& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

TO THE EDITOR
Iraq destruction
The US-UK invasion of Iraq was nothing but a clear reflection of their aggressive nature against a country that has been war ravaged and under sanction for far too long.
Though the US claimed so, there wasn't any people dancing on the street welcoming the coalition force but people fleeing from their homestead looking for shelter in order to save themselves from the indiscriminate bombing. And where are those weapons of mass destruction? And most importantly, where is Saddam?
If there isn't any weapons of mass destruction, the presence of which President Bush was so sure of, then what was the justification of waging this unjust war?
Jahanara Begum
Gulshan, Dhaka
Rebuilding Iraq
Now that the war on Iraq is over, it's time to rebuild the war torn country. And the US is more than eager to give this responsibility to the best possible people-- the US businessmen and their multinational companies!
President Bush has always claimed that the reason he waged this Gulf War II is to free the Iraqi people from the clutch of a tyrant named Saddam. Who however became so powerful with the direct help of the US itself! Complicated indeed! And now that the job of liberating the Iraqis has finally come to an end, why not make up the cost of the war by getting hold of the Iraqi oil fields? After all, it was the US force who bombed the country and now it's their turn to rebuild it!
Amina Khan
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
* * *
Why this fuss over the US' interest in rebuilding Iraq? Who else should the task be bestowed upon? The OIC countries?
It is the US who came forward to save the Iraqis from the dictator Saddam Hussein. It is the US who, ignoring the huge cost of war, waged this war in order to restore democracy in a dangerous country like Iraq and liberated the Iraqis. Didn't they lose quite a few of their own people? Still they didn't care. They were determined to restore democracy in a country where people died from want of food and their President continued building palace after palace and leading a life of extreme luxury!
It is nothing but a blessing in disguise for the Iraqis, that the US is interested in taking up the job of rebuilding Iraq. If the task was handed
over to the locals, more and more children would continue to die and once again more and more Saddam would flourish and the country itself would soon turn into a state of complete anarchy.
Ahmed Jamir Chowdhury
Gulshan, Dhaka
Who's next for a taste of the Bush doctrine?
It is evident that the US military buildup in the Middle East was strategically designed to take on a lot more assignments than just to eliminate a dictator. If Saddam was the only issue, the CIA could have "smoked him out" a long time ago without stepping foot in Iraq. But President Bush and his 'Dream Team' probably have a broader plan of re-shaping the Middle East, one that suits the US' long term interests and that of Israel too.
The White House, probably, did not expect the Saddam regime to fall so quickly. Conquering Iraq now has left a huge vacuum in the 'axis of evil' and dictators aren't being created fast enough to fill the void.
The position of 'America's most wanted' is being revised constantly adding confusion to the mindset of the American people! Osama bin Laden barely held the title for two years before Saddam took the crown, now he is gone! Bashir Al Asad, President Khatemi, Colonel Gaddafi and Husne Mubarak have all been nominated for the coveted position which has sent the American people scrambling for Atlases and globes to figure out which countries these leaders belong to.
If there ever was a time for the Arab nations to unite, that time is NOW. If there was ever a time for the Arab League to stand together and draw
their numbers and wealth into a comprehensible force to reckon with, the clock is ticking and the time is NOW. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar need to realise now more than ever before that the sole allegiance to the US no longer guarantees their security or their sovereignty. So the question is who's next? The Sheikhs and Emirs of the region better wake up and realise that their 'Benevolent Superpower' guarding Arab soil may turn out to be their 'executioner'
Farhad Quddus
Old DOHS, Dhaka
Saddam's tyranny destroyed Iraq
After the UN failed to authorise any military intervention to remove the brutal Iraqi regime, there is now a growing clamour to let the Iraqi people decide their own future and let the
UN handle the transition to selfgovernment. But it may be pointed out that after years of Saddam's tyrannical rule, there is no cohesive Iraqi nation left, only groups of brutalised people with many scores to settle.
Iraq ceased to exist as a nation the day Saddam gassed the Kurdish minority in Halabja. Since then, it was a collection of mutually hostile people held together by fear. Saddam brutalised Iraq's Shiite majority through his Republican Guards drawn from the minority Sunni Arabs who are less than 20 per cent of the population. Today, with Saddam gone, the Sunni Arabs are cowering with fear because of their brutal past, Shiite majority are seething with hatred vis a vis the Sunni Arabs, and the largely Sunni Kurds have no love lost for their Arab compatriots whom they see as interlopers.
The situation is not much different
from Afghanistan in the 1980s when the Afghan Mujahedins drove the Soviet forces out with the American support and then turned against each other once the Soviets left and the US lost interest. Today, the US military presence is keeping Afghanistan from returning to chaos as violent forces continue sporadic attacks in an attempt to destabilise the country.
Only a significant American military presence can avert such a disaster. The US has ignored the criticism of others and liberated Iraq from a brutal tyranny and now it must ignore the present clamour to leave it to the UN and to the Iraqi people, both of which are incapable to ensure their own security.
Mahmood Elahi
Ontario, Canada