The aftermath of the war

Saturday April 26, 2003 23:53

by Sediton

An exploration of post war iraq and the current situation of the new world order

THE AFTERMATH OF THE WAR
The war is now well and truly over. Our politicians, once again, carry with them a languorous air after having successfully averted a potential disaster. In their eyes they have been right all along. How fatuous the public have been in doubting them, for Iraq is now liberated; they assert. Their philanthropic work is now completed. I ask: what is the real aftermath of this war, has it been a success or failure? Sadly, I have a premonition that the future of Iraq is not yet certain.

The country of Iraq has been destroyed, who will rebuild it? America will, as all the rebuilding contracts have been handed out to American companies. Who will pay for the rebuilding of Iraq? Will it be America or the U.K? Of course not,for all the money will come from the revenue from Iraqi oil. What will happen to these oil reserves and refineries when they have been built? They will be privatised, as privatisation is the American way to economic success. When the oil fields have been privatised, who will be the benefactors? Once again, it will be America. Can you imagine the current state of delight an Exxon shareholder would be in? Considering all this, how probable is it that the new Iraqi government will have strong American economic and political links? Too likely, I fear, and unfortunately I cannot really see a truly independent democracy develop in Iraq. However, I would love to be proved wrong on this point.

When this war was initiated, the opinions of the UN were deemed irrelevant. With alacrity, the US and the UK coalition by-passed normal procedures in order to remove Sadaam. Tony Blair promised that, on the Iraqi question, the threat posed by Iraq to the international community was severe. The UN had to be by-passed as the cause for war merited such immediate action, he maintained. Tony Blair did promise though, that the UN would have a “significant” or “vital” role in the rebuilding and overseeing of war-torn Iraq in the interests of securing an autonomous government there. This seems promising, but is the UN going to have any type of role to play in the rebuilding of Iraq? According to George Bush, a very minimal role. So, lets wave good bye to multilateral action on world affairs anymore. The system of international co-operation, once so highly admired, is now-in American eyes- obsolete. The US now wants things either their way or no-way.

Why did this war even start in the first place? What were the reasons for it? Was it the once interminable mantra of Weapons of Mass Destruction? Could it have been the unjustified juvenilistic Iraqi terrorist links that were insidiously disseminated? Myriad sophistic speeches were produced for the war, but not one of them had real merit, there were no irrefutable facts produced to the contrary. To even question why this war occurred in the first place, had become taboo; but I must ask--why? The only reason that can now be seen, is that Saddam Hussein was a dictator and under him there was a brutal regime of repression of the people. Absolutely no WMD have been found, so I must conclude that this has to be the only reason for the war. Is this a just and fair reason for waging a war?

N.Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Burma, Zimbabwe; what of these countries? Are their governments responsible for brutalising and repressing their citizens under an unfair regime? The level of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia of current year is in no small way subordinate to that of Saddam’s Iraq. Burma is a patent case for unfair, unelected government who rules by sheer terror. Why attack Iraq? Why not attack N.Korea, a country that claims to have developed nuclear arms? The answer lies in the dark substance that also lies under the barren soil of the Iraqi desert. Oil is why this war has been waged. The other countries on the list that I have produced have no oil, save for Saudi Arabia. Of Saudi Arabia, the reason that America doesn’t implant them in the “Axis of Evil” is because the government of that country lets the oil flow freely into the greedy hand of American oil companies. The Saudi government is also what the US would call, secure: security of government is tantamount to fiscal security for US oil investors. When they are making money, it seems like ‘liberation’ and democracy is no longer important. Anyway, Saddam tried to nationalise the oil reserves-THE OUTRAGE!

This war has been a victory for the world’s plutocrats, especially those from the US and the UK. They now have control of the world. As George Bush has said: “You are either with us our against us”, this has also been echoed among the other White House officials such as Rice, Rumsfield and Colin Powell. Does it now seem to you that politics has now just taken one giant step backwards, maybe even back to 18th Century politics? The UN has been discarded along with Kyoto Treaties, Human rights and Children’s rights declarations. Even International Criminal Courts are now unacceptable to the US, and who can dictate to them what is now right and wrong anymore? Not the billions living their lives in poverty, in this world on less than $2 a day. Definitely not the dead Iraqi civilians or even the numberless daily victims of the inhumane world arms trade. We have reached a stage where the politicians in charge of a country with a population of 280m think they are superior, and that they can dictate their terms to a world of a population of 6 billion. How do they exert such immense power? Through fear and aggression.

Who will be next? Syria, why not even Cuba; its possible of course. Nobody knows what they have planned. If it is a plan in accordance with 'The plan for the new American century', well then our world is in grave danger. What can we do about this New World order? An extreme avarice has for years being building up and it has now reached its pinnacle. Our world is run by greed, bought by greed and sold through greed. We cannot accept this state of world affairs. How many pictures of war torn children and starving Africans will it take to bring us back to our senses? All this could theoretically be stopped; we have the means to make this world a profoundly better place. Will this dream ever be attained though, is the question. As Hemmingway said:" this world is a great place and it is worth fighting for". We must keep up the protests, and keep up the pressure. America might now be a world hyperpower, but there is still another world superpower out there, and that is us, the people.