By Michael Nicholson, Guest ColumnistTWO THIEVES broke into a warehouse one night. The watchman heard the strange sounds and challenged. One thief kept his wits and responded with a "meow". The guard relaxed thinking it was the cat. Later the guard challenged again and the second thief, mindful of the effectiveness of the first response, called out "it's me, the cat". Funny, but not too far removed from real world happenings. Iraq again intruded into my thoughts recently and started my latest musings. In 1990 the senior President Bush had little trouble pulling together a coalition to fight for the liberation of Kuwait. Then, as now, American access to oil and its desire to weaken Israel's enemies were its principal concerns. Iraq's 'aggression' in Kuwait was marvellous cover under which to pursue these objectives, and to get others to help. Now the junior President Bush has contrived to invade Iraq on grounds so shaky that only frank bullying could induce a few others to join him in his ill-conceived adventure. This is not funny.
The powerful still make the rules and define the issues. That's how it is when there is only one really big kid on the block and the other kids don't make common cause against him. There was a time when it was possible to view America's interventions as noble and even altruistic. That is hardly possible now given the approach of the current set in Washington. Theirs is a simplistic world view in which all issues have military solutions. The dogs of war have been let slip in Iraq and I fear they herald a whirlwind to come. America by this adventure has left a lot of its friends puzzled and disappointed by some of its actions. Contrary to what they are minded to think, it is not only wicked and unreasonable people who are concerned by America's actions. Reflect with me on some of those actions.
Think about the hundreds locked away in Guantanamo Bay without charge or trial, or about the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Would it be surprising if those people, their families, and their countrymen disliked the US? Would they be unreasonable and wicked people if they did?
HAITIAN CRISIS
Many of us want to know what really took place in Haiti and are puzzled by America's determination to prevent independent investigation of the matter? They warmly embraced the CARICOM plan to resolve the Haitian crisis peacefully , only to do a sudden about-turn and choose to foster violent overthrow of the democratically-elected government. Another democratically elected government that the US didn't like, that of Venezuela, was also overthrown with its connivance in 2002. The unseemly haste with which the US recognised and legitimised those coup plotters backfired and left it embarrassed.
Why the deafening silence on Israel's weapons of mass destruction? The rush to trash Iraq on suspicion that it had WMD seems the more obscene in light of this. At the same time North Korea openly boasts of having WMD, and the US is treading softly there. Why is it cozying up to China which continues to have an appalling human rights record while tightening a 40 year blockade on Cuba for the same offence? Where was the US's voice for regime change when Apartheid was systematically denying 80 per cent of South Africans of their rights solely because they were not white?
BEHAVED BETTER
These are all troubling things, and America's enviable record of helping countries in distress does not give it a carte blanche to do what it pleases. America has not behaved any worse than other powerful nations have done in the past, neither has it behaved better. Like them it has its own interests to protect and, like them too, it has often pursued those interests at the expense of the weak. Where America has created its own problems is by insisting that it is different from the hegemonic powers of history and then taking offence when people believe that claim and judge it by higher standards.
This Iraqi misadventure might yet contribute to America's accepting that its actions are not inherently right. Americas do make mistakes. They also do cruel and vicious things. Abu Ghraib is only one recent example of this reality. The "average" American might, on contemplating these things, begin to understand why some people view America's interventions with suspicion and hostility.
Michael Nicholson is businessman who can be reached at kovsky54@yahoo.com.
