Iraq is Your War: Why we fight abroad

I think it is imperative that Americans understand the causal relationship between their security and the war in Iraq. This is what President Bush was attempting to articulate, and this is how I see it. 1. It is impossible to keep America safe by just playing defense. 2. The Middle East is the epicenter of the terror network. 3. Despotic governments bring out the worst in religion. 4. Change the political environment in the Middle East and we change the associated religious pathology. This comment originally appeared online at the Arizona Republic at this link

A Monstrous Lie

Al-Qaida’s hooded demons took the life of Nick Berg in a monstrous display of medieval butchery. Their mortifying mention of God and Islam shook my soul beyond disgust and toward more resolve. It is certainly more painfully clear that we must exterminate their hate and pan-exploitation. Their concern over the Abu Ghraib prisoners is obviously false while they repeatedly kill and torture innocents in Iraq and all over the world. There should be no remaining doubts that rooting out al-Qaida’s ilk is to protect our freedoms and actually protect Islam from their scourge. This comment first appeared online at the Arizona Republic at this link.

Disgracing the Uniform- A Stain on the Military

As a prior military officer and Navy physician, the recent revelations of the crimes perpetrated by American servicemen and women overseeing the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad struck me with profound shock, disgust and disappointment, to say the least. Those who committed the reported crimes are being brought to justice. Those in a position of knowledge, responsibility or leadership who allowed it to happen or even created an environment where such heinous activities were thought to be permissible have disgraced their honor, their families, their uniform, and their country. Seymour Hersch’s April 30 report in the New Yorker details the atrocities that were occurring and cites involvement of military intelligence officers, civilian contractors, and active duty military assigned to control the prison. We can only hope that the incidents at this prison and the disgraceful behavior of these American servicemen and women is not more pervasive than reports have already feared. What I do know is that these actions are in no way representative of the moral courage of our military servicemen and women who serve our nation proudly. It is clear thus far, that the perpetrators even prior to the release of this in the public domain are currently on their way to receiving the full impact of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) which will send all those responsible to an appropriate brig for an appropriate length of time. Let us also not forget that the vast, vast majority of our American sons and daughters in Iraq have been risking their lives honorably to preserve American freedom and permanently free the Iraqi population from the shackles of Saddam and the Baathists in order to leave Iraq a better place. This, as a whole, they have certainly done. Each and every act of valor along with the lives saved and lives lost on the field in Iraq are the truest testimony to the honor of the American soldier. I would certainly agree with The Arizona Republic’s stance Tuesday that those who committed the crimes at Abu Ghraib prison have certainly ‘brutally betrayed’ their fellow soldiers and their country. For those who perpetrated these crimes trampled over the very same American ideals of ‘equal justice for all’ which they were supposedly fighting to guarantee for the Iraqi citizenry. Unfortunately, human nature, for many, will be to try to stereotype the actions of a few upon the greater whole for political gains. The fallout from this reporting is certain to have some impact upon world opinion of the American soldier and upon America. As an American Muslim I know all too well how the actions of a few can cast undue aspersions upon the many. Let us, however, remember that the revelations now public, the ensuing public discussion, and the swift prosecution of the perpetrators are what truly testifies to integrity of our freedoms and our democracy. While all societies will have their deviants which is an unfortunate part of the human condition, the test for the greater society is to uphold it’s moral courage of freedom through the rule of law. We should not allow the grossly inhumane actions and incompetent leadership of those at the Abu Ghraib prison to reflect upon the honor and integrity of our devoted American servicemen and women serving our nation proudly in Operation Iraqi Freedom. A complete investigation is already underway and being directed from our entire chain of command. May all of our forces still at work making Iraq and the world safer, freer and more just places, remain safe and out of harms way and hopefully not affected by the actions of the few. This column originally appeared online at the Arizona Republic at this link.

When a Mosque is not a Mosque- How Islamists Defile a Place of Worship

As a prior military officer and Navy physician, the recent revelations of the crimes perpetrated by American servicemen and women overseeing the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad struck me with profound shock, disgust and disappointment, to say the least. Those who committed the reported crimes are being brought to justice. Those in a position of knowledge, responsibility or leadership who allowed it to happen or even created an environment where such heinous activities were thought to be permissible have disgraced their honor, their families, their uniform, and their country. Seymour Hersch’s April 30 report in the New Yorker details the atrocities that were occurring and cites involvement of military intelligence officers, civilian contractors, and active duty military assigned to control the prison. We can only hope that the incidents at this prison and the disgraceful behavior of these American servicemen and women is not more pervasive than reports have already feared. What I do know is that these actions are in no way representative of the moral courage of our military servicemen and women who serve our nation proudly. It is clear thus far, that the perpetrators even prior to the release of this in the public domain are currently on their way to receiving the full impact of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) which will send all those responsible to an appropriate brig for an appropriate length of time. Let us also not forget that the vast, vast majority of our American sons and daughters in Iraq have been risking their lives honorably to preserve American freedom and permanently free the Iraqi population from the shackles of Saddam and the Baathists in order to leave Iraq a better place. This, as a whole, they have certainly done. Each and every act of valor along with the lives saved and lives lost on the field in Iraq are the truest testimony to the honor of the American soldier. I would certainly agree with The Arizona Republic’s stance Tuesday that those who committed the crimes at Abu Ghraib prison have certainly ‘brutally betrayed’ their fellow soldiers and their country. For those who perpetrated these crimes trampled over the very same American ideals of ‘equal justice for all’ which they were supposedly fighting to guarantee for the Iraqi citizenry. Unfortunately, human nature, for many, will be to try to stereotype the actions of a few upon the greater whole for political gains. The fallout from this reporting is certain to have some impact upon world opinion of the American soldier and upon America. As an American Muslim I know all too well how the actions of a few can cast undue aspersions upon the many. Let us, however, remember that the revelations now public, the ensuing public discussion, and the swift prosecution of the perpetrators are what truly testifies to integrity of our freedoms and our democracy. While all societies will have their deviants which is an unfortunate part of the human condition, the test for the greater society is to uphold it’s moral courage of freedom through the rule of law. We should not allow the grossly inhumane actions and incompetent leadership of those at the Abu Ghraib prison to reflect upon the honor and integrity of our devoted American servicemen and women serving our nation proudly in Operation Iraqi Freedom. A complete investigation is already underway and being directed from our entire chain of command. May all of our forces still at work making Iraq and the world safer, freer and more just places, remain safe and out of harms way and hopefully not affected by the actions of the few. This column originally appeared online at the Arizona Republic at this link.

Muslims Must Speak Out – Terror Defiles our Faith

Last week’s atrocities in Fallujah struck so many raw nerves in me, that now after a few days of anesthetized numbness, I am able to put word to keyboard. Having been head of the medical department aboard the USS El Paso in Operation Restore Hope, last week I couldn’t help but think back a decade or so about the tragedy of our soldiers who lay prey to the animalistic mobs in Mogadishu. On Oct. 3, 1993 a few of my American countrymen who replaced our ship and its contingent in a peace and nutrition mission in Somalia were sadly never to return to their families, falling victim to tribal killing, mutilation and dismemberment after their black hawk helicopter went down. To this day, I have actually been unable to get myself to see the movie Black Hawk Down. Our troops were sheepishly ordered to leave the country soon thereafter, which only further conditioned the nihilistic self-hating mobs around the world that the reward for killing and mutilating a few Americans was that we would leave and never come back. All of my Navy shipmates who knew me certainly knew Mohammed Aidid and his barbarians were grizzly tribal warlords who were anathema to Islam and barely human, let alone educated, let alone Muslim. We knew that for every so-called Muslim tribal thug there were thousands of suffering Muslim children and families. Yesterday’s closing of Fallujah is hopefully the first step in a deep elimination of the barbaric insurrection in Fallujah. Another one of the essential baby steps toward democracy is the elimination of violent unrest and those who incite and perpetrate it. This response should not only be firm but long-lasting in memory to those who may contemplate similar actions against our countrymen or Iraqi citizens. Unlike Somalia, a relentless pursuit of the perpetrators who killed these unsuspecting contractors is now a priority. The next baby step is to find courageous pioneering Muslims in Iraq and beyond who not only condemn the animalistic display of the mutilated American bodies, but go well beyond platitudes toward expressing outrage at un-Islamic killing, the un-Islamic act of terror on civilians, and the un-Islamic attack of foreigners and military personnel who are actually aiding the country. We need to hear about the Muslims who are writing about the anti-Islamic nature of attacks on military outside the boundaries of a declared war. We need to hear Muslims condemn the clerics and newspapers which incited such violence and hear their outrage at the mobs which did not revolt but cheered such violence. A few speeches from moderate Muslims in Iraq thanking our American troops and contractors for their service to the Arab world would be well timed. As I humbly see it, one of the most deficient elements in the war in Iraq is a public engagement of moderate Muslims in Iraq who can counter the radical clerics like Al-Sadr and their mobs. I need to see the speeches and writings of leaders of a tolerant Islamic Iraq for which our troops are fighting to save. Freedom for all of Iraq will come when mass numbers of Muslims counter Al-Sadr’s mobs and protest in Baghdad what happened in Fallujah as un-Islamic. Democracy will come when Muslim organizations and newspapers in Iraq and beyond deplore in the name of their faith and its moral fiber the acts of terror that persist, despite the end of the war and the removal by the American soldier of the greatest terrorists in Iraq, lice-infested Saddam Hussein and his Baath thugs. The radical Islamo-fascists must be disarmed and then countered by an Iraqi form of secular moderate Islam punctuated by a call for religious freedom and abundant tolerance. These radical Shiite clerics only stir the lost emotions of a confused following while America continues to tighten the noose on a shrinking head. How about just a few news stories of moderate Muslim thinkers in Iraq protesting the radical element of their own faith? How about just a brief read of the greater than 50 Iraqi newspapers and perhaps stories on the courageous writers behind them rather than hearing repeatedly about the one that was closed rightfully so after inciting violence on the government? Maybe then my numbing after Fallujah will completely disappear This column originally appeared online at the Arizona Republic at this link.

Bush takes on the terrorists – Far more than Clinton ever did.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said President Bush has fueled the hate of Islamist terrorists for America. Isn’t hate the normal reaction from fanatics nearing extermination? This is criticism? Many Muslim moderates are cheering as their faith is released from the grasp of terror networks. The only ones who fueled the flames of religious hatred are the likes of Franklin Graham and Pat Robertson. They exploited the words of terrorists to endorse their own ignorant mantra against Islam. The Bush administration has led a war to dismantle established hate-filled networks that the Clinton administration shirked. This comment appeared originally online at the following link at the Arizona Republic. http://www.azcentral.com/specials/pluggedin/articles/0404jasser0404weekend.html

The Cartel that Kills Freedom

As Arizonans and Americans start to tense over the most prolonged elevation of gas prices in recent memory, few pundits have analyzed the effect of OPEC upon this formula. In an election year each political circle looks to find blame in the other without addressing the primary cause – the blind engagement of OPEC by the West. In most circles it is a forgone conclusion, regardless of party, that the stability of OPEC is somehow in American interests. Yet, the cooperation of American and western governments in facilitating a power structure of OPEC which allows them to artificially and externally set oil prices rather than have prices be a natural by-product of a global economy is counterintuitive to every principle of free markets. Jeff Taylor from Cato made this very point exceedingly clear in his column here. Our international economic policy needs to catch up with our forward military foreign policy in Iraq. Some, excluding myself, understandably believed that support of OPEC may have been necessary during the Cold War as we fought a greater global enemy in the Soviets. However, now in the 21st century, as we move to dismantle terror networks and the nations that create them, the deconstruction of the international facilitation of cartels like OPEC will be a major factor in the destabilization of despotic Arab autocracies and monarchies. The disappearance of OPEC will remove the artificial setting of prices upon a free market for oil. With an unfettered free market for oil the cartel becomes impotent. Their oil prices and thus our gas prices drop. Our economy flourishes while their regimes go bankrupt, disappear and are replaced by republics modeled after a free Iraq – but this time without a single occupation. Many have repeatedly stated that the way to lasting freedom in the Middle East will be only through the infusion of freer markets. How about starting with their oil sales? This column originally appeared online at the Arizona Republic at this link.

Answering a critic

An interesting phenomenon was expressed Wednesday on a local website of a small and solitary Muslim community newspaper here in the Valley. Marwan Ahmad, its publisher, chose to take issue on the web with my “Plugged In” commentary way back from March 1, 2004 on the laughable recent Saudi ‘slip-up’ concerning their visa requirements. Mr. Ahmad exploited his discussion to not only discuss his soft-pedaled defense of the Saudi tribal monarchal government but also to personally indict me as somehow always being “negative about the Muslim community.” It is an interesting peek into the current state of mind between Muslim-Muslim interaction right here in the Valley. Progressive moderate American Muslims are running up against this very internal struggle in any attempt to constructively engage certain spokespeople within our own Muslim community. Herein from Mr. Ahmad you will see a diversion. Rather than simply address the issue of Saudi pseudo-reform versus real reform, he chooses to address his fabricated spin of my supposed “bias” and my so-called negativism. By personalizing the discussion he deflects the readers away from the politics of reform in Saudi Arabia and the greater Muslim community, which he perversely thinks are somehow benefited by discussing platitudes of positive and false change. I, for one, believe the greater the wall of intellectual separation between the Islam I know and practice and the Muslims of the Saudi Arabian government, the better served are the Muslims of the Valley and America. Demonstrating that a vocal group and growing movement of activist American Muslims believes that this so-called “Islamic” state is far from Islamic in its practices may be the best thing for the image of Muslims in America. Save our holiest mosque, our Hajj, and our faith’s blessed founding history which took place on the Arabian peninsula, I cannot find any reason as a Muslim that criticism, no matter how frequent, of the Saudi Arabian state and its oppressive hypocrisy would reflect poorly upon American Muslims. With the central Islamic significance of the Arabian peninsula I would say we have even a greater obligation to facilitate a genuine and expeditious reform in Saudi Arabia. Islam teaches Muslims to work first and foremost toward their own self-improvement, renewal, and adherence to principles of faith before ever weighing in on non-Muslim policies. Yet, Mr. Ahmad dismisses this and sets aside the fact that hundreds of thousands of Muslim inhabitants have suffered and died at the hands of Muslim despots still in power today while his paper offers them no effective criticism or convincing calls for democracy. Mr. Ahmad would have me forget Saudi, Syrian, Iraqi, Pakistani, Indian, Libyan, Iranian, Sudanese and former Iraqi oppression to name a few and prove my supposed objectivity by whitewashing the Saudis and focusing on non-Muslims. As an introspective Muslim what other ‘territorial’ conflicts could ever be more proportionally important than the conflict in Muslim nation-states which are home to more than 1 billion Muslims who continue to live in oppression as dictators parasitically foster fundamentalist radicals while the moderates become the spoils or escape to lands of freedom like America? It is basic political common sense that nothing is more negative to the domestic and international credibility of Muslims than the existence of nations of Muslims and their elected leaders who oppress, murder, enslave, and despise their community. Until papers like Mr. Ahmad’s here in the Valley repeatedly cry for and relentlessly demand reform in so-called Muslim lands, calls against the oppression of Muslims by non-Muslims will be viewed as vacuous. American Muslims have a duty to repeatedly deconstruct the legitimacy of the Islamic religious authority of nations which claims to be Muslim and perverse the faith. As the war on terror steps up and Americans fear another incident, it becomes even more essential to demonstrate and lead an unequivocal separation between Islamo-fascism and American Muslim thought. Mr. Ahmad can choose to vilify me as negative. He can choose to blame the west for Muslim nation ills as he writes columns adorned with the Saudi flag rather than an American flag. Or he can facilitate a forward movement to stand effectively for reform in Saudi Arabia. A significant part of the terrorist threat upon our nation is a result of decades of Saudi facilitation of Islamist hate and appeasement of fanaticism and terrorism. The Saudis cowardly shipped Bin Laden to Afghanistan as he declared war on America. I can find nothing positive in the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were Saudi nationals. Those Muslims and non-Muslims still in jail in Saudi prisons or those who have died fighting for freedom from Saudi oppression demand a genuine reform before acknowledging change. The treatment of women in Saudi alone is an abomination to every self-respecting Muslim in the world. Until the Saud family starts down the road of handing back the land and oil rightfully owned by the Saudi people back to them with Islamic property rights and justice, I cannot applaud their progress. Finding the positive in their embarrassing removal of an un-Islamic offensive visa restriction so that whitewashing propagandists can pretend all is better now is insulting. My comments are in no way negative toward the religion of Islam or its followers but rather toward Muslim oppressors, pure and simple. These are words of love of my faith and my co-religionists who seek the same freedom, equality, liberty, and justice as expressed for all citizens in the U.S. Constitution and revealed to Muslims in the Koran. It is far easier for Mr. Ahmad to conjure up images of my negativity and undermine my effectiveness within the Muslim community than to speak toward the issue of real reform. It is far easier to try and marginalize my discussion rather than applaud my pro-Islamic liberty pro-Muslim freedom stances which in fact if he would open his eyes provide Muslims with far more credibility than his platitudes ever will. I will not hold my breath waiting for the column by Mr. Ahmad on his website or in his paper decrying Al Qaeda and their ilk and the cancer they are within the international Muslim community and his plan for their extermination. He would rather remain a bystander in the war on terror despite its impact upon the Muslim community. I have yet to read a column from him about his own sense of personal responsibility as a vocal Muslim in speaking out for the eradication of terrorist networks and their leadership. How about a column on Saddam’s or Assad’s Baath Republics of fear? A self described Muslim Voice, should care about freedom and liberty first rather than appeasing and defending dictatorships which oppress Muslims. A self described Muslim Voice should acknowledge and applaud the courage of a few lone Valley Muslim voices of freedom here and abroad rather than indicting them for bias. This involves internal reflection, acknowledgement, and an acceptance of self-responsibility. Such is the challenge. For in a binary world, the distasteful alternative to hating others is to hate oneself. But, then again, at its core Islam teaches us to hate neither and to love God and his creations. The Islamic faith demands this internal reflection first before all else. This column originally appeared at the Arizona Republic at this link.

Fear claims victory in Spain

What does yesterday’s election loss of Spain’s conservative Popular party portend for the war on terror? While evidence is pointing more toward al-Qaida, one can be certain that whoever perpetrated the attacks wanted to instill fear in the Spanish electorate as they went to the polling booth. Some may have been emboldened to keep Prime Minister Aznar and his party so that they may continue their forward anti-terror policies. However a majority chose to usher in the socialists despite them being philosophically poorly positioned to convincingly fight terror. The terrorists who struck in Spain, most likely al-Qaida or their Islamist ilk, through the heinous killing of innocent non-combatants sought a political change through fear and intimidation. A day after the elections in Spain, they appear to have achieved their goal. The resolute Anzar is leaving and the softer socialists are entering. The test now remains to see whether the new Spanish government will respond with the sheepish appeasement policy that the terrorists expected and which France, Germany and other European nations enacted while America and Britain led the forward response against Islamist terror. The attacks in Baghdad, Istanbul, and now Madrid are proof that America and its supporters in the war on terror have the terrorists in their crosshairs while they run for their lives in attempting to fracture the coalition and stimulate appeasement. Any other interpretation ignores the writing on the wall. The sad paradox is that terrorists will exploit our democratic processes to stimulate the change that suits their survival, banking upon the electorate’s fear translating into short-sighted appeasement at the election booth. Spain is living proof. We can only hope that the American electorate readying for November comes away today learning from Madrid with an emboldened resolve and not with a fearful tilt toward appeasement. While terror instills fear in the community it targets, it conversely clarifies the correctness of the war on terror. Senator Kerry should finally wake up his campaign with respect to his discussion on the war on terror and make it clear to the terrorists that his resolve in the war from Iraq to America will not waiver from that of President Bush. Anything short of that should give us concern. That which makes a clear divide between a softer Kerry administration of 2005 and a more resolute second-term Bush administration that promises to finish the war against al-Qaida, may in fact pose a palpable security risk for the American citizenry into the fall of 2004. The terrorists rather need to get the clear message that the American population will not waiver in the war on terror regardless of who wins in November. This column originally appeared at the Arizona Republic online at this link.

Envisioning Peace – Signs of the Dove

This week in a border region of Israel and Jordan, Gen. Tommy Franks and Jack Kemp, joined American business leaders in breaking ground on a joint Jordanian and Israeli center called “Bridging the Rift.” Scientists from each country, Muslim and Jewish, Arab and Israeli, will work together, sharing common principles of creativity, freedom, democracy, capitalism and free-trade. The road to peace in the Middle East, whether through Damascus or Jerusalem, comes when their mutually great histories of intellectual renaissance are revisited with joint investments and new beginnings. This column originally appeared at this link at the Arizona Republic.