BAGHDAD is ablaze at night with streetlights and blinding flashes from relentless bombing by B52s. It burns and smoulders during daylight hours. The billowing plumes of smokes are trompe l'oeil of so many mushroom clouds. Baghdad could very well be under nuclear attack, so sanguinary and cruel has been the intent of the aggressors.

In the midst of such apocalyptic onslaught talks of precision bombing sounds hollow and cynical. Even if the bombing is targetted the violent shock effects are bound to cause widespread collateral damages, as indeed they have. The mendacity of the aggressor leads them to take refuge behind dissimulation of the most blatant kind. They tell the world, with deadpan expression, that it is an Iraqi missile gone berserk that wreaked havoc in the market place in Baghdad, killing people in scores and wounding hundreds. When innocent civilian women travelling in bus are gunned down without any provocation, the aggressors blame the Iraqi 'terrorists' for making their mercenaries nervous and circumspect. They accuse Iraq of treating POWs inhumanly, violating Geneva Convention because some of them were shown on TV screen. When they themselves show Iraqi POWs with their hands tied behind and made to lie on ground face down, there is no consideration of humane treatment or observing Geneva Convention. This barbaric treatment of POWs has now been exceeded by the act of hooding of POWs in sack clothes, without any hole to see or breathe. If such conduct does not violate Geneva Convention and all norms of treating war prisoners, one wonders what does.

Not everything has gone according to the expectations of the invading army and their masters at home. Much to the embarrassment, surprise and shock of the aggressors there has been no cheering crowd, not even in Basra, the stronghold of the Shiites, to welcome the liberators. Now the propaganda tack is to assure the world that the Iraqi people are waiting for the collapse of the regime before opening

their hearts to the beloved aggressors. Of course, after their triumphal entry in razed down cities they will be able to organise such 'receptions' without much difficulty. But they should know that even many of those waving flags will be hating them deep down in their hearts. They will be muttering under their breath: After this what forgiveness?

But the war is not yet over and the script for reception for the 'liberators' may appear not only premature, but unrealistic, too. The way the war of aggression and the counter-war of defence is progressing, there is no telling which way it will turn. It has now all the signs of a major regional war and may even escalate into the third world war. Baghdad is not just in the Middle East; it is at the centre of a fragile and phlegmatic balance of power in the world to day. The stakes are high for many countries in the shape of things that are about to emerge in this most strategic of all places. America has already given notice to Iran and Syria for their alleged hostile acts and has made insinuating remarks about Russia's clandestine arms sales to Iraq. With the future of oil and strategic interests up for grabs, a stampede can very well be expected among the present onlookers. Countries don't fight a war, even a just war, only for the sake of stretching their limbs and to support their defence industry. Underlying belligerence and raging war are hard facts of economic and strategic interests.

Otherwise, why should America get busy in awarding contracts to their firms even before the war is over and their General in Doha should declare that his troops have secured the oil wells? Unwittingly, Americans have given away the not-so-tightly-secured `secret` viz. that it is oil (stupid!), not liberation of Iraqis or weapons of mass destruction, that is the casus belli for the war. To live upto their new incarnation as the latest imperial power on earth, the Americans have also completed plans of setting up a government in Iraq with American Generals as Ministers and Iraqi dissidents (quislings) as advisers. For the lucrative reconstruction business they want to go alone monopolising all the gravy from oil revenue. How brazen and uncouth can one be?

Thanks to TV coverage the world is watching the war in real time. Once again journalists have shown their courage and dedication to report on what they see and think. But the Amer- ican censorship is palpable. They have not hesitated to fire a world-renowned Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent like Peter Arnette, for airing his free and frank views on the war. Several notable public figures have been arrested in America for criticizing the war. Meanwhile, the war of words and propaganda offensive continue unabated. Irked at the cool but abrasive comments and news briefings by the Iraqi Information Minister, cruise missiles were fired several times to destroy the transmission infrastruc-

tures, even while foreign journalists were being briefed there. Something must have gone awry with precision targeting again because the Iraqi Information Minister is continuing with his unflattering references to Americans as international criminals and comparing them to Al Capon, the latter having been a favourite example of the modern day Dracula, Rumsfeld. But the Iraqis need not worry and bother about the propaganda war. The world already knows who has committed the most grievous and heinous of crimes. No amount of smoke screen and diversionary tactics is going to convince the world about what is being said by the aggressors. If that was the case worldwide demonstrations would not have continued day after day. In street fights in all the major cities of the world the aggressors have already lost. Can that be a portent for the looming street fight in Baghdad?

Baghdad is calling the world with a rallying cry: stop the aggressors. This call is not only in words to be heard over TV. It can be 'heard' vividly through images of relentless bombardment, day and night, round the clock, of dead and dying children, of women gunned down in cold blood, of inhuman treatment to Iraqi POWs, of civilian areas devastated into moonscape and of hundreds of thousands rendered homeless overnight. The world has responded to these images in TV and in newspapers and reacted indignantly, angrily and sometimes violently. It is not a war where one can

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stand and stare or sit on the fence. At least in the case of this war Bush is right: Either you are with US or against. The majority of the countries and the overwhelming majority of the people, irrespective of religion and politics, are against America because the war is unjust, immoral and illegal.

It is a matter of pride that the Government of Bangladesh has risen to the occasion and expressed concern over the war that has caused civilian deaths. Dhaka asserted its position on the war after the Prime Minister had a meeting with cabinet members when she expressed deep concern at the killing of civilians, including women and children and destruction of nonmilitary establishments in Iraq. Later, the Foreign Minister told newsmen, "We are never in favour of war. The war must come to a halt immediately. We are anguished and this (civilian deaths) is unacceptable to us". He was echoing the sentiments of the peace loving people of Bangladesh and of the world. The strong and principled stand of Bangladesh Government was again demonstrated when it refused to accede to the American request to downsize the Iraqi Embassy. The American request, part of a worldwide campaign to isolate Iraq, is absurd and illegal because the present Iraqi Government is very much in power and the Iraqi Embassies in the world capitals represent that government.

Bangladesh has also decided to send food and medicine worth 2 million US dollars in emergency relief supply for Iraqi civilians. This too, is a timely and forthright stand. In times of cataclysmic events solidarity of the world community with the victims is crucial, if not for anything, to demoralise the aggressors. Bangladesh has unequivocally opted for human rights and international law knowing very well that this principled stand will be galling to the American government which may not hesitate to take punitive measures. The nation feels proud that the government has not sacrificed moral principles and righteousness for selfish interests. It is by bold moral stands like this that a nation is judged by history. The main opposition party also deserves appreciation for its stand over the unjust war.

For the public demonstrating against war something more concrete needs to be shown. Concerned bodies should collect fund, medicine, baby food and clothes to help the civilian population in Iraq affected by the war. Even volunteers can go to work as relief workers, paramedics, health technicians, civilian ambulance drivers, in short anything that helps the Iraqi civilians. There is report about international lawyers helping the Iraqi government to file a case against America for crimes against humanity. Many more private initiatives are reportedly in the offing. Baghdad is calling to the whole world in one of the darkest moments of human history. Mere condemnation of the war is not enough of a response. This is the time to act.

Hasnat Abdul Hye is a former secretary, novelist and economist.