US partition plan: remedy or cup of hemlock?

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:15:45
By Bita Ghaffari, Press TV, Tehran

There was a time when global hegemonies resorted to well-calculated moves to disguise their underlying ill intentions. Today politics seems to have turned into a childish game with big powers hardly making any serious endeavors to hide their heinous agenda.

The amnesia characterizing the Bush administration is nothing out of the ordinary. Setting a goal and moving in the opposite direction is a distinctive feature of actors on the American foreign policy stage.

Washington's claims that Saddam's hidden WMD arsenals posed an imminent threat to the US, which it used as a casus belli to invade the country, proved nothing but a fallacy.

The US has been subjected to heavy scorn for failing to live up to its promises. WMDs have not been discovered but cities and villages across the battle-scarred country have turned into a scene of ruthless carnage for almost four years.
Terrorism has been fueled rather than abated.

One of the US purported goals in invading Iraq was to restore democracy in the tyrannized Iraqi society and liberate the people from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussain.

Democracy by definition is 'the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives'.

This explicitly denotes that Iraq ought to be administered by the Iraqi people or their lawful representatives. Evidently, the American officials are by no means the 'elected representatives' of the Iraqi people and therefore not the least bit in a position to make consequential decisions that affect the lives of millions of Iraqis.

American warmongers have used establishment of democracy in Iraq as an excuse to justify their military deployment. That explains why the latest motion passed in the US Senate proposing a division plan in Iraq is indeed a mockery of democracy.

Proposing to divide the country along ethnic and religious lines is perhaps the most unwise and dangerous decision which would make matters worse. In point of fact, by doing so, the US has only further exposed its purpose of exacerbating tension among people of different ethnicities and religious sects.

Washington knows well that it can reap benefits by pouring oil on the flames of sectarian violence and has made no secret of its wicked intentions.

At a time when the Muslim world is thinking and talking about ways to push for national reconciliation in Iraq, the US proposal of splitting Iraq into sectarian enclaves is another blow to the Middle East and the kiss of death for the country's democratic future.

Instead of seeking ways of bridging the gap between Iraqi Kurds, Sunnis and Shias, as well as promoting convergence and unity, the US Senate has rendered the world speechless by putting forth a motion on division of Iraq.

What authorizes the US Senate to pass a motion to shape the lives of millions of people on the other side of the planet? By comparison, how would the American Senators like the idea of reviving the United States' notorious history of racial segregation?

Overstaying their welcome in the region, the Americans have developed the illusion that they can play the role of the regional gendarme and make whatever decision they wish; even if it involves splitting a country into ethnic and/or religious-based regions.

The US is getting bolder in the face of millions of freedom-loving people around the world urging the occupiers to leave the war-scarred nation to decide its own fate.

Obviously, the US-proposed plan to segregate the indigenous Iraqi communities is not a cure for the chronic wounds of the Iraqi people but the Cup of Hemlock for the battle-weary land.

The Senate potion is sure to harm more than heal.