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Are you kidding ‘us’ sir?

THE Middle East needs freedom," "We're helping them fight back because it's the right thing to do and because it's important to our own long-term security," said US Vice President, Dick Cheney to US troops in Iraq.

No sir, It is utter, incredible lie, and I wonder if there is anyone at all, including yourself, who believes it!

Yes sir, One year into the surge, five years into the war...nothing has improved the lives of the Iraqi people. Are you that incompetent?

But then, the construction of fourteen US bases and the largest US embassy in Iraq are on schedule and the oil wells have been pretty much well secured. Is that a coincidence? Or was that the ostensible goal?

History is the sum of all events, not just the identification of a few selected events. Exceptions exist, but they do not define. I should note that with a few exceptions, Muslims at war are fighting their battles on their own land. This says something about who the aggressors are.

Do the principles of the UN (a toothless paper tiger) charter condemning “Wars of Aggression” have any meaning whatsoever, or are they merely, like the US constitution, fancy words written on useless paper? Are there no moral standards, but only aphorisms?

Every despot and dictator has some redeeming excuse; freedom and democracy, soul-saving, freedom from persecution!

In Vietnam the joke was “We had to kill them to save them.”

The invasion of Iraq is a blatant crime against humanity sir, as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, among other crimes; are there more? Perhaps so, but I will not debate the issue, and leave that to others to determine. Such things are usually measured by personal and highly adjustable yardsticks.

I have met Iraqis shortly after those bombs were dropped on Iraq, who travelled and saw some of the devastated country, and the people!

Those bombs were dropped in a ‘shock and awe operation,’ on an already defeated, defenceless people, on targets which had little or no military value. Yet, you used Iraq to demonstrate your power, will, and determination to dominate....

And, at what cost? 4,000 young American men and women? A million "Iraqi" lives? A few million refugees? As valueless as the 200,000 Iraqi children's lives which Ms Albright considered "worth" whatever it was you achieved in Iraq before you actually went in and physically and morally destroyed that country?

No, it is not the crimes which you actually committed which have brought the fury home to roost in your henhouse, it is the lack of humanity and compassion for others, which has attracted such hate and disdain. Remember, Iraqis had nothing to do with 9/11, is a proven fact.

Predatory violators are eventually called to account, not so much for what they have done, but for the nature of what they have become, which their predations and violations expose them to be.

You profess that America is a promoter of liberation and opportunity... yet the products of your activities overseas in the past seventy odd years has produced nothing but domination and oppression.

Hubris has long been a contemptible fault, going way back to the origins of your culture. It has never gone unpunished.

You still do not have the picture yet, do you?

Better men were hanged at Nuremberg for doing the same kind of things. This is a double-edged sword, which cuts both ways. When one side is blooded, it is simply too easy to fail to understand why the other side should not be.

Being popular and "the most influential country in the world" does not make it right, nor is it an excuse for ignorance. Nor does such acclaim excuse one's own moral failures... at best, they add to the degree of guilt in these crimes against humanity.

It is the strong and the secure who should show compassion for the weak, and provide shelter for the homeless and guidance to the misguided. Are you so insecure, or morally bankrupt?

Not very respectfully, but with sincere pity for you and your kind, and a prayer that somehow you are preserved from hell!

Debbie Menon is a Dubai-based writer. She can be reached at debbie.menon@yahoo.com