(MENAFN- Jordan Times) South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu's call for former British prime minister Tony Blair and former US president George Bush to be hailed before the International Criminal Court has reminded the world of the tragedy the West wrought in Iraq at the very time US and its allies are - again - leading the charge for "regime change", this time in Syria.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending apartheid in his country, Tutu explains in an opinion article in The Observer that he pulled out of a leadership conference in Johannesburg because Blair was invited to address the gathering.
Blair, a multimillionaire, was offered a fee of £150,000; Tutu, a pensioner, was to be paid nothing. But Tutu's objection had nothing to do with payment. Tutu took the moral, ethical high ground.
Tutu argues that the 2003 Bush-Blair war on Iraq "has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history". He makes this contention precisely because this war was based "on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction".
Indeed, Tutu charges these Western "worthies" of fabricating the casus belli in order to justify war. Furthermore, he says: "They [Bush and Blair] have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand - with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us."
Tutu reveals that shortly before Bush and Blair ordered the attack on Iraq, he rang the White House and asked then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to postpone the war so that UN weapons inspectors would have the time to uncover Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
"Ms. Rice demurred, saying there was too much risk and the president could not postpone any longer," wrote Tutu.
He counts the cost of removing Iraq's "despotic and murderous leader" Saddam Hussein. Using the all-too-conservative figures of Iraq Body Count for deaths, Tutu makes the points that more than 110,000 Iraqis died due to the conflict and an average of 6.5 people a day die in suicide bomber and vehicle explosions.
Tutu complains that African leaders are referred to the International Criminal Court and Osama Ben Laden was assassinated, but nothing is done about the men who decided that Iraq should be invaded with the object of toppling its president even though he did not have weapons of mass destruction. Tutu suggests that both Bush and Blair knew this to be the case.
While Britain is a founding member and accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the US did not. This means that Blair could be hailed before this court while it would be difficult to indict Bush.
As I mentioned, Tutu relies on conservative figures that do not approximate the real cost of the war. Other fatality estimates range from 600,000 to 1.2 million. The number of people maimed is at least three times that of fatalities. Then there are around three million who fled the country, many of them doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and other professionals on whom Iraq should have been able to rely for reconstruction. The majority have no intention of returning home because there is neither security nor the Bush-Blair promised democracy in Iraq nearly a decade after the war.
An Iraqi friend who spent two months in Baghdad earlier this year said every time a Baghdadi leaves home for work, shopping or other errands, a safe return is not guaranteed. She stayed with friends in a walled family compound guarded by armed men. What about Iraqis who cannot afford such luxuries?
Shiite fundamentalist politician Nouri Al Maliki is hardly a democrat. He was one of four US Central Intelligence Agency candidates approved in 2006 for the top job because he was reputed to be "independent of Iran". He was also acceptable to rival Iraqi politicians because he was regarded as a weak, compromise candidate. They were seriously mistaken in their assessment.
He formed his first government in May 2006 and proceeded to get a grip on the levers of power. He soon became known as the Machiavelli of Mesopotamia.
Ironically, even though his Dawa Party came in second in the 2010 parliamentary election, Maliki managed to retain his post because he had Tehran's, rather than Washington's, support. He still relies on Tehran.
He not only holds the office of prime minister but also of minister of interior, national security and defence. Since he has taken charge of all the security portfolios, he has been able to impose his will on the country and taken Iraq into Iran's sphere of influence.
Indeed, this is the main cause of the drive by the US, UK and France to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, another ally of Tehran.
If Bush-Blair had left Iraq alone, it would have remained solidly anti-Iran and part of the front against Tehran, seen by the West as its chief political competitor in this strategic region.
The main challenge posed by Iran and Syria is to Israel's legitimacy. This has been undermined by its own actions as it constantly flouts international law, ethics and morality by appropriating and colonising Palestinian land, abusing Palestinians who resist its occupation, and denying Palestinians their national identity and right to self-determination in their homeland.
Before the Iraq war, US pro-Israel neoconservative hawks argued that peace between the Arabs and Israel could be reached by taking the "road to Baghdad". In other words, taking out Baghdad as an obstacle to normalisation with Israel, without Israel ceding one inch of land to the Palestinians. This did not work.
Having failed to put an end to Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation by bringing down Saddam, the West is now attempting to topple Assad who, at least verbally, backs the resistance and, in the process, weakens Iran.
The road to Damascus by those who refused to be enlightened will not be any more profitable than the road to Baghdad.
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