Today’s situation in Iraq is not unlike the legacy of Christopher Columbus. Nearly five years after the American invasion, more than 20 per cent of Iraqis have been killed, wounded, displaced within their own country, exiled as refugees abroad, etc. The rest of Iraq’s population exists with little or no security, clean water, electricity, or accessible education for their children. But the oil – their oil that is – is looted every day by the Americans. In the meantime the Americans are busy preparing to attack yet another country, spreading more looting, death, suffering, and destruction next door in Iran. Columbus had explained his motive for discovering the Americas. He wrote that gold is a wonderful thing and whoever possesses it is lord of all he wants. Today’s gold is oil. And today’s Columbus and his brothers are Bush, his administration, and his allies. But the doctrine and motivation are the same. For the sake of looting-for-profit, death, suffering and destruction are all justifiable. Any measure of lying is also acceptable in the process, along with the despicable tools of distorted religion, propaganda, war-mongering and hate speech that aggressor-criminals wield to lure a misinformed public to their side. And this seems to be the dominant doctrine in Washington today.
Safiya Sameena
Vijayawada, AP