Clocks chimed; watches beeped; and church bells pealed to give special significance to the adage, “out with the old, in with the new”. Before we knew it, we were traversing the threshold of time and entering the doorway of a new era, 2003. Like the passing of a familiar friend, 2002 is forever gone.

In retrospect, we can hardly savor the memories of such a swiftly fleeting year. It has sped off into history, virtually like a flash of lightning, only that its daring glare was somewhat dampened by the presence of uncertainty and darkness brought on by crises of international conflicts – darkness that even now threatens our fickle future. And the world today is that much darker. But, in the same breath, I’d like to say that the year is still young, and so I sincerely wish my avid readers a healthy, happy, bright and prosperous New Year.

Time really flies! Doesn’t it? Have you ever noticed how fast a day just melts away nowadays, with only but a few planned tasks accomplished? Time was when we use to yearn for lunch-time to roll around. But today, before we can blink twice or thrice, morning quickly turns to noon; noon-time quickly gives way to twilight, and then the darkness of night covers the land. This may be natural when we take into consideration the time of the year relative to the equinox theory, but generally speaking, days just fly.

Well, on a wider scale that is how these brief years pass away, giving way to the confusion and tumultuous discord that plague our weary world with real and present dangers, not so much domestically, but more so regionally and on an international level.

The year 2002 has carried its share of crises, which have contributed to such present day dangers. In the foreground, of course, is America’s controversial preoccupation with a defiant Iraq over what seems to be its unwillingness to acknowledge its possession of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Though most of us “novices” can’t tell for sure whether this kind of offensive armory does exist, the U.S. Pentagon confirms that its international intelligence sources do verify the presence of such weapons. The burden, therefore, remains that of Saddam Hussein to prove otherwise. And his reign could be doomed if he doesn’t.

The U.S had been accusing Iraq of lethal weapons possession for some time now, especially after the September 11th terrorist attacks, claiming that these weapons pose a threat to Western security. Iraq is one of the prime nations which U.S. President Bush has vehemently referred to as part of the infamous “axis of evil”. But the series of events which has brought all this blame-game to a head goes back to the murky escalation of tensions between the two nations and their relations with the United Nations last year.

At a high level meeting in Cairo Egypt on Sunday, November 9th 2000, the United Nations Security Council settled on yet another compromising resolution regarding the tensions between the U.S. and Iraq.

That resolution had given Saddam Hussein last November 15th as a deadline to respond to the implications of its terms and to allow the return of weapons inspectors to survey Iraq’s artillery. Of course, it was the consensus of most U.S. officials that if Bhagdad’s reaction to this resolution did not meet the favour of Washington, then a U.S.-led war, which is now looming on the horizon, could be eminent.

Initially, with all the wrangling on the part of Iraq back then, its members of parliament had unanimous rejected the U.N. November resolution, and claimed that their leader, President Hussein, would have the final say. But within a couple of days, Saddam did concede, against the wishes of parliament, confirming that indeed his country was open to investigation by the U.N team, in compliance with its new resolution.

The resolution carried a built-in time-line with which Iraq would have been expected to fully cooperate. The schedule included: first, the unconditional return of U.N. weapons’ inspectors no later than Monday, November 18th ; it also prescribed a December 8th deadline for Iraq to declare and classify all its weapons in an updated catalog of sorts; and finally, the resolution called for a Report on the inspectors’ findings to be delivered to the Security Council by February 28th, 2003.

Well, by November 27th the United Nations team of inspectors led by Chief Hans Blix was in Iraq getting prepared to set out on a search of some seven hundred (700) sites where the Iraqis would most likely have stashed away suspicious weapons of mass destruction. This inspection action got swinging even though Iraq had time and again irrevocably declared that it owned no offensive weaponry. Today, the search goes on and so far only about three hundred sites have been inspected, with no clue of the presence of chemical or biological armory. As media commentators say, “no smoking gun” has yet been found.

In an apparent effort to make their denial more credible, a couple days prior to the December 8th deadline for the presentation of their arms Declaration, the Iraqis sought to demonstrate their ambitious innocence relative to their commitment to the terms of the resolution by issuing what many has considered a fictitious 12,000 page Declaration, claiming non-possession of weapons of mass destruction. This hefty document was ridiculed by Washington and, in fact, one Pentagon official sarcastically called it a telephone directory. It was said to contain nothing new, only material falsehoods and serious omissions.

There is a blatant element of mistrust with regard to Iraq in Washington. President Bush, his cabinet and his allies, in particular Great Britain, all hold fast to the belief that weapons of mass destruction are hidden away somewhere in Iraq, but yet their claims cannot be validated. Generally, people would like to know that there is some justified proof of harmful weapons, enough to warrant a full-scale war, before any attack is made. It may appear that the teams of inspectors are therefore doing an inefficient job in that they can’t find such weapons as yet. Notwithstanding, there is a call for an extension to their period of searching as they still have much more sites to inspect before the February 28th deadline.

But the fact that Iraq may have destructive weapons appears not to be the only reason why America and Britain would take military action against Saddam. Ever since September 11th, President Bush had been adamant about disabling the potential of all countries capable of carrying out terrorist acts against his people, and considering the historic political character of President Hussein, he, according to analysts, fits the category of a regime worthy of being toppled in accordance with the President’s move to, as he puts it, “rid the world of evil”. Regime change and disarmament are President Bush’s prime demands.

So, as it was in 1991, armed forces are being constantly built up again in the Persian Gulf. American soldiers, sailors, marines, air-force personnel, air-craft carriers and a massive array of military equipment are all being made ready. While we hope that war would be averted, still with some 62,000 more American troops recently deployed, it would seem remiss to think that a significant war is not likely. By mid-February it is expected that about 200,000 troops would be poised to take action at the President’s command.

In my opinion, these forces are being put in place and made ready, so that in any event that the slightest trace of offensive weapons are detected by the inspection teams, or if Iraq ever once openly infringes upon the terms of the resolution, then the pending war would be immediately triggered. But God forbid! Yet, things seem so uncertain.
The question we must ask ourselves though, is: how would we, who are so dependent upon the economic influences of great western societies like the U.S. fear under a probable U.S.-led war with Iraq? We cannot forget the hardships we faced in 1991, exactly twelve years ago, when the Gulf War impacted our economies with significant shortfalls in our tourism industry. Granted, that so-called “Desert Storm” then was rather brief in duration and it can be hardly termed an extended war. The “winds of that storm” was over within only a few weeks.

However, we must be cognizant that we are now standing on the brink of military confrontation once again. What impact can such an upheaval make on our relaxed, complacent, comfortable life-styles? A potential squabble between America and Iraq can have world-wide repercussions. The entire Arab-Muslim world could be drawn into the ominous fury, thus triggering new scales of terrorism against western civilizations.

Let us not be unconcerned about this uncertain, pending conflict that would make the Middle East situation that much more worrisome. We must hope that seeds of peace and reconciliation would be planted and indeed quickly flourish among the nations to avert another war. But since we are uncertain, and since we all might be caught in the fray in one way or another, let us pray for inward peace and the sustaining mercies of a God who has it all in control. With him there are absolutely no uncertainties.

By Mr. James Harrigan

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News