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"The Might is Right" until when?
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
"The Might is Right" until when?By Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque
It is 00.00hrs of March 20, 2003 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. About 7 hours left of the 48 hours ultimatum issued by President George W Bush to President Saddam Hussain. Time has already run out for all of us to stop the war. It is my prediction that the war will be over as you read this article and by now, Iraqi's might have a new leader. The reason for my prediction is pure and simple. The Iraqi army is no match for this war game against the mighty US forces. There is also no reason for ordinary Iraqi soldiers to fight till death. The longer they hold on to their guns, the higher will be the cost of the fight and it is the people of Iraq who would pay through their lives.
Many people around the world have spoken out against this war. Some have said that this is an unjust war forced on a nation which has been on the wrong side of the history since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Some have said that time is not yet right for the strike, the so-called inspectors should have been given some more time to crush the Iraqi might. However, possibly most of the people of the world have said that war is no solution to a problem. Yet, the crusade continues!
Ordinary people, across the world, did try their best to stop the hostile takeover of a nation by another nation. Their mind-set was clear. War cannot put to an end to hostilities. It only helps to breed more. It normally takes few generations to forget the scars of a war. That's why Kuwaitis have not forgotten the Iraqis; the Iranians have not forgotten the Iraqis; the Bangladeshis have not forgotten the Pakistanis; the Chechnyans have not forgotten the Russians; the Timoris have not forgotten the Indonesians; and the list goes on.
Having said all these, the fact remains that the ordinary people do not have the foresight to foresee the future. Leaders have already argued that democracy did not mean that leaders have to follow the commoners in all events. By virtue of being a leader, the President and the Prime Minister are entrusted with responsibilities and they are expected to follow their
conscience. In this tug of war, some leaders like Robin Cook followed the ordinary people; others followed the path of war.
At this moment, I would not argue for or against the war. Rather it is time to think about the new rules of the game in the world. Or is their a new rule? The rule of the game has not changed much over the centuries. Throughout the history, the rule of the game was "might is right". It is again proven to be the first truth in the world. The other truth is that human beings are inherently selfish. It is the only rational behavior.
Consider the Americans first – their leaders, irrespective of their racial origin, consider that the war is justified. Polls have shown that majority of Americans favored the war considering the threat that Iraq poses on them (not on the people of Iraqis). The British, followed the US, since it has the strongest economic ties with US. The Japanese government has supported the US but hopes the war to be shorter (so that the flow of oil is not disrupted for long!). Turkey is expected to help the US to earn some cheap money!. Kuwaitis have supported the US since Iraq under Saddam is a threat to them. Saudis have supported them (by providing access) since they fear that Saddam could overthrow them from power, the Chinese also quietly supported the US (by not making much noise against the war) because they do not want to divert their energy from building their economy, and the list goes on.
The French and the Germans could not agree with the US and their effort to prevent a war was more genuine than that of the Russians and the Chinese. They could do so because they are relatively less dependent on the US economy or on US money. So, after a century of so-called "civilization" we have once again proven that we shall not think of others. Whatever is good to us must also be good to others. This was true when thousands of blacks were being sold as slaves, or were being captured from the jungles of Africa; this was true when thousands of Indians were brought to Canada and UK to build the rail lines; this was true when the whites of South Africa defended racial discrimination against the colored people; this was true when the west defended slavery to ensure their economic progress; this was true when the East India Company colonized India. They all acted to protect their own selfish interest. This is true once again for the Americans. They are fighting the "axis of evil" to protect themselves against the threat of terrorism. The truth rallies with the powerful and with the mighty.
The Almighty, on the other hand, is always on the sideline. That's why it takes a much longer time to disprove the first truth. In India, it took 200 years to disprove that colonization was wrong. It took hundreds of years to prove that apartheid is immoral, and that slavery is unethical. It took two major wars to prove to the Europeans to accept that war is no solution to conflicts. It took hundreds of years of colonization to give strength among
the ordinary people to stand up against the mighty colonial powers, and their masters. The slaves did not have any power to stop the slave trading. So they had to accept the tyranny for a longer time.
Unfortunately, in all of these events the moral leaders of the society (from Churches, Mosques, Pagodas, Temples, Synagogues, etc.) did not speak out until the very last moment. When the tide turned around, nobody questioned their mistakes. They were all eager to embrace the winners. The Churches, the Mosques, the Pagodas, the Temples, the Synagogues were quick to remind us that "forgiveness" is the new order of the day. In Iraq, I expect nothing different than this. The lone exception now is the Pope, he did warn the two leaders of the war that there is not moral ground for them to go to war and that they will be held accountable in the eyes of the God – the Almighty. It might take another few hundred years to prove that the Almighty is right and the leaders of the war are wrong. Until then, the might is right.
How "Operation Iraqi Freedom" Looks from the Moon
By Philip Shaw M.Sc.
The might is right. It's quite a buzz phrase. But with American and British tanks rolling through Iraq, my friend, Dr. Haque has a point. As I write this "the war" is ten days old. American and British armour has been rolling across the vast expanse of Iraqi desert. The Iraqi opposition is weak, although it's been a bit stronger than expected. And in the latest
version of reality TV, CNN, the BBC, and other news companies have been bringing it to us in our living rooms.
And if I was in Dr. Haque's living room, I'm sure he'd be watching too. Might is right is surely playing out. Enamul had a tougher task this month. With war looming along with our East West deadline, he had to reach beyond to predict what might happen. At least I have the benefit of the last few days.
It's important for those of us in the west to note what Dr. Haque refers to as the "scars of war". He writes about why the Kuwaitis have not forgotten the Iraqis; the Iranians have not forgotten the Iraqis; the Bangladeshis have not forgotten the Pakistanis; the Chechyans have not forgotten the Russians and the Timoris have not forgotten the Indonesians. For those of us ensconced in North America, it's obvious nobody has a clue about that. Our media coverage reflects that. The run up to this current war was full of it.
In Canada and the United States, there hasn't been any war since the 19th
century. A 12 hour drive from my place in Dresden, Ontario, Canada will take you to the site of one of the bloodiest battles the world has ever seen. At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, over 50,000 people were killed in three days of fighting. The total dead was more than the entire American death toll in the Vietnam war. The last civil war veteran died in 1959. And with that, the memory of that time on society was gone forever.
There are similiar examples in Canada, but they are even farther back. 190 years ago, foraging American armies passed through my area burning and pillaging everything they could find. The impact on modern day Canadian society of this debacle is long past. But at the time, the impact was significant. Americans and Canadians were at each other's throats for the better part of that century.
So does this shed any light on "Operation Iraqi" freedom? Are we supposed to believe that American and British action in Iraq will cure the Iraqi landscape from this type of mistrust? Or are we supposed to believe the distaste for the Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction is so great that the "greater good" of removing him is better than the consequences. It is not an easy choice.
It might be hard for those of you in the "east" who have had this type of experience to truly understand the mentality of what is going on here. Yes, all the cynical reasons for American, British and Australian involvement in the war in Iraq are probably true. Might may be right, but it surely is expedient when oil and economics is involved. Having said that, it should never be ignored how the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed the American paradigm for affecting this world. When that happened, many in the western world wanted an active, involved approach to fighting terrorism.
That is a big reason the Americans are at the threshold of Baghdad. The American leadership believes they need to stamp out threats before they reach their shores and Saddam Hussein is the current villain to satisfy that demand. It is a dangerous departure for others in this world. We saw it manifested recently when US Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld threatened Syria and Iran over any movement into Iraq. Clearly, it is a new day.
On my recent trip to the United States, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Centre. While there I got to touch a moon rock and listen to some testimonials from some of the American astronauts who walked on the moon. One of the astronauts noted when he looked back at earth, he felt so bad about what was happening back there. From his perch on the moon, he found it hard to believe that people on that tiny dot in space could spend so much energy fighting each other.
If you think about that for a minute, it might seem for a fleeting second to seem so silly. But back on earth, we live in the real world, both sides trying to gain the higher ground of morality. The coalition of the willing has all the firepower and resources. The Iraqi's have Baghdad and now suicide bombers. When the dust settles, the world will probably be more dangerous. But it will still look the same from the moon.
East/West is a joint column written by A.K. Enamul Haque and Philip Shaw. Dr. A.K.Enamul Haque Ph.D, is a Professor of Economics at United International University. Philip Shaw M.Sc. is farmer, writer and broadcaster in Dresden, Ontario, Canada. Each month they will bring their uniquely East/West perspectives to specific topics of world interest.
