19 March 2003
editorial
Accra — The current playground for the superpowers is Iraq. This in no way is an attempt to triviliase the grave issues unfolding regarding that country and its relationship with the rest of the world.
The government of Iraq cannot be a role model in any department of foreign relations or in its own internal affairs. This is a country that attacked Iran and used chemical weapons against it in the seventies. The war dragged on for years and ended inconclusively. In the closing decade of the 20th Century, Iraq struck again, this time against tiny Kuwait. The entire world rose in indignation and through the UN, drove her out and instituted a regime of reparations and disarmament. The looming war led by the US against Iraq is a direct result of this. Iraq cannot therefore be described as an innocent party.
But having said that, what would such a war mean to the distressed economies of Africa?
A lot. For starters, if the war should drag, and the price of oil soars, Africa's fragile economies would be hardest hit.
Even if the war is short-lived, Africa would still lose out because the reconstruction of Iraq would take top billing like the "emergent democracies of Eastern Europe" have been enjoying since the eighties.
Right now Africa is grappling with the concept of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). It is highly unlikely that NEPAD would make any headway should the guns roar and tanks roll into Iraq. NEPAD would as well consider itself part of the collateral damage of this war...
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