Death of Capt Khan: mixing up the issue

Islamabad diary

Capt Humayun Khan of the US army was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb. His father, Khizr Khan, spoke at the Democratic Convention, recalling the death of his son and denouncing Donald Trump, saying he had sacrificed nothing for his country and had probably not read the American constitution. This had an ‘electrifying’ effect on his audience.

On CNN later Khizr Khan said that Donald Trump had a “black soul” and was unfit to lead “this beautiful country”. As the father of a fallen soldier Khizr’s pain is understandable. But I find it difficult to understand his anger against the Republican presidential nominee. Trump had nothing to do with the Iraq war. He never supported it, said not a word in its defence.

The Iraq war was not just a blunder. Even a righteous war, when the cause is justified, can be a blunder if not properly thought through or badly executed. The Iraq war was evil through and through, based on lies, and carried through because a bunch of neo-con warriors at the helm of affairs in Washington wanted to redraw the map of the Middle East.

It was never about ‘weapons of mass destruction’. That was just the excuse and the warriors concerned knew it. And yet because those clever men wanted that war, and because they thought American power was supreme and nothing could challenge it, they went ahead, secure in the knowledge that there would be no consequences.

Well, the consequences have been many, not just for Iraq which was pulverised, the foundations of its society destroyed and millions of its citizens made homeless and forced to seek refuge in foreign lands, but for the US as well – nearly 4,500 US service members killed, including Capt Humayun Khan – and many thousands seriously wounded, many maimed for life, and thousands suffering post-traumatic stress disorders…and a trillion dollars gone down the drain prosecuting this senseless war, bereft of purpose and reason.

Nor was this the only cost. The war and the resistance it spawned gave rise to what the West likes to call Islamic extremism. In other words, one form of extremism giving rise to another – American extremism, in the form of the invasion, giving rise first to Al Qaeda in Iraq – previously there was no Al Qaeda there – and then to the menace the world, and the West especially, is now confronting, Daesh or the Islamic State.

Daesh was born in Iraq. Camp Bucca in southern Iraq was where many of those who would become its leaders, including the self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were kept. It was in that ‘jihad university’ that they honed their ideology and sharpened their ideas, and forged the bonds that would serve them later.

But given the origins of the Iraq war, whom should we call the real architects, the founding fathers, of Daesh, the Bucca graduates or the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz? The horrors in the name of Islamic radicalism the world is now witnessing began with their handiwork.

Donald Trump had nothing to do with any of this. But Hillary Clinton had a role to play. As senator she supported the resolution to go to war in Iraq. There were senators like Harry Byrd speaking passionately against the resolution. Senator Barack Obama cast his vote against it. But Hillary Clinton, along with much of the American media, allowed herself to be swept along by the tide of war.

So while I sympathise with Khizr Khan for the death, or call it martyrdom, of his son, I find his anger misdirected. Instead of denouncing Trump he should have pointed a finger at Ms Clinton and said, Madam, you misjudged the situation and were part of the score which took us into that darkness.

Cindy Sheehan – remember her – also lost her son, Casey Sheehan, in Iraq. She set up a makeshift camp outside the Bush ranch in Texas to protest the war. She directed her blame and sorrow where they belonged.

So Ms Clinton was wrong about Iraq. We all make misjudgements. But then as secretary of state she got Libya wrong. The biggest foreign policy disaster of the Obama presidency was Libya – Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster and Libya’s descent into anarchy and its becoming another safe haven for the Islamic State – and pushing this policy and making it her own was Secretary Clinton. And the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi leading to the killing of the American ambassador was because of the fillip given to terrorism by the killing of Gaddafi and the destruction of his regime.

The vote on the Iraq resolution can be put down as a theoretical misjudgement. But on Libya as secretary of state Ms Clinton was playing the lead role. And in this presidential election it is being said on her behalf that she has a wealth of experience while Trump has never held public office. Of what worth is this experience if studded with such monumental misjudgements?

And Obama got Syria wrong and when unrest broke out there and the US called for the ouster of Bashar al-Assad the secretary of state – you’ve guessed it – was again Ms Clinton. Assad is no angel and he used brutal methods to crush the pro-democracy uprising. But by calling for his ouster and backing the Arab states, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who were also baying for his blood, the Obama administration exacerbated the Syrian crisis without being able to resolve it or put forward any feasible alternative.

George Bush used the term “axis of evil” to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Much of the unrest and terrorism associated with Islamic extremism we are seeing today stems from a different troika of disaster: American follies in Iraq, Libya and Syria. This is the real axis of evil from which has arisen, in ways both direct and roundabout, the Islamic State and the refugee crisis battering European shores.

American speechwriters are great at their work. They can put soaring words together. Michelle Obama gave a touching speech at the Democratic Convention. Hillary Clinton was great too but her record doesn’t match her lofty rhetoric.

Meanwhile Trump, that ‘soul of evil’, has a more rational take on American foreign policy. America doesn’t have the right to lecture other nations, he says. It must fix its own mess first before trying to alter the behaviour of others: “When the world sees how bad the United States is and we start talking about civil liberties, I don’t think we are a very good messenger.” Try getting another American leader to say this.

He is all praise for Erdogan for the way he turned around the recent coup attempt. Assad is bad, he says, but the real threat is the Islamic State. Unlike most other American leaders he doesn’t demonise Vladimir Putin.

He has said many controversial things about building a Mexican wall, throwing out illegal immigrants and keeping Muslims out of the US. But on a whole lot of other issues his take is far more sensible than that of other leading Americans, including his rival for the presidency. And he is only the second American, the other being Bernie Sanders, who in this election season has not been blinded by the power and reach of the Israeli lobby.

Email: bhagwal63@gmail.com