La confrontación histórica entre el “Oeste”, representado por los Estados Unidos, y Medio Oriente ha provocado lamentables reacciones terroristas. Luego de la ilegal guerra en Iraq, ciudades como Madrid y Londres han sufrido ataques que captaron la atención del “primer mundo”, del mundo “civilizado”. Pero se nos olvida que todos los días en Iraq, y antes Afghanistán, decenas de personas mueren a causa de atentados suicidas. El problema es que nos parecen tan lejanos, ajenos de nosotros que no prestamos atención. Por lo menos la prensa británica si lo recuerda y reconoce:

No city in the world has suffered so frequently from suicide bombers. Four bombs detonated in London, but this is becoming an everyday ocurrence in Baghdad.

Iraqis in Baghdad concentrate on day-to-day survival. Events such as the announcement yesterday by a special tribunal that it was laying charges against Saddam Hussein is of marginal interest. The former Iraqi leader is accused of ordering the killing of 140 Shia from the village of Dujail north of Baghdad in 1982. Their murder followed an assassination attempt on Saddam. Understandably people are more interested in those who died last week and will die in the weeks to come than in the dead of 23 years ago.

There are other dangers. US troops treat every Iraqi driving a vehicle that gets near them as a potential suicide bomber. They fire on suspicion. Almost every Iraqi family I know has a friend or relative who has been accidentally killed by edgy American soldiers.

The Independent, 18 de julio de 2005

También, por otro lado, la resistencia de Iraq se nos ha querido vender como los malos de la película, cuando en realidad en esta guerra todos los involucrados se han manchado las manos de sangre de miles de inocentes. Para el clérigo radical iraquí Moqtada Sadr la resistencia es legítima, y tiene sentido.

“Resistance is legitimate at all levels be it religious, intellectual and so on,” Mr Sadr said, in his first interview with Western media.

“The first person who would acknowledge this is the so-called American President Bush who said ‘if my country is occupied, I will fight’.”

“The occupation in itself is a problem. Iraq not being independent is the problem. And the other problems stem from that - from sectarianism to civil war,” he said. “The entire American presence causes this.”

BBC News, 18 de julio de 2005

En el juego de la guerra y el terrorismo todos salimos perdiendo. A estas alturas tan culpable es una parte como la otra.