|
August 8, 2002
Gary Leupp
Karzai's
Bodyguard
August 7, 2002
Anis Shivani
The First
21st Century
Police State
Jeffrey St. Clair
Fallon's
Fallen
Is the US Navy Killing
Children in Nevada?
Robert Fisk
For the
Forgotten Afghans,
the UN Offers a Fresh Hell
Dr. Susan Block
Rigas in
Cuffs
Bill Christison
Disastrous
Foreign Policies of the US Part 5: the Call of Democracy?
August 6, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Signs
of the Elites
Bruce Gagnon
We Must
Come Alive
David Krieger
From
Hiroshima to Hope
Jerre Skog
Global
Reach of Corporate Crime or What the Hell are
They Teaching at Harvard?
Robert Fisk
Return to
Afghanistan:
Collateral Damage
Alexander Cockburn
The
Fox in the Pension Fund
August 5, 2002
Rahul Mahajan
Iraq
and the New Great Game
Jordy Cummings
The
Last Frontier of
Israel and Palestine
Bernard Weiner
Inside
Saddam's Diary
Mike Leon
US Mute
to Israeli Brutality
Norman Madarasz
Brazil:
the Most Important Election of 2002?
August 4, 2002
Susan Davis
Fat Americans
August 3, 2002
David Krieger
Nuclear
Apartheid
Gilad Atzmon
The End
of Innocence
Gavin Keeney
Everybody's
a Critic
Alexander Cockburn
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save Dick Cheney?
August 2, 2002
Ralph Nader
The Labor
Party
Chris Floyd
Moral Maze:
Bankruptcy Made Easy
Jeremy Scahill
Saddam,
Chemical Weapons and Donald Rumsfeld
Jeffrey St. Clair
Dark Deeds in the Black Hills:
Daschle Dooms the
Sacred Land of the Sioux
August 1, 2002
Steven Higgs
Activists
Under Siege
Anthony Gancarski
Draft
Picks:
Staffing the Latest War
Zeynep Toufe
Invisible
Children: AIDS,
Africa and Selective Vision
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel and Squawk:
Angelina Jolie, the NYT
and the Attack on McKinney
July 31, 2002
Amelia Peltz
Inside
Ramallah:
How Can the World Witness Such Suffering and Do Nothing?
M. Shahid Alam
The Academic
Boycott of Israel
Bernard Weiner
20 Things
We've Learned Since 9/11
Philip Cryan
Discourse
and War in Colombia
Neve Gordon
A Feast
of Bombs:
Sharon's Endgame for Palestine
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
August
8, 2002
Iraq:
the Final Storm
by Ron Jacobs
"I will reserve whatever options
I have. I'll keep them close to my vest. Saddam Hussein needs
to understand that I'm serious about defending our country."
George W. Bush.
What Mr. Bush doesn't seem to understand are these
two things. 1) Defending oil reserves and oil profits is not
the same thing as defending one's country and 2) Saddam Hussein
is most likely just as serious about defending his country. Not
that that matters to Cowboy George. Virtually all factions within
the war party in Washington, DC are calling for an all-out war
on Iraq beginning sometime this year.
Once again, the pretext that will be
used involves the charade of weapons inspections by the United
Nations. If one recalls the last time weapons inspectors were
allowed into Iraq, they were thrown out because a good number
of the inspectors were actually working for the CIA and collecting
information that was then relayed to British and US forces who
bomb that country almost weekly. This time around, it is expected
that the requirements of the 1nspections will be so restrictive
that there is no way the Iraqi government would be able to agree
to them. As an unnamed US intelligence source was quoted in the
British newspaper The Guardian on February 14, 2002, "The
White House 'will not take yes for an answer.'" What this
means is that the war establishment is intent on provoking a
crisis that will provide the US military with the fig leaf it
needs to go to war.
One can be pretty certain that Saddam
Hussein's departure from the world stage will be greeted with
some relief among virtually every quarter, if and when it finally
happens. Yet, if he is removed via US military force, that chorus
is likely to be muffled, as well it should be. No nation has
the right to attack another nation, no matter what their excuse.
This is a basic understanding that guides the world of international
relations and is one of the fundamental mechanisms that allows
the various nations to maintain their tenuous balances of power.
When this understanding is ignored or flouted by a government,
the balance between war and peace disappears and war rules the
planet. The last time in history that a world power so blatantly
disregarded this rule of international relations was when Adolph
Hitler was building his Reich. Interestingly enough, his reasons
were eerily similar to those given by GW and his band-self-defense
being foremost among them.
The Oil Factor Until the nationalization
of Iraqi oil in 1972, US and British oil companies controlled
75% of the production there. The nationalization by the Ba'ath
government (which overthrew the US-British installed monarchy
in 1958), sent shockwaves throughout the international oil industry
and virtually ended the US-British dominance of the Iraqi resources.
As Iraq turned to the Soviet and French governments for development
funds and partnerships, the US and British companies like Exxon,
Chevron, and BP grew increasingly concerned about the loss of
this profitable source of oil. In addition, the governments in
Washington and London began to look for ways to regain their
control of these oilfields, as part of their strategy to control
access to as much of the world's oil as possible.
This strategy is what has driven US military
and diplomatic moves in the Middle East since the middle of the
20th century, from the Potsdam conference to the current war
against "terrorism" and its consequent saber-rattling
against Iraq. When the UN (under the United States) began sanctions
against the Iraqi people in 1990, punishing Saddam Hussein was
a secondary goal. The primary reason for these sanctions and
their continuing existence is to prevent any governments from
trading in Iraqi oil beyond the limits set by the US-dominated
Food-for-Oil program.
As things stand today, if sanctions were
lifted before any US war on Iraq, the French, Russian, and Chinese
would activate oil development and trade agreements they have
made with the Iraqis. All of these agreements can only begin
when the sanctions are lifted. This is why the US and its subsidiary,
Great Britain, refuse to consider any lifting of the sanctions
and are marching their respective peoples off to war. These governments
know that the only way they can fulfill their strategic and economic
goals in Iraq is by invading that country, overthrowing Saddam's
government, and installing a regime willing to do the bidding
of Washington.
It does not have to be a democratic regime,
nor is it likely that it will be. It only has to make sure that
the oilfields in Iraq will be controlled by the US and British
oil giants. To this end, the Pentagon and its civilian counterparts
in the White House and Congress are more than willing to occupy
and rule Iraq until a pliable enough Iraqi government can be
cast. Human Rights?
Despite Mr. Hussein's unpopularity in
the circles GW travels in, both here and abroad, Saddam is tremendously
popular among many people in the streets of Palestine, Jordan,
and other Middle Eastern and Islamic nations. This is not because
he treats his people fairly, nor is it because he has a program
that addresses the daily reality of theses disenfranchised masses.
No, the reason Mr. Hussein is popular is because he stands up
to the US behemoth, no matter what the cost. In a world where
Washington can do whatever it wants (and does), those who are
opposed to Washington's plans for global domination will take
their inspiration wherever they can find it. Right now, the only
sources appear to be Mr. Hussein, Mr. bin Laden, and a few other
men who owe their prestige to brute force and/or terror.
The lack of other more humane and democratic
leaders can be traced to the vacuum created by the Israeli/US
policies around Palestine and their support of reactionary and
autocratic regimes in the Middle East and around the world. At
one time, there were a number of revolutionary organizations
and leaders in the developing world who were not religiously
connected or despotic. Now, after years of covert and overt operations
designed to destroy these elements, all that remains are the
religious radicals and Saddam Hussein. Interestingly enough,
Mr. Bush's war on his "axis of evil" may bring these
two elements together in their struggle against the US empire.
That being said, it is vitally important
to remember that it is not Saddam Hussein who will bear the brunt
of any US campaign to end his rule. No, the primary victims will
be the people of Iraq. Already devastated by the first Gulf War
in 1990-91 and the sanctions against their country, the Iraqi
people will once more bear the brunt of the killing campaign
being planned by the US national security apparatus. The last
time around thousands of Iraqi draftees and civilians were killed
during the US campaign. Several thousand died without even being
able to defend themselves in as US forces bombed air raid shelters,
buried troops alive on the front lines after surrendering, and
killed them with US gunships as they retreated on what became
known as the "highway of death." The US was found guilty
of war crimes by an international tribunal. Of course, as we
all know, victors never commit war crimes, only losers.
Here in the western world, we need to
take to the streets in opposition to the threats of war NOW,
not after the attacks begin. We must demand that the killer sanctions
against the Iraqi people end. Western troops should be withdrawn
immediately from all countries in the region. In addition, it
is time to demand that the UN resolutions demanding Israel return
to its pre-1967 borders be enforced. In short, it is time for
the world to take a serious look at the situation in the region
and begin a process that addresses the concerns of all the players
in the region, not just the governments that the US props up
with cash and arms.
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
Gary Leupp
Karzai's
Bodyguard
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|