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Recent
Stories
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
Ron
Jacobs
Bush and Rummy's Drunken Drive-by
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
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Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
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Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
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America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
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Ray
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Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
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Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
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Richard
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Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
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Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
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Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
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Anthony
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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
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Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
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Steve
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War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
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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:
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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
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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
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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
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Mahajan
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Aluf Benn
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Mary
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Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
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Ron
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War and Occupation
Bernie
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Mark
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Iraq War as Arms Expo
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Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
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Norman
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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
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Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
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The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
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Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
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David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
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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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April 15,
2003
Self-Determination
in Iraq?
Then the US
Must Leave
by
ROBERT JENSEN
The U.S. attack on Iraqi has brought the collapse
of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, which is cause for celebration.
For the first time in at least 35 years, the conditions could
exist for Iraqis to chart their own destiny.
Now the United States has a crucial part
to play in making Iraqi self-determination a reality: It must
get out.
President Bush has told the Iraqi people:
"We will help you build a peaceful and representative government
that protects the rights of all citizens. And then our military
forces will leave."
Bush has the sequence wrong; a truly
representative government in Iraq is possible only if U.S. military
forces leave first. The reason is simple: Liberating the Iraqi
people was part of the Bush PR campaign to justify a war, but
it was not the motive force behind U.S. policy. Neither were
stated concerns about weapons of mass destruction or alleged
terrorist ties.
Bush's fundamental goal in Middle East
policy is no different from other administrations since World
War II: To strengthen U.S. control over the flow of the region's
oil resources and the resulting profits. In a world that runs
on oil, the nation that controls the flow of oil has considerable
strategic power, not only over the terms of its own consumption
but over other nations. U.S. policymakers want leverage over
the economies of our biggest competitors -- Western Europe, Japan
and China -- which are more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.
From this logic has flowed U.S. support
for reactionary regimes (Saudi Arabia), dictatorships (Iran under
the Shah, Iraq in the 1980s) and regional military surrogates
(Israel) -- always aimed at maintaining control. A "democratic"
government in Iraq will be allowed if, and only if, such a government
lines up with U.S. interests. The United States will allow the
trappings of a democratic process as long as the process produces
the right result.
This approach to democracy has been a
consistent feature of U.S. foreign policy. While many acknowledge
that in the past the United States has supported dictators and
derailed real democracy abroad, the conventional wisdom is that
things have changed since the end of the Cold War. Two recent
examples suggest that though tactics may change, the goal remains
the same.
In Afghanistan, U.S. support for "democracy"
included strong-arm tactics at the loya jirga to eliminate a
role for former king Zahir Shah and force his withdrawal as a
candidate. After the fall of the Taliban, there was considerable
support for his return to the country to play a unifying role,
but Bush officials preferred their handpicked candidate, Hamid
Karzai.
In Venezuela, U.S. officials were quick
to proclaim support for last year's abortive coup attempt that
temporarily displaced the elected president, Hugo Chavez. Even
more embarrassing was the revelation that U.S. officials had
met with Venezuelan military officers and opposition activists,
including the nominal leader of the coup. Because Chavez defied
the United States, the democratic process by which he had been
elected was irrelevant.
What will democracy mean in Iraq? When
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked Sunday whether
the United States would accept in Iraqi elections a victory by
candidates opposed to U.S. policy, he waffled. The lack of a
history of political freedom in Iraq meant that sometimes "people
end up not understanding what really are the facts," he
said. How long does it take to reverse that? "It takes some
time."
Will Iraqis be allowed to choose their
own government only when their understanding of the facts matches
Rumsfeld's? Will U.S. occupation continue until Rumsfeld is satisfied
with the pace and direction of Iraqi learning?
An ongoing U.S. occupation will not be
embraced by most Iraqis, with the exception of figures such as
Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress exile group -- a
"reliable" leader (defined as willingness to accept
U.S. orders) preferred by many in this administration.
Gen. Tommy Franks has said U.S. forces
will stay in Iraq "until there is a free government."
Like his commander in chief, Franks misses the point: Real freedom
stand a fighting chance only if the U.S. military withdraws and
a U.N. peacekeeping force takes over the work of stabilizing
the country. American military power can remove a dictator but
-- given U.S. actions in Iraq and the Middle East -- it cannot
create meaningful democracy.
Robert Jensen
is an associate professor of journalism at the University of
Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author
of the book Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream
and the pamphlet "Citizens of the Empire." He can be
reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
Yesterday's
Features
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
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