POST-MORTEM ON IRAQ
by A. Jabbar

It seems that the nightmare of our Iraqi invasion will never end. Weighing our gains and losses, we have succeeded in becoming the occupying force in Iraq. We have reached our leaders' coveted goal of toppling the Iraqi leader to take control of the country's oil wells -- those holy shrines in the new pantheon. The only positive outcome of this war -- the removal of Iraq's dictator -- can be called a pyrrhic victory at best, since it comes at an incredibly high and morally unacceptable human cost.

Did we find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Did Iraq ever pose any threat to our security? Was Iraq close to assembling a nuclear device? Did Iraq use chemical weapons against our forces? Since the answers to all these questions are a clear "NO!" and since these were the assumptions on the basis of which we invaded Iraq, all those responsible for waging this totally unnecessary war in defiance of the United Nations and of world opinion should be held accountable. How can we redeem ourselves for this costly blunder that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, alienated the entire world, contaminated the earth for millions of years with our depleted uranium bombs, and wasted billions of dollars that we desperately need to save our schools, our dwindling welfare services, our jobs, in short, salvage our moribund economy?

There are some steps that we can take immediately if there is any truth in our leaders' repeated declarations of concern for the Iraqi people. Our government should apologize to the Iraqi people, withdraw all troops, hand over the control of the region to the United Nations, and compensate Iraq generously for the compensable damages. That is the least our government can do. The other task is for the people of this great nation. Since we claim to be living in a democracy, every one of us has a responsibility for the actions of our leaders -- a responsibility for supporting them if they do the right things and a responsibility to remove them if they fail in their duty to make America a secure and prosperous place by using the wealth of our nation for the benefit of the people.

There is no longer any doubt that our leaders have brought disgrace to our nation and endangered our safety both at home and abroad by launching ill-conceived carnage for personal profit a.k.a. fattening the coffers of big businesses like Halliburton and other corporations in which our leaders have vested interests. The extent of outrage that our leaders' actions have caused can be gauged by the full-page ads that have appeared in the newspapers, such as San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times, demanding impeachment of those responsible for this utterly miserable state of our nation. Highly regarded citizens like Ramsey Clark (former U.S. attorney-general) and several other patriotic and conscientious Americans have organized a campaign to rid our country of the scourge of aggressive corporate greed of global proportions, funded by the taxpayers' money and fortified by our unprecedented military might. Our famous historian Howard Zinn has reiterated that ! the "constitutional requirement of high crimes and misdemeanors [for impeachment] certainly applies to sending our young halfway around the world to kill and be killed in a war of aggression against a people who have not attacked us" (Znet Commentary, "War," February 27, 2003).

The shocking details that are emerging in world press point an accusing finger at our leaders. Invading Iraq on false pretense was bad enough. Now it is coming to light that FORGED documents were used to legitimize the Iraq invasion and mislead the U.S. Congress and the American people. It must be investigated who forged those documents and at whose behest, and most importantly, who included in the President's State of the Union address the false accusation that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Africa to assemble a nuclear bomb. The inclusion of this baseless and malicious uranium claim in the President's important speech, despite CIAís advice not to use the Niger allegation because of its questionable veracity, is now being linked to Robert Joseph, a White House aide (San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 2003, page A14). All those found guilty of this heinous crime deserve to be exposed for what they truly are -- enemies not only of Iraq but also of the American people. If found guilty, they need to be removed from power at once and punished before they abuse our young men and women in uniform and our fast shrinking resources to perpetrate evil on innocent people who have never threatened to harm us and who only seek our friendship. This great nation has done countless humanitarian acts all around the globe. The good of all those great deeds is at risk of being wiped out by our leaders' actions now. At stake also is our freedom that is being taken away from us under the meretricious guise of security by the most unpatriotic elements, such as the so-called Patriot Act. As freedom-loving and philanthropic people, we cannot let a handful of our terrorist, bellicose leaders hijack what has been good about America.
Who can deny that as a result of our military misadventures, the average American, far more than ever before, is at risk of being a victim of terrorism? At the same time, from all press reports, the people of Iraq are worse off under our military occupation than they were under Saddam Hussein. The daily killings of Iraqis by our soldiers and of our soldiers by Iraqi snipers, the Iraqi citizens protests and unrest spiraling out of control, and the recent suicide bombings against American targets in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco are clear proof of the dismal failure of our morally and politically bankrupt foreign policy.

All is not lost, however. We still have a chance to salvage our image as a freedom-loving and unique anti-colonial super power that can rectify its mistakes by making a clean breast of everything before the world forum. But the time is running out, and the anti-US feelings are on the rise everywhere in the world. The famous words of Frederick Douglas from his 1852 Independence Day speech sum up our present standing in the world:

          "Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the           monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South           America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay           your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will           say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America           reigns without a rival."

A. Jabbar, Ph.D.
Director, Concerned Citizens Caucus & Professor of English
and Interdisciplinary Studies
City College of San Francisco, California

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