Orville W. TaylorFOR THE past several months, we have been so caught up in the issues of governance in this little country that we have completely ignored the American crisis in the Middle East which affects us more than you think.
A few months ago, an American soldier of Jamaican descent sent me an email from Afghanistan. He was upset over my comparison of our 2005 murder rate with the allied casualities in Iraq, suggesting that the rationale behind each statistic were worlds apart.
While it was flattering to realise that this column is read in so remote a location, it made me even more sensitive as to what I should write given that soldiers, some of our own brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are facing death from Islamic insurgents on a 24/7 basis.
Then, if the threat of rabid anti-American suicide bombers and 'gunfolk' were not enough, many of the allied deaths have been due to 'friendly fire' and accidents. I could never understand the term 'friendly fire' because even if we are brothers in Christ, the friendship ends the moment you point the gun at me.
Equally puzzling are suicide bombers since there is nothing in the Qur'an that says that suicide, which is a sin in Islam, can sneak a martyr into heaven. Even quainter is the promise that they will receive 21 virgins in the next life.
Well obviously these are impressionable virgins themselves because no right-minded man (or woman) could possibly want to spend eternity being frustrated 21 times. If the lure were a sanctified Lil Kim or Madonna, then we could talk.
JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR
Nevertheless, at the risk of demoralising my 'peeps' who are risking their lives for what they honestly believe is a noble cause, I have to ask: "What the hell did they send American troops into the belly of the beast for?"
Seven former American generals including a former presidential candidate are calling for the resignation of Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. They cite his arrogance, unwillingness to listen to their on-the-ground concerns and failure to deploy the appropriate numbers of troops to secure Iraq.
Some critics of President George W. Bush are now saying that he and Vice President Dick Cheney were committed to getting into a war with Iraq even against the requisite evidence and justification.
Well, Bush is having his lowest-ever approval ratings at 42 per cent and it appears that America has finally caught up with the majority of decent anti-terrorist, Osama bin 'Disliking' persons who listen to our consciences.
From as far back as the 1980s when Saddam Hussein was a pro-American ally, fighting former American collaborator Iran, I never liked him. Yet, although I was never a 'Saddamite', it was obvious that Iran with an Islamic fundamentalist state since 1979 was far more dangerous to Israel, America and world peace.
The disarmed Saddam might have had weapons of mass 'distraction' in the past.
But in 2003 when the invasion started, I knew that if the threat was Saddam, then Iran could 'Go morer.'
In 2002, I collaborated with a number of patriotic African-Americans in a book, co-edited by former CNN firebrand commentator Julianne Malveaux. This work, entitled The Paradox of Loyalty: An African American Response to the War on Terror, attempted to present different viewpoints on the subject by persons who, except for one pro-American West Indian, were all patriotic Americans. The conclusion was that black people were not firmly in support of the invasion.
In Jamaican lore, we have a proverb, which says, 'Goat must know the size of 'im backside before 'im swallow mango seed.'
Iraq has become Bush's mango seed because it is a bigger problem than he conceived.
I do not know what Sister Condoleezza Rice advised him but she is an expert in Cold War international affairs. I know nothing of her expertise on the Islamic Middle East, which is a world apart. Furthermore, Bush's father seems to have disliked the idea of an invasion.
MIDDLE EASTERN HOSTILITIES
Middle Eastern hostilities go back to biblical days. However, since 1945 when a piece of (Arab) Palestine was taken to create the modern state of Israel, things have taken a turn for the worse. That initiative was doomed to lead to an incessant conflict because two historical enemies were geographically forced upon each other.
Even more worrisome is the fact that in most of the Arab states, including American allies, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, there is no democracy in the western sense of the word.
In many of these states women cannot vote, hold high positions in government and business or even driver's licences. Furthermore, there is no transparent electoral process and government is often by a traditional élite.
It is therefore not surprising that Iraq is giving so much trouble because it does not have a democratic tradition. Even so, if true democracy were to be established in any of the 'friendly' countries, the victorious majority would be parties that are vehemently opposed to America. Remember, Hamas is now the majority in Palestine.
So, what Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld have done is to send our boys and girls into an environment where, like sitting ducks, they are surrounded by scores of wannabe martyrs waiting to take pot shots at them.
Yet, while chasing after a
de-fanged dictator who was butt-whipped in 1991, America ignored the real threat of Iran, North Korea who has constantly boasted of having 'nukes', and Pakistan with its own nuclear arsenal and anti-American militants. It has been 12 years since Bin 'Hidin' initiated the first bombing of the World Trade Center and almost five years since 9/11. Is the world safer today?
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
