Musafir's Musings

The story of Aldous Huxley's 1955 book Eyeless In Gaza,did not take place in Gaza, Palestine. The name, however, comes to my mind when I read about what is happening in Palestine and in Iraq. The major powers all played their hands and have no reason to be proud of their role. John Kaminski's article in rense.com is noteworthy. Looking at images of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, and reading about the violence raging in that land one sees another plot of the U.S. and the so called Coalition gone awry. We had been playing sectarian politics after toppling Saddam Hussein and lost control of the game. Instead of a puppet regime at our beck and call we have unleashed a monster. Long simmering grudges between the Sunnis and Shias have broken out. As usual, there is a scramble to point the finger at those responsible for destruction of the mosque. Who are they? Sunni extremists? Kurds, insurgents belonging to al-Qaeda? Iraqis are killing each other and whoever else gets in their way. Iraqi civilians under stress of the invasion that began in spring of 2003 now face the dangers of a bloody, full-scale civil war.

From USA Today:

• One, the global expansion of democracy, American-style, is stalled in Iraq. The other, individual freedom--the cornerstone of the democratic ideal--is being eroded here and in Britain,where Tony Blair governs like a Bush clone.

We might never know the truth why Tony Blair decided to hitch his star to the American president's misadventure in Iraq--to share in the perceived glory of a subjugated Middle East or a vision that appeared when he was praying with George Bush. But whatever the reason he certainly didn't think of being described in history books as "a Bush clone".

In the meantime, news from Baghdad makes dismal reading.

BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.

A stark example of the pitfalls when we invade a country to bring freedom and democracy in the style of G.W. Bush. Read what Iraqi bloggers have to say: Baghdad Burning Feb.23, 2006 Raed In The Middle Feb.25, 2006
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