“Düştü, Düştü Büyük Babil”: “Batı Dış Politikası’nın En Büyük Felaketi” olarak Irak Savaşı: Gregory Burke’ün The Black Watch Adlı Oyunu

ABD ve Bush Yönetimi liderliğinde 2003 yılında başlayan Irak Savaşı, sadece binlerce sivilin savaşta öldüğü ve kaos ve istikrarsızlığın hakim olduğu Irak için değil, aynı zamanda, savaşa katıldıktan sonra, kendilerini “Batı dış politikasının en büyük felaketi” içerisinde bulan İskoç Black Watch Alayı için de çözümü mümkün olmayan kayıplara sebep olmuştur. Savaş, aslında, Saddam Hüseyin’in, terörist aktivitelerde kullanılmak üzere Irak’ta biyolojik silah bulundurmakta olduğunun kanıtlandığını savunan ve iki çağdaş emperyalist ülke olan ABD ve Birleşik Krallık tarafından oluşturulan bir senaryo ile başladı. Bu senaryo, onların Irak’a sadece “demokrasi,” “barbarları uygarlaştırma” ve “onlara insan haklarını getirme” adına gireceklerine dair bir “mit” veya sözde “gerçeklikle” zenginleştirildi. Ancak, daha sonra, bu “biyolojik silah hikâyesi”nin bir senaryodan ibaret olduğu ve bu iki ülkenin bunu sadece Irak istilasını meşrulaştırmak için kullandıkları ve bu savaşın gerçek sebebinin Irak’taki petrol olduğu kanıtlandı. Bu bağlamda, İskoç oyun yazarı Gregory Burke’ün Black Watch adlı iddialı oyunu, savaşın trajik sonuçlarının bir metaforu olarak düşünülebilir. Bu tartışmalar ışığında, bu makale, Gregory Burke’ün bu oyun aracılığıyla, tiyatroyu, Batı emperyalist ideolojilerinin 21. yüzyılda halen büyük zararlarla devam ettiğini ve Irak Savaşı’nın bunun en açık kanıtlarından biri olduğunu gösteren bir ayna ve bu durumu eleştiren bir araç olarak kullandığını tartışmaktadır.

“Fallen, Fallen is Babylon the Great”*:The Iraq War as “The Biggest Western Foreign Policy Disaster” as Reflected in Gregory Burke’s The Black Watch

The Iraq War which started in 2003 under the leadership of the U.S.A., the Bush administration,has entailed an irreparable loss, not only for Iraq as thousands of civilians died in the war, and chaos anddisorder still prevail in the country, but also for the soldiers of the Scottish Black Watch regiment who,after they went to war, found themselves in “the Biggest Western Foreign Policy Disaster”. This war,actually, began through a fiction formulated by the two contemporary Western imperialist countries, theU.S.A. and the U.K. which argued that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons in Iraq which would beused for terrorist activities. This fiction was enriched by some other myths or fabricated “truths”, in whichthey argued that they would enter Iraq only in the name of “democracy,” “civilising the barbarians” and“bringing human rights to them”. Later, however, it was proven that this biological weapon story wasnothing more than a fiction formulated by these two countries, and they used it to justify their invasion ofIraq, with the real reason for the war being the “oil” in Iraq, a reflection of the prevailing Western imperialideologies. In this context, the Scottish playwright, Gregory Burke’s challenging play, The Black Watch,might be considered a metaphor for the tragic consequences of the war. In line with this, this paper arguesthat Burke, in this play, uses the theatrical performance as an instrument of satire and a mirror reflecting thefact that Western imperialist ideologies continue in the 21st century, causing enormous damage, Iraq Warbeing most evident proof of this.

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