Dear President George W. Bush,
I believe it is time to question your campaign against terrorism. Your country has declared war against an invisible enemy, which you have decided to call, ‘the terrorist’. We are very concerned, Mr. President, since you have given no clear and precise definition as to who this ‘terrorist’ could be. Underlying your vague definition of terrorism, there is a heavy load of accusations and suspicions directed towards Muslims. I hope I am mistaken, but we have been overlooking explicit hints, relentlessly denouncing Muslims. Very recently, you referred to Palestinian freedom fighters as terrorists, while regarding Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, a Man of Peace, in spite of the fact that the whole world is witnessing his butchery!
Mr. President, to put it mildly, we do not like your country’s foreign policies. Your policies are entirely biased, in favor of the Israelis, yet you claim to play a neutral role in the Middle East conflict. We would still want to believe you, but it is quite incomprehensible how, on one hand, you preach peace, and then turn back to plan an attack on Iraq!
Mr. President, we do not want war. The Middle East has become a crisis area, in constant war. Images of war and destruction will soon become prevalent, and hence would give birth to a vengeful generation of unyielding youth. To eliminate violence and terrorism, you should first abolish its causes. The causes are your biased foreign policies.
As Muslims, we feel affronted by your continuous negligence of our pleading calls for justice, freedom and peace. If you want peace, arm the Palestinians, and give them equal amount of aid, to resist the occupation. I assure you Mr. President; both sides will restrain violence. No countries, with equal power of mass destruction, would opt for military resolutions.
In spite of their primitive equipment, Palestinians are very determined to fight back. It is ironic that while the Israelis have stimulated the emergence of ‘Suicide bombers’, they are now questioning the motivations of this youth. For Palestinians, death is inevitable, given the worsening situation. A Palestinian has to either await death under the mercy of the IDF soldiers, or die honorably in a battlefield.
Beyond the hypocritical condemnations of some people, the majority of Muslims have utterly suppressed the strong urge to tell you the truth, Mr. Bush. ‘Suicidal Operations’, carried out by Palestinian freedom fighters are supported, wholeheartedly. Mr. President, please do not be horrified by this truth. Your country has the highest crime rate, and suicide cases have reached the topnotch. The difference here is that, people who commit suicide in your country do that out of hopelessness. Oppositely, Palestinians who carry out ‘Suicidal Operations’ do that out of great hopefulness and infinite patriotism, and of course out of insuppressible anger. Also, do not forget Mr. President that the Palestinians are in a state of war with their Israeli neighbors. These ‘Suicide bombers’ are cooling down the steaming tempers of all Muslims. Had it not been for their acts of retaliation, other Muslims might have revenged for the Palestinians. I do not think that ‘retaliation’ is unaccepted, since the United States has done the same when attacked on September 11.
Why is it that you condemn those ‘Suicidal Operations’, that you have recently termed ‘Homicidal Operations’, carried out against innocent Israeli civilians, and seem to have completely no feelings for thousands of innocent Palestinians, whose villages are shelled daily by American-made Apache and F-16s? Mr. President, it is not a nice feeling to live in a roofless house. It is horrible to live short of water and electricity, and it is sad that there are children who have to sleep with empty stomachs. Did you hear about the Palestinian woman who fed her infant water from the sewerage because they were cut off water, and because her milk had dried by then?
I am sure you do not see those images on your local TV; therefore, I would like to invite you for an ongoing horror movie. It is produced by the United States, performed by very talented actors, such as Ariel Sharon, and Shimon Peres. Mr. President, you have called upon Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories, half-forgetting that the tanks rolling over the lands of the oppressed, rockets showering Palestinian villages and bullets targeting Palestinian youth are all generously given to Israel, by your country.
Mr. President, I seriously do not understand why your country threatens to veto any resolution that calls for the presence of International observers in the occupied Palestinian territories. Would that endanger Israel, in any way? It probably would, since Israel would certainly not want its crimes against humanity to be exposed. But Mr. President, if Palestinians are the terrorists, why do you refuse to send International observers, for the sake of the Israeli innocent civilians?
Now looking back at the Oslo accord, we realize that we were fooled into believing that it was actually a peace treaty. The number of settlements has doubled since then, and more settlers are immigrating from Russia and Europe, confiscating more lands and building more settlements that extends into territories under Palestinian authority.
Finally Mr. President, I would like to suggest some reasonable solutions for this ceaseless conflict:
I suggest that you reconsider your foreign policies and make them sufficient and acceptable for both sides.
Propaganda and distortion of facts hinders any possible effort for peace; therefore, I suggest that you allow the media to go beyond red-lines, so people could see what they have missed seeing since the war on Vietnam.
Practice what you preach, since you are the superpower of the world, and all countries look you up as an ideal democracy to be followed, you need not to expedite to the use of force against poor countries.
Mr. President we long for peace. Life is beautiful, and we want to live in peace, not in pieces.
Sincerely,
Mira Al-Hussein
Mira Al-Hussein is a student of International Studies at Zayed University, in Dubai.
