The International Writers Magazine:Comment -Iraq crisis to deepen

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I TOLD YOU SO • James Skinner on Iraq ‘Can’t help it. Got to start off the year with ‘Top of the Pops’ of the international news. What a bloody mess Iraq has turned out to be! What an incredible bottomless pit we’ve all landed in.

I mean us, the so called intelligent and civilized world. We, the West, the cultured, the technically advanced, the sophisticated prudes, the stock-market geniuses, the all singing and dancing experts of the XXI century. Crap! A bunch of illiterates, humping along on a camel can turn half the world upside down with one single shot from their stolen bazooka. Let's face it, everyone that supported the US during the initial invasion, including myself, has been hoaxed. The efforts to eradicate the evil regime of Saddam Hussein and establish democracy as well as peace in the Middle East have turned out to be one great sham. A complete and utter waste of money, effort and above all, human lives.
How the hell could we have got it so wrong?
I had predicted in a very early essay in Hackwriters, when the weeks following the end of the war saw massive lawlessness, looting and a collection of so called coalition forces looking on as if nothing was going on, that it was obvious that trouble was in store unless law and order were not brought about right away. I was right! This was the first cock-up. Then came the fiasco of the non-discovery of weapons of mass destruction.

Old professor Blix and his merry UN men turned round and just said, ‘I told you so.’ So did most of the rest of the world. In fact there has been a sort of massive ‘I TOLD YOU SO’ written right across the sky and the oceans by all and sundry. Whoever sold the idea to the allies that Saddam had all kinds of Dinky Toy boom-boom machines was certainly a super professional liar. So now what? What do we do next? How do we stop all the crap that is still flying around there with hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis being blown up every day?
Elections? Democratic elections in January?
You must be joking! To hold elections would be a disaster. But then what other solution is there? Whilst Uncle Sam’s henchmen are going ahead blindly with polling stations on the one hand and blowing up cities on the other, across the pond, Europe sits and contemplates its navel with a sniggering smile of sheer hypocrisy that says, you got it, ‘I TOLD YOU SO!’

Not one country in this continent has had the guts let alone the brilliant idea of how to stop the rot. The French are happy because the ‘nice kidnappers’ have just released a couple of held journalists without harming them. Big bloody deal! What about the ones that were not released and were decapitated, raped, tortured and brutally murdered? Britain tries, but with shrugged shoulders. Spain is revelling in it since they pulled out their troops. They’re more concerned about gay marriages. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda’s network of worms is busily planning one plot after another with us running around like the Pink Panther trying to guess where they’re going to strike next. Festering terrorist pimples are turning up on a daily basis all over the place occasionally committing the odd and brutal murder of innocent people. It’s the ‘Manchurian Candidate’ all over again! Yet they’re like cancer cells, literally. Once you cut out a few, thousands more appear in another part of the continental body. And like the dreaded disease, they attack anything within the living mechanism. A kidney could be a TV announcer’s life. A limb could equate to the blowing up of a couple of trains with a few hundred dead and wounded. How about a bit of brain damage equating to the toppling of a government. The main target, the heart, would be our democratic civilisation itself. Heaven forbid!
But we will always have Turkey!

Now here we do have a real dilemma. The EU is really in a fix about whether or not to allow the Turks to join the motherhood of Europe. Personally, I am not going to be around to see it. I just don’t care. Enough journalistic ink and blood have already been written for and against their entry. I’ll tell you one thing though. Remember Iran? This was another country of the same relative size as Turkey. Under the Shah, although a sort of dictatorship, Muslims, Christians, Jews and other minor religions all lived together in peace without friction. Women were allowed most of the human rights of a democratic world. Alcohol, ham and seafood, completely prohibited by Islam, were on sale in supermarkets. Restaurants catered for all tastes. Then along came the Ayatollah Khomeini! Bang! The Shah was thrown out, the breweries destroyed and the place turned over night into one of the largest strongholds of theorocratic Islam. Now they want to make a big bomb!

What’s stopping Turkey in fifty years time, say, when they are fully fledged members of Europe to suddenly have a turn in government similar to Iran. What would the democratic gurus of Europe do then? Think about it! I should know. I personally lived the Iran period and know what I’m talking about!

As for the USA? Well, what can I say? The people re-elected George Bush and Rumsfeld and they have to live with it. They still believe in the fairy godmother and apple pie. Personally, I still think it’s a great country. But it has dug a big hole for itself to bury its head in. ‘Wake up guys! You’re not the only ones in this Looney world!’

As for Europe, I blame the present generation for completely and utterly closing their eyes to reality. There is evil surrounding the whole continent in the name of radical Islam. Even Christmas has turned into a farce. David Beckham as a candle-like Joseph. I ask you? What hope is there if the Christian faith is on the way out, the chador and head scarf coming in, whilst young Europeans continue sniffing coke, getting blind drunk and banging away all night without producing anything?

Thoughts of an old fart moving down the path of senility? Maybe. But at least I still keep my eyes open and the grey matter that swills around inside my skull sometimes slows down, sparkles and comes up with the goods. Right?
Happy New Year to you all!
© James Skinner. January 2005.
jamesskinner@cemiga.es

The Ocean Police - Skinner on Greenpeace

James is a journalist and British Consul living in Spain and regular contributor to Hackwriters for four years now.

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