BJP TODAY

May 16--31, 2003 - Vol. 12, No. 10

IRAQ TODAY : KILL & KISS
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

Saddam has disappeared from the scene. Is he dead? Is he in Syria? No one knows for sure. His two half-brothers have been arrested by the Americans and they may provide a good clue through DNA tests.Speculations are rife. All those who make sense of it all opine : wait and see. An average Iraqi citizen is between the devil and the deep see. He or she may not open the mouth until Saddam is buried deep. His ghost must be exorcised too. Freedom to an average citizen of Iraq is still a distant dream.

“Shock and Awe”,that is the high profile name of the military campaign launched by the US armed forces. It was a multi-pronged attack on ground,from the skies,from the high seas and even from the space. The last was indeed a photographic support. No star wars mercifully.Right from Day One the result was quite predictable. Iraq had no Navy or Air Force worth the name. The land army too did not give a pitched battle to the US Marines in Baghdad or to the British Marines in Basra. The much media-hyped Republican Gueards of saddam too melted away. They let down their admirers in the pro-Arab media and elsewhere. Of course, at places like Nasiriyah and Najaf it was not a cake walk for the US ground forces and the latter suffered some casualties too. It was just a double digit figure.Only the ones suffered in the so called “Friendly Fire”, that is from the missiles or bullets of alliance troops, took the casualty figure of americans to three digits. The British were more careful and suffered less. The carpet bombing and missiles which rained on Iraq troops day and night indeed numbed them. The Shock and Awe was well noticeable.

It was a three-week campaign. The military campaign formally came to an end with the Alliance Commander, General Tommy Franks, a four-star general, holding a press conference in an ornate palace of Saddam in Baghdad suburb. The message to the world was loud and clear. Saddam is down and out. Alliance now rules the roost. The kill was made. Kiss was to follow. As an Iraqi citizen aptly put it,: They kill first and kiss later”. The reference was to the promised massive plan for reconstruction of Iraq after she was devastated in the Shock & Awe campaign. It need not be emphasised that even those nations which did not support the Anglo-American combat plans now want a share in the pie of reconstruction. There is indeed a lot of money involved in it. The Germans, French and Russians do not wish to be left behind. Make hay while the sun shines, so say they all. The sun is shining now.

The United Nations has a vital role to play in the reconstruction of Iraq, so say Bush and Blair. They say yhey are serious about it. Critics feel it is a lip service for the consumption of the gullible people and for public at large. Catering to the home constituency indeed both in London and in Washington DC. The public memory is short. These pious words will soon be forgotten. No one will give a damn to who is there in the reconstruction game and who is not. Jacque Chirac,President of France took time off to make a call to Bush in Washington, the first one in many weeks, just to remind him that the French are still there. The Russians,of course,have been announcing from house tops that the Saddam regime had signed many important contracts with Moscow and the successor regime is bound by international law to honour the same. It is a gentle nudge by the polar bear to uncle sam that Russians know how to reconstruct a war-damaged country. Didn’t they do it in their own case after Hitler’s ravaging forces beat a retreat from Stalingrad in the Second World War. So the game is going on.

Winning the Hearts & Minds of the People of Iraq. Yes indeed. Let us not forget it. The British troops distributed water in basra. They made a mess of it. The communication gap was tremendous. The locals of Basra spoke only Arabic and the british Tommies lost no time in exhibiting their love for Military English. Never mind if it was not Queen’s English. Thus the basra mafia was a gainer. They grabbed the british water and sold to the basra men and women at a price of their own choosing.

The Yankees tried their hands too at winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis in nasiriyah, Mosul and Baghdad. The crowds were chanting “No To Saddam,No To Americans: Yes to Islam, Yes to Freedom “.They followed their slogan shouting with pelting stones at those Shiite leaders who were pro-west. Right inside a mosque in the holy city of Najaf, a senior Shia cleric was knifed to death. The anti-American feelings are running high,notwithstanding the dliverance of Shai muslims from Saddam’s despotic rule made possible by the Americans. Some suspect that Iran, a Shia country, is behind this anti-American fever of the masses in Iraq where Sha Muslims comprise sixty percent of the population. Ahmed Chalabi, a long-time Iraqi exile and a favourite of the Pentagon, may have a long way to go to win peace for the Americans who won the war on their own. "swasti swasti"