Might is NOT always right! [Archives:2003/674/Viewpoint]

Editor
The USA is today in such a vulnerable situation. American soldiers are being killed or injured every day in Iraq. The US administration is facing international and local criticism because of the consequences of the Iraq war. Attacks in Afghanistan are also bringing increasing in number. Chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay reported to Congress on Thursday that his team has so far found no weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq. How will Bush be able to convince his people that the decisions on Iraq were right?
Iraqi demonstrations against US occupation are getting fiercer and more significant every day. The death toll among Iraqis killed by US gunfire is adding insult to injury. How will the US cope with all of this pressure?
The superior military capabilities and technologically advanced communication and intelligence system of the USA were not enough to save the lives of so many US soldiers dying by the day in Iraq.
What has gone wrong?
Didn't the US win the war?
Recalling my own editorial just after the war, I did say that the USA may have won a battle, but it has not won the hearts of the Iraqis. Only then, can we consider that the war achieved its objective.
Today, and after six months since the war, Iraqis are still suffering from lack of basic services, unpaid salaries, miserable security conditions, chaos, and most important of all, lost pride as US soldiers wander around freely, while Iraqis cannot move without prior notice in many areas.
The might of the USA was helpful in ending the war militarily, yet on the other side, there are human feelings among Iraqis that were not taken into consideration. US soldiers can be seen humiliating Iraqi citizens when arresting them. I even saw an American soldier stepping on one of the Iraqis, who were supposedly caught red-handed in a resistance attack.
Doesn't this remind us of another occupation somewhere else in the region?
All I can say right now is that the USA may have applied the wrong means in dealing with post-war Iraq. Clearly, more emphasis should have been put on human values, respect to others, and basic civil services in the post-war period. After discussing this with a number of American friends, they also agree that no proper and wise management of the situation was applied after the war. A good example is the distrust between the Iraqi citizen and the US soldier that can be concluded quite easily in Iraq.
Time is running out for the US administration. It is not too late, but if things continue to deteriorate and go from bad to worse as happening today, then the future is at stake, and the superpower of the world may realize that might is not always everything, and sometimes too much might could result in arrogance, which can result in catastrophe.
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