Dahr Jamail’s latest - the lie of ‘progress’ in Iraq
Once again, with rare exceptions, that media have had a hand in erasing the catastrophe of Iraq from the American landscape, if not the collective consciousness of the public. What, it occurred to me recently, do my friends and acquaintances back in Iraq (where I covered the occupation for eight months during the years 2003-2005) think not just about their lives and the fate of their country, but about our attitudes toward them? What do they think about the “success” - and the silence - in America? …
Josiah:
The quotes in Jamail’s article are devastating, especially Professor Hassan and the Baquba residents. I wish these four quotes from the end of the article were on the front page of the NY Times:
“The lack of security is a direct result of the occupation. The Americans crossed thousands of miles to destroy our home and kill our men. They are the reason for all our disasters.”
-Anonymous by request
“The Americans destroyed the electricity, water-pumping stations, factories, bridges, highways, hospitals, schools, burnt the buildings, and opened the borders for the strangers and terrorists to get easily into the country. The one who does all these things is void of humanity. I hate America and Americans.”
-Abu Tariq, merchant
“At the very beginning of the occupation, the people of Iraq did not realize the US strategy in the area. Their strategy is based on destruction and massacres. They do anything to have their agenda fulfilled. Now, Iraqis know that behind the US smile is hatred and violence. They call others violent and terrorists while what they are doing in Iraq and in other countries is the origin and essence of terror.”
-Abu Taiseer, Baquba resident
“In Baquba, people have severe hatred towards the Americans and a large number of residents have become enemies of the US Army. The people of Diyala province have been oppressed and treated unjustly by the US army and the [Baghdad] government. In order to improve the situation, the US army should let the people of this city rule it by themselves.”
-Jalal al-Taee, retired teacher
Of course, apologists would immediately characterize the above as “minority opinions,” even though the U.S. military’s latest polls show that they are majority opinions, among Sunnis and Shiites alike, in Iraq. Just a few weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article entitled “All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/18/AR2007121802262.html?hpid=topnews
The third sentence would put Orwell to shame:
29 January 2008, 9:01 am“Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month. That is good news, according to a military analysis of the results. At the very least, analysts optimistically concluded, the findings indicate that Iraqis hold some “shared beliefs” that may eventually allow them to surmount the divisions that have led to a civil war.”
Legume Sam:
It’s hard for me to see why this distinction between “the American people” and their government should have lasted as long as it did in Iraq. “The American people” are doing nothing to stop, or even to slow down, the massacre in Iraq; the antiwar movement has been halted, probably on orders of the Democratic Party.
In reflecting upon this mess, I can think of nothing more radical than the history depicted by Kees van der Pijl in “Transnational Classes and International Relations” — couched in abstract verbiage, therein, is the notion that capitalist history has been a history of the progressive, ever-expanding alienation and commodification that he calls “capitalist discipline,” and that as capitalist discipline spreads it tends to provoke different sorts of community resistance.
Americans are the world’s dupes of capitalist discipline. I have no idea why Iraqis would trust us.
29 January 2008, 1:39 pmTimothy R. Anderson:
The “success” and the silence.
There’s a good , brief description of this decade !
Anyway, at some as-yet-undetermined time in the future I
will likely get tired of typing this stuff in, but for now, please
bear with me ………….
Employees of businesses are making money, each and every day that the
Iraq War continues. For the most part, those employees are
English-speaking persons . Their first languages are NOT what has
got my brain overheated, though.
No, what has got my brain overheated is the FACTS that
the employees of Bechtel, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman , Triple Canopy , Raytheon , General Dynamics,
Blackwater USA , General Electric, and more businesses’ employees
are making money, big , gigantic amounts of money
as a direct consequence of millions of persons’ suffering.
I could easily slide in the terse remark that well, sheeeeesh, that is
capitalism for you, ain’t it ? but I don’t think that’s enough.
I think it is time that the general public here in the USA sat around without driving and gave some thought to the human suffering going on
in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and
Syria . Because suffering people were directly responsible for
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . The children
of Americans who stay in the ” Isolation Bubble Of Reality ”
that President Bush chooses to stay in are NOT gonna
be very happy with the ” blowback. ”
( all this was far, FAR more convincing when it was in my
brain. )
Tim
29 January 2008, 3:36 pm