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OPINION Occupation:
Blatant and Barbarous
by
Ishtiyaque Danish
The
views expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial
policy of the Newsletter (editor) Iraq
is suffering under the heavy yoke of neo-colonialist occupation today.
Perfectly sure that Baghdad had ceased to be a potent threat, the US and
the British forces launched a vicious attack on Iraq. In less than a month
they were able to occupy almost whole of Iraq. Like all invasions, the
Anglo-US one is in brazen violation of international norms. The surprising
thing, however, is that such a thing happened in our civilized time. Even
more surprising is the fact that a whole country has been razed to ground
and gulped down by neo-colonialist forces while the world remained by and
large a mute witness. True, there have been public protests all over the
world, newspaper editorials condemned the Anglo-US aggression in strongest
words and community and religious leaders came out openly against this
blatant invasion preventing the
war from becoming a civilizational clash. The reality, however, is that
Iraq is under occupation today. Conducting
a war is always an ugly and dirty business. This being a televised one,
the ugly face of the war became even dirtier. We saw live the bombing to
ashes of a whole civilization, the maiming of innocent children and the
creation of a refugee problem. Before launching the “shock and awe”
campaign, the Americans promised to the Iraqis and the world that their
purpose was to create a new free Iraq where democracy would flourish for
the wellbeing of one and all. Sooner than later the world will realize
that these promises are as worthless as the dead paper they are written
on. Iraq
was occupied by the British after World War One. During and after the war
the British promised to the Iraqis about their right to self
determination. But soon the Iraqis were to realize the hollowness of
British promises and the fact that they were under occupation. In 1920
they rose in rebellion putting a great stress on Britain’s war budget.
London, instead of accepting the genuine demands of the Iraqis decided to
bomb them into submission; they even used mustard gas to silence the
rebellious Iraqis. And on the political front they moved fast to rope in
the services of the Hashimite family. Faisal, the second son of Sherif
Husain who had sided with the British against the Turks, was brought to
Iraq as King. A farcical election/referendum was conducted to give Faisal
a 97% majority. Husni Mubarak’s frequent victory by more or less the
same margin is thus an old “Arab practice” which the British had
taught them. The
world will soon witness such a very sordid spectacle in today’s Iraq,
specially if the Americans are able to establish themselves in the
country. As in 1920s, today, too, the idea is to establish a puppet regime
that would serve the Anglo-American interests. But
there is a significant difference between the two situations. During and
after World War One the Iraqis were not as educated and aware as they are
today. Moreover, the media was not as powerful as it appears today. The
Iraqis seems to be aware of the changed circumstances, specially they
appear to be realizing the powerful impact that the media can make on the
world opinion. This is perhaps one of the reasons that the denizens of
Baghdad have decided to take to the streets even before the dust of war
settles down. The massive demonstration on Friday, the 18th of
April 2003 against the Americans bear testimony to the fact that the
Iraqis are an aware and educated people and that they will make full use
of the media in order to advance their cherished goal of independence. What
is the lesson of this war for the Arabs? Indeed all through the 20th
century they have been at the receiving end. The Palestinian plight
continues unabated, and now this new tragedy of Iraq has been created for
them. The Anglo-American alliance can advance any number of excuses or
“arguments” for their brutal attack on Iraq. The reality, however, is
that they did so because Iraq was weak both militarily and economically.
Not only for the Arabs and Iraqis, the lesson for the entire third world
is that in the present American-dominated world order the one and the only
doctrine that matters is military and economic might. So, in order to
preserve their independence, military, economic and political the third
world, specially the oil-rich Persian/Arabian Gulf region, must try to
become strong, for the Nature’s punishment for the weak, in the words of
poet-philosopher Iqbal, is sudden death. This is the lesson that the
fallen Saddam regime sends to the militarily and economically weak third
world. Any takers? |
