(YellowTimes.org) &endash;After watching the images of the four unlucky American gunmen slainin Falluja, their bodies burnt then hanged, many Americans see in thecrystal ball little besides more carnage.Indeed, the Sadrrebellion raises the specter ofdefeat. Most likely,U.S. forces can quash the immediate rebellion, but long-termprospects are hopeless.The guerilla war willintensify; the next revolt is guaranteed to be bigger and the oneafter bigger still. The U.S. can win everybattle. It can destroy Iraq as it destroyed Vietnam. But there won'tbe a pro-U.S. Iraq.
Staying as a hated occupier means ever more deathto both Americans and Iraqis. It also means motivating more attackson American soil. Already, in most of the Middle East, Osama BinLaden has a higher approval rating than George Bush. But to leave, sosay all the talking heads, is unthinkable. To leave would be to showweakness; it would only embolden the anti-American rage, turn Iraqinto a radical, perhaps Islamic, haven and base for those who want tofight America to the death.
Washington is befuddled. The Emperor, like the onein Hans Christian Andersen's story, is pretending nothing is wrongwith his neo-con tailored war costume: He is playing baseball. TheAnything-but-Bush team that won the Democratic primaries is showingits true colors, calling for staying the course, whatever that means.
George Bush finally lives up to the claim he is "auniter, not a divider": Shi'a and Sunni rebels buried theirdifferences and united against the occupation, often joined by thevery U.S. trained police that was supposed to contain them.Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon's Washington-based vampires, William Safirein the Times and George Will in the Post, demand more Iraqi blood.Only the neo-cons keep their cool; their plan to sink the West into amillennial war is ticking like a well-rigged bomb.
Is there a way out? Yes. There is a way forAmericans to quell the rage, and yet to earn respect and goodwill.
But first, Americans must come to terms with thedeep origins of the current revolt.
Last year, the U.S. launched an unprovoked, whollyunjustified attack on a defenseless country. Over 50,000 Iraqis aredead as a result of that attack, 10,000 of them civilians, manychildren. The U.S. took over Iraq, deposed one dictator, SaddamHussein, and imposed another, Paul Bremer. The new dictator, havinginstalled himself in the same barricaded palace of his predecessor,immediately took to the ways of his predecessor as well --abductions, torture, shooting into crowds, licensing, newspapers,sham elections, etc. With largely empty promises of a new dawn, theU.S. turned Iraq into a free-for-all Lootistan, awarding billions tochummy contractors and fire-selling Iraq's national assets.
All that is criminal in the highest degree. Yetover half of Americans supported it and still do. If people in theMidwest can applaud criminal leaders and support the killing ofinnocent civilians, so can people in the Middle East.
Compounding the outrage is the fact that SaddamHussein's vilified Baath party rose to power with the encouragementof the CIA. Saddam, allegedly the little Hitler whose evil waysjustified the war, was for many years a great friend of Washington.Much of his horrible criminal record was written while he wasreceiving military intelligence and help in weapon acquisition fromthe U.S., including help in producing biological and chemicalweapons.
And even that isn't the worst. For over a decade,the U.S. imposed an international regime of sanctions against Iraqthat resulted in the deaths of one million people, half of themchildren. The sanctions prevented Iraq from recovering from thedeliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure during the firstGulf War, condemning children to death by poisoned water and lack ofmedicines. This silent, bureaucratic mass murder was the result of anintentional policy forged in Washington. Asked whether the death of500,000 Iraqi children was worth it, State Secretary Madeleine "HumanRights" Albright said yes.
Yet that policy was supported in the U.S. acrossthe board, even to the extent that at the early stages of the antiwarmovement, there were those who condemned Bush because they wanted the"successful" sanctions to continue.
There are ample reasons for Americans to be lessthan loved in Iraq. The road to Falluja wasn't paved last week. Ittook decades to pave.
But another road can still be paved. Despite thepainful history of U.S.-Iraq relations, the firebrand leader of therebellion, Moqtada Sadr, portrayed by the media as a hatefulanti-American fanatic, still believes in the honesty of the Americanpeople. He has asked Americans publicly for help, urging the"American people to take sides with the Iraqi people, oppressed by[U.S.] leaders and the occupation army, to help them so thatpower is transferred to honest Iraqis."
Moqtada Sadr still sees a difference between theAmerican people and the U.S. government. But it is up to Americans toprove that one exists.
Here is what Americans can doto change course:
Step 1: Force the government to leave Iraq.Obviously, Iraq is a sorry mess but U.S. withdrawal is theprecondition for improvement.
Step 2: Apologize to Iraqis for the support ofSaddam, the sanctions, and the war.
Step 3: Empower a special, international tribunalthat would indict and try all those who had a role in shaping thoseU.S. policies that resulted in massive death and suffering in Iraq.The charges should be the most serious ones, crimes against humanity,mass murder, and international aggression. And the punishment shouldbe appropriate.
Step 4: Create an international commission thatwill determine sums and rules for paying full and generousreparations to the Iraqi victims of these crimes and to theirsurvivors. Then pay every penny.
Step 5: Augment the Pledge of Allegiance with anadditional sentence: "As a citizen of the United States, I pledge towatch my government with diligence, so that never again can mygovernment, through my negligence, commit crimes against humanity."
Will that earn Americans the respect and goodwillof the whole world, including the Muslim world? You bet! Then thereis an important additional benefit -- it is the right and honorablething to do.
At bottom, this should be a simple concept tograsp: respect and goodwill are not a birthright; they are earned andlost in deeds.
[Gabriel Ash was born in Romania and grew up in Israel. He isan unabashed "opssimist." He writes his columns because the pen issometimes mightier than the sword - and sometimes not. He lives inthe United States. Gabriel Ash encourages your comments:gash@YellowTimes.org
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