|
Recent
Stories
April
23, 2003
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
April
22, 2003
Edward
Said
The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq
War are Now Clear
Sam
Hamod
What's the Deal with This War?
Kurt
Nimmo
Shi'a Will to Power
Gary
Leupp
At last! The Necessary Evidence
Carl
Estabrook
Oblivious Americans: They Distort,
We Subside
John
Stanton
Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel?
Ramzy
Baroud
What Else Hasn't Israel Told America?
Steven
Sherman
About That Cuba Letter
Wayne Madsen
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Stew
Albert
Creep
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/22
Website
of the Day
Critical Media Literacy in Times of War
April
21, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
An Administration in Contempt
Gary
Leupp
Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus
and Kanaka WaiWai
Roger
Witherspoon
Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action
Uri Avnery
At Midnight, a Knock on the Door
Col. Dan
Smith
Early Lessons from Iraq
Jo
Freeman
After the Protest Comes Politics
Michael
Berry
The Friedman Absurdities
Gray
Brechin
Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss
Bob Riedel
The Taliban from Texas
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/21
April
19, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Rape of History
Saul
Landau
Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
War, Wait for Armageddon
Michael
J. Fellows
Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
Pablo
Mukherjee
Roadmap to Resistance
Omar
Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
Anthony
Gancarski
Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World
Mickey
Z.
Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
When Police Attack Journalists
William
MacDougall
America's In-Bedded Journalism
Neve
Gordon
Haunted by History
Adam
Engel
Wal-Mart and Peace
Dr.
Susan Block
Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Buono, Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/19
Song of
the Weekend
Baghdad to Basra
April
18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
This One's Not About Oil
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles
Matania
Ben-Artzi
You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President
of Israel's Supreme Court
Bruce Jackson
Jews Like Us
Joe
Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
the Patriot Missile System
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
Hot Stories
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
April 26,
2003
Why the War on Iraq
Was (and Remains) Wrong
It's Time for
the Resistance to Unite
By GARY LEUPP
That which is a crime in the conceptual stage
remains a crime in the execution stage. The war on Iraq was a
violation of international law, regardless of its "success."
I have little respect for Henry Kissinger, but I agree with him
that the attack "challenges the international system established
by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia," the basis for modern
rules governing interaction between states. I agree, too, with
the Pope, who declared the war both "unjust" and "illegal."
The governments of key U.S. allies opposed the aggression conducted
by the Anglo-American invading forces, ludicrously termed "the
Coalition forces." There simply was and is precious little
support on the planet for this project, obscenely sold as "Operation
Iraqi Freedom." Nor should there be.
It should be clear to anyone paying attention
that a cabal in the Bush administration, headed by Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, abetted
by ideologist Richard Perle, used Sept. 11 to implement plans
they'd articulated in position papers years before. It involves
"regime change" throughout Southwest Asia. It's not
just about oil, but about control of oil and other resources,
and about further advantaging the sole superpower (which the
French have taken to calling, appropriately, a hyper-puissance
or hyperpower) via-à-vis any potential future rivals
in what they call the "New American Century."
But you can't sell the American people
a nakedly imperialist war by describing it in such straightforward
terms. Thus we were told that war with Iraq was necessary because
Saddam was involved with al-Qaeda. Or with the anthrax letters,
or the al-Ansar grouplet in Kurdistan. All bullshit. The argument
they finally chose, from their disinformation arsenal, was weapons
of mass destruction. We in America were threatened with attack,
so we had to go in there and take Saddam out.
Since it's in their script, I think it
likely they'll produce some evidence to validate their war. (Rumsfeld
is already predicting that they will find WMDs, which they are
obviously desperately trying to do, but that "certain types
of people" will claim "inaccurately, that it was planted."
These may include honest professionals in the intelligence community
itself, who are nauseated by the degree of dishonesty they've
been asked to endorse.) Meanwhile Bush has asked the U.N. to
lift the sanctions originally imposed on Iraq at U.S. insistence
to force the elimination of such weapons. France's Chirac, among
others, reply (quite logically) that to lift the sanctions, we
must have proof there are no WMDs. They say, "You went to
war to destroy what you called Saddam's threatening arsenal;
now show us those weapons, and we'll lift the sanctions."
The U.N. is asking that neutral arms inspectors return to Iraq.
The U.S. is saying, "No, trust us, we'll handle it."
We'll see.
Meanwhile, what are the fruits of this
war? Up to 1904 civilian deaths at last count, and thousands
of Iraqi soldiers killed defending their country. 157 dead among
the invaders, mostly kids just doing what they were told and
garnering no glory in their deaths. Disorder throughout Iraq.
Rage at the U.S. effort to impose its satraps hauled out of exile
to constitute an interim government. Tens of thousands demonstrating
in Baghdad, saying "No to occupation. No Bush, no Saddam,"
and telling the troops to go home. (One must sympathize with
those college-age GIs, told by their commanders that they're
liberators, then confronted with reality, just as their forebears
were in Vietnam. Some will come home very messed up.)
While occupying troops diligently guarded
Oil Ministry offices in Baghdad, thugs sacked the Museum of National
Antiquities and burned down the National Library, containing
thousand-year old copies of the Quran. This is a heartbreaking
loss, an assault on Iraqi identity. It happened on the occupiers'
watch, is their responsibility, and will no doubt generate more
hatred towards them.
The order's now gone out from the generals
that the troops must not display the U.S. flag in Iraq. It has
generated such indignation that U.S. officers have hurriedly
tucked it away. Sure, there were those brief images of Iraqi
kids waving little U.S. flags, the kind you might buy here at
your corner drugstore. (Where, I wonder, does one go in sanctions-bound
Baghdad to purchase one of those little plastic American flags?)
And that staged toppling of the Saddam statue in that near-empty
Baghdad square. Pure Hollywood. Looks to me as though the locals
are in fact sullen and uncooperative.
Some who were involved in the antiwar
movement as the Iraq attack was being planned eventually changed
their minds and decided that now that the war was on, "we"
should just hope for a quick end to it and the establishment
of "democracy" (whatever that means) in Iraq. I disagree.
I don't think the likes of Zalmay Khalilzad, who orchestrated
the farcical Loya Jirga in Afghanistan, can facilitate the empowerment
of the Iraqi people, nor do I think, as a matter of general principle,
that global oppressors can be liberators. Think of the recent
historical context. The U.S. set up the vicious Shah in Iran;
he was toppled in the most genuine mass-based revolution ever
to occur in an Islamic country. The U.S. didn't like that. To
punish Iran for its revolution, it supported the Saddam regime
in its attack on Iran in the 1980s. Meanwhile in Afghanistan
the CIA assembled tens of thousands of Islamist militants to
confront the Soviet-backed secular Afghan regime, especially
backing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (whom they're now trying to assassinate).
The U.S. intervention in Afghanistan produced al-Qaeda and the
Taliban. Does this record suggest that the current U.S. role
in Iraq will lead to anything positive?
Looks to me like the Iraqis want the
U.S. out immediately. There is zero support for Ahmad Chalabi,
the Defense Department's candidate for puppet ruler under indictment
in Jordan for embezzlement. The British choice for Basra mayor
has been deposed in the wake of mass opposition, replaced with
the city's leading capitalist. Occupiers, when in doubt, naturally
gravitate towards support for the existing elites so long as
they kiss ass. Meanwhile, on the Arab street from Rabat to Beirut,
people are sick with fear about a U.S. attack on Syria.
Justification for such another unjustified attack is already
being prepared, systematically. Such are the results of "Operation
Iraqi Freedom."
Let us assume that resistance to the
occupation continues in Iraq, while the cabal plots its next
moves. Shouldn't good people in this country unite with
the resistance in Iraq, and redouble efforts to oppose the cabal's
agenda, which includes not just interminable war abroad, but
war on the Bill of Rights here at home?
Gary Leupp
is an an associate professor, Department of History, Tufts University
and coordinator, Asian Studies Program. This article originally
appeared in the Tufts Daily.
He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.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
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|