The View from Pakistan's DAWN

"The weapons were never found; America's democracy project looks increasingly shaky and the sexual abuse scandal has stripped the mask from the face of human rights. Now like the helpless prisoners in Abu Ghraib what we are left with is a naked bony skeleton of an imperialist order trying to hide itself under the sheath of the United Nations.

President Bush and the people around him never stop talking of the need for winning 'the battle for hearts and minds' in the Muslim world. In reality, the only 'battle for hearts and minds' that matters to the Muslims, and to the world at large is the one that is being fought inside the United States. And recent events for the first time have touched the soul of America.

If the American people got rid of those like Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Cheney along with their president there may be some glimmer of hope for the future. If the struggle of the people of Iraq changes the hearts and minds of the American electorate then it will be a victory not only for the people of Iraq but for the whole blue planet. America will still be in Iraq but with different goals and a different vision. "