When will the facts undermine the Bush administration's self-proclaimed certainties, asks Mehran Kamrava* As the United States gears up for its forthcoming presidential elections it has chipped away at its own global moral power for generations to come. And it is doing so in blissful ignorance. Historically, Americans have neither known, nor really cared, about how the rest of the world sees them. And, in keeping with tradition, there is no compelling reason for them now to take note of their image around the world. The world at large, and the Arabs in particular, see a very different image of America. Whether or not this is an accurate image or one that Americans should be concerned about is a separate issue. What the world sees is a superpower on the rampage in Iraq, its calculations of a decisive and profitable military victory gone catastrophically wrong, but too proud to admit mistakes or to alter course at this point. In the process, the wounded giant destroys innocent Iraqi lives, hammers with its unparalleled might a country already battered by the worst atrocities imaginable, and turns what was once a cradle of human civilisation into a military encampment. What the world sees is an America oblivious to the slogans it raises -- the war on terror, a ban on weapons of mass destruction, the export of democracy. It sees a superpower wreaking destruction, terrorising the innocent with an ill- conceived and executed war, spreading wanton misery and using the most sophisticated and deadly technology to smoke out insurgents. And all of this is done to secure America's military hold over a country with vast oil riches. That the giant's new playground of death is Arab and Muslim lends its grand plans missionary zeal. This is the Crusades all over again, but this time minus chivalry or any sense of honour. This is land-grab, with "regime change" as the code word for petroleum ownership. Right or wrong, this is how much of the Arab and Islamic world sees America. Americans in general, and the Bush administration in particular, care little for their image abroad, and especially in the Arab world. But global leadership cannot and will not be made possible through brute force. It may be a cliché to say that what is transpiring in Iraq is eroding America's moral leadership of the world. But it is. The United States cannot afford to be seen as a global bully that will sink to any depths to preserve its short-term material interests, and then only in places where the potential for profitable returns are high. Amid the vicious cycle of violence that has come to characterise today's version of the Vietnam War, and in the charged atmosphere of an election year, it is worth taking a moment to engage in some soul searching. America needs to ask itself some tough questions. Is this what spreading the ideals of the United States to the rest of the world is supposed to mean? How much longer can the United States continue to justify its unilateralism on moral grounds while Iraqi children and innocent civilians suffer traumatic injuries or lose their lives every day? At what cost to Iraqi lives should President Bush's vision of the world, and America's role in it, be put into practice? Where and how will all this stop? What does the future hold for the world, for America's role in it, for Iraq and for whoever might be next on President Bush's hit list? The last time America found itself in a similar predicament, during the Vietnam War, these and other questions were asked only after too many lives had been lost or forever shattered. Even then those who did the asking were often accused of treason and cavorting with the enemy. Militarily and politically, history appears to be repeating itself, with the Iraq war steadily turning into a modern-day Vietnam. One only hopes that self-reflection and larger questions, such as the meaning of the war for America and the world at large, will not be asked only when it is too late. * The writer is chair of the Political Science Department at California State University, Northridge. His latest book, The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, will be published by the University of California Press in early 2005.
