Edmond-Club-ET22

Responsibility of the U.S.A. and the UN in the War in Iraq

     On October 28, 2003, two soldiers were killed and one was injured because of explosions.
They were on a latest style of a tank, about 120 kilometers to the north of Baghdad.
The number of fallen soldiers has become 156 since U. S. President Bush declared the
termination of the main battles in the war in Iraq on May 1, 2003. As 156 soldiers had been
killed during the war, the number of fallen soldiers after Bush’s actual declaration of the war
in Iraq has exceeded that during the war.
     At 8:30 a.m. on October 27 (at 2:30 p.m. on the same day Japan time), an ambulance
exploded near the head office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in
Baghdad and eleven Iraqi members of the staff were killed. On the same day and almost at
the same time, four police stations were destroyed by means of explosives, and seven people,
including one American soldier, were killed. Ultimately, thirty-four people were killed and 224
were injured through a series of terrorist acts.
     Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, decided to completely withdraw
non-Iraqi staff from Baghdad in response to the miserable results caused by bomb terrorism.
Not only citizens in Baghdad, but also Mr. Annan himself, cannot hide their astonishment; why
on earth do they attack the ICRC that has been working for the sake of Iraqi people? However,
it seems that there exists a misunderstanding between people who occupied and those who
were occupied. Probably, Iraqi people think about what the United Nations did for Iraqi people.
Medical and welfare activities are not so important to them, but it was the most important
assistance that the UN did not allow the U.S.A. to attack Iraq. Why did the UN tolerate the
war in Iraq, which was begun by denouncing Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? They were
not found at all yet. The relationship between the 9.11 terrorism and the war in Iraq is still not
clear. What the UN should have done for the Iraqi people was to stop the U.S.A. However,
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, is said to be a friend of the U.S.A.
(the Asahi, November 5, 2003) Extremely strictly speaking, Annan considers the U.S.A, but
does not consider Iraq. After all, Iraqi people have a grudge against the U.S.A. and the UN.
     President George W. Bush stated in response to the terrorism against the ICRC something
like this: murderers have become desperate. However, who made them desperate? The U.S.A.
destroyed Iraq directly, and the UN assisted its war indirectly because it could not stop the
U.S’s reckless act. There is a unique expression “match, pump” in Japan, which means to
perform great exploits by extinguishing a fire lit by him or herself. The U.S’s help to revive Iraq
and the humane support by the UN are almost the same as “match, pump.” There are two types
of mistakes; one can be mended, the other cannot be mended. Murder is a type of mistake that
cannot be mended. Therefore, the Iraqi people will never forgive the U.S.A. and the UN.