Beyond symbols and analogies

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld was wrong when he likened the fall of Baghdad to that of the Berlin Wall. Baghdad 2003 is not Berlin 1989. The Iraqi capital these days is more akin to the Berlin of 1945. But Iraq is not likely to receive a Marshall Plan like that the Americans so graciously granted the defeated Germans.

The German people -- Berliners -- smashed their wall with their own hands. In Baghdad, the invading American troops led the way in pulling down statues and other symbols of Saddam Hussein's regime. The Iraqis only followed suit. They have other far more serious, albeit mundane, matters to contemplate such as feeding the hungry hundreds of thousands, attending to and healing the tens of thousands of injured and burying their countless dead -- dead at the hands of the fierce and relentless US bombardment of their city.

With Iraqi cities in ruins, the world watched in horror as looters took to the streets with their booty piled high on their shoulders; furniture from hurriedly abandoned and battered presidential palaces, stacks of Iraqi dinars from bombed out banks. Iraq is in shambles. Hospitals are without power and potable water; medicine and food are in short supply; schools and shops remain closed, and the security situation is at best precarious.

And where, one wonders, are the caches of lethal germs, poison gas and plans for nuclear weapons that were presented as the pretext for the aggression against Iraq?

In Syria, the Americans claim.

So Syria is next, several top American officials warned this week. US Secretary of State Colin Powell threatened to impose diplomatic and economic sanctions against Syria. Meanwhile, Rumsfeld claims that Syria has conducted chemical weapons tests during the past year. Syria is also accused of harbouring Iraqi stocks of chemical and biological weapons as well as senior-ranking Iraqi Ba'athist officials.

Arabs expect the Iraqis -- not the Americans -- to run their own affairs. President Hosni Mubarak put it aptly, "Iraq must be ruled by Iraqis," he said and warned that the "repercussions of military occupation could be more dangerous than the war itself".

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 17 - 23 April 2003 (Issue No. 634)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/634/ed.htm