Legalization of invasion & destruction

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

President George Bush waited until the first annual anniversary of the events of Sept. 11 to ask the leaders of the world, who reject a strike on Iraq, to move and face the danger that stands in the way of the peace, according to his claim. In a new attempt to find justifications to invade Iraq, our president asked Baghdad to implement his impossible conditions. He chose a school of thinking adopted by his Secretary of Defense (trend ahead), i.e. to prepare to go on the offensive and take risks. The start was in Afghanistan.

Since the events of Sept. 11 (which targeted the US symbols of power), when innocent victims were killed, our president followed a policy of oppression, tyranny and subjugation against Arabs and Muslims. Now, he wants to carry the war to Iraq in order to further the revenge he declared a few hours after the explosion of the first plane in his famous speech which referred to a “crusade.” The PR experts and diplomats have tried to lessen the aggressive accent of our president towards Arabs and Muslims. They claimed it to be a misspelling or inexperience of language and vocabulary.

Before the General Assembly came the last speech of the president, leaving us with no doubt that his rhetoric was not an accident, but a clear intention to declare a war against Arabs, Muslims and the Islamic organizations.

The events of Sept. 11 changed the current of US foreign policy. Every day after these events expresses this administration’s hatred towards Arabs and Moslems. It practices all kinds of economic pressures and military threats besides the psychological, information and political wars. In the name of freedom, justice, democracy and human rights, Washington has violated the most basic human rights. It has persecuted Arabs and Muslims everywhere, launching brutal campaigns against Islamic countries which were considered some of the biggest American allies. It accused more than one billion and two hundred millions Muslims. Contrary to US laws and international norms, those accused, and even entire nations, have to prove their innocence because American institutions find it difficult to prove guilt, especially in the case of Iraq.

(…)This administration is ignoring all evidence, all logic, and all international standards of conduct to impose an American hegemony. Since the events of September, the Pentagon has adopted a central role in defining the concepts, values and issues of US foreign policy. (…)Amid the crowds gathered to mark the anniversary of the victims of the World Trade Center, Bush stood to recite the speech of “sure victory” in Afghanistan. He avoided admitting that the Afghani dream could be changed into an American nightmare. He preferred to flee ahead towards Baghdad. And to avoid another expected setback, the American generals insist nowadays on declaring the death of “Bin Laden” and on the safe return of American troops to their families.

We Americans live in an unprecedented situation of fear and anxiety, thinking that our country is going to be subject to more strikes from unknown enemies, knowing nothing about the time or place of attack. But our government has refused to look at our own policy and history to discuss the reasons that led to such widespread hatred of the US. It has also neglected to search for the best ways to protect the security of our airports, towers, and nuclear weapons, but has instead focused on carrying the battle to a supposed enemy outside the country.

(…) In the light of Arabic and Islamic responses to this quest for US empire, and with the increase of international anger towards a policy of arrogance and revenge that will influence the destiny and the future of the world, there are assuredly other setbacks waiting for the US. The world’s resistance to these empire builders will increase their enemies, not only in the Arabic and Islamic world, but also in the western world. Washington is judging non-Americans in the entire world. It also is blindly biased to the side of the criminal Sharon government. So, the threat of invading Iraq is an introduction to the clash of American tyranny with the rest of the world. Vengeance for the innocent victims of Sept. 11 cannot take place by humiliating and punishing other innocents, or by carrying friends to the side of enemies. There were Americans gathered at the site of the World Trade Center to honor the anniversary of the killing of thousands of victims. They carried a banner that read “We will never forget.” But WE want the peoples of the world to never forget the millions of innocent victims who were killed by American-Israeli wars in Vietnam, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and others places. (…)

Badi Ali Greensboro, North Carolina