http://musliminsuffer.wordpress.com/
bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
The war is already lost
Tariq Ali, The Guardian
December 20, 2006
Once a war goes badly wrong and its justifications are shown to be lies,
to insist that a "democratic" Iraq is visible on the horizon and that
"we must stay the course" becomes a total fantasy. What is to be done?
In the US a group of Foggy Bottom elders was wheeled in to prepare a
report. This admitted what the whole world (Downing Street excepted)
already knew: the occupation is a disaster and the situation gets more
hellish every day. After US citizens voted accordingly in the mid-term
elections, the White House sacrificed the Pentagon warlord, Donald
Rumsfeld.
The warlord of Downing Street, however, is still at large, zombie-like
in his denials that anything serious is wrong in Baghdad or Kabul.
Everything, for him, can still be remedied by a dose of humanitarian
medicine (a poison so powerful and audacious that no resistance is
possible). His desperate attempts to play the statesman have made him a
laughing stock in friendly Arab capitals and Baghdad's Green Zone. Iraq
is the umbilical cord that ties him to his fate.
Meanwhile the old men in Washington recognise the scale of the disaster.
Their descriptions are strong, their prescriptions weak and pathetic:
"We agree with the goal of US policy in Iraq, as stated by the
president: an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend
itself." Elsewhere they recommend a deal with Tehran and Damascus to
preserve post-withdrawal stability, implying that Baghdad can never be
independent again. It was left to a military realist, Lieutenant-General
William Odom, to demand a complete withdrawal in the next few months, a
view backed by Iraqis (Shia and Sunni) in successive polls. The
occupation, Kofi Annan informs us, has created a much worse situation
than under Saddam.
How different it was in the heady days that followed the capture of
Baghdad. Two lines of argument emerged in the victorious camp. The
Pentagon wanted a quick deal with Saddam's generals to establish a new
regime so that US and subsidiary troops could withdraw to bases in
northern Iraq and Kuwait to police the outcome. The state department and
its Downing Street auxiliary wanted the ruthless application of "hard
power" and a long occupation to establish a new Iraq as a model of US
"soft power" for the entire region.
This was never a serious option. It is the unconditional US support for
Israel that precludes any possibility of soft power in Iraq or
elsewhere. Using Fatah to promote civil conflict in Palestine is
unlikely to improve matters. Even the most pro-US Arab regimes in the
region - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states, which do
Washington's bidding - permit virulent denunciations of western policies
in the media to keep their own citizens at bay.
None of the scenarios being canvassed in Washington, including by the
Democrats, envisage a total US withdrawal. That is a defeat too
unbearable to contemplate, but the war has already been lost, together
with half a million Iraqi lives. Trying to delay the defeat (as in
Vietnam) by sending in a "surge" of troops is unlikely to work.
The British parliament, even more supine than its US equivalent, voted
against any official inquiry (not even a Hutton) on British involvement
in the war, when they knew that a majority in the country was opposed to
a continuation of this conflict. Blair's ideological zealotry has helped
destroy Iraq, revive the Taliban in Afghanistan, increase the threat of
terror in Britain and introduce repressive laws that were not enforced
even in the second world war. His own wretched party and the opposition
have acquiesced in these repellent measures. Time for a regime change at
home.
ยท Tariq Ali's latest book is Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope
- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
source:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1975751,00.html
===
-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
_______________________________________________
is-lam mailing list
[email protected]
http://milis.isnet.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/is-lam
