Eminent Arabic columnist of Bahrain, Sawsan Al Shaer, has reacted sympathetically to the recently-published open letter by American peace activist Cindy Sheehan, addressed to “war loving” Republicans and Democrats.
Sawsan has found echoes of her own sentiments in Cindy’s letter as far as the disturbing US agenda in the Middle East is concerned. If you remember, Cindy is the peace activist who took on the then US President George Bush in August 2005, 16 months after her son Casey, 25, was killed in the Iraq war and set up a camp outside Bush’s ranch which made world headlines. Cindy believed the war was not justified. She is also a vocal critic of President Obama’s foreign policy and her letter was addressed to both the Republicans and the Democrats.
Sawsan tells Cindy that the US government “is still posing a threat to many societies, as it does towards your own children by involving them in uncalculated adventures without anyone knowing the truth behind such policies.”
Why has Sawsan written the open letter to Cindy? Because, as she says: “… despite my country and USA being bound by various treaties, the latter has changed its policies towards the former as felt in some recent US political arrangements. It has recently encouraged a small group, which wanted to establish a branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Bahrain under the leadership of a clergyman, who is deemed divinely infallible by his group to eliminate freedoms and oppress women.
“My … homeland, which has been known for its high level of openness and civilized way of life, is now living under the threat of this group that receives support from some US political circles. What I most fear is that such encouragement would persist, and its progress will lead to a military intervention, whose fuel would be your children and ours! … the US Administration has recently acted playfully and chaotically with my country where we foster religious freedom and urban life, in a way that would have impaired my country’s stability and security. This happened when it gave green light to a rebellious group to give it up to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The following is the complete text of Sawsan’s letter which has also been published by the local Press.
Dear Cindy, I sympathize with you in your campaign against former US President George W. Bush, and your protestation against sending US soldiers for battle outside US borders under numerous excuses, including what the US administrations often call pre-emptive war, which led to the death of your son Casey in Iraq.
Your government is still posing a threat to many societies, as it does towards your own children by involving them in uncalculated adventures without anyone knowing the truth behind such policies.
Your children are still subject to threats and deprived of safety. Even the killing of Osama bin laden has not minimized these threats, rather they have added fuel to the fire. The adventures of some policy makers’ from your country, whether deliberately or accidentally, pose a threat to the flow and cost of oil which is of substantial importance for you and us.
You may wonder why I address you in this message. The answer is that I simply like to tell you the following story: I live in a small country, which is thousands of miles far from yours but of great importance to you and all the US people because it is situated just 45 kilometers from the largest oil field of Saudi Arabia. And despite my country and USA being bound by various treaties, the latter has changed its policies towards the former as felt in some recent US political arrangements. It has recently encouraged a small group, which wanted to establish a branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Bahrain under the leadership of a clergyman, who is deemed divinely infallible by his group to eliminate freedoms and oppress women.
My tiny and beautiful homeland, which has been known for its high level of openness and civilized way of life, is now living under the threat of this group that receives support from some US political circles.
What I most fear is that such encouragement would persist, and its progress will lead to a military intervention, whose fuel would be your children and ours!
Dear Cindy, the US Administration has recently acted playfully and chaotically with my country where we foster religious freedom and urban life, in a way that would have impaired my country’s stability and security. This happened when it gave green light to a rebellious group to give it up to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It would have been an ordeal had it happened, and the majority of our people would have sought shelter in neighbouring states to flee the inferno. They would have joined the millions of displaced Iraqis and the thousands who keep approaching the US immigration authorities on a daily basis to obtain green cards after their Iran-loyal government, which was propelled to power by those who killed your son Casey, had confiscated all their wealth.
Dear Cindy, US Administration’s wrong policies were about to create trouble in a new spot, to be added to the series of its interventions that brought the peoples in many other places a great deal of sorrow and threw your children in purposeless wars, financed from the pockets of ordinary US citizens, who have harvested only the loss of thousands of young people’s lives and those of many others.
Dear Cindy, we support you and try to uncover with you the truth that underlines these uncalculated US adventures. Who, on earth, has convinced you, the Americans, that losing lives outside your borders is a US national duty? Who has signed a deal with Ahmed Chalabi? You may remember the name of this man who was used by the Bush Administration to ease intervention in Iraq and the man who paved the way for it through a series of tours and lectures in your States and cities for nothing but to serve his own interests and those of some US political circles.
Chalabi, who was introduced to the Americans by Bush Administration as a victim of the Iraqi regime, is now building a fortune in Iraq. And who has lost his life there? It is your son, Casey!
These US political circles seem to be running a ‘farm’ where they are reproducing more copies of Chalabi to use them in intervention-targeted places.
Now, there is more than one copy of Chalabi touring your states, universities and organizations, mobilizing public opinion, begging your pity, telling you lies and fairy tales that your sons will be welcomed and hugged by their peoples whose countries are thousands of miles away from the United States, under a big lie that they will be the rescuers who will bring them democracy.
Such a ‘farm’ does not give a hoot for Casey’s loss, not even for a million of Casey(s), because of its own calculations and its own agenda. It equally does not give a damn to what will happen to other peoples when it acts playfully with their fates and devastates their lands.
Dear Cindy, keep in touch. Together, we may uncover the truth and be able to save Bahraini and US youth.
