- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis
reacted with apprehension, anger and defiance on Saturday to a new U.N.
resolution to disarm Baghdad or face yet another war.
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- Many said they wanted peace, but feared war was inevitable.
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- Ordinary Iraqis seemed to agree that the unanimous vote
by the 15-member Security Council shattered their faith in the world body
which they said was now a tool of Washington.
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- "This should not be called the Security Council,
it should be called the Bush Council because it is America that directs
it. It uses its members as chess pawns," said Khaled Khalife, a 43-year-old
teacher.
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- "We have no faith in the Security Council. It is
under the total hegemony of America," he said.
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- One day after the U.N. vote, it was hard to find any
optimists on the bustling streets of Baghdad.
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- Many said the vote was a "preamble for war"
because it set conditions they saw as impossible for Iraq to comply with.
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- Others saw it as a license for the U.S. to wage war on
Iraq under U.N. cover.
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- "This is an oppressive resolution against Iraq.
Iraq has bent over backwards to accommodate the U.N., but every time they
accept a resolution, the Americans come up with another one that is more
impossible and difficult," said Hamza Rashid, 36, a book seller.
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- "We want peace, nobody wants war but if there is
war, it will be a war forced on us. It won't be our choice it will be America's,"
he added.
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- Tired of war and reeling under 12 years of U.N. sanctions,
Iraqis however voiced hopes that their government would accept the resolution
in order to avert military conflict.
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- "But if America wages war we will endure it and
accept it with dignity as Arabs and Muslims but we should not give it pretexts
to attack us," said Karim Jabar, 41, an employee.
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- "We had enough of wars but we accept God's will,"
added Jawad Mohammed, 34, who sells newspapers.
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- FATALISM TINGED WITH DEFIANCE
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- However, the overall feeling of Iraqis appear to be one
of fatalism, tinged with defiance in the face of the inevitable.
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- "War is inevitable. America has already decided
and all this (resolution) is cosmetics. The U.S. just wanted political
and international cover for its action and it got it now," said Khaled
Abdel-Rahman, a 60-year-old lawyer.
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- "But America should know that its power and might
are not everything because its victories would not last. It can occupy
us for one month, two months, one year or two but the result will be death
to its soldiers," he said.
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- "We don't wish for war to happen but if it does
what then? We will survive, it won't be worse than the 1991 war. They (Americans)
bombed the hell out of us and we survived," added shopkeeper Jaber
Jaafar.
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- The resolution gives arms inspectors "immediate,
unimpeded and unconditional" rights to search anywhere for arms of
mass destruction, including Iraqi President Saddam Hussein 's presidential
compounds.
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- It threatens Iraq with "serious consequences"
if it does not cooperate.
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- The vote still leaves Washington free to attack Iraq
without a formal second U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force. But
it requires the Security Council to assess any serious violation that could
lead to war.
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