THIS month 20 years ago — March 20, to be precise — the West attacked Iraq, accusing it of having Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) which later turned out to be nothing but a pack of lies. The United States under George Bush and the United Kingdom under Tony Blair were the masterminds, of this criminal act against Iraq, in particular, and the Arabian peninsula, in general.

Iraq has always been a target of the Europeans and the Zionists. The West may harp on about climate change, but it seems to forget its own history of the damage it has caused.

During the Gulf war in 1990, President George Bush Senior had ordered the use of shells that poisoned Iraqi soil, just as the Israelis today are doing to the Palestinian land. This has contributed to the climate change crisis enormously.

As if the destruction of Iraq and thousands of deaths of its people owing to the Western invasion were not enough, endless sanctions by the US and Europe weakened Iraq to unimaginable level. It was then that the final push started to take over the country and its vast resources for which the pretext of imaginary WMDs was used.

The West deliberately targeted the Iraqi infrastructure, healthcare facilities and water system to feed its own military-industrial complex. The West wanted to show its capability to instill fear in other countries, giving them a clear message that they should not mess with the West, or they would meet the same fate.

To give such a message to their adversaries, they have often unleashed brutal military power against weaker countries. This is because they knew too well that challenging a powerful country, like China or Russia, would result in an equally powerful response. Just see the Western reaction to the Russia-Ukraine conflict or the Russia-China friendship. The West is worried. Seriously worried.

With thousands of Iraqis dead, injured and made homeless, their resources stolen and no WMD found, the country today is in chaos. There is no peace in Iraq for which the US had invaded the country. Iraq needs justice, and so does Libya where, again, the West attacked a resource-rich country on the basis of lies.

Today, the West is crying hoarse telling the world refugees are landing on its shores. If the West stops its foolish belligerence against small and weak countries, things will be different and there will be no refugee crisis.

No Libyan, Iraqi, Palestinian or Syrian wants to live outside their country. They want to go back home despite the daily dose of lies being given to the world by the Western media about people wanting to live in countries where life is so much better. Nothing can be farther from truth. The Palestinians want to go back to their land, and so do the Syrians, the Libyans, the Iraqis. The refugee crisis is needed to divert the mess the white man has created in the world.

Bush, Blair and others involved in the destruction of Iraq, Libya, Syria and Palestine need to be held accountable for the death of thousands of Arab Muslims.

Angabeen Ahmad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2023