They are Killing People With Impunity

“American planes bomb 30 Al-Qaeda targets in Iraq” is the news that most national dailies have carried out today i.e. 22.1.2008. What is new about it that should merit our attention? The whole world knows that the Americans are killing the Iraqis for four years now and no one knows how long this gory process of murders most foul will continue.
Officially America is not at war in Iraq. In fact, the war ended long ago. Under the UN (which should have died long ago) mandate Americans are the occupation force in Iraq and their mission is to maintain law and order until an Iraqi government is put in place. And the Iraqi government is already in place but the Americans continue with their murderous presence, of course now on the request of the “genuinely and fairly elected and representative government” of Iraq. What else can be expected from a pack of puppets, for they can not survive in office even for a day without the brutal and oppressive presence of American forces in Iraq.
For Americans the Iraqis are “the other”, and not their own people. And those who are fighting for the liberation of Iraq are the worst enemies whom the Americans are free to kill with impunity. They have just to say that they have bombed and killed Al-Qaeda men, and no one in the world will question their merderous act.
As mentioned above, the Americans are in Iraq to maintain law and order which by implication may mean to fight insurgency also. But fighting insurgency does not entitle them to bomb and kill people on mere suspicion. If the American forces have intelligence information that here or there the Iraqi insurgents are hiding, the best way for them should be to surround the place and secure their surrender so that they are tried and punished according to the law of the land. Well, they will have the right to fire back if they are fired at but in such situations also the use of force must be proportionate. On mere suspicion bombing targets to ashes is not just disproportionate but also brutal, inhuman, illegal and immoral.
The Americans have spent nearly a trillion dollar on their so called war against terror which they have been fighting mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. One must ask how many dollars they have spent on developing infrastructure or building schools and hospitals in the two countries they have occupied for many years. But perhaps this is an irrelevant question; why the war-mongers would spend in social sector?
But one must ask why the Americans are keeping people as prisoners without trial. For instance the Muslim fighters and others captured in Afghanistan have been detained at Guantanamo Bay which happens to be outside the jurisdiction of American courts. These helpless people have not only been deprived of their right to fair trial, but they are also treated as animals. Even convicted people, in American and everywhere else, have some human rights which the Arab-Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are not allowed to enjoy. But despite this inhuman treatment of fellow human beings at Guantanamo Bay America continues to be a civilized country and society.
The American disrespect towards international law, fair play and human rights has emboldened many of its allies and friends to adopt similar policies. Many pro-America Muslim countries, following the American example, have detained/imprisoned people without trial whose fundamental human rights are constantly being violated. Pakistan has gone a step ahead and, like its patron, America, has bombed and killed its own people in its tribal areas. Earlier such actions used to be condemned in the United Nations but now they are treated as routine and normal and no one dares to criticize the US and its cohorts.
India is facing insurgency in its many parts and in some places the insurgents directly engage the security forces and fire at them. Often the situation becomes very grave, and sometimes the security forces also overreact, even violate human rights, for which they are tried and punished. But in no circumstance they use the air force to bomb and kill the insurgents. Always our first option is to arrest the insurgents and try them in a court of law. Our security forces do receive information that here or there the insurgents are hidden. But instead of bombing them to ashes, they flush them out, arrest and try them in a court of law. This is a laudable civilized behaviour that a developing country like India has exhibited even in most provocative situations. Compared to it, the so called civilized America has fared poorly in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason is simple. The insurgents and Naxals from Kashmir to Nagaland are our own people who have taken to arms due to one or another reason, right or wrong. How can we bomb and kill our citizens, however misguided, even dangerous they might be. Americans do not bomb and kill culprits in America because they are their fellow citizens. But the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan are not their fellow countrymen but they are their enemies and therefore they have to be bombed and killed.

[January, 2008]