Political Views,

Before the March 2003 US-Led Invasion of Iraq 

On the 3rd anniversary of the US led illegal invasion of Iraq , a number of comments have appeared in Western media, saying I told you so . Many have been consistent in their views .But many changed the course midway , some remarking that the operation to colonise Iraq should have been better planned and executed , sitting in their plush corporate financed think tanks and media offices .They remain out of touch with the reality on the ground .Outside the Green Zone in Baghdad ,with the whole country a Red Zone , with even genuine Western journalists , after a few months into  the occupation , reduced to reporting from the safety of their hotel rooms .

CIA has used the leaks to protect its turf and its back , when US leadership passed on the blame to faulty intelligence .( Poor Saddam Hussein could not have got away with this)  UK leaders and FO and think tanks like the Chatham House have leaked their assessment of how they had opposed the invasion or predicted adverse consequences .Now .They are just trying to win Brownie points , now that US has been caught in the quagmire and its unethical, illegal and immoral policies are unraveling.

Before the invasion, I had written many articles  for Asia Times and Saag.com .I have chosen 3 to give my view point before the invasion , based on my experience of the region in the ministry and postings in Egypt, Algeria ,Turkey , Jordan (during the 1990-91 Gulf war). I have added some observations in italics. If this piece is found useful I could attempt a sequence , based on articles after the 2003 invasion , which have stood the test of time .

During my lectures in India , some questioners accused me of being anti-American , usually the urban type , brainwashed by CNN, BBC , New York Times etc .Others repeating what they were told by Indian English language media and TV channels , again based on Anglo-Saxon media. My reply was that I try to be as objective and honest as possible .They could comb through my pieces and if my reading of history and predictions have turned out to be accurate , then they could judge me as they wished. Few are aware of the deterioration and degeneration in US polity in the last few decades.

Mercifully , people in general ,even politicians ,who have seen USA's blind support to dictatorial regimes in Pakistan and Jihadis operating in Kashmir and India and anti-Indian US policies , distrust USA .The uncivilsed expressions used for Indira Gandhi and Indians by Nixon and Kissinger and undiplomatic Viceroy like utterances by US ambassador in Delhi and insults by louts like Lantos have not endeared USA.

Fortunately the vernacular media , quite powerful and spread out appears to be  more objective in its assessment of US policies .The English media and TV channels , operating from the Metros ccntres   ,have little idea of the pulse in the towns and the country side , where they venture out only during election time.  This was proved by massive demonstrations in Delhi and outside , specially Muslims .Only many Kashmiri Muslims believe in US benevolence . They can continue to wait like the Kurds for independence.

The piece on Milosevic had good feedback and copied by dozens of websites , including translation into Italian by a prestigious website and journal.

Cheers and take care . Gajendra , 29 March.2006.  Bucharest

PS-I have used the word US lied and not led in the headline intentionally .

BEFORE THE MARCH 2003 US LED INVASION OF IRAQ

This young century will be liberty's century and Iraq and Afghanistan were poised to become examples for the rest of the Middle East of peaceful, democratic societies, Gorge  Bush told the UN General Assembly ,

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state" — Noam Chomsky

Three years after the U.S.-led illegal invasion of Iraq , so pronounced by UN Secretary General Kofi Anan himself, Washington and its allies are getting sucked into a deepening quagmire . A number of US commentators and others in the West refuse to squarely blame US-UK leadership , which has been led by disciples of Leo Strauss and his evil ideology , propounding the theory of  intellectual , cultural and racial supremacy , emphasizing the animal side of evolving homo sapiens , ie the rule of jungle .This Western evolution and pagan like belief in the old Testament fables of coming of the Christ and slaying of the anti-Christ is inexorably leading the world to Armageddon ,sooner than the collapse of the planet earth by heedless and headless consumerism.  

What if the Chinese and the Indians tried to fulfill the American dream achieved by 2% of US population which has cornered 25% of world resources! Of course US would defend its untenable position by even more lethal means of destruction .US War Lords now spend almost as much as the rest of the world put together on its war and terror machine and sustain it by 'extortion' by an inequitable international economic order . Almost living like an alcoholic , who guzzles more alcohol  to get over the terrible hangover, the day of reckoning may not be too far in the future.

Since the ignoble, unethical and inaptly planned invasion of Iraq ,many intrepid US thinkers and journalists , who represent the healthy part of US polity's liver , have snorkeled out many secrets of  the neo-cons , the Vulcan group and their allies. Now that the evil ship of invasion is sinking , people like  former US Viceroy of Iraq  Paul Bremer , US Senators and Congressmen , many British government officials , think tanks , who had extended full support or kept quiet , when the rape of Iraq began , are now to trying to come clean , to earn some Brownie points.  In their arrogance of power Leo Strauss disciples ,who imagine themselves as the wise ruling elite, set free of the bonds of honesty and equality. like Paul Wolfowitz had made no bones about US objectives of war for its oil and control of the region and its resources .He now heads the World Bank .

While others have been equivocal , many like Scott Ritter , a former Chief UN Weapons Inspector for Iraq , have described the actions of US –UK leaders criminal and suggested impeachment .As has Amnesty International .Even the info –challenged US population has learnt the horrible truth , with approval ratings of George Bush down to an all time low of around 30% .If Saddam Hussein and Iraqis could be punished for the illegal invasion of Kuwait , over which it had some dubious claims , US led invasion was naked aggression , followed by violations of international law and human rights conventions in Guantamano, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere . The integrity and the credibility of Western civilization , which Mahatma Gandhi quipped would be a good idea , represented by its leadership, the so called thinkers and corporate media, lies shattered. USA could slip into fascism , with its political leadership ,corrupt to the core , as new scandals prove everyday, if not checked by its greatUS people. People around the world have started doubting if it were ever true.  

I had a ringside review of the 1990 -- 91 Gulf Crisis and the War from Amman, Jordan, which was the only country to have its border open with Iraq, I started writing from August, 2002 on the brewing crisis when the US and UK War Lords had started beating the war drums. I had thought the invasion of Iraq irrational enough .During my recent lecture tour of India , I was asked about possible US/Israel attack on Iran. This will be an even more irrational and the world would stand altered , but not to US advantage.  

Extracts from a few of my articles, written before the March, 2003 invasion , clearly bring out the reasons and the likely outcome. Written almost on a monthly or fortnightly basis ,these were widely copied as most in the West could not even distinguish Iraq from Iran or even now between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

Does any one has any idea , how the US can climb out of the Iraq quagmire , short of immediate withdrawal. During the Gulf crisis in 1990-91, some one was asked if Saddam Hussein , by withdrawing from Kuwait would confront the US led , UN approved coalition with a night mare scenario , the reply was , 'No.' At least Saddam Hussein , having become fatalistic by then knew he would be hounded ( and proved right ).US and UK accusations against Saddam Hussein ,remind one of the bad wolf and lamb story , with  US making a lamb out of the latter .

The only hyper power hubris afflicts US leadership and would not allow it to withdraw troops. Things are going to get worse than better. Study Turkish history after it was occupied by victorious UK led western powers following the Ottomans defeat in the first world war and Algeria's bloody war of independence from French colonial rule after the 2nd world war for parallels . Would Iraq remain united and if yes , who would come out on top , a ruthless Iraqi Ataturk or an Iraqi Khomeini