Opprobrium in
The House
by Susan Abulhawa
Dissident Voice
October 12, 2002
If we are to believe the polls, well over half of this
country wants to go to war with Iraq.
Ask ‘why?’ and you’re likely to get a regurgitation of Rumsfeld’s
mendacious rant.
The arguments made for war are emotional, appealing not to
the logical sensibilities, but to the post September wave of insecurity and
patriotic fervor.
Of course Sadaam is a bad man. He has been the same wicked dictator since the CIA helped bring
him to power after the overthrow of Abdel Kareem Qassem. We were there by his side, with money and
weapons, when he gassed Iranian soldiers then turned his poison on the
Kurds. (Anyway, making that argument is
embarrassing in light of the recently declassified documents revealing our own
gassing of our own soldiers in the 1960’s).
The question is: Is he really a threat to US? The answer lies in our willingness to attack
Baghdad. At the height of the Cold War
tensions, we never attacked the Soviet Union. Why? Because they really WERE a
threat to us. But we know Sadaam can’t retaliate. He simply doesn’t have the ability. Thirteen years of crippling sanctions and continuous bombing of
military
and civilian infrastructure (water and electric facilities)
have devastated Iraq and brought untold tragedy and death to Babylon. Bush, of
course, knows this.
So when a reporter asked what suddenly makes Sadaam a grave
threat, Rumsfeld retorted: “3000 American lives, that’s what!”
But it is precisely the tragedy of 9-11 that ought to give
us pause before this question. Those
who wish to inflict harm on the most powerful nation apparently will not use
conventional weapons of mass destruction.
With that, this administration worked overtime to come up
with something, anything, to link Sadaam to Al-Qaeda. The best they could offer was that some Al-Qaeda members were in
Iraq and “may’ have trained there. Does
this mean we should bomb Florida, too?
There are many scenarios that could play out if we attack
Iraq. But there are a few sure bets.
For starters, the only nation that will truly benefit from this war is
Israel. Destabilization of Jordan after
massive ethnic cleaning of Palestinians into that country from the West Bank
has been predicted and, according to Hebrew media, planned. It is from no love for America that Israeli
leaders are salivating at the prospect of war.
The world knows well the homicidal mind of Ariel Sharon, the way it dances
with visions of “Greater Israel…from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.” Is it not enough that we send billions of
dollars to that rouge nation? Must we
also engage our own troops to fight the battles of its imperial appetite?
Of course, Israel isn’t the only beneficiary. Some U.S. corporations, namely oil and
defense, will also benefit and surely some of that gain will trickle into more
than a few reelection campaign funds.
This war will require spending gargantuan sums of money
from and already fragile economy. The
economic consequence is likely to be compounded by escalating oil prices. At a time of rising unemployment, a falling
stock market and an aging class that often must choose between buying food or
prescription medications, is it wise to initiate a war against a sovereign
nation without evidence of an imminent threat to our country?
The financial costs will be dwarfed only by the cost in
human life: hundreds of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis. And you can be sure that those
who will send our sons and daughters to the front lines of what Rumsfeld
predicts will be “house to house combat” (sounds eerily like an Israeli speech)
will keep their own sons at a safe distance--like college. Those Midwestern farm boys and inner city
youth, recruited with the promise of “opportunity,” will be the ones called
upon “to serve their country” in the danger zones. These are the sons of American’s poor whose education and social
services, already neglected by Congress, will be cut further by Bush’s 2003
budget plan.
Osama will also be pleased. He’ll get new recruits form the Arab masses that seethe with
anger and helplessness before intolerable images of Israel’s daily crimes. We
might understand, if only our media would show these images like they do the
24-hour coverage of suicide bombs. The
Israeli occupation is depraved and beset with inhumanity most in this
country would not believe.
Nightly, on their televisions, ordinary Arabs watch footage of children
killed or arrested (I have on my website footage of two soldiers beating an
eight year old boy). They watch the
endless funeral march, the starvation, home
demolitions, mass arrests and other medieval tactics of
subjugation used by Israel with our blessings. Is it any wonder that more and
more individuals just ‘snap’ because they “can’t take it anymore,” like the man
in Kuwait this week who went out and shot at American troops there after
watching those images?
I think we can expect more such “isolated incidences”
against American interests since President Bush has, brilliantly, managed to
convince Congress and the American public that Sadaam Hussein is about to wipe
us off the face of the Earth!
War is no child’s play. Shouldn’t we at least pause to
wonder why the rest f the world is not on board despite great behind-the-scenes
diplomacy and arm-twisting? Shouldn’t
we listen to what Scott Ritter, Hans Von Sponeck and Dennis Halliday (three
people intimately familiar with Iraq’s military and civil situation) have to
say?
We are increasingly isolated by the international
community, especially when it comes to Middle East policy. Just take a look at
how many General Assembly resolutions pass with unanimous (the whole world!)
votes, save two countries: the US and Israel.
I think this is a seminal time and what we choose will
greatly affect international order. Will we choose the path of war,
international isolation and increased world resentment—all translating to a
less secure United States? Or will we
be a nation whose greatest import and export commodities are not material, but
sacred? Not oil or Nike shoes, but
freedom and justice. Will we choose to
be The Empire that usurps international order or the Light onto Nations that
navigates our affairs with principles enshrined in law and human rights?
Like Ralph Nader once said: “[F]or God’s sake, when are we going to wage peace?”
Susan Abulhawa is a Palestinian living
in Pennsylvania. She is the founder of Playgrounds for
Palestine, a non-profit organization dedicated to building playgrounds and
recreation areas for Palestinian children living under military occupation.
Email: sjabulhawa@yahoo.com