Appalling

As George Bush Jr stepped onboard the USS with the intent to formally declare the end of the second Persian Gulf War on May 1st 2003, the last thing on his mind was that the US might be drawn into a protracted conflict. As he and the rest of the world found out, the conflict was far from over and was raging like the blazing sun overhead that faithful day.

A dramatic showdown between assessment and reality ensued as embedded news reporters as well as independent news sources convinced us that the projected manpower intended for the securing of post Saddam Iraq fell appalling short of the required numbers. America woke up to a grim realisation that the average Joe on the street might have to help police a country rocked by civil unrest. A Baathist Nation that was once riven together by iron authoritarian rule, law is now welded throught the barrels of elicit rifles. Chaos bordering on anarchy might be a better description.

In the different stages of arguably the fastest war ever fought in the face of Mother Earth, Defense Secreatary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly held on stubbornly to his belief that minimum force was all the US required to bring Saddam's forces to her knees. Apparently it was not enough to deliver the final keel on her.

Reminiscent of the bloody Vietnam war, body bags began shipping back home albeit in a discreet manner. Analysts confidently assessed that America would be able to overcome and leapfrog the pitfalls faced by the Soviets when they tried to annexe Afghanistan back in How wrong they were...

Bradley armoured vehicles burn, Abrams MBTs smolders in ruins while soldiers bled in huge bobby traps in the guise of Fallujah and other estranged cities. Ironically, the casualties had been inflicted in manners, tactics as well as weapons not dissimiliar to those deployed against the Soviets. The Americans have fallen prey to the same modus operandi.

Allegations that have surfaced recently have accused the CIA of atrocities commited against detainees, termed conveniently by them as "unlawful combatants" in a bid to deprive them of all rights accorded to P.O.W.s It seems that the controvesy surrounding the Abu Graib case has not marred their will to force out more vital information all in the name of National Security.

In a clever manoeuvre to overcome the legal barriers, CIA has yet again made the headlines by making clandestine flights to various countries, among them England, Germany and Egypt.
I really take my hat off to that. By chartering such flights and transporting the prisoners to places where interrogation could be carried out without much legal fetter, work apparently did proceed faster as they circumvent legal "hassle". So much for the Pseudonym "American Express"."Thank you for flying with American Express.. We hope you'll never see daylight again!"

The day of this revelations marks a sad day for America. Certainly to me, America has shed her friendly image as i have alwys imagined through the American Dream to a facet that is cold-blooded. Never did the Americans imagine that the act of pulling down Saddam's Statue in Iraq would culminate in the crumbling of their values. All that they stood for. The very priciples that propelled and spur them to police the world, a role that they have ardently maintained since the end of the Second World War.

Terrorism is a scourge, a dreg to be removed. Nothing would have us tolerating the peacful co-existence of this dastardly deviant philosophy with our values and way of life. Yet as we detest it with every bone within us, need we remove it at all possible costs? As senator McCain puts it, "We took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies." Yet aren't we sinking to the same filthy depths and sharing the same boat with our enemies, the scourges we have sworn to destroy? Maybe the Bush could do with reading some Louis Cha's Swordfighting Novels... It's time to wake up, America. Don't let the legacy of the World's first Superpower crumble in shame.

"They went all out hoping to gain so much, only to lose much more in the form of blood, money and solid support."