On the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, two prominent Arab journalists published articles lambasting the U.S. and the West over the invasion, calling the move part of a large-scale conspiracy against the Arab world.
Jihad Al-Khazen, columnist for the London daily Al-Hayat, wrote in his March 19, 2013 column that U.S. officials – including former U.S. President George W. Bush, his vice president Dick Cheney, and others – should be prosecuted and executed for fabricating evidence to justify the war in Iraq. Stating that the crimes of these leaders are "almost as heinous as those of the Nazis," he said that if there were any justice in the world, they would have been detained in a "Nazi-like concentration camp." He added that Iraq today – "an Iranian colony" with a sectarian regime and daily terror attacks, is the result of "an old conspiracy" to sow sedition among Muslims and thus help Israel control the resources of the Middle East.
In a March 20 article in the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, the paper's editor 'Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan also discussed the anniversary of the war, writing that the lies and deception used to justify it prove that the Arabs are victims of a series of ongoing conspiracies against them – conspiracies meant to serve Israel, seize the Arabs' oil, and sow sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites. He also claimed that Saddam Hussein had been deliberately tricked into invading Kuwait by then-U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad April Glaspie and several Arab leaders. He also noted that some in the U.S. and Britain were calling for prosecuting Bush and former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, as well as "the Arabs and Iraqis who participated in the conspiracy against their own country."
The following are excerpts from an English translation of Al-Khazen's article that was published by Al-Hayat, and from an English translation of Al-'Atwan's article that was posted on his website.
Jihad Al-Khazen: Justice Requires That Bush, Cheney and Others Be Sent To A Concentration Camp, Prosecuted, And Executed
Jihad Al-Khazen
In his March 19 column in Al-Hayat, Jihad Al-Khazen wrote:[1] "On this day, 10 years ago, the United States invaded Iraq. The administration of George W. Bush committed a war crime, but none of those involved in fabricating evidence to justify the war that they planned and implemented have been held accountable. This is despite the fact that their war has led to the death of one million Arabs and Muslims, along with 5,000 of America’s prime in Iraq alone; furthermore, the killing there is ongoing.
"Justice requires that these individuals be put on trial, and the only fair punishment is for all of them to be executed, including George W. Bush, former vice president Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and officials such as Elliott Abrams, Douglas Feith, and John Bolton. The instigators too deserve [to stand] trial, for having supported Israel at the expense of U.S. interests and all other interests. These include William Kristol, Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, Frank Gaffney, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Charles Krauthammer, and Alan Dershowitz.
"All the pages of Al-Hayat would not be enough to cover the names of the war criminals and instigators involved in the Iraq war. I apologize for repeating this, but: The pro-Israel gang of war and evil sent a letter to former president Bill Clinton on February 26, 1998, inciting him to overthrow Saddam. Clinton was too smart to accept their counsel – or their evil. On September 20, 2011, they sent a similar letter to George W. Bush, an ignorant fool, as most people agree. As a result, the neoconservatives ruled with him as a front, and exploited the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 to persuade him to wage a war that the U.S. lost in the end, along with the war in Afghanistan and the war on terror.
"The U.S. economy, and with it the world economy, subsequently collapsed in 2008, and the financial crisis continues to the present day. All while the pro-Israel gang blames [President] Obama for something he inherited from George W. Bush, and for what every member of the same gang played a role in bringing about by seeking failed wars and funding them via loans from China and others. I have in front of me a U.S. report that states that the direct cost of the war on Iraq was $2 trillion, which would rise to $5 trillion or $6 trillion if continuing compensations for death, treatment, retirement and so forth are factored in.
"If there was any justice in this world, the war criminals from the Bush administration and around it would have been sent to in a Nazi-like concentration camp, because their crimes are almost as heinous as those of the Nazis, and their prison guards would have been chosen from the relatives of their victims in Iraq and elsewhere. If there was any justice, Cheney would not have dared to say that if he had to do it over, he would have invaded Iraq again without hesitation.
"Today, Iraq is an Iranian colony. There is a sectarian regime in power and daily terrorism where Muslims are killed at the hands of other Muslims. This is no coincidence, but the result of an old plan...
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"The neoconservatives have always sought to create sedition between Muslims, and they specifically tried to build a U.S.-Shi'a alliance against the Sunni majority in the world and the Arab countries. The Americans establish relations with the Arabs reluctantly, and hate Iran reluctantly. They believe that supporting a minority that represents ten percent of Muslims is sufficient to distract Muslims through infighting, and help Israel dominate the resources of the Middle East.
"After the Second World War, justice was served when Nazis were put on trial while their senior leaders involved in the Holocaust were executed. But the crime of the 20th century was repeated against the Arabs and Muslims in this century.
"Rather than have the war criminals arrested and brought before courts such as the world witnessed during the last century in Nuremberg, the criminals have remained at large, which encouraged them to continue their evil racist policy and to attempt to return to power to destroy what remained of America’s military and economic capacity, and kill the largest possible number of Arabs and Muslims.
"These people are all war criminals, and there is conclusive evidence against them, gathered by U.S. intellectuals, former officials, and researchers. All that is needed is [the] international will to put them on trial, as they deserve."
'Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan: The Arabs "Were And Remain Victims Of A Series Of Conspiracies"
'Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan
In his March 20 article, 'Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan wrote[2]: "On Monday, the BBC's flagship investigative program Panorama aired a report about the lies and cynical deception that were employed to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq. As I watched I became more and more convinced that we, as Arabs, were and remain victims of a series of conspiracies against our countries and that, by allowing these to succeed, we are also to blame.
"In the West, they accuse us of being naïve [because] we have always accused the West of engineering our problems, absolving ourselves of all blame.
"In the course of the Panorama investigation, several Iraqis were interviewed, including two spies whose information was crucial to U.S. and U.K. justification for the war... Both these sources were discredited as early as 2002, but their 'evidence' formed a great part of Colin Powell's report to the U.N. and Tony Blair's so-called 'dodgy dossier,' both presented just weeks before the March 20 invasion of Iraq. The program also confirmed that the source of the infamous lie that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which could reach the West in 45 minutes was none other than Iyad Allawi, who would later become Iraq's prime minister. Allawi told Panorama that he had heard this information third-hand from a network of dissident army officers... This Chinese-whispers 'intelligence' was then passed to [the British Secret Intelligence Service] M16..."
"Only now do we discover the lies that the West promoted to occupy Iraq in the name of democracy and civilization. Millions of Iraqis lives were lost or destroyed, the country is ruined, [and] in the grip of putative civil war, a haven for extremists and under Iranian control.
"The English deceived us when they told us to organize a revolution against the Ottoman Emperor, promising us the establishment of a unified Arab state. Instead they rewarded us with the 2 November 1917 Belford [sic] Promise, handing Palestine over to become a Jewish homeland, and divided the region into small, controllable states under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. We were deceived too, when Jewish terror gangs were supplied with weapons as part of the conspiracy that led to the establishment of the Israeli state.
"If these disasters were brought about by deliberate conspiracies against the Arabs and Muslims, then what is the conspiracy right now?
"At the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the foreign minister of a prominent Gulf state criticized me for condemning the involvement of the Arab states in the American attack on Iraq. The Gulf Cooperation Council and other Arab summits called on Saddam Hussein to commit to the U.N. resolutions and cooperate with international inspectors by destroying all weapons of mass destruction. Even if they believed that Iraq had such weapons, they were also aware that Saddam would have been unlikely to use them so long as the strategic balance between the Arabs and Israel on one hand and Arabs and Iran on the other hand was kept in place. In 1990, these same states had spent $1 billion to bring in American troops to liberate Kuwait from Iraq. When Saddam fought a devastating war against Iran for eight years through the 1980s and needed billions of dollars to save the economy of his country, the Arab states refused to help him. They were part of the siege imposed against him.
"The minister reproached me for my analysis that the Arabs' mistakes in dealing with Iraq are responsible for Iran's burgeoning influence there. I stand by my observation.
"Now that I have seen Panorama's explicit exposure of all the lies, and the motives of the spies and self-interested politicians who endorsed them, I am convinced that the former Iraqi president was deliberately lured in to the trap of invading Kuwait by U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad April Glaspie, and that a number of Arab leader paved the way for involving her.
"There are calls in the U.S. and Britain to prosecute former British prime minister Tony Blair and former U.S. President George Bush as war criminals. We demand [also] the prosecution of the Arabs and Iraqis who participated in the conspiracy against their own country.
"The wars and conspiracies launched against Arabs achieved two main objectives: The first was to serve the Israeli interests and its aspirations to remain in the Arab territories, while the second was to seize the Arab oil.
"Although I have never been a great believer in conspiracy theories, I can now see the deliberate hand of the West in the burgeoning region-wide sectarianism, which first came to an ugly head in Iraq; through polarization and fuelling hostility between Shi'a and Sunni, the danger to Israel from a united Arab world is minimized."
