The most volatile part of today’s global village is still receiving a shock after a further severe one; when it is expected to coordinate international efforts as to combat every form of extremism, hatred and terrorism, as to eradicate every poverty and related diseases, the US Administration, once more, puts aside and ignores the most serious and urgent needs of the region humans. Mr. George W. Bush wants to strike Iraq, whose people are almost exhausted, powerless under more than a long decade of unjust sanctions. The war is to be launched under different pretexts, if no one, many tailored and pre-made ones in the Hawks drawers are to be piled. In fact, the world at large can no more live according to the US Administration dictates, mostly ill-intentioned filled with exploitation and greed.

President Bashar Assad, on October 17, 2002, told Reuters "there was no justification for a U.S. war on Iraq, adding it would kill millions of people and plunge the whole Middle East into uncertainty. "What America did in Afghanistan is not applicable to Iraq. Afghanistan was a piece of cake compared with Iraq." "You cannot change the regime without killing millions of Iraqis." "Our concern is about entering the unknown. Even the United States does not know how a war in Iraq is going to end." "We certainly are against the use of military force as a general principle. Nobody should go to war because he does or doesn't like this or that country. "There is nothing in the charter of the United Nations that says any country has the right to change the regime of any other country," President Assad underlined.

At a recent campaign stop in New Mexico, President George W. Bush, regarding Iraq, reported on his approach to the UN: "You have the choice as to whether or not you will allow this dictator to continue to defy the United Nations, and therefore weaken you, or you can join with the United States and disarm him like he said he would do," said the President. While the President accuses Hussein of weakening the UN, members of the UN and the world community consider President Bush’s unilateral approach as equally demeaning to international law, and the power of the Security Council. As reported by the New York Times, "[UN] ambassadors fear that if Washington sidesteps the UN to attack Iraq, the result will be irreparable damage to the institution that should be at the center of international affairs, not on the margins."

The Bush method of foreign policy is moving us toward a situation in which the US dominates, inspiring fear and resentment. According to Edward C. Luck , director of the Center on International Organization at Colombia University, "The more [the US talks about its power], the more other countries think the major security threat to the world is the undisciplined use of American military power." Thus, on Oct. 26th, 2002, over 100,000 people turned out in Washington, D.C. and another 42,000 in San Francisco to send a clear call to the administration to stop plans to attack Iraq. According to reliable US sources that every step the President takes towards initiating a conflict, he further distances himself from the support of the American people. Peace Action, and other groups that are actively resisting the President's drive toward war, are growing by the day. Web hits, phone calls, and letters have skyrocketed as average Americans search for answers to their long list of questions about the President's policy of attack. The people of this country are not willing to stand to the side and watch as the President's misguided foreign policy decimates the social and economic well being of the global community.

"In the modern world, the use of force should only be a last, and exceptional, resort," said French President Jacques Chirac. " It should only be allowed in the case of legitimate defense, or by decision of competent international authorities. Whether we are talking about making Iraq adhere to its obligations, re-launching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process or solving conflicts in Africa, the same logic of legitimacy has to inspire all of us, because only this firmly guards us against temptations of adventure."

A call for restraint following another; many have been echoed by Arab countries and some of the US staunchest allies; yet, the US Administration is adamant on paying no heed to international, not to mention the local, voices of reason. They want to rid Iraq from claimed WMD; so that the Israeli nukes and stockpiles would be safe. They want to kill the children of Iraq, so that the children of Israel would further expand and expel the indigenous Palestinians into Diaspora why not into Iraq; hence transfer into Jordan may be shelved for some other time! Nebuchadnezzar died so long before modern history starts. Arabs’ unanimous Peace Initiative has one and once for all killed every Nebuchadnezzar. The Iraqi children and civilian are indeed the only real victims for any miscalculated silly adventure. Let us present the Iraqi hungry sick children with bottles of milk and medicine and never to fill their mouths with depleted Uranium and bullets! In so doing, ‘ Thee Meek will inherit the earth’’! won’t they?

BY

Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim

Abdo88@ureach.com

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