Hi. I just visited the Robbie Conal exhibit in Santa Monica. It's absolutely stunning, related to the election and everything else we're all thinking about right now, yet a sublime, artistic excape from it all. Highly recommended. ed
http://embassymag.ca/page/view/margolis_book-10-29-2008 Margolis on Why Afghanistan is a Martyr Nation by Jeff Davis Published October 29 2008 American Raj: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim Word By Eric Margolis Key Porter Books 400 pp. $32.95 American-born journalist and author Eric Margolis has for decades reported from the world's warzones, including extensively from Afghanistan and Pakistan. His new book, American Raj: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World, looks at the current state of relations between the West and Islam. Here is an edited transcript of a conversation Embassy had with Mr. Margolis last week about Afghanistan, the Taliban and Canada's role in that shattered country. Do you think we are in a long war with Islam? "No, I don't. The world of Islam and the West are certainly at loggerheads now, but it's not an irreversible trend, it's not inevitable and it can be ended. "In my view, from 50 years experience in the region, it is all about politics and resources. It has nothing to do with religion, aside from a few loud-mouth Muslim fanatics. "What there is is a scattered movement across the Muslim world, unconnected but all over the area, to try and kick Western influence out of the Muslim world. "Westerners don't realize it, but the West exercises an imperial control over much of the Muslim world.... We rule the Muslim world just the way the British ruled India. That's why my book is called American Raj, raj being the imperial rule. "What we call terrorism is actually the natives fighting back, what the British used to call the 'cost of empire.' "The anger in the Muslim world is not, like Bush said, because they hate what we believe. Freedom. That's bullshit. The anger is directed at what the West has been doing for the last 150 years...and at specific political questions starting with Palestine." Where does Afghanistan fit into all this? "The U.S. had reason to go into Afghanistan after 9/11 because it believed Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks.... "The Taliban, which was a religious anti-communist movement founded to stop the rape of women, banditry and the drug trade, sheltered Osama Bin Laden because he was a hero of the Afghan war, wounded six times in action. [The Taliban] refused to turn him over to the U.S. until they issued a proper extradition request showing legal proof of why he was guilty. The U.S. refused. They just attacked Afghanistan. "The U.S. needed a target for its anger, and that became the Taliban. They couldn't find anyone else." And Canada? "The U.S. dragooned it allies into the war. [Former Liberal deputy prime minister] Sheila Copps told us on TVO. She said the White House called and said 'Send troops to Afghanistan or Iraq, or don't ship anything across the border.' It was that kind of crude pressure. "To make a long story short, Canada was dragged into this war for trade reasons. It had to be sold to the Canadian public as nation building, protecting battered women. Something I call armed social workers." Armed social workers? Does anyone in the Muslim world buy that? "Nope. It's absolute nonsense. "The Taliban were regarded as hillbilly boors and backwards primitives, which is what they are. They're Pashtun tribesman. They're wild and crazy guys. They're very fierce and they love to fight, but they don't mistreat women any worse than other peoples there do, like the Uzbeks or Tajiks, for example, who are our Western allies. "There are all kinds of barbarities that go on in that part of the world, yet all we focus on is the Taliban.... So the Taliban was demonized and really taken out of context. They used to be our freedom fighters. "Most Canadians would be shocked by the behaviour in that part of the world, but everybody's like that. That's the point I am making. You know, this is not munchkinland. This is not Switzerland. These are wild tribesman in one of world's most backward countries." You describe Afghanistan as a martyr nation. Why? "Poor Afghanistan. Invaded by Soviets in 1979, it's almost 30 years now that that country has been at war. The Afghan people have suffered just unspeakably. "In the rest of the Muslim world there is great anger. When I say martyr nation, they see Afghanistan as being martyred by outside powers. It's a small, tiny, weak Muslim country that only wants to be left alone. Yet these rapacious foreign powers, first the Soviets, then the U.S., descended on it." You're a military historian. Can the West hold Afghanistan? "No. One of my maxims is 'never fight a war against people who live in the country you are fighting in.' Eventually they know you're going to go home. The Afghans are very happy to fight for 100 years. They really enjoy fighting. "We can bomb the crap out of Afghanistan, as we're doing. It's really a terror campaign. Any village that's accused of harbouring Taliban is bombed by the U.S. "We may be able to hold the area, and beat down resistance, but long term, I don't see any stability there. "The idea, of putting in a puppet government, like they're trying to do in Iraq, that will follow Western dictates, I don't think will be successful." [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** From: "CeJ" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:06 PM Iran Building Naval Bases up to Strait of Hormuz >>Military experts say Iran's armed forces cannot match U.S. military technology but could still cause havoc on shipping routes, particularly using small craft for hit-and-run attacks.<< And according those military experts, Hezbollah was no match for the mighty evil mini-me of the US military, Israel's DF. Yet they nearly sunk an IDF frigate with a very crude missile fired most likely within visible range of the ship from the back of a pick-up truck. Iran would use widely dispersed personnel on islands, small craft, and shorelines to wreak missile havoc on the US Navy (remember that incident awhile back when UK Naval personnel were captured by the Iranians? that was some sort of mission to find out about Iran's small missile capabilities). The US Navy would then proceed to use its unchallenged air power to bomb Iran proper. The Iranian forces would then proceed to launch the missiles at anything they could in those shipping lanes. By that time a bet on high oil would mean nothing because there wouldn't be enough of a finance economy left to pay the winners at the betting table. CJ *** ----- Original Message ----- From: "CeJ" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 5:57 PM Subject: Re: Bush's Looming Defeat in Iraq Bush's Looming Defeat in Iraq? Well, it looks more like a looming defeat in the 'war against terror'. I remember the predictions attributed to OBL about how the US and its allies would wreck their economies spending huge amounts to try and use force to defeat him. Looking at the wreckage of the speculative leveraged political economy that financed that war against terror, I nominate OBL for a Nobel in economics. However, about that SOFA. It would helpful to remember that what the article discusses is not the sort of endgame the US national security state plays for. For example, in theory and in text, the Japanese government (in consultation with its prefectural governments and 'the people') is supposed to have control over US forces in Japan. But it has no control whatsoever in reality. What is key to look for in the next two years is how the Dept. of Defense and CentCom attempt to drag out their occupation of Iraq in order to outlast an Obama presidency. He is has already set up the conditions for his own defeat on the de-occupation of Iraq by (1) admitting his complete withdrawal is conditional (conditions set by CentCom) and (2) giving CentCom a right to expand towards Pakistan. The recent 'let's attack Syria the way we do Pakistan' ploy indicates quite a lot of what CentCom is actually thinking should be in store for newbie prez, Obama, a man who never served in the US military. CJ _______________________________________________ Rad-Green mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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