Undeterred by images of hundreds of people maimed and killed in the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, former US president George Bush justifying American barbarity had wanted the world to believe that it was a divine injunction that prompted him to end the tyranny in Iraq. That invasion killed millions, including women and children, and destroyed key infrastructure in the country. Bush’s god failed to tell him that such end of ‘tyranny’ must be followed by peace-building and reconstruction efforts in war-ravaged countries.
Unresolved conflicts, like unattended wounds, tend to complicate and so the custodians of human rights are at it again. In just about a decade’s time, nobel peace prize winner and current US president Barack Obama has sanctioned targeted airstrikes in Iraq as a panacea for the sectarian violence, the blame for which lies squarely at US’ doors. This US invasion is aimed at protecting American personnel and ‘answering the urgent humanitarian situation at Sinjar Mountain’ where members of an Iraqi religious minority, the Yazidis, are seeking refuge from the militants of Sunni-led Islamic State.
The magnanimous Americans are also air dropping food packets and other necessary supplies out of sheer concern for world peace. But the US needs to be told that selective generosity is just the other name for hypocrisy. A US that arms Israel to launch attacks on Palestinians holed up in Gaza strip cannot claim credit to come to the rescue of another people holed up on a mountain. Least of all US should not expect the world to believe that its transgresses can be covered up by running a propaganda campaign which tells us that American missiles have a mind of their own and are only killing militants and destroying their hideouts. The shrieks of innocent men, women and children who are dying in these attacks do have a story to tell. Problems in Iraq were a creation of the US which killed a secular, though authoritarian, leader like Saddam Hussein and left the country in a shambles.
As Iraq showed all signs of aggravated sectarian violence, US claimed a moral and strategic victory in 2009. Internal conflicts must have internal solutions. Powerful countries such as the US can help countries find those solutions through diplomatic channels. Meanwhile, the world media is silent in its condemnation for this invasion. Shamefully, it has become a collaborator of the US by flashing stories claiming no loss to civilians and images of US supplies for Iraqi people. But people need more than just doles. As Francis Fukuyama tells us, people need dignity to live. The provision of protecting national sovereignty in the United Nations charter is an attempt to ensure that dignity.
The US invasion is a flagrant violation of the tenets of all that UN stands for. The country should have taken the world along and must be unequivocally condemned because it hasn’t. Leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud once told a Pakistani journalist that drone strikes are a blessing for his mission because through his speeches he may be able to win over three-four people from each gathering but such airstrikes bring entire villages to his fold. We can ignore the warning signs
at our own risk.