Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a columnist at the London Evening Standard. In light of the handover of sovereignty to Iraq on June 28 2004 she wrote her latest piece, a gem entitled ‘My shame at savoring American failure in Iraq’, and it includes these words (my bolding):
“A dogged campaigner against the blighted war in Iraq, I am now wrestling with the demons of callous triumphalism. The anti-war protestors have been proved horribly right. The allies who marched with the US into this ugly adventure should feel mortified. It is a fearful and turbulent country the new Western Imperialists hand over to the Iraqis. The past months have been challenging for us in the anti-war camp. I am ashamed to admit that there have been times when I wanted more chaos, more shocks, more disorder to teach our side a lesson. On Monday I found myself again hoping that this handover proves a failure because it has been orchestrated by the Americans. The decent people of Iraq need optimism now, not my distasteful ill-wishes for the only hope they have for a future.”
I believe Alibhai-Brown exposes a broad cross-section of the western media and many Liberal-Left politicians and supporters, but I don’t think those people realize the far-reaching implications of their quest for American failure. On some level, I feel Alibhai-Brown speaks for many, and so for bluntly avoiding the mendacity of the rest I’ll give her credit.
Rarely do I read about the Iraq success stories of which there are actually, obviously many, the most obvious one notwithstanding: a now free nation long held under a murderous raping torturing threatening thieving dictator who also happens to have been sitting on some of the world’s richest oil reserves, with all that is implied by the prospects that those riches would bring to an evil tyrant like Saddam Hussein.
I rarely read about or see the expressions of hopefulness that I know many in Iraq now feel for the very first time—and what a beautiful and unique story to tell! And of the medical treatment of diseases long battled by long neglected Iraqi citizens; the rebuilding of schools left decrepit for decades under an evil dictatorship that taught hatred above all else; and of the freedom for women; and about freedom and democracy for Iraqis for the first time in their lives. These are stories rather unique to our lifetimes. Historically significant, rare, success stories. (I personally promote the OIC program—itself a success story—through ProudToBeCanadian.ca.)
They are stories left mostly for us to imagine about, not read about or see on television.
The mendacity I referred to earlier is this: The liberal-left, especially those on the extreme left, actually hope for the worst in order to jack up their political fortunes. The bias against the American effort that I so often see in my voluminous reading every day and see on TV proves that point. They all but admit it both by what they write and what they do not. The stories report tales of disaster, car-bombings and beheadings as if they are resplendent examples of failure, and reported with a repetition not seen of other stories.
When the historic handover of sovereignty occurred and I felt proud of the Americans, a slight shame of some of my compatriots, and a feeling of excitement for Iraqis—the headlines were about beheadings.
How then could I not think there are not others who, like Alibhai-Brown, actually hope for American failure because it befits their hidden political agenda?
But Alibhai-Brown is revealing more: Imagine the inner turmoil and yearning that Alibhai-Brown reveals when using the nouns: “more chaos, more shocks, more disorder”. Imagine the human life behind those words—the little girls dancing and playing in the streets. These are words expressing Alibhai-Brown’s emotional appeal in furtherance of her political cause—which would sacrifice the dancing little girls—on purpose, not by accident.
That’s peace?
She has the gall to tinker with the pejorative moniker “Western Imperialists” to describe America’s effort, but I think we have just read the words of a terrorist preaching, as a westerner, to us as if we in the west should all feel shame. I think that’s how they taught Iraqi children, and how some Islamic nations still teach their children.
To Alibhai-Brown and others, it’s not about human beings, dignity, freedom, life; it’s about America losing so that they—her side—might “win”. And win at any cost whatsoever. Not peace, war.
In light of the handover of a now democratic, sovereign nation to the Iraqi people after America and coalition partners have freed them, Alibhai-Brown writes, “The past months have been challenging for us in the anti-war camp.”
No doubt.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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