The war is technically over. America has had its revenge and many Americans feels quite good in their faux relief post-Sept. 11. Ordinary Arabs opposed the war on points of principle. Today, however, that is neither here nor there. Facts on the ground dictate otherwise. Looking on the bright side, Saddam is out of our world, though he still exists in our nightmares.
The debate going on in the British House of Commons and on the pages of British newspapers about Blair’s conduct is, at the end of the day, a British affair. Iraq is once again a colony and the Brits are revisiting Gertrude Bell’s haunts. Shame they couldn’t save the museum she set up. These are the facts that the Iraqis and the Arabs have to deal with. Never mind Alistair Campbell and his American-style bravado on behalf of his chum. It is redundant as far as we are concerned. The same could be said, a priori, about any American investigation about the “false” intelligence reports. Had Bush come out and said he wanted Saddam out for personal and universal reasons, he might have had my support. I would have given it on point of honesty, if nothing else.
Yet American soldiers (aka liberators) are being shot and killed on a daily basis in Iraq. Why is that? Surely a liberator is not to be rewarded by being shot. What was suspected before the war is becoming a haunting reality today: The Americans did not have a plan or a vision for post-Saddam Iraq. Indeed, I fear they have no vision for the area altogether. They seem, and events are proving this, to be doing it in an ad hoc manner. Worse, they might be crisis-managing a country along the lines of management guru codes that are popular in America and quite redundant in the Arab world.
President Bush has a vision, albeit a naive and shallow one. It seems to say: “I am right and I am going to right the wrong that happened on my watch to my own satisfaction.” That is easy to do when you command the mightiest army on earth and the most spineless of allies, like Blair. But those around Bush are simply out of it. Take Condy Rice as an example. She is a history professor who probably has never read a book on medieval or Islamic history in her life.
Between piano concerts, she studied Soviet Russia and still sees the world in terms of Cold War imagery. She once placed Hezbollah in northern Israel as opposed to Southern Lebanon. From my experience, I find that it is impossible to study history without knowing geography. As for the top diplomacy man, one can only say that he is the consummate soldier and was never able to make the transition that Ike did. Dick Cheney, Richard Perle and Wolfowitz are too obvious to detail.
All of this would have been harmless had it simply played on television screens for an election campaign. Unfortunately, there are people dying and a country sinking into bloody chaos as a result. Worse, there is a deepening hatred between two peoples, as the politicians still think of the situation in terms of Sunday talk shows. The effects and the hatred will last for decades, if not centuries, if the politicians who have the power to do something do not abandon their smug postures.
Officials, both American and Arab, are being appointed in authority positions in Iraq long enough to wreak havoc and then replaced. American soldiers do not know whether they are there to suppress the people or protect them. America — which sold freezers to the Eskimos and heaters to the desert dwellers — is not capable of providing medical care, drinking water, electricity, and safe roads to the people of Iraq. The price of one jet fighter would suffice to make Basra bright, safe, healthy, and happy. Weapons of Mass Destruction are a waste of time. There is no need to go further with this matter. Why not put the effort into something that the Iraqis would recognize as viable? Electricity is one good starting point.
America has earmarked millions for Iraqi education. What they have done is perpetuate stupidity by engaging Accelerated Learning techniques to make the management gurus happy and to push Iraqis into using their firearms. It is ridiculous to claim that all anti-American attacks are carried out by pro-Saddam cells. There is hardly a human being in Iraq who would blow up an American in order to bring Saddam back. I know it plays well for the American public to hear such things, but American officials know it is not true. The brutal reality is that Iraqis are becoming aware that America did not come to liberate; rather, it came to heal its own wounds and to subjugate them. That is their perception and, in this case, the perception is stronger than the truth. After all, wasn’t a perception of the menace Saddam presented stronger than the truth — his impotency — that made it possible for Bush to invade?
In order for American soldiers to feel and be safe in Iraq, politicians have to do their homework. A vision and a strategy for Iraq are needed. Those who know and will not say yes automatically should be employed to help rebuild and reconstruct the country. Iraq’s education system is not as easy as building an airport. A subtle and coherent curriculum should be devised. Nothing should be accelerated. This part of the world is oblivious to time. We think in terms of centuries and not in terms of four-year presidential terms or campaigns. America is losing the big battle and no one seems to be aware of it. What makes it sad is the fact that America is needlessly turning its victory into a loss. Worse, it is exposing its soldiers to bullets out of sheer lethargy and lack of understanding.
