MILITARY BUILDUP IN M.E. – WHAT IT CONNOTES?

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

Clouds of war are hovering over the Middle East with Iraq as its specific target. Iraq is under world pressure since the time its Bathist regime headed by Saddam Hussain unwittingly captured the brother country, Kuwait with greed in 1990. It had to retreat in the wake of the first Gulf War maneuvered, organized and led by the USA and its allied forces with sanctions imposed by the Security Council and a total ban on producing weapons of mass destruction in any form under a constant examination by the UN appointed inspectors. Iraq had to accept this sanction reluctantly. It continues to this day resulting in a loss of about a million infant life and enormous hardship to its people, causing unspeakable setback to its natural growth.

Since then world scenario has changed. President Bush Jr. has some inherent agenda to fulfill in close collaboration with the Zionist regime of Sharon in Israel. President Bush wants * to complete the unfinished job of his father, Senior Bush, * eliminate Saddam from Iraq, *capture his oil rich land, * fulfill the centuries old dream of Greater Israel in its wake, *make a permanent presence of America’s military might in the heart of the Middle East - the heart of the Muslim world and * assuring himself to capture the White House again in Presidential Elections 2004 as the “booty” of the would be second Gulf war. Tony Blair of Britain is a party to it. These objectives of President Bush are crystal clear. Bush-Sharon-Blair axis is inching towards the conflagration to be remembered in history as the war of “evil-axis”. The trio wants to accomplish this game at dead corpses not of Saddam alone but the millions of Iraqis who will be perished by cluster bombs, Daisy cutters, guided missiles and remote control war machinery that had played havoc in Afghanistan, transforming it into a pre-historic land.

The USA is fast concentrating its military might in the Persian Gulf region at an accelerated pace. Soon, there will be about a quarter million military personal of land, air and naval forces amassing in Kuwait [11, 200], Saudi Arabia [6,600 with 72 aircrafts], Bahrain [4,200 with Fifth Fleet], Qatar [3,300 with 600 military planes], Oman [2,400 Air Force personnel], United Arab Emirates [500], Turkey [1,700 Air Force], Djibouti [800] and Diego Garcia Island [1,900 Air force with eight B-52 bombers] in the Indian Ocean with much more on the way. Qatar has practically been transformed into a “Pentagon in miniature” with 600 military planners from Central Command HQ at Tampa, Fl. Medical Ship “Comfort” has already been commanded to proceed to DG Island to meet the expected casualties in the forthcoming Gulf War. UK is also arranging its so-called “token” army in the region. Thousands of Reservists have been called in to report on duty. What does it all connotes?

The foregoing vast and tremendous preparations are necessarily not for Iraq. The so-called preemptive attack on Iraq will be just like “a knife in the butter”. Iraq will collapse within hours. Iraq is no match with the forces of the modern “American Empire”. The foolish dictator of Iraq is destined to face a very disgraceful exit that he deserves. It appears that Saddam has simply been made a scapegoat to fulfill the greater agenda of President Bush and his henchmen, Sharon of Israel and Tony Blair of UK. The agenda is not hidden but an open secret as listed above.

Besides the aforesaid program of President Bush, it appears that the USA’s forces, as per their tradition, are not going to vacate the region for decades together. Stretching its mighty muscles in the heart of Muslim world and capturing the center of world’s second largest oil reserve, the US will dictate terms to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and other tiny states of the region. As Egypt, Jordan and the Sheikdoms of the Gulf are concerned, they are already in her pocket. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Muslim States of Central Asia now have no choice but to tow down the lines of the USA. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines are at her command. European Union is its ally. Russia has become a dead elephant and its favorable trade balances with the USA guide China. This scenario completes the “occupation” of lands by the USA from Tokyo-Jakarta to Casablanca. America has become the virtual “ruler” of this area, establishing an “Empire” beyond the stretch of any human imagination and President Bush is its “arrogant dictator”. Will it be the rise of “American Empire” or the beginning of its steep downfall?

The historian, Paul Kennedy, in his famous book: The Rise and Fall of The Greatest Powers”, published in 1988, pinpointedly predicted the fall of the USA as it was thinning out in proportion to her resources. Michael Ignatieff, Director at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University writes in NY Times Sunday Magazine of January 5, 2003: “Americans cannot afford to create a global order all on their own”. “A new international order is emerging but it is designed to suit American Imperial objectives”. But “America’s allies want a multilateral order that will essentially constrain American Power”. “This is imperialism in hurry”. The author quotes Edward Gibbon from “The Decline and Fall of Roman Empire” that empires endure only so long as their rulers take care not to overextend their borders”. Ignatieff is supporting what Paul Kennedy concluded in his above quoted book. That is why this global encirclement of American might may bring the decay of the USA sooner than expected and its blind support for Israel will be the main cause to get her fall expedited. America is riding on a single track, undermining the inherent reaction of the Muslim world in its zeal to subjugate the oil rich Muslim lands and be the President of the USA in 2004.

By virtue of this dominant position, America will manipulate oil prices at international level and snatch away the only weapon that Arabs possess and was effectively used by late King Faisal in 1973 as a tool to fight back the treacheries and hegemonies of the West. America will dictate the Oil Cartel to regulate the prices that suits the cost index of the industrial Europe, America, and Japan. It will lead either to the destruction of oil industry or blood bath the entire region and set the stage for Armageddon that will destroy the very existence of the Zionists state in Israel at the hands of the Second coming of Prophet Jesus [peace be upon him].

This scenario should also be an eye-opening melodrama for the undemocratic, secular and opportunist regimes of the Muslim world, especially that of the oil producing countries who transferred more than 800 billion dollars out of their oil earnings to America and UK for investment and sustained their economy. It deprived their own people to benefit form the God-gifted oil wealth by building the requisite infra structure in their own countries and in the Muslim world through intensive research and development projects, promoting inventions, scientific discoveries and armament industries for land, air and naval supremacy to serve as deterrent for the Batil forces, irrespective of the fact where they are and who they are. Allah (SWT) categorically ordains the Muslims in Surah Anfa’l, verse 60 to this effect:

“ Hence make ready against them [the enemies of Islam] whatever force and war mounts [the tanks and modern arsenals in place of horses] you are able to muster, so that you might deter thereby the enemies of God, who are your enemies as well, and others besides them of whom you may be unaware, [but] of whom God is aware; and whatever you may expend in God’s cause shall be repaid to you in full, and you shall not be wronged. “

Had the Muslim rulers followed only this Verse of the Qur’an and got them “prepared” from the huge capital resources that Allah showered upon them, today the history of the world would have been quite different. America could not dare to concentrate its army in the heart of the Muslim world. Rather, it would have thought over a thousand times before capitalizing the weaknesses of our own people and the Ummah as a whole. Still there is time to role back our past misdeeds and resolve to live, act and behave like true Muslims and Muslimah. It must be crystal clear to all of us that Jews and Christians cannot be friend of Muslims unless we give up Islam and follow their footprints [Ref: Verse 120 of Al-Baqarah and Verse 51 of Al-Maidah]

The tragedy does not end here. With its “omni-presence” in the Muslim world, America will try to get the Islamic Movements crushed by the regimes in power, change the system of education, weed out the Verses of Jihad from the teaching curriculum, destroy the edifice of Madrassas and make the education of the Muslim world more and more secular dominated by liberal trends. But the Muslim Ummah will repulse these trends consciously as the tradition goes. That day is not far off. The USA and UK are blinded in their lust of power and supremacy in material gains and technical know-how. But they are equally blind too to take any lesson from the deeds of the past arrogant nations that are now lying on the deathbed of history and you know they are 35, the latest was the British Empire. Can the “American Empire” in making be any exception to it?

In other words this entire episode is the foreword to give impetus to the Muslims around the world to face the situation with courage and fortitude. This is the inherent message that the developments in the Persian Gulf area are conniving. It is to be taken as good omen and Batil may start packing back in the aftereffect of war against the innocent people of Iraq and the mass awakening of the Muslim world. Allah does not like the transgressors, irrespective of the fact as to whether they may be Pharos of Egypt or the Pharos of Washington, London, Moscow or Delhi and so they are out casted like the fallen leaves of autumn.

Shamim A Siddiqi

January 10, 2003