[allAfrica.com] [US-Africa_Business_Summit_Registration] Of Domestic Woes, Phantom Weapons and Invisible Enemies The Independent (Banjul) COLUMN May 16, 2003 Posted to the web May 16, 2003 By Baba Galleh Jallow Washington, DC This Thursday, the New York Times carried a story that was a grim reminder of what economic despair can do to people and just how mean, man can be to man. The story, captioned "18 Migrants Found Dead In Trailer At Texas Truck Stop" detailed how 18 out of about sixty illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras suffocated to death in the airless back of a box truck in the course of being smuggled into the United States. Apparently, the driver, who had attempted to escape but was apprehended by police, had intentionally refused to occasionally open the trailer door to allow some fresh air inside, over a distance of hundreds of miles under sizzling temperatures. Running away from poverty, these poor folks from Latin America had bought death with their hard earned dollars. With them died their lifelong lofty dreams of making it to the Promised Land. But America is no longer the Promised Land it used to be in the nineties. Over the past three years, the American economy has seen its worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Millions of workers have lost their jobs and many states and corporations have scaled back their projects and operations. In the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, several airlines and other companies have gone bankrupt and unemployment rates have shot sharply up as millions of workers get laid off. Right now, studies show, only four out of ten American university graduates get anything like decent jobs or internships while the rest either proceed on to graduate school, law school or medical school hoping that by the time they graduate, the job market would have been much better; or they compete for menial and tedious jobs in restaurants, bars or warehouses with the growing number of immigrants trying to eke out a living in what is arguably one of the world's most impersonal or mechanical societies. For, sad to say, a whole lot of Americans are increasingly getting out of touch with their humanity and becoming more like the machines and robots that litter the communication industry in this country. Finding a job in America today is almost like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Over and above the din of domestic despair, America is getting increasingly mired in the ever-complex Iraqi equation. Like a wrestler who had underestimated the strength of his opponent, America remains furiously locked in combat with what Washington now acknowledges will take more than sheer military might to accomplish. As analysts had warned, winning the peace in Iraq is proving much more difficult than winning the war. The realization of the complexity of their task must have spurred the Bush administration into taking more forceful steps towards putting together a semblance of orderly authority in Baghdad. Recent days have seen the replacement of General Jay Garner with Mr. Paul Bremer, a counter-terrorism expert, as head of the American interim administration in Iraq. There has also been the order, issued by General Tommy Franks, commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, banning and dismantling Saddam's former ruling Party, the Baath Socialist Party. And in an effort to stop the looting in Baghdad, American soldiers have now been authorized to shoot at looters in order to deter others. The resuscitation of the country's police force and civil service is also underway. At the United Nations, the Security Council is discussing a U.S-British backed resolution in which the coalition forces now accept to be considered an occupying power in Iraq. This means, according to the Hague Conventions of 1907 and 1949, that the U.S and Britain would be held directly responsible for the maintenance of peace and order in Iraq. And in the hallways of the United Nations, the buzz is as loud as it can be over the rather embarrassing fact that Washington and London's claims that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction are increasingly proving to be just that - mere claims. So far, no such weapons have been found and American military weapons inspectors in Iraq have conceded that they may never find any such weapons for the obvious reason that they simply do not exist. They were, some critics insist, mere phantom weapons, existent only in the Iraqi-invasion plans of the Bush and Blair administrations. The gaffe has led to the resignation of a senior figure in the Blair cabinet in London. International Development Secretary Clare Short quit the Blair government last week over the fact that the prime minister and his ally in Washington have so far not been able to prove what they claimed they knew about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and over their "totally dishonorable" plan to force their new resolution on Iraq through the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, America's other war - the war against terrorism - continues unabated. Claims by President Bush and top members of his administration in the past few months and weeks that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network had been dismantled and disabled were given the lie last weekend when car bombs devastated three compounds in the Saudi capital Riyadh in which an unknown number of people including at least seven Americans were killed. Al Qaeda, which has reportedly claimed responsibility for the bombings, has threatened further attacks on American interests. Whether such attacks would be carried out in the United States or elsewhere around the world is unknown. The Saudi bombings are a stark reminder to the United States that toppling Saddam Hussein is much more easier than fighting an invisible enemy like Al Qaeda. To add to the surreal nature of the scenario, both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted, remain at large. On our own side of the world - Africa - the sad news of Walter Sisulu's death in South Africa is juxtaposed with the good news from Namibia that President Sam Nujoma will not seek re-election in 2005. In Uganda, Museveni eyes his coveted prize with salivating tastebuds. In Zimbabwe, an embattled Mugabe shuffles around on his last legs, while Liberia's Charles Taylor is finally getting caught up in the complex web of evil and deceit on which he built the foundation of his brutal dictatorship. In Gambia, the oil saga haunts Jammeh and his cohorts as the Nigerian press continues to prod at the sensitive issue. No letting sleeping dogs lie in this world of unpleasant realities.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2003 The Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================