The desert wins in Iraq

News Analysis on Indian point of view

When it is all over, there was never any doubt that it would not be, the governments of the world will sit down and cry copious tears about the people of Iraq even as they fight over the proceeds of oil.

The Arab governments will come out with rich homilies of support for Iraq even as their police use the most oppressive methods to curb the wave of dissent sweeping through the streets.

London and Washington will gloat over the success of their troops and strategy even as the blood is flowing through the streets of Iraq.

And the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who abdicated all the responsibility associated with his office, will emerge from the woodwork to take up the humanitarian and reconstruction tasks that the United States decides to give to him.

The coalition troops are sitting around Baghdad and will soon storm the streets. Many will be killed, but the head of President Saddam Hussein, George W Bush hopes, will assuage public reaction as it did in the days when the cowboys collected the scalps of native Americans to establish control over the new land.

Murder has been justified through propaganda, genocide condoned, the destruction of a sovereign nation legitimised by men who have no conscience and no morality.

India is one of the countries sitting it out on the fence, with the government’s legs dangling somewhere in Texas. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has decided not to take a position against the war.

His government has decided not to condemn the naked aggression. And has, in a frenzy of strategy formulation by old, tired advisors, decided to keep all options open with the United States.

It has thrown all principles out of the window and embraced George W Bush in the belief that he alone spells salvation for a government that has, in the past five years, lost the ability to stand on its own, think for itself, and take the lead in evolving a multi-polar world free of US hegemony.

Standing side by side with America, according to the government and its short-sighted advisors, is the new order, a new strategy, an indication that India is keeping pace with the times.

Logic that defies belief, and strategy that is so absurd in its formulation that it cannot even invite comment. It just exposes the emptiness of policy and the inability of this government to think ahead, and plan for a resurgent new world.

Prime Minister Vajpayee has said that the decision not to condemn the US-led war on Iraq is because India does not want to complicate matters for itself on Kashmir. How are the two linked?

True, Iraq and President Saddam Hussein had stood steadfast by India on the issue of Kashmir, but obviously this is not the aspect that is concerning this government.

Inherent in Vajpayee’s views is the argument that Kashmir is no longer part of sovereign India, that the government does not have the wherewithal to protect its own territory, and that it is so dependent on the US to resolve the issue that it does not want to stir even a fly lest Washington be provoked.

Vajpayee has deliberately linked Iraq with Kashmir, when no such link was needed, and this can only serve as an invitation to Bush and his minions to turn their attention to Kashmir and the troubled subcontinent.

This, Colin Powell and Jack Straw have indicated in a joint statement, will be sooner than later. Sad, and a regrettable position taken by a country that might have been poor but was always proud of its unity, its voice, and its independence.

All have been thoroughly compromised by the government and its many high-level interlocutors for whom Washington is the new Mecca or, should one say, the Ram Mandir of the new global order that they keep trying to sell to the rest of the country.

The blood of the Iraqi civilians who have been butchered in this aggression will come to stain the hands of the Arab governments who silently witnessed the genocide.

The volatile streets made it difficult for Jordan to keep silent, but it is Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain who will find it difficult to wash the blood from their weak and incapable hands.

It is these governments who compromised with the Americans, who gave them bases, who allowed their troops in, who conspired to finish a nation and its government in the most reprehensible manner.

These governments and their leaders are the war criminals who, as the protestors across the world have said, should be tried along with Bush and Blair for killing civilians and assassinating leaders.

Iran raised a voice, but largely because it was included in Washington’s axis of evil. Syria has been consistent in its opposition and it will clearly be the next Arab nation to merit attention by the American leadership that uses Biblical language to articulate its hegemonistic designs on the world.

This despite the fact that the Pope and the Vatican have come out strongly against the war. Israel, the close US partner and ally, has identified Syria as a trouble-maker and now that the Palestinians have been taken care of by Sharon and his ilk, Bush and Rumsfeld can be expected to train their sights on Syria, the only other country in the region, apart from Iraq, that has been refusing to succumb to US might.

It is not just a question of oil, though that is a more than welcome side benefit. It is also about control and power that the impotent Arab regimes will face up front, once Iraq is “secure” and pliant.

The world is reeling under a strong anti-US sentiment and this will prove a challenge to spineless governments and to imperialism.

The genuine anger that has spilt into the streets will leave a residue that might prove more lethal than the cluster bombs the coalition forces have used to kill babies and children in Iraq.

Governments that compromise, be it Prime Minister Vajpayee or King Abdullah, will have to review their position or fall under the storm of public opinion that will now become more intolerant of America and its leaders.

Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is not entirely correct when he says that the aggression will create a hundred Osama bin Ladens. Terrorists have little sympathy around the world.

The real danger for Bush and his poodle Blair is that the war will produce a hundred Saddam Husseins, secular, more legitimate and more deadly than the Osamas.

These can lead to the overthrow of compromised governments, and the emergence of a new world order that will defy unilateralism and strengthen France and Russia in their search for a multipolar world.

The fight for Iraq is not over yet. The troops are outside Baghdad, outside Basra, outside Najaf, outside Karbala. The cities have to be captured and the leadership killed or taken prisoner before the coalition forces can claim victory.

Street-fighting will result in large scale casualties that will impact on the world and the emerging equations. The Iraqis have paid amazing sacrifices for their sovereignty and honour.

They have undergone 12 years of the worst kind of sanctions to keep their nation and their leadership intact.

They have seen their children die of cancer, they have seen their loved ones die because of a shortage of medicines, they have been subjected to the worst kind of propaganda and yet they have stayed in their country, closed ranks behind their leader right or wrong, and hunkered down to face Rumsfeld’s shock and awe bombardment for over two weeks now without seeking refuge in US arms.

What a people. And what a nation. It has to be visited to be believed. The pride is unmatched in the Arab world. It was visible amongst the Palestinians who are now being killed systematically by Israel with full US support.

Saddam Hussein has now become inextricably linked with nationalism and patriotism. Not just in Iraq. In the entire region, the Arab masses are embracing the Iraqi leader as a substitute for their own incompetent, and often impotent, regimes.

The coalition troops are playing desperate football matches with the local people outside Basra in what we are told is part of the campaign to win their hearts and minds.

But this cannot be. The battle for the hearts and minds has already been won. By the deserts of Iraq.

About the Author

A professional Journalist, Writer, Producer-Director for several TV-hits and Publisher & Editor of several newspapers, magazines and online-mags.

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