(No war in Iraq - http://pnews.org/) U.S. SUPPLIER OF WEAPONS TO DICTATORS AND TYRANTS
We are very involved in the Middle East. Turkey has the third largest military in the world and gets it's weaponry from us. Saudi Arabia buys even more and is America's biggest customer for weaponry. Egypt remains the second-largest recipient of US foreign aid after Israel. We just fought a war in Afghanistan and have promised to rebuild that country. We're pumping aid into Pakistan to keep them on our side. We couldn't be more involved there if we lived there. But none of them like us very much. Fundamentalism is exploding in the region and they don't like us deployed in the Persian Gulf while all the rulers walk a fine line between Islam and holding on to power. The U.S. is not popular with the masses but to the rulers of these Middle-Eastern states the U.S. is very important to their survival. And that is why most of them will fall in line behind anything George Bush does and they consider Iraq a paper tiger however some like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have warned the United States not to go to war in Iraq because as he has stated publicly, a war with Iraq has the potential of spreading into a regional war and will cause more terrorism. Mubarak is never-the-less expected to go along and permit the U.S. to use the Suez Canal to move warships and Egyptian air space as it did in the 91 Gulf War. Ignorant Cowboy "When President Bush first used "Axis of Evil" to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea in his State of the Union address last January, the phrase instantly entered the lexicon of contemporary politics. For the President's fans, the words cleverly linked memories of World War II to Bush's belief that the contest with terrorists and the states who succor them is a war of moral clarity. For his foes, the term was cheap and illogical nonsense; there was no "axis," it was said, for the three nations posed different and discrete threats. As for branding them evil, that just proved once again that Bush was an ignorant cowboy who saw a multihued world in monochrome." [Michael Elliott - "The "Axis of Evil" in Action Was Bush right when he made Iraq, Iran and North Korea a loathsome trio?" - (12-23-2002) - Time] During WWII there was an axis _alliance_ of those who represented fascism and an alliance of nations opposing fascism. Iran, Iraq and North Korea, who George Bush accused of belonging to an axis of evil are not in any way aligned with each other nor is the concept of evil clear. Moral clarity is in the eye of the beholder evidently because there are many who see America's adventurous interventions as evil and unwanted and not least of all causing a great deal of harm. If there is an alliance or axis of evil, one can with "moral clarity" define the actions of the United States and Britain as evil. It is every bit as ethically and morally wrong and therefore "evil" as any acts of terrorism for the US and Britain to target civilian infrastructure as they did in Iraq. Referring to the war against Iraq, Noam Chomsky describes in "What We Say Goes", an essay in "Collateral Damage" the U.S./British strategy against the people of Iraq: "The second component of the U.S.-U.K. assault was an aerial attack on the civilian infrastructure, targeting power, sewage, and water systems; that is, a form of BIOLOGICAL WARFARE (Emphasis mine), designed to ensure long-term suffering and death among civilians, mounting--possibly disastrously--after hostilities ended. The goal of the attack on the civilian society was made reasonably clear; to place the United States in a strong position to attain its political goals for the region by inducing some military officer to take over and wield the `iron fist' as Saddam himself had done with U.S. support before he stepped out of line. Recallng those happy days when Saddam's `iron fist..held Iraq together' before his single transgression on August 2, Times diplomatic correspondent Thomas Friedman explained current State Department reasoning: If Iraq society suffers sufficient pain, Iraqi general smay topple Mr Hussein, `and then Washington would have the best of all worlds; an iron-fisted Iraqi junta without Saddam Hussein.`" [Cynthia Peters (ed), "Collateral Damage", 1992] "There was some concern that soft-hearted folk might balk at the sight of tens of thousands dying from starvation and disease while the United States holds the civilian population hostage...." [ibid] Hank Roth (TheGolem) GO HERE: http://pnews.org/ <----- for reasons NOT TO GO TO WAR WITH IRAQ <****> _____ / o o \ ===OO=====OO================================================== TheGolemsPlace (Where everything REALLY begins) West Server -: http://pnews.org/ East Server -: http://g0lem.net/ Vortals: http://pnews.org/NWO/phpnuke/ (New World disOrder) http://pnews.org/MEP/phpnuke/ (Middle-East) http://g0lem.net/PHP/phpnuke/ (Progressive News and Views) http://g0lem.net/HTH/phpnuke/ (Health and Veterans) ================================================================== \_/ \_/ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| NO BLOOD FOR OIL - DROP BUSH, NOT BOMBS! - PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS! |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ========================================================================= Subscribe or Unsubscribe to PNEWS ("progressive" news and views) forums (on internet since 1982): --- http://pnews.org/signup.shtml ========================================================================= _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
