Dear RN list, Dec. 23 While there is some relief that the bombing has ended, we know the killing has not ended. It is more and more obvious that a military "solution" to the Iraq situation is a dead end. In this posting, I would like to share comments and contributions from readers. I think it is safe to say all of us deplore the bombing and punitive sanctions being inflicted on the people of Iraq. But there are differeing views on why the bombings took place and on what we ought to do to promote peace. We do not need to all agree on these things, but having some discussion beyond just denouncing the bombings would be helpful. all the best, Jan ********************************************************************** This is a long piece, but one which gives some insight into the thinking behind the violence. Here are the concluding lines, so you will know what action the author advocates as you read the background material: "The major priority for Arabs, Europeans, Muslims and Americans is to push to the fore the issue of sanctions and the terrible suffering imposed on innocent Iraqi civilians. Taking the case to the International Court in the Hague strikes me as a perfectly viable possibility, but what is needed is a concerted will on behalf of Arabs who have suffered the US's egregious blows for too long without an adequate response." Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 11:12:24 From: Bill Koehnlein <•••@••.•••> Subject: Edward Said on Iraq Crisis / must reading [Source: http://www.salam.org/iraq/apocalypse.html] Apocalypse Now by Edward Said It would be a mistake, I think, to reduce what is happening between Iraq and the United States simply to an assertion of Arab will and sovereignty on the one hand versus American imperialism, which undoubtedly plays a central role in all this. However misguided, Saddam Hussein's cleverness is not that he is splitting America from its allies (which he has not really succeeded in doing for any practical purpose) but that he is exploiting the astonishing clumsiness and failures of US foreign policy. Very few people, least of all Saddam himself, can be fooled into believing him to be the innocent victim of American bullying; most of what is happening to his unfortunate people who are undergoing the most dreadful and unacknowledged suffering is due in considerable degree to his callous cynicism -- first of all, his indefensible and ruinous invasion of Kuwait, his persecution of the Kurds, his cruel egoism and pompous self-regard which persists in aggrandizing himself and his regime at exorbitant and, in my opinion, totally unwarranted cost. It is impossible for him to plead the case for national security and sovereignty now given his abysmal disregard of it in the case of Kuwait and Iran. Be that as it may, US vindictiveness, whose sources I shall look at in a moment, has exacerbated the situation by imposing a regime of sanctions which, as Sandy Berger, the American National Security adviser has just said proudly, is unprecedented for its severity in the whole of world history. 567,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the Gulf War, mostly as a result of disease, malnutrition and deplorably poor medical care. Agriculture and industry are at a total standstill. This is unconscionable of course, and for this the brazen inhumanity of American policy-makers is also very largely to blame. But we must not forget that Saddam is feeding that inhumanity quite deliberately in order to dramatize the opposition between the US and the rest of the Arab world; having provoked a crisis with the US (or the UN dominated by the US) he at first dramatised the unfairness of the sanctions. But by continuing it as he is now doing, the issue has changed and has become his non-compliance, and the terrible effects of the sanctions have been marginalised. Still the underlying causes of an Arab/US crisis remain. A careful analysis of that crisis is imperative. The US has always opposed any sign of Arab nationalism or independence, partly for its own imperial reasons and partly because its unconditional support for Israel requires it to do so. Since the l973 war, and despite the brief oil embargo, Arab policy up to and including the peace process has tried to circumvent or mitigate that hostility by appealing to the US for help, by "good" behavior, by willingness to make peace with Israel. Yet mere compliance with the US's wishes can produce nothing except occasional words of American approbation for leaders who appear "moderate": Arab policy was never backed up with coordination, or collective pressure, or fully agreed upon goals. Instead each leader tried to make separate arrangements both with the US and with Israel, none of which produced very much except escalating demands and a constant refusal by the US to exert any meaningful pressure on Israel. The more extreme Israeli policy becomes the more likely the US has been to support it. And the less respect it has for the large mass of Arab peoples whose future and well-being are mortgaged to illusory hopes embodied, for instance, in the Oslo accords. Moreover, a deep gulf separates Arab culture and civilization on the one hand, from the United States on the other, and in the absence of any collective Arab information and cultural policy, the notion of an Arab people with traditions, cultures and identities of their own is simply inadmissible in the US. Arabs are dehumanized, they are seen as violent irrational terrorists always on the lookout for murder and bombing outrages. The only Arabs worth doing business with for the US are compliant leaders, businessmen, military people whose arms purchases (the highest per capita in the world) are helping the American economy keep afloat. Beyond that there is no feeling at all, for instance, for the dreadful suffering of the Iraqi people whose identity and existence have simply been lost sight of in the present situation. This morbid, obsessional fear and hatred of the Arabs has been a constant theme in US foreign policy since World War Two. In some way also, anything positive about the Arabs is seen in the US as a threat to Israel. In this respect pro-Israeli American Jews, traditional Orientalists, and military hawks have played a devastating role. Moral opprobrium is heaped on Arab states as it is on no others. Turkey, for example, has been conducting a campaign against the Kurds for several years, yet nothing is heard about this in the US. Israel occupies territory illegally for thirty years, it violates the Geneva conventions at will, conducts invasions, terrorist attacks and assassinations against Arabs, and still, the US vetoes every sanction against it in the UN. Syria, Sudan, Libya, Iraq are classified as "rogue" states. Sanctions against them are far harsher than against any other countries in the history of US foreign policy. And still the US expects that its own foreign policy agenda ought to prevail (eg., the woefully misguided Doha economic summit) despite its hostility to the collective Arab agenda. In the case of Iraq a number of further extenuations make the US even more repressive. Burning in the collective American unconscious is a puritanical zeal decreeing the sternest possible attitude towards anyone deemed to be an unregenerate sinner. This clearly guided American policy towards the native American Indians, who were first demonized, then portrayed as wasteful savages, then exterminated, their tiny remnant confined to reservations and concentration camps. This almost religious anger fuels a judgemental attitude that has no place at all in international politics, but for the United States it is a central tenet of its worldwide behavior. Second, punishment is conceived in apocalyptic terms. During the Vietnam war a leading general advocated -- and almost achieved -- the goal of bombing the enemy into the stone age. The same view prevailed during the Gulf War in l99l. Sinners are meant to be condemned terminally, with the utmost cruelty regardless of whether or not they suffer the cruelest agonies. The notion of "justified" punishment for Iraq is now uppermost in the minds of most American consumers of news, and with that goes an almost orgiastic delight in the gathering power being summoned to confront Iraq in the Gulf. Pictures of four (or is now five?) immense aircraft carriers steaming virtuously away punctuate breathless news bulletins about Saddam's defiance, and the impending crisis. The President announces that he is thinking not about the Gulf but about the 21st century: how can we tolerate Iraq's threat to use biological warfare even though (this is unmentioned) it is clear from the UNSCOM reports that he neither has the missile capacity, nor the chemical arms, nor the nuclear arsenal, nor in fact the anthrax bombs that he is alleged to be brandishing? Forgotten in all this is that the US has all the terror weapons known to humankind, is the only country to have used a nuclear bomb on civilians, and as recently as seven years ago dropped 66,000 tons of bombs on Iraq. As the only country involved in this crisis that has never had to fight a war on its own soil, it is easy for the US and its mostly brain-washed citizens to speak in apocalyptic terms. A report out of Australia on Sunday, November l6 suggests that Israel and the US are thinking about a neutron bomb on Baghdad. Unfortunately the dictates of raw power are very severe and, for a weak state like Iraq, overwhelming. Certainly US misuse of the sanctions to strip Iraq of everything, including any possibility for security is monstrously sadistic. The so-called UN 661 Committee created to oversee the sanctions is composed of fifteen member states (including the US) each of which has a veto. Every time Iraq passes this committee a request to sell oil for medicines, trucks, meat, etc., any member of the committee can block these requests by saying that a given item may have military purposes (tires, for example, or ambulances). In addition the US and its clients -- eg., the unpleasant and racist Richard Butler, who says openly that Arabs have a different notion of truth than the rest of the world -- have made it clear that even if Iraq is completely reduced militarily to the point where it is no longer a threat to its neighbors (which is now the case) the real goal of the sanctions is to topple Saddam Hussein's government. In other words according to the Americans, very little that Iraq can do short of Saddam's resignation or death will produce a lifting of sanctions. Finally, we should not for a moment forget that quite apart from its foreign policy interest, Iraq has now become a domestic American issue whose repercussions on issues unrelated to oil or the Gulf are very important. Bill Clinton's personal crises -- the campaign-funding scandals, an impending trial for sexual harassment, his various legislative and domestic failures -- require him to look strong, determined and "presidential" somewhere else, and where but in the Gulf against Iraq has he so ready-made a foreign devil to set off his blue-eyed strength to full advantage. Moreover, the increase in military expenditure for new investments in electronic "smart" weaponry, more sophisticated aircraft, mobile forces for the world-wide projection of American power are perfectly suited for display and use in the Gulf, where the likelihood of visible casualties (actually suffering Iraqi civilians) is extremely small, and where the new military technology can be put through its paces most attractively. For reasons that need restating here, the media is particularly happy to go along with the government in bringing home to domestic customers the wonderful excitement of American self-righteousness, the proud flag-waving, the "feel-good" sense that "we" are facing down a monstrous dictator. Far from analysis and calm reflection the media exists mainly to derive its mission from the government, not to produce a corrective or any dissent. The media, in short, is an extension of the war against Iraq. The saddest aspect of the whole thing is that Iraqi civilians seem condemned to additional suffering and protracted agony. Neither their government nor that of the US is inclined to ease the daily pressure on them, and the probability that only they will pay for the crisis is extremely high. At least -- and it isn't very much -- there seems to be no enthusiasm among Arab governments for American military action, but beyond that there is no coordinated Arab position, not even on the extremely grave humanitarian question. It is unfortunate that, according to the news, there is rising popular support for Saddam in the Arab world, as if the old lessons of defiance without real power have still not been learned. Undoubtedly the US has manipulated the UN to its own ends, a rather shameful exercise given at the same time that the Congress once again struck down a motion to pay a billion dollars in arrears to the world organization. The major priority for Arabs, Europeans, Muslims and Americans is to push to the fore the issue of sanctions and the terrible suffering imposed on innocent Iraqi civilians. Taking the case to the International Court in the Hague strikes me as a perfectly viable possibility, but what is needed is a concerted will on behalf of Arabs who have suffered the US's egregious blows for too long without an adequate response. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This article was first published in Arabic in Al-Hayat, London, and in English in Al Ahram Weekly, Cairo. ******************************************************************************** Following are a couple comments on the "wag the dog" theory: From: "Adkins, Gerald" <•••@••.•••> Subject: RE: "surprise" strike against Iraq Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 09:06:12 -0800 This latest nonsense about IRAQ has nothing to do with IRAQ and its people and everything to do with clinton trying to "WAG THE DOG". Who in their right mind would ever believe anything from the clinton administration. G. C. Adkins, M.S. ph: (360) 438 4495 If you really want to be happy, nobody can stop you. Sister Mary Tricky *************************************************************** Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 23:36:32 -0800 From: Jeff Jewell <•••@••.•••> Subject: 'Desert Fox': Who's Wagging Which Dog??? Once again much is being made of Clinton doing a Dog Wag with the intention of distracting public attention from his political scandal. How absurd. It is truly unthinkable that any US President [much less a wounded one] could drag his nation to war unless it was in the service of the CFR and the military industrial complex. Just imagine an attempt to initiate war for such self-serving purposes -- it would immediately be exposed as the just cause for impeachment, and unanimously seen as such. Instead, the way the world is being spun on this instance of unjustified unilateral American aggression [the Brits are merely serving as useful puppets to provide a phony facade of legitimacy] is that Clinton and his Dog Wag are being used as the fallback cover story as to why this attrocity is being committed. The need for such reverse spin is revealed through a poll reported by CNN -- indicating that only about 62% of Americans actually believe that 'Desert Fox' is justified -- while about 38% of Americans think they're now seeing the Dog Wag movie in real life. A fiendishly clever ruse, and a mighty effective coverup! After all, it would be rather dodgy going to war [in a supposed democracy] with only 62% support -- unless the rest of the population thought they understood the reason why. ========================================== Jeff Jewell 927 Hendecourt Place North Vancouver, B.C. Canada V7K 2X5 (604)984-7852 ****************************************************************************** Note from Jan: It may seem fanciful to suggest that thoughts, positive or negative, can effect change. But how we think does matter; the first message in this posting makes this obvious. Like Molly Cook, I think that prayer can help. But prayer is only one type of action, prayer needs to be complemented by other action to come alive. Date: 17 Dec 98 10:30:57 +0100 From: Molly Cook <•••@••.•••> Subject: RE>Action re: bombing RE>Action re: bombing 12/17/98 this is response from me personally not from CLD or the LC. The best course of action should not be fear-based. Our creation energy is quite powerful and we can create negative as well as positive with our thoughts. Prayer on a collective level can be very transformative. The Earth has her own consciousness and is moving into the 4th dimension whether we like it our not -- we can stay in 3rd dimension, struggle with collective consciousness issues like fear and hatred or we can refuse to be victim/victimizer any longer, ask for divine assistance and intervention and with the power of group thought prevent further violence on the skin of our Earth. We are in every moment creating with our thoughts. Personal refusal on each individual's part will prevent more energy going into a point-of-no-return negative response. You have the power, (ability, skill) and so does everyone else. You only have to decide. I have begun working extensively on this level (though neglectfully not on Iraq/U.S.) and it is long past time we as a group of human/earth-based intelligent beings get out of heads and into our hearts. best regards in/to the end to fear-based thinking molly cook Date: 18 Dec 98 09:49:22 +0100 From: Molly Cook <•••@••.•••> Subject: RE>re: Action re; bombing To: Jan Slakov <•••@••.•••> RE>re: Action re; bombing 12/18/98 Dear Jan, My comments do not represent the policy, beliefs, etc. of the Center for Living Democracy, the American News Service or the Learning Center at the Center for Living Democracy -- they are mine and mine alone. It is only because I am the recipient of general info that comes to the •••@••.••• mailbox that I read and responded to your email. You have my permission to forward my response to others but THIS DISCLAIMER MUST BE ATTACHED to any email you send. In Sincerity, Molly Cook ********************************************************************** Now, for those of you who are curious about the Center for Living Democracy, here is some information based on and taken from material they sent me last summer. -- Democracy is not what we _have_. It's what we _do_.-- The Center was co-founded by Frances Moore Lappé (author of _Diet for a Small Planet and _Rediscovering America's Values_ and many other books, some of which have been translated into 22 languages!) and Paul Martin Du Bois (founder of a newspaper and three successful businesses in Rochester, NY, also an author and a professor). Mission: The Center for Living Democracy inspires and prepares people to make democracy a rewarding, practical, everyday approach to solving society's problems. Vision: Something extraordinary is happening in America. Millions of regular citizens are discovering that public life isn't just for officials and celebrities - that each of us can have a voice in the direction of our communities, workplaces, schools, media and government. They are learning that democracy can work when it becomes not what we have, but what we do - a way of life that sustains us daily. The Center for Living Democracy works to accelerate this citizen-led revolution of hope, supporting all those who want to learn how to "do democracy" to create a healthier society. The following programs help us to further this mission: The American News Service researches and reports on the mostly "unseen" problem-solving initiatives taking place in organizations and communities across the country and provides stories of these innovations to hundreds of major media, individuals and organizations. Visit ANS onlline <http://www.americannews.com> for subscription information. The Living Democracy Learning Center is helping people enhance their skills to be most effective in their problem-solving efforts. The Learning Tools Catalog provides access to hundreds of resources offering practical guidance to citizens seeking to solve problems in their own communities. We have also developed intensive, experiential workshops covering the concepts and skills that citizens need for successful public problem solving. The Interracial Democracy Program has researched the extent and nature of interracial dialogue initiatives nationwide. Our findings are shared through our newest publications, _Bridging the Racial Divide: A Repport on Interracial Dialogue in America_ and Interracial Dialogues Across america: A Directory_. Because one of the greatest barriers to living democracy is racial division, the Center emphasizes interracial dialogue and collaborative work in each of our programs. For more detailed information about programs and initiatives of the Center for Living Democracy, please visit our website at http://www.livingdemocracy.org . Note from Jan: While the above descriptions sound truly exciting, and the Learing Tools catalog looks most useful, I cannot retype the above descriptions without mentioning that, for many people, it seems presumptuous for the US to call itself "America". (It is just part of North America :-)
