By Meraj Abedin
So selfless, those Americans. Not content with keeping the thrills of post-war Iraq to themselves, they are willing to let nations of all creeds, colours and languages get in on the action. I guess Iraq ain’t no fun if the homies can’t get none.
Like an eight-year-old after a two-litre bottle of Jolt cola, America is realizing perhaps it was a bit too excitable when deciding to whack Saddam. Maybe the whole war thing was mood swing, maybe Kofi Annan will take them back if they’re nice to his UN friends? Maybe, but probably not.
Just months ago, the Bush administration deemed the United Nations "irrelevant." Before the war, the neoconservative overlords in the White House spat acidic derision at the UN Security Council for not backing their proposed Iraq escapade. Now the Americans are back, asking the UN to contribute troops and cash.
Why the turnaround? What happened to the unilateralist don’t-give-a-fuck America of the brave new post-September 11 world?
Actually, nothing has changed. This is a feint and a feign. The Yanks are playing wounded in order to trick other nations into the Iraqi quagmire to reduce American casualties and retroactively justify the war.
The reversal of policy also highlights a new disorder in the American psyche. Not only do the American government and media suffer from delusions of grandeur and moral righteousness, they also suffer from a serious case of selective amnesia. The Bush Administration is completely oblivious to the reality of the last few months, as evidenced by the expression on their Commander-in-Chief’s face. Warmongering, lies, derision, undercutting inspectors, phoney weapons claims, disregard for the international community et cetera.
After all that, where’s the decency? It wouldn’t hurt being humble. Perhaps an apology would be a start.
But no, after spitting in the face of the "irrelevant" UN, the Bush Administration has the shameless audacity to ask member states to lend a helping hand in Iraq.
If nations fall for the American ploy, they can expect to give an arm and a leg. How bloodthirsty the warmongers are, as they sacrifice their countrymen at the altar of Greater America they demand foreign blood to add to their cauldron of unholy concoctions. Not only will young Americans die for the deluded dreams of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle, now Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, Germans, Poles and young men the world over have the opportunity to die too. They always said globalization was inevitable.
Or maybe not.
The UN won’t be that quick to roll over for Colin Powell and his masters. The all too cowardly "cheese-eating surrender-monkeys"–the French–have decided to defy the most powerful nation on earth yet again. You see, the French have a problem. They want the Iraqis in charge, not Saddam-wannabe Paul Bremer, and the Americans aren’t going to have any of that. Like a giant Gollum, America is clinging avariciously to "her precious"–oil and control.
Thus the process of passing a UN resolution on post-war Iraq is at a deadlock.
However, we cannot forget the central protagonists in this story, the Iraqi people. The international community must help rebuild a devastated Iraq. Politics should not interfere with this. It’s still a shame the UN Security Council is even considering deploying international troops and paying for the occupation.
This is America’s war, let them pay for it with their own blood and treasure. Let them realize on their own how much the people of the Middle East love them. Let the American people realize how much they’ve been lied to. Sooner or later Americans will relearn the lessons taught to them by their founding fathers: "Go not abroad, in search for monsters to destroy."
Amen.