Opening the Gates of Hell

By Guest Author Mathew Maavak
[Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. He is a journalist and the founder of the new website Panoptic World ]

The world has been set ablaze, and we are only beginning to feel its fiery wrath. The assassination of Hamas founder (Sheikh) Ahmad Yassin has to be the latest exploding tinderbox and it certainly won’t be the last. It came in the wake of Sept 11, the bloody, unabated Afghan campaign, the illegal invasion of Iraq and it never-ending aftermath, the hyped hunt for Osama bin Laden, which later shifted to his Deputy, the Madrid bombings and now this!

President George W. Bush prides himself as a “war president” – the kind that never faced battle - and his war party knows that his only trump card for re-election happens to be “terror” itself.

The US economy is bleeding, though very significantly Bush’s corporate alter ego in Wal-Mart topped the Fortune 500 list. The badly needed taxes of the elite are being waived at a time when the US budget deficit has reached historic proportions. Even if there was a wealth tax now – and that will never, ever happen – there is no way to narrow this gap soon. The solution so far has been to deprive the economically depressed of whatever little benefits they had to support a horribly expensive war and military build up. This cost-cutting trend is generally indiscriminate and cross-sectional, unless they impinge on the super-rich, the US military complex, or the Diebold machines.

There is no way this president is going to be elected on any issue. From healthcare, economic management, foreign policy to education, George W. Bush has proven himself to be the most shamelessly inept US president. He was also the first losing candidate to get elected. He can thrive on only one thing – bloodshed, and fear.

Look how his popularity soared after Sept 11? The American people forgave him for all his cowardice and shortcomings, and he rode on a crest of bloody retribution. This is a man who knew of Iraq’s non-complicity in Sept 11 and yet wanted – and got Saddam – earlier than the still elusive Bin Laden. While Bin laden remained elusive, and kept up his videotaped Press conferences, UN missions and Kofi Annan’s office itself were bugged over an impending war brazenly justified by Sept 11. You call this America’s moral fury or the nefarious scheming of a murderous lot not really concerned with avenging their dead?

Pakistani soldiers are now dying in their attempt to hunt down Al Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, just as US soldiers are being killed on a war forged on non-existent WMDs. Why has the spotlight moved from Bin Laden? The month of September or October would be the ideal time to announce his death, or more unbelievably his capture. During that short time leading to the November balloting, public euphoria will drown out even the most stentorian questions of 9/11 skeptics. Give them a longer time, and the doubts will swirl, unless Wall Street goes ballistic. All indicators point to a new presidency.

George W. Bush can only be re-elected on a platform of terror. There has been a build up in violence elsewhere and the president repeats this fact for Americans, who, have been left unscathed on their home soil since 9/11. In a nation that is still strongly insular and inward-looking, the wars of others have little impact at home. The death toll of US GIs are still at a manageable level but the mismanaged budget is biting on a big scale. People are already getting fed up with their gradual loss of liberty, and again this points to one thing – Bush may be on his way out. The solution?

Enter Hamas, an organization that had vowed never to strike targets outside of Israel. They have kept their word. There have been no terrorist operations directed att the United States so far. That will surely change. From those impoverished hellholes in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians are in an incendiary mood. Even incarcerated Arab prisoners in the Israeli prison complex of Ketziot rioted. Within hours, many have volunteered for suicide missions, giving Ariel Sharon the perfect war pretext to grab all of Palestinian territory, instead of “trying to score a decisive victory against Hamas ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.” (AP, March 22). The latter is what you call a fat chance.

Judging from the scale and the intended response of this assassination, the violence in the Occupied Territories will increase manifold, possibly dwarfing the Intifada and suicide bombings in terms of destruction, death, and global instability. Israel is now at war, and it is no longer one of attrition. Arab capitals will be worried about their frenzied, disgusted citizenry. The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and its proxy Lebanon are particularly vulnerable. Sharon can certainly help by firing a rocket or two from across the border. This raging fire has to be doused quickly or “terror” will reach the gates of many capitals, and US cities.

The hellhounds have been unleashed from all sides. The United States is now a definite target and the fear will be ratcheted up. Sept 11 didn’t involve Palestine, Saddam was truly hated by many Arabs, but now, a religious figure, seen as sanctioning retaliation only against his immediate aggressors has been killed. How do you think the Muslim world will react? His people were crushed, their slums in a permanent state of piled debris. Yassin sanctioned terror and suicide bombings yes, but he was no “Palestinian bin Laden” despite whatever cheap shot Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz takes.

Many Muslims loathed Bin Laden more for his Wahabbi obscurantism than Sept 11 (there is a lot of doubt about this ex-CIA agent, even in the West) and Saddam only becomes an Arab poster boy when he is attacked. Many are aware that their Islamic credentials don’t match up. The Palestinian problem however, is an evergreen issue, which rankles Muslims everywhere, all the time. And not just Muslims! The fallout from this murder is unimaginable. And how did the ‘War president” initially react? He didn’t!

The State Department said officials were in touch with Israeli and Palestinian authorities. Here is the bloodless response from someone hardly anyone heard off. “The United States urges all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint,” said spokesman Lou Fintor, significantly someone not very familiar to the outside world, hinting at the sort of priority or the not so-subtle prior acquiescence given to this deliberate escalation in violence. Where were the others? In their war complex, waiting for things to explode before promising revenge, and more war. Tony Blair can do his poodle routine.Again!

The only party, which, stands to benefit from this, is the Axis of Warmongers (US, UK and Israel). They knew the consequences of this killing long back. Some innocent people are going to die soon. In fact, it’s usually the innocents who die! Our warmongers don’t care. They are waiting, waiting…

March 22, 2004

Copyight@2004 Mathew Maavak

Check out the author's journal called the Panoptic World at www.maavak.net He can be reached at mathew@maavak.net

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