Bullies pick fights because they love attention, period. The pending global issue however, isn’t a re-run of Superman 3. Saddam Hussein does not look like Lex Luther out to destroy the world and Bush is hardly Superman!!! Combating evil and baddies and saving the universe is totally cool for a movie but not convincing enough to launch attacks in the real world with real people.

How on earth did we manage to get so far into this inane adventure? What triggered within President Bush after the first half-year of his administration to suddenly take up the problem concerning Iraq's breach of UN resolutions with regard to weapons inspectors. Was it Daddy dear? Spineless Muslim nations faking brotherhood or was it the catastrophe of 9/11, 2001?

Whatever has happened since, lets let that be. But how does the military campaign into Afghanistan lead the USA into Iraq besides the proclamation that its war against terrorism? What was tactful however, were the timings of the attacks; not too late so that the issue cooled off and not so soon that it would appear rash and thoughtless. The target was to root out and exterminate Osama Bin Laden, purge the world from the threat of Al Queda, liberate Afghanis from the fanatic religious extremists and terrorists and then rebuild a better Afghanistan. Did that happen?

Americans are still rummage around the ruins for further leads. They tested their bombs in Afghanistan and now there are no long-term plans for ‘nation building’ as they promised. (Thank you so much for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches America!) Pentagon fears Al Queda recuperating outside Afghanistan and emerging more deadly then ever. Osama Bin Laden has become America’s Ginger Bread Man chanting: “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man”. The Bush administration is sly for sure but this gingerbread man is smarter because they are still running after him if they haven’t already given up. The Pentagon and the White House wanted Osama Bin Laden ‘dead or alive’! So there is no ultimate triumph of catching the most wanted man on planet earth. The imagined glory is so very missing, (tsk tsk tsk) that promised symbol of victory that would have put Bush on the pedestal is not there, popularity polls are falling…its time to focus public attention on another target; Saddam Hussein!

They say we want world peace, a world free from terrorism and nuclear threat. Well President Bush, why doesn’t America set a global example by destroying its own nukes first? The blunt truth is that America wants to be the sole owner of nuclear supremacy. On top of it all they want the rest of the nations to back them up in their attacks. Mr. Bush may pick fights and his pet poodle may follow him everywhere but the world will not cater to his every whim!

And why attack Iraq? Quite a few reasons actually, but none that the White House can rationalize with integrity and say publicly beyond: “for the reason that we have said so and that ought to be enough for everybody”. Iraq is a nation that America well remembers for reasons we will leave out right now with the mention that Iraq has a lot of raison d'êtres to settle some scores. Then breaches of UN resolutions provide a ready made cake-mix, and with a US v Iraq war, one doesn’t need to speculation which side will take the most causalities and then of course carrying on Bush’s Sr. legacy…(how can we possibly forget that). But the most popular reason being screamed from world forums is that that the war is an excuse for controlling the Gulf oil. (Bingo!!! You just won a trip to Baghdad!)

The United States has become increasingly reliant on imported oil for its modern economy. Now when its economic slaves are rising in dissent and posing as a threat, America has again revived its agenda to control and safeguard Western interest in oil and gas of that region. Why else would they have the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, air force placing in Saudi Arabia, (specially Qatar) along with military and naval installations in Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia?

There are other nations that have weapons of mass destruction too; ironically America itself; United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel. North Korea already has a nuclear weapons stockpile where as Iran is, if anything, further ahead in amassing then Iraq. So where is the evidence that foretells that Iraq will not just flex muscles (like US) but prove to be an atrocious threat? A threat scary enough to sent its President and leader into hiding in bunkers once again. And how hazardous is this threat that it requires such a vile approach by America?

And evidence? What evidence? Did we get satisfactory evidence for the prior bombing? Colin Powell’s proof of the collection of chemical and biological weapons agents after the end of the Gulf War has come almost seven months too late. In these months Bush has publicly defended his claim without any staunch evidence or specifications whatsoever. Where was this evidence all this time and if wasn’t confirmed then, why were dubious claims made?

What blatant threat has Saddam Hussein made against America or any other nation? This is not self-defense! Its sheer assumption and the ‘champions’ of democracy shouldn’t topple democratically elected governments because you feel threatened without being actually threatened. Majority of the nations perceive America itself to be a threat, especially after Afghanistan. What solution does America offer for that?

Terrorists have plagues countries like Palestine, Indonesia, Israel, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan etc and America forever advises restraint but when the US security tastes a terrorist assault that is not to their liking, they launch an attack meaning to spank somebody (anybody for that matter!) and teach the world a lesson. This two-facedness and haughtiness has crippled American cachet shoddily.

For those of you, who back an attack on Iraq… don’t just blindly mimic your President because you voted for him, question his judgment and your conscience. Why does the rest of the world hate Bush and his America? The rest of the world isn’t plain daft as you’d like to believe. As the saying goes, ‘help yourself first’. US should solve it’s own internal problems before rushing amid situations like a bossy older brother. The people American citizens have elected are taking liberties beyond their control, so check the truth in your democracy first before ridding the world from dictators. President Bush in his address to the nation on 20 September 2002 said, “Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime”. Well try tackling your mafia first and then look around the globe.

America has no right to keep meddling in internal affairs of other nations. No right to drag their leaders into limelight and thrust deadlines and further sanctions into their faces. No right to threaten a leader and give false promises to a nation’s people. No right to lead the global forums into bedlam for one reason of the other. This is a free world and a liberated world. If it weren’t for sanctions, grueling loans and monetary aid, most nations would turn their back upon leaders like the present President Bush (???).

We mourn the losses of 9/11 too, but ask yourself as to why it happened. It wasn’t blocked communication, as some might prefer to call it. Rather they were the choked voices and suppressed wills of the victims of selfish American foreign policy making, which rose in retaliation; a fire fueled by hatred and despair. The attack was not against American nationals! Again, the attack was not against American nationals; it was against structural and direct violence that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon symbolize. Uprooting terrorism is not the global agenda, but rather finding the root cause of it, and that lies with America and its Bush dynasty and their foreign policies. Who’s in command of the White House anyways?

“We want peace and not war”! “No blood for oil”! America’s current anti-war movement demands that the government sets its priorities right. On February 15th this year, the protest rally signs were of an intriguing variety from “No War” to “How Many Lives Per Gallon?” “Bomb Texas, Texas has Oil” to “Somewhere in Texas is a Village Looking for Its Idiot” (hear hear) and “Bush Can’t Go Back to Texas Because They Execute the Mentally Challenged!” But the message was of peace and a plea for the governments of the world to listen to their citizens and be reasonable. Lets see where this all goes…

So while demonstrations are gathering heat all around the globe, resolutions are being constructed and reconstructed with absolute concentration and contest. History is in the making once again as France is politely flexing some muscle, Britain is concentrating on chewing on its bottom lip, America is uncomfortably squirming in its seat and the rest of the world is watching! Feeling sorry anybody?