Al-Ahram Weekly Online 29 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2001 Issue No.562
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Liable to attack

If the United States goes ahead with the military strike on Iraq that George W Bush implied was imminent in statements he made on Monday, the coalition against terrorism will collapse immediately. More seriously in the long term, such an attack will give credence to arguments that the attacks on Afghanistan are part of a wider campaign against Arabs and Muslims.

Even the US officials who have pushing most adamantly for a strike on Iraq admit there is no evidence linking Baghdad with the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. Failing to find even the most tenuous indication of Iraq's involvement did not deter the hard-liners in the Pentagon and the White House, however; they then attempted to link Iraq to the mysterious anthrax letters. That did not work either, since experts agree that the bacteria-laden missives are an inside job. So why should the United States bomb Iraq, or even threaten to do so?

Even before the 11 September attacks, there was little support for US efforts to launch another full-fledged military campaign against Iraq. Russia, France, China and even the US's closest allies in the Gulf have protested that an attack would be unjustified. President Bush's administration continues to iterate that Iraq is a threat to its neighbours' security. But those neighbours are saying loud and clear that they do not agree.

Iraq is a devastated nation, and over 10 years of thorough inspections by UN -- and sometimes CIA -- investigators have left no doubt as to the country's military capabilities.

Were this or any other US administration concerned with serious threats to the security of Arab governments and peoples, it would have to recognise that Israel, with its massive arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, poses the gravest danger.

In his statements on Monday, President Bush warned that those who develop weapons of mass destruction with which to terrorise the world "will be held accountable." But this rule applies only to Arab and Muslim countries -- not to Israel, which has been terrorising its Arab neighbours for over 50 years with its US-made arsenal.

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