Running like Mice
by
Kim Petersen
Dissident Voice
March 14, 2003
The
reigning heads of the Middle East are antithetical to the dogma of Osama bin Laden,
none more so than the secular head of Iraq, President Saddam Hussein. Yet Mr.
bin Laden is opposed to any US-led attack on Iraq. Mr. bin Laden’s al-Qaeda
terrorist network, most likely the perpetrators of 9-11, ignited the events
that see Washington and London poised for another bout of aggression against
Iraq. The recalcitrant Arab leaders have been cajoled to provide assistance to
President Bush and his superhawks in their scheme to impose a new kind of
hegemony in the Middle East.
Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad denounced Arab governments that give succor to the “planned aggression
and mischief” of the US. (1) Most Arab leaders dissembled
that they would never provide the US forces any assistance without UN
approbation. This is thoroughly pathetic in that they will all be affected by
the war, in large part or small, and should be remonstrating in most forceful
language against the war. The venal governments of Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan,
Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are all in overt support of the US.
The elected Bahraini
government did speak against the war, citing solidarity with Iraqis, opposition
to US hypocrisy in the Occupied Territories, and post-war security concerns. (2) Despite the palpable public antipathy to the US and war,
the fledgling Bahraini parliament wields no real power and the monarch has
acceded to the presence of western forces in the realm.
Saudi Arabia, which was
hoodwinked into the initial hostilities in 1991 by fake satellite photos
purporting to show an impending Iraqi invasion of the Saudi kingdom (3), has confessed to admitting US troops on its territory
near the Iraqi border. (4) A lot of bellicose rhetoric
about Saudi Arabia being a sponsor of terrorism has been emanating from
Washington and it seems to have unsettled the Saudi monarchs. Saudi concerns
over the US redrawing of the Middle Eastern map obviously played a role as
well.
Qatar has been generously
playing home-away-from home to the US forces as well as home to war games
scenarios for the upcoming reconflagration. In fact Qatar openly courted the
Americans with the billion dollar al-Udeid air base and its 4.5 km long runway.
After Riyadh initially refused to allow Saudi soil to be a base for non
UN-sanctioned war, the Americans switched to Camp al-Saliyah in Qatar. Camp al-Saliyah is now the nerve center
monitoring all traffic in the Persian Gulf theatre of operations. (5)
Jordan has been a big
waffler. Early on there were reports of US military in eastern Jordan but the
government averred that never would the kingdom be involved in the war. The
populace is massively opposed to an attack and Jordanian authorities still
mendaciously play down any role in the impending onslaught, despite evidence to
the contrary. Jordan appears to have been bought off. (6)
The population seems to be aware of the deceit of their burger-loving king but
speak only sotto voce to trusted friends, as the intelligence service in Jordan
is widespread.
Turkey, a non-Arab Muslim
nation, with newly elected Recep Tayyip Erdogan assuming the Prime Ministership
might now approve the last key in the US military stratagem against Iraq. Mr.
Erdogan is seen as a strong backer of US troop deployment and a new vote in the
parliament to that effect may take place following a vote on a second UN
Security Council Resolution. (7)
Much of the American support
has come from the Gulf Emirate states. Increased US-ties have diminished the
Saudi influence and given the smaller Gulf states the boldness to exert their
seemingly more independent views. These states have called for the regime of
Mr. Saddam Hussein to go into exile. (8)
Kuwait is understandably one
of the tiny countries that wish to see Mr. Hussein go. Kuwait’s oil sheikhs are
still indebted to the US for their restoration. The US saw to the
reinstallation of Kuwaiti dictator Sheikh Jaber. So much for pushing democracy.
So now the bully nations of
the US and UK are going to go another round with Iraq -- still reeling from
genocidal UN sanctions, cancer epidemics from living in a country littered with
depleted uranium, irradiated crops, water and health systems in shambles, and
children at massive risk from further violence. (9) These
two morally-challenged regimes spuriously claim the integrity to enact regime
change in Iraq: the UK, which carved out a authoritarian Kuwaiti sheikhdom in
such a way as to deliberately impede Iraqi access to the Persian Gulf; the US,
which schemed with their brutal puppet, the Shah, to regain control of the
Shatt al-Arab waterway. If Iraq had been granted an opening to the Persian Gulf
much warring and bloodshed might have been avoided.
Indeed while the Europeans
exert massive pressure on their politicians to avert war, the Arabs are cowing
abjectly to their western-imposed dictators even though the violence is about
to be unleashed against Arab brethren. Arabs are about to be slaughtered, their
oil resources plundered, and the geo-political map of the Middle East redrawn
by imperialists again. All this while the US-aided and abetted Israeli pogrom
against Palestinians is being ramped up in the Occupied Territories. Does Arab
cowardice know no bounds? The rodent-like scurrying and pervasive Arab malaise
induced Lebanon-based writer Robert Fisk to lament: “What on earth is it with
the Arabs?” (10)
Kim Petersen is an English teacher living
in China. Email: kotto2001@hotmail.com
References
(1) CBC Online Staff, “Syria criticizes Arab states for
supporting U.S.,” CBC News, Monday 10 Mar 2003: http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/10/syria030310
(2) Agence France-Presse, “Bahraini parliament warns
of devastating fallout from any Iraq war,” ClariNews, Tuesday, 31 December
2002:
http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/cr/Qbahrain-iraq.Rcd8_CDV.html
(3) Maggie O'Kane, “No casus belli? Invent one!” The
Guardian, Wednesday 5 February 2003: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4599302,00.html
(4) CBC Online Staff, “Evidence
Jordan helping U.S. military,” CBC
News, Monday 10 Mar 2003: http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/10/jordan030310
(5) Derwin Pereira, “Glf War II's
nerve center,” The Straits Times, 14 March 2003: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/storyprintfriendly/0,1887,176927,00.html
(6) CBC Online Staff, “Evidence
Jordan helping U.S. military,” Ibid.
(7) CBC Online Staff, “Erdogan
takes Turkish PM's post,” Tuesday 11 March 2003: http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/10/erdogan030309
(8) Ron Synovitz, “Iraq: Public
Rift Deepens Among Arab States Over Possible War,” Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 4 March 2003:
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/03/04032003171039.asp
(9) Carolyne Culver, “Give Iraq’s
children a chance!”, Reuters Foundation: Alert Net, 3 February 2003: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/586609
(10) Robert Fisk, “A million
march in London but, faced with disaster, the Arabs are like mice,” The Independent,
18 February 2003:
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=379380