Opinion Editorials, December 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
|
A year of fear and confusion
Gulf News
31-12-2003
There cannot be many people who will look back at 2003 with happy memories. The overall impression gained is one of bleakness, fear, confusion. The Middle East occupied centre stage most of the time. The most notable event was - and still is -Iraq, which started the year as threats from the US backed by the UK and resulted in a "shock and awe" campaign that did neither. If anything, the invasion of Iraq merely proved the inadequacy of the intelligence services.
Accusations of "sexed-up" intelligence reports for the benefit of the public to swallow still linger. An independent inquiry was launched in Britain, chaired by the eminent Lord Hutton, to determine the truth of the allegations.
Despite nearly 300,000 pages being released onto the Hutton inquiry web site for public consumption, no one is any nearer determining the truth than before. Or even why Dr. David Kelly allegedly decided to put an end to his life over the issue. Whether Hutton's report, expected in January, will reveal all, is yet to be seen, but it has certainly left an unpleasant feeling surrounding the need for Britain to go to war in Iraq.
While the accusations still hover around British Prime Minister Tony Blair and could yet bring about a change in premiership, US President George W. Bush has been let off much more lightly by his public. When it was pointed out that there are no weapons of mass destruction and Bush's purpose was only regime change, Bush replied, "Who cares?" which sums up pretty well what the American public think of the whole issue. Blair probably wishes the British public were as magnanimous.
The year was interspersed with one catastrophe after another; if not man-made - the shuttle disaster, for example - then natural - the earthquakes and floods in South America, typhoons in the Far East… the list seems endless.
The US war on terror was constantly on the minds of most people as America lurched from one coloured alert to another, confusing people on the seriousness of the latest warning, thus ensuring little public reaction.
The domination of the US was proven time and again, if not overtly, then covertly, by its support or lack of it in given arenas. The Middle East particularly suffered in this as first Iraq, then Syria and then Iran came into the "firing line" of the Bush administration. All the while, the US allowed Israel to do whatever it decided was most appropriate to ensure the Palestinian problem was never solved and so fear became a daily part of life for Palestinians. All in all, it was not a good year for most people, wherever they lived. Let us pray for better things in 2004.
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
 |