Tears for Fears

For the past few days I have been reading Wikileaks' Iraq War Logs.

So I asked myself what's new? I recalled the revelations about U.S. use of torture in Iraq, especially the atrocities in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Yes, there were splutters and a degree of outrage but generally people - especially the Americans - were quite sang-froid about these disclosures. They were more up-in-arms about the construction of the Mosque near the site of 9/11.

After all, their CIA had been conducting this 'harsh interrogation' in Vietnam and Latin America. The CIA were also not averse to utilising Nazi torture techniques. According to Alexander Cockburn (2007), they have, since the 1950s been "financing research into sensory deprivation and isolation techniques".

The bleeding hearts in the West reacted with the usual debate about the dangers of using torture to extract information without really touching on the moral principles involved except of course if they are talking about the 'Islamists'. They'll quote selective chapter and verse from the Quran to express their disgust.

The cynic that I am cannot help but think that the Iraq War Logs, especially promoted by the Guardian (the world's leading liberal voice ?!??) is just another repeat - and will not change the fate of Iraq or the Middle East by one iota!!

All the hand-wringing, just like all the perfumes of Arabia for Lady Macbeth, will not wash the blood from their hands. I see it as merely a form of catharsis for the West so as to carry on with business as usual in Afghanistan and perhaps Iran? Yemen? Sudan?

So we can expect to see the Liberals and liberals putting on their hair-shirts, wallowing in their angst and spouting platitudes of "your pain is our pain".

But for the Iraqis and (some of) the Muslim countries, this response of the West is very irritating and irrelevant.

What about a Nuremberg Trial of the perpetrators and the liars - or something close to that? If that is unpalatable, how about a recantation by Bush, Blair, Mr and Mrs Clinton, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Sarkozy, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Gordon Brown, Jack Straw, David Cameron, Berlusconi, John Howard, the Israeli leadership, the Arab running dogs of the West and all the supporters of the War from the great and good in Hollywood and the literati?

Perhaps an apology might appear - like Blair's for the Slave Trade - but just over one hundred years too late!

How about financial compensation? That is quite feasible because an Iraqi's life, like the Afghani and Palestinian is quite cheap. After the deaths of civilians at Kundun in Afghanistan the Germans were talking about Euro4,000 for each victim. That's about Malaysian Ringgit17,000. That sum can only get you a bread-and-butter second hand car in Kuala Lumpur.

The Germans had another offer - to purchase cattle for the families of the victims!!

War Log or War Dogs - the evil deed is done. The scorched earth policy and divide and rule is now in full swing. The house has been blown down.