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The Perilous Course
by
Mumtaz Hamid Rao
The US-led coalition troops have killed about 100 Iraqis in a ground and air
attack on an training camp to crush resistance from supporters of Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime. US
officials claimed that the area was being used by militants tied to Al-Qaeda terrorists network.
Reports emanating from Baghdad speak of growing public resentment against the US occupation
authorities’ failure to restore even the basic civic and security infrastructure in Iraq even after
two months. The Iraqi people, who were languishing under tyrannical Saddam rule, are in the fire from
the frying pan.
Iraq is in turmoil. Over 400,000 Iraqis working in the Armed Forces and Ministries have been laid
off, Iraqi children are still in a miserable plight due to lack of food and
Medicare, reliable
supplies of water and electricity have not been restored, country’s production sector lies in a
shambles, lawlessness reigns supreme on the streets, relief and rehabilitation operations are nowhere
on the ground and no interim political set-up has been inducted in Baghdad.
Washington’s so-called ‘liberation’ has, in fact, brought misery, unemployment, insecurity and
subjugation to the Iraqi people. It’s quite evident that the US occupation of Iraq has failed to
bring relief and security to the Iraqi people. A nation, which had endured thirteen years of brute
economic sanctions, continues to suffer even after the decimation of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
US administrator Paul Bremer too has not been able to produce results as the Iraqi people are still
living under the shadows of loot, insecurity and unemployment.
It is understood that he has imposed ban on anti-US demonstration in Iraq as the demonstration
against US occupation is gaining momentum.
He has also slapped censorship to check filtering out of the real state of affairs in Iraq. It’s
customary with the US to dub any resistance against its discriminatory policies anywhere in the world
as Al-Qaeda related militancy.
Washington should better address the legitimate grievances of the Iraqis, restore public order and
security, establish political set-up in Baghdad to enable the Iraqis to run their own affairs and
pull out its troops from Iraq as early as possible for the sake of peace in the region in general and
in Iraq in meticulous. The Iraqi people are obviously within their rights to resist the US occupation
of their motherland and it should not be misinterpreted by the US authorities to cover up their own
failings.
At the same time, it would be apposite for the United States to continue with its crusade against
every type of terrorism--to bring the menace to a permanent end. It must annihilate al-Qaeda or
identical groups--wherever they dwell--to the eventual good of humanity. Yet it has to apply this
parameter in a judicious way--setting aside its allure to eradicate 'terrorists' labeling a specific
sect.
It knows that the extremists exist in multiple dwellings--like India. Hence the campaign has to be
directed--irrespective of personal liking, faith, cast, colour creed or credo. With such an approach,
not only that its bona fide zest shall stand realized, it will--simultaneously--clutch adore from
each n' every corner of the globe.
It's thus the most subtle time for the supper power to eschew terrific acts--most exclusively in the
conquered soils of Iraq--where the subjugated people have had attached high hopes with the United
States, yet still in wait.
Such an outlook is the only way to avert a perilous course, which is swelling fast in multiple
vicinities of the world--especially in Iraq n' elsewhere in the Middle East.
The author is a noted journalist, political analyst and ex-Director News Pakistan TV.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2003 Mumtaz Hamid Rao
by the same
author:
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