[Guardian Unlimited, U.K.]

 

 

Al-Seyassah, Kuwait

George Bush's Final Visit:

'History is Ruthless to Losers'

 

"What has the United States achieved except to hand on a golden platter Iraq and its people to the savage wolves of Tehran and its Revolutionary Guard, which today is the biggest player not only in Iraq but throughout the Middle East? George Bush’s farewell visit is the beginning of the end of the greatest American failure in history."

 

By Dawood Al-Basri

 

Translated By James Jacobson and Nicolas Dagher

 

January 6, 2007

 

Kuwait - Al-Seyassah - Original Article (Arabic)

In the autumn of his stormy presidency, American George W. Bush will now offer more of his well-known Texan diplomacy on a farewell visit to the Arab region WATCH . The reason that his announced itinerary includes most Middle East nations without any mention of Iraq is clear: The cause of his rushed, secretive visit, hidden from the eyes, voices and ears of journalists and whistle-blowers, is that they would ask him whether it's reasonable for this “agent of change” to visit without touring his project to build the American dream in Iraq, the foundations of which have collapsed. They would ask how he could come without looking at the Iraq disaster, which was caused by the ulterior motives of American policy in the hands of Bush.

 

 

[Editor's Note: President Bush's itinerary includes Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.]

 

Bush decided to lower the curtain on Saddam Hussein’s regime, but to what end? What have his terribly naive policies accomplished except to replace an old, wild agent - and also a costumer [Saddam] - with slightly more receptive agents? Five years after the war of “liberation" and fall of Saddam, practices of brutality have yet to be abandoned. Has a new Iraq really emerged from the disastrous embargos and ashes of war? Have American policies succeeded in creating more civilized, liberal and democratic groups in Iraq? Or has the sick, sectarian mentality of the tribe been replaced by another kind of diseased mentality - that of the terrorist. This has only served to raise the level of crime and cruelty - the perpetrators of which are far more capable of stealing and draining resources than their wicked predecessors - the ones who prepared the nation and region for the disaster that later befell Iraq?

 

Has America really achieved victory by returning Iraq to a pre-Ottoman situation, where there were clans, sects, parties of sheep, backward tribes, groups of flagellating zealots, gangs who kill women in groups or individually, al-Qaeda lowlifes and retarded criminal Salafist groups?

 

What has the United States achieved in Iraq except handing Iraq and its people on a golden platter to the savage wolves of the Tehran regime and its Revolutionary Guard, which today is the biggest player not only in Iraq but throughout the Middle East?

 

The Lebanese look on at American policy and wonder: do the billions of dollars for building and rebuilding Iraq exist anywhere but on paper? In the West they build entire cities in six months. So why in Iraq can’t they build one single toilet in five years? What have the thousands of companies and tens of thousands of contractors in Iraq succeeded in doing beyond expanding the area devoted to Iraqi graves? Has America prevented Iraqis from fleeing their country and seeking asylum in the West - despite the fact that it was the very forces of the West that have in word and deed been administering Iraq?

 

Did the American president, who is in the autumn of his leadership, know that the Iraqis are still living on the alms and “charity” of “Saddam’s ration card”? And does he understand that if the current Iraqi government - which is defined by division, influence peddling, looting and infighting - suspended it [the ration card], it would spark the greatest revolution over bread and butter in history?

 

And lastly, does the American President really believe that his well-worn plan for the elimination of terrorist groups has succeeded? The answer is clear ... George Bush’s farewell visit to the region is the beginning of the end of the greatest American failure in history.

 

History is ruthless to losers.

 

Dawoodalbasri@hotmail.com

 

Click Here for Arabic Version