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US 'alienating' world's Muslims
(BBC NEWS, 25 November 2004)
The US is losing "the war of ideas" in the Islamic world, a Pentagon advisory panel has warned. . . . A report by the Defence Science Board says America's public talks of bringing democracy to Muslim nations is seen as "self-serving hypocrisy". . . . It says if the US wants Muslims to move towards its understanding of tolerance, it must reassure them this does not mean submitting to "the American way". . . . The report urges Washington to change its approach urgently. . . . However, it says that improving public relations is not enough. . . . "Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies," the report says. . . . "The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favour of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. . . . "Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy," the report says. . . . It adds that the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has actually raised the stature of radical enemies of America. . . . "US actions appear... to be motivated by ulterior motives, and deliberately controlled in order to best serve American national interests at the expense of truly Muslim self-determination," the report says. . . . It describes US public diplomacy as being in crisis and urges the creation of a strategic communications apparatus within the White House. . . . "The information campaign - or as some still would have it, 'the war of ideas' or the struggle for 'hearts and minds' - is important to every war effort," the report says, referring to the US-led war on terror. . . . The BBC's Nick Childs at the Pentagon says the report may not be official policy, but it does highlight many concerns in official circles in Washington about how the US government can communicate its messages abroad. . . . The Defence Science Board is made of civilian experts appointed by the Pentagon, and offers the department advice on scientific, technical and other issues.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 7:59 PM

 

50,000 Protest in Santiago as Chile says no to APEC
(The Santiago Times, Nov. 22, 2004)
Santiaguinos returned to work today after three days of mass protests and violence in the Chilean capital that saw 189 arrests and numerous injuries. . . . On Friday, hours before some of the world's most powerful leaders – including U.S. President George W. Bush, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao of China – arrived for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, 50,000 people took to the streets for a march organized by the Chilean Social Forum under the slogans "another world is possible" and "Santiago is ours." . . . The march turned violent when a small group of protesters began to throw rocks and glass bottles at police. Organizers called for calm but, as the park filled with gas from helicopters, marchers fled onto the surrounding streets and into Plaza Italia, where masked demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, smashed shop fronts and tore up benches, and police in riot gear responded with water cannon and baton charges. . . . According to police, 189 people were arrested, including five foreigners – three Germans and two students from the United States. . . . Several protesters and 23 carabineros were injured. Two offices received gunshot wounds in further clashes in the La Victoria and Villa Francia suburbs, where there were 11 more arrests. . . . Hundreds of protesters have been arrested throughout Chile over the past week, and thousands of additional police were on duty in the Chilean capital in the largest security operation since the papal visit in 1987. . . . Chileans are angered by the willingness of the country’s socialist President Lagos to adopt U.S.-sponsored economic models and foster Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Marchers called for APEC delegates to turn their attention from the superrich to global poverty and achieving sustainable development in the Third World. . . . A member of the Chilean communist party known as Manuel attacked Lagos for betraying the party of Chile’s iconic president, Salvador Allende. Allende became the world’s first elected socialist head of state in 1970 and died in the 1973 [U.S.-backed, CIA-led] coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power. . . . "Salvador Allende was a revolutionary socialist. Lagos is a capitalist. We need to change Chile and to change Latin America," Manuel said. . . . The poet Raúl Zurita, an active member of the political resistance during Pinochet’s military government, said, We are here against Bush, against APEC, against the dictatorship of the rich. . . . Aside from discontent with Chile’s proliferating FTAs and the injustices of globalization, demonstrators voiced their outrage at the Bush's policy of preemptive war. Banners denounced the U.S. president as "terrorist number one" and the loudest chant was "no to war, yes to peace." . . . Among the diverse crowd were student and political groups, monks and members of Chile's indigenous Mapuche. . . . The president of the Council of all Lands of Chile indigenous rights group, Aucan Huilcaman, later presented an open letter addressed to the APEC leaders, making "an urgent call to the members of APEC to include the indigenous issue in their agenda and to establish mechanisms for the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples as a way to guarantee and assure our cultural projection and the respect of indigenous peoples' human rights." . . . The Mapuche are angered by the presence of multinational forestry and farming corporations in the areas of southern Chile they regard as their homeland. . . . Muslim marchers protested the Russian presence in Chechnya and called for an independent Palestine. . . . Abdul Gafari, a Chilean Muslim, told The Santiago Times, "We are here against the terrorists Bush and Putin. We don’t want to see more Muslims killed – not just Muslims, all the innocent people who are being killed. The powerful can just do what they like, that’s the problem.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 3:02 PM

 

Al-Jazeera Reporter Jailed in Spain
(Democracy Now, November 22, 2004)
A journalist with the Arabic satellite television channel, Al-Jazeera, and ten others have been jailed in Spain ahead of a trial on charges of having links with Al-Qaeda. The ten were charged last year and have been free on bail for over a year. . . . Prosecutors urged that they remain in custody until their February trial for fear they may flee after their appeals were rejected last week. Lawyers for the ten criticized the order, saying they had abided by the conditions of bail set over a year ago. . . . Al Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni, who holds dual Syrian and Spanish citizenship, was arrested Thursday evening in the southern city of Granada, where he lives. Alouni is one of Al-Jazeera"s best-known journalists, and has interviewed Osama bin Laden. . . . The leading Spanish daily reports Alouni told the court "How am I going to run away? If I flee, I risk my entire journalistic career." Lawyers said Alouni and another of the ten had health problems that could get worse in jail. . . . ust after taking office in April, Rodriguez Zapatero fulfilled a campaign promise: he withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq and left the "coalition of the willing." To use Donald Rumsfeld´s terms, Spain left the New Europe and joined the Old Europe. . . . In the past few months, Rodriguez Zapatero has appointed a cabinet composed of 50 percent women, and drawn up legislation that if passed will legalize abortion and gay marriage, introduce gender violence laws and roll back many of Aznar's conservative educational and social initiatives. In its proposed annual budget, which now awaits approval in Congress, the government has earmarked more funds for social spending, somewhat reduced the military budget and increased aid to developing countries. . . . Meanwhile, US-Spanish relations are at an all-time low, particularly after Rodriguez Zapatero pulled troops from Iraq and then gave an anti-war speech before the UN General Assembly calling on other countries to withdraw from Iraq.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 9:22 AM

 

Powell Caught Lying About Iran's Nuclear Capacity
(CNN, November 19, 2004)
The source of intelligence used this week by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to suggest Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program may not be reliable, knowledgeable sources told CNN Friday. . . . The issue surfaced when The National Council of Resistance of Iran -- which is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations -- revealed satellite photographs this week it said showed a hidden nuclear plant in Iran, allegations the Iranians denied. . . . "This allegation is timed to coincide with the next meeting of the board of governors of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]," Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hussein Moussavian, said. "And every time just before the meeting there are these kind of allegations either from the United States or terrorist groups. And every time these allegations have proven to be false." . . . Powell, en route to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago, Chile, told reporters he had seen intelligence that appears to "corroborate" the resistance group's information. . . . Some U.S. officials were angered by a report in Friday's edition of The Washington Post which quotes two sources who said Powell used information that was classified, and from a single unvetted source. . . . The Post article said the information Powell shared with reporters came from a "walk-in" source who approached U.S. intelligence and may or may not be reliable. . . . Intelligence insiders question whether the leak could have come from their community, which traditionally guards information about sources and methods very carefully. . . . The intelligence upon which Powell based his comments to reporters was disseminated to a range of officials at the State Department, the White House, and the Pentagon, among other entities.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 11:49 AM

 

Chirac says Bush made world more dangerous
(BBC NEWS, 17 November 2004)
French President Jacques Chirac says he is "not at all sure" the world has become safer with the removal from power of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. . . . In a BBC interview Mr Chirac suggests the situation in Iraq has helped to prompt an increase in terrorism. . . . The interview, to be aired on BBC Two's Newsnight programme on Wednesday, comes ahead of his visit to the UK this week. . . . President Chirac also maintains that any intervention in Iraq should have been through the United Nations. . . . "To a certain extent Saddam Hussein's departure was a positive thing, " Mr Chirac says when asked if the world is safer now, as US President George W Bush has repeatedly stated. . . . "But it also provoked reactions, such as the mobilisation in a number of countries, of men and women of Islam, which has made the world more dangerous," Mr Chirac says. . . . "There's no doubt that there has been an increase in terrorism and one of the origins of that has been the situation in Iraq. . . . "I'm not at all sure that one can say that the world is safer," Mr Chirac says. . . . n an earlier interview with British journalists, Mr Chirac said Prime Minister Tony Blair had received nothing in return for backing the Bush administration. . . . "I'm not sure it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically," he said.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 10:53 AM

 

Explosions rock US banks in Argentina
A series of blasts have shaken three banks in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, killing one man and injuring another. . . . Police say the man, a security guard, died of injuries received when a bomb exploded at a branch of the US-based Citibank group. . . . Another Citibank branch was targeted in a separate blast, while a third hit a branch of Argentine bank Banco Galicia. . . . They said the bombs appeared to be home-made devices. . . . The 38-year-old guard was fatally injured when he picked up a suspicious package at about 0900 local time (1200 GMT) at Citibank's branch in the Caballito district, Agence France Presse said. . . . At least one more device was deactivated there by police. . . . "There were two artefacts - just one exploded. The second one must have been detonated by the fire squad," police chief Francisco Santos Miglino said. . . . A police officer was injured when a separate bomb went off outside a second Citibank branch in the Barrio Norte district. . . . The Banco Galicia branch targeted was in the same district of the Argentine capital. . . . It was not clear who was responsible for the bombs but the BBC's Elliott Gotkine says banks are widely hated in Argentina. . . . The country's economic crisis three years ago led to many people losing large amounts of their savings. . . . A similar incident occurred in August when small bombs were set off in the city to coincide with a visit from the International Monetary Fund's director, Rodrigo de Rato.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 10:47 AM

 

The World Should Rise Up to Stop U.S. War Crimes in Iraq
(From Dahr Jamail's Blog, November 17, 2004)
She lays dazed in the crowded hospital room, languidly waving her bruised arm at the flies. Her shins, shattered by bullets from US soldiers when they fired through the front door of her house, are both covered by casts. Small plastic drainage backs filled with red fluid sit upon her abdomen, where she took shrapnel from another bullet. . . . Fatima Harouz, 12 years old, lives in Latifiya, a city just south of Baghdad. Just three days ago soldiers attacked her home. Her mother, standing with us says, "They attacked our home and there weren't even any resistance fighters in our area." Her brother was shot and killed, and his wife was wounded as their home was ransacked by soldiers. "Before they left, they killed all of our chickens," added Fatima's mother, her eyes a mixture of fear, shock and rage. . . . A doctor standing with us, after listening to Fatima's mother tell their story, looks at me and sternly asks, "This is the freedom -- in their Disney Land are there kids just like this?" . . . Another young woman, Rana Obeidy, was walking home with her brother two nights ago. She assumes the soldiers shot her and her brother because he was carrying a bottle of soda. This happened in Baghdad. She has a chest wound where a bullet grazed her, unlike her little brother who is dead. . . . Laying in a bed near Rana is Hanna, 14 years old. She has a gash on her right leg from the bullet of a US soldier. Her family was in a taxi in Baghdad this morning which was driving near a US patrol when a soldier opened fire on the car. . . . Her father's shirt is spotted with blood from his head which was wounded when the taxi crashed. . . . In another room a small boy from Fallujah lays on his stomach. Shrapnel from a grenade thrown into their home by a US soldier entered his body through his back, and implanted near his kidney. . . . An operation successfully removed the shrapnel. His father was killed by what his mother called, "the haphazard shooting of the Americans." The boy, Amin, lies in his bed vacillating between crying with pain and playing with is toy car. . . . It's one case after another of people from Baghdad, Fallujah, Latifiya, Balad, Ramadi, Samarra, Baquba -- from all over Iraq, who have been injured by the heavy-handed tactics of American soldiers fighting a no-win guerilla war spawned from an illegal invasion based on lies. Their barbaric acts of retaliation have become the daily reality for Iraqis, who continue to take the brunt of the frustration and rage of the soldiers. . . . "We don't need you here! Get the fuck out of here! Bring back Saddam! Even he was better than you animals! We don't want to die by your hands, so get out of here! We can take care of our own people!" . . . The translator with the soldiers does not translate this. Instead he watches with a face of stone. . . . The survivors of those killed and wounded by the US military in Iraq, as well as those who care for them, are left with feelings of bitter anguish, grief, rage and vengeance. . . . This afternoon at a small, but busy supply center set up in Baghdad to distribute goods to refugees from Fallujah, the stories the haggard survivors are telling are nearly unimaginable. . . . "They kicked all the journalists out of Fallujah so they could do whatever they want," says Kassem Mohammed Ahmed, who just escaped from Fallujah three days ago, "The first thing they did is they bombed the hospitals because that is where the wounded have to go. Now we see that wounded people are in the street and the soldiers are rolling over them with tanks. This happened so many times. What you see on the TV is nothing-that is just one camera. What you cannot see is so much." . . . While Kassem speaks of the television footage, there are also stories of soldiers not discriminating between civilians and resistance fighters. . . . Another man, Abdul Razaq Ismail arrived from Fallujah last week. . . . While distributing supplies to other refugees he says, "There are dead bodies on the ground and nobody can bury them. The Americans are dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates River near Fallujah. They are pulling the bodies with tanks and leaving them at the soccer stadium." . . . Nearby is another man in tears as he listens, nodding his head. He can't stop crying, but after a little while says he wants to talk to us. . . . "They bombed my neighborhood and we used car jacks to raise the blocks of concrete to get dead children out from under them." . . . Another refugee, Abu Sabah, an older man wearing a torn shirt and dusty pants tells of how he escaped with his family while soldiers shot bullets over their heads, but killed his cousin. . . . "They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," he said, having just arrived yesterday, "Then small pieces fell from the air with long tails of smoke behind them. These exploded on the ground with large fires that burnt for half an hour. They used these near the train tracks. You could hear these dropped from a large airplane and the bombs were the size of a tank. When anyone touched those fires, their body burned for hours." . . . The comparison of Iraq to Vietnam is becoming more valid by the day here.

[COMMENT by Lorenzo: I'm a Viet Nam vet, and it seems to me that Iraq is going to far surpass Nam in its horrors. It is as if "Apocalypse Now" has come to life.]

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 10:07 AM

 

American Sunset
(WarFolly.com, John Kaminski, 11-05-04)
Oh, the gnashing of teeth, the beating of breasts, the wailings of woe. Bush and the Republicans stole the election! Big surprise, eh? The neocon Nazis have done nothing but break the law since before they ever took office. You were expecting fair play from them, perchance? . . . Much as I admire many of my friends who are desperately trying to tell everyone that the exit polls matched the election results in all the states with a paper trail, but didn't in states without one -- suspiciously and substantially favoring Bush instead -- they all are, to put it politely, whizzing into the wind. Perhaps they hope to find a prosecutor aspiring to career suicide, or maybe a judge who wishes to see his family killed in some kind of odd accident, an inexplicable plane crash, perhaps. . . . How, in an election year where the central questions should have been about waging wars based on well-known lies and throwing away the lives of American soldiers chasing phantoms who don't exist -- as well as questioning the cynical coverup of the greatest crime in American history, which 3,000 Americans were murdered by these same phantoms .... how could these momentous questions be overshadowed on election day by a relatively irrelevant brouhaha about gay marriage? . . . In fact, it was because the loyal opposition chose not to mention these issues, but instead participated in the media coverup of these crimes, because in fact there is only one party in this country -- the party of the banks. On that level this election was a complete sham. There was no real contest. So why are you so upset about the results of an election in which both candidates were saying the same thing? . . . When all was said and done, your vote didn't really matter because John Kerry essentially agreed with everything Bush had done during his capital-crime-plagued first term. (Capital crimes, as in treason and mass murder.) Kerry promised to INCREASE the war effort in Iraq. He accepts the reality of the cover story of Arab hijackers. He helped write the Patriot Act. Fifteen years ago, he helped cover up the BCCI scandal, another one of the great robberies in American history. . . . So why is everyone so upset that Kerry so quickly conceded, getting himself out that contrived dog-and-pony show as fast as possible? Why is anyone upset that Kerry lost? Nothing would have changed! . . . Why bother working to overturn an election when success would mean installing a candidate who would do nothing different from the man who won? Now that's what I call a totally futile effort. . . . The lies used to justify the continuing slaughter of innocent people in Iraq fester like an infected scab on the psyche of the American people, who have become so twisted in their pursuit of narcotized tranquility that they are now even cheering the deaths of their own children who come home in boxes we are not allowed to see. How much more insane can it get before blissful blackness will alleviate our misery? . . . If souls were faces, Americans would gaze into their bathroom mirrors each morning and see their rotting skin covered with oozing sores, putrescent pustules of their suicidal disease caused by their intransigent focus on tormenting trivialities, caused by their willing ignorance of their soldiers -- their own children -- raping Iraqi children, blowing Iraqi families to bits, then, as their deeds set into their curdled spirits, coming home and hanging themselves in the shattering silence of realizing their own horrified depravity. . . . The mask is off now. . . . The election is over. It didn't matter who won. What matters is that America has lost, and Americans eagerly helped her lose, just as Americans eagerly kill people all over the world for reasons that they know are lies. Since both candidates were pursuing the same policies in regard to making unjust war, in this election, Americans voted overwhelmingly -- almost 100 percent -- to kill their own children for reasons that they know are lies. And kill anyone else within convenient shooting distance. . . . Long live the empire. Let the killing continue. . . . Stop whining about the vote. You got exactly what you deserved. A homicidal liar with the weaponry -- and the willingness -- to kill everyone on the planet. . . . This is the new American dream, and it's your worst nightmare. . . . You have only yourself to thank for not paying attention. Have a nice day.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 11:57 AM

 

The American Century is Over
(Paul Craig Roberts, Counterpunch, November 9, 2004)
On November 2 Americans blew their only chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the world. . . . The entire world is stunned by the Bush administration's abandonment of a half century of US diplomacy in favor of misguided, unilateralist, "preemptive" naked aggression on totally false pretenses against Iraq. America's allies are amazed at the ignorance manifested by the Bush administration. They are resentful of Bush's "in-your-eye" attitude toward friends who warned Bush against leading America into a quagmire and giving Osama bin Laden the war he wanted. . . . The world was waiting hopefully for the sensible American people to rectify the ill-advised actions of a rogue neoconservative administration. Instead, Americans placed the stamp of approval on the least justifiable military action since Hitler invaded Poland. . . . In the eyes of the world, Bush's reelection is proof that Ariel Sharon's neoconsevative allies in the Bush administration speak for America after all. . . . The world's sympathy for America that followed the September 11 attacks has been squandered. If the US suffers terrorist attacks in the future, the world will say that America invited the attacks and got what it asked for. . . . Europeans and Asians will never be able to comprehend that Bush was reelected because Americans were voting against homosexual marriage and abortion. . . . The world is simply unable to believe that Americans, so enamored of family values, would vote to send their sons, fathers, husbands, and brothers to unprovoked war unless Americans valued empire and control over oil as more important than their family members. . . . The crude propagandistic Republican campaign against John Kerry is shocking to Europeans. The childishness of American conservatives scares them. . . . As hearts harden and minds close against America, Americans will have to go it alone. . . . The US invasion of Iraq has proved to be a disaster--exactly as the French and everyone with a mere modicum of sense said in advance. Eight of ten US divisions are tied down by a few thousand insurgents. . . . US troops do not control towns, cities, roads, or even the fortified Green Zone. . . . The American impulse is to smash cities, thus killing women and children and destroying the homes and livelihoods of noncombatants, while the insurgents regroup elsewhere. . . . The price of the Bush administration's delusion is 10,000 dead and maimed American troops--more than three times the casualties caused by the September 11 terrorist attacks. Bush's declared policy of "continuing to the end" will swell this number and bring back the draft. . . . The world is amazed that Americans do not care that they have been deceived, lied to, and incompetently led and that Americans have chosen to continue along this path. . . . Bush's reelection has ended forever respect for America. New and unflattering sobriquets for Americans are emerging. The American century is over.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 12:06 PM

 

US Dollar Begins Its Plunge, Euro Climbs
( Steve Johnson and Andrew Ball, Financial Times, November 7, 2004)
The dollar could slide still further, in spite of hitting an all-time low against the euro last week in the wake of George W. Bush's re-election, currency traders have said. . . . The dollar sell-off has resumed amid fears among traders that Mr Bush's victory will bring four more years of widening US budget and current account deficits, heightened geopolitical risks and a policy of "benign neglect" of the dollar. . . . Many currency traders were taken aback on Friday when the greenback fell in spite of bullish data showing the US economy created 337,000 jobs in October. . . . "If this can't cause the dollar to strengthen you have to tell me what will. This is a big green light to sell the dollar," said David Bloom, currency analyst at HSBC, as the greenback fell to a nine-year low in trade-weighted terms. . . . The dollar's fall comes as the Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise US interest rates by a quarter point to 2 per cent when it meets on Wednesday and to signal that it will continue with a measured pace of rate increases. . . . Speculative traders in Chicago last week racked up the highest number of long-euro, short-dollar contracts on record. Options traders have reported brisk business in euro calls - contracts to buy the euro at a pre-determined rate. . . . However, the market has been rife with rumours that the latest wave of selling has been led by foreign governments seeking to cut their exposure to US assets. . . . India and Russia have reportedly been selling US assets, as well as petrodollar-rich Middle Eastern investors. . . . China, which has $515bn of reserves, was also said to be selling dollars and buying Asian currencies in readiness to switch the renminbi's dollar peg to a basket arrangement, something Chinese officials have increasingly hinted at. Any re-allocation could push the dollar sharply lower and Treasury yields markedly higher.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 1:09 PM

 

AMERICA - Divided, Polarized, Fundamentalist
(Mark Bruzonsky, MIDDLEEAST.ORG, 4 November 2004)
Skipping muted rhetoric and gobbledigook analysis the stark realities of now divided, polarized, and increasingly fundamentalist America are more evident than ever, both in "values" and in the policies they breed. . . . Christian Evangelical Fundamentalists are aligned with Jewish crusading neocons in a kind of double-headed pro-Zionist alliance to bring about a 'new world order' in the Middle East and beyond. . . . Though for totally different ideological and strategic reasons their combined aim is nothing less than to remake the world in their own image, for their own benefit, and to restructure the Middle East to make it safe for Israel and American corporations for years to come. . . . Their front-man is George W. Bush. Their Rasputin, some would say Machiavelli, is Richard Cheney. Their crusaders are from the fast-expanding and space-age-equipped legions of the Pentagon and the CIA. As this historical turning point occurs in the world's only current superpower, the grand Old Man of the Palestinian movement is finally about to pass. Happening in the way it is the symbolism of it all is dastardly, possibly fatal, for the Palestinian nationalist movement Yasser Arafat has himself insisted on nearly solely symbolizing for over fourty years. . . . Arafat leaves his people destitute and impoverished, fractured and bewildered, demoralized and imprisoned -- half refugees, half now living under far worse than Apartheid conditions. . . . The symbolism of his possible passing in the way this is now likely to occur could hardly be worse. . . . Arch nemesis Ariel Sharon is the Israeli Prime Minister. All Palestinian cities and refugee camps are now divided from each other and surrounded by a highly technologically advanced occupying army behind electrified fences, trenchs, concrete walls, 'by-pass' roads, and 'settlements'. . . . The crusading Christian armies of the modern-day Western World, in close coordination with the Jewish armies of modern-day Israel, are on the march everywhere. Indeed the West and Israel now not only totally dominate the once Holy Land, but one way or another they now control or have rendered into submission most Arab countries and most Muslim holy sites from Jerusalem to Iraq to Saudi Arabia. . . . As for the symbolism of it all. It now appears Arafat is likely to die, or be pushed from the scene one way or another before he passes, in a foreign western hospital in a European country far from the Middle East. And then he is likely to be buried either in the now wall-off city of Ramallah -- under Israeli occupation and only if they should so allow it -- or in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan which has for so long collaborating with both the U.S. and Israel to control and defeat Palestinian nationalism.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 9:40 AM

 

US elections 2004: This is no passing phase. This is now an era
(Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, November 4, 2004)
Once it looked like an aberration. Now it is an era. George W Bush's tenure of the White House was born in 2000 to an electoral quirk, the fruit of a Florida fiasco, the arcane algebra of the US electoral system, and a split decision of the supreme court. . . . Those outside America, in the chanceries of Europe and beyond, who hoped that this would be a passing phase, like a Florida hurricane that wreaks havoc only to blow over, will instead have to adjust to a different reality. . . . For four years many hoped that the course charted by President Bush - a muscular go-it-alone view of a world divided between the forces of darkness and those of light - would prove to be a blip. Come November 2, 2004, they wanted to believe, normal service would be resumed. The United States would return to the old way of doing business, in concert with allies and with respect for the international system the US itself had done so much to create. The norms of foreign policy pursued by every president from Roosevelt to Clinton, including the first George Bush, would be revived. Senator Kerry promised as much. . . . Now that fantasy will be shelved. . . . But yesterday's victory also signalled a shift in America itself. It has been under way for several decades, but now it is revealed in all its clarity. The electoral map showed it in full colour: "blue" coasts where the Democrats won, vast "red" swaths of the Republican heartland everywhere else. . . . Many Bush voters admitted their unhappiness on Iraq and confessed to great economic hardship - two issues which ordinarily would be enough to defeat an incumbent. But these voters backed Mr Bush, because he reflected something they regarded as even more important: their values. . . . Those values can be boiled down to issues - abortion, guns, gays - but they represent a larger, cultural difference. One Republican analyst asks people four questions. Do you have a friend or relative serving in the military? Do you have any personal ties to rural America? Do you attend religious services on a weekly basis? Do you own a gun? Answer yes to most or all of those, and you are "a cultural conservative" and most likely vote Republican. Answer no, and the chances are you live on the east or west coast and vote Democrat. . . . In 2000 this cultural split was dead-even: 50-50 America. This time it was 51-49 America, with the conservatives in the majority. . . . Put plainly, the US is moving steadily and solidly to the right. That poses a problem for Democrats, who have to learn to speak to the people of those red states if they are ever to hold power again. . . . But it also poses a problem for America, which has somehow to house two radically diverging cultures in one nation. [COMMENT: Some say the winds of civil war are blowing once again.] And it may even pose a problem for the rest of the world's peoples, as they watch the sole superpower, the indispensable nation, chart a course they fear - and barely understand. . . . It seemed to be the accidental presidency, one that would stand out in the history books as a freak event. . . . Yesterday that changed, changed utterly. President Bush and his Republican army recorded a famous victory, one that may come to be seen as more than a mere election triumph - rather, a turning point in American life, a realignment. . . . [COMMENT: My deepest apologies to all of my friends who live outside of these Divided States of Amerika. I admit that today I am ashamed to be an American. I am ashamed that out of 300 million people, the two best candidates we could come up with for president are terrible at best. America as a nation has failed. Hopefully the dream of peace and freedom can be carried forward elsewhere, in some place where fascism does not now reign.]

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 6:00 PM