America must destroy the Wall of Fear and Isolation
Ibrahim Ebeid *
September 28, 2006
Most of us, Americans, are forced to stay stagnant as if we were destined to
live behind a huge wall that prevents us from seeing beyond it. This wall has
been erected by past administrations and in the present one we have allowed
President Bush Jr. to force us to live in a Republic of Fear. Whenever we
look at television, we hear the “experts” parroting President Bush’s lies about
a threat that is coming to us, and if we do not react in advance to prevent such
a threat from occurring then the war will be here on our door steps. The
Republic of Fear created by our Administration is producing wars and chaos in
the rest of the World, especially in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.
Afghanistan was
occupied, Iraq turned into chaos as a result of occupation, and a sectarian
regime was created and nourished by the US, Anglo Saxon and Zionist Triangle of
Evil.
Since the beginning of the brutal invasion of Iraq, the President, members of
his Cabinet and advisers have been trying to keep us, Americans, in
darkness. They are bombarding us with the idea of a terrorizing enemy of
their creation, described as Islamist fascists and Islamist terrorists,
Saddamists or Baathists who are indoctrinated to attack us, because they hate us
and they hate democracy. In reality we attacked the Muslim and Arab countries,
and we destroyed their institutions. We are trying to eradicate and distort
their values that have their roots in history for thousands of years, values
that were the fundamental basis of Western Civilization. . With our help and
support “Israel” was created in Palestine and the Palestinians were forced into
refugee camps facing death, starvation and misery while foreigners took over
their lands, homes and defaced the history of Palestine. He arrogantly accuses
the freedom fighters who resist tyranny and occupation as extremists who spread
propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. He claims
that he respects Islam and yet his war in Iraq killed and still is killing
Muslims, Christians and others by the thousands. He brought anti-Arab sectarian
fascists to legitimize the occupation, the robbery and mass killing in Iraq
under the protection of more than 140,000 US troops. The sectarian militias of
the thugs that he brought from Iran are killing people with acid, electric
drills, saws, and fire, under the eyes of his commanders. The United Nations
affirmed that 6600 Iraqis were butchered in the last two months; most of them
carrying signs of torture before they were brutally killed.
A friend of mine
who was a scientist in Iraq had to flee her country a month ago with her husband
and two children. She told me “the Baghdad you know does not exist. Wherever
you look there are destruction and concrete piles. We were afraid to go out or
drive around; women have to cover their heads and are not allowed to continue
their education. At present, very few go to higher education. The sectarian
government is against any one who is educated and they are assassinating
scientists whenever and wherever they find them. Shahristany was my boss in the
seventies. When it was discovered that he was an agent to Iran and to the CIA he
was arrested, then in 1991 he ran away to Iran and took with him all the names
of the scientists and employees in the department he was part of. After the
occupation he came back to Iraq and now he is the Minister of Petroleum. This
sectarian man gave all the names of the scientists to the sectarian militias and
they started killing the scientists, some times three or four a day. They do not
distinguish between a Sunni or a Shia, to them an educated Shia is more of a
target than a Sunni. Before the Occupation we never experienced the difference
between Shia and Sunni, we felt like were all one family, and religion never
played a role in discrimination. My husband and I were alarmed, especially when
we were witnessing the killings of our friends at the hands of the sectarian
militias of the “government” that Bush forced upon us. We received a serious
threat and we were forced to escape. We lost our workshop, our car, beauty
salon, our apartment and house, we had to escape. Now, we are scattered and live
in different parts of the World”. One of my brothers was a Colonel in the Iraqi
Army and the other one was a professor at one of the universities in Baghdad.
Schools were very advanced, all of us got our education under the Baathist
government, and education was free at all levels. Then I asked her about the
Resistance, she said, “the Resistance is very strong and it is gaining more
strength, the people are behind it and it is our hope.” Then she added
“the Iraqi people are missing the golden days when Saddam was in power.”
(The Scientist happens to be a Shia.)
We Americans are not Liberators, we are brutal occupiers. Just on the 27th of
September the Associated Press reported that American troops killed eight people
from the same family, four of them were women, and two were pregnant. Manal
Jassim was in a different room, when she heard the shots and the screaming of
the victims. She ran away, but when she came back she found eight members of her
family brutally massacred. The American Occupation Command shamelessly claimed
that these victims were “terrorists”. Manal said that the family members were
sleeping when the soldiers entered the house at dawn and committed the crime
Certainly, the relatives, friends and neighbors of this murdered family and the rest of the Iraqis will hate American values enforced upon them by President Bush. American values to them mean terror, mass graves and genocide and a war against Arabs and Muslims.
US guns and bombs supplied to “Israel” are killing Palestinians and Lebanese by the thousands. And he dares to say that he desires peace and prosperity for the “Middle East”? UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said the UN Mine Action Coordination Center had assessed "nearly 85 percent of bombed areas in south Lebanon" and identified "359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many 100,000 unexploded bomblets." "What's shocking and I would say completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end," he said. "Every day, people are maimed, wounded and are killed by these ordnances," the UN relief coordinator said. He also stated that the bombs may have been manufactured "in a number of places," including the United States.
In an interview with Der Spiegel on August 15, 2006, former President Jimmy Carter was very critical of the Bush Administration. He affirmed that hatred to the United States through the Arab World was as a result of the invasion of Iraq, and ” the matter have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its attack on Lebanon”.
We wonder why President Bush always justifies any “Israeli” aggression while the wiser former President said “I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that's justified, no”.
We, Americans, must realize that President Bush’s irrational support to the colonialist racist entity, “Israel”, is causing a perpetual war against the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people and the Arab nation are not our enemies. Their ideology is not hostile to anyone but the ideology of Mr. Bush is.
In his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations President Bush was misleading us and far away from truth and reality. There has been no progress and democracy on the march in Iraq or in Afghanistan as he was claiming.
His speech was another attempt to dupe us and force us to stay in darkness. He pretends that he respects the United Nations and its Charter while he was the one to challenge the rest of the World and the World’s Organization and blatantly violated its charter when he invaded Iraq and ruined it. Now he is caged in and he is trying desperately to convince the World Body to come to his rescue.
Pakistan's
President Pervez Musharraf, a dictator who was not favored by the Bush
Administration until he received a threat to join the war on “terror” or else,
confirmed that the United States threatened to bomb his country back to the
Stone Age after the 9/11 attacks if he did not help America's war on “terror”.
The threat was delivered by Richard Armitage, the then deputy secretary of
state, to Musharraf's intelligence director, said the Pakistani leader to
CBS-TV's "60 Minutes." Musharraf said he reacted responsibly, i.e. he succumbed
to the threat.
It is very hard to believe that our President was stunned and shocked and that
he had no previous knowledge of the threat that his Under Secretary of State
delivered. Has he forgotten his infamous message:” if you are not with us
then you are against us”? This message speaks for itself and reflects his
threat to the nations who disagree with him. Should we believe Musharraf or our
President who always hides the truth from us?
“As liberty
flourishes, nations grow in tolerance and hope and peace. And we're seeing that
bright future begin to take root in the broader Middle East”, the President told
the General Assembly of the United Nations! But the reality is the opposite, the
Palestinians and Iraqis are not experiencing progress, prosperity or security.
They are experiencing poverty, chaos destruction and fear imposed upon them by
us and by our allies. Security is part of the past that does not exist in the
“new Iraq”.
Why do we allow President Bush and his extremist neo-conservatives fortify this
wall and keep us living under fear? This question haunts me wherever I go and
every time I watch our President, or the experts of the media, theorizing and
distorting the facts without any remorse.
Will America destroy the wall of fear and isolation? Can we be part of the civilized World? Can we be more productive than destructive? The answer is with you America!
* The author is a US veteran, Vietnam era.