In a recent interview with Al-Mustaqbal Al-Islami magazine, the American Ambassador to the Kingdom, Robert Jordan, spoke of some who would manipulate religion, money and power to further their own evil design.
I know that our American friends have traditionally been democratic, receptive to — and tolerant of — different opinions. I fully agree with the ambassador, and would only add that there are also those who combine the three elements or use each separately to arrive at their goals.
I hope the ambassador will allow me to ask a simple question: Is what is being done right now in Iraq by the United States and Britain something planned for the region or is it the outcome of simply manipulating power?
The ambassador also said in the course of the interview that the US has sent many of its citizens abroad to help in rebuilding and reconstruction in many nations. The entire world knows full well that America has sent — and continues to send — its citizens abroad to serve its own interests and not merely to help rebuild and reconstruct.
The ambassador said there would be no change in US foreign policy. If this is the case, then I must tell him that it will only result in further deepening the worldwide distrust and even hatred of America. You cannot make the sun disappear by claiming it does not exist.
The ambassador was quick to add that the US would engage in Iraq reconstruction once Saddam Hussein was gone. To tell the truth, there is nothing new in this talk. We know that the American forces have done everything possible to destroy the country. The reconstruction cake was promised long before the war began — with, and this is no surprise, American companies handling the bulk of the reconstruction.
It is shameful when the American administration promises one company a slice of the cake, in the form of one project or more, but when that company begins to get itself ready, it discovers there is no project. This is why the US military command instructed that the entire infrastructure base in Iraq be destroyed so that it could all be rebuilt by the American liberators and their companies.
Arab News From the Local Press 14 April 2003
