I’m splitting up the contents of this blog
Permalink +Sun, Apr 06, 2003, 2:18 pm // John Servais
between local and national. Today, Local is down a bit.Huge battle for Baghdad airport raging right now - yet our American "news" media are not reporting it. Our forces have been driven back from half the airport. Tis midnight in Iraq. Check this Russian Aeronautics web site for current news - April 6. How is Fox describing it? They now say we control "one runway" and are battling "pockets" of resistance. Hell, we have been driven half way out of the airport, according to the Russian reporters.
Noon
National
Well, the war appears to be won. There could be surprises - and the occupation forces might have problems. History shows conquerors regretting their victories. Vietnam was 7 years with victory just another 50,000 troops away. But this is probably a true victory.
OK, war-monger friends - promoters of Empire - what will you root and cheer next? An interesting question. Probably "liberation" of Syria. Or its desert. Will we "find" weapons there? The weapons we are not finding in Iraq? Will we find something and call it a WMD? The sad thing is those cheering on the war change their slogan every couple weeks. It will be nice if our goal is simply the liberation of the Iraqi people. Here is a review of the changing reason for war.
9/11 - Bush repeated the big lie often. Get revenge and stop terrorism. No matter that there was no connection. The terrorist camp we found was deep in Kurdish-controlled Iraq, but the news media hardly tell you that. So, with the 9/11 excuse being torn apart....
Then it was WMD - weapons of mass destruction. Well, we've found none. The news media have hyped the finding of gas masks and antidotes. Talk about a non-sequitur. So, without any expectation of finding WMD...
Then it was Liberate an oppressed people. Regime change. Kill Saddam. Kill him and all will crumble. Liberate and Iraqis will welcome us. But that has not happened. So, now we will turn to...
___________ - fill in the blank. There will probably be a new theme within a week or two. It will prevent the Iraqi people from ruling themselves, it will keep our troops in Iraq on a long-term basis, and it will point our military at Syria and Iran. It will give our American corporations the big oil concessions and "rebuilding" what we destroyed. But it will not be about liberating the Iraqis. There will be "problems" with turning over government to them "too soon".
Perhaps the new cheer will be "stabilize" the Middle East. We will be told our military is needed there to help the region - to bring more of the region to "democracy". Today we are still seeing the "Operation Freedom" banners on the TV. Soon we will watch talking heads ponder our white-man's burden of how we cannot leave until we have stabilized some other countries and reduced future threats to our "security". That will go on for years - as we threaten other countries with invasion unless they do our bidding.
If you are older, then you remember how Hitler wrote exactly what he was going to do and how a big criticism of world leaders was they did not believe what was plain to read. And how the world suffered. Well, now a group of unelected theorists have been working for ten years writing how the USA should dominate the world and become an empire. They planned this Iraq war and advised Bush on this war. With only one exception they are all draft dodgers. (Rumsfeld) Our congress did not decide on this new course for our country.
The New American Century. These fellows appear to have little respect for democracy in that this policy was not decided upon by our US Congress. They wanted war with Iraq long before 9/11. They are Bush's and Rumsfeld's closest advisors. They lay it all out at their web site. And this is the plan that is being followed in the Middle East. To read some counter arguments, check Foreign Policy in Focus.
Local (Bellingham, Whatcom County, Washington State)
Regarding a previous post. Since the Bellingham police did not arrest the protestors shutting down I-5, this should negate my accusation of a double standard. Good point - in this suggests tolerance by local police for extreme action by both sides. However, the reason I-5 protestors are not arrested is the goal is reopening the highway asap and moving them off is quicker than arrests. Further, jurisdiction is an issue - the Freeway is federal. So - the point is taken but the issue is not so clean.
Related Links:
-> Wikipedia entry for Project for the New American Century-> Foreign Policy in Focus
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