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Unilateral U.S.

THE CONFUSING AND contradictory pictures emanating from a devastated post-Saddam Hussein Iraq are matched by the bewildering policy lines from Washington where the Bush administration's destructive appetite appears to be insatiable. Launching a war in defiance of international opinion and without sanction and winning it with undoubted ease, the U.S. seems only too ready to continue with its belligerence, hurling threats at Iraq's neighbours, Syria and Iran, and warning a Western ally, France, of dire consequences for not toeing Washington's policy and falling in line. The American Secretary of State, Colin Powell's "yes" to a question whether France would be "punished" for opposing the war on Iraq would hardly have surprised or shocked other nations if it had come a century ago when imperialism was still an accepted fact of international life. But to talk in the 21st century of punishing another sovereign nation, and a permanent member of the Security Council like the U.S. itself, smacks of an unacceptable return to the logic of a bygone era. If Europe ever had a case for an independent force de frappe that the World War II hero, Charles de Gaulle, campaigned for, it is now. The U.S., under George Bush and Dick Cheney, has already sounded the death knell for the Western military alliance, NATO. Not many will, of course, regret the demise of this organisation but the leaders of the European Union with their stake in peace have serious security concerns to address as they debate alternatives.

It is not just the trans-Atlantic military alliance that the Bush administration is writing off and burying. After trying unsuccessfully to get the United Nations to do its bidding and then sidelining the world body, the U.S. is displaying extraordinary impatience on two other fronts. It wants the immediate lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in the wake of its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The sanctions cannot be lifted before the U.N.-appointed weapons inspectors certify that these dangerous weapons which provided the rationale for the war have all been found and destroyed. Russia, France and other members of the U.N. Council have argued that the embargo's lifting must be linked to a decision on the role that the world body will play in the reconstruction of Iraq. Washington obviously has neither the time nor the inclination for such due process. It also has no place for the U.N. and its maligned weapons inspectors. The Bush administration, which had earlier targeted the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, is now reserving its barbs for the veteran Swedish diplomat, Hans Blix, the authorised head of the inspection team. Dr. Blix has invited the wrath of Washington by speaking out about alleged obstacles that the U.S. placed before his inspectors during their work in Iraq prior to the war. The U.S. opposes the re-entry of Dr. Blix and his men since it has its experts on the field.

The unilateralist American action in promoting its own inspection team strikes another blow at the U.N. The rationale for launching the war, as that for the imposition of sanctions before, was the threat posed by the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was alleged to have in its possession. If indeed these weapons are hidden away, they must be ferreted out by an organisation that has credibility. No American team will be trusted by the rest of the world, certainly not by the Arab nations that need to justify support to the war and to post-war reconstruction. By pursuing actions that raise the suspicion that it may have its own agenda in Iraq, the U.S. is undermining whatever possibilities there exist for a quick end to the sufferings of the people of that country. The return of the dangerous mix of religion and politics to Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala would hopefully serve to warn Washington against taking steps that may sow the seeds of a future violent conflict in the region.

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