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Recent Stories
March 26, 2003
Bruce Jackson
A Battlefield from Hell
Pablo
Mukherjee
Watch Their Lips
David Krieger
Shock But Not Awe
Linda
Heard
Winning Hearts and Minds Bush----Style
Imad Jadaa
The Beautiful Face of America
Adam
Engel
Buckets of Blood
Patrick Cockburn
Kurds Unimpressed
David
Lindorff
POWs, Torture and Hypocrisy
Robert Fisk
The Coup That Didn't Happen
April
Hurley, MD
A Doctor's Outrage in Baghdad
Gloria Bergen
Chretien's Shame
Reema
Abu Hamdieh
The Smell of Death Surrounds Me
March 25, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Life During Wartime
Gary
Leupp
What Democracy Looks Like: the Streets
of Cairo
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
An Interview with Hanan Ashrawi
Bruce
Jackson
Why Protest? Why Write?
Uri Avnery
Bitter Rice: Thoughts and Warnings on
the War
Jason
Leopold
Blood Indicator: Casualties and the Stock
Market
Ralph Nader
A Pre----emptive War on a Defenseless Country
March 24, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Ominous Signs
David
Lindorff
Peacekeepers at Ground Zero
Diane Christian
Blood Sacrifice
Kathy
Kelly
The Morning After Shock and Awe
John Stanton
US Bombs Iran
Wayne
Madsen
How to Live with a Rogue Superpower
Anthony Gancarski
Iraq and the Death of the West
David
Vest
Earth vs. Bush
Ahmad Faruqui
The Liberation of Iraq in Perspective
Robert
Fisk
We Bomb, They Suffer
March 22 / 23, 2003
Edward Said
The Other America
Saul Landau
The Threats of Empire
Kathleen and Bill Christison
On the Road in the West Bank
Joanne Mariner
Suing Seymour Hersh
Ann Harrison
The Battle of San Francisco
Robert Fisk
A Cauldron of Fire
Hani Shukrallah
The Gates of Hell
Chris Floyd
Memory Lane
Kathy Kelly
Imagine Chicago Under This Kind of Attack
Ramzi Kysia
Bombing Away a Chance for Joy
Linda Heard
Baghdad Burns While Bush Does Lunch
Bradley Burston
Could the US be at War for Years?
Salvador Peralta
Mass Murder as Liberation?
Tom Gorman
Now That's a Coalition!
Jorge Mariscal
Johnny Mack, When Are You Coming Back?
Cindy Milstein
The Grassroots Go Global
Josh Frank
Blocking Portland's Bridges
Elaine Cassel
The Case of Elizabeth Smart: Kidnapping and Insanity
Gordon Solberg
Drowning in Niceness: the Lessons of Elizabeth Smart
Tom Crumpacker
Getting to Know the Real Havana
Poets' Basement
Dobie, Guthrie, Alam, Wechsler
March 21, 2003
Ben Tripp
Blood for Oil:
the Exchange Rate
Cathy Breens
Report from Baghdad: Mothers, Kids and Crash Kits
Scott Handleman
Fourth
Generation Protesting: Shutting Down San Francisco
Vanessa Jones
Paint Them
Red
Brian J. Foley
Patriotic Protest
for Professors
Zoltan Grossman
After Saddam, a War on Iraqi Rebels?
Philip S. Golub
Inventing Demons
Richard Lichtman
On the Current Experience of Terror
Milan Rai
Blitz----Coup
Pepe Escobar
A Cheap Family Farce
Floyd Rudmin
The Nightmare at the Back Door: Nuclear Plant's as Terror Targets
Chris Floyd
See Rome (poem)
Website of the War
Iraq
Body Count
March 20, 2003
Stephen Banko
I Was a Soldier
Once
Kevin Alexander Gray
How Did We Become
an Outlaw Nation?
Shane Claiborne
Nomadic
Solidarity: Glimpses of Life in Baghdad on the Eve of War
Kathy Kelly
Waiting on the Baghdad Skies to Crack
Anthony Gancarski
Michelle
Makin's "Liberty Shields"
Rahul Mahajan and Robert Jensen
Myths and
Facts About the War on Iraq
Jason Leopold
Cheney's
Lies About Halliburton and Iraq
Ron Jacobs
If War is Business as Usual, There Should be No Business as Usual
Chuck O'Connell
Predictions About the Iraq War
Douglas Herman
US Air Force Veteran on the Coming Air Campaign
Ralph Nader
Come On Democrats,
Stand Up for Peace
William Hughes
War is Theft
Sima Saeedi
Dispatch from
Iran
Hammond Guthrie
John Philip Sousa
Website of the Day
Iraq
Body Count
Hot Stories
Gore Vidal
The Erosion
of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush:
A Draft Resolution
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March
27, 2003
The New Powerhouse of Central Asia
A Letter from
Uzbekistan
By SIMON JONES
It’s
fascinating these days flicking back and forth from BBC to DeutscheWelle:
BBC features a polite interview with Richard Perle full of saber--rattling
rhetoric, while DW talks with a child psychologist explaining how traumatic
it is for children to see the war, with touching scenes of German children
worrying about children in Baghdad; there are words of wisdom from the
BBC ‘specialist’ on Iraq, blood dripping from his teeth,
vs a DW profile of a professional peace organizer in Stuttgardt. I couldn’t
stomach CNN long ago, so I didn’t even notice that they were kicked
out for being a mouthpiece for the US administration. Uzbek TV scarcely
mentions the war, and only in glowing terms that would make Fox itself
blush. Thank God for the German mouthpiece, however full of marbles!
A light bulb flashed
upstairs when I read online that Lieutenant General Jay Garner, who
has close ties with the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
is scheduled to head the reconstruction of postwar Iraq, and Marc Grossman,
US under--secretary of state said that one of the first decisions of
a new Iraqi government would be to recognize the state of Israel.
The pieces of the
puzzle fell into place. Eureka! That is precisely what the US has accomplished
here in Uzbekistan, the US’s new "strategic ally" in
Central Asia, as its President Karimov loves to qualify it. Israel is
one of its closest (though increasingly discreet -- I wonder why?) allies.
(A touching detail -- Uzbekistan and Israel are the only countries that
support the US embargo on Cuba each year at the UN.) Americans with
even a whiff of ‘businessman’ about them automatically get
3--year visas. Exchange programs for Uzbek teens to live with American
families, missionaries and Peace Corps volunteers -- all help to spread
a homey gloss over it all. A kind of ‘home away from home’.
And all this without
a shot being fired. Keeping that in mind (no small difference), Uzbekistan
is the future for a free Iraq, I suddenly realized with a shudder.
Uzbekistan, nominally
a Muslim country, is run by ex--Communist Party functionary President
Islam Karimov, much as it was run in Soviet days, only minus the progressive
foreign policy and solid if skin--of--the--teeth social welfare policies
that gave the Soviet Union its raison d’etre, and which everyone
here remembers with great nostalgia. As in the gloomiest of stagnation
days, the media is tightly controlled and any whiff of opposition is
ruthlessly stamped out. As in Soviet days, even moderately devout Muslims
are persecuted, though in much greater numbers now (according to Human
Rights Watch 5000+ are in jail).
Of course, there
is much more corruption now and many, many more police. And American
‘goods’ and pop culture everywhere. Most people now live
in what can only be called poverty. But they are hard--working and there
are lots and lots of goodies in the raw material field to export. A
tasty little morsel for the US. A nice legacy from the moribund Soviet
Union.
As for Uzbek--Israeli
relations, they are so on the up--and--up, UzAir announced plans to start
a direct flight Tashkent--Tel Aviv (can you think of a more obscure air
route?). Israeli products, from Dead Sea beauty lotions to cheese are
prominently on display. Who says Israel doesn’t have Muslim friends?
One of the main
reasons for this love fest from the Uzbek side is that many Bukharan
Jews emigrated to Israel and America and now encourage and facilitate
close business ties with Uzbekistan. Rumour has it that one of the main
Uzbek mafia groups is based in Israel. Who said the Jewish diaspora
is passe? Come to think of it, maybe the K could give Bush, Sharon etal
some good advice as they formulate their plans for Iraq (have you ever
seen a more grise eminence than Sharon?) on how to keep the lid on an
oppressed Muslim nation.
The US Embassy makes
token efforts from time to time about more democracy and freedom of
speech, etc., but, hey, what is the sound of one hand clapping? Meanwhile,
these days, the K is making good use of Bush's preoccupation with more
obstreperous Muslims in the 'I' country to clamp down on an already
brain--dead media here. The Uzbek assistant foreign minister gathered
newspaper editors together recently to make sure they were solidly behind
the official pro--war line, which he announced when his friend the Slovak
prez Schuster visited last week. (It must be nice to have so many good
friends.) No cozying up to Russia on this one.
Of course NO ONE
actually supports the war here except the 'K', but of course that's
all that matters in a US--client 'new democracy’. Take note, Egyptians,
Jordanians, Saudis, Syrians, oh yes, and Iraqis.… and fools seldom
differ.
I've just thought
of a good advertising copy to attract US citizens to Uzbekistan (tourism
is a tad sluggish these days) -- "Come and see your future! We have
perfected your democracy, which your Peace Corps volunteers, missionaries
and businessmen have kindly helped us install. It's called neofascism.
One leader -- one vote! Liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the
K and his friends!"
Who says Uzbekistan
is underdeveloped? The US is the underdeveloped one on the political
front! But then, once its economy is militarized to death, political
progress will no doubt soon follow. The present rush to stifle all civil
liberties is already making up for lost time.
To get serious for
a moment, this whole scenario is very frightening. Uzbekistan is the
'powerhouse' of Central Asia (read classroom bully). Of course all the
world's bullies will be delighted to footnote the Bush doctrine in future
when they decide to preempt supposed terrorists across their borders,
and the K will be no exception. There have been dozens of deaths and
injuries from Uzbek landmines on the as yet undelimited borders with
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, ‘planted’ by Uzbekistan to deter
‘terrorists’ without even informing its neighbors. Visions
of a greater Turkestan anyone? Or will Uzbekistan slip quietly back
into its role as world backwater, just another tin--pot US--sponsored
dictatorship, mind you a very conveniently placed one geopolitically,
with the biggest military base in Central Asia in US hands?
Back to surreality,
on the art scene, at the Museum of Modern Art, the present exhibition
is 'Rodeo' a celebration of the American ritual torture and killing
of cattle, complete with video performances and a creche with straw
and cowboy hats. Meanwhile, the K keeps building pyramids, which for
some reason require high walls or spiked fences, immediately start falling
apart, and worst of all, occupy former laid--back overgrown Soviet parks
and dilapidated buildings, all the wonderful things that gave that certain
frisson to Soviet reality.
Simon Jones
is a western NGO rep who has worked in Uzbekistan. He can be reached
at SJ958@yahoo.com
Yesterday's Features
Pablo
Mukherjee
Watch Their Lips
David Krieger
Shock But Not Awe
Linda
Heard
Winning Hearts and Minds Bush----Style
Imad Jadaa
The Beautiful Face of America
Adam
Engel
Buckets of Blood
Patrick Cockburn
Kurds Unimpressed
David
Lindorff
POWs, Torture and Hypocrisy
Robert Fisk
The Coup That Didn't Happen
April
Hurley, MD
A Doctor's Outrage in Baghdad
Gloria Bergen
Chretien's Shame
Reema
Abu Hamdieh
The Smell of Death Surrounds Me
Website of the War
Iraq
Body Count
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