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Desperate measures

THE insurgents in Iraq appear to have become further emboldened thanks to the blind support from their sympathisers in Arab and Muslim media. After their long campaign against the US-led coalition forces and innocent Iraqi people, the insurgents are now resorting to cowardly attacks on foreign diplomats.

Bahrain’s ambassador Hassan Malallah al-Ansari was attacked yesterday, perhaps fatally, on his way to the office. This has come soon after the kidnapping of Egypt’s new ambassador to Iraq Ihab al Sharif, who had only recently arrived in Baghdad with noble ambitions to help the Iraqi people and their new government.

This only goes to demonstrate that those resorting to these desperate and despicable acts of terror are no friends of Iraq. You can’t even call them insurgents because insurgency targets the powers that be, not helpless, innocent bystanders. They are enemies of Iraq and its people.

All these forces want is total destruction and chaos in Iraq. They want to take the great country that was the cradle of world civilization back into time. They would like to see Iraq and its people condemned to live eternally in dark ages.

Today they are targeting anyone who is seen as helping the cause of bringing peace and stability back to Iraq. Hence the attacks on the diplomatic staff of neighbouring Arab countries.

If the attempts to kidnap these innocent people fail, they are just shot dead. Apparently these desperate groups can go to any extreme to achieve their objectives.

That is why Iraq’s neighbours and world at large has to say the truth as it is. They have to stand firm in support of the great job America is doing to bring peace, order and democracy to Iraq and the Middle East.

The world should not ignore the positive difference the exit of Saddam Hussein has made to Iraq. We have an elected government in Baghdad which is doing its best to give a better tomorrow to its people. The country will soon have a new constitution. Tyranny is gone. There’s greater respect for human rights and people have real freedom to say and do what they want. The reconstruction effort is focusing on building world-class infrastructure. New hospitals and schools are being built. Basic necessities like water and electricity are within reach. But these positive developments get little attention in Arab-Muslim media. All we hear about Iraq is bloodshed and destruction.