In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatuallahi wa barakatahu
 

Monumental failure

By Sharique Naeem

 

On the third anniversary of Britain and America’s decision to invade Iraq, its only a hand full in the West, let alone in Iraq who may have anything to celebrate. The “collateral damage” in terms of human lives, according to independent observers is well over 100,000. Ironically, no official figures on civilian deaths have been kept because the Pentagon says it “monitors” civilian casualties but doesn’t keep count. Only a few days back, US second-in-command in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, stated “The possibility of civil war may be higher today than it has been in the last three years...” and he added that Iraqi security forces only control about 50 per cent of the country.The irony of the West’s Iraq misadventure has been that it has hastened the momentum for a new political era within the Islamic world. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has brought about unprecedented unity amongst Muslims worldwide. No longer are Muslims worldwide prepared to live under the brutal dictators that have governed them for the past century and there has been an increase in the calls for unification of the Muslim world under the umbrella of Islamic Caliphate. Indeed, it is History, which will judge the occupation of Iraq as a monumental failure; what remains to be seen is whether it will also chronicle Iraq as the final stage that ushered the inevitable, i.e. a new era of political self rule -under Islamic Caliphate- for the Muslim world.

 

Also Published as: “Not counting”-The Nation (3^rd March 2006); “Collateral damage”-Daily Times (26^th March 2006);