On one of the days when I was in college nearly 29 years ago, one of my dorm mate friends who had gone to listen to news of the day came back and told me a headline from the news that he heard. It was late at night and I was attending to my college work. He had gone to listen to some English language news on the first day of the bombardment of Baghdad by the U.S.-led forces in 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
After he came back from listening to the late night news in English language, my friend told me that the news that he heard reported that the bombardment "ባግዳድን ኣሽመደመደዉ።" My instinctive reaction was to quickly ask: ለመሆኑ የትኛዉን የእንግሊዘኛ ቃል ነዉ ወደ ኣሽመደመደዉ የተረጎምከዉ? At that moment, my friend smiled, looked down and away, and started to walk toward his bed in the dorm and I continued attending to my college work. I admired his quick resort to humbleness.
The meaning of the Amharic word ኣሽመደመደዉ is stronger than the English word cripple. Thus, roughly translated, ባግዳድን ኣሽመደመደዉ means that the bombardment crippled Baghdad. So, my instinctive and quick question was to ask my friend which English word he translated into the Amharic word ኣሽመደመደዉ. His answer was a quick humbleness and walking away with no more words at that point. That is what I admired.
In the subsequent days after that news, I incidentally heard in the news statements made by various countries in that region regarding the U.S.-led attack on Baghdad. The statements of two countries that I wasn't familiar with stood out for me as more mature and full of wisdom. One was made by Iran and the other by Syria. The one made by Iran sounded to me the most measured and was seared into my memory as the most mature about the attack. I had little idea about the history of the country at that time.
A few years ago, I saw on TV a video of a bombardment of Baghdad at night during either the first or second Gulf War. The night time recording shows in green color and reminded me that brief exchange with my dorm mate friend nearly 29 years ago. My instinctive reaction to the video was to say it is not olive oil falling from the sky for Babylon.
Several years ago, I was also hearing in the news what appeared to be out of this world carnage in the region. After every news of such sad stories, I kept asking myself as an observer how this could happen anywhere in the world at this age in the history of civilization.
After hearing the recent assassination of the Iranian commander that I hadn't heard or read about before now, I started to ask if the cross border operations he is accused of has been one of the symptoms of the carnage in the region and if the politically bombshell action is likely to lift the cancer on the basic idea of sovereignty in the region.
In the middle of this news, I also heard that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world. Hearing that kind of news for the firs time would make any reasonable faculty ask how such a big government institution of a leading country in the world fails to help minimize the carnage in the region from the first bombardment of Baghdad that started on January 17, 1991, through the bombshell assassination of the Iranian commander on January 3, 2020.
Then again, this assassination was ordered by the President of the U.S. who was impeached on December 18, 2020. The charge of impeachment by the House of Representatives of the U.S. is made for high crimes and misdemeanors.
So, it is only natural to ask that if the U.S. led the bombardment of Baghdad as a leading State, has it not become a Rogue State when it takes actions on an international stage by an order of its impeached but not yet acquitted president? Can an international action of an accused for high crimes and misdemeanors against another accused for cross border crimes be considered legitimate in the court of law unless it is in a Rogue State? I am asking this question intuitively and wish to be enlightened otherwise by learned and critical social scientists. I have the highest respect for all Americans who are doing their share to defend the basic values of the constitution of the U.S.
The state of the actor transcends the situational awareness of impeachment.
A few days ago, I saw a tweet that stated that the U.S. has spent two trillion dollars on military equipment and that if Iran attacks an American base or any American, it will send some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way.
The moment I read the tweet, I could feel my chest pump and hear myself utter send that beautiful thing my way and save the people of Iran. Then, I could hear my rational sense utter: humanity, meet raw barbarism.
The genesis of civility is the reckoning of the superiority of the power of reason over that of spears and subsequently submitting to the rule of law instead of the power of muscles to throw spears. The founding fathers of the U.S. must have understood the superiority of the power of reason when they decided to sit down and chart the rule of law for the republic that they envisaged to establish. That reckoning gave way to the supremacy of law instead of engaging in a continuous sharpening of spears. That reckoning also leads to the power of muscles for law enforcement purposes only.
In my view, that is the minimum level of enlightenment that one needs in order to talk about civility and civilization. If present day's nuclear power can be likened to ancient day's spear power, in my view, Donald Trump can only talk about civility and civilization when he can look President Putin of Russia and say President Putin, let us both put down our present day spears and submit to the rule of law. If the leaders of the two most armed can reach an agreement, I can hardly imagine why the rest of the armed countries wouldn't also agree to the same. That could be a legacy he could be entitled to if he could see President Putin in the eyes, say it to his face, and get an agreement from him. That level of courage is what entitles anyone to talk about the virtue of civilization.
This theoretical supposition may only go to show how far the talk of civilization is from practicing it. Yet, however much it takes out a potential cancer on sovereignty, the order of international actions by an impeached President before being acquitted, if it becomes the final outcome, can easily show how a leading State can easily devolve into a Rogue State in a short time. At least, that is what I think to have unfolded before my eyes.