A rchive Date
[ 22-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/coren.html
Misplaced priorities
By MICHAEL COREN -- Sun Media
March 22, 2003
As I write this column, the bombs have are dropping, the missiles flying, the bullets cascading, the people screaming. President George Bush warned the leaders of Iraq to get out of town within two days or face the consequences. In other words, the combined financial and military might of the United States, Britain and several other countries has been thrown at a small Arab nation already brought to its knees by a decade of economic sanctions.
There was something noble, if terrible, about young men marching off to fight Adolf Hitler's dark legions and the evil of Nazism. But this?
A great and good friend of mine recently returned from Africa, where the AIDS plague kills millions. Contrary to what some people would like to believe, this is generally through no fault of their own. Family-minded, gentle people find themselves infected with a vile and fatal disease. The result is children without parents, parents seeing their babies die, entire families wiped out.
These people don't ask for very much, and are grateful that George Bush has given them more aid this year. But the money it has already cost to mobilize the West's armies, navies and air forces could pay for vaccination, testing and education of half of the AIDS-hit region.
The money it will cost to fight a war against Iraq could remove AIDS from Africa, build hospitals and ensure that those who die will do so with some sort of dignity and comfort. I cannot help thinking that one day we will be asked whether we were on the side of the caregivers or the warmongers. And judged accordingly.
SUPPORTED BY MANY
Spare me the humanitarian nonsense about the need to help the people of Iraq and that this is why the country has become the new whipping boy. Of course Saddam is a mobster, but there have been numerous opportunities in the past to remove the murderous clown. Instead, he has been supported - by so many countries: the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Nor is this about oil. That's too simple. No, it's about control of the Middle East. This is all a reaction to the massacres of Sept. 11. It is more than understandable the Americans want to prevent this from happening again, and their venture into Afghanistan was backed by most of the world. But Iraq was not part of that bloody equation.
The accepted view is that after Iraq is taken, Bush will apply pressure on Iran and even Syria. He will, in effect, try to control the region so as to make the United States safe from Islamic fundamentalism. Trouble is, citizens and organizations from Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia provide huge amounts of money and many willing individuals to the cause, and all three countries are allies of Washington.
Somehow, I can't see the world's Muslims becoming more pro-western and peaceful because we exert an imperial dominance over their world. Would we, I wonder, embrace Muslim ideas and leaders if Islamic armies effectively ruled our lands?
True, many Muslim countries are mired in dictatorship and oppression. Christians in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Sudan suffer terribly, followers of the Baha'i faith in Iran and elsewhere are persecuted, more than 750,000 Jews were forcibly removed from Arab states over the past 50 years. But we've also played geo- political games with the Arab world.
A democrat removed here, a dictator put in power there, a political party financed in one place, a terrorist movement given backing somewhere else. The morbid ghosts come back to haunt. Ignore the platitudes of the left and right. It's as much the fault of the Arab world as it is of the West. Both are to blame. But Saddam is merely an excuse, and the carnage and the devilish waste of money that could go to so many deserving causes is, forgive me, an obscenity.
Say hello to the age of the smart bomb and goodbye to the era of the smart politician. And thank goodness you live in a part of the world that has cash and big armies. Which is, my friends, a pure stroke of luck and chance. Worth remembering when CNN tells us about another strike on the enemies of our way of life, and death.
Michael Coren is a Toronto-based writer and broadcaster. He can be emailed at info@michaelcoren.com and his web site is michaelcoren.com Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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