Disgusting pictures are emerging of US troops torturing Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib detention facility in Baghdad. Seems that American ‘contractors’ were given free reign to do what they wanted at the prison, with scant regard for any due process or the Geneva Convention. The world is outraged….
While America preaches freedom, democracy and the rule of law they are seen to do the opposite. This is hugely damaging.
Can the Americans make a bigger mess of Iraq ?!
On every front they’ve been heavy-handed, aggressive and totally lacking any understanding of the delicate religious and cultural environment they’re in. A ‘free and democratic Iraq’ – what the hell does that mean ? It suspiciously sounds like Iraqi freedom on American terms…
The disastrous seige of Falluja with footage of dead children and now these prison pictures have enflamed the Arab world. Bush’s support for Sharon’s disengagement plan from Gaza and the recent killings of Hamas leaders adds to the fury. The Arabs are outraged at America and Israel and swear revenge. This rage is fuel for Islamic fundamentalism and terror. The Americans can forget ‘hearts and minds’ now. They and the coalition are hated.
The worst case scenario now seems possible. America’s occupation of Iraq coupled with recent Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza may eventually push the whole region over the edge.
The, so called, ‘Arab street’ is full of angry young men radicalised by an extreme version of Islam that preaches hatred of America, Israel and the West.
Could the moderate regimes of America’s key allies, Egypt and Jordan, be ousted by Islamic fundamentalism ? Could the catalyst for this actually be Iraq ?
We have already had militant bombings in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The Saudi Royal family is in trouble and the succession uncertain. the future looks bleak. America’s invasion of Iraq has destabilised the region and provoked, not curbed Islamic fundamentalism. The world is now a much more dangerous place.
There seems to me to be two ways forward. The American unilateral way. Which will end in war and disaster.
Or
A multilateral approach based on the UN, negotiation and agreement. To put it frankly, the European way. Europe had a disastrous 20th Century which left millions dead in two world wars. The Europeans have realised, at huge cost, that the only way forward is together.
On the eve of the historic expansion of the European Union, that must be the message that Europe take to the world. The UN, with all it’s faults, is our only hope in Iraq. The quicker the Americans realise this the better.
So yeah... 