Strange things have happened in the last few weeks at the United Nations – better call it the back room of USA’s State Department. First came the Resolution 1441 calling on Iraq to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction. How the Resolution was passed is now a pretty well known story. Pressures, threats, bribes and back room, even under hand dealings secured the passage of the Resolution for the U.S.
The Resolution, both in content and wording, was intended to be provocative in order to get a rejection from Iraq. Baghdad, however, behaved wisely, accepted the Resolution and till now has cooperated very well with the insensitively prying inspection regime of the U.N. It has already met the deadline to account for its weapons programme and handed a dossier containing twelve thousand pages. Yes, it was too big a task that only the US was capable of Xeroxing; so immediately it was flown to Washington where it fell in the hands of CIA.
The day after the Iraqi dossier reached Washington, the US declared that Baghdad had violated the UN Resolution, as it has not given full account of its weapon programme. It also urged Hans Blix, the chief of UN inspection team, to intensify the inspection activities. It demanded that the Iraqi scientists who have worked on Baghdad’s weapons programme must be taken out of the country with their families and relatives for interview. The mal-intention of the US is too patent and needs no explanation.
The strangest thing, however, was yet to happen. After laying its hand on the Iraqi dossier, Washington spoke through the UN that only the permanent members of the Security Council will get the full copy and the elected ten members will be given only an abridged version. Only Syria and Norway have criticized this move and the remaining ten members have behaved like the docile pigs. Spineless as the world has become, it has not even protested against its complete denigration by the US.
Why Washington is unwilling to show the full copy of the Iraqi dossier to the entire world? Perhaps Baghdad has spoken the whole truth – and the truth is that large number of American and European firms have been involved in developing Iraq’s so called weapons of mass destruction.
Now it is almost official that Baghdad has not complied with the UN Resolution. American and British warships are heading towards the Persian/Arabian Gulf. The war which was always on the mind of Washington, now seems imminent; it may be launched in coming February or March.
What the US is out to achieve is a million dollar question. Some would say that Washington wants to capture the Iraqi oil which it can do only after removing the present regime. Others feel that the US wants to redraw the map of West Asia which might even involve the division of Iraq. Or perhaps the US simply wants a pliant regime in Baghdad. Many people also think that the US does not want the Muslim world to become strong, and this explains why Washington is after the Iraqi scientists.
In fact, the Anglo-US strategy is complex and has a number of short and long term objectives. The immediate gain for the US in the wake of a regime change in Baghdad would be a tremendous boost to its sagging economy. Unlike Afghanistan Iraq is an oil rich country and, therefore, has resources to rebuild itself after being ravaged in the war. As happened in Kuwait earlier, America would chalk out a massive programme for reconstructing Iraq and get the lion’s share in the ensuing construction contracts of many hundred billion dollars. The long term objective, however, is to keep the Arab-Islamic world weak and divided and, therefore, impotent to pose any challenge to the Western supremacy. Military prowess obtained through advanced technology is the backbone of American domination over the world. The American do not want anyone, particularly the Islamic world, to progress in the field of science and technology that would ultimately help it become strong, militarily as well as economically. So, today Iraq is the target, and tomorrow it would be the turn of Iran and so and so forth. It does not require the ken of a prophet to understand that the reason behind American supremacy is its unmatched military power. Not because they are just, but purely because of their military strength they are able to dominate the world. Well, why other nations must wish to be dominated by the US? Indeed the US arrogance misuse of its immense power are the reasons behind the will of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the axis of defiance, to become strong and powerful.
[December, 2002]
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