January 16, 2003

If 250 children die in Iraq every day as a result of the economic sanctions the world has imposed on that country and not even a brow is raised at the cruel treatment meted out to the Iraqi people, it is not only because they are Arab and Muslim but also because Muslim lives, in relative terms, do come easy. Let’s face it: more Muslims are being killed and tortured by their own repressive regimes and terror-wielding outfits operating across the Muslim world since the end of colonialism than by the outside forces.

The obvious examples in recent years could be spotted in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Indonesia, Albania, and closer to home, in the Kargil adventure. The malaise plaguing the Muslim world manifests itself in many forms: from forced conscription to fight wars that nobody needs, to factional/tribal infighting, to repressive states acting to quell dissent. It has all been happening every day, and for years on end in a whole lot of Muslim countries. Like someone sarcastically remarked, ‘what can you do about a people who believe real life begins after death?’

Iraq has been one unlucky country, which gave illusions of being able to stand on its own feet in the post-colonial world. Today when prospects of another bloody war to oust the despotic and repressive regime led by the ruling Ba’ath Party stares in our faces, it is time to realize that Iraq is not the only failed state on the face of the earth. Other, seemingly tamer and more ‘stable’ states with similar political dispensations in the region are waiting in the wings bracing themselves to face similar fates as the one Saddam Hussein is just about to meet.

Sadly, for the Iraqi people, there has never been a life without tyranny. Saddam massacred his own people with impunity as and when he pleased, or even if he smelled a rebellion brewing, be that in the Kurd areas, in the central river basins, or in Basra down south. The oil wealth of Iraq was never spent on the Iraq people. It was always spent on building immaculate presidential palaces, reinforcing the president’s security through a host of mechanisms, building an arsenal aimed at bullying Iraq’s neighbours, or on carrying out military operations against perceived rebels.

The Iraqis live in complete fear of their own army, still a formidable force to reckon with from the standpoint of the helpless and impoverished civilian population. They even fear members of their own families and watch what they say in company of close friends, who may be on the state’s payroll and charged with the task of reporting dissent. Every Iraqi home and business must hang a colour portrait of their leader at a conspicuous spot to avoid suspicion of being a rebel. This is hardly a vision of a prosperous nation state, which many romantics believe Iraq would become if the economic sanctions were lifted.

The fact that the regime whose policies had these economic sanction imposed on Iraq in the first instance is still in power speaks volumes for the political despondency and a total lack of public accountability on the part of the Iraqi regime. Neighbouring Syria, and a host of other countries in the region do not fare any better when it comes to committing gross human rights violations against their own people.

True, the US in its policy towards Iraq is led by the Grand Old Party’s vision of an assertive and unforgiving America that should go all out to inflict heavy damage on anyone who dares to defy it; but that’s not the whole truth. Simplistically stated and the obvious American interests related to the oil reserves of the Middle East and its commitment to the survival of Israel are only what meet the eye.

There is a whole lot more that is at stake for America and the rest of the world in the continuation of regimes such as the one ruling Baghdad. These are essentially anti-people and cruel regimes which keep pushing their own nations to the edge of a sociopolitical and economic precipice in order to keep the riches of their respective nations to themselves and their cronies-in-power. The world would surely be a better place if one of these regimes is brought down, even if there is a malafide American intent behind the ouster of such a regime.

It is this basic reality that underscores a muted response on the part of the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council. The rhetorical point that ours is a unipolar world today is an overstated one. America alone cannot fight its global war on terrorism without an active participation by even the smaller countries like Pakistan, let aside go it alone leaving the Russians, the Chinese, the British and the French in the dark. With regard to Russia, the demise of its communist economy brought that country back to the western fold with its changing value system and economic interests now decidedly lying with the west. The former arch rival of America now has far fewer, if any, bones to pick when it comes to its bilateral or even global relations in a world dominated by The Wall Street.

Therefore, if President Bush goes ahead with his plans to finally oust Saddam Hussein, the world will surely not be the same place after that event. Other repressive regimes will show unmistakable signs of jitters and restlessness, but given their crimes against their own people, there is little hope they would live to reform their polities. Time is simply running out on them.

That there would a price to pay for America in terms of having to live with a global unpopularity that awaits Washington in the aftermath of the action in Iraq, is a calculated risk a GOP-ruled America would rather take than not. The pity, however, is that even the few rights activists in countries like Pakistan would be blinded by a newfound anti-US hysteria that would follow the attack on Iraq strengthening the very reactionary forces in this country that they have been struggling against.

The world after 9/11 is surely not the same place.

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