In an article he published on April 14, 2017, Bassam Al-'Amoush, a former Jordanian minister and diplomat, responded to the U.S. military's April 13, 2017 announcement that it had dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb, known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), on a network of ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan. In the article, which appeared on the Jordanian website ammonnews.net, Al-'Amoush wrote that the superpowers, chiefly the U.S., had turned some Muslim and Arab countries into an arena for testing their weapons. He added that these countries are chosen for this purpose because they are weak, whereas powerful countries like North Korea and Iran are spared this treatment.
The following are excerpts from his article.[1]
MOAB dropped on ISIS target in Afghanistan (image: almayadeen.net, April 14, 2017)
"[Yesterday] the U.S. announced that it had dropped the 'Mother of All Bombs' on Afghan soil, and several weeks ago the Russians reported that they had tested new weapons in Syria. What is the meaning of this?! Why in our lands?! Why on our bodies?! Do they have no enemies other than us? Is the Earth not large enough [to find some other arena for testing their weapons]?
"The truth is that we [Arabs and Muslims] seem to be in a very bad state, for we kill ourselves by our own hands as well as with the [superpowers'] help. America's relations with North Korea are strained. Why then does it not drop this bomb on [North Korea]? The reason is that our lands are fair game, because our peoples are without value and we are the weakest link and [the world's] soft belly.
"George Bush Jr. named three countries as forming the 'Axis of Evil': Iraq, Iran and North Korea. [The Americans] used this against Iraq and occupied it, but nothing happened to the other two countries. This is because Iran and [North] Korea are powerful, whereas Iraq – the Americans first empowered it and then weakened it. They did the same with Al-Qaeda: they empowered it and then weakened it, and in the future they will do the same with ISIS.
"We are pawns, [and our lands are] an arena for [various] actions and experiments. [After] the Twin Towers [attack] in New York, they used us and occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. They used us to fight the Soviets, gave bin Laden Stinger missiles, and after the Soviets were defeated they killed him. [The Americans] used Saddam [Hussein] during the Iran[-Iraq] war and then executed him. They created ISIS, helped it gain territories, funds and media outlets, and [then] formed an international coalition to fight it.
"The problem is on our side, because in all their plots, they have [always] found someone on our side [willing] to be a gullible fool and to help them and serve as their agent. Allah spoke truth when He said, 'And do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest you be touched by the Fire [Koran 11:113]'; 'Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves [Koran 13:11].'"
[1] Ammonnews.net, April 14, 2017.
