America’s justification for invading Iraq was that Saddam Hussein was a dictator who committed hideous crimes against humanity, and that he violated international law with his alleged weapons of mass destruction, thus posing a great threat to the international community. The American and British governments waged a war against Iraq in order to liberate its people and turn the country into a democracy, but the result is that Iraqis are still being killed and their country destroyed; while the abuse of the Iraqi people is unforgettable and it is now even worse, as if the old tyrant Saddam Hussein has never gone away! Despite the nightmare of Saddam’s years in power, his rule brought about the longest period of internal stability to a people divided by racial, religious and clan rivalries.
Next is the deteriorating situation in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are becoming more violent and dangerous especially after the Pakistani government entered into a civil war with the Taliban in South Waziristan, a mountain district part of a tribal belt on the Afghan border. Tens of thousands will be killed, while millions will be displaced in both countries. To push military levels above anything, one will, in time, create more enemies than one kills. So you blow up a suspect Taliban site and kill two of their commanders – but you also kill 100 women and children, whose families are from that day determined to drive you out of their country.
The latest Washington Post poll shows that 51% of Americans say the war in Afghanistan is ‘not worth fighting’ and that ending the foreign occupation will ‘reduce terrorism’. Only 27% disagree. At the other end 77% of Afghans in the latest BBC poll say the ongoing US air strikes are ‘unacceptable’, and that US troops should only remain if they are going to provide reconstruction assistance rather than bombs.
President Obama has to decide now whether to listen to the American people and the Afghan people who are both calling for an end to this unpopular war. Afghanistan’s future lies in strengthening its tribal structures not its corrupt government. We should be aware that any Afghan president – Karzai, or his opponents – will only ever in practice be the mayor of Kabul as beyond tribal laws rule. Similarly the so called Iraqi Prime Minister is nothing more than the mayor of Baghdad!
Back to the Middle East; where Iran has finally agreed to open up all its nuclear facilities for inspection. But what about that wolf in the room? The one we all see but can’t point out? What about the only power in the Middle East, also fanatic and aggressive, which has a vast stockpile of weapons enough to wipe out the whole region? Last December the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Prof Richard Falk, who is a Jew and who has deep emotional and intellectual links to Israel, was expelled from Israel after criticizing the Israeli economic blockade of Gaza by referring to it as “collective punishment and a crime against humanity.”
Richard Goldstone, who is known for his sympathy towards Zionism and Israel urged Israel to carry out its own independent investigation into the conduct of the Israeli’s military offensive in Gaza last winter, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead. He also accused Hamas of crimes against Jewish civilians and charged Israel with grave crimes, the breaking of the Geneva Convention, punishing and terrorizing unarmed civilians. Israel opposed the Goldstone Report because of what they said was “one-sidedness”.
Israel seems completely unwilling to allow a Palestinian state. The expansion of Jewish settlements, a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the blockade of Gaza, a collective punishment prohibited by the Geneva Convention and the changing of the character of East Jerusalem by making it difficult for Palestinians to stay there and encouraging a much greater residential Jewish population – all seemed to destroy any real solution for peace in the Middle East. If Israel claims not to have a peace partner, this is partially true as there is neither Palestinian unity nor acceptable Palestinian representation. But that’s partly a consequence of Israel’s own actions – its refusal to treat Hamas, democratically elected, as a real political actor, rather than dismissing it as a terrorist group.
With Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran the so-called International Community used diplomatic pressure, military confrontation, economic boycott and disinvestment. But when will the same methods be used to pressurize Israel in making peace with the Palestinians? If this pressure ever materializes, please… without military confrontation!
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