
and disobedient brat, so Murat II advised his teacher use of the rod ,
which was done to good effect. A Sunni, Sultan Mehmet II fell under the
unwholesome influence of a Shia cleric, fought with the Grand Vizier and
the military Janissaries rebelled. Before Mehmet II could create further
mess, Murat II returned from Manisa, where he had retired for spiritual
pursuits and took back the reins of the empire.
-
- US President George W. Bush, has made such an unholy
mess of US polity and its foreign policy that Papa George W. H Bush, a
former President , had to create a bipartisan Baker-Hamilton Commission,
not only to salvage , whatever remains of his son's Presidency, but to
arrest the fast decline of the hyper power, still with enormous powers
of destruction. Bush courtiers, led by the Neo-cons with their racist Staussian
policies, till 2003 were claiming Washington to be the new Rome, but alas
without redeeming graces of an empire, are now ratting on the Bush Regime.
-
- With the Ottoman star on the rise , after the course
correction , Mehmet II went on to conquer Constantinople in 1453 , became
Fethi (the Victorious ) and extinguished the millennia old Byzantine empire.
This laid the foundations for the Ottoman expansion westwards who twice
knocked at the Gates of Vienna, a memory which still rankles ,which Europe
now uses to keep Turkey outside the Europe Union . The ebb and flow of
domination between the East and the West is as old as history, beginning
with the Greek -Persian rivalry. US led Christian West, now dominates and
exploits Muslim Middle East, Asia and Africa and is ranged against Orthodox
Slavs. Iranians remain a hard nut to crack.
-
- Bush has only succeeded in putting the US empire's decline
into fast forward mode. Nothing is likely to reverse the course , much
to the relief of most of the world , victim of its unilateralist policies.
In 6 years USA ,from being a fairly popular country , with its many good
points in spite of flaws , has become one of the most unpopular .The US
regime has become the most hated , with Bush being rated a greater danger
to the world peace than even North Korean dictator Kim Il Jong, even among
neighbours and allies like UK.
-
- On Papa Bush's course correction, let me quote from Tom
Engelhardt ;
-
- "Sooner or later, failure has a way of stripping
most of us of our dreams and pretensions.
-
- 'So let's start with a tiny history of failure. George
W. Bush's life trajectory of failing upward has had a rhythm to it -- and
a rubric, "crony capitalism." Daddy's friends and contacts helped
him into and -- after he failed -- out of the oil business, into and out
of the baseball business, into and now, it seems, out of the failed game
of global politics. His is, as the Boston Globe's Michael Kranish and John
Aloysius Farrell put it back in 2002, "the story of a man who struck
out numerous times before being bailed out by big hitters who often were
family members, friends, or supporters of his father."
-
- 'It's appropriate, then, that the man who bailed him
out in Florida when he essentially lost the presidency in 2000, Bush family
consigliere James A. Baker III, would reappear six years later, in the
wake of another failed election, to bail him out again now that he's screwed
up the oil heartlands of the planet.
-
- "Daddy -- we're talking here about former President
George H.W. Bush -- has three adopted boys: His former National Security
Advisor (and alter ego) Brent Scowcroft, who went into opposition to the
younger Bush's Iraq policy even before the invasion of 2003 and now lurks
quietly in the wings; his former CIA Director Robert Gates; and Baker."
-
- When driven by the Neo-Cons and other war lords , the
Bush Administration was beating the war drums against Iraq , in my Asia
Times article of 24 August, 2002 , "Bush Family's Phony wars"
I had warned that the invasion of Iraq would open a Pandora's box in the
region. As history showed it is easy to start a war but difficult to predict
its ultimate outcome . ( Extracts below from the article are italicized
)
-
- "For the Bush family, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
is the tempting Apple in the Middle Eastern Garden of Eden. The results
of succumbing to the temptation to take a bite could be as disastrous as
they were for Adam and Eve. "
-
- Bush is now received formally only because he is the
US President .People from Britain to India demonstrate against his visit
.A few days ago in Indonesia , there were vociferous protests against his
visit , with his handlers risking a bare 6 hours stay in the country. In
the most populous Muslim nation, US popularity has come down from 70% in
2001 to 30 % now ,as it has all around the globe even among allied nations.
At the Asian Pacific summit in Vietnam, leaders rebuffed Bush's line on
north Korea , which has become a nuclear power with missiles, because of
flawed US policy and its preoccupation with the Iraqi quagmire.
-
- In the 7 November mid-term US elections ,in which his
Republican party lost control of both the Senate and the House and many
Governor mansions, when many party candidates declined to even have Bush
for canvassing , he has become a dead 'lame duck' . Pre-election polls
showed electorate opposed to Iraq war and Bush's performance by 2 to 1.You
can not fool all the people all the time , not even the Americans , where
5 big corporations controlling 90% of US media have kept US public misinformed.
But nearly three thousand GI body bags from Iraq war and twenty thousand
maimed and injured GIs can no longer be kept hidden.
-
- Americans proudly call their state 'US Incorporated',
which it has truly become, a mighty but a dangerous company ; manufacturing
, selling arms and using them recklessly all around the world ( while experimenting
with chemicals and depleted Uranium munitions ) The Mongols , Turks and
other wild tribes used arms for expanding empires but in US Inc , arms
manufacture and its use has become an end itself , to hell with the US
public interest. From hundreds of billions of US taxpayers money spent
so far since the illegal invasion of Iraq , the US arms manufacturers remain
the main beneficiaries . They are Lockheed Martin , Boeing ,Northrop Grumman
,Raytheon , General Dynamics , Honeywell Halliburton, BAE Systems and thousands
of smaller defense companies and subcontractors .
-
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th US President in
his Farewell Address on Jan. 17, 1961 said ,"[The] conjunction of
an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the
American experience. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise
of misplaced power exists and will persist." --
-
- But now this monster has imposed itself on USA and is
expanding , going for more lethal and profitable means of destruction even
against international treaties and conventions .The end of the Cold War
did not reduce this monster's appetite .US now spends over $ 400 billion
on defence ie for attacking other nations , almost equal to what the rest
of the world does .Russia spends a mere fraction of it. Members of US Congress
are too deeply involved through lobbies and influence peddling and keep
this monster alive and kicking. Tame generals after retirement can look
forward to cushy jobs in the defence industry. Currently this monster is
fed by an almost equal US trade deficit.
-
- The other players in the ruling US oligarchy are energy
interests whose members and nominees are the major decision makers in the
US Administration .President Bush , Vice-President Dick Cheney , Secretary
of State Condi Rice , US Ambassador in Baghdad , you name it .While Americans
with gas guzzlers , who contribute half carbon dioxide to climate warming
, have paid dearly at the gas station , by manipulation and insider trading
US and UK oil multinationals have reaped massive profits .But to US chagrin
,higher oil prices has enriched energy rich Russia, Iran and Venezuela
and stand up to USA. While US hold over oil reserves is becoming shaky
in the Middle East , emerging economic powers China and India are tying
up energy resources around the world .
-
- "In 1991 George Bush Sr sought the removal of Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein. He failed and left the region in a mess. Now
his son, President George W Bush, having inherited Dick Cheney and other
chieftains from his father's presidency, is pursuing the family vendetta.
Ordinary Iraqis continue to pay the price of this vendetta, with more than
half a million children reported to have died from lack of medicines and
malnutrition since the 1990 embargo. Iraq's US-friendly neighbors like
Jordan and Turkey are suffering too. -
-
- " It is difficult to know what to believe of the
leaks regarding the US's current options to oust Saddam, ranging from assassination,
fomenting a coup or internal rebellion, air strikes against Baghdad and
other Iraqi command centers, to a vast amphibious invasion with massive
air support, involving up to 250,000 soldiers. The latest plan, involving
around 60,000 troops backed by heavy air power, will begin with a swift
attack on Saddam's elite Republican Guards around Baghdad, in the hope
that the regular Iraqi army would then abandon Saddam. Such balderdash.
The result of any such actions could be as catastrophic as Adam and Eve's
expulsion from the Garden of Eden."
-
- The current plans being discussed either by the Administration
or by the incoming Democrats party , equally complicit in the illegal invasion
of Iraq ( as were the Labour and Conservative parties in UK ) are as fanciful
as the plans leaked out before the invasion or those actually implemented
.
-
- " Secretary of State Colin Powell, one of a few
sane voices in the administration, remains opposed to a military strike
just as he was in 1991, as it has no clear strategic objectives. Recent
media leaks from the Pentagon and the State Department suggested that "many
senior US military officers contend that Saddam Hussein poses no immediate
threat and that the United States should continue its policy of containment
rather than invade Iraq". Soon another leak countered that some in
the Establishment favored an "inside-out" plan to "take
Baghdad and one or two key command centers and weapons depots first, in
hopes of cutting off the country's leadership and causing a quick collapse
of the government". Such a plan was once dismissed by General Anthony
Zinni, the US Middle East envoy, as a recipe for a "Bay of Goats"
disaster, like the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba."
-
- Recently , the Pentagon suggested three options for Iraq
: send in more troops, shrink the force but stay, or pull out. These have
been described as Go Big, Go Long and Go Home. But one solution gaining
favour among military commanders is summed up as "Go Big but Short
While Transitioning to Go Long". No Go home for the time being.
-
- "A US attack could dangerously destabilize the region,
harm the global economy, and infuriate Arab and Muslim masses. Former British
chief of staff Field Marshal Lord Bramall, warned in a letter to the Times
that an invasion would pour "petrol rather than water" on the
flames and provide al-Qaeda with more recruits. He quoted a predecessor
who during the 1956 Suez crisis said: "Of course we can get to Cairo,
but what I want to know is what the bloody hell we do when we get there?"
-
- But Bush Administration driven by Neo-Cons , Iraqi quislings
like Ahmed Chalabi and Iyyad Alawi thought that after the "Shock and
Awe" , the Iraqi natives will welcome US troops with flowers and obey
commands in spite of the history of successful Iraqi resistance against
British occupation in 1920 and 30s. So much for planning.
-
- Powell was cajoled into lying about WMDs in the Security
Council before the invasion , smirching his own standing and seriously
denting US credibility in the world. After he was eased out, his chief
aide publicly denounced the cabal of Cheney , Defence Secretary Rumsfeld
and other neo-cons for having high jacked US policy making . Even when
it was proved by US teams that there were no WMDs or plans for nuclear
bombs or connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda , Cheney and others continued
to disseminate lies .A retired US Ambassador , who exposed the US lie on
Iraq getting Uranium from Niger, was harassed , cover of his wife Valery
Plame , a CIA operative exposed , a crime under US laws.
-
-
- "Bay of Goats"
-
- US and UK troops now face a Dunkirk in Iraq , with US
convoys being stopped near the Kuwait border and mercenaries escorting
them being abducted .The time for escape is running out from the blow back
of the 'Desert Storm". Billions of dollars have been outsourced to
mercenaries outfits and others with little audit or control over the loot.
Even the British , who occupy regions inhabited by Shias , who were happy
with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime but oppose foreign
occupation , are quitting Basra and are camping in the safety of the Desert
, protected by jets and helicopter gun ships .
-
- " However, there is room for hope that worse may
not come to worst: a saving grace of the US constitutional system of checks
and balances is that Bush may be the most powerful man in the world, but
he can't ignore Congress. And, however much George Bush Sr might hate Saddam,
he would not want his son's presidency to end in disgrace."
-
-
- It is quite clear that such hopes based on "US constitutional
system of checks and balances ' did not materialize .The system has degenerated
and collapsed and needs drastic overhaul . It is morphing into a dictatorship
, with Patriot laws , racial profiling , unauthorized telephone tapping
and spying in universities .The retraction of liberties in UK is equally
bad , with big brother watching every move on video cameras and hundreds
of British born and bred Muslims ready to volunteer even as suicide bombers.
-
- A people elect the government they deserve as they did
in USA in 2000 and 2004 .Only in USA a Presidency can be won by legal jiggery
pokey , when lawyers , even when elevated to the august Supreme Court still
remain loyal party lawyers and did not allow votes for Al Gore, Bush's
rival to be counted . This has for ever tarnished the standing and credibility
of US legal system and its democratic pretensions. It is not the only fundamental
flaw from which the US democracy suffers . How can there be democracy ,
when 5 Corporate entities control media ,where billions of dollars are
required to be collected against IOY's to fight elections . There are lobbies
galore , more than 50 for each Congressman , which spend US$ 2.4 Billion
(Billion ) a year in wining, dining and corrupting the lawmakers .The many
Congress scandals are only a tip of the iceberg of corruption.
-
-
- Most of the Congressmen are millionaires and each term
enriches them further .No wonder the poor in US remain neglected , their
number increasing and income disparities widening . There are 37 million
poor , one in every four blacks . The top 1 percent of the population now
owns 33.4 percent of US wealth while the bottom 50 percent has 2.5 percent.
The Bush-Cheney team has racked up another $3 trillion in debt in just
6 years. The US national debt now stands at $8.4 trillion dollars while
the trade deficit has ballooned to $800 billion nearly 7% of GDP
-
- Unless these and other flaws are corrected , US will
remain an incorporated company and not a true democracy. It has morphed
into a vehicle for the corporate interests , of the corporate interests
and by the corporate interests .Period .Capitalism may be driven by greed
, but in USA , greed has become end all and be all , the new faith and
cult .Rampant consumerism has become its daily ritual , planet earth warming
may be damned .Greedy scientists can be hired to say whatever you want
, that tobacco smoking was not linked to cancer .
-
- "Bush left reality behind. Now we are all trapped'
-
- US analyst William Pfaff recently wrote ,"For Americans,
Iraq has ceased to be a video game running along the edge of public consciousness.
The midterm congressional elections demonstrate that the US public wants
to get out of Iraq almost as much as the British, as does the attention
suddenly given to the Baker-Hamilton Commission, which was actually set
up months ago.
-
- "But how is exit to be accomplished? Clearly the
White House does not know, nor does the US army. The Baker-Hamilton Commission
is unlikely to know, as its members were chosen because they represent
the higher reaches of the conventional wisdom.
-
- "In America, it's as though Bush, his inner cabinet,
and the neocons have been playing a video game, with fictional characters
and victims, virtual death and torture. Now the disc has suddenly finished,
and it's time to shut down the player.
-
- "This is not just a figure of speech. American policy
has been running on images rather than evidence of real nations and people
doing things for real human motives. It has been populated by abstractions:
Global Terrorist Conspiracies, Rogue Nations, Fanatics Who Hate Our Freedoms,
Generations of Terrorism and The Global Menace of Al-Qaeda.
-
- "We are the leading nation, the most moral, born
with the redemptive mission to create what the Puritan preacher Jonathan
Winthrop called the 'City on the Hill', the democracy 'of the people and
by the people' that originated the modern world with our repudiation of
monarchy and inherited privilege, establishing the greatest of republics,
saving the Four Freedoms for the world by winning (alone!) both First and
Second World Wars, then the Cold War, and now confronting the ultimate
test of the 'long war' against Evil itself, incarnate as Terror.
-
- "Today this is the language of government, journalism,
politics and foreign policy in the US, spoken in the policy discussions
at Washington think-tanks and on the editorial pages of newspapers.
-
- "Is this Orwellian? Or is it just demagogy, politicians'
lies, White House spin, journalistic laziness, formulations conceived to
sell books? Or could it be cynical manipulation by apprentice dictators,
energy industry and weapons-maker magnates, closet fascists? It is not
Orwellian in that the neocon ideologues, George Bush and Tony Blair, certainly
believe all this. They are not being manipulated.
-
- "It is not Orwellian because the creators of this
cartoon-like conceptual world have themselves become actors in the virtual
universe their ideas and actions have made. They have left reality behind
- or they simply ignore it, as they did in invading Iraq."
-
- Let me quote from another of my 4 year old piece "The
decline of the American Century ' of 11 September, 2002 Asia Times online;
-
- "If the American public were told that an attack
on Iraq would not be like the 1990-91 computer game [ which the US media
obediently disseminated ] and might cause many thousands of casualties
(given the low US threshold last tested in Mogadishu), that Arabs might
destroy oilfields which bring prosperity to oil companies and cheap gas
to their cars, and that US nationals might even be attacked in Muslim countries,
Bush's popularity would plummet immediately.
-
- "What is needed is not regime change or so-called
"US-ushered democracy" in Iraq (as in Afghanistan), in a region
of Hama Rule "rule or die". Saudi Arabia is ruled by an incongruous
alliance of luxury-loving princes and Wahhabis, who enforce medieval punishments
at home and promote fanaticism abroad, yet Washington does not demand regime
change there. Another repressive US-supported regime in Egypt continues
to provide recruits for al-Qaeda. Opening a Pandora's box in the Middle
East would release bottled-up historical forces with unpredictable results,
like Ayatollah Khomeini after the ouster of the Shah of Iran.
- .
- "The United States, with 5 percent of the world's
population, controls 30 percent of world resources. And US corporate interests,
forming perhaps 1 percent of this population, control these massive resources.
They want to control the world without accountability, not even to the
American people.
-
- "Perhaps it is in the United States itself where
its ill-informed and misinformed people need not just a regime change but
a system change. Where energy and military-industry corporate interests
have hijacked power from the people to pursue their narrow objectives.
Where corporate chiefs enjoy coercive powers even the Communist Party chiefs
in the former Soviet Union would have envied. Where blacks, Hispanics and
the poor cannot freely choose a president (as in Florida, where only by
not counting their votes did George Bush become the president).
-
- The United States needs a regime and a system under which
people can question, without being labeled unpatriotic or enemies, failures
of a system that could not and cannot protect them."
-
- What now;
-
- The 10 key members of the Baker-Hamilton Commission are
not military strategists or geopolitical thinkers who might offer a solution
to Iraq , They are basically old establishment hands extending back to
the Reagan era. Jim Baker , with help from his buddy Eduard Shevardnadze
and a trusting and naïve Mikhail Gorbachev , frightened by Ronald
Regan's threat of Star wars , and later a drugged Yeltsin, Soviet Union
was dismantled , with West entering Russian strategic space .In Iraq and
the region, those on the other side are apart from Iran, Syria , a resurgent
and wiser Russia under Vladimir Putin and rising giant China , which holds
US trillion dollars .
-
- The situation is complex with great possibilities of
the conflict spreading beyond Iraq . Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
a key figure in the region recently told "Der Spiegel," "When
the ethnic-religious break occurs in one country, it will not fail to occur
elsewhere, too." He concluded, "It would be as it was at the
end of the Soviet Union, only much worse. Large wars, small wars -- no
one would be able to get a grip on the consequences."
-
- Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for the
International Crisis Group, said, "We're not talking about just a
full-scale civil war. This would be a failed-state situation with fighting
among various groups." He concluded grimly, "The war will be
over Iraq, over its dead body."
-
- Many in US have suggested partitioning Iraq .Prince Turki
al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador, sees the consequences: "To envision
that you can divide Iraq into three parts is to envision ethnic cleansing
on a massive scale, sectarian killing on a massive scale."
-
- Even the cold warrior Henry Kissinger, whom many would
like to try for war crimes and who reportedly egged on Bush to stay the
course till 'victory ' was achieved ,now admits a military victory in Iraq
was no longer possible. He told the BBC that the dramatic collapse of Iraq
would have "disastrous consequences."
-
- Kissinger called for an international conference including
Iraq's neighbors, the permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council and India and Pakistan to find out a solution.
-
- Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations
told SPIEGEL that the Middle East could become dangerous for years to come.
He added that "the old Middle East -- an era which I believe has only
recently ended -- was one in which the United States enjoyed tremendous
dominance and freedom of maneuver. Oil was available at fairly low prices,
the region was largely at peace. I believe largely because of the American
decision to go to war in Iraq and how it has been carried out, --It's one
of history's ironies that the first war in Iraq, a war of necessity, marked
the beginning of the American era in the Middle East and the second Iraq
war, a war of choice, has precipitated its end."
-
- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Geneva on 21
November that "The United States in a way is trapped in Iraq .It cannot
stay and it cannot leave. There are those who maintain that its presence
is a problem and there are those who say that if it leaves precipitously,
the situation will get worse." He added that the departure of U.S.
troops from Iraq "should not lead to a further deterioration of the
situation." The goal should be to leave when Iraqi authorities can
ensure a "reasonable, secure environment.
-
- Annan, who retires at the end of the year said the war
in Iraq, and the failure of the U.N. Security Council to prevent the invasion
by U.S.-led forces, was the biggest regret he had from his 10-year tenure.
"I firmly believe that the war could have been avoided," "The
inspectors should have had a bit more time." US media dogs were launched
at him when he described US invasion of Iraq against the UN Charter and
hence illegal.
-
- Annan welcomed moves to involve Syria and Iran in trying
to foster stability in Iraq because it would help bring peace to the region.
-
- New Moves;
-
- News stories are appearing about the US contacts with
the Iraqi Resistance , including Baker telling a Saddam Hussein lawyer
that Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister, would be released from detention
by the end of this year, hoping that he will negotiate with the US on behalf
of the Baath Party leadership. Condi Rice has appealed to the Gulf Cooperation
Council to serve as intermediaries between the US and armed Sunni resistance
groups [ except Al Qaeda]
-
- National Security adviser Stephen Hadley carried a six-point
message for Iraqi officials on his recent trip to Baghdad: to include Iraqi
resistance and opposition leaders in any initiative towards national reconciliation;
general amnesty for the armed resistance fighters, dissolve the Iraqi commission
charged with banning the Baath party; cancel any federalism proposal to
divide Iraq into three regions, and combine central authority for the central
government with greater self-rule for local governors , distribute oil
revenues in a fair manner to all Iraqis, including the Sunnis whose regions
lack the resources.
-
- Prime Minister Al-Maliki was not agreeable since his
Shiite followers believe that their historic moment has arrived after one
thousand years of Sunni domination. Leaks of talks with the Resistance
have been common since even 2003 .There is no reason to disbelieve that
these US measure are nothing more than the historic tactics of divide-and-rule.
-
- Hard facts on the ground;
-
- It is quite clear that the accusations like WMDs, Iraq's
nuclear program and Iraq's linkages with Al Qaeda were just excuses as
the then US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz arrogantly boasted
after the occupation .It was to control the region , rich in oil and after
vanquishing Iran , even control the Caspian Sea basin energy resources
too .Azerbaijan and Georgia are already in the US pocket .Wolfowitz, now
President of the World Bank , also told the US Congress that Iraqi oil
revenues would pay for its reconstruction and enrich US multinationals
.Yes , crony capitalism and rampant loot of Iraq revenues have enriched
US companies like Haliburton , Bechtel and Republican party members apart
from the corrupt ruling quisling government in Iraq .
-
- Except the oil ministry everything in Iraq , even the
human heritage Museums were allowed to be looted, ( but because of the
Resistance the oil production has been less than during Saddam days ) but
under Pentagon supervision , US has gone ahead and built many military
bases , about which very little information comes out. Nor is the US media
curious to write about it. The US has 55 bases of different sizes in Iraq
; five or six of these are massive including Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad,
the huge base first named Camp Victory adjacent to Baghdad International
Airport, and al-Asad Air Base in western Anbar province, are enormous -
big enough to be reasonable-sized US towns with multiple bus routes, neighborhoods,
a range of fast-food restaurants, multiple shops, pools, mini-golf courses
and the like. Ready for long stay!
-
- Several billion dollars have already been sunk into them.
Balad, for instance, already handled the levels of daily air traffic one
would normally see at Chicago's ultra-busy O'Hare and being enlarged .The
four mega-bases would serve as permanent US jumping-off spots in what Bush
administration edcall "the arc of instability" .In all the work
is still in progress.
-
- A United Press International reported: "Following
hints US troops may remain in Iraq for years, the United States is reportedly
building a massive military base at Arbil , in Kurdish northern Iraq."
Iraqi Kurdistan , which has functioned as a US protectorate since 1991
Gulf war has always been a logical fallback position for US forces "withdrawing"
from a failed Iraq. Turkey had accused Israel of training Kurds there for
subversive activities against neighbours .
-
- And the new US embassy building now going up inside Baghdad's
well-fortified Green Zone and , almost the size of Vatican City, with "100%
independence from city utilities", not to speak of a "swimming
pool, gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation
building" and its own anti-missile system. One wonders how long US
could use it .Recently a car bomb was attempted inside the secure Green
Zone fortress .
-
- You bet USA will easily be parted from these strategic
assets .
-
- Barring some exceptions, the Western discourse inflicted
on the world with control of media and communications , specially from
USA is racist and colonist.
-
- A human tragedy of biblical proportions;
-
- The prestigious British medical journal Lancet based
on John Hopkins Medical school study estimated the death of Iraqi following
the US invasion and occupation at over 655,000 ( equal to the American
civil war ). Similar methodology is used to compute deaths in other wars
and famines around the world. When asked at a media conference if, given
the Lancet study, Bush stood by the number he had previously cited of 30,000
Iraqi deaths,( in December , 2005 ) .Bush responded, "You know, I
stand by the figure. A lot of innocent people have lost their life - 600,000,
or whatever they guessed at, is just - it's not credible." Western
leaders and media have either ignored these colossal crimes or followed
Bush line.
-
- From Colin Powell to US Generals like Tommy Franks all
have reiterated ;" We do not do body counts." But whenever a
Western hostage is taken or a western soldier killed , you have the whole
family , relations and friends and neighbours being interviewed on Western
channels. As if non westerners were an inferior human breed.
-
- According to the United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR)
more than three million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes
to other areas of Iraq and to neighbouring countries are facing bleak future
with UNHCR funds having been reduced. 1.5 million Iraqis are internally
displaced in Iraq, while 1.6 million Iraqis are refugees in neighbouring
countries, the majority in Syria and Jordan.
-
- The discourse on West spreading democracy is just a different
version of Christian West's ' self evident' manifest destiny to civilize
the natives of the world. Look at the temerity in describing the illegal
invasion of Iraq ; Operation Iraqi freedom. And the charade of bringing
democracy in the Middle East, when the Western record has been suppression
of nationalist and democratic aspirations and forces all around the world
. Now that Iraqis whether Sunnis or Shias remain fiercely opposed to the
occupation, Neo-cons mutter 'Iraqis don't deserve freedom and democracy."
They are an inferior breed.
-
- Western leaders have prostituted words like liberty,
freedom and democracy. Nobody likes to be colonised or enslaved ; the Turks,
the Algerians, the Vietnamese ,the Afghans , and the Iraqis who fought
against the British occupation even in 1920 and 30s. Still the arrogant
West wants to colonise, exploit and impose its values on other nations.
Chapters and verses have been written in Western media that the Iraqi occupation
and colonization would have succeeded with more troops . It would have
only meant even more horrendous bloodletting then taking place now , over
100 Iraqis being killed every day . The Vietnamese sacrificed 2 million
people and the Algerians one million for their liberty.
-
- Bush and Blair have only endangered the security of many
European nations. UK has become the most exposed although some terror alerts
were exaggerated for political reasons ie to impose curbs on freedom .Unless
US policies are changed ,sooner than later USA will face resistance from
its marginalised black community specially black Muslims. How the blacks
and Hispanics have remained marginalized became clear at how the Katrina
disaster was mishandled.
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- K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served
as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996.
Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal.
He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. Copyright
with the author: Gajendrak@hotmail.com.
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