http://www.counterpunch.org/nader12102004.html
An Open Letter to Bush
Stop Destroying the Mosques of Iraq
By RALPH NADER
December 9, 2004
President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush:
Reading the news accounts of the recurring destruction of many mosques in
Iraq, I recall the words of your own former counterterrorism chief, Richard
Clarke, who wrote earlier this year: "Far from addressing the popular appeal
of the enemy that attacked us, Bush handed that enemy precisely what it
wanted and needed, proof that America was at war with Islam, that we were the
new crusaders to come to occupy Muslim land". Clarke was referring to your
"unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country", namely Iraq.
Together with your reference to "crusade" during the drum beats of pending
war, and your invoking religious inspiration for your mission to overthrow
the dictator, it is not surprising that many Muslims in these countries hold
the impressions alluded to by Mr. Clarke.
The city of mosques -- Fallujah -- now lies mostly in ruins. So do many of
its mosques. You believe this was unavoidable because mosques are being used
as locations of arms caches or resistance to the advancing U.S. troops. It is
their fault if these insurgents bring down their mosques on themselves, not
that of the policies initiated by you as commander-in-chief, you would say.
This is too facile because you have often said the U.S. has to win the
"hearts and minds of the Iraqi people". This is your declared objective. If
Iraqi Muslims believe that the U.S. is attacking Islam, then to them it may
well be that, in the words of Annemarie Brown, "Islamist respect for
insurgency brings mosques into a supportive role". Another way of putting it,
fighting against what they perceive as an attack on their religion means they
will defend their religion even, or especially, from their holy places of
worship. How many of these mosques have been destroyed or rendered unusable
for prayers?
Your justification for responding to mosques as battlegrounds knows neither
any public policy boundaries, nor any program of if, when, and how you plan
to rebuild these beautiful structures. All over the Islamic world, great
numbers of Muslims see pictures and believe the United States is destroying
their most sacred buildings. Memory is long in the Middle East.
Recently retired intelligence and counterterrorist specialists in your
government view the Iraq invasion as enhancing recruitment of Al-Qaida or
Al-Qaida clones. What must they think of this latest escalation?
Within the framework of an unconstitutional war based on a platform of
fabrications and deceptions driving an invasion that is clearly illegal under
international law, why do you think that demolishing Iraqi cities and towns
which generate mosque-based resistance does anything to reach the "hearts and
minds" of Iraqi Muslims? Many of these people say they find their lives more
disrupted and insecure after the overthrow than under Saddam Hussein.
There are too many ambiguities in your instructions to military forces with
regard to their invasive or destructive moves against mosques. The recent
raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad for suspected insurgents pushes the
threshold and expands the arenas of unbridled discretion. Even an official
dispatch by the American Forces Information Services quoted a senior defense
official in Baghdad regarding the raid that was staged after Friday prayers
as saying it "could have been timed better," adding "We still have
after-action critiquing to do".
There is the additional provocation to many Muslims of U.S. forces or
directed forces using the seized Mosques as military occupation public
address systems replacing the historic daily call to prayer by muezzins. Do
you have any idea how this affects Muslims?
Envision for an empathetic instant, a gigantically more powerful Islamic
country invading a weak U.S. after toppling a dictator in Washington (who was
once supported by this Islamic superpower), going after the U.S. resistance
forces and blowing apart Baptist and Catholic churches, for example, that the
resistance used for arms caches or defense maneuvers against the invaders.
For just a hypothetical moment, put the shoe on the other foot, if that is
the only way to sensitize yourself to what is going on in Iraq
- - i.e. assaulting the religious sensibilities of Iraqis to turn even more
forcefully against the U.S. occupation.
Destruction of cities by the world's most powerful military machine is
relatively easy. How are you going to reconstruct these cities? Congress
appropriated some $18 billion months ago for this purpose and less than $2
billion has been used and not entirely for reconstruction.
Tell the American people what you are going to do about rebuilding these
mosques, about possibly pursuing military tactics and technologies that can
avoid the occasion for destroying these holy buildings.
Will you meet with and answer questions on this subject by representatives of
millions of Muslim-Americans in this country who have to be seeking some
assurances, some way out of this inflammatory expansion of the battlefield
that can only boomerang against U.S. security and safety interests in the
coming months and years?
Americans who have either been against this illegal war from the outset or
have turned against the war in the interim months (now around half of those
polled) deserve some more sobering thoughts than they have been receiving
from messianic militarists in political positions repeating unfounded and
long-rebutted pretexts for this war.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
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