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If you don’t want people to lash out at you violently, don’t provoke them. If you want to prevent terrorist attacks, don’t make new enemies. Sound advice. But hardly macho. And the Bush administration’s approach to fighting terrorism is decidedly macho. You won’t find Bush’s team addressing the grievances of the victims of US foreign policy—the bombing victims, the injured, the disabled, the bereft, the dispossessed, the refugees. You won’t find its members laying awake at night worrying that some Afghans and Iraqis are so incensed at what the US has done to them, their neighbours, their friends, and their family that they’ve sworn never to rest until they exact revenge.
Ramzy Baroud
The chances of a decisive US army military victory in Iraq is as slim as that of Israel winning against the Palestinians. Victory, in some types of war, is indeed decided by the firepower of the warring parties, the ranking of an army in comparison to its counterpart, and the effective use of air force. In the case of the US war against the Iraqi resistance, none of these aspects is of much relevance.
Ted Rall
Nearly 70 percent of Americans tell Newsweek that “the United States will be bogged down in Iraq for years without achieving its goals.” Yet 61 percent tell the same poll that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. The reason for this weird disconnect: people think that we’re in Iraq to spread democracy and rebuild the Middle East. They think we’re The Good Guys. But the longer we keep patting ourselves on the back, the more we tell ourselves that the Iraqi resistance is a bunch of evil freedom-haters, the deeper we’ll sink into this quagmire. It’s time to get real.
Sarah Flounders
Has USA use of depleted-uranium (DU) weapons turned Iraq into a radioactive danger area for both Iraqis and occupation troops? This question has already had serious consequences. In hot spots in downtown Baghdad, reporters have measured radiation levels that are 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal background radiation levels.
Elizabeth Sullivan
It was probably pure coincidence that the bloodiest day in U.N. history, the day a massive truck bomb killed the world body’s chief Iraq envoy and 19 others, came on the 50th anniversary of the CIA-plotted coup in Iran that seeded today’s Islamic terrorism.
Edward Said
During the last days of July, Representative Tom Delay (Republican) of Texas, the House majority leader described routinely as one of the three or four most powerful men in Washington, delivered himself of his opinions regarding the roadmap and the future of peace in the Middle East. What he had to say was meant as an announcement for a trip he subsequently took to Israel and several Arab countries where, it is reported, he articulated the same message. In no uncertain terms Delay declared himself opposed to the Bush administration’s support for the roadmap, especially the provision in it for a Palestinian state.
Kevin Watkins
When a man knows he is to be hung,” Samuel Johnson famously observed, “it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” With just over two weeks to go before the next phase of global trade talks, the prospect of the world’s trading system collapsing might have been expected to concentrate the minds of negotiators from the rich countries. Judging by a pact announced on Wednesday, however, American and European political leaders relish nothing more than the prospect of a good hanging.
Rami G. Khouri
I worry when I hear the Egyptian foreign minister say, as he did Monday after meeting his Saudi Arabian and Syrian counterparts, that the USA-appointed provisional Governing Council in Iraq lacks legitimacy, and that these Arab states agreed to revive Arab action on Iraq and Palestine. I worry because legitimacy and collective Arab action are two of the greatest problems facing our societies, and repeating hollow old phrases and pursuing discredited policies in the face of our region’s new realities will only ensure more failures, tensions, and violence.
Latin American Federation of Journalists
A new opposition coalition challenges the hard-line regime of President Alvaro Uribe for its devastating economic policies and systematic violations of freedoms. A general strike has been called for August 12th.
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