Open Letter to Bush from an Arab
Girl
BY MIRA AL HUSSEIN
2
August 2006
President Bush,
It has
become extremely difficult to give
you the benefit of the doubt on
Lebanon, for you have left no doubt
in our minds. We are now certain —
like many of us have always been —
that your foreign policy is
completely biased towards Israel,
and you have made no effort to hide
this fact. Just out of curiosity:
are they also drafted in Tel Aviv?
It is
your choice, Mr Bush, to support
Israel, just like it is our — the
entire Arab and Muslim world's —
choice to support Lebanon. You
insist that Israel has the right to
defend itself. Defending oneself, I
believe, is a universal right, not
exclusive to Israel.
"The
first Qana massacre did not quench
the Israeli thirst for blood," it is
said, graphically describing yet
another Israeli crime against the
innocents of Lebanon. In Qana, 57
armless, defenseless civilians died
in an Israeli air strike, 37 of them
were children. Maybe these numbers
don't matter to you, Mr Bush; they
are mere numbers of the nameless
Lebanese dead. But they matter to
more than 200 million Arabs in the
Middle East.
I
quote our late president, Shaikh
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who in
1973 had said, "Arab oil is not
dearer than Arab blood." But it
seems that Iraqi oil is dearer than
American blood. I am somewhat
relieved to arrive at this
conclusion. At least there's no
racism against a certain group of
people. Everybody is a potential
sacrifice to secure US interests,
even if it means sacrificing a whole
nation.
No, Mr
Bush, we will not accept, nor will
we allow the sacrifice of more
Lebanese civilians. A ceasefire
should have been enforced two weeks
ago. Was there a need for 37
children to die before you decided
it was time for a ceasefire? How
many more, Mr Bush, should die
before you decide to stop sending
those bloody weapons to Israel?
Perhaps we can afford a sacrifice
that will rein in your generosity
towards Israel permanently.
We
have a dream for a new Middle East.
Not the "New Middle East" that
you've been brainstorming in your
Oval Office. It is the new Middle
East that Middle Easterners have
been dreaming of; a Middle East with
no violence, and no US-made weapons
to fuel that violence. It is a dream
only we, Middle Easterners, are
allowed to dream and realise it.
In
Arabic we have a saying that goes,
"They murder the murdered and walk
in his funeral." Allow me to
interpret this for you, Mr Bush:
Your precision-guided missiles
shipment has arrived in Tel Aviv.
These missiles will "precisely" fall
onto Lebanese villages; kill
hundreds; and displace thousands
more. (Evidently, we've just
witnessed the first "precise" target
in Qana.)
Yet
you have "compassionately" been able
to send aid to Beirut, at the same
time, with supplies for the
thousands of people directly and
fatally affected by your vocal,
(im)moral and military support for
Israel. Please include US flags in
your aid shipment to Beirut; they
must have burned all the US flags in
stock.
Mr.
Bush, Lebanon can and will be
rebuilt, but lost lives cannot be
restored. Your credibility and your
government's credibility have long
been lost — irretrievably lost like
those lost innocent lives. People
will not forget this though. They
will not turn the other cheek; they
will retaliate — just like you had
chosen to retaliate after 9/11.
Retaliation is a value you have
successfully promoted by putting it
into practice, always.
I was
born too late to see how the British
Empire had collapsed, but right on
time to see how the American Empire
is falling apart. Mr. Bush, You will
surely be remembered in history for
hastening that process.
With
no more respect to offer,
Mira
Al Hussein is a UAE national writer
based in Dubai who has had a brief
stint with the KT. She can be
reached at
Mira.AlHussein@zu.ac.