Does
Defeat Always Have To Be
So Humiliating?
By Ramzy Baroud
14 May, 2003
Whats worse than a
defeat is a humiliating defeat. Worse than both, a defeat thats
brushed off, as if it never happened.
There are basic facts that
some acknowledge and some wish to discount. The war on Iraq was fought
for world hegemony, Israel, natural resources and a misguided president
who genuinely believes that he was ordained by God to save the world.
But why do we always stop
there? Its also a fact that Iraq was defeated, and in a very humiliating
fashion. Youd think that both concepts refer to the same value:
defeat is defeat. I beg to differ. What makes Iraqs defeat a humiliating
one, is not only the way the US chose to fight this dirty war, collect
the spoils or reveal its wanted list of Iraqs top
alleged war criminals on decks of playing cards. The defeat was especially
difficult because it exposed our incompetence.
On one hand, the Arab world
repeated the same old broken record, angry masses that are quickly dispersed
by anti-riot police, and two-faced leaderships: against the war in fiery
speeches while doing their best to provide the needed logistical help
to aid the invaders.
And, since the war is over,
the only country that publicly hailed the war on Iraq, amongst the Arabs,
Kuwait, has emerged on top, as poor Arab nations are now seeking forgiveness
from the tiny Sheikdom, for opposing the war.
On an Arab satellite television
show today, a group of Egyptian psychiatrists and intellectuals met
to discuss the mass depression suffered by Arab people as
a result of the war on Iraq, on Palestine, poverty and every other stressful
factor. One advised the audience to avoid depressed people and
only seek the company of happy ones. That was his solution to
the endemic problem. A religious cleric decided that the solution was
to keep on praying, while a third disgruntled for a whole
hour to prove that its scientifically wrong to call the feeling
suffered by almost entire populations, depression. Did anyone
think that a mass depression might require a mass movement for change,
rather than seeking the company of happy people?
Meanwhile, Arab regimes are
scrambling to prevent a war on Syria, again, without any indications
that their approach to the new challenge was much different than past
ones. I doubt that a serious official stance shall be taken even if
US soldiers, a few months or years from now, began handing out decks
of play cards with pictures of wanted Syrian officials.
Another incompetence, which
we hardly address, is the failure of anti-war movements to stop the
war on Iraq, or to at least slow down its momentum. Sure, no one expected
our signs to change the world, but no one protests for the sake of protesting
only.
The anti-war movements worldwide
were indeed spirited and uplifting, but they only resolved half of an
equation. The missing half was using their numbers to stop a war, translating
the power of the masses into a real tool for tangible change.
Western democracies,
most notability in the US and the UK are clearly oblivious to the anti-war
efforts, no matter how massive. Public opinion can always be fabricated
to serve the political interests of the ones in control, and can always
be dismissed if it fails to serve the interest of the governments. Here
comes the missing link: so what do we do now? Anti war activists, intellectuals
and educators must seriously move one step forward, to escape preaching
and problem-digenesis, into offering solutions, mechanisms, guidelines,
and to-do lists, so that the passionate millions know what to do with
their passion, to effect change and to foster a more promising vision
for the future.
Meanwhile, in the Arab world,
facing the problem is the best way to move out of the decades of defeatism
and exploitation, by their own rulers first, and foreign exploiters
second. American civil rights activist Malcolm X used to say, you
better stop singing and start swinging. Many in the Arab media,
especially in the Media are failing to realize that, wasting airtime
for singing and dancing all day. Whats there to celebrate? Is
this the human version of an ostrich hiding its head in the sand? True,
tearing our cloths and weeping at the ruins are not the solutions either.
Arabs must prevail over their differences, realize the magnitude of
the challenges facing them, and move forward toward the problem, rather
than away from it.
A precious little Iraqi girl
was rushed to the Mansour hospital in Baghdad on a stretcher during
the first a few days of the war. She was rushed to the emergency room,
covered with blood, as her entire family was trapped under the rubble
of their bombed house. The little girl was more overwhelmed by the cameras
that greeted her at the hospitals entrance, than by here own wounds.
She reacted with her natural instincts, but while neither calling for
mommy or daddy. The little girl raised her hand
with untold pride and flashed the victory sign. The other arm seemed
missing.
Defeat doesnt always
have to be humiliating. Defeat can be a stage where we gather our strength
and fight back, for our world, shattered by cluster bombs, for our fellow
men and women, brutalized by exploiters who wear the guise of liberators,
and for the sake of that Iraqi girl, who tried to tell us not to be
weakened, because she was still standing.
*Baroud is the editor-in-chief
of the Palestine Chronicle