Beyond Iraq

The die is cast. The US is going to war — against a foe who offers it no clear and present danger whatsoever — with no sanction or justification other than self-righteousness.
The millions all over the world who have marched in protest and prayed that there would be no war can now only hope that the coming conflict will be short and mercifully swift, with minimum loss of innocent lives. The Bush camp has tried to make out that those against the war were pro-Saddam. This is deliberate misdirection. Those who have rallied for peace have done so in the name of the people of Iraq who have long suffered Saddam''s dictatorship. An internal uprising against Saddam cannot be ruled out, and should perhaps be the best and most humane solution.
No crystal ball-gazer can predict accurately what developments the next few days and weeks will bring. But one thing is certain. The world will never be the same again. For not only has the US acted with total disregard of the international community by bypassing the UN Security Council, but has arrogated the right to continue to do so in future through the use of the so-called Bush doctrine — which legitimises Washington''s pre-emptive intervention in any situation which is even potentially threatening, or could be so in the future.
This in effect could sound the death-knell not only of the UN — long deemed by its many critics as a basket case anyway — but also of the complex web of international treaties and conventions such as the WTO. For though the US has effected regime changes elsewhere without seeking prior approval from anyone — as in the case of Granada and Panama — this is the first time it has done so against such concerted opposition, from street marchers to members of the Security Council.
With former allies like France today being vilified by Washington for their dissent, and president Bush openly stating that the US does not need the world''s approval, the message is clear: Washington will do militarily, politically and economically what it wishes and no international treaty is, in effect, worth the paper it is written on; no country safe from US diktat. However, the purportedly benevolent global autocracy of Pax Americana could turn out to be its own worst enemy by sowing the seeds of terrorist reprisal. Which in turn would make the US even more aggressively paranoid and thus escalate the spiral of retaliation. The Iraq war is over before it has begun, for no one doubts its outcome. The real war has begun in an inescapable future which is already here.