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Recent
Stories
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
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
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
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April 18,
2003
This
One's Not About Oil
Operation "Syrian Freedom"?
by
URI AVNERY
No victory justifies an evil war. Quite the opposite.
It just adds to the evil.
With the entry of American forces into
Baghdad, opposition to the war in the US and Britain is dwindling.
In other countries, too, doubts are starting to nibble away at
the anti-war camp.
I find this difficult to understand.
Let's pose the question in the most provocative
manner: what would have happened if Adolf Hitler had triumphed
in World War II? Would this have turned his war into a just one?
Let's assume that Hitler would have indicted
his enemies at the Nuremberg war crimes court: Churchill for
the terrible air raid on Dresden, Truman for dropping the atom
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Stalin for murdering millions
in the Gulag  camps. Would the historians have regarded
this as a just war?
A war that ends with the victory of the
aggressor is worse than a war that ends with their defeat. It
is more destructive, both physically and morally.
On the eve of the Iraq war, world public
opinion found its voice as never before. This world reaction
was an immensely valuable moral victory. On it the future must
be built. The flame must not be allowed to die down. It must
flare up into a blaze again.
It can't be stopped.
Let me repeat the Israeli joke: "It
is difficult to prophesy, especially about the future."
But this time, the prophesies have come
true so quickly, that even the "prophets" themselves
are stunned.
After the American onslaught on Afghanistan,
we said in these columns: You can't stop a military machine that
has achieved such a quick and complete victory with so few losses.
It will push for action again and again.
We said: the band of zealots which is
in control of Washington cannot stop now, just as Napoleon and
Hitler could not stop. Their inner logic will push them to attack
again and again.
On the eve of the attack on Iraq we said:
after this, the next targets will be Syria and Iran.
And here it comes. The shooting in Baghdad
had not yet ended, while the first steps towards the attack on
Syria were already being taken.
Again the same outcry: "They have
chemical weapons!" (And so have the Unites States, Russia,
Egypt, Israel, Britain, France and many others. Every military
machine develops these weapons, even for defensive purposes.)
"There is a brutal dictator out there!" "He supports
terrorism!"
In a few days, we shall hear: "He
butchered his own people as Saddam did with his Kurds!"
(His father sure did. Assad Sr. shelled the town of Hama while
bloodily putting down an Islamist rebellion.) "We must liberate
the poor Syrian people from the tyrant!" And from there:
"Regime change!"
It will begin with slogans, "warnings",
speeches in the UN and sanctions. The most expert professionals
will prepare public opinion. The American and world media (with
the Israelis to the fore) will eagerly cooperate. And then the
war will become "inevitable".
It already has a name: "Operation
Syrian Freedom.
Americans for the
Golan.
There is one important difference between
"Iraqi Freedom" and "Syrian Freedom".
The American attack on Iraq had many
objectives: control of the oil, creation of a permanent American
base in the heart of the Arab world, revenge for the failure
of the father. Furthering Sharon's interests was only one objective,
and as long as Sharon kept quiet, it wasn't too obvious.
The coming American attack on Syria is
quite different. It does not serve any major American interest,
but it does serve (and how!) the interests of Sharon.
For those who have forgotten the developments,
here is a brief reminder:
In 1967, after Syrian-Egyptian threats,
the Israeli army attacked Syria (after Egypt and Jordan) and
conquered the Golan Heights, which until that time were known
in Israel as "the Syrian Heights". Their 160 thousand
inhabitants fled (they vegetate to this day as refugees in Syria.)
Their land was taken over by Israeli settlers. The Likud government
has officially annexed the Heights (but not the West Bank and
Gaza Strip) to Israel.
From that time, the liberation of the
Golan has become a central aim for Syria. According to international
law, this is occupied Syrian territory. Two Israeli Prime Ministers,
Yitzhaq Rabin and Ehud Barak, as much as admitted this when they
agreed to return all the Golan to Syria. The negotiations broke
down in each case because of an argument about a few hundred
meters. Neither Rabin nor Barak was ready to allow the Assads
to "wet their feet in the sea of Tiberias".
The two lions (In Arabic, Assad means
lion) acted very cautiously. After the father's failed to dislodge
the Israeli army in the October 1973 war, they did not use their
own military again. They found a way to fight by proxy: the Lebanese
Hizbullah militia has harassed the Israeli army with pinpricks.
Both Assads hoped that this would help them to get the Golan
back in the end. Also, some of the Palestinian pro-Syrian (i.e.
anti-Arafat) organizations are based in Damascus.
Now along comes the Bush administration,
under the influence of Wolfowitz, Perle & Co., and issues
an ultimatum to the Syrians: give up your chemical weapons, eliminate
Hizbullah, get rid of the "terrorists".
For the Syrians this means, in effect,
to give up any hope of ever getting the Golan Heights back. It
also means American recognition of their annexation by Israel,
in contravention of all the UN resolutions and the position of
every US president up to now.
Without Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, the
threat of "the Eastern front" that has been haunting
the Israeli military for decades will disappear. Egypt and Jordan
have already signed peace treaties. Sharon will be able to concentrate
all his might against the Palestinians, who will remain alone.
Moral insanity
Sometimes, the entire character of a
person is encapsulated in one single word of theirs. This happened
last week to Donald Rumsfeld.
The world saw the terrible pictures of
what's happening in Baghdad under the eyes of the occupation
forces. Baghdad was ransacked as in the days of the Mongols.
The mob did not plunder only the government buildings, without
which no modern society can function, but also hospitals and
museums. The wounded and the sick were left without life-saving
equipment and medicines. Priceless cultural treasures from the
cradle of human civilization were destroyed or plundered
one of the worst cultural disasters in the history of mankind.
The absolute responsibility for this
outrage, which has been going on for more than a week, day after
day, falls on the occupier. That is what international law says,
in agreement with common sense. It shows the total indifference
of the planners of the war for the population they were about
to "liberate". No provisions had been made to protect
them from the anarchy that is to be expected when any regime
collapses, no preparations for safeguarding vital public buildings
and cultural treasures. A city of many millions was turned over
to the mob.
When Rumsfeld was asked about it, the
man who is responsible for this catastrophe declared dismissively:
"When a regime falls, there is always some untidiness."
Untidiness! One word that speaks volumes. About the man himself.
Pity the settlers.
Years ago, my wife and I were travelling
in the west of Czechoslovakia. It was a dark, bitterly cold winter
night. Suddenly, Rachel's eyes were caught by a small house,
at some distance from the road, where a red light picked out
a small area of snow, surrounded by utter darkness. She asked
me to stop the car and struggled through the deep snow to take
some pictures.
While she was busy taking photos, the
door of the house burst open and a disheveled woman in dressing
gown and slippers came running out. "What do you want?
What are you doing here?" she demanded in a panic.
Rachel explained that she was a tourist
and that the beautiful sight had captured her imagination. Gradually,
the woman relaxed.
"I was afraid you were Germans who
wanted to reclaim the house," she apologized.
She was a Czech from another part of
the country, who as a child had moved with her family into this
house after the German population had been thrown out at the
end of World War II. Fifty years later, she was still living
in constant fear.
I was reminded of this when I read about
the Iraqi-Arab settlers, who had been brought by Saddam to Kirkuk
and settled there in order to Arabize the Kurdish town. Many
of the Kurdish inhabitants had been driven out. A foreign journalist
happened to come across some of these Arabs in the middle of
nowhere. They had fled their homes in sheer panic, in fear of
Kurdish revenge. They asked the foreigner to bring the American
soldiers to protect them.
Food for thought for our settlers.
Today's
Features
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
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