Comments on: Open Letter to Robert Gates http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/ Making the Connections Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:52:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Marilyn Farhat http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-42207 Marilyn Farhat Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:09:09 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-42207 Stan, That was a great letter. Unfortunately, with the nature of some people who seek power and domination over others across the globe and their ability to "indoctrinate" the population in the different "must haves" of our culture and view of the world, I see no alternative to this never-ending war except for total disarmament. Even that will not eradicate violence, but it will prevent the psychopaths from inflicting mass oppression on the rest of the world. War just is, and has been since recorded human history. Territoriality and domination are part of who we are as human animals. However, our salvation may come from the pacifists among us. I am not an advocate of total pacifism, but their ideas and their activists seem to be more effective in influencing the cause of the oppressed and in saving lives far more that anything we have seen. I think it is up to every family in the US (and elsewhere) to figure out the degree of acquiescence in this warlike paradigm they wish to engage in. We all have a hand in it in different degrees based on how we live our lives and how we treat others. Divestment from the system/systems that promote such unhealthy ways of being remains the most effective, whether by becoming a conscientious objector, or by refusing to live beyond one's means, or by being mindful of not financially supporting the institutions that profit from war. But, those things have to been accomplished on mass scales to be effective and I am not hopeful. Most people do not have the time and they really couldn't care less or think it will not do any good. I do believe in the statement "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink." Power attracts people with dysfunctional personalities or those with personalities that lack empathy for others (psychopaths). That does not mean all people in power are psychopaths. Those individuals come from amongst us. It is a catch 22. They seek positions of power and, when they get there, they do their best not to change the system through total control. That is why power struggles have remained the way there are throughout history.People such the the Neo Cons and their military and political counterparts are in those positions because of who they are and their need to run the world a certain way whether the world wants it or not, and if the world gets destroyed in the process, it was all for a good cause, theirs. The average person holds a lot of power. Without us, the people, wars cannot be fought; goods cannot be made , sold, bought or used; munitions cannot be made, and people cannot be murdered. What may work against us is the fact that most of us are selfish people who are only concerned with our and our families' immediate needs. Most people in the world are not aware enough to realize the complexities and the moral questions posed by all the people, events and new technology and destructive capabilities. Our destructive capabilities are impacting infrastructure, human life and health, and the environment on large scale, but we are all busy working ourselves to death just to make ends meet or play. There has to be a world mass resistance movement, really, initiated by the people of the Western world. The West bears the brunt of the burden of change because we are the cause of most of it now and our citizens have better freedoms that others in more oppressive countries. We have the flexibility and the means. I have always believed in leadership and change by example, not by what is written in the rules. Rules are broken constantly, and when those making the rules or enforcing them start to break them, the rest of us will become cynical and learn to play the game because we know that power corrupts and those that are in power are not there to enforce laws for the benefit of everyone, but for their own ability to break them in different ways for personal agendas. We have to face it. Iraq is gone, a sad and criminal episode in our modern history. It will join the ranks for the countless nations of past generations who suffered the same fate due to cultural annihilation through prolonged war, a sort of Dark Age. The Palestinian nation is also gone. Both nations are being bled to death culturally and physically by vengeful and selfish groups of people with cultural and economic agendas. When I visited the Middle East almost two years ago, I was saddened to see that everything was becoming a carbon copy of the United States and its consumerist mindset. Gone are the old grimy markets with the architecture of 500 years ago where thousands of people met to buy groceries, fabric, and eat in the popular restaurants. Gone are all the tourist faces from around the world. Those shops were forced out of the hands of their owners (with the help of Rafik Hariri. That is why a large percentage of the Lebanese poor disliked him). Now, they belong to GAP and other high-priced establishments that cater almost exclusively to the rich of the Arab gulf regions and the rich of the West. Most people cannot afford to take their children for an ice cream cone in downtown Beirut. At the same time, the princes and princesses of the rest of the world do frequent such places for $700 shoes and $1,000 alligator skin handbags. Starbuck's and McDonald's are everywhere and they are guarded by the army and others in plain clothes (under cover) on the inside. I see the future as one where poor people will comprise the majority of soldiers, militias, armed resisters, and consumers. The rest will be war professionals, politicians and corporate leaders. There will be another group of people that will do well for itself in the never-ending war. The bourgeoisie term for those people used to be "nouveaux riches." Now they are your collaborators who usually work for anyone that will pay enough money and they will trade in arms, prostitution, drugs, espionage, and other lucrative wartime endeavors. Your contractors for hire may come from them. The lines that traditionally separated the military from profit will blur more as time goes on. We are going back to the very old system of warfare where most soldiers were hired or worked as mercenaries for a government or a group. What we will see is the "war lord" mentality on a global scale, where wars will be declared on small or large groups of people (not governments) because they did not tow the profit line. Mass resistance and constitutional and human rights laws revisions need to be made to protect the future generations. Stan,

That was a great letter. Unfortunately, with the nature of some people who seek power and domination over others across the globe and their ability to “indoctrinate” the population in the different “must haves” of our culture and view of the world, I see no alternative to this never-ending war except for total disarmament. Even that will not eradicate violence, but it will prevent the psychopaths from inflicting mass oppression on the rest of the world.

War just is, and has been since recorded human history. Territoriality and domination are part of who we are as human animals. However, our salvation may come from the pacifists among us. I am not an advocate of total pacifism, but their ideas and their activists seem to be more effective in influencing the cause of the oppressed and in saving lives far more that anything we have seen.

I think it is up to every family in the US (and elsewhere) to figure out the degree of acquiescence in this warlike paradigm they wish to engage in. We all have a hand in it in different degrees based on how we live our lives and how we treat others.

Divestment from the system/systems that promote such unhealthy ways of being remains the most effective, whether by becoming a conscientious objector, or by refusing to live beyond one’s means, or by being mindful of not financially supporting the institutions that profit from war. But, those things have to been accomplished on mass scales to be effective and I am not hopeful. Most people do not have the time and they really couldn’t care less or think it will not do any good. I do believe in the statement “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.”

Power attracts people with dysfunctional personalities or those with personalities that lack empathy for others (psychopaths). That does not mean all people in power are psychopaths. Those individuals come from amongst us. It is a catch 22. They seek positions of power and, when they get there, they do their best not to change the system through total control. That is why power struggles have remained the way there are throughout history.People such the the Neo Cons and their military and political counterparts are in those positions because of who they are and their need to run the world a certain way whether the world wants it or not, and if the world gets destroyed in the process, it was all for a good cause, theirs.

The average person holds a lot of power. Without us, the people, wars cannot be fought; goods cannot be made , sold, bought or used; munitions cannot be made, and people cannot be murdered.

What may work against us is the fact that most of us are selfish people who are only concerned with our and our families’ immediate needs. Most people in the world are not aware enough to realize the complexities and the moral questions posed by all the people, events and new technology and destructive capabilities. Our destructive capabilities are impacting infrastructure, human life and health, and the environment on large scale, but we are all busy working ourselves to death just to make ends meet or play.

There has to be a world mass resistance movement, really, initiated by the people of the Western world. The West bears the brunt of the burden of change because we are the cause of most of it now and our citizens have better freedoms that others in more oppressive countries. We have the flexibility and the means.

I have always believed in leadership and change by example, not by what is written in the rules. Rules are broken constantly, and when those making the rules or enforcing them start to break them, the rest of us will become cynical and learn to play the game because we know that power corrupts and those that are in power are not there to enforce laws for the benefit of everyone, but for their own ability to break them in different ways for personal agendas.

We have to face it. Iraq is gone, a sad and criminal episode in our modern history. It will join the ranks for the countless nations of past generations who suffered the same fate due to cultural annihilation through prolonged war, a sort of Dark Age. The Palestinian nation is also gone. Both nations are being bled to death culturally and physically by vengeful and selfish groups of people with cultural and economic agendas.

When I visited the Middle East almost two years ago, I was saddened to see that everything was becoming a carbon copy of the United States and its consumerist mindset. Gone are the old grimy markets with the architecture of 500 years ago where thousands of people met to buy groceries, fabric, and eat in the popular restaurants. Gone are all the tourist faces from around the world. Those shops were forced out of the hands of their owners (with the help of Rafik Hariri. That is why a large percentage of the Lebanese poor disliked him). Now, they belong to GAP and other high-priced establishments that cater almost exclusively to the rich of the Arab gulf regions and the rich of the West. Most people cannot afford to take their children for an ice cream cone in downtown Beirut. At the same time, the princes and princesses of the rest of the world do frequent such places for $700 shoes and $1,000 alligator skin handbags. Starbuck’s and McDonald’s are everywhere and they are guarded by the army and others in plain clothes (under cover) on the inside.

I see the future as one where poor people will comprise the majority of soldiers, militias, armed resisters, and consumers. The rest will be war professionals, politicians and corporate leaders. There will be another group of people that will do well for itself in the never-ending war. The bourgeoisie term for those people used to be “nouveaux riches.” Now they are your collaborators who usually work for anyone that will pay enough money and they will trade in arms, prostitution, drugs, espionage, and other lucrative wartime endeavors. Your contractors for hire may come from them. The lines that traditionally separated the military from profit will blur more as time goes on. We are going back to the very old system of warfare where most soldiers were hired or worked as mercenaries for a government or a group. What we will see is the “war lord” mentality on a global scale, where wars will be declared on small or large groups of people (not governments) because they did not tow the profit line.

Mass resistance and constitutional and human rights laws revisions need to be made to protect the future generations.

]]> By: Rhisiart Gwilym http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-42133 Rhisiart Gwilym Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:22:03 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-42133 Well,Robert Bowman gets it. Some of it. Finally. But a long,long way behind commentators such as Chomsky and Herman (for example) in point of time. And, it seems, still less comprehensively than them. And only after doing his own stint as a standard, mass-procuced US global war-criminal, in Vietnam in his case,'defending his country' by flying a war-plane to kill Vietnamese and devastate their country, which C and H and the rest of the principled dissidents always refused to do, whatever it cost them. Because any reasonably clear-seeing twelve-year-old can grasp that such actions are fundamentally wrong. Still a little way to go, Bob. Keep at it. Well,Robert Bowman gets it. Some of it. Finally. But a long,long way behind commentators such as Chomsky and Herman (for example) in point of time. And, it seems, still less comprehensively than them. And only after doing his own stint as a standard, mass-procuced US global war-criminal, in Vietnam in his case,’defending his country’ by flying a war-plane to kill Vietnamese and devastate their country, which C and H and the rest of the principled dissidents always refused to do, whatever it cost them. Because any reasonably clear-seeing twelve-year-old can grasp that such actions are fundamentally wrong.

Still a little way to go, Bob. Keep at it.

]]> By: d http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41452 d Wed, 15 Nov 2006 23:13:27 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41452 An Apt comment from Robert Bowman, a retired USAF Lt. Colonel who holds a Ph.D. in physics, was director of Advanced Space Program Development for the USAF in the Ford and Carter administrations. Here’s a part of what he had to say as a speaker at the DC Emergency Truth Convergence organized by the 9/11 Truth Movement in Washington, DC in July, 2005: You know, our freedoms are not under attack from the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist party. They’re under attack by the likes of John Ashcroft, they’re trampled by Donald Rumsfeld, they’re disdained by Dick Cheney, and they’re not even understood by George W. Bush. The battle to preserve our freedoms is not taking place in Baghdad and Tikrit and Fallujah. It’s taking place in peace marches and demonstrations in Girardelli Park in San Francisco, in Memorial Park in Oklahoma City, and in Lafayette Park in Washington DC. [….] We, my sisters and brothers, are protecting this nation by speaking truth to power. [….] And when we speak, this is the truth that we proclaim. This war in Iraq has nothing to do with national security, or freedom or democracy or human rights or protecting our allies or weapons of mass destruction or defeating terrorism or disarming Iraq. It has to do with money, it has to do with oil, and it has to do with raw imperial power. And it’s based totally on lies. Those who forced this war on an unwilling world are guilty of violating the US Constitution, the UN Charter, the Nuremberg principles, and international law. What they have done is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and treason. [….] This cabal of neoconservatives from PNAC who planned this war—Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Jeb Bush—even before W. became president, they told us why they had to do it. They said we need to occupy Iraq permanently in order to dominate Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the southern Russian republics around the Caspian Sea. We need to control the entire Middle East and all its oil. […] [T]hey knew the American people wouldn’t stand for it, and they said so in their documents—and they said, unless there’s that new Pearl Harbor. Well, 9/11 did supply that—and we’ve been lied to not only about the war, but about 9/11 itself. They ignored the warnings: more than that, we have mounting evidence that—at least—they made it impossible for those planes to be intercepted. If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot—I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they’ve changed them to—if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. My sisters and brothers, that is treason! As a combat veteran, I will not stand idly by and watch our security destroyed by a president who went AWOL rather than serve in Vietnam. As one who’s devoted his life to the security of this country, I will not stand by and watch an appointed president send our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs for the oil companies. [….] I joined the air force a long time ago to protect our borders and our people, not the financial interests of Folgers, Chiquita Banana, Exxon, and Halliburton. We’ve had enough corporate wars! No more Iraqs, no more Kosovos, no more El Salvadors, no more Colombias! These are not isolated incidents of stupidity; they’re part of a long, bloody history of foreign policy being conducted for the financial interests of the wealthy few. [….] As a pilot who flew a hundred and one combat missions in Vietnam, I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic—and that includes a renegade president! It’s time for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and the whole oil mafia to be removed from office and indited for treason. An Apt comment from Robert Bowman, a retired USAF Lt. Colonel who holds a Ph.D. in physics, was director of Advanced Space Program Development for the USAF in the Ford and Carter administrations. Here’s a part of what he had to say as a speaker at the DC Emergency Truth Convergence organized by the 9/11 Truth Movement in Washington, DC in July, 2005:
You know, our freedoms are not under attack from the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist party. They’re under attack by the likes of John Ashcroft, they’re trampled by Donald Rumsfeld, they’re disdained by Dick Cheney, and they’re not even understood by George W. Bush. The battle to preserve our freedoms is not taking place in Baghdad and Tikrit and Fallujah. It’s taking place in peace marches and demonstrations in Girardelli Park in San Francisco, in Memorial Park in Oklahoma City, and in Lafayette Park in Washington DC. [….] We, my sisters and brothers, are protecting this nation by speaking truth to power. [….]
And when we speak, this is the truth that we proclaim. This war in Iraq has nothing to do with national security, or freedom or democracy or human rights or protecting our allies or weapons of mass destruction or defeating terrorism or disarming Iraq. It has to do with money, it has to do with oil, and it has to do with raw imperial power. And it’s based totally on lies. Those who forced this war on an unwilling world are guilty of violating the US Constitution, the UN Charter, the Nuremberg principles, and international law. What they have done is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and treason. [….]
This cabal of neoconservatives from PNAC who planned this war—Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Jeb Bush—even before W. became president, they told us why they had to do it. They said we need to occupy Iraq permanently in order to dominate Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the southern Russian republics around the Caspian Sea. We need to control the entire Middle East and all its oil. […]
[T]hey knew the American people wouldn’t stand for it, and they said so in their documents—and they said, unless there’s that new Pearl Harbor. Well, 9/11 did supply that—and we’ve been lied to not only about the war, but about 9/11 itself. They ignored the warnings: more than that, we have mounting evidence that—at least—they made it impossible for those planes to be intercepted. If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot—I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they’ve changed them to—if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. My sisters and brothers, that is treason!
As a combat veteran, I will not stand idly by and watch our security destroyed by a president who went AWOL rather than serve in Vietnam. As one who’s devoted his life to the security of this country, I will not stand by and watch an appointed president send our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs for the oil companies. [….] I joined the air force a long time ago to protect our borders and our people, not the financial interests of Folgers, Chiquita Banana, Exxon, and Halliburton. We’ve had enough corporate wars! No more Iraqs, no more Kosovos, no more El Salvadors, no more Colombias! These are not isolated incidents of stupidity; they’re part of a long, bloody history of foreign policy being conducted for the financial interests of the wealthy few. [….]
As a pilot who flew a hundred and one combat missions in Vietnam, I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic—and that includes a renegade president! It’s time for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and the whole oil mafia to be removed from office and indited for treason.

]]> By: peggy http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41370 peggy Wed, 15 Nov 2006 10:31:12 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41370 Stan, I think your analysis is brilliant and I will continue to learn from you, to teach my students what you teach me, and to support your efforts however I can. But you know very well that Robert Gates will never see what you write, and even if he did, he would not understand. Perhaps this is what Sarkozi was trying to say: the creature to which you are writing has lost its humanity. Sarkozi just calls it and its kind bastards. You say they have narcissistic personality disorder. I say that whatever they have become is outside any human descriptors in any human language. It is questionable whether they have either consciousness or sentience. They are that far gone. They are not human. We cannot know what they are. We can only know what they do. Stan, I think your analysis is brilliant and I will continue to learn from you, to teach my students what you teach me, and to support your efforts however I can. But you know very well that Robert Gates will never see what you write, and even if he did, he would not understand. Perhaps this is what Sarkozi was trying to say: the creature to which you are writing has lost its humanity. Sarkozi just calls it and its kind bastards. You say they have narcissistic personality disorder. I say that whatever they have become is outside any human descriptors in any human language. It is questionable whether they have either consciousness or sentience. They are that far gone. They are not human. We cannot know what they are. We can only know what they do.

]]> By: Jimi 45 http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41341 Jimi 45 Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:39:07 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41341 Good job of cutting to the chase, Stan. I wish more people understood the subtle and not-so-subtle underpinnings of U.S. foreign policy. In the mean time I will continue to direct people your way. Good job of cutting to the chase, Stan. I wish more people understood the subtle and not-so-subtle underpinnings of U.S. foreign policy. In the mean time I will continue to direct people your way.

]]> By: peggy http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41332 peggy Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:35:50 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41332 Cher Sarkozi, I have undertaken to translate this post of yours. Hope I have not mangled it too badly. I love French, although I hardly know it. ********************************** Greetings to all To refuse someone their humanity makes one an animal and leads quickly to stupidity and hate. But we are speaking here of such bastards, who have seen, committed or caused the commission of such abominations, such cynical calculations, that I am certain they have nothing but filth to serve them. These people doubtless have a pessimistic, scornful vision of humanity. We must see that the swallowing of September 11 causes them to choke on the meat. See the excellent article by Larry Chin in today’s Global Research. ********************************* The article Sarkozi refers to is here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHI20061114&articleId=3860 Cher Sarkozi,

I have undertaken to translate this post of yours. Hope I have not mangled it too badly. I love French, although I hardly know it.

**********************************

Greetings to all

To refuse someone their humanity makes one an animal and leads quickly to stupidity and hate. But we are speaking here of such bastards, who have seen, committed or caused the commission of such abominations, such cynical calculations, that I am certain they have nothing but filth to serve them.
These people doubtless have a pessimistic, scornful vision of humanity. We must see that the swallowing of September 11 causes them to choke on the meat.
See the excellent article by Larry Chin in today’s Global Research.

*********************************

The article Sarkozi refers to is here:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHI20061114&articleId=3860

]]> By: Legume Sam http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41331 Legume Sam Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:28:43 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41331 one of the reasons I think it's so important to study the scope of the ecological crisis is that it (courtesy of the abovementioned second contradition) places a physical limitation upon the ability of the world to absorb capitalist discipline -- there becomes less and less wiggle-room for re-enactments of the populist Keynesian compromises of social democracy as ecosystems wilt, and so the revolution becomes a matter of saving what's left of the planet... one of the reasons I think it’s so important to study the scope of the ecological crisis is that it (courtesy of the abovementioned second contradition) places a physical limitation upon the ability of the world to absorb capitalist discipline — there becomes less and less wiggle-room for re-enactments of the populist Keynesian compromises of social democracy as ecosystems wilt, and so the revolution becomes a matter of saving what’s left of the planet…

]]> By: Legume Sam http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41282 Legume Sam Tue, 14 Nov 2006 23:31:35 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41282 The <a href="http://www.centerforpoliticalecology.org/Cyberbooks/part1.html" rel="nofollow">second contradiction of capitalism</a> should do a number on the continuing functioning of the system as well, as it is predicated upon extending the "American Way of Life" to the point of global ecological collapse... this will come sooner than we think, as the scientists who are predicting "eventual" climate disaster are required by career considerations to be overcautious... The second contradiction of capitalism should do a number on the continuing functioning of the system as well, as it is predicated upon extending the “American Way of Life” to the point of global ecological collapse… this will come sooner than we think, as the scientists who are predicting “eventual” climate disaster are required by career considerations to be overcautious…

]]> By: sarkozi http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41261 sarkozi Tue, 14 Nov 2006 20:51:40 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41261 Bonjour à tous , refuser à quelqu'un son humanité , en faire un animal , mène rapidement à la bêtise et à la haine . Mais nos parlons ici de tels salopards , qui ont vu , fait et fait faire de telles abominations , des calculs si cyniques , que je suis certain qu'il n'y a que de l'ordure à attendre d'eux . Ces gens ont sans doute une vision très pessimiste , très méprisante , de l'humanité .Il faut dire que nous voir gober le 11 septembre doit les faire se taper sur les cuisses . Lisez l'excellent article de Larry Chin dans Global Research aujourd'hui . Bonjour à tous ,
refuser à quelqu’un son humanité , en faire un animal , mène rapidement à la bêtise et à la haine .
Mais nos parlons ici de tels salopards , qui ont vu , fait et fait faire de telles abominations , des calculs si cyniques , que je suis certain qu’il n’y a que de l’ordure à attendre d’eux .
Ces gens ont sans doute une vision très pessimiste , très méprisante , de l’humanité .Il faut dire que nous voir gober le 11 septembre doit les faire se taper sur les cuisses .
Lisez l’excellent article de Larry Chin dans Global Research aujourd’hui .

]]> By: neilcaff http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/11/13/open-letter-to-robert-gates/#comment-41255 neilcaff Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:33:32 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=411#comment-41255 A well written letter, I hope it gets read by Mr. Gates. This is a little of post but is the following statement really correct? "In other words, sir, the American occupation of Iraq is the primary source of inter-Iraqi bloodshed; and painting this as ethnic rivalry might be a great public relations palliative for people in the US, but it is a deadly deception." At the start of the insurgency I think this would have been an entirely correct statement, lets not forget that leaked policy document on an "El Salvador option" in combating the Iraqi insurgency. Nevertheless I think 2 solid years of attacks on Shias by Sunnis and Shia death squads stalking Sunni neighburhoods have now taken their toll. Every sectarian atrocity whether its for or against the occupation leaves a legacy of bitterness and hatred and is a perfect feeding ground for the factionalism. In the absense of any unifying political force in Iraq the elites in the Sunni and Shia and Kurd community will continue to jockey for power whether the US is there or not. You'll also have interference from Syria, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia as well as sundry Western powers and Russia and China probably all with their own pet millitias when the US withdraws. Thats not to say the US should stay, there's no question their presense is aggravating the situation but there IS an ethnic/sectarian conflict going on in Iraq as well as an anti US insurgency. We on the left need to be honest with people and say that a US withdrawl will not mean the Iraqi's will live in peace and amity. Left to their own devices they probably would, but given its geo-political importantce domestic elite rivalries civil war seems a more likely course. US imperialism cannot build a better future for Iraqi's (the very idea is derisive) but neither can the right wing sectarian Islamists or other millitia leaders either. A well written letter, I hope it gets read by Mr. Gates.
This is a little of post but is the following statement really correct?
“In other words, sir, the American occupation of Iraq is the primary source of inter-Iraqi bloodshed; and painting this as ethnic rivalry might be a great public relations palliative for people in the US, but it is a deadly deception.”
At the start of the insurgency I think this would have been an entirely correct statement, lets not forget that leaked policy document on an “El Salvador option” in combating the Iraqi insurgency. Nevertheless I think 2 solid years of attacks on Shias by Sunnis and Shia death squads stalking Sunni neighburhoods have now taken their toll. Every sectarian atrocity whether its for or against the occupation leaves a legacy of bitterness and hatred and is a perfect feeding ground for the factionalism. In the absense of any unifying political force in Iraq the elites in the Sunni and Shia and Kurd community will continue to jockey for power whether the US is there or not. You’ll also have interference from Syria, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia as well as sundry Western powers and Russia and China probably all with their own pet millitias when the US withdraws.
Thats not to say the US should stay, there’s no question their presense is aggravating the situation but there IS an ethnic/sectarian conflict going on in Iraq as well as an anti US insurgency. We on the left need to be honest with people and say that a US withdrawl will not mean the Iraqi’s will live in peace and amity. Left to their own devices they probably would, but given its geo-political importantce domestic elite rivalries civil war seems a more likely course.
US imperialism cannot build a better future for Iraqi’s (the very idea is derisive) but neither can the right wing sectarian Islamists or other millitia leaders either.

]]>