http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/10-7
Published on Thursday, December 10, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Making an American ‘Impenetrable Underground Wall’ the Laughing Stock of
the World
by Ann Wright
No doubt at the instigation of the Israeli government, the Obama
administration has authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to
design a vertical underground wall under the border between Egypt and Gaza.
In March, 2009 the United States provided the government of Egypt with $32
million in March, 2009 for electronic surveillance and other security
devices to prevent the movement of food, merchandise and weapons into Gaza.
Now details are emerging about an underground steel wall that wil be 6-7
miles long and extend 55 feet straight down into the desert sand.
The steel wall will be made of super-strength steel put together in a jigsaw
puzzle fashion. It will be bomb proof and can not be cut or melted. It
will be “impenetrable,” and reportedly will take 18 months to construct. (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8405020.stm)
The steel wall is intended to cut the tunnels that go between Gaza and
Egypt.
The tunnels are the lifelines for Gaza since the international community
agreed to a blockade of Gaza to collectively punish the citizens of Gaza for
their having elected in Parliamentary elections in 2006 sufficient Hamas
Parliamentarians that Hamas became the government of Gaza. The United
States and other western countries have placed Hamas on the list of
terrorist organizations.
The underground steel wall is intended to strengthen international
governmental efforts to imprison and starve the people of Gaza into
submission so they will throw out the Hamas government.
Just as the steel walls of the US Army Corps of Engineers at the base of the
levees of New Orleans were unable to contain Hurricane Katrina, the US Army
Corps of Engineers’ underground steel walls that will attempt to build an
underground cage of Gaza will not be able to contain the survival spirit of
the people of Gaza.
America’s super technology will again be laughed at by the world, as young
men dedicated to the survival of their people, will again outwit technology
by digging deeper, and most likely penetrating the “impenetrable” in some
novel, simple, low-tech way.
I have been to Gaza 3 times this year following the 22-day Israeli military
attack on Gaza that killed 1,440, wounded 5,000, left 50,000 homeless and
destroyed much of the infrastructure of Gaza. The disproportionate use of
force and targeting of the civilian population by the Israeli military is
considered by international law and human rights experts as as violations of
the Geneva conventions.
When our governments participate in illegal actions, it is up to the
citizens of the world to take action. On December 31, 2009, 1,400
international citizens from 42 countries will march in Gaza with 50,000
Gazans in the Gaza Freedom March to end the siege of Gaza. They will take
back to their countries the stories of spirit and survival of the pople of
Gaza and will return home committed to force their governments to stop these
inhuman actions against the people of Gaza.
Just as American smart bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq have not conquered the
spirit of Aghans and Iraqis, America’s underground walls in Gaza will never
conquer the courage of those who are fighting for the survival of their
families.
One more time, the American government and the Obama administration has been
an active participant in the continued inhumane treatment of the people of
Gaza and should be held accountable, along with Israel and Egypt for
violations of human rights of the people of Gaza.
Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat
who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in
as a US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She is the co-author of
“Dissent: Voices of Conscience
March 19, 2003 letter of resignation can be read at
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0303/032103wright.htm.