Garth RattrayJUST OVER a week ago the United States observed a particularly emotional Memorial Day, made so because Americans are fighting and dying in Iraq at the rate of two per day. To date, over 800 have been killed and more than 4,700 wounded; most are falling victim to Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's).
Iraq has been transformed from a dictatorship into a hotbed of terrorism and many Iraqis cheer at U.S. misfortunes. Amidst all this turmoil, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told West Point graduates that "We are closer to the beginning of this struggle, this global insurgence, than we are at the end".
I vehemently abhor all forms of terrorism but America's reaction has alienated her allies and besmirched her international image as a benevolent society. Proponents of the war argue that during the Clinton years (of the 1990's) America was slow to react to terrorist attacks on her concerns overseas and to events in Somalia and the Balkans. This, they say, made her appear impotent and emboldened terrorists. Opponents say President Bush had a personal agenda and wanted to control Iraqi oil (currently estimated at 112.5 billion barrels). After all, he said that Saddam tried to kill his father and he invaded Iraq although Saddam's every move was under surveillance. He ignored the United Nations' Security Council and, along with a few allies, waged a pre-emptive war. He justified it with flimsy intelligence reports based in large part on information from one-time U.S. ally, Dr. Ahmed Chalabi (now accused of leaking U.S. secrets to Iran). He said that Saddam was amassing weapons of mass destruction, but they have not been found.
'COLLATERAL DAMAGE'
Incredibly, the US sought to liberate the Iraqis and change their psyche and politics overnight. As part of the withdrawal plan Iraq now has a handpicked interim Government. But the U.S. still faces billions in war and re-constructive expenditure and is burdened with the responsibility of innocent Iraqi lives lost in 'collateral damage'. She is mired in daily deadly armed conflicts. Her vaunted moral advantage evaporated when detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison were paraded around naked, sodomised, forced to perform public masturbation and other lewd acts, smeared with excrement, dehumanised, tortured, sexually, physically and psychologically abused by U.S. soldiers.
WRONGLY ARRESTED
The International Red Cross estimates that 60 to 80 per cent of the detainees were wrongly arrested. Consequently, well over 1000 prisoners have been freed since the abuse scandal. Nameless intelligence agents (nicknamed 'spooks' by the troops), ordered the soldiers to 'soften up' the detainees but silently vanished leaving a few scapegoats to bear the brunt of worldwide umbrage. Critics accuse the Bush administration of hypocrisy. The government rightfully cried foul when the video of captured Americans were broadcast, yet the footage of a dishevelled Saddam Hussein having his unkempt hair and beard searched and his oral cavity probed has been shown repeatedly since his capture. And, in his weekly radio address, President Bush stated that the detainee abuses do not reflect the character of the U.S. troops yet in the same breath he went on to say that the beheading of American Nicholas Berg shows the true nature of the enemy.
The rest of the world takes a dim view of these double standards and unfair generalisations. Until they are addressed at the highest level, America will never get to the root of terrorism. American deaths and suffering prompt Mr. Bush to repeat his promise to stay the course, while war dissenters smugly say, "I told you". They also deride America for her human rights violations and the preferential awarding of oil contracts to certain companies (like Halliburton) without competitive bidding.
I hope that the US will learn from Iraq. They need to understand other citizens of the world, respect their cultures and adopt a policy of patient diplomacy and non-interference if they are to remain an influential world-power. The U.S. will eventually change her foreign policy but until then the entire world will be caught up in the ripple effect of her mistakes. There are many ways to wage war on terrorism without invading other countries and precipitating the all-round catastrophic repercussions now evident.
Dr Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice.
