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Al
Zarqawi was not in the wrong. You can question his
methods but not his right to fight. Plus, who can
blame the guy for going crazy fighting in the face
of such odds? He might as well have been throwing
stones at the occupying forces for all the good it
did.
The
insurgents are fighting with swords, small arms and
IEDs against armies with millions of soldiers bedecked
in body armour, with enormous fleets of tanks and
vehicles, armed to the teeth with missiles and nuclear
weapons, with unquestioned dominance of the sea and
air, able to pinpoint targets anywhere on Earth.
The
insurgents have no chance, yet they fight on. You
can forgive their zeal, it’s all they have.
The
situation reminds me of the Native American peoples
trying to resist the expansion of Europe-derived migrants
to America. They had no chance. Greed and overwhelming
force simply brushed them aside.
The Middle East is no different. Once again people
with inferior technology, with less sophisticated
political organisation and minimal military and financial
resources are being gradually shunted aside in their
own territory. Their resources are being exploited,
their land is grabbed, and they must tolerate the
presence of maybe half a million foreign soldiers
in their region.
The Arab, Islamic people of the Middle East have a
right to feel aggrieved, and their response to this
invasion has in fact been moderate, due to the political,
military and moral weakness of the indigenous Governments,
allied with the creeping nature of the West’s
expansion, and the plastic allure of the Western consumerist
lifestyle.
Let’s imagine the reverse. Imagine Western Europe,
nominally independent but bullied by Islamic Governments,
500,000 Arab Muslim soldiers patrolling the streets
to keep the natives in check, throwing 15 year old
boys into canals and watching them drown. Imagine
a huge naval and air base in the Shetland Islands
controlled by the military of an Islamic country.
Imagine a hostile air force that was able to demolish
any building in Western Europe that may house a ‘terrorist’,
that is, anyone who would violently oppose the occupation.
Imagine Islamic Governments draining the resources
of Western Europe, imagine Islamic Governments pontificating
and guiding Western nations on appropriate methods
of Government. Imagine Islamic Governments using the
allure of a foreign culture and financial inducements
to create a class of opportunistic collaborators to
reinforce its indirect rule.
Do you really think there would be no Western European
‘Al Zarqawis’? Or would it be more reasonable
to surmise that every village, town, and city district
would have a legion of ‘Al Zarqawis’ collecting
the heads of anyone with a hint of brown skin, or
who knew inshallah from moshallah. Every street in
Western Europe would have a head on a spike showing
exactly where the oppressive foreign army and Government
could go.
Al Zarqawi had every right to resist the occupation
and exploitation carried out by the West. History
will not judge him harshly. He will be another Geronimo.
The legacy of Bush and Blair on the other hand will
be that of the cynical railroad owners of the Old
West, imposing their idea of progress on a foreign
land. They will be despised and pitied, even by their
successors who will find inventive new ways to emulate
them.
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