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THE REAL LESSON OF MARCH 11TH: EVERYONE TO IRAQ

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BRUSSELS, Mar 1 2004 (IPS) - With all due respect to the Spanish electorate and those citizens mourning their dead, I believe that socialist leader Jose Luis Zapatero\’s position on withdrawing his country\’s troops from Iraq constitutes a victory for Al Qaeda, writes Emma Bonino, deputy in the European Parliament and leader of the Transnational Radical Party. In this article Bonino writes that March 11th provided irrefutable proof that Al Qaeda represents a real threat to us all. Certain leaders of the European left have stated — involuntarily, I am sure– that they share the position of Zapatero. Perhaps they haven\’t grasped how this announcement might be read and acted upon by the terrorists themselves. In sharp contrast to Zapatero\’s position, the correct response to March 11th should be, \’\’We will all go to Baghdad,\’\’ with the determination to assume a concrete role in the fight against terrorism. Only in this manner can the calls for UN and/or NATO involvement have real meaning and effect, as expressions of shared responsibility.

With all due respect for the Spanish electorate and to those citizens mourning their dead, I believe that socialist leader Jose Luis Zapatero’s position on withdrawing his country’s troops from Iraq constitutes a victory for Al Qaeda. This was precisely the interpretation of the terrorist group itself, as was clear from the declarations of ”We won!” that flooded the Internet and Arab television programmes, whether correct or not.

Many in Europe had continued to believe that terrorism was almost exclusively a matter between Arabs and the US and that the America was in a certain way ”asking for it”. March 11th provided irrefutable proof that Al Qaeda represents a real threat to us all, that it is an organisation operating on a global scale with a political agenda that far from being secret is publicly proclaimed, preached, and propagated.

Any who might still believe that these attacks are the work of ”a few Bedouins” or who feel safer locked in their homes, are either naive of simply don’t understand what is at stake.

It should suffice to consult a map of the slaughter of the last few years: New York, Bali, Istanbul, Riyad, Casablanca, Baghdad, Nassyria, Kerbala, and now Madrid –in addition to the earlier attacks in Nairobi, Dar Es Salam, etc– to grasp the dimension of the threat. A tally of the errors, real or presumed, committed in the last few months by various of the protagonists in this drama can hardly count as an excuse.

There is one problem and only one: what do we do now? Pack our bags? If this is the answer, it means yet again abandoning the Iraqis, letting them descend into a violent civil war, with unimaginable repercussions for the region and the world.

It would be opportune if we in the West understood that we are not the only players and arbiters in the world, and that every word we pronounce is translated, heard, interpreted, and repeated, hour after hour, by 220 million Arabs or Muslims.

Certain leaders of the European left have stated — involuntarily, I am sure– that they share the position of Zapatero. Perhaps they haven’t grasped how this announcement might be read and acted upon by the terrorists themselves. (It was not by chance that US democratic presidential candidate John Kerry immediately criticised this position.) But if we think for a moment, it isn’t hard to guess what the result might be: more attacks, against governments or organisations, whether international or regional organisations, civilian or military, Arab, American, or European, selected with great tactical or ”political” precision to spread terror and make us all hostages or prisoners.

This is why a campaign promise of the Spanish socialist presidential candidate, which unexpectedly was converted into a potential government policy, must not become an order to withdraw troops that could play into the hands of Al Qaeda.

We are not all Zapateros, nor should we be. Nor can we serve (or even seem to serve) Bin Laden and his political agenda.

As a radical militant I fought from the beginning for the UN to be given a role in the Iraqi conflict and to use every diplomatic means possible to avoid the resort to military force, introducing a proposal to force Saddam Hussein into exile which in other cases (Liberia for example) proved to be a practical and reasonable solution.

In a broader context, our plan for a World Organisation of Democracy involves a reform of the United Nations intended to restore the spirit and the letter of the UN Charter.

However, in the current circumstances we must recognize that after the divisions within the Security Council and the terrorist attacks that killed the highest UN functionaries in Baghdad, an appeal to the UN is no more than a rhetorical alibi unless accompanied by a explicit call to those countries, including in the Arab world, that still stand on the sidelines with regard to Iraq, to finally commit to assuming real and substantial responsibilities in that country.

In short: in sharp contrast to Zapatero’s position, the correct response to March 11th should be, ”We will all go to Baghdad,” with the determination to assume a concrete role in the fight against terrorism. Only in this manner can the calls for UN and/or NATO involvement have real meaning and effect, as expressions of shared responsibility.

Finally, it must be said that there is nothing noble about abandoning the Iraqis (as happened to the Chechens, the Bosnians, and many others) when they need us most and at a time so crucial to their future. It is hardly a gesture that the democratic world could feel proud of. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

 
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