Al-Zarqawi's Murder: Where Bush Goofed

By

Isa Muhammad Inuwa

ismi2000ng@yahoo.com

AIR Attack led by American Forces which killed Al-Zarqawi in Iraq on Wednesday 7th June is to me, sending him straight away, to the most exalted paradise; He must have by now attained his exalted and covetous status in Heaven, to abide a befitting and blissful life forever. For an outstanding martyr and a gallant crusader like Al-Zarqawi, it is always either victory over oppressors or direct martyrdom into the eternal heavenly grace of paradisiacal state as promised for the martyrs, by the Almighty God; and death is always boldly engraved in their dictionary.

So it is no any big deal done by the traitors who might imbue themselves with false pride and illusionary valour of setting a record or achieving some dint through assassinating Al-Zarqawi. President Bush of America responded from his Rose Garden in White House that: “Zarqawi will never murder again” and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki retorted that: “Today Al-zarqawi was defeated”. But by so doing, the American forces have not made any feat worth of bragging of and chest-beating before the world. They have done similar things before since their invasion of Iraq in April 2003, such as the killing of two sons of Saddam Hussein, capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but all in vain, as they failed to impress the world. They were more seen as oppressors, terrorists, blood-suckers and merciless attackers than heroes or any powerful lots.

Such actions of prolonging offensives by George Bush of America in Iraq and continuously keeping the American forces without withdrawing them would ever continue to further fan embers of crisis and exacerbate revolts and guerilla interest groups and individuals. In the beginning of Iraqi wars there were no vivid presence of Al-Qaedah in Iraqi but as things worsened, they made their presence and so far the Al-Qaedah under Al-Zarqawi has killed numerous Americans and even those non Americans thought by Al-Zarqawi to have connections or serving as American allies and stooges in the Iraqi war. For instance, Al-zarqawi was credited for personally beheading two Americans; Nicolas Berge 26 and Eugene Amstrong (Jack) 52. Other vengeful offensives against America’s interest attributed to Al-Zarqawi were the bomb attacks in Morocco and Turkey and the killing of an American Diplomat in Jordan. Also the bombing of the U.N. Headquarters in Iraq in August 2003 was linked to Al-zarqawi group. As said earlier a lot of vengeance has been accomplished by Al-zarqawi in the form of diferrent blows at American forces and American allies in Iraq. The murder of Al-Zarqawi would not do any good or improve the situation because concepts such as “Al-Zarqawi,” “Al-Qaedah”, “Osama bn Laden”, “Terrorism” and what not, are far beyond single individuals that ordinarily talk, eat, walk and attack, so that if that person or persons are crushed that is the end of everything.

To underscore the notion that trouble is not yet over for American forces in Iraq, a day after Al-Zarqawi’s murder an internet message from Al-Qaedah group in Iraq appeared and read: “What has befallen us today will not affect our determination”. Also while proudly announcing the great feat of martyrdom attained by Al-Zarqawi, his deputy and spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abu-Abdul Rahman Al-Iraqi stated: “We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the Mujahid Sheikh Abu-Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi”. Al-Zarqawi has, literally, been a thorn in the flesh of U.S.

president, the American forces in Iraq and their cohorts because reports indicated that the American forces had embarked on “a long search”, and finally to them, it was “a long sought victory”. It was also revealed that to the U.S. – led military forces and their Iraqi allies, Zarqawi’s death was “the most significant public triumph since the capture of former president Saddam Hussein in late 2003”. Mr. Bush described U.S. forces’ long search as: “Years of near misses and false leads”. The U.S. Commanders and officials also got so worried about Al-Zarqawi and Ambassador Zalmy Khalilzad termed him “the godfather of terrorism in Iraq”.

At very close observations, the United States forces and their Israeli counterparts are by far more atrocious and terrorist than such groups and personalities as Al-Qaedah, Hamas, Osama bn Laden and Al-Zarqawi. This is because while America and Israel use weapons of mass destruction as well as in-human torture camps daily, to unleash ferocious and heatless murders involving majority innocent civilians of women and children, on the other hand, the Al-Qaedah and related groups only resort to simple rudimentary means possible for them to avenge or at least frustrate the former. Even the suicide guerilla being practiced mainly by Palestinian fighters, that only serves as the last resort and inevitable alternative for the MUjahidun in order to frighten their enemies and thereby bring them to negotiation table, for peace initiatives and possible grant of their rightful needs. As an instance of the dual tyranny of America and Israel that continue to hold the world community and nations at ransom, just a day after the murder of Al-Zarqawi by America, on Thursday June 8, Israeli forces also killed a senior Palsetinian security official in the Hamas government, Jamal Abu Samhadana in an equally air offensive. Similarly, some two days later on June 10, came a report quoting American Military sources confirming the incident of suicide committed by some three Prisoners of war held by American forces at the controversially out-lawed Guantanamo Bay. The report pointed that two of the dead victims were indigenes of Saudi Arabia, while the third was a Yemenite.

Admiral Harry Harris, the American Commander in charge of Guantanamo torture camp was quoted for denying that the three prisoners hanged themselves to death on account of frustration or lack of care, but linked the cause to reasons of war propaganda. The Human Rights Watch in New York stated that it was no wonder for people in such long detention without any legal protection to go to the extent of committing suicide.

All these developments are pointer to the hypocrisy and the doubtful integrity of the United Nations, whose genuine resolve to arbitrate between rival or contending nations and interests, is highly questionable. Since war criminals of the Bosnian war were apparently brought before the world court in Hague for their crimes, there is no point keeping away similar criminals such as the impudent American forces who were caught red-handed and even photographed humiliating and meting out all in-human treatments to the so-called prisoners of war in Iraq, in the Abu-Ghuriab torture yard and their counterparts, the torture top-dogs at the Guantanamo Bay in charge of detainees from the Afghanistan war since 2002.

One most interesting thing is the heavy propaganda being amounted by America in its war campaigns. It could be remembered how in 2003, George Bush beat his chest in shameful arrogance that his forces would run over Iraq and turn Baghdad into ruins and debris within few hours. Yet we were all living witness how local Arab fighters with equally local and crude weapons dragged the highly sophisticated American forces in years of hard and hazardous offensives, with thousands of American military killed in the desert Armageddon. George Bush himself would have to sneak quietly whenever he pays visit to his forces in Iraq. Equally ironical is the fact that rather than use their so-called powerful radar or intelligence equipments to discover hide-outs and locations of their culprits such as Saddam Hussein and Al-Zarqawi, they were only lucky to have traced them by relying on local and verbal information from village Arabs. Even that did not work fine until after pledging lump-some monetary gifts for such informants. This happened during the capture of Saddam and it is yet uncertain whether Bush has honoured his last promise for the capture of Saddam, for some millions of dollars.

It could be remembered also that a bounty of 25 million dollars has been announced by America for whoever gives information leading to capture or murder of Al-Zarqawi. The same amount was pledged for information on the overall leader of Al-Qaedah, Osama bn Laden. When an Arabian Television channel asked Iraqi PM Nouri Al-Maliki a day after bombing Al-Zarqawi, he answered: “We will meet our promise”. However, a close military source later said “it was too soon to tell if it would be paid”. The incident that led to locating Al-Zarqawi was linked to the purported arrest of an Iraqi clearing agent on border, by Jordandian intelligence. The man who identified himself as Al-Kerbouly had confided crucial information about his relationship with Al-Zarqawi and that of Al-Zarqawi’s deputy Abu Abdul Rahman Al-Iraqi. Incidentally, the U.S. special personnel known as Task Force 77, who were appointed for the long-search to locate Al-Zarqawi, got the privilege of that information and kept surveillance on Abu Abdul Rahman, till he had finally visited Al-Zarqawi in his abode at the night of the air strike. However the confusing thing here is that while according to U.S. Military Chief Major General Caldwell, Al-Iraqi was also killed in the attack, reports later indicated and even quoted the Iraqi Al-Qaedah second man alive. Another contradicting report about the incident was that while the Washington Post quoted witnesses at the scene and police sources that Al-Zarqawi was only wounded in the attack and later died in the custody of U.S. forces; Mr. Caldwell said he died instantly. Other versions indicated that Al-Zarqawi was bombed along with four other persons and that the operation was done by an F-16 war plane which dropped two 500-pound bombs at short intervals.

If I would make reference or rather buttress observations made by some political analysts, Mr. Bush has totally missed the road in his declared fight against terrorism. He has particularly goofed in the case of Iraq operations, which yielded nothing for him more than dishonour and grudges of millions of American citizens, who felt their siblings were exposed to perpetual danger in the name of military operations, yet, cut off from them, away in the far desert of Iraq, gradually dying in numbers. At several intervals the Americans went to the street demonstrating against this option and their continuous calls for withdrawal fell on deaf ears. It seems that the duty shifts to the global community to come together and regulate the excesses of the U.S. and Israeli authorities in their blood-thirst atrocities on humanity. As the world has just attained its pristine position of civilization and technological advancement, wars, killings and bloodshed must be seen and treated with disgust and pushed aside as barbaric, outdated, odd and uncivilized. In view of clear ineptitude of the United Nations in its role, a more liberal and more efficient global forum would definitely and inevitably emerge, even spontaneously, to take over and carry out this charitable and vital duty of maintaining peace in our new, civilized world.

    ISA MUHAMMAD INUWA Is a freelance Journalist in Kano