Re: United Nations Human Indicators Index 2004
there is a high functional illiteracy in the US as opposed to utter illiteracy elsewhere. the difference is minute but could make a world of difference in the HDICharles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: by Doug HenwoodThat was long ago, in the HDI's early days. In the first iteration,the U.S. scored badly. As someone in the UN told me, "orders camedown from the top" - the White House - to make the numbers lookbetter. And they were remade to look better in subsequent years.One reason - the first Bush admin had published docs sayingilliteracy rates in the U.S. were in the low teens. The HDI peoplepicked up on this, hammering the U.S. standing. Literacy was droppedin favor of school enrollment stats, on which the U.S. does well.^^^CB: I notice they seem to just assume a 99% literacy rate for the U.S. (footnote e ?) ? Is this a fudge ? Do you Yahoo!? Vote for the stars of Yahoo!'s next ad campaign!
Re: dialectics and logic
There is a Marxian metaphyisc in the principle " nothing is constant but change" but it is a worrysome religion to hold because it implies that freedom lies in the appreciation of necessity or neccesity to change things. building onto a logic that calls for a constant detection of what needs to be changed runs counter to the inetrest of bourgeoisie and its dominant ideology. it will be fought tooth and nail. what is particularly poignant here and the only new thing that i can probably add to this discusion is that the concepts with which people think have to be redifined to reflect this fluidity and contradiction in unity. syllogistic logic, and for the well informed of Croce's paper on contradiction and or dualistic or monadic thought, becomes void when things flow out of each other.. formal sophistry can do little to conceal the ugliness of capitalism and the system will stand naked before our very eyes. but will this alternativeway of thinking be taken to schools? highly unlikely. I recall it was even difficult to get a good course on hegel in universities because it talked about processes and change. Do you Yahoo!? Vote for the stars of Yahoo!'s next ad campaign!
Re: Saddam on TV
The whole show is intented to foment an iraqi sunni shiite civil war so that the other hesitant parties come in as peace keepers because as it stands the americans without an iraqi civil war will lose.Michael Hoover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/01/04 7:50 PM >>>I saw Hussein on TV this mornKen.most significant feature of hussein's appearance in court was u.s. flagin corner of room, media made big deal of u.s. military personnel'retreating' after bringing himin but i've not seen anyone allude even in passing to u.s. flag...hussein's trial at this time (on u.s. tv, no less) is for bush campaign(yeah, yeah, i know the interim gov't wanted to expedite things, blah,blah, blah)...michael hoover--Please Note:Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employeesregarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request.Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.
Re: Malthus Was Wrong
Malthus was not the first to differentiate between food supplies and population growth, that was almost received theory at the time. Malthus argued for small govenment. Long before Malthus tackled the poor law in England with his hands off welfare approach,[1] the discourse relating small government to the discrepancy between the geometric evolution of population growth and arithmetic growth in resources over time was part and parcel of the intellectual environment in the eighteenth century. The oft quoted line can be traced back to Rev. Robert Wallaces work, "Various Prospects for Mankind, Nature, and Providence, 1761", in which he enunciates that "[u]nder a perfect government .. mankind, would increase so prodigiously that the earth would be left overstocked and become unable to support its inhabitants." Statements of the sort were meant to represent an anti-enlightenment position, but as one ironically observes today, the call for small government is also meant to reduce the social cost of the reproduction of the labour force and to guarantee that labour power is expendable in a shorter or cheaper life span. Population growth under capitalism is regulated by a specific relationship of surplus value extraction which is co-determined by the rate of replacement of living by dead labour and the resulting relative surplus population that depresses wages and augments absolute and relative surplus value (Marx, Capital 1, Ch. 23).[2] [1] John B. Foster in Monthly Review, April, 2000, provides an excellent historical review of this question, and also highlights the dangers of rising Malthusianism in modern times. [2] Notions of residual profits cum low wages or family planning policies acquire pertinence only insofar as they adhere to this central relationship. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
Re: Mark Jones Still Among the living (was titled Wrong)
The pursuit of profits allocates resources to private as opposed to social needs. the debate should have occurred at a more adequate level, for it should not be between doomsdayers and techno optimist because both options are unrealistic. if the profit motive is to continue to allocate resources in the way it does there is at least ideologically more solid grounds for pessimists to stand on. oil for profits means at least for the time being a continuation of the ecological catastrophe in which we live. but in that I see also the ideological stance and I do not want to mix between theory and ideology or the timely ideas that serve my interest as a social class or underdeveloped nation coming under consistent attack because of oil or other raw material. on that score the scare mongering of mark Jones "oil is running out bit" does wonders to the cause.. as you may recall many said that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with oil and tried to minimise the relevance of oil.. oil is relevant and it runs out. that is why the mark-oil story was timely.. hubbert's new peak was timely for purely ideological reasons.. as to theory much of theory explains nothing as in the concept of 'mediation' but without that one has less than nothing. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 6/22/2004 6:18:36 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > I of course reserve the right to revise and adjust anything I write> and admit faulty thinking.>> Peace>> Melvin P.How about Mark?Can he do that?Sabri Reply I personally engaged Mark J. on every question I have written about when he was alive and was very vocal on the question of the question of the industrial bureaucracy. In fact he and some of his supporters call me a techno optimist . . . among other things. ' I am most certainly optimistic about technology and the material power of production in its evolution or I would still be a freaking slave. Human kindness did not drive the abolition of slavery . .. . according to Marx but a development in the technological regime or what in English is called the material power of production. When Mark was amongst the living I wrote that he misses the most fundamental issue in human society which is man as a metabolic process before means of production arise. Mark J. had his point of view. What I have written above is historically retrievable on Marxmail and the A-List. I really understand the presentation of the question and on one level it is absurd . . . With the techno optimists . . . meaning me . .. . advocating the construction of a perpetual motion that creates more energy that is used to construct it. This kind of response arise because the proponent somehow think that how we live is a more of less accurate reflection of human needs and then start screaming about sustainability, over population, riding bikes and other . . . independent ideas. I merely ask to unravel the origin of needs and here you will partially resolve the energy issue immediately. It is not a question of riding bikes and other not thought out ideas . . . but rather . . . where are you going in the first place? If you are going to work to reproduce the basis for you going to work, then perhaps this is worth looking at. The bourgeois does not make automobiles for transportation. They make automobiles for profits. Melvin P. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
Re: Mark Jones Still Wrong
Mark could not have been wrong. in some sense it amounts to a truism. oil runs out dont know how dont know when.? why it was important is because some argued that the invasion of iraq was not because of oil.. it was entirely and i think entirely is justified because of oil. oil is anywhere between 6 to 10 percent of world trade and that is not the important part.. the important part is that it is the principal energy source that underpins capitalist accumulation. and the value relation that allocates resources will do its utmost to draw profits out of oil at the expense of ordinary hard working folk.sartesian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From the WSJ of 16 June 04:OIL MAJORS REPLACE JUST 75% OF RESERVES PUMPED, STUDY SAYSLondon-Oil companies replaced only 75% of the reserves they pumped duringthe past few years, far below what Securities and Exchange Commission filingindicate, a report by Deutsche Bank AG says.SEC filings by oil major show companies increased their total oil reserves,replacing 116% of what they pumped during 20001-2003. But Deutsche Banksays those figures represent historic discoveries that companies bookedlater and don't reflect genuinely new finds.The report found oil majors increased their reserves at a rate 20% lowerthan during the 1990s, partly as a result of a cut of nearly a third inexploration budgets, as companies streamlined operations after a series ofmeasures. In additions, companiesfocused more on getting out the oil thathad already discovered.BP PLEC, meanwhile, said in its closely followed annual statistical reportthat world oil reserves, as of the end of 2003 are sufficient to supportcurrent global production levels of nearly 77 million barrels a day for thenext 41 years.Hmmm.replacement rates declining after draconian cuts in explorationbudgets due to fixed asset elimination due to "streamlining" operations dueto mergers... Hey I did NOT write the article. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we.
Swelling US trade deficit hits record high
It seems that there is record job creation because the job market became more fluid. Eliminating the contract elememt that stablises prices, allows markets to clear in chicago school language.. so policy makers clear the market by reducing welafre payments and making more flexible hiring and firing arrangements. but what about the persistent trade deficit as per the view belw.. should not a low dollar do something about that... 2. Swelling US trade deficit hits record high FT.com site, Jun 14, 2004By Christopher Swann in WashingtonThe US trade deficit widened to a record $48.3bn in April, putting a bigger drag on economic growth than expected and... Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
war is good for business question
To what extent is was good for business it so happens that the last few months were record job crating putting an end to jobless recovery and the outstanding bubles i.e. housing bubbles failed to burst.. consumption resumed and savings adjusted.. now the trade defcit is holding steadywith a low dollar but adjusting does this mean that the US has a capacity problem now. and it needs to go to war to stay ahead.. Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Re: screwing the hegemons
According to an arab intellectual who worked on the ground organising... 'the american appointed government is no more than funeral procession waiting to happen' Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Interesting public debate in the Security Council, with Zebari takingfull advantage of its attention, and other powers like China, France,Germany and Russia, enjoying keeping the hegemons waiting forapproval. Time is not on Bush's side. Everyone knows that.While saying that a specific deadline for withdrawal of troops wouldnot be helpful Zebari emphasised the wording of the resolution shouldbe strengthened to emphasise full sovereignty for Iraqis - whichsounds like encouragement for an amendment that the hegemonic troopswill leave whenever the Iraqis request it, rather than subject to aSecurity Council resolution which the US and UK could veto.The subtleties of inter-imperialist rivalry these days!Chris Burford Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Re: OPEC Has Already Turned to the Euro
I find it difficult to believe that there is a systematic component behind the exchange rate to oil price adjustment. the dollar was hanging by a thread for a very long time..Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Re: economic warfare spreads to Saudi Arabia
It is very difficult to distinguish between elements that have ties to a Zionist agenda that wants an apocalyptic environment so that the crisis in the state of Israel is diluted within a more chaotic sectarian in-fighting milieu or a clear Islamic working class movement that aims to retain resources in the arab region... it is difficult when political work is so clandestine to decipher the political geography... what one can read on the surface of things is that there is primarily a crisis of governance. calls for reform from the US have weakened Arab regimes and, secondly, combined with a deteriorating social conditions the stage for change is a forteriori over-determined. the way things can go is anywhere between complete chaos, recall that Jordan is a volcano with sixty percent of its population being Palestinian. or some state of pax Americana. the latter you can already write off because of Iraqi resistance.. resistance usually judging by south Lebanon becomes highly organized and effective with time. so the Iraq war my bring the end of the us unipolar system and when the US goes so will Zionism in Israel, a country shooting missiles into a densely populated refugee camp is really in deep crisis but this leaves Iran, turkey.. there the EU is playing turkey on the ropes and how much will Iran swing towards the US will determine what the US's share will be.. speculative as this may seem.. a gradual and calibrated dose of violence is good for the US but when things start getting out of control in the biggest oil basin.. the old imperialist rivalries are likely to resurface once more. Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
A reformist line on the causes of slow industrialisation in the arab world
A reformist line on the causes of slow industrialisation in the arab world In a static and absolute sense, the ARAB WORLD region is overpopulated. Relative to its huge wealth and underutilised capital resources, this region is not overpopulated. The reasons for this gap between available resources and the low rate resource utilisation go beyond a price mechanism that allocates resources. Even in the best of examples of laissez-faire markets, and these are many in the region on account of the nearly complete absence of effective capital or progressive income taxes, the market machinery on its own, as elsewhere, will not socially optimise resource allocation. Moreover, in this region a combination of socially unrelated fiscal controls and the absence of many of the political and judicial controls of the market, which allow it to act as a self-expanding social entity, make matters worse in the sense that the spill-over from private to social benefits becomes rather encumbered. In this region, small markets with low purchasing power conceived at birth in a way that allows their vertical integration into the global economy via the primary product channel dominate the landscape. Countries in the region continue to export primary products with little value added and import manufactured goods from the more developed economic formations. But more importantly, the very small market structure that is rent-based prohibits expansion towards regional neighbours. Already, there exists the fact that small in a globalising world represents in itself a disincentive for capital accumulation unless very specific differentiating roles are adopted in the international division of labour. But there are also other reasons that constrain regional industrialisation. Internally, the articulation or sharing of power and tribute between a rent appropriating or bazaar like class that hoards rent conjointly with the political elite displays little interest in relinquishing a social rapport that has so far worked well for its beneficiaries. Externally, economic expansion or cooperation between neighbouring regional markets would result in strengthening the economic and political position of an Arab conglomeration whose interest may run counter to an international security arrangement tacitly enshrined at the very inception of the regional nation state. Simply, a more integrated Arab market constitutes a potential for a more cohesive Arab regional position. Thus, irrespective of how prices or price ratios move to allocate resources, in the status quo of small markets saturated with capital and lacking labour, existing side by side next to an abundant labour and capital poor neighbouring market, so long as the acquisition of rent proceeds without much labour effort under the existing distributional conditions little will have to change. More importantly, the usual resource allocating mechanisms that may be based on social values will not ascertain themselves here and, subsequently, one regional market will invariably remain closed to the next because it may potentially throw out of balance an already existent indigenous articulation of social classes and an international security arrangement that is at the very foundation of the regional capital accumulation process. At the heart of this arrangement is the close bond that welds together the interest of the political and merchant elites. Hence, the relationship of the nation state with indigenous capital is not a matter of co-habitation; the state and capital are one and the same with little recourse to conflict of interest clauses or a system of checks and balances mediating differences between social classes. Although there emerges instances where regional industrial capital pushes through with minor reforms, a rent based social class that is strongly wedded to the political power apparatus sees little interest in intra-regional industrialisation. That is why reform in this region becomes an issue of the dominant social class turning against itself. Indeed, there is no record to date in which a rentier class undertook to redistribute assets with the aim of merging small regional markets in a common industrial project. It may be that at times a redistribution of wealth and income between international/national elites and the broad regional mass base are allowed, but if so, never to a degree at which regional integration allows for an indigenously driven type industrialisation cum accumulation process. Consequently and not surprisingly, the region may employ millions of extra-regional workers in the Gulf States; whilst millions of non-Gulf regional workers face the prospect of joblessness next door or, as it is the case recently, even at home. It is invariably the role of an effective demand component that should be ideally driven by additional productivity gains and rising wages that is being wittingly overlooked in the regional framework. However, the status quo as argued above
Re: End of oil
Back in 1991, heightened insecurity in the Arab region also resulted in short lived high oil prices. Pinning a projection on any price, save the oil price movement, is audacious at best. There are definite supply constraints, but these remain for the time being at least remotely related to the depleting nature of the resource and the possibility that hitting peak production lies in store. Many forecasts situate global oil production at or about peak circa 2006-2008. What goes unmentioned however is that these predictions are based on the present fine and cheaply extracted quality of oil and not lower quality oils as those in tar sands for instance? Hence, with that natural bottleneck discounted, it is the present supply policy conditions, including the politics of instability in oil producing regions and not the exhaustive nature of oil that are to blame. Presently, there is enough slack in capacity, at least before reaching refineries, to offset any fear of serious shortages. The power brokers behind prices are already at work cutting corners to lessen the cartel-oil companies oligarchic power and increase supply. Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 'End of Oil' Author Paul RobertsMay 6, 2004The demand for oil increases each year, but the supply is notinexhaustible. Experts predict that within 30 years our oil energysources will be depleted. In his book, The End of Oil: On the Edge of aPerilous New World, Roberts looks at the implications for the world interms of the economy, politics and the environment, and whatalternatives exist for oil. Roberts writes about the energy industry forHarper's magazine and for other national publications.Audio/interview with Roberts is at:http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1874931--The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
the ruler of Iraq at the moment is Mr Bremer
that makes bremer 1053 monarch of mesopotemia since milkart the assyrian Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General Interview with Al-Arabeya, taped with Lakhdar Brahimi in Baghdad and programme host in Dubai, via satellite, Sunday 23 May 2004 21:30 p.m. to be broadcast Monday 24 May 2004 19:00 GMT on From Iraq with Eli Nakouri Q2: who will have the authority to accept this government? LB: I think there should be consensus (tawafuk) between the GC, and the Administration of Mr. Bremer, because we must not forget my dear Sir, that Iraq is an occupied country, the ruler of Iraq at the moment is Mr Bremer, and their opinion is essential in this matter. However, as they have always re-iterated, they have confidence in the UN and they know the UN is an impartial body, with no interest other than the Iraqi people and assisting the Iraqi people to end this occupation, the legal aspects of this occupation, and then, eventually, to end it at the other level. Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Re: Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?
There is one thing i forgot to add and that is in a place where a tribe is 5 to 8000 years old and where lineage down to abraham times is taken as relaity rather than myth, anonymity is impossible. no one can colloborate with the occupation forces without a tremendous cost. so anyone who lives in the near east and especially iraq knows that the us invasion will sooner rather than later be doomed to failure... in the mean time in the process or in the becomingness of events in time and space, ie. anywhere between victory and failure, the us's capital will grow and near east population along with poor american soldiers will be paying a heavy price. this is a war of the rich against the poor and in view of the situation in iraq before the war it is the war of the richest against the poorest.soula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: the real area of interest of iran is not north in pakistan or south lebanon.. the real one is in the gulf where sunni arab moslems control commerce and rent appropriation by wedding a merchant class to despotic politics. the gulf is where the money is and to extract the money you need some politics. americans in iraq would have to deal with a majority shiite turning power to them underminig a whole history of sunni control over govenment and commerce in a major gulf country. a pro us shiite iraq is a dream come true for commercilaising mullahs and a nightmare for the sauds et al. thus, in the final analysis there will be more shiite merchants buying cheap on the international markets and selling dear to a bigger gulf market with a high purchaing power.. an arrangement that is at rock bottom reminisecnt of ventian trade or trade that does industrialise any of the countires of the region because the merchant holds power over industrial capital in the is post colonial formation. small countries with big armies and capital flight will persist in a pre capitalist form of despotic internal articulation where women don't drive and just get fat watching tv. as to an arab metaphor similar to goethe's from the koran: 'a word of truth that harbours mal intent' Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Why would Iran want more US bases next door?On Sun, May 23, 2004 at 04:22:19PM +, Mohammad Maljoo wrote:> <> goes to show that the real reasons behind the rise of the mullahs and the> iraqi iranian war was a resurrection of the farsi nationalism. A few meaningless words!Bazaar class? Farsi racism? resurrection of the> farsi nationalism? What are these at all? The mullahs in Iran are a> continuation of Arabian fundamentalism with other mask. The real reasons> behind the iraqi iranian war can be found in Saddam phenomenon rather than> the illusory resurrection of the farsi nationalism.>> MM>> _> STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail--Michael PerelmanEconomics DepartmentCalifornia State UniversityChico, CA 95929Tel. 530-898-5321E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Re: Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?
the real area of interest of iran is not north in pakistan or south lebanon.. the real one is in the gulf where sunni arab moslems control commerce and rent appropriation by wedding a merchant class to despotic politics. the gulf is where the money is and to extract the money you need some politics. americans in iraq would have to deal with a majority shiite turning power to them underminig a whole history of sunni control over govenment and commerce in a major gulf country. a pro us shiite iraq is a dream come true for commercilaising mullahs and a nightmare for the sauds et al. thus, in the final analysis there will be more shiite merchants buying cheap on the international markets and selling dear to a bigger gulf market with a high purchaing power.. an arrangement that is at rock bottom reminisecnt of ventian trade or trade that does industrialise any of the countires of the region because the merchant holds power over industrial capital in the is post colonial formation. small countries with big armies and capital flight will persist in a pre capitalist form of despotic internal articulation where women don't drive and just get fat watching tv. as to an arab metaphor similar to goethe's from the koran: 'a word of truth that harbours mal intent' Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Why would Iran want more US bases next door?On Sun, May 23, 2004 at 04:22:19PM +, Mohammad Maljoo wrote:> <> goes to show that the real reasons behind the rise of the mullahs and the> iraqi iranian war was a resurrection of the farsi nationalism. A few meaningless words!Bazaar class? Farsi racism? resurrection of the> farsi nationalism? What are these at all? The mullahs in Iran are a> continuation of Arabian fundamentalism with other mask. The real reasons> behind the iraqi iranian war can be found in Saddam phenomenon rather than> the illusory resurrection of the farsi nationalism.>> MM>> _> STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail--Michael PerelmanEconomics DepartmentCalifornia State UniversityChico, CA 95929Tel. 530-898-5321E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Do you Yahoo!?Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Re: Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?
What was forgotten in all this is that when saddam screamed mercy as he was losing the war in 1984, the Israelis moved in to support Iran (Iran-contra) and the Americans provided intelligence to Iraq. in one good analytical document that came out of Sweden the principal reason for turning against saddam later was the fact that he insisted on stopping the war.. the mullahs were so rigid that Khomeini replied stopping the war is similar to drinking poison. Iraq was never out of war since its inception as a weak and fabricated state in 1921... see M. Tarbush, ali alwardi etc... on the other hand, modern Iran is continuation of a medieval state. Iraq was at war continuously with Iran during the shah's regime. in both turkey and Iran a demonisation of the Semitic Arab was carried out as official propaganda at the state level. the Arabs turned out to be a people with many states and the Kurds a people without a state.. in both instances designed and implemented by the British with perfect foresight that instability will rein. and decisively so according to the international country risk guide the Arab near east is the region with the longest conflicts. "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: and didn't the US say to Saddam "let's you and him fight," encouraging Iran & Iraq to have a war? Jim D.-Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sun 5/23/2004 11:47 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?Why would Iran want more US bases next door?On Sun, May 23, 2004 at 04:22:19PM +, Mohammad Maljoo wrote:> < > goes to show that the real reasons behind the rise of the mullahs and the> iraqi iranian war was a resurrection of the farsi nationalism. A few meaningless words!“Bazaar class”? “Farsi racism”? “resurrection of the> farsi nationalism”? What are these at all? The mullahs in Iran are a> continuation of Arabian fundamentalism with other mask. “The real reasons> behind…the iraqi iranian war” can be found in Saddam phenomenon rather than> the illusory “resurrection of the farsi nationalism”.>> MM>> _> STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail--Michael PerelmanEconomics DepartmentCalifornia State UniversityChico, CA 95929Tel. 530-898-5321E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Do you Yahoo!?Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year
Re: Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?
No pejorative wording intended... capital vol 3 page 327: 'On the contrary wherever merchant's capital still predominates we find backward conditions.' that is the bazaar class. since the revolution there was no fundemental change in the forms and substance of social or economic relations that existed under the shah. the shah industrialisation project did undercut the interest of merchant capital. saddam was his own man and nobody's man...apart from conspiracy drivel, Islamic Iran kept intact the demeaning Algiers accord won by Iraqi Kurds for the shah. post hoc, is it not that the rise of Islamic Iran put an end to the Kurdish, loori, and balush and other independence movements. do not the Farsis still represent the elite at present.. was it not the case that a pro soviet Iraq surrounded for a long time Iran Saudi Arabia and turkey from all sides.. what theory of history pins historical development on an individual like saddam, can there be no structure in place to explain things outside the single individual will and volition. I hope I did not abuse your national feelings I have no national feelings myself, I hate all nationalisms equally including my own.Mohammad Maljoo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:>A few meaningless words!Bazaar class? Farsi racism? resurrection of thefarsi nationalism? What are these at all? The mullahs in Iran are acontinuation of Arabian fundamentalism with other mask. The real reasonsbehind the iraqi iranian war can be found in Saddam phenomenon rather thanthe illusory resurrection of the farsi nationalism.MM_STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail Do you Yahoo!?Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year
Re: Newsday: Iran wanted US to invade?
That is bazaar class, farsi racism and mini imperialist ambitions, which goes to show that the real reasons behind the rise of the mullahs and the iraqi iranian war was a resurrection of the farsi nationalism.Michael Pollak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [If this is true, I think I'm just going to through in the towel anddecide that covert intelligence is an oxymoron. Is there no country witha spy agency who can divine their own long-term interests? Are they allwilling to shipwreck their country just for the chance to say they madesomething happen? Maybe when another spook says you do good work it's asign you've lost your mind.]http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uschal0522,0,340595.story?coll=ny-top-span-headlinesMay 21, 2004NEW YORK NEWSDAYChalabi aide is suspected Iranian spyBY KNUT ROYCEWASHINGTON BUREAUMay 21, 2004, 7:29 PM EDTWASHINGTON -- The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that aU.S.-funded arm of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress has been usedfor years by Iranian intelligence to pass disinformation to the UnitedStates and to collect highly sensitive American secrets, according tointelligence sources."Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the United States throughChalabi by furnishing through his Information Collection Programinformation to provoke the United States into getting rid of SaddamHussein," said an intelligence source Friday who was briefed on theDefense Intelligence Agency's conclusions, which were based on a review ofthousands of internal documents.The Information Collection Program also "kept the Iranians informed aboutwhat we were doing" by passing classified U.S. documents and othersensitive information, he said. The program has received millions ofdollars from the U.S. government over several years.An administration official confirmed that "highly classified informationhad been provided [to the Iranians] through that channel."The Defense Department this week halted payment of $340,000 a month toChalabi's program. Chalabi had long been the favorite of the Pentagon'scivilian leadership. Intelligence sources say Chalabi himself has passedon sensitive U.S. intelligence to the Iranians.Patrick Lang, former director of the intelligence agency's Middle Eastbranch, said he had been told by colleagues in the intelligence communitythat Chalabi's U.S.-funded program to provide information about weapons ofmass destruction and insurgents was effectively an Iranian intelligenceoperation. "They [the Iranians] knew exactly what we were up to," he said.He described it as "one of the most sophisticated and successfulintelligence operations in history.""I'm a spook. I appreciate good work. This was good work," he said.An intelligence agency spokesman would not discuss questions about hisagency's internal conclusions about the alleged Iranian operation. But hesaid some of its information had been helpful to the U.S. "Some of theinformation was great, especially as it pertained to arresting high valuetargets and on force protection issues," he said. "And some of theinformation wasn't so great."At the center of the alleged Iranian intelligence operation, according toadministration officials and intelligence sources, is Aras Karim Habib, a47-year-old Shia Kurd who was named in an arrest warrant issued during araid on Chalabi's home and offices in Baghdad Thursday. He eluded arrest.Karim, who sometimes goes by the last name of Habib, is in charge of theinformation collection program.The intelligence source briefed on the Defense Intelligence Agency'sconclusions said that Karim's "fingerprints are all over it.""There was an ongoing intelligence relationship between Karim and theIranian Intelligence Ministry, all funded by the U.S. government,inadvertently," he said.The Iraqi National Congress has received about $40 million in U.S. fundsover the past four years, including $33 million from the State Departmentand $6 million from the Defense Intelligence Agency.In Baghdad after the war, Karim's operation was run out of the fourthfloor of a secure intelligence headquarters building, while theintelligence agency was on the floor above, according to an Iraqi sourcewho knows Karim well.The links between the INC and U.S. intelligence go back to at least 1992,when Karim was picked by Chalabi to run his security and militaryoperations.Indications that Iran, which fought a bloody war against Iraq during the1980s, was trying to lure the U.S. into action against Saddam Husseinappeared many years before the Bush administration decided in 2001 thatousting Hussein was a national priority.In 1995, for instance, Khidhir Hamza, who had once worked in Iraq'snuclear program and whose claims that Iraq had continued a massive bombprogram in the 1990s are now largely discredited, gave UN nuclearinspectors what appeared to be explosive documents about Iraq's program.Hamza, who fled Iraq in 1994, teamed up with Chalabi after his escape.The documents, which referred to results of experiments on e
Re: Iraq
last sentence corrected: do you consider the staete you are in as a sucesssoula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: something in line with this: Responding to a recommendation that progressive tax reforms should represent a first measure to expand fiscal public spending in a very poor and underdeveloped third world country, a government offical sitting behind his desk said that is socialist and as you know socialism failed. Although the person he was addressing would have to keep cool in situations like this, he answered and said do you the state you are in a success. that really pissed him off."Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: the pundits on US NPR and Public TV blather about the possibility of Iraq being a "failed state" if the US pulls out. But what is the "Coalition" Provisional Authority but a failed state?Jim Devine Do you Yahoo!?SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. Do you Yahoo!?SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price.
Re: Iraq
something in line with this: Responding to a recommendation that progressive tax reforms should represent a first measure to expand fiscal public spending in a very poor and underdeveloped third world country, a government offical sitting behind his desk said that is socialist and as you know socialism failed. Although the person he was addressing would have to keep cool in situations like this, he answered and said do you the state you are in a success. that really pissed him off."Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: the pundits on US NPR and Public TV blather about the possibility of Iraq being a "failed state" if the US pulls out. But what is the "Coalition" Provisional Authority but a failed state?Jim Devine Do you Yahoo!?SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price.
The WAIF
The Waif looking soldier is Lynndie England, according to the BBC comes from a dirt poor trailer park in west virginia where the army was the only way out of poverty. But is it not that S&M a thing which is exclusive to upper class aristocracy as in the marquis de sade, has something been done about the transfer of maral values from haves to have not. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: Can an imperial army die of shame?
What have they discovered that the state is a monolith under monoply capital.. it is so because there is a working class that calls itself a middle class, incidently it is ashamed of the working part, and that votes for the two party system regularly. the slodier is white trash or negro, he was never a voter, that was true in the nineteenth, twentieth and 21 century.Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Of course what will really decide how long the hegemonic forces darestay in Iraq are acts of armed confrontation like the folly of killing41 Iraqis in order to take the residence of the governor of Najaf fromthe forces of Al-Sadre, and the success rate of the ambushes on the USsupply convoys.But in the sense that what is decisive in war is often thedetermination and conviction of each side, an army could die of shame,at least being no longer able to function as an army.Last night the BBC showed a copy of the Washington Post front page ofa naked Iraqi being dragged along the floor by a waif like looking USfemale soldier and someone had written Lies on the glass casedisplaying the paper.Congress is going to have to get itself embroiled in looking at allthese photographs of powerful images of eroticised rituals ofdomination and humiliation that speak more than a thousand words -probably because before written words the human race had had to evolvepoweful conventions of domination and submission often experiencedthrough body language, sight and touch, to allow our fragile speciesto act as a collective. These images are therefore incrediblypowerful.So I turned once again to check out the mysterious, obscure,portentous, almost oracular perspectives of "Empire". Like others Ihave disquiet about the lack of reference in this book to workingclass and the lack of support for a united front against the US andits closest allies.But the opening paragraph of the final chapter seems to me somehowappropriate."Imperial power can no longer resolve the conflict of social forcesthrough mediatory schemata that displace the terms of conflict. Thesocial conflicts that constitute the political confront one anotherdirectly, without mediation of any sort. This is the essential noveltyof the imperial situation. Empire creates a greater potential forrevolution than did the modern regimes of power because it presentsus, alongside the machine of command, with an alternative: the set ofall the exploited and the subjugated, a multitude that is directlyopposed to Empire, with no mediation between them."Perhaps this is saying the only thing between a curious anduncomfortable imperial soldier and Congress, is his or her digitalcamera?Or have I misread the word "them"?Chris BurfordLondon Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Diversion worked
the recent apology by DUBYA is taking its toll on arab regimes that tortured and failed to apologise. there is american pie for you. Isn't it better to keep in place an apologetic torturer instead of an arab torturer that does it with impunity? valid questions that also sway arab public opinion from the real problem: occupation. two wrongs make a right. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: imperalist booty
there is the banana story, a pound earns the direct producer less than a dime and it sells for more than a dollar."Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [was: RE: [PEN-L] The new Iraqi Flag ( imperialist booty)]Doug writes:>I keep wanting to see some rigorous proof that the FirstWorld is rich primarily at the expense of the Third, which issomething I hear people assert pretty often.
Re: Iraq Communist Party statement on Atrocities at Abu Ghraib
Grant Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Soula:In answer to your question, no, I don't read Arabic. I wish I had theaptitude for languages of someone like Marx (a belated happy 186th to him)who -- not content with German, Greek, Latin, French, English andItalian --- was learning Turkish when he died."I do not think the occupation forces nor their cronies enjoy a lot ofsupport in Iraq. in old societies my friend anonymity is out of thequestion.. collaboration with the Americans here will not go away forcenturies.."We will see.We are seeing it now... we saw it south Lebanon.. we see it in Palestine, and we will see it elsewhere."the place is older than modern imperialism."On the contrary, "Iraq" is a creation of modern imperialism.it is indeed, but that there was 'bilad ma bain al nahrain' and that the daily conflicts in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon and the potential volcano of Jordan all attest to the failure of this creation called Iraq on daily basis and what matters is to prove the neocons and the Zionists wrong in the sense that you cannot beat the Arabs on the head without getting hit back because they are a 'lower race.'You said: "the class formation in 'peripheral capitalism developing insevere crisis'is a case of disarticulation wherein economic interests are never so wellformed within a class to break the old social bonds."I asked: What is a "class" without "well formed" economic interests?You answered: "that is easy enough: there is so much economic instability inthisdeveloping market that taking refuge in precapitalist social organisationalforms e.g. tribes etc is essential."Which forgets the fact that pre-capitalist classes often survive atransition to capitalism, utilising tribal links in support of their ownaccumulation. And that a modern proletariat -- compared to other Arabcountries --- is relatively well-developed in Iraq, thanks largely to thenationalist development schemes of the 1960s and 70s.After 25 years of sanctions and wars in which an estimated more than one million Iraqi died, more than 5% of the population, income was at 30$ a month for 12 years, can we say that there will be a cohesive working class that transcends the boundaries of old social bonds? well again now we have tribes and it seems the tribes have not been bought out yet. Agreed, the ICP would not be my chosen model for a communist party in thedeveloping word; it was as prone to theoretical blindness and tacticalerrors as any communist parties during the mid-20th Century. But there is nodoubt that they are well-organized and are probably capable of getting atleast 10% of the popular vote. I presume now the CIA will buy the votes for themIf I understand you correctly, the communists are a joke, the Iraqiislamists are incapable of wide support, and you admit that pan-arabism isvirtually dead. And I wouldn't bet my life savings on the Ba'ath!!! So whatdo you see as the dominant ideology in Iraq?I asked a similar question to a prominent Iraqi human rights activist, I said do you think that the present resistance could organize itself around a progressive social program? he said not soon.. let us wait for the phoenix out of the ashes."the biggest impedement to any arab cp truly becoming a mass party is itsinability to relate culturally to the marginalised and disposessed."Hmmm. In the first place, Arab CPs have enjoyed significant followings inthe past; second, they don't need to become a mass party in order to wieldthe balance of power; third, perhaps the marginalized and dispossessed inIraq will look at the many failures of Islamism and nationalism, and willdraw their own conclusions. we do not have to call it communism we need a secular anti imperialist democratic and socially progressive movement that allies all sections of the populations under national symbols that relate culturally to each and everyone call it whatever. you go into an Arab communist party office during the cold war and you see posters from the soviet union etc.. you see a clique of half-educated that consume pig and alcohol in a society where still the physical and the metaphysical go hand in hand..regards,Grant. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: Iraq Communist Party statement on Atrocities at Abu Ghraib
how do the communist live under the baathist? consider fir ins this syrian joke: when the syrian communist party was allowed an office, the sign on the door said 'the syrian CP, owned by the baath party" but on a more serious note the biggest impedement to any arab cp truly becoming a mass party is its inability to relate culturally to the marginalised and disposessed. Grant Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Michael said:> I don't disagree with you, but I cannot see why we should take this> group more seriously than Chalabi or other collaborators.We should take them more seriously because --- unlike Chalabi --- they arepeople who have lived in Iraq under Saddam, (something which no doubt hasinformed their attitudes to the ex-Ba'ath elements of the resistance) andthey therefore have a better understanding of the dynamics of Iraqi society,not to mention a much greater ability to generate popular support.Grant. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: Iraq Communist Party statement on Atrocities at Abu Ghraib
I usually do not respond to long discussions although I often want to because I am always pressed for time. it struck you said that you know something about the middle East I presume you probably read Arabic. Grant Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Soula said:"That is one Hakim down and probably another to go. that is no Shiiteopposition, You have got to also realize that there is a strongerPersia-Arab divide than what schism can pull together because the Iraniansin Iraq represented the aristocracy and if one were to read behind religioussymbolism or the class differences then the dispute within the shia clergyover 'wilayat al fakih' is indeed an Arab-Iranian divide.. that is why sadrwent it alone and that is why sadr's father also steered clear from iran."Don't worry, I'm somewhat familiar with Arab and Islamic politics. Historyshows that it doesn't take many insurgents to make an insurgency. So why arewe supposed to assume that Sadr represents anyone other than himself and his"vanguard"? Or that he is more significant than those explicitly opposed tothe "resistance"? Why is it that western liberals and leftists think theyknow better than the opposition parties in Iraq? That is rather a numerical question that leaps into a qualitative judgment. I do not think the occupation forces nor their cronies enjoy a lot of support in Iraq. in old societies my friend anonymity is out of the question.. collaboration with the Americans here will not go away for centuries.. the place is older than modern imperialism. let us not take sides, simply loving the Americans will not fly. and occupation is rather to gruesome not to push everyone to the brink quickly."the post colonial structures in the near east especially Iraq were tailormade to preserve minority interests"Do you mean political structures? A lot of us would say the same goes forall capitalist states. let us use social in the broad sense so as to encompass the political within that. but if so let us give the particular in nation or class formation some weight so as not to make an absolute out of a single historical project, european state building. I am sure the similarities are many but one straw will break the camel's back. would it not be too easy to put everything under the single roof of capitalism. just for adequacy in thought let us say that the way states were engineered in the southern ottoman provinces took note of these minorities."the class formation in 'peripheral capitalism developing in severe crisis'is a case of disarticulation wherein economic interests are never so wellformed within a class to break the old social bonds."What is a "class" without "well formed" economic interests? that is easy enough: there is so much economic instability in this developing market that taking refuge in precapitalist social organisational forms e.g. tribes etc is essential. "if you want to know how irrelevant are communist parties in the near eastjust read the proceedings of one their congresses to see how they paid moreattention to the SALT one and two than to the every day problems and cultureof the working class.How relevant did the Russian Bolsheviks seem in 1913? This "irrelevance"sits uneasily with the Ba'ath slaughtering and imprisoning communistswherever possible. here we are back to who is to blame.. you forget that communist allied themselves with Kassem first and did a nasty job on pan arabist there was a lot of tit for tat. "and yes Kurds Assyrians Christians Jews did enjoy a higher standard ofliving in Iraq because of ghettoism."I think this is a putting the cart before the horse: i.e. ghettoes, in myopinion, are designed to reduce the standard of a living of a cultural groupseen by ethnocentrists as "parasites" (or whatever) because "all of them"supposedly have a higher standard of living (not the reverse). let us not get stuck on the language, all that meant is that these groups formed a cohesive whole on the basis of ethnicity."...something they do not want to lose pan Arabism the latter being the realenemy of imperialism because of its closeness to the grassroots"Maybe. But which pan-Arabism? There have been many failed Arab nationalismsand my observation -- from talking to Arabs, from my formal studying of Arabhistory and from years of reading news stories --- is that nationalisms arenow far less tangible at the grassroots than the various Islamistideologies. For better or worse. Indeed that ended with the Nasser period in 1979.. and since then there was the Saudi period and decline. real gdp percapita growth of about negative two percent, negative productivity growth, lower wages, lower investment rates -now five percent below global average of 22 percent. worse conditions for women, and worse of all, communist allying themselves US marines.. but let me say that the fundamentalist project cannot fly in the Arab world because there it represents a schism with history ( arabs at the peak of their empire were not fundementalist) that it cannot
Re: Iraq Communist Party statement on Atrocities at Abu Ghraib
That is one Hakim down and probably another to go. that is no Shiite opposition, You have got to also realise that there is a stronger Persia-Arab divide than what shiism can pull together because the Iranians in Iraq represented the aristocracy and if one were to read behind religious symbolism or the class differences then the dispute within the shia clergy over 'wilayat al fakih' is indeed an Arab-Iranian divide.. that is why sadr went it alone and that is why sadr's father also steered clear from iran. the post colonial structures in the near east especially iraq were tailor made to preserve minority interests so that it would be impossible to develop a broad anti imperialist alliance. the class formation in 'peripheral capitalism developing in severe crisis' is a case of disarticulation wherein economic interests are never so well formed within a class to break the old social bonds. so it is no wonder that the Iraqi communist party was first to approve the partition of Palestine in stark contrast to broad Arab opinion. it immediately fell out favour. if you want to know how irrelevant are communist parties in the near east just read the proceedings of one their congresses to see how they paid more attention to the SALT one and two than to the every day problems and culture of the working class. disarticulation is social class formation in severe, very severe, crisis. and yes Kurds Assyrians Christians Jews did enjoy a higher standard of living in Iraq because of ghettoism. something they do not want to lose pan Arabism the latter being the real enemy of imperialism because of its closeness to the grassroots and because a bigger arab state is in itself the real danger. read to that effect the now disclosed state department notes on the unity between Syria and Egypt. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: Diversion
I do not doubt for a minute that the war is a manifestation of the crisis in the centre and the grab for supremacy in a global order. I do not doubt for a moment that history makes all and people will make history in a moment of glory as they please which means that people win and win decisively. but I also read further and read both sides of the matter. for the majority in the US the war is a win outcome. because when they fight with black and white trash a social order is revived in which middle class hood and hot showers persist in the state there in. so until the Iraqis and the third world wins an American will be eating his or her 6000 KCAL a day, and the Iraqis will lose another million or two of their children.. that is the pragmatic process.. do not look at the end it may appear bright, but it may take long in the making. that is why WAITING IS A CRIME. that is why the state is the _expression_ of political will and until the US working class is at the helm it is willingly or not a partner in crime. joanna bujes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: soula avramidis wrote:> The talk about torture is diverting opinion from occupation.. typical> Israeli tactic create new facts on the grounds to make old ones go> away.. western public opinion is mesmerized by torture because> essentially western working classes are benefiting to varying degrees> from the subordination of the third world and the increasing> differentiation in the international division of labour along national> lines.>I don't think so. The talk of torture -- which is understood to be thereality behind the lies -- is revealing the essentially uncivilizednature of the west to everyone. As for the working classesbenefitingHuh?> by the time the US and European Jews leave the near east they would> have left behind so much destruction and suffering and so little oil> for things to matter at all. the problem is not brutality, war in> itself is ultimate ugliness and brutality. the problem is the mixing> willy-nilly of second hand emotions and morality with events as they> occur daily under war offensive and occupation. the occupation of Iraq> was not a 'just war' nor will we see 'justice in war.' but in the> meantime the 'process' of global instability will make stronger the> American economy of dollars, guns and oil.>No, actually, it's revealing how weak and incompetent it is.Joanna Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: Iraq Communist Party statement on Atrocities at Abu Ghraib
There is now an effort from many communist parties to denounce the Iraqi communist party for collaborating with the US in the invasion. It seems that their collaboration purposely or not with the US and the CIA goes back to their vehement fight against the pan Arab project because the minorities represented inside the communist party feared losing class privileges inside their post colonial countires if and when diluted in the Arab whole. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Diversion
The talk about torture is diverting opinion from occupation.. typical Israeli tactic create new facts on the grounds to make old ones go away.. western public opinion is mesmerized by torture because essentially western working classes are benefiting to varying degrees from the subordination of the third world and the increasing differentiation in the international division of labour along national lines. by the time the US and European Jews leave the near east they would have left behind so much destruction and suffering and so little oil for things to matter at all. the problem is not brutality, war in itself is ultimate ugliness and brutality. the problem is the mixing willy-nilly of second hand emotions and morality with events as they occur daily under war offensive and occupation. the occupation of Iraq was not a 'just war' nor will we see 'justice in war.' but in the meantime the 'process' of global instability will make stronger the American economy of dollars, guns and oil. a pragmatic American process stemming from Peirce's where truth is that act which is sufficient in objective reality, no less no more, and where by implication a vision any vision or dream of a better world is casuistry or irrelevant at best. so here you have the efficiency of Hegels dialectic and the dark side of Nietzsche. Can the present philosophy of the US be any different from the hitlerite one, not only on account of killing the dream of a better future but also on the basis of the actual number of casualties the US and its Euro allies inflicted sine the second world war, I know it is not different for a fact, it may be from the point of view of those who suffer and know the culprit here and now that it is far worse. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
Re: Engels on US
It is the europeans with guns that the third world should worry more about in the long run. Do you Yahoo!?Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
US miltary shows comparative and absolute advantage
There is probably now more empirical evidence to suggest that it is Smithian absolute and not Ricardian comparative advantage that drives trade or the gains from trade. If so, then the US military industry represents the only section of capital that exhibits globally both comparative and absolute advantages. Now assuming further that a theory of war follows from the bottlenecks encountered by capital accumulation when expanding through market realization in the sense that overproduction and constant or lower variable capital (wage bill) fail to keep profits steady or simply because higher degrees of monopoly capital generate an excess surplus that is not realizable within national boundaries. Realizing the surplus therefore would entail that preferably peripheral capital be destroyed and that client regimes supervise the debt collection on excess surplus in the centre and for the centre. Would it not be that because the US military is now the only industry in which the US excels that the manufacturing of war and instability abroad is more likely and that: 1) the flight to the dollar and to the dollar zone becomes a more than likely outcome, 2) the dollarazation of many highly indebted countries something of a must, 3) the pricing of oil by the dollar and the continuation of the dollar as world currency in view of possible competition from the euro a matter of course, etc.. Add to that the role military spending in transferring US public into private assets at a faster rate. Etc. would that not make for a new theory of war or would it be just a question of degree in the sense there is nothing more to add to Lenin. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today
Re: Mark Jones was right
That was a piece on that list a while back... I have been folowing the oil issue here and there. I know that MJ use to have much to say on the topic. I have read articles pro and con of the forthcoming hubbert peak, in th end it appeared to me as the differences were more to do with the timing. ie 2006 2010 ETC. but what was certain the damn substance was running out or is to run out and substites are costlyHari Kumar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Soula: "Jones was not only right.. his little peace on the castration of Japanese capital was one good piece of Leninist analysis"Could someone give me a link to that please? Thx, HariDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th
Re: Mark Jones Was Right
That oil is a finite resource is not a question; I hope. because if we were to argue it is not, then that is a doosy per se. so what is the problem here, that oil will peak in 2006, 2010, or 2015 etc. is Hubbert's an imprecise forecast method. this is just like saying the bubble will burst but I do not know when give or take five years. so what next, that production will peak and that bringing in new capacity to past levels will cost more per unit of output. and that oil price and control is relevant since oil is a principal commodity in all production. it is precisely the point at which cheap oil production evaporates when alternative energy sources are too costly to smooth the transition from one mode of energy dependency to another in the process if you like of capital accumulation. it is not like as if we were going to wake up tomorrow and find that oil is gone. it is like when it becomes more expensive to draw oil out of the ground, going for control of high reserves of cheaply mined Arab oil (1 dollar per barrel) makes for a hell business, both in itself and insofar as you strangle others with it. that is why Iraq and the gulf where cost of production is cheap is the big prize for US bourgeoisie. that is why Mark Jones was not only right.. his little peace on the castration of Japanese capital was one good piece of Leninist analysis, but he like I fall into the trap of becoming natural scientist when we are not. the point is not about natural science however, it is about the process during decline. dmschanoes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Louis Proyect is wrong. The article he reproduces in no way proves Mark Jones was right. Mark Jones argued that the world had reached the end of its finite hydrocarbon reserves, particularly petroleum. The limit for Mr. Jones was natural, geological-- not economic. The NYT article concerns exactly economic limitations-- that horizontal drilling may not be the best, most efficient, cost reducing, output increasing technique in all circumstances. The difference between "natural" supply and proven reserves is economic not geological. Most of the scarcity theorists argue that a specific geological formation, defined chronological provided the origin and limits to petroleum formation. This pre-historic specificity is disputed by other geologists as the locations of petroleum reserves, the depths at which they are found, correspond to several different geological periods. There is another thing everyone should keep in mind before genuflecting before the altar of geology-- the two great US onshore fields, Spindletop and Texas East, where discovered and developed after geologists had stated unequivocally that no petroleum of significance would be found there. You can look it up. As the petroleum engineers at the M King Hubbert Institute at the Colorado School of Mines will tell you, potential recoverable reserves from Canadian shale and sands, and heavy oil from Venezuela exceed current proven, accessible, reserves by a factor of 10-- at least 10. There are significant obstacles to that recovery, but in the world of the market, the obstacles are financial-- not geological, not ecological (an economy that burns rain forests to graze cattle hardly gives a shit about ecological costs). You can look it up. Horizontal drilling itself has been used, in combination with other technologies, to extend the life of the North Sea fields, and the oil ultimately recoverd, and still recoverable, by some 10 years. Half the recoverable reserves still exist in the North Sea, despite the slowed decline in production, a decline that has actually been reversed in several North Sea fields. Petroleum majors are selling their platforms and rigs to smaller companies because the economics, the profits-- the mass of profits-- available from this production does not meet margin requirements.You can look it up. dmsDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th
Iraqi cities are being sieged and bombed
Here are some clippings from occupation watch on the gorunds... It seems to be awful Thanks again for your great help. I cordially appreciate it. Eman ps Falloja people sent a call to Kofi Annan and intel orgs, also doctors of Falloja sent a mesage asking for help bc people are dying from bleeding, they talk about lack of medicine and equipment to help the injured. Falloja is still under siege . Aljazeera said that families are evacuated from the town , only men are still there fighting. Tank and air bombing is still going on. There is no number of casualties all over Iraq, they are in hundreds . But fighting spred from Baghdad (Shula, Sadr, Adamiya) to Kerbala, Kufa, Najaf, Kut, Amara, Nasiria, Diwaniya, Basrah(south) Kerkuk(north) Ramadi(West). Lieven De Cauter <[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Eman, Do you have a telephonenumber where the press could reach you for an interview? (if phones still work). please tell us what we can do. Iraqi cities are being sieged and bombed by missiles and tanks. Sadr, Adamiya, Kufa, Falloja, Shula and others. Civilians are being killed. The high way to Falluja is closed. News from Falluja say that bodies are lying in the streets, no ambullances, no water, no electricity. Journalists are not allowed in, cameras are smashed. They say this will go on for days. pls help. EmanDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today
Re: Yassin assassination
In lefty and other lefty palestinian literature, zionism which has a broader scope than israel, is capable through israel still to inetervene where the the US and other imperialist find it diffcult to do in the third world. for instance its relationship to south africa during apartheid, to eritria in the horn of africa - a region of immense poverty and almost incessant wars where no would even dare sell weapons except the slimiest of lime, and you have the arming of certain nations in latin america like the weapons system of equador, and now the not so clandestine role of the mossad in iraq etc.. in a way they venture in places where the staright jacket imperialism does not dare to venture. the gentile in an empire are allowed a role and space only when they imperial goals.. it is the tables turn they are the first to go.. some people never learn.. joanna bujes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: soula avramidis wrote:> Zionist colonialism represents the ugliest face of modern imperialism,> far worse than apartheid south Africa. but in all it remains part and> parcel of the broader imperial agenda and its principal agent in the> middle east. killing yassin has two implications..>I got to the point, about a year ago, where I really can no longer speakor write about zionism -- I am too frightened and too disgusted and tooangry to be articulate.But I am curious as to why you say it is "the ugliest face of modernimperialism" -- other than the fact that it has a broader scope thanapartheid South Africa and two hundred more nuclear missiles, and theU.S. in its back pocket (for now)...??? I guess I'm asking is it worsebecause it's more dangerous? or worse for some ethical/moral reason?JoannaDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
Re: Yassin assassination
Zionist colonialism represents the ugliest face of modern imperialism, far worse than apartheid south Africa. but in all it remains part and parcel of the broader imperial agenda and its principal agent in the middle east. killing yassin has two implications.. 1 it shows that Israel partly draws its power from the fact that Arab peoples are subjugated subjects as opposed to rightful citizens.. i.e. its power stems in great part from the despotism of Arab regimes and their ability to contain their own population; this in turn pushes the line that dubya can make Syria his next target and later Iran in a multiple theatre warfare approach not fearing any spillover of the conflict. beneath all this the Zionist have a racist current in the sense that Arabs are incapable of fighting, also something that was instilled in Zionist ethos as a result of successive easy victories. to this also you can add that the Zionist neocons alliance will stone wall international law completely so for the imperial project it also means a victory over the US rivals in Europe and Asia. 2.. targeting Moslem leadership also heightens support for the fundamentalist, Islamizes the character of Arab struggle and adds to the argument cum raison d'etre for the existence of religious states (Israel) in the near east israel might say since everyone else is some religious fanatic we can now be that as well. historically an area of relatively high religious tolerance, the class fault lines are being drawn more and more along sectarian lines.. for the struggle against imperialism the fatalist nature of the islamist political agenda and the reactionary social agenda go hand in hand to becoming an instrument that will yet once more put all rounded development in the Arab world on the downside course. containing the spillover from popular Arab sentiment will be partially determined by the reaction of the Syrian regime. if it allows more civil liberties and harnesses progressive forces to its side this time, then the neocons/Zionist strategy will fail miserably. but what is of concern is the hypothesis held in Israel about the Syrian regime and that is: the Alawite minority in power will act in accordance with its narrow class interests/gains from wielding political power on the inside rather than follow a more universal anti imperialist line. in the past the Syrian regime nearly always conceded to the Americans, but this time, there are external forces with an interest in bringing things to a boil.. Iran, Europe, china, Russia, probably but a more detailed geostrtegic positioning is needed in this case. I think no one wants a unilateral aggressive approach.. will Damascus a city of 3-4 million 29 km away from mount hermon hold its grounds. I fear not.. after years of repression it may be too late to introduce democratic reforms without the vendettas taking over.. but I may be wrong.. in either case things have gone to the dogs with the war on Iraq for some time to come but victory for the arab people- a sad legacy of the divide and rule startegy of the colonial age- will surely come however at a very high cost.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
Re: human capital again
It seems interest in human capital, which arose of late, has to do with ineptitude of capital and labor on their own to support empirically any growth path without receding because of diminishing returns (cobb Douglas type as of growth was a purely mechanical asocial process). So add an exponentially increasing variable (some concocted index out of health and education) and one is likely to get a better picture of growth in fallacious econometrics that hans ehrbar knows more about. but that to me seems like a dissections approach or crude empiricism supported by cook book algebra something that I was good at in the thirties. I think that any one who is good in math can write a story in mathematical symbols to suit his or her tastes. but that is a reconstruction of reality from parts done in an ad hoc fashion and without a consistent thought structure that develops from within conforming the laws of logic to history and gradually extending itself onto more concrete and real things. When Myrdal and others talked about human capital initially, I think it was done with the aim of equalizing/launching growth for developing countries that were resource poor and needed to find other sources of income, or may be to offset the brain drain problem by making more brains. A brainless attempt in part for the division of labour is dynamic on the both sides. So before the intra country class issues emerged, human capital was an international division of labour issue or bridging-gap medium. even now, the world bank pushes an agenda of education and building human capital but gets the sequence wrong. people are poorly educated because they are poor first and then their lack of education may add to their poverty. the world bank and the IMF want to blame poverty on poor education without putting things in a historical or class context. Also empirically many countries invest in education and remain poor .. I think the complexity of the issue arises on methodological grounds in the sense that Marxian method distinguishes economic categories as instances of capital which is first a social relationship from which the differentiation to organic, constant and variable capital descend. Skill and human capacity leading to variations in ability to labor or variances and derivatives of concrete labor are context or class determined including as an example life expectancy. the problem is not to project the individual on the whole because in dialectics the missing medium is the particular that mediates individual instances through struggle or a process of change into the whole or general. For a definition of marxian categories see ilyenkov.. because here individual particular and general are philosophical categories. the juxtaposition of abstract universal categories to make a case leads to a poor argument that can be easily formally refuted. i.e. one wrong example brings down the whole edifice of a purely mental construct and that is not how in actuality things develop. there are tendencies that build or lose momentum because of agents of change. human capital is a purely logical category but in reality it is neither human no capital it is an analytical simplification made use of in one sided half baked economic policy frameworks. making a long polemic a very short one is prone to be a mistake paul phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Michael,The fact that human capital is tracked by class is not really rellevant. Does one tract physical capital by class? Does a backhoe owned by a working class person have less value than the backhoe owned by GW Bush? Only because of the social status heaped upon BW Bush by his birth/pedigree/wealth. But that is a false valuation. The backhoe in the hands of a qualified worker is worth much more than a backhoe in the hands of an incompetent GWB. So much the same with human capital. I came from a working-class family who had the goals of educating all their children to escape from being working class, not because they were anti-working class (they were all radical socialists, union activists, political activists) but because they saw that the only way we were to escape being wage-slaves was to become educated (i.e. accumulate human capital) that would not only alow us an element of independence, but also to get "a return to our investment" in education. George Bush did not get a return to education (human capital) but to the power of priviledge -- i.e. to a monopoly of power. What you are in effect saying is that GWB got where he did because he worked harder (i.e. his return was greater than those who had equal human capital.) This, I would suggest is crap.Paul Michael Perelman wrote: Paul, I don't think that "human capital" is a particularly useful concept. In the US, student are tracked according to class -- although it is not official. Even in the absence of tracking, poor students go to poor schools. So a GW Bush can go and get a Harvard MBA as evidence of human
Re: Interview with scholar Bertell Ollman
I was sitting with a high ranking official in an airport lounge in a developing country with a high rate of abject poverty, and the guy said after some baiting: "look at russia, you know socialism is a failure" and for once i could not hold back and i said do you consider capitalism in your country to be a success. he was very offended. and ended the conversation.Joel Wendland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/108/1/28/PA: What was your motivation for writing the book How to Take an Exam...andRemake the World?BO: I am very much the teacher, which means that Im always looking for newways to present my ideas in a clear and convincing manner. Also, along withother radicals, Ive long been bothered by the fact that too few people comelooking for radical teachers or ideas. We need to do more to attract them.In this book, I give students a lot of tips that will help them on exams hoping in this way to satisfy a strongly felt need but I exact somethingin turn. That something is that they also listen to my simple explanation ofwhat capitalism is, how it works, for whom it works better, for whom worse,how it originated and where it seems to be heading. The humor is there tomake the whole thing more fun, and therefore, more attractive than suchaccounts usually are.PA: How do you compare teachers and students on the left today to those ofthe past?BO: Ive lived through many different periods. My first politicalexperiences were in the mid-fifties at the University of Wisconsin. Therewas little interest in socialist ideas at the time. That changed, and veryquickly, in the 1960s. During most of the 1960s, however, I was out of thecountry - in England, Jamaica and France. When I came back in 1967, much tomy delight, I found many thousands of radicals, of all sorts, throughout theacademy. This bullish situation peaked by the early 1970s. Since then wehave been through several dips and rises, as a result of developments in theworld beyond the university. Since the late 1990s, there has been a verysharp rise, so that today we find almost as much interest in radical ideasof one sort or another (though not - maybe I should say not yet of oursort) as there was in the l960s. Im speaking of students here, and not offaculty, who remain on the whole a pretty moderate if not conservative lot.Oddly enough, Ive been in a position to track some of these changes througha course called Socialist Theory that I have been giving at NYU for thelast 35 years. Its an elective, so students take the course because theywant to learn more about socialism. The number who sign up for it has varieda lot but always in strict alignment with what is happening elsewhere, atother universities, in the country and in the world. Readers of this journalwill be interested to learn, then, that in the last few years the enrollmentin this course has been higher, far higher, than it was even in the late1960s.PA: In the late 1970s there was a controversy between you and the Universityof Maryland. The question of academic freedom came up in this battle, whichyou describe in your recently republished autobiography, Ballbuster?_Get tax tips, tools and access to IRS forms all in one place at MSN Money!http://moneycentral.msn.com/tax/home.aspDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
Re: Music 30-35,000 years ago
sometime ago i bought a CD from the damascus museum that is a take on the earliest recorded musical notes found on clay tablets near tell marry between syria and iraq.. it was ninawa, and it seems to have been palyed by berkely students in california. sepaking of syria, possibly the next war theatre in the near east, there was a kurd revolt in northern syria in which many were killed two days ago and the situation is very tense. noethern syria is closely linked to the american bases in iraqi kurdistan... Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At the risk of being boringly serious, I think you are almostcertainly right that music and dance much predate -30,000 years.It is just that the earliest relics date from that time. Flutes anddrums would of course not survive.It sounds right to me that music would be associated with speech whichis at least 200,000 years ago. The argument is that language, musicand dance evolved at first, perhaps from 2 million years ago first asa way of sharing social information within larger groups of hominidsrather than as symbolic language conveying factual information.The alternative hypothesis is that music of any systematic sort wasassociated with the cultural revolution of -30,000 years ago. There islittle evidence that Neanderthals shared in this cultural revolutionand indeed were soon extinct.The role of modern music in binding a new global population togetheris another but related question.RegardsChris- Original Message -From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 11:04 PMSubject: Re: [PEN-L] Music 30-35,000 years ago> > BBC World service this week featured a programme about drumsquoting a> > Paul Barnes saying that the earliest evidence for human musicmaking> > goes back 30-35 thousand years ago>> Well you shouldn't believe just any sort of sexed-up English story,you> know. There's the serious side of the BBC and then there's thepuberal side> of it, as anyone knows, that's "market forces". Neanderthals werealready> making music, i.e. probably twice as early as Barnes suggests.> Anthropologically, the origin of language and music are very muchrelated in> human culture. Cognitively music and math are also closely related.A much> better, thoughtprovoking site to consult (if you get bored withdumbdown> culture) might be:>> http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1983/v40-3-criticscorner1.htm>> Personally I am mostly just concerned with a few pop tunes at themoment,> not profound musicological interests (although I have always takenmy pop> music very seriously; it's just that if music just becomes degradedto> functional suck-and-fuck, or a mere sign, well then one just has toreframe> music in a different way, for an interesting, enjoyable or creativeeffect).> There is a lot of interesting literature on the use of music inworkplaces,> wars, and so on, i.e. the uses (and abuses) of music in politics,economics> and "regimes of accumulation" (if I may use that awful term for wantof a> better word). But that sort of thing is far removed from theNeantherthal> phase of musical enjoyment of course. What kind of tonalities areactually> conducive to social amelioration in this crumbling postmodernistculture we> live in ? It's an interesting question I think, although some idiotwould> probably trivialise and banalise that also.>> Jurriaan>Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
Re: Will the oil run out ? Reflections from a layman
I wanted to add that water matters for the poor but not to the rich. Water is drying for the poor, it has been and will continue to get further polluted and dry. but that will not hit profits it might deccrease the work force by somke brazen law of wages. but that alas happens for many other reasons. So this note is not to jim it is for michael because i agree with the note given that extraction costs in the gulf are the lowest. "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: more important is oil profits. Large volume can easily be cancelled out by high costs.Jim D-Original Message- From: "Chris Doss" [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon 3/15/2004 4:26 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Will the oil run out ? Reflections from a laymanYeah. No. 2 exporter though. All Russian oil profits are from exports.>> The largest average daily producer, but not the largest proven reserves> and not the largest exporter.>> Michael>Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
Re: Will the oil run out ? Reflections from a layman
Proven reserves is the catch phrase, The Gulf and Iraq have the highest so far. But let me make myself clear. In managing the decline it needs to control more oil. I do not think that the depletion story is scaremongering... especially when seen with the optic of the international division of labour. it is not an issue of rasing company profits once, surplus drain involves ultraexploitation hidden behind the price fettish Jurriaan Bendien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I didn't catch the earlier part of this thread, but what scale are wetalking here? The world's largest oil producer is Russia.World scale. I get back to you about this later. I got my times mixed up andcame to early this morning for my appointment, tut tut. Got to go now,J.-Original Message-From: Jurriaan Bendien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:41:45 +0100Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Will the oil run out ? Reflections from a layman> 1) On the global level, the U.S. wields control over the oil wells forsome time to come and this would place it in a better competitive positionvis-à-vis partners in the Western World.>> But is that really true ? My understanding is that the US controls SOME ofthe oil resource but not ALL of the oil resource.>> Jurriaan>>>Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
Re: Will the oil run out ? Reflections from a layman
The state is the guarantor of capital. corporate America may think in the short term but when greenspan reports to congress on energy he uses the words long term average costs and security. that oil will run out is inevitable. by now we have probably mined the whole weight of the earth in some estimates. but oil will not run out suddenly, it reaches a peak and then declines slowly. that is the issue .I think. It is how to manage the transition during the decline. water on the other hand if it dries up it dries up for the poor not the rich and in today's value scale it does not matter. World oil demand is on the rise (anywhere between 1.5 and 2 percent on average every year). Assuming the US is moving from influence to control over oil as the recent occupation of Iraq points to. What happens? 1) On the global level, the U.S. wields control over the oil wells for some time to come and this would place it in a better competitive position vis-à-vis partners in the Western World. 2) The outstanding distribution of resources between the oil producing region and the oil multinational sector would have to shift in favor of the latter. This last point would indeed represent a rolling back of oil nationalization into privatization and/or a change in oil rent distribution in the disfavor of the oil producing countries.*** Viewed in its totality, the oil dollar nexus and, in particular, the dollar priced barrel facet of modern accumulation represents a necessary mediation of the receding economic power of the U.S. The U.S. is no longer the global competitive economic force it used to be. Its chronic trade deficit, as large as 500 billion dollars a year, has recently incorporated a declining competitiveness in the areas where the US has been a leader such as the high-tech industries. Many argue that its global economic supremacy has to be guaranteed via its political military weight where one relevant manifestation of which remains that of pricing the oil by the dollar and, subsequently, by calibrating the level it infuses stability or instability in the Near East, at least, to a degree to which it assures itself the circular flow of petrodollars for T-bills or weapons. The oil/dollar connection is but one of the concrete but central manifestations of the failure in the application of an unrestrained market mechanism to global development. Reversing the trend implies resorting to a path of equitable global development. It is evident that a combination of low oil prices with peace is much preferred to a combination of high oil prices with war. ***Denationalization alone may not be sufficient, there might also need be a redistribution of rent in favor of oil multinationals even in Arab states where supposedly pliant or malleable regimes preside e.g. Saudi. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
Re: unctad:Africa caught in a story of subsidies and trade
An observation from a UN expert visiting the Western Sudanese city of Darfour near the Libyan border: "Darfour is a city that has only half a mile of paved roads with hundreds of cows roaming the streets. The surrounding region has developed a culture for cow herding that goes back to ages. On the streets of Darfour one sees NESTLE's powdered milk offered for sale at dirt cheap prices. Why? Milk is subsidised in Europe, bought as powdered milk by Libya and resubsidized in Libya to the benefit of the Libyan consumer, smuggled across the border to Sudan where border controls are nearly absent and sold so cheap or cheaper than fresh Sudanese milk on the Darfour market." a story of subsidies and trade Eubulides <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [aren't all of us caught in a commodity trap?]Full @ :http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=4463&intItemID=1634&lang=1The majority of African countries are boxed into a trading structure that subjects them to secularterms-of-trade losses and volatile foreign exchange earnings, according to a new UNCTAD report,Economic Development in Africa: Trade Performance and Commodity Dependence (1), released today. Thisposition severely encumbers effective macroeconomic management and stunts capital formation,hampering efforts to diversify into more productive activities and adding to the debt overhang. As aresult, and despite years under structural adjustment programmes, much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)has remained commodity-dependent. And, as was exposed in Cancún with the cotton case, huge Northernsubsidies have contributed "in no small measure to undermining the efforts of some African countriesto tackle poverty". The Report calls for a three-pronged response to easing the short-run burden ofcommodity dependence and facilitating longer-run structural changes, by combining measures tostrengthen domestic institutional capacities with more balanced international trading arrangementsand more generous and innovative international financing schemes. [snip Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail
Western intervention in Iraq byTWN Yoshie's post
rajamoorty please The Iraqi communist party like most Mashreqian parties failed to hook up to the cultural fabric of the region because its constituency was principally Christian and Jewish with western affiliation and anti pan Arabist in their material base and sentiment. that is why they stood with kassem against Nasser, and that is why they kowtowed the soviet line blindly. in particular the Iraqi communist party recognized the partition of Palestine a fact that simply meant that at least, on a popular level, it was out of favor. the Iraqi cp was the least grass root party when the pan arabist tide was on the rise. If anything is known about saddam's regime is that it repressed everyone equally. the sunni/Shiite division in Iraq is an image that the American Israeli bourgeoisie would like to push to exonerate themselves of the divide and rule theme or the civil war they are now fomenting by building a Kurdish and a Shiite militia. this will justify continued occupation, continued tensions, continued flows into the dollar and continued blackmail of other OECD partners by the US elite. by the time the occupation ends with withdrawal as usual, the US ruling circle looses it has had userped huge asstes from the rest of the world. what matter is the process not some stagist thing in which people win in the end it is how people win and consolidate victory in relation to the international fight against imperialism that counts. the Nasser pan Arabism project was more dangerous to the US at the time than kassem's regime. remember this is a time when united Arab republic (unity between Syria and Egypt plus massive nationalization and agrarian reform) was born in 1958 . Nasser's project presented a much bigger threat to the American bourgeoisie. the idea that the CIA backed a pro Nasserite regime because they were worried that communist might take over in Iraq is loosely founded at best. Hanna batatu's analysis is devoid of class tensions and he sees a bigger threat in pan arabism than anything else. another example of someone from outside the arab world writing a charicature in arab history. Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing
Re: In Germany, Marx comes third, outdone by Martin Luther and Konrad Adenauer
K"onrad Adenauer, the first post-war West german leader has been chosen by TVwatchers as the "greatest German" in the ZDF-show called Unsere Besten. When3,2 million Germans voted in the finals, he beat Martin Luther (second) andKarl Marx (third)." All the more credence to the theory that a EURODISNEY in Berlin would never go bankrupt and will make lots of money all the time. Come to think of it I saw many Germans at EURODISNEY when I visited. Had to: pressure from the kids; the youngest 9 years said: mom i am sorry that i fall into the trap they set for kids in these tv commercials and then I make you buy things for me that i do not really need... i think they take your money that way. Then again 50 or 80 million germans can be wrong time and again, ain'it? Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
Re: USA appears to have lost the Iraq war
"The best they can hope for is that some sort of capitalist economicstructures will continue to be able to colonize Iraq aided by the work ofcondescending saviours. The worst could be far worse than Somalia." Iraq WITH SECOND OR FIRST OIL Reserves will not be allowed to go the way of Somalia, which has bananas and goats, nor can it be held together now without a brutal dictatorship. pragmatic capitalism works if the stakes are small and the gains are short termish, but it lacks vision and scope when it comes to big game or to predicates underpinning its survival. a near east process underwritten by violence or the potential for the outbreak of violence may have worked when oil was plenty and Israel injected the necessary dose of regional insecurity that siphoned Arab surplus, etc. but now oil will be scarce and too much instability will transgress and breed the opposite result for capital. the oecd cannot tolerate the US militarism of the past. the system altogether stands to lose. Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard
Re: USA appears to have lost the Iraq war
I was also one of those who said that the war was not over in a televised victory, it had just begun. I also said something like a chinese slogan from my past:people united win. And I have heard it from human rights activist in the area that saddam's regime record on human rights was deplorable, but he was no worst than others around him, and that in certain quarters he enjoyed substantial support. all in all he could not compare to the record of the British who gassed Iraqis in the past, created a division of the Arab nation that was catastrophic and bread tremendous pain and conflict, allowed western European Jews to settle in the place of evicted Palestinians; or the US that continued to support Arab dictatorships and Israel that kill and torture by all means. I do not want to sound prophetic, but I will risk it anecdotally once more. American soldiers on the grounds in the Arab world are a dream come true for would be Arab martyrs. May I add, that economic and social conditions in the Arab world have been steadily worsening over the past twenty years, Saudis average GDP per caput dropped from 18000 to 7000 US$, and the kingdom now has about twenty percent living below the poverty line. the Arab region has the lowest global rate of GDP growth percapita and the highest rate of young entrants into the labour market. official unemployment stands at about 16 percent and unofficial estimates are three times that figure. about 55% OF ARABS LIVE BELOW 2 DOLLARS A DAY. So when one considers that arabic culture has a better relationship with death as opposed to life, then meeting god in the struggle for independence is a glorious form of suicide. Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard
Re: Interview with Karl Marx
Why would I disagree with that,... what I disagree with is the notion that he is simply bigger than bentham, spencer or jevons. it is not a question of magnitude he simply does not fit with the rest of them and should be treated like that out of respect for the man. the minute we become selective about his thought in order to justify half hearted reform he seizes to be a working class theorist. in a real interview he warned against that. then again in the fictitious interview it appears that the United states is the only truly working class country because they fast food and wear jeans. now that is an absurd travesty if there was any. the minfestation of macdonalds determines the degree of adherence to working class identity. the logic of the man speaking in that interview spews with pan nationalist euro centrism, a sad reflection for a universalistic philosopher. the level of political responsibility is inversely related class hatred. the more the working class hates its oppressor the more it mythologizes the class struggles, adheres to nihilist beliefs, and acts accordingly. if it was social being that determines consciousness than western intellectuals should be very careful in the way they speak even if they consider themselves on the left, Marxist or what have you. the very structure of the language is telling as you know. that structure of the language in the said interview can prejudice someone from the third world, where hate is plenty. Kenneth Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hey! soula avramidis!>a young man ran towards the old marx all joy and zeal>wanting to join the cause; marx simply told him to>bugger off. he was nice but not naive.That sounds heartbreaking. I'm sorry to hear it.If you, personally, have to believe that Karl Marx was about the "ironrule of the working class" as a fixed principle, power to ya. We allneed to have core ideas to continue our own lives (on our internallevel), and if taking that idea you have there, and giving it a bushybeard and giving it a first name "Karl" -- if that is what helps you getthrough the night, fine by me.Karl Marx (the human being, which is the main focus of the article thatstarted this thread) was not an ideologue, he lived in a human body, hehad a father and mother who expected him to be certain things, he livedin London after being chased outta the continent, he had rivals on theplain upon which he vigorously competed, he had kids and some died (Icannot comprehend living in such a time of high infant mortality, andwhat it does to one), he apparently fucked around, he worked very hardat what he did, and he had friends who loved him very dearly unto death.But you know... even if Karl Marx had not been born... we'd still havesomething like "Marxism." Just a different name.As Michael P once put it to me, "Karl just nudged history along."History was happening with or without that kid born on the Rhine (whonow apparently attends all "American Social Science History Association"conferences as a ghost).Ken.--You know how they make kosher meat?They make the animal feel so guilty, it dies.-- Elayne Boosler Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears
Re: Interview with Karl Marx
a young man ran towards the old marx all joy and zeal wanting to join the cause; marx simply told him to bugger off. he was nice but not naive. he was not a racist. the only way forward is the rule iron rule of the working class, capitalism was born with blood and fire and it will go down that way. sorry guys you have got fight, it takes guts, and at times you have to be brutal. the principal thing in marx's thought is the oxymoron in transient evolving form or then one asks where is the dance of the dialectic. but the key point is not to incorporate into western thought under some heading in the history of economic thought. if marx was not a marxist then it matters little in what shape or form humanity proceeds forwards under whatever ideological guise that organises man and nature in the ovens of the class struggle. the faster history spins the faster we get there.Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Kenneth Campbell wrote:>>> Karl _was_ tame, polite and reasonable in interview and personal> interaction.>> He spoke to the "other side" in a conversation -- didn't sit there> delivering monologues. Quite human.>Not true, or wholly true, from various accounts I have read. It would betrue, however, of Eleanor Marx. See Yvonne Kapp's wonderful biography ofEleanor. Karl was not very friendly to his illegitimate son. Eleanor,meeting Helmut after her father's death, tried to make up for that asbest she could.Carrol Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears
Re: Interview with Karl Marx
this Karl Marx is tame, domesticated and suitable for a western audience so much so that he could be in few years a candidate for the pentagon cabal. i like the way he demeaned Slavs; there was a definite flirt with the third Reich there. that democratic centralism and Hegel are simple anomalies unrelated to his thought is rather strange. what is really dangerous is when Marx ceases to be the nemesis of western culture and thought. attempts to bring him into mainstream simply like any other well meaning saint whose thoughts could not be practiced is the ultimate idealist trap. Marx is alive in the struggle that will bring down imperialism and will never be incorporated willy nilly into classical zestern thought. the very thought is appaulling Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears
Re: Michael's question: Iraq
For a people repressed for years by sanctions, air bombings and remote control wars, seeing soldiers on the grounds is a dream come true. In that sense Iraq is a new Mecca for nationalist, ultra leftist and fundamentalist alike. It is true that 95% of the resistance is local, but it is going to be difficult shutting off the borders all around with the contending parties for the big prize. the money earmarked for reconstruction will be swindled as it was and more of it will go for security spending rather than development. there will be resistance at all costs. Somalisation or Afghanisation not likely in the sense that there will not be a Sunni-Shiite split. that has not occurred yet and it will not. Iraq unlike Somalia and Afghanistan was the first full fledged independent state in the near east. also the cultural fabric of the region cannot tolerate such a split on a large scale add to that Iran (Shiite) which is being driven into the corner by the arrogant usa. so in the discrete wit of the US bourgeoisie that now appears to win and take everything in stride (things going its way) because it is at the helm of history, it is doing things that are also corrosive and eroding its very existence. there is now a process by which resources (oil and dollars) will fly out of the near east and the dollar denominated barrel will last for a while. development also will be set back for years. that is the true victory of the US. they know it. on the down side however, there is resistance and contention from rival international forces that simply will say that the Bush-Sharon doctrine of dead Arab people unable to resist will go down the drain. the point is how to re-engineer the region through struggle so as not to force the US hand into a multilateral approach allowing for a new version of ultra imperialism. The US should be in it alone to take the final loss since it also opted for a unilateral approach. Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Paul's response was very informative. I wonder if the Madrid conferencedid anything to increase the respectability of the war. I read that thesocialists just lost in Madrid, supposedly in part because the UN votegave legitimacy to the Spanish action Iraq.-- Michael PerelmanEconomics DepartmentCalifornia State UniversityChico, CA 95929Tel. 530-898-5321E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears
Re: productivity growth as a mixed bag
Do the dollars really go back to the US and buy US products or do they stay outside in waiting? Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
IRAQI GYPSIES!
2003/10/15 http://www.alquds.co.uk/index.asp?fname=2003\10\10-15\mm51.htm&storytitle=ffÇáÛÌÑ%20íÊÍÓÑæä%20Úáí%20ÇíÇã%20ÕÏÇãfff Today in Alquds newspaper, it was reported that gypsies in their present state of degradation. Hunger and starvation to which they were driven as a result of occupation and a resurfacing of old type discrimination in an absolute "want society" have condemned them to abject misery and they lament the departure of the dictator. They are dispersed; kids are dying for lack of water and food etc, no windows and doors for the winter. I cannot imagine how the poor in a very poor country live, life expectancy must around 33 years. Probably that is why for some the "iron bowl of rice" is truer today than ever before."Also thousands demonstate against repression in Saudi Arabia Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
UNCTAD-TRADE & DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=4078&intItemID=2505&lang=1&mode=highlights The Report analyses the troubled state of the world economy and asks some key questions: Do recent signs of recovery suggest the United States has now thrown off the legacies of earlier financial excess, or is a more uncertain period of jobless growth the more likely scenario in the coming year? And are the constraints on growth in the European Union structural or macroeconomic in origin? What has allowed Asia to steer through the global downturn and re-establish its position as growth hub of the South? What caused the trade and financial surges of the 1990s, and should policy makers in developing countries be counting on their repetition? Does downsizing the public sector and promoting private investment attract foreign direct investment and describe a good investment climate? Why are parts of the developing world ´´deindustrializing´´, and is this damaging their development prospects? What are the ingredients of competitive success in today´s rapidly integrating world economy, and which countries have been finding the right blend? Are there alternatives to the ´´Washington Consensus´´? Price: US$ 39 (Developed countries) Price: US$ 19 (Developing countries) Differential pricing is ultimate prrof of the international division of labour. Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
War in Iraq could cost Arab countries a trillion dollars
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1514&e=8&u=/afp/20030414/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_escwa_losses_030414230117 War in Iraq could cost Arab countries a trillion dollarsDo you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
Re: Carving up Iraq oil
Some discussions on the cause of the war center either on the principal contradiction in the US economy; that which links American hegemony to the US economy, in other words the US needs the war for a whole set of economic gains underpinning capital accumulation including that of instilling dollar seignorage and to continue to be the world's consumer of last resort to others, and another which overstates the dependence on oil and the linkages between gulf oil and the dollar. Both views are true but only partially true, the former because it over abstracts from an initial but seminal social contradiction, the latter because it reduces the contradiction to a single relationship ( economic dependence on oil). Viewed in its totality, however, the oil dollar nexus of modern accumulation is a second order mediation of the initial social contradiction (really one emerges from the other). What is overlooked in this deba! te is the nature of the crisis under monopoly capitalism, one in which the severity of the crisis minimizes the role of realization in the process of capital accumulation and boosts the role of aggressive ventures of capital (war) so that it becomes the principal driving force that resolves the mounting contradictions arising from the increasing predicament of realization on the distribution side under monopoly capital. The latter point ties the state in a central role to capital, this once more remains but a reflection of mounting crisis under monopoly capitalism and the ensuing cohesion between the state and the bourgeoisie, without which, capital would have been long doomed. But in all that I think that the above theoretical discussion is misplaced because each of the discussants are arguing on different levels of abstraction where however, the oil dollar connection is but one of the concrete manifestations of capital's crisis under capitalism, one in which the state, albeit loosely, acts as the henchman of capital. On a more adequate conceptual level, the state/bourgeoisie collision may not be aware of the seminal social contradiction that places them in a position to conduct war, but they are aware of the long term consequences of oil shortages and the link of an economy chronically in deficit to the position of the dollar/oil cycle. they are also aware of the relevance of oil control vis-a vis partners in crime. that is the noose tying around global capitals neck, recently all the bourgeoisie is pushing for a quick end of the war fearing major collapse. Some also may go as far as saying that protecting our way of life literally the capacity to enslave others is sufficient cause for war, also argued on ethical grounds in some quarters. but no matter how this war plays out militarily, the US lost. they have also unwittingly, brought a whole people- the Arabs, into a course of world history that they previously dominated. the transition now is determined by the struggle of Arab and third world people and the inter-imperialist strife. this will play out slowly at least so that the decrepit system of international finance will not bring the collapse of all at once. it will be played out with blood and fire. the very discipline that installed capitalism will root it out. but I am certain that people united always win and against all odds. If my message appears cryptic because my mind has become somewhat esoteric, heres the latest joke: the US wants to divide Iraq into three provinces: regular, super and unleaded. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more
not rely on their own understanding
This is it: soldiers are right, what own understanding, there is none. Sunday's is "Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding". critics whatt critics, only raving peaceniks. Monday's reads "Pray that the President and his advisers will be strong and courageous to do what is right regardless of critics". US soldiers in Iraq asked to pray for Bush http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s819685.htm They may be the ones facing danger on the battlefield, but US soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W Bush. Thousands of marines have been given a pamphlet called "A Christian's Duty," a mini prayer book which includes a tear-out section to be mailed to the White House pledging the soldier who sends it in has been praying for Bush. "I have committed to pray for you, your family, your staff and our troops during this time of uncertainty and tumult. May God's peace be your guide," says the pledge, according to a journalist embedded with coalition forces. The pamphlet, produced by a group called In Touch Ministries, offers a daily prayer to be made for the US president, a born-again Christian who likes to invoke his God in speeches. Sunday's is "Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding". Monday's reads "Pray that the President and his advisers will be strong and courageous to do what is right regardless of critics".Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Krugman contra Cheney
Is Mr cheney trying to keep his youngest daughter from joining the human shields in baghdad? I have read that in two nespaper clippings. Ian Murray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Blair/Hitler comparison
Excerpts from A. Srraf's article on hypcracy and western democracy. Alquds newspaper, London. Sarraf is an Iraqi intellectual (probably with maoist inclination) (Unlike the pro soviet communist, the maoist faction of the Iraqi left joined the regime in its fight against the US.) Excerpts: Blair/Hitler comparison. blair defied his own and world public opinion. Blair has kids, Hitler did not, therefore, Blair is worst than Hitler for he knows what it is like for a parent to see his child die before his own eyes, or to kill or scare a million child in Baghdad with his bombs. Will he allow one hundred cats and dogs to be scared in the streets of London. From a purely humanistic optic Blair is worst than hitler. But what is even worst than that is Blairs belief that he owns a sort of truth (this religion of democracy) that allows him to kill innocent civilians, this makes him nastier than Bin Lade. Blairs terrorism is at the state level, it is all encompassing and far more brutal than binlades. The bombs falling on Baghdad are unraveling the foundation of hypocritical western democracy.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
CASUALTIES
CASUALTIES from http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YCHKWO4S25C20CRBAEZSFEY?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2458403 * U.S.: 24 killed, 10 missing * UK: 20 killed, two missing * Iraqi military -- no reliable figures * Iraqi civilians (Iraqi estimates) -- more than 350 killed, more than 4,000 killed or wounded naive estimates for one year of war at the same pace- no figures on iraqi military. per day per year US and UK injuries 25.7 9,385US and UK casualties 8 2,920Iraqi civilian casualties 50 18,250Iraqi civilian injuries 571.4 208,571.4 simple mutliplication of the daily average by 365 days. if one adds the iraqi miltray(uknown estimates) to civilian iraqi deaths, the ratio of US to arab dead would be similar to the vietnam war. to reach 58,000 US casualties, at this rate, it would take 19.8 years.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
and now for the weather
speaking of war in the heat of the desert, any time now the weather in iraq will be back to normal, avreage 45 degrees celsius. Pentagons high-tech equipment is sensitive to weather. ... The American superiority over Iraq in night-vision technology ... Copyright 2001 Times Record Inc., ASC ... weather in basra next week WednesdayMostly sunny and hot.High 33° C / RF 34° C. Low 19° C / RF 19° C. Max. UV 8. ThursdayHot with plenty of sunshine.High 34° C / RF 35° C. Low 21° C / RF 19° C. Max. UV 8. FridaySome sun; hot and humid.High 33° C / RF 36° C. Low 18° C / RF 22° C. Max. UV 7. SaturdayPartly sunny; hot and humid.High 33° C / RF 36° C. Low 19° C / RF 21° C. Max. UV 8. SundayHumid with some sun.High 32° C / RF 33° C. Low 19° C / RF 21° C. Max. UV 7. MondayMostly sunny; hot and humid.High 33° C / RF 39° C. Low 21° C / RF 22° C. Max. UV 8. TuesdayMostly sunny and hot.High 33° C / RF 35° C. Low 18° C / RF 21° C. Max. UV 8. WednesdaySome sun.High 31° C / RF 32° C. Low 17° C / RF 19° C. Max. UV 8. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Basra uprising wishful thinking ?
there is nothing wrong with a bit of infaltion, it may be time for some, given the choice between war and infaltion. japan, china, and soon the US and the EU will be asking for ways to reflate their economies. a big push approach would kick both production and consumption in virtuous but inflationary circle. "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: of course, won't simply dropping money on the country cause inflation (or suppressed inflation, i.e., shortages, illegal markets, and unused currency)? it seems like one of the few situations when Milton Friedman is right... There isn't much chance that production can increase to prevent price changes. In fact, war reduces supply. BTW, I'm not sure that the money multiplier process works in the normal way during war-time, since the banks are likely in crisis. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -----Original Message-From: soula avramidis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 3:13 AMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [PEN-L:36131] Re: Re: Re: Re: Basra uprising wishful thinking? i had the multiplier in mind Robert Scott Gassler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At 02:01 26/03/03 -0800, soula avramidis wrote:>>>had the US managed a helicopter drop of 75 billion dollars on the Iraqipeople, I am sure that >this would raise percapita income five folds in iraq No but it would more than double it. The World Almanac 2003 gives Iraq'spopulation as 24 million and per capita income at 2500 US dollars. Roundingup I get 75 billion divided by 25 million equals 3000 dollars apiece.Scott Do you Yahoo!?Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Basra uprising wishful thinking?
i had the multiplier in mind Robert Scott Gassler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At 02:01 26/03/03 -0800, soula avramidis wrote:>>>had the US managed a helicopter drop of 75 billion dollars on the Iraqipeople, I am sure that >this would raise percapita income five folds in iraq No but it would more than double it. The World Almanac 2003 gives Iraq'spopulation as 24 million and per capita income at 2500 US dollars. Roundingup I get 75 billion divided by 25 million equals 3000 dollars apiece.ScottDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: Basra uprising wishful thinking?
I do not know quite where the odds have got to, but I share with Soula a feeling that there is a high probability the US will lose this war. I never bet money, but I would happily put 10 pounds on it.Come to think of it, I wonder if Ladbrokes are quoting odds, or would that be unpatriotic?Chris BurfordLondon judging by my own experience, the rift between dream and reality can be immense. in my youth I passed the question "what did you want to be when you grow up to a homeless person, and that led to a fight from which I escaped unscathed simply because then I could run" later there was the impending brush with dialectics which in one respect says, things have their own logic and therefore it might be fool hardy to guess. guessing is the worst form of a travail d'esprit, or the closest thing to living hell. but last night, four events occurred and none have to do with military balance- the US is far more superior: the Shiite mullahs in Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq said "fight for martyrdom," and the biggest demonstration in Beirut yet was carried out by Shiite factions brandishing the Iraqi flag. this irrespective of tech superiority tips things in Iraqs favour. but another item is also developing, which is if the war lasts, and the Iraqi leadership can still have a voice to the outside, in its hour of parting it might take many Arab regimes with it. Jordan first. the buffer state will be no more and a billion Muslim lie behind those borders. pragmatism is positivism or thought without any scope or vision. the US bush and his class have gravely miscalculated, they do not see that things are related to other things outside their immediate surroundings, and that although the universal in reality might not exist, but the general does. had the US managed a helicopter drop of 75 billion dollars on the Iraqi people, I am sure that this would raise percapita income five folds in iraq and it would mean that the US may take the oil for free given the Iraqis traditional generosity. i recommend fish baked under the hot sands on the tigris with a local variety of alcohol made of dates, and may say iraqi cuisine is my favorite, mind i have been around. instead one sees poor demoralized drafted soldiers who otherwise could have been unemployed at home acting as gun fodder for imperialism and a mass of people in Iraq victims of their man made fate on all counts. but on the up side of the dialectic of life, war is the best time for love. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
labour unrest at um qasr
dock and port workers refused to run port facilities for the british at um qasr, brits contemplating bringing in asian labour from kuwait. aljazeera arabic channel. wages in iraq are at an average of ten dollars a month. i do not think that anywhere else one could find a lobour force whose cost is lower or one that could push wages further down. dollar denomiated iraqi labour is the cheapest on the globe making it difficult to compete downwards with this formation whose unit labour costs must be lowest as well - effcient for globalisation geeks. what is evident at first sight when looking at iraqis is the stunting, bone malformation, and other hunger related symptoms of a labour force enduring the lowest costs of reproduction over the last 12 years. but in all that overeconomising, it is relevant to note, albeit in passing here, that the cultural values frequently overlooked by some inteelectuals on the left, tend to bear a significant impact on how the present! national liberation war evolves. on another matter the shiite hisbola yesterday tried to storm the british embassy in beirut, one more decisive element in the odds war. if the present solidarit within and without persists, then short of starving the iraqi population into submission, there is no chance in hell the US will win. but starving whole populations into oblivion, is a landmark of colonial policy, and basra will be first with the water supplies cut off.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: rising in Basra?
at the very time the uprising was being reported, aljazeera tapped into its correspondent live who saw no evidence of uprising. at the same time the top Shiite mullahs in najaf called for resistance in a joint statement. this is an ominous sign in the war odds if any.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
NYSE bars aljazeera
today the aljazeera TV reported that its staff were barred until further notice from reporting financial news inside nyse because of irresponsible reporting on the war, and that the british council bldg. in beirut was bombed.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: odds turn further against US
' that there is a snowball's chance in hell ' snowball is the keyword, iran syria and jordan, the precarious others, and urban warfare, delays is what iran and syria want, and they will work to get it, how effective, do not know, but urban warfare and delays, a deadly combination for uncle sam, i guess we will have to watch and see. historians recall how after 1948, regime change shook this region. but military guessing aside, the US will win or lose depending on the unity of the iraqi peple, with about seven million rifles, this is not chechenia or afghanistan. but it is my humble opinion, that when united in a war of national liberation, people win.but if that is a short and swift war, because of the iraqi people's internal division, then it is goodbye columbia, cuba, etc... this may be the war of all the developing world against the hegemon. and worst yet the US will not even need the formality of going back to the security council or may say counsel. the record up to this moment is that splitting the iraqi people and army failed. the US was under the impression that once they bomb people will rise against saddam, that must have the logic of selective bombing in the first few days. this veiw was adopted by the US as a result of its contact with iraqi oppositon abroad, but these it seems have no credebility at home, so again until now, there has been a great miscalculation.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
UN tries to halt staff protest against attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk UN tries to halt staff protest against attack Chris McGreal in Jerusalem Wednesday March 19 2003 The Guardian Kofi Annan's office has barred UN staff from open opposition to the war in Iraq. Mr Annan's chief of staff, Syed Iqbal Riza, has written to the heads of all UN agencies to halt attempts to organise protests against the attack by publicly expressing support for the authority of the security council and the secretary general's efforts to avoid conflict. "United Nations staff are, of course, entitled to personal views and political convictions and their desire to be of assistance to the secretary general is appreciated," he wrote in the letter, headed "possible initiatives by UN staff for peacefully resolving the Iraq crisis". But it goes on to add that "international civil servants ... do not have the freedom of pri vate persons to take sides or to express their convictions publicly on controversial matters, either individually or as members of a group". A senior UN official said there was considerable unhappiness within the organisation at criticisms levelled by George Bush to justify bypassing the security council. "There is a feeling among many personnel that the US used the UN until it didn't suit them and then they trash it," one senior UN official said. "We cannot openly campaign against the war but we wanted to make a public gesture - probably a petition - in support of Kofi Annan's efforts to ensure the security council as a whole had the last word. But he does not want a confrontation with the Americans on this." Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
UN tries to halt staff protest against attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk UN tries to halt staff protest against attack Chris McGreal in Jerusalem Wednesday March 19 2003 The Guardian Kofi Annan's office has barred UN staff from open opposition to the war in Iraq. Mr Annan's chief of staff, Syed Iqbal Riza, has written to the heads of all UN agencies to halt attempts to organise protests against the attack by publicly expressing support for the authority of the security council and the secretary general's efforts to avoid conflict. "United Nations staff are, of course, entitled to personal views and political convictions and their desire to be of assistance to the secretary general is appreciated," he wrote in the letter, headed "possible initiatives by UN staff for peacefully resolving the Iraq crisis". But it goes on to add that "international civil servants ... do not have the freedom of pri vate persons to take sides or to express their convictions publicly on controversial matters, either individually or as members of a group". A senior UN official said there was considerable unhappiness within the organisation at criticisms levelled by George Bush to justify bypassing the security council. "There is a feeling among many personnel that the US used the UN until it didn't suit them and then they trash it," one senior UN official said. "We cannot openly campaign against the war but we wanted to make a public gesture - probably a petition - in support of Kofi Annan's efforts to ensure the security council as a whole had the last word. But he does not want a confrontation with the Americans on this." Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
caricature
http://www.alquds.co.uk/index.asp?fname=2003\03\03-24\a49.htm&storytitle=ffÇáÇÑÏä%20æØÑÏ%20ÇáÏÈáæãÇÓííä%20ÇáÚÑÇÞííäfffDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
badr shakr al-sayyab
Endless is the rain: like shed bloodLike hunger, love, children, and the dead.Your eyes come to my mind with the rainAnd across the Gulf's waves lightningBurnishes the coast of Iraq... from "Rain Song"Badr Shakr al-Sayyab The Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (d. 1964) was also forced into exile and hunted by the authorities of his country. In 'Hymn of the Rain,' 1954, which is in the words of Naji Alloush "the most committed political poem written by al-Sayyab, the poet,, who was living in exile in Kuwait at that time and swept by homesickness, describes the injustice of the political and social situation in Iraq. The poet watches Iraq from across the border - the rain falling and the crops growing, only to be eaten by ravens and locusts, symbols of corrupt Iraqi government officials and an oppressive social system. The rain, a life-giving force and symbol of fertility, serves only to perpetuate the hunger and msery of the Iraqi people, who never get to reap the harvest of their slave labor: Despite the rain,Not a year has passed without famine in Iraq!! Do you know what sadness the rain evokes?And how the roof-gutters of the poorSob when it pours?Nevertheless, in the final verse of the poem, he gave hope for political salvation: Iraq will grow green with the rain,And the rain pours.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
museum in tikrit levelled
Apparently, the museum in Tikrit housing invaluable ancient art was leveled to the ground by a US missile, in the last war (1991), the only televised opposition to the war came from Smithsonian institute historians who showed a map of Iraq that identified thousands of historical sites relevant to humanity and pointed that there were only a few areas where the allies could bomb, but dito.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Letter to Michael Ignatieff
The career path to becoming a big-time liberal imperialist spokesman is strewn with obstacles, not the least of which is moral qualms. I am quite sure that in the course of rising to the top of this garbage heap, you will find it easy to dispense with them.Although this may seem redudant but, well said. Following the General Assembly of all UN staff in Lebanon, that was held on Thursday the 20th of March 2003 regarding the conflict in the region, the United Nations Staff Associations and Unions in Lebanon issued the following statement which represents their common view and position regarding the war on Iraq : Stop the war on Iraq We, the United Nations Staff in Lebanon are alarmed and outraged by the outbreak of war on Iraq. We are extremely worried about the implications on human life and the humanitarian catastrophe affecting millions of people and the impact of war on regional and international stability. Military action is unjustifiable and undermines future prospects for peaceful settlement of international disputes. We believe that it is our duty as United Nations Staff Members to uphold the principles of the United Nations Charter and to ensure that it remains the parameters governing international relations. It must be respected and adhered to by all countries and at all times. We continue to advocate the important role that the United Nations is playing in peace-making worldwide. Voicing our deep concern, we join all peaceful movements worldwide in calling for an immediate STOP to the War on Iraq. United Nations Staff Associations and Unions in Lebanon Beirut, 20 March 2003 ESCWA UNRWA ILO UNHCR UNICEF UNIDO WHO UNESCO UNDPDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: devastating news for hegemons
It seems, according to this amateur military strategist, that the biggest item of bad news to the hegemons until now is the failure of pre war intelligence operations and propaganda to split Iraqis. the shiite opposition in Iran said it will not fight alongside the Americans, and the Iraqi foreign minister, speaks of millions under arms. if this holds, then we are in for the long haul. what makes matters more complex, is the apparent readiness for suicide attacks etc. this suicide is new to the near east, records show that unlike Hungary or Denmark, suicides on the Persian gulf are few and far between. what could drive people to do that en masse must be seminally related to a social condition that nurture the culture of suicide or mass suicide. for instance, in eastern Europe, Russia, and the Baltic suicide rates already too high trebled in the transition, so much so that the rate was almost 1 in 1000 in som! e areas. I am no military expert but things seem to be wavering for now, just for now, since reports say that Iraqis are united against the invader, but what is really baffling is how this killing in two dimensional space, i.e. T.V, goes on as if it was roman violence back when. is two dimensional viewing of crime less hurtful, has there anything that has been done on this? That is why people view tv wars that with apathy. Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: London 8:30am"awful awful news" said the BBC correspondent around 7:30. Likely to have a "devastating" effect on morale - an RAF plane has been shot down by an American missile.They could not even name the type of plane in a clumsy attempt to hide behind security restrictions.The senior researcher for the RUSI (Royal United Services Institute - the most prestigious UK military think tank) said with tight lips, that he could not comment directly on the effect on morale, but "imagine if you an RAF pilot just getting into your plane for the next run" The coalition of the good and willing has had "friendly" fire before but involving pockets of soldiers. Coming on top of the succession of accidents with helicopters this could lead to serious calls in Parliament for the withdrawal of troops already within a few days of Blair se! curing a majority, completely undermine the arguments in the UK that we must suspend protests in support of "our" troops.Chris BurfordLondonDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: Re: Bin Laden's victory - Richard Dawkins
Carl Remick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >From: soula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>>http://www.michaelparenti.org/IRAQGeorge2.htm>Liberal intellectuals are never happier than when, with patronizing smiles, >they can dilate on the stupidity of George Bush. What I have tried to show >is that Bush is neither retarded nor misdirected. Given his class >perspective and interests, there are compelling reasons to commit armed >aggression against Iraq---and against other countries to comeWhat twaddle. On the one hand, there's no question that ridiculing Bush's intelligence is a mug's game; if he's so stupid how exactly did he become emperor of the world? OTOH, the equally patronizing claim that Bush's war makes perfect sense "given his class perspective and interests" is preposterous. The left is wasting its time looking for rational reasons for a war that ultimately is just plain insane -- a war that in a million and one ways will invite future resistance toward the US both in the Islamic world and among American's traditional allies and trading partners. This war subverts its own goals; it's nuts.CarlIf the hisotry of wars can be explained by insanity then a universal mental assylum would be the objective of all peace loving people. but alas. it subverts its own goals if the USA looses or it takes too long to win, if not, then that is one big war booty, after which everyone will fall in line, else no oil. oil is about ten percent of world trade and it is a depletable resource, it first came into recorded history in Iraq when alexander took babylon, he tested a young boy after painting him with the black liquid and setting him on fire to see whether it could be used in battle. see will durant, our oriental heritage, the sory of civilization. what price oil?__! ___Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963IDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Bin Laden's victory - Richard Dawkins
http://www.michaelparenti.org/IRAQGeorge2.htm Liberal intellectuals are never happier than when, with patronizing smiles, they can dilate on the stupidity of George Bush. What I have tried to show is that Bush is neither retarded nor misdirected. Given his class perspective and interests, there are compelling reasons to commit armed aggression against Iraq---and against other countries to come. It is time we dwelled less upon his malapropisms and more on his rather effective deceptions and relentless viciousness. Many decent crusaders have been defeated because of their inability to fully comprehend the utter depravity of their enemies. The more we know what we are up against, the better we can fight it. Michael Parenti's latest books are The Terrorism Trap (City Lights); Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: eloquent liberal condemnation of the warhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,919618,00.htmlDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
BEYOND CLAUSEWITZ
article by lee harris goes like this: 8: BEYOND CLAUSEWITZ The modern liberal world system has permitted the growth of power in the hands of those who have not had to cope with reality in order to acquire this power: it has simply been given to them, out of the sense of fair play prevalent among Western liberal societies. Iraq was paid for its oil, which in return paid for its weapons - and both were produced by us, to be used against us. But this, tragically, has had the unintended consequence of diminishing the value of the sense of the realistic in the eyes of those who have thus acquired their power and wealth - a fact just as much in evidence in the behavior of Saudi Arabia as in that of Iraq. It is the re-enactment, on a world-historical scale, of what has been done by many well-meaning Americans in the case of their own children - by giving them so much, we have robbed them of that indispensable sense of the realistic that can only be achieved by the ! head-on collisions with the irremovable object called the real world. We have nourished their fantasies, instead of forcing them to face the facts of life. And in doing so, we have done no one any service - least of all, the hapless multitude of impoverished human beings who have themselves derived no benefit whatsoever from the West's fair play, and whose children's lives will continue to be wasted in the counter-productive pursuit of their leaders' delusional dreams. http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/defensewrapper.jsp?PID=1051-350&CID=1051-031103A from Tech Central Station whic is: Tech Central Station is supported by sponsoring corporations that share our faith in technology and its ability to improve modern life. Smart application of technology combined with pro free market, science-based public policy has the ability to help us solve many of the worlds problems, and so we are grateful to ExxonMobil, AT&T, Nasdaq, McDonalds, Microsoft, and General Motors Corporation for their support. All of these corporations are industry leaders that have made great strides in using technology for our betterment, and we are proud to have them as sponsors. However, the opinions expressed on these pages are solely those of the writers and not necessarily of any corporation or other organization. Tech Central Station is published by Tech Central Station, L.L.C. Tech Central Station P.O. Box 33705 Washington, DC 20033 Phone: 800-619-5258 Fax: 202-530-0255 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Pearls from Perle and Hammurabi
"History suggests not. The UN arose from the ashes of a war that theLeague of Nations was unable to avert. It was simply not up to confrontingItaly in Abyssinia, much less - had it survived that debacle - to taking onNazi Germany." If history is repeating itself, then is this the tragedy or the farce? if it is a farce, it is too tragic to contemplate. How is one to distinguish between tragedies and farces, the problem with this is people may laugh in the wrong place or at inopportune moment and offend other people, say at a funeral. So I searched someone who knows Iraq and its culture for a proverb that may throw some wisdom on the matter, and he says, one ancient Babylonian proverb said and this is well documented :"the greatest of calamities or tragedies is that which makes you laugh", meaning that one is so hurt such that one is driven to insanity. here of course, farce and tragedy coincide in actuality, making the matter somewhat dialectical. speaking of the dialectic, this leads to Hegel on war, or his patronizing stance with the Prussian court, and for that you may look up his philosophy of right, but in short one may quote this: [Conflict with another sovereign state] is the moment wherein the substance of the state--i.e. its absolute power against everything individual and particular, against life, property, and their rights, even against societies and associations--makes the nullity of these finite things an accomplished fact and brings it home to consciousness. (PR:323) "War is the state of affairs which deals in earnest with the vanity of temporal goods and concernsWar has the higher significance that by its agency, as I have remarked elsewhere, "the ethical health of peoples is preserved in their indifference to the stabilization of finite institutions; just as the blowing of the winds preserves the sea from the foulness which would be the result of a prolonged calm, so also corruption in nations would be the product of prolonged, let alone `perpetual,' peace." (PR:324R) Then the words of an idealist sycophant (Hegel), devoid of any concrete substance, in which he extols the Prussian drive for war, are taken by one Lee Harris, in 'Our world historical gamble'. to imply that war is necessary for the betterment of the human spirit: "The war with Iraq will constitute one of those momentous turning points of history in which one nation under the guidance of a strong-willed, self-confident leader undertakes to alter the fundamental state of the world. It is, to use the language of Hegel, an event that is world-historical in its significance and scope. And it will be world-historical, no matter what the outcome may be. Such world-historical events, according to Hegel, are inherently sui generis - they break the mold and shatter tradition. " Indeed momentous, the war is not with Iraq it is on Iraq, and it is literally the molestation of the weak by the powerful; one x us pilot described the bombing of the escaping convoys from Kuwait in 1991 as "shooting fish in a barrel", later known as the highway of death. This weak and powerful business reminds me of something I read long ago which is to the first political manifesto known to man, Hammurabi's code in which he says: "The great gods have called me, I am the salvation-bearing shepherd, whose staff is straight, the good shadow that is spread over my city; on my breast I cherish the inhabitants of the land of Sumer and Akkad; in my shelter I have let them repose in peace; in my deep wisdom have I enclosed them. That the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I have in Babylon the city where Anu and Bel raise high their head, in E-Sagil, the Temple, whose foundations stand firm as heaven and earth, in order to bespeak justice in the land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these my precious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness." The man may have a visionary too: for he says: "In future time, through all coming generations, let the king, who may be in the land, observe the words of righteousness which I have written on my monument; let him not alter the law of the land which I have given, the edicts which I have enacted; my monument let him not mar. If such a ruler have wisdom, and be able to keep his land in order, he shall observe the words which I have written in this inscription; the rule, statute, and law of the land which I have given; the decisions which I have made will this inscription show him; let him rule his subjects accordingly, speak justice to them, give right decisions, root out the miscreants and criminals from this land, and grant prosperity to his subjects." Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Pre-emptive attack against General Assembly meeting
Dear Ambassador, Please consider invoking UN Res. 377 "Uniting For Peace" to stop this unnecessary, unjust disastrous war that U.S. President Bush is trying to foist upon innocent Iraqis and the world. The war will cause hundreds of thousands of deaths of innocents, trillions better spent on current human needs, instability, increased terrorism, and possibly the seeds of WWIII. President Bush appears determined to wage war on Iraq despite the world's opposition, despite the likelihood that an unprovoked war will foment, rather than eliminate, terrorism. The Bush Administration has threatened to attack Iraq. This constitutes both a threat to world peace and to the very integrity of the UN as an institution dedicated to "the maintenance of international peace and security." Time is running short. This disastrous war must be prevented. Therefore, I urge you to band together with other nations in support of a "Uniting for Peace" resolution against an unprovoked invasion of Iraq. As you know, Resolution 377, adopted by the UN in 1950, was made for situations precisely like this one. Uniting for Peace provides that if, because of the lack of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council (France, China, Russia, Britain, United States), the Council cannot maintain international peace where there is a "threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression," the General Assembly "shall consider the matter immediately.." The General Assembly can meet within 24 hours to consider such a matter, and can recommend collective measures to U.N. members including the use of armed forces to "maintain or restore international peace and secu! rity." Such a "Uniting for Peace" resolution could require that no military action be taken against Iraq without the explicit authority of the Security Council. It could mandate that the inspectors be permitted to complete their task. It seems unlikely that the United States and Britain would ignore such a measure. A vote by the majority of countries in the world, particularly if it were almost unanimous, would make the unilateral rush to war more d! ifficult. Uniting for Peace can be invoked either by seven members of the Security Council or by a majority of the members of the General Assembly. Clearly, it our last best hope for fulfilling the mission stated in the UN Charter: to "save succeeding generations form the scourge of war." Please act now. It's not too late. Sincerely, Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Human Rights in Iraq
20 March 2003 HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS APPEALS TO PARTIES IN IRAQ CONFLICT TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN LAW The following statement was issued today by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello: As hostilities begin in Iraq, I appeal to the Parties to respect human rights and humanitarian law. My paramount concerns are for the safety and protection of civilians, the provision of adequate resources to the civilian population, and guaranteed access and security for humanitarian workers. At this moment, I must recall the international obligations of the Parties to adhere strictly to the fundamental human rights of all. These rights must remain our guide through the tragedy of conflict. Even wars have rules. Fundamental human rights norms must be respected at all times. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. No one shall be arbitrarily detained and no one shall be subject to torture. Every person shall be presumed innocent. There must be no attacks on civilians and the sick and wounded must be cared for. As Secretary-General Kofi Annan has noted, under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls squarely on the belligerents; in any area under military occupation, responsibility for the welfare of the population falls on the occupying power. For some two decades, the people of Iraq have suffered enormously: wars, internal conflicts, denial of the entire spectrum of their rights and the human consequences of sanctions have created a nightmare scenario that can only inspire a huge sense of solidarity. Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: Re: Paul Eluard
Thanks I was hoping for one although that translation is prety wicked to say the least. I think the korean looked better. Bill Lear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Thursday, March 20, 2003 at 02:17:25 (-0800) Sabri Oncu writes:>The poem looked good but I did not have any clue about what it>said. Could you please post a Korean translation of this so that>I can understand? Mongolian will do just fine too. They are all>sister languages of my language.>>Best,English, courtesy of Babel Fish:The OpinionThe night which preceded its deathWas shortest of its lifeThe idea that there still existedBurned blood with the wrists to HimThe weight of its body disgusted itIts force made it to groanIt is all at the bottom of this horrorWhich it started to smileHe did not have a comaradeBut million and millionto avenge it he knew itAnd the day rose for him.Korean, of the above:ì$(0j2¬(B ê·¸ê²,Cl(B 죽ì,Ll(B ì,D í(Im(B ë°¤ì! 거기ì ê·¸ê²,Cl´(B ê·¸ê² ì ì,Lm$(0j8°(B ì,Dm(B ì¬ ê·¸ìê² ì$(@k*©ì(B ì,Dl§ë(B ì¡´ì¬í ì íí í,Hl$(G!l(B ìíì¬ ê·¸ê²,Cl(B 본체ì ê°ì¤$(Al9(B ê·¸ê²,Clê²(B ì !ë ê·¸ê²,Cl(B í ì«ì¦ë,Hk¤(B ê³ ê·¸ê° ì ê·¸ê²,Cl(B avenge ì,Dl´ëì$(H4l(B ìíì¬ê°ì§ì§ ì(Jl(B ë$(1l'를(B 그미ì,Lm(B ê²,Cl(B ììí ê·¸ë¬ë ë°±ë§,Lk°(B ë°±ë§ ì¸ì ë°ë¥ì모ë ì´ ê³µí,_,(B ê·¸ ê²,Cl(B ì¼ìì ê°ì¥ 짧ìë¤ì ì¼ì 그를 ì,Dm´(B ì¼ì$(H4k,B,ë¤(B ê² ì.BillDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Paul Eluard
Speaking of french poetry, here is one in french by Eluard. "L'Avis" (1942)La nuit qui précéda sa mortFut la plus courte de sa vieL'idée qu'il existait encoreLui brûlai le sang aux poignetsLe poids de son corps l'écoeraitSa force le fasait gémirC'est tout au fond de cette horreurQu'il a commencé à sourireIl n'avait pas UN comaradeMais des millions et des millionsPour le venger il le savaitEt le jour se leva pour lui.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Bye Bye United Nations TATA
In an interview with F. engels just before he died, he rasied concerns about the future casualties of war with the development of smokeless gunpowder, now it is shock and awe, every missile fired is like a commercial for anew and improved product. and now my question is how to provide for a international security arrangement that really criminilises war sine it is bye bye United nations. k hanly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hmmm..obliterating downtown Baghdad would be a"colossal mistake"...oops sorry...just meant a bit of shock and awe and gotcarried away...Cheers, Ken Hanly>From paper to the battlefieldBy Seth Stern | Staff writer of The Christian Science MonitorIf all goes according to plan, thousands of smart bombs raining down on Iraqwill paralyze the country: Iraqi commanders will be cut off from theirdivisions, troops in the field will be cowed by an enemy they can't see,civilians will be so confused they don't dare confront the Americaninvaders.The goal is to "shock and awe" the Iraqi military into submission, whileminimizing casualties on both sides. In a decade, "shock and awe" has grownfrom a theory dreamed up by retired generals to the concept undergirdingcurrent US war plans against Iraq.Critics say it ! sounds like an overoptimistic rehash of bombing campaignsthat devastated Dresden and Hanoi, but did little to end fighting. And theyworry that in Iraq it will once again be infantry on the ground, not smartbombs from the sky, that actually wins the war. Either way, the acceptanceof this plan shows how an idea can percolate through Pentagon ranks andcapture the military's imagination.Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said earlier thismonth that the best way to ensure a short conflict is to "have such a shockon the system that the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on that theend is inevitable." The military's war plan calls for dropping anunprecedented 3,000 precision-guided munitions in the first 48 hours,quickly followed by lightening-fast ground attacks.The idea behind such a strategy was born in the mid-'90s when seven formercold war warriors gathered to rethink US defense strategy. ! At the time, theywere one of many groups exploring ways to exploit US advantages in speed,weapons accuracy, and control of the electronic environment.The group was cochaired by Harlan Ullman, a retired navy destroyer commanderwho had always been fascinated by "immaculate battles," where brilliantcommanders devastated enemies by outthinking and overpowering them.The study group included Charles Horner, the commander of American air powerduring the Gulf War, and Fred Franks, the general who led US tanks throughsouthern Iraq.General Horner says they hoped "to discover some hidden truths" from DesertStorm. For example, Horner recalls how instead of focusing on shooting downthe entire Iraqi air force, the US neutralized it by destroying theground-based radar stations that directed them. Iraqi pilots were leftflying blind without instructions. "They became very confused and thenterrified about flying," Horner says! .Ullman points out the example of American atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki, when, he says, "a society that was prepared to die was turnedaround."Members of the group wondered whether, in a post- Hiroshima era, anadversary's will to resist could be destroyed without resorting to that samedestructive firepower. Psychological means could supplement a military soadvanced it moved faster than most enemies could react. They laid out theirapproach in a 1996 report entitled "Shock and Awe: Achieving RapidDominance." The group met on and off in succeeding years, explaining itsideas in papers and seminars for current and former military officials.Donald Rumsfeld, President Ford's secretary of defense, attended one ofthose briefings in 1999 and joined several former defense secretaries insigning a letter to the Clinton administration supporting a shift inmilitary strategy. A year later, President-elect Bu! sh returned Mr. Rumsfeldto his old job at the Pentagon, where he brought his enthusiasm fortransforming the military's thinking.The US military may have no equal in developing high-tech weaponry, butchanges in doctrine or missions don't come as easily at the Pentagon. Thelast major strategic innovation, called the AirLand doctrine, was adopted inthe US in the early '80s, after Israel's experience in the 1973 Yom Kippurwar. Designed to more fully integrate air and ground forces, the doctrine isstill untried in the battle field.But skeptics both inside and outside the military say "Shock and Awe"doesn't add much new to that body of thought beyond a catchy title."It says something all soldiers know: War is a test of will, not of physicalstrength," says retired Gen. Robert Scales. "Shock and awe" may, in fact,paralyze the enemy, he says, but the effect is only temporary. Enemy forcesmust still be physically inca! pacitated or frozen in place by occupation.Ullman says he never
Re: Re: Iraq: Oil wells are burning
I have heard that oil is likely to be used a weapon to cover troops. oil pipelines are spilling in the desert around basra and the shore of shat alarab to avoid amphibian assaults, a huge environmental disiater maybe in the making.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: war and the economy
Third Wordism has died and one has to think in terms of modern Marxism. how are the two incompatible, the recent divisions on the expropriations of the colonies i.e. iraq, nuclear notwithstanding the allies could jump at each others throat. talk of ultra imprealism in the age of globalisation leads nowhere. lenin's other proposition on the political aspect of imperialism holds with slight modifications. with the evolution of fluidity in financial capital, capitalism remains closely wedded to nationalism at least for the moment. capital has a home to die for.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: Re: "Saddam's apparatus of terror" will shatter "the whole world view of the left"
let us be pragmatic here, mind you i hate the word. if saddam kills more than the US, I am against him, and vice versa. start counting as of now. goDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: The countries in the anti-Iraq coalition
there are of course 15 countries that are secretly supporting the US, these are: many arab states, including syria, and one asian state Iran.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re:Iskenderun Statement from Rachel Corrie's parents
It means no probelm it seems my son picked that up on tv Subject: Statement from Rachel Corrie's parents > > > >March 16, 2003 > > > >"We are now in a period of grieving and still finding out the details behind the death of Rachel in the Gaza Strip. We have raised all our children to appreciate the beauty of the global community and family and are proud that Rachel was able to live her convictions. Rachel was filled with love and a sense of duty to her fellow man, wherever they lived. And, she gave her life trying to protect those that are unable to protect themselves. > >Rachel wrote to us from the Gaza Strip and we would like to release to the media her experience in her own words at this time. > > > >Thank you. > >Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie > > > >-- > >Excerpts from an e-mail from Rachel on February 7, 2003. > > > >I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States--something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me, Ali--or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me "Kaif Sharon?" "Kaif Bush?" and they laugh when I say "Bush Majnoon" "Sharon Majnoon" back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharo! n? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) Of course this isn't quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: Bush > >mish Majnoon... Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say "Bush is a tool", but I don't think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago--at least regarding Israel. > > > >Nevertheless, I think about the fact that no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it, and even then you are always well aware that your experience is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli Army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and, of course, the fact that I have the option of leaving. > > > >Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. Ostensibly it is still quite difficult for me to be held for months or years on end without a trial (this because I am a white US citizen, as opposed to so many others). > >When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting half way between Mud Bay and downtown Olympia at a checkpointa soldier with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I'm done. So, if I feel outrage at arriving and entering briefly and incompletely into the world in which these children exist, I wonder > >conversely about how it would be for them to arrive in my world. > > > >They know that children in the United States don't usually have their parents shot and they know they sometimes get to see the ocean. But once you have seen the ocean and lived in a silent place, where water is taken for granted and not stolen in the night by bulldozers, and once you have spent an evening when you havent wondered if the walls of your home might suddenly fall inward waking you from your sleep, and once youve met people who have never lost anyone-- once you have experienced the reality of a world that isn't surrounded by murderous towers, tanks, armed "settlements" and now a giant metal wall, I wonder if you can forgive the world for all the years of your childhood spent existing--just existing--in resistance to the constant stranglehold of the worlds fourth largest military--backed by the worlds only superpowerin its attempt to erase you from your home. That is something I wonder about these children. I wonder what would happen if they really kne! w. > > > >As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah, a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60 percent of whom are refugeesmany of whom are twice or three times refugees. Rafah existed prior to 1948, but most of the peo
Re: Re: Iskenderun actions
that is ok you can keep them, just do not get so nationally worked up, take a little more as well, no prob dude. sorry for the spelling Sabri Oncu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: soula avramidis:> I am sure you know that they are 1938 arabs in> antioch and iskendarun.I don't know what antioch is and your spelling of Iskenderun iswrong but surely, from early 1920s until 1938, Iskenderun hadbeen an independent state. But the participants there inIskenderun actions a few days ago were not just Arabs. There wereKurds, Turks, Arabs and possibly a few "Pontis".SabriDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Iskenderun actions
I am sure you know that they are 1938 arabs in antioch and iskendarun. Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Anti-U.S. Demonstrations Continues Non-stop in Iskenderun HarbourTwo demonstrations took place today in Iskenderun Harbour that was recently rented by the U.S. for military deployment in Turkey. Greenpeace activists blocked the entrance of the harbour with a truck carrying the sign written 'No To War, U.S. Go Home' in two languages; two of the activists chained themselves onto the truck while four others to the wheels. Meanwhile two activists opened a sign written 'No To War'. The activists had damaged the truck to make it unmovable and to block the traffic around the harbour. The 15 activists resisted police detainment for a long time. During the same hours 20 EMEP (Labour`s Party) members were not let in the harbour area. EMEP members urged U.S. soldiers to leave Turkey after they chanted slogans in front of the harbour. Police attacked a ! march of 45 KESK, TMMOB and DISK (some labour and occupation organisations) members in Nusaybin. The activists - many of who were injured - were taken into custody. Medical doctors in Istanbul and Diyarbakir - with white aprons - walked against war preparations on 14th of March. War resisters with torches gathered yester-night in Izmit.http://istanbul.indymedia.org/-- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.orgDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
Re: Re: maxim rodinson on edward said
At least the Moufti next door thinks that said knows little about Islam, not to mention he is a christian. but just maybe a quick reading on the formation of a culture of resistance under colonialism will tell where he came from. but i think rodinson is entitled to his opinion, no harm done, marxist or otherwise. Truth in what, that people in "literary philosophy: do not know one thing very well? It's true that there's an immense amount of ignorance and foolishness in literary theory. But it's dumb to diss someone because of his field in general. Rodinson's field of area studies is largely composed of ideological hacks, guns for hire. And Said is way out of the norm. His scholarship is not merely unquestionable, it sets the standard for the field. As whether he's "bourgrois," I assume that R says this because S is not a Marxist. Well, that's the cross we non-Marxist rads have to bear. We're bourgeois. There are worse things to be. I don't know enough about Islam to say whether S's grasp of Islam is shallow. I'd be surprised it that were true, though. jks Do you Yahoo!?Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business onlineDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
maxim rodinson on edward said
when maxim rodinson was asked what he thought of edward said in a very recent interview on aljazeera he said. I never liked from the beginning. he does not know the arab world and pretends he does.his thought is bourgeois and he is an idealist. up until this moment he has no sound theoretical or practical positions I think. his ideas about islam are shallow yet he makes use of these in his literary work, he is a bourgeois. he belongs to a field that i do not like the field of literary philosophy. in my opinion these people do not know one thing very well. by the by, there is a lot of truth in this. http://www.aljazeera.net/programs/special_visit/articles/2003/3/3-12-1.htmDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Is war illegal without a second UN resolution?
=Yes, and the Chicago Cubs are going to win the World Series this year.WOW, i am making my bets early. no need to make this leap of faith, i was simply being modest, human rights are for the living not for the dead so to speak. i mean the argument was that the UN is not of itself, my humble point is that it should be of itself as well- many parts of it function as a trade union for poor nations. n'est ce pas? but funny thanks.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online
Re: Re: Re: Re: Is war illegal without a second UN resolution?
the article cited below makes for positive law, similar to positive economics it laissez faire law. all analytically is undetermined, all in reality is overdetermined. contradictions pile up in thought only, in real life they get resolved. Ian Murray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [earlier I wrote:]- Original Message -From: "Ian Murray" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> Since when have aggressors given a damn about international law? What's> going on now, a cynical, nihilistic operationalizing of the inversion of> Alexander Wendt's "Anarchy is What States Make of It"--see Mearsheimer's> "The Tragedy of Great Power Politics" page 368-- just goes to show how> epistemically precarious/flaccid the notion of international law is if> there is no transnational Leviathan with the material means to inflict> harm on aggressors with minimal risk to it's own powers; leaving aside> whether the Leviathan would be/become malign in its own right.The following link is an example of the problems of indeterminacy,contradiction, arbitrariness and authority in inter! national law withrespect to intervention[s].http://rideau.carleton.ca/philosophy/cusjp/v20/n1/guidice.htmlDo you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online
Re: Iraq's money supply
The potential iraqi opposition economist in the pro american iraqi governemnt wrote a paper that was never published in which he says that it was not the war and the embargo that are killing people in iraq, it was sadam's money supply policy, too loose.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online
Re: Fictitious capital
Just as an aside, the kuwaiti stock market has been heating up for the last few years because of exess liquidity from iraq, the money is in compensation for the 1990 war, 25% of the the oil for food, nearly all of which goes to kuwait.Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online
