29 August - 4 Sept. 2002 Issue No. 601 Editorial	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

The nightmare of terror

How and when will Washington implement its plans to attack Iraq? The question is inscrutable if only because American public discourse on the issue -- the only potential source of any answer -- is characterised by contradiction and confusion. Positions shift, and so do the statements that justify them.

Dick Cheney and James Baker are perhaps the most obvious examples of the contradictions inherent in the American position. While the former considers delaying this preemptive operation more risky than going ahead, the latter warns of the disastrous consequences for American interests in the Middle East that might result from any attack on Iraq. Adding to the confusion is the knowledge that both officials -- now working under President George W Bush -- were advisors to his father during the Gulf War of the early 1990s. Both harbour negative sentiments towards the Iraqi regime.

In the context of Arab and world opinion vis-à-vis the planned attack Washington's indecisiveness is disturbing. The Qatari foreign minister's visit to Baghdad this week and his statements concerning his country's opposition to the attacks (even though a US military base is located in Qatar) has reinforced the Arab position. Nor do the EU, Russia or China support the attack; only the Bush administration, Israel and some factions within Tony Blair's government are in favour.

Perhaps US hesitancy is a reflection of the absence of any legal basis for the attack, though Washington appears willing to launch it irrespective of the support of the international community. But in the absence of any legal framework governments that support or condone the attack will in effect be committing a war crime. In destroying the infrastructure of a country that remains, according to international law, not guilty -- and, to an even greater extent, in compromising the safety of innocent people -- Washington ignores the fundamentals of civilised life.

Without adequate legal -- let alone moral -- justification no responsible party will be free from blame if Washington goes ahead with its plans. And without respect for the law and the sanction of the international community, the world will never be free of the nightmare of terror.

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