“The head that doesn’t roll today will definitely roll tomorrow” and “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.” These words have been proven correct many times in the past. It is true that a head wanted by many will one day cease to be unless the hunters die before reaching it.

One head that almost rolled in Baghdad was that of Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defense secretary, who escaped a rocket attack on a hotel in Baghdad where he was staying. It is no surprise that many are after him for being one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq. In fact, Wolfowitz was one of those who has called for knives to be drawn to slaughter the Iraqi people ever since Sept. 11. At a meeting of the policy-making team following Sept. 11, the question was what to do.

Wolfowitz wasted no time in offering an answer: Bomb Iraq. He knew very well that Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11 and yet called for attacking that country.

The question is why? As an extremist Jew with great influence on the neoconservatives in the US administration, Wolfowitz saw in the destruction of Iraq the fulfillment of a Jewish prophecy — that with the annihilation of all the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar, the temple would be rebuilt and the greater Kingdom of Israel established.

One doesn’t need to be reminded of who spread injustice in the first place. The Americans invaded and subsequently occupied Iraq using a well-trained and well-equipped army of 140,000 soldiers. It was intended to give the Jews a foothold in that country.

Israel remains the main beneficiary of the occupation of Iraq as it always benefits from American moves. The US looks the other way while Israel continues its murderous policy in the occupied Palestinian lands, killing, detaining, storming and bombing towns with aircraft, tanks and heavy armor, destroying homes and infrastructure, uprooting trees and burning crops.

Wolfowitz chose Iraq because he knew the country had been ruined by more than 12 years of devastating sanctions and that its army had only out-of-date ineffective Russian weapons. The countries that joined the campaign against Iraq were misled by false intelligence about the presence of weapons of mass destruction and a link with Al-Qaeda.

The US invaded Iraq, not knowing that its victory in Afghanistan was that of a lion celebrating victory over an ant. Wolfowitz’s head may not have rolled down the staircase of the hotel in Baghdad. The world media, however, is already drawing comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam.