The theme of this NAM summit was to revitalise it. But that was hijacked by the coming war in Iraq. The US wants this war, with or without UN sanction. Indeed it has started, the 200,000 US-UK-Australian troops massed on Iraq's borders have begun limited offensive operations. Now the UN chief weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix has given Baghdad until 01 March to destroy those weapons that has a range beyond what is permitted. This ensures Baghdad is led to the slaughterhouse when war does break out. Pious statements are made, including at the NAM Summit, that Iraq must comply or face the consequences.

THE UNITED STATES, AS THE ROMAN EMPIRE in its heyday, is in search of enemies to destroy. The Roman Senator, Cato, would end his orations in the Senate with the stirring call: "Carthage must be destroyed", as President George W. Bush, in his speeches, wants Iraq to be. The Roman Imperial Armies marched in on Carthage when it misjudged Rome's intentions. Washington hopes Baghdad would misjudge it as in 1991 to provide the figleaf of an excuse to attack. Superpowers and empires, through history, crush small nations that dare to confront their might as a hammer crushes a fly. It is a way of staying in control. When they are stretched too thin, as the Roman Empire then was and the United States now is, they hide their military weaknesses by focussing on an easily demonised enemy. Carthage was one. Iraq and North Korea now are.

In other words, amidst the war clouds amassing over Iraq, an official Malaysian delegation visits Iraq, and all it can report to the Malaysian public is the proforma the Iraqi government heaps on the Malaysian Prime Minister. This delegation is one of few that has gone to Baghdad amidst the brouhaha over arms inspections. Were there any high level talks about this that would at least help Malaysia make up its mind when war, as one must expect, breaks out. Were the Malaysian delegation only interested in finding out how often the Malaysian prime minister is praised in his absence? What did it do beyond being proud that Dr Mahathir is praised.

CNN in Baghdad a decade earlier sunk the carefully-crafted Gulf war to destroy Saddan Hussein. Al-Jazeera now threaten Washington propaganda on the war.

It was necessary for the United States and Great Britain to execute their war plans in secret, without questioning, and so the news coverage now is based on a carefully planned propaganda. During the Gulf War, the presence of my old friend from Vietnam, Peter Arnett (then of the AP), in Baghdad challenged the carefully crafted lies of the US establishment. This time around, an Emirates-government owned television station, with a correspondent in Kabul, challenges every assertion Washington makes over its successes in the aerial bombardment. So well in fact that the United States want it ordered not to broadcast the view of those hammered in the bombardment.

So, nothing is resolved. What we have from Washington is hot air it must release to keep the natives from going off their heads in this tragedy in their midst. The message from Washington then is no different from that from Baghdad in 1991: a sense of helplessness and impotence at the tragedy at their doorstep. President Bush reacts as President Saddam did.

The most irrelevant group in any conflict are the civilians, the "collateral damage" of Pentagonspeak. They do not count when Baghdad or Arab cities are bombed. They should not when Washington and New York are targets.

The residents of New York and Washington DC reacted as residents in Tripoli, Baghdad, Khartoum did when the United States attacked them as it was attacked yesterday. It is not one of democracy versus totalitarianism, but one that pits official terror with unofficial terror. In its pursuit of its national interest, the United States retaliates in kind. Since it appears to have decided it is Osama ben Laden, Afghanistan and other countries linked to him could expect a planned retaliation in kind.

France, China and Russia, permanent members of the UN Security Council, are at odds with the other two, the United States and Great Britain, over plans to bomb Iraq over Baghdad's refusal to allow the UN team inspect the Iraqi presidential sites. President Boris Yeltsin even raised the spectre of a world war if the US continued to bully Iraq into submission. The pressure to bomb Iraq began amidst investigations into President Clinton's alleged sexual proclivities, in which so much of what is known is allegations and unproven assertions than fact.

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