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Recent
Stories
April
1, 2003
William
S. Lind
The Pitfalls of War Planning
Jorge
Mariscal
Latinos on the Frontlines, Again
Paul
de Rooij
Arrogant Propaganda
Jo
Wilding
From Baghdad: "I Am His Mother"
Tarif
Abboushi
Operation Embedded Folly
Lee
Sustar
Labor's War at Home
Akiva Eldar
Israeli Dreams of Iraqi Oil
Bernard
Weiner
The Vietnam Connection
Robert
Fisk
The Graveyard at Baghdad's North
Gate
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/01
March
31, 2003
David
Lindorff
Liberating Iraqis from Their Homes
Neve Gordon
A Different Kind of Despair
John
Chuckman
Absurdities and Contradictions
Ron Jacobs
Bernie Sanders Voting Maybe on
War
Wayne
Madsen
The Siege of Washington
Mark Franchetti
Slaughter at the Bridge of Death
Robert
Fisk
Blood and Bandages of the Innocent
Robin Cook
Send Our Soldiers Home
Anthony
Gancarski
Investigate Perle
Uri Avnery
The Devil's Dictionary
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 03/31
March
29, 2003
Kathy and
Bill Christison
"Like Being Autistic with
Power": an Interview with Jeff Halper
Ben
Tripp
"My Empire for a Map!": Geography
American Style
Ann Harrison
The War on Protesters: San Francisco's
Berserk Cops
Kurt
Nimmo
Dead People: Don't Go There
Chris Floyd
Blood on the Tracks: Cheney the
War Profiteer
Ann
Pettifer
Israelis: Victims No Longer?
Jo Wilding
Dispatch from Baghdad: Nowhere
is Safe
Ramzy
Baroud
Horror Chamber: Inside the Al-Amiriya
Shelter
David Krieger
Perle is Gone, But the Looting
Continues
John
Gershman
Dreams of Empire; Eulogies for International
Law
Robert
Fisk
Bombing the Phone System
Brice Abel
War, Bush and the Jesus Torilla
Tom
Stephens
The Chickenhawk Circle of Hell
Alexander
Cockburn
"War Not Going According
to Plan"
March 28,
2003
Robert
Fisk
Bitter Truths About Basra
Daniel
Wolff
A Road Trip in Wartime
Chris
Clarke
We Never Spit on Any Baby Killers
David Lindorff
Saddam, a Hero Made in Washington
Pierre
Tristam
Icarus on Crack: American Hubris
and Iraq
Jason Leopold
Richard Perle: the Enterprising
Hawk
Saul
Landau
Technological Massacre
Carol Norris
The Mother of All Bombs
Riad
Abdelkarim, MD
Iraq War Lingo 101
Adam Engel
Schlock and Awe
Steve
Perry
War Web Log
March 27,
2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Somebody Blew Up Baghdad
Rahul
Mahajan
The New Humanitarianism: Basra as
Military Target
Simon Jones
A Letter from Uzbekistan
William
S. Lind
No Exit
Diane Christian
A Day of Reckoning
The
Black Commentator
Onward
Embedded Soldiers: the Press and the War
Mickey
Z.
Remembering the Real Moynihan:
Genocide in East Timor
Richard
Thieme
The Problem of Empathy
Jason Leopold
Energy Scams: Bilking California
Out of Billions
Tariq
Ali
A Naked Display of Imperial Power
Alexander
Cockburn
Up the Creek
March 26,
2003
Bruce Jackson
A Battlefield from Hell
Pablo
Mukherjee
Watch
Their Lips
David Krieger
Shock But Not Awe
Linda
Heard
Winning
Hearts and Minds Bush-Style
Imad Jadaa
The Beautiful Face of America
Adam
Engel
Buckets
of Blood
Patrick
Cockburn
Kurds Unimpressed
David
Lindorff
POWs,
Torture and Hypocrisy
Robert
Fisk
The Coup That Didn't Happen
April
Hurley, MD
A
Doctor's Outrage in Baghdad
Gloria
Bergen
Chretien's Shame
Reema
Abu Hamdieh
The
Smell of Death Surrounds Me
March 25,
2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Life During Wartime
Gary
Leupp
What
Democracy Looks Like: the Streets of Cairo
Bill and
Kathleen Christison
An Interview with Hanan Ashrawi
Bruce
Jackson
Why
Protest? Why Write?
Uri Avnery
Bitter Rice: Thoughts and Warnings
on the War
Jason
Leopold
Blood
Indicator: Casualties and the Stock Market
Ralph Nader
A Pre-emptive War on a Defenseless
Country
March 24,
2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Ominous Signs
David
Lindorff
Peacekeepers
at Ground Zero
Diane Christian
Blood Sacrifice
Kathy
Kelly
The
Morning After Shock and Awe
John Stanton
US Bombs Iran
Wayne
Madsen
How
to Live with a Rogue Superpower
Anthony
Gancarski
Iraq and the Death of the West
David
Vest
Earth vs. Bush
Ahmad Faruqui
The Liberation of Iraq in Perspective
Robert
Fisk
We
Bomb, They Suffer
March 22 / 23, 2003
Edward Said
The Other
America
Saul Landau
The Threats of Empire
Kathleen and Bill Christison
On the Road in the West Bank
Joanne Mariner
Suing Seymour Hersh
Ann Harrison
The Battle of San Francisco
Robert Fisk
A Cauldron of Fire
Hani Shukrallah
The Gates of Hell
Chris Floyd
Memory Lane
Kathy Kelly
Imagine Chicago Under This Kind of Attack
Ramzi Kysia
Bombing Away a Chance for Joy
Linda Heard
Baghdad Burns While Bush Does Lunch
Bradley Burston
Could the US be at War for Years?
Salvador Peralta
Mass Murder as Liberation?
Tom Gorman
Now That's a Coalition!
Jorge Mariscal
Johnny Mack, When Are You Coming Back?
Cindy Milstein
The Grassroots Go Global
Josh Frank
Blocking Portland's Bridges
Elaine Cassel
The Case of Elizabeth Smart: Kidnapping and Insanity
Gordon Solberg
Drowning in Niceness: the Lessons of Elizabeth Smart
Tom Crumpacker
Getting to Know the Real Havana
Poets' Basement
Dobie, Guthrie, Alam, Wechsler
March 21, 2003
Ben Tripp
Blood
for Oil: the Exchange Rate
Cathy Breens
Report from Baghdad: Mothers, Kids and Crash Kits
Scott Handleman
Fourth
Generation Protesting: Shutting Down San Francisco
Vanessa Jones
Paint
Them Red
Brian J. Foley
Patriotic
Protest for Professors
Zoltan Grossman
After Saddam, a War on Iraqi Rebels?
Philip S. Golub
Inventing Demons
Richard Lichtman
On the Current Experience of Terror
Milan Rai
Blitz-Coup
Pepe Escobar
A Cheap Family Farce
Floyd Rudmin
The Nightmare at the Back Door: Nuclear Plant's as Terror Targets
Chris Floyd
See Rome (poem)
Website of the War
Iraq
Body Count
March 20, 2003
Jo Wilding
From
Waiting to War: a Day and a Night in Baghdad
Stephen Banko
I Was
a Soldier Once
Kevin Alexander Gray
How Did
We Become an Outlaw Nation?
Shane Claiborne
Nomadic
Solidarity: Glimpses of Life in Baghdad on the Eve of War
Kathy Kelly
Waiting on the Baghdad Skies to Crack
Anthony Gancarski
Michelle
Makin's "Liberty Shields"
Rahul Mahajan and Robert
Jensen
Myths
and Facts About the War on Iraq
Jason Leopold
Cheney's
Lies About Halliburton and Iraq
Ron Jacobs
If War is Business as Usual, There Should be No Business as Usual
Chuck O'Connell
Predictions About the Iraq War
Douglas Herman
US Air Force Veteran on the Coming Air Campaign
Ralph Nader
Come
On Democrats, Stand Up for Peace
William Hughes
War is Theft
Sima Saeedi
Dispatch
from Iran
Hammond Guthrie
John Philip Sousa
Website of the Day
Iraq
Body Count
Hot Stories
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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April 2,
2003
Uniting For
Peace
UN General Assembly
Provides Crucial Opportunity for Global Peace Movement
By JEREMY BRECHER
The United Nations General Assembly is hovering
on the edge of calling an emergency session to challenge the
US attack on Iraq. But US opposition has been fierce. The world's
"other superpower" -- global public opinion as expressed
in the global peace movement -- can tip the balance if it concentrates
on demanding a UN General Assembly meeting to halt the war on
Iraq now.
Background When Egypt nationalized the
Suez Canal in 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt
and began advancing on the Suez Canal. U.S. President Dwight
D. Eisenhower demanded that the invasion stop. Resolutions in
the UN Security Council called for a cease-fire--but Britain
and France vetoed them. Then the United States appealed to the
General Assembly and proposed a resolution calling for a cease-fire
and a withdrawal of forces. The General Assembly held an emergency
session and passed the resolution. Britain and France withdrew
from Egypt within a week.
The appeal to the General Assembly was
made under a procedure called "Uniting for Peace" (UfP).
This procedure was adopted by the Security Council so that the
UN can act even if the Security Council is stalemated by vetoes.
Resolution 377 provides that, if there is a "threat to peace,
breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and the permanent
members of the Security Council do not agree on action, the General
Assembly can meet immediately and recommend collective measures
to U.N. members to "maintain or restore international peace
and security." The "Uniting for Peace" mechanism
has been used ten times, most frequently on the initiative of
the United States.
The current situation At a meeting March
24, 2003, Arab foreign ministers condemned the invasion of Iraq
and called on the US and Britain to immediately withdraw their
forces without condition. The League's UN ambassador said, "We
will ask that the invasion stop, that the invading forces will
be withdrawn, and that Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity
and independence will be preserved." It instructed its
UN delegates to go first to the Security Council and then, if
unsuccessful, to the General Assembly.
The League requested and received a debate
in the Security Council. But the decision was made not to submit
a resolution against the war since a veto by the US and Britain
was nearly certain and the failure to pass such a resolution
might be used to defend the war's legitimacy.
After considerable hesitation, a coalition
of Arab, other Islamic, and developing countries decided to ask
for a special session on Iraq at the UN General Assembly. The
Organization of the Islamic Conference Group (OIC) declared on
Monday, March 31, that it is ready to take the Iraq war to the
General Assembly. The OIC, which includes 57 UN member countries,
indicated it would initiate such a meeting before April 9. The
plan is for a General Assembly special session to be formally
requested by Malaysian Ambassador Rastam Mohd Isa, who heads
the 115-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of developing countries
at the United Nations. The Malaysian Ambassador "plans to
request the special session, in a letter to . . . the assembly's
acting president."
US Opposition Meanwhile, the US has been
"aggressively lobbying governments around the world for
the past two weeks to help head off an emergency assembly session
on Iraq." "We don't think a General Assembly meeting
is necessary," a U.S. official said. "This type of
session is only going to divide U.N. members."
Greenpeace has released the text of a
communication from the United States to UN representatives around
the world leaked by an "incensed" UN delegate. It stated,
"Given the highly charged atmosphere, the United States
would regard a General Assembly session on Iraq as unhelpful
and as directed against the United States. Please know that this
question as well as your position on it is important to the US."
It warned/threatened that "the staging of such a divisive
session could do additional harm to the UN."
Hanging in the balance While the overwhelming
majority of the world's people and nations oppose the Bush Administration's
attack on Iraq, fear of US retribution has repeatedly forced
UN members to draw back from actually implementing a "Uniting
for Peace" appeal to the General Assembly. According to
UPI, "An informal tally shows that there are not enough
nations aligned with the Arab states to bring the topic before
the body."
Currently various blocs in the UN are
discussing wording on which they might agree. An OIC statement
called for an immediate cease-fire, withdrawal of foreign forces
from Iraq, and respect for the sovereignty and political independence
of Iraq and its neighbors. However, the OIC is considering proposing
a milder resolution in the General Assembly, expressing regret
for the use of force against Iraq, in an effort to get support
from more nations, notably European nations. This process may
drag on for an undetermined time.
Why a UfP resolution matters A General
Assembly resolution will not in itself stop the war. General
Assembly actions may not be legally binding. Besides, the Bush
Administration has already shown it is willing to defy the UN
and international law. Nonetheless, such a resolution would be
a major blow to the Bush Administration--as its campaign to prevent
a General Assembly session indicates.
First, a UfP resolution will intensify
the fear of global isolation among the US public and elite. Such
fears will play a significant role in turning them not only against
the Iraq war but more generally against the Bush Administration
policy of preventive war and global domination.
Second, a UfP resolution will provide
a heightened legitimacy to all the actions of the global peace
movement. All its actions in every country will become not merely
the expression of an opinion but efforts to implement the decision
of the world's highest authority.
Third, a UfP resolution will lay the
basis for future UN action, both regarding Iraq and more broadly,
that can circumvent the US veto. It can thus provide the starting
point for reconstituting the UN as the voice of the world.
Why a UfP campaign matters A worldwide
campaign for UfP provides the global peace movement--the world'
s "other superpower--a unique opportunity.
- It provides a great focus for struggle
in the streets and in the political arena.
- It will allow the movement to show
its global clout.
In every country where the majority of
the people oppose the war (probably every country in the world
except the US and Israel), the peace movement can demand that
the government reject US dictation and support UfP.
On the streets, UfP can become a central
demand of the next rounds of global anti-war demonstrations.
While it has been endorsed by many campaigning organizations,
such as CND in Britain and Greenpeace, it has yet to appear extensively
on the programs and picket signs of the big peace demonstrations
around the world. The way to go: A recent demonstration in Santiago,
Chile urged Chile's President to back a call for the United Nations
General Assembly to hold a special session to "adopt moral
sanctions against Bush."
In the political process, parliaments
can demand that their governments support UfP. The Russian Duma,
for example, recently passed a resolution calling for General
Assembly intervention in Iraq; so did the Senate Standing Committee
on Foreign Affairs of Thailand. Political parties provide another
arena: the Czech Republic's governing Social Democratic party,
whose government has waffled on the war, just voted nearly unanimously
to condemn it. (The motion was sponsored by Czech UN Ambassador
Jan Kavan, who happens also to be current President of the UN
General Assembly.)
In the US, the peace movement can expose
and attack Bush Administration's sabotage of the UN and its illegitimate,
deeply resented, and counter-productive efforts to interfere
in the political decisions of other countries all over the world.
This is also an opportunity for religious,
labor, and other groups in civil society to make their voices
heard. For example, a group of Italian Catholic associations
petitioned the Italian government demanding that "the UN
General Assembly be called to block, based on resolution 337
[Uniting for Peace], any action which does not comply with the
UN Charter so as to bring peace." They appealed for "a
ceasefire which will put an end to the useless massacre in Iraq."
And a group of international women's organizations called for
an emergency General Assembly meeting, noting that "the
resolve of many UN member states to stand firm against the US,
reinforced by the call to enact Uniting for Peace, offer hope
for a revitalized international system."
Jeremy Brecher
is a historian and the author of twelve books including STRIKE!
and GLOBALIZATION
FROM BELOW. He can be reached at: jbrecher@igc.org.
Information on Uniting for Peace based on "A
U.N. Alternative to War: 'Uniting for Peace" by
Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights and Jules Lobel,
University of Pittsburgh Law School.
A Greenpeace web petition at www.greenpeace.org
calling for a General Assembly session has received 60,000 signatures
worldwide. There is also a European-initiated petition at www.ufp.ht.st.
Today's
Features
William
S. Lind
The Pitfalls of War Planning
Jorge
Mariscal
Latinos on the Frontlines, Again
Paul
de Rooij
Arrogant Propaganda
Jo
Wilding
From Baghdad: "I Am His Mother"
Tarif
Abboushi
Operation Embedded Folly
Lee
Sustar
Labor's War at Home
Akiva Eldar
Israeli Dreams of Iraqi Oil
Bernard
Weiner
The Vietnam Connection
Robert
Fisk
The Graveyard at Baghdad's North
Gate
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/01
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