Month: April 2004

Perhaps the one thing you can be reasonably sure of is that we’re not getting the whole story about the current troubles in Iraq (even by reading almost everything, from all the different sources made available to you on Antiwar.com). This is not necessarily because the media are hiding anything, but simply because they can’t … Continue reading “Defining Moments in the War on Iraq”

With warfare escalating in Iraq, syndicated columnist George Will has just explained the logic of the occupation. "In the war against the militias," he wrote, "every door American troops crash through, every civilian bystander shot – there will be many – will make matters worse, for a while. Nevertheless, the first task of the occupation … Continue reading “The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence”

The complete absence of Iraq’s fabled “weapons of mass destruction,” the “flawed” intelligence that supposedly fooled U.S. government officials into believing their own propaganda, the lies and skullduggery that are now being exposed, have raised the question: well, then, why did we go to war? What, after all, was the point? Certainly not “democracy,” as … Continue reading “The Ugly Truth”

The recent bombing of a mosque in Fallujah meant fiery deaths for about forty Iraqis, but if the hawks get their way, it will be only the beginning of the deadly reprisals waged by the U.S. against that town in retaliation for the massacre of Americans there last week. The ideals of presumed innocence and … Continue reading “Fallujah Revenge and the War Disease”

One thing that can be said about U.S. neo-conservatives is they do not lack for ambition. “We need an Islamic reformation,” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz confided on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq last year, “and I think there is real hope for one.” Echoing those views one year later, another prominent … Continue reading “Neocons Seek Islamic ‘Reformation’”

I have watched with heavy heart and mounting dread as the ever-precarious battle to bring security to post-war Iraq has taken a desperate turn for the worse in recent days and hours. Along with so many Americans, I have been shaken by the hellish carnage in Fallujah and the violent uprisings in Baghdad and elsewhere. … Continue reading “A Call for an Exit Door from Iraq”

After the mid-March pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo, which clearly aimed at their physical destruction, Empire’s propaganda machine went into full spin trying to cover up the extent of the occupiers’ failure to prevent such aggression. Albanian partisans in the West launched passionate tirades about the necessity of giving the “Kosovars” independence now, and helping … Continue reading “Imperial Relapse”

Presstitutes’ Darling Nebojsa Malic brought up an excellent point with regard to conflict of interest. The board of ICG is made up of George Soros who is trying to destroy regimes in eastern Europe so that he can economically exploit and loot them. Doesn’t he have a stake in the outcome? Isn’t there a conflict … Continue reading “”

With Saddam captured, and the U.S. squaring off against a faceless enemy in Iraq, it was necessary to create a new demon figure, and the occupiers couldn’t have done a better job of it if they had gone to Central Casting: Moqtada al-Sadr is a radical, he’s got a big bushy beard, and is not … Continue reading “The New Saddam”

Six years ago, in February 1998, I traveled to Iraq with a British Voices in the Wilderness team. The US was threatening another massive bombardment. We decided to go to Fallujah in hopes of better understanding the perspective of people whose marketplace had been bombed, in 1991, by a smart bomb that went astray. The … Continue reading “Pacification: Worth the Price?”