On those days fateful to the people of Iraq, I was a guest at a University in India, and was keenly watching the TV. The huge American war machine, already accumulated in Kuwait and elsewhere, was being deployed across the Iraqi border. Once such an accumulation is made is it no longer possible to go back? Because of face-saving? By the way I had long been under a prejudice that face/face-saving was an Oriental(including my country Japan) concept. But that is wrong. The other parts of the world also are not without those expressions, which is natural enough. But before talking of face-saving, the US and the UK, both members of the Security Council, have violated the UN article not allowing the member countries, even just member countries, the threat or use of force. They, and whoever collaborated with them under the name of the Coalition of the Willing(to violate international law) were already violating those rules for months.
But without any reason? Of course there was. But that was a wrong one. That was hypocritical, and almost a lie, though I am not in a position to say if those lies were told knowingly. But did they, from the President and the Prime Minister downward, seriously believe that Iraq had got weapons of mass destruction, whether nuclear, chemical or biological, when no concrete evidence had been brought before them?
Of course the greater part of the world lent no ear to such stories. That was the meaning of the Security Council unable to pass a resolution approving of the invasion. The other three permanent members, together with august meetings like the NAM, kept a distance from the Coalition. Why did some countries want a war? Did they not know that modern wars are likely to kill, and kill many? And the invaders would also suffer casualties? More than 4,000 US soldiers died, many more are suffering from mental trouble, or are remaining homeless. It is reported that the dead and wounded are heavier among certain racial/ethnic groups. Does this all suggest that the war was after all waged in the benefit of some?
On those first days of the war some well-known US journalists were also marching on the tanks. Some prestigious newspapers sent an astonishingly large number of correspondents(compared to their copies sold), and showed where each of them was reporting on a particular day. Of course there was nothing else to report than the triumphal US march in the beginning. Did it not occur to them that, while the invaders were relatively unscathed at the time, there were the common people of Iraq ahead.
But without any reason? Of course there was. But that was a wrong one. That was hypocritical, and almost a lie, though I am not in a position to say if those lies were told knowingly. But did they, from the President and the Prime Minister downward, seriously believe that Iraq had got weapons of mass destruction, whether nuclear, chemical or biological, when no concrete evidence had been brought before them?
Of course the greater part of the world lent no ear to such stories. That was the meaning of the Security Council unable to pass a resolution approving of the invasion. The other three permanent members, together with august meetings like the NAM, kept a distance from the Coalition. Why did some countries want a war? Did they not know that modern wars are likely to kill, and kill many? And the invaders would also suffer casualties? More than 4,000 US soldiers died, many more are suffering from mental trouble, or are remaining homeless. It is reported that the dead and wounded are heavier among certain racial/ethnic groups. Does this all suggest that the war was after all waged in the benefit of some?
On those first days of the war some well-known US journalists were also marching on the tanks. Some prestigious newspapers sent an astonishingly large number of correspondents(compared to their copies sold), and showed where each of them was reporting on a particular day. Of course there was nothing else to report than the triumphal US march in the beginning. Did it not occur to them that, while the invaders were relatively unscathed at the time, there were the common people of Iraq ahead.
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