The
worst noise we denizens of Belfast hear at nights
is that from British military helicopters in our skies
and hoods careening around in stolen cars. While annoying
they are not for the most part terrifying. The car
thieves are the worst if you happen to be on a road
and they come hurtling near by. But the threat, fear
and din that they generate can be nothing like that
gripping the civilian population of Baghdad. According
to one report 2000 missiles assailed the city last
night. More Cruise missiles have now been fired than
were during the first Gulf War. The whoops and cheers
of televised American sailors firing Tomahawk missiles
which would an hour later rain down in the form of
devastation and death created a climate more suitable
for baseball and cheer girls. The whoop that launches
a whistle of death conveys a self-confidence that
there is more chance of getting killed in American
schools than in the American military.
But
what are the people who inhabit Baghdad going through?
There is hardly any whooping there, unless in the
form of a cough produced by acrid smoke inhalation?
Our worst experiences here fade into virtual nothingness
when compared to the fear in Baghdad. Who in that
city would not exchange places with us even when at
its worst here? We have seen countless reports from
Coalition command and control centres. Even when reporting
on the deaths of their subordinates military commanders
remain clipped, detached and measured. The war takes
on the appearance of being a sanitised operation both
orderly and technical. The viewer is reminded of Jean
Baudrillard's sensational Guardian article written
days before the last Gulf war in which he claimed
it was all an illusion and would not in fact happen.
His point was to challenge the manner in which our
knowledge is filtered and controlled to a point where
such a war could be artificially created and we would
be none the wiser.
Our
viewing up to now occasionally allows us to see the
inside of an Iraqi hospital. At first sight it seems
as if the media are doing their job. But the result
is to reinforce the image of a very orderly and efficient
war. Military men come on our screens as if they were
doctors to explain to us how they were performing
some precision surgery to excise a malignant tumour.
While the Iraqis are claiming that the country's capital
has sustained 250 injuries amongst the civilian population,
fatalities in that sphere seem to be minimal - a major
achievement for US technology coupled with a PR awareness
more than for its sense of humanity. The imagery from
Baghdad while annoying is not exactly going to feed
into our opposition in a way that would tip the balance
in favour of those opposed to the war. What we do
not see is the total disorder in Iraqi homes where
panic and terror must reign, where parents must lie
on top of their children all night in a vein act of
protection; where the stench of fear and terror is
anything but sanitised.
Iraqi
spokespeople are claiming victory prompting the comment
over here that maybe somebody from Sinn Fein is giving
them PR advice. And wags claiming to have witnessed
the mayor of Belfast buying eight wreathes after the
same number of British marines died in a helicopter
accident, have injected an element of light heartedness
into what by every other measure is an atmosphere
laden with tension and anger.
Meanwhile,
when the cat is away the mouse will play. Turkey,
long having waited its chance, has used the opportunity
to invade Northern Iraq. But there is no sign of Ankara
being bombed by the Coalition forces. Turkey's contempt
for human rights coupled with the regime of torture,
murder and disappearances it has inflicted on its
citizens has failed to spur the ire of those who shout
loudest about freedom for Iraq. And it is hardly the
case that the Turks have not being signalling their
intention for some time. At the end of August, Turkish
defence minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu indicated a
possible annexation of Kirkuk and Mosul, which he
described as 'historic Turkish lands.' In September
the deputy speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Murat
Sokmenoglu, called for an autonomous Turkmen region
comprising Kirkuk and Mosul. Total reserves in the
Kirkuk field are worth an estimated $10 billion. According
to Mohammed Noureddine - described by Red Pepper as
an independent political analyst - 'freeing up these
reserves would benefit Turkey, which has no oil of
its own.' The US he claims 'needs its NATO ally to
transport the oil safely to western markets."
In January 2001 it was reported that Washington and
Ankara had reportedly clinched a deal to establish
a Turkmen Republic in northern Iraq if the US decided
to force Saddam out.
This
absolute cynicism on the part of those bombing Baghdad
at the minute has led to circumstances whereby a web
site poll conducted by the European edition of TIME
magazine would receive an instructive response to
the following question - "which country poses
the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?"
With several hundred thousand votes cast, the responses
were: North Korea, 7 percent; Iraq, 8 percent; the
United States, 84 percent.
The
bombing of Baghdad had done little to swing those
figures.
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