Antiwar.com Blog

Take a few minutes to read this interesting post by blogger Ken MacLeod. A self-described “ex-Trot,” MacLeod lays out the leftist case FOR war (sounds amazingly similar to the current White House line, no?), then contrasts it with (an oversimplified but generally accurate version of) the right-wing case AGAINST war. I know of no one who would agree with everything in this essay, but it’s worth a read, if only for this rendering of the road to New World Order:

So what happens after the Cold War? Well, in the former Third World there are a lot of ramshackle tyrannies whose former position as key players in the great contest has been forgotten even by themselves. The US has lost a role and not yet found an empire. Maintaining hegemony means taking down any of an embarrassingly rich array of malefactors, and (partly by this means) dissuading the emergence of any military rival among the metropolitan countries. New American Century. Full spectrum dominance. Sole superpower. You know the drill.

In this situation it is absolutely inevitable that the targets of choice should be (a) no great threat to anyone outside their borders and (b) a bloody menace to people inside them and (c) completely uninspiring to, if not downright detested by, anyone on the left in the West. Vietnam without Vietcong. It’s hardly a surprise that their overthrow should improve matters in the countries concerned, at least in the short run. Whether it’s a good thing for the world and for the long run is another matter entirely. I don’t know where all this is heading, but I have a very bad feeling about it.

(Tip o’ the hat to reader Badri for the link.)

The following email is circulating between war-supporters in an apparent attempt to refute the claims that the Iraqi occupation has become a quagmire. I thought that I would respond to each point made. My responses are the non-italic text.

Subject: Iraq a Success

This is for those who are discouraged at the constant bombardment of negative news about Iraq from the liberal, anti-Bush media, and also for those who just want to be critical for other reasons.

SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR COMBAT ON MAY 1: [319 US troops have died]

– the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.

The Daily Telegraph reports:
” About 300 of the 700 members in the first new Iraqi army battalion set up by the US-led coalition have resigned, a coalition official said today. ”

– over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.

Um, what security?

– nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning.

Functioning as well as….? I assume this is a US gov’t “fact.”

–the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

Ahhh, as independent as the American appointed Iraqi Council?

–on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding
the pre-war average.

I thought we went to Iraq to “rid the world of Saddam and his WMD” not “bring power back to prewar levels.” Moreover, is this really an accomplishment when we remember that it was American bombs that created the lower power output? But I digress.

–all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

See above point. Simply, this is the way is was supposed to be, it is not an accomplishment per se. It is kind of like saying: “My local fire department put out a fire.” Yeah, so what?

– by October 1, Coalition forces had rehabbed over 1,500 schools – 500 more than their target.

Hmmm, why did they need rehab? Also, since when was US taxpayer money supposed to be used for foreign schools? I recommend you visit your nearest local inner city school to understand where gov’t money is truly needed.

– teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

So what? It is probably inflation.

–all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

They better be.

–doctor’s salaries are at least eight times what they were under
Saddam.

High demand = high wage. Basic economics.

–95 percent of all pre-war bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.

Wait, the US military is spending my tax-money gathering these type of statistics? Just for that, I think I will disregard this point. And here’s some real economic freedom. Continue reading “Success in Iraq?”

The Houston corporate headquarters for Halliburton-Kellogg, Brown and Root has had the old building sign removed and replaced with a new KBR sign.

The story did not appear as a regular news story, but rather as a series of captions for ten Reuters photos.

Today, President Bush announced that Halliburton will be forced to pay back any money overcharged for Iraqi oil.

Bush’s showy and controversial Thanksgiving Day flight to Baghdad has created a stir in Great Britain, where Air Force One — in its haste and demand for discretion — ignored international law:

Of more concern, air traffic controllers in Britain are seething over the flight, in which the president’s 747, falsely identified as a Gulfstream, traveled through British airspace. Prospect, the controllers union in the United Kingdom, says the flight broke international regulations, posed a potential safety threat and exposed a weakness in the air defense system that could be exploited by terrorists.

He obviously ignores David Frum’s column, as revealed in this profile of antiwar.com. As Andrew Sullivan so charmingly puts it, the money quote:

Although writer and editor Tom Englehardt, who runs the popular political blog TomDispatch.com, says he reads Antiwar.com every day, Slate.com’s William Saletan had never heard of it. Neither had UC Berkeley journalism professor and political columnist Susan Rasky. National Review editor Rich Lowry also claimed ignorance, despite Frum’s coverage, as did the Weekly Standard’s Kristol.

Of Estonia, Palau, and Rwanda. Definitely not Germany. The reconstruction of Iraq gets even funnier. Why screw the American taxpayers slightly less through a competitive bidding system open to countries with actual businesses in them when you can just hand the dough over in titanic fistfuls to the president’s friends and supporters? They’ll pass along just enough to Azerbaijani subcontractors to keep the Coalition quiet, and funnel the leftovers into reelecting friendly congressmen. The welfare-warfare state wins again.

Don’t say I never warned you.