Issue No. 606
Opinion
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3 - 9 October 2002 Issue No. 606 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
The limits of rationality
The French thinker Regis Debray once wrote, "the political mind has its own reasons, which are unbeknown to the mind". Nothing can more aptly describe the current hullabaloo over Iraq. US politicians seem to be irrevocably obsessed by the assumption that sorting out Iraq would sort out the world. They are ready to spend over $100bn on the campaign against Iraq. Recently, Condoleeza Rice said, without blinking, that the United States would destroy Iraq and then rebuild it. Rebuild it? How far can the political mind go? How determinedly irrational can one be?
This is a war that has failed to gain the approval of Washington's allies, yet US politicians are telling an incredulous world that America knows best, that war has become a priority, a panacea for all sorts of international ills. Forget about the thousands of schools and hospitals, homes and factories, roads and power plants that could better the lot of millions worldwide. Forget about the dispossessed, those who have nothing to look forward to, those whose lives could have turned around with a sliver of such spending, and those America loves to hate when they turn, in desperation, to fanaticism and violence. America knows better. And it wants war, please, now. Is this some atavistic calling, a deep-rooted mania for killing, a predilection with fire-spitting steel?
There is no answer. None, at least, to be found within the boundaries of rational minds.
This week's Soapbox speaker is deputy head of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
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