A perspective from Perth, Western Australia

Friday, April 09, 2004

Iraq - one year on

First anniversary of the toppling of Saddam's Baghdad statue, and the US is fighting a war of justification in Iraq, particularly in the cities of Baghdad, Fallujah, Kut, Najaf and Karbala. Confirmed reports coming in from Fallujah (US codename: "Operation Iron Resolve") are that the US Marines have suffered "substantial" casualties (no reports on numbers) and at least 300 are dead, according to the local hospital. Unconfirmed radio reports say that some US troops have broken ranks and have engaged in a frenzy of attacking and raping unarmed men, women and children in parts of the city. So much for the battle between good and evil that Bush mentioned in his 2004 state of the union address. It's beginning to sound more and more like Northern Ireland (my birthplace, for those who don't know), where two groups of foreign-backed illegal militants fight it out with rhetoric and bombs and the people who have to live there are stuck in the crossfire, dying, hurting, suffering. Now we have previously unknown terrorists (not even related to last week's group of previously unknown militants who are now practically running several cities) holding several unarmed civilians as hostages threatening to burn them alive for political purposes - and they're crazy enough to actually do it too. When will this insanity ever end? :(

George W. Bush and many in his inner circle call themselves Christians. They should start acting like Christians, whose prime commandments are to love the Lord with all their heart, mind and soul and to love their neighbour as themselves. The Bible they hold so dear (which George wants to use as the basis to ban gay marriage in the US Constitution) also says that "[Satan] comes to steal, kill and destroy", and calls Satan the "father of lies". I don't know how you would describe Bush's actions firstly in getting the presidency (via his brother and his father's mates in Florida), then in the campaign in Afghanistan (which currently resembles 1910s China after the fall of the Qing dynasty in both the warlordism and opium production stakes), then in the leadup to Iraq, and the reasons for Iraq, and then the post-war operation of Iraq. Lying is bad enough, lying to one's friends (UK, Australia, Spain etc) is even worse. The Spanish had enough of lies in the end and chucked out their president. I can only hope that UK, Australia and the US follow suit and end this NWO state terrorism enterprise.

(We can't do much about Israel, whose oppression of the Palestinians has reached new heights during the Bush administration, but it's beginning to look like Israel will be the next world basket case anyway, following in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, DRC and Somalia's footsteps.)