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The US is clamoured to be defender of democracy and democracy entails respect for the majority decision in an organisation. Preaching about respect for the UN yet showing disdain for it reeks of doublespeak. The US is a single member of the UN and is bound by the legal provisions of the UN but has made it clear that it is not going to respect the decisions of the UN unless they are favourable to its imperialist intentions. How can it talk about flagrant Iraqi violation of UN resolutions giving it the mandate to take military action against it yet in the same breath say that should the UN not authorise military force, it is going to bypass the organisation and take military action against Iraq? Then you have the British jumping to this ridiculous tune. What is a threat to international security is not Iraqi WMD but rather the proclivity of the US to violate the rights of sovereign nations in its push to bring about a new colonisation of the world.




Another display of hypocrisy is demonstrated by UN telling Iraq to destroy its missiles in the face of the massive military build up by the US and its cronies. Why should Iraq destroy its missiles when the most advanced military hardware is being gathered around to attack it. Why should Iraq make it easy and be a sitting duck waiting to be picked out? The UN should be taking action against the blatant aggression being perpetrated by the US and Great Britain.




The hypocrisy of the Muslim leaders is disheartening. Giving the American aggressors the material, moral and other support to enable it to attack another Muslim nation is a blatant disregard for the teachings of the Qur'an. It is stated in the Qur'an: "Let not the believers take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah. except by way of precaution, that ye may Guard yourselves from them." (Aali-Imraan, verse 28) . Aren't all those leaders waving the US on as bad as Saddam when it comes to violation of their citizens' human rights? The latest fad is the notion that Saddam should go into exile. Why aren't they urging Bush to go into exile? Better yet, why aren't they preparing to go into exile together with Saddam to make it possible for true democrats to rule their nations in the best interests of their citizens?




While everyone is talking about the number of people that Saddam has killed, no one is talking about the hundreds of thousands who die on a yearly basis due to the illegal sanctions that the US has placed on Iraq. Mass slaughter of innocent people is reprehensible be it through the placement of sanctions with its attendant effects, through Saddam or through "surgical" strikes coming through US bombers. 




Sitting on a high horse, the US tries to lecture the world on the moral responsibility of ridding the world of evil Saddam with weapons of mass destruction threatening the US and the world. Iraq is no threat to the US and Bush knows that. The moral equation is not the reason for the militaristic attitude of the US. The real reason is economic. Iraq sits on vast quantities of oil and the US wants to control that oil and in the process control oil prices. This is one of the major reasons for keeping the devastating sanctions in place all this time. It knows that as long as Saddam Hussein is in power, it will have no access to Iraqi oil and American companies will not have a piece of the reconstruction contracts for the damage done through the massive bombardment of Iraq during the Gulf War. If sanctions were lifted today, French, Chinese, Russian and other companies will get the major share of these contracts. If Saddam is however removed by force, American companies will be in a prime position to get lucrative deals. This is the main reason and they know it. However, when one controls the world's media, one can look at a black piece of cloth and say that it is white, get the power of the media behind the lie and before long, the whole world will swear that the cloth is white.




The mother of all acts of hypocrisy and the climax of "yabaateh" is the proposition that an American will be installed as leader in Iraq after Saddam is removed. Talk about American arrogance! This is why Mandela said that George Bush and his policies are a threat to world security. Who gave Bush the right to decide at whim who to remove from power and who to install in another country? He came to power through comically dubious means and is more of a threat to the non-white world than Saddam can ever be a threat. If anyone should be removed from power, it is Bush himself yet he has the gall to call for the removal of another leader. This is not in any resolution passed by the UN and is thus a direct violation of UN and international law. If Saddam is removed today, who would be next? If the world sits silently and lets Bush carry out his illegal plans, they would be allowing a dangerous thing. Feeling the urge to flex its muscle to prove that it is not after all impotent in the aftermath of September 11th. Should have its limits. Failing to capture bin Laden, Mullah Omar or any of the significant others, frustration is driving Bush towards the next best thing to prove US power - Saddam. This is a shame. Since this is getting a bit long, I'll stop here regarding the hypocrites and the hypocrisy and move on to the bullies.




The bullies in this affair come under the name of Bush and Blair together with their less visible cronies. They believe that since they have might, they can force their will on the world. What they fail to realise is that power comes with responsibility. The adage "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is exemplified in the person of Bush. After September 11th., he bullied the whole world into thinking along a single line without the possibility of objectivity with his "you are either with us or with the terrorists" line. Without even proof of culpability, he attacked Afghanistan. He is doing the same thing again. He is bullying the world into giving him the green light to attack Iraq. That is why he is threatening the UN to pass a resolution giving the US the right to attack Iraq if it wants to prove its "relevance". Most of the countries in the world are against a war with Iraq. Now, who is relevant? The UN, which listens to those voices or the US with its puppets in the form of Britain and others? Being the sole superpower in the world, Bush thinks he can act at will, threatening friend and foe alike. All nations have a right to look after their interests and an American war against Iraq will only benefit for the most part America and its companies and will have devastating effects on the Middle East and the wider world. Why should the world then support something detrimental to its interests? Countries such as France and Germany which are opposed to the war are being bullied into accepting something antithetical to their interests. The weaker countries are in a worse position. Depending on handouts from the US and trying to prove that they are with the "good guys" so that they would not be next, these countries are outdoing themselves in bowing to US pressure. This brings me to the next category.




The wimps in this farce come a plenty. The wimps include Britain and other countries who have readily accepted and identified with flawed US policies even when those policies contravene civilised human behaviour just to stay on track with Washington. The US has violated innumerable international codes and violated the civil rights of many people and many countries are too scared to take action. The US has illegally kept many prisoners in Cuba and even countries whose citizens are among the victims sit helplessly waiting for a US change of heart. The US has used scare tactics to get everyone in line and countries have readily been cowed. Even those countries showing a bit of bravery will in the end toe the US line. Nobody wants to be on Washington's bad side. The wimps are scared to point out the contradictions inherent in US policy. 




The lead puppet comes in the person of Tony Blair. Bush says "j-" and Blair is already high in the air asking: "how high should I jump?". Blair has successfully transformed Britain into another US state. No wonder a commentator called him the US "Foreign Minister". It must be truly painful to the British psyche to come from being coloniser of the US to being its colony. No wonder the Brits are beginning to rebel and distance themselves from Blair. Tony Blair has successfully erased the line between Labour and the right wing and is in fact more right wing than the right wing itself. Britain has lost its identity since September 11th. It has become another star in the US flag and together they have become another angle in Israel's star of David as the machinations to get rid of Saddam are to a significant degree the fulfillment of the Israeli desire to maintain hegemony over the Arabs. Thus Sharon sits at the top with strings dangling Bush who in turn dangles Blair and the rest of the world. When Bush sits in Washington planning to violate the rights of sovereign states, puppets and poodles such as Blair are on the trail trying to justify the unjustifiable even when his own people are against what he is peddling resulting in the downward spiral of his popularity. He is however willing to sacrifice his political career for "Massa Bush". How pathetic! The Australians and the Spanish, the Arabs, the Africans and others fall into the same category. All willing puppets for a few crumbs not knowing that should the farce continue and succeed, they are next in line.




The hypocrites, the bullies, the wimps and the puppets come in different forms and sizes as has been seen. Their acts, if the consequences were not tragically real, would have made the best of comedies pale. The lessons these actions and actors bring to the fore are numerous. Chief among them is however the danger of having a single superpower with a militaristic leader at the helm, ready to exert his will on the world. Drunk with power, drunk on power. Having reached decadence without going through civilisation. Ready to exercise the absolute power that has corrupted him absolutely. Throwing the responsibility that comes with power to the wind. Ready to dip into his ready made pool of wimps, puppets and hypocrites to disregard international protocol at the detriment of the world. The world has seen such leaders come and go. Remember Pharaoh? Remember Hitler? Remember Napoleon? The list goes on. With that I thank you and wish you all a good evening.

                                                                                                                                       Buharry.

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