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Recent
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April
23, 2003
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Chris
Floyd
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April 26,
2003
Sharon Recruits US
Mercenaries Against Syria
Of
Pariahs and Pre-emptive Strikes
By WILLIAM A. COOK
Even before the "victory" in Iraq had
been declared, Administration officials began leveling accusations
at Syria that sounded strangely familiar, something like a regurgitation
of the lies that had propelled our forces into the "war
that wasn't." Predictably, that series of accusations was
followed by Sharon's demands of its mercenary forces, the US
military, that they undertake five goals desired by Israel. These
demands represent the next step in Israel's fulfillment of the
Wolfowitz/ Perle design to achieve "The New Strategy for
Securing the Realm," the report they prepared for the Israeli
right wing Likud party in 1996.
Ha'aretz listed Sharon's demands in its
April 16th edition, demands uttered only two days earlier by
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz: 1. "The removal and
dismantling of Palestinian terrorist organizations operating
out of Damascus Hamas and Islamic Jihad; 2. The ouster
of Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley;
3. An end to Syrian cooperation with Iran, including attempts
to transfer arms to the Palestinian Authority and incite Israeli
Arabs; 4. The deployment of the Lebanese Army along Lebanon's
border with Israel and the ouster of Hezbollah from the area;
and 5. The dismantling of the surface-to-surface missile network
that Israel charges Hezbollah has built in Southern Lebanon."
Sharon added that President Pashar Assad "is dangerous.
His judgment is impaired." Like Saddam, Israel and America
are confronted once again with a dangerous threat in the form
of a dictator.
Obviously, Sharon has no qualms about
making such demands; he has already made it known to his Cabinet
and to the Israeli public via radio that Jews run the US and
we here in America know it. He does not fear the Israeli academics
or peace groups in the homeland or the American Jews who recoil
at his policies towards the Palestinians, groups like Jews for
Peace in Palestine and the many who have affiliated with TIKKUN
magazine in its efforts to bring a peaceful resolution to the
crisis.
These actions are seen in the Arab world
as portending mid-east domination by Israel. Kamal Kharrazi,
Iranian Foreign Minister, stated that United States actions are
done to allow Israel domination in the mid-east. A Syrian Cabinet
report notes that US statements regarding Syria are a "stimulus
and a service to Israel's goals and expansion greed" In
a similar vein, AIPAC's recent invitation to Intifad Qanbar of
the Iraqi National Congress to attend its conference, one of
the primary Iraqi figures expected to play a major role in the
"new" Iraq, reflects Israel's links to pro-Israel Iraqi
groups as a "democratic" Iraq emerges. AIPAC has had
ongoing meetings with Ahmed Chalabi founder of that organization,
personal friend of Rumsfeld, and self-proclaimed future leader
of Iraq. Add to this Israeli/Iraq connection the imposition of
General Garner as "pro-consul" of Iraq and sympathizer
with the tribulations of Ariel Sharon, the off-hand dismissal
of the UN as a participant in the reconstruction of the new Iraq,
and the distribution of reconstruction contracts to corporations
tied to the "pro-Israeli clique," and it is no wonder
the Arab world fears the rising power of Israel in the mid-east.
A recent article suggests that America's
preemptive role in the mid-east can be linked to the influence
of the Wolfowitz/Perle duo and their emergence into positions
of prominence in the Bush administration. Michael Lind's article
in "The New Statesman" focuses on a core clique of
influential men in the Bush administration who have co-opted
control of America's foreign policy. There can be no question
that they are linked to the 1991/2 "Defense Policy Guidance
Report" prepared for Dick Cheney and Daddy Bush. That document
brought the concept of "preemptive" strikes into vogue
as a premise for safeguarding America's superiority in military
power.
Subsequently that document became the
basis for the 1996 report prepared for the Likud right wing.
The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies prepared
the report, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing
the Realm." The main ideas for the report came from "prominent
opinion makers" Richard Perle, James Colbert, and Douglas
Feith among others. Of all the recommendations presented in that
report, the most pertinent to this paper is this statement: "Israel
can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey
and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria.
This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in
Iraq an important Israeli strategic objective in its own
right as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions."
That strategic objective, removing Saddam
from power, has now been achieved through the use of the US military.
While Saddam may have appeared to be a threat to Israel some
years ago, in recent years, since the first Gulf war, he was
not perceived as such by Israel's military or the nations immediately
surrounding Iraq, including Kuwait, although, for reasons unknown,
he was a threat to America according to our President. One wonders,
therefore, why Perle would make this observation in the 1996
report. The answer is in the immediate access Israel has to Iraqi
oil now that it is under US occupation; the pipeline through
Jordan will be reopened providing cheaper oil to Israel. In addition,
US troops present in Iraq and Kuwait offer strategic support
to the continued existence of the Israeli state and rearrange
the strategic balance in the Middle East in favor of Israel.
Neither of these reasons could be declared publicly.
Having achieved one objective, Perle
can now look to the second, "foiling Syria's regional ambitions."
To bring focus to the threat Syria poses for the United States
and its alleged desire to create democracies in the mid-east,
Israel can turn to the "Securing the Realm" report
for arguments: "It is dangerous for Israel to deal naively
with a regime murderous of its own people, openly aggressive
toward its neighbors, criminally involved with international
drug traffickers and counterfeiters, and supportive of the most
deadly terrorist organizations." Substitute the United States
for Israel in the above quote and you have the arguments being
offered to America to take out Syria. Once again, the United
States becomes Israel's proxy army.
Since Perle and Wolfowitz have transferred
their presence to the new administration, having been out of
power during the Clinton years, they can now resurrect the essential
points of their old 1991/2 report in the form of the September
2002 National Security Strategy Policy Report that calls upon
the US to adopt "the principle of preemption" as outlined
in their report and made a part of the Israeli 1996 study. Indeed,
that principle served as the basis for attacking Iraq. Now it
can serve to invade Syria. All that is needed is the threat as
outlined above. Congressmen friendly to Israel, including Rep.
Eliot L. Engel, D-NY and Senators Rick Santorum (PA) and Barbara
Boxer (CA) are already moving to force sanctions on Syria, a
first step in the acceptance of the arguments that allow for
a preemptive strike. The simple arrangement of an "unprovoked"
attack by Syria against Israel or an Israeli interest will be
stimulus enough to "justify" invasion.
In a letter to the President, dated April
3, 2002, five months before the National Security Strategy Policy
Report was issued as the guiding document for the Bush administrations'
foreign policy, Perle, Daniel Pipes, Norman Podhoretz, William
Kristol, William Bennett and many others from the New American
Century Project, wrote: "No one should doubt that the United
States and Israel share a common enemy. We are both targets of
what you have correctly called an 'Axis of Evil.' Israel is targeted
in part because it is our friend, and in part because it is an
island of liberal, democratic (sic) principles American
principles in a sea of tyranny, intolerance, and hatred.
As Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has pointed out, Iran, Iraq,
and Syria are all engaged in 'inspiring and financing a culture
of political murder and suicide bombing' against Israel, just
as they have aided campaigns of terrorism against the United
States over the past two decades. You have declared war on international
terrorism, Mr. President, Israel is fighting the same war."
Even if we overlook the obsequious drivel
in this letter and the omitted realities of Israeli behavior
under Sharon, who has made a hallmark of state run terrorism,
we can see that Israel's interests as promulgated by Perle and
Wolfowitz have been transferred to America. Indeed, Israel is
being targeted for terrorist actions precisely because it is
a friend of the US, and, therefore, it follows that the US has
a responsibility for defending Israel. To that end, Perle and
company demanded that " the United States should lend its
full support to Israel (and) we urge you to accelerate plans
for removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq."
Nowhere do these Israeli advocates mention
that Israel alone in the mid-east has known weapons of mass destruction
including Lithium-6 or nuclear capability in the neighborhood
of 200 bombs. Nowhere do they mention that the argument against
Iraq for defying UN resolutions can be leveled as well at Israel,
including the most recent resolution of this month, voted 50-1
with the US voting against the resolution, condemning Israel
for "mass killing" of Palestinians and for its settlement
policy. Nowhere do they tell the truth about Israeli democracy
that exists for Jews but not to the same extent for Arabs and
certainly not for Palestinians. Nowhere do they explain that
America's forces, its sons and daughters and American tax dollars,
are being used to effect Israel's interests as laid out in the
"Securing the Realm" report. Nowhere do they mention
that it is Sharon's savage policies that have made America a
pariah in the Arab world because of its unswerving support for
his vengeful, retaliatory attacks against incarcerated Palestinians
in refugee camps surrounded by tanks and barbed wire.
In brief, the Wolfowitz/Perle coalition
have managed to have the United States achieve the first of their
desired goals for Israel, the elimination of Saddam Hussein,
and seem prepared to use US forces again to remove Syria and
then Iran. For the US to become a mercenary force for Israel
because a few persistent neo-con fanatics have managed to corral
America's foreign policy threatens the very premise of our democracy
just as it threatens the security of our citizens who become
the victims of those who decry the imperialist direction the
current administration has designed for America.
William Cook is a professor of English at the University
of La Verne in southern California. His new book, Psalms
for the 21st Century, was just published by
Mellen Press. He can be reached at: cookb@ULV.EDU
Today's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
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