­Will We Wake Up?

Your Editorial “Pre-Emption Yet Again?” (Jan. 18) sent a chill down my spine. However, if the Americans are planning covert operations in Iran or even “against ten countries in the Middle East and Asia” as you quote Seymour Hersh, it ought not to surprise us. This would not be the first time Washington has meddled in other peoples’ affairs in order to safeguard its interests, particularly in Iran and the Middle East.

The manner in which the CIA and MI5 masterminded “Operation Ajax” to depose Prime Minister Moseddeq in Iran during the 1950s is just one historical fact among countless others. Referring to the same decade, Karen Armstrong wrote in The Battle for God: “Americans looked upon Iran as an economic goldmine, and over the years, the United States repeated the old political patterns used by the British in Iran: Strong-arm tactics in the oil market, undue influence over the government, demands for diplomatic immunity, business and trade concessions, and a condescending attitude toward the Iranians themselves. ... It was a shortsighted policy that would eventually cast the United States in demonic light.” Armstrong goes on to show that this policy polarized Iran and bred “fear, hatred and a barely suppressed rage. It would not be long before fundamentalists, who felt this anger acutely, would decide that it was no longer sufficient to hold aloof from society and build a counterculture. They must mobilize and fight back.” In other words, such tactics and covert operations as you described in the editorial have historically achieved very little, except an increase in fundamentalism. It appears that the Americans adamantly refuse to learn from history.

I disagree with your overly optimistic conclusion that the American public might become aware of the illegal and immoral stances of its government and take measures to stop it from trampling on the rights of other countries to choose their own destiny. Americans have proved in Iraq that they are not willing to wake up. But the most crucial question remains: Are we willing to wake up and read the writing on the wall?

Sumayya Khan • Jeddah published 23 January 2005

Need for Information

How right Khaled Almaeena’s comments in his article “The World Needs Information” (Jan. 13) were can be seen by the poor coverage the humanitarian actions of Saudi Arabia and Muslim nations get in the media. It is not an accident that nobody takes notice of it when Muslims help. Saudi Arabia has been, for decades, financing development projects and supporting humanitarian activities in Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Muslim soldiers were sent to Bosnia and Kosovo as peacekeeping troops. But none of this was ever mentioned in the Western media.

The fault is of Muslims themselves. The media anywhere go after only sensational stories. Constructive work, which is never as dramatic as a tsunami, does not sell and are not hunted for. They get covered only when the media have an interest in covering them. One of the immediate steps that can be taken is for the Arab media to give exhaustive coverage to events in which Muslims are taking an active and a positive role. They should highlight them and keep them in the public eye for long enough for them to register in people’s memory. This is how it is done in the Western media who have an interest in drawing world attention to the positive work done by the Western world. They give such nonstop coverage that the world will not forget those facts for another century. This is what the Arab media also should do.

Um Sarah • Jeddah published 23 January 2005

Iraqi Election

In his article “Iraqi election: Wider Significance” (Jan. 22) Amir Taheri says “The current forecast is that a majority of people will go to the polls (on Jan. 30) in all but four of Iraq’s 18 provinces.” All the four recalcitrant provinces are in the Sunni Triangle. According to Taheri, they account for “some seven” percent of the total population. Now all the people in these four provinces may not be anti-vote and anti-democratic. Maybe the insurgents or terrorists account for less than one percent of this seven percent. Against this single negative factor we have the following:

1. Most Iraqis appear determined that the election should take place.

2. Almost 75 percent of those eligible to vote under “a UN-established list” have registered — something unheard of even in advanced democracies.

3. There are people like Ghazban Fayyad, owner of a bookstall in downtown Baghdad, who are “hungry to vote” and defeat “forces determined to keep Muslim nations out of the modern world.”

4. To make sure things go smoothly and Muslim nations are not kept out of the modern world, the US has brought in 15,000 more troops and plans to intensify patrolling for the next six weeks.

Then why does anyone think of a worst-case scenario? I would not have, but for one simple fact: President George W. Bush who “has vowed to bring the Middle East into ‘the global democratic mainstream’, with Iraq as the starting point” did not utter a single word about Iraq or the Jan. 30 election in his much-anticipated inaugural address on Thursday. Who said Bush is a fool?

Mohammed Yousuf • Tabuk published 23 January 2005

Free Rein to Israeli Forces

The latest announcement by Ariel Sharon to give the Israeli forces “free rein to combat terror” is the wrong solution for reining in Palestinian terror groups. This is the wrong time to increase the violence by the “targeted killing” of others and harming other innocent people in the process. I think Sharon’s actions will seriously undermine the efforts by Mahmoud Abbas to bring the Palestinian factions together to reduce terror and thus obtain a cease-fire.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day” conveys a principle that all must remember while dealing with big issues. Abbas will need time to tackle this very difficult problem as the new leader of the Palestinian people. Sharon should give Abbas a helping hand if he genuinely wants a partner to negotiate and achieve peace with. The road to peace is often a rocky one. Both leaders must continue to reach across the great divide and help bring the factions together. This will benefit all.

Besides, the Israeli Army’s own list of terror activities is a big part of the problem. Last year, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the Israeli Army killed 746 Palestinians, 592 of whom were civilians (140 of these were children); 135 were victims of extra-judicial killings of whom 27 were innocent bystanders. In addition, they demolished 1,173 Palestinian homes completely and 2,051 partially. Plus they destroyed 328 Palestinian industrial facilities and 35 Palestinian educational facilities and leveled 9,170 donums of farm land and confiscated many of the Palestinian people’s natural resources.

It is best to avoid acting out violently and harming other innocent people and work through dialogue . This is the right solution for reining in Palestinian terror groups — not Sharon’s.

Doris Cadigan • Massachusetts, US published 23 January 2005

Price of Injustice

America is paying a heavy price for funding and defending for 40 years religiously pure settlements of an invader government in the West Bank. Militarily imposed settlements by any foreign government is wrong and evil, but our president tells us these religious gangsters are in fact our friends, that Muslims are evil and religiously pure settlements are good. How many Americans would become terrorists if a foreign government imposed settlements on us in America? American politicians who don’t have the guts to denounce and stop funding such settlements in the West Bank are responsible for the killing our troops in Iraq. How much death and misery is these settlements worth, and what do Americans get in return for funding and supporting this activity for the last 40 years?

These so-called terrorists are not the threat to our American future. The threat is America’s misguided support for a foreign government’s dreams of religious purity.

Larry Hupe • Pascagoula, MS, US published 23 January 2005

Backing for Iraq War

This refers to the report “Americans Backed Iraq War at the Ballot Box: Bush” (Jan. 17). The Americans did not back the Iraq War and still don’t. Bush is off his rocker and we Americans all know the elections were a big fat farce. It is a fact he cheated to get in there because Americans cannot stand him.

Julie Lee • United States published 23 January 2005

Carol’s Wish List

There are many nations and peoples who would endorse Carol Bainbridge’s wish list for her country, the United States, in her letter “Leaving People Alone” (Jan. 19). How much less suffering there would be in this world if the United States became “isolationist” and tended strictly to its own business! However, the sad reality is that the United States has had an ongoing hegemonistic agenda since the start of World War II. Its first target was the British Empire; not because America was “anti-colonialist” and desired “freedom” and “independence” for those under the rule of the European powers, but because it wanted to replace European imperialism with its own. The “Great Republic” in its blind arrogance simply cannot conceive of other nations being run according to systems and constitutions different from its own — “what is good for America is good for the world” being the conceited belief of the US. And should America decide to become “isolationist” and “selfish” (which in a certain sense it already is ), let not the Carol Bainbridges of this planet fear condemnation from “the world”, for there is no such a thing. I would no more fear condemnation from “the world” than I would fear being condemned by the fairies at the bottom of my garden.

Francis A. Andrew • Zarqa, Jordan published 23 January 2005

Bangladesh Cricket

The Test-series win is a great event for Bangladesh and its people. It was not just a game they won when they took the series from Zimbabwe. It was a psychological boost, proving to them and to the rest of the world that the new entrant into the Test circuit had what it takes to make the grade. After this all-important step, the nation is confident that the boys will be able to take all the other needed steps. And the win was no fluke. They proved to be better than Zimbabwe in all departments of the game and won the series on merit. In fact, they would have got a similar result against Pakistan in Multan if the umpire de Souza had given the right decisions. The achievement is all the more gratifying because so many people had made unkind remarks about the Bangladesh cricket team while they were just beginning to play Test series. Those people had forgotten their own failures year after year and that it had taken them 30 years to become good teams. Bangladeshis are grateful for those who kept on encouraging and supporting them while their team was struggling to find its steps and request the critics to be a little more tolerant and to remember their own past before passing unfair comments.

Rafiq Zaman • Jeddah published 23 January 2005