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Perspectives

Through the fog of war

M ABDUL HAFIZ
***As the war drags on both sides are hardening their attitude and the conflict is entering in its dirtiest phase. Following an awesome blood bath if the coalition is able to prevail it will nevertheless be looked upon as an occupation force and they can hardly achieve the coalition's objective beyond Saddam -- a pliant dispensation in Baghdad. It was tried earlier during the British mandate in Iraq with disastrous result. It is one thing to win a war with the sheer weight of a brute force but to carry that victory to a positive political consequence is another.***
IN his 'Glimpses of World History' Jawaharlal Nehru famously called the big powers' scramble for dominance over China in 1898 under the threat of gunboats -- a 'highway robbery' and 'brigandage' of sorts. Had he not been spared by Providence the agony of witnessing what would happen in another clime a century later he would have seen today a 'daylight dacoity' being perpetrated in Iraq by the world's sole superpower faithfully abetted by Britain, once the world's greatest imperial power. Nothing -no mass protests around the world, no norms and canons of international relations, no outrage of global community, no amount of condemnation both at home and abroad could stop Bush-Blair duo intoxicated with self-serving chauvinism from plunging the world in a cataclysm which would affect not just Iraq but entire mankind in one way or another. In attacking Iraq the US already trivialised its stature and accepted a moral defeat by being dislodged from a moral high ground it traditionally held as the champion of democracy, liberty and law guiding the conduct of the nations. It is a tragedy to watch the US jettisoning those lofty values by illegally and undemocratically invading a weak member of the
world body without a UN approval and any convincing reason.
Even if some Iraqis have grudge against saddam Hussein who is certainly not above the board most others appear askance if the invading forces have come as 'liberators' or 'oil raiders' in their country -now up for a grab. But they are absolutely united on one point: Iraq "the first Arab state to gain its independence in the twentieth
century does not relish the humiliation of being the first to lose it in twenty-first". When the independence -- albeit a survival with dignity -- is at stake the reaction is obvious and that's what we have been seeing through the fog of war in Iraq. It is a different Iraq from the one devastated through the first Gulf War followed by twelve years of draconian sanctions and the one, of which the invaders thought, would be brought to its knee in a sharp swift campaign. Dashing those hopes Iraq's army, now shorn of its chinks, however put up a resistance which not only did not allow the Anglo-American forces a cake-walk, the ragtag defenders also gave them a bloody nose.
A saga of bravery has been created by Iraq's para-military forces -- known as 'Fidayeen' -- as well as the people themselves who not only have withstood the onslaught of an overwhelmingly superior force, they have also been
able to blunt the advance of the coalition forces. The speed with which their blitzkrieg began have subsequently slowed down and at places come to a grinding halt. As the war gathers momentum and the resistance stiffens the exasperated field commanders of the advancing column with their men exhausted with battle fatigue and inhospitable climatic conditions seem to be reaching a point of giving up -- a fact that has
prompted Washington to consider a reinforcement by dispatching additional 1,20,000 troops to the Gulf. This is however not without the unexpected set backs causing murmurs of criticism both in London and Washington. In a series of views and counter-views in the media and elsewhere the point still missing is that in an unjustly imposed war the moral strength always shifts on the side of victims and it is something which in a large measure decides the fate of war.
After having missed the prime target of the invasion's opening salvos of Tomahawks on saddam's palace and failed to push through impregnable Iraqi resistance the coalition forces have now turned to B-52s and cruise missiles to be directed to their chosen targets. The last few days of the war have witnessed some of the worst civilian causalities -- known in military parlance as collateral damage -- as
well as wide scale destruction of public and private properties provoking bitterness and anger against Anglo-American 'predators' both in Iraq and the Arab world. The cowardly operation of dropping 'smart bomb' and 'bunker-brusters' on the country's thickly populated capital has obviously led to a terrible humanitarian crisis. The situation is equally grim in other built-up areas in the south.
The coalition forces are trying to capitalise on the prevailing human miseries with their noble pronouncements of bringing in humanitarian aid and other pious pretension to win over what they call 'the hearts and minds of the victims.' some Iraqis will, no doubt, succumb to the temptation of having an access to these aid materials -- food, water and medicine -- under extremely trying conditions but the question asked by the baffled Iraqis is : why creating humanitarian crisis that would require humanitarian assistance to overcome? And that is not created overnight after the invasion has begun. The crisis has rather been deliberately created over last twelve years to pauperise the people of Iraq, the Arab world's most developed and one of the richest countries so that they become dependent as and when the country is invaded and occupied by the 'predators'. Iraqis
underwent the same ordeal during the British mandatory rule after the First World War and are so well conversant with the game. It is no wonder that many self-respecting Iraqis -- it is learnt -- have turned down the invader's humanitarian assistance. Referring to the proposed debate on 'humanitarian aid in Iraq' the Iraqis' reaction has aptly been to deal with the first thing first and that 'first thing' is obviously the immediate vacation
of aggression. Iraq insists on tackling the humanitarian crisis itself once the invaders quit.
In the meantime Anglo-American intelligence agencies are also at work with their pet project of engineering an anti-saddam uprising . They fondly hoped to exploit the shi'ite and Kurdi population for the purpose. They have been rearing so-called Iraqi opposition groups for years in Britain and America to this end. To their misfortune there has for far been not even an attempt to challenge saddam from any quarter so that aspirants to fill in the vacuum could be utilised to the Us' advantage. saddam is certainly not a role model of a leader that the Arab world would like to see but the present crisis and his continuing opposition to Us-Israeli entente has given him the aura of an enduring icon not only before his people but entire public desperately in search of a hero. After the
Nasserite surge of Arab nationalism none other than saddam contributed so significantly towards an Arab solidarity. Even if he is ultimately defeated he has already been ensured of his place in history not as a great Arab leader but at least as a symbol of defiance to the enemies of the humiliated lot of Arabs. As far as the Arabs are concerned this war could be a turning point in their chequered history but for the apathy of the Arab rulers and a vicious intraArab schism. Iraqi vice president Taha Yassir's impassioned call to Arab nations seems to have fallen totally on deaf ear. Arab rules have so far been mealy mouthed in expressing their solidarity against an attack on another country but in private the capitulated to American pressure -- ostensibly in exchange of handsome largesse -- and granted them bases, airspace and other facilities to strike at their Arab brothers.
As the war drags on both sides are hardening their attitude and the conflict is entering in its dirtiest phase. Following an awesome blood bath if the coalition is able to prevail it will nevertheless be looked upon as an occupation force and they can hardly achieve the coalition's objective beyond saddam -- a pliant dispensation in Baghdad. It was tried earlier during the British mandate in Iraq with disastrous result. It is one thing to win a war with the sheer weight of a brute force but to carry that victory to a positive political consequence is another. The defining factor here is the intent which has unfortunately been always murky.
Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.