What price liberation

TO PUT IT simply, the United States is responsible for the alarming state of chaos that now exists in Iraq, particularly in the capital city of Baghdad, and it is, therefore, the urgent duty of the invaders to restore order in that unfortunate country. In other words, they made the mess by their massive assault on Saddam Hussein's country and they must now clean it up if the terrible human tragedy they inflicted on Iraq is not to get worse.

There was no doubt in anybody's mind about the vast superiority of the American military force that stormed into Iraq and that the US invasion, supported by some British troops, would eventually succeed in toppling the Iraqi dictator's nasty regime. And, having regard to the hardships they suffered under Saddam's long and despotic rule, the scenes of rejoicing among crowds of Iraqis after the heart of their capital was "liberated" seemed only natural. The reign of the odious oppressor was no more and the jubilant crowds vented their feelings by toppling his statues, bashing them in and dragging the heads through the streets of Baghdad.

But their newly won freedom was far from being an unmixed blessing, as chaos and confusion took over the city whose water and electricity supply had been destroyed by US bombs. In the absence of law enforcement, looters are now rampaging through the city, stealing from shops, government buildings and palaces and even from the homes of private citizens.

After the horror of the bombs, a different kind of terror now grips Iraqi cities as the invading soldiers are not mandated to enforce civil order. While some were celebrating the fall of Saddam, the battle was still raging in another part of Bagdad and other Iraqis were plotting to wage a different kind of war against the occupying forces. As an ominous sign of things to come, a suicide bomber killed a number of US soldiers at a checkpoint in the capital. Over in the city of Najaf, now under US control, an armed mob burst into the country's holiest Shiite shrine and stabbed and shot dead senior cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei and an aide. Khoei, who was photographed with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair during his defection in London and was clearly backed by the United States, was a victim of the power struggle that has now erupted among the Shiites for control of the city. His assassination now seems certain to spark an internecine religious struggle that can only add to the country's instability.

The "liberation" of Iraq has also produced a potentially volatile situation in the north of the country where Kurdish fighters have taken over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as the first step to setting up a new Kurdish state. This move has provoked great anxiety in Turkey which has been fighting a Kurdish secession movement at home and fear that establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq would spark a rebellion among the large Kurdish population occupying most of Turkey's south east.

Accordingly, Turkish officials have sought US assurance that the Kurds will not have their way at Kirkuk and are moving to send their own military observers into the area. So the United States has achieved its objective of toppling Saddam Hussein, but at what price? Apart from the killing and maiming of hundreds of Iraqi citizens, the repercussions and consequences of this "victory", both in the region and across the world, seem truly frightening. A myriad of contending factions, both religious and ethnic, seem intent on taking advantage of the chaos in Iraq to make their play for influence, hegemony, power and the fulfilment of old ambitions. Also, the other side to rejoicing in Bagdad is a switch to guerrilla warfare by Iraqis opposed to an American occupation of their country. What price liberation!