During his recent gruelling 10-day, 12-country tour of the Middle East and Britain, US vice president Dick Cheney hoped to build a case for an Afghan-style war against Iraq...
In the decade since the US’s high-tech destruction of Iraq in 1991, the US has consistently talked of overthrowing Saddam Hussain while being happy to leave him in place as a useful enemy to have. Now there are signs that they may actually be preparing to replace him. KHALIL OSMAN reports.
Intoxicated by the devastating display of America’s military juggernaut in Afghanistan, senior US officials have been issuing bellicose statements about Iraq. President George W Bush joined the chorus on November 26 when he warned Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to readmit UN arms-inspectors or face unspecified consequences.
On June 4, when members of the United Nations security council failed to reach agreement on a new sanctions plan proposed by the US and Britain, they decided to extend by one month, instead of the usual six months, the programme under which Iraq can sell oil to raise funds to buy food and to pay “reparations” to western governments.
US secretary of state general Colin Powell’s tour of the Middle East in February has heralded a change in America’s policy on Iraq. In addition to “re-energizing” the sanctions regime, Washington will actively seek to overthrow Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The West’s enmity to Islam was brought home to Muslims in Britain earlier this month, when the British government published its list of proscribed “terrorist” organizations, most Islamic or Muslim.
Despite widespread concern about the impact of depleted-uranium weapons used by the West in Iraq and elsewhere, western governments refused to address the issues until their own troops started developing cancer.
Arab governments and their media claimed last month to have helped Iraq on the road to international rehabilitation by allowing it to chair the Arab League foreign ministers’ conference held in Cairo on September 11 - 12.
If the reports that Saddam Hussain has joined the exclusive club of the world’s billionaires, boasting an estimated fortune of $6 billion, are even partly true, he will then have even greater contempt for the Iraqi opposition-groups in exile whose proudest possessions are fax-machines and an expensive rented office in London provided by the US.
The development and perfection of methods of mass-destruction must be counted one of the greatest accomplishments of the Eurocentric western civilization. No other civilization in history has shown such callous disregard for humanity and human life as this one.
The western media tends to focus on one major story at a time. While Kosova dominates the news, other international stories have been largely ignored. For Muslims, however, this is not good enough.
The streets of Baghdad are filled with vendors, taxicabs and a tenacious spirit. As a result of stagnant salaries and enormous inflation, most of Iraq’s work force has taken to the streets to find other ways of earning a living.
From a distance, you wouldn’t think that this is a city under siege. And why should you? Its giant bridges, ancient ruins and ever-flowing rivers are a sign of a well-nurtured civilization. Once you get close to its alleyways, streets and hospitals however, you will be shocked to see a very different reality.
The four-day missile and air strikes against Iraq, launched by the US and Britain on December 16, were a stunning displaying of western arrogance and total disregard for Muslim life. At least 425 cruise missiles were fired at Iraq.
In a desperate bid to save his own skin and displaying total contempt for Muslim lives, US president Bill Clinton, a self-confessed liar and philanderer, unleashed cruise missiles against Iraq on December 16.
From Bangladesh through Central Asia to Iraq, tens of millions of Muslims have been poisoned, many terminally, as a result of pollution from nuclear dust, pesticides and arsenic in water wells - all at the hands of western governments, international aid agencies and Russia, as the dominant power in the former Soviet Union.
Over the past few months, Iran and Saudi Arabia have edged closer toward warmer relations after nearly two decades of acrimony, tension and hostility. Tangible signs of improved ties between Tehran and Riyadh include the numerous visits of Iranian and Saudi officials to each other’s countries...
Nowhere in the Middle East was the anger of the masses at yet another threatened strike against Iraq by US-British forces more apparent than in Jordan.
The US has won an emphatic victory without even firing a single shot. It has established the absurd rule that Washington alone decides who must implement United Nations resolutions as well as who need not...
In the wake of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United States and its allies pushed through the UN Security Council a series of resolutions imposing tough sanctions against Iraq. These sanctions, which remain in place today, six years after the eviction of the Iraqi forces from Kuwait, have inflicted tremendous hardship and suffering on the innocent civilian population of Iraq.
