Tag: Antiwar movement

Brendan at Stand Down asks some interesting questions about the Iraqi elections:

The key question are these. Amidst all the prattling about influences of ‘foreign powers’ the influence of one very important foreign power has been minimised.
But there are important questions to be asked.

• Will the US be allowed to channel funds to its preferred candidate(s)? (ie. Allawi).
• Current UN resolution 1546 states unequivocally that the current mandate for the ‘multi-national force’ expires in June next year, and that in order to prolong this mandate this has to be done via the Iraqi government, such as it is. The mechanism for how this might be the case, however, has not been made clear, and the question remains; will a simple majority of Iraqi parties/politicians suffice to pass a motion to ask the troops to leave, or will minority parties be able to halt any such move?
• Where do the Kurds stand in all this? Will it be legal for the troops to be asked to leave the rest of Iraq, but not Kurdistan?

I have a couple more questions. In light of this:

“This election, for me, will be the happiest moment in my life, because it means we will end the occupation,” said Ahmad al-Asadi, who sells mobile phones from a little store alongside the Kadhimiya mosque, a Shiite shrine.

That’s how Shiite leaders are pitching the vote: as a chance to end America’s military presence in Iraq peacefully, through the ballot box. It also is a chance for Iraq’s long-downtrodden Shiites, who account for 60 percent of the population, to throw off centuries of oppression by the Sunni minority and take a commanding role in the country’s government.

What is the US planning to do when the Shiites either 1) Vote for the troops to get out, or 2) Rise up in frustrated anger when they find out the US has some sort of plan to block the new parliament from asking them to leave? What will the Kurds do if the Shiites tell the US to get out?

Another question: What if the Shiites declare Basra the capital of the New Iraq? Why would they want it to be in Baghdad, after all? Is there any law that says that the capital of Iraq must be Baghdad, smack in the center of the resistance? Basra would be so much more convenient for the majority Shia, and much easier to secure. What’s left in Baghdad that qualifies it as the capital, the American Embassy Fortress in the Green Zone? So what?

Upon seeing the news of the missile defense system test failure, I of course rushed over to Defense Tech to see how they characterized this monstrous boondoggle:

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY: MISSILE DEFENSE BOOSTER FAILS TO RISE TO THE OCCASSION

From the film “Gunner Palace” here’s a film clip showing what US soldiers think of their Hillbilly Armored Humvees.

QuickTime movie clip.

Link via Political Animal

(see 10 for introduction)
4.5 next

“Progressive” bellwether John Nichols supports the right-to-vote amendment in Tuesday’s Capital Times, that’s 105 columns down, five to go and he’ll have made it through the year without using the word “Israel.” If that isn’t exciting enough, a new story line is developing–he hasn’t used “Iraq” since early November. “Iraq” used to be a staple, appearing in 40% of his columns. It could be that with the election over, he no longer feels the urgency to beat Bush over the head with it. In any case, having a streak within a streak like this is unprecedented in the annals of countdowns.

Young readers might be suprised to learn that some people found the Clinton administration’s Iraq policy–“economic sanctions constituting the most comprehensive state of siege ever imposed in modern history”–as intolerable as they have found Bush’s. Take, for example, Kathy Kelly, who in 1996 co-founded Voices in the Wilderness. Earlier this year, she “can’t help but wonder why the pictures of suffering Iraqi children never raised equivalent concern or indignation” as the Abu Ghraib photos. And last week, with the media obsessing over Kofi Annan and the Oil for Food program, she can’t help but ask “is there no columnist who will remind us that 500,000 children under age five died as the U.S. used the UN to wage economic warfare?”

In 1995, John Nichols named Kathy Kelly “woman of the year,” but now the Capital Times offers her no solace. Of course, Annan is defended, but the sanctions are “UN” and their effect is unmentioned. It’s Said all over again.

Speaking of hounded Secretary-Generals, Madeleine Albright and the Clinton administration waged “a singularly vicious and personal campaign” against Annan’s predecessor. Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the victim of “a wholesale and increasingly brutal assault.” His fate was sealed when he released a report undercutting Israel’s claim that its attack on a UN center in Qana, Lebanon, was an accident.

Wherever the point of departure, the trail always seems to lead back to 1996, the middle of the Clinton years. Half a million dead Iraqi children and the Qana massacre have been linked before, in a fatwa and an interview.

note:

Had Robert Fisk not been on the scene in Qana, there probably wouldn’t have been a UN report.

"Heroes are essential to the improvement of society" – and the 20^thCentury had such a hero in Andrei Sakharov, famed Soviet physicist and much, much more – fighter for human rights and democracy in the midst of that lethally minded and cold-souled tyrant, the former Soviet Union. December 14^th was the 15^th anniversary of his death. I suppose the need to wish that the 21^st Century give rise to more heroes like Sakharaov speaks grimly about the underlying world situation, but for the sake of us all, I heartily hope others of equally strong intellect, courage, and moral conviction will be there when needed. Here and here are more about Sakharov.

Here.

Judge it for yourself.

“And to George W. Bush: You have asked us to “Bring it on.” And, so have we, like never expected.

Have you another challenge?”

WMV downloadable file here. Please download rather than hotlink.