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May 09, 2003
After the War
The war in Iraq has ended. Given the stark disparity in the strength of the two adversaries, its result was a foregone conclusion. The fate of the victor and the vanquished was sealed even before the first daisy cutter was lobbed to signal the unceremonious exit of Saddam.
Yet the outcome of the war and its long-term ramifications will be felt and debated for a long time to come. Operation Iraqi Freedom cannot be adjudged as an utter failure nor can it be heralded as a triumphant success. It was a bit of both and breeds both optimism and pessimism for the future.
The United Nations was the first casualty of the war. Its role as an adjudicator in conflicts between warring states was totally ignored in a rare show of defiance by the US and the UK. Willfully and wantonly the two rode roughshod over the Security Council deliberations and mounted the attack. The frailties of the world body were exposed as never before thanks to the inadequacies of Secretary General Kofi Annan who lacked the dash and perspicacity of his illustrious predecessors like U Thant or Dag Hammarshold. Little wonder that a few days after the fall of Baghdad, the President of the UN General Assembly faced up sheepishly to a chirpy TV newscaster who had the cheek to question the efficacy of the UN!
Another worrisome aspect of the war was the ceaseless ravings of the conservative right against Islam. Operation Iraqi Freedom was not a religious war yet the anti-Islam sentiment fanned by the rightists made it look like one. Despite assurances by the President to the contrary, the loudly orchestrated censure of Islam continued. Thankfully, the demonstrators in various cities of the US and Europe did not share the conservatives’ rancor. Pope John Paul II, Reverend Desmond Tu Tu, and Mr. Nelson Mandela to name a few men of wisdom, did not find Islam at the heart of the problem in the Middle East. The Christian-majority had acted sanely.
At home, it seemed to realize that the strength of the US lies in the secular character of its multi-faith society. Can we renounce the shining principles of the founding fathers or ignore the inspirational edicts of Thomas Jefferson. A sampling: “We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.” -- Reply to Virginia Baptists, 1808. ME 16:320
In the Muslim world the cry for Jihad was raised only to cause anguish and all-round desperation after the fall of Baghdad. Saddam was no Salahuddin as he was popularly portrayed nor the system of government that he had introduced in Iraq could be described as truly Islamic. His secular and wayward views had found vivid expressions - he never supported Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir and openly sided with India! There was thus little justification for street demonstrations in his support in Pakistan. They only embarrassed Islamabad and the saner elements in the Pakistani society.
It was also heart wrenching to see the precision bombs take their toll of precious human lives. The ‘collateral damage’ in the form of human corpses was a depressing spectacle. “The new technologies of war helped protect our soldiers,” President Bush claimed. Iraq seemed to have no answer to the sophisticated weaponry of the Coalition forces. And lamentably this happened in a country that was known for its creative impulse and whose research and development undertakings had acted as a catalyst for Renaissance in Europe! No tall or high-sounding Muslim claim. Historian Hugh Thomas testifies, “The citizens of the towns of what is now Iraq were responsible for the fundamental innovations….They reached a mathematical level of achievement not touched elsewhere until the Renaissance.” (Hugh Thomas, A History of the World, New York, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.). Saddam’s gold-laced palaces, contrasting with the modest dwellings of the citizens of Iraq, seemed to furnish the explanation for the humiliating fall of Baghdad. Academic excellence, R&D undertakings, vibrant think tanks and Ivy colleges constitute a country’s dynamism, a society’s economic well-being and provide the muscle to defend in times of crisis. There is an indisputable linear relationship between R&D (Research and Development) inputs and GNP growth: the higher a country invests in research undertakings, the greater its economic gains.
The war is over. “That which is done is done and wise men have enough to think of the present and the future to come.” Let us contemplate the future in the spirit advocated by Francis Bacon. It is gratifying that President Bush is seized of the immensity of the task and has held out the assurance in Dearborn that the US would stand by its commitment to bring about a wholesome change in Iraq through a democratic order. “Whether you’re Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Chaldean or Assyrian or Turkoman or Christian or Jew or Muslim - no matter what your faith, freedom is God’s gift to every person in every nation. As freedom takes hold in Iraq, the Iraqi people will choose their own leaders and their own government. America has no intention of imposing our form of government or our culture. Yet, we will ensure that all Iraqis have a voice in the new government and all citizens have their rights protected….
“Day by day, hour by hour, life in Iraq is getting better for the citizens. Yet, much work remains to be done. I have directed Jay Garner and his team to help Iraq achieve specific long-term goals. And they’re doing a superb job. Congress recently allocated $2.5 -- nearly $2.5 billion for Iraq’s relief and reconstruction. With that money, we are renewing Iraq with the help of experts from inside our government, from private industry, from the international community and, most importantly, from within Iraq….” One sanguinely hopes that these efforts would bear fruit.
In ‘A Letter to America’ Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood plaintively observed: “You have always wanted to be a city upon a hill, a light to all nations, and for a while you were. Give me your tired, your poor, you sang, and for a while you meant it…” The letter appeared in the Globe and Mail of March 28, 2003. The scene appears decidedly different today. The Dearborn speech seems to testify that the ‘city upon a hill’ is in good health and blooms as ‘a light to all nations’. One hopes that the roadmap announced by President Bush would produce tangible results and pave the way for lasting peace in the Middle East. - afaruqui@pakistanlink.com
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