Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
December 20 / 21, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
December 19, 2003
Elaine Cassel
Courts
Rebuke Bush for Trampling the Constitution
Robert Fisk
Raid
on Fantasyville: Shooting Samarra's Schoolboys in the Back
Zoltan Grossman
The
Occupation Has Failed to "Capture" the Loyalty of Iraqis
Mike Whitney
Bush's
Afghan Highway to Nowhere
Harold Gould
Has the Radical Arab Strategy Really Worked?
Gary Leupp
The
Neocon's Dream Memo
December 18, 2003
Ann Harrison
A
Landmark Victory for Medical Pot
John L. Hess
Catfish
Blues: The SOB's from Out of Town
Karyn Strickler
Ebola
is Good for You!
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Duryodhana
Dies
Harry Browne
Hail
Jim Hickey, the "Irish Hero" of the Colonial Occupation
of Iraq
Hammond Guthrie
Captured in Abasement
December 17, 2003
Robert Fisk
Saddam's
Cold Comforts
Gideon Levy
"Don't
Even Think About the Children"
Marjorie Cohn
The Fortuitous
Arrest of Saddam: a Pyrrhic Victory?
Andrew Cockburn
Saddam's
Last Act
December 16, 2003
Robert Fisk
Getting
Saddam...15 Years Too Late
Mahajan / Jensen
Saddam
in Irons: The Hard Truths Remain
John Halle
Matt
Gonzalez and Me
Josh Frank
The
Democrats and Saddam
Tariq Ali
Saddam
on Parade: the New Model of Imperialism
December 15, 2003
Robert Fisk
The Capture
of Saddam Won't Stop the Guerrilla War
Dave Lindorff
The
Saddam Dilemma
Abu Spinoza
Blowback on the Stand: The Trial of Saddam Hussein
Norman Solomon
For
Telling the Truth: the Strange Case of Katharine Gun
Patrick Cockburn
The
Capture of Saddam
Stew Albert
Joy to the World
December 13 / 14, 2003
Bill and Kathleen Christison
Chickenhearts
at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli
Connection
Stan Goff
Jessica Lynch, Plural
Tariq Ali
The Same Old Racket in Iraq
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Map is not the Territory
Marty Bender / Stan Cox
Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet
Christopher Brauchli
Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry
Gary Leupp
On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to
Gov. Mitt Romney
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD
Larry Everest
Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand
William S. Lind
How to Fight a 4th Generation War
Fran Shor
From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency
Ron Jacobs
Child Abuse as Public Policy
Omar Barghouti
Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East
Adam Engel
Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman
Kristin Van Tassel
Breastfeeding Compromised
Ben Tripp
On Getting Stabbed
Susan Davis
"The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review
Dave Zirin
Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee
Norman Madarasz
Searching for the Barbarians
Poets' Basement
Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Dean on Race
December 12, 2003
Josh Frank
Halliburton,
Timber and Dean
Chris Floyd
The
Inhuman Stain
Dave Lindorff
Infanticide
as Liberation: Hiding the Dead Babies
Benjamin Dangl
Another Two Worlds Are Possible?
Jean-Paul Barrois
Two States or One? an Interview with Sami Al-Deeb on the Geneva
Accords
David Vest
Bush
Drops the Mask: They Died for Halliburton
December 11, 2003
Siegfried Sassoon
A
Soldier's Declaration Against War
Douglas Valentine
Preemptive
Manhunting: the CIA's New Assassination Program
John Chuckman
The Parable of Samarra
Peter Phillips
US Hypocrisy on War Crimes: Corp Media Goes Along for the Ride
James M. Carter
The
Merchants of Blood: War Profiteering from Vietnam to Iraq
December 10, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
The
War According to Newt Gingrich
Pat Youngblood / Robert
Jensen
Workers
Rights are Human Rights
Jeff Guntzel
On Killing Children
CounterPunch Wire
Ashcroft Threatens to Subpoena Journalist's Notes in Stewart
Case
Dave Lindorff
Gore's
Judas Kiss
December 9, 2003
Michael Donnelly
A
Gentle Warrior Passes: Craig Beneville's Quiet Thunder
Chris White
A Glitch
in the Matrix: Where is East Timor Today?
Abu Spinoza
The Occupation Concertina: Pentagon Punishes Iraqis Israeli Style
Laura Carlsen
The FTAA: a Broken Consensus
Richard Trainor
Process and Profits: the California Bullet Train, Then and Now
Josh Frank
Politicians as Usual: Gore Dean and the Greens
Ron Jacobs
Remembering
John Lennon
December 8, 2003
Newton Garver
Bolivia
at a Crossroads
John Borowski
The
Fall of a Forest Defender: the Exemplary Life of Craig Beneville
William Blum
Anti-Empire
Report: Revised Inspirations for War
Tess Harper
When Christians Kill
Thom Rutledge
My Next Step
Carol Wolman, MD
Nuclear
Terror and Psychic Numbing
Michael Neumann
Ignatieff:
Apostle of He-manitariansim
Website of the Day
Bust Bob Novak
December 6 / 7, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
The
UN: Should Be Late; Never Was Great
CounterPunch Special
Toronto Globe and Mail Kills Review of "The Politics of
Anti-Semitism"
Vicente Navarro
Salvador Dali, Fascist
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
Ben Tripp
How Bush Can Still Win
Gary Leupp
On Purchasing Syrian Beer
Ron Jacobs
Are We Doing Body Counts, Now?
Larry Everest
Oil, Power and Empire
Lee Sustar
Defying the Police State in Miami
Jacob Levich
When NGOs Attack: Implications for the Coup in Georgia
Toni Solo
Game Playing by Free Trade Rules: the Results from Indonesia
and Dominican Republic
Mark Scaramella
How to Fix the World Bank
Bruce Anderson
The San Francisco Mayor's Race
Brian Cloughley
Shredding the Owner's Manual: the Hollow Charter of the UN
Adam Engel
A Conversation with Tim Wise
Neve Gordon
Fuad and Ezra: an Update on Gays Under the Occupation
Kurt Nimmo
Bush Gives "Freedom" Medal to Robert Bartley
Tom Stephens
Justice Takes a Holiday
Susan Davis
Avast, Me Hearties! a Review of Disney's "Pirates of the
Caribbean"
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Mickey Z.
Press Box Red
Poets' Basement
Greeder, Orloski, Albert
T-shirt of the Weekend
Got Santorum?
December 5, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
Bremer
of the Tigris
Jeremy Brecher
Amistad
Revisited at Guantanamo?
Norman Solomon
Dean
and the Corp Media Machine
Norman Madarasz
France
Starts Facing Up to Anti-Muslim Discrimination
Pablo Mukherjee
Afghanistan:
the Road Back
December 4, 2003
M. Junaid Alam
Image
and Reality: an Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Adam Engel
Republican
Chris Floyd
Naked Gun: Sex, Blood and the FBI
Adam Federman
The US Footprint in Central Asia
Gary Leupp
The
Fall of Shevardnadze
Guthrie / Albert
RIP Clark Kerr
December 3, 2003
Stan Goff
Feeling
More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money
Joanne Mariner
Profit Margins and Mortality Rates
George Bisharat
Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora?
Mickey Z.
Tear Down That Wal-Mart
John Stanton
Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario
Harry Browne
Shannon
Warport: "No More Business as Usual"
December 2, 2003
Matt Vidal
Denial
and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom
Benjamin Dangl
An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas
Sam Bahour
Can It Ever Really End?
Norman Solomon
That
Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test
Josh Frank
Trade
War Fears
Andrew Cockburn
Tired,
Terrified, Trigger-Happy
December 1, 2003
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Unholy
Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam
Harry Browne
Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland
Wayne Madsen
Wagging the Media
Herman Benson
The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize?
Gilad Atzmon
About
"World Peace"
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes
November 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
November 28, 2003
William S. Lind
Worse Than Crimes
David Vest
Turkey
Potemkin
Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini
New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks
Wayne Madsen
Wag
the Turkey
Harold Gould
Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited
Gabriel Kolko
Vietnam
and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything?
South Asia Tribune
The Story
of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words
Website of the Day
Bush Draft
November 27, 2003
Mitchel Cohen
Why
I Hate Thanksgiving
Jack Wilson
An
Account of One Soldier's War
Stefan Wray
In the Shadows of the School of the Americas
Al Krebs
Food as Corporate WMD
Jim Scharplaz
Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer
Neve Gordon
Gays
Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa
November 26, 2003
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: the Case of a Rape Foretold
Bruce Jackson
Media
and War: Bringing It All Back Home
Stew Albert
Perle's
Confession: That's Entertainment
Alexander Cockburn
Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities
David Orr
Miami Heat
Tom Crumpacker
Anarchists
on the Beach
Mokhiber / Weissman
Militarization in Miami
Derek Seidman
Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates
Kathy Kelly
Hogtied
and Abused at Ft. Benning
Website of the Day
Iraq Procurement
November 25, 2003
Linda S. Heard
We,
the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy
Diane Christian
Hocus
Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators
Mark Engler
Miami's
Trade Troubles
David Lindorff
Ashcroft's
Cointelpro
Website of the Day
Young McCarthyites of Texas
November 24, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
The
Miami Model
Elaine Cassel
Gulag
Americana: You Can't Come Home Again
Ron Jacobs
Iraq
Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over?
Alexander Cockburn
Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
Weekend
Edition
December 20 / 21, 2003
Empire and Resistance
An
Interview with Tariq Ali
By RAFAEL HERNANDEZ
1. What are the new features of current
imperialism, as opposed to the one described by Hilferding, Kautsky,
Lenin, Luxembourg? Is it a policentric phenomenon, a new "allotment
of the world," a "government of monopolies," a
"last and highest stage of capitalism" --or something
else?
TARIQ ALI: The most startling aspect
of the 21st century-- something that is genuinely new-- is that
we have, for the first time in human history, the existence of
a single Empire. This is not the abstract utopian 'empire' of
Hardt-Negri, but something very concrete and real. The dominant
position of the United States has no precedent in history. The
figures speak for themselves: there are 189 member states of
the United Nations, there is a US military presence in 121 countries.
We are closer now to the 'ultra-imperialism' of Karl Kautsky
than ever before. Kautsky's text, 'Der Imperialismus' Was written
before the outbreak of the First World War, but published afterwards
despite the fact that the war itself, a classic demonstration
of inter-imperialist contradictions, had dynamited Kautsky's
central thesis, namely, that the latest phase of capitalist development
would abolish inter-imperialist conflicts forever.
Despite the war, Kautsky insisted on
publishing his text and for good reason. He believed that the
growing rise of anti-colonial movements in Asia and the Arab
East would compel imperialism to close ranks against a common
enemy. And he argued that the arms race would become an unacceptable
burden on capitalism, necessitating a strategy of peace, not
war between the major imperialist powers. On this last point,
of course, he was proved totally wrong. Military spending helped
to protect capitalism after the Depression of the Thirties as
demonstrated by Germany, Japan and the United States. And it would
take another inter-imperialist war to bring the capitalist world
to its senses. The refusal of German imperialism to accept the
division of the world into British and French zones brought about
the Second World War. Its spread to the Soviet Union and Asia
created the basis for a spread of the revolution. Vietnam, China,
Korea, Indonesia benefited from the inter-imperialist conflicts.
It was only after the defeat of Germany and Japan that the capitalist
world accepted US leadership, though former rivals secretly celebrated
US defeats in Cuba and Vietnam.
Nonetheless the existence of a 'communist
world' forced capitalism to discipline its competitive urges
in the politico-military sphere. The US re-built German, Japanese
and West European capitalism that had been devastated by the
war and, in return, these states accepted US leadership. In Kautsky's
words the 'result of the World war between the great imperialist
powers may be a federation of the strongest, who renounce their
arms race.' What he predicted after the First World War actually
happened after the Second one.
However as long as the non-capitalist
world existed there was still some space for manouevre. The French
under de Gaulle and the Scandinavians, were strongly opposed
to the US war in Vietnam. And not a single NATO country dispatched
troops to help the US war effort in South-East Asia. The collapse
of 1989 changed all that and brought about a new unarmed struggle
for hegemony. There could only be one victor: the United States.
The major European states might moan and grumble and search eagerly
for crumbs of comfort ('multilateralism', the 'UN' etc) but US
politico-military hegemony was unchallengeable. The British and
Spanish leaders accepted this and positioned themselves permanently
in the posterior of the US Empire. Despite this the old spectre
could not be completely exorcised. The question arose: given
that there is no real enemy to unite the capitalist world (the
notion of Islam as the new enemy is a joke) might not inter-imperialist
contradictions re-emerge? And, horror of horrors, might they
lead to war?
This question was not posed by isolated
Marxists in the Western academies. It was first raised in the
White House during the reign of George Bush I. An Afghan-American
ideologue, Zalmay Khalilzad, published an essay in which he suggested
that US hegemony had to be preserved at all costs. If necessary
by force! The disintegration of Yugoslavia----a direct result
of global economics and inter-imperialist rivalries within the
European Union---concentrated the Clinton White House. US intervention
in the Yugoslav civil war was an assertion of raw power.....Rwanda
where a real genocide was in motion was ignored.
2. Is the war economy a basic component
of current imperialism? Is it consistent with global chain networks,
free trade, neoliberalism?
TARIQ ALI: Yes. The Washington consensus
includes wars necessary to preserve the consensus. The founder
of neo-liberalism, Friedrich von Hayek was a staunch imperialist.
He suggested that Teheran be bombed in 1979-80 and advised Margaret
Thatcher to bomb Buenos Aires during the Malvinas conflict.
The recent wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq
had, as one of their aims, the 'opening up' of the market. US
corporations are heavily involved in plans to privatise Iraqi
oil and 'reconstruct' the country. Haliburton and Bechtel, the
two corporations closely tied to the ruling elite in the US,
hope to benefit from the Occupation, though the growing resistance
might make that difficult. The privileged status of the defense
industry in the United States reflects the strength of the military-industrial
complex. For a long time Marxist theorists studied imperialism
largely from the vantage point of economics.
The situation today is such that the
US Empire has to be analysed from a politico-military position.
Economically, the US is not as dominant as it is militarily.
So it will use its military strength to shore up its economy.
Here the shift has been dramatic. The US Empire maintains its
global hegemony despite the unprecedented levels of debt and
deficits. Here East Asia has replaced Europe and accounts for
70 percent of the world's foreign exchange reserves, the bulk
of which are kept in dollars and thus help maintain the exchange
rate of the imperial currency. China could easily create a crisis
for the dollar and the US economy by shifting to the euro or
gold, but it has a gigantic trade surplus with the US ($105billion)
and has no desire to provoke a depression. US interdependence
with the two East Asian powers_China and Japan---is the Achilles
heel of the US economy. Hence the importance of keeping the military
option open. If China were to mount a resistance, the Empire
has two possible routes of attack and Balkanisation: Taiwan and
Tibet. Of course its a very risky business but capital has always
taken risks.
3. Is there a new dominant imperialist
ideology? Which ideological elements are really new? Is it a
worldwide dominant or hegemonic ideology?
TARIQ ALI: Yes, as I have explained above
it is the American consensus that dominates the world (with the
single exception of Cuba and, partially, Venezuela). The economic
basis of this consensus is hardly a secret: prising open the
hitherto hallowed domains of public provision to private capital.
The state's control of health, education, housing, broadcasting
which was the basis of social-democracy in Western Europe has
been effectively dismantled. Speculation has become the hub of
all economic activity with the unscrupulous use of employee pension
funds to shore up profits. The Enron and WorldCom scandals have
made no difference at all. In the absence of any serious political
alternative, capital remains confident. The collapse in Argentina
was a disaster for the Washington consensus, but in the absence
of a politico-economic and social alternative, its back to business
as usual. The Brazilian rejection of the consensus, which led
to the de-industrialisation of the country and the collapse of
the national bourgeoisie, produced Lula's triumph, but the PT
administration, frightened of its own shadow, remains mired in
the IMF swamp. Of all the continents, Latin America is in open
revolt against the economic fundamentalism of the new order.
The social movements in Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia,
Venezuela have created a new political climate. The people want
change. The politicians are scared. And then we have the obscenity
reported in the New York Daily News of 27th August 2003: "The
1300-strong Spanish contingent will formally relieve US forces
today in Iraq. They will be joined at their base in the rice-
and date-growing town of Al Diwaniya, 160 kilometres south of
the capital, this week by 1200 troops from Honduras, the Dominican
Republic, Nicaragua and El Salvador - all of whom will be under
Spanish command." The use of old imperial powers to help
police the world is part of imperial strategy today.
4. What is the meaning of cultural
imperialism? Is the cultural dimension a basic feature of current
imperialism?
TARIQ ALI: Cultural imperialism= Starbucks
+ Hollywood. The control of the means of information by the corporations
has meant the curtailing of diversity. Television is strictly
controlled. The coverage of the Iraq war on CNN and BBC World
was pure propaganda. Fox TV (owned by Murdoch) would have won
the approval of Goebells. The US control of cinema distribution
has compelled its rivals to try and mimic Hollywood successes.
Opposition comes from the margins: Iranian, Korean and Chinese
cinema; al-Jazeera TV..... Latin America needs its own equivalents.
An al-Bolivar TV that reports what is really happening in Venezuela
or Bolivia or Brazil would be a sensational development. The
notion that private TV networks are 'free' is now seen to be
a sick joke. The use of these networks in Venezuela to destabilise
and overthrow an elected regime is reminiscent of the use of
the print media against Salvador Allende in Chile.
5. As a global structure of power,
imperialism may be considered a system of conflicts. What are
the limits of its power and its basic contradictions? What are
the forces fighting inside current imperialism? Is there an emergent
"counter-power"? Which are the main conflicts confronted
by imperialism as a global domination system? Which factors are
shaping imperialist trends in the long run?
TARIQ ALI: The major resistance to imperialism
today comes from the social movements in Latin America, the Palestinians
and, recently, the resistance in <Iraq.The> recolonisation
of Iraq is not proceeding smoothly. The resistance in the country
(and in Palestine) is not, as Israeli and Western propagandists
like to argue, a case of Islam gone mad. It is, in both cases,
a direct consequence of the occupation.
Before the recent war, some of us argued
that the Iraqi people, however much they despised Saddam Hussein,
would not take kindly to being occupied by the United States
and its British adjutant.
Contrary to the cocooned Iraqis who had
been on the US payroll for far too long and who told George Bush
that US troops would be garlanded with flowers and given sweets,
we warned that the occupation would lead to the harrying and
killing of Western soldiers every day and would soon develop
into a low-intensity guerilla war.
The fact that events have vindicated
this analysis is no reason to celebrate. The entire country is
now in a mess and the situation is much worse than it was before
the conflict.
The only explanation provided by Western
news managers for the resistance is that these are dissatisfied
remnants of the old regime.
Washington contradicted its propaganda
by deciding to recruit the real remnants of the old state apparatus
- the secret police - to try to track down the resistance organisations,
which number more than 40 different groups. The demonstrations
in Basra and the deaths of more British soldiers are a clear
indication these former bastions of anti-Saddam sentiment are
now prepared to join the struggle.
The bombing of the UN headquarters in
Baghdad shocked the West, but as Jamie Tarabay of the Associated
Press reported in a dispatch from the Iraqi capital , there is
a deep ambivalence towards the UN among ordinary Iraqis. This
is an understatement.
In fact, the UN is seen as one of Washington's
more ruthless enforcers. It supervised the sanctions that, according
to UNICEF figures, were directly responsible for the deaths of
half a million Iraqi children and a horrific rise in the mortality
rate. Two senior UN officials, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck,
resigned in protest against these policies, explaining that the
UN had failed in its duties to the people of Iraq.
Simultaneously the US and Britain, with
UN approval, rained hundreds of tonnes of bombs and thousands
of missiles on Iraq from 1992 onwards and, in 1999, US officials
calmly informed The Wall Street Journal that they had run out
of targets.
By 2001, the bombardment of Iraq had
lasted longer than the US invasion of Vietnam.
That's why the UN is not viewed sympathetically
by many Iraqis. The recent Security Council decision to retrospectively
sanction the occupation, a direct breach of the UN charter, has
only added to the anger.
All this poses the question of whether
the UN today is anything more than a cleaning-up operation for
the American Empire?
The effects of the Iraqi resistance are
now beginning to be felt in both the occupying countries. The
latest Newsweek poll reveals that President Bush's approval ratings
are down 18 points to 53 per cent and, for the first time since
September 11, more registered voters (49 per cent) say they would
not like to see him re-elected. This can only get worse (or better,
depending on one's point of view) as US casualties in Iraq continue
to rise.
A contrast with the Vietnam war might
be instructive. The anti-war movement of the 1960s was not simply
an anti-war movement. It was also a movement that wanted victory
for one side, that wanted the Vietnamese to win. So that gave
it extra zest. People knew which side they were on. It was ultra-radical
for that reason.
The anti-war movement that erupted before
the Iraq war was certainly broader and much larger. You can put
all the Vietnam demonstrations together and add them up and,
globally, it was 100 times larger. But, this was not a movement
supporting one side -- because no-one in the anti-war movement
supported Saddam Hussein -- it was rather a movement trying to
stop a war that many people believed was completely unjustified.
And not just unjustified, but the reasons
for it were kept completely hidden from public view by the US
and British governments. It wasn't about weapons of mass destruction.
It was about capturing an oil-producing country with a regime
that was very hostile to Israel, which was giving money to the
Palestinians. These were the reasons for that war -- apart from
being a way of showing just what imperial power is and what it
can do.
People felt they were being lied to.
They were not happy about this war. They felt it was irrational.
That explains the size of the mobilisations. It brought out large
numbers of people who were not usually political. The reason
why the 'Vietnam syndrome' such a force is that the Vietnamese
people inflicted a defeat on the US. Fifty-thousand US soldiers
died in that war. The Americans could not maintain their hold
on that country and were forced to withdraw as a result of the
combination of Vietnamese military successes and the fact that
the anti-war movement had spread into the US army itself. GIs
opposed to the war organised large demonstrations of GIs outside
the Pentagon and this scared the living daylights out of them.
To say that the US war against Vietnam was bought to an end because
of the [Western] anti-war movement is wrong. It was because the
Vietnamese people had been resisting three big empires for a
long, long time and everyone knew the history of that struggle.
Partially, it was bought to an end by the anti-war movement,
but what made the anti-war movement happen -- after all it didn't
exist as a large movement until the Vietnamese people began to
score big victories against the US forces. What made the anti-war
movement very big, was that many US people realised the war could
not be won.
I think there is demoralisation, but
I don't think people should be too demoralised. The war in Iraq
isn't going well for Washington. The US administration thought
it would capture Iraq and everyone there would welcome them.
That hasn't happened. There is a resistance movement and it is
not just made up of the remnants of the Baath Party. There are
lots of other people resisting the occupation as well.
The only people capable of stopping the
US-led occupation is the resistance in the region.
If this resistance carries on, I think
the US will switch its tactics, probably by bringing in blue-helmeted
United Nations mercenaries to run Iraq for them. For the US,
the main thing in Iraq is to push through the privatisation of
Iraq's oil, to achieve the liberalisation of the Iraqi economy
and to get the big US corporations in there. They are not too
concerned as to how the country will be run, as long as that
sort of economic structure is maintained.
Ultimately, this Empire too, like its
predecessors will overstretch itself and come to an end. I think
by that time many of us will be dead, but our grandchildren might
see that day.
Tariq Ali's
latest book, Bush
in Babylon: The Re-colonisation of Iraq, is published by
Verso. He can be reached at: tariq.ali3@btinternet.com
Weekend
Edition Features for Dec. 13 / 14, 2003
Bill and Kathleen Christison
Chickenhearts
at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli
Connection
Stan Goff
Jessica Lynch, Plural
Tariq Ali
The Same Old Racket in Iraq
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Map is not the Territory
Marty Bender / Stan Cox
Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet
Christopher Brauchli
Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry
Gary Leupp
On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to
Gov. Mitt Romney
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD
Larry Everest
Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand
William S. Lind
How to Fight a 4th Generation War
Fran Shor
From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency
Ron Jacobs
Child Abuse as Public Policy
Omar Barghouti
Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East
Adam Engel
Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman
Kristin Van Tassel
Breastfeeding Compromised
Ben Tripp
On Getting Stabbed
Susan Davis
"The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review
Dave Zirin
Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee
Norman Madarasz
Searching for the Barbarians
Poets' Basement
Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Dean on Race
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|