Ihsan Bal Head of USAK Science Committee printable version send your friend

Wednesday, 19 January 2005

What is happening in Iraq?

View: Dr. Ihsan BAL, Expert on terrorism and Conflicts

Nowadays everybody confused and puzzled about happenings in Iraq.

Bush administration declared a war to Saddam Hussein and promised to bring democracy and freedom for the Iraqi people. However since the actual battle ended with Saddam and his armies, fighting in Iraq is still going on and it seems that, day-by-day situation in the country is getting deteriorating.

Who is Killing Whom?

Giving an answer to this question is so complicated. If the war was against a dictator and his companions, than it should have been finished long time ago.

Today’s picture in Iraq is as such that so called Iraqi resisters are killing their own country men, women and children, coalition soldiers, Turkish lorry drivers, United Nations workers as well as other nationalities whom are serving to the urgent needs of the people in Iraq. On the other hand Bush’s army is ‘trying to stabilise’ Iraq and ‘trying to maintain the law and order’ by way of bombing the cities such as Felucca, Telafer etc., torturing the suspected rivals in the prisons such as Ebu Gureyb and so on.

From the above picture it seems that none of the warring sides has a legitimate right to kill and punish. First of all, legitimacy ground of Iraqi resistance movements should be analysed. They might be defensible if they have had fought against only occupying coalitions soldiers, because any nation has the right of self defence under invasion. However they could not become a legitimate and organised national resistance movement. Most of the resistance groups’ main philosophy is based on “end justifies the means”. They can put bombs on crowded streets, they can use similar methods used by the occupiers. And they do not consider the national consensus and public support for their cause. Deliberately killing of innocent people is unacceptable in any ground and there must be many Iraqis that share this view and keeps a way from the combatants. That is one of the main reasons for that the Iraqi resistance cannot not move forward. The resistance groups make more attacks, they kill more civilian and military people, put more bombs… However the balance of power in Iraq has not changed in favour of them.
The way that Iraqi insurgent’s campaign is not only illegitimate on moral grounds and political terms, it is also unlawful in religious terms as well. There is not such a war understanding in Prophet Mohammed’s thought and his practice. The prophet and Quran definitely prohibit killing the civilians. Iraqi insurgents are following the path of the Che Guevara, Karl Heinzen, Robespierre, Bakunin and Nechaev rather than that of Prophet Mohammed’s. So their claim of religious legitimacy is a complete deceit if not deliberate abuse of religion.

On the other hand invading forces are also violently implement misuse of power. They came to Iraq to bring democracy and freedom but they created a big disappointment, shock and animosity. Humanity was shocked to see how badly ABD soldiers have treated the suspects in the prisons. Fighting for freedom could not have achieved by torture and democracy could have not brought by landslide abuse of human rights in Iraq. Invading forces claim that ‘we are fighting against terrorism’ is also unacceptable. There is not such a method which is proven as affective and legitimate that bombing the cities from thousand feet’s and calling it a struggle against terrorism. Modern world can not accept this and people of Iraq have a difficulty in understanding and in making a correlation between behaviour of such and democracy, freedom and human rights.

In Iraq too many reasons to kill people but none is acceptable under the legal, humanitarian, religious and legitimate grounds. Nobody has a right to discredit free world’s values and also nobody has a right to discredit religion of billions of followers for their own interests. In other words, neither Americans have right to hold free world’s values as ransom nor the insurgents have right to hold religious values as ransom and misuse them.