Just a few weeks ago, Ayesha, a young and fragile Iraqi girl, was looking forward to her seventh birthday this coming May. Those aspirations were quickly snuffed out by a US bomb that literally sucked away the insides of her skull, leaving behind the grotesque remains of a shattered dream. The blood that flowed from her small, frail body onto the dirt beneath made sure of that.
It was those first images we witnessed that truly reflected the operation that US President George W. Bush has dubbed “freedom.” Yes, Ayesha is free from further tyranny, and countless other innocent souls have followed her path towards freedom from Bush; but there are others today who are being subjected to no less a fate.
From bombs dropped incessantly on a helpless population, to civilians strafed by US aircraft, to women and children shredded to pieces by gunning ground troops, this is not a war. This is the terrorism that is of the worst kind. For it is purveyed under the cloak of legitimacy, and in the name of a “great” democracy.
Just a few weeks ago, nations around the world were appealing for restraint against this very forthcoming butchery. People with conscience spoke against the planned slaughter of the innocent. There were far less catastrophic options on hand. Those dead today were living souls then; men, women, and innocent children, and with no inkling of the weapons of mass destruction already set in motion to be unleashed on them.
But in their pursuit of senseless destruction of living human beings, Bush and his administration expedited the urgency and phony necessity of this atrocity. They sold it to a willing public as an obligation to combat the dangers of the weapons of mass destruction about to be unleashed on them. From manufacturing fabricated evidence to blatantly attempting to pay dollars to improvished nations to buy support, they would convince their people that this was indeed the will of the world.
They spun tales on an unwitting public on how they would be welcomed as liberators, and how they would be met with smiling girls and garlands of flowers. They pushed forth the idea that the people in the region would welcome their intervention, their pursuit and vision of democracy. They would be the saviors.
When markets and hospitals were bombed, and lives had been brutally ended, Rumsfield smirked that these were casualties of “war.” Not an expression of concern, but one of conceit. And other members of the administration scurried about, in a pathetic attempt to explain the ethics of this campaign to the rest of the disbelieving and disturbed world.
And their media, this so-called organ dubbed a “free press,” drummed home the dangers of the Iraqi menace. From panic scares that never materialized to a “terrorist around every corner,” Americans were literally subjugated into accepting the morality behind this shameful crime.
And when the slaughter on the Iraqi people began, the media sanitized the fare presented to their viewers. The carnage caused by cluster bombs dropped by B-52s on civilians, killing, maiming or injuring scores of a helpless people was blissfully withheld. Instead, in an attempt to justify the invasion, the media shifted its focus to events of faults and abuse by the Iraqis. Or short personalized segments about the brave men and women carrying out this task. And those within the profession that dared speak the truth were quickly replaced.
When suicide bombers strapped with explosives blow up and kill innocent people, they are quickly denounced as terrorists. Yet when far more bombs and of much greater magnitude are dropped on the innocent of Iraq, then the perpetrators are hailed as great American pilots. Bear in mind that the use of cluster bombs has been vehemently opposed by all human rights organizations for the mass civilian deaths it causes. And yet you only hear of human right violations if it involves others in foreign lands.
This is the same media that did not question the $10 billion earmarked for Israel that was craftily hidden in your request of $75 billion to Congress for funds to continue the war on the Iraqis. This was a gift to your “man of peace” Mr. Sharon, who jumping on the bandwagon alongside Mr. Bush, engineered the death of 26 children all less than 10 years old in the month of March this year.
No, Mr. Bush, we will not welcome you as saviors, but rather as the aggressors. Terrorists under the guise of legitimacy, and with agendas yet to unfold. And no less evil than Saddam Hussein! We hold you and all those that support your vision in contempt. Contempt for the senseless massacres and a disregard to life and humanity. This is not a war, but a crime whose validity today legal scholars are questioning and challenging, and who are rapidly ranking you high among the war criminals in history.
Just a few days ago, you sapped the fragile Ayesha of her short life and the last of her blood on that plot of dirt. But with her unwarranted departure, her soul has given birth to the hearts of many. Wash your hands off her blood for now Bush, but the bloodstains will be forever embedded on your conscience.
Arab News Features 5 April 2003