Tragic farce
While Bush, Blair and Aznar met in the Azores to present a final ultimatum to the Security Council, Israeli bulldozers were in the process of crushing a 23- year-old American girl to death as she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian house. In both cases might won over right and any hopes for peace were once again crushed beneath the weight of aggression and rage.
Neither the UN, nor the claims of international legitimacy, are capable of protecting the Palestinian people from the onslaught of Israeli colonialism. Nor are they of any service when the strongest country in the world is determined to ride roughshod over the principles of international justice and then shatter any legitimacy with its missiles and bombs.
The Azores summit was little more than an attempt to dupe American and international public opinion that Washington, which wants to go to war whatever, has explored every available possibility in its attempts to convince the Security Council to issue a final warning to Saddam Hussein, giving him a grace period of no longer than two days. After this deadline the wheels of the American and British military machines will roll. The summit was an attempt to embarrass France, Russia, Germany and the majority of peace- loving nations that believe a continued regime of international inspections is capable of disarming Iraq. The warning issued by the summit was intended for the international community and not Iraq. The choice of a remote military base in the Atlantic Ocean as a venue is indicative of the international isolation of the participants, and also their domestic alienation. Indeed, at times it appeared as if the three leaders were taking part in a wretched, though sinister, farce played to an empty auditorium. None of the three has managed to secure real support from the public to launch a war. Perhaps the meeting was scheduled so that they might comfort one another and bolster their own shaky belief that they do not need an international mandate to begin military operations.
The inevitable question -- operations to what end? -- remains. The international inspectors insist they are making progress towards disarming Iraq, and all they need is more time to carry out their work. But Bush, like a robot, continues to repeat that time has run out; Chirac's suggestion that the inspectors are allowed another month was firmly shot down by the US.
No one believes Bush when he speaks of liberating Iraq, of his commitment to assist the Iraqi people and to maintain Iraq's integrity and unity. No one believes his promises or pledges if only because there has never been an occupying army in history that turned into a tool for liberation. Bush's military adventure is nothing more than the beginning of a new form of American colonialism, and it will benefit no one in the region except Israel.
The three actors in this deplorable farce issue statements about consolidating peace efforts in the Middle East. Their words, though, are like the howls of wolves in the desert before they devour their prey. Do they not yet realise that the whole world -- not just the Arab world -- has lost all confidence in them.
The world stands on the threshold of a new era which may result in the collapse of the UN and the current international dispensation. It may result in the removal of Tony Blair and later President Bush himself. And the Arab world will be set back half a century.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 March 2003 (Issue No. 630)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/630/op4.htm