Despite rhetoric about women’s rights, America has helped turn Iraq into a sectarian hell where women can no longer participate in civil society. In fact, most will have to be content if they can leave the house every other month or so.
For much of the 20th century, and under various leaders, Iraq was one of the most progressive Middle Eastern countries in its treatment of women, who were encouraged to go to school and enter the workforce. Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party espoused a secular Arab nationalism that advocated women’s full participation in society. But years of war changed that.
So there you have it. Women are in fact prisoners in their own homes. People are fleeing Iraq like never before. Not even by their own murderous standards can the Americans claim success.
In other news, from Iraq:
The Corporate Occupation of Iraq – In light of the Iraq Study Group recommendations and their failure to address the real problems facing Iraq, the author of this TomPaine opinion piece advises that the US end the corporate invasion of Iraq. US companies, which were awarded lucrative contracts by the US government following the 2003 invasion, failed to reconstruct war-torn Iraq as intended. The author concludes that “the Bush administration must abandon its plan to remake Iraq into an economic wonderland for US corporations,” and return Iraq to the Iraqi people “to remake as they themselves see fit.”
Cornered Military Takes to Desperate Tactics – Although the Geneva Conventions forbid the use of collective punishment on civilian populations, the US military continues to employ such tactics in urban areas of Iraq. Due to a large resistance against the US-led occupation, residents in Siniyah, Fallujah and Ramadi say they face increased levels of collective punishment by US forces, including interference with the provision of medical care, electricity cuts and constant identity checks. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the population of Fallujah demands the “unconditional withdrawal of US troops from their city.”
It’s Still About Oil in Iraq – The author of this Los Angeles Times piece argues that the US pursuit for control of oil in the Middle East continues to drive the Iraq war, citing recommendations from the Iraq Study Group as evidence. The study group has called on the US government to “assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise” and to “encourage investment in Iraq’s oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies.” The author points out that such recommendations reflect the US government’s intention to privatize Iraq’s currently nationalized oil industry, giving US corporations access to “the world’s second-largest known oil reserves.”
Iraq: Not Civil War, Occupation – Although UN Secretary General Kofi Annan comments that the situation in Iraq “is worse than civil war,” this openDemocracy article points out that the country remains “occupied” by US forces, which fuels and escalates the violence in that country. The author emphasizes that the Iraq conflict is not a civil war and that abuse of the term can “mislead the public into supporting or acquiescing in policies on vital matters” that they would otherwise condemn. Furthermore, the author notes that Iraqis will not relent in their resistance to the occupation until foreign troops are withdrawn.
Iraq: Long History of Multi-Faith Co-Existence in Jeopardy – This Global Research piece analyzes the disappearance of Iraq’s multi-faith co-existence due to increasing ethnic violence, particularly in Iraq’s north. Although reports of violence between Sunni and Shiite sects dominate the media, the author points out that Turkmens and Kurds also face marginalization, discrimination and hostility. Despite appearances of stability in northern Iraq, “there are troubling signs of an ethnic cleansing underway.” Furthermore, northern cities such as Tel-Afar, which was the subject of a large-scale bombardment by US forces in 2005, “remains under military siege, crippled and little heard from.”
(AP) This is America’s war of terror rather. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the so called terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay turned out to be yoghurt salesmen after all. Which of course brings the entire rationale for what America has been saying and doing for the last five years into question. Of course, who would still be naive enough to trust America anyway?
The Pentagon called them “among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the Earth,” sweeping them up after Sept. 11 and hauling them in chains to a U.S. military prison in southeastern Cuba.
Since then, hundreds of the men have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to other countries, many of them for “continued detention.”
And then set free.
Decisions by more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, Europe and South Asia to release the former detainees raise questions about whether they were really as dangerous as the United States claimed, or whether some of America’s staunchest allies have set terrorists and militants free.
Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained.
New laws will require schools to teach patriotism and once again elevate the Defense Agency its pre-war status. Students may in fact be graded in patriotism and schools will “cultivate an attitude that respects tradition and culture, that loves the nation and home country.”
The education reform bill triggered controversy, both because of its sensitive content and because of disclosures this week that the government had planted officials posing as ordinary citizens at “town meetings” discussing the measure.
Sounds a lot like how they do things in America then, with fake town hall meetings, superpatriotism and all. All of this of course sounds fairly backward to many European observers, who have in fact learned from past mistakes. Then again, perhaps something good will come of this. With greater nationalism comes a very real possibility of a major fallout between the US and Japan. And with that in mind, any price is worth paying.
This has also been confirmed by Swedish immigration authorities who are now — despite the geographical distance — increasingly swamped by a neverending stream of refugees.
David Duke is allowed on CNN in an attempt to discredit the Holocaust Conference and any serious criticism of Zionism. The result isn’t entirely what Wolf Blitzer was hoping for as he gets his poorly corroborated slogans turned around. Deals with the constant and deliberate misquoting of Ahmadinejad, media bias and Blitzer’s shoddy history which incidentally is just as questionable as that of David Duke — both having been involved with ethnic supremacy, inciting violence and indirectly killing people.
Given recent events, Israel’s continued aggression towards neighbouring states, and its flouting of human rights, conventions and good practice, one could say that patience is pretty much expended at this point. It’s time that we show these bastards that we wont stand for their sickening behavior. The gloves are definitely off.
The Israeli butcher in charge goes to Berlin and seems to admit to nuclear weapons, while conjecturing that Iran is building nuclear weapons and that they can’t be allowed to. When in Italy, Olmert is found out coaching Romano Prodi into being sympathetic to Israel and saying exactly what Olmert wants him to say. Not that any political leader I know of would have the balls to criticise Israel publicly in any serious and meaningful way.
“Please say this?” Olmert asks his nodding counterpart in English.
Prodi then delivered words to that effect. He also endorsed Israel’s vision of remaining a Jewish state, which rules out an influx of Palestinian refugees.
3 commentsDecember 6th, 2006 at 07:51Björn Hallberg
People in the Philippines are increasingly upset with the current arrangement – and they have every right to be. Historical crimes notwithstanding, having the audacity to conspire to spirit away a convicted felon to what would likely be a jail-free life in the US is beyond reprehensible. But certainly in line with what the US has done in the past with regard to crimes committed on foreign soil. The underhanded tactics employed by the US defence team and the abusive assumptions pretty much says it all. Hopefully things will continue to sour between the US and the Philippines and in the end provide the archipelago with true independence and a democracy free of American meddling.
The United States has demanded interim custody of a US marine sentenced to 40 years in jail for raping a Filipina woman, the Philippines foreign department said.
The US embassy in Manila filed a diplomatic note invoking the right of the US military authorities to exercise custody of the marine in keeping with the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries.
The other three defendants were acquitted on account of the lack of evidence — if anyone believes that — and quickly whisked away to bases in Japan. I can’t wait until these fine young rapists come home to roost.
And also, the VFA notwithstanding, how likely would it be that foreign nationals could get this sort of treatment if they were convicted by a US court? Bloody unlikely that is for sure. I recall a certain Swedish citizen that has languished in an American dungeon (American prisons are to us what Philippine prisons are to Americans I suppose) for 25 years now, despite lack of evidence, due to a misguided plea bargain, local crooked laws and political grandstanding. If anything that has convinced me that Americans deserve nothing less than the same vindictive treatment. There are no mitigating circumstances, no excuses — just cold hard malice and unbending justice.
Say goodbye to the “clash of civilizations” myth. This is perhaps the most important UN report in a decade as it cuts right through the idea that has been nurtured not only by the usual Zionist and US suspects but by certain Islamic leaders as well, exposing the deception that is driving foreign policy and the spiral of violence.
Politics – not religion – lies at the root of a growing divide between Muslim and western societies, according to a report presented to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, yesterday.
An international panel of scholars, politicians and religious leaders warned that cultural stereotypes were turning negotiable disputes into “seemingly intractable identity-based conflicts” and that the clash-of-civilisations theory has obscured “the real nature of the predicament the world is facing”.
In their recommendations the 20-strong panel, which included Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu and former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, suggested steps towards defusing the crisis, including an urgent reinvigoration of the Middle East peace process and initiatives aimed at the young.
Another week and the steady march towards global meltdown continues. The pattern is all too familiar by now.
Israeli artillery shelling kills 19 civilians in Gaza – Supremacist Israel continues to slaughter civilians while the world looks on from the sidelines, indifferent or afraid to offend Israel or the US. With no Jewish settlers left to protect, Gaza is now essentially a free-fire zone where you can take potshots with artillery no less. Even though everyone is well aware of the risks of such military tactics. But few in racist Israel would even consider that Palestinian lives are worth anything (at least not as much as Jewish lives mind you). If they did care one iota they would not have subjected the former tenants to more than half a century of hardship in the first place.
Democats win US House of Representatives and Senate – Democracy at work? Winds of change? Don’t worry, because Pelosi is still a Zionist collaborator. Same shit, different assholes. Bolton most likely will be sent back to whatever slimy pit he came from, but his replacement will surely just be a smoother, more cunningly disguised version of the same old US attitudes. All in all, the best one can hope for is domestic controversies that will paralyze the ability to act, but as noted, even a starved, more covert policy may well do far more damage and sway far more foreign states. After all, the illusion of the good that supposedly is the US is never far away. Critics of the US who herald this as a victory must be as deluded as they are naive.
Outrage at London sting by US spies – “Undercover American agents are staging secret ‘sting’ operations in Britain against criminal and terrorist suspects they want to extradite to the US.”
In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.
Public Law 109-364, or the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007″ (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress public disorder.”
President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is “martial law.”
It has been a long year. The author is currently biding his time. Lets just say the journal is on a prolonged and much needed vacation. In the meantime you can be sure that I’m watching you all. I guess that at some point I will get so angry that I will in fact have to write something.
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