Ten targets of war
By
El-Sayed Eleiwa
The world watches from the wings as Washington continues with its grand schemes of deception and attempts to pull the wool over the eyes of all those watching in disbelief as it prepares to attack Iraq.
Listen to the statements of American officials and you might believe that in Washington's corridors of power the only obsession abroad is to disarm Saddam Hussein. But it takes very little effort to see through all the fog. It is not as if the explanations being propagated in public are in the least convincing. Indeed, their weakness and transparency is positively alarming.
So what are the real motives that inform the actions of the current American administration? Despite the blanket misinformation it is possible to identify several goals that will be achieved by a US attack on Iraq.
Following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein will come the Americanisation of the Iraqi regime and, in its wake, of other regional governments. The regional map will be torn up and then reassembled. The target is to control the region's oil supplies, monopolising energy: this will also have the added benefit, as far as Washington is concerned, of guaranteeing Israel's security and liquidating the Palestinian cause.
Military victory will also be the trump card in President Bush's re- election campaign. And the actual campaign will provide the American military with an opportunity to test new weapons.
Added to the above will come the confirmation of American strategic, military and political hegemony, the engine that will drive ever more Americanisation of the world's economy, culture and media. A precedent will have been set for the representation of countries as "the enemy", a necessary process in activating the dynamics of the American political and economic system. It is a precedent the Arab world must resist with all its strength. In its wake it can bring only catastrophe to the region.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is professor of political science at Helwan University.
