Hassan attacks unilateralism in Iraq war
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda launched a harsh attack on Monday against unilateralism on the part of the United States in the Iraq war, saying it had destabilized the world and failed to address any global security issues.
Confronting the United States' claim that it was a "just war" to end terrorism and eliminate weapons of mass destruction that could threaten the world, Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said those threats have remained and found new justification.
"The situation in Iraq today shows that smart bombs and air strikes cannot turn the tide in the war against terrorism," Hassan said when addressing a regional security conference here.
"Terrorists have no fixed addresses that can be obliterated once and for all with surgically precise military strikes," he said.
Hassan further said that civilian casualties and the deaths of combatants in any military operation would create an emotional fallout.
"They create martyrs and make it so much easier for the terrorists to gather new recruits," he said.
The United States and its close allies invaded Iraq in March to destroy weapons of mass destruction believed to have been produced by president Saddam Hussein. Up until now, however, they have found no evidence proving the existence of such weapons.
The unilateralism has also angered some Muslim countries around the globe, who believe the war against terrorism as directed at Islam and Muslims.
Citing the fact that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, Hassan said: "An entire country has been leveled to the ground for no good reason."
"The keen sense of grievance has become even more pervasive all over the Muslim world. That can only be a setback in terms of global security," he remarked.
Indonesia has been a staunch critic of the U.S.-led strikes against Iraq aimed at ousting Saddam Hussein's regime and eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
Just hours after allied forces started pounding Iraq, President Megawati Soekarnoputri strongly deplored the attack that had sidelined the United Nations and undermined the sovereignty of another country.
Indonesia has also criticized Washington for its failure to ensure security in Iraq, as casualties grew after the war was declared over in May.
Hassan further said that the ongoing sporadic gunfights and suicide bombings in Iraq showed that there were powers that remained strong against the U.S. occupation.
He said that the ongoing conflicts may incite civil war among Iraqis and at the end pose threats to the Middle East region.
In the regional conference organized by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), Hassan said the war proved that not all security problems in the world could be addressed with the use of military power.
Awesome firepower, he said, had been unable to obliterate stubborn resistance or remove the threat to global security which the occupation forces sought.
He said that the war against terrorism was a struggle for the hearts and minds of the population. "That struggle calls for wise policies, not smart bombs," he added.
The minister said that the world's basic problem today was alienation that made individuals, groups or nations go their own way.
"The antidote is of course the affirmation, either we are ruined together or we achieve common salvation. That salvation is what the United Nations has been all about," he stressed.