January 16, 2001 marks the 10th
anniversary of the beginning of the darkest forty-three days in
recent American history.
On this day, 10 years ago, the United
States and its allies, began the systematic destruction of a country
whose defense spending was about one percent that of the U.S.
In the next forty-three days the
guardians of the ³civilized world² would kill a hundred thousand men,
women, and children, wound a million more, and destroy $200 billion worth of
property in the cradle of civilization.
Their cause was ³just.² They were
after the new Hitler. Never mind that until August 1990, this Hitler
was their ally in the war with Iran. Never mind that President
Saddam Hussein, by no means admired by many of his own people, was
not nearly the worst of his breed.
And, of course, oil and the
intractable problems at home had nothing to do with it. President
George Bush proclaimed a New World Order. Or was it merely old world
imperialism? Divide, conquer, plunder, and keep the natives in their
place.
The invasion of Kuwait was wrong. Iraq
should have settled its dispute with Kuwait peacefully. But was the
nature and scale of the U.S. response (sanctioned by a United
Nations bullied and bribed into submission) proportionate to the
atrocities committed by Iraq?
Having stalemated the United Nations
for years, the United States in its newly found zeal, led the
western crusade to rid the world of Saddam Hussein.
Never mind that it was silent when
Israel bombed Iraq in 1981. Never mind the twenty-three-year
occupation by Israel of the West Bank. Never mind all the other
atrocities which Amnesty International has reported year after year.
Saddam Hussein became the monster that had to be beheaded.
The vast majority in the western world
applauded, as they viewed the real life Nintendo game on their
television screens. Never mind that lost in the fog of ³precision²
laser bombing were thousands of innocent men, women and children.
Never mind that the United Nations
resolution called only for removing Iraq from Kuwait. While babies
in Iraq went without milk, the armchair Rambos, ensconced before
their television screens, smelled blood. They howled for going all
the way to Baghdad.
They were comforted by an American
president who assured them that the United States had no gripe with
the Iraqi people. They were only after that new Hitler. Tell that to
those Iraqi people who will live with the wounds of war for
generations to come.
But a brave minority kept alive the
flame of freedom and justice. For upholding the right to free
speech, and protesting President Bush¹s relentless rush to war,
they were labeled unpatriotic. This minority did not forget the
principles of the founding fathers, and the siren song of freedom
that brought their forefathers past the Statue of Liberty.
This minority realized the
horrors being committed, and may yet awaken America¹s conscience, so that
freedom and justice for all are the principles which guide us in our
dealings with nations and people everywhere.
So while we revel in the euphoria of
an unprecedented victory, let us not forget the holocaust, and the
continuing sanctions which kill about 5000 each month in Iraq.
[According to the award winning
documentary Panama Deception, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989,
to capture Gen. Noriega, took about ten times as many lives as were
taken by Iraq¹s invasion of Kuwait.]
Mr. Enver Masud is
an engineering management consultant, author of "The War on
Islam," and founder of The Wisdom
Fund - http://www.twf.org
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Enver Masud
& The Wisdom Fund
by the same author:
