EDITOR'S DIARY: Two faces of war

www.nationnews.com Thursday 20, March-2003 by ROXANNE GIBBS

February 23: A man by the name of Colonel Michael Dewar, formerly of the British Army, tells a group of editors gathered in Sri Lanka that war against Iraq would take place in mid-March.

I was among the editors. Here is what he said: “The launch date would most likely be mid-March. That would allow for a second resolution at the United Nations. It would also allow British forces to get in place, train and acclimatise. It would allow United States logistic support to get in place and for axis from Turkey to be developed”.

About weather conditions there, he said: “Temperatures in Iraq will be about 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day from April, thus the coalition will wish to finish the bombing campaign at the latest by early April.”

He also confessed that sandstorms were possible.

On the timeline: The war, he said, would last “inside one week”. “There will be an intense 48-hour aerial bombardment. There will then be a rapid advance on the main centres including Basra, Baghdad, Nasiriyah, Kirkuk and Mosul. The Iraqi forces will collapse or surrender very quickly.

“When he sees the writing on the wall, Saddam is likely to make a run for it, possibly to Libya. The United States and Britain would be quite happy with that. Having to put the man on trial would be complex and unpredictable in its consequences,” Dewar said.

In answer to a question, he stated emphatically: “This war has nothing to do with oil.”

And: “Thank God for America”, he said, to a question as to why America believed that it could dictate to another country how it should run its internal affairs.

“Would you have preferred it to be Russia running the world?” he said indignantly.

That was one side of the story.

February 26: Abdel bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of a Pan-Arab newspaper in London, painted another picture when it was his turn to speak, days after after the colonel was safely back in London (there was no way the two could have been in the room together).

In an equally spirited and passionate address, he told editors that the expected war in Iraq had little to do with weapons of mass destruction, democracy, human rights, or the ignoring of United Nations demands; but was anchored in a sadistic need by Washington to remove Hussein from office.

Every time United States President George Bush gave a reason for the war and the reason was no longer valid, he came up with a new reason, Atwan said.

“The reason for this war is to make George’s mummy happy,” said the Arab editor who once interviewed bin Laden. “He would have avenged his father’s death threat from Saddam, so his mummy would be happy. He promised her to take care of the ‘bully’,” he said cynically, much to the amusement of many in the room.

His view was that the war would last much longer than the Americans anticipated.

He also spoke of Bush’s statements that Hussein had ties to bin Laden (the suspected terrorist of the 9/11 tragedy).

“Everybody in the Arab world knows that bin Laden hates Saddam and vice versa. bin Laden will be happy if Bush destroys Saddam . . . Bush must be the only person who doesn’t know that,” he said.

He described Bush in exactly the same words that Bush used to describe Saddam . . . sadistic, a dictator, a madman and a tyrant.

At the end of the presentation he made a dash for the airport where he caught the next flight back to London.

Left me saying hmmm . . . .

I remember, ten years ago, the world supported the defeat of Iraq after it had invaded Kuwait. At that time an international coalition went into the Persian Gulf and removed the Iraqis from Kuwait. Iraq had violated the sovereignty of another nation.

Now what has happened to America’s commitment then to: “a just world order based on respect for the rule of law and social justice and peace . . . .”

Since taking office, President George Bush has sought to tell Venezuela why its elected President Hugo Chavez should leave . . . . it has done all it could to engineer the ouster of Arafat, the Palestinian leader . . . our own Minister of Foreign Affairs Billie Miller is right when she asks: “Who will be next?”

How could we justify such a war in the name of peace . . . ?

And . . . the $25 million question – whatever happened to bin Laden?