21 - 27 February 2002
Issue No.574
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 February 2002 Issue No.574 |
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In isolation
After spending some three months in hiding after 11 September, US Vice- President Dick Cheney has resurfaced, frantically waving the banner of war against Iraq. The American administration, meanwhile, is unifying its ranks to affirm that the next stage of the war will focus on destroying Saddam Hussein. Cheney has joined Bush, Rumsfeld and Rice as the main proponents of the "Axis of Evil" theory. The White House is no longer concerned with consulting its allies or even listening to their views.
Almost every day, President Bush issues a new statement reaffirming his policy of preventing states like Iraq, Iran and Korea from undermining the "American way of life." American and British newspapers discuss preparations for eliminating the Iraqi president. The military plans await only a few final touches. Some predict that Iraq will be attacked in May, when it is scheduled to renew its agreement with the UN. If Iraq refuses to let arms inspectors in, it will be possible for the US to trigger a crisis.
Major Arab countries, whether or not they would like Saddam Hussein to remain in power, find this scenario, which the American administration is working hard to implement, extremely distasteful. America's only pretext is that the Iraqi leader possesses weapons of mass destruction that pose a threat to his neighbours -- which neighbours, headed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, are opposed to waging war against him. The recent statement by Prince Naif, the Saudi minister of interior, confirms this opposition. Egypt and the secretary-general of the Arab League have already announced that Arab countries will not consent to any military action against Iraq.
On the other hand, the recent dispute between Washington and France, in the course of which the French foreign minister gruffly described Bush's policies as naive and simplistic, signalled unprecedented disagreement between Europe and the US administration. Other European officials also criticised Bush's lumping together of Iraq, Iran and Korea under the axis of evil banner; nor do they support military action against these countries. With the possible exception of Britain, Europe's consensus on Iraq is that neither sanctions nor military measures are appropriate any longer.
One can surmise, then, that nobody takes America's claims about Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction too seriously; none of the US's friends or allies are convinced by Bush's "axis of evil" threats. As for the US president, he continues to ignore the true threats to international peace and security embodied in Sharon's policies. On the contrary, the US, by providing Israel with arms and keeping quiet about the massacres, is a party to these policies.
If Sharon wants the US administration to wage a war against Iraq and Iran, on the pretext that they undermine Israeli security, this is hardly cause for America to enter into a war that will be quite unlike its picnic in Afghanistan. There is strong evidence, furthermore, that the American and British military presence in Afghanistan is facing difficulties. If Cheney's upcoming tour of the region is indeed designed to coordinate positions and acquaint Arab states with the campaign on Iraq, perhaps he would do better to stay home, for his position on Sharon's policies will do little to make him a welcome guest.
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