Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

It’s been eight months since the Americans marched into the deserts of Iraq as part of the triumph of the West in the now classic clash of civilizations. Since that time, the Iraqis have staged a resistance that has cost the lives of hundreds of Americans, sent the United Nations into retreat, and caused several nations to refrain from even attempting to intervene in the region. Americans started the Iraq war on a series of false pretenses: A) The war on terrorism, B) Iraq’s role in supporting the Jihadis of 911 and C), Iraq’s imminent threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.

The capture of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has sent the American media and politicians into paroxysms of joy. It’s kind of like the second invasion of the country. The Hussein capture is of a peace that is a US attempt at nation building. One of America’s chief architects of the Cold War found this aspect of Bush’s new preemptive strike doctrine, wrong headed. George Kennan called it, “A great mistake in principle”. In a little noticed item in the congressional newspaper The Hill, Kennan offered the opinion that a study of history teaches us, “That you might start a war with certain things in mind,” but inevitably nations turn to fighting for things “never thought of before.” Of the second Iraqi war, Kennan noted, “It bears no relation to the first war against terrorism.” Further, Kennan was harshly critical of the Congress upon whom rests the awesome responsibility to declare war. But he was particularly dismissive of Congressional Democrats, whom he called shameful, shabby, and timid in the face of Bush’s plans for war.

Kennan, 98 years old at the time of the September 2002 interview, was the formulator of the U.S. containment policies of the past 50 years, and was U.S. Ambassador to Moscow during the Soviet regime around 1952, and Ambassador to Yugoslavia in the early 60s. That this unabashed nationalist conservative thinker is so critical of the present U.S. course is telling. Clearly, Kennan sees imminent danger from the administration’s present course of action, even with the capture of Hussein, does anyone seriously believe that the armed resistance to the U.S. occupation will cease? Saddam Hussein, president of the Iraqi state for over a generation, was not the engine, nor even the spark, of the Iraqi resistance.

That resistance is fueled by the presence and the behavior of Americans in a foreign land. The resistance is fueled by Iraqi nationalism, not love for the Hussein family. We shall see if this event dulls the fires of resistance. Surely time will tell. Sold is the next step in the war against terrorism. The Iraqi venture is not really that, nor even nation building. It is empire building, with Iraq chosen to serve as demonstration model. The subjugation of Iraq is meant to teach other regimes in the region the meaning of American imperial power, those are the real stakes in Iraq. From death row this is Mumia Abu-Jamal

These commentaries are produced by Noel Hanrahan for Prison Radio.