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Recent
Stories
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
April
2, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Politics of Casualties
David
Lindorff
Making America Safer...for Iraqi
Fighters
William
Blum
Some Observations on the Recent Behavior of the Empire
Gustavio
Sierra
The Morning After the Slaughter at
Nasser
Patrick
Cockburn
Playing Into Saddam's Hands
Robert
Jensen
Peter Arnett: Whipping Boy of the
Pentagon
Jeremy
Brecher
Uniting for Peace Update
N.D.
Jayaprakash
The Siege of Basra
LaDawn
Haglund
You Can Jail the Resisters, But You
Can't Arrest the Resistance
Robert
Fisk
Truth and Subterfuge
Jemima
Khan
I'm Ashamed to be British
Steve
Perry
War Web Log
Stew Albert
Total War
Website
of the Day
Traitor List: Sign Up Now!
April
1, 2003
Jason
Leopold
Rumsfeld: "Get Me Rewrite"
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
Website
of the Day
A Collectible War
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 5,
2003
War
and Occupation
The
Future of the World?
By RON JACOBS
As the battle for Baghdad (or perhaps the siege
of Baghdad) begins to take shape, we are left to wonder what
lies ahead. It's looks pretty likely that the US's overwhelming
killing machine will eventually destroy the regime, either by
destroying most of Iraq or by making life so miserable for the
Iraqis that the military will surrender. The occupation, however,
is certain to be a different matter. Once Hussein is gone from
power, there are bound to be several factions vying for power
in Iraq. Amongst these various factions will be the occupying
forces of the United States military. Iraqis intent on revenge
for years of sanctions, support of the Hussein government, and
other US misdeeds are bound to exact some kind of punishment
on the Americans. Whether or not that revenge actually organizes
itself into some kind of resistance force is another question,
which is currently unanswerable from this vantage point.
If one looks at recent (and current)
military occupations, there is one common denominator: popular
resistance. In Palestine that resistance has run the gamut from
non-violent protest and direct action to suicide attacks and
military action. In Kosovo and other regions of the former Yugoslavia,
the scenario was pretty much the same. In Chechnya, the resistance
has been more organized and, consequently, much more like what
we consider to be a war. In other words, the military power has
shifted from the occupier to the resistance and back again. In
Afghanistan, it seems that the Chechnya model is beginning to
formulate itself.
Reading Iraqi history, we find this little
note regarding the British occupation of the Iraqi nation during
the 1920s-"Churchill believed that the country could be
cheaply policed by aircraft armed with gas bombs, supported by
as few as 4,000 British and 10,000 (colonial) Indian troops"
(from Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force, 1919-1939,
David E. Omissi, 1990). Churchill was wrong. The Iraqis eventually
drove the British from the country. The US strategists are saying
today that they don't believe they will need to capture or kill
the entire Hussein government before they can occupy the country.
Indeed, certain news agencies are reporting that some members
of the administration don't even believe that Baghdad needs to
be controlled. This type of thinking is reminiscent of the British
imperial arrogance that brought down their empire. Need I say
more?
It is too early to speculate what truly
lies ahead for the GIs in Iraq (and those on their way), but
I think it is safe to say their job will continue to be bloody
and dirty. One can only hope that those who have moral qualms
about occupying another country at gunpoint will act on those
qualms and refuse to serve. One also hopes that the opposition
we have created to the war will continue to protest as the occupiers
attempt to impose their will on the Iraqi people. Besides the
occupation, one can be relatively certain that the administration
will continue its plans to make war on other countries that oppose
its plans for conquest.
Come Senators, Congressmen, Please Heed
the Call, Don't Stand in the Doorway, Don't Block up the Hall
The antiwar movement cannot roll over.
The fact that a bloody war is being fought in Iraq (and elsewhere)
despite our incredible opposition around the world does not mean
that we have failed. It only means we have not fought hard enough,
nor have we reached enough of the world's people. Furthermore,
it means we must expand our reach, our tactics and our strategies
to make the movement against war and occupation a movement that
no government can ignore. In the US, this means that every presidential
candidate must take a position on the war and occupation and
answer for that position at the polls. Every Senator and Congressman
who voted for the war and its funding must pay for it at election
time. This is not just a question of right vs. wrong. It is a
matter of life and death. The cost to the politicians must be
such that they will oppose this war or lose their jobs.
Politicians may not be good for much,
but they do serve as useful foci for raising the issues that
need to be raised. Antiwar folks who are electorally inclined
must run for office. The rest of us must organize, march, sit-in,
and do whatever else to make the war and occupation a major issue
in the political life of America. Citizens of other countries
should take comparable actions in their nations. Even though
the diplomatic battles in the UN before the war began were largely
the result of differing commercial interests in Iraq and the
Middle East, they would not have widened to the point they are
currently at without the pressures applied by the antiwar protests.
The fact that the antiwar movement was able to widen the fissures
between the large capitalist nations is a victory of sorts. One
hopes the space created by this split among these governments
can be filled by those of us who honestly oppose Washington's
wars and the economics that drives them.
The man in line for the main administrator
of Iraq's postwar occupation government, Ret. General Jay Garner,
is a public supporter of the Israeli policy of expansion and
an executive (currently on leave) of the defense contractor L-3
Communications. His job in Iraq will be to help "introduce
a capitalist system where there's been central-control socialism
since the 1960s," according to Ariel Cohen of the Heritage
Foundation. As any student of right wing think tanks knows, this
foundation supports the Sharon government in Israel and the expansion
of US corporate power around the globe via military force. The
other countries in the Middle East are very interested in Iraq's
future. After all, it could very well be their own. Iran and
Syria are under increasing threats from the US. Saudi Arabia
is in disfavor with the current administration in Washington,
and Jordan and Egypt find themselves stuck between their allegiance
to US aid and the anger of their people over the US presence
in the region. If the occupation succeeds in Iraq, one can be
pretty certain that US hawks will want to attempt a similar scenario
elsewhere, beginning with those countries currently in Bush and
Rumsfeld's "axis of evil."
The scenes of death and destruction we
are seeing from Iraq will pale besides those that could come
from the future wars of the madmen and women in Washington, DC.
We have no choice but to oppose their occupation and their wars.
They must be stopped.
Ron Jacobs
is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground.
He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
Today's
Features
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
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