Before the second Gulf War begins (II)

Excerpts from an interview on US media Meet the Press granted by the US President, Donald Trump, to Chuck Todd on the position of the US on the  Middle East have been highly instructive. When he was asked by Chuck why the US government was not prepared to take the Saudi authorities to account for […]

Excerpts from an interview on US media Meet the Press granted by the US President, Donald Trump, to Chuck Todd on the position of the US on the  Middle East have been highly instructive. When he was asked by Chuck why the US government was not prepared to take the Saudi authorities to account for the heinous murder and the dismemberment of the body of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, President Trump shot back saying: “Saudi Arabia is a big buyer of American products. That means something to me. It’s a big producer of jobs.… Take their money. Take their money, Chuck. ”

‘Take their money’ so says the most powerful man in the world today. Take the money of the weak and the insolvent whose world is tethering and in disarray. Go to war with ant country in the South particularly those who are not prepared to give you their money for without their money they are worthless. Let them commit the most heinous atrocities and violence, either against their own people or their fellow Muslims, insofar as their money could be taken, close your eyes to that.

In other words, if indeed the world today can be likened to the jungle where one principle, not two, predominates- eat or be eaten, it then becomes jejune and puerile to blame the West for the ills assailing Muslim lands all over the world. The US cannot by itself and alone go to war successfully against another country without active collusion and cooperation from other countries. It cannot successfully go to war against Iran without a platform being created for it by countries in the gulf. Is it not an irony that most countries in the gulf today are Western countries outside the West. The attachment and allegiance some Arab countries have for Islam today are as deep as the attachment and allegiance some countries in the West have for Christianity!

So who stands to benefit from another war in the Gulf? Response to this question lies in another question- who benefitted from the Gulf War between 1990 and 1991? The US government, not ordinary Americans. Others who would benefit from the Second Gulf War include American multilateral corporations who would sell arms and ammunition to countries in the Gulf to bolster their ‘security’. Some countries in the Gulf particularly those that consider and see the Republic of Iran as its arch-foe and adversary may consider another war in the region a boon. Not only that, the international media for whom tragedies in the Muslim world have always proved a veritable source of ‘breaking news’ would be happy to congregate, like vultures around carcasses, in the Middle East and begin to feed the world with news of tragedies and destructions. The US military would emerge the direct beneficiary from the war, as it happened after the First Gulf War, with the emergence of new class of War Veterans for whom privileges and respects would be accorded all around the US.

Meanwhile, war cartographers would recall that when the US went to war against Iraq in the early 1990s, it was American allies who paid for the war. In other words, America would not go to war from which it would become bankrupt; the US usually goes to war in search of prosperity. It always does. America goes to war far away from the homeland. It never wants war against the enemy on it own land.

Now who would become victims of the war against Iran if eventually it begins? Muslims. It is Muslims who are going to be major victims of the carnage. It was Muslims who bore the brunt of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s. Call them Iranians, they are Muslims; refer to them as Shiites, they are Muslims; list them as Ahl al-Sunnah, they are your brethren in faith. They would definitely be the first victims of the war.

But there would be other victims of the war all around the Gulf and all around the world. For example, countries in the Gulf would not be safe anymore; countries that are next-door neighbours to Iran would have their table full of security concerns. Saudi Arabia would be at war by proxy even as it is at war presently with non-State agents from across its border in Yemen. Imagine how frightening that scenario would be- that the Saudis would have to be on the defensive against missiles from two directions-from the Houthis in Yemen and from the Iranians from the Persian Gulf.

While contemplating these realities, I recall the following tradition of the Prophet. According to Thawban (r.a), the Prophet is reported to have said as follows: It is likely that nations shall unite (and call) each other to set upon you, just as beasts devour its prey.” It was said: “Will it be because of our lack of numbers that day?” The Prophet said: “No! Rather, you will be many on that day, but you will be like scum foam (that floats) on the river…”