Towards a global perspective . . .

In Iraq today, more violence and anger. A wall is being built by the Americans to “protect” Sunni civilians in Bagdad. The wall won’t stop the insurgent Sunni bombers that are inciting the Shia militias by killing tens and hundreds of Shia each day. And it appears that the same police who have been accused of vengeful retaliations against Sunni civilians will be guarding the entrances and exits. The civilians who will be imprisoned by these walls are terrified. They are vigorously protesting. Prime Minister Maliki, in a rare moment of good sense, stated publicly that he wanted the building stopped immediately, but was ignored. It’s for their own good so they’ll just have to get used to it. So much for democracy and respect for sovereign governments.[1]

A few years ago, with several billion dollars of Iraqi money from the UN and another hefty sum of underwriting from the American people, we were unable to repair the electric power and water purification facilities that we had bombed, or repair and resupply hospital equipment and drugs.[2] But, now we have reached our level of competence. We can fortify ghettos in the city, thereby formalizing in concrete the ethnic divisions we have created by our mishandling of the political situation back when we were throwing away the country’s last few billion dollars.

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The pot is about to boil over in the Occupied Territories. Israel has given a 48 hour notice that their army will be coming into Gaza in full force. Read the rest of this entry »

British Sailors held captive in Iran were probably well treated. British story of abuse doesn’t match known facts though it may be partially true. The captives starred in a new propaganda episode ever few days for the duration of their stay in Iran. However, the Iranian Minister abducted by Iraqis known to be working for the CIA was tortured and he has the scars to prove it.

Our government is overrun by men without shame. These are men who lie cheat and steal. But when caught red handed, they dig in and wait for the storm to pass. Will Gonzales resign? No, he continues to modify his lies. Wolfowitz, architect of the Miiddle Eastern war, now at the world bank, he’s given his girlfriend a highpower job with highpower wages. He’s despised by his employees, will he resign? No, he’s waiting for a higher court to clear him. Bush and Cheney lie while they rake in the money. There’s a big discussion about their incompetence. I have to ask whether you can really call such an incredible level of profitability with no accountability “incompetence”. These men just don’t share our objectives and our values.

2300 people died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. John Perkins points out that “24000 people died on 9/11 of hunger” “24000 people died today of hunger’. He says it isn’t enough to elect a Democrat. We have to stand up and insist on doing the right thing.

Michael Albert of ZMag was interviewed on DN a few days ago. He made the point that many people want major changes but feel it is impossible. So, they don’t make an effort to effect change. This is a very important point. Albert has a plan for a better economic model. I read a few pages some time ago and gave up. I can resist the current, or the next war, but I have a problem visualizing a victory for Single Payer Medical coverage without the Insurance Agencies in the middle much less an entirely reformed socio-economic context.

Counterpunch: PBS Series about to be shown, America at the Crossroads. The article says that though it porports to be about America, it is actually about Muslims. Though it comes across as an intelligent nuanced presentation, but is subtly racist. Content shows a few good Muslims standing against the bad ones. PBS has strong ties to AIPAC. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

SyriaComment Blog:
Josh Landis was in a debate on the Radio about the significance of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syrian. He did a great job, and the discussion was very interesting.
Today there was a frighteningly self interested post from Israel listing the reasons not to pursue an offer of peace from Syria. Basically, it wouldn’t solve any of their other problems, and Syria isn’t important enough to bother, especially considering the US doesn’t support them to do it.
A week or so ago, another post saying that Syria needs the World Bank and the IMF to really succeed economically. If you look at South America, it seems pretty clear that the World Bank and the IMF are the kiss of death economically. Syria may not be rolling in dough, but they are holding up on their own.

We must find a way to rein in the hawks and thwart plans to invade Iran. The drumbeat is ascending and the mainstream media is picking up the threads. Call or write your reps in Congress and the Senate.  To do this would be a terrible crime against the Iranian people, and a disaster for the world economy.
Here are some Iran talking points:

• They have not invaded another country in modern times.
• They are well integrated as a nation going back to antiquity.
• Ayatollah Khameini, Khomeini’s successor, supports Arab League plan for Palestinian independence.
• Arab League absolutely opposes any attack on Iran.
• Iran is not in violation of IAEA rules. It has withdrawn from agreement made with EU a couple of years ago because US rejected this agreement.
• No matter what you hear about Iran arming insurgents against us in Iraq and Afghanistan, remember that their interests in these countries are more or less aligned with ours. What I mean is, they support the same groups.

Muqtada al Sadr called for a rally to mark the anniversary of the occupation of Iraq. I have Juan Cole’s commentary below. I think it is worth reporting. Compare to NY Times coverage of the same event.

Here is what Juan reports:

“Tens of Thousands in Najaf Demand US Departure from Iraq

Tens of thousands of followers of young Shiite nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in the Shiite holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad on Monday, protesting the continued presence of US troops in Iraq. They burned US flags and held up posters saying, “America will fall, will fall.” Chillingly, some of the demonstrators appeared to be soldiers in the Iraqi army. Although the Iraqi government tried to spin the demonstration as a celebration of the fall of Saddam, it was in fact an ironic denunciation of the US for not withdrawing from Iraq after the demise of the Baath. Sadr City residents in Baghdad also supported the demonstration by flying Iraqi flags. Iraqi authorities appear to have been terrified of Muqtada’s street power, and they imposed a curfew on the capital.

A statement by Muqtada was distributed to demonstrators at Najaf and the LAT gives some of it: “We live at this moment and so far 48 months of anxiety, oppression and occupational tyranny have passed, four years which have only brought us more death, destruction and humiliation. Every day tens are martyred, tens are crippled and every day we see and hear U.S. interference in every aspect of our lives, which means that we are not sovereign, not independent and therefore not free. This is what Iraq has harvested from the U.S. invasion.”

Al-Ra’y quotes the statement as saying, in addition, America has striven to ignite sectarian turmmoil among the sons of the people. We say to the American people and to that of Europe, we want peace and liberty and independence.” He addressed American and European publics, saying, “We urge you, on the basis of simple humanity, to put pressure on your governments to end our torture and the shedding of Iraqi blood.” He also pledged to the Arab world his solidarity with its causes.

Sadr MP Nassar al-Rubaie said, “Today is a call for resistance, for liberty and honor after four years of Occupation from which Iraq has gained nothing but killings without any services, even electricity and water. There is no sovereignty for the people or the government. We are not saying that sovereignty is limited. We are saying that it is absent.”

Sunni clerics and members of the Iraqi Islamic Party, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, were bussed up from the southern city of Basra. Abdul Qadir Abdul Da’im of the IIP said, “The demonstration is a love letter that gathers together Iraqis and unifies them with regard to demanding the departure of the Occupation from this country. We must close ranks so that we can liberate our land from the north to the south.”"

So, April 6th passed without incident. Well, Good Friday is not much of a holiday any more, despite our fervent Christian leadership. At least no one bombed Iran. Other things happened in interim. The Saudi King finally saw clearly that Middle Eastern states need to take responsibility for handling thier own affairs and stop drawing in foreign agents (like us). If my timing is right, the Iranians took the British hostages, and then released them unharmed between the time of the prediction, and the passing of the target date. The UAE said that they would not support an attack on Iran from their territory. Nancy Pelosi toured the Middle East and stopped in Syria with an entourage of Democratic Congess people, thereby hugely embarrasing our president who wishes to reject Syria, and Bashar Al Assad as blatantly as possible, a childish form of diplomacy.

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Wednesday on Mosaic News, the segment from Israeli TV Station IBA in Jerusalem [1] featured an interview with Yosef Ben Aharon about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria. Mr. Ben Aharon is a former minister and high level government administrator, so one might hope he has some sense. But no. Both Mr. Aharon and the interviewer said some pretty silly things. It is amazing what passes for commentary nowadays.

Mr. Ben Aharon was explaining why Pelosi should not be visiting Syria. He said that Syria has “earned” isolation through, among other things, its “membership in the ‘Axis of Evil’”. How this membership could earn anything for anyone is a mystery since the “Axis of Evil” is nothing more than an inflammatory categorization made up by some speech writer for George Bush, and pronounced by the same several years ago when he was in full hyperbole promoting a Middle Eastern War.  Read the rest of this entry »