RIYADH, 25 May 2004 — The Abu Ghraib prison scandal is of extreme significance not only for what it tells us of the maltreatment and torture of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers and contractors but also because the United States is shown in flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention and revealed as a threat to humanity. Although the scandal was met with an uproar throughout the globe, the Arab and Islamic worlds were particularly shocked by the deliberate American insensitivity to Islamic values and principles.
With the outbreak of the prison scandal, Senate and congressional committees rushed to call for hearings to investigate the “chain of command” — military or civilian — that allowed and approved the abuses. The Pentagon warned that there were still more pictures to come, and that they were worse. God forbid, there were also rumors that there were pictures of abused women yet to be made public. One can only speculate who will be made liable.
Whatever the outcome of congressional hearings, military court-martials or legal investigations, the question is whether we will ever see those responsible for such abuses — from the top level of command down to the soldiers — held accountable and bear the consequences. The prison abuse scandal added an extra burden to the Bush administration. Today, the president is under fire and will continue to be so until the election date.
A few decades ago, whenever a political scandal exploded, accountability was swift and politicians either resigned or were removed. When the Watergate scandal broke out in the mid-1970s and after a few failed attempts to cover it up, President Nixon resigned to protect America’s moral authority and credibility. Politicians in other Western countries followed America’s lead and resigned when their wrongdoings were exposed. Politicians in Japan even commit suicide when faced with such political scandals. Sometimes even in developing countries such crises were taken seriously and followed by resignations. President Nasser of Egypt, who was not necessarily popular amongst the populace of the Arab Gulf states, was regarded with respect when he resigned after the horrendous turnout of the 1967 war with the loss of extensive Arab territories to Israel. Nasser was liable and felt accountable and therefore resigned.
This Abu Ghraib scandal has struck right at the core of the United States foreign policy. The doctrine of pre-emption combined with a foreign policy of democratic globalism formulated by the neoconservatives is in itself scandalous and will continue to be questioned and scrutinized. A pre-emptive strategy against so-called rogue states and undetectable enemies is neither legally justifiable nor morally acceptable. America may exercise its military power seeking liberty and freedom for people of the world who are living under ruthless regimes. But if such a plan is coupled with a hidden agenda of economic and political hegemony, it will not succeed. Even with the use of intimidation and humiliation as its foreign policy tools and the use of Israel as a catalyst for the implementation of its foreign policy, America will and is failing. Patriots and freedom fighters from the occupied country are always willing to counter it. These fighters are determined, relentless, eager to sacrifice themselves and driven by love of their country. The United States has seen it already in Afghanistan, Iraq and the occupied territories of Palestine. Recent history also witnessed Algerian freedom fighters against French occupation, Egyptians against British occupation and so forth. Occupation never prevails because patriots never give up.
Today, America’s inability to provide security and political stability in Iraq has been a blow to the neoconservative foreign policy. The US lack of accountability and its promises to the Iraqis of democracy and future prosperity now seem unrealistic. More important, the US occupation of Iraq, its immoral authority over the Iraqi people, its maltreatment of its prisoners and its breaches of international laws and treaties strikes right at America’s basic values and principles. The moral values the Founding Fathers enshrined in the US Constitution are freedom, justice, liberty, honesty, moral conduct and general welfare. Thomas Jefferson’s wise expression in 1813 was, “Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection.” These were the basic values that brought about America’s success. The loss of these values will no doubt be the cause of America’s downfall.
Since the beginning of the 1990s and with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bipolar international system, America enjoyed a unique position as the strongest military power in this world. This imbalance of power has turned America into an arrogant, self-righteous country that wants to use that power in a manner wherein no interest can go above or beyond the American interest. The United States declared an economic war to promote its interests in an immoral conduct. Arab-Islamic regimes became America’s enemy and global democracy became foreign policy aim. The criterion that was chosen for the area of interest — the Middle East — is an example of how US policies are influenced or dictated by economic interests. Oil has been and still is a determining factor for US policies in the Middle East. The neoconservatives identified the area of interest by saying that the commitment of freedom should be in areas “where it counts.” More specifically it meant where the oil riches are. So calls for freedom around the world and the spread of democracy are a mere smokescreen. Israel still acts in America’s interests. Whenever America is in trouble — the prison scandal is one example — Israel comes to its rescue by launching an attack on the Palestinians as it did in Rafah.
The US used the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as a pretext to speed up its foreign policy objectives. Arabs believed that the US foreign policy in the Middle East brought about Sept. 11 and Americans believed that Sept. 11 brought about the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. “Chicken,” says one, “Egg” the other. No matter what everybody thinks, it will lead nowhere. There is no excuse for anyone to accept, rejoice in or encourage the killing of innocent civilians no matter what race or religion they belong to. It is like a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, impossible to lose, impossible to win.
Radical unilateralism has no global constituency and is against any international code of conduct. It is an expression of economic and military dominance and it strikes at the heart of American values. It is doomed to failure in the way fascism, Nazism and communism failed. The trial and error the US is putting itself through in Iraq should serve as a good example.
— Dr. Mariam Al-Oraifi is a Saudi academic. She is based in Riyadh.
