Bush Should Be Held Accountable

Opinion: Bush should be Held to Account

By Zainab Al-Arabi

31/05/2008 15:55:00

George bush claims that his “war on terror” has succeeded because of improved ‎intelligence, and cooperation between nations. He continues to utter astounding ‎phrases about the need to disarm Iran, and the need to arm Israel. ‎

The fact is that his war of destruction on Muslims (especially in Afghanistan, Iraq and ‎Palestine) is continuing in its path of misery and death for the reasons below:- ‎

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of new officers ‎to harass our people. ‎

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our ‎legislatures.‎

His methods are devious, inhuman, and he should be condemned and held to account ‎by the international body of nations:‎

‎- For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.‎

‎- For protecting them by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they ‎should commit on the inhabitants of these states.‎

‎- For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.‎

‎- For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences.‎

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the ‎lives of our people.‎

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the ‎works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty ‎and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the ‎Head of a civilized nation. ‎

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble ‎terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. “A Prince, ‎‎[read president] whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a ‎tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” ‎

The quoted paragraphs above are part of the American Declaration of Independence, ‎written in 1776, that lists the grievances of the former American colonists against ‎their British king. ‎

This noble manifesto, evidenced their desire to be free men, living under just laws; a ‎desire held dear by all humans on this earth. Yet sadly, it also seems to manifest the ‎crimes that post-independent America perpetrated against other nations it perceived as ‎‎’rogue’ states, throughout its past and current history. ‎

Its warlike foreign policies have always been for the sake of furthering American ‎interests, influence, and power abroad, no matter the cost in human lives, as admitted ‎by American politicians themselves. ‎

Although a large number of the American people, realize this and recognize it as the ‎truth, they are hopeless to put an end to it, or even to prevent it from happening in the ‎first place. Lies and double-standards have become the norm – when dealing with the ‎Middle-East- for the Bush administration. Relations with Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, ‎took various twists and turns in the past decades, only to continue into the new ‎century with sanctions and war, and threats of more sanctions and war. ‎

There hardly seems to be an ideal system of government in the whole world, judging ‎by the injustices and cruelties that take place everywhere. So why is the Middle-East ‎held up as the sole example of undemocratic countries? ‎

Of course it needs modernization and re-organization, but so do many other countries ‎around the world: in Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe. To claim that ‎a more democratized Middle-East (Western style), is the only guarantee for the ‎security of America and the world, is a studied delusion. ‎

It’s nonsense to say that the terrorists responsible for the events of 9/11 attacked ‎America because they came from non-democratic countries. If they had had freedom ‎of opinion and had the opportunity to hold positions in government, these people ‎would probably have had a great number of their countrymen behind them in voting ‎to declare formal war on America and Israel. ‎

Poverty is another cause of terrorism cited by the American president and his Foreign ‎Secretary; that a terrorist has nothing to lose in life. That’s another fallacy, because ‎riches did not stop Bin Laden from joining the forces of the mujahideen in ‎Afghanistan, and materially comfortable lives did not stop other Arab youth from ‎following him and sharing his convictions. ‎

Moreover, the anti-American, anti-Israeli sentiment in this part of the world will not ‎simply go away with the appearance of the ballot box as some might like to imagine. ‎This will only take place when America is seen to have genuinely changed its uneven ‎policies when dealing with the Palestinians in particular and Muslims in general.

(We ‎have seen the policy of the Bush administration toward Hamas after it won the ‎elections in the occupied Palestinian territories. Former US President Jimmy Carter ‎officially observed the election). ‎

Let us all welcome change for the better in the Middle-East, but a change springing ‎from our own vision for the future and from our lessons from the past. After all, ‎freedom and democracy are not new ideas.