The political and human carnage of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia are chronicled in this book, featuring
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English Pages 378 [388] Year 2004
IRAQ
AFGHANISTAN AND YUGOSLAVIA
ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY
ST. c|l
A
I
R
!
S.S.F.
Public Library
West Orange 840 West Orange Ave. South San Fiancisco, CA 94080
JUN
2004
c
S.S.F.
o TtH SA NF RA MC SCO L BR AR Y
PUBLIC LIBRARY
WEST ORANGE AVENUE
Iraq,
3
9048 06105472 6
IMPERIAL CRUSADES Afghanistan and Yugoslavia
V
SSF
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WEST ORANGE AVENUE
IMPERIAL CRUSADES Afghanistan and Yugoslavia
Iraq,
A by
Diary of Three Wars
ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY
ST.
CLAIR,
the editors of CounterPunch
V
VERSO London
•
New
York
1
First
published by Verso 2004
© Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey
St.Clair,
and CounterPunch 2004
All rights reserved
The moral
rights
of the authors have been asserted
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the imprint of
New
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ISBN 1-84467-506-8 British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data
Imperial crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia: a diary of three wars
2003 History — 2001— 1. CounterPunch 1.
Iraq War,
2. 4.
Yugoslav War, 1991—1995
United
States
-
Politics
3.
Afghanistan
—
and government - 2001—
973.9 '3
ISBN 1844675068 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cockburn, Alexander St. Clair, Jeffrey
Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia: a diary of three wars/ edited by Alexander
Cockburn
& Jeffrey
St.
Clair
p.cm Includes index
ISBN 1844675068 1.
Iraq War,
History 5.
2003
— 2001
United
States
4.
-
2.
Yugoslav War, 1991—1995
United Politics
States
-
Politics
3.
Afghanistan
and government - 1993-2001
and government - 2001-
DS79.76. 146 2004-03-16 973.931 22 Typeset in Printed in the
USA
—
Bembo
by R. R. Donnelley
&
Sons
CONTENTS PART ONE: The Laptop Bombardiers and the Yugoslav Campaign
PART TWO: Overview PART THREE: War on
Index
85
Iraq
PART FOUR: The Thirteen
1
171
Years'
War
245
365
PART
ONE
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS AND THE YUGOSLAV CAMPAIGN
March
6,
1999
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS by Alexander Cockburn
Strange are the ways of men!
New York
Lewinsky’s breasts.
pieces.
on
its
editor
now,
feels like
Times was denouncing President
deserving of the
measured
It
harshest
And
praise to the
only yesterday that the Bill as a
reprobation
today here’s the
same president
for
Monica
fondling
New York
for
moral midget,
blowing
limes doling out little
children to
The Times last Thursday had pictures of those dead refugees cover, bombed by one of NATO’s aviators. Editorial page Howell Raines staked out the Times
NATO must sustain
guy Raines must
official
view
that ‘For
and intensify the bombing.' What
be. Kiss
Monica’s
tits
and he goes
a
crazy.
weird
Bomb
peasants and he shouts for more.
Maybe some corner of Serbia will extinguish
Clinton’s brain reckons that
bombs on
Monica Lewinksy from popular memory. But
what man of mature judgement and compassion would not to be
remembered by
dead bodies?
Many
the Starr report than by
bomb
prefer
craters
people thought Clinton would be the
and first
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
4
president
who would somehow
prefer Starr’s
however embarrassing. But no. Like and corpses
Being again
—
a
as his
as his
epitaph,
the others he wants craters
all
requiem.
peacenik
is
definitely passe. Liberals are learning
-
did they ever truly forget?
cheer the high explosive the
volume
end of the Vietnam
as
it falls.
affair,
it’s
fun to be
a
once
warmonger and
After suffering indigestion towards
they got the taste for war again in the
mid-1990s, with Bosnia. They became the ‘laptop bombardiers,’ phrase coined by
Simon Jenkins
Back then, there wasn’t Lewis didn’t
call for
the
a
in the Spectator in 1995.
week,
for
months on end,
bombardment of Serbia. The
that
Anthony
Serbs
demons, monsters, and Milosevic the most demonic of all. I
a
became
Last
week
ran across an interesting piece by an Indian, Lt. General Satish
Nambiar,
who
had been
First
Force Commissioner and Head ol
Mission of the United Nations force deployed in the former
He was
Yugoslavia from March 1992 to March 1993. Indian journal. ‘Portraying the Serbs
as evil
good was not only counterproductive but writes. ‘According to
the Serbs
would
my
would admit
insist that
Nambiar
experience
that they
all
a
and everybody
else as
dishonest,’ the general
sides
were guilty but only
were no angels while the others
they were.’
says accurately that there
agreement on
writing in an
were plenty of chances
for
Bosnian settlement in the mid-1990s but the
Americans always nixed them. There was the Lisbon plan and then the
Vance— Owen
deaths
— from
plan,
the final
both not so different -
Dayton
plan.
US, amid the furious screams of the
after
thousands of
But the trouble was that the liberals,
refused to admit the
Serbs had legitimate grievances and rights. In Britain in 1995 there was a coalition running from Margaret
Thatcher to the Labourite Serbs.
Ken
New
Statesman in favor of
bombing
the
Livingstone, the pinko firebrand of London, bellowed
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS bombs. So did Michael
for
Ignatieff. In the
US the laptop bombardiers
crossed from the Wall Street Journal editorial page,
anything (though most of
Anthony Lewis,
The worst accounts of
Little
all,
Democratic
to the
5
which
Rock), to William
Socialists
bomb
Satire, to
of America.
offender was the press, which carefully ignored detailed
how
Muslims were manipulating Western
the Bosnian
opinion, most notoriously by almost certainly lobbing a
likes to
marketplace
with their
filled
own
a missile into
When
people.
the Croats
ethnically cleansed the Krajina of hundreds of thousands of Serbs
the biggest such cleansing in the Balkans since
US
with direction from
military and
CIA
Serbs Asked For
It,’
exulted the headline on
Times by pundit William
prepared
a
confidential, a
Pfaffi
Monitors
a
World War Two —
officers, reporters
commentators mostly looked the other way or
actually cheered.
Fisk of the
London
and ‘The
piece in the Los Angeles
European Union
for the
report on the Croat atrocities and, though
Robert
-
it
was
Independent was able to get
copy:
Evidence of
emerge
...
the corpses
of old men. throats
slit,
atrocities,
Many
an average of six corpses
— some
fresh,
a day,
continues to
some decomposed —
are
mainly
have been shot in the back of the head or had
others have been mutilated
continue to be looted. (Croatian Army), the
...
Serbian
The crimes have been
CR
it
lands
perpetrated by the
(Croatian Police) and
have been no observed attempts to stop
homes and
CR
civilians.
HV
There
and the indications point
to a scorched earth policy.
If American journalists
public opinion are
no innocent
had bothered to report
would have been prepared
it is
to
then perhaps
for the notion that there
political players in the Balkans.
the people are, the harder
this,
The better-informed
demagogue them with
the idea that
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
6
way forward now is — to get back New York Times editorial - to ‘sustain and
the best
But Bosnia, back
contemptible opportunists
now
go
like
retrouve
strafe refugees in
by Democrats
like
,
the price
to a
McCain
Kosovo?). But
bombing.'
was
a hysteria that
is
McCain have
and get assigned
that
being paid, with
McCain shouting
Senator John
out in Belgrade’ (why doesn't
John Glenn’s temps
intensify the
middle 1990s, rode on
in the
never properly confronted, and
‘lights
Howell Raines and
to
is
for
the guts to emulate
bombing crew and
more than matched
Senator Carl Levin, or by that brass-lunged fraud
from Vermont Bernard Sanders,
progressive,'
‘socialist
who
has
endorsed Clinton’s bombs. Well over 80 per cent of the Democrats in the House are cheering the bombs, and senatorial liberals like Barbara Boxer are discovering the joys of war.
‘I
never believed
I'd
go back and vote on
she marveled in an article in the Boston Globe for
These
days, to get a dose
air strikes,'
March
of common sense you have
31.
to
go over
the Republican side of the aisle and listen to people like Rep. Curt
Weldon of Pennsylvania, who made 12, reporting
on
his contacts
(where Weldon has many
a fine
speech in Congress on April
Duma
with members of the Russian
friends),
endorsing their idea that Russia
should pledge that Milosevic will abide by the Rambouillet accords
on condition
that an international
peacekeeping force moves into
Kosovo, devoid of any personnel from nations
Follow
this carefully,
what’s causing
bombs
now bombing
because the exact nature of such
to
fall
on
civilians in
a
Serbia.
force
is
Belgrade and Kosovo.
Remember
that Milosevic agreed to virtually everything
table at the
Rambouillet meeting, with two exceptions. For him
the status of
Kosovo
as part
of Serbia was non-negotiable, and he
wouldn’t agree to the stationing of
which does
after
all
on the
NATO
include Kosovo. But
solution could have been found.
forces it’s
on Yugoslav
clear
enough
soil,
that a
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
US
plain too that the
It’s
and
NATO
its
confrontation and ultimately forced ingly vocal
Liberation
explicit charges
Army (KLA) was
It’s
subordinates wanted
a
also clear that increas-
by the Russians that the Kosovo
Germans and the itself was roundly denounced — before supplied by the
The KLA bombings - in the London
CIA the
and
it.
7
have merit.
heroin-trafficking. (This
is
Times
as a
Maoist gang fueled by
standard operating procedure for a
CIA
operation, as any scrutiny of recent histories of Afghanistan or
Southeast Asia will
So the
NATO
attest.)
bombs began
been predicted, the Serbian tidal
NATO
power
plants,
and, exactly as could have
brutalities in
purpose'
(i.e.,
bombs
Kosovo
and the
escalated
is
to bits.
when he
convoy.
We
by
NATO
spokesmen
possibly also for Serb military use) unless
no conceivable
Wednesday
commander, Wesley Clark, to date,
electricity, gas, oil supplies.
hastily described
that only peasants, with
been blasted
to the
destroying Serbian civilian infrastructure:
sewage treatment,
thing that’s hit
all
fall
wave of refugees began. Everything has gone according
script.
to
to
said that
utter his
‘There was
last
Every-
as ‘dual-
obvious
it’s
‘dual purposes,’ have
saw the
NATO
supreme
most deliberate and obvious a military
struck the Serb convoy and
convoy and
we have
a
lie
refugee
very strong
evidence that the Serbs then retaliated by attacking the column of refugees.'
convoy,’
By
the next day
it
became
clear that there
no ‘very strong evidence,' and
refugees on tractors had been killed by
that a
was no ‘Serb
column
NATO
of Albanian
bombers.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
8
March
10,
1999
SIEG HEIL! by Alexander Cockburn
It’s It
Germans
bracing to see the
NATO’s bombing.
taking part in
lends moral tone to an operation to have the grandsons of the
Third Reich willing, able and eager to drop high explosive again, in this instance
on the
Serbs.
To add symmetry
to the affair, the last
time Serbs in Belgrade had high explosive dropped on them was in
1941 by the sons of the Third Reich. To bring even deeper
symmetry, the German
German
ordered
whose
party
political
participation in the
bombing
leader, Schroeder, is
that
of the Social
Democrats, whose great-grandfathers enthusiastically voted credits to
wage war
all
social
in 1914.
Whether
Germany
in
or England or France,
democratic parties in 1914 tossed aside previous pledges
against war, thus helping
produce the
great bloodletting of our
first
century. Today, with social democrats leading governments across
Europe - Schroeder, This
is,
leftists.
all fall
in
behind Clinton.
NATO
some patronizing
sense of ‘grievance’
at
the
way
talk
and many
liberals
Bernie Sanders has voted Aye, and
Vanessa Redgrave cheers on the There’s been
Prodi -
war most earnestly supported by
largely, a
so-called
Blair, Jospin,
in
London
bombers.
here about the Serbs’ deep
history has treated them, with the
implication that the Serbs are irrational in this regard. But scarcely irrational to
Belgrade in World
remember
War Two,
that
Nazi Germany
or that Germany’s prime
region, Croatia, ran a concentration
camp
at
it’s
bombed
ally in
the
Jasenovac where tens
of thousands of Serbs — along with Jews and Gypsies — were liquidated.
years has
Nor
is it
irrational to recall that
been an unrelenting
assailant
Germany
in
more
recent
of the former Yugoslav
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
9
federation, encouraging Slovenia to secede and lending determined
support to Croatia, in gratitude for which Croatia adopted, on
independence
So much
in 1991, the
German hymn,‘Danke
for Serb feelings
Deutschland.’
about Germany. Serbia has some
reason to feel similar resentment towards the United States.
The
biggest single ethnic cleansing of the mid-1990s in the former
Yugoslavia was conducted by Croatia under the supervision of the
United
States,
whose
CIA
military generals and
officers issued
targeting instructions to Croatian artillery for the ethnic clearing.
The
targets
were Serbs, living in Serbian
Heading the Croatian
who
Now
who
is
Tudjman,
cleansers was President Franjo
has rehabbed Nazi
Milosevic
territory, in the Krajina.
war criminals. Yet somehow
demonized here
Serbia’s
it is
as Hitler.
the Serbs are being asked to give the Albanians living in a
southern province of Serbia — Kosovo — autonomy for three years, at
the end of
which time
NATO
would probably have
issued a
command for Kosovo’s independence. Even so, the balked only at NATO’s insistence that a Serbian province,
peremptory Serbs
Kosovo, should accept
a
Western garrison
could have been negotiated peacefully, but has been saying in Europe, the
US
The
other towns and
feel as
outraged
New
bombing
cities until India
Kashmiris’ and Tamils’ demands.
doubtless
Mikhail Gorbachev
Serbs
India if the United States started
Bombay and
as
this
apparently wanted to rush into
war, on an obviously illegal pretext.
would
and
force,
as
Delhi,
surrendered to the
You can make
the same parallel
about China and Tibet or Spam and the Basques, or the Turks and the Kurds, or the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Would we
Of course not. how America’s gangsterism
ever
bomb
Istanbul or Tel Aviv? It’s
remarkable
has
grown more
shameless even since the days of George Bush. In
1991
Bush
devoted months of diplomatic effort towards getting supportive
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
10
votes in the United Nations for the expedition to free Kuwait. In
1999
Clinton more or
Bill
Annan,
Appropriately enough,
United
borders and
UK,
‘security.’
paramilitary and
— 2,000
about
its
it
Without doubt
army
secretary-general, Kofi
NATO’s
it’s
been
units have
that unless the
won’t be entitled to
it
US
game, abetted
the arbiter of Europe’s
disgusting that Serb police,
killing Albanians in
bombing began.
or so before the
bomb.
decision to
bother? The
NATO
make
to
is
UN’s
back dues,
UN anyway. But would
chiefly by Blair’s
the
week brought news
last
some of
States pays
vote in the
CNN
from
to find out
less left
KosOvo
was disgusting
It
that
Russians killed Chechens, that Indonesians killed East Timorese, that
US
The Hutus didn’t
lift
a
killed
it
around
He
finger.
decision since
get the idea.
meant
millennium
that
a
million Tutsis in
Rwanda and
refused to
UN
under the Genocide Treaty. of the
You
cavalry killed the Sioux, that
call
it
genocide,
If the
US
May
4,
is
significant
decides in the waning hours
bomb anyone
of legality, solemn treaty and obligation, so be that cause
a
Clinton
forces weren't compelled to intervene
can
it
...
wants
it it.
to, regardless
But do not pretend
humane.
just or even
1999
MAY DAY
MISSILES
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
The same weekend in pieces a
NATO
St.
member of
the
US
May Day by blowing men women and children,
planes celebrated
busload of forty-nine Serbs,
CounterPunch was relayed
Clair
this confidential
military at
assessment from
NATO HQ
in
a
senior
Mons, Belgium.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS ‘The White House,’ this.
They’re desperate to get
Clinton knows
Bill last
said the officer,
how
‘is
in a
out.'
radical
a
on
to read polls. All agree
that. In the
down. Even General
war had done nothing towards
air
down
proclaimed objective: grinding
Support for
its
the Serb forces in Kosovo.
ground war was melting away.
amazing
In an
Democrats lined up the Republicans and forced
tie vote,
1
complete panic over
days ot April he saw the trend lines pointing
Wesley Clark admitted the
1
a
vote,
213—213
thus withholding congressional support for the war.
Hence
Reverend
the back-channel overture to Milosevic via the
Jesse Jackson, with a desperate appeal to the Beast of Serbia that he
give Clinton cover for the big climb-down, said cover being that Serbia will allow a small
force assigned to stops.
The
Kosovo
maybe
NATO contingent in the international
to supervise partition,
when
the
bombing
other function of Jackson’s mission was to head off any
unpalatable negotiating with Milosevic by Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican, in
Moscow
who
was
in
Vienna
after
Duma
with members of the Russian
conferring
on terms
for a
deal.
The end is in sight. NATO The hunt is on for a brokered
has achieved
none of its
solution, not too far
objectives.
removed from
the deal that could have been struck with Milosevic before the
bombing
started.
This does not
mean
the
bombing
POWs,
day after Milosevic released the three American intensified
its
raids
and readied B-52s
reprise of the Arclight sorties over
for carpet
The
will stop.
NATO
bombing
in a
Vietnam when hundreds of
square miles of countryside were saturated with 500-lb iron bombs.
Even though no other
NATO
objective.
has destroyed a lot of Serbia,
The White House wants
out.
Jackson’s mission to ask Milosevic to give Clinton
war emptied Kosovo of most Albanians and
it
has achieved
Hence
some
failed to
cow
Jesse
cover.
The
the Serbs.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
12
It is
also
beginning to have
a seismic effect
of Western Europe, where almost
Even here
parties are social democrats.
just in
Columbine High but
Here
US we re
in the
all
on the
political landscape
warmongering
the ruling its
tremors can be
felt,
not
Washington DC.
also in
having to redraw the political maps.
Leftist
now march shoulder to shoulder with Chuck Colson, Barry Farber, Don Feder, Bob Grant, Bob Novak, Arianna Huffington, A. M. Rosenthal, Charles Krauthammer, Edward opponents of the war
Luttwak, Oliver North, Joe Sobran and the Pope.
Support for
ground
a
and broadcasters
assault
fading. There
is
There were the
in Serbia.
High, which rubbed people’s noses in death universal ol contexts (Johnny
and the House in the
vote. In the
House even
War, even the
to
isn’t
in the
approach that War,
era
it
most
familiar
been the
level. It’s
if
and
today),
took years for resistance
you read Tony
communique
in
war has been
progressive, in the imperial sense
upon
Columbine
killings in
coming home from school
Vietnam
First Progressives’
were the dead refugees
Progressives’
Blair’s
Newsweek. In the eyes of those waging them
excited
many
a
of imposing progress
those in the cross-hairs. Teddy Roosevelt undoubtedly thought
the wars
on America’s
natives
were
progressive. If history
is
progress,
then wars have often been fuel for the onward march.
The Democrats
— about 80
- have affirmed
per cent of them in
a
their confidence in the just cause
The Republicans the United States has
are
congressional vote
of bombing Serbia.
more deeply
divided,
no business fighting
a
many of them
war
saying
in the Balkans.
This
stance excites the derision of liberal Democrats. Listen to Joe
Conason, writing for reasons that
in Salon: 'Action against Milosevic
go well beyond humanitarian
of Kosovo. The Western
allies
destabilizing force in Central
and demagogues elsewhere
needed
Europe and
to to
was necessary
interest in the fate
draw
a
line against a
demonstrate to tyrants
that their ambitions too
may encounter
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS This repellent passage offers both the
fierce resistance.' itarian rationale
13
and the true motives of the United
human-
States
and
its
accomplices: to wit, that no one had better mess with Uncle Sam.
The
on
liberals are
crusade, historically the most merciless of
a
forms of bellicose engagement, self-serving illusions. ‘If there
making,' Conason writes,
albeit the
is
such
a
all
one most suffused with
thing
progressive war-
as
must be preceded by every possible
‘it
diplomatic approach to the avoidance of war.
must be accomp-
It
anied by the informed consent of the nations whose children and resources
may be
lost.
must be conducted with the
It
feasible regard for sparing
innocent
Maximum
feasible regard.
Wesley Clark and air
his
lives.’
of the Liberals of Salon
Let’s take those Protocols
We
are
war planners
maximum
now
at
in reverse order.
the point at
which Gen.
are reaching the conclusion that
wars don’t work. Also, their vaunted arsenal of million-dollar
missiles
dwindling
is
rapidly.
The answer
will
be ever-increasing
recourse to cluster bombs, which are cheap. Cluster kill civilians,
not soldiers. About 25 per cent of them
bombs tend fail
to detonate,
thus littering the terrain as landmines for years to come. This store for
lies in
Kosovo and
large swaths
of Serbia
at
to
is
what
the progressive
hands of NATO. There won’t be fancy camera shots of those cluster
bombs blowing up not,
on
Back
peasants and children.
in the Sixties the
United
bombs and today clearing crews. So much for the
resources
States,
showered the Plain of Jars
with the most progressive of
in
Laos with millions of these
refuses to contribute
cluster
As
the Pentagon will
be helping the cluster-bomb clearing crews.
past evidence,
intentions,
And
for
maximum
its
expertise to the
feasible regard.
informed consent of the nations whose children and
may be
scarcely sending
lost,
up
of relevance here
is
those people on the streets of Belgrade are
cries
of welcome. Perhaps the only consent
that
of the KLA, which of course requires
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
14
catastrophe sufficient to inflame Western passions. So
what about
Conason’s protocol of progressive warmaking, that every diplomatic
avenue has to be exhausted? Wesley Clark and Madeleine Albright, as
resolution; otherwise, they
Milosevic on the Serbs’
Kosovo
if
Nor would
troops,
countenance peacekeepers in
UN. The
which seems
Serbs
entirely reasonable.
they yield on the matter of Kosovo being part of Serbia’s
which
is
also understandable.
Serbian military in Kosovo was certainly behaving in a
disgustingly brutal fashion. a
would have parleyed further with
final offer to
NATO
sovereign territory,
The
interest in peaceful diplomatic
the latter were under the auspices of the
would not accept
by
no
surrogates for Clinton, had
rebel army, this
What army
doesn't,
when under
one almost certainly supplied by
powers, in breach of the
UN
Security Council’s
attack
NATO
embargo on arms
imports into the territory of the former Yugoslavia? Listen to Dr Jan Oberg, director of the Transnational Foundation's conflictmitigation team to the Balkans and Georgia,
‘The truth
April:
is
there |were|
ethnic cleansing, no genocide.’
Kosovo has been
a
police state.
no mass
Oberg
who
wrote in mid-
killings,
no systematic
states readily
‘Many Albanians
left
enough
that
because of the
repression but also because of the misery, the utter poverty and lack
of future opportunities for themselves and their children. Serbs, too, left for
such reasons and not —
as
they sometimes claim - because
they were victims of an Albanian genocide plan.’
have turned the flow of refugees into
a
torrent.
NATO’s bombs But before the
bombs came the guided missiles of the IMF, which ravaged the Yugoslav economy throughout the Eighties. The KLA wanted confrontation, which has been US strategy with Serbia for close to
a
decade: the dismemberment of the
former Yugoslavia, the heightening of ethnic tensions, economic siege
and the supply of a client armed force (the KLA). Seen that
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
15
scenario before? In Sarajevo the Bosnian Muslims kept Western
sympathies aflame with contrived incidents, culminating
lobbing of that
into the marketplace.
shell
The KLA and
Western advisers would not have forgotten the is
a
are
monstrous
fellow,
though
a
midget
whom
lesson. Milosevic
thuggery
him and have worked for his national flag; and who — looking at
detest
downfall, have rallied to the their analysis
its
when his deeds now bombing his country.
in
compared with the records of those
But Serbs, many of
in the
and those of the progressive warmakers of the West
— cannot
but agree with them? For years they awaited invasion
from the
East.
What
a
shock
to get
who
spent so
rubble, by those liberals
be reduced to
in the neck,
it
much
time hailing Yugoslav
exceptionalism.
May
11,
YES,
1999
PEACE
AT
IS
HAND
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
As so often when peace
down on
raining
supposedly
is
more
Serbia
bombed Chinese
embassy
in Belgrade.
On
tried to argue that this ‘targets’ in
error.
at
Newark and
are
good measure,
and, for
sovereign territory in the form of the latter blunder,
NATO
its
flacks at first
embassy was inconveniently located amid it
was
all
an understandable
But the embassy’s actual location was as
US bombs
hand, the
a hospital;
downtown Belgrade and
neighborhood and, ing for
Clair
heavily than ever! Shrapnel in the
marketplace; high explosives on
NATO
St.
someone
hitting
said,
in
a
residential
the ‘mistargeting’ was like aim-
Queens.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
16
Exactly
happened
as
Vietnam
in the
era, the liberal
doubling up the ferocity of their war bluster
in step
were shelling Beirut,
Tom
Friedman,
at
are
with every mile
when
they forge farther into the quagmire. Back in 1982
hawks
that time the
Times correspondent there, wrote a famous internal
the Israelis
New
memo
York
to his
editors complaining that they had softened his unsparing description
of the indiscriminate refused to use the
Israeli
word
(The Times
shelling of west Beirut.
‘indiscriminate.’)
It
was eloquent, quickly
made
public and, for a while, did nothing to advance Friedman’s
career.
These days Friedman
is
the
for war, urging that if necessary
mad dog of the journalistic the Serbs be bombed back
claque to the
fourteenth century.
There
are plenty of history’s
Jane Fonda flew out to
gun
Israeli
two erstwhile
protesters of the
on Arab
Hayden
cluster
Vietnam War cheered on the
May
week, in the
bombs used by
5 Los Angeles Times,
the Israelis didn’t
now -
Israeli
quite rightly
NATO prompt
— they
do.
then of the intentional indiscriminate infliction of shrapnel
wounds on whole
and
denounced by Friedman, and the
outrage seventeen years ago, but
What
Tom Hayden
issued a ringing denunciation of the present
bombardment. The his
batteries
civilians. Last
ironies here.
1982, were escorted north by Gen.
Israel in
Sharon to the
assault
little
areas
children?
Unexploded cluster-bomb
of Yugoslavia into
a
‘no man’s land,’
units are turning
wounding large num-
bers of children in the process. According to the Los Angeles Times, the director of Pristina’s hospital says he has never
amputations I
as
done
so
many
he has since victims of the weapons started coming
keep an early model of the cluster bombs used
my shelf as a
reminder of the
The bombs
are
evil
dropped over
a
done
in the
in
in.
Vietnam on
name of good
intentions.
broad landscape, where they explode
via timers or the simple vibration
of a passerby. The
blast causes
up
to
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS 300 pieces of deadly shrapnel is
very
difficult to
to scatter in
remove because of its
column
NATO
Pentagon has announced carried by B-52s
—
highly limited war, Clark
As
NATO
put out magnificent
to
6 Robert
Novak wrote
college in
a
bombing” with “dumb”
clearly an anti-population tactic. In a
is
using the methods of total war.'
descends rapidly into straightforward terror bombing, revulsion across the country. the war,
on National Public
heard one morning the voice of some young
1
shrapnel
deliberately jagged design.
“area
we cannot detect too many signs of Amid the repulsive cheerleading for Radio
The
Gen. Wesley Clark of war crimes: ‘The
essentially accusing
bombs
On May
directions.
all
The right-wing peaceniks continue specimens of antiwar prose.
17
Pomona
disparaging the notion that the
woman
at a
bombing
is
stimulated by compassion for the Albanians in Kosovo. She said she
was always cynical about such claims by her government, but added
was indeed
that she
in favor
of the bombing.
A
lot
of her
friends,
she said, already had jobs with big companies, doing international
marketing, and she herself was planning to go into business.
markets
for
become
to think the
in the Balkans.
What war
She seemed
will
it
take to
At
stir
least
this line
bombing would ensure
of
tranquil
she was honest.
public emotion in this virtually risk-free
Americans, where the verbal currency for discussing war has so debased that Jesse Jackson could
they were ‘heroes'?
tell
three
US POWs
that
Why are they heroes? Jackson supplied the answer.
They were heroes because they were known around
the world.
We’ve seen those endlessly repeated snippets of footage of bomb explosions lighting up the night sky over Belgrade. We’ve even seen pictures of that
burned
train at the Grdelica
Serb passengers were blown to sixteen
bits
gorge where
fifty-five
or burned alive and another
wounded. There was the carnage amid the refugee column.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
18
But these snapshots don’t give
proper sense of what
a
is
happening
to Serbia.
The Yugoslav bulletin
foreign minister has been putting out a running
of what has been
to assess the cumulative effect
terms of a county or
seems pretty credible. The best way
hit. It
of the
Want
a state here.
of targets
list
to
go
to
Bridges gone. Factories destroyed or damaged.
More
to school? stay
warm
gas for the car, road cut,
the hospital itself has been three
POWs
intensified
attacks,
to take the kids
after
a
Want
Got
out.
a
to
sick
good chance
Jackson told those
NATO
were heroes,
inching the body count up from the
so dead and 4,500 seriously injured in the
The
Want
phones out and
bombed. The day
of it in
work? Railways gone.
bombed
released by the Serbs that they
its
to think
than 200 schools damaged or destroyed.
next winter? Power plants
No
grandma?
is
1
,000 or
month of bombing.
first
Serbs say that after the demolition of the Petrovaradin
bridge, water supplies to
Novi Sad and Petrovaradin were
leaving a million people short of water.
The bombing
cut,
has put.about
500,000 people out of work; the Serbs reckon that around 2 million citizens are therefore destitute.
where you trial as a
live
and, amid
all
Think of
that
Geneva Convention of 1949, if there
Back
bombing
the years of the
in
Vietnamese
who would
all
in the
context of
the talk about putting Milosevic
war criminal, remember
has a civilian function,
it
never
is
is
on
under the Protocols of the
any likelihood that the target
prohibited.
Vietnam War one would meet fail
to
make an
absolute distinction
between the American government and the American people. They
would
stress that
the
American people were not responsible
for their
government’s action. But could one ask for the indulgence of that distinction
from
a
Serb today amid the falling bombs? After
Vietnamese knew there was distinction has to be earned.
real resistance
all,
the
here to the war. That
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
The
relentless
devaluation of history continues.
nesting in the editorial page reverently quoted
19
bomb pod
George Will
as
at
The hawks
the Wall Street Journal
saying that Milosevic’s depre-
dations represent the greatest crimes against humanity since
World
War Two. Greater than the US’s wipeout in Vietnam? Pol Pot’s massacres? The US-backed Guatemalan junta’s rampages that lasted twenty years? Rwanda?
May
16,
1999
POMPOUS BROWN-NOSER'
'A
VAIN,
by
Andrew Cockburn
Anyone seeking
to understand the
bloody
of war on the Serbs
fiasco
need hardly look further than the person of the beribboned
Supreme
Allied
and journalists
Commander, General Wesley are generally according him a
K. Clark. Politicians respectful hearing as
he discourses on the ‘schedule’ for the destruction of Serbia,
embracing words favored by military bureaucrats such
as ‘systematic’
and ‘methodical.’
The
reaction from former
army subordinates
‘The poster child for everything that officer] corps,’
Clark 1
in action, citing,
official
wrong with
the
GO
[general
exclaims one colonel, who has had occasion to observe
Cavalry Division
st
is
very different.
is
at
among other examples, his command of the Fort Hood from 992 to 994. While Clark’s 1
Pentagon biography proclaims
his
1
triumph
in ‘transitioning
the Division into a rapidly deployable force’ this officer describes the in
‘
1
st
Horse Division’
25 years of doing
as ‘easily
this stuff.’
the worst division
I
have ever seen
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
20
Such strong reactions
are
of the 4th Infantry Division
command
was in
who
Fort Carson, Colorado,
and every one of
when
him
Clark
as a
his
junior officers with
watchful suspicion, he customarily accords the lower ranks
more than arrogant contempt. A veteran of
Hood didn’t
jump
Clark’s
out of the way
demeanor
mode of behavior Thus, early
in
as
that has
to
skill
crowded [canteen] checkout
enough
above
is,
to let
a
through.’
of course, very
different, a
candidate for promotion from two- to
Command
maneuver
him
lines
earned him rich dividends over the years.
war-game
a
exercise
Training Program in which Clark
his division against
commander of the opposing military
Clark’s tenure at Fort
Only one hurdle remained —
the Battle
would have
fast
to those
1994 he was
three-star general.
known
in the
little
tantrum because the privates
recalls the general’s ‘massive
and sergeants and wives
man
his subordinates as a potential
While he regards
career.'
his
at
in the 3rd Brigade
there in the early 1980s described
‘regards each
threat to
common. A major
force,
an opposing force.
or‘OPFOR,’ was known
The
for the
with which he routinely demolished opponents.
But Clark’s patrons on high were determined that no such humiliation should be visited on their fivorite. Prior to the exercise, therefore, strict orders
way. Accordingly, the
came down
that the battle should
go Clark’s
OPFOR was reduced in strength by half, thus
enabling Clark, despite deploying tactics of signal ineptitude, to
triumph. His third
Battle exercises
star
came down
and war uames
fighting skills of
are
Fort Irwin, California,
troops.
test
the
The army’s most
the National Training Center
where Clark commanded from October
1989 to October 1991 and where
him
is
later.
of course meant to
commanders and
important venue for such training at
few weeks
a
his
men
derisively
nicknamed
‘Section Leader Six’ for his obsessive micro-management.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS At the
NTC, army
21
OPFOR that has, through
units face a resident
constant battle practice coupled with innovative tactics and close
knowledge of the
terrain,
become adept
routing the visiting ‘Blue
at
Force' opponents. For Clark, this naturally posed a problem.
only were
men
his
using unconventional
humiliating Blue Force generals against the
some
NTC
future date.
commander and To the
they were also
tactics,
who might
nurture resentment
discommode
thus
disgust of the junior
Not
his career at
OPFOR officers Clark men on suicidal go home happy and
therefore frequently fought to lose, sending his attacks in order that the Blue Forces should
owing debts of gratitude
to their obliging foe.
All observers agree that
Clark has always displayed an obsessive
concern with the perquisites and appurtenances of rank. Ever since he acceded to the he
NATO command post, the entourage with which
accordingly
travels has
grown
to gargantuan proportions to the
point where even civilians are beginning to recalls his
the
room
appearances to
Supreme
‘We
prior to
which
Allied
timed and choreographed
Commander Europe makes
are state-of-the-art
remarks the
when
aide. ‘So
NATO
subordinates is
career. ‘But his
whole
in the interests
of his
life
traits
know we ’re
here,’
so egre-
in trouble.’
him, not with affection, ‘the Supreme
smart,’ concludes
Being.’ ‘Clark
control.’
call
moment when
his entrance.
witness displays those
giously that even the senators notice, you
His
microphone
pomposity and arrogance up a
aide
aides scurry about
adjusting lights, polishing his chair, testing the
etc prior to the precisely
the
testify,
comment. A Senate
one
who
has
monitored
his
has been spent manipulating appearances
career.
Now
he
is
faced with
a reality
he can’t
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
22
May
19,
THE
WAR BEHIND
by Jeffrey
1999
Clair
St.
Two months
THE BRIEFINGS
into the war,
NATO’s
NATO
caused by massacres of civilians by that in
one
NATO
been blown apart and, slept provides
raid
is
now
bombs. The response
on Konsa about 100
many
in
command
with the collateral media damage
settling into a routine for dealing
news
military high
cases,
burned
an instructive guide to what
had
to a cinder as they
by
is
civilians
to
now becoming
a
familiar routine.
reports
First
came complete with
network news anchors warning
that viewers
reporter for AFP,
US
the
in
pictures so horrific that
prefaced their coverage by
might find the footage
among
the
first
responsibility
seemed
clear
Serb
to reach the scene, retrieved the
of what was unquestionably an American bomb.
fin
A
‘disturbing.’
NATO
and unquestionable. However, the Serb
provenance of the reports allowed
NATO
authorities to swing
effortlessly into a standard evasive
maneuver by suggesting
reporters were of course suspect as
mere mouthpieces of Milosevic’s
propaganda machine. Addressing
this point,
foreign correspondent of the
though
tightly controlled by
that the
John Simpson, chief
BBC, noted from Belgrade
that,
the Belgrade government, Serb
reporters are:
very
much
journalists
like
Western journalists. Even under Tito, Yugoslav
were well-known
for their relative objectivity.
They
will
certainly report the official assessment of casualties in an attack, but, if
their reporters
that.
And
on the scene give
a different figure,
the reporters will use their
they will broadcast
own judgement. My
experience
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS after fifty-four days
in that civilians
of warfare here
have died
is
that,
NATO
in a
when
23
the
first
reports
come
attack, they are almost always
correct.
Such informed caveats do not of course enter the and background, of the Pentagon spinners and Brussels,
moved
Jamie Shea. By the day
to stage
after the Korisa killings, they
were unclear, along with hints
they informed the Washington Post for
or, as
their counterpart in
had
two of the damage control formula: the suggestion
that the true facts it,
briefings, formal
that the Serbs did
its
May
16 edition,
‘Serb artillery had been active in the area.’
NATO
At the
May
briefing on
spokesman Shea introduced projected on
his
14, the
presentation with a large slide
screen bearing the words ‘A
a
day after the bombing,
Good
Day.’
no mention of the Korisa
attack in his presentation,
questioned, he promised
‘a
command
had already made
had reportedly stayed up
full its
investigation.’ In
though when fact,
investigation. General
until 3
am on
Shea made
the high
Wesley Clark
the night before Shea spoke
reviewing the pilot reports and video footage and had personally edited the
Two
initial
NATO
statements.
days after the attack, in time for the Sunday papers,
was ready to abandon the ‘Serb had indeed
killed the Kosovars.
had become target.
a
‘command
Background
removed
signs
artillery’
NATO
defense and admit that they
Now, however,
the village of Korisa
center’ and therefore a legitimate military
briefings suggested that the Serbs had hurriedly
of military
activity,
including an artillery bunker,
before allowing reporters on the scene.
By
the beginning of the following week,
NATO
had
settled into
the final phase of the operation: the massacres were wholly the Serbs' fault, since the refugees hills
to act as
‘human
had been ‘herded’ down from the
shields' against
NATO
bombs. (They would
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
24
hardly have been of
NATO The
knew
much
human shields unless, of course, and bombed anyway.)
use as
they were there
true facts of the matter appear to have been that the inhabitants
of Korisa, some four thousand people, had
tied their
weeks before the bombing attack and taken attack they returned, either at the behest
one survivor
told Paul
to the
were running out of food. The Washington by
a
hills.
Just before the
of the Serb authorities,
Watson of the Los Angeles
that ‘A visit to the scene
homes some two
'Limes,
because they
Post did note
on May
field
Yugo-
provided no indication of a military presence near the
where the people were
killed,'
but that came in paragraph seven
of a story that gave deferential weight
May
18
Washington Post reporter Saturday, and
interviews with survivors conducted without the presence of slav authorities,
or, as
to the
bombers’ view of events.
1999
21,
TOM FRIEDMAN: THE MADDEST DOG by Alexander Cockburn
Liberals
and
against the
did those
social
war
who came of age politically amid protest Vietnam now talk in exactly the same phrases as
democrats
in
Kennedy
liberals
back
in the Sixties
about the crusade that
required planes, helicopters, Special Forces, troops, B-52 raids, the
Phoenix program, Listen to the
dog
in the
My
New
Lai
and ultimately 2 million dead people.
York Times
'
s
Thomas Friedman,
the maddest
war chorus:
Only when
[the Serbs]
brought them
conclude that their nationalist
to a very dark
and lonely corner
fantasies have
will they change.
The
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS Balkans don’t need
a
new
produce
can't
new
Serbian
to live in 21st-century Europe.
NATO
Serbian leader, they need a
how
ethic that understands
that transformation.
and intensifying the diplomacy,
it
But by intensifying the bombing
can create the conditions in which
might begin. Stay the course.
that transformation
And
25
ravings,
Punch and Judy version of Friedman’s coming out of the mouth of Bill Maher on Politically
Incorrect
addressing the Serbs:
listen also to the
,
me
Let
be the
to say
first
I
regime has turned into such
am
so sorry that supporting a genocidal
a hassle for
has delayed the delivery of your J.
Crew
And by
screwed up your commute.
you. I’m sorry
if our
bombing
catalog or screwed [laughter]
the way,
if
I
were you,
I
would
write a strongly worded letter to the transit authority, because I’ve seen
your bridges, and Believe me, it
frankly, they’re
we would
need
fascists
to
kicked your ancestors'
some
give
‘Can
you I
asses
a hint. If in
(Maher learned
class.
we
realized
So maybe what you
stop supporting an evil dictator
who
is
600 years ago. Let
it
go. You’re yuppies,
Get your moral clock working. Let
me
I
make
a left at the
death camp?’ [laughter]
redneck.
later the
when he was
propaganda
Tae-Bo
if
your language you have ever used the phrase,
get to the mall if a
bombing them
entire people just because their ancestors
therapy, [laughter]
you might be
tide
is
on eliminating an
hell-bent
get
do
to
[laughter and applause]
mess,
never have started
was keeping you from getting
yuppie
a
consequences of swimming against the
swiftly fired for a
line after 9/11.)
minor
infraction of the official
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
26
May
23,
1999
THE ANTIWAR LEFT by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
At
first
the reaction of the antiwar
twitch in the Bay Area in the
first
St.
left
Clair
seemed very poor. Barely
days of bombing, whereas
at
the
of the Iraq war demonstrators tied up the bridges almost
start
a
at
once.
But round the country activity.
there’s
spirited organizing
and
In the Pacific Northwest, to take one region, one of our
CounterPunch editors spoke to
opposed
all
been some
a lively
audience
to the war. CounterPunch readers
at
Humboldt
State,
David Messerve and
Betsy Roberts contrasted the atmosphere handing out
leaflets at the
Areata entry to route 101 in 1991, and today. Back then, they conservatives got back
at
say,
the Areata City Council (which had
opposed the war) by putting up an enormous American
flag
next
to the highway. This
time Dave and Betsy saw the crusty old fellow
-
— who had put up
a local
leaflet
US
contractor
attacking the Serb bombing.
had no business
He
in the Balkans.
As
antiwar groups have been good and the bad.
Amnesty
that flag
took a
it
and offered him
a
cordially, saying the
general rule the pacifist
human
rights
International did issue a statement
groups very
condemning
the
bombing of the TV station but conspicuously failed to denounce the bombing overall. Human Rights Watch has been bad.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
May
27
1999
27,
EPIC POETRY by Alexander Cockburn
In
nnd-May
I
traveled to
Sacramento
to give a talk at
who works
Books, having been invited by Scott Soriano,
and
who
Comment.
My
store
Time
Tested the
at
also publishes an excellent local newsletter, Sacramento
eye was caught by the cover of
a
slim
volume on
a
high shelf behind the cash register, decorated with an engraving of a
naked warrior with
subtitled ‘Heroic
The gift
store's
spear,
and the
Songs of the
title
Kossovo (the older spelling),
Serbs,' translated
by Helen Rootham.
owner, Peter Keat, was generous enough to make
of the volume, published by Houghton Mifflin
in
a
1920, with
an intro by Maurice Baring and an informative historical preface
byjanko Lavrin, citing both Jacob of Serbian press
Grimm and Goethe on
epic. Since there’s plenty
of patronizing
about Serbia’s unwonted obsession with
defeat (some of this
comment
the genius
comment
its
past
in the
and with
written by British journalists brought
up on obsessive school lessons about the Battle of Hastings and the retreat
from Dunkirk),
let us
quote from Lavrin averring that ‘the
entire political mentality even of the
been formed
...
chiefly
modern
by folk-poetry
...
Serbian peasant
That
is
the reason
lias
why
fervent patriotism has such a romantic, noble, and almost
his
religious character.’
This enthusiasm for epic poetry could be studied with profit by
our
own
legislators. Lavrin cites an historical
memoir of Mrs.
Lawton-Mijatovich:
During the winter of 873-74, happening 1
the meeting of the National Assembly,
I
to be in Kragrjevatz
during
had the opportunity of hearing
E.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
28
a certain peasant,
Anta Neshich,
Room
audiences outside the Assembly for introducing the fresh
same taking form,
War with
Bill.
numerous
whole debate on the
the
monetary system into
the final acceptance of the in the
recite in blank verse to
The poet put
Serbia, concluding with
the debate
to the great delight
Bill
on the Budget
of his many auditors.
reporting in the fourteenth century could also be studied
profit
how
by Wesley Clark, Jamie Shea and the others. Here’s
the son of Sultan
Murad recorded
the death of his father,
at
Kosovo,
writing to Suleiman-Bey, the Kadhia of Brussa:
When
this
my
firman comes into your hands you should
in accordance with Allah’s will there
Kossovo.
My
father, Sultan
whose death was sleeping, to
that
Murad, whose
a battle life
battle
from the
being ended,
battlefield to his
which was elevated towards the heavens. And while we enjoyed
how
the greatest pleasure in seeing
the cut heads of the Christian
dukes rolled under the horses' hoofs, and hands and others with broken fighter,
how many of them
legs stood, there
by name Milosh Obilich.
He came
army.
When
after his
illustrious Sultan,
boldly thrust
it
martyrdom. After
pieces.
he drew
into the
Thus he caused
shone
own
perfidiously, saying that
wish he was allowed to a
Sultan, sorely
a
he
in the victorious
kiss
poisonous hanjar hidden
body of the
with tied
suddenly appeared
accepted Islam, and asking that he might so be ranked
who
of
field
after a vision whilst
make him worthy of martyrdom. The his full health,
on the
that
had been happy and
of a martyr, prayed to Allah,
he returned unhurt and in tent,
was
know
the feet of the
in his sleeve,
and
wounding him.
the illustrious Sultan to drink the sherbet of this
deed Milosh
like stars in the sky,
tried to escape
through the soldiers
but was caught by them and cut
in
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS Like almost
all
29
Murad
other chroniclers of battle,
II
not entirely truthful. His father was stabbed and mortally
by Milosh before the
Kad u jutru danak osvanuo,Ali
On
the
wounded
Kosovo now, ‘the
for
Na
lete
kljunove b'jela pjena
morrow
as
the
dawn
is
beaks the blood-flecked foam
trgla
breaking,
...
lo,
there
two
fly
is
From
that
distributes
electricity
a
District, a publicly
a
publicly
plant,
duly did, simultaneously voting in
SMUD
SMUD
is
burdensome
is
a
a
go up
All in
all,
is
progressive
board, of
(sadly
dwindling) kind.
It
has eliminated
deposits, pushes energy conservation, cogeneration
SMUD’s
rates are far
rate increase in eight years
steadily.
are not, as
a
which they
member.
model of its
solar programs.
imposed no
owned
decade ago, gave Sacramento voters the chance to
decommission the Rancho Seco nuclear power
which Keat
member
from hydro power
generated off dams on the American River. As
SMUD,
their
falling.
of the board of the Sacramento Municipal Utility utility
two
ravens,
Peter Keat combines love of literature with activism as a
utility
of
dva vrana gavrana, Krvava im krila
black ravens; Bloody are their wings up to the shoulders,
owned
plain
words of the epic poet need not be changed:
blackbirds,’ the
do ramena,
As
battle began.
was being
lower than PG&E’s;
and has seen
its
bond
it
and has
rating
Big companies have to pay their proper whack and
usually the case, subsidized by the ordinary consumers.
SMUD
is
a fitting
subject for Serbian epic poetry.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
30
June
1999
1,
YOUR WAR CRIMINAL
FIRST PICK
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
Compared with
when
piker
it
Clinton and
Bill
comes on
devastating effect
May
children. In
civilian
The
who worked Iraq and who
in
of human rights provisions
for the
would it ‘a
as a
Broderick,
US
off.
By
It
charter.’
a professional aid
worker
poor health conditions. He
turned out that
his
result
many
as
576,000
of sanctions. Using figures from
World Health Organization estimated
Iraqi children Iraq’s
that
Food and it
had
have died
as a
Ministry of Health the
90,000
every year in Iraq’s hospitals, over and above those expired In
at
called
prophecy was
the end of 1995 alone the United Nations
that as
who
Iraqi children
Agriculture Organization said that after careful investigation
determined
public
contradiction
‘in
consequence of sanctions 175,000
slow motion.’
many
charity Catholic Relief Services,
certainly die because of the
disaster in
badly
Doug
United Nations
has issued
UN’s own
in the
Baghdad by the
predicted that
semi-
a
no medical
hospitals have almost
denunciations of the sanctions, says that they are
to
notoriously
a
treatment plants either barely function or don’t
Development program
was sent
a
population, particularly the
Denis Halliday,
In July 1991,
is
sanctions
of the country’s population has been on
The sewage
at all.
The
Iraq.
1991 have had
States in
Iraq’s
starvation diet for years.’
work
accomplices Milosevic
of 1996 the World Health Organization said that
‘the vast majority
supplies.
his
Clair
war crimes. Take
to
imposed by the United
St.
Iraqis
were dying
who would
have
the normal rate.
sum,
engineered
it
a
is
beyond argument
program of enforced
that the
United States has
scarcity that has caused the deaths
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS ot
hundreds of thousands of
World War Two the Nazis by opening the dikes the
German
end
ot
to
months of
Iraqi civilians. In the final
tried to delay the
Holland.
in
31
The man
advance of the Allies issuing this order was
By
high commissioner in Holland, Seyss-Inquart.
the
1944 about 500,000 acres ot land had been tlooded, leading
what
in food
historian Gabriel
Kolko
called ‘the
most precipitous decline
consumption any West European country suffered during
the war.’
Ot
the 195 Nazis indicted at
Nuremberg, Seyss-Inquart
was one of 24 sentenced to death.
Seyss-Inquart merely opened dikes in Holland. Gabriel Kolko,
who commented on
that
food consumption, was testifying about at
the
Vietnam
The
consequent
this
fall
in
German war
convened by Bertrand Russell
tribunal,
historian
Dutch
criminal
in
1967 to
US war crimes in Indochina. Kolko told the US Air Force had bombed the Toksan dam near
hold hearings into tribunal
how
the
Pyongyang. The plan was to destroy the irrigation system supplying
A
75 per cent of North Korea’s rice farms.
subsequent
USAF
study
of the bombing of the Toksan and Chasan dams noted: ‘These strikes, largely passed
commentators
...
over by the press, military observers and news
constituted one of the most significant air
operations of the Korean war.'
remarked equably its
Of these
that the timing
psychological effect,
when
deeds, the
USAF
was aimed to be devastating
embedded. There
work making
in
the exhausting labor of rice trans-
planting had been completed, but before the roots had firmly
historian
are probably
become
Pentagon planners hard
at
similar calculations regarding the attrition of Serbian
agriculture and commercial activity right now.
The bombing of the North Korean dams was Water bursting through the holes
bombs ‘scooped
clean’ miles
in the
a
rousing success.
Toksan dam made by
US
of valley below, with the added bonus
o
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
32
of not only wiping out the rice paddies but also drowning Korean civilians in
underground
Communists
the
shelters.
The USAF
the smashing of the
—
destruction of their chief sustenance
—
has for the Asian
rice.
The Westerner can
on desperate
action
bombs
also
of
loss
repair efforts
j
way
the
little
Another
North Koreans
without regard for the delayed-
dropped around the
Similar successful assaults were
[t
food
this staple
starvation and slow death.'
study detected ‘Oriental fatalism’ in the carried
‘
dams meant primarily the
conceive the awesome meaning that the
commodity
study exulted that
target area.
made on dams
in
Vietnam. In
Kamm, a New York Times reporter, recounted how a of Hue had been ‘blasted by American jets to deprive
1969 Henry
dam the
south
North Vietnamese of
find that the paddies
a
food supply.’
Kamm
returned
had by then been destroyed by
later to
salt
water
encroaching from the South China Sea.
We
don’t have the
trial
Inquart was asked
why
answered
in
the
transcript at hand, but
he had opened the dikes. Perhaps he
same words
as
Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright. In 1996 Albright was asked
children have died [in Iraq].
Hiroshima.
the price
— we think
So, back in
hanged,
if
mean,
1
And you know,
Albright famously replied:
‘1
is
is
that’s
more
that half a million
children than died
the price worth
think
the price
Nuremberg
on CBS’s 60 Minutes by Lesley
‘We have heard
Stahl the following question:
in
no doubt Seyss-
this
worth
time, Albright
is
a
it?'
The
repulsive
very hard choice, but
it.'
would
certainly have
been
the standards applied to Seyss- Inquart had been leveled
against her,
and
if
she had been on the losing side. So
would her
commanding officer, Bill Clinton. The protocols of the Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibit bombing not justified by clear military necessity. If there is any
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS likelihood the target has
civilian
a
33
function, then
NATO
prohibited. In other words the vast majority of
NATO’s bombers
been criminally attacked.
bombing
is
targets have
have damaged and
often destroyed hospitals and health care centers, public housing, infrastructure vital
the well-being of civilians, refineries,
to
warehouses, agricultural
NATO spokesmen
facilities,
have directly stated their hope that the suffering
of Serbs will prompt them to
was publicly expressed by Iraq,
rise against
US
officials
knew
even though they
abandoned the Shia
how
well
NATO,
- and Kosovar
Milosevic. (The same hope
amid the sanctions enough,
rebels in the late spring
awful the effect of sanctions,
survive.
schools, roads and railways.
in other words,
is
alter
Bush had
of 1991, that no matter
Saddam and
his
regime would
waging war on Serbian
civilians for that matter.) If
against
civilians
Milosevic goes on
trial
before the International Criminal Court, Clinton, Albright and
Defense Secretary William Cohen should have their place on the court’s calendar too.
Under
the terms of the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia —
a
1993 — anyone can
body file
set
up by the
UN
Security Council in
formal complaints for the Tribunal’s
prosecutor, Justice Louise Arbor, to consider within the terms of
Geneva Conventions. Thus
the
far there
have been three serious
requests for investigation and indictment against the for their
for
Arbor
now working in
The Hague
war crimes -
together. Already the Canadian
team has
requests for indictment against 67 persons
said persons
spokesman Jamie Shea,
ranging from
whom
Bill
Clinton to
NATO
Canadian lawyer Michael Mandel
likened in role to William Joyce aka Lord gandist for the Nazis hanged by the Allies
War Two.
leaders
conduct against Serbia. Lawyers in Canada, Britain and
France are sent
NATO
Haw-Haw, at
a
the end of
propa-
World
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
34
Prof.
Mandel,
York University is
who
in
teaches law
indictable
a great case. It will
war crimes
towns and
be
in the
villages,
military necessity; the willful destruction
2,
good
are:
Among
all
the
the
wanton destruction of
and kindred devastation, not caused by
of, or willful
and schools,
test to see
bombardment of undefended towns;
publicly the essentials of
June
at
complaint and request for indictment
damage done
dedicated to religion, charity or education hospitals
a
actually applies to powerful people.'
prepared by the Canadian lawyers cities,
Hall law school
Toronto (of which, coincidentally, Louise Arbor
an alumna), says ‘we have
whether the law
Osgood
at
hit all
by
NATO’s
the
to institutions
(i.e.,
monasteries,
bombs). ‘They’ve admitted
these crimes,’
Mandel
says.
1999
HUMANITARIAN ADOLF by Alexander Cockburn
Jules Lobel
and Michael Ratner, of the Center
for Constitutional
Rights, point out that on September 23, 1938 Hitler wrote to Prime
Minister Chamberlain that ethnic
been
‘tortured,’ that
that the ‘security stake,’
Germans
in
Czechoslovakia had
120,000 had been ‘forced to
of more than 3,000,000
flee the country,’
human
beings was
and that they had been ‘prevented from realizing
at
also the
right of nations to self-determination.’ Hitler was also laying the basis for
humanitarian intervention:
in a sovereign state
a
claim to intervene militarily
because of claimed
human
rights abuses.
Hitler precedent illustrates the mischief caused assert
humanitarian intervention
as a
when
The
countries
pretext for acting in their
own
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS geopolitical interests, and
governments
June
3,
1
to take the
it
sets a
same
35
dangerous precedent for other
tack.
999
THE ANTIWAR RIGHT by Alexander Cockburn
We
ll
say this for right-wing columnists like
they turn against
Novak
war, they do
a
lashed out at
NATO,
it
Novak
right. In
or Feder:
when
one column Robert
excoriating liberal warmongers and
reaching back in literary history to the social democrat H. G. Wells’s
Shape of Things
Come, where Britain
to
is
liberated
from enemy
occupation by an international armada. Novak also evoked Sumner Welles,
the
FDR’s
Secretary of State,
weapon of an an
Try
this
international police force.
now
that we’re in the conflict,
remain credible. By 1973,
which gave If
us far
we’d applied
we would
still
know,
be slugging
naked will
a far if
we
it
But
if
politburo,
I
as a
55,000 Americans
stake there than
paper
out
we
like
to
Vietnam,
in
Southeast Asia,
and the Vietnam
structure.
don’t take Belgrade and display Milosevic
and evildoers from Baghdad to Pyongyang
tiger.
were Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong
I’d
in
it
have in Kosovo.
in the rice paddies,
more imposing
in a cage, malefactors
view us
lost
America must win
do-or-die logic to the war
this
know,
I
we had
more of a
memorial would be I
thought bombers should be
from Feder:
argued that
It’s
who
II
or the Chinese
nothing better than to see America wasting
its
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
36
limited military resources (very limited, thanks to our anti-defense
commander
in chief) in the Balkans.
Think of how
thrilled Hitler
would have been
1939, England had decided to begin
NATO achieving
Who
cannot survive its
says
if
it
objective, insists
NATO
birth, the Iron
Presumably,
if
now abandons
Henry
is
Roman
of
Liechtenstein.
the campaign without
Kissinger.
a rust heap.
NATO’s
Eastern Europe and the Baltic
why NATO?
NATO
loses credibility,
ability to pull us into future abysses.
The armed
in the spring
has to survive? Half of a century after
Curtain
states are free. So,
bombing
if,
forces
of the United
it
will limit the alliance’s
Wouldn't
be
that
a pity?
States aren’t the legions
of the
Empire. The soldiers of a republic shouldn't be walking endless
foreign battlements in a deranged and futile attempt to enforce a pax
Americana.
It
takes a robust
Republican to throw
Liberals never talk like that. For is
like
June
attending
5,
a
NATO
into the trashcan.
them, talking dirty about
baptism and spitting
NATO
in the font.
1999
A FRAUD CALLED SANDERS by Alexander Cockburn
The most Bernard
useful parable about progressives
is
Sauciers, self-styled ‘socialist progressive
that offered by
independent’ rep
from Vermont. Sanders owes
his political career to rage against the
Vietnam War among
many of whom moved
radicals,
into the state
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS in the early 1970s.
They forthwith planned
37
long-term, carefully
a
organized, assault on Vermont’s two-party structure. Sanders linked
ambitions to
his political
He became mayor
Progressive Alliance.
congressman. At
movement
moved from ago
least five years
B. Sanders
a third force,
of Burlington and,
rapid clip the emphasis
a
building to Sanders-building. At that the only
organize
this effort to
the
later,
party-
was apparent
it
was interested in was
that
of
One
political
piece of opportunism followed another, always forgiven by
Vermont
liberal
money
pwogwessives against the
who
fraud, even though, last year, Sanders spoke
Congress
in
of Sanders and fear to speak out
are frightened
loudmouth
vehemently
campaign trough.
into his political
in favor
of sending
his state’s
nuclear waste
into a poor, largely hispanic, township in Texas called Sierra Blanca.
He
supported sanctions against
war.
He
did
it
once, he did
it
Iraq. Then
which
reserves
of Article
warmaking powers
who owes
progressive’ Sanders,
sentiment, had not voted for the
have been even more dramatic,
vote,
tie
House of Representatives repudiated in violation
which meant
the war
One
NATO
a straight
office
stance.
was occupied by
The
last
occupied was
that the
if
the ‘socialist
antiwar
result
would
majority for the coalition
Dennis Kucinich,
as a
handful of others.
most recent vote of shame, Sanders’s
fifteen radical
Vermonters sickened by
his
time any political rep from Vermont had an office
when in
So
bombers, the
a
group
later
known
as
the
(Republican) Senator Robert Jefford’s office
Reagan’s war
again.
it
Constitution,
career to
entire
Cynthia McKinney, Barbara Lee, Pete Stark and 26, even before his
US
to Congress. his
of this
on Serbia launched
of the
of Republicans and radical Democrats such
On April
in favor
twice and on April 28, he did
This was the astounding 213—213
by Clinton
he voted
Winooski 44 in
sat in
1984, protesting
Central America. Jefford waited three days before
asking the police to remove the protesters. Sanders waited six hours.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
38
On Monday May 3, he held a town meeting in Montpelier attended by the
fifteen protesters,
Burlington office
them was
to
who
wearing chains. The
Readers of the Washington they missed the historic first
on
Titties its
had
a
Post
first
House vote
one of the Winooski 44.
edition can be forgiven
still
better sense of
played
down
news and
on
a
The New
and put the vote
front page, above the fold: ‘Deadlocked Titties
House Denies did better too,
War Separate Vote Denies Funds for Deploying Ground the Vietnam era it took years for resistance in the House
front-page banner headline, ‘House Refuses to Back Air
Serbs:
Forces.’ In
even to approach that
June
on page A27.
the vote.
history
Support for Air Campaign.’ The Washington with
if
refusing to approve the
the Post reported the vote coyly
In the late edition the Post York
in Sanders’s
told the protesters Sanders wouldn’t speak
Philip Fiermonte, ironically
bombings. At
man
7,
1
level.
999
THE COST by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
The
deal brokered by
NATO’s
St.
Clair
errand boy Chernomyrdin on June
2 was virtually identical to that offered by Milosevic to
before the
bombing
started.
The
sole
NATO
-
purpose of the bombing was
NATO’s capacity to bomb, thus killing nearly 2,000 civilians, destroying much of Serbia’s to
demonstrate to Serbia and to the world
infrastructure, a
prompting the forced expulsion and
flight
million Kosovars. Wars have been triggered by the
of around frailest
of
excuses and prolonged on the slightest of rationales, but the
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS Cowards' War,
as
39
Nicholas von Hoffman aptly christened
of
to beat for the effrontery
supposed
its
it, is
hard
rationales.
The Rambouillet negotiations lasted from February 6 to February 23. The so-called contact group' of NATO powers - US, Germany,
UK - pushed for Kosovar autonomy, guaranteed by the presence of NATO troops. Kept unrevealed at the time was a secret Appendix B to the deal presented to NATO on the final day. Not only were NATO troops to occupy Kosovo, but NATO troops France, Italy and
were
to have the right to ‘free
access throughout the shall include,
and
billet
training,
(Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
but not be limited
utilization of
demand
use of
all
any areas or
Appendix
in
Yugoslav
facilities as
required for support,
—
and
i.e.
NATO
ports. In other
Serbia
—
Department
back briefings of
US
official
boasted of
NATO
surrender sovereignty.
was setting impossible conditions, certain
senior State
cost-free
words
that Milosevic
indeed every Serb would find them impossible to accept.
set
This
the right of bivouac, maneuver,
B. Article 10 allowed
streets, airports
insisting that Yugoslavia
NATO
to,
...
and operations.' This language comes in Article 8 of NATO’s
secret
was
FRY
and unrestricted passage and unimpeded
this at
reporters, saying that the
US
It
and
seems
a
the time in deep
‘had deliberately
the bar higher than the Serbs could accept’ and that ‘they need
some bombing and
The
final offer
guaranteed by
a
that’s
what
they’re
get.’
of the Serbs was for Kosovar autonomy, to be
UN
force with a Russian
presence in Serbia was unacceptable. this.
going to
The
component. A
NATO
NATO
powers rejected
Serbia refused to sign the Rambouillet agreement and so did
the Kosovars, until forced to by
March 24
the
NATO
powers on March
18.
On
bombing began.
On June 2 the deal agreed to by Milosevic and the Serb parliament was for
a
UN force with
plus Kosovar
a
Russian component, plus
autonomy within
a
NATO force,
the Yugoslav federation.
The
unstated
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
40
agenda seems to be the partitioning of Kosovo. The ‘demilitarized’ and Yugoslav troops allowed at
numbers
in limited
Kosovo.
to
No
KLA
some point
will be
to return
international force either under
UN or NATO auspices will enter Serbia. The Kosovar refugees will be able to return, but that was never
sticking point so far as
a
Milosevic was concerned.
NATO
forced
war and ended up with
a
could have been signed in
UN
helmets alongside the a
late
Cowards’ War would
this
essentially the deal that
February. There will be
some
NATO
blue helmets in Kosovo, but only after
be called victory.
June 10, 1999
THE LIBERALS'
WAR
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St.
This was the Liberals’ War, bombing
a
months from 30,000
feet. It
was the
Clair
country for two and
Liberals’
War waged by
a
half
social
democracy’s best and brightest, intent on proving once again that wars can be fought with the best and most virtuous of intentions: the
companion volume
An
to Hillary Clinton’s
Air Force,’ though
‘It
Takes
a Village’
turns
no doubt claim
out to be
‘It
one day
wasn’t his idea and he only partly went along with Sandy
it
Takes
Bill will
Berger, Strobe Talbott and Madeleine Albright because he wanted to ‘preserve
my
political viability,’ the
words he used
draft-dodging shuffle in the Vietnam viability.
Americans
who
had supported
president even though he had kissed
turn sharply against
era.
in his
famous
But war eroded
Bill’s
his
right to remain
Monica Lewinsky began
him when he bombed Serbian
schools.
to
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
41
Europe voted
Just as social democratic parties across
for
war
in
1914, so did they again in 1999. In Britain social democrats rallied to the pipsqueak bombardier,
exceptions:
Alice
—
the bridge with
as
to Belgrade
There were honorable
Dalyell,
was
and to Novi Sad and stood on
she later described
including Albanians, defying
whose
Blair.
Tony Benn and Yorkshire Labour Member of Parliament
Mahon who went
MP, Tam
Tony
opponent. So was Harold Pinter,
we excerpted
So was our friend Tariq Ah,
War campaigns. The two
nationalities
NATO’s bombers. Another fine Labour
a spirited
fine denunciation
- twelve
a
in a recent CounterPunch.
veteran of the Sixties’ anti-Vietnam
leading liberal papers, the Observer and
the Guardian, both favored the war. In France
most
intellectuals
fell
once again there were exceptions, notably Regis and Kosovo and wrote
to Belgrade
Monde put on
its
front page.
liberal intellectuals,
In
Germany
Democratic
NATO, though Debray, who went
into line behind
a fine
denunciation which Le
Debray was then savaged by France’s
including
a vitriolic assault in Liberation.
there was increasing division, even in the Social
Economics Minister Oskar Lafontaine
Party. After
resigned rather than support the war, he also quit the party.
Though Chancellor Schroeder
opposed,
fully
as
ran for this position un-
30 per cent of the delegates
at
a
special
Democratic Party convention voted against him. There was dissension
among
leader of
Social
also great
the Greens against the conduct of Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer. In Italy the resistance
of 130,000
in
Rome
was strongest. There was
in
late
a
demonstration
May, with the red banners of the
Rifundazione Party of leftists paired bravely with the white banners of the Catholic Boy Scouts. The famous appealed publicly in
II
leftist
Rosanna Rosanda
Manifesto for Italian soldiers to desert if
required to fight in Yugoslavia. She received
much
public support.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
42
The Pope from an
flayed the
war
in his Easter
Greeting, which was dropped
The Pope described NATO’s bombing as retribution.’ From a man of God what stronger
Britain’s broadcasts.
of diabolical
‘act
words could come?
Here
in the
US
the
marshalled for war.
Democrats
in the
war found almost
The
all
Democrats
Congress
exceptions were twenty-six
heroic
House, led by Dennis Kucinich of Ohio — himself
of Irish-Croat ancestry -
who
leagued with
a
majority of
Republicans twice to deny Clinton legitimation for liberals
in
favored the bombing. Susan Sontag termed
House
his war. it
‘a
Most
just war.’
Among those opposing the war was a man who has written finely about this same trahison, Edward Said. Noam Chomsky, as always, set
NATO’s
claims to humanitarian motive in clarifying context.
Peace groups
rallied
and by
late
May
organizing across the country. Here
we
so often do, heartening evidence
there was evidence of intense at
CounterPunch
we
found,
of interesting coalitions.
as
Many
people visiting our website and subsequently calling us up are not
from traditional
left
constituencies, but were delighted by our
commentaries and have declared
their admiration
and pleasure
at
our stance. Wars are never beaten nor even greatly inconvenienced in the
law courts, but
the suit brought by
we should
Tom
note that Clinton has had to face
Campbell, Republic rep from San Jose,
charging Clinton with unconstitutional warmaking, with the
suit
being lodged for him, twenty-three other Republicans and two
Democrats — Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur,
Center for Constitutional Rights.
We
also
of Ohio - by the
should also note the
War Crimes about war for the tribunal, which we
complaints to the International Tribunal on
crimes by
NATO
leaders.
We
don’t care
see merely as a judicial errand
we
see a
win-win. Either
Milosevic or
it
it
will give us the
boy
for the
NATO
will discredit itself
enormous
powers, but here
by indicting only
pleasure of seeing Clinton,
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
43
and the others accused of war crimes. Either way,
Blair
it
spells
death to the public viability of the tribunal.
June
1
3,
1
999
THE McCAIN STORY by Jeffrey
The
top
St.
Clair
warmonger
in
Congress has been Senator John McCain,
Republican from Arizona, seeker of the Republican presidential nomination. In one rhetorical bombing run
after another,
has bellowed for ‘lights out in Belgrade’ and for
NATO
the Serbs. At the start of May he began declaiming in the for the
to ‘cream’
US
Senate
NATO forces to use ‘any means necessary’ to destroy Serbia.
McCain resume
McCain
is
often called a ‘war hero,’ a
title
adorning an unlovely
who was an admiral and US Naval Academy, where
starting with a father
graduated
fifth
from the bottom
the
nickname ‘McNasty.’ McCain flew twenty-three bombing
at
the
he earned
missions over North Vietnam, each averaging about half an hour, total
time ten hours and thirty minutes. For these brief excursions
the admiral’s son was awarded
two
Silver Stars,
two Legions of
Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars, the
Vietnamese Legion of Honor and three Purple Hearts. Dispatch calculates our hero earned a
US
medal an hour, which
is
Veteran
pretty
good going. McCain was shot down over Hanoi on October
26,
1967 and parachuted into True Boch Lake, whence he was hauled by Vietnamese, and put
A
couple of years
Fernando
in prison.
later
he was interviewed
Barral, a Spanish psychiatrist living in
in
prison
camp by
Cuba. The interview
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
44
appeared
McCain pieces
how
Granina on January 24, 1970. Barral’s evaluation of
in
quoted
is
on McCain
Amy
t>y
in the
Silverman, author of
Phoenix-based
many
New Titties
excellent
weekly. Here’s
Barral described ‘the personality of the prisoner
responsible for
many
who
is
criminal bombings of the people.’ Barral goes
on:
He (McCain) showed interview.
He was
From
a
himself to be intellectually alert during the
morale point of view he
able to be sarcastic,
equilibrium.
From
showed
is
us he
the moral and ideological point of view he
acts
from the absolute impunity of those people saved his
now
healthy and strong.
spoke of banal things
long it
as he’s
is
as if
does not appear to have
he committed against his airplane,
I
I
and
believe that he has
a
population
that nevertheless
bombed
densely
noted that he was hardened, that he
he were
at a
deeply loved by the
the noble outsider,
seems - the Keating
who
depth, who
fed him, and looked after his health and
life,
populated places for sport.
McCain
human
an insensitive individual without
thought about the criminal
is
not in traumatic shock.
and even humorous, indicative of psychic
does not show the slightest concern,
he
is
cocktail party.
press.
As Silverman puts
McCain can
it,
‘as
away with anything
get
Five, a drug-stealing wife, nasty jokes
about
Chelsea Clinton - and the pundits will gurgle and coo.’
William the
New
McCain
Safire,
Maureen Dowd,
Russell Baker, the
York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, have in
60 Minutes
all
New
Yorker,
slobbered over
The culmination was a love poem in from Mike Wallace, who managed to avoid any inconempurpled
prose.
venient mention ot McCain’s close relationship with Savings
Loan fraudster Charles Keating, with kids
romped on Bahamian
beaches.
whom
&
the senator and his
McCain was
similarly spared
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
knew nothing of
scrutiny for his astonishing claim that he wife’s scandalous dealings. His vicious
45
his
temper has escaped rebuke.
McCain’s escape from the Keating debacle was nothing short of miraculous, probably the activity for which he most deserves
medal. After
he took more than $100,000
all,
a
campaign
in
contributions from the swindler Keating between 1982 and 1988,
while simultaneously log-rolling for Keating on Capitol
same period McCain took nine Bahamas.
When
trips
muck began
the
Hill. In the
to Keating’s place in the
to rise,
McCain threw Keating
over the side, hastily reimbursed him for the trips and suddenly
developed
The
a
profound
McCain because of his grandstanding on
pundits love
money’s baneful
campaign finance reform.
interest in
soft
role in politics, thus garnering for himself a
reputation for willingness to court the enmity of his colleagues. In fact colleagues in the
They know last
Senate regard
he already has
that
a
McCain
as a
mere grandstander.
big war chest
senatorial campaign, plus torrents of pac
corporations that crave his indulgence
as
left
over from his
money from
chairman of the Senate
Commerce Committee. Communications companies (US Bell South,
McCain’s
ATT,
Bell Atlantic) have
treasury, as
bites it
been particularly
that
former
POW,
McCain drew
rose in the Senate
effusive in
that liberals love: solid military
ever ready with acceptable sound-
on campaign finance reform and other cherished
was
West,
have banks, military contractors and UPS.
They also know he has a rich wife. McCain is the kind of Republican credentials as a
the
enthusiastic plaudits
chamber
to
denounce the
last
issues.
year
Thus
when he
insertion of
$200
million worth of pork in the military construction portion of the
defense authorisation service families
bill.
Eloquently, he spoke of the
on food stamps, the
lack
11,200
of modern weapons
supplied to the military, the declining levels of readiness in the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
46
armed
leagues: that
is
he
forces. Bravely,
at
the doors of his col-
could find only one commonality to these projects, and
‘I
90 per cent of them happened to be
that
districts
blame
laid the
in the state or
of members of the Appropriations Committees.’
Sternly, in
tones befitting
Cato or
a
a
Cicero, he urged his
colleagues to ponder their sacred duty to uphold the defense of the
Republic rather than
away the public purse on such
frittering
‘We
frivolous expenditure:
live in a
have some serious foreign policy military that
but
do
I
know
is
crises.
capable of meeting
that
what we
are
very dangerous world.
am
I
not sure
some of these
doing with
this
we
We
will
have the
foreseeable threats,
$200 million
will not
thing to improve our ability to meet that threat.'
a single
In the gallery, partisans of pork-free spending silently cheered
who hoped
while those
to profit
from portions of the $200 million
Yet such emotions were misplaced
gnashed their teeth
in chagrin.
on
was vintage McCain. Had he wished
either side. This
words with deeds, he could have called
for a roll-call
to follow
on the kerns
he had just denounced so fervently. That way the looters and
gougers would have had to place their infamy on the record. But no,
McCain
simply
down and
sat
anonymous babble of
to be authorized in the
Had McCain
those in favor say Aye’). his alleged
really
a
voice vote
(‘All
had the courage of
convictions he could have filibustered the entire $250
billion authorisation
evidence. Instead,
voted for
allowed the offending expenditure
bill,
when
but, inevitably,
the
$250
no such bravery was
billion finally
came
in
to a vote, he
it.
This miserable display provides useful insights into the reasons for
McCain’s ineffectiveness on
have garnered him so Senate
much
issues
such
campaign finance
favorable publicity.
staffer offers these observations'
weakness of character:
as
A
that
conservative
on McCain’s fundamental
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
...
the real question
he has to bill.
is
why
this
senator did not use the strong leverage
insist that his ‘ethical’
After
Senator
all,
47
a
major
in issues
of the
position be incorporated into
McCain couched
his
concerns
highest national importance: readiness, modernization, and the
we
military’s ability to defeat the threats
Pragmatism a
is
commonly
the most
heard excuse.
If McCain
had made
pain out of himself in insisting on keeping the unneeded and wasteful
pork out of the milcon authorization he would have respect
lost
comity with
his
bill,
some people would argue
Senate colleagues.
They wouldn’t
him anymore. They would have been angry with him, because
he kept them up
late
(it
been embarrassed by
would weaken
was about 10.30 pm), and they would have
his
showing them up
his ability to get things
contest: if
you want
to get anything
go along and get along. Well,
as
pork-meisters. This
done.
‘This argument assumes politics in the
is
face (whatever they are).
US
Senate
done around
this place
is
a
is
here,
a
popularity
you have
popularity contest, but
to it
supposed to be one with the voters, not one’s colleagues. Besides,
this place doesn't really
for fluffy
show
someone who
pieces.
some on
Mr McCain
Show them you mean
business,
and you’re
has to be dealt with (rather than a talk-only type), and
you'll begin to get
there are
operate that way. Here, they have contempt
some
results.
Get ready
the other side
who
are
for a fight, though, because
no push-overs. Obviously,
was not prepared to make that investment.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
48
June 20, 1999
HERE COMES
WIESEL
ELIE
by Alexander Cockburn
Usually, that
when
some
Elie Wiesel
spectacular piece of moral fraudulence
unctuous
that Wiesel’s
week
Last
this
on Larry King (the
trundled before the cameras, is
it’s
a signal
about to be
onto the American people and the powers-that-be reckon
foisted
it
is
kiss
of approval
is
required.
ardent supporter of the war on Serbia appeared
Live with ,
bombing] had
to
Wolf Blitzer standing
I
do not believe
the right to send troops or even airplanes to all
think
‘I
be done,' Wiesel said piously, ‘because
the other options had been explored.
exhausted
in for King.
the other possibilities, and
bomb
we
did
we we
that
unless try.
all
have have
Milosevic,
apparently, disappointed everybody.’ This balderdash puts Wiesel,
morally speaking, on
a par
with Cardinal Spellman, blessing the
52s as they set off to drop napalm on
On
to
the
children in the
Vietnam
other possibilities’ were never explored, because
era. ‘All the
wanted
little
bomb
Serbia.
It
didn’t matter
NATO
what Milosevic agreed
same show Wiesel appeared on, no
less a
13-
to.
person than
Brent Scowcroft told Blitzer bluntly that what he had called ‘the
Rambouillet
had been changed
diktat’
Blitzer then asked
in
the final agreement.
whether by the phrase ‘Rambouillet
diktat'
Scowcroft was referring to ‘the peace agreement that the Serbs rejected in February.' ‘That’s right,’ Scowcroft answered. ‘Because that, to Milosevic,
meant
that
he would never see Kosovo again — absolutely
unacceptable to troops to
changed
him
personally.
roam around (in
It
also gave the right for
inside Serbia
the final agreement].’
NATO
— another no-no. That was
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
49
Scowcroft clearly thought the whole attack on Serbia pretty unpalatable, though he didn’t say so directly, merely insisting that possibly the ‘war’ wasn't
July 10,
perfect recipe for the future.
a
1999
A DIME'S WORTH OF DIFFERENCE? by Alexander Cockburn
Not long
after the official
Bay Bridge
to
honor
a
end of the war on Serbia
commitment
I
crossed the
Michael Lerner on
to debate
the immorality and lawlessness of this same war. Arriving
of meaning — had day. Lerner,
James
Noe Valley found that Lerner — who once Rodham Clinton with his sermons on the politics
Lick High School in ravished Hillary
at
felt
I
no such obligation, baling by
fax the previous
an ardent armchair bombardier, told the organizers he
had no desire to have the delicately nuanced nature of his support for the
war distorted by
that odious perverter
So the meeting, organized by
a
left
of truth, Cockburn.
group called
Socialist
Action, proceeded without him, most of the panel’s speaking time
woman
being consumed by
a
Balkans across the
generation. In
the
crowd
last
to look
the war that
all
giving
on the bright
a
detailed history of the
my own
side.
At
the awful things we’d ever
brief remarks
least felt
And we’d also learned that as leftists we on the right. The backbone of opposition to true.
all,
been conservative.
It
was Jack
Kemp who
we had about have
I
urged
learned in
liberals
many
were
friends
the war had, after
had written
in the
Washington limes that the war on Serbia had been ‘an international
Waco.’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
50
In the question period
members of the audience, the
hope
I'd
expressed
my of my
plus both
the end
at
fellow panelists, criticized chat that there could be a
of left and right against business
coalition
my
of the invective rained on
found exciting at a local
of
this
a
me
self-proclaimed anarchist I
him
told
that I’d
energy and gut hatred of corporate power
political
‘Gunstock,’ a target
head by
reminded
as usual. It
few years ago when
talk radio host in Detroit a
been the
listened gloomily as at least three
I
rally
same
of supposed right-wingers that had anarchist’s ripest
but most enduring truth in political
life is
venom. The saddest
that
most people cling
with desperate strength to the prejudices that they are pleased to call
‘informed opinions.’
In
August 1996
Norman
with Pat Buchanan, can be shared by article
come
a
left
Mailer published in Esquire
brave effort to explore what
and right
in
his
interview
common
terrain
America, against the center. The
ended with Buchanan’s remark
to Mailer that
‘left
and right
together basically in opposition to big business, government,
big corporations — against the oppressive weight of gigantic institutions
upon
and Right. They
up
in.
That
is
feel
they are going to lose the country they grew
line:
‘Four years to the millennium!’
Buchanan went nowhere
six
get a broad coalition of Left
the underlying focus.’ Mailer ran Buchanan’s quote,
then closed with the
crusader,
You
the individual.
Ralph Nader, ran
a
m
1996 and the
pro-forma
listless
months from the millennium and things
even worse.
Politics always
draw
left's
anti-corporate
campaign.
are, at least
their vitality
on the
surface,
from the extremes.
George Wallace and Malcolm X, even though he was years earlier, set the political thermostats in
Now we’re
killed three
1968, and with the
addition of the Weather Underground, did the same in 1972. In
every spavined sentence in the
numbing
argot of the
Democratic and Republican party platforms there
lurks, albeit
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
DNA
often in barely detectable volume, the
DNA
have
become
of what was once
But today the
robust, even ‘extreme’ political idea.
of such
51
register a presence.
Gore and George W. Bush, currently favored
fact that at this
twice
The only
real difference
as Al,
who
breaking truckloads of cash. Oh,
Northwest and declared himself
the timber
between them
the
is
at
the level of rhetoric there are
a better
men
will
a
swing through the
a
Pacific
friend of the chainsaw and the
money
that
investment than Gore, the Tree-Hugger.
And
logging deck, thus sending is
the presidential
as
himself has hauled in record-
minute deviations. George W. just took
George W.
Take A1
point in the political season George W. has raised
much money
as
trace elements
so infinitesimally small that even the
most powerful microscopes scarcely
contenders in 2000.
a
a
message to big timber
no doubt pony up
George W., happily
for
aware that for them there’s no downside, since the ancient of the Pacific Northwest have been cut
down
at a
forests
bracing rate
all
through the Clinton— Gore years.
Gore and George W. same
slightly
as fathers
are alike as
peas, right
down
to the
dazed look that comes of having big-time politicians
and interesting encounters with powerful drugs
formative years.
I
don’t
know
in their
anything about Gore’s mother, but
Barbara Bush was one of the nastier (a
two
women
I’ve
ever interviewed
when George Sr was fighting Ronald nomination). Maybe there’s a difference here.
half-hour session in 1979,
Reagan
for the
between Al and George W. on the subjects of parents — might be the sole means of putting together
In fact a debate
parents
—
their
an exciting debate in 2000. Imaginatively staged, with both injected with
men
sodium pentothal, and moderated by Geraldo Rivera
and Gail Sheehy, such an encounter might scrape off the dreadful rime of banality that cakes their public personae and reveal the
wounded
egos beneath.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
52
At the
level
of
performance in the White House,
political
2001-2004, we can
say with
some
certainty that
an iota of difference whether Gore or Bush
Corporations will plunder the Earth dislodged from their mothers’
at
wombs
would make not
it
the leaseholder.
is
the same rate,
at
embryos be
same pace, constitu-
the
and freedom be abused with the same frequency, drug
tional rights
The
wars fought with the same intensity or growing disillusion.
same small countries thirteen-year-old
women
will
glue Nike shoes together.
girls
will pass
be bombed, the same infants
Row
from Death
die, the
The same men and
millennium. (Since
Ed Muskie of
into the
quarter of a century ago
a
it’s
crowd
the younger
that
better
I'd
Muskie was the front-runner
Democratic nomination
1972, proceeding
in
with
solemnity towards certain triumph, until he tumbled
expected showing arena
in
we
New
have
as
did
As is
political Bill a
scam
himself with
l imes,
George W. his
DLC ‘New
in terrible shape. Its national
in
— which
Democrats’
to
left will
Clinton
DNA
the
left
champions — Bernard Sanders, Jesse
has contributed
—
are
all
phonies.
80 per cent of the
-
is
The
political
almost
as
a hostility to state
never break away from the Democratic Party
any important degree, since the institutional
and the Democrats
Bill
in 1992.
the country for the past twenty years
The
majestic
merely pulling the
impotent, although more healthily endowed with
power.
for the
‘compassionate conservatism’
Jackson, Michael Moore, Jim Hightower
energy
is
force capable of reinvigorating our political
radical right
remind
in a less-than-
dead end. As
to a
1999 with
in
the
Hampshire.) Within the conventional
come
remarked to the Los Angeles
same
Al, or
Bradley surges past Al, or whether Steve Forbes or
Bill
Lamar Alexander turn George W.
political
of
to their graves, regardless
whether A1 trounces George W. or George W. trounces whether
same
will never allow
it.
The
ties
right
between labor
might well
tear
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
seems keen on leading such so.
is
demagogue,
a
whom
ancient Greeks, for
two
and
certainly
I
hope he does
meaning
agogos,
the
a
it,
word contained
popular leader or orator
who
in
way through
meaning
its initial
To Hobbes and Dryden,
word
the seventeenth century, the
gave
royalists
demagogue
its
and cynically inflaming base victim to
fell
Yet in the
first
our present problem
is
part of the
political passions for selfish ends.
we need demagogues
that there are
no
Here’s
how
Rivera’s
way
that people can
MSNBC
on July
the death penalty, then? Gov.
RIVERA:
thirteen, twelve, infancy. Gov.
6.
VENTURA:
Really? Gov.
position, because u that
VENTURA:
and
what about
I
it
fifteen, fourteen,
disa
I’ve
t
Yeah.
...
— disagree with
—
taken
I’ve
I’ve
...
taken that
— upon becoming governor, Geraldo, wouldn’t
weight on
I
my
shoulder, especially in the light of
evidence that they have today. die,
Well,
on Geraldo
don’t support the
I
now to make -
one
evident capacity
issue,
RIVERA:
the death penalty altogether now, and
demagogic
understand and believe.
VENTURA:
Because they’ve moved
RIVERA:
The
fulfills at least
his
he dealt with the death penalty
show on
war,
desperately. Part of
leaders with the
demagogic requirement, by
to speak directly in a
civil
someone wantonly
current sense of
virtue to rally and arouse the people. Ventura initial
half-
mugging.
a class
sense,
as
carried this
still
At the same time, amid the storms of the English
sense.
want
defined
is
espoused the cause of the people
against any other party in the state.’
word
sum of commons,
the simple
As the Oxford English
leader, or leading.
demagogue
Now,
highly esteemed by the
a quality
demos meaning the people, the populace, the
parts,
Dictionary puts ‘a
breakaway.
a
Who else might precipitate a reinvigoration of the system?
Jesse Ventura
its
Bob Smith of New Hampshire
loose from the Republicans.
itself
53
five years later
it’s
I
mean,
if
DNA
you sentence someone
to
proven that they didn’t do the crime,
I
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
54
would have
make
a
hard time living with that. But what
not
life
sentence someone to
life
and they
Life
you’re going to
make
it
say
is
let’s
imprisonment. That’s phony. They
is
life, life.
I
life, let’s
them out
let
make
life,
it
in ten years. If
but
I
do not agree
with the death penalty.
And
this
came
directly after Ventura affirmed his belief in the
Second Amendment while making the vation that
at
the precise
moment
the
entirely accurate obser-
gun control crowd screams
guns to be taken out of the hands of children, the army
for
is
drafting
teenagers and shoving automatic weapons in their hands and training
them
to
kill.
In the
same conversation he came
out, in coherent
terms, against the drug war and in favor of medicinal use of
marijuana, plus agro-industrial cultivation of hemp.
who campaigned in New York in 1988 as the man who paroled Willie Horton.
So here we have A1 Gore, by pasting Mike Dukakis
And we
have George W. who’s never met
he didn’t to
be the
a
death warrant in Texas
And we have Ventura who admits he doesn’t want man who puts to death innocent people, a man who
like.
admits, unlike
My
a
George W.,
that this
friends, at this desperate
would cause him
hour we have
at least
to lose sleep.
the makings of
decent demagogue. Six months to the millennium, and right
the prospect of ultimate political darkness: A1 versus
George W.
Y2K, plunging
now
us into mental
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
55
1999
July 27,
WHERE TOMORROW'S BOMBS WILL by Jeffrey
St.
Clair
No more Mr Nice
Guy,
we ’re going
it
to
do
says
NATO. Next
No
right.
time
shilly-shallying.
water-treatment plants will be blown up on the to
any pretense that bombs are aimed
in
what
described by
is
London
FALL
at
a
Power first
stations
and
night. This
end
military targets
Tim Butcher and
Daily Telegraph as
we bomb someone,
is
disclosed
Patrick Bishop of the
private preliminary review by
NATO
bombing campaign concludes that the bombing
experts of the seventy-eight-day Allied Force against Serbia.
The
report apparently
campaign had almost no military
bombing
sorties they failed to
Kosovo.
in
tanks,
NATO’s
effect, that despite
thousands of
damage the Yugoslav army
current assessment
is
tactically
that only a handful
of
guns and armored personnel carriers were damaged. You may
recall that at
one point
in the
bombing
NATO cried exultantly that
thousands of Serb soldiers had been killed and that Serb forces
were therefore on the verge of losing
The
NATO
all
operational viability.
report also concludes that
have opened the campaign with
bombs
it
that
was
a
big mistake to
wreaked
little
havoc
but firmed up civilian morale. In the chilling words of the Telegraph, the is
NATO
report intimates that ‘Any future operation by
likely to involve heavier,
such
as
power
stations
more
ruthless attacks
on
and water-treatment plants
NATO
civilian targets
earlier in the
campaign.’ Recall that the Geneva Convention of 1949 prohibits
bombing of any strategists are
now
target that has a civilian
function.
NATO’s
concluding that the only point of bombing
is
to
destroy civilian-related infrastructure. So, the Clinton-Albright war
prompted
at its
onset the slaughter of thousands of Kosovars by the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
56
Serbs, the flight or expulsion of hundreds of thousands more, the killing via
bomb and
missile
of around 1,600 Yugoslav
destruction of Serbia’s economy, the ruin of the
and environmental catastrophe.
make
will try to
July 29,
it all
And
NATO
civilians, the
Danube
says that
river trade
next time
it
worse.
a lot
2002
INSIDE PAKISTAN
AND AFGHANISTAN
WITH RAWA by Anne Brodsky
I
just returned
from another
six
weeks with
RAWA (Radical Afghan
Women’s Association), five weeks in Pakistan and one amazing week in Afghanistan. RAWA’s work is very busy and the need is still enormous — this includes some cities in Pakistan where refugees are actually flowing in, not out. They are doing creative things such as
working
time to
to help other established schools rather than taking the
start their
own.
In
one example an eight-year-old Afghan
high school in Peshawar thought funds and losing students.
it
RAWA
would have
to close for lack
started funding
them and even
made
tuition free for the
now
not only can they pay their teachers, but they have
first
time
in the history
students than they did before and the
who could RAWA's work in
students
never afford to attend Afghanistan
the need and possibility to help
women
and
demand
is is
more
growing because
can.
keeping everyone quite busy
actually expanding.
girls are in their literacy
are either too old to attend the
of this school, and
is
now
and sewing
of
as
Many, many
classes,
many who
newly reopened schools
for girls
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS (there
need
an age limit lor entering the lower grades, which
is
to attend after five years
them attend schools
still
will not let
women
and
girls say that five years
their resolve its
have more
still.
still
women
have never been in
and learning. Most
are interested in joining
demand
than
RAWA
has teachers and funds.
women we saw in Kabul were in we saw no women without burqa. The
In Jalalabad
interim government
the
starting to require ‘permission’ lor every-
is
many
thing, as a veiled attempt to keep
things under control.
visiting a public high school required special permission.
trend increases
have
it
will
many enemies
Alliance
make
things very dangerous for
in the
(NA) and warlords
government with in positions
operate quite underground. There
is
is
a necessity,
is
slice
of the landscape and
this
RAWA. They
that the as
need
is
great
well as political
women.
Because we drove to Kabul from Pakistan, remarkable
As
of control, so continue to
no doubt
especially for the
Even
many Northern
so
and their particular message of humanitarian
change
The
of Taliban rule only strengthened
importance. Most of these
About 80—90 per cent of burqa
for safety reasons.
and commitment to education and made their families
school before, but classes
many
without any education) or whose
families
realize
57
life. It is
I
was able to see
a
true that Afghanistan
an amazingly beautiful country. Even that small stretch, which
took ten hours across destroyed roads, was incredibly diverse with blue-green flat
mesa
rivers,
undulating valleys with
fields
of rounded stones,
plateaus, sandstone hills with natural caves, steep shale
peaks turned sideways, jagged mountains and roads that zigzag
through mountain switchbacks.
We
drove through small villages
where the influence of the Taliban was
men treated me and the if we had no right to be
US
the response to
RAWA in
still
very evident, and the
member who accompanied me
as
public except for their curiosity. In the
them would be
a sarcastic
‘Haven’t you ever
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
58
seen
woman
a
before?’ or ‘You really should get out more”.
both of the statements, which played sarcasm. In
To change the men
many
in
my
head, were
town would be
in this
Here not
fact,
a revolution.
other places Abdul Haq, Massood and Rabbam's pictures
were everywhere but Karzai’s was not. Just for
some
on
our taxi-drivers from Pakistan
life,
were both former Taliban and former mujahideen.
to Afghanistan
They
perspective
talked quite openly to the male supporter
who
was with us
about their time with both groups and were probably Taliban tor
money and
to further their private gains, but nonetheless
points
it
out that former Taliban, both foot soldiers, middle managers, these drivers, and the leadership, are
who
only ones
their midst
were the foreigners
them government
scared to
The like is
Many
Everyone
else
knows but
too
is
say.
time stood as if it
still
in others,
happened
is
evident in
some
places, but
yesterday. People live
buildings destroyed by rocket attacks.
bombings. The refugees
and run shops
buildings without by, for
1
windows or
saw the
in tents
doors.
Panjshiris only
and others
Many
They
refugee camps in Pakistan say they had I
shells
result
of
of
US
and many
say that jobs are hard to as
well as for
jobs are reportedly going to
are available only
starving here without any assistance.
side
and unprotected commercial
those willing to do hard manual labor
those with higher education.
who had only
also
are returning to difficult lives
cannot find jobs and are living
it is
where the ten-year-old destruction
by side with buildings riddled with bullet holes and
come
people
who were employing them and
positions.
reconstruction in Kabul
evident
everywhere.
couldn’t identify the former Taliban in
said that the
giving
still
like
with bribes.
more help
talked to a
Some from
there and are
number of refugees
returned because harassment from the Pakistani police
in Islamabad in particular
made them
feel
too unsafe in Pakistan.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
They
wave of refugees back
will be a
too cold to I
now
doing worse
are actually
live in
was afforded
59
Many think that there come winter, when it is
in Kabul.
to Pakistan
Kabul without shelter and jobs.
unique view of
a really
life
Kabul because
in
of my meetings and interviews and the humanitarian projects
were
Many
Kabul and surrounding villages/suburbs.
in
see
I
running water or indoor
toilets.
Even
in the capital
people rely on wells and public pumps. Electricity in most parts
of the
city
available only every other night. In the outer villages,
is
the electric lines were stolen ten years ago and
have no their
electricity,
homes. The
factions in
even
as
still
homes
these
wall lamps and chandeliers remain in
library at the University
electricity because
live
saw
I
of these were the equivalent of middle-class homes, but in
none did city
homes
in private
all
of Kabul has virtually no
of the wiring was stolen by the various
all
and Taliban. As
in the older refugee
camps, most people
high-walled enclosures with gardens and small farmyard
animals, even in the
the older
city.
Construction however
camps and here
windows and
glass
is
sturdier than in
permanent and comfortable environment. The one broadcast
I
saw did have
a
woman
a
more
TV
news
screens gave
broadcaster, but she never looked
up from the page she was reading and the whole broadcast had very amateur
feel to
The people
it.
There
is
so
much
a
to be reconstructed here.
are cautiously optimistic, but this
seems only because
of the presence of the peacekeepers and the continued hope that the international
community
of aid and that someone presence of
NA
are other types fitting. It
is
will follow
will
soldiers in dark
Often young boys with the
who
NA
and responsible-looking men
its
promises
actually stop the warlords.
unmarked
of soldiers and police
hard to judge
through on
will
in
cars
is
ominous. There
various uniforms,
have
a
The
many
weapon and who
ill-
not.
had weapons and older more mature in
Afghan army uniforms were
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
60
unarmed.
I
saw taped interviews of Loya Jirga attendees
in
which
they too were expressing their concern about the needs for peace
and security and controls on the warlords,
who were
too evident
Loya Jirga process.
in the
For more information on
Anne Brodsky
is
FL\WA
go
to:
http://www.RAWA.org
an Assistant Professor of Psychology
at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County.
August
1
1
0,
999
THE FIRST LADY AS THERAPEUTIC COP by Alexander Cockburn
Hillary cluster
Rodham bombs
set to kill
that
now
litter
the Serbian and Kosovan landscapes,
or cripple for the next half-century. But
short. Perhaps
bent over the
some
Clinton was an enthusiastic advocate for the
responsibility for that lost limb?
end of a century
What do we In fact First
of
Man
life.’
are
we will soon see HRC clutching some Balkan infant, maimed tyke, and who will then recall that she bears
confided to Lucinda Franks in the
memories
have
Falk.
urged him to bomb,’ she
“You cannot
that has seen the
NATO
‘I
let this
go on
at
major holocaust of our time.
for if not to
defend our way of life?’
it’s
scarcely surprising that Hillary should have urged the
to
drop cluster bombs on the Serbs to defend “our way
The
First
Lady
is
a social
engineer. She believes in thera-
peutic policing, and the duty of the state to impose such policing.
War
is
more
social engineering, fixitry via high explosive, social
therapy via the nose-cone of
a cruise missile.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS There’s not
much of
any more. But there are plenty of
a left
therapeutic cops around, and Hillary
their leader, the very
is
quintessence of social worker liberalism. All
New
61
it
takes to usher in the
Jerusalem are counselors, community action programs and
tougher gun laws, which
is
what Hillary
not long after she gave the
bombing As
called for after
Man
First
that bit
Columbine,
of advice about
the Serbs.
tough therapeutic cop, Hillary does not shy away from the
a
most abrupt expression of the perspective perhaps
we ought
therapy, the death penalty. In this
look
to
at
her
commitment
to
Choice
as at least in part
another piece of therapeutic policing. Steve Levitt,
an economist
the University of Chicago, and
a
law prof
at
at
John Donohue
— reported
in
that the legalizing
of
Stanford, have been circulating a paper
the Chicago Tribune
on August 8 - arguing
III,
abortion in the early 1970s has contributed to the falling crime rate in the 1990s.
for as
much
Indeed they claim that legalized abortion may account as
half the overall crime drop
way
Levitt says abortion ‘provides a
those kids
them
who
are
going to lead
into the world.'
The
These
five states
‘This
is
a
Roe
with high abortion
policy
wonk
an argument for
tough
authors cite
greater crime drops in the 1990s.
Richards,
for the
really
that legalized abortion before the
women
they don’t want to have. This
is
v.
from the
lives to
statistics
avoid bringing
from
The
five states
Wade decision of 1973.
rates in the early Trib's
1970s had
story quotes
Cory
Institute, as saying:
not being forced to have children
making the point
bad for the women, but for children and So,
would-be mothers of
Guttmacher
the
at
between 1991 and 1997.
social engineering,
that
it’s
not only
society.’
crime fighting point of view the
reintroduction of the death penalty in 1977 had the legalization of
abortion in 1973 — the Roe
and concomitant.
And
v.
Wade decision —
as its logical
the death penalty for undesired
precursor
embryos has
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
62
had the advantage of being
a lot
more
certain,
and cheaper
administer, than the death penalty for undesired adults. it’s
the
way
the
women’s movement saw
the early 1970s, but
abortion
as socially
I
the
Choice
I
to
don't think
issue
back in
can certainly imagine Hillary arguing for
therapeutic.
She comes from the
liberal
social
engineering tradition that
boom earlier in the century, whose only now coming to light. As in many
sponsored the great sterilizing
rampages in Vermont are other to
states,
progressives with a devout belief in the ability of science
improve Vermont’s gene pool lobbied successfully
a sterilization
Hillary,
1931.
never forget,
improvement
is
of
The law targeted poor rural Vermonters, and others deemed ‘unfit’ to procreate.
law in
Abenaki Indians
for passage
is
Methodist, and that bleak creed of
a
bedrock for
her. She’s a social cleanser.
This
is
cold steel that stiffens her spine and carries her forward, righteous amid the untidy mess of
all
the
self-
her contradictions.
August 30, 2000
THE PENTAGON'S PRESIDENTIAL AUCTION by Andrew Cockburn
Gore’s famous embrace of Tipper before his speech
Democratic convention may pale beside
at
the
his prospective ecstasies
Roman
Praetorian
Guard murdered the Emperor Pertinax and proceeded
to auction
with the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
In
AD 193
the
off the imperial throne to the highest bidder. Until this year the
most strenuous emulation of 1980,
when
this feat
by the
the Joint Chiefs of Staff took bids
US
military
came
in
on the White House
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS from the ramparts of the Pentagon. Despite
no hesitation
Carter, the Chiefs haci
fierce
63
bidding by Jimmy
accepting Republican
in
pledges and in proclaiming that only Ronald Reagan would keep the
Empire
We
strong.
are in the climactic
the ritual
is
moments of the 2000
auction.
By now
One: senior Praetorians and
well established. Stage
associated intellectual prostitutes repine the pitiful condition of
America’s fighting folk and the decrepitude of the
Defense Department
US
military
arsenal.
Frank Gaffney
Reagan
years, set the tone in an article in the Washington Times in
Jr, a
may be
early August: ‘Future defense capabilities
seriously inad-
equate. History suggests that the consequence of such
vacuum of power that Then Gaffney relayed the
a
in the
official
a
practice
hostile nations often feel invited to
Praetorians’ reserve price
is
fill.’
on the imperial
throne: ‘A nation with a projected $1.9 trillion budget surplus can afford consistently to allocate a
minimum
domestic product to ensure
security.’
Already on July 21,
down from
its
Adm.
his post as the
of 4 per cent of its gross
Jay Johnson had said, as he stepped
Navy’s top
officer, that national security
requires a defense expenditure of 4 per cent of 16,
GDP.
On
August
Gen. James Jones, Commandant of the Marine Corps, used the
occasion of an interview with Defense Daily to
ramp up’
in
defense spending
‘to
call for a
‘gradual
about 4 to 4.5 per cent of the
US
Two days after Jones’s comments, Gen. formerly Army Chief of Staff and now president
gross domestic product.’
Gordon
Sullivan,
of the 100,000-strong Association of the Praetorians’ floor
demand: ‘We must prepare
security of our nation.
The actually
US
We
should
set the
Army, confirmed the for the future
marker
at
of the
4 per cent.’
Praetorians have avoided spelling out what 4 per cent
means
in dollar terms.
The
of Management and Budget project
latest figures
GDP
at
$10.9
from the Office trillion in
2002,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
64
So
rising to SI 3.9 trillion in 2007.
GDP
cent of to
$558
just
in
billion.
on $300
budget
a military
2002 would amount
S438
to
billion,
4 per
set at
and
in
This year’s budgetary tribute to the Praetorians
The combined spending of all
billion.
the United States
—
Russia, China and our old friends the rogue
and Sudan — amounts to It is
Cuba
over $100 billion.
a little
not well understood that though the
and troops
number of ships,
planes
available to guard the nation has declined sharply, the
actual flow of dollars into the pockets of the Praetorians
commercial partners has remained in the
is
putative foes of
including Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Serbia,
states,
2007
at
cold war
immediate aftermath of the cold war,
under George Bush
I
diminished
slightly.
levels. It
US
is
and
their
true that
military spending
Clinton reversed
this
trend
with enough brio to allow Gore, speaking to the Veterans of Foreign
Wars
in the
1996 campaign,
to declare that the
Democratic bid
to
the Praetorians that year was far superior to that of the Republicans. In his offer to the Praetorians this year,
offered Star Wars plus a pay raise for the scarcely
enough. An August 23 Washington
Praetorians’ contempt: rhetoric,
your
is
‘It is
George W. Bush has
armed
Mr. Bush who, despite some muscular
know
well that the missile defense
is
been more or
constant since the early Sixties.
less
a fantasy
Emperor Clinton, who
as
a
scheme
spending has
Republican emperor
is
undercut
further solidified the loyalty of the senior officer
days, an officer can retire
at the
that missile defense
it’s
the recent 10 per cent raise enacted by
by smoothing out wrinkles
These
work
and
appeal of a pay raise from
by lavish disbursements such
is
Post editorial relayed the
endorsed by Bush
class
This
sounding weak on defense.’ In other words, ‘George,
bid. ’The Praetorians
The
forces.
Pentagon in
in the practice
on
full
of double- dipping.
pension and then return to
civilian capacity at a hefty salary,
unimpaired. ‘There are retired colonels in
with pension
this building,’ a
Pentagon
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
number cruncher remarked a year.' ‘I'm proud,’
Gore
recently,
told the
‘who
65
are taking
VFW
home $200,000
days after he kissed
five
we won the largest military pay increase in twenty years.’ commitment to the Praetorians was well advertised by his
Tipper, ‘that
Gore’s
choice of running mate. Senator Joe Lieberman has been the faithful errand boy of Connecticut’s arms firms. their lips at the prospect
of
a
chastising
Dick Cheney
There may be
a
can look forward to Lieberman
the
as
budget and even canceling such
A- 12
economy
logical
Tom
still
it’s
been getting harder
Hollywood and our
economy
Praetorians, and there
For now,
let
when Lieberman as
may come
a
day
Praetorians get their 4 per cent out of analyst Franklin
4 per cent defense solution
a
their bluff
a
the way,
if
the
in
to a declaration
of
the following decade.
if our nation’s survival
the co-author o/
called.
Spinney accurately remarks: ‘The
would be tantamount
war could be justified only
is
bidding war between Gore
Such
Obsession.
camera
extolled the most
Oh, and by
war on Social Security and Medicare
is
in
The
the Pentagon’s weight in
when
total
Andrew Cockburn
militarist
diminishes, so too does the clout of the
us await the next bid.
and Bush, Pentagon
to claim
has a powerful cultural hold.
powerful military force on Earth. But
no
are
agenda for techno-
Hanks, the rescuer of Private Ryan,
in the Staples Center,
the overall
down. There
in setting the
innovation. Thanks to
heritage, the Pentagon
view
R&D
role for military
Democrats had
Stealth fighter.
has been going
convincing external enemies, and
prime
Defense
deeper reason for the 4 per cent solution. The
military share of the
a
war stretching
for his temerity, as President Bush’s
Secretary, in cutting the military
egregious boondoggles
Praetorians are licking
delightful bidding
We
over the presidential debates.
The
were
at stake.’
Saddam Hussein: An American
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
66
October 26, 1999
GENOCIDE
IN
KOSOVO?
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
an important
It’s
chorus from the genocide
liberal
NATO
the
issue, since
Clair
St.
powers, fortified by
the charge of
intelligentsia, flourished
bombing that
as justification for
economy and killed around 2,000
destroyed
civilians,
a
much of Serbia’s
with elevated death
may
predicted for years to come. Whatever horrors they
levels
have been
planning, the Serbs were not engaged in genocidal activities in
Kosovo before the bombing began. They were fighting
movement,
led
of security
forces,
by the
KLA
though
a separatist
and behaving with the brutality
to a
backed by the United States
typical
degree more restrained than those
One common
America.
in Central
number of Kosovar Albanians killed in the year bombing is 2,500. With NATO’s bombing came the
estimate of the
before the
and expulsions and charges
flights a
genocidal plan; on
An
dead.
largely to
some
accounts,
alternative assessment
blame
House
as
and
on June
press conference that
many
was that
for the expulsions
After the war was over,
that the Serbs as
were accelerating
100,000 were already
NATO’s bombing was
killings.
25, Bill Clinton told a
White
on Slobodan Milosevic’s orders
of thousands of people had been
killed in
Kosovo.
A week
tens
before,
from the British Foreign Office, came the statement from Geoff
Hoon
that ‘according to the reports
the refugees,
it
we had
gathered, mostly from
appeared that around 10,000 people that [
US
Kosovar
massacres.’
Of course,
and British governments had an obvious motive
in painting
Albanians] had been killed in the
is,
as
horrifying
to,
since the
a
more than 100
picture as possible of
what the Serbs had been up
bombing had come under
increasingly fierce attack,
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS with
rifts in
the
NATO
alliance.
The
NATO
67
powers had plenty of
reasons to rush charges of genocide into the headlines. For one thing,
it
was becoming embarrassingly clear
indicted no significant
bombing had army. All the more
that the
damage on the Serbian
reason, therefore, to propose that the Serbs, civilians as well as soldiers,
were collectively guilty of genocide and thus deserved
everything they got.
Throughout the end
of
June and July there were plenty of press
accounts running along lines similar to York Times
from John Kifner with
this
‘The bodies keep turning up, day
a July
4 dispatch in the
sentence in
after day,
its
New
lead paragraph:
and are expected
now
number 10,000 or more. On August 2 Bernard Kouchner, the UN’s chief administrator in Kosovo, said that 11,000 bodies had
to
already been discovered in mass graves in the province.’
According
and interesting analysis put out on October
to a useful
17 by Stratfor.com (an independent operation based in Austin,
on the
Texas, that offers intelligence briefings
Internet),
cited the International Criminal Tribunal for the
of Yugoslavia
as his authority,
Kouchner
former Republic
but the tribunal has said
it
hadn’t
provided any such information. Nonetheless, the 10,000 figure became the baseline, with some estimates soaring far higher. fifteen nations, including a
work
since June.
To date
Teams of
forensic investigators
from
detachment from the FBI, have been
they’ve
examined about 150 of 400
at
sites
of alleged mass murder. There’s are not
still
immense
enough bodies
uncertainty, but at this point to
it’s
plain there
warrant the claim that the Serbs had
program of extermination. The FBI team has made two
Kosovo and investigated In early
thirty sites, containing nearly
October, the Spanish newspaper El
Spanish forensic team had found in
its
Pais
a
trips to
200 bodies.
reported what the
appointed zone
in
northern
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
68
Kosovo.
The
UN
figures, said Perez Pujol, director
of the Instituto
Anatomico Forense de Cartagena, began with 44,000 dead, dropped to
now
22,000 and
pared to perform
stand at 11,000.
at least
He and
his fellows
were pre-
2,000 autopsies in their zone. To date
they’ve found 187 corpses. Pujol said he had the impression that
the Serbs had given families the option of leaving. If they refused,
or
back, they were killed. Like any murder of civilians, these
came
were war crimes, just
as
any mass grave, whatever the number ot
bodies, indicates a massacre. But genocide?
One in the
700 Kosovars had been dumped
persistent story held that
Trepca lead and zinc mines.
spokeswoman
On
October 12 Kelly Moore,
for the international tribunal,
announced
a
that the
had found absolutely nothing. There was an alleged
investigators
mass grave containing 350 bodies in Ljubenic that turned out to hold seven. In Pusto Selo, villagers said 106 had been killed by the Serbs,
and
Nothing
NATO
rushed out
satellite
to buttress that charge has yet
two were
allegedly killed in Kraljan.
photos of mass graves.
been found. Another eighty-
No
bodies have
as yet
been
turned up.
Although surely by now investigators would have been pointed to
all
probable
sites,
it's
conceivable that thousands of Kosovar
corpses await discovery. But
as
matters stand, the
turned up by the tribunal’s teams
which tends
to
in the
hundreds, not thousands,
confirm the view of those
bombing provoked that there
is
was and
Count another
a is
wave of Serbian
number of bodies
who
killings
hold that
NATO
and expulsions, but
no hard evidence of a genocidal program.
victory for the Big Lie.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
October 29, BILL'S
1
69
999
GOOD
SIDE
by Alexander Cockburn
Our
itinerant president
mendacity that forms
seems to be wearying of the formalized
a substantial
portion of his daily round. In
a
recent meeting with the two most prominent Kosovar Albanians,
man who clambered to his present eminent position over the bodies of many serious rivals, discoursed on the ‘reconciliation’ now under way in Kosovo. Finally Clinton fidgeted irritably
Clinton could stand
you know
it.’
it
as
Hacim,
no longer.
a
‘That’s nonsense,’ he cried, ‘and
Then he rounded on Rugova, who was chanting an
interminable ode of gratitude, and curtly bid
him be
silent.
The president is most certainly right. Amid growing embarrassment among the war crime investigators at the scanty evidence of ‘genocide’
as
supposedly perpetrated by the Serbs, the Kosovar
Albanians are methodically driving out or slaughtering Serbs, well as other minorities such as Gypsies, 90,000 of
been expelled according Gottingen, Germany. in early
September
The
to the Society
very
lives.’
have
now
of Endangered Peoples in
Society’s president,
Tilman Zuelch,
that ‘dark-skinned people can
the streets of most towns in
whom
as
said
no longer walk
Kosovo without risking injury
to their
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
70
June 20, 2002
SERBIAN RESERVATIONS by James
‘Did you
Phillips
T.
come
to see the zoo?’
A teenage girl wearing a colorful headband and dangling earrings stared at me as she asked about my intentions. The look on her face was
mixture of defiance and bemusement. Journalists prowling
a
around her turf were once
hood
a
is
man with The
a
common
sight and, since the neighbor-
small Serb enclave in the center of Pristina, noticing a a
camera wasn’t very
teenager’s
One hundred
home
is
difficult.
located in
a six-story
and seventy-four Serbs
block of apartments. the apartments, and
live in
other buildings housing thousands of Albanians surround the
The when
enclave.
and,
I
pointed to
Twenty
a
Serbs have access to one small store, a fitness center,
asked where do the children
play, the
dusty courtyard that functions
British
KFOR
soldiers live in
they guard the Serbs day and night.
The
as
a
teenage
girl
football pitch.
one of the apartments, and soldiers are alert, well
armed
and, like the Serbs in the courtyard, easy targets for those staring in
through invisible bars that encircle the enclave.
‘We
are like prisoners here,' said the girl.
‘We
live like
animals
in a zoo.’
Yugoslavia was once multi-ethnic and modern, a
United Nations and, after the
until 1991, ruled
member of
the
by communists. Eleven years
beginning of the endless warfare in the Balkans, the nation
of Yugoslavia has been cleaved into pieces by various leaders identified in the international press as (Croats), democrats
nationalist
freedom
fighters
(Bosnian Muslims), rebels (Albanians) and
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
71
butchers (Serbs). With the assistance of politicians, diplomats and
US -
NATO
bomber
pilots
from the
and the
UN -
the leaders of these various entities have succeeded
in creating ethnically
and compliant members of
pure regions carved out of the carnage of
war.
Capitalism has replaced
although
communism
many of the same
in these
new
nations and,
leaders continue to rule, the cleansing
operations during the past decade have assured the people of the
former Yugoslavia
a
future free from oppression, fear and ethnically
incompatible neighbors. Except, of course, in Kosovo.
During the Balkans wars (1991-2002), Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians (Croat, Serb and Muslim),
Macedonians and Albanians fought and
died for the right to be independent and
Kosovo brutal
also
war
The
Serbs living in
fought and died, yet three years after the end of NATO’s
against Yugoslavia they are
Statistics
free.
about the success or
gathered and published by
still
failure
not
free.
of the mission
KFOR, UNMIK
in
Kosovo,
and humanitarian aid
groups — and reported by journalists and writers looking to confirm their
own
biases
and agendas -
are available in
located in the bustling city of Pristina.
The
many busy
offices
dissemination of
this
information and propaganda sometimes seems to take priority over the delivery of food and supplies to the people concentrated in a
few ethnically pure enclaves scattered throughout Kosovo. The simple stories about the
lives
living in these enclaves have
of Serbs,
Roma
and other minorities
gone missing, and the less-than-equal
undesirables of Kosovo continue to live in fear, loathing the rise of a
government dominated by Albanians and the
precarious living standards.
fall
of their
own
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
72
man
‘I’m sorry,’ said the
‘My
next to me.
sitting
son, he
full
is
of
energy.’ I
met Jovica Rajkovic and
train that runs
Milan was
to G. Jankovic.
sitting in the
from me, and he was kicking the edge of
seat across
admonished the
father gently to stand
from Zvecan
seven-year-old son Milan on the
his
up on
his seat
my
boy. Milan stopped kicking
Zvecan city
is
a
still
and
His
tried
and look out the dirt-encrusted window.
Jovica reached over and took hold of his son’s arm. Milan
He remained
seat.
sat
down.
for less than five seconds.
town located north of Mitrovica, the ‘flashpoint'
small
where Serbs and Albanians
live,
separated by the polluted Ibar
river.
Serbs live north of the river and Albanians live in the southern
areas
of the segregated
cleft
between crumbling
city.
The
hills
rusting remains of the Trepca
railroad station in
and shares
a
Zvecan
sits
in a
small valley with the
mining complex, the source of the
pollution that flows in the Ibar river. G. Jankovic
is
a large
town
located near the border crossing between southern Kosovo and
northern Macedonia, and
Three years ago, same
tracks
June of 2002,
camp a
in
end of the
the
in the spring
were used
Blace refugee
it is
line.
of 1999, the same
to transport thousands
On
Macedonia.
and the
of Albanians to the
hot and
a
train
humid day
in
Serb father and son boarded the ancient train and
traveled the short distance to their
home
in
Kosovo
Polje.
Armed
KFOR soldiers from Greece provided protection for the passengers as
the train
chugged slowly through
The damage done war has been
to the Albanian
repaired,
would be considered peered
Jovica
blackened
‘Look
shells
areas populated
towns and
by Albanians.
villages
during the
and the new houses dotting the landscape
small mansions in
North America.
through the window.
of burned-out houses
there,’ said Jovica.
in
He
pointed towards
abandoned Serb
villages.
‘The Albanians have destroyed our homes.’
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS There was very
73
rebuilding or remodeling occurring in
little
no
the Serb villages, and there were
and constructed for Serbs,
as
large
homes being financed
was being done for the
and inde-
free
pendent Albanians of Kosovo. Since the end of the war between
NATO and Yugoslavia, thousands of new structures have been built by Albanians and paid for by the international community.
However, three years live in tents little
aid
after the
war ended, many Serbs continue
and small prefabricated
and assistance
is
trickling
on what
shelters, surviving
down
to
them
after the
to
Albanians
have siphoned off most of the money, goods and services being
provided by the international community. ‘It is a
my
catastrophe for
When we
arrived
at
people,’ said Jovica.
the station in
Kosovo
goodbye and stepped down onto
said
a
Polje, Jovica
and Milan
platform crowded with
passengers waiting to board the southbound train. Gripping his son’s
hand
tightly in his
own huge
fist,
Jovica quickly threaded his
way through groups of Albanians standing
The atmosphere was
platform.
in
and around the railway
tense. Hostile stares
and smirking
laughter by the Albanians quickened the pace of the Serb father
and son, and they were out of
UNMIK
the
is
acronym
for the
my
sight within seconds.
United Nations Mission
the international organization responsible for reorganizing
in
Kosovo,
a
shattered
land and people. Although the landscape of Kosovo has seen definite
And,
improvements, many of the people
fittingly for this surreal
even been able to provide civilian
‘This
province of Serbia,
live
broken
UNMIK
secure environment for
its
lives.
has not
own
Serb
employees. is
terribly humiliating,’ said Marija, a
who works I
a
still
some
for
young Serb woman
UNMIK.
was escorting Marija to her job
in Pristina.
She
lives
only three
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
74
blocks from her office, but
is
afraid to
walk through the
Although she speaks excellent English and
streets alone.
passes herself otY as an
American, the young woman, a hard-edged and proud Serb, is scared to
acknowledge her
ethnicity.
Marija
real
is
not her
of Kosovo can
easily
A
name.
become
Serb working in Albanian areas
of Albanians
a target
who want
to
continue the cleansing of the ethnic minorities that began immediately
after the
end of the war
disapproves of any disparaging
could lose her
life
or her job
other Serbs, Marija has
lost
comments from if
her
and
KFOR.
real
her identity
‘The internationals want to get to the enclaves
of 1999.
in June
of
rid
the local
name was as
UNMIK also staff.
published. Like
well as her freedom.
Marija, referring
us,’ said
UNMIK
populated by minorities and protected by
‘They want
to get rid
of
a
Marija
problem, and the problem
the Serbs.’
is
‘The Serbs are not
David Pierson as
UNMIK
an
is
free.’
a
48-year-old American from Colorado working
policeman
in the city
of
Pristina;
he agrees with
Marija.
‘They
The
are always
Serbs have to
under
escort,’ said Pierson.
come and go
Officer Pierson was sitting
at a table
a
try to offer protection to the
beat in Pristina usually
when
I
assistance
office.
There
are
minority communities, but walking
Utility Vehicle painted to resemble a is
stopped and said
currently working in Kosovo.
means driving around
Their contact with the people
call that free.
outside a small kiosk, drink-
His perch was only a few blocks from Marija’s
more than 500 American policemen They
don’t
in groups.’
ing coffee and watching the people pass by, hello.
‘I
in a
brand-new Sports
Coca-Cola can with wheels.
limited to responding to
from Serbs, and ordering coffee
at
Albanian
calls for
cafes.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS ‘Crime
spokesman ‘Now,
it’s
pull out
what
it
down, murders
is
for
UNMIK.
down,’
are
Fletcher
is
just street crime, car thefts
of here
in the
75
Barry Fletcher,
said
a press
American policeman.
also an
and sexual
assaults.
But
if
we
next few years, the situation will return to
was in 1999.
‘Both sides view themselves
‘They do
as victims,’ said Fletcher.
not accept that they are also the perpetrators. Only time will heal the hate.’
The Albanians once
lived
under Serbian
With
against their alleged oppressors.
Americans —
politicians
the Albanians
won
that
their
The policemen now
and they rebelled
the assistance of other
and diplomats, aid workers and soldiers —
war of liberation and have created
discriminating against the Serbs,
is
rule,
Roma
stationed throughout
a society
and other minorities.
Kosovo have
to deal
with
the problems. ‘It’s
apartheid,’ said Fletcher, the
edging the
fact that
UNMIK
spokesman, acknowl-
good cops cannot change bad behavior, and
giving credence to the Serb complaints about whether the international lives. ‘If you
we
ll
community
give us information about
book them. We’d
Marija thinks
it is
a
love
crime
and does not believe is
really cares
that
about protecting innocent a
crime, and give us
a
name,
to.’
when
her right to walk to
freedom
work
for the ethnic minorities
is
denied,
of Kosovo
very high on the agendas of the Albanians or the Americans.
‘The internationals want to get escorted her to her job
at
UNMIK
going to remain
in a cage.’
fames
a freelance reporter.
T. Phillips
is
rid
Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
He
of the Serbs,’ she said
as
I
headquarters. ‘The Serbs are
has covered wars in Iraq, Croatia,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
76
March
6,
2003
'LIBERATION' by
FOUR YEARS AFTER
Chad Nagle
‘That
Kosovo,’ says
is
window
at a
my Macedonian
driver, pointing
out the
ravine by the roadside, piled high with garbage. Four
years later, ‘liberation’ in this forlorn patch of the former Yugoslavia
looks like
a destitute
landscape of scrubby fields and abandoned
and
industrial enterprises, ransacked or destroyed buildings,
breakdown
in
town
the world that wars seldom
pledged by those their
much
town.
alter lifeless
desolate reminder to
a
ever bring the sort of rosy results
if
who wage
It is
them, and that
Iraqis
-
homeland destroyed by American bombs and to
beware ol when the
social
US
as
they watch
missiles
— have
promises to bring them freedom
and democracy by force of arms.
Kosovo
is
by the West
an economic wasteland, a
in an ex- Yugoslav district that
2 million, but
which
non-Albanians
who
life free
new
has
been
once numbered perhaps
‘ethnically cleansed’ of
lived there.
Except for
a
Now
weird construction
most of the
Kosovar Albanians once enjoyed
of taxes or even - for the most part —
Republic of Yugoslavia.
welfare state adopted
bills
a
within the Federal
they are the West’s dependants.
boom
that has
produced mile upon
mile of ugly three- and four-story, unoccupied red-brick houses,
nothing of any substance the ‘international
is
produced
community’
has
in
Kosovo
endowed
the inhabitants with
copious quantities of construction materials to build monstrosities, but these structures less, as if
now
stand
Aid from
today.
new
residential
empty and window-
in preparation for a mass population drive.
‘They’ve tricked the West into giving them to rebuild
damaged homes,’
says
my
money and
driver. ‘But these
materials
damaged
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
homes
77
don't exist, and they just use the resources to put up these
houses. They’re speculating in real estate by taking over church land,
moving
in
and announcing the ground
do exactly the same thing,
The base,
their property.
is
planning
like a tribe
Camp
Bondsteel, sprawls
as far as
main
a
job
or fast-food outlets on the base
Kosovo
as a
whole
—
—
The
as
the
locals highly prize
one of the bowling
in
since
military
and serves
city, Pristina,
in Bondsteel
US
the eye can see a short
center of economic activity in the province. the prospect of
all
future.’
heavily guarded and conspicuously gigantic
distance south of Kosovo’s
in
its
They
alleys
employment opportunities
are so scarce. Despite the paucity
of regular
jobs for ordinary folk, enough Kosovar Albanians manage to travel to the
West
to justify regular available flights to destinations like
Zurich and Frankfurt from Pristina airport (regular
flights to the
Serbian capital, Belgrade, have not been restored since the 1999 war).
Smuggling and prostitution
are rampant,
and Macedonia seem unable to mentioning
talk
and people
about Kosovo without
illegal trade in narcotics, cigarettes,
In Pristina,
guns and alcohol.
which numbers anywhere between
million and 400,000 inhabitants depending on electricity
is
available a
mere four hours
in Serbia
a day.
a
quarter of
who you
Only
a
ask,
buildings like
Grand — once buzzing with people from the press or international organizations — can count on electrical power around
the Hotel
the clock. But even this
of the Grand
still
is
thanks to private generators, and guests
have to do without running water after midnight.
The social and economic disaster in Kosovo can be forgiven, many say, because NATO halted ‘genocide’ by the Yugoslav armed forces. Yet the figures
of 500,000 Albanians killed were debunked
even before the bombing stopped, and only
a
few hundred bodies
were eventually found, many Serbs or Albanians itself.
The Kosovar Albanian
guerrilla
war
killed
by
NATO
for ‘national liberation'
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
78
had nothing
to
do with
the propaganda-driven
drive to avert mass murder, but even after
a
war was over the West had
Those watching the
as truth.
Iraq
war on
therefore be prepared to recognize similar
governments about crimes,
TV
to bolster the
lie
West should
in the
myth-making by Western and ‘weapons of mass
atrocities
destruction’ in Iraq before and after hostilities end.
Today, Kosovo
is
covered with signs of such ‘myth maintenance,’
mostly in the form of gaudy memorials to legendary fallen heroes
of the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA).
Giant cornucopias of plastic
flowers and hideous roadside cemeteries
province, testaments to the gratitude with
lie
scattered
all
over the
which ordinary Albanians
supposedly view the sacrifices of their paramilitary brethren. In
many of
the state of
these ugly
monuments
is
evidence of
fact,
a less
than sincere reverence on the part of Kosovo’s current inhabitants
of their freedom struggle.
for the agents
According to the
official history,
was largely prompted by at
the US-led assault
on Yugoslavia
massacre of Albanians on January 15; 1999,
a
the Kosovar village of Racak,
where the American envoy of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE),
William Walker, alleged Serbs had gunned peasants before.’
on
a hillside in a
Many
whether the
crime
‘the like
down
forty Albanian
of which has not been seen
have disputed Walker's account, raising questions
US
diplomat
involved in an even
more
may have
as to
fabricated the incident or been
sinister way, like a
model of the ‘Quiet
American’ from the recent film of Graham Greene’s novel. Walker’s credibility in the
served
as
US
there was at
Racak
affair
was shaky to begin with, since he had
ambassador to El Salvador
its
zenith (1988-92).
Even
when
if the
death-squad activity
episode did in fact occur
as told
by Walker, Racak should surely have become ‘sacred ground’
to any
Kosovar Albanians retaining memories of victimization by the
Serbs.
So what does Racak look
like
today?
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
The
of the slaughter
site
patch of hillside covered with the
a
is
79
KLA
usual unsightly plastic flower display and fascistic
while entrance to the makeshift cemetery
archway with Albanian wording above massacre
site
winds
base of the hillside
The
it.
through
down which
contribute to the scenery of
and
at
junked
fateful day,
this
the
cars,
Kosovar Albanian version of
Albanians took international aid and bought
my
appliances,’ says
the streets and
NATO
even
fields,
Kosovo
new
if it
worked
perfectly.
war, the
and kitchen
cars
‘They just threw their old
driver.
things, like children,
stuff
out into
They wanted new
and they got them.’
safe
and peaceful now? ‘Security decreases every
Serb shop owner in Gracanica,
day,’ says a
side,
the murderous Serbs were alleged
Arlington Cemetery. ‘Immediately after the
is
Racak
and other large and rusting kitchen appliances
refrigerators
But
dark metal
a
path up to the
of garbage on either
past heaps
approached the Albanians on that
to have
is
hagiography,
of
site
fourteenth-
a
century Serbian Orthodox monastery. ‘Before, the bus to Belgrade used to have it’s
safer
Swedish escort, but not any more. Maybe they think
now but
What about he
a
I
don’t think
the free market
‘None of it
says.
Then
there
is
is
it’s
so rosy.
I
can’t
even go to
economy? ‘Investment here
have democracy instead of
killed
by
mafia,’
the ‘tyrant’ Milosevic, and the democratization of
people of the former Yugoslavia have
But
is all
the product of an honest day’s sweat.’
Yugoslavia, another purported result of the West’s war.
line goes.
Pristina.’
a
after Serbian
a
few problems,
vicious dictatorship
-
Even at least
if
the
they
so the official
Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was
a single sniper’s bullet as
he was getting into
his
Mercedes
limousine on March 12, the climate of fear that gripped Belgrade
was palpable even to an outsider. The government of Djindjic’s
Democratic Party (DS) decreed arrests,
which reached 1,000
a ‘state
a little
over
of emergency’ and started a
week
later,
according to
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
80
official reports.
As
if rubbing
home
a point, televised
fifty-year-old’s
tall
endlessly
moment of Djindjic’s
replayed video camera footage of the
showing the
news
frame shudder for an instant
bullet entered his shoulder, pierced his heart,
and exited
his
bodyguards
also
took
a hit
as a
stomach
before he was pushed into the back of the waiting vehicle. his
death,
One
of
with the same kind of ammunition
banned by the Geneva Conventions - an expand-on-impact dum-
dum bullet. While
the temptation to blame Milosevic for the killing
was obvious, no one could seriously believe the ex-president of Yugoslavia was behind 'I
it.
believe the state of
party
emergency
Zoran Belmovac,
state,’ says
being used to create
is
legal
Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), once
a
government but now powerless, without cabinet. ‘Not even in
them says
for thirty days
wartime can you
without right to
Belmovac, already resembles
partner with the
someone and
The media
one-party
Media Bureau
DS
in
minister in the
a single
arrest
one-
adviser to the
affairs
a lawyer.’
a
a
state’s,
detain
in Serbia,
because
a
government organ
called the
and content and
completely controlled by the DS. ‘The situation
is
was barely better before the
state
controls
all
media
access
of emergency,’ claims Belinovac.
‘Under Tito, media always talked about the “rule of the workers”.
Under
Milosevic, state media talked about the “national interest”.
But the DS’s media game
is
smarter and more complex.
enough
you
Now
it’s
are a
“democrat” and
“reformer” without having to prove anything.’
Ironically, in the
all
about “reform”.
It’s
to say
aftermath of the Djindjic murder the
DS removed two judges who
had been appointed under Milosevic’s presidency.
Most leading
representatives of Serbia’s
apparently accept the government’s official
cracking
down on
also accept that the
main
political parties
line:
Djindjic started
organized crime and was rubbed out. But most
pro-Western Djindjic had long made deals and
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS compromises with mobs
power of
consolidate the
Zemun
like
81
and Surcin
in an effort to
government and the DS.
his
Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Dusan Mihaijlovic
emergency — even described one
directing the state of
‘respected citizen’ in a public statement
‘Right
now state institutions in
news magazine
have twenty-four years of service to the
me
state representative,
no more
and you ago.
because of the
‘The current
state.
I
was
a
The economy
professionals in the civil service,
on income you earned ten
still
DS
years
now
Dusan
Jelicic
no authority or
of the Socialist Party of Serbia
formally chaired by Slobodan Milosevic,
war crimes
in
everything
government.’
structures obviously have
state
influence now,’ says
for
asks not to be
have no pension and unemployment benefits are practically
‘private’
(SPS),
and speak four
who
Health services are completely destroyed, and
nil. is
I
are obliged to pay taxes
Nenad
Vreme. ‘The
out on the street for no reason.
and they have destroyed the
doesn’t work, there are
rascal as a
state.’
state
languages,’ says a career Yugoslav civil servant ‘Yet they put
man
last year.
mafias are stronger and better organized than the
named.
the
Serbia are very weak,’ says
Stetanovic, a correspondent for the
‘I
—
In fact,
The Hague.
now on
trial
‘Djindjic was doing a balancing act
with the mafia and switched sides from
Zemun
to the Surcin clan,’
he claims. ‘A Croat businessman named Stanko Subotic had even provided Djindjic with
of this inspired
was acting
one can
much
a private
official trips.
None
confidence in the public that the government
in the best interests
criticize the
plane for his
DS
of the people.’ Now, Jelicic
or the government.
Even assuming Djindjic was
‘We can
actually trying to
all
be
says,
no
arrested.’
clamp down on
Serbian organized crime, the West probably cared
little
about any
problems he was having. Former Swiss magistrate Carla Del Ponte,
now
chief prosecutor
at
the
War Crimes Tribunal
at
The Hague,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
82
had been handing Djindjic longer and longer
lists
— himself the key of Milosevic — had to put up
of people
to be
extradited, until finally Djindjic
figure responsible
for the extradition
his
‘Djindjic told Del Ponte
Serb kept
who
had been
to indict every single
Kosovo during the war
in
coming with
was ridiculous
it
the
frequent reporter on developments
at
in 1999,
Nenad
Vreme's
says
lists,’
hand.
The Hague.
but she just
Stefanovic, a
‘Del Ponte has
often said she didn’t care about the political circumstances inside individual countries, only the
of war criminals,’
community and
‘Yet the international lot
trial
the
says Stefanovic.
Hague Tribunal
of attention to the domestic problems of Croatia, and
representative in Kosovo]
Michael Steiner
also
Nobody
retaliate.
if
we
them
sent
to
The Hague
(UN
high
used to say
diplomatic meetings that although there were clearly criminals in Kosovo,
paid a
the
a lot
KLA
at
of war could
paid any attention to Serbia.' After the Serbian
premier’s murder, Del Ponte stated publicly that she had
met with
Djindjic weeks before his death, and said he had told her in a one-
on-one meeting: ‘They
The Ponte
‘international as
will kill me.’
community’ has generally
above moral reproach, but back
appointment
at
The Hague,
articles
in
treated Carla
Del
1999 before her
from the Swiss and
Italian press
suggested that Del Ponte tipped off banks in Lugano, Switzerland, that
money from cigarette Kosovo war, when Del Ponte was
they would be investigated for laundering
smuggling. At the height of the prosecuting the Mabetex scandal
awarded by the Kremlin to Pacolli), just as
a
Moscow’s opposition
(in
which construction tenders were
KLA-tied Albanian named Beghijet to
NATO’s war
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and
implicated. Shortly after that,
little
his family
were being
Del Ponte won the Hague job. However
effective her actions in the service
probably did
suddenly evaporated
to fortify the rule
of
NATO’s war
of law
in the
aims, Del Ponte
Balkans or elsewhere.
THE LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS
Although Zoran Djindjic
83
played a destructive role in
likely
strengthening Serbian political institutions, his violent removal looks set to plunge the country into further chaos.
So
dire has the political, social
become
that
many people have
government’s
and economic situation
evidently placed hopes in the ruling
of emergency.' A recent poll showed 86 per cent
‘state
of respondents support the policy of
in Serbia
state institutions in Serbia,
as a
and
way of restoring
it is
no exaggeration
memories of the Communist period
are
among
Many
large swathes
of the
citizenry.
for the Tito days, just as in
remember Communist
leader
the authority to say that
overwhelmingly positive in
Belgrade
now
pine
neighboring Bulgaria pensioners
Todor Zhivkov’s
era as a time
when
the police did their jobs, pensions were paid, and schoolchildren didn't abuse drugs
The
and carry handguns to school.
assassinations
and mafia rule
in Serbia
and Kosovo
are a sad
testament to the merit of ‘democratization’ and ‘reform’ that has
come
to the region as a legacy
much in Hamid Karzai —
West,
the
way
of the country’s
that Afghanistan
‘liberation’
by the
under Western puppet
featuring regular assassination attempts and bloody
warlords ruling the countryside - offers another example of the
hollowness of Western trumpeting of democracy and freedom.
Chad Nagle Kosovo
in
is
a lawyer
March on
and
freelance writer
who
behalf of the British Helsinki
traveled to Serbia
Human
and
Rights Group.
PART
TWO
OVERVIEW
March
6,
2002
FORMER SENIOR CIA OFFICER: WHY THE 'WAR ON TERROR' WON'T WORK by
Christison
Bill
On
January 15 the Attorney General of the United
States,
Ashcroft, held a press conference in order to describe the
would make
criminal charges that the government
Walker, the twenty-year-old American citizen Taliban military forces. In his States
Ashcroft said
talk,
terrorists.
We
fact
of September 11,
no uncertain terms
that
we
enemies seek to destroy
way of life
The
is
not
us.
have enemies
We
immune from
attack,
guts of what Ashcroft said
submit to you that I’ve
this
is
seen shows that the
a
is:
John
‘The United
own
citizens
do so today
day that reminded us in
in the
world and
learned on September
and these enemies seek to destroy
dence
this:
are impelled to
by the inescapable
initial
had joined the
does not casually or capriciously charge one of its
with providing support to
I
who
against
John
1 1
that these that
our
and even from destruction.’
‘We have enemies
in the
world
us.’
simply not
a true
real objective
statement.
The
evi-
of the Muslim extremists
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
88
Osama
led by
Muslim world
bin Laden was to rid the
American domination and
influence.
wanted the
the United States; rather they
Bin Laden and
They wanted
US
itself
NOT to destroy
out of their
own
land.
supporters also wanted, and those yet alive
his
of
still
want, to unite Muslim nations behind an extreme version of Islam, believing that the Islamic world can thereby better control future.
think they realize
I
United
‘destroy’ the
grandiose,
States,
well there
no
possibility they can
one Islamic world. This
New York
Review of Books
a call to purify the Islamic
is
of the idolatrous West, exemplified by America. The aim at
American heathen
fashion, that the
US
is
shrines,
innocent people
the
in
US
drive for global
its
over the Islamic world.
because
if
1
think
‘is
US —
to
world
to strike
most spectacular
Those
still
alive,
continue to try to
and elsewhere. But what the
do
is
to stop the
United States
hegemony, including hegemony
it’s
important to understand
this,
people in the United States believe that some enemy
trying to ‘destroy’ the
and actually has some
doing so — then waging an all-out war against
more
is
,
one
tiger.'
their cause, will
extremists see themselves as trying to
from continuing
in the
are not nice people.
and other future adherents to kill
and show,
vulnerable, a paper
These Islamic extremists
pretty
still
limited. Their aim, according to
recent analysis that appeared in the create
is
and their objective, while
more
considerably
is
full
own
its
that
possibility
is
of
enemy can be
easily justified.
But what but instead
if is
In that case,
I
the
We
is
not trying to prevent
trying to preserve and extend
think
our government policies.
US
a
we
should
all
destruction,
its
global
hegemony?
and
start
demanding of
serious public debate over future
US
foreign
should be strenuously debating the degree to which
the people in this country, given
want the
step back
own
its
US government
to
all
of our
own
domestic problems,
continue foreign policies intended to
OVERVIEW
US hegemony
strengthen
world
89
over and domination of the
economic and military
in the political,
rest
of the
arenas.
In short, Ashcroft’s claim that enemies are seeking to destroy the
United
makes
States
limits that
it
US government
easier for the
might otherwise be imposed on
its
to avoid any
‘war against terrorism'
by an informed public opinion. President George W. Bush’s
own
references in his
speeches to America’s enemies
same
ones’ tend in the
I’m defining here
direction.
as killings of,
noncombatants —
Although
acts
or other violence against, innocent
makes
Or
But
are
all
Afghans
September
1? In
1
And
they were accomplices,
if
punishing the accomplices just
selves?
It
seems to
me
My own view September
when Yet
all
in this
is
that the use
of
to avoid discussion
after
case,
is it
clear that
a lot
that the
11,
the polls
country
alternatives to
to
crime
a
much
as
of the term
the criminals
‘evil
ones’
is
as
war the
right that in this
United
States
is
now, almost
our foreign policies
them-
intended
show
that
up
to
our present foreign
of the world.
months
be required.
90 per cent of the people
policies.
of Americans care
five
difficult time,
will
don’t even want to listen to anyone
that only 10 per cent rest
as
bin
not true that the better
heading into an extraordinarily
seem
still
Is it
all
of nuances.
substantial changes in
toward the
is it
of the world do not punish accomplices to
severely as the criminals themselves? is
any
members were accomplices of A1 Qaeda and Osama
legal systems
US
Or all members of the know about the planned
ones’?
‘evil
did only a few Taliban leaders
terrorist attacks before
Laden?
US government to which the US might
foreign policies to reduce the likelihood of future
its
terrorist acts.
Taliban
perpe-
easier for the
it
avoid any inconvenient discussion of ways in
Taliban?
of terrorism - which
are always inexcusable, simply labeling
trators as ‘the evil ones'
modify
as ‘the evil
So
I
who
proposes
guess that shows
much about our
policies
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
90
The is
first
and most basic belief
I
have about the current situation
that military action will never be effective in solving the
of terrorism against the United
States.
At best
it
will only prevent
terrorism temporarily. As I’ve already mentioned, there’s
US
that the
somehow
will
problem
little
doubt
or capture or otherwise neutralize
kill
Osama
bin Laden and most of his lieutenants.
The US
pretty
much
bombing, and has
by
pulverized Afghanistan
incidentally killed an
has already
unknown number of innocent noncombatants
The US government, by the way, seems uninterested in even estimating how many innocent noncombatants have in fact been killed, but it is possible that the number is as large as or larger in the process.
US on
than the 3,000 killed in the
September
11.
Whatever the
military success of the US, however, a couple of years hence
extremists just as clever as bin Laden, and hating the will almost certainly arise
we need If I
that
1
We let’s
we should
it,
world. That’s
behind the terrorism.
in
at
go. I’m
all
some people would urge
root causes,
as
going to
six
list
right
of these
The
six issues
is
one compared
to another.
thing you should keep in
critical
that there
With
is
a
with those
1
great deal of disagreerelative
importance of
that caveat, here are the six root
causes of terrorism against the US. starts
us to do.
major root causes of the terrorism
Washington and elsewhere over the
order that
terrorism,
working on these root causes
start
why
should not wait until the military actions are finished
think are important.
mind on ment
even more,
am right that military action will not prevent future
before looking
So
else in the
to understand the root causes
but only delay away.
somewhere
US
new
I
’ve
arranged them
in a
rough
think are most difficult to deal with,
but the order does not necessarily reflect their relative importance.
My
personal feeling
is
that
all
six are
of equal importance.
OVERVIEW
One My number
one root cause
91
the support by the
is
US
over
recent years for the policies of Israel with respect to the Palestinians,
and the as
belief
much
to
among
blame
five-year-long
Arabs and Muslims that the United States
the continuing, almost thirty-
as Israel itself for
Israeli
is
occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip.
My
first
comment on
this issue
that
is
it
root cause than any ot the others on our Israel,
and many supporters of Israel
not want to 1 1
Top
.
Israel,
talk
a
is
list.
in the
United
States,
United
‘freedom
itself,’
after
September
- about how the
how they had attacked hatred. More recently, when and
irrational,
out of mindless
States, really did
most of whom strongly support
preferred to talk only in general terms
were mad and
controversial
The government of
about any root causes immediately
leaders in the
terrorists
more
pressured to talk about root causes
at
all,
the Israelis and their
supporters have gone to great lengths to reject arguments that Israel’s
US
behavior toward the Palestinians, or
are in
any way even
to say
something positive about root
a partial
support for
When
cause of the terrorism.
I
think
exists.
They
also
distract their
people from their
need
modern
democracy and the
who are depicted as own internal grievances
of Arab nations,
ping up hatred of I
its
emphasize the internal
tensions within the Arab world, the lack of dictatorial rulers
forced
causes, they tend to allege a
broader Islamic religious hatred of the West and technology than
Israel,
trying to
by whip-
Israel.
to digress for a
moment.
clearly multiple root causes
In a situation
of terrorism,
it’s
where there
in the interest
are
of any
person or nation that might be blamed for one of the root causes to
emphasize instead the other root causes. In the
months,
a sizable
last
couple of
propaganda campaign has been launched suggest-
ing that Saudi Arabia
is
the most important root cause of the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
92
September
terrorism.
1 1
government and
decrepit Saudi
world
certainly agree that the dictatorial
I
for a harsh
and
support throughout the Muslim
its
and immoderate version of Islam can be seen
as
one - but only one — of the root causes behind the recent terrorism. I'll is
have more to say about
that
this later.
I
want
to point out here
suspect supporters of Israel are aggressively pressing this
I
campaign against Saudi Arabia, world leaders cause.
What
hope of persuading other
in the
that the issue ol Palestine
is
NOT
The Neu> York Times columnist Thomas Friedman
practitioner of this pro-Israel campaign.
support for
and
Israel
for
its
root
a significant
The United
a leading
is
States’ strong
occupation and colonization of the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip
is
indeed
a
major root cause of the
terrorism against the US.
Two My number two States to spread
its
root cause
is
hegemony and
the present drive of the United
version of big-corporation,
its
free-enterprise globalization around the world. At the same- time,
Muslim
the massive poverty of average people, not only in Arab and
nations but also in the
important
as a
global political issue.
grown wider during the precisely, the
US
as
the
US
globalization based
The gap between
last
and poor
rich
twenty years of globalization
grown among has
on
the poor of the world,
expanded both its
its
own economic
have seen no or very
little
hegemony and
show
more
who a
have
type of
benefit from these changes.
almost impossible to grasp. Global
but they
or,
system, while they them-
This problem of poverty around the world it's
become more
version of globalization. Animosities against the
States have
watched
selves
has
and rich and poor people within most of the nations, has
nations,
United
whole Third World,
is
immense
so
statistics are far
from
that
perfect,
that the world’s population hit 6 billion last year.
2.8 billion people, almost half of the world’s total, have incomes of
OVERVIEW than two dollars
less 1
day.
a
93
Here’s another
per cent of the world’s people receive
the poorest 57 per cent.
25 million people
And
much income
as
Can we even comprehend
in the
United
third
of the
the magnitude
have no doubt -
And
of the injustice that these figures represent?
we
more income
— one
than the 2 billion poorest people of the world world’s total population.
as
here’s a final statistic: the richest
the United States receive
in
the richest
statistic:
blamed
States are, rightly or wrongly,
for these
figures.
The
world includes
the
US
catalog of reasons for animosity toward the a
number of
things
throughout
addition
in
our
to
overbearing assertion of both economic and political hegemony:
our arrogance
in insisting that
whatever we say goes, our penchant
for abrogating or ignoring international
happen
to like, as well as the influence
treaties
of
US
that
don’t
corporations that
make consumer
exploit cheap labor in Third
World countries
goods for Americans. Take
these things together and
all
we
to
you have
a
wide sense among the poor people of the world of being oppressed by the United
States.
This
in turn
made
it
possible for
Laden and the fundamentalists around him
to instill
Osama
bin
and spread
intense hatred of us, just as a sense of being oppressed by the Allies after
World War One made
it
possible for Hitler to arouse the kind
among Germans World War Two.
of fear and hatred of Jews and to
The
pressures arising from the
US hegemony, grow
steadily
that led
complex and
globalization and the
more
explosive.
both to the slaughter
My
related problems of
immense gap
proposal
is
in wealth will
that the
US
should
immediately develop and implement, with active participation of the
UN and the
European Union,
a
new, very
‘Marshall Plan’ type of aid program for
all
large,
and long-term
of the poor nations of
the world. This plan should specifically be aimed at reducing the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
94
size
of the income gap between the poorest and richest nations, and
reducing the income gap between the rich and poor within
at
nations. This type of plan could contribute significantly to reducing
the likelihood of future terrorism against the United States.
show
also
who
more generous
a far
them highly
to
US
present see only a
at
would
States to people
version of globalization that seems
and beneficial
selfish
United
side of the
It
largely to big corporations
and
the rich of the world. I’ve
been talking about
poor since
last
More
Santa Fe.
in
October,
massive aid program for the world’s
a
when
spoke to
I
recently, the British
a
number of peace groups
Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Gordon Brown,
has proposed a similar plan, in the
billion for each
of the next four
the
amount
after
all,
amount
is
$350
My own
years.
I
just about
what the
to in the next
ONE
would regard
as a
US
of
this
how
guy
get!
just see
answer
inequalities stability
is
that
all
this
One would
fiscal vear. J
a
think that
we
three-year period for
are probably thinking,
money
me —
how
unrealistic
should be aware
around the world
is
I
down
the drain.
absolutely critical to the future
far the
at all.
simply going
are,
problem of massive income
solving the
of the world, and so
US
version of globalization has
think there are enough intelligent
UN, US, Europe and the underdeveloped countries that we could set up a planning and monitoring group
in the
themselves
to oversee the wise use ot
corruption to a
is,
military budget will probably
of all people - meaning
not improved the situation
people
billion
corrupt the governments of most Third World nations
and you can
My
He
$350
as to
better purpose.
About now some of you can
suggestion
billion spread over three years.
could find an equal amount to spend over
what
amount of SI 00
program
a
such large funds and to hold the level of
minimum. The United
unilaterally,
and the
States should not
institutions set
run such
up to manage
it
OVERVIEW
95
should not be used to perpetuate and strengthen
hegemony, as
now with
the case
is
When
some new program
even in the detailed planning
you're entitled to ask
if
you hear charges of unrealism before
those
making
that the
world
is
in such a mess,
I
think
My own
feeling
and the inequality problem
maybe we should worry
severe, that
stages,
the charges aren’t really
opposing the new program for some other reason. is
global
Monetary Fund
the International
and the World Bank. is
US
is
so
about alleged ‘unrealism’
less
and more about getting on with the business of planning, followed by
do something about the problem.
real action, to
Three The number
three root cause
I
want
discuss
to
is
the
continuing sanctions and lack of food and medicines for the people
of
of
Iraq, deaths
Muslim I
US
by the
Iraq
Iraqi children,
and Great Britain. Right or wrong, the Arab and blames
‘street
don’t have
and the almost daily bombing of
much
this
to
on the US, not on Saddam Hussein.
comment about on
and the bombings have been
this
one.
in effect for ten years,
The
sanctions
and have neither
brought about the ouster of Saddam Hussein nor significantly
weakened him. And they have caused the deaths of children variously estimated at up to or over a million. The US government’s position
is
that
Iraqi people,
Saddam himself is
but the fact remains that after
US
people are the ones hurt by
My view tions
blame
to
is
for the troubles all
actions, not
that simple justice argues for an
and the bombings.
Four My number
My
proposal
four root cause
is
is
that
of the
these years, the Iraqi
Saddam. end
to both the sanc-
we do
precisely that.
the continued presence of
US
troops in Saudi Arabia.
Ten years ago hostility
this
was the principal cause of Osama bin Laden's
toward the United
States. (His hostility
on account of
US
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
96
actions against Iraq and then the massive later
and
in
both cases may be
tactical
US
— an
support for
effort to
broaden
popularity in the Arab world.) Today the thousands of
personnel in Saudi Arabia are relations.
we
The
men
keep
My
US
constant irritant in
came
own
his
military
Saudi-US
Saudi people clearly do not want them there. Unless
plan to invade Iraq again,
to
a
Israel
and
US
I
doubt there
is
any longer
ground-based military
a vital
reason
facilities there.
The obvious one — that we remove the troops. understand, of course - you’d have to be blind and deaf not to know this - that some people at high levels in the US government do want
proposal?
I
to invade Iraq again. All
not carry the day.
broaden Islam
—
this
I
I
can’t think
can say
of
a
is,
I
hope such people do
thing that
would do more
to
‘war on terrorism' into a Judeo-Christian war against
despite any
US
governmental protestations
to the contrary.
The fifth root cause on my list is the dissatisfaction and anger of many average and even elite Arabs and Muslims over their own Five
authoritarian, undemocratic, and often corrupt governments, are
supported by the United
My
comment
first
example of directed as
this
much
States. is
that
Osama
particular root cause. against the Saudi
was against the United his
here
States.
own government was
which
bin Laden
is
a
good
His extremist wrath was
government, for example,
as
it
His opposition to what used to be
probably the main reason
why
he had the
men under twenty-five in Saudi Arabia. He received similar support from many young men in other Arab and Muslim states as well. Right now these groups of angry young men obviously no longer have a viable leader in Osama bin support of a majority of the young
Laden, but other extremist leaders are almost sure to
arise. In
addi-
some of these
states
tion, the
next generation of leaders in
may
emerge from among these young men.
well
at least
If
any of them do
OVERVIEW
come
into power, their future
97
governments
be more
will likely
anti-American than the present governments, which Washington but which are really nothing of the
likes to call ‘moderate,' If
we
have not reduced our energy dependence on
oil
sort.
in
the
is
that
meantime, we may face serious trouble. In
my
view, this
we should adopt
a truly difficult
is
proposal
draconian measures immediately to reduce our
dependence on Mideast tax structure to
United
States as
oil.
We
make energy
expensive to consumers in the
as
Europe and Japan. This
in
it is
should, tor example, change our
cant life-style changes in the US. believe that alternative
we
think
I
we
will require signifi-
kid ourselves
if
we
can solve any coming energy crunch by expanding
power sources or by increasing ‘clean
usage, and Alaskan oil usage.
The
coal' usage, nuclear
shortages will be too great;
so will the long-term environmental costs;
and so
will the political
our relationships with other nations that have already
costs in
accepted higher energy prices for consumers
of twenty-first-century
We
My
energy usage, including but not limited to cutting our
overall
power
problem.
also
as a
necessary burden
life.
should not count on
new
oil
supplies
from Central Asia
allowing us to forget about the need for conservation and to stop
being concerned about the
of the Middle Central Asia
East.
Even assuming
become
of Saudi Arabia or other areas
stability
that massive supplies
available quickly,
all
we’ll be
of oil from
doing
is
trans-
ferring our support from the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and the
Gulf States that
we should
we must I
to the dictatorships of Central Asia.
we
ties
Muslim
my
is
not
view, conservation
a
is
prospect the route
follow.
think
of our
blithely accept. In
That
should,
at
the
same time, gradually reduce the closeness
with the present authoritarian governments
states,
and
try to
develop
a
in
Arab and
better understanding of and
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
98
improved
with groups in these
relations
We
present governments.
states that
own
oppose their
should seek out groups that appear to be
democratically inclined and ‘moderate' in the true meaning of the
Of course
word. Difficult? in
my
opinion, to have
in the future.
It’s
But
will be.
it
it is
we’ve got
also the best shot
Osama
bin Ladens that arises from
the anger of Arabs and Muslims with their
The
US
sixth
and
last
root cause
‘war on terrorism.’
now
on
my
list
own governments. arises directly
from the
do with the kind of war the US is three recent occasions - the Gulf War of
It
On
able to fight.
many Muslim states if we wish to diminish,
decent relationship with
a
over time, the support for future
Six
the best shot we've got,
has to
1990—1991, the Kosovo War of 1999 against Yugoslavia, and the current war against Afghanistan
—
the United States has easily
achieved victories by relying almost exclusively on
air
power, on
now even on drone aircraft with no humans on board. The US has won these wafs with practically no casualties among its own forces. But while few launched from
missiles
Americans get
in
nationalities do.
the United States are proud both of these
and of the low
the viewpoint of anyone
armed
and
numbers of other
killed, sizable
Most people victories
a great distance,
US who
casualties in these three wars.
supports the wars, this prowess of US
forces deserves to be honored.
But elsewhere
the world, especially the underdeveloped world, this invincibility of the
US
From
in
much of
overwhelming
military intensifies the frustrations about and
hatred of the United States. This in turn makes future terrorist acts against the
US —
or what
now
is
asymmetrical warfare - even more lands
who
increasingly effective
oppose the
coming
US
to see
called by likely.
drive for
US
Those
strategic thinkers
in
underdeveloped
worldwide hegemony
no means other than terrorism
method of opposing
the United States.
as
are
an
OVERVIEW This
an issue that demands
is
getting,
and
a lot
99
more
discussion than
goes to the heart of our future foreign policies. For
it
the immediate future, perhaps the next five or ten years, to be
going to war, because it
going
it’s
tempting for any government of the United States to
implement and enforce whatever foreign
that
been
it's
won’t lose
a
it
will
in this direction,
it
chooses by
be confident — even overconfident —
many
military confrontation and won't suffer
The US government
casualties.
policies
in fact has already started
moving
by threatening to launch preemptive wars against
nations that are trying to develop nuclear
weapons or other weapons
of mass destruction. Another thing the
US
is
already doing
unnecessary, degree in comparison with other nations.
March
New York
3
Times puts
up the Pentagon’s budget
as
much
it
as
bluntly. ‘If
you
are.
healthcare, and
To me,
These military expenditures
spending on domestic
to cuts in
make
it
US
same
would
this
like,
is
all
absurd
will clearly lead
problems such
as
poverty and
harder to do anything about solving the
problems of global poverty and income inequality that discussed. In this
editorial
more on defense than
the other countries of the world combined.’ there
An
Congress cranks
President Bush
the United States will soon be spending
- but
to
the United States to an unprecedented, and wholly
militarize
in the
is
I’ve already
five- to ten-year period, the readily available
military option will also encourage the
US
to avoid facing
the hard decisions necessary for a peaceful resolution of our
up
to
more
intractable foreign policy problems.
This leads
me
to a very important conclusion. Since the greater
willingness to initiate and fight wars intensifies hatred of the US, is
US
in the
interest to
ing warfare based on terrorism.
innocent
The
show
bombing
fact that
civilians
is
restraint in
US bombs
tragic
it
and voluntarily stop employ-
order to combat future acts of
and missiles have already
and puts us on
a
killed
par with the extremists
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
100
who committed now,
all
the September
The US should stop, right risks killing more civilians. At
acts.
1
1
further military action that
the same time,
want
I
to
emphasize that
am
I
quite sure there
enough evidence of Osama bin Laden’s complicity 1
1
1
terrorist actions to arrest
would
in the
and indict him. Assuming he
is
September is still
alive,
therefore support covert or Green-Beret-type operations to
capture, but not assassinate, him.
Maximum
precautions should be
taken, however, to prevent such operations from killing or injuring
any more innocent
civilians.
Once
captured, bin Laden should be
prosecuted and tried in an international court. fully
1
understand that compared to most views you hear
concerning the
But
1
US
my
‘war on terrorism,’
believe that unless the
US moves
views are
RADICAL.
in the directions I’ve
been
suggesting, in five or ten years the terrorism against the United States will
become
so intense that our global relationships with
other nations will be in
a
shambles.
On
the other hand,
if
the
US
government voluntarily moves toward the kind of foreign policy changes a
I’ve
been talking about,
trend toward
first
century than
Bill Christison
times
,
considerably
now
seems
was an analyst
think that
more
and
later,
its
actions might start
peaceful, and stable, twenty-
likely.
for the
CIA
1950
from
he worked on Soviet and European
proliferation,
as a
a
1
on Asian and A frican
affairs,
affairs.
to
1979. At various
on global nuclear
In the 1910s, he served
National Intelligence Officer and as the Director of the CIA’s Office of
Regional and Political Analysis.
He now
lives in
Santa Fe,
NM.
OVERVIEW
101
February 26, 2001
W: FIRST BLOOD by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
Bombing
Clair
the Iraqis should properly be listed as part of the Inaugural
ceremonies, a till
St.
man
not being truly President of the United States
he drops high explosive on Baghdad or environs.
evidently
felt
that the
The new team
Commander-in-Chief could not be allowed
to leave the jurisdiction, even to
and bombs against Saddam,
for
Mexico, without unleashing planes
whom
the
bombardment produced
the effect of widespread sympathy across the world for Iraq.
Clinton delayed
Bill
this
portion of his inaugural ceremonies to
June 27, 1993, when he was urged by Vice-President A1 Gore order
to
salvo of cruise missiles supposedly in retaliation for an
a
alleged Iraqi plot to
kill
George Bush Sr when he
Kuwait
visited
of 1993. Both Clinton and Bush were somewhat reluctant
in April
about the
sortie.
‘Do we have
to take this action?’ Clinton
to his national security team, as the cruise missiles in the Persian
muttered
on two
carriers
Gulf were being programmed. Gore advised
that a
demonstration of national resolve was of paramount importance. Clinton’s reservations were amply justified. Eight of the twentythree missiles
suburb
in
homed
in
with deadly imprecision on
Baghdad, one of them
a residential
killing Iraq’s leading artist, Leila
al-Attar.
Feasting
on shrimp,
cocktail canapes
House group watched CNN’s Wolf
and Diet Coke, the White
Blitzer
announce the
strike;
the misfortune of the errant missiles and al-Attar’s death were never
mentioned. Clinton’s pollster Stan Greenberg,
on the popular sentiment, reported
who
to the gratified
did daily surveys
Commander-in-
Chief that bombardment of Iraq caused an uptick of eleven
points.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
102
Since the Clinton administration was its
meltdown,
first
remembered by
was
this
welcome
a
new Bush
the
at that
time in the process ot
ray,
and one no doubt
team, possibly eager to
Bomb
from the headline-hogging former president.
shift the
focus
your way into
favorable headlines has been the policy of every president since
World War Two.
Of There
bombardments
course, these
UN
no
is
all
provision for such assaults.
sometimes referred
document
to as a
bombardment, makes no reference airspace.
week’s a
violate international law.
UN
Resolution 688,
legitimizing the no-fly-zone
to a right to take over Iraqi
There was nothing new about the declared motive
bombing
raids,
described
for last
as “protective retaliation.' Just
over
year ago, after similar raids, the British Defence Secretary, Geoff
Hoon, invoked
the sorties as being ‘in pursuit of legitimate self-
defence,’ a phrase hard to read without laughing out loud.
There’s nothing Iraqis say killed
some
bombing
routinely
discernible effect a
new about
this particular
bombing, which the
The US and Britain have* been much of the past decade, with no
civilians.
Iraq
for
beyond the slaughter of about 500
Iraqis overall,
death count which only looks scrawny in comparison to the
million or
mostly children,
so,
imposed
sanctions since they were
Secretary of State
plays
UN
a
God
Cohn
US-dominated in
officials
have died a
consequence of
as a
decade ago.
Powell had barely settled into his
he was affirming
office before
whereby
who
UN
this
murderous sanctions
committee
in
New
York routinely
in
Baghdad have long agreed
cause of child mortality and other health problems lack ot food available in electrical
policy,
decreeing what can and cannot be shipped to
working
all
power,
Iraq.
that the root is
not simply
and medicine but the lack of clean water parts
new
(freely
of the country prior to the Gulf War) and of
now running
at
30 per cent of
its
pre-bombing
OVERVIEW
103
with consequences for hospitals and water-pumping systems
level,
be
that can
Of the UN’s
all
too readily imagined.
21.9 per cent of contracts vetoed
sanctions committee,
efforts to repair the
a
high proportion were integral to the
water and sewage systems.
worth $236 million
contracts
of mid- 1999 by the
as
in this area,
worth — roughly one-quarter of the
The
Iraqis
of which $54 million
total
value
— have been
disapproved. ’Basically, anything with chemicals or even liable to get
thrown
one
out,'
UN
official revealed.
power supply
has been apparent in the
story.
full
meaning
UN
that items
officials
pumps
The same
is
trend
sector.
The proportion of approved/disapproved the
submitted
refer to the
contracts does not
‘complementarity
tell
issue,’
approved for purchase may be useless without
other items that have been disapproved. For example, the Iraqi Ministry of Health once ordered $25 million worth of dentist chairs, said order
being approved by the sanctions committee - except for
which the
the compressors without
quently gathering dust in the
US moved
France.
of the Iraqi
a
chairs are useless
Baghdad warehouse.
to prevent Iraq
and conse-
In February of
from importing
fifteen bulls
2000 from
The excuse was that the animals, ordered with the blessing UN’s humanitarian office in Baghdad to try to restock the
beef industry, would require certain vaccines which,
knows, might be diverted into
a
program
to
make
who
biological
weapons of mass destruction. For sheer bloody-mindedness, however, the interdiction of the bulls pales beside an British
initiative
of the
government, which banned the export of vaccines for
tetanus, diphtheria
and yellow fever on the grounds that they too
might find
way
their
into
the
hands of Saddam’s biological
weaponeers. It
has been the self-exculpatory mantra of US and British officials
that ‘food
and medicine are exempt from sanctions.’ This,
like so
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
104
many
other Western policy pronouncements on Iraq, has turned
out to be
So
a he.
now the wheel
turns
full circle.
Back
1991 Defense Secretary
in
Dick Cheney and top uniformed Pentagon man Cohn Powell urged
bombardment and President Bush approved. Cheney are at Bush IPs elbow as he approves I
first
military adventure.
thumping? Well,
it
Is
there a strategy,
in a
UN Tribunal
Israel’s
new prime
ill
Sharon,
Beyond
signaling
man who would
a
world about
viz.,
Ariel
its
new
Iraq policy,
readiness to
Bush time,
priorities in
whereby the new
embark on
stance towards Iraq, beefing up aid to the in exile, the Iraqi
Saddam,
as
probably
minister.
there could be the outlines of a is
beyond Inaugural chest-
on War Crimes
this ‘signal’ to the
government
his administration’s
changes the subject from what the Bush
administration proposes to do about fare as
2001 Powell and
In
tougher
a far
main opposition group
National Congress (INC), led by
Ahmad
Chalabi.
In the late 1990s Chalabi ’s cause was pressed by Republicans in
A
Congress, most notably Jesse Helms and Trent Lott. alliance, stretching
New
from Helms to The
Christopher Hitchens, pressed Chalabi’s
Basra and the
oil
guarantees could
fields, to
Republic to Vanity Fairs
call for
‘military exclusion zones' in northern Iraq
to guarantee
in the
south near
be administered by the INC. Such
set the stage for a
new
military assault
bombing
an unlikely prospect, but George W. Bush could
with the thought that
US
the
and
Against the continuation of sanctions and is
bizarre
at last
on Saddam. sorties this
at least
be toying
the Clinton— Gore campaign’s slurs
against his father for not finishing off
Saddam
will
be avenged.
OVERVIEW
September
2001
12,
WHO SAW
105
IT
COMING?
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
Clair
St.
Tuesday’s onslaughts on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
being likened to Pearl Harbor, and the comparison
are
Not
obliteration the attack
is
virtually
a
without historic
parallel, a
trauma
Chicago
great as the San Francisco earthquake or the
There may be another of
just.
terms of destructive extent, but in terms of symbolic
in
at least as
is
fire.
The possibility December of 1941 was known to US
similarity to Pearl Harbor.
Japanese attack in early
Naval Intelligence and to President Roosevelt. Last Tuesday, derision at the failure of
US
Washington Post quoted an
unnamed
Security Council
‘We don't know anything
watching
CNN
as saying:
too.’
intelligence budget,
intelligence was widespread.
top
Are we to believe
immense
official at the
$30
that the
The
National
here.
We ’re
billion annual
electronic eavesdropping capacity,
thousands of agents around the world, produced nothing in the way
of a warning?
In fact
Osama
bin Laden,
now prime
suspect, said in
an interview three weeks ago with Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor of the
London-based al-Quds al-Araby newspaper,
‘very,
very big attacks against American
Here
is
interests.’
CIA, planner of other
planet, originally trained by the
successful attacks
on
US
installations
imminence of another
such
as
FBI bounty on
Africa, carrying a $5 million
assault,
and
US
the embassies in East his
in the
1960s and 1970s,
the possibility of air assaults
when
head proclaiming
intelligence
even though the attacks must have taken months,
Back
he planned
bin Laden, probably the most notorious Islamic foe of
America on the
the
that
if
hijacking was
on buildings such
as
was impotent,
not years to plan. a
preoccupation,
the Trade Center
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
106
were
major concern of
a
US
security and intelligence agencies. But
since the 1980s and particularly during the Clinton— Gore years the
more modish
focus shifted to
such
fears,
as
biochemical
nuclear weapons launched by so-called rogue
This
had the
latter threat
investment
in Missile
allure
assault
and
states.
of justifying the $60 billion
Defense, aka Star Wars.
One
ot the biggest
proponents of that approach was A1 Gore’s security advisor Leon Fuerth,
who
wailed plaintively amid Tuesday’s rubble that ‘In effect
the country’s
war but we don't have the coordinates of the
at
enemy.’
But the
lust for retaliation traditionally outstrips precision
By
identifying the actual assailant.
on Tuesday
early evening
America’s national security establishment were calling for
of
all
impediments on the
assassination
in
a
removal
of foreign leaders. Led by
President Bush, they were endorsing the prospect of attacks not just
on the perpetrators but on those
From
the nuclear priesthood
be deployed on
The
a
preemptive
coming
(most of which,
US
like the
the Bill of Rights.
The
all
demand
the
The
that
mini-nukes
enemies of America.
the usual suspects: rogue states
Saddam Hussein,
Taliban or
intelligence).
might have harbored them.
basis against the
abroad will be
targets
creatures of
is
who
target at
home
will
started off as
of course be
explosions of Tuesday were not an hour old
before terror pundits like Anthony Cordesman, Wesley Clark, Robert
Gates and Lawrence Eagleburger were saying that these attacks had
been possible ‘because America
some democratic might
this
ment and national
perquisites
is
a
democracy,' adding that
might have
to
be abandoned.
mean? Increased domestic snooping by
US
now What
law enforce-
intelligence agencies; ethnic profiling; another drive for a
ID card system. Tuesday did not
of America’s
leaders.
composed and
offer a flattering exhibition
who looked who happened
For most of the day the only Bush
in control in
Washington was Laura,
OVERVIEW to be waiting to testify
and
on Capitol
107
Hill.
Her husband gave
stilted initial reaction in Sarasota, Florida,
an hour before resurfacing
he gave another tranquilizers.
someone
flaccid address
He was
finally
at a
at
a
bunker
in Nebraska, before
that the best place for an
time of national emergency
is
the Oval Office.
of explaining with
similarly incapable
likely context
where
with every appearance of being on
then flown to
The commentators were any depth the
then disappeared for
base in Barksdale, Louisiana,
had the wit to suggest
American president
timid
a
of the attacks. By contrast, the
commentary on economic consequences was informative and sophisticated.
Worst
hit:
the insurance industry. Likely outfall in
the short-term: hiked energy prices, a further drop in global stock
markets. George Bush will have no trouble in raiding the famous
lock-box, using Social Security Trust Funds to give more to the
Defense Department. That about sums
are successfully steered into three
it
Three planes
of America’s most conspicuous
buildings and America’s response will be to put
way of bolstering
missile defense as a
up.
money
more money
in
the economy.
September 20, 2001
THE PRICE, MRS ALBRIGHT? by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
What moved ago, as
St.
Clair
those kamikaze Muslims to embark, so
on the training
well of those
that they
knew would culminate
in their
deaths
(they must have hoped) of thousands
upon
thousands of innocent people? America has led its
many months
wars on people. The wars mostly didn’t
a
charmed
life
amid
come home and
the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
108
made
press
workers has
as sure as
Trade Towers weren’t
in the
been wrought
made
could that folks including the ordinary
it
in
really
up
on what
to speed
Freedom’s name. In Freedom’s name America
sure that any possibility of secular democratic reform in the
Middle East was shut mid-1950s,
as
CIA
the
Khomeini twenty-five
CIA
the
Iraq, as
Mount
off.
did,
coup
a
Mossadegh
against
in the
and you end up with the Ayatollah
did,
years later.
Mount
a
coup
against
Kassim
in
and you get the Agency's man, Saddam
Hussein.
What about Afghanistan?
In April
of 1978 an indigenous populist
Mohammed Daoud, who had man the US had installed in Iran, Reza
coup overthrew the government of formed an
alliance with the
Pahlevi, aka the Shah.
The new Afghan government was
Noor Mohammed Taraki, and albeit
with
a
good
theTaraki administration embarked,
deal of urban intellectual arrogance,
reform, hence an attack on the opium-growing feudal
went
to
the
UN, where
substitution for the
poppy
he managed to
down on opium
to finance attacks
ment, which they regarded that allowed
estates.
Taraki
loans for crop
raise
production
border areas held by fundamentalists, since the
modernity
on land
fields.
Taraki also tried to bear
opium revenues
led by
as
latter
on Afghanistan’s
in
the
were using
central govern-
an unwholesome incarnation of
women
to
go
to school
and outlawed
arranged marriages and the bride price.
At that time the mujahideen were getting money not only from
Muammar Qaddafi, who sent them $250,000. In the summer of 1979 the US State Department produced clear how the US government saw the stakes, no a memo making the
CIA
but from Libya’s
it
matter
how modern-minded
mujahideen.
The memo was
Taraki might be or
dispatched to
world, including the one in Tehran.
A
US
how
feudal the
embassies around the
few months
later the
embassy
OVERVIEW
109
was occupied by Iranian students and the occupants taken hostage.
The diplomats and CIA
residents shredded their secret
files
but the
students laboriously reassembled them, and ultimately they were
published in sixty-eight paperback volumes.
was the following memo, written shortly
The United
States’ larger interest
...
Among
after the Taraki
of the rest
DR A
and economic reforms
this
in Afghanistan.
might mean
The overthrow
[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan] would show the
of the world, particularly the Third World, that the Soviets’ view
of the
socialist
course of history being inevitable
Taraki was killed by Afghan Hafizullah
Amin, educated
regularly with
US
embassy
army
in the
is
in Afghanistan, the Soviets
The
back-office
US, took over and began meeting
officials at a
invaded
staffs,
time
when
in force in
in the
culture
US was arming
US-backed regime 1979.
messenger boys, cleaners, and other
know
that history.
of other relevant history they probably didn’t
a lot
but which those
people
the
December
workers throughout the Trade Center didn’t There’s
not accurate.
September 1979.
officers in
Islamic rebels in Pakistan. Fearing a fundamentalist,
istic
coup:
would be served by the demise
of the Taraki—Amin regime, despite whatever setbacks for future social
the documents
men on
the attack planes did.
Towers have known, when
is
a
US
How
political
know
could those
and journal-
conspiracy to perpetuate their ignorance? Those
people on the Towers were innocent portions of the price that Albright insisted, in just one of
applications,
was worth
it.
It
memory to insist that in future our press offers accounting of how America’s wars for Freedom are fought
would honor a better
its
their
and what the actual price might include.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
110
September 25, 2001
RETRIBUTION by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
We’re passing from appalling front yard of the
media
human
capital
St.
Clair
loss
and suffering,
live in
the
of the world, to the traditional
parameters of imperial retribution.
It
won’t be bombs that
settle
the issue, and the Pentagon has small appetite for any substantial foray into Afghanistan
on the ground. Cash
be the lubricant
will
of victory, and since unlimited supplies of cash are available to buy support for the
US among
the Afghan factions,
before the Taliban are chased out.
from Bush’s point of view
The only
is
may
is
not be long
inauspicious factors
are that the bribing will
of the CIA, whose record tor screw-ups
mediary
it
be the province
ample, and the inter-
to be Pakistani military intelligence,
which sponsored
own
agenda, not one
the Taliban’s triumph and
which
has
its
dedicated to peace and reconstruction for Afghanistan.
Much
has been
been made of the
doom
awaiting martial forays
into Afghanistan, the British debacles of the nineteenth century
and
the Soviets’ in the 1980s. But the British were exceptionally stupid
and the Russians
some 13,000
didn’t suffer unduly. Across ten years they lost
in Afghanistan.
A
Russian colonel, veteran of the
campaign, recently disclosed to Patrick Cockburn that about 33 per cent of these mortalities were due to accidents (tanks falling off roads and so forth),
which brings down the number of Russians
actually killed by the
muj
to
under
a
thousand
a year.
The muj,
including bin Laden, held out against the Russians and in the end forced their withdrawal because they enjoyed the limitless support
of the Pakistani military and of the US,
running the
largest covert
op
in
its
in the
form of the CIA
history at a cost of $3.5 billion.
OVERVIEW
Who
have the Taliban got?
A
1
1
1
starving, discontented domestic
population and external enemies on
sides,
all
wallowing
in
promises
of huge American dispensations. Their original sponsors
in
the
Pakistani military have far larger satisfactions than temporary loss
of
a
regime in Kabul before
client
now
together. Pakistan
is
nuclear club, with
its
The
US so
OK
certified as
to
be
can be cobbled a
member of
the
debts rescheduled.
globe-spinners talk about bin Laden’s dangerous appeal to
Muslims around the world chafing of their
new one
a
leaders, the
at
the despotism and corruption
occupation of Jerusalem by the Jews and their
protector, the starving of Iraqi children, but if the
much of a
tinder box,
why
there? All talk of fragile
didn’t bin
Laden
Arab world
try to apply the
is
match
Araby notwithstanding, the regimes there
have been astoundingly stable across years of political turmoil.
October
5,
'SMALL
IS
by Jeffrey
St.
2001
BEAUTIFUL' Clair
minimum, tactical
‘At a bare
the bin Laden rightly seen
camps
nuclear capabilities should be used against
in the desert
of Afghanistan. To do
by the poisoned minds
less
would be
that orchestrated these attacks as
cowardice on the part of the United States and the current administration.’
war
These
New
are not the
York Post.
words of a columnist
No. These
are
for the rabidly pro-
the considered sentiments of
Thomas Woodrow, a former officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon has come to a remarkable conclusion with regard to nuclear
weapons: smaller
is
better.
These days the Wizards of
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
112
Armageddon
are palpably anxious to develop a
new
class
of nuclear
weapons, the so-called ‘deep penetrator’ warheads. Over the decade the Pentagon and busy crafting
its
variety of
a
weapons designers have been quietly
new weapons.
Clinton administration generated
comprehensive
test
ban
past
treaty
a lot
(which
string of subcritical tests), the
Indeed, although the
of hoopla by supporting the it
promptly violated with
a
Department of Energy and the
Pentagon were busy developing new breeds of weapons. In 1997, they unveiled and deployed the 136 1-11, described
as
modification of the old B61-7 gravity bomb. In reality
was largely
a
new
nuke
‘package,’ the prototype for the ‘low-yield' bunker-blasting
weaponeers see
that the
The
nuclear priesthood
generation of nukes and
which
it
mere
a
is
as
the future of the
US
arsenal.
salivating at the prospect
of
new infusions of cash under the Bush
a
new
regime,
been stockpiled with nuclear hawks, ranging from Richard
has
Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz to Assistant Secretary of Defense Jack
Couch, who dropping
a
couple of years ago wrote that the
a small
nuke on North Korea
The Pentagon, of course, So
are the nuclear labs
isn’t
to teach
the only
US
should consider
them
a lesson.
one pushing new bombs.
and their legions of contractors.
October 20, 2001
THE LEFT
AND
THE 'JUST WAR'
by Alexander Cockburn
The
left is
getting itself tied up in knots about the Just
propriety of
bombing
Afghanistan.
I
suspect
some
War and
the
are intimidated
by laptop bombardiers and kindred bullyboys handing out white
OVERVIEW feathers
A
113
and snarling about ‘collaborators’ and being‘soft on
fascism.’
recent issue of The Nation carried earnest efforts by Richard Falk
and an
editorial writer to
mark out
frameworks
‘the relevant
of
moral, legal and religious restraint’ to be applied to the lethal business of attacking Afghans.
through a just
felt
sorry for Falk
he clambered
as
moral obstacle course. This business of trying to define
his
war
I
against Afghanistan
is
what C. Wright
Mills used to call
crackpot realism.
War,
as
the United States has been fighting
it
in
Iraq
and
Yugoslavia, consists mostly of bombing, intended to terrify the
population and destroy the fabric of tolerable social existence. Here’s
of
how
a
couple of Pentagon briefers described the infliction
reported by Jonathan Landay of the San
terror, as
News on October
bomb from
a
17: “‘If you’re
B-52
and you hear an
it’s
over,’’
Jose
on the ground and get
the officer said.
AC- 130 coming,
with
“But
if
hit
Mercury
with
a
you're there
Gatling gun going, the
its
experience can be even more frightening.’’’ Marine Corps Lieut.
Gen. Gregory Newbold provided further context: ‘The psychological effect
they have
was intended to convince the Taliban leadership that
made
an error and their calculus
some day
will
be
in their
interests to see that.’
Those AC- 130s were over Kabul. What quence be but
to terrify
and
kill civilians,
else
can the conse-
whose anguish may or
may not impinge upon the ‘calculus’ of the Taliban leaders? Remember, too, that bombs mostly miss their targets. Colonel John
who planned the air campaign in Iraq, said afterwards that dropping dumb bombs ‘is like shooting skeet. 499 out of 500 pellets Warden,
may
miss the target, but that’s irrelevant.’ There will always be
shattered hospitals and
wrecked old
folks’
homes, just
as
there will
always be Defense Department flacks saying that the destruction ‘cannot be independently verified’ or that the hospitals or old folks’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
114
homes were and
enemy
actually sanctuaries for
‘command
forces, for
control.’
How many bombing decade to recognize
campaigns do we have
sets
a
the usual landmarks?
all
There can be no ‘limited war with limited
bombing
go through in
to
objectives’
when
the
matches to tinder from Pakistan and Kashmir to
Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem. ‘Limited war' prospect than to regard September
1 1
as a
is
a far less realistic
crime, to pursue
perpetrators to justice in an international court, using
all
its
relevant
police and intelligence agencies here and abroad.
The
left
should be for peace, which in no way means ignoring
demands of either
the
Iraq,
US
left says
Aye
on
Bin Laden
side.
calls for
an end to sanctions
The
troops out of Saudi Arabia, justice for Palestinians. to those,
though we want
a
two-state solution, whereas
bin Laden wants to drive Jews along with secular and Christian Palestinians into the sea.
The US government
of the Terror Network, and the
left says
Aye
to that too.
we oppose networks of people who wage war on So we’re pretty
know this
these
close to supporting
demands
war about?
On
are not
dismantling
calls for a
civilians.
demands on both
going to be achieved by war.
Bush’s side
it’s
of theocratic fundamentalist Islam.
We don’t want anyone
Empire, for the ‘war on
anywhere
else,
or for anyone to
fundamentalism. 1
1
was
A
a
to the
On that issue the left be cashed kill
in
name
against
both
name of the American blood
or die in the
UN, proceed on
is
in the
in
Colombia or
name of
the basis that
Islamic
September
crime. Bring the perpetrators to justice by legal means.
final
killings,
Go
but
about the defense of the American
to kill or die in the
terror' to
we What is
sides,
Empire; on the other, an attempt to challenge that Empire
sides.
Of course
word about
‘rationalizing.’ After the
Columbine school
people called for more security in schools. They also asked
big questions:
How
could
we
have raised such children? Was
it
OVERVIEW
115
distance parenting, violence in culture, bullying? If questions,
no one confused explanation with justification.
charged you with being Leave the
final
word
soft
on teen
to Seth
civilians
November FBI
10,
is
No
one
killers.
Bardacke,who remarked
Frank, the afternoon of September 11:
bombing
you asked such
‘I
to his father
now we know
guess
that
wrong.’
2001
EYES TORTURE
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St.
Clair
‘FBI and Justice Department investigators are increasingly frustrated
by the silence of jailed suspected al
Qaeda network, and some
civil
may have
liberties
to be
information about the Sept.
Thus began Post
a
getting
1 1
beginning to say that traditional cast aside
attacks
and
for torture,
if
you suspect
you
are right.
Metropolitan Correctional Center.
The FBI
...
the overture to an
interrogators have been
None of these men in
New
have talked,
the interrogation as
we could go to pressure and we are probably getting
a
choice,
Pincus reports that ‘among the alternative strategies under
discussion are using drugs or pressure tactics, such as those
occasionally by idea
is
York’s
could get to that spot where
where we won’t have
there.’
is
suspects, held in
and Pincus quotes an FBI man involved ‘it
they are to extract
terrorist plans.’
that this
nowhere with the four key
saying that
if
piece by Walter Pincus on page 6 of the Washington
on Sunday, and
argument
are
of Osama bin Laden’s
associates
Israeli
employed
interrogators, to extract information.
extraditing the suspects to allied countries
Another
where security
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
116
services
sometimes employ
members
threats to family
or resort to
torture.’
Some FBI
interrogators are thinking longingly of drugs like the
so-called ‘truth serum,’ tactics,’ i.e.,
sodium pentothal; others of the
straightforward tortures, used by Shin Bet in
after savage public
‘pressure
Israel,
banned
debate a few years ago, which included sensory
deprivation (an old favorite of British interrogators in Northern Ireland), plus
many agonizing
physical torments.
Another idea
is
to
send the suspects to other countries for torture by seasoned experts.
The FBI
claims
is
no need
If so, there’s
torturers.
it
As
interrogation
hampered by
to eye
a practical
rooms of
Morocco
or France
matter torture
US
present codes of gentility.
its
is
far
from unknown
New
York
known recent example. The most infamous disclosure of consistent concerned cops
in recent years
Seventies through early Eighties deprivation, hanging testicles.
A
The
subcontracting in the
law enforcement, with Abner Louima,
the Haitian immigrant brutalized by
department
as
who
in
police, the best-
torture by a police
Chicago
in the
used electroshock, oxygen
on hooks, the bastinado and beatings of the
torturers
were white and
their victims black or
brown.
prisoner in California’s Pelican Bay State Prison was thrown into
boiling water. Others get 50, 000-volt shocks from stun guns. states
m
mid-
have so-called ‘secure housing units’ where prisoners are kept
solitary in tiny concrete cells for years
going mad
US
in the process.
police forces for
amounting
States for
A
‘a
on end, many of them
Amnesty International
has
denounced
pattern of unchecked excessive force
to torture.’
Last year the
ment.
Many
its
UN
delivered a severe public rebuke to the United
record on preventing torture and degrading punish-
ten-strong panel of experts highlighted what
Washington’s breaches of the agreement
ratified
it
said
were
by the United
OVERVIEW 1994.
States in
UN
The
117
Committee Against
Torture,
UN
monitors international compliance with the
which
Convention
Against Torture, has called for the abolition of electric-shock stun belts (1,000 in use in the
well
US) and
restraint chairs
an end to holding children in adult
as
on
prisoners, as
jails. It also
said female
detainees are ‘very often held in humiliating and degrading circumstances’ and expressed concern over alleged cases of sexual
by police and prison
assault
sively harsh
officers.
maximum
regime in
The
panel criticized the exces-
security prisons, the use of chain
gangs in which prisoners perform manual labor while shackled together, and the
number of cases of police
brutality against racial
minorities.
So
far as
rape
is
concerned, because of the rape factories more
known as the US prison system there are estimates many men as women are raped in the US each year.
conventionally that twice as
A Human
Rights Watch report
December 2000 in
in April
on
Prison Journal study based
seven men’s prison
facilities in
that 21 per cent of the inmates
four
of
states.
had experienced
a
this
year cited a
survey of inmates
The
results
at least
showed
one episode
of pressured or forced sexual contact since being incarcerated, and at least
7 per cent had been raped in their
facilities.
A 1996
study
of the Nebraska prison system produced similar findings, with 22 per cent of male inmates reporting that they had been pressured or forced to have sexual contact against their will while incarcerated.
Of these, more
than 50 per cent had submitted to forced anal sex
at least
once. Extrapolating these findings to the national level gives
a total
of
Since
at least
its
140,000 inmates
inception the
CIA
who
have been raped.
has taken a keen interest in torture,
avidly studying Nazi techniques and protecting their exponents
such
as
Klaus Barbie.
The FBI could
plenty of countries taught torture by
ship the four key suspects to
CIA
technicians, including El
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
118
Salvador.
Robert
that after the
SAVAK,
Fisk reported in the
1979 revolution Iranians found
the Shah’s political police,
William Blum, whose Rogue a useful a
in Brazil’s
the former
Otero,
State
overview of the United
1970 story
as
London
instituted torture in
to
made lor torture women. film
Courage, 2000) gives
States’ relationship to torture, cites
extremely respectable Jornal do
Uruguayan chief of police
saying that
CIA
a
on how
(Common
Independent in 1998
US
refinement in technique (such
a
quoting
intelligence, Alejandro
Dan
advisers, particularly
Uruguay on
Brasil,
Mitrione, had
routine basis, with scientific
the precise upper limits of electric
as
voltage before death intervened) and psychological pressure, such as a tape in the
next
room of women and
children screaming, telling
the prisoner that his family was being tortured.
The CIA’s It
is
official line
indeed wrong.
On
is
that torture
is
wrong and
is
ineffective.
it
has been appallingly
and
here’s Jonathan Alter,
countless occasions
effective.
November
15,
2001
ALTER ASKS: 'CAN WE TORTURE JUST A TEENSY BIT?' by Alexander Cockburn
Open
the
November
munching on
5 edition of Newsweek
the week’s hot topic,
torturing obdurate September
1
1
namely the propriety of the FBI suspects in the bureau’s custody
here in the United States. Alter says no to cattle prods, but continues the sentence with the observation that something start
the stalled investigation.’ The tone
is
is
needed
to
‘jump-
lightly facetious: ‘Couldn’t
OVERVIEW
we
at least
subject
them
119
to psychological torture, like tapes of
rabbits or high-decibel rap?’
There
dying
are respectful references to Alan
Dershowitz (who's running around the country promoting the idea Israel,
where
an interrogation technique called “shaking” was
legal.
holding
dark room, then
of ‘torture warrants’ issued
a
by judges) and to
smelly bag over
applying scary psychological torment
room
a little
for
“ticking time
head in
a suspect’s
a
Even now,
...
“moderate physical pressure"
bomb"
‘until It
1999
entailed
Israeli
law leaves
what
are called
in
cases.’
As so often with unappealing
labor. Alter arrives at the usual
Amer-
ican solution: outsource the job. ‘We’ll have to think about transferring
some
suspects to our less squeamish
allies,’
he
says.
What’s striking
about Alter's commentary and others in the same idiom abstraction that
all
from
reality, as if
torture
is
is
the
so indisputably a dirty business
painful data had best be avoided.
One would
have thought
hard to be frivolous about the subject of torture, but Alter managed
it it.
Would one know from his commentary that under international covenants — signed and ratified by the United States — torture is illegal?
One would
not,
and one assumes
that as
with the war against the
Taliban’s Afghanistan, Alter regards issues of legality as entirely
immaterial.
Would one know
has been charged by the
such
as
Human
that in recent years the
United
UN and also by human rights organizations
Rights Watch and Amnesty International with
tolerating torture in prisons, by
methods ranging from
twenty-three-hour-a-day confinement
in
solitary,
concrete boxes for years on
end, to activating 50,000-volt shocks through a mandatory belt
by prisoners? Would one postwar
US
States
know
that
worn
one of the darkest threads
in
imperial history has been the CIA’s involvement with
torture, as instructor, practitioner or contractor?
Remember Dan
Mitrione, kidnapped and killed by Uruguay’s
Tupamaros and portrayed by Yves Montand
in
Costa-Gavras’s film
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
120
State oj Siege? In the late
of Public
Safety, part
In Brazil, so A.
Langguth
J.
US
(a
New
former
book Hidden
Office
without
York Times bureau chief
Terrors
advisors teaching Brazilian police
to apply to prisoners
US
of the Agency for International Development.
in Saigon) related in his
the
1960s Mitrione worked for the
Mitrione was
,
how much
among
electric
shock
them. In Uruguay, according to
killing
the former chief of police intelligence, Mitrione helped ‘professionalize’ torture
as
techniques such
a
routine measure and advised on psychological
as
playing tapes of
that the prisoner’s family
women
and children screaming
was being tortured.
Alter expresses a partiality for ‘truth drugs,’ an enthusiasm shared
by the
US Navy
officers got
serums’
at
after the
on the
trail
war
against Hitler,
when
its
intelligence
of Dr Kurt Plotner’s research into ‘truth
Dachau. Plotner gave Jewish and Russian prisoners high
doses of mescaline and then observed their behavior, in
expressed hatred for their guards and
about their
own
As part of its
made
which they
confessional statements
psychological makeup.
MK-ULTRA
larger
Dr Ewen Cameron
at
project the
gave
McGill University. Cameron was
the sensory-deprivation techniques for issued his approval.
CIA
a
which Jonathan
Cameron once locked up
woman
a
money
to
pioneer
in
Alter has in a small
white box for thirty-five days, deprived of light, smell and sound. The
CIA
doctors were amazed
experiments with
a
at
this
knowing
and
it’s
less
CIA
own
than forty hours.
easy to get carried away. Torture destroys
the tortured and corrupts the society that sanctions
FBI today, the
that their
sensory-deprivation tank in 1955 had induced
severe psychological reactions in Start torturing,
dose,
in
1968 got frustrated by
its
it.
Just like the
inability to
suspected leaders of Vietnam’s National Liberation Front by
methods of interrogation and advanced experiments,
in
torture.
its
break usual
So the agency began more
one of which
it
anesthetized three
OVERVIEW prisoners,
opened
They were
their skulls
121
and planted electrodes
room and
revived, put in a
in their brains.
given knives.
The CIA
psychologists then activated the electrodes, hoping the prisoners
would
attack
one another. They
didn’t.
The
electrodes were removed,
the prisoners were shot and their bodies burned. Alter can read about it
in
Gordon Thomas’s book Journey
The
Israelis?
They’re
still
torturing. In
Sun relayed charges from the ‘severe torture'
Madness.
into
Israeli
July,
human
But
Israel
outsourced too. After
‘security strip’ in southern
for the Independent,
torturers
had
May
the electric leads for the
as
fourteen
its
puppet South Lebanese prison. His report
25, 2000, began thus:
grilles
little
There was the
where prisoners were
thrown over them
dynamo —
off to Israel by the interrogators
at night.
Then
tied
naked
there were
the machine mercifully taken
- which had
the inmates shrieking
the electrodes touched their fingers or penises.
there were the handcuffs
forth.
retreated from
just left but the horror remained.
for days, freezing water
when
its
group B’tselem of
bowls and so
Khiam
Fisk visited
whipping pole and the window
with pain
toilet
and the Baltimore
young
as
finally
Israel
Lebanon, run by
Army, the journalist Robert
The
rights
by police: Palestinian youths
being badly beaten, their heads shoved into
AP
which an ex-prisoner handed
to
And
me yesterday
afternoon. Engraved into the steel were the words: ‘The Peerless
Handcuff Co. Israel’s
Springfield, Mass.
most shameful prison,
Made
if the
what they were doing when they
If
in
USA.’ And
I
wondered,
executives over in Springfield
in
knew
sold these manacles.
handcuffs are sold these days to the FBI’s subcontractor of
choice,
at least
the executives will
know
explain the patriotic morality of their
they have Jonathan Alter to
bottom
line.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
122
November
28, 2001
WHERE WERE THEY WHEN
COUNTED?
IT
by Alexander Cockburn
The weekend before Thanksgiving, Hindu Kush and America’s children
as
the Taliban fled into the
flocked to Harry Potter, the
Bush administration
nation’s opinion formers discovered that the
had hijacked the Constitution with the Patriot Act and the military Time magazine burst out that Avar
tribunals. liberties.'
stories
The New
is
on your
hell
York Times suddenly began to run big
civil
news
about John Ashcroft. But well before the end of September
Ashcroft’s proposals to trash the Bill of Rights
were
available for
inspection and debate.
At the time
when
it
counted,
when
a
volley of barks from the
watchdogs might have provoked resistance Patriot Bill
and warned Bush not to
tribunals, there
in
try his luck
that
US
the
with military
torture.
press did not raise adequate alarums
was going
to
was mostly decorum from the opinion-makers, aside
from amiable discussions of the propriety of whole, the
Congress
as a
about legislation
full
snoop powers on the Internet,
to non-citizens,
expand even further warrantless
to give the
deny habeas corpus
Taken
FBI
searches unleashed in the Clinton era with
new powers
given in
1995 to secret courts operating under the terms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed in the Carter years, in 1978. In the
run-up
to
Bush's signing of the
October 25, the major papers were in the bill that
were horrifying to
only have taken profuse after
a
few
fierce
November
spiritless
Patriot Act
on
about the provisions
civil libertarians. It
columns or
15, to
USA
editorials,
would have
such
as
were
have given frightened politicians
cover to join the only bold soul in the
US
Senate, Russell Feingold
OVERVIEW of Wisconsin. the spring
let
Now
it
was Feingold, remember, whose vote back
Ashcroft’s
when most of his Democratic
time
the
news cameras about
The
in
nomination out of the Judiciary Committee,
at a
process.
123
colleagues were roaring to
Ashcroft’s racism and
contempt
for
due
Times and the Post both editorialized against Ashcroft’s
nomination.
But then, when the rubber met the road, and Ashcroft sent up the Patriot
Bill,
which vindicated every
spring,
all fell
silent
speech
in the
US
dire prediction
who made
except for Feingold,
a
of the
magnificent
Senate on October 25 citing assaults on liberty
going back to the Alien and Sedition Acts of John Adams, the
US Supreme Court of World War Two (along with
suspension of habeas corpus sanctioned by the in 1
World War One, the internments
10,00 Japanese Americans there were
and 3,000
Italian
blacklists
protesters in
the
nications as
would be
1,000
German Americans
Americans put behind barbed wire), the
McCarthyite
of the 1950s and the spying on antiwar
Under
1960s.
warned, the Fourth
1
Amendment
the terms of the as
it
applies to electronic
effectively eliminated.
an assault on ‘the basic rights that
represented, he warned,
bill,
He
commu-
Hayed the Patriot
make
us
who we
truly breath-taking expansion
‘a
Feingold
Bill
are.’
It
of police
power.’
Feingold was trying to win time for challenges in Congress to specific provisions in Ashcroft’s
bill.
In vain.
The USA
Patriot Act
passed into law and Feingold’s was the sole vote against
it
in the
Senate. There weren’t even articles about his reasons for being the sole hold-out.
Though Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted since tried to get the
‘left’
in
war-making, he has
Congress to pull the plug on Bush’s
November 28 could only find thirtywith him, one of whom is Bob Barr, the
military tribunals, but as of
seven colleagues to agree
for
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
124
who
conservative former prosecutor
from the
new
earliest days the provisions
who
guess
also
wrote
this:
‘Today,
undeclared war, against
for
Congress to do
We
do not need
its
duty,
to have
was among those attacking
USA
of the
America
is
being stampeded into
This
is
a
Iraq.
time for truth,
our
politics
We’ve always in
no way
No more
like Safire,
time
a
poisoned for yet another a
War
Party and a Peace
Party in the aftermath of yet another undeclared war.
Buchanan who,
a
and debate and decide on war or peace.
generation by the mutual recriminations ot
undeclared wars.
And
Patriot Act.
presidential wars.’
It
No more
was Patrick
wrote speeches for Richard Nixon.
said that the true
contours of American politics are
reflected by the conventional political maps.
December 7 2001 ,
AND SONS: THE BUSHES AND LADENS GO WAY BACK
FATHERS BIN
by Jeffrey
Chances to
St.
Clair
are that
George W. Bush
didn’t
pronounce Osama bin Laden’s name,
informed about the events of 9/1
be tutored on
how
after the President
was
need
to
while reading that story about
1
the goat to grade-schoolers in Sarasota, Florida.
the Bushes go
Exactly
many
how The
far
back remains
a
matter of conjecture. But, like
Laden brood has always had
patriarch of the bin
Laden
Laden, the son of a Yemeni bricklayer
and struck
it
bin Ladens and
way back.
ultra-rich Saudis, the bin
for Texas.
The
clan,
a
thing
Mohammed
who moved
bin
to Saudi Arabia
rich in the construction business, flew frequently to
OVERVIEW
125
Dallas to seal deals with his associates in the oil industry, often in his private jet.
that
Mohammed knew
banking and
much
There’s
George Bush the
political cronies in the
Mohammed power
lines.
First
Lone
and
his
cohort of oil,
Star state.
died in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia.
Houston when
elder sons, Salem, died near hit
no hard proof,
speculation, though
Of all
the bin Ladens,
close relationship to the Bushes.
of
his
his ultra-light airplane
was Saleem
it
One
who
The connection was
a
had the
Houston
named James Bath, who haunted the darker back of the Bush-Reagan years, amid the fragrance of scandals
wheeler-dealer corridors
BCCI
ranging from Iran/contra to
Loan debacle
to Iranian
to the Silverado Savings
weapons mogul Adnan Khashoggi.
Bath was an Air Force fighter pilot National Guard
in the
Bush,
who
had
is
a lot
In
of
in
Vietnam
in
Houston, where he
tied to the
and Bush became
and
Guard
fast friends,
in
who ended up met George W.
first
order to avoid combat. Bath
with Bush
later recalling that ‘Bath
fun.’
became vice-president of
the mid-1970s, Bath
Atlantic
Aviation, one of the world’s top business-aircraft sales companies.
At the time, Atlantic was owned by Edward DuPont, of the DuPont chemical empire. DuPont’s brother, Richard, served on the board of Atlantic. According to Gerard Colby’s excellent book, DuPont Dynasty Richard’s ,
CIA
own company, Summit Aviation, was
a
longtime
contractor.
In 1976,
Bath met
Osama
bin Laden’s brother Salem. Salem was
entranced by planes and he and Bath
Soon Salem had Bath named
hit
it
off almost immediately.
as trustee for
the bin Laden family
operations and considerable investments in the United States.
It
was
through the bin Ladens that Bath was introduced to one of their old family friends,
Adnan Khashoggi. According
book, Die Kingdom: Arabia and
the
House
of
to
Sand,
Robert Lacey’s
Mohammed
bin
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
126
Laden was physician.
of Khashoggi’s
a patient
The young Khashoggi became
Laden conglomerate
George W. Bush’s
middleman
for the bin
in
met bin Laden
Arbusto Energy,
first
by nego-
earned the Iranian $25,000.
wasn’t too long after Bath
$50,000 investment
a
prominent Iranian
in the late 1950s, getting his start
tiating a big truck sale that It
father, a
a small oil
he made
that
company
business venture. Arbusto
that
from the bin Laden
that
Brewton
asserts in his
one of Bath’s former business
White, claims that
it
was
in this very
administration, recruited Bath to as
same year of 1976
work
for the
book on that
the
George
for the
CIA. Brewton
Ford cites
saying one of Bath’s jobs was to report on the investments
of Saudi millionaires. White, by the way, was another fighter
and went
came
partners, Charles
W. Bush, then director of Central Intelligence
White
in
family.
Investigative journalist Peter
Bush clan
was
means Bush
Spanish. Bath later claimed in court records that the $50,000
a
to
Through
pilot
Annapolis with Oliver North. the bin Ladens, Bath was also introduced to Sheik
Khalid bin Mahfouz, the
CEO
of the National Commercial Bank,
The NCB was a prime lender for time when the arms dealer was moving
Saudi Arabia’s biggest bank.
Khashoggi. In 1985,
weapons
at a
to Afghanistan,
Iran
and the contras,
NCB
loaned
Khashoggi $35 million. Bath would team with Khalid, and former Texas governor John Connally,
Houston, an institution
in
buying the Main Bank
that helped finance the
Texas politicians through the
late
campaigns of many
1970s and 1980s.
Khahd’s banking empire would eventually extend to the
Bank of Credit and Commerce
that catered to crooks prises,
with
BCCI
Iran, a
served
as
in
and spooks.
a stake in
International, the institution
Among
other nefarious enter-
Khashoggi’s chief bank for
his
arms deals
depository for Oliver North's covert action funds,
OVERVIEW and the conduit
127
CIA money bound
for
for the
mujahideen
in
Afghanistan. In 1992, Khalid was indicted on fraud charges stem-
ming from found
his
involvement with
that Khalid
he teamed with First
and
his
BCCI
BCCI.The
NCB had violated US banking laws when
to try to take over the
US
Bancshares. His assets in the
Avenue
New
Federal Reserve Board
York penthouse was
Washington-based
were frozen and
his Fifth
seized.
Bath was also an investor in Skyways Leasing,
a
Grand Cayman-
based firm, controlled by Khalid and, according to White, the CIA.
Skyways was
Two
of North’s contra supply network.
also part
of
Skyways’ original owners, David Byrd and William Walker, were also officers in IC, Inc.,
which channeled some $3.6 million
in funds
for North’s enterprise.
But the bin Laden group’s
US
military
ties to
and intelligence establishment extend
curious career of James Bath. has enjoyed the benefits of
perhaps none so lucrative airstrips
The
far
beyond the
bin Laden construction empire
numerous contracts with the Pentagon, those for the construction of the
as
new
and barracks following the 1996 truck bombing of the
army base that
the Bushes and the elite of the
many
in
Dhahran, which
killed eighteen
Osama
have blamed on
bin Laden.
people —
The
US
bombing
a
bin Laden family
has also invested at least $2 million in the Carlyle Group’s Partner’s II
Fund, which specializes
The
Carlyle
Pentagon
Group
staffers,
is
is
the
which
companies and security
in the acquisition
DC
investment house, run by former
specializes in
firms.
of aerospace companies.
the financing of
The chairman of the
weapons
Carlyle
Group
Frank Carlucci, secretary of defense during the second Reagan
administration.
not to trade also
in
Its
counselor
his
is
James Baker. And, despite
presidency for
employs George H. W. Bush
Asian Fund.
a
as a
his
pledge
spot on corporate boards,
it
senior adviser for the group’s
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
128
The
bin Ladens’
money has been
zealously courted by the Carlyle
Group. Baker, Bush and Carlucci have
made
all
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, headquarters of bin Ladin
Bush Sr has met with the bin Ladens the Carlyle
Group — once
of 2000. Baker has
Washington Carlucci ’s
ties are
even more involved, dating
the behest of
again in January
He
even flew from
on the bin Laden family
to Saudi Arabia
which engaged
in several joint ventures
attention appears to have
Journal, in a
with
courted the bin Ladens.
at
jet.
at least as far
back to
chairman of Nortel Networks, the telecommunications
his days as
The
also
Enterprises.
[sic]
twice
at least
November 1998 and
in
pilgrimages to
ties
September 27
to bin
story,
with the bin Laden group.
more than paid
off.
The
Wall Street
quoted an international financier
Ladin Enterprises
investments in the Carlyle
giant,
Group
as
saying that the family’s
are substantially larger than
million, saying that the holdings in the aerospace fund
were
$2
just an
initial deposit.’
Until 1997, the Carlyle called Vinnell,
which,
as
Group used
Ken
own
a security* outfit
Silverstein details in his
Warriors, holds a contract to train the
is
bases and the nation’s oil infrastructure.
the
it
According to
Vinnell’s operatives are veterans of the
did
some of the
nickname our
little
nastier
work
mercenary
Private
to protect Saudi military
for the
force.’
Silverstein,
CIA and
Army’s Special Forces. Vinnell’s roots can be traced
where
book
Saudi Arabian National Guard.
The National Guard’s primary duty
many of
to
to
the
US
Vietnam,
Pentagon and earned
During the Gulf War,
Vinnell operatives basically led Saudi units. Today Saudi Arabia
The company maintains more than 1,000 employees in the country, many of them working fulltime to protect Saudi assets against attacks from homegrown militants, such as Osama bin Laden and his followers.
remains one of Vinnell's top
clients.
5
OVERVIEW
December
PEBBLES
2001
5,
1
129
AND
POPPIES
by Alexander Cockburn
First the
come
tumult ot war,
tidings
at least for
new
of the
now
the fruits of peace.
of tolerance,
era
now
From Afghanistan
that the Taliban have,
the time being, slunk off the stage of history. Shortly before
the turn of the year Justice Minister Karimi declared that Afghanistan's
new government
people but with
The
less
will
still
impose sharia Islamic law on
harshness.
were fleshed out by Judge Ahamat Ullha
details
has told the French
its
news agency Agence France
Zarif,
who
Presse that public
executions and amputations will continue, but there will be changes: ‘For example, the Taliban used to for four days.
We
will
hang the
victim’s
only hang the body for
body
in public
a short time, say
1
minutes.' Very Warholian.
Kabul’s sports stadium, financed by the International
Monetary
Fund, was where the Taliban used to carry out public executions and amputations every Friday. will find a
new
No
longer. ‘The stadium
it
clear that the ultimate penalty will
force for adulterers, both male and female. to death, Zarif told the
Now
They would
French news agency, ‘but
size
they are able to run away, they are
free.’ It
condemned by
a
in
be stoned
will use
only
who judge
a
chance to escape.
who
refuse to confess their will
will, the ‘If
turns out that this avenue
only available to those adulterers
misdeeds. ‘Those
we
still
remain
of the executive munitions
judge explains, allow the condemned person
is
We
there’s progress!
This adjustment in the
of escape
for sports.
place for public executions,’ says Judge Zarif.
Judge Zarif makes
small stones.’
is
admit their sexual
wrongdoing and
are
have their hands and feet bound so that
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
130
they cannot run away.
They
be stoned to death,' Zarif
will certainly
said.
The winds of change can be
felt
on another
farmers faced bankruptcy after Mullah planting of
opium poppies
last year.
rallying Afghanistan’s landlords
Omar
front. Afghanistan’s
ordered
a halt to the
In the years that the
CIA was
and mullahs against the Soviets,
Afghanistan became the West’s prime supplier of heroin and
morphine. Mullah Omar’s ban has been variously explained
or
aid,
US in
regime with the
effort to ingratiate the Taliban
as
an
hopes of getting
an effort to restrict supply and thus hike prices. Whatever
as
the motive, the prohibition led to a 96 per cent
fall
in Afghanistan’s
production of raw opium — from more than 453,500 kilograms
1999 to 18,500 kilograms
in
2001, according to the United Nations
in
Drug Control Program.
Now
news
reports, such as this
renewed poppy cultivation says
Ashoqullah,
a
from Craig Nelson, describe
in lyrical terms:
‘Everyone
is
planting,’
twenty-five-year-old landowner. ‘In a few months,
these fields will be covered in a blanket of spectacular red and white flowers. We’ll
draw the ooze from the flower bulbs, pack
bags or small soap cartons and the raw in
opium
will
make
its
Pakistan or Tadzikistan,
coalition,
sell it at
the bazaar.’
way north or south
two members of the
it
From
in plastic
the bazaars
to processing labs
great anti-terror
and then westward to the veins of addicts
in
Europe and
the United States. But Afghanistan’s swift return to preeminent status as
the
USA’s number one heroin supplier
is
surely a small price to
pay for the extinction of the Taliban and routing of A1 Qaeda. Alas, this raises the question
Fudge the numbers
as
of just
their
way
extinct the Taliban
is.
you may, not too many of them ended up
dead, aside from those prisoners killed
on
how
to other prisons.
at
Mazar
Presumably the
homes, awaiting further instructions from
al
Sharif or suffocated
rest
dispersed to their
their Pakistani supervisors.
OVERVIEW
Osama
bin Laden? Suppose he pops up in Kashmir, calling for
renewed jihad cat
131
among
Now
against the Indian occupiers.
that
would
set
the
the pigeons!
So perhaps
how much
not quite so clear
it’s
achieved in the great crusade, but for sure,
December
it is
a
has really
been
famous victory!
20, 2001
ANTHRAX AS NORMALCY: 500 CASES A YEAR by Jeffrey
Imagine
Clair
St.
if
the anthrax attacks had killed nearly 500 people, instead
of the four
in the
US who
have died from the bacteria so
would most
certainly erupt had
US government knew
about the anthrax
Consider further the outrage it
come out
outbreak
from the
in
that the
far.
that
advance, but failed to take any action to protect people
disease.
Then
factor in the big
drug companies, which
have refused to administer out life-saving vaccines because to do so
might undermine their lucrative patents.
Sound
far-fetched? Hardly. This
has been going
on
is
in Haiti since the
a
rough description of what
mid-1970s, where nearly 500
people contract anthrax every year. You can search the major media
and the
US government
called an
ongoing
locate a
few
tourists
about
in vain for
At most, CounterPunch has been able to
crisis.
press releases this
to restrict the
coverage of what can only be
from the State Department warning
danger and
a
move by
the
US
Commerce Department
import of certain goods made from animal hides,
though not major league
baseballs,
which
are
manufactured
by workers making about twenty cents an hour.
in Haiti
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
132
Here
is
Commerce Department:
the text of an advisory from the
Consumers who may have goatskin items such
bongo drums,
as
wineskins, hassocks, small rugs, decorative wall coverings (mosaics), ‘balancers,’ ladies’ purses or unfinished goatskin hides
known
have been imported from Haiti should place the products in plastic
bag and
it,
or throw
it
a sealed
or State health department for disposal
Consumers should not attempt
instructions.
incinerate
call a local
to
to sterilize the product,
away because of the
risk
of additional
contamination.
The their
fact that so
many American
textile
corporations have
sweatshop operations to Haiti to exploit pathetically low wages
doesn’t
seem
to have
prompted much concern
their workers. Indeed, the only detailed analysis
we
moved
for the health of
of the situation that
can find comes from the college ot veterinary medicine
Louisiana State University. According, to the
LSU
study,‘27% to
at
50%
of goatskin products are contaminated. During 1973—77 there were 1,587
human
anthrax cases reported in the southern peninsula or
and 1,396
during 1985 to 1988,
317 per year; 85
cases in 1983;
or 349 per
Then, amazingly, between 1989 and 1993, no one
year.’
human
even surveyed in
1993,
it
anthrax cases.
turned out that
contracted the disease. In
During these
years,
vaccinated against the
in
cases
When
the surveys resumed again
that year
more than 100 people
1995, 449 people contracted anthrax.
more than 700,000 cows and goats were disease. No humans were given vaccinations.
‘We have an emergency medical
clinic in
mostly with burns, but have been working for over
30
years,'
Cap
Haitien, dealing
in the
north of Haiti
Eva DeHart, of For Haiti With Love,
CounterPunch. “Anthrax gets sick, they slaughter
is it
normally ingested in the
in Haiti.
tells
The animal
market quickly and unsuspecting
OVERVIEW victims take
home, cook
it
it,
eat
it,
133
and because of their already
malnourished condition and lack of available medical care they
They
also contract the disease
from the
factories.
An
die.
entire family
on our support program died of pulmonary anthrax. They
lived
downwind from a tannery when they were tanning infected hides. can’t remember a time where you were not advised to avoid skins and hides with hair for items being bought to bring home, and we have been working down there for 30 years. It is a poor country, you just accept certain restrictions for your own safety.’ I
February 27 2002 ,
DANIEL PEARL: SHOULD HIS EDITORS HAVE SENT HIM THERE? by Alexander Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl’s dispatches
in the days
when he was
reminded
me somewhat
of Peter Kami's
the Wall Street Journal's most light-heartedly
stylish reporter,
before assuming the imperial purple and
the company’s
CEO.
It
was Kann, back
in the late
becoming
traveled to Afghanistan and reported that the place was a
covered with
flies
and
that
it
was hard to understand
Power would want any truck with the Ironically, since his captors
the
Pearl
Pentagon or even of the mad dogs on the
tations
of
a
fulfill
Muslim
on
a
any Great
place.
was not
reports contradicting the claims of the State
ravings
why
charged him with being an agent of
American Empire and of Zionism,
whose
who dump
1970s,
weekly
fanatic. Just
afraid to file
Department or the
Journal's editorial pages
basis the
most paranoid expec-
about the time they were killing
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
134
Pearl,
had they paused to buy
would have found
killers
a
particularly feverish article
copy of the Wall
a
on the
reprint
Street Journal his
,
flatly that to
be opposed
was to be anti-Zionist, and to be anti-Zionist was
anti-Semitic.
oppose the
be
to
the familiar two-step logic of the Israeli lobby:
It’s
sale
a
from Commentary in-house periodical
of the American Jewish Committee, stating to Israel
of
editorial pages
of Apache helicopters to Sharon or the bulldozing
of Palestinian homes and you become
a
co-conspirator in the
Holocaust.
The
Wall Street Journal editorial page wrote, the day after
of Pearl’s death was confirmed, that
showed
was
news
still
stalking
the world, ‘evil’ being the current term of art for ‘awfulness
beyond
it
‘evil’
our comprehension.’ Now, these editorial writers have spent years writing urgent advisories to whatever in
power
that the
president happens to be
most extreme reactionary forces
given unconditional backing.
about fifteen minutes are to
US
would
It
in a clips library to
in Israel
must be
take any Islamic fanatic
demonstrate that
if
bombs
be dropped on Palestinians, peace overtures shunned,
just
settlements rejected, then the Wall Street Journal's editorial page
on board,
Why in lieu
full-throat.
was
it
left
to Pearl’s wife to offer herself to the kidnappers
of her husband?
Why did
Paul Gigot, proffer himself, or
were not yet his
sufficiently
behind into the
if that
US
WSJ
in
why
the
of the relationship
Wall Street Journal to overall moral
policies in the
editorial writer
killed because his
his credentials
not bring Robert Bartley out
to Karachi for discussion
honest, he might have written:
was
he had protested that
editorial chair,
of editorial writing responsibility for
it
not the WSJ' s editorial page editor,
seasoned since he has only recently plumped
of retirement and send him
So
is
“It
Middle East and South Asia?
who may
invoked
‘evil’
well be that
had been
Danny
Pearl
murderers held him responsible for positions
OVERVIEW on the Middle East
135
and on Islam
conflict
oft expressed in these
editorial pages. If so, then he died for principles that
will always uphold,’ or
something of that
sort,
we honor and
while simultaneously
emphasizing that reporters are not editorial writers and that Pearl bore no responsibility for the
Might
it
editorials.
ed him to South Asia, that the
might put him
The
in a report,
of
fact
fact that
Israeli citizen
dangerous crowd of Muslim
his citizenship
February 24,
he was an
assign-
given the fact that he was seeking
in extra peril,
to contact an extremely
Karachi?
who
not have occurred to Pearl’s editors, those
terrorists in
only emerged after
in the Israeli
his death,
newspaper Ha’aretz, by Yossi
Melman: Professor
Yehuda
Pearl, father
of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl, has told Ha’aretz that he fears that making public his son's Israeli citizenship could adversely affect investigative efforts
Pakistani police to reporter’s body.
apprehend the
In a
killers
by
and track down the murdered
telephone conversation from
his
Los Angeles
residence. Professor Pearl expressed regret and anger over the revelation
by the
Israeli
media of his
family’s ‘Israeli connection.’
The US media,
which was aware of the information, complied with the request not to
make
it
family’s
public.
Then Melman concluded with The American media was
this
minor bombshell:
asked to comply with this request after
information was obtained that confirmed reports that the 38-year-old reporter was dead.
It
seems to
me
almost certain that those Pakistani terrorists would
have killed any reporter for
a
US news
organization
who
had the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
136
ill-fortune to
Robert
Fisk,
come
seeking an interview
particular time.
at that
of the London Independent, has probably written more
pieces sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than almost any other
mainstream reporter, yet
him from
that didn’t prevent
beaten to death by Afghans in
a frontier
town
a
nearly being
few weeks ago.
On
February 23, Fisk wrote:
In Pakistan
Our
faces,
and Afghanistan, we can be seen our
The Muslim
hair,
Peshawar
village outside
pointed
at
even our spectacles, mark us out
who
cleric
me
wished to last
later, a
crowd of Afghan
because they thought
for
I
I
our work.
We
were
a journalist,'
used to risk our
.
rarely deliberate targets.
I
this.
(as
US
We first
.
.
Over
the past quarter
we
still
do -"but
were impartial witnesses writers of history.
ordering
Bhamdoun
his
men when
in 1983.
trend whereby journalists clamber into
correspondents did in Vietnam) Fisk continues:
the Palestinians evacuated Beirut in 1982,
1
noticed that several
French reporters were wearing Palestinian kuffiah scarves. reporters turned
Even
‘Protect him, look after him, he
recall a Palestinian guerrilla
After discussing the
in the
our
air raid, tried to kill
wars -
lives in
entered the burning Lebanese town of
When
this Kaffir into
US B-52 bomber
was an American
the nastiest militias understood
uniforms
man who
a
refugees, grief-stricken at the
to conflict, often the only witnesses, the
I
an Afghan refugee
have witnessed the slow, painful, dangerous erosion of respect
journalists
is
in
Westerners.
as
October was stopped by
slaughter of their relatives in a
century
me
and asked: ‘Why are you taking
mosque?’ Weeks
me
talk to
unbelievers.
as Kaffirs, as
up
in
occupied southern Lebanon with
pistols.
Israeli
Then
1991 Gulf war, American and British television reporters started
dressing
up
in military
costumes, appearing on screen - complete with
OVERVIEW
137
helmets and military camouflage fatigues ot the
82nd Airborne or the
Hussars.
—
they were
as if
members
One American journalist
even
arrived in boots camouflaged with painted leaves, although a glance
any desert suggests that
at
In
this
would not have served much purpose.
the Kurdish flight into the mountains of northern
Iraq
more
reporters could be found wearing Kurdish clothes. In Pakistan and
Afghanistan
last year,
phenomenon
the same
Peshawar could be seen wearing Pushtun
occurred. Reporters in
Why? No one
hats.
could
me with an explanation. What on earth was CNN’s Walter Rodgers doing in US Marine costume at the American camp outside
ever supply
Kandahar? Mercifully, someone told him broadcast.
with
Then Geraldo Rivera of Fox News
He
gun.
a
was the
we no
Perhaps
title
correspondent think
silly
in
The
he
reporter had
so. It’s
of ‘hacks' as a
it
Osama
said, to kill
now become
It
Maybe we re
all
should regard the job of foreign
decent, honourable profession
gas cape a decade ago
bin Laden.
combatant.
in military
.
.
— helped
murdered by vicious men. But we
to
are
.
Can we do better?
costume - Rodgers
Marine helmet, Rivera clowning around with
my
first
to sneer at each other, to adopt the
when we
not that reporters
off after his
arrived in Jalalabad
longer care about our profession.
demean our own jobs,
to quick to
I
fully intended,
last straw.
ridiculous
to take
kill
all
a
in his
gun, or even
me
He was
Daniel Pearl.
of us - dressing up
in
combatant’s clothes or adopting the national dress of people - helping to erode the shield of neutrality
the past. If
we
don’t stop now,
colleagues are seized by ruthless
Pearl’s style
was
and decency which saved our
how
can
we
men who
protest
claim
we
when
lives in
next our
are spies?
totally alien to the bloodthirsty rantings of his
editorial colleagues.
He
sent excellent dispatches questioning the
claims of the Clinton administration that
it
had been justified
in
the 1998 destruction via cruise missile of the El Shifa Pharmaceutical
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
138
Industries plant in the Sudan. Again, he and fellow
Robert Block entered some
effective reservations
of Serbian genocide in Kosovo. In
make
use of
them
in
mounting
sponsored kangaroo court
fact
his
reporter
about allegations
Slobodan Milosevic might
vigorous defense in the
The Hague
in
WSJ
USof
against charges
genocide. Pearl and Block stigmatized the Serb armed forces
as
having done ‘heinous things,’ while also writing that ‘other allegations
—
indiscriminate mass murder, rape camps, cremato-
riums, mutilation of the dead
months
NATO
since
militants,
—
haven't been borne out in the six
troops entered Kosovo. Ethnic-Albanian
humanitarian organizations,
NATO
and the news media
Now,
fed off each other to give genocide rumors credibility. different picture
emerging.' David North, of theTrotskyist Fourth
is
International, wrote
23:
‘On
on the World
Secretary of Defense
to apologize.
killed 16 anti-Taliban
It
a
major subjective
murder
speech
revenge
outlook of the Pakistani
that the
Thomas Friedman,
New York
the repellent
Times also recently recruited ,
Lelirer
terrorists
as a
kind
News Hour. North
Friedman column which praised Bush’s Axis of Evil
in these terms:
Sept. lost
troops
fighters, but refused
Pearl, the desire for
of Charles Kuralt of globalization by PBS’s cited a recent
US
factor.’
not so different from that of
columnist of the
Afghan
that
US
does not require exceptional political insight to
North then remarked is
on February
murder was confirmed,
Donald Rumsfeld admitted
realize that in the decision to
was
Socialist website
the very day that Pearl's
had mistakenly
it
1 1
happened because America
because for 20 years
justice, those
killed
a
we
lost its
deterrent capability.
We
never retaliated against, or brought to
who murdered Americans
...
innocent Americans were
and we did nothing. So our enemies took us
less
and
less
seriously
OVERVIEW and became more and more emboldened weakness
over
all
us,
and
we
139
.
.
.
America’s enemies smelled
paid a huge price for that.
North very properly comments: By changing only
few words, the Pakistani
a
could use
terrorists
Friedman’s argument to justify their murder of Pearl: ‘We have failed to retaliate against
were
...
innocent Arabs, Afghans and Moslems
and we did nothing
killed
seriously
America
America took
...
and became more and more emboldened.’ The thought
pompous and
patterns of the
the Islamic terrorist have far
Both think
in
Both believe
Leave the
in
last
belligerent
more
common
in
beautiful, true
easy,
but
it is
words
far
responsibility as nations
terrorism.
throughout
than either imagine.
and are mesmerized by violence.
My own
courage
this ordeal
I
to Daniel Pearl’s
more
address this problem of terrorism with
own
American columnist and
terms of ethnic, religious and national stereotypes.
Revenge would be
our
us less and less
and
arises
valuable in
my
enough honesty
facts.
opinion to to question
as individuals for
from two
widow:
the rise of
One
that
is
have been surrounded by people of amazing
me trust that humanism ultimately will prevail. hope now - in my seventh month of pregnancy - is
value. This helps
My other I
will
be able to
tell
our son that
his father carried the flag to
terrorism, raising an unprecedented
compassion, friendship and citizenship
of civilizations.
end
demand among people from
countries not for revenge but for the values
clash
that
far
we
all
share:
all
love,
transcending the so-called
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
140
March
6,
2002
OF A BUMPER CROP: OPIUM AND AFGHANISTAN POLITICS
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
Though on
Terror,’ there
new
been blaring
Britain has
era
is
Clair
St.
its
support for America’s ‘War
public disquiet in the
of freedom
now
UK
at
one aspect of the
prevailing in Afghanistan: the renewal
of opium cultivation, banned with unprecedented and near
Mullah
success by
Hamid in
Omar
in July
Karzai’s coalition
had to make
January that opium cultivation
this
renewed commitment
forbidden, but the extent of
is still
to abstention
from Afghanistan’s prime
unceremonious
ejection of Afghanistan’s drug control agency from
A
tsar’s
its
offices in
desk being kicked physically into the"street.
couple of weeks ago the London Guardian reported in
line that
‘MI5
fears flood of
Afghan
heroin.’
Nick Hopkins and Richard Norton-Tvylor ‘Police
aid,
pro forma announcement
a
cash crop was almost simultaneously displayed in the
Kabul, with the drug
US
of 2000. In order to receive
total
The ensuing
led
a
head-
story by
with the news that
and intelligence agencies have been warned
that Britain
is
facing a potentially huge increase in heroin trafficking because of
massive and unchecked replanting of the
opium crop
The
be equivalent to the bumper
expectation
one of three
The
is
that the
years ago,
2002 crop
will
which yielded 4,600 tonnes of raw opium.’
Guardian went on to report a
office for after the
in Afghanistan.
new
assessment by the
drug control and crime prevention, based
war the West stands
in
UN
Vienna, that
to lose the ‘best-ever opportunity’ to
suffocate the illegal trade. Afghanistan
is
the source of 75 per cent
of the world’s heroin and 90 per cent of Britain’s supply.
Opium
poppies are primarily grown in the south and east of
OVERVIEW
141
Afghanistan, the regions dominated by the Pashtuns, the ethnic
became an
fraction that sustained the Taliban until such support
obvious poor bet. In
political terms,
serious effort will be
made
so
would be
Omar
it’s
a safe forecast to say that
opium
crop.
blow
as
did Mullah
when he banned opium
cultivation
to interfere with the
to deal the Karzai
regime
to loyalty to the Taliban
no
as
serious a
To do
(an act variously explained as a last-ditch attempt to get recognition
from the West, or
as a
price-support
These developments lend costly ads
bought by the
US
a
tactic, restricting supply).
enormously
certain irony to the
government on Superbowl Sunday
to
inform America’s consumers of illegal drugs that to buy cocaine or heroin
is
Afghanistan a sure
help terrorism. To the contrary,
to is
200,000
A
sure
in the fields
income
to the
whose support
opium from
opium farmers means
in essential for the future
is
to provide
which employs
sector,
harvesting the
so far as
least
concerned, to buy heroin and morphine
market for Afghanistan’s farm
as
at
a
the
many
as
poppy
heads.
cut for the rural barons
well-being of America’s
selected government, headed by Karzai.
Meanwhile, readers here can marvel
March
the otic
the tact displayed by
at
issue
US
of the magazine Vanity Fair
Maureen Orth
in
her article in
on ‘Afghanistan’s Deadly Habit,’ about
‘the
symbi-
connection between drugs and terrorism.’ The impression
given by Orth in
in the
is
that only with the
coming
to
power of the Taliban
1996 did the opium industry ‘grow so quickly
that in
1999
Afghanistan produced 5,000 tons of opium, more than 70 per cent
of the world’s supply.’ It
is
true that deep into the article
Orth makes very
fleeting
reference to the CIA’s possible role in the late 1970s and 1980s in the expansion of
opium
cultivation in Afghanistan.
easily available (and cited at
Whiteout,Tlie
CIA, Drugs and
some length
the Press
,
in that
The
facts are
very fine book
coauthored by Jeffrey
St.
Clair
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
142
and Alexander Cockburn).
House
advisors
One
of President Jimmy Carter’s White
on the drug trade
opium growers
into Afghanistan to support the
we
against the Soviets. Shouldn’t
the
advisers,
New York
went public with
in their rebellion
growers
if
they will
his
concerns in an op-ed in
Times in 1980.
Reports issued by the stration in the
producers
try to pay the
'We were going
David Musto, one of President Carter’s
eradicate their production?’
drug policy
said later that
early
UN
and Drug Enforcement Admini-
1980s stated that by 1981 Afghan heroin
may have captured 60
Western Europe and the United alone, the year the
per cent of the heroin market in States. In
New
CIA-organized flow of arms
York City
in
1979
mujahideen
to the
began, heroin-related deaths increased by 77 per cent. There were
no Superbowl ads
You could
say that those
fight to drive
The only income Decade
to
that year
back
about doing drugs and aiding
dead addicts had given their
lives in
way
to curb the trade
grow something
else, at
decade there have been
tried crop substitution in
a
is
reasonable level of profit.
efforts.
Mohammed
Iran in the early
land barons running the short-lived
opium-growing feudal
Mossadegh
1950s and was soon
and got loans
Orth does
say frankly that 'the Taliban
the largest,
most
history’s dustbin
the
US
opium
its
attacked the
for crop substitution.
ban on poppy growing was
successful interdiction of drugs in history.' is
where
allies
trade. In Afghanistan,
new Afghan government
estates
enough
to offer farmers
toppled with the help of the CIA, which found some of
among the big Noor Taraki’s
the
Communism.
possible
after
terror.
that interdiction speedily
And
in
ended up. Will
press for crop substitution? Probably not, always for the
reason: to suppress drug cultivation requires putting
money
same
in the
pockets of peasants and that means expensive aid programs and also
enormous
political risks
of offending important,
if unpalatable, allies.
OVERVIEW
143
August 7 2002 ,
BODYGUARD
KARZAI'S
by Gary Leupp
One
often hears that Afghanistan
the most ferociously inde-
is
pendent of countries, the graveyard of invaders. So the news
Hamid
that
Karzai has been fitted with a battery of American body-
Why, one might
guards must give us pause.
hardened country brimming with warriors,
outnumber men, should
its
head of
ask, in
this battle-
which Kalashnikovs
in
require this foreign
state
guardianship?
The Pope has
Guards; but the mini-state
in the Vatican has his Swiss
no competent armed population
to
draw on, and
history behind that quaint convention.
American handlers, opt
when
We
to
there ought to be so
Why
many
were the
trustworthy Afghan entourage?
actually;
If
that
case,
of
(First
why
all,
Minister and warlord
special
isn’t
the case,
become head of
Mohammed
Fahim,
whom
state a
having been placed
best thing to the late
people.
by Defense
Western
official
‘street
thug,’
a
envoy and kingmaker Zalmay Khahlzad.) The
that Karzai,
own
he muster
it
quoted by the Washington Post has likened to
US
can’t
former king Zahir Shah enjoyed wide support but was
forced to withdraw his bid to
his
aliens,
have been told that Karzai received overwhelming support
a
is
his
local, loyal troops?
the Loya Jirga in June.
fact
long
should Karzai, or
surround him with gun-toting
at
and
there’s a
CIA
in
power by
the
US
as
next-
operative Abdul Haq, has reason to fear
His ‘political base remains weak,’ notes the
Washington Post (August
5),
and
his ‘authority
barely extends
beyond Kabul.’
Two members
of Karzai’s administration have been assassinated.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
144
cases
On
unresolved.
still
Minister Abdul
February
Rahman was
Transport and Tourism
14,
assassinated at
Kabul Airport. Karzai
and Foreign Minister Abdullah gave entirely different accounts of the incident.
was
On
July 6, Abdul Qadir, one of the vice-presidents,
also assassinated for reasons that
‘terrorists,’
George Bush suggested
remain unclear. (Karzai blamed that
opium
interests
might have
been involved, and others blamed Northern Alliance forces
for
slaying a rising Pashtun leader.)
More
these acts of political violence
significant than
emergence of
a political
opposition
is
the
movement rooted among
the
common
people. There have been ongoing protests in Kabul about
that July
1
wedding party
raid, in
which according
Afghan government report, forty-eight
civilians
were
bombs; and demonstrators have targeted both the the president so intimately associated with
it.
two
part ways, he will
at
military and
Anti-government as well.
view
far greater native military support),
that there
should be minimal foreign
military presence in the country. (His line since
December
‘Thanks for the bombs that broke the Taliban, but Alliance forces can handle things from here.’) Karzai’s
US
by
loggerheads with Karzai (and should the
command
has long expressed the
killed
US
demonstrations have occurred in Gardez and Khost
Fahim, sometimes
to the official
Yankee bodyguard. Those defenders
He
is
has been:
we Northern furious about
are an admission
of
Karzai’s
vulnerable position in the lawless environment the
bombing
has produced, and of the well-founded fear that tends to
encompass puppets making Faustian
An AP said
all.
it
that the
Afghan said a
article It
pacts.
and accompanying photo published on August 3
reported that Karzai ‘dismissed allegations yesterday
United officials
States tried to cover
up
a
deadly airstrike [which
claimed occurred south of Kabul on August
1]
and
continued American presence was crucial to Afghanistan’s
OVERVIEW future. Flanked
one of the
visited
asked so.
if
US
by
145
special forces bodyguards, Karzai said
villages attacked in the July
he believed there had been
a
air raid
1
cover-up, said,
“I
he
and when
don’t think
People would have told me.”’
Reporters were asking about
of London stating that the attack and violated
US
a
UN
report leaked to the Times
may have removed evidence after human rights. Now, the UN, once a site of forces
US
contestation between the
bloc and the Third World (and
frequently the object of Washington's scorn), has since the collapse
of the Soviet Union been more or
less
tucked under Washington’s
The New World Order in international diplomacy has been especially evident since December 1991, when the Security Council revoked Resolution 3379 (passed in November 1975) armpit.
describing Zionism
changed
their votes
In
istration.
as a
form of racism. Many nations’ delegates
under extreme pressure from the Bush admin-
December 1996
the
US
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (of Egypt) General; the 14 to
1
as
vetoed
a
second term for
United Nations Secretary-
vote in the Security Council outraged the
UN
Arab world. Under the leadership of Kofi Annan, the
US
avoided confrontation with the
by Annan’s report on the
Human
in the
this
lapdog
UN And
dismiss the report out of hand
even more abject status than
walking towards
armed
indicated
invasion of Jenin in April,
states)
US
sideways,
a
which
for the President is
to
Mr Annan. The A P
mis-
lends particular
of Afghanistan
confirm that he
‘US bodyguards clearing the
in
1
US
is
a
to
lapdog of
photo shows Karzai
shrine, fingering prayer-beads, with
forces to the fore,
gun
secretary-general alleges
Uruzgan province incident of July
credence to the allegation.
caption
Israel), as
Rights Watch has called ‘fundamentally flawed.’
That even conduct
Israeli
(and with
has
way.’
There
(as
the
are well-
one peering forward, the other walking
hand, scrutinizing the
rear.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
146
Way back
in
made some very
1857, Friedrich Engels (who
interesting observations about Afghanistan, then pivotal to ‘the
Great Game’ played out in Central Asia between Britain and Russia) described ‘the attempt of the British to
making
set
1842, linking
in Afghanistan’ in
up
its
a
own
prince of their
failure to the
Afghans’
‘indomitable hatred of rule, and their love of independence.’ (This
New American
was published in the of Marx and Engels’s leisure time, in his
stuff, it’s
Kabul
office,
probably on the Net now;
surrounded by
his
Karzai might want to peruse
it.
Gary Lettpp
Department of History
is
a professor in the
most
Cyclopedia in 1858.) Like
in his
Swiss Guard,
at
Mr
Tu fts University
and coordinator of the Asian Studies Program.
September
7,
2002
THE TENTH CRUSADE by Alexander Cockburn
Amid
the elegies for the dead and the ceremonies of remembrance,
seditious questions intrude: is
Is
there really a
indeed being waged, what are
TheTaliban
are out
blooms once more bluster
the
war on
war on the
in
terror;
and
if
Afghan
objectives?
as
pastures.
The
military budget
from every headline.
of Rights
popular with each day
is
On
set at full throttle,
the
is
up.
home
in public esteem.
The
front
though getting
judges thunder their indignation
at
unconstitutional diktats of Attorney General John Ashcroft, a
low
one
of power. Papaver sonmiferum, the opium poppy,
Iraq blares Bill
its
war on
less
the
man
OVERVIEW
On than
a
we can turn to Merle Haggard, the bard of America, the man who saluted the American flag more
this latter
blue-collar
147
point
generation ago in songs such
as
‘The Fighting Side of Me’ and
‘Okie from Muskogee.’ Haggard addressed City
few days ago
a
John Ashcroft
went on
a
to say:
tomorrow
jail
It
like
(pause)
...
‘The way things
are
for saying that, so
will take generations to roll
wake of
in the
the attacks.
1
‘I
think
going
hope
I'll
government
without
is
y'all will bail
relies
me
out.’
back the constitutional damage done
grass.
a
lawyer
The government’s August 27 combatant’ case
Haggard
lie
around
for decades
As Joanne Mariner of
Human
legal precedents
using to justify detaining ‘enemy combatants’
or access to
trial
should give
probably be thrown in
Rights Watch pointed out to me, one of the main that the
we
right in the mouth!’
...
Emergency laws
summer
rattlesnakes in
concert crowd in Kansas
following terms:
in the
big hand
a
heavily
is
an old strike-breaking decision.
legal
brief in the Padilla ‘enemy
on Moyer
v.
Peabody
,
a
Supreme Court
case that dates back to 1909.
The
case involved Charles Moyer, president of the
Western
Federation of Miners, a feisty Colorado trade union that fought for
such radical reforms
and payment
in
as safe
money
working conditions, an end
rather than in
company
to child labor,
scrip.
As part of
a
concerted effort to crush the union, the governor of Colorado had declared a state of insurrection, called out the state militia, and
detained
Moyer
for
two and
a half
months without probable cause
or due process of law. In an opinion that deferred obsequiously to executive
the ‘captain of the ship’ metaphor), the
Moyer’s detention. fired
upon
It
US Supreme
power
(using
Court upheld
reasoned that since the militia could even have
the strikers
(or,
in
the Court’s words, the
‘mob
in
how could Moyer complain of a mere detention? The government now cites the case in its Padilla brief to argue that insurrection’),
.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
148
whatever
governor can do, the president can do
a state
Mariner remarks, next thing you
know
better.
As
be citing the Japanese
they’ll
internment precedents.
September
2002
7,
THE TROUBLE WITH by Jeffrey
Clair
St.
We are told
that
irrevocably.
That
back.
Some
NORMAL
we
are different.
it’s
That things have changed, changed
new world now. And
a strange
there’s
no going
pundits even appropriated the language of Stephen Jay
Gould (though he would never have done of the towers
so), calling the leveling
kind of historical punctuated equilibrium,
a
a great
leap forward in the evolution of the nation.
The of
a
collapse of the towers
tarnished exoskeleton,
Roger Gorman.
became
a
metaphor
a tale right
In Jerry Falwell’s
for the
shedding
out of Ovid directed by
words, 9/1
1
was
a
preview of the
Apocalypse, which expurgated the Sixties, humanism, cultural tolerance,
and
all
of that jazz. Suddenly, everybody espoused an
eschatology.
By and
large,
to normal, slide
After
all,
out here in Oregon, people just wanted to get back
back into
a daily
routine of work, family and play.
Oregon’s economy had bottomed out prior to 9/
1
1
There
wasn’t any time for extended periods of cross-continental grief, and there wasn't
money
k
to
buy
a car to
demonstrate our patriotism,’
even with Greenspan quashing interest to if
rates.
But the media refused
go along, they force-fed us patriotism through the cable
we were
all
hooked up
to a collective IV.
Even
so,
lines as
the ubiquitous
.
OVERVIEW American
flags didn’t start
two or three weeks These as
going up
after the attacks
seem
raisings didn’t
149
our
in
on the
little
mill-town until
WTC and the Pentagon.
like genuflections
much
of patriotism so
symbols of surrender to the imprecations of
CNN
diva Paula
Zahn.
The 3,000 cops
who
victims
at
‘ground
zero,’ especially the
rushed into the towers only to have them collapse on top
of them, were swiftly turned into
a global scale.
sacrificial heroes, national
revenge tragedy that
in the cause of the
on
martyrs everywhere, from
way.
a
his wife,
Todd Beamer, whose Lisa — it’s the American to
the thirst for virgins in the afterlife so inexhaustible?
Every aspect of American society continues this sticky
our
to be
drenched
and unrelenting patriotism. You get the sense
serial killers are
about.
being played out
pop. Suddenly there were
Mohammed Atta
words were trademarked by Is
now
is
martyrs
Bruce Springsteen roused himself out of hiber-
nation to sing the soundtrack, for $20
last
firemen and
And
who came killers since
that even
uniquely American. Something to be proud
perhaps so
it
should be. Those Special Forces troops
back from the hunting grounds of Afghanistan to
their wives at Fort
in
Bragg
kill
most pampered and ‘understood’
are the
William Galley.
Looking back,
it’s
hard to see any fundamental change in the
character of life in America.
The
events of 9/1
1
and their aftermath
The economy remains in a rut. Environmental laws are being peeled back day by day. The Sharon war machine tramples Palestinians with impunity. The unemployment rolls grow daily by the thousands. More and more are going merely solidified the
status quo.
without food stamps or welfare checks.
manufactured trauma of 9/1
Of
course,
Constitution.
some
The
It’s all
blotted out by the
1
things were clarified.
The
fragility
of the
supine nature of the environmental groups and
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
150
big labor, which stood
pursued
down
the
Bush administration cravenly
domestic agenda. And, of course, the
post-9/ 11
its
as
comphcit character of the Democratic
Party,
which green-lighted
Bush’s war without debate and helped enact
some of
the most
oppressive domestic policing laws in the history of the Republic
with only two or three voices of dissent.
Now one ol those, Cynthia
McKinney, has been driven from the Congress tinence. I
And
the beat goes on.
opened the paper
dip recession.
number
ot
imper-
for her
this
morning. More indications of a double-
Boeing stiff-armed the machinist union,
again.
The
Americans ensnared by the criminal justice system
topped 6 million. The US-armed death squads in Colombia slaughtered live
more
peasants.
More
than 90 per cent of Native Americans
without access to adequate health
severance package that pays
GE’sJack Welch got
care.
him $17,000
population has declined by 50 per cent
a day.
in
the
The last
a
spotted owl
ten years and
seems headed inevitably toward the black hole of extinction. It all
seems so
familiar.
Same
with normal, Bruce Cockburn
September
12,
direction, faster pace.
sings,
is
that
it
The
trouble
always gets worse.
2002
THE MOST DANGEROUS
MAN
IN
WASHINGTON by Alexander Cockburn
At 2.40 pm, September
11,
Rumsfeld was commanding whether good enough
2001, Defense Secretary Donald
his aides to get ‘best info hist.
hit S. H.’
Judge
— meaning Saddam Hussein —
‘at
OVERVIEW same time. Not only U.B.L.' - the
151
initials
Osama quote him as
used to identify
bin Laden. ‘Go massive.' Notes taken by these aides saying:
‘Sweep
it all
up.
Things related and
We
not.'
can thank David
Martin of CBS for getting hold of these notes and disclosing them last
Wednesday.
This was our Donald, thinking
Command
Military
rationale for
all
For Rumsfeld,
Center, seeking to turn the attack into
of unrelated revenges and
sorts
as for his boss, as for
in his career as a cabinet
wake of the
attacks
he paced about the National
fast as
member
Rumsfeld
so many,
in the
was
it
Bush
II
of accounts.
turning point
a
presidency. In the
swiftly learned to revel in his role as
America’s top exponent of bully-boy bluster.
running rings around Colin Powell, whose stories that Powell
settlings
a
may throw
towel
in the
And
he’s kept
pals are at
now
it
up,
leaking
the end of Bush’s
present term. Small wonder. Rumsfeld has humiliated Powell,
reaching
a
peak
in effrontery
when,
dicted decades-worth of formal Israel
US
a
few weeks ago, he contra-
foreign policy and declared that
had every right and every reason to occupy the West Bank
and have settlements
The
there.
specter of military
government here
in
the
US
lurks
eternally in the imagination of fearful constitutionalists, right or left.
There’s
a lot
more reason
for these fears today, particularly after
the Patriot Act shot through Congress. Today the FBI can spy on political a
and religious meetings even when
there’s
no suspicion
that
crime has been committed. Dissidents can get labeled ‘domestic
terrorists'
The
and be the target of every form of snooping.
Patriot Act allows ‘black bag’ searches for every sort of record
that
might shed
of a
library.
light
suspects, including the
books they get out
Computers and personal papers can be confiscated and
not returned even suspect.
on
Such
if
an indictment
is
never lodged against the
secret searches can take place even in cases unrelated
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
152
The
to terrorism.
two
federal cases
to indefinitely detain
without any
Department argued
Justice
that the president has the
power
charges any person, including any
US
in
‘enemy combatant.’ Furthermore the administration argues president’s
conduct of the war on terrorism
that civilian courts have
The
Justice
an
citizen, designated as
that the
be challenged and
can't
no authority over the detentions.
Department argues
that people designated
‘enemy
combatants’ can be put behind bars, held incommunicado and cienied counsel. If the detainee does get a lawyer, their conversations
can be bugged. In such
Sixth
manner we
are saying
Amendments. Back
to
goodbye
Fourth and
to the First,
Rumsfeld. The Defense Secretary
is
currently trying to get the Pentagon greater authority to carry out
He
covert ops.
also
wants Congress to agree to have
undersecretary of defense, responsible for
Now
all
a
new
intelligence matters.
blend these proposals in with the erosions of the Posse
Comitatus Act, which forbids the
US
military to have any role in
domestic law enforcement, shake the blender vigorously, and you have the Rumsfeld cocktail with an Ashcroft cherry. undersecretary
couple
in the
may soon be
able to target
YOU
A
(or the antiwar
apartment next door), bug your phone and computer,
burglarize the place, grab you, stick All legally. That’s
what we
call
you
in prison
and
let
military government, the
teach the Latin American officers mustered for training
Benning
to
do things
in their countries, plus
in the
O’Neill had
a
rot.
way we at
Fort
who
antiwar group mentioned above.
their
team-
Remember,
lobby here for torture too.
there’s a strong
Try holding
you
hanging electrodes on
the testicles and nipples of those slow to confide
mates were
defense
a
placard up
when George Bush
good column
Gazette describing
last
Thursday
in
is
driving
by.
Kevin
the Pittsburgh Post
what happened when demonstrators
against
OVERVIEW
153
President Bush were herded inside a fence at Neville Island for his
Labor Day
visit.
Police called this enclosure the designated free-speech area, though
who
anyone
the island’s
had
main
signs praising the president
reasons, are
of course. Those
the
who
Ohio was
pose
a
set
up
Bill
the erection of the
Neel of Butler
remember
a
time
So when he refused arrested, cuffed
Not-OK entire
strictly for security
as
such, as a courtesy.
Corral.
just doesn’t get
when our
to line
genuine threat to the president
expected to carry signs identifying themselves
Hence
OK
motorcade.
street for the
The mini-Guantanamo on
was evidently
it,
though. He’s 65 and can
country was
a
free-speech zone.
to get inside the fence with his sign, he
and detained
in
was
the best place for inflammatory
rhetoric, the fire hall.
Neel’s confiscated sign said, ‘The Bushes must truly love the poor
—
they’ve
made
so
many of us.’ For holding
the censored speech zone, Neel was given a
this
contrary opinion in
summons
for disorderly
conduct.
September 25, 2002
THE DOGS OF WAR, THE BEARS OF WALL STREET by Alexander Cockburn
The higher Bush the
economy’s
industrials
tries to loft
dire
himself with war
responses.
On
talk,
the darker
Tuesday the
dropped nearly 190 points to
hit a
grow
Dow-Jones
four-year low.
T
he
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
154
The Nasdaq composite index, New Economy, set a new six-year low. The 500 index was down 14.45, or 1.7 per cent, at
broader market also finished down.
homeport
for the
&
Standard
Poor’s
819.25.
The
Fed’s
year lows
Open Market Committee
at its
chose to leave rates
meeting on Tuesday, saying bravely
and business demand
is
‘growing
moderate
at a
forty-
consumer
that
pace.’
at
But
it
also
noted that considerable uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of an
economic
Meanwhile, leading economic
recovery.
indicators and housing starts have fallen for three
Oil prices are up 40 per cent since the
We’ve
now
a
names
another drop
months. Suppose, we asked,
five
in equity prices, reflecting
has been based entirely
on fraudulent numbers.
equity prices have dropped again and federal prosecutors
have announced they’re opening
a
criminal probe into Xerox’s
accounting practices. Xerox stock promptly after the
company
said federal prosecutors
fell
The
it
71 cents to $5.96
were opening
inquiry into the company’s accounting practices. that
dawning awareness
performance of many of America’s mightiest corporate
now
So
year.
sharp drop of the growth of consumer
spending over the past four or
that the
of the
in a row.
seen seven straight quarters of declining investment
on plant and equipment and
there’s
start
months
a
criminal
WorldCom revealed
probably misreported $9 billion in revenue, not $7 billion.
official
rate
corporate sector
of profit on capital stock as a
whole
is
now
at its
in the
non-fmancial
lowest level ot the postwar
period (except for 1980 and 1982). If this
alive for
was
Bill
wag-the-dog attempts
attention from aloft
on
Street
Clinton, the commentators would be flaying him
his
war
economic bad news. Thus
magic carpet, but
chews
to use
its lip,
talk as a far
way
Bush
to distract
has
he’s losing altitude steadily
remained
while Wall
foreign denunciations pour in, and the
German
OVERVIEW Democrats and Greens exult
Social
an entirely unexpected victory has Senior
Men'
Reps of the Ruling
last
155
way Bush handed them
in the
weekend. America no longer
Class like John
McCoy
tacky Clark Clifford. At
like the infinitely
Old
or ‘Wise
moments
like this,
such Senior Reps would step forth with measured warnings to Bush
about
his reckless path.
These days we’re
we
Probably the nearest thing that brilliant
monuments has to fear
is
rivaled only
week Byrd
Democratic
itself,
with Henry Kissinger.
have to
senior statesman
a
politician Senator
strew West Virginia.
death
left
is
Bobby Byrd, whose
The only opponent Senator Byrd
so in Congress he speaks with a frankness
by the Texan
libertarian,
Ron
Rep.
Paul. In the
on the Senate
has excelled himself in speeches
last
floor.
denounced Bush’s proposed Homeland Security Agency
He
as
a
ramshackle, hastily conceived outrage to constitutional protections, a
way of undercutting
mission thus
the hard rights of federal workers,
undefined. Byrd
far entirely
made
all
in a
particular reference
Bush's contemptuous dismissal of criticism of the proposed
to
Agency
as Lilliputian.
deriding Bush
as a
The
venerable but frisky senator riposted by
Caesarist Gulliver impatient with the restraints
of democratic constitutional government. gave Bush against
some
Iraq:
derisive
In
another speech Byrd
whacks on the topic of his warmongering
‘The president was dropping
in
the polls and the
domestic situation was such that the administration was appearing to be
much
like the
coming of ‘war
the
emperor fervor, the
who
had no
clothes.’
Byrd described
drums of war, the bugles of war, the
clouds of war.’ ‘I
sat in
on some of the
secret briefings,’
Byrd
said,
‘and
nobody
from the administration has been able to answer the question:
Why
now?’
A few
days later in San Francisco another prominent Democrat,
A1 Gore, lacked Byrd’s
fizz
but
still
wagged an admonitory
finger
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
156
at
Bush. Gore’s weekend speech to the
widely billed
as
antiwar.
Gore did
Commonwealth Club was some strong language
issue
denouncing Bush’s onslaught on the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
Beyond
that the speech
was
in fact a
measured,
fairly
well written advisory on the pretenses and postures appropriate to
Gore echoed Henry Kissinger
the world’s premier imperial power. in saying that
an attack on Iraq had to be properly justified, not by
bluster about a ‘regime change,’
right to
wage ‘preemptive
and by hot
talk
about America’s
war,' but by traditional rhetorical
escalation within the grand tradition of such rationales, stretching
back to the dawn of the Cold War. There’s probably not been in
a
president since
such low international esteem
safe to play
three
one
on
months year,'
he
this
ago,
theme
in his
as
Bush.
World War Two held
Mark how Gore
it
San Francisco speech. Six, even
Core would never have taken such
said, ‘the
felt
President has
a risk: ‘In
just
somehow squandered
the
international outpouring of sympathy,
good
followed the attacks of September
and converted
1
1
and apprehension aimed much more
at
will
and solidarity it
that
into anger
the United States than
at
the terrorist network.’ If the
economy continues
to slide.
Bush and
his circle will face
a truly
desperate gamble, trying to figure whether
war on
Iraq will save them, or just plunge
all
messes.
them
a
$200
into the
billion
mother of
OVERVIEW
October
157
2002
9,
DWARF-THROWING AND THE UN by Alexander Cockburn
Here’s
why
I’m against the
UN as promoter of federalism and world
guv’mint. This just in from Geneva, Switzerland, via the Reuters wire:
‘UN
upholds French ban on “dwarf throwing.”’
that a diminutive
stuntman
who
had protested against
on the practice of ‘dwarf throwing' has sort
of a
UN
human
rights judicial body.
UN
claptrap about the
typically pious
a
turns out
French ban
before
some
tribunal issued
some
lost his case
The
It
need
human
to protect
dignity being paramount.
The
dwarf,
a
fellow called
Manuel Wackenheim, argued
that a
1995 ban by France’s highest administrative court was discriminatory and deprived similar venues. The ‘the
him of a job being
tossed around discos and
UN Human Rights Committee said
it
was
satisfied
ban on dwarf-tossing was not abusive but necessary in order to
protect public order, including considerations of also said the
human
dignity.’
It
ban ‘did not amount to prohibited discrimination.’
Dwarfs and their throwers
will have to search
prizefighters in eighteenth-century England.
Iceland will be the only venue.
No
doubt
a
out venues,
Soon some
like
place like
UN embargo will
then
ensue, with draconian sanctions, appointment of inspector/spies,
followed by the inevitable intervention and occupation.
So
here’s a
hauling
down
bunch of
administrators, each of
unemployment
life,
dooming poor
lines before
going
Romanian maidservants
year-old
girl
them probably
an annual salary hefty enough to keep
dwarfs in caviare for
paid
UN
from Kiev
home
or to get
in the local
a
little
a
troupe of
Wackenheim
to scream at their
blowjob from
whorehouse.
(UN
a
to the
under-
thirteen-
guys would
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
158
do
that,
you
ask?
Oh
UN
sex scandal about
yes they would.
Remember
the nasty
observers in Kosovo?)
In the old days dwarfs could stand proud, strutting
boulevards, around circus rings, or forming part of display, or
matching themselves against
century English pastime).
my
childhood
in
little
remember
can
1
some amusing
popular nineteenth-
plenty of dwarfs from
down
the mainstreet of any Irish
town reminded one of Breughel. Not any more. Catholic Ireland the doc takes
the
with other bodies remote from
Ireland, along
conventional anatomy. Walking
pitbulls (a
down
I
guess even in
look and chokes nature’s sports
a
before they’ve got out of the starting gate. If the
UN had been around at the time, the hunchbacks of Philip
IV of Spain would have been forbidden to pose for Velazquez, and Jeffrey
Hudson
(18 inches at the age of nine, albeit gracefully
proportioned) would never have been permitted to step out of pie
on the dining-room
table
of his boss, George
of Buckingham. Having emerged from the Villiers’s guests,
who
King Charles
I
and
his
Villiers, first
pastry,
Hudson
a
duke
saluted
queen, Henrietta Maria,
promptly adopted him.
Spared
a
UN-sponsored abortion
incompatible with
human
dignity,
Hudson
and survived two duels, one against
Mr
to save
a
him from an existence led an adventurous
life
turkey cock and the other in
The arrogant Crofts turned up for the duel with a water pistol, but Hudson stood on his dignity and insisted that the engagement be for real. They put Hudson up combat with
on
a
man
a certain
Crofts.
horse to get him level with Crofts and he promptly shot the dead. Captured by Turkish pirates,
made him grow, and having thirty,
Hudson
held steady
at
said his tribulations
18 inches from nine to
he shot up to 3 feet 9 inches.
Tom Thumb), Haydon, who was
Another dwarf, Charles Stratton (aka General killed
one of
my
favorite painters,
Benjamin
OVERVIEW exhibiting his vast
159
work The Banishment
ofAristides, in the Egyptian
gawp
Hall in London. But the crowds preferred to
Thumb, on
same
display in the
hall.
Thumb drew ^600
week, while Haydon got only
his first
sterling in
measly JT7 13
a
General
at
shillings.
Haydon went off home to his studio and killed himself. Dwarf tossing? The job came with the stature. William Beckford,
who
the eccentric millionaire
was one of the
folly at Fonthill,
though
E.
wrote Vathek and last
to have a
Woods, author of the
J.
says Beckford’s
dwarf was
at
famous
dwarf in private
service,
useful Giants and Dwarfs (1860)
‘rather too big to
was the custom
to another, as
built the
be flung from one guest
dinners in earlier days.’
UN
As the repellent harbinger of world guv’mint the allure.
Its
(rightly
kangaroo tribunal, the International Criminal Court
denounced by the Bush administration), bears
features as the International Criminal Tribunals
Rwanda a fine
(heartily
US
hypocrisy on
control. Prosecutor
to
trial
and
insist
site
by George Szamuely,
is
no
jury. Prosecutors
on continued detention of
US to the
This same charter
a
The may
court
is
answerable
appeal an acquittal
defendant.’
UN Kulchur at full
is
the
Earth
Summit
in
Johannesburg
‘My hope
is
Sermon on
that this charter will
the
last
month.
spawn of Steven C. Rockefeller, Canadian
eco-mogul Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev,
a
out of
was the carrying of a cheesy ‘Ark of Hope’ containing the Earth
Charter from the
it:
is
and court are one and the same. Appellate court
Perhaps the most grotesque recent display of stretch
the same
on Yugoslavia and
‘The prosecutor
this issue,
court are also one and the same.
no one. There
all
endorsed by the Bush administration). To quote
recent piece on the CounterPimch
addressing
and
holds scant
Mount,
be
a
kind of Ten
that provides a guide for
who
has said of
Commandments,
human
toward the environment in the next century and beyond.’
behavior
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
160
The portage of the Charter at the end of last year began at an Earth Ceremony in Vermont, where Rockefeller (chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Earth Charter International Drafting Committee)
is
professor emeritus of religion at Middle-
bury College. Present was Jane Goodall, of chimpanzee fame. (One of her thumbtips was once nipped off by
when Goodall
tried
to
cosy up to
Experimental Medicine and Surgery
a
chimp
it
asserting
its
dignity
the Laboratory for
at
in Primates, part
of
NYU and
located in Sterling Forest. Goodall tried to cover up by saying she’d
caught her thumb in
a car
door.)
transported to Johannesburg
its
described on the Neu> American
mimicry of the
biblical
The Charter was housed and
cheesy Ark of Hope, furiously Patriot
website
blasphemous
as ‘a
Ark of the Covenant, which held the two
Commandments
tablets
containing the Ten
Moses.’
Accompanying Charter and Ark
that
are the
God
gave to
‘Temenos Books,’
containing aboriginal Earth Masks and ‘visual prayers/ affirmations for global healing, peace,
teachers, students,
precincts of
of
UN
a
and
gratitude,’ created
and mystics. ‘Temenos’
by 3,000 -artists,
the
is
word
for the
temple, and accurately reflects the ersatz religiosity
ritualism.
According
to the Charter,
are interdependent
course for
human
we
must: ‘Recognize that
and every form of life has value foetuses,
definition of ‘every
which
form of
...’
all
(except of
are not included in the
life,’
beings
UN’s
rating merely as disposable
protoplasm). There’s the predictable affirmation of faith in the ‘inherent dignity of
all
human
beings,’ excluding those
finished off by euthanasia or haled before the
ICC
are
or required to
UN
bureaucrats.
comes the jackboot. The Earth must ‘adopt
at all levels
give blowjobs or clean the bathrooms of overpaid
Now
who
sustainable
development plans and regulations. Prevent pollution of
any part of the environment. Internalize the
full
environmental and
OVERVIEW goods and services
costs of
social
in
161
the selling price. Ensure
universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and
responsible reproduction.’ In other words, population control, as
promoted through the century by the Rockefellers, who of course assigned the Manhattan real estate to the
October
1
for
its
HQ.
2002
2,
ANATOMY OF
THE
UN
FEAR
by Carol Norris
The
first
time
I
with us or against
xenophobic
lines
embarrassed.
I
now
heard the us’
famous, overused slogan ‘Either you’re
thought
I
was one of the most inane,
it
ever heard. Frankly,
I’d
an American,
as
had an incredible urge to write
a blanket
I
was
apology to
the people the world over. This oversimplification utterly dismisses
the complexities of people, societies and their relationships. I
can be ‘with’
just as
even for
I
my country and still
not agree with
can remain completely loyal to
when
I
think they
make
my
Of course
many of its policies,
friends, family
and
clients
incredibly foolish choices, as they
do
me.
But
as
I
thought more about
brilliant line, exactly
because
it
overlook the complexities of tapping into deep-seated class It
and I’m thinking is
it
no coincidence
I
realized
it
was an absolutely
was meant to encourage people to
life
fears.
it,
and think
Someone
in oversimplified terms,
paid attention in psychology
wasn’t C-student Bush. that
successful children’s author,
Both genres of writing get
in
Ted
Geisel, aka
was once
a
Dr
Seuss, the hugely
writer of war propaganda.
touch with the same concrete, childlike
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
162
(not to be confused with childish) thought processes like ‘You bad,
me
good.’
Young
children think like this because of
have been seriously threatened - or perceive
lives
that their lives are seriously threatened
They move from
are
development.
in their cognitive
Adults whose
where they
a healthy
- sometimes think
balance of operating from
all
similarly.
areas
of the
brain (including the rational neocortex) to operating primarily from the limbic system (the primitive brain and the intermediate brain),
which,
The
among
other things,
limbic system
is
responsible for self-preservation.
is
where
fear
and
its
physiological responses are
born, and they function to help us mobilize and defend ourselves against the woolly
mammoth
or the saber-toothed
where the mechanisms of aggression is
responsible,
among
are developed.
This
also
is
The neocortex
other things, for rational thought, abstract
thinking and the ability to consider complexities. fearful times, as the
tiger.
neocortex
is
And during
such
overridden by the limbic system,
we
find ourselves with fear-based, reactive, jingoistic and seemingly intractable
pro-war reactions
about self-preservation. (As
in
much of
this isn't a
the
American people.
neuropsychology
It’s
class this
is
an oversimplification and certainly a spotty explanation, but you get the
drift.)
Coupled with
this fact. I’ve
come
to realize that
have parentified our government - not in the
psychological one.
judgemental way, but of our
life
I
do not
say
in a factual one.
this
in
We’ve
literal sense,
all
is
a psychotherapist
and
but in the
condescending or
a
done
or another.
Carol Norris
many Americans
freelance writer.
it
in
one arena
OVERVIEW
October
2002
5,
1
163
IRAQ AS PRISON STATE by Jeffrey
Clair
St.
Iraq isn't a rogue state; state,
kept under
a captive nation,
it’s
a level ot
the world’s
All the recent chatter in the
media about
Iraq conveniently ignores the fact that the
envy.
forthcoming war
a
US
and Britain have
been waging war against Saddam since 1990 — although a
decidedly one-sided
affair,
Iraq has
days.
Its
jammed; navy are
is
been
War Round
been remorselessly bombed about once every three
feeble air defense system air
its
it’s
too one-sided to mention, apparently.
Since the accords that brought an end to the Gulf
One,
prison
microscopic control and surveillance that
would have made Jeremy Bentham tremble with on
first
force
destroyed.
is
The
is
shattered and
its
grounded, the runways cratered; nation’s northern
radars are
its
and southern
primitive
territories
occupied by hostile forces armed, funded and overseen by the
CIA. Every
bit
new
of
construction in the country
is
scrutinized for
cameras capable of
any possible military function by
satellite
zooming down
Truck and tank convoys
to a square meter.
zealously monitored. certainty.
Bunkers
Troop locations
are
are pinpointed
with
are
a lethal
mapped, the coordinates programmed into
the targeting software for bunker-busting
This once wealthy and secular nation
bombs. is
bankrupt,
its
financial
reserves crippled by the sanctions that have blocked not only the
export of Iraqi
oil
but also the import of medical and food supplies,
leading to the deaths of millions of Iraqi civilians.
Now along comes
mini-Bush
emaciated nation,
shackled
in
to proclaim to the
world that
this
the political equivalent of an isolation tank inside
a
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
164
maximum-security prison
for these past twelve years,
threat to
world peace on the planet.
The
Saddam
Iraq
is
case against in league
bomb
down
with A1 Qaeda; Iraq
weapons
biological
boils
capability; Iraq
rebuilding
its
by the
chemical and
close to developing a nuclear is
exporting weapons of mass
destruction to other nations or terrorist groups. allegations are accepted as fact
the greatest
to the following allegations:
is
is
or radiological weapon; Iraq
is
Most
US press, but Milan
ot these
Rai proves
there’s precious little substance to the charges.
Rai,
founder of the London-based antiwar group
a
doesn’t spare
Tony
do much
Blair to
Blair.
ot the
It’s
ARROW,
only natural. Bush has, of course,
heavy
lifting
Blair serves as a kind of Minister of
— or
at least
left
the elocution.
Rhetoric for the Bush crowd.
He was assigned the task of assembling the dossier against bin Laden. And later he was given the task of presenting the case against Iraq. bin Laden indictment was
Blair’s
frail
on
facts
and speculative
in
the extreme. But his dossier against Saddam, his litany of ‘kiUer.facts,’
was vaporous by comparison. The Iraq dossier was written by John Scarlett, a
former
Committee, the Scarlett
MI6
officer presiding over the Joint Intelligence
British equivalent of the National Security Council.
submitted
his report in April,
had been demanded by
Blair
but
and Bush.
it
fell
far short
of what
In tact, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw was so infuriated by the lack of evidence that
he sent the six-page document back to Scarlett with instructions to
amp up
the allegations against Saddam.
In the end, the Blair dossier didn’t disclose
much
of the hard evidence regarding
Iraq’s
Indeed,
all
capacity stems largely from reports by British intelligence
Saddam was any
that
was new.
bio- weapons
UN inspectors prior to
1999.
concluded that there wasn't any evidence that
greater a threat than he was in
conclusion of the Gulf War.
1991
at
the
OVERVIEW
Some of the new
claims are tenuous
165
at best.
Take the peregrinations of Dr Khidir Hamza, the self-professed
former head of the
program,
Iraqi nuclear
The US-educated Hamza
from the
retired
who
a
number of wild
nuke program
Iraqi
in
US
intelligence to
claims, including: that Iraq
was behind the
1987, but has been put forth to the media by
make
defected in 1994.
anthrax attacks in the US; that Iraq gave technical and financial aid to the A1
Qaeda
developing
a ‘dirty
weapon capable to
know
UN
operatives behind the 9/11 attacks; that Iraq
bomb' and
close to assembling a nuclear
is
Hamza
ol striking Israel.
hasn't
about any of these matters in over
weapons inspector Scott Ritter the crucial issue of Iraqi
a
labels
concocts information to curry favor with
On
is
his
been
in a position
decade, and former
him
who
a ‘fraud’
backers in the CIA.
weapons of mass destruction
(the
top reason cited by the Bush— Blair tag team for overthrowing
Saddam), Rai concludes that since
December 1998 and
there’s
been no new evidence produced
there’s
no evidence
at all that
they’ve
provided such weapons to other nations or to terrorist groups.
The second argument advanced for invading Iraq is that Saddam was somehow behind the attacks of9/ll.This conspiracy was first promoted by former CIA
director James Woolsey, A1 Gore’s tutor
in intelligence matters. Recall that
Woolsey helped
script Gore’s
craven speech on the floor of the Senate justifying his vote for war against Iraq in 1990.
Then
in
1998 Woolsey helped peddle through
Congress the Clinton/Gore-crafted Iraq Liberation izing funds for the overthrow of
new
Bill,
author-
Saddam. ‘Regime change’
isn’t a
coinage.
Within days of 9/11, the ghastly Woolsey was front and center before the cameras asserting, with the insider, that the attacks
group of
terrorists.
knowing look of
had been carried out by
The
a
a
Langley
‘state-sponsored’
culpable state? Iraq, naturally. Woolsey ’s
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
166
main piece of evidence consisted of a rumor
that
Osama
bin Laden
had sent an emissary to Saddam’s birthday party in Baghdad of 1988. That’s After the
right, 1988.
promoted by Woolsey
initial allegations
Mohammed
charge surfaced. Supposedly, hijacker Iraqi agents in
in April
Prague
a
fell flat, a
Atta
few months before the 9/
1
1
new
met with
attacks, the
implication being that here Atta received his final instructions from
Saddam. The evolution of the story
is
a
textbook case of media
Within days the allegation had mushroomed from Atta
inflation.
huddling with
agent, to a secret meeting with
a ‘low-level’ Iraqi
a
‘mid-level’ Iraqi intelligence agent, to a session with a ‘senior’ Iraqi official to, finally, a
service.’
One
pow-wow
report played up in the
‘obtaining a flask of anthrax’
While the Saddam, visited the
a
with the ‘head of
US
press ran wild
Czech
Prague
in
at this
But
operative.
this
press
even had Atta
assignation.
with speculation over Atta’s
2001, although
Atta didn’t
a
Mohammed Atta
(not necessarily
to the city twice in the previous
meet with an
The man who met with
Iraqi
diplomat/intelligence
the Iraqi agent (identified as the
ambassador to the Czech Republic) was actually another
named
Saleh,
who
ties to
police investigation revealed that Atta had not
M.A.) apparently had been
year.
German
Iraq’s intelligence
is
now
a
Iraqi
used-car dealer living in Nuremberg,
Germany. At the time Atta was supposed to be getting instructions in Prague, he was actually living just
from the FBI
HQ
in Virginia
Beach, Virginia.
his
murderous
down
the road
OVERVIEW
167
October 22, 2002
IRAQ:
WHEN
THE GOING
WAS GOOD
by Vanessa Jones
The interview
takes place
impromptu,
in a cafe in the exclusive
diplomatic suburb of 'Manuka' in Canberra, the capital of Australia.
The
suburb, pronounced Mar-nik-a by locals, reads phonetically to
out-of-towners ‘slut’;
as
Ma-nu-ka, which
pronounced ma-nuke, male.
(receiving)
Not
masculine form
used for
is
quite polite to mention,
a
gay
know, but an
I
Western diplomatic suburb, considering
interesting choice for a that
its
Arabic slang for (female)
is
25 per cent of Australia’s food exports are bought by Arabic
countries.
an extremely offensive and derogatory label to use
It is
or to receive.
Manuka,
Sitting in
smoking
Drum
an Italian cafe,
at
and drinking
we comment on
a flat
current politics
of things spreading to
Iraq.
He
white.
I
meet
We
me
he’s
chat slowly, and
start to
— Afghanistan, Sept. tells
handsome man
a
1
been to
1
,
the likelihood
Iraq, after
mini-
mally completing his compulsory Egyptian military service.
A
of his had refused to do military service, and had paid for
dearly
he was imprisoned His
own
hundred Egyptian pounds
in
him paying
house, in exchange for his freedom.
of bribes, normal being
compulsory military
at
released
service.
It
others in
a
bribe
officer
at
a
in the
couple man’s
the normal level
pounds
was more an
young men of being
many
a
the thousands of
from duty. The military
situation for
Not
a military
1987 (equal to
of months’ wages) and doing some carpentry work
release
—
in putrid conditions for three years in Cairo.
military service was cut short by
officer three
it
friend
illegal,
level, to
escape
compassionate
was aware of the horrendous
in
the military, and probably
similar fashion.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
168
He was to the
twenty, and wanted to
West were impossible
‘piss off’
to obtain, so
anywhere. Visas to get
he ended up in
From Jordan another bus long
trip.
Memory
to Iraq.
A
Speaking
fades.
three- or four-day journey.
Arabic
his native
refugee in Iraq
a
He
was the only place in 1987,
it it
was easy was
Europe or Australia.
work
a
slave,
If
a visa to
you cannot
which
dearer.
wealthy and prosperous country.
a
war with
He
is
amounts
dear for the average man, and
And when you
in
get there
you
a
are as a
leave the country or travel to another city before
the employer signs your papers. slave to another.
work
he wanted to go to work in the Gulf, he had
contract,
good contract even
He
He
didn’t like the idea of being a
chose, instead, Iraq.
A
country
at that
time
at
Iran.
arrived after three or four days, by coach, in Baghdad. There
was not just
and get
to enter
liquor shops he saw there he’d never seen in such
buy
felt like
way.
At the time,
The
A
the way.
all
Everything new. Different cultures and different food.
to
a
through the Aqaba Gulf, across the Sinai desert and into Jordan.
ship,
in.
He
Cairo by bus — over the Suez Canal - the bus went inside
left
a
Iraq.
a sign
of poverty. In 1987 the population in Baghdad was
under 4 million people. Food was very cheap and
There were many foreign
plentiful.
nationals, Thais, Filipinos, operating
businesses. Unlike
Gulf countries, foreigners could open and operate
businesses of their
own. East Europeans, Russians, Europeans. He
moved
in to a
cheap hotel, and found work making furniture, sofa
frames, cinema chairs, parliament chairs, furniture
Hussein’s relative’s house
—
his
cousin or
sister’s
Egyptian co-worker was petrified of making
being shot. Most government Iran-Iraq war was going on. a
school was
bombed by
men seemed
You could hear
a
work
palace
in
Saddam
home. His
mistake for fear of
to carry guns.
The
the rockets nearby and
an Iranian rocket during his
stay.
OVERVIEW Everything in Iraq was running
of
169
fine, as
long
as
you didn’t speak
or critique the powers that were. There used to
politics, dissent
be prostitutes visiting the carpentry workshop. You could go to prostitute bar
anywhere
in
Baghdad. Iraq was the
first
It
happened
were
in
Women
own
land, the
and
a politician
The
wage was adequate
was
a socialist
for food, health
to
or to go for top jobs. Food was plentiful.
option to be
ably. It
and women.
1969, after the July 17, 1968 Revolution.
also given the vote, the right to divorce
average
Arabic nation
men
to legislate equal property inheritance rights for
a
to cover living expenses
comfort-
system, so the government was responsible
and education, and there were adequate government
family payments to cover the well-being of each child.
He
noticed young
unlike
women
some other Arabic
were
nations.
prosperous country, comparable to
own
really into their It
was
US
education,
a civilized, plentiful
and
UK
standards.
No
and
one
appeared homeless, starving or medically neglected. Free healthcare
was
US
private
citizens.
During
war carried home
to their
for anyone, Iraqi or foreign, unlike the current
health system, refusing to freely treat even
1987 he saw the
Iraqi
men
killed in the
wrapped
families in coffins,
the roof racks.
On
be seen driving
at
its
in the Iraqi flag,
the streets, each day,
own
on top of taxis,
many
taxis
tied to
could regularly
normal speed, taking the dead men home
to their
families. In the hotel
where he
stayed, military
men were
openly, actively
gay and the whole society seemed very liberal and open. People
were
free to
go
to church, or to the
or to university, or to
moral or
political
a prostitute,
interference.
mosque, or
or to their gay lover. Without any
The only
thing disallowed was
political agitation/meeting. Healthcare, education,
were readily in
many
available.
ways.
This
is
to a liquor store,
food and housing
what the West’s sanctions have wrecked
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
170
The hidden agenda of the Gulf War and to shove the Iraqi people, their
economic
the sanctions has been
prosperity, free healthcare,
education, back into the basement of the Third World. has
been crippled and frozen. Within fourteen years of
Iraq, the
Egyptian
man
lives in
Iraq
his visit to
has migrated out of Egypt, to the West. In
fourteen years from now,
Vanessa Jones
Now
how
will a
young Egyptian
Melbourne, Australia.
find Iraq?
PART THREE WAR ON IRAQ
November
1
1,
2002
FROM MARINE TO ANTIWAR ORGANIZER: TO SERVE OR NOT TO SERVE? by Scott Cossette
Being an
activist for social justice
is
not an easy
task.
You seldom
get paid and often lose partners, family, friends or your job it is
discovered that you equate the welfare of others with your own.
somehow makes you So why do it, you ask?
This
I
when
a
pariah, a target for derision.
believe that if you see injustice and
as guilty as
fail
to act, then
the perpetrators of the injustice.
I
bring
you this
are just
up now
because our nation’s ‘volunteer’ armed services are being forced, not asked, to continue the perpetration of injustice on the people
of
Iraq.
An
injustice
all
the
more rank because
it
has nothing to
do
with liberation of people but aims to liberate natural resources for exploitation.
US
servicepersons are forbidden to choose whether
or not they will facilitate or actively engage in this slaughter of
innocent security.
civilians for the interests
of the
oil
barons,
I
mean
national
They - mostly poor African-American, Latino and White
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
174
enlisted
men and women
medical benefits and
enticed by the promises of education,
—
‘job’ training
are
bound by oath
to
obey the
orders of their arbitrarily appointed superiors and ‘elected’ officials
even
when
those orders result in the commission of war crimes that
command or political masters can be of. Our refusal to join the World Court
they and not their chain of
charged with and convicted ensured
To be such
this.
fair
I
My
recruiter never revealed that information to me.
never asked, because
never thought that
I
Andy
Stapp,
who founded
1967 to support GIs
on
this
in
the
the Brass, the story
endeavor in
a small
by
all
August 1999,
the United States really
means at
relaying
this
the ripe ‘old’ age of twenty-nine,
Marine Corps. Why? The truth
deluded into thinking that
and democracy. Perhaps safety.
and many other war
war and
1
The
resist
necessary.
do not know the answer
ensuring their
decided to try and
my own experimen and women in uniform
way by
why our
I
and those pondering enlistment should oppose it
in
opposition to the war in Vietnam and to
ences and offering reasons
serving in
of Private
American Servicemen’s Union
of the military in general,
fight the hypocrisy
In
in
a situation.
Having recently read Up Against
carry
could be
I
I
is,
to that loaded question.
I
enlisted in
to this day
Maybe
1
I
was
was championing the cause of freedom
felt
I
was serving
my
fellow Americans by
heroic deeds of General Smedley Butler
‘heroes’ are methodically drilled into
your head
during Marine recruit training. Their names and accomplishments are recited
by boots while waiting
forced vaccinations, urination and chow. This
toiletries,
ensure that each and every Marine in battle
Sadly,
in the endless lines for haircuts,
and bring honor to I
came
their
is
done
to
feels pressure to aspire to greatness
country and themselves.
across General Butler’s enlightening
‘War
Is Just
A
Racket’ speech after being discharged from the Corps. This, the most
WAR ON IRAQ
175
important of the General’s accomplishments,
during ‘indoctrination,’ even though
is
conveniently
was delivered
it
Being the police protection for big business is
would
they really represented,
refuse to
school, with
all
do
Boot camp
so.
1
Third World
in the
members
have no doubt that they
day
like the first
is
ont
in 1933!
neither honorable nor just. If the rank-and-file service
knew whom
left
new
at a
the fear and anxiety of being alone in a foreign
place except that in this school the teachers control your every
waking moment. You
are
admonished never
Army
instructor a drill ‘sergeant' (that’s the nasty
Marines
are superior to
to urinate, permission
manner.
I
call
the
drill
terminology and
other branches), or to look them in the
You do not speak
eye for any reason.
need
all
to
unless spoken to
must be requested
witnessed more than one boot
in the
and
you
proper military
on himself
piss
if
at
the
position of attention because he failed repeatedly to request
permission in the proper military manner. This
moment It It It
in
someone’s
is
made
stammer or nervously mix up your words.
behoove you you
clear to
proud
life.
doesn't pay to have a
also doesn’t
truly a
is
at
to stand too close to a drill instructor.
the beginning of training that
if
an
in ‘self-defense.’ Let’s say that
may respond with some kids never heard
saw
was
instructor feels ‘threatened’ by a recruit he or she
extreme force because
this,
I
The only words
a
few black eyes while that
make
I
there.
the loneliness, the physical torture,
the verbal abuse, the humiliation, the gas chamber, the group
punishment
for individual mistakes, the endless
bunk, unmake your bunk worthwhile
your next duty the
word
It
at
station.’
‘infantile’
are: ‘It gets
The School of
- was
my
does not get any better.
hours of make your
Infantry
-
much I
better at
assume from
next duty station.
When
in
attention and keep your eyes straight.
formation you must stand
One
of our sergeants used
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
176
walking up to
to take great pleasure in
my
‘Do you know what
Marine and asking him:
a
favorite city in Thailand
When
is?’
Marine, without moving, answered No, the sergeant would in the genitals
we
and exclaim: ‘Bangkok!’ After
a
slap
few rounds of
the
him this
learned to answer correctly while shielding our groins.
for.
am
still
I
not sure what
months
After three
and
‘Jackie the Iraqi,’
reciting chants like kill,
pillage
‘Joe rag-head'
‘Napalm
what the
about.
Could
easier?
killers in
that a
with
sticks to kids’
hell
all
available
and
and ‘We’re gonna rape,
streets
was doing
I
means
of the base,
in the
I
began
Marine Corps.
my
That certainly couldn't be what
was Urban Combat
class,
30 per cent casualty
more than
Imagine
that: at least three
towns and
a
cities.
will fight furiously to
Another duty
out of ten GIs will
Haven’t
combat
‘arts.’
When
it
was learned
we
DIE when
‘contract’!
they invade
learned from Vietnam that people
defend their homes? Wouldn’t you?
and nothing changed. This time
station
to
training.
few of them regretted signing the
had thankfully been scrapped
due
was
was expected in house-to-house
rate
enrolled in electronics school
training and
this
experience, even for the hard-core would-be
fighting
the
to kill ‘Luke the gook,'
it?
The most sobering
Iraqi
how
were we dehumanizing these people? Does racism make the
job of killing them all
ol learning
of ‘training’ was preparing us
and burn’ while we ran on the
to really question
Why
this sort
much
Who
29 Palms.
at
after
I
was
career in Infantry
an injury during Reconnaissance
pleading on
knows,
My
I
my own
behalf to be out of
might have gone on
to protect
now President of Afghanistan, own brethren. More than likely, would
former Unocal Oil spokesman and
Hamid still
be
Karzai,
from
his
I
in the brig for refusing to crash
Marine Corps Base 29 Palms
is
wedding
just about the
parties.
most desolate and
bizarre piece of real estate in the country. Located in the high desert
WAR ON IRAQ outside Palm Springs,
Morale here If
my new
is
be the lowest of any duty station in the Corps.
said to
superiors were any indication, the reason
morning before
is
clear.
Every
get into formation for
your uniform, your haircut and most
at
One
importantly, your shave. class liked to
would
the platoon
class
They look
inspection.
our
hard to believe you are not on Mars.
is
it
177
pace up and
of the young corporals in charge of
down
the ranks and indiscriminately
swat an unsuspecting Marine in the crotch. Non-commissioned officers
seem
to have an affinity for this in the
defeating your
this the secret to
to exclude
One
Why
enemy?
Marine Corps. Was
do they
fight so hard
homosexuals from military service?
particular
morning stands out
had been found to have,
in
my memory. A
few Marines
in the class sergeant’s opinion, unsatis-
factory shaves. Protests and verbal abuse, including threats of bodily
harm and instructors,
death, over the situation caught the attention of our
two
One
staff sergeants.
Bic shaver and handed
it
to
of them produced
Corporal
‘Slaps
a
pink Lady
Your Nuts.’ Brimming
with satisfaction he ordered the offending parties to dry-shave right there
on the
spot.
instructors ordered
Death
threats
I
was
them
pissed. After a
few moments one of the
into the head so as not to attract attention.
and sharing
a lady’s
razor because of poor hygiene?
we were being trained for were among ourselves. When one human being believes they are above another then they become their own enemy. vowed then and there I
could see that the only battles
I
to get out any I
way
I
could.
was losing weight.
cramps and diarrhea. sessions
due
rehydration.
to
I
I
was unable to
eat
without severe stomach
missed almost
all
of
weakness and the frequent
More
than once
I
needed IV
‘my’ problem was not the discharge that I
I
my
physical training
visits to
fluids.
the hospital for
Their solution to
sought but the idea that
buck up and get with the program. They even suggested putting
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
178
me on
antidepressants!
I
them under no circumstances was
told
going to medicate myself in order to put up with
And
I
this shitty existence.
certainly wasn’t going to engage in the universal military
pastime of drunkenness in order to deal with After seeing suffering from
the best
My
news
a a
shrink on base
‘personality disorder’
had heard in
I
it
a
it.
was determined that
and should be
master sergeant, however, was not going to
We
Get over
how
his
it,’
he shouted.
wife or her
My memory
wasn’t quite sure
I
out.
flashed back to
They requested
orders to fleet
combat
Recon
in their desperation.
It
was
me
let
are
‘My
depressed.
all
his
go.
unhappiness
training. felt
I
had witnessed
they had no other
discharges and were denied and given
units.
This had so devastated their morale
Mexico and bought
that they traveled to
was
had anything to do with me.
illness
three Marines attempt suicide because they
way
go.
let
I
long time.
wife has been bipolar for twenty-two years.
with
I
Lucky
for
a large
them Valium
is
amount of Valium a
poor choice
for
The dose one would have to take is almost impossible swallow. They were groggy as hell for the first few days and spent least a week in the psych ward for observation. won’t forget
poisoning. to at
I
having overheard one of their instructor’s remark that they should have died because they were pussies. Semper fidelis! I
can only imagine what the parents of these young
have gone through.
be on their way In truth
I
about taking I
I
was just glad that they had survived and would
home life.
to get the ball rolling, to
I
few short weeks. could not bring myself to even think
all,
this
decided, after a letter
ofAWOL.
I
After
had to get away from I
in a
was jealous.
my
men must
I
had so
much
to live for.
But
I
knew
demoralizing machine.
wrote to
my commanding
officer failed
go UA. That’s the Marine Corps version
WAR ON IRAQ which
After five days, in
my
to divulge
179
my mother was pressured and frightened
whereabouts,
contacted legal counsel and turned
1
myself in.
There
are
some good people
my
spoke up on
behalf
at
my
in the
Marine Corps. One of them
adjudication proceeding.
sergeant,
on the other hand, advised punishment
allowed.
My
commanding
restriction to barracks I
was
tantly,
and
as
were
them on all
this
period
received forty-five days'
thirty days’ extra
duty to run concurrent.
I
came
whole
had one thing
were processing
into contact with
of separation or
in various stages
the
to be decent,
all
me
for discharge.
the ‘malcontents’
legal limbo.
found
I
hard-working individuals and we
common; we were
in
to the fullest extent
I
officer agreed.
greatly desired, they
I
master
month's pay for two months. More impor-
also fined half a
During that
and
My
not going to be broken and
used to propagate the degradation and cruelty of militarism.
Some officers.
take to military
The
enlisted
life
very well. Especially senior
however
live in
constant anxiety.
NCOs and The pay
is
low, racism and sexual harassment are rampant, and domestic
violence
is
a
harsh
reality.
Fort Bragg has recently
one’s attention because of the
come
to every-
number of murder/suicides
that have
taken place there. Vaccinations that are FDA-approved for experi-
mentation only are routinely given to of court martial for
from ‘friendly
amphetamines
fire'
refusal.
by
USAF
soldiers with the threat
troops are in constant danger
These
pilots.
are
pilots
given
and
to increase their stamina for longer missions
downers when they land Canadian unit
Ground
US
in
to allow
them
Afghanistan have been
to sleep.
bombed
Could the
as a result
of
this
criminally negligent policy?
Times have changed
little.
Soldiers in
Vietnam were given speed
T
new meaning
to increase their killing efficiency. ‘war’
his gives a
on drugs. Not only do troops have
to be
wary of
to the
their
own
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
180
forces, but battlefield.
now
According to
how many
any idea
almost outnumber them on the
civilian contractors
recent report, the
a
army does not have
contractors they employ!
Many new combat
systems are totally dependent on civilian maintenance. What’s
more, they are upset because
when he
A
soldier
war
last
to
fails
show
uranium
a soldier
can’t shoot a civilian contractor.'
Remember
that.
167,000 veterans of the
acknowledge Gulf War Syndrome. They
depleted uranium pass
you
words, ‘You can shoot
being denied benefits because the government
in Iraq are
refuses to
up, but
expendable.
is
in their
Many US and
hazardous.
is
deny
that
allied soldiers
still
also
in their urine! Still others deliver hideously
deformed
children or watch as seemingly normal ones die of rare cancers. all
that I
you can
Do Not Go To
be:
why
guess the reason
I
could speak to others on
work,
an activist with
as
End Racism, and rest
in
to
show
joined the Marine Corps was so that
ANSWER,
civilians
Korea, Vietnam and the
‘No War
On
those thinking about is
Now
to
DC
My
listen.
Stop War and
me
the
on October 26th with the
and veterans of previous wars
who
important event will always be one of
this
the greatest achievements of
There
Act
I
their opposition to this unjust military aggression.
Helping to organize
to say:
and have them
this subject
Washington
of the over 200,000
came
Iraq.
the International Action Center, afforded
opportunity to be
Be
no proof
first
Iraq.’ it
I
my
life.
Gulf War. They
To those who
say this. Iraq
that
spoke with veterans from
I
Iraq
is
all
had the same thing
are currently enlisted
not
a threat to this
and
country.
sponsors terrorism or has any
connections to those that do. They are barely able to feed themselves or treat their sick.
Why
would they provoke even more devastation
than has already been visited
upon them?
The US government used Saddam while he was ‘punishing’ Iran.
Donald Rumsfeld was present
in Iraq
capable of
when
the
WAR ON IRAQ
181
Kurds were being gassed with technology that the
Our ambassador
provided and said nothing!
we would
not interfere in
was about
that
from
Iraq’s conflict
territorial integrity
US government
to Iraq told
Saddam
A
conflict
with Kuwait.
and the
illegal
pumping of
oil
Iraqi fields.
The
first
Gulf War reduced
Iraq
from the most industrialized,
educated and progressively secular nation in the Middle East to
beggar
Sanctions and daily
status.
have killed over
American
life.
a
Now
that Saudi Arabia oil
is
becoming more and more
companies need
to gain access
happens to possess the second-largest
else. Iraq just
reserves in the
for nearly eleven years
million innocent people without one loss of an
non-cooperative with the US, the
somewhere
bombing
world and by coincidence
is
oil
weak and
a militarily
ostracized country. If
they could defend themselves effectively, say like China, then
would the
US
demonizes
Iraq
this
war
be so bold? The
US
corporate media thoroughly
and grossly nnsreports the demonstrations against
that are taking place daily in this
world. George Bush restriction
of
is
country and around the
using fear and patriotism to justify the
and imperial aggression
civil liberties, racial profiling
on behalf of corporations. Save yourselves. Don’t become thugs for big business. Instead use your help alleviate the conditions that breed terrorism in the
Stand up and be counted
among
the majority that say:
Jobs, Education, Healthcare and Housing,
Scott Cossette, a former marine
Action Center in San Diego.
,
is
now an
Not
talents to
first
place.
‘Money
for
for War!’
organizer with the International
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
182
November
14,
2002
MOVEMENT AND
THE ANTIWAR
ITS
CRITICS
by Alexander Cockburn
Do we
We re
have an antiwar movement?
we Ye
be, because
getting there.
Marc Cooper, Todd
Corn and Christopher Hitchens. Marc Cooper, like Gitlin, has carved out himself, belaboring various to represent robust
back, the author had credentials, since the
sense.
to rubbish the credentials
It’s
credentials.
prime
line
same year
‘free
It’s
fair to raise
the issue of
of attack by the Light Infantry
dictator-lovers, cultists, practitioners
that
niche for
posture endearing to op-
a
of the antiwar
the start of 2000
a pleasant
David
an insinuation that somewhere, way
if there’s left
Gitlin,
causes from a position purporting
left
common
ed editors, particularly
at
must
catching flak from the anti-antiwar movement,
Light Infantry division, staffed by
Back
We
Cooper
left as
dumbos,
of unmentionable
publicly prayed to
cat’s-paws, vices%
God
How precisely the year Death Row he tastefully left
of Mumia.’
is
make would be to
man on unstated. In the jibes at the Mumia cult that followed, Cooper hiccuped bashfully that Mumia Abu Jamal ‘probably’ didn’t get a fair trial, liberated
from
this
then suppressed important
Mumia and saved his Eighties
facts
fatal
the police officer, or even that the
life
encounter between
Mumia ‘cult’ probably
by drawing attention to Mumia’s situation
when no one
cared
a
in the
mid-
whit.
In a recent Los Angeles Times this
about the
column Cooper
prays
once more,
time for ‘an effective, attractive and moral opposition.' And
how
can the antiwar opposition become effective, attractive and moral?
Cooper’s recipe: condone the tions; accept as
framework
US
rationale for continuing sanc-
for discussion
of the war and military
WAR ON IRAQ George Bush and
action the rationales offered by
Cooper
derides
Ramsey Clark
Would you march with Clark
US
his associates.
for calling the sanctions ‘genocidal.’
or Cooper? If you are hesitating read
Joy Cordon’s chilling description the
183
in the
November
has been applying sanctions designed to
kill
Harper’s
of how
children in Iraq,
make up your mind. Todd Gitlin has made a career out of issuing advisories about the 'hard left,' the ‘Old Left' and others. Though Gitlin usually pretends
then
that he’s trying to counsel the left towards
the Gitlin Seal of Approval, left as
improved conduct under
much
don't think he has
I
interest in the
anything other than raw material for his unctuous punditry.
In a recent Mother Jones Gitlin reports that at a rally outside the
he spotted placards saying ‘No Sanctions,
you
say.
Exactly the message
across. Gitlin disagrees.
a
peace
No
UN
Bombing.' Snappy,
movement might want
to get
His preferred placard would be the most
heavily footnoted text since
Lynn White
Jr’s
history of the stirrup.
Like Cooper, Gitlin craves for respectability, which means that he
wants the placard to make sibility for his
by the fly if
US
zone
you
clear that
(a)
Saddam
bears respon-
country’s plight, (b) the bombings of Iraq since 1991
(tactfully
described by Gitlin, echoing the
sorties’) are okay.
Tough
DoD,
as
‘no
placard to design, and pretty heavy,
factor in the square footage required for Gitlin’s text.
David Corn’s most Ghost,
it
substantial piece
which could be described
of Ted Shackley,
a
CIA
as a
of work to date
is
The Blonde
not unsympathetic account
supervisor of one bloodbath after another,
most notably the Phoenix program. Corn has
now
taken to issuing
cop-style intelligence reports, reminiscent of FBI field advisories to
Hoover, on the Workers World nefarious role in the
No
need
to dwell
DC
Party, stigmatizing the party for
and Bay Area antiwar demonstrations.
any longer on Hitchens,
commentator, speaking
in
its
good
activist faith.
at least as a ‘left’
When
Hitchens
libels
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
184
the
does so
born
as
who
has forsworn any
left
credential,
who
and
neocon, dispensing to the Washington Post
is
Podhoretz.
recent Hitchens piece in Slate attacks the term ‘chicken
which
is
to indicate that
many of the
Bush or Cheney shirked the
its
use now,
current civilian war-whoopers
duty back in the Vietnam
call to
period but are mustard keen on deploying others to the front It
now
lines.
seems that G. Bush was an actual deserter from the National
Guard.
well
It’s
documented on www.awolbush.com:
W. Bush never showed up
for National
Guard duty
of approximately one year, possibly more, definitions: for
new-
anti-left prose
hawks,’ while carefully avoiding the main point of
like
now
excellently pilloried by Katha Pollitt) he
frothing crudity eerily echoes that of his erstwhile butt,
Norman
A
one
as a
whose
modes
(in
left
AWOL, absent
more than
thirty days
for thirty days or
in
less.
George
that
for a period
Some
1972—73.
Desertion, absent
with evidence of no intent to return
to duty.
General Hitchens invokes the forces, a
bill.
good
Fort Bragg,
at
a year,
which
where members of the
is
probably
less
his
armed
next tour of
Special Forces get
than Hitchens’s annual bar
As with Poddy, Hitchens’s mind appears to have become
clouded by the fog of war-whooping.
He
reviles his old
Kerrey, seemingly unaware that this particular
attacking Iraq, then states last
pay’ of the
view he should impart personally on
inspection
$25,000
‘fairly
flatly that
chum Bob
war criminal
‘Lincoln became the
first
president to hear shots fired in anger.’ While president?
about Madison, fleeing the advancing troops
Admiral
Sir
George Cockburn?
TR
too
if
favors
and
What
commanded by
you count the angers
and joys of the chase. Hitchens invokes the ‘glorious Douglas McArthur.'
Is
this
written with
a straight face?
Hard
to
know
these
days with General Hitchens. He’s offended that chicken hawk’s
WAR ON IRAQ original
meaning was
above-mentioned
of preyer on young people. Reading the
that
article
185
on
sanctions, this seems appropriate.
So, having scouted out the anti-antiwar ask.
What
sort
Look back
movement, now we can
of an antiwar movement do
we
have?
to the early 1960s. In 1962, a full eight years after
President Eisenhower had decreed secretly that
Ho
Chi Minh could
not be permitted to triumph in open elections, the
beginning
to
educate
Kennedy was sending Vietnam and
itself
the
first
When President of US troops to South
about Vietnam. detachments
Ngo Dinh Diem
being incredulous
when one of my
Thomas Hodgkin, remarked
to
me
the
Workers
that
rallies that
set the stage for
more
1962
I
remember
that the next big anti-imperial
It
the big anti-war
in
radical mentors, the historian
battleground would be Vietnam. particularly the Socialist
South
there was scarcely the
semblance of an antiwar movement. In Oxford
and
was just
setting the stage for the assassination of
Vietnamese president
left,
left
wasn’t until 1966 and 1967 that Party,
managed
to stage
broke for ever the pro-war consensus radical actions.
And by
then there was
potent fuel for an antiwar movement, the
draft,
which
prompted Stop the Draft Week.
By 1968 we had the
a
worldwide anti-imperial movement; we had
May-June upheavals
was on our Today? Like the
side.
We
SWP
in Paris;
we
very definitely thought history
Not any more.
have the premonition of forty years ago, the
a
big antiwar movement.
Workers World Party did much
of the organizing of the recent demonstrations, which doesn’t mean the 150,000 or so
DC
are
who marched
in the
Bay Area and
in
Washington
dupes of Karl Marx, Ramsey Clark and Saddam Hussein,
but merely that organizing big demonstrations takes dedication, energy and experience.
I
have
a
a
lot
of
dream, said Martin
Luther King, and so he did, but the Communists in the south
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
186
helped him put
flesh
on
dream
that
as
they did the dreams of Rosa
Parks.
Will there be
war with
a
Iraq?
resolution rubber-stamped by the
To judge by the amended
US
UN
can
we
Security Council,
have one any time the Commander-in-Chief decrees
it,
with
February/March 2003
A
draft?
No
time soon.
A
and already there
probably the
as
up of the National Guard? More
calling are tens
of them no doubt chafing
And
if
George Bush
a
new
at their
reservists
on
duty,
killed in large
many
on the grounds
to a full personal cavity search, will if
likely,
condition.
the dogs of war
age of protest? Certainly,
Americans get that’s
of thousands of
lets slip
Saddam wouldn’t submit
earliest practical slot.
the
that
we
see
war goes on long enough and
numbers. There’s
a slab
of the right
denouncing America’s imperial wars. That wasn’t happening
the early Sixties. If the
left
could ever reach out to
in
which
this right,
almost constitutionally incapable of doing, we’ll have something.
it’s
•
Merle Haggard on Ashcroft’s colonoscopy. The night
after
Democrats nosedived
storm of
the
fall
drove
I
my local town
to
Merle has
a
at
9
pm
walking
there he was a bit stiffly
When
it
comes
miles through the
of Eureka, for
rap sheet for
about him canceling on
fifty
a
first
concert by Merle Haggard.
no-shows and there d been worrying this
tour because of
on the
stage
the
with
his
a
talk
herniated disk. But
band,
The
Strangers,
but looking and sounding good. to the big
themes of love and war and history
nothing concentrates the mind
like a
few songs by Merle, whose
1969 pro-war country anthem ‘Okie from MuskogeeTambasted the
dope-smoking hippie peaceniks and earned the former San Quentin
a full
resident of
pardon from Governor Ronald Reagan.
Sitting there in a white, mostly working-class audience even a
tad older than the equally white
crowd
listening to
Bob Dylan
in
WAR ON IRAQ Greek amphitheater
the
question bulked
in Berkeley a
187
few weeks ago, an obvious
the Stars and Stripes hanging above
as large as
Merle: had Merle changed since the time antiwar
movement of the
Sixties
when he
riposted to the
with ‘Muskogee’ and ‘The Fighting
Side of Me’? Back to Merle.
Yes he has,
we
as
already knew. Cheryl Burns reported this to
CounterPunch a few weeks ago from Kansas City:
Haggard tonight
now
in
KC — great show. He
was headed. But then he
war except the ‘Then he ...
(pause)
are
going
so
I
hope
I'll
think
right in the
said there
proud
was wondering just where he was nothing good about any
we should give John mouth!" Went on to
probably be thrown
ya’ll will bail
Merle wasn’t hints. ‘Friends
I
still
soldiers, sailors, etc.
says, “I
...
that, so
all
saw Merle
something about “so
we're in another war" and went on to say he was
be an American and
to
said
‘I
me
in this ripe
in jail
Ashcroft say,
a
big hand
“the way things
tomorrow
for saying that,
out.’’’
form
in
Eureka, but he dropped some
and conservatives,’ he began, then he made
about George Bush’s colonoscopy, and the search for
a
joke
Osama
bin
Laden. ‘He’s up there somewhere,' Merle said somewhat cryptically,
and the crowd wasn’t quite sure
how
to take
it.
Then he
said
offhandedly, without enthusiasm: ‘Looks like we’re in another war,’
and sang ‘The Fighting Side of Me.’ At another concert, June Derbyshire years
in National
we went
downhill, and
an ex-convict,
I
year ago, he was quoted by John
Review online
have their fucking eyes on as
a
...
if
as saying:
‘Look
people don’t realize
In 1960,
when
I
at
the past 25
it,
they don’t
came out of prison
had more freedom under parolee supervision
than there’s available to an average citizen in America right
God
almighty,
what have we done
to each other?’
now
...
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
188
Coining from
inside the Beltway in
DC
Washington
is
Sam
Smith’s
on-line Progressive Review. In the wake of Hitchens’s departure from
The Nation and
his foolish
interesting reflections
ing the
I
more
varieties.
elite
with the colloquial, informal,
left
than to
have never gotten on that well with
I
my
time to straighten out
because
elite left
paradigm.
It
not the famous talkers but the
turns out
known
little
never could find the
I
who made
important anyway, because the people
Conrad’s phrase, for one brief
in
consists of, contrast-
far closer to the idiomatic, colloquial left
Hitchens’ former pals in the
who,
left’
Sam had some
left,
left:
have always been
the
on what exactly ‘the
or old Marxist
‘elite’
spontaneous
denunciations of the
wasn’t
it
that
all
the difference were
doers, ordinary people
moment
did something out
of the ordinary.
They were people who had not couldn’t
when
tell
aTrotskyite from a
to ‘stand
the people of
—
world
Do
you know
am
I
maker of the world’s food and history.
But they knew,
whom Carl Sandburg wrote:
done through me?
is
the
clothes.
‘I
that
I
am all
in Pogo’s
action.’
the people the great
workingman, the I
am
words,
These
—
the
are
mob
work of this inventor, the
the audience that witnesses
The Napoleons come from me and
and then
Marx and Hegel and
on the piano and demand outrage
crowd - the mass.
the
troll.
studied
the Lincolns.
send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns
.
.
.
They
die.
Sometimes
I
growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to
remember. Then -
when
who
I,
I
forget.
When
I,
the people, learn to remember,
the People use the lessons of yesterday and
robbed
me
be no speaker
in
last year, all
who
played
me
for a fool
the world to say the name:
any fleck of a sneer in
his
mob - The crowd - The
no longer
- then
“The
forget
there will
People”, with
voice or any far-off smile of derision.
mass - will arrive then.
The
WAR ON IRAQ Consistently, the East Coast shuttle
left
189
from which Hitchens has
departed has been indifferent about, ignorant
of the idiomatic, colloquial
sition to the issues
are
or even in oppo-
of,
left.
The people who
changing the way other people think about things
scattered
And when some of them came
around the nation.
most
—
Green Party — they were not only not welcomed
effective progressive political organization
they were frequently excoriated.
And
as for
found
together
of modern times
in the
the
are
into the club,
the critics of an Iraqi
invasion, they are typically just ordinary citizens
who
have learned
without the help of Ramsey Clark to be scared to death of what their leaders are about to
Hitchens and carefully
do
to
them.
his ilk will
framed in
a
continue to have their
manner
that excludes
do with
either
I
I
worked
It
liked
at
and
university
America or the
it
left as
some of what Smith
said
who
really
with creative, non-doctrinaire spirited
it
has
little
to
is.
about the
think his contrasting of the doctrinaire
all
produce
actually
works now. But
it
debates,
most of the people they
claim to care about and most of the people
change.
little
left
sterility
and non-left, but of failed ‘old
‘real left’ left a lot
left’
of the story
untold. In
my years
of going around the country doing anti-intervention
talks, fund-raisers,
book
tours etc, etc, the
there’s a truly vast left that
is
first
thing to notice
invisible to almost
all
is
that
East Coast
commentators. Church people, labor people, public defenders, Lawyers Guild, faculty people, farm people,
radical greens,
World
Federalist types, red-diapered middle-agers, in almost every town.
(And
in
every town the
conservative their
And
in
meeting
see older folk
town after
who were
left will tell is.
you with gloomy pride how
)
meeting you can look labor
commies
at
the audience and
in the Fifties
and
who
have
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
190
and
certainly had their share of doctrinal struggle
Marx
etc,
and
way through people
the
RCP
who might
still
people
Sixties vintage
who might
and out the other have
come aboard
have read
have fought their
and then younger
side,
in
who
WTO
who
wars and
read CounterPunch. It’s
in
geology that varies from place to place. For example
a rich
one town
Wisconsin the two most bustling
in
Communist
organizers were both kind of ex Revolutionary In the
Deep South
Maoists in the Seventies. In for the long haul and
deserving of Smith’s misprision.
A
might
lot
on the Nation
managed
DC
the
site
about
demo, but
lively
Corn may
write long
Party stage-
what? Corn’s ideological forebears
were redbaiting the Commies
for
being behind the
civil, rights
movement, which often they were. Sectarians know how organize.
Someone
Sam was lot, I
right in
has to
one
do
thing:
positions and a lively
impatiently what was for Hitchens,
long ago, Jeffrey
and
as 1
I
a
many of these, especially
was reminded of this
I
when
in a left
group asked
me
the talk about this ‘Clifford Hutchins.’ As
he parted ways with anything decently radical long, occasionally point out.
try to
push along
common who take
understand that populist right
the younger
few months ago and derided Hitchens’s
young woman
all
to
it.
couldn’t give a toss about Hitchens.
gave a speech in SF
still
instinctively deride as fossilized
how the Workers World
so
and not
of good organizers are
Trots or Maoists or whatever. Red-baiters like articles
Party.
lawyers
radical
organizing backbone of their
in left groups mainstreamers
and
who are still the communities who came down as
met
I’ve
left activists
General Ashcroft
is
doing
in
My
hope of course, which
CounterPunch
cause can be
,
is
that the left should
made with many
in the
the Bill of Rights seriously. Attorney his best to help.
WAR ON IRAQ
December
12,
2002
TORQUEMADAS by Jeffrey
IN
BIRKENSTOCKS
Clair
St.
My dear old
191
Brower must be fuming
friend David
in his grave.
The
Sierra Club, the organization he almost single-handedly built into a
global green powerhouse, has
two
years ago that
now
which Brower believed
it
become
refuses
so cowardly since his death
even to take
a
stand against war,
to be the ultimate environmental nightmare.
Even worse, its bosses — like petty enforcers from the McCarthy era — are now threatening to exile from the Club any leaders who looming bombing and
step forward to voice their opposition to the
subsequent invasion and occupation of It
is
a telltale sign
that there’s precious
of another war
of the enervated condition of the big greens little
dissent in the Sierra
in the Persian Gulf.
from Utah, of all
Iraq.
places, to light the
Club on the prospect
Indeed,
fire.
Let
it
took four
activists
them be known
as
the
Glen Canyon Group Four: John Weisheit, Tori Woodard, Patrick
Dan Kent. Last week they announced that they opposed the war. They identified themselves as leaders of the Sierra Club’s Glen Canyon Group, based in Moab, Utah, former stomping grounds of Edward Abbey. Diehl and
‘The present administration has declared total military
chair of the will
produce
dominance of the world,’
its
says Patrick Diehl, vice-
Glen Canyon Group. ‘We believe a state
intention to achieve
that such ambitions
of perpetual war, undoing whatever protection
of the environment that conservation groups may have so
far
achieved.’
This noble stand was soon followed by
a similarly principled anti-
war resolution enacted by the Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
192
HQ
Then: slam! The long arm of Sierra Club
them - clumsily
as usual.
There’s apparently scant
when
speech inside the Sierra Club these days, even
paramount concern
The
came down on
to the health
room
lor tree
the topic
is
of
of the planet. Especially then.
Club’s executive director, Carl Pope, and his gang of
glowering enforcers blustered that the Glen Canyon Four had impertinently violated Club rules. They threatened to level sanctions against the activists, ranging
from expelling them from their positions
to dissolving the rebellious
group
nasty emails flew back and forth.
entirely.
threatened with
a
Angry phone
and
calls
The Glen Canyon Four were
BOLT action — BOLT is the acronym for a
Breach
of Leadership Trust. “For the board to
world, where
a
compel our
silence plays right into Bush’s
nation ot police, prisons, bombs, bunkers
than lowering oneself to diplomacy to save
The
lives,’ says
better
is
Dan
mad
Kent.
Sierra Club’s Breach ot Leadership Trust rule functions as a
kind of prototype for Ashcroft’s Patriot Act, designed to stigmatize, intimidate and muzzle internal dissenters. As a result, the
with snoops, snitches, and would-be Torquemadas In this case, the intimidation isn't likely to is
Club
is
rife
in Birkenstocks.
work. John Weisheit
perhaps the most accomplished river guide on the Colorado.
He
s
stared
down
Cataract
Canyon and Lava
violent incarnations without flinching. Tori
Diehl
live in the
Falls in their
Woodard and
band
ot local
bottles ot beer through
beast.
still
there
-
A
couple of
yahoos vandalized their home, threw
two
tront
windows, kicked
door, trashed the garden, and cut the
They’re
Patrick
outback ot Escalante, Utah, where they routinely
receive death threats tor their environmental activism. years ago, a
most
phone
in the front
line to the house.
the only enviros in that distant belly of the
Pompous chest-thumping by
scare off these people.
the likes of Carl
Pope won’t
WAR ON IRAQ Club has chosen
Peculiarly, the
power mainly
against
mining and logging on public Party; or
crackdown came
Blechman,
its
internal policing
policies:
lands;
for the
Club
to
ending livestock grazing,
backing Ralph Nader and the
opposing the sell-out of Yosemite National Park
to a corrupt firm linked to
internal
to invoke
members who have pushed
adopt more robust environmental
Green
193
a Sierra
Club
Bruce Babbitt. The most disgusting year in a spiteful attack on Moisha
last
activist in
New York City, who was smeared
with accusations of the most scurrilous kind, mainly because she was too green for the cautious twerps
who
run the Club.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Club turns chapters in
current policies, such
its
being too a
New Mexico
radical.
blind eye to renegade
and other places that attack and ridicule as
the
No
Commercial Logging
Even worse, the Club leadership
gang of Malthusian brigands
the organization
a
as
a
stands
plank, as
mute
as
ranks seeking to hijack
infiltrate its
vehicle to carry forward
a
racist
anti-
immigration agenda that would make Pat Buchanan cringe. All
of
enough
this
would seem mighty
to believe that the Sierra
Club
is
you remain naive
an organization principally
devoted to the preservation of the planet.
(or even parenthetically) It’s
strange, if
not, of course. Like any other corporation, the Sierra Club’s
managers
bottom
preoccupied with beefing up the Club’s
are obsessively
line
and solidifying
most nonprofits. (Read:
a
its
access to power, the bloodstream of
snuggling relationship to the Democratic
National Committee, supine though
So
here’s a warning:
When
it
may
you join the
membership card you
be.)
Sierra
Club and
affix
your signature to
that
oath. Loyalty to
what? Certainly not the environment. These days
it’s
loyalty to the
image of the Club
the desired image of the
members.
Club
is
are also signing a loyalty
that matters.
manufactured by
And its
increasingly
bosses, not
its
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
194
How important than $2 million
time in
its
a
is
‘image’ to the Sierra Club? Well,
is
not
spends more
year and employs twenty-five people to
Communication and Information Services
as if
unknown.
work fullunit - the
amalgamation of tunds.
outfit’s largest single It’s
it
the environmental ruin caused by the
In January
Gulf
first
War
2000 Green Cross International, a Christian
environmental group, released
its
detailed investigation of the war’s
environmental consequences. Their findings were grim: more than
60 million gallons of crude lakes;
spilled into the desert,
forming 246
1,500 miles of the Gulf Coast was saturated with
oil
Kuwait’s
oil;
only freshwater aquifer, source of more than 40 per cent of the country’s drinking water, was heavily contaminated with benzenes
and other
toxins;
desert; incidences
33,000 landmines remain scattered across the
of birth defects, childhood
climbed dramatically
many of
these
of Iraq
US
by
and British planes and cruise
missiles
behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of
also left
casings, bullets
uranium. In radioactive
More
all,
and
bomb
US
hit
the
bombs and
fragments laced with depleted
Iraqi
with more than 970
targets
missiles.
than ten years
radioactive
And
later,
remained destroyed, unremediated and hazardous. Months
bombing
shell
chemical
oil refineries, pipelines,
and water treatment systems. Ten years
facilities
of
and cancers
after the war.
Cruise missiles targeted Iraqi plants
illnesses
the health consequences
later,
bombing campaign
are
from
this
beginning to come into focus.
they are dire, indeed. Iraqi physicians
call
it
‘the
white death’ —
leukemia. Since 1990, the incidence of leukemia in Iraq has
by more than 600 per cent. The situation
is
grown
compounded by
Iraq’s
forced isolation and the sadistic sanctions regime, recently described
by
UN
secretary-general Kofi
Annan
as ‘a
humanitarian
makes detection and treatment of the cancers
all
the
crisis,’
more
that
difficult.
WAR ON IRAQ
195
The return engagement promises to be just as grim, if not worse. Compared to a titan like Brower, timid little people run the Sierra Club these has
two
years as president, Jennifer Ferenstein
gone from being the bubbly Katie Couric of the environmental
movement
to
may have
Margaret Thatcher. In the process, she
its
back the cause of eco-feminism by twenty
set is
days. In her
years.
But Ferenstein
hand puppet of executive director
largely just a figurehead, the
much of a reputation wheeler-dealer, who keeps the
Club’s
big funders and political patrons.
Where
Carl Pope. Pope has never had
environmental
activist.
He’s
policies in lockstep with
Dave Brower
scaled mountains, nearly
been up organizational This limp
its
a
state
of
all
as
an
of Pope’s climbing has
ladders.
affairs
has been
coming
for
some
time. After
9/11, the Club leadership was so cowed by the events that they publicly
announced
were putting
that they
campaigns on hold and pledged not to very
moment was
criticize
Bush,
who
at that
seeking to exploit the tragedy in order to expand
some of the most
oil drilling in
their environmental
fragile
and imperiled lands on the
continent.
To date only two board members have stood up
against the war:
Marcia Hanscom from Los Angeles and Michael Dorsey, the Club’s only black board
member and
and environmental
a
man with
a
true passion for social
two out of fifteen. There’s more
justice. That’s
vigorous dissent inside Bush’s National Security Council. All this
would have disgusted Brower, who was
famous 10th Mountain Division at heart.
I
first
met Brower
in
in
a
veteran of the
World War Two but
a
peacenik
1980. He’d already been booted out
of the Sierra Club for being too militant and had gone on to found Friends of the Earth, where he was about to meet the same
He
asked
me
to
do some writing
for
fate.
him on what he thought was
the great environmental issue of our time: war. At the time,
Brower
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
196
was helping jump-start the nuclear freeze movement and
greens don’t broaden our thinking to tackle war,’ he told
we
me, ‘we may save some wilderness, but master
—
at
aphorisms
He was
lose the world.’
like that. Especially after a
a
couple of martinis
heavily charged with Tanqueray.
He was
of course.
right,
environment
'the
century of wars have ravaged the
the
book Brower
Earth, a
of the
also
DC
whole shebang with what Jonathan
second death’: the extinction of
Brower
and the chemical
the nuclear industry, headquartered in
Moscow, threatened The Fate
A
brutally as the timber giants
as
And
companies.
in
was
to join him.
honored ‘If
I
and
Schell
ceaselessly plugged, called
all life
on Earth.
knew what most contemporary
the day-to-day operations of the military
enviros don’t: that
complex
itself —
weapons
production and testing — amount to the most toxic industry on the planet, as a trip to the
Nevada or Rocky Back
in
1
poisoned wastelands of Hanford, Fallon,
Flats will readily reveal.
990, Brower and his beautiful and courageous wife
Anne
came
to Portland, just as the
gear.
There were demonstrations on the streets nearly every night
bombing
had gotten into high
ot Iraq
we joined a crowd of several December rain. We stood shoulder-
over the course ot that war. Together
hundred
activists
gathered in the
to-shoulder on the old
down rush-hour
traffic
Hawthorne Bridge
for an hour, shutting
out of downtown.
Overcome,’ the Browers unmistakable voices
Those days
are gone.
movement The spirit ot
peace
is
rising
the
Both Dave and Anne
We
sailing
it life
and
in the
late to join.
No
woods, where
it’s
membership card
It’s
always been. Hurry. required.
it all.
But
a
new
and meaning.
peace (and environmental)
won't be found within the confines of any club. streets
above
are deaci.
and Brower helped give
new
sang 'We Shall
movement out on the It’s
not too
WAR ON IRAQ January
6,
197
2003
DECEPTIONS IN MILITARY RECRUITING:
AN
OUT
EX-INSIDER SPEAKS
by Chris White
I
condemn my
past
Marine
who
myself an ‘ex-Marine’
is
and therefore
proudly
call
against any offensive use of the
US
identity,
I
military.
am not against the men and women serving in the military per se; am against the way in which they are used by the government to promote the interests of its richest constituents. Which is why I
I
I
work hard
anyone from joining the
to dissuade
recruiters are the
the interests of the
of offense in
line
first
power
elite at
military. Military
machinery
this
the expense of the
that serves
fortunate.
less
Recruiters creep into the civilian world touting slogans to
otherwise dismal job seem appealing. Their training oriented toward marketing and
sales
techniques: on the
recruiting school, a recruiter friend of
with
a
gimmick
for selling a pen.
have teaching recruiters to
sell
mine was
What
make an largely
is
first
told to
day
come up
business does the military
anything? Are the
lives
of America’s
youth just another commodity for the government to exploit? the
war
Why
is
justified,
then
do they even have
do they have
to
why do sell
at
recruiters have to exist at
the military to
young people?
to use manipulative sales techniques to
If
all?
Why
convince
young, uneducated minds to carry out the dirty work of war? As an assistant recruiter, ulate the
once
witnessed first-hand
poor and young into fighting
First, recruiters
for the
I
recruiters
manip-
for the rich.
have every incentive to be dishonest. Speaking
Marine Corps
filled,
how
only, recruiters have
they can slack off for the
rest
monthly quotas and,
of the month. However,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
198
the
sign up, the better their chances lor promotion.
more people they
So the incentive for dishonesty
high indeed. Recruiters
is
lie
about
college benefits, duty station assignments, veterans' benefits, and
countless other aspects of the military in order to convince their
Once you
clients to sign.
boot camp,
are in
it is
too
late to
change
anything.
H ow
do they
lie
about college benefits? They
you must pay $1,200
GI
get the is
Bill,
only $700
GI
Bill
check
bureaucracy
money out
is
a
is
which
in is
your
in
your
first
you
tell
that
chunk of money when your salary be lucky if you get your monthly
will
months of college anyway,
three
you had better hope
so inept that
to
year of the military in order to
first
quite a
month. You
tail
to have
as
the
enough
saved up before you arrive. Another point recruiters leave that
most students
five, civilians
and veterans
who
independent and over twenty-
are
alike, are eligible for
of financial aid anyway. That
unless
is,
enormous amounts
you already receive the GI
Bill.
Wait
a
minute. Back up. So,
‘my country,’ then
1
if
may not be
eligible for
ask any veteran over twenty-five tell
you
working
that the financial aid office
grants and fellowships (tree
earned the GI
1
Therefore,
if
one were
$9,000 from the GI
one
Bill, well,
though. All the loans one
in college,
money) according $9,000
gets
desires.
no
then
why
it
the GI Bill
is
income, and
one
One
may seem
argument, but remember, recruiters use the GI into joining the military. So,
aid
will
eligibility lor
in grants,
grants.
This
and they
to one’s
amount of
eligible for
serving
any financial aid? Yep,
determines one’s
then deletes one’s income from the for.
Bill for
is
eligible
but received can get loans like
a
petty
Bill to lure civilians
not necessarily
a benefit,
should one join lor the college money?
How do recruiters lie about duty station assignments? Recruiters tell
potential reservists that they can go to college and serve
one
WAR ON IRAQ weekend
a
active duty. to
300,000
month, with very
little
199
chance of being called back to
However, the current administration wants
Gulf alone.
reservists to the
with the story of
my
I
can further
who
neighbor’s daughter
up
to call
illustrate this
had considered
joining the National Guard. As an incentive to get her to sign, her recruiter told her that she I
would be stationed
in Kansas,
but luckily
persuaded her not to join. Her friend was not so lucky. Shortly
after
joining the Guard, he was called to active duty and sent to
Bosnia for two years. Thousands of National Guard and other reservists
have been called back to active duty since 9/11, and
thousands more will be called to go to
How VA
do
recruiters deceive us about veterans’ benefits?
medical
facilities
appointment, but
my
if
I
want
am 30
both veterans, but
all.
Of course, who would
I
want
infestation of mice, maggots, a
them
(at least in
VA
to use the
AP
and
Kansas).
report in
for a year,
is
We
not
at
the
the years leading up to
flies in
VA
scandal as to pressure
Secretary
Anthony
for the regional Illinois.’
did not touch the food storage areas or cafeteria
and maggots had nested
noses! This
is
March 2002,
network, which includes Missouri, Kansas, and southern staff
can use
hospital in Kansas
remove ‘the director and deputy director
The janitorial
1
wait five months for an
per cent disabled, and she
City anyway? According to an
2001 created such
to
wife cannot use
are
Principi to
Iraq.
not necessarily the
in
fault
two of the comatose of the
government decides how much money
VA
will
patients’
because the federal
be allotted to our
disabled veterans.
Ron
Kovic exposed the horrible conditions of the
during the Vietnam era
wounded Vietnam
in his
book. Born on
VA
hospitals
the Fourth ofJuly.
As
a
veteran, Kovic was outraged at the outdated
equipment, under-qualified and uncaring
staffs
and the unsanitary
conditions that disabled veterans were forced to endure. Therefore,
IMPERIAL
200
not
much
has
CRUSADES
changed since 1970s, and any hope of future change
is
diminished by Dubya’s slashing of the VA’s healthcare budget by $275 million in 2002, and further cuts recruiters never
of the
benefits
mention
this in their deceit-filled
which
military,
is
why more
lies
who
realities
of military
life.
bad enough, interactions with recruiters can
are
One
be hazardous to one’s health.
boot camp
speeches about the
veterans need to speak to
high-school students and parents about the
Although the
Of course,
around to the VA.
all
poolee (person waiting to go to
me
has already enlisted) wrote
that
my
first
essay
had helped him to decide to leave the Marines. The recruiter poolee by saying that
to the
it
was too
late, that
he had already
enlisted
and therefore he was obligated for the next four
During
my
recruiting days,
he had
little
finally received his
‘If
example
My
was
1
a
among
knock you
I’d
out.’
that
Great
who had He actually
served in El
admitted to
weapon only
to be used
on
against
My
for
me
Brother.
some
of
seven years
later,
once
I
read Scott Peterson’s
Peterson wrote: ‘the snipers killed
them children who were found
toy pistol, or nothing.’
UN
more than
later to
spokesperson George Bennet
Peterson: ‘They were shooting at anything by the time they
statement only further confirms
Unfortunately,
from
vehicles,
he had taken pictures of his victims afterward. His story was
14 Somalis,
this
by
by military service.
Marine sniper
other places.
a .50 caliber sniper rifle, a
semi-confirmed
Me
was
a physical threat
a
with excitement that he had killed noncombatants in Somalia
with
and
now
of the quality of leadership instilled
recruiter in 1994
me
emails, the poolee told
discharge after pushing the matter
of you right
in front
Salvador and Somalia
me
more
more. His recruiter responded to him with
saying:
years.
learned that any poolee can get out
I
before boot camp, and after several that
lied
that
same
I
too
am
guilty
recruiter, but
of
a
my
have
a
later told left,’
and
recruiter’s story.
of following an unlawful order
much
lesser
magnitude. While
WAR ON IRAQ assisting
him
for
two weeks just
after
I
201
graduated from boot camp,
my job was to make poolees lose weight before they shipped out. One poolee was still 12 pounds overweight the day before boot camp, so naturally my recruiter ordered me to force the poolee to part ot
eat an entire
box of Ex-lax,
after
which
I
had to make him do
calisthenics until he lost the 12 pounds. Needless to say, he
admitted to boot camp the next day, but
am
I
still
ashamed
was
that
I
made him do
that.
The
Recruiters
now
have even more access to the young minds of
America, with the
No
business of recruiting
is
dark indeed.
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002. These Acts require every high school receiving federal education funds to
hand over the names,
and phone numbers of every
addresses,
junior and senior to local recruiters upon request. That means that
even fifteen-year-olds, with no idea whatsoever about the world,
alone the military, are
let
now
vulnerable to the mani-
pulation and deception of recruiters in their refuses to steps in
hand the information
after
own homes.
If a
school
Department of Defense
over, the
and pressures the school,
real
which
federal
funding may
be withdrawn. According to Secretary of Education
Rod
Paige
and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Acts give students
more
access to college, but
ment does not
offer
high school graduates
we need
to ask
why
it is
that the
govern-
any alternative to the military for unskilled
who
wish to go to college but are unqualified
for college.
Our Commander-in-Chief himself took
the opportunity to join
the military, then took a Bush prerogative and failed to return to his
duty station for
a
year and
serve the prison sentences that
Nevertheless,
it
makes perfect
Of course, he did not have to others who left for that long did.
a half.
sense. After
any different from half of Americans,
who
all,
the president
is
not
support our impending
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
202
war on mately
of us
While over 50 per cent support an invasion, approxi-
Iraq. 1
per cent serves in the military. Therefore, only
1
per cent
willing to fight a battle that over 50 per cent of us favor,
is
which makes
much more
it
palatable to start a war.
majority faces no direct military consequences,
I
As long
as
the
guess anything,
including deceptive measures in recruiting, goes. Thus, the cycle ot historical
US
military
an ex-Marine infantryman with experience as a
recruiter-
amnesia
allowed to continue, and future
is
more 9/1
action will surely bring about
Chris White assistant.
is
He
is
currently
working on
University of Kansas, Lawrence. Garcia, also a
Camp
Pendleton,
member of
He
Is.
his
doctorate
served from
1994
in to
history at
1996,
CA, Okinawa, Japan, and Doha,
in
Qatar.
the
Diego
He
is
Veterans for Peace.
January 30, 2003
BOMBING
IRAQ: THEY'VE BEEN
DOING
IT
FOR EIGHTY YEARS by Alexander Cockburn
The word no place
‘new,’ as in in
‘new
US
doctrine’ or ‘new imperial role,’ has
any discussion ot the
Western bombing
latest
strategies in Iraq stretch
Western plans for back
as far as
the Royal Air Force ventured into the ‘Shock and
the earliest
moment
of Nations
after
ot Iraq’s existence as a
1920,
Iraq.
when
Awe’ business
in
mandate of the League
World War One.
As with Palestine and Transjordan, the newly conceived entity of Iraq, created
by the imperious drafting pencils of Gertrude Bell and
WAR ON IRAQ T. E.
203
Lawrence, was under British supervision. As the Turks were
came
evicted there was brave talk of an independent Iraq, but soon
the familiar vista of colonial supervisors and occupying troops from British garrisons in India.
Though
Iraq was, as
is
it
today, an essay
enforced multiculturalism - Kurds, Sunnis, and Shi 'a — British
in
wrought the near-miracle of the unified
stupidity soon
revolt
of
1920.
At
a cost
of some 8,000
government reeled
pressed, but the British large
numbers of troops
The
to the scene.
Arab
cost of financing the
Iraqi lives the revolt at
was
finally
sup-
the expense of rushing
bill
rising against the
exceeded the entire
Ottomans
in
World
War One. At for
point the Royal Air Force, desperately seeking rationales
this
independent existence, stepped forward and offered
itself as a
guarantor of the ‘security’ of Iraq. Air Marshall
thrifty
Hugh
RAF would cheaply police the former of Mesopotamia. The RAF took over its new
Trenchard promised that the
Ottoman provinces duties in 1922. Only British military,
it
four years old
an independent
as
had already formulated
and Awe. Here’s what
Wing Commander J.
a
arm of the
prototype of Shock
A.
Chamier wrote
in
the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute in 1921, under the
boastful
title
‘The Use of Air Power for Replacing Military
Garrisons’:
To
establish a tradition, therefore,
threat
of what
if called
in the
upon
is
which
to follow afterwards
is
will
One
do
it
with
all its
objective must be selected
-
the most inaccessible village of the most prominent tribe desired to punish. All available aircraft
with
if
only
a
displayed, the Air Force must,
to administer punishment,
proper manner.
prove effective,
might and preferably
which
it
is
must be collected ...The attack
bombs and machine guns must be
relentless
and unremitting and
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
204
carried
and
on continuously by day and
cattle
.
.
This sounds brutal,
.
to start with.
the lesson
is
The
I
night,
know, but
it
must be made brutal
threat alone in the future will prove efficacious if
once properly
learnt.
Citing Chamier’s prescriptions in essay
on houses, inhabitants, crops
on ‘The Myth of Air Control’
a
highly informative and witty
in Aerospace
PowerJournal (winter
Corum cites the RAF's Notes on of the Air Arm in Iraq as proudly pointing
2000), the military historian James the
Method of Employment
out that ‘within 45 minutes
wiped out and five planes
a third
which
a full-sized village
...
can be practically
of its inhabitants killed or injured by four or
otter
them no
real target
and no opportunity for
glory or avarice.’
But British
just as
Tony
Labour
Party, so
too did dissent ascend from the same ranks
three-quarters ot a century ago, atter the
came
to
remote
power
political
in
1924. Displaying tar
first
Secretary James
more moral
consequent on the RAF’s
run away.
4
Awe
high
civilian
not be easily
RAF
fine-tuned
rain
time for the villagers to
down, though
with the aim of actually destroying the
merely of disrupting daily in the field,
quotes an
forays, leaving
hen the bombs would
insisted,
Out
the
about collateral damage. Henceforth there would be early
warnings ot Shock and
RAF
The
to
of heavy
raids, ‘will
explained or defended in Parliament by me.'
PR
fiber than his
Thomas wrote
in Iraq stating flatly that reports
casualties in Iraq,
its
Labour government
descendant in the Foreign Office, the repellent jack
Straw, Colonial
commissioner
of the
Blair today faces dissent in the ranks
RAF
not, so the village,
life.
such niceties were swiftly discarded.
flight
but
commander
Corum
based in India’s Northwest
Frontier in the 1930s as recalling the fairly constant action against tribes in that part
of the empire:
WAR ON IRAQ It
205
we would warn them
they went on being troublesome,
that
we
would bomb an assembly of people. An assembly was normally defined as
ten people
...
Indeed, in
my
case
can remember actually finding
I
nine people and saying ‘That’s within ten per cent and
enough,’ so
I
blew them
good
up.
This was before the days
of Western plunder
that’s
in Iraq
when
oil
become
the prime objective
and throughout the Middle
East, but
time-honored methods of imperial extortion from subject peoples required the collection of taxes, and the
RAF
was placed
in
charge
of Levies and Collections, bombing to extort money. Nothing has changed, the
of
Iraq’s oil.
modern
‘tax’ in its
(Corum
guise being recapture and control
notes that while ‘the French, under their air-
bombed bombed the
control doctrine, regularly exists that
they ever
enforcement,
as
tribes
and
natives as a
cultural differences that the
no evidence
means of revenue
did the British in Iraq. This difference in air-control
doctrines between the French and British
is
villages,
between the two nations.
may
A
indicate deep
likely explanation
French are culturally more tolerant of and sympathetic
to tax evasion than are the British.’)
Naturally enough, the
RAF
was
at great
pains to suppress in
its
reports and histories of campaigns in Iraq the role of the army, thus
giving the entirely
false
impression that
maintain imperial control. But in fact
air
RAF
power alone could
bombing accuracy
the interwar period was mostly awful, and there were
unfortunate mistakes, familiar today to those following
all
in
the usual
US bombing
mishaps in Afghanistan.
Bombing remote Kurdish villages was one thing, but dropping bombs on Palestinian villages quite another. The outbreak of the Arab from
revolt in Palestine
RAF
from 1936 to 1939
commanders, such
as
Air
elicited eager suggestions
Commodore
Arthur Harris,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
206
commanding officer of the RAF in Palestine and later chief of Bomber Command in World War Two, and hence one of the major war criminals of the twentieth century. Harris offered halt
Arab
Drop ‘one 250-pound or 500-pound bomb
unrest.
each village that speaks out of turn understands
is
...
The only
this as folly,
in
thing the Arab
the heavy hand, and sooner or later
be applied.’ The British army saw a
his recipe to
it
will have to
and certain to make
bad situation worse. Harris’s advice was rejected, and the world
had to wait
bombers dropping US-
later years to see Israeli
till
supplied explosives on Palestinian villages and camps. In the years after
eagerly through the
triumphs
Colonel
in
Raymond
Air Force prowled
RAF’s mendacious accounts of
Corum
Iraq.
US
World War Two the
among
reports that
member of
Sleeper, a
prewar
these enthusiasts
the Air
War College
developed ‘Project Control,’ an air-control doctrine to deal
faculty,
with the Soviet Union. In an 1983, Lt Col. David Dean, testimonial of the
article in
USAF,
Air University Review in
issued a fervent but misleading
RAF’s experience with
control as a cheap and effective
air control.
way of policing
airpower theorist Carl Builder discussed British AirpowerJournal
model
its
article in
1995, arguing that
tor ‘constabulary missions’ in
or ‘peace operations.’ But
air-control system described really existed
...
Basically,
of such doctrine tor current
US
air
The
control in an
provided an excellent
concludes, ‘the idealized Air Force writers never
one could barely
doctrine 80 years ago, and people
the empire.
air
support of the United Nations
Corum by US
as
it
Dean saw
who
justify air control as a
advocate an updated version
Air Force operations have misread
history.’
So much
The
tor
‘new
strategies’
and ‘revolutions
in military affairs.’
punitive expedition pressed by Bush and his circle remains
squarely within the tradition of similar punitive expeditions
WAR ON IRAQ
207
launched, with aerial bombardments, nearly eighty years ago over the same terrain.
February
2003
9,
CONDITION ORANGE AS A WAY OF
LIFE
by Alexander Cockburn
The day
Ashcroft and Ridge announced that the entire nation had
New
joined
military
York
made
at
Level Orange, four fugitive
landfall
southern Florida’s vast
Cubans from
the
on the Homeland, passing undetected by flotillas
of Coast Guard and Navy
vessels,
plus Fat Albert, the blimp panopticon tethered above the lower
The
Keys.
four tied up their 32-foot fiberglass cigarette boat
(sporting the
Cuban
magazines and
a
flag
GPS
and containing two AK-47s, eight loaded
finder tuned to the coordinates of the
Coast Guard station) on the southern shore of Key West, Hyatt Resort dock. Then, clad in their
had
Chinese-made handgun strapped
a
about, marveling
looking for
Had
at
Cuban army
at
US the
fatigues (one
to his hip) they
wandered
the serene emptiness of the evening streets,
a police station
where they could turn themselves
in.
they been terrorists there were plenty of rewarding targets
within strolling distance, including
a
major surveillance center
the Caribbean and Latin America, run by also a
US Navy
colony.
base, plus
US
Southern
for
Command,
of course Key West’s extensive
literary
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
208
February 16, 2003
COLIN POWELL
AND THE GREAT
'INTELLIGENCE'
FRAUD
by Alexander Cockburn
Events do rush by us in
a
blur,
I
know, but
let’s
not abandon
Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Feb. 5 speech to the
graveyard of history without one after
all,
by the President
billed
as a
backward glance.
last
Now, when
the
how
lie’s
now
ulative,
and
advance by
at
we
can be safe in assuming
looks
that Yes, the
US
intelligence ‘community’ has
as
though
its
a
week
major claims were
Chief Inspector Hans
test
ramp
tor long-distance missiles that
sinisterly
was nothing of
been cleared by the
inspection teams; the strange eavesdropped conversations that
could tor
spec-
that turned out
from the Baghdad health department; the
the sort; the suspect facility that had recently
UN
at best
Blix.
There was the supposed transporter of biotoxins enlarged
after Powell’s
worst outright distortions, some of them derided in
UN
to be a truck
weapons
states publicly that his
indeed got the goods. But barely more than it
his
Commander-in-Chief
been assured
speech
was,
It
hand-in-glove with A1 Qaeda.
Secretary of State will deliver the goods, that he’s
in the
conclusive intelligence briefing
on exactly how Saddam Hussein has been concealing of mass destruction, and
UN
as
well have been Iraqi officers discussing
how
to hide
stills
making bootleg whisky. The promoter of the Iraq/Al Qaeda
link,
Abu Musab Zarqawi,
to get a prison sentence
Islam
a
bunch
ot
turns out to be an imaginative
commuted, and
liar
trying
the terror cell Ansar al-
Islamic fundamentalists violently
opposed
Saddam and operating out of Kurdish territory. (A few days Powell cited Osama bin Laden’s latest tape as confirming
to
later
that
WAR ON IRAQ
209
Saddam and A1 Qaeda are in cahoots. Actually it’s mostly a vivid account, which has the ring of truth, of how he and his men in minimal
Saddam and they
Bin Laden concludes by urging
casualties.
up your pant
pull
is
legs for jihad' against the forces
similar to the
who
particularly ‘fine. articles
written by
a
came along with
who commended
The
from
Jane's,
and from
student called Ibrahim
fulfill a
how
been
in
A ffairs,
Marashi,
a
Md.
US
Israel
Marashi himself
He’s never visited Iraq
invasion.
Middle
in the
is
in International Affairs)
Barry Rubin,
Washington
policy think tank.
that
who
Rubin
Institute for is
has also
Near
East
part of the coterie
—
Ledeen, and the arch
Pipes, Michael
conspirator Richard Perle
- who have been pressing
Iraq.
Monterey
plagiarism represents
which includes Daniel on
the
scholarly magazine run by the
in Herzliya, Israel. Its director
— an
at
September 2002,
(acronym for Global Research
a senior fellow at the
Policy
plagiarisms
paper on Iraqi politics
a
emerges
it
family in Baltimore,
East Review of International
Center
as
From some enterprising work Kenneth Raposa, who worked on the Iraqi
Marashi ’s essay was published
GLORIA
speech
‘intelligence’ reports actually get put
keen to see Saddam toppled by
is
a series of
The Marashi
Dossier story for the Boston Globe, a Shi’a
al
UN
his
political agenda.
by freelance reporter
and
the interests of the
in
it
report turned out to be
an intrusive parable on
comes from
take place
war between Muslims and Romans when
Institute for International Studies.
together, to
Of
there was the British intelligence report sent by
Blair to Powell,
from old
of darkness.
‘to
both fought against the Romans.’)
And of course Tony
Muslims
all
Baghdad or Aden. Such war which may
the interests of the Muslims Persians
with
the Ba'ath he says: ‘The Socialists are infidels wherever
are, either in
these days
US bombing
Bora foxholes survived ferocious
their Tora
for a
US
attack
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
210
Marashi told Raposa that the documents on which he had based his
paper had been given him by Kenaan Makiya,
Iraqi exile,
own
State
and proponent of invasion,
much
a
well-known
favored by Powell’s
Department. Makiya claims to have some 4 million pages
of documents seized from northern Iraq
after
Operation Desert
Storm.
So here we have by
inspired
a politically
document, spliced together
published by an Israeli-based think tank hot for
a Shi’a student,
web by
war, swiped off the
to Powell as a masterpiece
Blair’s harried
minions and served up
of British intelligence collection from
MI6. Quite aside from the welcome damage done credibility
and to the war party
reminds us of just
American people
how much
in the guise
in general, the
of
Marashi saga vividly
reliable ‘intelligence.’
the build-up to the
invoked
photos of 265,000
last
Remember
Iraqi war, the
St. Petersburg
persuaded her newspaper to buy two photos
each from the Russian commercial
satellite,
Pentagon
massed to invade
Iraqi troops
Saudi Arabia? Jean Heller, a journalist from the in Florida,
Powell’s
rubbish has been served up to the
how back amid satellite
to
at
Times
$1,600
the Sovuz Karta.
No
showed up on the photos. ‘You could see the planes sitting wing tip to wing tip in Riyadh airport,’ Ms Heller says, ‘but there troops
wasn’t was any sign ot
a
quarter of
a
million Iraqi troops sitting in
the middle of the desert.’
The
ridicule
now
being showered on Powell’s Iraq Dossier won't
slow up the production ol these ridiculous documents or hinder the endless flourishing of supposedly conclusive satellite photo-
graphy or communications intercepts.
If
war does come, we can be
sure there will be repetitions of the ‘misinterpretations’ errors’
and
‘tragic
of the 1991 onslaught.
When my
brother Patrick drove from
Amman
to
Baghdad back
WAR ON IRAQ at
211
the end of the 1991 onslaught he passed the hulks of
oil
tankers
bombed to bits under the claim they were mobile Scud launchers. The single biggest atrocity of that war was the US bombing of the Almariya shelter in Baghdad. The Pentagon claimed it was a topsecret military command center. It wasn’t. In the absence of its intended occupants, university professors and technocrats, ordinary Iraqi
mothers and children had taken shelter
intelligence screw-up, with several as
there. Just
another
hundred dead mothers and kids
the price.
And
yes,
American
we
history, for
they gave the
George Tenet
He
are in the
CIA is
wake of the
which not one
greatest intelligence failure in
intelligence head rolled. Instead
even more money, and yes,
sitting beside
Powell in the
should have been too ashamed to show
UN
its
grateful chief
Security Council.
his face in public.
February 23, 2003
RUMSFELD'S
ACCOUNT BOOK:
WHO ARMED SADDAM? by Stephen Green
You have
to give
a risk taker
and
Both were Senate
Armed
in
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld he’s
damned
evidence
brassy about
last
characterizations of France and
Under
Germany
credit: he’s
testified
before the
it.
week when he
Services Committee.
much
this
criticism for his prior
as ‘old
fumed: ‘We would not be facing the problems
Europe,’ Rumsfeld in Iraq
today
if
the
technologically advanced countries of the world had seen the
danger and
strictly
enforced the economic sanctions against
Iraq.’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
212
The Defense Secretary knew well, naturally, his audience in the Senate Armed Services Committee. As Senator Robert Byrd recently said from the Senate floor/this Chamber is, for the most part, silent - ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to
lay
war. There
is
Still,
that
out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular nothing.’
Rumsfeld’s statement was some chutspa!
was the
it
US
Senate
itself
He was
well aware
(Committee on Banking, Housing
and Urban Affairs) which had conducted extensive hearings in 1992 and 1994 on ‘United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of Persian Gulf
War
probably read the front-page Washington Post story
Role
in Iraq Buildup,’
declassified
who,
as
December
30, 2002) based
documents, which revealed that
it
And he’d (‘US Had Key
Veterans.’
upon
recently
was Rumsfeld himself
President Reagan’s Middle East Envoy, had traveled to the
region to meet with
Saddam Hussein
in
December 1983
to
normalize, particularly, security relations.
At the time of the State Department’s
Iraq
visit,
list
of
had already been removed from the
terrorist countries in
previous month, November, President National Security Decision Directive relations generally.
But
it
1
14,
1982; and in the
Reagan had approved on expansion of US— Iraq
was Donald Rumsfeld’s
trip to
Baghdad
which opened up the floodgates during 1985—90 for lucrative US weapons exports — some $1.5 billion worth — including chemical/ biological and nuclear
with
critical
weapons equipment and technology, along components tor missile delivery systems for all of the
above. According to
a
GAO
1994
letter report
(GAO/NSI AD-
94-98) some 771 weapons export licenses for Iraq were approved
during the
this six-year
US Department
To be
sure,
many
period
.
.
.
not by our European
allies,
but by
of Commerce. of these
weapons were expended
in the latter
WAR ON IRAQ
213
phases of the Iran-Iraq War. Others were destroyed by Coalition
control regime established by the that conflict.
But
many undoubtedly
a great
US
150,000
risks to the
UN weapons inspectors in the UN Security Council following
Gulf War, or by
forces in the Persian
remain, and pose grave
troops deployed in Kuwait, and 100,000
on the way. Imagine the embarrassment
Defense Secretary
to
Rumsfeld before the Armed Services Committee or
more
senators had had the awareness
AND
last
week
if
one
the courage to raise
the matter of Iraq’s secret supplier.
And
in this case, the devil
There were few
quite literally in the details.
is
any reservations evident in the range of
if
weapons which President Ronald Reagan and W. H. Bush were willing
to
sell
his successor
Saddam Hussein. Under
Export Control Act of 1 976, the foreign defense equipment and technology
is
sale
George
the
Arms
of munitions and other
controlled by the Department
of State. During the 1980s, such items could not be sold or diverted to
Communist
states,
nor to those on the
When
porting countries.
Iraq
came
US
off that
list
list
in
of terrorist-sup1982, however,
some $48
million of items such as data privacy devices, voice
scramblers,
communication and navigation equipment, electronic
components, image approved for of $1.5
sale
billion
intensifiers
its
pistols (to protect
during 1985—90. But
of American ‘dual-use
arguably, both military
bulk of
and
and
it
was through the purchase items,’ having,
civilian functions, that Iraq
weapons of mass destruction
where the In
1
real
sometimes
obtained the
in the late Eighties.
use items’ are controlled and licensed by the
Commerce under
Saddam) were
‘Dual-
Department of
the Export Administration Act of 1979. T his
is
damage was done.
992 and again
in
1
994, hearings were conducted by the Senate
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which has Senate oversight responsibility for the Export Administration Act.
The
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
214
purpose of the hearings was the Committee’s concern that thousands’ of Gulf
War
veterans were suffering from
associated with the ‘Gulf
War Syndrome,'
possibly
‘tens ot
symptoms
due
to their
exposure to chemical and biological agents that had been exported
US
from the
during that brief period of ‘normalization’ of relations
with Iraq in 1985-90.
At the opening of the second round of hearings on 1994,
May
25,
Chairman Donald Riegle and Ranking Member Alphonse
D’Amato
released a detailed staff report
indictment of
US
which constituted
a searing
arms export policies during the Reagan/Bush
administrations, linking those exports to the health problems ot Gulf
War
veterans,
stration for
and excoriating the then current (Clinton) admini-
denying that such
According
to
a link existed.
on
the hearing reports (which are available
a
current website: www.chronicillnet.org/PGWS/tuite/ default.htm),
among some
the chemical
ot the very
weapons which had been sold
most
lethal available: Sarin,
were
Soman, Tabun, VX,
lewisite,
cyanogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide,
mustard
gas.
Some
to Iraq
and
blister agents
ot the powerful biological agents sold included
anthrax, Clostridium botulinum
,
Histoplasma capsulatum (causes a
tuberculosis-like disease). Brucella melitensis, Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia
coli.
Witnesses on the
first
day of the hearings included Under-
secretary ot Defense for Personnel and Readiness,
and the
officials in
Edwin Dorn,
both the Defense Department and the
responsible tor non-proliferation policy. Interestingly, in
often an adversarial exchange officials,
CIA
what was
between the Committee and these
the latter admitted in
sworn testimony
that while
no
chemical/biological weapons had been found to have been ‘stored or used by the Iraqi army during the conflict, American troops
had nevertheless been exposed to airborne traces of
C/B
agents
WAR ON IRAQ from having been downwind of storage by
US
215
planes.
Simply put, while Saddam Hussein had shown
Gulf War by not deploying government had,
them
were bombed
facilities that
his
most
restraint in the
sold chemical/biological agents and shipped
a)
directly to Iraqi military installations, including
months before
US
weapons, the
lethal
some
just
invasion of Kuwait, b) distributed faulty
Iraq's
chemical/biological agent detection sensors and protection gear
such
as
US
gasmasks to
troops, and, c) caused the exposure of these
bombing of military storage areas upwind of them. got worse. Dr Gordon Oehler, Director of the Central
troops by the It
Intelligence Agency’s Non-Proliferation Center, testified that,
between 1984 and 1990, the CIA’s Office of Scientific and Weapons Research had issued
United
when
with
Iraqi’s dealings
discussions, or visits that appeared
weapons of mass destruction programs.’ Such memos,
Oehler explained, were sent the FBI
memos ‘covering
on purchases,
States firms
to be related to
five alert
to
Commerce,
Justice, Treasury
US
collected intelligence indicated that
and
firms had
been targeted by foreign governments of concern, or were involved in possible violations
At another point
of
lines
law.
in the hearings,
CIA’s concerns about
Samarra chemical
US
Iraqi
Dr Oehler
indicated that the
weapons programs,
plant, including six separate
Under questioning from Chairman
fied these as the President
our
US
State.
by the Senate
Affairs
1992 hearings on the matter of
Iraqi ballistic missile
‘directly to
and the Secretaries of Defense and
Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban
‘a
Riegle, he identi-
Perhaps the most surprising testimony taken
in the earlier
particular
chemical weapons
between 1983 and 1986,’ had been reported
customers.’
in
was
that given
assistance to the
and nuclear weapons programs. Gary Milhollin,
Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear
Arms Control,
IMPERIAL
216
CRUSADES
testified that
US
Department
to ship such items directly to the
which the Pentagon had formally
facilities,
Iraqi nuclear
known In sales.
companies were being licensed by the
its
And
was
it
welders, mass
US
C/B
to Salah
development
Dm,
efforts.
companies involved in such
spectrometers, accelerometers, missile
agents in missiles,
was being sent to Iraq
al
equipment — vacuum pumps, electron beam
critical
systems, navigational radar, high-speed to load
identified as part of the
ballistic missile
Milhollin identified forty
all,
Al-Qaqaa and Badr
weapons production program, and
be the center of
to
Commerce
computers and
among many
guidance
filling
systems
other items. Such
‘stuff’
until late 1989, less than a year before Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait!
Through the
mid and
the
CIA and
late
1980s, said Milhollin, the Pentagon,
the Office of Naval
Intelligence,
among
others,
continued to warn the White House that
Iraq’s nuclear,
and biological weapons were maturing
rapid pace, as was
on the
ballistic missiles to deliver
on deaf
ears:
in
14,
George Bush signed
and again committing the
Hussein
them. The warnings were
work
falling
October 1989, ten months before the Kuwait
invasion, President 1
at a
chemical
US
to
NSD
normal
26, updating
relations
NSDD
with Saddam
government. As had been the case with chemical and
s
biological weapons, the
list
of
American and European companies
which sold the nuclear equipment and technology to Iraq was a virtual pantheon ol industry names: Hewlett Packard, International
Computer
Systems, Siemens, TI Coating, Carl Zeiss, Rockwell
Collins International, Spectra Physics, Unisys, Tektronix, Scientific
Atlanta and Semetex, assistance, Iraq
became
among many, many a
regional
others.
With such
power during 1984—90, and
developed regional ambitions.
But these companies were not, per
weapons
se,
Saddam Hussein’s main
suppliers: that designation should properly
go to Ronald
WAR ON IRAQ Reagan and George W. H. Bush, the 1
14 and
NSD
recipients
intelligence
of NSDD
signers, respectively,
which remain
As the primary
classified.
the
CIA
community, they were currently and
fully
and ultimate ‘customers’ of the
US
and the
26, both of
217
alert
memos from
aware of the use to which the equipment and technology were being put, and of the security policy implications of the process.
And
the instrument, the person, the envoy,
process in the
first
instance
is
the current
US
who
negotiated the
Secretary of Defense,
Donald Rumsfeld. Stephen Green
lines in Berlin,
Vermont.
February 25, 2003
THE WEEKEND THE
WORLD
SAID
NO TO WAR
by Gary Leupp
At
least
10 million people demonstrated
Iraq attack, in open-air rallies
in
and marches.
major If
cities against
we
an
include smaller
demonstrations, the figure will be larger; in Greece, for example,
between
1
00,000 and
1
50,000 are reported to have
rallied in
Athens,
but another 60,000 rallied in 52 other communities.
The demonstrations occurred on Antarctica,
where 50—55
all
scientists staged a
continents
half-hour
(including
rally),
indicating
extremely widespread opposition to Bush policy, and effective of communication linking the
and
also international links
US
lines
and European antiwar movements,
between anti-globalization
activists in
the Western countries, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
News
reports indicate that there were at least 60 demonstrations
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
218
of over 10,000 people. Almost 40 of these occurred greatest center
of economic power outside the
US
in
Europe, the
and the
likely
focus of contention for years to come.
Barcelona,
Rome, London, Madrid and
between the Madrid and Berlin especially conspicuous. in nations
Terror Five
And
exceeded
probably
demonstrations
of the
Five
Berlin.
figures, so
notice: the top four
There the
500,000:
is
first
demos
all
a
big gap
four are
occurred
with governments pledged to support the Bush-Blair
War on
Iraq.
Top Antiwar Demos,
Rome
Feb. 15: Barcelona 1.3 million;
1—2 million; London 750,000 (police), 1.5 million (organizers);
Madrid 660,000-800,000; Berlin 300,000-600,000. Spain, and Britain as
are
all
members
the relationship
ot the ‘gang
between the
deteriorated, to reassure the
US
backing. Their heads of state
all
US
of eight’ pieced together
and France and Germany
public that Bush has international
signed
a letter
circulated
indicating their intention to cooperate in a future Iraq.
Italy
last
month
US-led attack on
(Other gang members include Portugal, Denmark, and the
former Soviet-camp members Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary.)
Within the ‘gang
of eight’
governments, Spain's meets with
particularly widespread opposition in supporting the
Ot
the tour largest demonstrations,
two occurred
US war
in Spain, in
plans.
widely
separate regions; there were also several other demonstrations of
over 100,000 in the country.
It
appears likely that between 2.5 and
3 million Spaniards (out of 40 million total) took a stand against
war on Saturday. There appears
to
be strong support
in
the vilified European
Germany and Belgium for the antiwar assumed by their regimes. The demonstration in
nations of France,
stands
currently
Berlin
was complemented by large gatherings
in Stuttgart (50,000)
and
WAR ON IRAQ Gottenberg (30,000). demonstrations
I’ve
Paris heads the
found so
far
list
219
of venues of the thirteen
estimated to involve 100,000 to
half a million.
There were huge demonstrations
two
15, including
in this
next category of
and half a million. Australia
Demos
in Australia
is
another key
rallies
around February
between 100,000
ally in the
US
war
effort.
of 100,000-500,000
Paris 400,000;
Sydney 250,000
(Feb.
16);
Damascus 200,000;
Ovidio (Spain) 200,000; San Francisco 150,000
(police),
250,000
(organizers) (Feb. 16); Las Palmas (Spain) 100,000; Cadiz (Spain)
100,000; Melbourne 100,000-200,000 (Feb.
14);
New
York
100,000 (police), 375,000-500,000 (organizers); Los Angeles 100,000; Montreal 100,000; Dublin 100,000; Athens 100,000 (police),
150,000 (organizers).
Demos
of 50,000-100,000
Lisbon 80,000; Amsterdam 70,000; Seattle 60,000-75,000; Oslo 60,000; Seville 60,000; Brussels 50,000; Montevideo 50,000;
Buenos Aires 50,000; There was
American
Stuttgart 50,000.
significant participation in antiwar organizing in Latin
cities,
Montevideo (Uruguay) and Buenos
especially
Mexico City and Sao Paulo
Aires (Argentina), but also in
There were demonstrations
in
(Brazil).
Havana, San Juan (Puerto Rico) and
Santo Domingo.
The only demonstrations of around 10,000 east Asia in
were
in
to take place in
South-
(predominantly Muslim) Pattani, in Thailand, and
Manila. Twice that
number
rallied in Pattani
There were smaller demonstrations
between 10,000 and 50,000
a
week
in
on February
16.
Djakarta (following one of
earlier),
Kuala
Lumpur
(3,000
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
220
despite a police ban)
and Bangkok. Largely, one supposes, because
movement remains low-key
of government repression, the antiwar in the region. In
South Asia, 10,000
numbers
in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Karachi, Pakistan. In
region, too, the
movement
Africa, protest against the cities
in
this
faces organizational difficulties.
war has been
In
largely confined to the large
of South Africa. There were demonstrations of 4,000—5,000
Durban, Cape
Town and Johannesburg.
The 200,000-strong ten demonstrations in
Calcutta, India, and smaller
rallied in
rally in
Damascus,
on February
Baghdad the same day)
this
Syria,
was among the top
15, but (like the
was
a
pro-Saddam
government-sponsored event.
In Beirut, perhaps 10,000 protested; in
Amman, 3,000. Riot
attacked a rally of 3,000 in Sfax, in Tunisia. Palestinians strated in
police
demon-
Ramallah and Jews and Palestinians marched together two
or three thousand strong in Tel Aviv.
Bahrain,
rally
as
it
to test the
A
few hundred protested in
monarch’s commitment to democratic
reform. But in Cairo, greatest city in the contemporary Arab world,
only
a
tew hundred
rallied,
some
violating security regulations.
happened
since the Cairo
suffering arrest and torture for
(This
is
the third time this has
Conference helped launch the Egyptian
antiwar campaign in December.) potentially
Demos
The fear of repression restrains a mighty anti-imperialist movement in the Arab world. of 20,000-50,000
Berne (Switzerland) 40,000; Stockholm 35,000; Glasgow 30.000— 50,000; Gottenberg 30,000; Girona 30,000; Toronto 25.000— 80,000; Tokyo 25,000; Copenhagen 25,000; Vancouver 20,000; Budapest 20,000; Trondheim (Norway) 20,000; Brisbane
20,000; Vienna 15,000-30,000; Montpelier 15,000-20,000.
WAR ON IRAQ
Demos
221
of 10,000—20,000
Canberra 16,000; Helsinki 15,000; Newcastle
(Australia) 15,000;
Bergen (Norway) 15,000; Munich 14,000—20,000
(Feb.
8);
Mexico City 13,500; Sao Paolo 10,000—20,000; Toulouse 10,000; Calcutta 10,000; Porto (Portugal) 10,000; Copenhagen 10,000; Thessaloniki
10,000;
10,000; Leipzig 10,000 (Feb. 10,000; Perth (Australia) Pattani
Zagreb 10,000; Philadelphia 10);
Hobart 10,000; Warsaw
10,000; Manila 10,000 (Feb.
14);
10,000; Auckland 8,000—10,000; Seoul 2,000—10,000;
Beirut 10,000.
February 26, 2003
MEET THE
NEW YORKER'S GOLDBERG
by Alexander Cockburn
Who’s
the hack?
He’s the
I
nominate the
New
Yorkers Jeffrey Goldberg.
new Remington, though without
the artistic talent. Back
1898, William Randolph Hearst was trying to fan war fever
in
between the United the
artist
Frederic
States
and Spain.
Remington
to
depictions of Spanish beastliness
He
dispatched a reporter and
Cuba to send back blood-roiling to Cuban insurgents. Remington
wired to say he could find nothing sensational to draw and could he
come home.
Famously, Hearst wired him: ‘Please remain. You furnish
the pictures and I
wouldn’t
I’ll
furnish the war.’
set the
New
Remington duly
Yorkers editor,
shoes of a Kong-sized monster like Hearst. talent
who
did
so.
David Remnick,
Remnick
is
in the
a third-tier
has always got ahead by singing the correct career-
enhancing tunes,
as
witness his awful reporting from Russia in the
1
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
222
New
1990s. Art Spiegelman recently quit the
Yorker
,
remarking that
these dangerous times require courage and the ability to be provocative, but
alas,
That’s putting lackluster
of the
it
‘Remnick does not feel up to the challenge.’ far too politely. Remnick’s watch has been
and cowardly.
New
He
was an
Republic
also the current
is
25 of
last year.
one) of Goldberg, whose
earlier
major chunk of agitprop for the
sponsor (Marty Peretz
New Yorker was
Titled ‘The Great Terror,’
it
was
first
March
published on
billed as containing
was
disclosures of ‘Saddam Hussein’s possible ties to A1 Qaeda.’ This at a
moment when
party’s claim
of
a
the FBI and
CIA had
Mohammed
meeting between
intelligence agent in Prague before the 9/1
the day for the
Kurdish-held
Iraqi
Mansour Shahab, who about
liar,
The
fell
The
a
wealth of detail
same prison
in
Iraqis,
The coup de
Link.
on February 9 of this year
,
beyond doubt
Mohammed
piece was gratefully seized
Observer administered by Jason Burke,
visited the
was an interview
Goldberg
the administration as proof of
established
Goldberg saved
between Osama bin Laden and the
grace to Goldberg’s credibility
Burke
attacks.
town of Sulaimaniya with
shuttling arms and other equipment.
London
war
Atta and an Iraqi
16, 000-word piece
offered the eager
his activities as a link
upon by
the
Bush crowd.
At the core of his rambling in the
down
just shot
its
in the
chief reporter.
Sulaimaniya, talked to Shahab and
that Goldberg’s great source
is
clumsy
a
not even knowing the physical appearance of Kandahar, whither
he had claimed to have journeyed to deal with bin Laden; and confecting his fantasies in the hope of
Another experienced European the Continent, findings.
‘I
who
a
shorter prison sentence.
journalist,
whom
visited the prison last year agrees
talked to prisoners without
director of the prison
seemed surprised
authority present the interview
at
would be
someone
my
request.
I
reached on
with Burke’s present.
With
a
The
prison
worthless. As soon as
we
WAR ON IRAQ talked to this particular
“This
is
worthless.
journalist,
who
one
colleague said after thirty seconds:
a
The guy was just want
doesn't
misjudgement but
as
we
did and as
[the Kurdish
my even
are located.
It’s
stronger criticism
group
common
this area
that the
sense
200 meters
would
across
one
Finally,
I
hear that a
who would
New York Times
tell
though
for the Times to have tried to
adds:
‘It’s
to
think
are
what
of
all
it’s
us,
I
but
outrageous
reporter also concluded after
one
who
it
like I
— and
about
to hear
have not been able
would not have been surprising
check up on Goldberg’s
of experience
lot
was obviously lying
in
‘scoop.’
An
interviewing in prisons
tricky interviewing prisoners in the
vulnerability, etc
you they
Look where they
happen I
PUK about
]
river to Iran. That’s
Saddam and A1 Qaeda.
to talk to this reporter,
a
tell
you.
anyone would
say anything
A1 Ansar and Saddam,
American with
that if you talked,
ran that story.'
talking to the prisoners that there was
and
matter
a
of northern Iraq
PUK.
talk to generals in the
New Yorker
is
of them would
all
find upsetting. Misjudging a source can
Goldberg did
charitably
Shahab ‘could have been
group controlling
Iran, as
me
gather Goldberg did, to anybody in the
1
this particular Islamic
backed by
The European
a story teller.’”
to be identified, said to
that Goldberg’s credulity about
ot
223
responsible journalists
first
place
make some
—
their
sort
of
minimal credibility assessment before they report someone’s statements. But the prisoner said exactly
wanted
to hear, so
that the prisoner
On
February
Goldberg
was 10,
what
didn’t feel that he
Jeffrey
Goldberg
needed to mention
nuts.’
amid widespread cynicism about the admini-
special,
Remnick published another Goldberg ‘The Unknown: The GIA and the Pentagon take another
look
Al
stration’s rationales for war,
at
sions to
Qaeda and
Iraq.’
This 6,000-word screed had no preten-
being anything other than
a servile
rendition of
Donald
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
224
and then
a hypothesis,
Rumsfeld’s theory of intelligence: ‘Build
see if the data supported the hypothesis, rather than the reverse.’
In other words, decide
what you want
to hear, then torture the data
until the data confess.
This
piece of Goldberg’s was a truly disgraceful piece of
last
brown-nosing (of Rumsfeld, Tenet
as
retire the rubric, at least for
‘White House Handout.’
in Israel’s
political
devoid of even the preten-
independent journalism. ‘Reporter
sions of
should
et al),
armed
forces,
I
at
Remnick
Large’?
Goldberg, and advertise
his
work
should note that Goldberg once served
which may or may not be
a
guide to
his
agenda.
March
4,
WHY
LET FACTS
2003
STOP A
GOOD WAR?
by Alexander Cockburn
CounterPunch hears that the top 2,500 Iraqis have been getting
on il
their cellphones
down
they lay
trial
lor
their
war crimes.
US
trom
intelligence officers telling
them
One
seasoned
hand
Iraqi
calls
tells
us the
US
got screwed up.
predict prolonged resistance. Estimates ot the duration of any five
issue dated
war
of the season was the one
On
February 24, Newsweek ’s
in a recent
Newsweek.
March 3 reported
its
Few
significant story
that the Iraqi
defected from the regime in 1995 told destroyed
did
minutes to three weeks.
To our mind the most by John Barry
that
arms when D-day comes they may escape
the same thing in 1991, but that often the
range from
calls
UN
entire stockpile of chemical
weapons chief who
inspectors that Iraq had
and biological weapons
WAR ON IRAQ and banned
225
missiles, exactly as Iraq claims.
Gen. Hussein Kamel,
Saddam Hussein’s former son-in-law who defected and who was 1996, was debriefed by
killed shortly after returning to Iraq in officials
from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and
UN
the
UNSCOM.
inspections team,
Kemal
transcript of that debriefing.
words
Newsweek,
in
‘that after the
Barry got hold of the
told the inspectors, in Barry’s
Gulf War,
Iraq destroyed
all
its
chemical and biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them.' All that remained were ‘hidden blueprints, computer disks,
microfiches and production molds.’ secretly, in
The weapons were
order to hide their existence from inspectors, in the
hopes of someday resuming production
The CIA and MI6 were
finished.
reported, and
‘a
who
military aide
after inspections
On
into disclosing
still
UN
WMD
the
Cambridge University
that
Tony
thesis.
backed
stocks.’
But
FAIR
reports, a
complete
UNSCOM/IAEA
— was obtained by Glen Rangwala,
analyst
who
Blair’s ‘intelligence dossier'
Rangwala
Barry
inspectors’ in order
copy of the Kamel transcript — an internal ‘sensitive’
...
had
more.’
February 26, the media watchdog
document stamped
story,
Kamel
defected with
these statements were ‘hushed up by the
Saddam
same
told the
Kamel’s assertions about the destruction of
to ‘bluff
destroyed
has posted the
in early
February revealed
was plagiarized from
Kamel
transcript
a
student
on the Web:
http://casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf.
In
other words Bush, Blair and the
perfectly well
war stocks any nuclear
all
rest
of them have
known
along that there are no chemical and biological
to be found.
No
one seriously maintains
capability. Barry’s
ignored by the mainstream
tremendous scoop
press.
in
that Iraq has
Newsweek was
IMPERIAL
226
March
2003
7,
WHEN
CRUSADES
GOLDBERG DID BRAZIL
JEFFREY
by Alexander Cockburn
Goldberg
Jeffrey
the
is
New
A1 Qaeda, so succulent to the Bush crowd,
week.
No
continent
New
28, 2002, the
is
safe
from
and the United
States.’
It
Public Radio’s mind, and that
Hezbollah had long
Up
who
a letter of protest to
up shop
one journalist,
incredible that
that
Arabs are plotting to
and
come and
kill
‘The
in his
mind, National
in the ‘Triple Frontier'
who at
the time and wrote
who
has as his mainstay the
Jews and destroy America’s
visit Brazil just to
see if Hezbollah It
is
theme
‘interests,’
operating here,
was an impressive
feat
ol research actually.
Not only did Goldberg come up with what many
here thought was
far-fetched hypothesis
a
- could
the Hezbollah be
funding anti-Israel/US operations from the Triple Frontier? - but he proved that they are doing just this part ol
and
lines.
a slap in
Even the
that, all
by himself.
No
reporter in
the world has been able to find the slightest bit of evidence
along those
I’m
fairly
convinced that
his
claim
is
irresponsible,
the lace to the peaceful communities that exist here.
police,
who
of
region
lives in that
recalls:
he found ’em running rampant.
voila,
called
state, Brazil.
New Yorker,
It is
could
—
read Goldberg’s story
the
October
Operations in South America
and friend ol CounterPunch
part ol the year,
last
of the right-wing pundits’ minds
all
Argentina, Paraguay and Parana
A journalist
On
Goldberg piece
‘confirmed’
set
discussed here
I
his inventive pen.
Yorker published a
Party of God: Hezbollah Sets
whose work on
Yorker fantasist
monitor narco-trafficking, don’t see the
link.
WAR ON IRAQ
in
227
The CounterPuncher phoned the Ministry of Justice in Brasilia November and talked to the Justice Minister’s assistant, who
confirmed
that joint Brazilian,
police, including
undercover
Paraguayan and Argentine federal
forces,
had not found any evidence that
Arabs involved in narco-trafficking were laundering terrorist operations.
communities along the arrests that
WERE
There
were made post-September
10,
made
arrests
CD
triple frontier, for
the Arabs that were held were
March
some
1 1
piracy.
money
into
in these
Arab
But
all
of the
were minor charges, and
let go.
2003
A CIA ANALYST ON FORGING INTELLIGENCE:
WHOSE
DELIBERATE DISINFORMATION?
by Ray Close
There was
small but very important passage in
a
Elbaradei’s testimony
Mohammad
on behalf of the UN’s International Atomic
Energy Agency before the
UN Security Council last week that cries
out for further investigation:
With regard in
its
uranium
acquisition, the I.A.E.A. has
investigation into reports that Iraq sought to
Niger
in recent years.
provided by
Niger and
The Iraq
to
a
progress
buy uranium from
This investigation was centered on documents
number of states
Iraq for the sale
that pointed to an
agreement between
of uranium between 1999 and 2001.
I.A.E.A. has discussed these reports with the governments of
and Niger, both of which have denied
place.
made
For
its
part, Iraq has
that
any such
provided the I.A.E.A. with
a
activity
took
comprehensive
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
228 explanation of
its
Iraqi official to a
relations
with Niger and has described
number of
by an
African countries, including Niger, in
February 1999, which Iraq thought might have given
The
a visit
the reports.
rise to
coming from
I.A.E.A. was able to review correspondence
compare the form,
various bodies of the government of Niger and to
format, contents and signature of that correspondence with those ot the alleged procurement-related documentation. Based analysis, the I.A.E.A. has
experts, that these
on thorough
concluded, with the concurrence of outside
documents, which formed the
basis tor the reports
of recent uranium transaction between Iraq and Niger, are authentic. are
On
We
not
in tact
have therefore concluded that these specific allegations
unfounded.
Saturday,
March
8,
the Washington Post reported under the
headline ‘Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake’ that the documents in
question had been given to the
UN
inspectors by the British
government and ‘reviewed extensively by
documents were then forwarded government, an action
clearly
US
IAEA by
the
to
intelligence.’
The
US
the
implying that in Washington’s opinion
they constituted reliable intelligence.
A
similar
stamp of authenticity
must have been implied in the case of the British government’s actions.
Such
is
certainly the impression that
the United Nations recipients,
been ‘reviewed extensively' by
However,
alter the
experts’ that the
knowing
US
would be gained by
that the
documents had
intelligence experts.
IAEA determined through
documents were bogus, the
governments were reluctantly compelled
to
its
US
own
‘outside
and British
acknowledge
that they
had both been the victims of an elaborate deception operation.
unnamed
(but hopefully red-faced)
US
official
One
was honest enough
to
admit to Washington Post reporter Joby Warrick that ‘We
it.’
In a curious display
of unwarranted courtesy, an
fell
for
IAEA spokesman
WAR ON IRAQ
229
graciously informed the Washington Post that his agency did not
blame either Britain or the United
documents ‘were shared with
The
States for the forgery.
good
us in
faith,’
he
The
said.
following questions immediately occur to anyone with experi-
ence in the area of covert technical operations (‘Department of Dirty Tricks’),
The
and to everyone
else
with
a
modicum of common
fabrication of false documentation, especially
to be official
what purports
correspondence between the agencies of two different
governments,
is
a
major undertaking
for
any professional
ligence service or criminal enterprise. This
when
sense:
is
intel-
obviously most true
the perpetrator intends to accomplish an extremely important
purpose and so anticipates that
his
work
will
be carefully scrutinized
by competent experts. The job requires extensive and time-
consuming level
research, reasonably
of motivation.
It
advanced technical
such
as
deliberate fraud
this,
where the
would be very
Unless accomplished with quality of the
and
a
high
would not be attempted by anyone whose
intentions were frivolous. All of these factors in a case
skills,
documents
a
political
would be accentuated costs
of exposure of
high.
high degree of skill, the counterfeit
in this case
should have been quickly
obvious to the British and American intelligence services, and the contents dismissed immediately
however, according to the contained
‘relatively
The
Washington Post story, the forgeries
crude errors’ that gave them away. This clearly
points to one or the other of
a.
as a trivial diversion. Surprisingly,
two
possible conclusions:
technical services departments of MI6 and
reputed to be credible technical
rivals to the
sophistication)
are
in
CIA
KGB
and
fact
incompetent.
Israel’s
manufactured the forgeries themselves, they did
clumsy job.
On
the other hand,
(historically
if
Mossad If
a careless
for
they
and
they merely evaluated the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
230
documents
authenticity of the
a
as
means of determining
whether the information contained therein was valuable ligence for their
own governments,
equally appalling lack of professional
intel-
they obviously showed an
They
skill.
‘tell
tor
we
it,’
are informed.
b.
The only other explanation
that
can think ot
I
is
that the British
and American intelligence services, despite having figured out
documents were crude
that the
UN
to pass the information to the
that
torgeries, nevertheless decided
inspectors anyway,
knowing
IAEA
they would serve conveniently to mislead the
into thinking that this was
US-UK
documentary evidence supporting
made
claims that Iraq has
nuclear resources.
illegal
attempts to acquire
(Of course, intelligence Note
incredibly obtuse sometimes.
by the British that the famous
Cohn
glowingly praised by
services can be
the recent public admission
‘dossier'
of evidence against
Powell in
his
Iraq,
testimony to the
Security Council, consisted mainly of hearsay plagiarized from the
work
ot a California graduate student.)
Somebody evidence. before. life
It
The
has
it
has been
issues
and death
engaged
in the
criminal act of manufacturing
done once,
under consideration
tor perhaps thousands
despicable could a crime be?
And
it
may
well have been
yet our
done
of war and peace,
are matters
of people.
false
How much
government and
more
that
of
Great Britain seem more bemused than concerned. Shouldn’t
Congress be alarmed that our intelligence service, on which we are so
dependent these
days,
is
so
incompetent or so inured
corruption ot the national intelligence process
to the
as to tolerate
the
deliberate or careless introduction of false evidence into a process so critically important to our national security
and
to the credibility
WAR ON IRAQ United
231
Those responsible for this humiliating fiasco should be exposed and discredited — for the good of our country. ot the
The of
States?
Washington Post story
American
who
testament to the flaccid quality
also a
investigative journalism these days.
how
occurred to any reporter exactly
is
was
it
important
that forged the
it
apparently never
It
to
know
first
place.
would be
documents
in the
Here was an organized
effort to
disinformation to
two governments, and through them
at least
spread extremely significant
the Security Council of the United Nations, that might have
influence on a
momentous
Immediately,
Who
a
to
a direct
decision about war and peace.
host of other specific questions
come
to
mind.
were the ‘outside experts’ consulted by the IAEA
who
correctly spotted the falsity of the Iraq-Niger correspondence (and
exposed the incompetence of
Were they governments, or
whom
MI6 and
private
CIA in the process)? agencies? Where located? By the
controlled?
Elbaradei reported that these documents were provided to the
IAEA by ment
‘a
Any other governand American? Did ‘a number of states’
number of states.’ Very
besides the British
interesting.
UN
provide identical counterfeit documents to the representing those documents
as reliable ‘intelligence’?
inspectors,
Did each of
those states originally obtain the documents from the same source?
When
the information was passed by the British and Americans to
the United Nations, was the original source identified?
and the CIA claim the necessity methods’? (Wouldn’t
same
familiar claim
it
Or
did
to protect ‘sensitive sources
be interesting to learn that
was made? What would
that
do
MI6 and
in this case that
to the credibility
of other intelligence provided by us to the United Nations? This is
not
a trivial
question. If the United States
careless indifference or deliberate corruption
is
accused of either in
matters of this
import, what does that do to our reputation and to our image
as
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
232
‘leader
of the
free
world
?
Or
is
Brady Kiesling right —
it
only
matters that others fear our power?) It
would make no sense
non-
to suppose that a neutral or
governmental entity would go to the trouble and expense ot falsifying
documentation and then convincing
to deliver that
evidence to the IAEA. Quite
thinks about this intrigue, the
one was responsible
more obvious
‘a
number of states’
clearly, it
the
becomes
more one that
some-
for a deliberate intelligence disinformation
campaign targeting the United Nations with an aim toward padding the evidence supporting an is
a world-class
any definition.
Ray
Close was a
American—British
criminal act,
We
CIA
felony of historic proportions, by
a
should not
invasion of Iraq. That
let
analyst in the
it
be swept under the carpet.
Near East
division.
March 21, 2003
FOURTH-GENERATION PROTESTING: SHUTTING DOWN SAN FRANCISCO'S
DOWNTOWN by Scott
Handleman
Thursday, the day after the
start
of bombing, was the long-
anticipated day ot direct-action protest in San Francisco. For weeks,
the flyers were circulating from Direct Action to Stop the War, and
weekly spokescouncil meetings were held, alternating between San Francisco and Oakland.
The
Thursday morning seemed San Francisco's financial
decentralized planning paid
like
district.
Sunday morning
off:
in large parts
of
WAR ON IRAQ The most noteworthy
233
thing about this day of protest,
I
think,
was the effectiveness of the new strategy of protest by
small,
autonomous
clusters.
to report at 7 a
am
few minutes
A
I
midnight yesterday,
and Bryant
to 9th
late,
after
little
saw
honked
in
a call
freeway off-ramp blocked by debris and
a
Highway
Patrol officers
pushing back protesters and hauling the obstacles traffic
got
for legal observation. Arriving
large objects (old sofas, etc). California
hour
I
irritation.
while rush-
why some might
understand
I
aside,
were
question the nobility of blocking drivers from getting to work, far
from the
seats
of power that are the true
targets,
but what was
surprising was that, here in Police State America, a group of twenty to thirty openly created a fairly serious (though brief) disruption,
not
one got
a single
As the cops cleared the ramp and things
arrested.
started looking hot, the
crowd
Market, taking the wide
started
shambling up 9th Street toward
and chanting. This bunch,
street
was Queers Against Capitalism, marching under
Upon
and
a giant
incidentally,
pink
flag.
reaching Market, the militant queers took over the
intersection,
still
unbothered by cops. Meanwhile,
the intersection of Van Ness and Fell,
a
a
block away
at
small group had occupied
the intersection, linking arms in lock-boxes. Van Ness was silent as
Market.
A
block further on,
Franklin and Fell occupied. in
a
lock-box, and
felt
a
a similar I
group had the intersection of
fed a banana to a supine stirring in
my
young woman
subconscious.
returning to Market, the perambulating homosexuals had
Upon
somehow
taken over the major intersection of Van Ness and Market, and the
cops had
still
on bullhorn Bear
in
made no move directed, and the
mind
that there
to arrest.
‘Move
aimlessly,’ a
woman
group moved on.
were small numbers
at
each of these
sites.
The Queers had perhaps grown to fifty by this point, and the lockdown sites, counting the surrounding supporters, probably had less. Dispersal, and the simultaneity of many happenings, meant the cops’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
234
resources were spread thin; they were too busy clearing the
down
intersections to deal with the troublemakers
on
sit-
toot.
my bike down Market Street, empty of cars, encountered scenes. A sparse crowd, around twenty people, had taken
Riding similar
I
over 6th and Market. This was a guerrilla-theater group in costume, called
Dead Against War. Scary horse cops approached, and
group walked
the
otf.
At Montgomery and Sutter, in trout ot the Schwab building, another tiny cluster had taken the intersection, including locked down.
of the
street.
A
couple of fellows
This group included
lawn chairs in the middle
sat in
a
core group
a
hippyish contingent, joined in
soothing hum. But argument broke out between protesters and
a
an angry driver,
a
scene that
saw repeated several times today.
I
At Montgomery and Pine,
a
group of only seven persons
lock-boxes closed Pine on one side; on the other sat
on overturned newspaper
bins.
The
violation of the traffic law. walk,’ etc etc.
The mystery
side, protesters
At Montgomery and California,
another tiny group held the intersection. loads of cops arrived.
in
cop’s leader
1
waited while two bus-
came and
said:
‘You are in
am ordering you to move to the sideis why this group did not take advantage I
of their warning and walk around awhile to another intersection, in
conformity with the emerging principles of fourth-generation
protest.
This group
sat
Montgomery and
there and
let
themselves get arrested.
Clay, the corner
of the Transamerica Pyramid,
saw another blockading group, some in lock-boxes. Hay was mysteriously scattered in the street, a
warm
showed up and menacingly took out fill
I
plastic
trench plates with water.
talked to
Back
pastoral touch. its
A
firetruck
hose, but only used
They drove
it
to
away, protesters dry.
two white-collar onlookers, mildly sympathetic.
to Market,
surrounded by
where
a fairly large
a
group was locked down
in boxes,
crowd of protester onlookers (maybe
WAR ON IRAQ
235
100). Sparks flew copiously as the firemen cut through a lock-
box.
It
threw
was here
that
a glass bottle
didn't even
flinch.)
I
saw ugliness on both
first
which
hit a
Someone
sides.
cop square on the helmet. (He
A
Protesters booed.
of cops marched
line
From my perch high They walked around for
briskly into the crowd, and looked around. in a tree, a
saw the cops’ body language.
I
while acting unconvincingly
like
body, then the victim-cop pointed
they were in pursuit of some-
at a
and the cops went and grabbed him.
fellow standing on
I
did not see
bottle, but a legal observer later told
man who
got arrested.
threw the thing would view.
I
It
me
who
a
bench,
threw the
was not the young
it
stands to reason that the fellow
try to
who
blend away and not stand in high
think the cops just decided they had to punish and deter,
so better to arrest an innocent person
and show eye-for-an-eye
retribution.
(As they were pulling away their unfortunate victim, one of these cops backed into the misplaced bicycle of yrs truly and over; another cop
back
tire
somehow
fell
with him. This severely warped
and broke three spokes. Safe
in
my
tree,
fell
my
declined to
I
request compensation.)
Meanwhile, the lock-box extractions had been continuing - but the firemen did not break
open the box linking the
The cops dragged them off, still linked piggish move on their part, for it was causing
last
two
protesters.
together. This
was
those arrested
a
visibly to shout out in pain,
might do them I
continued
planters had
and looked
lasting physical
down
like the sort
damage.
Market, where Christmas trees in big cement
been dragged
to the
middle of the
newspaper vending boxes were overturned. At taking regular notes.
of thing that
It
street,
and many
this point,
I
stopped
was probably around 10 in the morning,
and anarchy reigned downtown. Unwarping
my
tire,
I
rode to the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
236
Federal Building; protesters had shut
vomit puddles
it
over the sidewalks.
all
Back downtown, Market remained and rowdy bunch on Mission
a large
so rejoicing in their
speakers.
We
went back
Old Navy was open
Street,
I
hooked up with
around
thousand or
a
Market
to
It
for
more
was 11.45 and
for business.
I
went
intersection facedowns
noticed, strangely, that
I
to Civic
Center for the
room and no one listened to the headed back down Market. At around
there was plenty of
rally;
Ready
speaker.
in chaos;
numbers, Spearhead blasting from bike-ferried
with riot-ready cops.
noon
down. Red, white and blue
for
home,
I
5th Street was a confrontation noteworthy because the cluster ot
perhaps 100 protesters consisted almost entirely of youth of color
(many of high-school
age).
From my observations good way
are a
to
go
to
today,
I
think that small, mobile clusters
make numbers have
their
The lmger-then-escape method of blocking ideal in that thrills
and
On
not.
it
a
frustrates
sense of defiance that a permit-obeying
saw
a certain
a lot ot graffiti
planning to
let
convergence
at
By ment
dignity and moral high
Hard
to picture
ground
Rosa Parks
pull a
1
is
.00
1
still
I
loose
and overturned newspaper
had at
a
racks, but
feeling the hard-core vandals
no
were
another time, perhaps after the 5
pm
Powell and Market.
had had enough of the noise and chaos.
bombing Baghdad, and
reflecting
on
Our govern-
that,
I
wonder
None of this is going to Stop the War. Of course, what will? The day of protest didn’t have to stop the war to be
what
a
march does
onto an off-ramp and scram.
smashed windows;
but
creates
It
the other hand, the cat-and-mouse confrontations of the
associated with the sit-downs.
I
effect.
intersections seems
cops and minimizes risk of arrest.
fourth generation lack
sofa
maximum
it all
good
means.
in itself.
Not freedom, but
defiance was in the
air.
People
WAR ON IRAQ were starring blend of
own
in their
human
nature:
cops and protesters
blow off steam.
alike.
237
movies, circumstances were revealing the
People got
a
chance to get together and
Last but not least, they sent a strong signal that
business will not be tolerated, not if that business
Handleman
Scott
among
people honorable and craven,
is
law student
a
Berkeley.
at
He
is
war.
can be reached at:
[email protected]
March 28, 2003
A ROAD
TRIP IN
WARTIME
by Daniel Wolff
My
thirteen-year-old son and
and back during the
Thursday, March
from
20
first
We
I
drove from
week of the
will see almost
local papers in the
towns we
pass
We
can bring
we
go, including the long stretch of
in
New
York
to
Memphis
war.
no TV, get most of our news through and from the radio.
National Public Radio stations almost wherever
Highway
81 that cuts south
through Pennsylvania Dutch country. NPR’s coverage of the war is
intelligent, exhaustive,
me
of the prose
in the
and very carefully modulated.
It
reminds
higher-end garden catalogues or on the
packaging of gourmet foods. The overwhelming impression a
smart person
is
talking; so
that they’re trying to
This
first
day, the
sell
much
so that
you
forget,
is
that
sometimes,
you something.
news
is
mostly about the war not going
according to plan. There’s been
tactical
bombing of Baghdad
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
238
instead of ‘shock and awe.’ that the military
journalists keep repeating
not following the script;
is
following the script; vvhat does the script?
NPR
The
mean
it
isn’t
they’re not
that they're not following
raining hard and the landscape
It’s
odd
it
brown and
is
gray,
except for the hex signs painted on the barns. In
Roanoke,
Virginia, there’s a peace vigil at the
downtown war
monument. Most of the people holding candles are gray-haired, but there are some teenagers, too. It’s the twenty- to forty-yearolds is
who seem
to
be missing.
probably mostly pro-war.
honks or waves
none of the
slabs
Still,
their support.
tells
about but one out of
There
are
no
hecklers,
no
live cars
police,
and
—
just thirty or so people standing
among
the
engraved with the names of Roanoke’s war dead.
Our motel
clerk
is
a
woman
black
in her twenties.
us in with a cellphone cradled by her ear;
war comes up
as
We
She checks
someone’s on hold. The
she hands us our key, and she
should get out ot there.
is
adamant. ‘We
got no business there.' Does she have
And we
triends serving? “Friends ot triends. It’s
us that, yes, the city
tingling sensation I’m used to at a demonstration about
to get dangerous
marble
A woman
not only clear to her, but
it’s
got no business there.’
a position she’s
ready and willing
to volunteer to strangers.
March 21 We’re below the Mason-Dixon
line
and climbing
through the mountains ot West Virginia to Tennessee.
My prejudice pro-war. On
Friday,
is
to expect the
empty
South
to
where cows
hilltops over the fields
otten erected three plain
white.
be adamantly and visibly
And
American
wooden
crosses, the
there are military bases
flags are
tew and
9/11. There are ‘Support
far
Our
yellow ribbons, but not many.
graze, the
all
middle one painted
through
between,
owners have
much
this area.
But the
fewer than
after
Troops’ signs here and there and
WAR ON IRAQ Bristol
where the famous
is
239
Bristol sessions took place: the
first
commercial recordings of country music including the Carter Family and the singing brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers.
Main
Street
Confederate
from the
side with
flags to the side
If
you
cross
the antique shops filled with
with the amateur geek show that
includes a chick with two heads in formaldehyde, you’re crossing
from West Virginia to Tennessee. Today, the and motorcycles pulling into town
trailers
streets are
for the
busy with
NASCAR
race
on Sunday.
On line
the Tennessee side of the street, there’s
a
repair shop with a
of antique jukeboxes, pinball machines, and some video games
in the
window. The owner’s
probably in
his seventies.
a
He
man with gray hair and glasses, how things are in New York. I’m
lanky
asks
cautiously non-committal: folks are worried. ‘I’m worried we’re
going to end up looking believe he’s said that store.
1945
He
He
he volunteers.
like Hitler,’
- not on
sunny Main Street
this
I
can’t quite
in this quiet
War Two: 1943
goes on that he served in World
in Italy,
in France.
understand
can’t
more blood
why
France
isn’t
supporting
us:
‘We
spilled
there than they got red wine.’ But he also doesn’t
understand what we’re doing there, and he’s most worried about what’s going to happen after
blaming
us, they’re
shakes his head.
packed with
tourists for the
among
We
back
at us,
and what’ll we
get to Nashville at dusk, and
NCAA
basketball game.
the well-fed and slightly tipsy crowd, there are
Colors Don’t Run' T-shirts. a
win. ‘Everyone’s going to be
to get
He
have gained?’ it’s
gonna want
we
shaved head
tell his
mean I’m a bigot.’ The radio tells us Hussein.
On
We
overhear
friend: ‘Just because
that the
first
strikes
a I
some ‘These
middle-aged man with have
this haircut doesn’t
may not have
the other hand, the video of
Here,
him on
killed
Iraqi
TV
Saddam doesn’t
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
240
prove he’s
alive.
The
local
paper profiles families with sons and
daughters in the military and editorializes for supporting the troops.
There
are also good-sized articles covering the antiwar protests
both
here and overseas. Nashville has the largest Kuwaiti population in the US.
Saturday,
We’ve been stopping
March 22
at little
where
the way, wandering through flea markets
their children’s toys, used clothes, old records.
Jackson, Tennessee, and the main street to
is
towns
Now, we drop
empty but
clean.
power
full
of stereo equipment,
It’s
into
hard
lots ol trailer
parks and small factories, and the car washes are busy. is
along
folks are selling
judge the economy from the outside, but there are
town pawnshop
all
The down-
guitars, toolboxes
and
drills.
NPR interviews various experts, from from think tanks, and they
retired generals to people
good news
agree on the
all
that the
troops are progressing faster than expected towards Baghdad.
Memphis and
are progressing to
afternoon to tour Graceland.
It’s
arrive there early a small
Tonight, outdoors, to a crowd of
and P-Funk play
comes ready
a
There
are
in the
house.
some
1,200,
long and inspired concert.
to party.
enough
We
George Clinton
The Memphis crowd
young white
professionals,
drunk
and feeling each other up; middle-aged black couples doing the funky two-step; here and there in place.
haired
a blitzed freak jumping
Clinton wanders out an hour into the
man who
As well
lets his
as singing,
dreadlocks grow
down
he seems most interested
on
sets
He’s a big, gray-
to his shoulders.
cueing the band, and signaling for solos from
the fifteen or sixteen musicians and singers
it,
set.
up and down
in the
who
drop in and out,
crowd’s hand clapping.
He
calls for
the beat, and then listens attentively, his sunglasses pushed up
his head.
It’s
as
it
the clapping were the true measure of the
WAR ON IRAQ music.
Among
will follow.’ is
many
his
chants
is
241
mind and your ass do that — to free people -
‘Free your
The power of the groove
to
apparently best gauged by hand clapping.
We
don’t
know how
get ready to leave
—
long the concert eventually
that way.
Brown
riffs,
but
A
Groove,’ and
— the
really
it
we
as
three and a half hours into the music
band bumps into ‘One Nation Under
seem
lasts,
does
P-Funk’s crazy-ass dream to unite us around fames
throaty girl singers and wailing guitar seems to have
worked. The open-air space just off Beale Street moves
one
as
kinky, thousand-piston machine. Clinton announces, ‘This
America,’ and
we
believe.
Sunday, March 23 West
Memphis, Arkansas,
physical manifestation of a hangover.
It’s
noon
at
cing barber shops and discount meat.
NPR’s
encing setbacks. Again, angry, that the assault
full
of
a
black
isn’t
experts
The
is
the exact
sleepy and
boarded-up yellow-brick buildings and hand-painted
of our own,
signs
flat
announ-
radio says we’re experi-
going forward according to plan.
Muslim
One
sergeant, has apparently fragged a tent
an army maintenance unit
with twelve missing or captured, and citizens in the southern
As we
with
seem mostly shocked, almost
his fellow officers. Iraqis capture
instead of
is
welcoming our troops
cross the Mississippi,
cities
are resisting.
headed back
east,
NPR
runs
a
long
piece on the history of Iraq. Asked what most surprised her in doing the research, the reporter says she wasn’t aware
how much Saddam
Hussein was created and supported by the US.
We
drive
many of the
up through Tennessee and into Kentucky.
It
sounds
like
captured and the dead are either from around here or
were stationed nearby. The parents of explain that she joined the
couldn’t find any
work
in
army
after
a
missing
woman
soldier
high school because she
her small Kentucky
hometown.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
242
In a motel run
cricket out
by
a Pakistani
couple (their daughter practices
We
on the driveway), we watch the Oscars.
count the
number of celebrities who speak either against the war or for peace. Then Michael Moore wins and begins his speech denouncing the and shouting
election results, shaking his finger into the camera,
Mr
‘Shame on you, offensive.
It’s
offensive. is
Moore
Bush'
I’m
a
as
what we’ve been
can’t quite
From town
seem thoughtful and
fit
war into
this
worried.
that picture.
And everywhere
it’s
man who
Part of
it
the
is
town, most of
to
quietly concerned.
the country to be a decent place, believe
liberals; they’re
ness.
no matter what.
seeing.
out.
reaction, but
looks big and soft and selt-involved: a
the people we’ve talked to
They want
my
surprised at
little
always talking about himself
contrast to
drown him
the music rises to
They
it
and
is,
aren’t ‘radicals’ or
there seems to be a sad-
There’s no sadness in Michael Moore’s speech, only Michael
Moore. *
Monday, March 24
A
long day’s drive through Kentucky and West
Virginia to Maryland. At
over to
some point
AM radio and get G. Gordon Liddy’s
ing his listeners on the right protesters in San Francisco.
the its
we program. He is
in the
He
way
dry
ot dealing
recalls
hills,
with approval how, during
building with machine guns. His rant seems
as
pitchforking sinners into hell
much
(a
and absolute
Now,
the radio says that the cities
Iraq aren’t actually secure.
ot
A
ot the art
is,
it’s
we had
defend
in
as
Morehead
bright red devils
brightly painted
fierce
as
scenarios:
to
out of place
Michael Moore’s was. The Kentucky Folk Art Center
Judgment Day
lectur-
with the antiwar
Vietnam War, the Justice Department was prepared
features a lot ot
switch
tire
filled
rim).
But
with humor.
captured in southern
sandstorm has slowed troops outside
Baghdad. Instead ot the single news event —
a
war —
it
has
WAR ON IRAQ become
a series
of complicated
to give their opinions, but
out of certainty.
The
stories.
experts are
still
eager
you can almost hear them running
been
hasn't
It
243
a
week
and the war’s gone on
yet,
too long. In a bar in Frostburg,
Maryland,
vision set while a sit-com plays
CNN
on another.
tends bar. All of her customers are men.
up they're
playing on one tele-
A
They
thin,
unsmiling
girl
about the pick-
talk
motorcycle they’re racing, the loan they’re
selling, the
trying to take out
is
on the house. One guy keeps feeding quarters
into the pool table, playing by himself and rolling his eyes at the ceiling:
once
‘I
ain't
been able
in a while,
when
people will look up
to shoot anything since yesterday.’
the announcer’s voice gets the news.
at
It’s
mostly
a clip
more
Every
insistent,
of two American
prisoners of war, repeated over and over. Occasionally, there’s a tank on
woman men look a
Draft beer
Tuesday,
son
a city,
and drinking.
fifty cents.
It’s
says. Instead,
New
stifling in the
their house,
we
eat
Jersey.
Pennsylvania Dutch family like old people,’
sandwiches by the bank of a stream
We’ve stopped
is
in
news
listening to the
books-on-tape ‘Spoon River Anthology.’
shifting to a
son’s favorite part
down
to talking
and we leave before ordering. ‘Smells
Bloomsbury,
much,
moment, then go back
March 25
restaurant,
my
is
over
But nobody’s bleeding, nobody’s dead. The
in a veil.
for a
a desert, lights flaring
My
where an old woman goes crazy and burns
dancing on the lawn
as
the flames leap up.
At home, we’re road-numb and glad to be back. We’ve covered
something close
to
2,500 miles.
Six days’ worth of emails includes lots of denunciations of George
Bush: pictures of him looking simple, jokes, messages from friends saying he’s various kinds of idiotic.
Maybe I’m just
tired,
but
I
skip
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
244
over
a lot.
which
to
The
hang
Daniel Wolff
president seems mostly beside the point: a face the country
a policy. It’s
lines
in
New
and
its streets,
talking about.
He is the author of You Send Me, great Sam Cooke, and Memphis Blues
York.
the acclaimed biography of the
Again, an exquisite
were
on
collection
of Ernest Withers photographs of
people and musicians.
Memphis
PART FOUR THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
WAR
March 31, 2003
US PROPAGANDA DURING THE FIRST TEN DAYS OF THE IRAQ WAR by Paul de Rooij
It
become much more
has
difficult to sell
wars these days, and the
propagandists are remarkably inept. Watching jarring shoddy propaganda that
is
immediately transparent. Marines
‘discovered’ a camouflaged chemical
CNN It
and
BBC
CNN or BBC reveals
weapons
factory, but then
revealed the source of the story: the Jerusalem Post.
was then distributed by Fox News. This was the
discredit the story,
which only
fabrication by the
March 25
lasted
two days -
story, elaborating the details
and saying
day
factory
later
CNN
— another
a
Scud
story with a half-life of a day.
It is
like
as a
repeating the
was
missile inside a
On March
were talking about finding 3,000 chemical protection proved something.
exposed
to
now proof (WMD).
that there
mentioned finding
way
meantime, one
CNN,
of the existence of weapons of mass destruction
fastest
later
Financial Times. In the
of the warmongering neocons appeared on
A
both
26, they
suits, as if this
smelling manure, and then claiming you
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
248
have found
a horse.
This story also
ex-UN weapons
only because Hans Blix, the pixel of first
few
Scud be
backbone
missiles (illegal
by the
under
it
inspector, mustered a
didn’t prove anything. Finally, the
Iraqis
UN
it
on Kuwait were intimated
to be
resolutions), but this turned out to
false too.
Jacques to
to state that
missiles shot
destined for the trashcan,
is
be effective
else.
One
book Propaganda
Ellul, in his it
,
states that for
propaganda
must have monopoly and drown out everything
of the reasons that propaganda doesn’t stick
at
present
is
many alternative information channels. CNN monopoly by any means; at an Amsterdam airport
that there are so
doesn’t have a
lounge recently, the waiting passengers rebelled and forced the attendants to change the channel!
The
become
Internet has also
a
very important alternative news source. Robert Fisk’s reports on
DemocracyNow he
is
a
or his columns in London’s Independent prove that
one-man propaganda demolition machine. Listening
reports from a clearer
Baghdad allows one
view
paragraph of
of
what
Fisk’s
is
to peer
through the fog, and obtain
happening on the ground. Every other
comments demolishes
yet another nonsense
statement uttered by Ari Fleischer and his
forgotten.
On
last a
The next
March
ilk.
The
hard task of
war has given way to a barrage of lies or tew days — thereafter they are immediately
selling or justifying the
semi-lies that only
to his
follow directly.
lies
26, a missile killed scores of civilians at a
Baghdad
market and wounded even more. Houses and shops were demolished.
The subsequent stream
of
propaganda
is
very instructive.
‘Must check what happened,’ to ‘Inevitably to ‘Likely that an Iraqi missile finally,
on March 28
it
was:
collateral
It
went from:
damage
occurs,’
was the cause of the explosion,’ and
‘It
was
a missile fired
Another market bombing on March 29
by the enemy.’
killing sixty-two-plus civilians
was immediately denied and blamed on the
Iraqis themselves.
Some
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR background may
historical
reveal the real reason for these explosions.
During the bombing of Serbia over Americans and the general a
the
Kosovo
staff were surprised
situation,
both the
because they expected
quick capitulation. Serious dissension grew within the ranks of the
then coalition of the willing,’ and pressure
on the Serbs
TV
even the
with
this
targets,
station (with
was revealed
that
was necessary
it
to increase the
to obtain their surrender. This
by hitting more military
it
249
then bridges, railroads, factories, and
some lame
most Serbian
bombing intensity, the
was achieved
justification). After the war,
factories
had been bombed! Even
Serbians didn’t yield, and
at this
point
the laptop bombardiers started targeting the civilian population, i.e.,
and simple terrorism
plain
Propaganda
remember
also
TV
the
through the
censoring things. Most Americans
entails
scenes where dead
US
of Mogadishu. Within
streets
of the word.
in the true sense
a
soldiers
week
were dragged
the US’s appetite
for that intervention collapsed.
Americans only accept clean wars,
only the ones that appear
video game. All the blood and gore
like a
must be excised, especially and Americans dead Americans
if
there
will not see this
is
blood of American
When
on TV.
elicited a vicious reply
it
soldiers,
A1 Jazeera showed
from the censors shutting
down
websites and hindering A1 Jazeera from broadcasting in the
US.
the
If
in Basra,
US
then
istan, the
finds out the coordinates
of the A1 Jazeera journalist
could be bombed. During the attack on Afghan-
this
bombed when
A1 Jazeera offices in Kabul were
reporting proved
awkward
to the
media spinners.
Bush’s practice session for his ‘war ultimatum’ speech was to Portuguese
American
TV
and
Italian
stations.
TV
audiences, but
it
was never shown on
as
at a safe
The media mouth firmly
a ‘statesman.’
spinmeisters prefer to have the president with his
and
shown
Perhaps the unflattering appearance didn’t
portray the monosyllabic president
shut,
their
distance from the media.
On
the eve of the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
250
impending war, they chose
from
to film the dear president
a
distance
on the White House lawn. The burden of worrying about the impending deaths and destruction required some
light distraction
by throwing some
his
balls for his dogs.
him, and they didn’t run
But wait, even he threw!
after the balls
dogs ignored
Maybe
it is
time
for a pet change.
The most important propaganda is
the reason to go to
the
war and
topic deserving
some
evolution over time.
its
warmongers uttered ‘regime change'
war. This was considered too crass, and
it
discussion
Months
earlier,
the
as a justification for
briefly
made way
for ‘Iraq
way
has links to terrorism,’ a very short-lived justification. This gave to
WMD.’ A
‘Rid Iraq of
UN
inspection team was set up, and
was clear from the beginning that
UN
didn’t lend
that
many Europeans sought
its
imprimatur
this
Once
the
and given the
fact
was meant
to justify the war,
it
to
fail.
continue the inspections regime,
to
Now, ‘Let’s liberate Iraq’ — ‘regime change’ — was concocted
then another justification was necessary. in
other words,
much
without
There
is
a
euphemism
for
reflection.
only one antidote against propaganda, and that
relevant sense of history and a strong collective
remember
the lessons from the past, and
happened even their
a
bloated
when
When we
when we remember what
tew days ago, then the job of the propagandists and
warmongering
ultimately
memory.
a
is
their
bosses
becomes much more
message
is
difficult.
It
is
challenged that war can be stopped;
armament budgets can be
pared; international law can be
upheld; and shallow mean-spirited politicians with blood-soaked
hands can be put on
Paul de Rooij
is
whole day glued mental health.
trial in
an international war crimes tribunal.
an economist living
to
He
theTV— is
this
in
London.
He
does not spend the
would have a detrimental
effect
grateful for all the snippets forwarded by
on anyone’s
many
folks.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
251
2003
April 2,
HATING WOLF
BLITZER'S
VOICE
by Bruce Jackson
I
have recently
hate
it,
but
now
TV
the only
Wolf
to hate
do. Before
I
performer’s voice
didn't hate
I
come
came
I
I
to hate
all
much how he was
saying
one of the few speechwriters
is
Wolf
Blitzer’s voice
the time.
speeches crafted for him by Karen Hughes
Hughes
didn’t used to
hated was George Bush's.
really
George Bush’s voice
saying, but not so
I
Blitzer’s voice.
I
it.
who
When
hated what he was
That’s because Karen
could get him to utter
words and phrases the way people normally utter them
- stopping little
where the
briefly
longer where
When
without Karen Hughes’s
he’s speaking
where
no reason
there’s
in English
or semicolon and
a
has a period.
it
script,
Bush
usually
with the caesurae coming
talks in four- or five-syllable bursts,
points
comma
text has a
he read
for a pause.
There
is
no
link
at
between
phrase and content, but he hits those dead stops and his eyes dart left
and right over
drives
me
phrases.
nuts, that dissonance
Watching and
the victim of some
everybody
is
still
has figured out
DJ give
smug born-again
that
a
disco
DJ
who
moving and then to
as if
there were.
Bush
is
being
like
when
keeps stopping the disk
starts
it
again before
go next. Neither Bush nor the
damn where you
are. It’s all in
anybody
mad
disco
terms of some inner beat
only they can hear, one that wouldn’t make sense to you even they told you about
It
between George Bush’s content and
listening to unscripted
mad
where
grin
if
it.
Wolf Blitzer’s voice
is
a lot like that,
only with him
it’s
the
punch
rather than the pause. Unlike Bush, Blitzer can utter an unscripted
and unrehearsed complex sentence.
He
can utter an unscripted and
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
252
unrehearsed paragraph. Wolf Blitzer
and
very intelligent, informed
a
man.
articulate
when
But,
is
on camera,
he’s
all
of
number of punches, no matter what
same elocution school but reversed the
same
every phrase.
stress in
would be
bars
would have
velocity, the If
I
were
a
It’s
like
irrele-
they went to the
polarity.
same
hysteria, the
musician scoring
perfectly regular, the
at least
Bush has
the substance.
vant silence; Blitzer has irrelevant punch.
Blitzer has the
have the same
his sentences
tempo
one fortissimo notation
same
triple
his voice, the
allegro or presto, in
and
I
every single measure.
Bam! bam! bam! bam! bam!
Wolf Blitzer like
like that in conversation. In
conversation he’s
you or me, with ordinary major and minor
stresses, inflected
and uninflected listened to
anyone
him
syllables,
a
and with phrases of varying duration.
few cellphone
take a
on
else’s
Bhtzer’s
not
is
cellphone.
on-camera
The
there too his voice
calls:
driving relentless voice
You’re
Wolf
That voice and velocity and
television voice.
maybe
thinking: ‘Well, Jackson, if you don’t like
voice you don’t have to turn on the TV.'
TV. Most of the time
ing
when go
my
at
I
I
Wolf
on the
have the experience of Wolf Bhtzer’s voice
desk elsewhere in the house. is
Blitzer’s
hardly ever turn
to the kitchen to get coffee or take a break
I
the kitchen. She
capable of sitting
at
My
from work-
wife likes to
work
on.
I
am
incapable of ignoring the images and voices.
into that kitchen
punch punch
in
any sense
at all
music; for
me
from the other part of the house
Wolf of
it's
Blitzer’s
his
like
voice before
words. For Diane,
I
I
I
a
I
hear the punch
get close
enough
suppose
it’s
pneumatic jack
TV
When come
somebody doing angry carpentry
apartment or someone working with
in
the kitchen table and reading
the newspapers, grading exams, or getting ready for class while the is
like
pattern belongs to his on-camera persona.
stress
only
is
is
I’ve
to
make
like elevator
in the next
down the block.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
I
became aware of
the newsreaders'
253
punching technique
movies. William Hurt’s character Tom Grunick to teach
to Albert Brooks’s neurotic
it
at
the
unsuccessfully
tries
Aaron Altman
James
in
L.
Brook’s Broadcast News (1987).
’And
try to
Grunick
punch one word or phrase
tells his
When
he’s
hapless friend.
on camera. Wolf
every sentence,’
in
‘Punch one idea Blitzer
is
matters not one iota what the story
Punch!’
a story.
punching
all
the time.
It
Sometimes the subject
is.
deserves punching: major awful things are indeed happening out there, halfway
around the world, where the holy war, the
jihad of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, just as often the subject could have aside.
It
Wolf
matters not:
the same
number of words,
is
being executed. But
been dealt with
Blitzer will
the same
fill
terrible
in
an uninflected
the time segment with
number of punches,
the same
passionate intensity.
A humvee went
off the road? a
one aboard? bombs destroyed for food?
a
Huey went down
market where
Rumsfeld and the generals
food and water are being offloaded
something to
say?
It’s
all
at
punched
civilians
say the
war
killing every-
were shopping is
going well?
an Iraqi port? the Brits have exactly the same,
it’s
all
of
equivalent value.
Cut
for a
few minutes
to the
commercials
(a
huge portion of
which seem
to be for garden or pharmaceutical products) or to the
guy back
CNN stateside HQ with a tabletop mockup of the war
in
zone, a pointer, and
Donald Rumsfeld imitation (‘You ask
a
at a
general
as his foil
press conference
me THAT?
or respondent, or cut to
doing
I’m shocked!
his
Claude Rains
SHOCKED!'), and
then cut back to Wolf Blitzer with those slightly-out-of-focus
Kuwait City minarets over never cut away.
bam!
No
his
shoulder and
it’s
as if
the camera had
matter what the subject: bam! bam! bam! bam!
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
254
While
punches away, headlines of disasters on the
Blitzer’s voice
and elsewhere crawl telegraphically across the bottom of
battlefield
CNN
the screen, along with the single constant in the
‘CNN
the phrase
the most trusted
name
there in the telegraphic crawl, as if
it
in news.'
It
universe,
down
appears
were the same order ot
tact
and deserved the same kind of belief as the number of dead reported just before
and the number of bomber
reported just
after.
And when
there
is
no new news
‘CNN Web
asks the
sorties
for a
flown against Baghdad
minute or so? Then
Blitzer
question of the day,’ which on Sunday was
‘What’s the biggest threat to Coalition forces in Iraq? Friendly
Weapons of mass write
down and
destruction?’ forgot. In
question subject to
one of
whom
a
There was
what world of sane journalism
vote by
members
didn’t
I
is
such
a
ot a television audience every
ignorant of every fact
is
a third alternative
fire?
at play?
Why
would
‘the
most trusted name
in
processing
computers, making charts and graphs of the
results?
in
it
Why
would
we
‘the
most trusted name in news' give currency
notion that people ot good will can vote on facts?
to the idiotic
Betore
its
news’ waste time pooling such ignorance,
got any answers, there was another cut to commercials
tor pharmaceuticals or
garden products,
after
which
Blitzer read
questions and emails from the audience with exactly the same stresses,
same
velocity,
same implication of significance he
battlefield casualties
earlier reported
and statements by presidents of nations and
leaders of armies.
There
is
no
difference,
no discrimination.
CNN
is
a
world of
equal-opportunity information. Facts and pooled ignorance, offthe-wall opinion,
Anyone who what
is
all
are equal in the carnival
of 24/7 reporting.
has ever taken high-school physics can recognize
going on.
It’s all
whatever container
it
about
gas.
A
gas will always
occupies. Put the same
expand
amount of
to
fill
gas in a
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
little
container and
only difference
no
big container and the gas will
a
The
gas couldn’t care
structural identity of
its
The
less. It
no shape, no form,
filled.
or four-minute
in his three-
has
own. The only shape comes from the
container, the space available to be
Jim Lehrer,
either.
fill
the distance between gas molecules and pressure
is
in the container.
255
summary
the top of
at
Newshour, provides just about everything you might have learned in a full
CNN
day watching
or any of its
minutes spent reading the day’s give you
a
briefs
competent
less
on the Guardian
A
clones. '
s
few
website will
wider range of far more accurate information and
much
a
wider range of informed opinion.
When
I
was carrying on about
where the
kitchen,
something, Diane
TV
said:
You're thinking the
entertainment. I
got
war
It’s
while ago
‘You don’t get
isn’t
news;
and
as
computer game, only
she’s right.
it.
For you, TV
is
CNN,
This
is
it’s
war it’s
entertainment. Get as
entertainment,
more
as titillation.
you don’t
passive because
as
good
another.
as
space between commercials.
One
fact
as is
things
exactly
another, one bit of videotape exactly as important
CNN
is
a
medium
in
which there
noise and information. All that matters
is
it’s
it?’
even get to fondle the joystick. Facts don’t matter except fill
the
information.
generation. For Blitzer and
it,
with which to
in
was on and Wolf Blitzer was talking about
wrong
CNN
this a little
as
no difference between is
that
ever-changing
eye-candy appears on the screen, voices you cannot ignore are heard, and you’re awake for the lawn product and pharmaceutical
commercials. I
hate
Wolf
Blitzer’s voice
not because of what he’s saying, but
because everything he’s saying exactly the
same
is
exactly the same, everything has
value. All those things are not exactly the
and they do not have exactly the same value. Some
some
are
unspeakably horrible, none
is
simple
same
are awful,
- and not one of the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
256
terrible facts in dispute will
be resolved or even clarified by
vote
a
of the well-meaning ignorant.
Bruce Jackson
SUNY
is
P Capen
Distinguished Professor and Samuel
Professor of American Culture at University at Buffalo.
He
Buffalo
edits
Report.
April 3,
2003
BAGHDAD: FAREWELL TO A CITY UNDER SIEGE by Jo Wilding
1
started crying this
convoy
morning.
and
for Jordan
Many’s the evening
said
I
1
thought
goodbye
1
was leaving
a bit,
out
at
spent setting the world to rights over tea
I’ve
leaning against
jets
when
got worse
‘Ma’assalama,’
who I
I
said
on the roof with Ahmed, looking
goodbye
young
to the
share their tea with us and
said,
and added,
couldn’t bear the thought of
as a reflex,
tell
‘Good
them having
soldiers
And
luck.’
then
to face those over-
body armour, with nothing but an aging
to protect
on the
jokes in mime.
whelmingly powerful tanks and guns and ammunition pierce
week
of flame.
street outside,
I
post
a
or, in the last
the city lights, or sometimes the lack of them, and the flashes
and the It
in a
to the staff in the Andalus.
and cake round the desk on the ground floor and
am
8
at
rifle
and
a
that can
hard hat
them.
Then when
all
the bags were in the car, there was a
the rest of the convoy
and leaving was the
left
last
without us and
I
thing in the world
mix-up and
wasn’t leaving after I
wanted
all,
to do, but by
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
my
then
had
257
defences had lapsed and the crater of sorrow inside
filled to
mother
WAR
the top and
overflowed with the tears of Akael’s
it
for her boy, writhing in pain, with metal in his head,
Nahda’s husband for
farmhouse, and
new
his
me and
wife, crushed in the rubble of the
the unbelievable, intolerable, uncontainable
all
sadness in this place.
Missing the convoy meant because he arrived here
at
I
got to say goodbye to Zaid,
the Service Centre just after
at least,
did.
I
He
looks tired — he said he hasn't been sleeping, because there’s nothing to
do
all
day:
no work, no money, nowhere open
the kids to play with because they’re staying
to
go
not even
to,
somewhere
else.
There’s been no chance today to go and catch up with the people
we met Akael’s
yesterday in the hospital and find out
mother rebounds around
wound be shallow. The bombing is stereo with All
is
no
a
my
how
they’re doing.
thoughts. Please
constant background noise today,
head
let his
a
rhythm
in
visible source.
playing
a
game on
the
computer involving tanks
firing
missiles at things in a city. Wasn’t that a bit too close for comfort, I
asked, or was
in the
The
it
simulator practice in case he needed those
coming weeks? He thought kids in the Fanar Hotel
basically a
that
skills
was funny.
were playing Risk the other day -
war board game, where
players invade each
other’s
countries and try to take over the entire world with small plastic pieces. It
War
will
is
deeply strange.
probably be
to read this, but I’ve
a
while before any of my friends
when you
met you and had time
friendship, for glasses
do, this to
is
what
I
wanted
to
in Iraq are able say.
I’m so glad
hang out with you. Thank you
for
your
of tea and numi basra and coffees and nargilehs
and songs and chat and gossip and tours of the
city
and evenings by
the river and rollercoaster rides and shared secrets and everything.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
258
I
hope you make
through
safely
it
war and
this
US/UK
your freedom, from the bullying ot the
government;
I
hope you
are allowed
I
hope you
find
and the
Iraqi
your peace. Your courage, your
your kindness and humor inspire me. Ma’assalama.
dignity,
Jo Wilding
is
a British peace activist from Bristol.
2003
April 5,
WAR MEANS
(ALMOST) NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY by Joanne Mariner
It
may
reflect a purely
perhaps
a
more
calculated apprehension of what
dubbed the ‘Al-Jazeera and suffering in Iraq world.
humanitarian concern for
Whether
effect’
—
civilian
life,
or
commentators have
the fact that images of civilian death
will further inflame
an already angry Muslim
for altruistic or strategic reasons, or a
combination
of both, President George W. Bush has repeatedly promised that
US
military forces will take
number all
all
necessary steps to minimize the
ot civilian casualties in the Iraq war.
‘I
want Americans and
the world to know,’ Bush declared in a radio address
that
US
civilians
and
allied forces ‘will
effort to spare
innocent
from harm.’
But President Bush and edged
make every
on Saturday,
his
top military brass have also acknowl-
that civilian deaths are inevitable.
heavy bombardment, careful reliance
is
a city
Baghdad, currently under
of some 5 million people. Even with
on precision-guided weapons, any mistakes made
during the ongoing ‘shock and awe’ bombing campaign could be
lethal.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR Questioned about possible start of hostilities in Iraq,
civilian deaths
259
not long before the
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer
explained that they are an inevitable consequence of war. But, he affirmed, ‘The President will regret any action that
does lead to
loss
of innocent
Fleischer's note is
a telling
taken that
life.’
of sympathetic regret
armed
conflict.
is
worth examining,
US
and accurate indicator of the
to civilian deaths during
is
for
it
government’s approach
Unquestionably, the govern-
ment would
prefer to
wartime.
has even instituted certain preventive measures to help
achieve
ment
It
this
end. But
minimize the number of civilians
when
them
in
fudging by past practice, the families of should not expect
during
do occur, the govern-
civilian casualties
rarely accepts responsibility for
killed
any meaningful way.
civilians killed in Iraq
or compensation, or justice.
official apologies,
Nor
US government will expend significant effort investigating why and how their relatives died, or conducting a systematic assessment of how to prevent such deaths in the future. should they imagine that the
THE US RECORD
ON
Official apologies can
extended
OFFICIAL APOLOGIES be understood
damage caused and,
perpetrator.
But the
this first step.
the
first
step
on
a
more
of assuming responsibility for American errors or
scale
wrongs. Beyond apologies the
as
US
lies
in
the possibility of compensation for
some
instances, sanctioning
government
is
of the
rarely willing to take
even
Indeed, in past incidents involving civilian deaths,
even extremely high numbers of deaths, the government has been notably unapologetic.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the most example. More than fifty years later, peace activists persist so far
unheeded
has the
calls for
an
official
glaring in their
apology and compensation. Nor
government ever apologized
for
any of the atrocities
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
260
committed by in
US forces in
Vietnam, including the
which hundreds of innocent |ust
before he
left office,
regret about a massacre village
No Gun
of
were hiding under
number.
‘I
Gun Rif
civilians
were
killed.
President William J. Clinton did express
committed during the Korean War
Ri, in which
US
troops fired
on
a railroad bridge, killing a large
deeply regret that Korean civilians
Clinton
My Lai massacre,
at
civilians
but
the
who
unknown
lost their lives at
No
said.
But the wording of Clinton’s statement was
telling.
Expressions
of regret, in international currency, are not entirely equivalent to
While they indicate sorrow
apologies.
that an incident occurred,
they lack the acceptance of responsibility implicit in
a full
apology.
Unsurprisingly, South Korean groups have continued to press the
US government for No Gun Ri
to
assume responsibility and provide compensation
and other wartime incidents.
Besides the precise wording of an apology, the form in is
made
is
also
viewed
it
meaningful. Formal written apologies,
as
preferably hand-delivered by
carry
which
much more weight
a
personal envoy of the head of state,
than informal, verbal expressions ot
repentance. Squabbles over such differences, in addition to intense attention to wording, have been
much
in
evidence during the
acrimonious debate over Japanese apologies for crimes committed against Koreans
SOME
and Chinese during World War Two.
CIVILIANS
Were one
to
COUNT MORE THAN OTHERS
judge by recent experience, one might conclude
besides American deaths, the
deaths
as truly significant.
By
US government only registers Chinese a clear
openly apologetic response to accidental
occurred
bombing
in
ot the
May 1999
that,
margin, the government’s most
civilian
casualties
Chinese embassy
was with the
in Belgrade,
which
during the US-led war on Yugoslavia.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
The embassy bombing, killed,
drew
incidents.
in
261
which three Chinese
civilians
more deadly
greater official attention than other far
Although
a total
of about 500
were
civilians
were
killed
during
the conflict in Yugoslavia
- indeed, 73 Kosovar Albanians died
single incident in April
1999 — none of these deaths merited
in a a
reaction remotely comparable to that of the embassy bombing.
President Clinton personally apologized for the embassy
ing just days after
happened, and
it
was unequivocal:
‘I
leaders of China,
I
want
this time, for
to say to the
once, his wording
Chinese people and to the
Members of Congress,
apologize.'
bomb-
too,
imme-
diately introduced a concurrent resolution expressing Congress’s
and apologies’ for the bombing, and extending
‘regret
its
‘deepest
sympathies and condolences to the Chinese Government, citizens,
and families of the bombing’s
A US
spy plane’s collision with
not happen during military
example of
China a
victims.’
US
a
Chinese plane, although provides
hostilities,
when good
willingness to apologize
are at risk. In April 2001, after a
Chinese fighter plane, resulting
ambassador to China delivered
a
in
US
more
a
it
did
recent
relations with
aircraft collided
with
the pilot’s death, the
US
personal letter of apology to the
Chinese authorities. ‘Both President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have expressed their sincere regret over said. ‘Please
Wang Wei
convey
that
we
your missing
to the
pilot
and
aircraft,’
the letter
Chinese people and to the family of pilot
are very sorry for their loss
.
.
.
We
are very sorry
the entering of China’s airspace and the landing did not have verbal clearance.’
No
Chinese were
killed
during the US-led war
but plenty of Afghans were. According to
Global Exchange, an international
Afghan
civilians
were
killed
human
a
in
Afghanistan,
survey carried out by
rights group, at least
824
during the US-led bombing campaign
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
262
between October
2001, and the end of January 2002. (The
7,
researchers emphasized that their survey
-
it
far
is
from comprehensive
covered only ten of Afghanistan’s thirty-two provinces - and
that the actual
number of
deaths
single incidents
of the war,
in fact,
ended, and
after the study
were winding down. including
a
On July
number of
wedding party
1,
One
higher.)
may have occurred
valley, a
were
mid-2002,
in
military operations in the country
approximately forty-eight
children,
were
an
killed in
come
Afghanistan
killed in
American bombing
civilians,
air assault
Most
to an end.
February 2003, Afghan authorities reported that civilians
ot the bloodiest
Nor
southern province of Kakarak.
in the
civilian deaths in
US
as
is
on
a
have
recently, in
at least
seventeen
Baghran
raids in the
remote area of southern Afghanistan.
None of
these incidents resulted in
presidential apology,
a full
although President Bush did say that he called Afghan President
Hamid
Karzai on the telephone after the mistaken attack in July.
His statement oi remorse, bland. ‘Any time innocent
if
you can
lite is lost,’
call
Bush
told Karzai, ‘we’re sad.'
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s equally feeble. life,
While
stating that
States
stab at apologizing
he regretted the
he added that ‘bad things happen
United
was studiously
that,
it
in
had ‘no regrets about going
combat after
loss
was
of civilian
zones,'
and the
bad guys.'
COMPENSATION AND PROSECUTION With apologies
tor the killing
of civilians being scarce,
unsurprising that compensation for such killings the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators
The 1999 Chinese embassy bombing, resulted in substantial
building and tor the sation has
US
been extremely
But other than
rare.
is
even scarcer, and
scarcer
still.
always the exception,
compensation both
loss ot life.
is
is
it
for the
damage
this incident,
to the
compen-
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
While
is
it
members
CIA
believed that the
263
gave $1,000 cash to family
of Afghans killed in a mistaken attack that took place in
January 2002, the war’s other mistaken
went uncom-
killings
pensated. Global Exchange, the organization that conducted the
study of Afghan civilian deaths, has been pressing the
ment
compensate Afghans
to
but so
far
its
in the
US
govern-
amount of $10,000 per
family,
appeal has been unsuccessful.
Even the most negligent
killings
almost never lead to the successful
criminal prosecution of responsible
members of the
of incidents that resulted
numbers of
in large
military.
A review
civilian deaths
When
that charges rarely reach the court-martial stage.
shows
they do,
moreover, the defendants are nearly always acquitted.
While
civilian casualties
may be
an inescapable fact of war,
it
is
apparently not one that the Pentagon has any real interest in
examining. As former deputy
assistant secretary
of defense Sarah
New
Sewall pointed out in an op-ed recently published in the
Department of Defense has never undertaken
York Times, the
systematic evaluation of
its
a
record in preventing civilian casualties.
Indeed, the military does not even officially tabulate the numbers
of
civilians killed in
This studied concern.
damage
And
it
each war.
ignorance belies
official
official
expressions of
the government’s failure to take responsibility for the
wreaks on
civilian lives
the words of an Afghan
American bombs. As he
is
equally disappointing. Consider
man who
much of
his
family to
told the Los Angeles Times
last
year:
lost
k
We
thought the Americans were good people. But they just drop their
bombs and
leave.
They
don’t explain.
They
don’t apologize.
They
An
earlier
don’t even offer to pay for what they did.’
Joanne Mariner
is
a
human
rights
version of this article appeared in
lawyer based in
Find Law’s Writ.
New
York.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
264
April 7,
2003
EGO, CRUELTY
AND
LIES
by Diane Christian
CNN
ran an elegiac piece on April 5th called ‘The
Baghdad.’ Among other stories
it
included one ol
crowd
town surrounded by
diers
watched uneasily and uncomprehendingly
and
called out at
them. The voiceover
ted by a religious leader, but the
vented anger or anguish to kneel
down and
to turn their
and calmed everyone.
The
line
from
at their
It
took
Isaiah that
said the soldiers
presence.
The
The
sol-
people gestured
had been invi-
crowd hadn’t known
and
just
soldiers' response
was
this
weapons upside down. This quelled
my
we
as
to
soldiers in an
yelling angrily at them.
Iraqi
a
US
Road
breath away and
made me
cry.
can beat our swords into plowshares
and our spears into pruning hooks
is
inscribed on the wall ot the
United Nations. The text goes on to predict that man can come to not learn war any more.
Can war make peace’ suggests?
or rationalizing.
I
peace,
as
Saint Augustine’s ‘the purpose of
presume the
How
could
fucking for virginity — protesters chanted?
Is
saint isn’t cynical
it
and
war
is
just spinning
be that fighting for peace
isn’t like
wrong tactic, as the Vietnam required method to destroy a war-
the
i.e.
war the
Or is war the required pain that precedes the relief which comes when you stop banging your head against the wall? Or is it a mystery which can invoke its opposite - soldiers kneeling down maker?
and lowering
their
weapons? Christ and Gandhi and King preached
peace and got assassinated I
search the
for bits
dangerous people. Everybody
dies.
of worry and self-consciousness — loving
who fears his wife will think of him as a killer, applauding officer who told the Marine to take down the American flag
the soldier the
news
as
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
as
we're not in Iraq to conquer but to liberate. In our wars pictures
show
soldiers fighting, suffering
sharing child. is
265
a
smoke with
What you
wounded enemy
a
have to buy in
—
the necessary tool
and handing out candy to
a
or carrying
war scenario
like surgery. In this
is
We
are destroying a
wounded
a
that destruction
war we boast
even more surgical and precise in our targeting than Gull War.
kids, or
were
that
in the 1991
regime of bad people, not the good
people they oppress.
We
see fireworks
we
coverage but
of destruction.
more than rubble and body
much human damage
don’t see
‘Iraqi
Freedom’ may seem
less
We
parts.
or the dark side
sanitized than the wars
where no photo of wounded or dead was permitted, but even more sanitized because
warn
war
us that
‘off-scene’
- which
war
is
the
is
we
cruel, that
really
it is
show more. The
generals
regret
are anxious to protect us
all
from
dramatists too insisted violence occur
literal
meaning of ‘obscene.’ Ted Koppel
Jack Nicholson movie general
stand to see
show
isn't pretty, that
The Greek
the real scene.
a
claims to
But they and the networks
casualties.
quoted
it
24/7
see
who
sneered ‘You can’t
and Ted opined we could and promised he would
it'
us.
Nobody
admits to feasting on the drama
and guts and
thrill
political leaders
perform
humanity, national
Baghdad
Human
is
rituals
piety.
to loving the
Our media
blood
priests
and
pretending objectivity, detachment,
That beautiful
moment on
the road to
not war but peace, packaged into the story of war.
history
approaches
of vicarious danger.
—
it.
is
a
TV
tragedy of ego and cruelty and
news
is
a
soap - neither the
real
lies.
Only
thing nor
art art,
just entertainment.
Diane Christian at Buffalo.
is
SUNY
Distinguished Teaching Professor at University
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
266
April 8,
2003
SAVING PRIVATE LYNCH:
HOLLYWOOD AND WAR by
I
Doug Lummis
have been hearing
the Heroic well.
Rescue of Jessica Lynch.
But the reports
First,
only have radio, no
(I
raise
doubts
Bless her soul,
I
hope she
gets
various levels.
they say her arms and legs were broken. Hard to think ol
an accident that would do
GIs where she was.
If
wounded, and
all
What seems
they had been killed in the battle, the Iraqis
is
result
they were
and Jessica’s broken limbs,
of the Heroic Rescue. in a rescue
the captors see that rescue
attempt
coming, they
is
than have them taken away. If
when
Maybe
to the hospital.
that those deaths,
one of the dangers
died just
there were eight or nine dead
died of their wounds, but that sounds unlikely.
likely
were the indirect
And
that.
all
would not have dragged them
that
at
TV) over and over about
It’s
like that
kill
it
that
when
turns out that the eight or nine
it
was the rescue that
Second, to what extent was
is
sense
the prisoners rather
the rescue was taking place, that
strong evidence that
common
this
killed
would be
pretty
them.
Heroic Rescue designed
as a
media event?
Nothing new assault
in that:
on Mount Suribachi
just the flag-raising, but the
Corps media event. was
also a
been pretty well proven
has
it
at
I
wo
whole
If it turns
Jima
assault)
in
World War Two (not
was largely
a
legs will
be something that the
be hard put to explain (not that
and breaking).
US Marine
out to be true that the Heroic Rescue
media event, then the eight or nine dead and
broken arms and
that the
I
absolve
US
Ms
Lynch’s
planners will
whoever did the
killing
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
Which Vietnam told
went
leads to point three.
vet
who
turned
One
pacifist
heroes, Allen Nelson, a
and comes
me
me: ‘You know what surprised into
my
of
267
Okinawa
to
the most the
a lot, first
once
time
I
combat? [long pause] There was no music.’ For us
moviegoers and
TV
by music.
the music that gives
It’s
viewers, war
is
something its
it
battlefield,
no music. But now on Fox and
radio, the
music has been restored.
I
all
is
accompanied
dignity.
But on the
that
the crap
get musical
I
get
on the
background
to
Bush's speeches, music between battle descriptions, music backing
up Central
The
Command
briefings. This
advocates of the
Roman Empire
New
is
a
movie.
American Century
talk
about the
we don’t do the Circus: battles to the death as entertainment. But now listened to (and guess people with TVs it has begun. Today watched) a live battle in which people were killed. You could see as a
model, but
I
had been thinking,
I
I
dead and dying bodies on live (live-to-dead?)
at least
real time.
entertainment
With music. After experiencing like this,
can
we hope
that the
viewers will be willing to go back to ordinary sitcoms?
Douglas Lummis
is
a political scientist living in
Radical Democracy. Later It
on,
Lummis
’s
Okinawa and
instincts
were entirely confirmed.
turned out that the whole ‘rescue’ had been contrived as
was not guarded; the hospital the
US
troops in the
staff had tried to return
unguarded hospital was
the author of
violent.
US PR: the hospital
Lynch; the behavior of
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
268
2003
April 9,
NEW YORK TIMES AND
THE
THE PEACE
MOVEMENT by Susan Davis
We
remember that the antiwar movement has done something, and become something, remarkable. It’s an international movement that has made it impossible for many otherwise supportive It
need
to
governments
to join the coalition of the ‘bribed
much of
brought
the world to a halt
and the
bullied.’
on the day the bombing
began, in huge demonstrations, strikes, school walkouts and disobedience.
It’s
also
civil
time to recognize that the Bush admini-
and isolating the
stration has a great deal at stake in containing
domestic influence of the antiwar movement.
So
take a look at
let’s
There
was, on Saturday
it
page of section B.
Wild-Eyed is
It
was
one particular
March
titled
to Civil,’ by Kate
not the worst
article,
29,
New
York Times article.
below the
‘Antiwar
first
Movement Morphs from
Zernike and Dean
not the best
on the
fold
article,
but
it
E.
was
Murphy. This a
major piece
of reporting, and one of the few by the mainstream media, which in general has frozen the
until recently.
A
are five
movement out of serious coverage
major points.
piece of conventional wisdom: the antiwar
first
failed,
Here
antiwar
because
it
failed to stop the war.
Second point: the antiwar movement lized, at
than
its
earliest, after
September
1
1,
is
mobi-
relatively recent,
2001 Therefore .
it is
wider
deep.
it is
Third
pillar of
wisdom: antiwar movements
ments — and limited to protest Protest
movement
is
an entitlement in
a
are protest
move-
only, in the politest formulations.
democracy,
as
long
as
it
doesn't
,
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
269
threaten to change anything.
Fourth wisdom, encapsulated in the headline: the antiwar move-
ment was wild-eyed,
—
has been mainstreamed
manners has been contained, because
a sensible
a threat to
antiwar
good
movement
will try not to offend anyone. In order to appeal to the majority,
you must not offend anyone. Fifth
wisdom: the antiwar movement
is
now
being run from the
down (big sigh of relief), once again by responsible people. It’s made up of mostly white peaceniks, guided by large organizations top
with public relations consultants, and with other so-called labor,
and
Now,
I
failure.
civil rights
think
We
it’s
it
only connects tangentially
groups.
a great
movement
error to consider the
have done something remarkable.
international
organized
‘interest groups’ like the religious,
movement
that has
made
it
much
have been for the Bush administration to act
We
thus far a
have built an
harder than
militarily.
might
it
We
built a
movement before the local and national media took very much notice at all. And this was in spite of insistent mass media celebration - on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, to name only television - that for fully six months made war seem inevitable. It is true that prewar, antiwar
the attack on Iraq had been planned long before September
but
it
was never
inevitable. Popular pressure
delayed the attack, forced more and
1
1
,
2001
from below delayed and
more spin-doctoring and
manufactured evidence, and brow-beating and arm-twisting. As result,
the shifting and specious arguments for the war
and more implausible, and the war’s
more naked. The
real, if
a
became more
mixed, rationale became
international antiwar resistance and mobilizations
gave voice to skepticism and sentiment that already existed, and they fanned those sentiments. held back, and
may
still
The
hold back,
resistance a
may
very well have
further push into Iran.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
270
The
lack
of cooperation from Turkey
resignations of
Labour
MPs
George W. Bush
all
There
was are
a very,
in the world,
very bad idea,
many more
examples,
of them unprecedented, and largely unrecognized by the
voices that
we
have almost always to listen
Second: that the antiwar at
listen.
in Great Britain.
Muslim country
largest
that this adventure
and George W. Bush had to
an example. So are the
and cabinet ministers
The premier of Indonesia, the told
is
most two.
activists
It
to think
in terms of future ins,
panels
1
and
But last
in the last year, or
September
11,
2001, peace
and citizens began to meet to discuss what might happen,
and then
1,
to.
movement emerged
true that following
is
official
through what
US
policies,
at universities,
vigils as well.
there’s
been
a
a
war
in
Afghanistan might
mean
and the prospects lor peace. Teach-
began immediately following September
These were reinvigorated
in the last year.
long continuity of activism to draw on
in the
decade, again largely under the radar of the mainstream media.
The networks of independent media and Internet activism that the antiwar movement draws on grew out of the anti-globalization movements that became visible in Seattle. But they also drew on the
knowledge and activism of the Anti-Nafta campaigns of the
early 1990s, the
movement
tor redress for the veterans
Gulf War, the American victims of which may number
of the as
first
many
as
100,000 sick men, the anti-sweatshop movement, the living wage
movement. These movements — and argue about their
size
future historians will have to
and connections — have educated
of young people about the United
States' political
a
generation
and economic
The last time this happened was with the Central American solidarity movement in the 1980s. And then there are the efforts of pacifists like Voices in the Wilderness — which relationship to the world.
have been part of years.
It’s
a
movement
notable in the
protesting the sanctions
New York
on
Iraq for
Times recent coverage of peace
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
name of
demonstrations that the
be mentioned.
A
continuous.
It’s
Voices in the Wilderness cannot
because their
radicalism
pacifist
base was there to draw on, and
it
deeply moral positions, rather than strategic or
Third point — and
wisdom would
my most
really
like the
disagreement, safely cordoned dissent
visible
as
movement
that
is
One
is.
off. It’s
How has
done
- but without
all
to be just protest, just as
important
of the big successes of the antiwar
this?
effort to
from the
make
in the
official sources, in
war seem
the
—
inevitable.
Certainly the Internet has been important
the networks laid
so powerfully informational to put
down,
there
would be nothing
on the Internet except
for the
The Internet has absolutely been key, but so have hundreds, maybe thousands of small groups meeting around the
same old the
tactical positions.
has been able to influence the media
it
enormous
it
deep and
usually spoke from
not just protest,
face of unrelenting propaganda blitzes
the face of an
is
important. Conventional
movement
antiwar
271
stories.
country to
about the war and
talk
the United States. Talking about
it,
its
meaning
sharing information about
press. In that
But
also
which
different perspective than the
of the
local
paper to cover them real local
ing demonstrations position news.
the media.
—
They
conglomerate chain media - forcing the at
the
same time
embodied
that they are
media — organizing and
working
faithfully attend-
made the antiwar make the connections
these local activists have also
worked hard
between the war and terrorism
apparatus
US
by writing position papers, flyering, cracking open the
hard to produce
clear
much
way antiwar groups have been
editorial pages local
gives a
it,
news from the
digesting the news, and especially digesting the foreign press
of
for the future
in the
USA
at
to
home, with
Patriot Act,
and the
its
repressive
assault
on
Iraq.
Taking up the space both physical, with demonstrations, and informational, with letter writing and editorial writing, the antiwar
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
272
movement American
The
has
fact that all
movement
for re-democratization ot
a
over the country and here in Urbana we’ve been
corporate-sponsored pro-war campaign, orches-
by radio station chains
Coca-Cola, means This
a
society.
responded to by trated
become
we
that
like clear
channel and sponsored by
really forced ourselves into the picture.
serious business.
is
More wisdom from become mainstream.
let’s
make
the
York Times:
movement
has broken with International
It
sectarian original organizers
organizers,
New
the
(who were not
has
Answer and
its
the movement’s original
the distinction, but were organizers of mass
The problem according of Win Without War - was
- and
demonstrations).
to the Times
the leaders
that the antiwar
certainly
movement
connected the impending attack on Iraq with supposedly unrelated domestic
issues like the
death penalty, the case of
and racism, and other international in
Palestine.
crises,
such
In other words, the smaller,
as
Mumia Abu Jamal the war under
more
radical
way
and
less
generously funded antiwar groups insisted on connecting state violence,
government authoritarianism and the
Palestinians, racism at
home and
But more importantly, the
abroad, with the assault
rest
Israel,
such
on
as a racist
connections to the United
as
Iraq.
issues as
war, they continuStates'
support for
they see the connection between barbaric practices
This
at
home,
the death penalty, and barbaric histories abroad. is
what the pro-war party means when
movement war
its
war on the
of the world sees these
connected — they see the war on Iraq ously point out
Israeli
is
‘anti- American':
in light ot the
it
means
it is
it
says that the
peace
willing to consider the
broader picture of American relations abroad,
many of which
have been moral outrages.
in the so-called
mainstream that the heart of the antiwar
It is
many movement
infuriating to
recognizes Arab rage over the nuclear arming of Israel and
US
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR support for
policies
its
toward Palestine.
the so-called political mainstream that
edge and want to speak about the
among words
273
think
I
American
Israeli
it is
infuriating to
pacifists
acknowl-
peace movement, and
fears
the Israeli people aroused by this war. In the past, these were that could not be spoken,
and thoughts
thought. But should not the antiwar
movement
that could not be
in the
United
continue to make these connections? Undoubtedly, given
and the work
has already done,
it
it
will
States
origins
its
make them, and perhaps
pay the cost of being ‘mainstream.’
Or bit
moved just a little bit, just antiwar movement has moved it. It
perhaps the mainstream has
— and perhaps
the
possible that mobilization against this particular latest
cracks in the
American consciousness of foreign
hard work, but
some of
the antiwar activists
I
war
policy.
know
is
a little is
just
causing
very
It’s
have simply
refused to be intimidated by charges of anti-Semitism. That simple refusal, so hard, so painful,
Fifth point: that
down by
—
so important.
big sigh of relief —
responsible people.
relations techniques to
on the country’s
They
it’s
Sierra
so offensive.
being run from the top
are using corporate-style public
become
values.’
routine.
Groups
It is
Club was trying
New York
no longer seen
as
an
Club now
find
that’s a relief. Just a
few
like the Sierra
they can take an antiwar position. Well,
months ago the
And
keep everybody on message. The
Times writes: ‘protest has assault
is
to expel local chapters for
taking public antiwar positions. But this can happen because of the
formulation linking antiwar sentiment to patriotism. Responsible
people support the troops — they the troops. Peace
is
patriotic. Carl
While the patriotism of really got as
groups
wheeled out like
may be Pope
pacifists has
in the big
Win Without
is
antiwar but they support patriotic.
always been an argument,
it
demonstrations after Christmas, and
War, and MoveOn.org, which the
New
York Times especially approves of, stepped to the forefront to help
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
274
national demonstrations of January and
enormous
organize the
February and March. These were very useful and very threatening
Win Without
demonstrations. But in
MoveOn.org
arguably
Voices in the Wilderness have
like
undermine the
sanctions were
today
at
is
becoming
MoveOn.org’s
call
managing what
There should be some There should be some violation of the
limits
limits,
problem.
for years to
which
as Jeff
politically unacceptable. If you
for letters
will be
a
another word for sanctions
really just
management of postwar Iraq there isn't made — the argument is simply back to nations
worked
acceptability of so-called containment,
Gunsel of Voices points out
— but
think
I
approach, the United States’ policy towards
war was fundamentally acceptable. That’s
Iraq before the
Groups
’s
War’s formulations, and
look
the editor about the
to
a single critical
the status
connection
quo of European
Middle Eastern occupied
territory.
on how responsible we want
to be.
given the scale of mass death, the
Nuremberg and Geneva conventions by our own •
country, the scale of impoverishment of an already brutalized country
- some
limits
patriotic’
on how
we want to be about this. If ‘peace is troops’ mean we will back off from these
polite
and ‘support the
questions of illegality and atrocity
-
illegality
and
atrocities that are
transparent to hundreds ot millions of people around the world
then
I
For
strongly argue that alter
all,
it
we
to have
support the troops, do
young men and women orders' as they
we continue
to have to say they
move from one
theater of
war
—
bad manners.
we
really
were to
want our
just following
what
I
am
pretty
certain will be the next?
Susan Davis is
teaches at the University of Illinois,
the author of Spectacular
Nature.
Urh ana- Champaign. She
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR April 19,
275
2003
PATRIOT GORE: THE FATAL FLAWS IN THE PATRIOT MISSILE SYSTEM by Jeffrey
St.
Clair
Once
Who
the rockets are up
cares where they
That's not
come down?
my department
Says Wernher von Braun.
('Wernher von Braun' by Tom Lehrer)
This time around Patriot missile
it
was going
was going to
installment of the Gulf
first
out against Iraqi Scuds, the
live
different.
up to
all
War when
softballs
This time around the
the hype, unlike in the
the missiles nearly struck
of the
ballistic missile
world.
riding on the Patriot missile system’s success.
just the safety
of American and British troops and journalists
or Kuwaitis and
Scud
Israelis,
who
missiles (assuming the
improved Patriot
missile also
of the Bush administration’s
feared they might be targets of Iraqi
regime had any
left).
The new and
was going to demonstrate the efficacy
mad
rush to deploy a revamped Ballistic
Missile Defense System, the Star in
be
a lot
There was
Not
to
Wars of Reagan’s
fantasy. Billions
defense contracts were riding on the backs of those missile
batteries.
As
in the first
Gulf War, the
initial
were breathlessly glowing. As missile
embedded
reporters ritually
donned
reports on the sirens
went off
in
Patriots
Kuwait,
their chemical gas masks,
descended into bunkers, then emerged minutes that they’d
new
been saved by the mighty Patriot
later to
missile.
announce
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
276
The mobile
US Army
Scuds headed toward
Iraqi
Later,
knocked down
missile batteries supposedly
several
Kuwait
positions and
City.
turned out that the missiles weren’t Scuds and they
it
down
have been brought
Kuwait desert under
in the
momentum, not by US missiles. Then came the really bad news. On March battery near the
Force Tornado
Four Patriot
Kuwait border locked onto
G-4
jet that
missiles
were
24, a Patriot missile
and one
plane and killing two British pilots.
days
another Patriot missile battery locked onto
a
the radar for
later,
US
US Navy F/A-18 Hornet
The pilot it. Then on
F-16.
down by
was shot
Basra.
destroying the
of the fighter jet located the radar dish and destroyed April 2 a
on
a raid
hit the jet,
Two
Royal Air
a British
was returning from
fired
their
may own
another
Patriot missile, killing the pilot.
‘They’re looking into
Commander out.
When
Navy
software problem,’ said
a
Lt.
Charles Owens. ‘They’re going to check everything
they do find
a fault, they'll
put
it
out to the
rest
of the
world.’ But Pentagon watchers aren’t holding their breath. Based
on
past experience,
it’s
more
likely that
Pentagon
brass will attempt
to obscure the cause rather than reveal a fatal design flaw in a revered
centerpiece in the Army’s
new
arsenal of smart weapons.
Indeed, there’s plenty of evidence that the Pentagon and the Patriot’s contractors a
(Raytheon and Lockheed) have known
decade that the missile has
missiles first
from friendly
aircraft.
revealed during testing
that test a
flying
m
a
US
aircraft
at
difficulties
The
little
discriminating incoming
Nellis Air Force Base in 1993.
simulating a return
home from
corridor reserved for friendly aircraft but it
a
combat
improvement
in this
a
still
During
mission was
would have
situation.
the years, billions had been poured into the
sign of
problem was
target discrimination
been shot down by the Patriot were
Over
for nearly
fundamental and
program with lethal defect.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR Subsequent exercises and
277
have revealed that the Patriot radar
tests
discrimination problems were not solved, according to Philip Coyle,
former Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, the Pentagon’s independent testing
office.
in so-called Joint Air
Coyle
problems were identified
says the
Defense Operations/Joint Engagement Zones
exercises during the mid-1990s.
Despite Patriot
III
this,
the Pentagon pushed to increase production of the
months leading up
in the
November 2002, Lt. Gen. Ronald
dramatically step up production of the
but also
‘My recommendation said.
Kadish brushed them ing.’
In
new
Army needed
Patriots,
to
not only for use
counter threats in North Korea, Iran and Libya.’
‘to
buy them,' Kadish
Iraq.
Kadish, the head of the Pentagon’s
Missile Defense Agency, told Congress that the
in Iraq
of
to the invasion
is
When
off,
buy PAC-3s
to
as fast as
we
are able to
asked about problems with the system,
saying they were merely ‘minor’ and ‘annoy-
Congress consented, ever anxious to peddle Pentagon pork,
and boosted Patriot missile production by more than 10 per cent.
As usual with the Pentagon, cost a
very expensive system and
Raytheon and Lockheed
it’s
Each Patriot
first
object.
But the Patriot
getting costlier
Now
missile unit costs
Gulf War, an average of four
single
no
all
is
the time.
originally promised to deliver the
system for S3. 7 billion dollars. billion.
is
new
the cost has soared to $7.8
about $170 million. In the
missiles
were launched against
a
incoming Scud.
The
old
PAC-2
is
seriously flawed. But the
new
version of the
Patriot has struggled through field testing, although this didn
the Pentagon’s rush to increase production.
of 2002, the
new
Patriot missile
had
failed
Through
the
more than
t
deter
summer
half
of
its
field tests.
From
the beginning there were signs of serious glitches in the soft-
ware program that guides the
missile.
The program was two
years
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
278
behind schedule and the costs soared from $557 million to $1 for the software alone.
And
still it
has never
worked
right.
the cost overruns for the system had topped $10 million a
You simply
its
big ticket items.
During the
crowed about the success of the
generals
1
billion
By 2001, month.
Pentagon to be honest about the
can't trust the
performance of
.
first
Gulf War, the
Patriot, saying that
hit
it
more than 80 per cent of its targets. In fact, the missile scarcely hit any incoming missiles, as was revealed in a General Accounting Office investigation.
GAO
The
of the
missiles hit less than 9 per cent
launched during the
‘The the first
the
results
MIT
first
Gulf
audit concluded that the Patriot Iraqi
Scud
who
said
Theodore
studied the Patriot missile’s
Gulf War. ‘They suggest
were
conflict.
of these studies are disturbing,'
scientist
missiles that
Postol,
the
kill rate in
that the Patriot’s intercept rate
during
Gulf War was very low. The evidence from these preliminary
studies indicates that the Patriot’s intercept rate could be
lower than 10 per cent, perhaps even after Postol
ments
with
a
on the ineptitude of the
What's more disturbing it
up.
The Pentagon went
vengeance, accusing him of using
for his conclusions
covered
zero.’
So did the
is
that the
Patriot’s
much
classified
docu-
Patriot system.
Pentagon knew
all
this
and
prime contractor, Raytheon.
the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War, the
US Army
issued
In
two
assessments on the Patriot missile system’s performance: one on Patriot
Scud
kills in Israel
Pentagon claimed
50 per cent
and another
a success rate
in Israel.
of 80 per cent
A few months
later,
back to 70 per cent and 40 per cent. admitted that cent’ of the
Why firearms
it
had
a
Saudi Arabia.
in
in
Initially,
the
Saudi Arabia and
the Pentagon scaled those
A
year
later,
the Pentagon
high degree of confidence in only ‘ten per
kills.
comedown? American wars have served as live shows. The hype on the Patriot, which the US media
the slow
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
279
eagerly gobbled up, was designed to help market the missile system to other nations. In the
more than
The
a
immediate aftermath of the
dozen nations placed orders
first
Gulf War,
for Patriot missile systems.
contracts were signed before the purchasers (including Turkey,
South Korea, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) learned of the
Patriot’s
weak
batting average.
There were the
first
lethal
consequences to the
Patriot’s failures
Gulf War, which the Pentagon glossed over.
On
during
February
25, 1991, a Patriot missile battery in Dharhan, Saudi Arabia, missed
an incoming soldiers.
The
It
Iraqi
Scud.
The Scud
hit
an army barrack housing
US
28 people and injured more than 100 others.
killed
Patriot missile
based on 1970s technology and was
is
originally designed for use as an anti-aircraft
weapon,
a
role
it
reverted to with tragic consequences in the latest Gulf War. In the 1980s, the Patriot was modified to serve as an anti-ballistic missile
system for use against short-range rocket attacks.
‘The Pentagon has known distinguish
its
targets
for a
from our
decade that the Patriot cannot
own
aircraft,’ says
Danielle Brian,
Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight,
Pentagon watchdog group. this
fundamental
and have the star
when
flaw, yet
gall to
they’ve
‘It is
known
an outrage that they have not fixed
continue to buy
promote it is
a
this
it
weapon
a dud.’
and in
sell it
to
our
allies,
both Gulf Wars
as a
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
280
2003
April 22,
WHAT
HAPPENING
IS
THE UNITED STATES?
IN
by Edward Said
In a scarcely reported speech given
day the war was launched against
19, the
Democrat of West Virginia and chamber, asked: ‘What
become
we
on the Senate
a
is
the
happening
floor
on March
Robert Byrd,
Iraq,
most eloquent speaker
in that
When did we friends? When did
to this country?
nation which ignores and berates our
decide to risk undermining international order by adopting
radical
and doctrinaire approach
might?
How
world
No tary
cries
can
our awesome military
to using
we abandon diplomacy when
the turmoil in the
out for diplomacy?’
one bothered
to
answer him, but
machine now planted
as
the vast
begins to
in Iraq
name of the American
directions in the
and
it
Let’s
first
what
George W. Bush came decided
Even before the and Gaza, to
power almost
other
we
urgency to the
are living through.
East policy has
wrought since
three years ago in an election
by the Supreme Court, not by the popular vote.
finally
Ariel Sharon’s
to
US Middle
mili-
people, their love of freedom
not the corruption of democracy
examine
American
stir restlessly in
their deep-seated values, these questions give
failure,
a
atrocities
of September
government
kill,
a free
hand
1
1,
Bush’s team had given
to colonize the
West Bank
detain and expel people at will, to demolish their
homes, expropriate
their land,
of military blockades,
imprison them by curfew and hundreds
make
life
for
them generally speaking
impossible; after 9/11, Sharon simply hitched his
on terrorism’ and
wagon
to ‘the
war
intensified his unilateral depredations against a
defenseless civilian population, six years, despite literally tens
now under
of
UN
occupation for thirty-
Security Council resolutions
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' enjoining
crimes and last
to
Israel
human
withdraw and otherwise
rights abuses.
Bush
called
281
from
desist
Sharon
a
war
its
man of peace
June, and kept the $5 billion subsidy coming without even the
vaguest hint that
On
WAR
October
7,
it
was
at risk
because of
Israel’s lawless brutality.
2001 Bush launched the invasion of Afghanistan,
which opened with concentrated high-altitude bombing ingly an ‘anti-terrorist’ military tactic, bearing in
(increas-
and
effects
its
structure a strong resemblance to ordinary, garden-variety terrorism),
and by December had regime with no has been
no
installed in that deVastated
power beyond
effective
US
significant
few
streets in
effort at reconstruction,
seem the country has returned a
a
country
to
its
Kabul. There
and
former abjection,
noticeable return of elements of the Taliban,
as
a client
it
would
albeit
with
well as a thriving
drug-based economy. Since the
conducted an
summer of 2002,
the
Bush administration has
campaign against the despotic government
all-fronts
of Iraq and, having unsuccessfully tried to push the Security Council into compliance, began against the country. dissent disappeared
I
war along with the United Kingdom
its
would
from
a
say that
from about
last
November
mainstream media swollen with
on,
a surfeit
of ex-generals and ex-intelligence agents sprinkled with recent terrorism and security experts drawn from the Washington right-
wing think
tanks.
Anyone who spoke up and
actually
managed
appear was labeled anti-American by failed academics
mounted
websites to
list
to
who
who didn’t toe the line. figures who struggled to say
‘enemy’ scholars
Emails of the few visible public
something were swamped,
their lives threatened, their ideas trashed
and mocked by media newsreaders
who
had just become the
self-
appointed, all-too-embedded sentinels of America’s war.
An overwhelming
torrent of crude as well
as
sophisticated
material appeared everywhere equating the tyranny of
Saddam
282
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
Hussein not only with
evil,
was
this in part
but with every
factually correct but
known
crime:
much
ot
eliminated from mention
it
the extraordinarily important role played by the
US
and Europe in
fostering the man’s rise, fueling his ruinous wars, and maintaining
No less a personage than the egregious Donald Rumsteld Saddam in the early Eighties as a way of assuring him ol US
power.
his
visited
approval for his catastrophic war against Iran.
US
corporations
who
role
of the various
supplied Iraq with nuclear, chemical and
weapons
biological material for the for
The
that
we supposedly went
to
war
was simply erased from the public record. and more was deliberately obscured by both government
All this
and media Iraq
in
which
manufacturing the case for the further destruction of
has been taking place for the past
and
ization of the country
simulacrum of and
this bears
forces Iraq
were
was
a
repeating —
as
its
it
it
it
into a
all
demoralized and basically useless armed
no one
rich culture,
people: these were
country
strutting leader turned
its
formidable quasi-metaphysical threat whereas —
a threat to
its
month. The demon-
its
a
What was
complex
made
were only
at all.
society,
invisible, the
formidable about long-suffering
its
better to smash the
den of thieves and murderers. Either
without proot or with fraudulent information, Saddam was accused ot harboring to the
US
weapons of mass destruction
7,000 miles away.
He
where
Saddam illegally
Ahab-
it
Iraq
what
its
as
like
a
a direct threat
day most Americans have no
history consists of, and
contains) destined for the exercise of US
way of cowing
what besides
power unleashed
the entire world in
its
Captain
quest for reshaping reality and imparting democracy
to everyone.
the
is,
were
was identical with the whole of
Iraq, a desert place ‘out there’ (to this
idea
that
At
home
the Patriot and Terrorist Acts have given
government an unseemly grip over
civil life.
A
dispiritingly
quiescent population for the most part accepts the bilge, passed off
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
as tact,
about imminent security
detention,
illegal
eavesdropping and
policed public space have to be for
The
anyone
threats,
who
think and speak independently.
US
and British intervention
beginning to unfold,
calculated destruction of
its
a heavily
the university a cold, hard place
appalling consequences of the
in Iraq are only just
result that preventive
menacing sense of
a
made even
tries to
with the
283
modern
first
with the coldly
infrastructure, then with the
looting and burning of one of the world’s richest civilizations, and finally the totally cynical
motley
‘exiles’ plus
American attempt
engage
to
a
band of
various large corporations in the supposed
rebuilding of the country and the appropriation not only of
but also
its
modern
destiny. In his reaction to the dreadful scenes
of looting and burning which
in
the end are the occupying
power’s responsibility, Rumsfeld managed to put himself in
beyond even Hulagu. ‘Freedom and
‘Stuff happens’
its oil
is
untidy,’
a class
he said on one occasion,
on another. Remorse or sorrow were nowhere
in evidence.
General Jay Garner, handpicked for the job (and soon
seems
like
a
Pentagon’s favorite exile,
mated openly
TV
person straight out of the
Ahmad
serial
fired),
Dallas.
The
Chalabi, for example, has inti-
that he plans to sign a peace treaty with Israel, hardly
an Iraqi idea. Bechtel has already been awarded
a
huge contract.
name of the American people. The whole business smacks of nothing so much as Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. This too
This not
in the
an almost total failure
is
Iraq’s.
to be for
in
democracy, ours
as
Americans,
Seventy per cent of the American people are supposed
all this,
but nothing
is
more manipulative and
than polls of random numbers ofAmericans
who
fraudulent
are asked
whether
they ‘support our President and troops in time of war.’ As Senator
Byrd
said in his speech, ‘there
is
a
pervasive sense of rush and risk
and too many questions unanswered.
A
pall
has fallen over the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
284
Senate Chamber.
We
on the minds of
all
avoid our solemn duty to debate the one topic
Americans, even while scores of our sons and
daughters faithfully do their duty in
now
questions
Franks in a
sits
Tommy
triumphantly with
his staff around
one of Saddam’s
tables
Baghdad palace?
neither
a
rest
a rigged,
and
popular war. The deeply reactionary
‘research’ institutions that
Abrams, Feith and the
spawned Wolfowitz,
Perle,
provide an unhealthy intellectual and moral
atmosphere. Policy papers circulate without
government requiring what seems
a
was
that in nearly every way, this
necessary nor
a
Washington
by
going to ask
is
Middle Western farm boy General
that that
am convinced
I
Who
Iraq.’
justification for a dubious, basically
illicit
real
peer review, adopted
be rational (even moral)
to
policy of global domination.
Hence, the doctrine of military preemption, which was never voted
on
of this country or by their half-asleep repre-
either by the people
How
sentatives.
can citizens stand up against the blandishments «
offered the
government by companies
Lockheed? And
as for
what
in effect
by
ment
in history,
is
conflicts, that task
groups such
planning and charting
far the
one is
like Halliburton,
that left
is
most fully
lavishly
military establish-
to the various ideologically based pressure
the fundamentalist Christian leaders like Franklin
as
their bibles
on
destitute
the wealthy private foundations, and such lobbies as
associated think tanks
What seems
so
and research
AIPAC,
Committee, along with
its
centers.
monumentally criminal
is
that
good, useful words
‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ have been hijacked, pressed into
service as a
of
course for
capable of dragging us into unending
the American-Israel Public Affairs
like
a strategic
endowed
Graham who have been unleashed with Iraqis,
Boeing and
scores.
Israel’s.
mask
for pillage,
muscling
The American program
Along with
in
on
for the
territory,
and the
Arab world
is
the
settling
same
as
Syria, Iraq theoretically represents the only serious
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR long-term military threat to
Israel,
out of commission for decades.
democratize
country
a
and therefore
What
when no one
you occupy
in the process
does
relief at
with
it
mean
it
militarily and, at the
it
had to be put
it
to liberate
asked you to do
miserably to preserve public law and order?
and
285
it,
and when
same time,
Iraqis feel has
brought
understanding or compassion either from the
from the other Arab
states,
who
fail
The mix of resentment
Saddam’s disappearance that most
little
and
US
or
have stood by idly quarreling over
minor points of procedure while Baghdad burned. What
a travesty
your presence
after
when you assume that ‘natives’ will welcome you've bombed and quarantined them for
thirteen years.
The
truly preposterous mindset about
of strategic planning
beneficence, and with right
and wrong, has
a story
about
a
it
that patronizing Puritanism
infiltrated the
herself with rage,
— wrecked
New York
is
widow who US raids — and
in the
ran a cultural is
now beside
Times reporter Dexter Filkins implicitly
having had
chastises her for
about what
minutest levels of the media. In
seventy-year-old Baghdad
center from her house
American
‘a
comfortable
life
under Saddam
Hussein,’ and then piously disapproves of her tirade against the
Americans — ‘and
this
from
a
Americans have been cheated,
Bush looks
like the
Iraqis
On
University.’
have suffered impossibly, and
moral equivalent of
just led his righteous posse to a victorious
enemy.
London
graduate of
a
cowboy
sheriff
showdown
who
has
against an evil
matters of the gravest importance to millions of people,
constitutional principles have been violated and the electorate lied to unconscionably.
back.
We
are the
ones
who
must have our democracy
Enough of smoke and mirrors and smooth-talking who
Edward
Said,
Out of
Place:
other hooks.
died on September 25,
A Memoir,
hustlers.
2003, authored Orientalism,
Freud and the Non-European, and many
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
286
May
2003
3,
THE CONTINUING DANGER OF CLUSTER BOMBS by Joanne Mariner
Human pose to
With
rights groups criticize cluster civilians; the
munitions for the threat they
Pentagon defends them
the Iraq war, the debate over cluster
for their effectiveness.
bomb
new
use has a
test
case.
The US
military used cluster munitions in 1991, during the
Persian Gulf War; in 1999, during the
2001 and 2002
human
in Afghanistan.
rights groups to urge the
in or near
The
Kosovo
and
conflict;
in
resulting civilian casualties led
Pentagon not
populated areas during the war in
to deploy the
weapon
Iraq.
Recent statements by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff
suggest that the Pentagon has taken heed of this advice. At a press
conference said that
in
US
Washington
The
result,
collateral
types’
General Richard
Myers
B.
hit targets
during the Iraq War, but that only 26 of these
within 1,500 feet of civilian neighborhoods.
he noted with
satisfaction,
damage’ caused by
military-speak, that only It
Friday,
and British forces had dropped ‘nearly 1,500 cluster
bombs of varying bombs had
last
cluster munitions. (This
one
would be heartening
was ‘only one recorded case of
civilian
was
means,
in
non-
killed or injured.)
to think that the
Pentagon
getting the message. Although twenty-six cluster
is
finally
bombs aimed
at
or near civilian areas are twenty-six too many, they obviously represent a tiny proportion of the total ordnance used in Iraq.
Unfortunately, Myers’s figures are highly disingenuous.
They only
cover air-dropped cluster munitions, not the surface-launched type that are believed to have caused
many more
civilian casualties in
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' Iraq.
Not only
that,
287
but unexploded cluster bomblets, lying in wait
for future victims, are likely to increase the toll of civilian deaths
and
injuries.
WHAT CLUSTER BOMBS Cluster
bombs
ARE weapons
are large
hundreds of smaller submunitions. They come
and can be delivered from the
air
dozens and often
that contain
over 200 models
in
or the ground, releasing ‘bomblets’
or ‘grenades' respectively.
Because of the wide dispersal pattern of their bomblets, cluster munitions can destroy broad,
and surface-to-air missile
move
that
relatively ‘soft' targets,
sites.
or do not have
a
They
such
as airfields
are also effective against targets
precise location, such as
enemy
troops
or vehicles.
THE DANGERS OF CLUSTER It
is
BOMB USE
precisely the qualities that
desirable that
make them
make
bombs
cluster
so dangerous to civilians.
militarily
From
the
humanitarian perspective, the weapons have two main problems: they are difficult to target accurately, and they leave large numbers
of unexploded bomblets, or duds. Cluster
opens, a
wide
it
it
bombs cannot be
releases
area.
bombs
Cluster
Once
hundreds of unguided bomblets
The wide
dispersal pattern
very difficult to avoid civilians
the
if
a cluster casing
that disperse over
of these submunitions makes
they are in the area in which
are dropped.
bombs
also
produce problematic
many of the bomblets do all
precisely targeted.
weapons have
after-effects as
intended. While
are
more dangerous
not explode on impact
a failure rate, cluster
bombs
because they release such large numbers of bomblets. As every cluster
bomb
leaves
because
some unexploded ordnance.
a result,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
288
This high dud rate puts civilians
bomblets become
who
landmines: they
like
the battlefield days or
visit
weeks
great risk.
at lie
Unexploded
in wait, killing civilians
after
an attack
is
over.
Some
people consider cluster bomblet duds even worse than landmines because of their extreme
volatility.
Sadly, children are particularly vulnerable to
unexploded bomb-
lets
because of their curiosity and failure to understand danger.
On
Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported the case of Nabil Khalil,
age fourteen, hospitalized in Kirkuk after playing with a cluster
bomblet
that he
found
abandoned
in an
one hand, suffered severe
face injuries
army camp. He
lost
and can barely open
his
Iraqi
eyes. It is
because of these dangers that
that cluster
human
bombs should never be deployed
rights groups
contend
in civilian areas.
While
the Pentagon has offered figures indicating low use of air-dropped cluster
bombs
in Iraqi cities,
it
has not provided similar information
regarding ground-based cluster munitions.
According to
Human
Rights Watch, the
US Army
did, in fact,
use ground-based cluster munitions in populated areas of Baghdad, as
well as in other Iraqi
cities.
weapons caused many more cluster
Its
researchers believe that these
civilian casualties than did air-based
bombs.
Media
reports have confirmed these claims. Several journalists
have provided eyewitness accounts of cluster munitions use against
southern part of Baghdad. Newsday reported
populated areas
in the
on April
two children were
when
1
5 that
a cluster
killed,
and one seriously injured,
munition they were playing with exploded.
At Friday’s press conference, discussing cluster
Myers
bomb
use,
General
talked about the ‘tough choices’ that the military faces in
making
targeting decisions.
But some choices should not
tough; they should be excluded.
just be
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
The
WAR
289
record shows that the military should not use cluster
bombs
of any type in populated areas. Moreover, given the weapon’s terrible impact
the cluster
on
Pentagon should reconsider whether
civilians, the
bomb
Joanne Mariner
is
necessary to
is
a
human
its
arsenal.
rights attorney
and
CounterPunch
regular
contributor.
May
2003
10,
LABOR
THE
IN
DAWN OF
EMPIRE
by JoAnn Wypijewski
EDITORS’ NOTE: This
last
spoke about those heroes country’s
first
Philippines. the
May Day
of the
labor
movement who denounced
It
,
was a powerful address, warmly received given ,
Unitarian Society, Schenectady,
(AFL-CIO),
Solidarity
their
imperial lunges in the Spanish—American war and in the
Annual Hudson Mohawk May Day
Fifth
Council
US
CounterPuncher Jo Ann Wypijewski
the
Committee of
NY;
New the
Festival at
as part of
the
First
sponsored by the Troy Area Labor
York Labor History Association, the
Capital District and Eighth Step.
-
AC/JSC Workers, Comrades, Friends,
We
gather here to celebrate
May Day -
Workers’ Day, 8-Hour-Day
Day, Revolutionary Labor Day, Haymarket Riot Day, give or take a
few
days.
Some might
say ‘terror day’ but terror cuts
two ways.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
290
We commemorate May
Day, Workers' Day, but in another,
May
less-remembered sense,
might
1st
also
be called Empire
Day.
For on
this
And on
eight-hour day.
effect the
warships
day in 1886, labor had declared
commenced
itself
dedicated to
day in 1898, American
this
the Battle of Manila Bay,
which would be
the culminating act of the Spanish-American War, and thus the
inauguration of America
an overseas imperial power.
as
Separated by twelve years, those two events are nonetheless on a
continuum —
as
bardment of Iraq,
we, its
this day,
with the fresh
culture looted,
its
memory
cities devastated, its
crying out, gagged with rags to keep from howling
on
Call
it
are in
We
a
continuum. Call
the
it
capitalism and imperialism. it,
deep
home and
We
have seen
ruined
— just
as
we
the war abroad. this before.
We
it.
being seduced, even by some of our
are
what we
in
at
war
children
as their
limbs are amputated without anaesthetic or clean water are
bom-
of the
are seeing unfold today
—
allies,
to think that
the cries of terror, the
call to
arms, the assaults on workers, the false consciousness, the scoundrel's patriotism
—
is
something new.
Of course, its features are new, moves. We are in new times. But
its
it is
is
not something frozen in the
and remade
in the present.
today are new, the outline
So while we
working
to
class in
remember
for their
And is
if
good It is
to
the details of
that history
what
is
made
unfolding
familiar.
the midst of war, at
remember
on the matter of the
home, abroad,
I
thought
it
the Battle of Manila Bay as well:
the Philippines and
independence
remember
revived and revised,
are concentrated here today
necessary for us to •
past.
simply because history
details,
its
people, slaughtered fighting
in the aftermath
of that famous
battle.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
•
remember
to
war
a
291
many ways resembled
that in
the one just
prosecuted in Iraq — prosecuted in most elemental form by the
working •
and
class against
to consider
its
the working
meanings
class, for
the rich.
for workers, for people
of consci-
ence, for anyone keen to the lessons of the past.
The wonderful Czech struggle of people against forgetting.'
that
So
let
us
writer Milan Kundera once said: ‘The
power
the struggle of
is
remember curious
memory
against
things. In 1886, the
was rolled into Chicago’s Haymarket Square during
bomb labor
a
may have been the work of anarchists — or it may have been the work of police or agents provocateurs. Louis Lingg, the only one of the seven men later prosecuted for the bombing who may have actually done it, told the court rally
upon sentencing:
‘I
despise you!
I
despise your “order”, your laws,
me
your force-propped authority. Hang Before they could hang him, percussion cap into his off.
cell.
He
his
bit
for
it!’
sweetheart smuggled
down on
But he never claimed the bombing
as his
it,
and blew
a
his
tiny
head
deed.
we don't know exactly who was responsible for it. But we do know that in its wake came a crackdown on labor: came To
this day,
the blacklist,
came
movement, came
And we
also
a
fear and,
know
time, the counselors to
The
histories
generation-long setback for the eight-hour
-
too many, resignation.
that elsewhere in the
country
at
about that same
power were propounding theories of expansion.
of the period are
urging America to build Pacific
among
full
a great
of the propaganda of intellectuals:
Navy -
to gain a foothold for trade
to claim
(i.e.,
dominion over the
theft) in
China -
to find a
solution to the problem of America’s ‘surplus manufactures.’
Before the election of 1896, William McKinley cried: ‘We need foreign markets for our surplus products!’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
292
Like his capitalist braintrust, he never considered that the solution
might be found in those
to the surplus
who
created
it:
other
in
words, in raising the wages of American workers, in limiting their
work hours and employing American working
There was
a
made
short, in transforming a system that
and general misery; in the
the jobless, in eliminating child labor
class a
band of near-beggars.
Robin Hood
simple solution, a
solution: take
from
the rich and give to the poor. Bye-bye surplus.
But markets were
all
anyone
in
power could think about. While
the workers toiled and starved, their masters spoke ot markets, is
a
more
polite
create a bigger
way of saying:
take from the poor,
from the poorest,
band of beggars and near-beggars, and give
now
Westward expansion had created markets, but was closed. While workers
in the industrial cities
tracts
subduing the
the frontier
woods, reading
on revolution and dynamite, the cavalry had been
last
of the Indians. Four years
explosion came the massacre official
to the rich.
had been agitating
for better conditions, taking rifle practice in the
dangerous
which
at
Haymarket
after the
Wounded Knee, and with
it
the
closing of the frontier. That was 1890.
Westward expansion continued on,
across the waters,
its
racist
presumptions going international too. In
1893, white
American
planters backed by
American guns
USS
overthrew the sovereign kingdom of Hawafi. The supplied the guns, and after
Queen
Lili’uokalani was led
chains and the American tlag was raised atop her palace,
began training exercises
in
Boston
away
US
in
troops
Honolulu, rapelling off the walls of
Kawaiaha’o Church, preparing for their next mission.
The USS
Boston
would go on
mysterious explosion to
set that
to
Manila Bay. But
war
who
took another
in motion.
As with the Haymarket bomb, to precisely
it
this
day
we do
not
know
was responsible for the explosion that led to the
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
USS Maine
Spanish- American War, sinking the
seamen
in
Havana harbor
in
293
and with
268
it
February 1898.
Terror! Outrage! screamed the yellow press.
Meanwhile, the journal
ot the International Association of
Machinists pointed out that on America’s
own
soil ‘a carnival
of
carnage takes place every day, month and year in the realm of industry; the thousands of useful lives that are annually sacrificed
Moloch of greed,
to the
ism, brings forth
the blood tribute paid by labor to capital-
no shout
for
vengeance and reparation.’
spark flew - a year before
— Teddy Roosevelt,
then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, wrote to
a friend: ‘in strictest
Before the
confidence,
first
should welcome almost any war, for
I
I
think the
country needs one.’ Like George Bush today, he had
of
‘the country,’ for in fact
opposed the gunboat drive
a particularly
much of
the organized
it,
working
class
for markets early on.
They opposed America’s coup against They opposed annexation of Hawai’i.
And
narrow definition
the Hawaiian sovereign.
before war was declared on Spain, most of them opposed
not believing President McKinley’s high-sounding
democracy and under Spanish
liberty for the
talk
of
Cubans, the Filipinos and the others
rule.
named Bolton
Hall,
American Longshore Union, wrote what he
called
After the sinking of the Maine treasurer of the
,
a
fellow
‘A Peace Appeal to Labor.’ ‘If
taxes,
there
is
war,’
and others
out of
it
-
that
it
declared, ‘you will furnish the corpses and the
will get the glory. Speculators will is,
out of you. You will have to pay the
the only satisfaction
you
Spanish fellow-workmen,
have had
as little to
make money
will get
who
is
and
bill,
the privilege of hating your
are really
your brothers, and
do with the wrongs of Cuba
as
you
who
have.’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
294
Replace ‘Spanish’ and ‘Cuba’ in that declaration with ‘Iraq,’
and
it is
as apt
today
as
was more than
it
century ago.
a
Gompers and
war began, Samuel
Before
and
‘Iraqi’
the
American
Federation of Labor cautiously opposed intervention. But once
began, Gompers, infected by
false patriotism, shifted
it
course and
declared America’s cause against the Spanish ‘glorious and righteous.’
As
it
people of
happened, that righteous cause was
Cuba and
the Philippines,
also against the
who’d been fighting
for their
independence.
John Sweeney’s turnaround
this year
on
Iraq
opposing unilateral intervention but then,
— was not
falling in line politics
They
was
as
as
first
soon
as
cautiously it
was on,
dramatic, but a similar politics of no
work.
at
didn’t chant ‘Support
our troops’
Others gestured approvingly
The mineworkers hoped
at
Rather, tens of
in 1898.
thousands of working men, caught up by war
in their
—
fever,
rushed to
enlist.
the booty.
the spike in coal prices
would
reflect
wages.
The typographers cheered
the establishment of English
that
schools in Spain’s former territories
Glassmakers looked forward to
a
would help
surge in
the printing trade.
demand
for bottles
and
so for their craft.
Railroad unions said more goods moving meant more work for
them.
‘Where
shall
we
turn for consumers of our surplus?’ Albert
Beveridge thundered on the Senate door. ‘Geography answers the question.’
Remarkably, or maybe not, some unions parroted the same opinion. Thus was American labor imperialism, as a
whole
a
made
complicit in American
complicity that bedevils unions and the working
to this day.
class
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
men
McKinley’s splendid it
would
over
a
little
war.’
days.
last live
It
295
Spanish-American encounter
called the
Admiral
WAR
Dewey
‘a
out in the Pacific had predicted
lasted three
months. This, remember, was
hundred years ago.
More
than
a
quarter-million American soldiers were mustered
for the fight in the
Caribbean and the Pacific combined. Today,
with respect to
we
a
Iraq,
hear of
US overwhelming
force,
of war
low-casualty or even, for Americans, a no-casualty enterprise.
worth contemplating
American it
also
such
that in the
to
be remembered, died of diseases or other causes,
Armour Company of Chicago
for a nice profit.
of war and the injuries of
In the ‘pacification’
and
combat. Five thousand more,
contaminated meat, sold to the government by the
as rotten,
injuries
It’s
Spanish-American War, only 379
soldiers died as a result of
ought
as
lasted until 1904,
capital
Thus were
the
twinned.
of the Philippines that took place afterwards
hundreds of thousands of Filipinos -
or ‘terrorists’ in the argot of the day
- were exterminated.
‘rebels’
In 1899,
before the worst of the slaughter, in debate on the Senate floor
(something
we
have not seen
in the
current period) one Senator
Tillman of South Carolina asked whether
happened
that a
colony
ever been sold in the that ‘I
was
think,’ said
meantime
people
its
freedom with one nation had
to another nation (here the
US)
in reply, ‘the situation
whom we
liberated
down
is
unique
there have
us.’ is
one
two points of view.’ He couldn’t know the
half
To which Tillman of
for
Henry Cabot Lodge
in the fact that the
which
war
had ever previously
war with the colonizer.
also at
turned against
at
it
will present
replied: ‘Well, the question ofliberation
it.
That
Dewey
era’s ‘smart
bombs’ were 500-pound
shot into Filipino trenches. In
shells,
some
which Admiral
places, the Filipinos
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
296
bow and
fought back with Filipinos
were piled up
arrow.
Along the
like sandbags.
Pasig River dead
Americans used
their bodies
for fortifications.
One US
from Washington State wrote home: ‘Our
soldier
we
fighting blood was up, and
human beings Back home in these
shooting
though
called
stopping
it
upon
to kill “niggers”. This
beats rabbit hunting
was
years, there
to intervene,
a
to pieces.’
all
frenzy of lynching, and
McKinley cared no more about
than stopping the ‘nigger-killing’ that his white troops
abroad boasted
of.
And
involved in the fight
One famous major
wanted
all
battles in
yet,
African-American soldiers were deeply
as well.
regiment was responsible for winning
Cuba
that
Teddy Roosevelt, with
his
all
of the
own embed-
ded reporters and photographers, made sure to be credited with.
When spit
those black soldiers returned
upon, despised and sometimes
home, they were shunned and
killed.
This particular regiment had been Buffalo Soldiers before they
went
to
after
Cuba was
Cuba, mustered against the Indians. Their next deployment
Colorado —
to
to put
down
strikes
and
radical
rebellion by the Western Federation of Miners; to terrorize the
militant
working
mining towns and guard the infamous bullpens. For the classes, these
When
were wars of
liberation struggles in
finally suppressed,
American
all
against
Cuba and
capitalists
all.
the Philippines were
ravaged the land and the
The dupes of the working class saw their benefit as well. During the war, employment in the US did rise. Wages did rise too, albeit meagerly. But prices rose more. Over the course of the resources.
power of workers’ wages dropped 20 per cent. Worse than that, labor was divided and compromised. A vast
war, the purchasing
segment made
its
peace with barbarism.
expansionism, colonialism,
It
made
capitalist exploitation
its
pact with
of the worst
sort.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
Throughout the land who’d joined fight
on
297
there were rebellious workers.
One. Their children and
children’s children,
up
those
League would
their voices to the Anti-Imperialist
against foreign adventures and brutality
And
into
World War
and children’s children’s
children fight on to this day.
But
war
‘the
home’ —
at
abroad — struck equally
and those
letting
war
will save
praised the blood-
it.
for
American workers from the blows of
home. That war began
at
who
no cowed or cowardly support
years later,
George Bush’s war
complement of every war
those workers
who damned
One hundred the
at
the essential
moment Bush
precisely at the
declared ‘You’re with us or against
us,’
and
it
part of the administration’s strategy of endless
will
continue on
war - or what,
as
in a
McKinleyite formulation, the National Security Council described mission: to impose ‘democracy, development, free markets
as its
and
free trade to every
It
continue on unless
will
Do
corner of the world.’
we
stop
it.
it.
my advertings to the nineteenth century of my own quirky historical interests. They
product
are that,
of course. But
working
class are also
in the councils
of power, the enemies of the
reviewing history for
Grover Norquist, part of the Bush team’s redoubt
what
stop
not imagine that
are simply the
his
And we must
is
at
Americans
nourishing lessons.
activist light artillery
from
Tax Reform, was recently asked
at
era,’
he replied, ‘absent the protectionism. You’re
the history of the country for the
first
1
20
years,
up
Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income the death tax, regulation - all that’ presumably must go. That
is
where the enemies of labor would have
Day of 2003: peering backward century.
just
the fundamental goal of the right in the current period.
‘The McKinley looking
for
its
at
us
on
this
until tax,
May
the abyss of the nineteenth
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
298
History, as
America’s
I
first
have
said,
is
no
frozen, finished thing.
The
legacy of
form
overseas imperial adventure takes a very live
in the Filipino laborers lining
up
for jobs
with Bechtel, Brown
&
Root, the union-busting Stevedore Services of America and others in the reconstruction
Their
of
Iraq.
own economy
Philippines’ chief export,
country’s
pillaged over
and the remittances they send
number one source of income. Before
New
were awarded, the
‘liberated’ Iraqis
is
and
above
our shame, and
to the
first
the
contracts
are likely to use Filipino labor,
skilled, plentiful, reliable and,
Their desperation
the
home
reported that whichever
York Times
companies were named, they is
100 years, they are the
all,
a
which
cheap.
warning both
American working
class.
to the
There
newly are
no
winners on our side in the war program: workers of the world are being pitted in ferocious competition to see For workers, there it is
not enough -
it
is
always
will
a
war
at
who comes
home and
a
out
last.
war abroad,„and
never be enough - to oppose one without
the other.
JoAnn Wypijewski
May
17,
can be reached at jwyp@thenation .com
2003
THE DIXIE CHICKS CROSS THE ROAD by Dave Marsh and Lee Ballinger
Last year, Natalie
Maines of the Dixie Chicks contemptuously
dismissed Toby Keith’s popular pro-war song ‘Courtesy of the
Red, White, and
Blue,’ saying
it
was ‘ignorant and
it
makes country
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR music sound ignorant.’
was
No
299
boycott was called. In
fact,
not
a
word
said.
So
no reason
there’s
Maines’s antiwar
to interpret the hostile response that followed
comments
raged country audience. In a political
maneuver no
According
the spontaneous reaction of an out-
as
fact,
less
the attack
on the Dixie Chicks was
calculated than the Watergate break-111.
from americannewsreel.com sent to Rock
to a story
and Rap Confidential by former Reprise president Howie Klein,
‘Phone
originating from Republican Party headquarters in
calls
Washington went out Chicks from their
to
country
The
playlists.
Chicks’ tour opener]
is
received a
call
work of
officials are
the South Carolina
helping promote the concert.
from ‘Gallagher’s Army,’ urging us to support the
alternative concert. Caller
GOP
urging them to remove the
“alternative concert’’ [to the Dixie
actually the
Republican Party and party
We
stations,
ID backtraced the
call to
South Carolina
headquarters.’
Chain radio
stations
were quick
to
dump
the Chicks because
companies (Clear Channel, Viacom,
their parent
et al.)
have pressing
business in the nation’s capital and they want help from the
Republican
Party.
The Dixie Chicks’ Top of Greenville, South Carolina, a
condemning
resolution
it’s
World tour was
May .The state legislature 1
its
endorsement
dogs searched the Bi-Lo Center
Lon Helton, country music country fans are
people
who
live in
and they have
had passed
deal with the Chicks,
‘wrong’ to be for peace. In the wake of the
death threats against the three young
that
begin in
set to
the group. Lipton Tea, their corporate tour
sponsor, scrapped most of
saying that
on
the
all
women
in the
group,
in Greenville before the
editor of Radio
&
many
bomb
show.
Records,
claimed
right-wing, saying: ‘Country music
is
between the Hudson and the Hollywood
a different view.’ If all
for
sign
country fans opposed Natalie
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
300
Would anyone
Maines’s plea for peace, that raised the question:
show up from
its
the Dixie Chicks’ shows?
at
Would
attempt to save
beliefs in a desperate
the group back away its
career?
Before the concert in Greenville, the arena sound system played
‘Everybody Wants
to Save the World,’
‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ by the
Go-Gos, ‘Band on the Run’ by Wings, and ‘Your seats
Good
Girl’s
Gonna Go
Tammy
There were only
Bad.’
Wynette’s
few empty
a
and the crowd was doing the wave even before the show began.
As soon
as
described
did, there
it
as ‘a landslide
Cd
was what the of fan
Geoff Boucher
Times' s
love.’
After the third song, Natalie Maines, clad in a tank-top embla-
zoned with ‘Dare
Be
to
Free,’ offered the
crowd
a
chance to boo.
there were any boos, they couldn't be heard over the
reported the Greenville News.
performance of Patty
Griffin’s ‘Truth
of the truth coming out of onstage that highlighted the
X, and women’s
Nor was
rights,
my
went on the
mouth')
Dixon
The
first
Southern leg of
roots in the South.
change the
video was shown
movement, Gandhi, Malcolm
their tour. a
Sometimes there would
pro-Bush
sign,
may turn out
Rock and Rap
in
reality that there
a
is
sometimes
America, one that has
Even more than
their
its
that there
of
all.
Confidential, edited by Dave Marsh and Lee
and
politics.
strongest
music and their
to be their greatest gift
the nation’s best newsletter on music
Mason-
powerful and
But the Dixie Chicks have proven
sides to that story.
courage, that
is
a
reception given the Dixie Chicks below the
line doesn’t
two
when
got the same enthusiastic response everywhere they
dangerous streak of jingoism
are
(‘You don’t like the sound
O’Connor, and the Dixie Chicks.
be one protester standing outside with none.
2’
along with footage of people stomping on
records by the Beatles, Sinead
The Chicks
applause,’
there any booing during the
No.
civil rights
huge
‘If
Ballinger,
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
May
301
2003
29,
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: WHO SAID WHAT WHEN by Jeffrey
St.
Clair
‘Every day Saddam remains in power with chemical weapons, biological weapons, and the
day of danger for September
4,
development of nuclear weapons is a the United States.’ - Scti. Joseph Lieberman, D-CT,
2002
no doubt that Saddam Hussein now weapons of mass destruction.’ - Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002 “Simply stated, there
‘If
-
we
wait for the danger to
become
it
could be too
late.’
expanding and improving
facilities that
were
clear,
2002
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., September 4,
‘Right now, Iraq
is
has
is
used for the production of biological weapons.’ - George W. Bush, September 12,
‘If he is
2002
declares he has none, then
we
will
know
once again misleading the world.’ - Ari
that
Saddam Hussein
Fleischer,
December
2,
2002 ‘We know January
9,
for a fact that there are
weapons
there.’
- Ari
Fleischer,
2003
‘Our intelligence
officials
materials to produce as
nerve agent.’ - George
much
W
Saddam Hussein had
the
500 tons of sarin, mustard and
VX
estimate that as
Bush, January 28,
2003
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
302
‘We know
Saddam Hussein
that
of mass destruction, February
‘Iraq
5,
States
a
and international peace and security
and develop
capability, actively
in material
February 5,
‘We have sources ized Iraqi field
weapons the 8,
Powell,
among
a
other things, continuing to
chemical and biological weapons
a significant
seeking
in the Persian
and unacceptable breach of its
nuclear weapons capability, and support-
ing and harboring terrorist organizations.’ - Sen.
February
weapons
continuing threat to the national security ot the
international obligations by,
D-NY,
his
determined to make more.' - Colin
is
Gulf region and remains
possess
determined to keep
2003
both poses
United
is
Hillary Clinton,
2003 that
commanders
dictator
Saddam Hussein
us that
tell
tells
to use
recently author-
chemical weapons — the very
us he does not have.’
- George
W
Bush,
2003
‘So has the strategic decision been
made
to
disarm Iraq of
its
weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? think our judgment has to be clearly not.’ - Colin Powell, March 8, 2003 I
‘Intelligence gathered by this
‘We I
lethal
weapons ever
are asked to accept
say that such a claim
‘Well, there
Iraq has
no doubt
is
devised.’
- George W. Bush, March
18,
2003
Saddam decided to destroy those weapons. palpably absurd.’ — Tony Blair, March 18, 2003
no question
that
we
have evidence and information that
weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical
particularly for
is
leaves
regime continues to possess and conceal some of the
that the Iraq
most
and other governments
.
.
.
all
this will
whatever duration
it
be made clear takes.’
—
Ari
in the
Fleischer,
course of the operation, March 21, 2003
i
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR “There
no doubt
is
weapons weapons
that the
303
regime of Saddam Hussein possesses
of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those will
who
be identified, found, along with the people
produced them and
who
guard them.’ — Gen.
Tommy
Franks,
have
March 22,
2003
‘I
have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass
destruction.’
— Kenneth Adelman
“One of our top are a
22,
objectives
number of sites.’ —
is
,
Defense Policy Board, March 23,
to find
and destroy the
WMD. There
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark, March
2003
‘We know where they are. They are in the area around Baghdad.’ - Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003 ‘Saddam’s removal
weapons of mass
destruction.’ -Jack Straw, 2 April,
of mass destruction
Tikrit and
necessary to eradicate the threat from his
is
2003
‘Obviously the administration intends to publicize
US
forces find
Neocoti scholar Robert Kagan, April 9, ’
‘
‘I
2003
- and
all
the
weapons
there will be plenty.’
-
2003
think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from
officials, a
measure of high confidence be found.’ - Ari
mass destruction
will
“We
more
are learning
Iraqi scientists
as
we
that,
indeed, the weapons of
Fleischer,
April 10,
2003
interrogate or have discussions with
and people within the
Iraqi structure, that
he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. them.’ - George W. Bush, April 24, 2003
And
so
we
perhaps will find
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
304
‘Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction,
I
suggest they wait a
who
‘There are people
need
‘I
May
am
in large
Blair,
measure have information
It’ll
be
matter of time to do
a
confident that
we
we
destruction
- George W.
makes
will find evidence that Powell,
May
it
clear
he
2003
4,
never believed that we’d just tumble over weapons of mass
destruction in that country.’
- Donald Rumsfeld, May
‘I’m not surprised if we begin to uncover the
Saddam Hussein - because he had Bush,
May
officials
find
weapons of mass
just don’t
there’s
never expected that
know whether
no question
still
Airborne,
2003
weapons program of
weapons program.’ — George W.
a
hidden.’
May
13,
we were going
destruction.’
that
to
- Condoleezza
open garages and
Rice,
May —
12,
2003
mean, there were chemical weapons years ago it
whether they were destroyed they’re
4,
2003
6,
‘US
‘I
so.’
that
2003
3,
had weapons of mass destruction.’ — Colin
‘I
28 April, 2003
we can track down the weapons of mass country.’ — Donald Rumsfeld, April 25, 2003
‘We’ll find them.
Bush,
— Tony
so that
...
in that
bit.’
was
all
destroyed years ago
right before the war, [or]
— Maj. Gen. David
Petraeus,
I
whether
Commander
101st
2003
‘Before the war, there’s no doubt in
my mind
that
Saddam Hussein
had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical.
I
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR expected them to be found.
still
I
305
expect them to be found.’ - Gen.
Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps,
May
‘Given time, given the number of prisoners interrogating. I’m confident that
were going
2003
21,
now
to find
that
were
weapons of
mass destruction. - Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff May 26, 2003’
‘They may have had time to destroy them, and answer.' - Donald Rumsfeld, May 27, 2003 ‘For bureaucratic reasons,
destruction
[as
we
settled
1,
issue,
don’t
on.’
the
,
was the 28,
2003
2003
St.
The war on
AND
Clair
Iraq couldn’t have
beleaguered farmers. Spring fields
it
- Paul Wolfowitz May
THE RAT IN THE GRAIN: DAN AMSTUTZ THE LOOTING OF IRAQI AGRICULTURE by Jeffrey
know
weapons of mass
justification for invading Iraq], because
one reason everyone could agree
June
on one
I
is
come
at a
more
dire time for Iraq’s
harvest time in the barley and wheat
of theTigris river valley and planting time
in the vast vegetable
plantations of southern Iraq.
The war
is
over, but the situation in the fields of Iraq continues
to rapidly deteriorate.
The
banks, which provide credit and cash,
have been looted, irrigation systems destroyed, road
markets closed, warehouses and grain
travel restricted,
silos pillaged.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
306
To harvest the grain before
more than
it
8 million gallons of diesel fuel to
armada of combines and
harvesters.
US bombing
were incinerated by
do
Even
if
US
so by the
power
strikes.
who need
to
most and no
it
no
clear
way
for the
hungry
Iraqi
the Hussein regime, the crops were bought by the
Baghdad government a
way
forces of occupation.
the crops can be harvested, there’s
Under
fuel depots
There’s no easy
grain to get stored, marketed, sold and distributed to families.
corroding
Iraq’s
But most of the
get the fuel that remains to the farmers desire to
farmers need
rots in the fields Iraqi
at a
fixed price
and then distributed through
rationing system. This system, inefficient
nothing has taken
its
for this year’s crop,
as
little
sign that the
was,
is
gone. But
owed $75 million money will ever arrive.
place. Iraqi farmers are
with
it
still
There’s speculation throughout the country that one intent of the current policy
to force
is
cities so that their lands
US
many
farmers off their farms and into the
can be taken over by favorites of Ahmed
The post-Saddam
Iraq will almost
certainly witness a land redistribution program:
more farmland
Chalabi and
his
protectors.
going into fewer and fewer hands. Grain farmers aren’t alone. As in the
first
US bombing
Gulf War,
raids targeted cattle feed lots, poultry farms, fertilizer
pumping
stations, irrigation systems
closest thing the
US
has
come
to
and pesticide
warehouses,
factories (the
Weapons of Mass
finding
Destruction in the country) — the very infrastructure of Iraqi agriculture.
Many
It
will take years to restore these operations.
fields in
been unable
southern Iraq he fallow,
to secure seeds to
onions, cucumbers and beans
‘We expect
failures,’ said
Mosul,
in a dispatch
before.
There
is
—
grow all
as
vegetable farmers have
the usual melons, tomatoes,
mainstays of the Iraqi
Abdul Aziz Nejefi,
a
barley farmer from
from the Guardian. ‘We never had
no government.’
diet.
this situation
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR Meanwhile, millions of Iraqis stall
May
report from late
307
face starvation this
paints a bleak portrait.
It
summer.
A
UN
notes that Iraq’s
poultry industry has effectively been decimated. Millions of chickens perished during the war. Millions ol others face starvation, since nearly
of the chicken feed stored
all
in
government ware-
houses has been looted. Chicken and eggs are staples of the diet,
accounting for more than
hall ol the
Iraqi
animal protein consumed
by the population.
Many
other farm animals, including sheep and goats, could be
ravaged by disease, since the nation’s stockpiles of veterinary
medicines and vaccines have been almost
Some 60 their
per cent of Iraq’s 24 million people depend totally for
food on the food ration system that was established
Gulf War. Each week, these
first
basket’ consisting of
milk, sugar and
by
totally destroyed or looted.
US
salt.
wheat
could count on
a
‘food
flour, rice, vegetable oil, lentils, beans,
That system
policymakers.
Iraqis
after the
is
now
And promised
in
shambles and
is
scorned
grain imports have yet to
materialize.
‘Before there ism,
Tim
let
is
unwarranted military technological triumphal-
those setting out to
manage
Land, professor of food policy
‘Grumbling stomachs
are
bad
public health. There has to be
the peace think mouths,’ says at
City University in London.
politics as well as disastrous for the a
food democracy
after
decades of
food totalitarianism.’ Into this dire circumstance strides Daniel Amstutz, the Bush
administration’s choice to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq’s agricultural system. a fat roster
at Cargill,
in grain.
went on
of big ag
Now an international trade lobbyist in DC with clients,
the food giant
Amstutz once served
top executive
which controls much of the world
During Amstutz’s tenure a torrid
as a
at Cargill,
expansion campaign.
It is
now
the grain
trade
company
the largest privately
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
308
held corporation in the
US
and controls about 94 per cent of the
soybean market and more than 50 per cent of the corn market in
Upper Midwest.
the
It
also has
controlling 40 per cent of all
exports and
A1 Krebs,
on
at least
who
US
hands on the export market,
corn exports,
a third
of all soybean
20 per cent of wheat exports.
edits the Agribusiness
US farm policy, unearthed a
and morality
its
Examiner
,
a vital
publication
1982 questionnaire on food,
politics
that vividly illustrates the Cargill philosophy.
Joseph Project,
a
The
public policy research group sponsored by the
Senate of Catholic Priests of the Archdiocese of MinneapolisSt.
company’s attitude
Paul, asked Cargill executives to explain the
toward hunger and famine
issues.
The
executives responded
as
follows:
The assumption
that there are
moral priorities that are offended
serving world or domestic markets possible rests
on
a
as
economically and efficiently
confusion about economic
objectionable characterization of business’s
facts.
role.
It is
in as
also a highly
Before one makes
moral judgments and advocates economic actions, one should understand the economic T
issues that are involved.
he business ot making moral judgments
potentially irresponsible unless
and
—
causal relationships have
is
both hazardous and
fully satisfied that
been explored
.
.
.
defenses
we
all
the facts
all
We are not in
given time and other constraints - to provide
background. Nor are
In
one
is
a
position
the relevant
anxious to make moral judgments - or moral
— of our own.
2000, the biggest food companies in the world, Cargill, Archer
Daniels Midland,
Cenex Harvest
States
Co-op, DuPont and Louis
Dreyfus, got together to form Pradium Inc., grain market that offered real-time, cash
a
kind of secret, internal
commodity exchanges
for
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
309
and agricultural by-products
grains, oilseeds
information services.
also offered
It
ways to
well as global
as
on
fix grain prices
a
global scale. Amstutz served as Pradium’s chairman.
Amstutz
is
no stranger
government,
to
Bush administration he served
of
US
He was
programs.
talks,
which
there to push the
is
agribusiness agenda, not a democratic agenda,’ says
Farm
president of the National Family telling the
world that
the environment
his policy
when
is
good
for farmers, is
small farmers of the grain belt of the
During
-
all
which eliminated in
tariffs
consumers and
true.’
Midwest have
his stint in the first
administration, Amstutz devised the notorious Bill,
George Naylor,
Coalition. ‘He will excel in
just the opposite
particular loathing for Amstutz.
Round
WTO.
led to the
‘Daniel Amstutz, an ex-Cargill executive,
The
also the
negotiator on agricultural issues for the Uruguay
GATT
first
Undersecretary of Agriculture for
Commodity
International Affairs and chief
as
During the
either.
Freedom
to
a
Bush
Farm
and slashed federal farm price supports
an effort to lower grain prices for the benefit of Amstutz’s
cronies in the big agricultural conglomerates. As
of American farmers
lost their
a result,
farms and monopolists
thousands
like Cargill
reaped the benefits.
The contours of Amstutz’s
plan for Iraq are familiar: a combi-
nation of free-market shock therapy and predation by multinational corporations. Gliding over
a
decade of
UN sanctions that have starved
the nation and a war that ravaged the nation’s infrastructure, Amstutz
announced
that the real
government
problem facing
Iraqi agriculture
subsidies. ‘Iraqi farmers have
had
little
is,
naturally,
incentive to
increase production because of price controls that have kept food
very inexpensive, Amstutz announced. ‘With
economy, we can to
a transition to a
see health returning to agriculture
employ good farming
practices
market
and incentives
and modern techniques.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
310
The more
likely scenario
condition of
Iraq’s
that
is
farmlands
Amstutz
as a lucrative
cheap grain from American companies
by
Iraqi oil. If this scenario plays out,
will use the destitute
opportunity to
like Cargill, all
it
of it paid
1
for
will spell disaster for Iraq’s
struggling farmers. Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq imported
than
dump
more
million metric tonnes per year of American wheat. Since then,
however, no direct occurred. Amstutz
is
sales
of American agricultural products have
anxious to begin flooding Iraq with Cargill grain.
US Department
Moreover, Iraq owes the
Commodity
of Agriculture’s
Credit Corp. $2 billion on loans that facilitated pre-
1991 ag sales and nearly $2 billion in interest on the loans. Amstutz will certainly
demand
‘Someone needs
to
that those loans
warn the
Iraqi
be recouped through
oil sales.
people that other Third World
countries can already attest that the dependence Amstutz will create surely says
means
Naylor.
that Iraq’s sovereignty will
And Naylor
be greatly compromised,’
argues that cash-strapped American
farmers won’t see any benefits, either. ‘Amstutz perpetuates* the
more exports
lie
overproduction
because all
his agribusiness cronies are
encouraging
over the world, thus being able to
sell
more
genetically modified seeds and chemicals and buying ever cheaper
farm commodities.’
Even
as
their food
millions of Iraqis face starvation under the stern
hand of
proconsul, Amstutz ’s appointment has excited
commentary
in the
US. His most virulent
critic has
little
been Kevin
Watkins, Oxfam’s policy director in London. Watkins warns that
more than
Amstutz
is
interests
of the same food
little
represents: Cargill,
‘This guy ol
is
a
carpetbagger seeking to advance the
titans that his
lobbying outfit in
DC
DuPont, Cenex and Archer Daniels Midland.
uniquely well-placed to advance the commercial
American grain companies and bust open the
interests
Iraqi market, but
singularly ill-equipped to lead a reconstruction effort in a war-torn
1
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
31
country,’ Watkins warns. ‘Putting
Dan Amstutz
cultural reconstruction in Iraq
like
the chair ot
human
a
is
putting
of agri-
Saddam Hussein
in Iowa, pitching his agricultural
reconstruction plan to Iowa feedlot owners. that they stood to profit
handsomely from
He
told the farmers
his plan to
bring to Iraq
feedlots, those foul-smelling operations that pack thousands
of cattle and hogs into tightly confined pens. ‘They are meat he brayed.
‘Iraq
not
is
a
people in
his
won’t be
1
a
2,
cattle
or sheep operations. Most of the
And unless Amstutz Graham to Christianize
audience raised hogs.
with Franklin
in a partnership
eaters,’
vegetarian society.’
Iowa doesn't have many
June
in
rights commission.’
Amstutz was recently spotted
modern
in charge
has joined Iraq, there
big market for pork products in Baghdad.
2003
WAR
DECEIVED INTO
by Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst
When FOX TV ongoing quest
asked
for
me
I
fault
my
views Sunday on the
weapons of mass destruction
thing the anchor asked was
WMDs
to present
why
I
should care about the phantom
the vast majority of Americans don’t.
when
responded, somewhat indecorously, that
of
FOX News
and other media
malnourished on small emptive’ war.
in Iraq, the first
I
issues like
Rice and Colin Powell blow
still
was largely the
that have kept
why our
was dyspeptic on Sunday
this
Americans
country launched
after
a
pre-
watching Condoleezza
more smoke
at
these key issues
and disparage those with altogether legitimate questions.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
312
Powell said
adduced
it
was ‘nonsense’
making war on
to justify
the correct
word
brand
to
as
‘bogus’ the intelligence
Iraq. But, sadly, ‘bogus’
precisely
is
key piece of ‘evidence’ used to
to apply to the
deceive our representatives and senators into voting to give President Bush permission to launch an unprovoked war on Iraq.
However seven-letter
strong a word, ‘bogus’ pales in comparison with the
F-word
which Powell and Rice showed themselves
to
F for forgery. Yes, forgery.
allergic:
Had
FOX and other news outlets
adequately reported on what both Powell had already conceded was a forgery,
to
why I
the
American people might have
refer to the
bogus story that Iraq was attempting to acquire
that story
at
was based on
a
the
UN
have
crude forgery.
Bush administration knew
who
who
develop nuclear weapons. Those
to
followed developments
(Those
better appreciation as
they should care.
uranium from Niger
the
a
find themselves
it
known since February What is little known is
was bogus
a
full
that that
year earlier.
wondering why Powell and Rice have
conceded the point need only
to
remember
that the
UN
now
has
the forged documents.)
To Niger
his credit, early last year a
former
The
latter
But
this
them
US
Vice-President Dick
ambassador
Cheney
sent to
in Africa to investigate the story.
brought back word that the documents were not authentic.
did not prevent senior administration officials from using
in the critical
the authority to
run-up
make
to Congress’s vote to give the president
war.
Indeed, President Bush included the forged ‘evidence’ in his state-of-the-union address on January 28 - something
when
asked about
a loss to
it
Rice,
by George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, was
explain satisfactorily.
Now ‘senior
are telling gullible reporters that
outcome of the
Dr
administration
at
officials’
Cheney was never informed of the
investigation he ordered. I’m not
making
this up.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
Recent
press reports of a
2002
Sept.
that
found “no
313
Detense Intelligence Agency study of
definitive, reliable information’ that Iraq
was producing or stockpiling chemical or biological weapons has helped me connect the dots, so to speak. Last
fall s
lull-court press to get Congress to vote for
proof that Iraq posed
a clear
reviewed the bidding, a
it
war required
and present danger. As Bush’s
became
strategists
painfully clear that allegations of
confirmed chemical and biological threat would run too great
risk ot
At
being undermined by uncooperative analysts
White House decided
that point the
the specter of nuclear play
weapons
up the danger of
in the
‘mushroom
a
in the
a
DIA.
to present evidence raising
hands of Saddam Hussein and cloud.’
Former
UN
nuclear
inspector David Albright said on Sunday that he was ‘deeply troubled
by the
of information to basically scare people. People
selective use
are scared
by nuclear weapons. And
But where was the evidence? available at that time
tubes.
it’s
It is
now
White House
Dr Rice on September
8,
2002
told
actively pursuing a nuclear
there have been shipments into Iraq of are only suited to nuclear
offered instant
consulted, their virtually
Wolf
weapon.
We
aluminum
scientists at
weak
‘Saddam
do know
that
tubes that really
US
nuclear labs were
unanimous conclusion was
suitable for a nuclear application. as
Blitzer that
weapons programs.’
But when the engineers and
turned out to be
them from
tubes were for Iraq’s ‘nuclear program.’ Thus,
‘analysis’ that the
were not
clear that the only thing
Iraq trying to procure
abroad, and those eager to please the
is
button.’
was the so-called argument from aluminum
There had been reports of
Hussein
a
as
So
that the tubes
that line of
the chemical and biological
argument
weapons
DIA analysts were so suspicious. Someone remembered the forged correspon-
evidence about which
What was
left?
dence between
Iraq
and Niger, decided
that
it
could be used to win
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
314
the vote in Congress, to
win the war
in Iraq,
and
in the afterglow
of victory, no one would care that the evidence was bogus. It
worked.
Waxman
Small wonder that Rep. Henry letter to the president,
expressed outrage
(D,
at
CA),
in a
March
17
having been deceived
into voting for war, since ‘the evidence cited regarding Iraq’s efforts
weapons
to obtain nuclear
Ray McGovern,
to
hoax.’
1964
analyst from
to
and senior policy-makers on
the vice-president
from 1981
CIA
a
a
is
He
1985.
is
now on
the Steering
Pro fessionals for Sanity. His day job
is
1990, regularly reported
to
the President’s
Daily Brief
Group of Veteran
Intelligence
co-director
of the Servant Leadership
School, an inner-city outreach ministry in Washington
DC.
June 27, 2003
CHENEY, FORGERY
AND THE
CIA
by Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst
As though
President Dick
The
visits
were normal!
this
Cheney made
were, in
fact,
I
mean
to the
the repeated
CIA
visits
Vice-
before the war in Iraq.
unprecedented. During
my
twenty-seven-
year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, no vice-president ever
came
to us for a
During the
working
Eighties,
it
was
visit.
my
privilege to brief Vice-President
George H. W. Bush and other very senior policy-makers every other morning.
weekends) to
CIA
to his
I
went home.
headquarters.
either to the vice-president’s office or (on I
am
sure
it
never occurred to him to
come
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
The morning was uppermost our
refine
need
tasks
WAR
315
briefings gave us an excellent
minds of those senior
in the
of collection and
analysis.
tor policy-makers to visit us.
And
window on what
officials
Thus, there was never any
the very thought of a vice-
president dropping by to help us with our analysis
We
preferred to do that
work without
comes from policy-makers
Cheney got Reports
Niger
in late
stirred
at
US
to call
it
after the
into the operational side of intelligence as well.
2001
that Iraq
had tried to acquire uranium from
such intense interest that
He found
into question.
his office let
CIA
in a
At the time, CIA with the Pentagon on the
CIA, and
be
as facilitator, a
February 2002
There the matter
rested
—
until last
for
war
lots
summer, in Iraq.
his effort to acquire nuclear
analysts this
virtually
were involved
weapons.’
in a fierce
argument
very point. Most of the nuclear engineers
all
scientists at
US
government laboratories
and the International Atomic Energy Agency, found no evidence that Iraq had restarted
its
reliable
nuclear weapons program. But
the vice-president had spoken. Sad to draft
known
speech on August 26, 2002, claimed that Saddam
Hussein had ‘resumed
at
in
it
nothing to substantiate the report and
Bush administration made the decision
Cheney,
extraordinary.
the table.
ambassador was dispatched to Niger
to investigate.
is
the pressure that inevitably
he wanted them checked out. So, with the retired
and helped us
say,
those in charge of the
National Intelligence Estimate took their cue and stated,
falsely, that
‘most analysts
assess
Iraq
is
reconstituting
its
nuclear
weapons program.'
Smoke was blown about aluminum
tubes sought by Iraq that,
turns out, were intended for conventional rest
amounted
to
it
weapons programs. The
things like Hussein’s frequent meetings with
nuclear scientists and Iraq’s foot-dragging in providing information to
UN
inspectors.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
316
Not much heed was
who
paid to the fact that Hussein’s son-in-law,
supervised Iraq’s nuclear program before he defected in 1995,
had told interrogators that blueprints
— had been
destroyed in 1991
given to the United States
who
scientists
provided them added
would have given
head
Iraq a
at his
order.
week confirm
this
—
nuclear capability
Iraq’s
that,
start,
save the
(Documents
The
that.
even though the blueprints
no order was given
to restart
would
the program; and even had such an order been given, Iraq still
have been years away from producing
In
sum, the evidence presented
estimate
short of
far
fell
scarier
had
a
what was required a
persuaded to authorize war.
And
Cheney’s
to support
nuclear weapon. Something
be produced, and quickly,
to
nuclear weapon.)
September’s intelligence
in last
claim that Iraq was on the road to
Iraqi
if
Congress was
be
made
to dust
that before
anyone
so the decision was
uranium-from-Niger canard. The White House calculated - correctly —
to
off the
would make an was based on
issue
of the
a lorgery,
fact that this
key piece of ‘intelligence’
Congress would vote Yes. The war could
then be waged and won. In recent weeks, administration
have begun spreading the word that
Iraq-Niger story was based on
who
recently served
that
was
call for a
added
possible.
at
He
a forgery.
1
asked
a
all
procedures
vice-presidential questions
and
Cheney’s office had originally asked that
the Iraq— Niger report be checked out
makes
inconceivable that
it
would not have been informed of the
Did the president himself know
results.’
that the information used to
secure congressional approval for war was based on
didn’t?
senior official
NSC
pointed out that rigorous
that ‘the fact that
don’t know. But
told the
the National Security Council if he thought
very specific response to
his office
Cheney was never
officials
which would be worse -
that
he
a
forgery?
knew
We
or that he
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
August
2003
1,
A CONFIDENCE GAME ON by Jeffrey
317
St.
IRAQ:
WAR
PIMPS
Clair
The war on Iraq won’t be remembered for how it was waged so much as for how it was sold. It was a propaganda war, a war of perception management, where loaded phrases such
as
mass destruction’ and ‘rogue
like
weapons
state’
were hurled
‘weapons of precision
the target audience: us.
at
To understand the
Iraq
but reformed spin doctors
war you don’t need or,
to consult generals,
even better, two of the most seasoned
investigators into the dark arts of political propaganda, John Stauber
and Sheldon Rampton. Stauber and
Rampton run PR Watch,
the Madison, Wisconsin-
based group that keeps tabs on the nefarious schemes of the global
PR
industry to sugarcoat useless, costly and dangerous products.
They have
also written three
books of the
last
decade. In
1
of the most important non-fiction
995, they published Toxic Sludge
ForYou,a detailed expose of how the
PR industry plots and
Is
Good
executes
campaigns to greenwash corporate malfeasance. This was followed by the prescient and disturbing
produced the
way
Trust
Us We’re Experts
,
Mad Cow USA. a
Last year they
grim and exacting account of
scientists-for-hire are deployed to rationalize the risks
dangerous products and smear opponents
as
of
know-nothings and
worry warts.
Now
comes
their exquisitely
Vie Uses of Propaganda
Rampton
in
Bush’s
timed Weapons of Mass Deception:
War on
Iraq.
Here Stauber and
give us an immediate history, a real-time deconstruction
of the mechanics of the Bush war machine. This lushly documented book is a chilling catalog of lies and deceptions, which shows the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
318
press
contretemps over the Niger yellowcake forgeries to be but
minor the
distraction given the outlandish frauds pullulating daily
White House and
Stauber recounts
H erman’s
is
the Pentagon.
every bit
The
history
ground-breaking
as
as
a
from
Rampton and Chomsky and
Manufacturing Consent and War Without Mercy John ,
Dower's riveting account of the
of propaganda against Japan
vile uses
during World War Two. Weapons of Mass Deception shreds the
and the motives behind them,
as
lies,
they were being told and describes
the techniques of the cover-up as they were being spun. Stauber and
Rampton
cut through the accumulated media fog to reveal
war on Saddam was conceived and how the media
how
battle
the
plan
developed and deployed. They identify the key players behind the scenes
paper
who trails
politics,
stage-managed the countdown to war and follow their back through the murky corridors of Washington where
corporate spin and psy-ops spooks cohabit.
Most of
this
Yet the story
it
book was written relates
is
well before the invasion of Iraq.
only .now being nibbled
stream press, which had done so
much
to
who
Perle,
Rampton expose
war brief and shine an
unforgiving light on the neocon ministers, such
Douglas Feith and Richard
by the main-
promote the vaporous
deceptions of the Bush administration. Stauber and the gaping holes in the administration’s
at
as
Paul Wolfowitz,
concocted the war
in the
sebaceous quadrants of the White House and the Pentagon, over the objections of the senior analysts
The two
at
the
journalists also trace in
journey of Tony
CIA and comic
Blair’s plagiarized dossier
State
detail the picaresque
on
verbose, paid
whole
a
Commons.
from
Iraq,
student’s website to a cut-and-paste job in the
bombastic speech to the House of
Department.
prime
Blair,
grad
minister’s
stubborn and
price for his grandiose puffery. Bush,
who
looted
own clumsy presentations, Why?
passages from Blair’s speech tor his
has skated freely through the tempest.
a
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR Stauber and
They had no hold up to
interest in
tor
The
allegations about Iraq
real effort
was aimed
war by using the psychology of
were never important
Facts
to present a legal case for war.
making any of their
a standard of proof.
mood
Unlike
offer the best explanation to date.
Bush team never wanted
Blair, the
up the
Rampton
319
to the
at
amping
fear.
Bush team. They were
disposable nuggets that could be discarded
at will
and replaced by
new rationale played favorably with their polls and focus The war was about weapons of mass destruction one week,
whatever groups.
A1
Qaeda
When
the next.
on the ground, the
neither allegation could be substantiated
fall-back position
became
the mass graves
from the Iran/Iraq war supported by the US) proving
that
(many
Saddam
who deserved to be toppled. The motto of the Bush PR machine was: Move on. Don’t explain. Say anything to conceal
was an
evil
thug
the perfidy behind the real motives for war. Never look back. Accuse
questioners of harboring unpatriotic sensibilities. Eventually, even the cagey Wolfowitz admitted that the official case for war was
mainly to make the invasion palatable, not to
The Bush
like a
new
pair
of Nikes,
it
as
a
required a roll-out
up the consumers. Stauber and Rampton convincing and step-by-step detail how the same
to soften
demonstrate
in
techniques (and often the same
SUVs and
hawk
cigarettes,
retail
the Iraq war.
To peddle the
company
it.
claque of neocon hawks viewed the Iraq war
product and, just
campaign
justify
made
invasion,
PR
gurus) that have been used to
nuclear waste
dumps were deployed
to
Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and
recruited public relations gurus into top-level jobs
at
the
Pentagon and the State Department. These spinmeisters soon had more say over how the rationale for war on Iraq should be presented than intelligence agencies and career diplomats. didn’t
fit
the script,
it
If
the intelligence
was either shaded, retooled or junked.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
320
Take Charlotte Beers,
who
Powell tapped
Undersecretary of
as
She wasn’t
State in the post-9/ 11 world. Beers wasn’t a diplomat.
even
a politician.
She was the grand diva of
business and gossip pages as ‘the
known on
the
On
the
queen of Madison Avenue.'
two advertising campaigns, one
strength of
spin,
Uncle Ben’s Rice
for
and another for Head and Shoulders’ dandruff shampoo, Beers rocketed to the top of the heap in the
PR
houses, Ogilvy
&
Department, Beers,
PR
world, heading two giant
Mather and J. Walter Thompson. At the
who
had met Powell in 1995
served on the board of Gulf Airstream, worked ‘the
branding of
US
at,
when
they both
in Powell’s
foreign policy.’ She extracted
much of it
US propaganda
on beaming
directed
is
a vital
ism over time,’ said Beers.
Note the
new arm
‘All
who America
outside world.’
into the
which
Muslim world,
at teens.
‘Public diplomacy
of redefining
words,
more than $500
million from Congress for her Brand America campaign, largely focused
State
is,
of
a
in
what
sudden we
will
combat
terror-
are in this position
not only for ourselves, but for the
rapt attention Beers pays to the
pulation of perception, as opposed,
say,
to alterations of
US
manipolicy.
Old-fashioned diplomacy involves direct communication between representatives of nations, a conversational give
and
take, often
fraught with deception (see April Glaspie), but an exchange none-
Public diplomacy,
theless. entirely.
It’s
a
one-way
propaganda directly
as
defined by Beers,
street, a unilateral
to the public,
is
something
else
broadcast of American
domestic and international -
a
kind of informational carpet bombing.
The themes of her campaigns were Bush press conference. The American and Iraq were
all
and flimsy
as a
incursions into Afghanistan
about bringing the balm of ‘freedom’ to oppressed
peoples. Hence, the
where
as simplistic
title
cruise missiles
of the
US
war: Operation Iraqi Freedom,
were depicted
as
instruments of liberation.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
Bush himself war
is
distilled the
Beers equation to
Tomahawk war
the
were
itself
bizarre essence: ‘This
its
Over
missiles battered
few weeks before the
a
first
volley
Baghdad. From her point of view,
was already won, the fireworks of Shock and
Awe
after-play.
all
Clarke
321
about peace.’
Beers quietly resigned her post of
WAR
at
the Pentagon,
as his director
of public
the Beltway. Prior to
DC
affairs.
Clarke
knew
‘Torie’
the ropes inside
becoming Rumsfeld’s mouthpiece she had
commanded one of the and Knowlton’s
Donald Rumsfeld drafted Victoria
world's great parlors for powerbrokers: Hill
office.
Almost immediately upon taking up her new gig Clarke convened regular meetings with a select group of Washington’s top private specialists
and lobbyists to develop
a
marketing plan for the Pentagon’s
forthcoming terror wars. The group was in
Group and
PR
it
included
filled
with heavy
composition. She called
was strikingly bipartisan
PR
it
hitters
the
and
Rumsfeld
executive Sheila Tate, columnist Rich
Galen, and Republican political consultant Charlie Black.
The
Democratic
braintrust also boasted top
brother of
NPR’s Cokie Roberts and
fixer
son of the
Tommy
late
Boggs,
Congressman
Hale Boggs of Arkansas. At the very time Boggs was conferring with top Pentagon brass on also
working
how
frame the war on
interests in
PR
needed
may
2002
Washington. In the wake of hostile press coverage
all
to have gotten their
peddling
he was
firm $20.2 million to protect
following the exposure of Saudi links to the 9/1 royal family
terror,
feverishly for the royal family of Saudi Arabia. In
alone, the Saudis paid his Qorvis its
to
the well-placed help
it
money’s worth. Boggs’s
help to explain
why
the
1
hijackers, the
could buy. They seem felicitous influence-
damning
references to Saudi
funding of A1 Qaeda were edited out of the recent congressional report on the investigation into intelligence failures and 9/11.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
322
According
to the trade publication
PR Week
sent ‘messaging advice’ to the Pentagon.
Rumsfeld
that in order to get the
war on terrorism they needed just
nebulous groups such
,
the
The group
American public
told Clarke to
and
buy into the
to suggest a link to nation states, not
A1 Qaeda. In other words, there needed
as
to be a fixed target for the military campaigns, to
Rumsfeld Group
some
distant place
drop cruise missiles and cluster bombs. They suggested the notion
(already
embedded
of so-called rogue
Rumsfeld’s mind) of playing up the notion
in
masters of terrorism.
states as the real
born the Axis of Evil, which, of course, wasn't an
two of the anything
states, Iran
at all to
and
Iraq,
do with the
relations
third,
North Korea.
and media firms working to
diktat that
Saddam had
since
‘axis’ at all,
hated each other, and neither had
money were poured
Tens of millions in federal
Thus was
craft
into private public
and broadcast the Bush
to be taken out before the Iraqi dictator
blew up the world by dropping chemical and nuclear bombs from long-range drones.
Many
of these
PR
executives and image
consultants were old friends of the high priests in the Bush inner
sanctum. Indeed they were veterans,
like
Cheney and
Powell, of the
previous war against Iraq, another engagement that was
more
spin
DC
firm
than combat.
At the top of the the
was John Rendon, head of the
Rendon Croup. Rendon
hitters, a
the
list
Beltway
fixer
who
one of Washington’s heaviest
is
never
let political affiliation
way of an assignment. Rendon served
both Michael Dukakis and
Jimmy
as a
media consultant
Carter, as well as
George H. W. Bush. Whenever the Pentagon wanted he offered
his services at a price.
pulled in $100,000
followed
this
a
up with
Reagan and to
go
to war,
the Kuwaiti royal family.
$23 million contract from the
produce anti-Saddam propaganda
for
During Desert Storm Rendon
month from a
stand in
in the region.
CIA
He to
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR As part
of this
CIA
project,
National Congress and tapped financier, to
Rendon
323
created and
Ahmad
his friend
head the organization. Shortly
after
named
the Iraqi
Chalabi, the shady
9/11, the Pentagon
handed the Rendon Group another big assignment: public
US bombing
for the
of Afghanistan.
Rendon was
relations
also
deeply
involved in the planning and public relations for the pre-emptive
war on
Iraq,
though both Rendon and the Pentagon
disclose the details of the group’s
But
it’s
work
refuse to
there.
not hard to detect the manipulative hand of
Rendon
behind many of the Iraq War's signature events, including the toppling of the Saddam statue (by
US
troops and Chalabi associates)
waving American
and videotape of jubilant
Iraqis
Infantry rolled by them.
Rendon had
the
first
flags as the
Third
pulled off the same stunt in
Gulf War, handing out American
flags to
Kuwaitis and
herding the media to the orchestrated demonstration. ‘Where do
you think they got those American ‘That was
my
flags?'
clucked
Rendon
in 1991.
assignment.’
The Rendon Group may also have played a role in pushing the phony intelligence that has now come back to haunt the Bush administration. In December of 2002, Robert Dreyfuss reported that the inner circle
of the Bush White House preferred the
intel-
coming from Chalabi and his associates to that being proffered by analysts at the CIA. So Rendon and his circle ligence
new kind of off-the-shelf psy-ops, the privatization of official propaganda. ‘I am not a national security strategist or a military tactician,’ said Rendon. ‘I am a politician, and a person represented
who
uses
a
communication
objectives. In fact,
I
am
to
meet public policy or corporate policy
an information warrior and
a
perception
manager.’
What
exactly, pray
Pentagon defines
it
this
tell,
is
perception management? Well, the
way: ‘actions to convey and/ or deny selected
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
324
information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning.’ In other words, lying
US
about the intentions of the
government. In
public frankness, the Pentagon actually
by Rendon) to establish
a
a rare display
let slip its
high-level den inside the
Defense for perception management. They called
and among
Strategic Influence,
many
its
of
plan (developed
Department it
ot
the Office of
missions was to plant talse
stories in the press.
Nothing stirs the corporate media like is
an
official
government
manipulated for
memo
Influence, the Pentagon shut
gloated with satisfaction on press corps that
fits
down its
how the media New York limes and
bragging about
political objectives.
Washington Post threw indignant
Pentagon
into outbursts of pious outrage
So the
about the Office of Strategic the operation and the press
Yet Rumsfeld told the
victory.
while he was killing the
office, the
same
devious work would continue. ‘You can have the corpse,’ said
Rumsfeld. ‘You can have the name. But I’m going to keep doing every single thing that needs to be done.
At
a
diplomatic
stories, this
level, despite
image war was
most fervent
allies
of a
failed to
a
threat.
It
I
have.’
the hired guns and the planted
lost. It failed to
and dependent
win
And
convince even America’s
client states that Iraq
the blessing of the
posed
UN and even
much
NATO,
wholly-owned subsidiary of Washington. At the end of the
day,
the vaunted coalition of the willing consisted of Britain, Spain, Italy,
Australia,
and
a
cohort of former Soviet bloc nations. Even so
the citizens of the nations that threw in their lot with the
US
over-
whelmingly opposed the war. Domestically,
it
was
by terror threats and
a different story.
its
shattered
A
population traumatized
economy became
the saturation
bombing of the Bush message
state linked to
A1
Qaeda
that
that Iraq
easy prey for
was
a terrorist
was only minutes away from launching
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR attacks
325
on America with weapons of mass destruction.
Americans were the victims of an elaborate con job, pelted with a daily
barrage of threat inflation, distortions, deceptions and
lies.
Not about tactics or strategy or war plans, but about justifications for war. The lies were aimed not at Saddam’s regime, but at the American people. By the start of the war, 66 per cent of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was behind 9/1 and 79 per cent thought 1
he was close to having
Of course,
a
the closest
nuclear weapon.
Saddam came
nuke was
to possessing a
a
rusting gas centrifuge buried for thirteen years in the garden of
Mahdi Obeidi,a
retired Iraqi scientist. Iraq didn’t have
lzed chemical or biological weapons. In fact,
any Scud
missiles, despite
flacks alleging that
it
had
it
fired
reports, put
PR
Scuds into Kuwait.
plied press corps. Victoria Clarke,
embedded
didn’t even possess
erroneous reports fed by Pentagon
This charade wouldn’t have worked without
plan for
any weapon-
it
who
a gullible
or a
com-
developed the Pentagon
succinctly a few
weeks before the
war began: ‘Media coverage of any future operation
will to a large
extent shape public perception.’
During the Vietnam War, napalmed
villages
hasten the
US
US
into a
What where
The Bush gang meant
withdrawal.
war
images of maimed GIs and
suburbanized opposition to the war and helped
Vietnam phenomenon on the
TV
that
its
head by using TV
no one
really
the Pentagon sought was a
instead of photos of
turn the
force to propel
as a
wanted.
new
mangled
to
kind of living-room war,
soldiers
and dead
Iraqi kids,
they could control the images Americans viewed and to extent the content of the stories.
By embedding
a large
reporters inside
selected divisions, Clarke believed the Pentagon could count on
the reporters to build relationships with the troops and to feel
dependent on them
for their
own
safety.
It
worked,
naturally.
One
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
326
reporter for
army functioned
NBC
‘our protectors.’
as
confessed on the
Jessica
late
David Bloom of
us.’
the Pentagon needed a heroic story, the press obliged.
Lynch became the war’s
neo-Gothic battle,
The
he was willing to do ‘anything and
air that
everything they can ask of
When
US
national network quavered on camera that the
a
of
tale
steely
a
instant celebrity.
first
Here was
young woman wounded
a
in a fierce
captured and tortured by ruthless enemies and dramatically
saved from certain death by
a
team of
Kevlar and nightvision goggles.
Of
her heroic adventure proved to be
selfless rescuers,
knights in
course, nearly every detail of Active and maudlin as any
as
made-for-TV-movie. But the ordeal of Private Lynch, which dominated the news distract attention
look
a lot riskier
for
from
more than
a stalled
a
week, served
campaign
that
its
purpose: to
was beginning
to
than the American public had been hoodwinked
into believing.
The Lynch
story was fed to the eager press by a Pentagon
Combat Camera,
operation called
the
army network of photo-
graphers, videographers and editors that sends 800 photos and 25
video
clips a
day to the media.
The
editors at
Combat Camera
carefully culled the footage to present the Pentagon’s
montage of
the war, eliding such unsettling images as collateral damage, cluster
bombs, dead children and
US
soldiers,
napalm
strikes
and
disgruntled troops.
‘A lot of our imagery will have
a
big impact on world opinion,'
predicted Lt. Jane Larogue, director of Combat
was
right.
But
as
the hot
Camera
in Iraq.
She
war turned into an even hotter occupation,
the Pentagon, despite airy rhetoric from occupation
supremo Paul
Bremer about
as a free press,
installing
moved
to tighten
First,
tried to shut
it
its
democratic institutions such
monopoly on
down
the flow of images out of Iraq.
A1 Jazeera, the Arab news channel.
Then
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR the Pentagon intimated that
would
it
327
TV
like to see all foreign
news
crews banished from Baghdad.
Few newspapers fanned
the hysteria about the threat posed by
Saddam’s weapons ot mass destruction
sedulously as did the
as
Washington Post. In the months leading up to the war, the
war op-eds outnumbered the antiwar columns by Back in 1988, the
weapons
Post felt
much
of mass destruction.
differently
When
a
3 to
Post's 1
pro-
margin.
about Saddam and
his
reports trickled out about the
gassing of Iranian troops, the Washington Post editorial page shrugged off the massacres, calling the mass poisonings
The Bush team
‘a
quirk of war.’
When Iraq used US government not
displayed a similar amnesia.
chemical weapons
in grisly attacks
only didn’t object,
it
on
Iran, the
encouraged Saddam. Anything to punish Iran
was the message coming from the White House. Donald Rumsfeld himself was sent
Baghdad
to
as
President Ronald Reagan’s personal envoy to
convey the bold message
that an Iraqi defeat
would be
setback for the United States.’ This sleazy
viewed
as a ‘strategic
alliance
was sealed with
a
handshake caught on videotape.
When
CNN
reporter Jamie McIntyre replayed the footage for Rumsfeld
in the
spring of 2003, the secretary of defense snapped: ‘Where’d
you get
The
that? Iraqi television?’
current crop of Iraq hawks also saw
then. Take the writer Laura Mylroie,
NewYork Times's Judy
Miller,
who
Saddam much
sometime colleague of the
persists in
conspiracy that Iraq was behind the 1993
Trade Center.
How
peddling the ludicrous
bombing
times have changed. In
Republic titled ‘Back Iraq:
arguing that the
US
Time
for a
ot the
World
1987, Mylroie
downright cuddly toward Saddam. She penned an
New
differently
US Tilt
felt
article tor the
in the Mideast,’
should publicly embrace Saddam’s secular
bulwark against the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran. Fhe co-author of this mesmerizing weave of wonkery was none other
regime
as a
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
328
than the minor
demon
himself, Daniel Pipes, perhaps the nation’s
most bellicose Islamophobe. ‘The American weapons
Iraq
that
could make good use of include remotely scatterable and antipersonnel mines and counterartillery
‘The United
Pipes.
ligence
it is
States
might
radar,’
this feat?
She had help
same
in the
day.
who
Benador parlayed her
skills as a linguist
also oversees the mill.
Her
whiz
to be
everywhere
How
did the reporter
form of Eleana Benador, the
media placement guru
relations
seemed
She would often appear on two or
Iraq.
three different networks in the
paper
intel-
supplying Baghdad.’
hawking the invasion of
media
upgrading
also consider
In the roll-out for the war, Mylroie
manage
wrote Mylroie and
runs Benador Associates. Born in Peru,
for the
into a lucrative career as
Washington foreign policy
Middle East Forum, a clients include
elite.
fanatically pro-Zionist
some of
She
white
the nation’s most fervid
hawks, including Michael Ledeen, Charles Krauthammer, A1 Haig,
Max
Boot, Daniel Pipes, Richard Perle and Judy Miller. During the
Iraq War, Benador’s assignment
war
was to embed
zealots into the national media,
Benador not only got them the and made sure they things,
you
all
stayed
just have to state
on
talk
this
squadron of pro-
shows and op-ed pages.
gigs, she also crafted the
on the same theme. ‘There
them
message
are
in a different way, in a slightly
different way,’ said Benador. ‘If not people get scared.’ Scared
intentions of their It
administration’s gossamer case for
in
the
Bush
war detailed by Stauber and
(and other independent journalists) were right there for
the mainstream press to unearth and expose. Instead, the just like the oil
Iraq
of the
own government.
could have been different. All of the holes
Rampton
some
War and
US
press,
companies, cravenly sought to commercialize the
profit
with uncomfortable
from the invasions. They didn’t want to deal facts
or present voices of dissent.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
Nothing sums up
329
unctuous approach more brazenly than
this
MSNBC's
firing ot liberal talk
ot the war.
The network
segment
WAR
show
replaced the
Donahue on the eve Donahue show with a running host Phil
called Countdown: Iraq featuring the usual nightly coterie ,
and other cheerleaders
ot retired generals, security flacks
for invasion.
The network’s
executives blamed the cancellation on sagging ratings.
In fact, during
its
run Donahue’s show attracted more viewers than
any other program on the network. The
emptive
strike
on Donahue was
real
reason for the pre-
spelled out in an internal
memo
NBC. Donahue, the memo said, offered ‘a difficult face for MSNBC in a time of war. He seems to delight in presenting guests who are antiwar, anti-Bush and skeptical of from anxious executives
at
the administration's motives.’
The memo warned
that
an unpatriotic network,
NBC
as
agenda
at
Donahue’s show risked tarring
‘a
home
for a liberal antiwar
the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every
opportunity.’ So, with scarcely a second thought, the honchos
MSNBC It’s
Donahue
gave
war
There’s
that a
the boot and hoisted the battle
at
flag.
sells.
helluva caveat, of course.
Once you buy
it,
the mer-
chants of war accept no returns.
August
1
8,
2003
JUDY MILLER'S WAR by Alexander Cockburn
Lay
all
Judith Miller’s
New York
2001 to June 2003, and you get
Times stories end to end, from a
late
desolate picture of a reporter with
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
330
an agenda, both manipulating and being manipulated by
government
officials, Iraqi exiles
Ark of scam
artists.
And while
Miller, either
US
and defectors, an entire Noah’s
under her
own single byline
or with
N YT
book Germs co-
colleagues, was touting the bioterror threat, her
,
authored with Times-men Steven Engelberg and William Broad, was in the bookstores
Miller
and climbing the
bestseller
The same day
lists.
opened an envelope of white powder (which turned out
be harmless) 6 on the
at
her desk
New York Times
at
the
New York
bestseller
list.
The
...
it
reached number
We
for certain that
between lies.
late
don’t have all
full
following
week (October
2.
20/20 hindsight
to
book was number
Times, her
By October 28 — at her scare-mongering campaign — it was up to number
21, 2001),
cynical
that
yet,
but
the height of
we were we do know
1
.
If
the sensational disclosures in Miller’s major stories
2001 and early summer 2003, promoted disingenuous
There were no
secret biolabs
factories across Iraq secretly
under Saddam’s
working
full-tilt.
what Miller wrote was garbage, garbage
A
that
palaces,
no nuclear
huge percentage of
powered the Bush
administration’s propaganda drive towards invasion.
What does that make Miller? She was a witting cheerleader for war. She knew what she was doing. And what does Miller’s performance make the New York Times ? Didn’t any senior editors, or even the boss, A. O. Sulzberger, ask
themselves whether
it
was appropriate to have
reporters touting their
book Germs on
TV
a
and
trio
of Times
radio, while
simultaneously running stories in the paper headlining the risks of
biowar and thus creating just the sort of public alarm beneficial to the sales of their
book?
Isn’t that
the sort of conflict of interest
prosecutors have been hounding Wall Street punters for?
The traffic
knives are certainly out for Miller. Leaked internal email disclosed her self-confessed reliance
on Ahmad Chalabi,
a
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
331
leading Iraqi exile with every motive to produce imaginative defectors eager to testify about Saddam’s biowar, chemical and
nuclear arsenal. In
late
June Howard Kurtz of the Washington
ran a long story about Miller’s ability in recent
US Army jump, It
a
to
make
the
merely by threatening to go straight to Rumsfeld.
was funny, but again, the
Times in
months
Post
a terrible light.
new book on
conflicts
Here was
of interest put the NewYork
Miller,
with
contract to write
a
the post-invasion search for ‘weapons of mass
destruction,’ lodged in the
army
fiercely insisting that the
unit prolong
unit charged with that search, its
hunt, while
futile
simultaneously working hand in glove with Chalabi. Journalists
have to do some complex dance steps to get good
stories,
but
a
few
red flags should have gone up on that one.
A
brisk, selective timeline:
December 20, 2001.
Headline:
‘Iraqi Tells
of Renovations
For Chemical and Nuclear Arms.’ Miller
out
rolls
a
defector, in the ripe tradition of her favorite, Khidir utter fraud
who
called himself
at Sites
new
Iraqi
Hamza, the
Saddam’s Bombmaker.
Story:
An
Iraqi defector
personally
who
described himself
worked on renovations of
chemical and nuclear weapons
in
as a civil
engineer said he
secret facilities for biological,
underground
and under the Saddam Hussein Hospital
in
wells, private villas
Baghdad
as
recently as a
year ago.
The
defector,
Adnan
projects he said he
ment
in
Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, gave details of the
worked on
for President
an extensive interview
last
with Mr. Saeed was arranged by the Iraqi
week Iraqi
Saddam
in
Hussein’s govern-
Bangkok. The interview
National Congress, the main
opposition group, which seeks the overthrow of
Mr
Hussein.
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
332
If verified, officials
Mr
Mr. Saeed’s allegations would provide ammunition to
within the Bush administration
who
have been arguing that
Hussein should be driven from power partly because of
unwillingness to stop
making weapons
Notice the sedate phrase the story served
its
2002.
September
7,
A-bomb
parts.'
ot mass destruction.
‘if verified.’ It
never was verified. But
purpose.
Headline: ‘US says Hussein intensifies quest for
This one was by Miller and Michael Gordon,
promoting the aluminum tube nonsense: Iraq has sought to
tubes,
his
buy thousands of
which American
'In the last
14 months,
specially designed
officials believe
were intended
nents of centrifuges to enrich uranium.' All
lies
aluminum as
compo-
of course. Miller
and Gordon emphasize ‘Mr. Hussein’s dogged insistence on pursuing his
nuclear ambitions, along with what defectors described in
interviews as Iraq’s push to improve and expand Baghdad’s chemical
and biological
Another of
arsenals.’
Miller’s defectors takes a
bow:
Speaking on the condition that neither he nor the country in which he was interviewed be identified,
Ahmed
al-Shemri, his pseudonym,
said Iraq
had continued developing, producing and storing chemical
agents
many mobile and
at
fixed secret sites throughout the country,
many of them underground. ‘All
about reports
A
of Iraq his
is
one
allegations,
large storage facility,' said
American
officials
Mr. Shemri. Asked
said they believed these
were accurate.
final bit
of brazen chicanery from Gordon and Miller:
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR Iraq denied the existence
1995,
edge
when United it
of
germ
a
333
warfare program entirely until
Nations inspectors forced Baghdad to acknowl-
had such an
effort.
weaponized bacteria or edged having done so
Then,
warheads,
filled
after
after insisting that
it
had never
again belatedly acknowl-
it
Hussein Kamel, Mr. Hussein’s brother-in-
Jordan with evidence about the scale of the germ
law, defected to
warfare program.
What Gordon and desire to find out)
he had destroyed
is
all
Miller leave out (or lacked the enterprise or
Kamel told WMDs, on Saddam
that Hussein Iraq’s
September 13, 2002. Headline: ‘White
House
Build Banned Weapons.’ Miller and
Gordon
value the administration’s claims that
was
unanimous view been seeking If
nothing
Gordon across
are,
that the type
are used to else
it
Hussein’s orders. Lists
Party lay
down
of [aluminum] tubes that Iraq has
make such
now
Maybe a
centrifuges.’
turns out that the intelligence analysts
Impossible. ’This
it
has
destruction, or finding evidence that
A cameo knowledge
is
Is
according to
officials
Miller helping the
was
now
at
UN
War
inspectors:
abandoned weapons of mass it
has not
done
so,
may not
and former weapons inspectors.’
appearance by Khidir that ‘Iraq
this issue.
Difficult at Best, Say
pre-emptive barrage against the
‘verifying Iraq’s assertions that
feasible,
To
again, taking at face
Washington were deeply divided on precisely
the Experts, and
Iraq Steps
‘the intelligence agencies’
September 18, 2002. Headline: ‘Verification
be
inspectors that
shows what rotten reporters Miller and
this
because
it
UN
Hamza
reporting his supposed
the “pilot plant” stage of nuclear
production and within two to three years of mass producing centrifuges to enrich uranium for
a
bomb.’
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
334
December
2002.
3,
A
Miller Special,
murky with
unidentified
informants: ‘CIA Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet Smallpox.’ Classic Miller:
CIA
‘The
is
investigating an informant’s accu-
sation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox
from
a
Russian
scientist
who worked
in a
smallpox lab in
Moscow
during Soviet times.’
January 24, 2003. ‘Defectors Bolster
US
Case Against
Iraq, Officials
Say.’
Another Miller onslaught on the
Former
Iraqi scientists, military officers
American secret
UN
inspectors:
and contractors have provided
intelligence agencies with a portrait of
Saddam
Hussein’s
programs to develop and conceal chemical, biological and
nuclear weapons that
starkly at
is
odds with the findings so
far
of the
United Nations weapons inspectors. «
Al-Haideri
is still
in play:
Intelligence officials said that has
come from Adnan
Iraq in the
some of the most
valuable information
Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a contractor
summer of 2001. He
later told
American
who
fled
officials that
chemical and biological weapons laboratories were hidden beneath hospitals
and
anonymously
inside presidential palaces. Mr. Haideri to a small
town
was relocated
in Virginia.
We’ll leave al-Haideri in well-earned retirement and Miller heading
towards her supreme triumph of April 20, 2003, relaying the allegations of chemical
unnamed
and bio-weapon dumps made by an
Iraqi scientist she’d
never met.
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
August
2,
335
2003
MEET THE REAL WMD FABRICATOR: A SWEDE CALLED ROLF EKEUS by Alexander Cockburn
Week
week Bush and his people have been getting pounded by newly emboldened Democrats and liberal pundits for having alter
exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and
weapons of mass is
hung out
destruction.
to dry; the next
One
day
CIA
his still-elusive
George Tenet
director
the turn of Paul Wolfowitz’s platoon
it’s
of mad Straussians. The other side of the Atlantic, the same thing has been happening to Tony
They deserve more deserving
man of
if
were
to the
United
I
give
Peace Research
he’s
first
Iraq
Saddam Hussein was
war as
it
was
a
sanctions,
pivotal
role
only
surely
a
Swede
pressing
in justifying the
on the grounds
means of applying pressure In
Iraq
UNSCOM
manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. played
on
from 1991
noted dovecote of the olive-branch
Institute, a
wake of the
(UNSCOM)
chairman of the
chairman of the Stockholm International
exuding disinterested integrity that
New Labour and espousers
States and, before that, the executive
These days
In the
liberal credentials, well
you Rolf Ekeus, former Swedish ambassador
United Nations Special Commission to 1997.
to be fair there’s an even
impeccable
respected in the sort of confabs attended by
of the Third Way.
of
Blair.
the pounding, but target, a
sort
to the tyrant in
US
chief Ekeus,
who
insisted
forward with the It
was Ekeus
who
continued imposition of
that these sanctions
1996 Ramsey Clark, former
can,
set.
were
essential as a
Baghdad.
Attorney General, and
a
leading critic of the indiscriminate cruelty of these sanctions, wrote
an open letter to Ekeus beginning thus:
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
336
Dear Mr. Ekeus, you search
for ‘items’
two months your
How many you
children are you willing to
‘are
convinced
for the past half year,
office have
still
and on
made some statement
let
die while
Every
exist in' Iraq?
you or
earlier occasions,
weeks before the
several
know
Security Council considers sanctions against Iraq which you will
be used to cause their continuation
hoax of new
disclosures every
...
This cruel and endless
two months must
stop.
The
direct
consequence of your statements which
are used to justify continu-
ation of the sanctions against Iraq
the deaths of hundreds of
is
thousands of innocent and helpless infants, children and elderly and chronically
Despite
ill
human
many such
over his job
as
beings.
furious denunciations,
till
the day he
UNSCOM chief to the more obviously suspect and
disheveled Australian Richard Butler, Ekeus continued in the
stigmatized by Clark and others.
Madeleine Albright notoriously lethal sanctions
which
think the price
is
the
crowd
US Ambassador
said to Lesley Stahl
to
manner
UN
the
of CBS, of 'the
killed over half a million Iraqi children,
worth
it,’
UN’s diplomatic cover
It’s
handed
but Ekeus was the one
who
‘We
furnished
for that repulsive calculus.
among the genteel liberal of what he really knew about Saddam’s
fortunate tor Ekeus’s reputation that public awareness
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons
is still
slight. In fact
Ekeus
was perfectly well aware from the mid-1990s on that Saddam Hussein had no such weapons of mass destruction. They had
been destroyed years this
earlier, after
on the night of August 22,
General Hussein Kamel,
with some of
who
the
first
1995, in
Gulf War. Ekeus learned
Amman, from
had just defected from
his senior military aides.
all
the Iraq,
lips
of
along
Kamel was Saddam’s son-
in-law and had been in overall charge of all programs for chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons and delivery systems.
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' That
night, in three hours
two technical
experts,
teams had done
a
of detailed questioning from Ekeus and
Kamel was
good job.
When Saddam
was
that night, ‘All
were destroyed.' (The
be viewed
UNSCOM Kamel
Kamel
at
carried
it
details.
same thing
to teams
aides provided a wealth of
Then, the following
year,
Kamel was
lured back
once executed.
Did Ekeus immediately proclaim sanctions could be abated? As
we
and suggest
victory,
The war
children by the thousand wasted and died.
drum
over Saddam’s
under lock and details
Finally,
of those sessions
Newsweek ran that
key.
his story,
WMDs, in
party
tact
Iraqi
thumped
and Kamel’s debriefings stayed
John Barry of Neu’sweek unearthed
Amman
and
in
though not with the play
when Barry confronted Ekeus with
briefing,
that
have seen, he did not. In
he urged that they be intensified. The years rolled by and
the
out.
record of the session can
said the
from the CIA and MI6. His military
and
persuaded that
weapons, biological, chemical, missile,
similar debriefings that August,
to Iraq
inspection
http://www.fair.org/press-releases/kamel.pdf). In
at
corroborative
UN
finally
serious consequences, he issued the order and
nuclear,
The
categorical.
of the relevant weapons systems would have very
failure to dispose
As he told Ekeus
337
February it
details
this
deserved.
I
year
gather
of the suppressed
Ekeus was stricken. Barry’s sensational disclosure was
mostly ignored.
And and
Ekeus’s rationale for suppressing the disclosures of
his aides?
He
claims that the plan was to bluff
scientists into further disclosures.
Ekeus got
that out.
US
it
his rewards: a pleasing
he arrived there
as
desired
welcome
in
his
to be played,
Washington when
Swedish ambassador, respectful audiences along
the world’s diplomatic circuits. his ‘credibility’
Saddam and
Try to figure
For playing the game the way the
Kamel
To
this
with long, tendentious
day he zealously burnishes articles
arguing that Bush
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
338
and Blair had
He
right.
it
his horrible role.
He
be forced to squirm
will never
by Democratic senators suddenly to
wade through raw sewage
and watch children to drop a
die,
no sign of being troubled by
betrays
as
to enter the
a
main
won’t have
hospital in
wait for
bridge and blow his head
Today he grazes peacefully Stockholm Peace Research
He
as lions.
Humvee and
or ride in a
hand-grenade off
brave
in hearings
in
Baghdad
someone off.
the tranquil pastures of the
Institute.
But
we’re going to heap
if
recriminations on Bush and Blair and the propagandists
fashioned their
lies,
most of them, under the blue
September
He played of the UN.
don’t forget Ekeus. flag
a
worse
who
role than
2003
1,
HANDMAID IN BABYLON: ANNAN, VIEIRA DE MELLO AND
AND
THE UN'S DECLINE
FALL
by Alexander Cockburn
‘One late
has to be careful,’ said
August, ‘not to confuse
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the UN with the US.’ If the Secretary-
own
maybe
General had taken
his
subordinate, Sergio
Vieira de Mello, might not have been so
summarily blown are,
the
UN
still
to pieces in
craves the
advice, then
Baghdad two days
handmaid
role the
US
his
earlier.
Brazilian
As things
desperately needs
in Iraq as political cover.
Whichever group
sent that truck
bomb on
Vieira and his boss were so brazen in figleaf role in the
US
its
moving
way decided
the
UN
that
to play a
occupation of Iraq that spectacular action was
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
WAR
339
UN
necessary to draw attention to the process. So the
handpicked by the White House paid with
To
how
get a sense of
swift has
his
man
life.
been the conversion of the
UN
into after-sales service provider for the world’s prime power, just
go back
when
1996,
to
Annan’s predecessor
as
the United States finally decided that
UN
Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-
Ghali, had to go. In a pleasing foreshadowing of Annan’s plaintive remark cited
above, Boutros-Ghali told Clinton’s top foreign policy executives:
me
‘Please allow
to time to differ publicly
But unlike Annan he did
policy.’
concern
for Bosnia,
with
rich,’
from time
its
whose
US
from
harshly contrasting Western
so,
conflict he described as
‘a
war of the
Rwanda and
indifference to the genocide in
to
horrifying conditions throughout the Third World. Then, in April
1996, he went altogether too the findings of the
of some hundred
camp
in
In a
Kanaa
when he
insisted
who had
taken refuge in
a
United Nations
south Lebanon.
minority of one on the Security Council, the
exercising
its
on publishing
UN inquiry which implicated Israel in the killing
civilians
in
far,
US
insisted
on
veto of a second term for Boutros-Ghali. James Rubin,
Department spokesman, wrote
erstwhile State Financial Times
:
his
epitaph in the
Boutros-Ghali was ‘unable to understand the
importance of cooperation with the world’s
first
power.’
It
took
another foreign policy operative of the Clinton era to identify
Annan’s appeal to Washington. Richard Holbrooke in
1995 there was
Ghali and the
a
‘dual-key’ arrangement,
NATO
commander had
Boutros-Ghali had vetoed
of the Serbs,
for fear
Ghali was traveling, Kofi turned
it,’
all
whereby both Boutros-
to jointly approve
but the most limited pinprick
of appearing to take
Annan was
Holbrooke
later recalled that
left in
told Philip
sides.
bombing.
bombing
But when Boutros-
charge of the
UN
Gourevich of the
key.
‘When
New Yorker,
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
340
became Secretary-General
‘he
in waiting.’
There was
further, very terrible service rendered by
Annan,
of course a
in
which, in
deference to the American desire to keep Sarajevo in the limelight,
he suppressed the warnings of the Canadian General that appalling massacres
Of course realities
such days
even
UN’s
in the
Dallaire
Rwanda.
to start in
braver days, there were always the
UN
of power to be acknowledged, but
secretaries-general
Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant were men of stature. These UN functionaries such as Annan and the late Vieira know full as
well that their careers a
were about
Romeo
depend on American patronage. Vieira was
bureaucrat, never an elected politician, instrumental in establishing
the
UN
protectorate system in Kosovo.
Then he was
of an elaborate and instructive maneuver, to rid itself
Brazilian,
which the
in
from
his post as
head of the Organization
for the Prohi-
Weapons, the Chemical Weapons Convention’s
implementing organization. Bustani was no in
US was eager
of the inconvenient Jose Mauricio Bustani, another
bition of Chemical
adamant
the beneficiary
maintaining
admired round the world
his
US
cat’s-paw but
organization’s independence, and
for his
energy
in
seeking to rid the world
of chemical weapons.
When
UNSCOM
withdrew from
compromised and riddled with in to
spies, Bustani’s
continue verification of destruction
Bustani would persuade
Iraq in
1998, hopelessly
OPCW was allowed
ofWMDs.The US
Saddam Hussein
teared
to sign the
Chemical
Weapons Convention and accept inspections from
Bustani’s
organization, thus allowing the possibility of credible estimates of
might prove inconvenient
Iraq’s arsenal that
informed
that if
rewarded with
it
US
US
disfavor,
US.
supported the ouster of Bustani,
it
Brazil
for
Human
Mary Robinson. J
was
would be
backing for Vieira’s elevation to the post of
High Commissioner of
to the
UN
Rights, replacing another object
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
341
Vieira was duly appointed. Then, earlier this year, the imperial linger crooked an urgent lor inspection
Desperate for
Annan
summons
UN
UN
Special
Envoy
Baghdad where,
to Iraq.
in cooperation with
proconsul Paul Bremer, his priority was to put together
puppet Governing Council of
Iraqis,
Coalition Provisional Authority.
notorious fraudsters
Nine days with
come to Washington made all the right noises. to
cover in Iraq, the Bush White House pressured
to appoint Vieira as
US
him
by Condoleezza Rice. Vieira
Vieira installed himself in
the
for
as
Ahmad
later Vieira
was
a straight face that
the
now
at
the pleasure of the
council was replete with such
Chalabi.
at
‘we
The
serving
a
UN
have
It
in a
was formed on July
New
13.
York, proclaiming
formal body of senior and
distinguished Iraqi counterparts, with credibility and authority, with
whom we
can chart the
way forward.
We now
power vacuum
that succeeds the disorienting
enter
a
new
stage
that followed the
fall
of the previous regime.’
Though the
UN
did not formally recognize the Governing Council,
it
Security Council eagerly
The
Financial Times editorialized
such
as India,
commended
on August
this
19: ‘America’s friends,
Turkey Pakistan and even France, which opposed the
war, should stand ready to help. But they need
Baghdad, the next answer.
Two
days
confusing the If
UN
day, in the later,
Kofi
as
the
man who
equate the two. But capable of that?
UN
cover.' In
form of the truck bomb, came an
Annan counseled on
the dangers of
with the US.
he meant what he
forthwith
achievement.
Annan should obviously resign done more than any figure alive to
said,
has
who would
imagine Africa’s Waldheim being
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
342
November
2003
7,
WORSE
BUSH'S IRAQ MESS: GETTING BY THE DAY by Patrick Cockburn
BAGHDAD: A November where
a
3,
giant
plume of dust and smoke
from
20 of the
American Chinook
disaster for the
killing at least 18
US
The
It
have to rely
less
It
means
and wounding another
was the worst single military
in Iraq since the
Hussein started in March.
in this part
helicopter, crippled by a missile,
and crew on board.
soldiers
in future
outside Fallujah, west of Baghdad,
a field just
had crashed and burned,
morning of
rose, the
war
overthrow Saddam
to
that the
US
may
forces in Iraq
on helicopters and use the roads - which
of Iraq are almost equally hazardous.
destruction of the helicopter should underline the speed with
which the war
in Iraq
September, 33 in October and
of November.
It is
also
US
intensifying: 16
is
as
helicopter was brought
was driving to
I
down,
killed in
first
two days
cities
of Mosul
further 16 in just the
a
spreading further north, to the
and Kirkuk. But even
were
soldiers
Fallujah, just before the
heard on the radio President Bush
I
repeat his old mantra that “the Iraqi people understand that there are a
handful of people It
is
who do
an extraordinarily active handful.
in the centre
down on
of Fallujah
that a
It
its
I
earlier
by
a
bomb
of a bridge over the
interior
freedom.’
heard from
a
shopkeeper
helicopter had been shot
which flows through
was only three or four miles away, but on the way we
drove past the remains of a
side
Chinook
live in
the other side of the Euphrates river,
the town.
hours
not want to
US
truck which had been blown up two
or rocket-propelled grenade.
river
was
a
minibus
taxi
sodden with blood. Locals claimed
On
the other
punctured by shrapnel, it
had been
hit
by
a
US
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' missile,
which
killed
343
one passenger and wounded nine
others.
But the White House and the Pentagon seem unable board
how
swiitly the
Even
deteriorating.
US
and military position
political
dozen rockets
after half a
to take
hit the
on
in Iraq
is
al-Rashid
US Deputy Secretary war in Iraq, US generals
Hotel, narrowly missing Paul Wolfowitz, the ot
Defense and one of the architects of the
Baghdad were
in
still
overall security in Iraq
contending to incredulous journalists
was improving.
Mr Bush
In his blindness to military reality
more
much-derided former
like the
‘Comical
Ali,
’
still
of the
made by
resistance.
Saddam
loyalists
Information Minister,
interpreted
is
‘remnants’ of Saddam’s regime are
Two arguments
Iraqi
sounds more and
claiming glorious victories
entered Baghdad. Every attack
progress being
the
are often
One
is
US
US army
the
as
evidence that the
as
becoming ‘desperate’
at
the great
in Iraq.
produced
to
downplay the seriousness
the ‘remnants’ theory:
have created
since the lesson of the
that
all
this
war was
that
turmoil. This
a
small group of
is
a bit
surprising,
Saddam Hussein had few sup-
porters prepared to fight for him. In fact the ‘remnants’ of the old regime have
number
since the
end of the war. The
been the main recruiting sergeant. Hussein were
a
popular leader with
a
US It
become
occupation authority has
has behaved as if
mass following.
It
Saddam, I
told
me: ‘Two of
fled abroad, but
now
my
A
friend, long in
Saddam
has dissolved
the Iraqi army, leaving 400,000 trained soldiers without
sacked Ba’ath party members.
greater in
a
job, and
opposition to
brothers were murdered by Saddam,
they are going to
fire
four of
my
relatives
because they were forced to join the Ba’ath party to keep their jobs.’
Another comforting method of downplaying the say
it is all
somehow
taking place in the ‘Sunni triangle.’ implies that the area
is
finite
and
resistance
The word
is
to
‘triangle’
small. In fact the
Sunni
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
344
Arabs of Iraq
an area almost the
live in
of England. Ghassan
size
Atiyah, a distinguished Iraqi historian and political activist, believes that ‘if the
Sunni Arabs
feel
they are being
made
they will permanently destabilize Iraq, just Bush’s solution to
The US-run
all this is
as
second-class citizens
the Kurds used to do.'
to get Iraqis to fight the resistance.
Coalition Provisional Authority, isolated in
headquarters in Baghdad, says
it
fortified
its
plans to deploy a force of 222,000
and other security organizations by
police, military, civil defense
next September. This sounds impressive. But only 35,000 of these will be troops
of the
new American-trained
Iraqi army.
There
many
are
on
police
the streets of Baghdad, and they have successfully reduced crime. But
interviews they always
in
make
clear that they see their
protecting ordinary Iraqis from criminals.
no
desire to be
pushed into
They very
paramilitary role, for
a
They do not want
neither trained nor equipped.
collaborators, particularly in areas
where
or
man
in Iraq, the police
checkpoints with
station in the
box crooning
town
last
US
week,
a patriotic
I
which they
As
are
be portrayed is
as
strongest
Fallujah, perhaps the
openly say they
troops.
as
reasonably have
the resistance
and the Americans would need them most. In
most militant town
to
job
will not patrol
was leaving the police
I
heard an unseen policeman in a sentry
song
filled
with praise of Saddam Hussein.
The US could have avoided many of
its
present problems
had given greater legitimacy to the occupation
at
it
it
an early stage.
It
can only recruit an effective Iraqi security force, capable of fighting guerrillas, if there
is
a
simply will not fight as
legitimate Iraqi provisional government. Iraqis if they are
asked to join a force which
an adjunct to an American army.
should be cannon fodder for
They
a foreign
see
regime.
is
viewed
no reason why they
The US could have
legitimized the political reconstruction of Iraq in the eyes of Iraqis if
it
had placed the process under the auspices of the
UN.
Instead
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR it
repeatedly rebuffed the idea.
leave the country,
it
is
Now,
probably too
as
the
345
last
UN
foreign staff
late.
At the turn of the month Paul Bremer, the head of the CPA, pledged to hand over more power to
Baghdad
that this
is
Governing Council its
authority.
is
mostly
made up of exiles and
US
allies aside
take
all
has sought to
very
late in
so.
the day
-
is
A
monopolize power
hostile,
US -
though
it is
government, which
general election
Iraqis
would be
know
body of delegates chosen by
each governorate would have some claim to speak for
a
toyed with the idea of local elections
was frightened off by
dominated by Shia
getting
in
organize
local leaders Iraq.
midsummer.
new body would be supporters. The Shia, at least 55
a fear that
clerics or their
they have
difficult to
in
it
in Iraq,
and the Shias
short notice. But even
But
in
Iraq’s three
at
The US
has
to hold elections to create an Iraqi authority,
effectively a provisional
chosen themselves.
for the
It
officials
from the Kurds, the smallest of
The only way out
Only
the important decisions
communities. The Sunni Arabs are mostly increasingly
sign in
in Iraq.
US
Ministers privately complain that
themselves. Because the has few real
no
is
nonentities.
demonstrable constituency
a
Baghdad simply bypass them and
it
But there
more than window-dressing. The US-appointed
Kurdish members have
little
Iraqis.
the
per cent of the population, are eager to show their electoral strength.
The
failure to create an elected
government, even
if
impossible for the
US
seen
as
Sunni
is
up
most
almost palpable,
areas,
but
it
Iraqi provisional
an interim administration, will
to set
collaborators by
Americans in
is
it
and legitimate
a security force that will
Iraqis. Fallujah, is
not yet
may soon become
Patrick Cockburn, a reporter with
make
it
not be
where hatred of the
a typical Iraqi
town, even
so.
The Independent,
Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession.
is
the co-author of
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
346
REPRISE
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
WAR
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St.
Clair
ONE The
‘war,’ officially designated
by the
US
government
such and
as
inaugurated with the ‘decapitation’ strike of March 19, 2003, was only
really
a
change of tempo
in the overall
with the sanctions imposed by the
war on
Iraq,
commenced
UN and by a separate US block-
ade in August of 1990, stretching through the
first
‘hot’ attack
of
January 16, 1991 on through the next twelve years. 1990—2003: a
long war, and
On April 3,
a terrible
1991, the
one
for the Iraqi people.
UN Security Council approved Resolution
687, the so-called mother of all resolutions, setting up the sanctions
committee, dominated by the United It
is
vital to
understand that the
much against the people of Iraq The US and its allies destroyed as
purification systems and across the Tigris
its
States.
first
‘hot’
as against
Gulf War was waged
the Republican Guard.
Iraq’s water,
electrical grid.
sewage and water-
Nearly every bridge
and Euphrates was demolished. They struck
twenty-eight hospitals and destroyed thirty-eight schools. eight of Iraq’s large
all
They
hit
hydropower dams. They attacked grain
storage silos and irrigation systems.
Farmlands near Basra were inundated with saltwater
of allied
attacks.
destroyed,
cows.
and
as
More
than 95 per cent of Iraq’s poultry farms were
were 3.5 million sheep and more than 2 million
The US and
oil
as a result
its allies
bombed
refineries, pipelines
textile plants,
and storage
cement
facilities,
all
factories
of which
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
347
contributed to an environmental and economic nightmare that
continued nearly unabated over the twelve
When
confronted by the press with reports of
home
carting
years.
buckets of
filthy
women
Iraqi
water from the Tigris
river, itself
contaminated with raw sewage from the bombed treatment an American general shrugged his shoulders and
“You
said:
plants,
‘People
say,
bombing was going to have an effect what were we trying to do with sanc-
didn’t recognize that the
on water and sewage”. Well, tions: help
on the
out the Iraqi people?
infrastructure
After this
What we were doing with
was to accelerate the
war
first ‘hot’
effect
in early 1991,
with
the attacks
of the sanctions.’ Iraq’s civilian
and
military infrastructure in ruins, the sanctions returned, as an invisible
army of what we could
call
‘external occupation,’ with a vise grip:
the intent was to keep Iraq from rebuilding not only the foundations of
its
economy and
as
embargoes don’t draw the same attention
Voices in the Wilderness, as
salvoes of cruise missiles
more
deadly,
end up on
trial as
or showers of cluster bombs. But they’re infinitely
and the perpetrators and executives deserve
By
1998,
as
UN
army but
society.
Despite the efforts of outfits such
war criminals
its
to
richly as any targeting officer in the Pentagon. officials
working Baghdad were arguing
that the
root cause of child mortality and other health problems was no
longer simply lack of food and medicine but lack of clean water (freely available in
power,
electrical
bombing
level,
parts
of Iraq prior to the Gulf War) and of
now running
at
only 30 per cent of the pre-
with consequences for hospitals and water-pumping
systems that can be
Many
all
all
too readily imagined.
of the contracts vetoed
at
the insistence of the
US
by the
Committee were integral to the repair of water and sewage systems. By some estimates, the bombings from the Gulf War inflicted nearly S200 billion worth of damage to the civilian Sanctions
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
348
infrastructure of Iraq. ‘Basically, anything with chemicals or even
pumps The
home
is
thrown
liable to get
out,’
UN
one
official revealed.
sanctions, then, served as a pretext to bring this hidden to the Iraqi people, to ‘soften
one Pentagon
put
official
it.
them
The same
war
up' from the inside, as
trend was apparent in the
where around 25 per cent of the contracts were vetoed. This meant not only were homes without power, but
power supply
sector,
also hospitals, schools, the infrastructure
But even
this doesn’t tell the
to the ‘complementarity issue,’
whole
of everyday
story.
meaning
UN
life.
officials referred
approved for
that items
purchase would be useless without other items that had been vetoed. For example Iraqi
(as
CounterPunch reported
at
the time) the
Ministry of Health ordered $25 million worth of dentist
chairs.
This order was approved by the sanctions committee, except
for the compressors,
without which the chairs were useless and
consequently gathered dust
These vetoes served issues. In
as a
February 2000 the
ing 15 bulls from France.
with the blessing of the try to restock the Iraqi
in a
Baghdad warehouse.
constant harassment, even over petty
US moved to prevent
beef industry, would require certain vaccines into a
program
to
make
weapons of mass destruction.
For sheer
of the
from import-
The excuse was that the animals, ordered UN’s humanitarian office in Baghdad to
which (who knows?) might be diverted biological
Iraq
sadistic
bloody-mindedness, however, the interdiction of the British government,
bulls pales beside an initiative
which banned the export of vaccines
for tetanus, diphtheria
and
yellow fever on the grounds that they too might find their way into the hands of Saddam’s biological weaponeers.
exculpatory mantra of US and British cine are like so
exempt from
many
sanctions.’
It
has
officials that
been the
self-
‘food and medi-
As the vaccine ban shows,
other pronouncements on Iraq, turns out to be
this,
a lie.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
349
Indeed, the sanctions policy was always marked by acts of captious cruelty. Since 1991, the
US and Britain slapped their veto on
by Iraq for infant food, ping-pong
balls,
NCR
requests
computers
for
children’s hospitals for blood analysis, heaters, insecticide, syringes, bicycles, nail polish
and
lipstick, tennis balls, children’s clothes, pencil
sharpeners and school notebooks, cotton
balls
and swabs, hospital
and ambulance radios and pagers, and shroud material.
TWO But the prolonged onslaught on the did not
mean
people by the sanctions
Iraqi
March of 1991.
that direct military attack stopped in
Indeed, though
received scant attention in the press, Iraq was hit
it
with bombs or missiles an average of every three days since the
end of the
ceasefire that purportedly signaled the
feeble air defense system was shattered and
Its
jammed and bombed; airports
its
its
air force
were occupied by
The
its
Gulf War.
radars
were
was grounded, the runways of
were repeatedly cratered;
with, was destroyed.
first
its
navy, primitive to begin
nation’s northern
and southern
territories
armed, funded and overseen by
hostile forces,
the CIA.
Every
bit
of new construction
any possible military function by ing
down
to a square meter.
in the
country was scrutinized for
satellite
cameras capable of zoom-
Truck and tank convoys were zealously
monitored. Troop locations were pinpointed. Bunkers were mapped, the coordinates
programmed
into the targeting software for bunker-
busting bombs. Iraq after the state.
Gulf War wasn’t
a
rogue
state.
It
This daily military harassment was the normal
was
a captive
state
of
play,
but there were also more robust displays of power. In June of 1993, Bill Clinton okayed a cruise missile strike on Baghdad, supposedly in
response to an alleged and certainly bungled bid by Iraqi agents
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
350
George Bush the
to assassinate
first
on
triumphal tour of
his
Kuwait. Twenty-three cruise missiles were launched on Baghdad from two aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.
of the missiles civilians,
hit a residential
including one of
Then launched,
in
With deadly imprecision,
suburb of Baghdad, killing dozens of
Iraq’s
leading
one timed
Leila al-Attar.
artists,
December of 1998 another
this
eight
raid
to divert attention
on Baghdad was
from the House of
Representatives’ vote on the question of Clinton’s impeachment.
This time more than 100 missiles rained
down on Baghdad, Mosul,
Tikrit and Basra, killing hundreds. Clinton’s chief pollster, Stan
Greenberg, imparted the welcome news that the bombings had caused Clinton’s poll numbers to jump by
bomb
points.
1 1
When
in doubt,
Iraq.
The message was not lost on Bush. In late February of 2001, less than a month into office. Bush let fly with two dozen cruise missiles on Baghdad,
a strike that
protective retaliation.’
Donald Rumsfeld described
And
as
alongside these attacks the
an
‘act. of
CIA was
busy sponsoring assassination bids and, with sometimes comical inefficiency, trying to
mount coups
Saddam Hussein.
against
After five years of sanctions Iraq was in desperate
straits.
The
hospitals filled with dying children, while medicines necessary to
save
them were banned by
the
US
officials in
New York supervising
the operations of the sanctions committee. Haifa million children
had died
time span.
in the
terrifying speed.
The
The
mortality rates were soaring with
infant mortality rate had
gone from 47 per
1.000 in 1989 to 108 per 1,000 in 1996. For kids under
five the
increase in the rate was even worse, from 56 per 1,000 in 1989 to
131 per 1,000 in 1996.
5.000 children
a
By 1996
month,
to
the death count was running at
which Madeleine Albright made the
infamous comment, ‘we think the price
is
worth
it.’
WAR
THE THIRTEEN YEARS'
351
THREE
One might
think this carefully planned and deadly onslaught on a
was retribution enough
civilian population, year after year, surely
Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. But what allowed the ultra-hawks
tor in
Washington
war on
to press for another hot
personal survival
as Iraqi dictator.
were much broader, the brazen
Though
Iraq
was Saddam’s
the aims of the
survival of
Saddam was
war party
always the
pretext.
On July
8,
1996 the
Institute for
Advanced
memo
Israel’s
Studies sent a strategy
Benjamin Netanyahu. Grandly
to
titled
Strategic
and
new prime
Political
minister,
‘A Clean Break:
A New
Strategy for Securing the Realm’ (the realm in this instance being Israel),
the
memorandum
had among
its
sponsors several notorious
Washington characters, some of them accused more than once down the years of being agents of influence for
including Richard
Israel,
Perle and Douglas Feith.
Among
the recommendations for Natenyahu were these:
roll-back
some of
[Israel’s]
most dangerous
threats.
break from the slogan ‘comprehensive peace’ to
of strategy based on balance of power
Change
the nature of
[Israel’s]
This implies clean
a traditional
concept
...
relations with
the Palestinians,
including upholding the right of hot pursuit for self-defense into Palestinian areas Israel
...
can shape
its
strategic
environment,
in
cooperation with
Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even Syria.
rolling
back
This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power
in Iraq a
all
- an important
means of foiling
Israeli strategic
objective in
Syria’s regional ambitions.
its
own
right
-
as
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
352
Within
few short months
a
this strategy
being recycled through the agency of called the Project for a
New
paper for Netanyahu was
Washington bucket shop
a
American Century, which was
convened by William Kristol with infusions of cash from the right-
wing Bradley Foundation. The
DC
of
a retinue
Cheney and
On
PNAC
became
Paul Wolfowitz.
the eve of Clinton’s
1998 State of the Union address,
sent Clinton a letter
it
was time
for
Saddam
to
policy toward Iraq.
be forcibly evicted and Iraq
US
reconstructed along lines favorable to
and
Israeli interests.
be damned. ‘We are writing you because
American policy toward
stationery
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz
Instead of the slow squeeze of sanctions,
declared that
PNAC
on
US
urging the president to radically overhaul
that current
roosting spot for
neocons, headlined by Donald Rumsfeld, Dick
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz
UN
a
Iraq
is
we
are
The
convinced
not succeeding, and
we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War,’ the letter that
blared.
In
your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an
opportunity to chart threat.
We
and determined course
for
meeting
urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate
strategy that allies
a clear
would secure the
interests
of the
US
cannot continue to be crippled by
a
...
all,
at
misguided insistence on unanimity
UN
In
likelihood, the strategy outlined in the letter was
not
at
Security Council.
Clinton, the lame duck, but
Rumsfeld
the
American policy
in the
all
new
and our friends and
around the world. That strategy should aim, above
removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power
a
this
et al.
believed might be
at
more
Gore,
who
aimed
Wolfowitz,
receptive to this rhetoric.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
They had
reason tor hope.
One
ot the
353
PNAC’s members was James
CIA head and long-time Gore advisor on and military matters. And it worked. As the campaign
Woolsey, former intelligence
season rolled into action Gore began to distance himself from
Clinton on Iraqi
He embraced
Iraq.
the corrupt
Ahmad
Chalabi and
National Congress, indicted the Bush family for being
Saddam and
called for
Had Gore been tempo of military
his
on
soft
regime topple.
elected he likely
strikes
on
would have stepped up
Iraq within
weeks
the
of taking office.
FOUR After seizing power, the Bush crowd didn’t have wait long to draw Iraqi blood. Less
than
pummeled Baghdad,
a
month
killing
after taking office, cruise missiles
dozens of
Then, came the
civilians.
attacks of 9/11. Just hours into that day of disaster,
convened
a
Rumsfeld
meeting in the war room. He commanded
his aides
Judge whether good enough hit S.Hf meaning Saddam Hussein - ‘at same time. Not only U.B.L.’- the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden. ‘Go massive. Notes to get ‘best info
fast.
taken by these aides quote related
and
not.’
The
him
as saying:
‘Sweep
it all
up. Things
notes were uncovered by David Martin of
CBS News. The
preparations for overthrowing
the pretense that
Saddam began
Saddam was somehow connected
that day,
to bin
under
Laden
s
Wahhabite kamikazes. Rumsfeld knew then that the connection was illusory, and despite lots of bluster and digging it didn t became any more substantial over the next year and a half. started on March In the months that preceded the second hot war,
many a theory was advanced for the prime motive of the all war party. Was it the plan of the pro-Israel neocon hawks' Was it 1
9,
2003,
about
oil
and
(a
subvariant) because
Saddam was
insisting
on being
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
354
paid for his
US power
message about
Was
it
essentially a subject
The answer mix. Bush’s far
Was
euros?
oil in
is
in the
it,
(this
wake of 9/11,
the current
is
White House
favorite)?
change from the domestic economic slump?
the essentially unconspiratorial
initial
peremptory
a
policy in his
first
one
fumbling months
that
it
was
in office
a
was
from the chest-pounding stance of implacable American might
that
it
became
after
9/11 changed the rule book. 9/11
the neocons their chance, and allowed
eventually
trump the
corporate
elites.
For
many
instincts
to
screen. For a
what gave
push forward and
of a hefty chunk of the
in these elites, the survival
on the radar
small blip
them
is
political
of Saddam Hussein was
undersecretary of
first
writing in Business Week
The
who
commerce
was
for international trade,
:
biggest issues the Administration faced were not military in
nature but competition with Japan and Europe, financial crises in Latin
America and Asia, negotiations over the North American Trade
Agreement, and the establishment of the World Trade Organization and China’s entrance into the IMF, the future of
than
it.
World Bank, and the
NATO. The
WTO were bigger issues than the
opening of Japan’s markets was more
military posture in Asia.
its
Washington’s eyes, the policies of
In
The
rating that Standard
critical
&
Poor’s
gave to Indonesia was of greater significance than sending our military advisers there.
We mounted contracts in
pushed deregulation and privatization.
massive trade missions to help
US
companies win big
emerging markets. Strengthening economic
zation
became
policy.
And American
the way.
We
a
resume of what preoccupied
these elites, here’s a useful account from Jeffrey Garten,
Clinton’s
and
globali-
the organizing principle for most of our foreign
corporations were de facto partners
all
along
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR
355
That’s a fair account of how the agenda looks, from the imperial
Run
battlements.
the
more than you have
show
to.
as best
you
can, but don’t rock the boat
Acting too blatantly
as
Arab world, prompting
dissing the Security Council, roiling the
popular upheavals in Turkey,
dangerous
By
all
prime world gangster,
counted
as
boat-rocking on
a
scale.
the end of half a year’s national debate on the utility of
attacking Iraq, business leaders were
and trembling against
at
the
still
chewing
their fingernails
economic numbers; the New
war and George
Jr
had
lost the
support of
York Times was his father,
who
issued a distinct rebuke during a question-and-answer session at
George
Tufts in mid-spring.
Senior’s closest associates, James Baker
and Brent Scowcroft, similarly expressed disagreement.
But against
opposition, domestic political factors proved
this
paramount and overwhelming. The post-9/ 11 climate
American
right
administration,
and stone
its
its
greatest
chance since the
maybe even
first
offers the
days of the
Reagan
since the early 1950s, to set in blood
core agenda: untrammeled exercise of power overseas,
home roll-back of all liberal gains since the start of the New Deal. And not just that, but an opportunity too to make a lasting dent in the purchase on Jewish support and money held since
and
at
Truman by
the Democratic Party.
FIVE
These
are the prizes,
hours of 9/1
home
1,
that the
the head of
his Vargas
and so
...
drawings
in
it
was never
in
doubt, since the morning
Bush regime would attack
no, not
Saddam,
some motel
in
Iraq
who may now
Minsk.
What
and bring
be putting up
the Bush regime
needed, and got, was not the head, but the image of the head, wrapped in the
US
flag.
That came with the images of Iraqis -
actually a small
knot of Chalabi’s supporters plus some journalists - cheering
US
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
356
troops in the
9
as
Baghdad square
they hauled
of the Palestine Hotel on April
in front
down Saddam’s
US
square, itself sealed off by three
one small portion of
statue in
tanks. (Online
that
CounterPunchers
can go to www.counterpunch.org/statue.html and see tor them-
As for the looting,
selves.)
had plans for the
to have also
we
it’s
entirely in character for
‘attrition
wouldn’t discount local
in looting the archeological
of
US
planners
Iraqi national self-esteem,’
initiative,
but
probably with inside help,
museum and
the national library.
The non-discovery of the weapons of mass destruction has become a huge embarrassment for both Bush and Blair. The Sunday’s British Independent (April 20, 2003) carried the following
WHERE ARE THEY, MR BLAIR? NOT ONE ILLEGAL WARHEAD. NOT ONE DRUM OF CHEMICALS. NOT ONE INCRIMINATING DOCUMENT. NOT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE THAT IRAQ HAS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN MORE THAN A MONTH OF WAR AND OCCUPATION.’ huge frontpage banner headlines: ‘SO
CounterPunch tends to agree with the assessment of the Russian
commentator (at last
of
who remarked when
‘Venik,’
temporarily, and excluding
We week
US weapon have read
of mass destruction was the
many
of April, the
we
agree that there were
some of those were not
US
in Afghanistan, the dollar.
siege of
Baghdad turned
don’t believe most of those details,
some
Indeed here
big pay-offs and
at
CounterPunch
billion-dollar stashes
pay-off
shootings
highly detailed accounts of how, in the
impending
cakewalk, and though
assisted llight.
summary and ongoing
US engagement
Iraqis) that, as in the initial
prime
the ‘hot war’ was over
money
that
found by
US
first
into a
we do
guarantees of
we wonder whether
US
troops in
Baghdad
speeded the departure of the
Republican Guard’s commanders, duly followed by the defection of the prudent troops.
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR Iraq’s thirteen years'
war
not over. That’s obvious enough, and
is
we expect many long years of travail and
struggle
millions of people in the cradle of civilization.
them in
of our
to the best
years
years, the fact that
knowingly making decisions
ahead for those
We
will report
on
US
spent
officials
that spelled certain death to
hundreds of thousands of the poorest
them
lie
CounterPunchers should not neglect,
ability.
pondering those thirteen
357
Iraqi civilians, the
bulk of
children.
January 14, 2004
AND SOME
THOUGHTS
FINAL
by Alexander Cockburn
First,
I
think the
left
needs to get
the actual function of the
UN
a lot
more hard-eyed about what
is.
Nikita Khrushchev wrote in his incomparable memoirs that Soviet admirals, like admirals everywhere, loved battleships, because
they could get piped aboard in great style amid the respectful hurrahs of their crews. It’s the same with the UN, now more than ever reduced to the servile function of after-sales service provider for the
United
would be
States,
on permanent
a great step
forward
call as
if several
the
mop-up
political
The
beyond
It
big Third World nations
were soon to quit the United Nations, declaring political function
brigade.
that
it
has
no
ratifying the world’s present distasteful
arrangements.
trouble
UN-member for at least a
is
that national political elites in pretty
country -
few
years,
now
and
in
191 in
some
all
- yearn
much
every
to live in high style
cases for decades,
on the Upper
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
358
Manhattan and
East side of
They have though
on
deep material stake
a
General Assembly.
continuing membership, even
in
of small, poor countries the prodigious outlays
in the case
UN
a
to cut a dash in the
delegation could be far better used in
domestic application, funding orphanages or local
the
US
Iraq.
have all
UN in whatever misadventure for which Howard Dean
requires political cover.
on clarion
calls for
UN’s supposedly
the
built his
tendency to invoke the
other argument
fails
they
fall
UN
As
consistency.
nursery of our
weeks
several
a
toddler
London
rights should have the
all
I
flat
when
he
to attend, as diplomatic
denunciation of
ences (and in
He wrote
my
record of matchless
my father’s exit from told me he was leaving
all
later in his
correspondent of the Daily
UN
in
San Francisco.
such absence-prompting confer-
special train across the
Our
Middle West
...
its
sides indicating
it
on
across the plains
and
prairies,
this train
on the buildings behind them, and
with extraordinary
intensity, as
some
...
From
people would
to line the tracks, standing there with the flags
half-mast for Roosevelt fixed
all
at
was taking
people to the foundation meeting of the United Nations villages
was
heavily laden special had
of notice prominently displayed on
come out
for
autobiography, Crossing the Line, that
times almost intolerably moving.
towns and lonely
the
infancy there were many), he did go.
The journey of our
sort
a
same
Interpol.
tried to bar
I
,
my
World Bank or
can boast
Worker the founding conference of the
Despite
leftists still
back on the International Criminal
credibility as a beneficial institution as the
the issue of the
many
UN as a countervailing power. When
Court, an outfit that should by
On
candidacy
legitimizing assistance in
Despite the political history of the Nineties a
back home.
crafts
some Democrat piously demanding
Barely a day goes by without ‘an increased role' for the
some decent
though
it
still
flying
their eyes
were part
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' ot the technical apparatus lor the several occasions
way
It
saw
I
a
man
person might touch
a
was understandable
or
WAR
359
performance of
woman
a
miracle
solemnly touch the
...
train,
On the
a talisman.
that an organization aspiring to represent All
Mankind and to espouse Peace should have excited fervent hopes in the wake ot terrible war, but the fix was in from the start, as Peter
Gowan
reminds us in
a
New
spirited essay in
November/December 2003. The Rooseveltian
Left
Review for
vision was for an
impotent General Assembly with decision-making authority vested
to rest
Gowan
Council without, in
in a Security
’s
words, ‘the slightest claim
on any representative principle other than brute
of course dominated by the United States and see a cosmopolitan role for the
who
UN;
not so
force,'
and
FDR
did
its vassals.
Truman and Acheson
followed Nelson Rockefeller’s body-blow to the nascent
when, latter
as assistant
secretary of state for Latin
brokered the Chapultepec Pact
formalizing
US dominance
in
Affairs, the
Mexico City
in
1945,
region through the soon-to-be
in the
familiar regional military-security alliance set in the
American
UN
up by Dean Acheson
next period.
These days the
UN
prime imperial power
has the same restraining role as
Roman
did the
century AD,
when
lives bustling
from one cocktail party
there were
their sons elected quaestor
still
and so
on the world’s
Senate in the fourth
actual senators spending busy to another, intriguing to have
forth, deliberating
with great
self-
importance and sending the Emperor pompous resolutions on the
burning For
a
issues
day.
modern evocation of what
have been
October Iraq,’
of the
and
like,
15,
read the
those senatorial resolutions must
unanimous Security Council resolution on
2003, hailing the US-created ‘Governing Council of
trolling out
UN-speak
to the effect that the Security
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
360
Council
‘
welcomes the positive response
community
Governing Council’s
‘
people of
of the broadly representative
to the establishment
council’; supports the Iraq’;
requests that the
‘
of the international
United
efforts to
mobilize the
on behalf of the
States
multinational force report to the Security Council on the efforts
and progress of
this force.’
UK,
Signed by France, Russia, China,
US, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Chile, Mexico, Guinea, Cameroon, Angola, Pakistan and Syria. As
Gowan
remarks,
brazen twaddle
this
evokes ‘the seating of Pol Pot’s representatives in the
UN
for
fourteen years after his regime was overthrown by the DRV.’
Another way of assaying the UN’s that
made
it
a profit
out of
its
own
role in Iraq
to
is
remember
blockade and the consequent
starvation of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi babies in the 1990s. As a fee for its part in
helped
2 per cent off the top.
itself to
members of
the
(On more than one account
UN-approved Governing Council, whose most
conspicuous emblem
demanding
UN
administering the oil-for-food program, the
a far heftier
is
the bank-looter
skim
Ahmad
in the present looting
Chalabi, are
of Iraq’s national
assets.)
Two months
before the October resolution, the US’s chosen
instrument for selling the Governing Council, Vieira de Mello, was
with
body
is
in his office in
no more earnest
calls for ‘a
UN
Special
Envoy
Baghdad by persons
assessment of the function of the
a realistic
friends,
blown up
UN
UN.
role,’ at least
radically reconstituted along genuinely
Please,
my
not until the
democratic
lines.
As
far as Iraq
all
contracts concerning Iraq’s national assets and resources written
is
concerned,
across the last nine
all
occupying forces should
months repudiated, declared
null
leave,
and void,
with
illegal
under international covenant.
And the
US
finally,
want
there
is
the matter of imperial motive. So
to invade Iraq in
2003 and
finish off
why
did
Saddam? There
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' are as
many
WAR
361
were murderers on
rationales as there
Christie's
Orient
my mind goes back to something my friend the political scientist Doug Lummis wrote from his home in another Express. In the end
outpost of the Empire, in Okinawa
on
at
the time of the
first
onslaught
Iraq at the start of the Nineties. Iraq,
Lummis
wrote, had been in the Eighties
producing country thrusting its oil
cracy
nationalized, a
good
cowed from corrupt
its
way out of
a
model of an
oil
the Third World, with
health system, and an efficient bureaupractices by a brutal regime.
The funda-
mental intent of the prime imperial power was to thrust Iraq back,
deep and ever deeper into Third World indigence, and of course reappropriate Iraq’s In the
fall
to
oil.
of 2003
was in London and
I
weekend enjoyed
for a
the hospitality of the first-class journalist Richard Gott, also of his
wife Vivienne. At one point our conversation turned to question of motive, and point
as
I
was interested to hear Gott make the same
Lummis, only about the
he thought
this,
this
attack of 2003.
and Gott recalled
a visit he’d
I
asked
made
to
him why
Baghdad
in
the very early spring of 2003.
This was
a
time
when
the natural and political inclination of
most opponents of the impending war was to stress the fearful toll of the sanctions imposed from 1990 onwards. Gott had a rather different observation, in part because
America. Baghdad, he Havana.
‘It
was clear
said,
today,’
looked
a
of
his
lot
Gott wrote
experience in Latin
more prosperous than
after his visit,
quantity of goods in the shops, and the heavy
traffic
‘from the
jams
in the
urban motorways, that the sanctions menace has been effectively defeated. Iraq is awakening from a long and depressing sleep, and its
economy
it is
is
clearly
beginning to function once more.
No wonder
in the firing line.’
Eyes other than Gott’s no doubt observed the same signs of
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
362
economic
recovery. Iraq was rising
from the
ashes,
and
so, it
had to
down once more. The only ‘recovery’ permitted would be on Uncle Sam’s terms. Or so Uncle Sam, in his arrogance, be thrust
supposed.
Then,
January 2004, former
in
US
Treasury Secretary Paul
come
O’Neill disclosed that George Bush had to
MSNBC
overthrow Saddam Hussein.
into office planning
promptly polled
its
audience with the question, Did O'Neill betray Bush?
Was
that really the big question?
meat of
nose for the
real
O’Neill and
Ron
The White House had
a
sharper
60 Minutes interview with
Leslie Stahl’s
who
Suskind, the reporter
expose of the Bush White House, The
based
much of
Price of Loyalty,
his
on 19,000
government documents O’Neill provided him.
What bothered Security Council
White House
the
document shown
clearly drafted in the early
one
is
particular National
60 Minutes interview,
in the
weeks of the new administration, which
showed
plans for the post-invasion dispersal of Iraq’s oil assets
among
the world’s great powers, starting with the major oil
companies. For the brief that this bit
moment
it
was on the
TV
screen one could see
of paper, stamped Secret, was undoubtedly one of the
most explosive documents
of imperial conspiracy.
in the history
Here, dead center in the camera’s lense, was the refutation of every single rationalization for the attack
W. Bush and That
on
Iraq
NSC
his co-conspirators,
document
told
on
Iraq ever offered
including Tony
60 Minutes'
was not about national security
in the
not about weapons of mass destruction. Hussein’s possible Iraq’s oil, earlier.
ties to
same way the
The major
oil
Osama
vast
It
it
Blair.
audience the attack
wake of 9/1
1. It
was
was not about Saddam
bin Laden.
British stole
by George
It
was about stealing
three quarters of a century
companies drew up the map, handed
it
to
THE THIRTEEN YEARS' WAR their
man George, helped him
steal
the
2000
election,
363
(through such trusties
as James
Baker)
and then told him to get on with the
attack.
O'Neill said that the Treasury Department’s lawyers okayed
of the document
release
to him.
The White House, which took 78
days to launch an investigation into the outing of Valerie Flame a
Cl A
regarded the disclosure of what Big Oil wanted
officer, clearly
reprehensible, as opposed to endangering the
as truly
as
life
of
Ms
Plame. Forget about O'Neill ‘betraying’ Bush. to the
American people?
on the campaign
trail in
was Clinton
Iraq as
It’s
about Bush lying
obvious from that document that Bush,
2000, was
in his
How
as
intent
second term and
on regime change as
in
Gore was publicly
declaring himself to be. Here’s Bush in debate with Gore October
If
we don
’t
stop extending our troops
all
on January
is
from
a
nation-
serious problem
coming
joint press conference with
we were
September
We
to fashion a sanction
were trying likely to
because
The
1
1,
1
1
,
like
it
Saddam Hussein.
of our country shifted dramatically
strategic vision
we now
recognize that oceans no longer protect
And
the worst
from somebody acquiring weapons the
regime that would make
the doctrine of containment just doesn’t hold
we’re vulnerable to attack.
them on
discussing smart sanctions.
be able to contain somebody
After September
any water.
Tony
31, 2003. Bush’s reply:
Actually, prior to
more
a
in
the road. I’m going to prevent that.
The second quote Blair
2000:
around the world
building missions, then we’re going to have
down
3,
American people.
I
of
now
us, that
form of attack could come
mass destruction and using
realize the stakes.
I
realize the
IMPERIAL CRUSADES
364
My
world has changed.
most important obligation
American people from further harm, and
In his cabinet meetings before 9/1
have been
like a blind
O’Neill also
start
in a
will
do
Bush may,
room
full
to protect the
that.
in O'Neill’s words,
of deaf people. But,
was
to attack Iraq, using
any pretext. Bush’s
language about ‘smart sanctions’ from the press conference start
of last year was
as
of those that earned charges.
as
those early strategy meetings Bush did say the
says, in
plan from the
man
1
I
is
brazen and
Bill
far
more momentous
at
the
a lie as
any
Clinton the Republicans' impeachment
1
INDEX abortion, contribution to falling
crime
rates
61-2
Albright, Madeleine 14, 32, 336,
Adelman, Kenneth 303 Afghanistan
7,
1
assassinations
0— 1
1
1
,
350 1
33,
286
261-2, 263
air raid
144—5
critics
143-6
7,
37-8,
182-5
298-300 international demonstrations
140-3
56—60 and sharia Islamic law 129-30 US involvement in 108—9 women 56—7 air-control doctrines 203—6
217-21
in
A1 Jazeera 249, 326
A1
1
Dixie Chicks support for
cultivation 130-1,
RAWA’s work
movement
180-1, 185-90, 268-74, 281
Karzai’s administration
opium
International 26, 116, 119
anthrax 131—3 antiwar
invasion of 281 1
Jonathan 118—19, 120
Amstutz, Daniel 307-1
education 56—7
July
Alter,
Amnesty
144
bombing campaign 323 casualties 90,
Albright, David 313
Qaeda 165,208-9,222-3, 321-2
26 the right 35—6 the
left
San Francisco protest 232-7 the Sierra
Club and 191-6
Arbor, Justice Louise 33
Arms Export Control 213
Act, 1976
4
1
INDEX
366
Ashcroft, John 87,89, 122—4,
146-7 asymmetrical warfare 98 Atta,
Mohammed
family links to Bush 124—8 guilt
100
links
with Iraq 222—3
and September
166
Axis of Evil 322
1
1th attacks
105 bin Laden, Salem 125—6
Baghdad 167-70, 237-8, 258, 288, 356, 361
Bishop, Patrick 55
bombing of Almariya
shelter
211
Blair,
Tony 304, 362
Iraq dossier
Chinook
helicopter
downed
342-3
164—5,209—10,
225,230,318 support for the bombing of
missile attacks
on 248-9, 343,
349-50 truck
bin Laden Enterprises 128
bomb
attack
on
UN
workers 338, 341 Baker, James 127-8,355
on the Dixie Chicks opposition to war 298-300
Ballinger, Lee,
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) 126—7 Barr, Bob 123-4
Serbia 8, 12, 41
on weapons of mass destruction 302 Blechman, Moisha 193 Blitzer, Wolf 48, 251-6,313 Blix, Hans 208, 248 Block, Robert 138 Blum, William 1 18 Boggs, Tommy 321 Born on the Fourth ofJuly (Kovic)
199
Fernando 43-4
Boston Globe (newspaper) 6
337 Bath, James 125-7 Beers, Charlotte 320—1
Boutros Boutros-Ghali 339 Boxer, Barbara 6
Beirut 16
Brewton, Peter 126
Belgrade 15,77,260-1,262
Brian, Danielle 279
Belinovac, Zoran 80
Broderick,
Benador, Eleana 328
Brodsky, Anne, on
Benn,Tony
Brower, David 191, 195—6
Barral,
Barry, John
Brazil
41
Biden, Joseph 301 bin Laden,
Mohammed
124—5,
125-6 bin Laden,
Osama
88, 93, 95-6,
226—7
Doug 30
RAWA
Brown, Gordon 94 Buchanan, Pat 50, 124 Builder, Carl 206 Burke, Jason 222
208-9, 353
Bush, Barbara 5
demands
Bush, George 9-10, 104
1 1
56-60
INDEX defense spending 64 links
with bin Laden family
relations
Carter, Jimmy 63 casualties
Afghanistan 90, 261—2
125, 128
and
367
with Iraq 217
Bush, George W. 51-2, 54, 104,
249-50, 302, 303, 304, 350, 355 advisor to Carlyle Group 127—8
children 16, 30, 288, 350
friendly Iraq
civilian casualties 258,
fire
276
32,95, 102, 194,249,
342-3, 350
bid for military support 64
and
258-63, 286-7, 288
civilian
Kosovo 66—8 Serbia 18, 22, 38, 55—6
261-2 and the economy 153-6 family links to bin Laden 124—8
Spanish-American War 295
Vietnam War 35
on Iraq 342 and Iraqi nuclear weapons 312-14 Middle East Policy 280-5
Catholic Relief Services 30
National Guard service 184, 201
Chalabi,
policy towards Iraq 353-5,
362-4 and September
censorship 249-50
Center
for Constitutional Rights
42
Ahmad
330-1,353,360 Chamier,
1
1
th attacks
106, 107
speeches 251-2
on terrorism 89 treatment of demonstrators against 152-3
on weapons of mass destruction 301,304 Bush, Laura 106-7 Bustani, Jose Mauricio 340 Butcher, Tim 55
Smedley 174-5 Byrd, Robert 155, 280
Butler, General
104, 283,323,
Wing Commander J.
A.
203-4 Cheney, Dick 104, 184, 301, 312,
314-16 Chicago Haymarket Square bombing, 1886 291 chicken hawks 184-5 China, Belgrade embassy
bombed
15,260-1,262 Chomsky, Noam 42 Christian, Diane, on media coverage 264—5 Christison, Bill, on the war on terror
CIA
87—100
108-9, 110-11, 163,211,
Cameron, Dr Ewen 120
314-16, 349, 350
Campbell, Tom 42 Cargill 307-8, 309 Carlucci, Frank 127-8
competence 229-30
Carlyle Group, the 127-8
Army
and ethnic cleansing 9
and the Kosovo Liberation 7
1
1
INDEX
368
CIA
Cockburn, Alexander. See
(cont’d)
and opium cultivation 141-2 and torture 117-18, 119-21 and weapons exports to Iraq
215 146—8
civil liberties
and the Patriot Act 122-4, 151-2, 282
of 106, 115, 152-3, 181, 187,282-3
restriction
Ramsey 335-6
Clark,
Cockburn, Patrick, on Iraq 342-5 Columbine High 12, 114—15 Combat Camera 326 Conason,Joe 12—15 Cooper, Marc 82-3 1
Cordesman, Anthony 106 Corn, David 183, 190
Corum, Chris
204, 204-5, 206
Cossette, Scott, effect of
Clark, Victoria 303 Clark, General Wesley 7, 11, 13, 14, 17,
individual subjects
19-21,23, 106
Corps service 173—81 Couch, Jack 12 crime fighting 61—2 1
Clarke, Victoria 321—2, 325
Croatia
Clinton, Bill 40, 261, 349-50
Czechoslovakia, Hitler’s
1998 State of the Union
Marine
5,
9
justification for intervention
34-5
Address 352 accused of unconstitutional
warmaking 42 and
Daily Telegraph (British newspaper)
260 on Iraq
civilian casualties
cruise missile attack
101-2
recognize genocide in
Rwanda
10
and Serbia 3—4,
UN
1
10
war crimes 30—1, 32, 33 — Clinton, Hillary
Rodham
60—2,
on forged sources 227-32
Close, Ray,
bombs
13,
intelligence
16—17,
286-9
CNN
Debray, Regis 41
Defense Intelligence Agency 313
Del Ponte, Carla 81-2
302
cluster
on the antiwar movement 268-74 de Rooij, Paul, on propaganda 247-50 Dean, Lt Col. David 206 Dean, Howard 358 death penalty 53-4, 61, 272 Davis, Susan,
on George W. Bush 52 on Kosovo 66, 69
and the
Dalyell.Tam 41
D’ Amato, Alphonse 214
defense spending 64
refusal to
55
247, 248, 254, 255
demagogues 53 Democrat Party 6, 11, 12, 50-1, 52 Democratic Socialists of America 5
Dershowitz, Alan 119
3
INDEX Dhahran attack
US Army
base, terrorist
on 127
369
Feingold, Russell 122-3 Filkins,
Dexter 285
Gulf War 9-10, 128, 180, 181, 194,215,278, 279, 286, 306, 346-8
Diehl, Patrick 191, 192
First
Dixie Chicks, the 298—300
Zoran 79—83 Donahue, Phil 329
Fisk,
Donohue, John, III Dorn, Edwin 214
Fleischer, Ari 259, 301
Djindjic,
Robert 248
61
Seuss (Ted Geisel) 161—2
Dreyfuss,
drugs
18, 121,
Robert 323
Fort Bragg, suicides
302, 303
,
1
79
France 4 1 239 ,
heroin 140, 141, 142
Franks, General
opium production 130-1,
Freedom
to
Tommy
Farm
Bill
Friedman, Thomas
140-3
US armed
1
57-9
16,
303 307—9 24-5, 92,
138-9
forces use of 179
dwarf-throwing
Fuerth,
Leon 106
Eagleburger, Lawrence 106
Gaffney, Frank, Jr 63
Ekeus, Rolf 335—8
Garner, General Jay 283
El Pais (Spanish newspaper)
Garten, Jeffrey 354
Mohammed
227-8,
Geneva Convention, 1949
231 Ellul,
on Afghanistan
5, 9, 10, 14,
76
European Union, report on Croat Export Administration Act, 1979
Mohammed
Richard
1
143, 144
1
FBI 67, 115-16, 118-19 fear, anatomy of 161-2
Don
G
I
8-9, 41
(Miller)
Bill
330
198
globalization 92-5,
354
Goldberg, Jeffrey 221-4, 226-7 Gorbachev, Mikhail 9, 159
213-14
Feder,
Germs
7,
Gitlin,Todd 183
atrocities 5
Fahim,
genocide 66—8, 69, 77
Germany
146 ethnic cleansing
18,
32-3, 55
Jacques 248
Engels, Friedrich,
Falk,
Robert 106 Geisel, Ted (Dr Seuss) 161-2
Gates,
67-8 Elbaradei,
136-7,
Fonda, Jane 16
108
7,
1
Fletcher, Barry 75
Dorsey, Michael 195
Dr
5,
12,
35—6
Gordon, Michael 332-3 Gore, A1 51-2,54,62,64, 65, 101,
155-6,352-3,362 Gott, Richard 361-2
Gowan,
Peter 359, 360
1
1
INDEX
370
Great Britain
Adolf 34-5, 93 Holbrooke, Richard 339-40 Hitler,
intelligence disinformation
227-32 Iraq dossier 164-5,
206-10,
sanctions against Iraq
348-9
support for the bombing of
Human
Rights Watch 26,
Green Cross International 194 Greenberg, Stan 101-2
136-7,356 informed consent 13-14
Guardian (British newspaper) 41,
Institute for
Gulf War Syndrome 180, 213
—
newspaper) 135
Hagee, General Michael 304-5 Haggard, Merle 186-7 Haiti, anthrax cases
131-3
Bolton 293
Halliday,
Hamza, Dr Khidir 165, 331, 333 Handleman, Scott, on the antiwar movement 232-7 Hanscom, Marcia 195
121,
Advanced
Strategic
Political Studies
International
351—2
Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) 225, 227-9, 231,315 International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia 33,
67
on War
movement 271 Iraq
agriculture 305-1 allegations against
Arthur
205-6 Hayden, Tom 16—17 Heller, Jean 210 Helms, Jesse 104 Hezbollah, operations in Brazil
226-7 Hiroshima 259—60 Hitchens, Christopher 104, 183—5,
188-9, 190
5,
Crimes 42-3 internet, the, and the antiwar
Hammarskjold, Dag 340
Commodore
newspaper)
International Tribunal
Denis 30
Harris, Air
Michael 5
Itidependetit (British
and
140
Hall,
17,
16 IgnatiefT,
(Israeli
1
119, 288
Green, Stephen, on Iraq’s weapons suppliers 21 1-17
Ha’aretz
55
humanitarian intervention 34—5
Serbia 4-5, 41 1
1
Hughes, Karen 251
225,230,318
use of torture
Homeland Security Agency Hoon, Geoff 66, 102
163—6
weapons 224-5, 313, 330, 333, 334
biological
bombing
raids
101-2,
1
13, 163,
183,349-50 chemical weapons 214—15, 215, 224-5,313,327,332 civilian casualties 258-9, 286—7 Coalition Provisional Authority
344, 345 creation of
202—3
INDEX economic recovery 361-2 effect of First Gulf War 181, 194,210-11,346-8 effect of war 283, 305-6 Governing Council 341, 345, 359-60 history of
bombing
involvement
350 September 11th
in
165-6
justification
of war against 250
rate
194
of 355-6
links to A1
Qaeda
165, 208-9,
222-3
National Congress (INC)
Iraqi
104, 323,
353
Islamic extremists 87-8,
151,284-5,339,351-2
Israel 16,
US
91-2
support for 91-2, 272-3,
280-1 Italy
1
16, 119, 121
41-2
Dusan 81 Jenkins, Simon 4 John Paul II, Pope
Jelicic,
Johnson,
Adm.
12,
42
Jay 63
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
media coverage 264-5, 267 nuclear weapons program 215-16, 225,227-8,311-14, 315-16, 325,330, 331-2, 333 oil reserves
181
post liberation
362 342-5
resistance to
US
in
Jones, General James 63 Jones, Vanessa, on pre-war Iraq
167-70 Just War 112-15 Department, and detention
167-9
occupation
Kabul 58-60 Kadish, Lt. General Ronald 277
180—1, 282, 327
sanctions against 30—1, 32, 37, 95, 101-4, 170, 183, 194,
335-6, 337, 346-9, 350, 357
Kagan, Robert 303
Kamel, General Hussein 224-5, 333, 336-7 Kaptur,
Marcy 42
Hamid 143-6
Sunni Arabs 344
Karzai,
UN
Keat, Peter 29
359-60 US propaganda 247-50 US support for 282 weapons of mass destruction 165,208,214-16, 224-5, 247-8, 250, 282, 301-5,327, 330—4, 335-8, 356 role in
62-5
of ‘enemy combatants’ 152
342-5 visits
presidential elections
Justice
,
pre-war conditions
Rumsfeld
211-17
Jackson, Jesse 11, 17, 52, 251-6
liberation
forces
suppliers
use of torture
infant mortality rate
leukemia
weapons
strategies
202-7
attacks
371
Keating, Charles 44-5
Dan 191, 192 Kerrey, Bob 84 Key West, Cuban fugitives Kent,
1
land
at
207 Khalid bin Mahfouz. Sheik 126-7
1
1
4
1
1
INDEX
372
and the bombing of Serbia 4-7, 8, 24-5, 40-3
Khashoggi, Adnan 125—6
liberals,
Kifner,John 67
Henry 36, 155 Klein, Howie 299 Kot'i Annan 10, 145, 338, 339—40, Kissinger,
Liddy, G.
Korean War 260 Korisa,
Lieberman, Joseph 65, 301
9, 11,
28—9, 286, 340
Lobel, Jules 34
Los Angeles Times (newspaper)
Lott, Trent 104
and the Rambouilett accords
39-40 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) 13-14, 14-15,40, 66, 77-8
5,
16-17
genocide 66-8, 69, 77 post liberation 70—5, 76—9, 83
7,
Lummis, Doug 361 on the rescue of Jessica Lynch 266-7 Lynch, Private
Jessica, rescue
of
266-7, 326
Kouchner, Bernard 67 199
Krajina 5, 9
Kucinich, Dennis 37, 42, 123
Kundera, Milan 291 Kurtz, June
Ken 4-5
Ljubenic 68
atrocities 10, 14
Ron
1 1
Livingstone,
bombing of 22—4
Kosovo 6-7,
Howard 331
Kuwait 194,275-6
McCain, John 6, 43-7 McGovern, Ray on Cheney 314—16 on Iraqi nuclear weapons program 31 1-14 Maher,
labor,
Gordon 242
limited war
341
Kovic,
Liberation 41
and war 289-98
Mahon,
Bill
25
Alice 4
Norman 50
Lafontaine, Oskar 4
Mailer,
Land, Tim 307
Mandel, Michael 33—4
landmines 194
Marashi, Ibrahim
Lavrin,Janko 27-8
Mariner, Joanne 147, 148
Lc Monde (French newspaper) 4
258—63 cluster bombs 286-9 Marsh, Dave, on the Dixie Chicks opposition to war 298—300
Lehrer,Jim 255 Leupp, Gary
on international antiwar demonstrations 2 7-2 1
on
Karzai’s
bodyguards 143—6
Lewinsky, Monica 3
Anthony
4, 5
—
1,
40
209—10
civilian casualties
maximum
feasible regard 13
media coverage 264-5, 267, 325-9
Melman,
Levitt, Steve 61
Lewis,
on on
al
Yossi 135
Messerve, David 26
MI6 229-30
3
2
1
INDEX Dusan 81 Milhollin, Gary 215-16 military recruitment, American 173-4, 197-202 Miller, Judy 329-34
and the Rambouilett accords
Mihaijlovic,
39-40 Naylor, George 309, 310
New York Review of Books 88 New York Times (newspaper) 3,
Milosevic, Slobodan 4, 9, 11, 15, 80
and Kosovo
66 and the Rambouilett accords 39-40
war crimes Mitrione,
6,
19, 30,
Dan
1
138
MSNBC
1
909
1
24-5,38,67,99, 268-74, 324, 329-34 New Yorker 22 1 —4 Lieut. General
Gregory
113
19—20
Peabody,
v.
6,
16,
Newbold,
Newsweek 12, 118-19 Niger 312-14,315-16
Moore, Kelly 68 Moore, Michael 52, 242 MoveOn.org 273-4 Moyer
373
No
Child Left Behind Act, 2001
201
47—8
Norquist, Grover 297 Norris, Carol, on the anatomy of
329
Myers, General Richard B. 286,
fear
161—2
North, David 138—9
288, 305
North Korea 31—2 Novak, Robert 12, 17, 35 nuclear weapons 1 1 1—1
Mylroie, Laura 327—8
Nader, Ralph 50 Nagasaki 259—60 Nagle,
Oberg, Dr Jan 14
Chad
on Kosovo 76—9 on Serbian political 79-83 Nambiar,
Lt.
Nation, The
Observer (British newspaper) 41
Oehler,
situation
Office of Strategic Influence 324
O’Neill, Kevin 152—3
General Satish 4
O’Neill, Paul 362-4
1 1
National Commercial Bank 126—7
Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons 340
National Defense Authorization Act,
Dr Gordon 215
Orth, Maureen 141, 142
2002 201
NATO
10,36 bombing campaign, Kosovo 66 bombing strategy 17—18, 55—6
bombing of Chinese Embassy, Belgrade 15,260-1,262
involvement
in Serbia 7,
press briefings
22-4
1
1
,
33
Pakistan 56, 58—9,
1
10—1
272 Patriot Act 122—4, 151-2, 282 Patriot missile system 275-9 Pearl, Daniel, murder of 133—9
Palestine 91-2, 205-6,
perception
management 317—29
1
INDEX
374
Peterson, Scott 200 Petraeus, Maj. General
David 304
Rendon, John 322-3 Rendon Group, the 322-3
Petrovaradm 18 PfafF,
William 5
298 on Kosovo 70-5
Philippines, the 295-6,
James T., Pierson, David 74 Pincus, Walter 115-16 Phillips,
Pinter,
Republican Party 52-3
6, 12,
50—1,
Rice, Condoleezza 304, 31 1-12,
313, 341
Ridgeway, James, on genocide 66-8
Harold 41
328
Pipes, Daniel
Reagan, Ronald 63, 212, 216—7 Remnick, David 221—2
25
Politically Incorrect
Riegle,
Donald 214
Pope, Carl 192, 195,273
Roberts, Betsy 26
Theodore 278 poverty, Third World 92-5
Rockefeller, Steven C. 159—60
Postol,
Powell,
Cohn
102—3, 104, 151,
208-11,302, 304,311-12,
319-20 presidential elections, military
influence on 62—5 Pristina
77
Private Warriors (Silverstein)
128
Progressive Alliance 37 Progressive
Review 188-9
progressive
war 12—15
Project for
a
New
Roe v. Wade decision, 1973 61-2 Rogue State (Blum) 1 18 Rosanda, Rosanna 4 Royal Air Force, Iraq bombing strategies 202-7
Rubin, Barry 209 Rubin, James 339 Rumsfeld, Donald 150—3, 21 1—17, 283,324,350 and the Iraqi threat 352-3
war on Iraq 319, 321, 322, and September th attacks 353 visits Iraq 180—1,282,327 on weapons of mass destruction 303, 304, 305 Rumsfeld Group, the 321-2 sells
American
Century 352 propaganda 247-50, 3 7—29 1
Pujol, Perez 68
Pusto Selo 68
1
1
Rwanda 10,340 Racak 78-9 Raines, Howell
3,
Sacramento Municipal
6
Rajkovic, Jovica 72-3
Rambouillet accords
6,
District
38
—10,
48-9 Ratner, Michael 34
RAWA
29
Saddam Hussein case against
Rampton, Sheldon 317-19 56-60
Utility
links to A1
164—6
September 11th 165—6
involvement attacks
95, 281-2, 322
in
Qaeda 353
INDEX media perception of 327-8 policy for removal 351-3 restraint in
media 80
NATO
not using weapons
of mass destruction 215 US support for 180-1, 239, 327 Saeed al-Haideri, Adnan 331-2, 334 Safire,
Said,
William 5
press briefings
post liberation
US US
desire to
79-83
withdraw 10—15
motivation for actions
12-13
USA
9-10
Serbs
US
Middle East policy 280-5
atrocities 10, 14,
66-8, 78-9,
138
Salon 12-13
and Kosovo 14,70-5
San Francisco, antiwar protest
portrayal of 4
232-7
Sewell, Sarah 263
Sanders, Bernard 6, 8, 36-8, 52
Seyss-Inquart, Artur 31
Saudi Arabia 91-2, 95—6, 96, 128,
Shahab,
,
Mohammed Mansour
Sharon, Ariel 104,280-1
John 164
Scowcroft, Brent 48-9, 355
Shea, Jamie 23, 33-4
Second World War 8-9, 31, 259-60 September 11th 2001 87,90,
Sierra Club, the 191-6,
107-9
intelligence failure
Amy
44
Silverstein,
changes due to 148—50 history behind
Silverman,
273
Ken 128 Simpson, John 22-3
138-9, 353, 354,362
Iraqi
32
222-3
181,321 Scarlett,
22—4
organized crime 80—1
and the
Edward 42
on
375
Sleeper, Colonel
Raymond 206
Bob 53 Smith, Sam 188-9
105—6
Smith,
involvement 165—6
Society of Endangered Peoples 69
response to 106-7
Somalia 200
Serbia
bombing campaign 3-7,
8,
1
1,
Sontag, Susan 42
15-19, 22, 33,38,41,55-6,
Spain 67-8
249, 339-40
Spanish-American War 289-98 Spinney, Franklin 65
critique of Conason’s Protocols
13-15
St. Clair,
27—9 genocide 66—8 and Germany 8-9 epic poetry
justification
12-13
of intervention
Jeffrey see individual
subjects Stahl, Lesley
Stapp,
32
Andy 174
Wars Missile Defense program 106, 275
Star
,
376
INDEX
(UNMIK) 73-5
37 Starr report 3-4 Stark, Pete
United Nations Security Council
Stauber,John 317-19 Stefanovic,
Nenad
359-60 resolution 687 346
33, 359,
81, 82
Stratfor.com 67
United Nations Special
164,303 Strong, Maurice 159
Commission (UNSCOM) on Iraq 335-8, 340 United States of America agriculture 307-9 armed forces use of drugs 179 bombing strategy 113-14 casualties 249 and civilian casualties 258—63 compensation 262—3
Straw, Jack
Sullivan, General
Gordon 63
Sweeny, John 294 Szamuely, George
1
59
Taliban, the 56, 58, 89, 111,1 30-1
141 Taraki,
Noor Mohammed 108-9
terrorism 87-100, 322
defense budget 45-7, 63-5, 99,
Third World poverty 92-5
277-8
The (British newspaper) 7 torture 115-18, 118-21 Times,
Trenchard, Air Marshall
Hugh 203
detention of‘enemy
combatants’ 147-8, 152
economy 153—6
Trepca lead and zinc mines 68
energy consumption 97
Tu dj man, Franjo 9
expansionism 291-2 foreign policies 88—90, 98,
U Thant
107-9, 151,272-3
340
United Nations 10,338-41
and America
gross domestic product
63—4
145,338—41 Earth Charter 159—61
intelligence disinformation
and human
international support for Iraq
10,
rights 30,
157—61
International Criminal
Court
justification for
Resolution 688 102
357—60
and the sanctions against Iraq 30,
war 324 war on Iraq 305,314-16,318-19 Middle East Policy 280—5
159
role
227-32
348
99
military recruitment 173—4,
sent intelligence disinformation
227-32
197-202 motivation for the
in
bombing of
Serbia 12-13
United Nations Committee Against Torture 116-17 United Nations Mission
militarization of
motivation for war with Iraq
Kosovo
360-4
INDEX
377
National Public Radio war
veterans benefits 199-200
reporting 237-44
veto of Bosnian settlement
official
apologies 259—62
plans 4
opposition to war in Serbia 12
weapons exports
opposition to war on Iraq
21 1-17
298-300 policy on Iraq 281-5, 352—3, 353-5, 362-4 and post liberation Iraq 342-5 presence in Saudi Arabia 95—6 presentation of war with Iraq 317-29 prison system
1
Uruguay
1
the public and the
war on
Iraq
237-44
1
19-20
US Air Force 31-2, 206 US Army 19,20 US Marine Corps 174-80,
197-8,
200-1 Ventura, Jesse 53-4
Vermont,
17
18,
to Iraq
sterilization
law 62
Vieira de Mello, Sergio 338, 360
Vietnam War 18, 24, 31 32, 43, 174, 185,260
35,
,
and the Rambouilett accords 39
Vinnell 128
sanctions against Iraq 30—1, 32,
37,95, 101-4, 183,346-9,
Voices in the Wilderness 270—1,
274
357 Serb resentment of 9—10
and Serbia spread of
10—15
7, 9,
Wall Street Journal (newspaper) 5,
hegemony 92-5
support for
Israel
91-2, 272-3,
280-1 support for Saddam Hussein
bombing of
Serbia 11, 17,37,38,42
support for undemocratic support for war with Iraq
and torture 115-18, 119-21 10,
Wallace,
Mike 44 19, 30,
42-3, 138
Clinton accused of 30—1 32, ,
33-4
War Crimes Tribunal, The Hague war criminals 30-4, 81-2 war, environmental effects of
283-4, 297
UN
and the murder ot Daniel Pearl 133-5
81-2
governments 96—8
and the
19, 128
war crimes
180-1,239, 327 support for the
Walker, William 78
145,338-41
use of African-American troops
296 use of military action
98-100
195-6 Warden, Colonel John
1
13
Washington Post (newspaper) 23,
24,38,64, 105, 115-16, 228-9, 231,324, 327
1
INDEX
378
Washington Times (newspaper) 38, 4
Wilding, Jo, departure from Iraq
256-8
63 Watkins, Kevin 310-11
Watson, Paul 24
Waxman, Henry 314 weapons of mass destruction 103, 165,208,247-8,250, 282, 301-5, 335-8, 356 biological 224-5, 313, 330, 333,
334 chemical 214-15, 215, 224-5,
313,327,332 nuclear 111-12,215-16,225, 227-8,311-14,315-16,325, 330, 331-2,333 Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq (Stauber and Rampton) 317-19
George 19 Win Without War 272, 273-4 Winooski 44, the 37-8 Wolff, Daniel, road trip 237—44 Will,
Wolfowitz, Paul
1
12, 305, 318,
319,343,352-3 Woodard, Tori 191, 192 Woodrow, Thomas 1 1 Woolsey, James 165-6 Workers World Party 185—6 working class, and war 289-98
World Health Organization 30 World Trade Center, terrorist attack of September 11th 2001 105-7, 149
Wypijewski, JoAnn, on the
Spanish-American war 289-98
Weisheit, John 191, 192
Weldon, Curt 6,11
Yugoslavia, breakup of 5, 70—1
White, Charles 126, 127 White, Chris, on military
Zuelch,Tilman 69
recruitment 197-202 Wiesel, Elite 48
Zvecan 72
South San Francisco Public Library
i
Iraq didn’t begin with the lethal pyrotechnics of
Shock and Awe, and
it
end with George W. Bush’s made-for-TV aircraft landing. Undetected by the mainstream press, the US campaign against Iraq began many years before, featuring cruel sanctions, weekly bombardments, and assassinations. With Saddam deposed, the US now finds itself mired in a grinding occupation, its troops under constant attack with no exit in sight. didn’t
was just one of three major imperial crusades in the last decade, orchestrated by a new generation of American politicians, both Democrat and Republican, who Iraq
backed pre-emptive
overthrow unruly regimes in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan under the pretext of humanitarian intervention. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St.Clair reported on these wars as they happened. Years ahead of the pack, they exposed the economic motives behind the wars and how fraudulent intelligence, a spaniel press corps, a servile United Nations, and corporate propaganda techniques were used to sell them to the public. strikes
to
Imperial Crusades chronicles the
lies
that are
now
returning almost daily to haunt
Washington and London, the secret agendas and the under-reported carnage of these wars. It is a ripely vivid, blow-by-blow commentary from Cockburn and St.Clair, and regular CounterPunch writers such as the late Edward Said, former marines Chris White and Scott Cossette, historians Gary Leupp and Doug Lummis, psychologist Carol Norris, economist Paul de Rooij, human rights lawyer Joanne Mariner, and former senior CIA analysts Bill Christison and Ray McGovern.
the
liars in
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair co-edit CounterPunch, both the newsletter and the well-known website, CounterPunch.org. Together they have written Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press and A Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils. Alexander Cockburn lives in Petrolia, northern California. Jeffrey St.Clair lives in Oregon City, Oregon.
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