Africa and the post-Iraq world: only by standing up as UNITED communities and nations can the Arab and African defend themselves.

Author:Muchie, Mammo
Position:Guest Column

If the Gulf War in 1991 was more about a demonstration of power by America in establishing a new world order, the just-ended invasion of Iraq is even more so--as its overriding objective is to show how "awesome" the technology of war has become over the last 10 years.

This was an entirely pre-planned affair hatched by those around the current Pentagon chief, Donald Rumsfeld, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, since 1996. The events of 9/11 added fuel to the already pre-planned mission to attack.

This latest "war" has thus to be forced on the world and a pretext has to be manufactured. Thus the series of contradictory claims (charitably seen) and lies made by those who were looking to justify their indefensible desire to bomb a weak state in Arabia.

There is merit to the argument that this is not a war in the sense of two opposing armies facing each other and vying for total victory. There is only Mike Tyson in The boxing ring equipped with the training, boxing skills, fans and media to egg him along to do his thing.

The opponent had little or no training, had none of the weapons or skills to match the champion. There was only one side that showed its armada: its army, air force, navy and the embedded journalists that did much to inform, misinform or mislead a captured public.

There was no army from the side of Iraq, no air force, no navy and even journalists except for the information minister who curiously and astonishingly played the role of the army the government, the minister and journalist--all rolled into one.

This was more about an American exhibition and projection of power. It is not merely a violent engagement for controlling resources; it is more sinister than that. It is unprovoked violence to show who is in the driving seat in controlling the history and shaping the futures of weak peoples and nations.

Iraq is the guinea pig--the showcase for others to learn the lesson and change their conduct if they had aspirations to do things differently from those assigned by the empire. It is a battle to own the terms and means of shaping the destiny of the weak by deliberate terror and the revival of a more modern edition of Victorian style imperial-colonialism.

During the 18th century, we had the metaphor that the sun never sets in the British Empire. Incredulous it may be, we are witnessing right before our eyes, in the 21st century, the resurrection of empire in the form--this time round--that the sun also never sets in the...

To continue reading