We bomb. They suffer.

[mullaney]

This is going to be a blog. By that I mean a web log. I'm going to put links here to news articles, commentary and other web pages about the war that I find interesting. I'm going to start with an article from the Independent by Robert Fisk:

This is the reality of war. We bomb. They suffer.

"Donald Rumsfeld says the American attack on Baghdad is "as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed" but he should not try telling that to five-year-old Doha Suheil. She looked at me yesterday morning, drip feed attached to her nose, a deep frown over her small face as she tried vainly to move the left side of her body. The cruise missile that exploded close to her home in the Radwaniyeh suburb of Baghdad blasted shrapnel into her tiny legs _ they were bound up with gauze _ and, far more seriously, into her spine. Now she has lost all movement in her left leg..."

 

[mullaney]

the first of many

From the Kansas City Star, strangely in the business section:

Is Iraq the first of many Bush wars?

"So now the administration knows that it can make unsubstantiated claims without paying a price when those claims prove false, and that saber-rattling gains it votes and silences opposition. Maybe it will honorably refuse to act on this dangerous knowledge. But I can't help worrying that in domestic politics, as in foreign policy, this war will turn out to have been the shape of things to come."

 

[mullaney]

a drumbeat of propaganda

I can never resist a few thoughts by MIT professor, Noam Chomsky. This article is part of a series of interviews concerning the war published in The Guardian, another UK paper.

Noam Chomsky

"What they are demonstrating to the world with great clarity is that if you want to deter US aggression you better have weapons of mass destruction, or else a credible threat of terror. That's a terrible lesson to teach, but it's exactly what's being taught."

 

[mullaney]

Why didn't they protest Clinton?

Actually, some did. Here's a little info on some of the people killed by Clinton's actions:

Uncle Sam regrets ...

"With all that wall space in the White House, perhaps President Clinton can find some room for a painting by Laila al-Attar. He may not remember her, but he should -- she was the Iraqi artist who was blown to bits by the U.S. bombers sent to punish Saddam Hussein in 1993. So was her husband."

 

[mullaney]

I'm an American

Michael Moore's press conference at oscar.com after his win.

 

[mullaney]

opposing perspectives from Iraqis

Two different articles from two different perspectives. The first is written by someone who went to Iraq to be a human shield and left surprised to find people in Iraq who were pro-war. What he writes both makes me a little more ambivalent about the war and makes me want to say "duh". Of course people in Iraq hate Saddam. The other article is about how Iraqis in the south may have a more a more complicated reaction to the U.S. then just cheering and celebrating.

I was a naive fool

"Don't you listen to Powell on Voice of America radio?" he said. "Of course the Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam."

'Liberated' Iraqis question U.S. motives

"Traveling unescorted into Safwan today, I got a far different picture. Rather than affection and appreciation, I saw a lot of hostility toward the coalition forces, the United States and President Bush."

 

[mullaney]

Get Your War On

I had forgotten about this.

get your war on

"All I have to say is, Once this is over, the Iraqi people better be the freest fucking people on the face of the earth."

 

[mullaney]

such tragedies are all but inevitable

I don't know what to say about this. These kinds of things happen when you start a war, no matter how noble the supposed reasons, no matter how careful the rules of engagement, no matter how precise your bombs are. It's the reality of war.

American troops kill seven women and children at checkpoint

"As a last resort the soldiers fired into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Inside they found 13 women and children. Seven of the occupants were dead,"

 

[mullaney]

100 Bin Ladens

The damage we are doing to our relations with the Middle East could last a generation

"All the omens suggest that Mr Mubarak is right. When the war is over, the consequences will indeed be disastrous. It is hard to see how American and British relations with the countries of the region can be mended during our lifetime."

 

[mullaney]

the logic of war

Finally, someone was able to explain to me why we started this war.

A WARMONGER EXPLAINS WAR TO A PEACENIK

"It's not just about UN resolutions. The main point is that Iraq could have weapons of mass destruction, and the first sign of a smoking gun could well be a mushroom cloud over NY."

 

[mullaney]

making the world a safer place

Anyone who thinks this war is making the world a safer place has their head in the sand.

I am angry and ashamed to be British

"Even the moderates here in Pakistan are outraged. Across the board, young and old, poor and rich, fundamentalist and secularist are united in their hatred of the US and their contempt for Britain. Such unprecedented unanimity in a country renowned for its ethnic and sectarian divides is a huge achievement."

 

[mullaney]

SHUT UP!

Admit it. You are a little more crazy than you were 2 months ago.

America has gone insane.

"Everyone in America, including me, has been driven completely insane by this war."

 

[mullaney]

who should control relief efforts

As soon as the war began, I started thinking about "what happens next"? It's one thing to oppose a war before it starts, but what should the agenda be now? Well, I still oppose the war and want it to be over as soon as possible. But there seems like there should be a common ground where both those for and against the war can meet to minimize the suffering in Iraq. Namely, we should be united in bringing aid to civilians in Iraq and to bringing about a government based on self-determination in Iraq. This article from the NY Times raises some of the issues that have to do with the first of those goals.

Food, Too, Can Be a Weapon of the War in Iraq

"Every half-mile or so, a few Iraqis appeared like ghosts in the wasteland. Some put their thumbs and forefingers together and brought them to their mouths, the third-world sign language for please-give-me-food."

 

[mullaney]

a city at war with itself

Good thing we won and everything is great now and we can go home.

A civilisation torn to pieces

"They lie across the floor in tens of thousands of pieces, the priceless antiquities of Iraq's history. The looters had gone from shelf to shelf, systematically pulling down the statues and pots and amphorae of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Medes, the Persians and the Greeks and hurling them on to the concrete."

 

[mullaney]

not only museums, but hospitals too

Boy it sounds like fun there, perhaps it would make a great setting for the next Grand Theft Auto sequel.

They came with guns and took everything

"As the US forces completed their capture of Baghdad, and peace and harmony was supposed to break out among the grateful locals, the anarchy began. While Marines stood by and watched, the mob descended, first on the offices and homes of the regime, then on shops and hotels, and then on the hospitals."

 

[mullaney]

Leave our country, we want peace

People celebrated and kissed our soldiers on the first day of liberation, so what we did must have been right. So what does it mean when less than two weeks later thousands March in Iraq, by that logic we must be wrong now.

In any case, I don't know if the Iraqi people are going to accept our plans for their government.

Baghdad Protesters Demand That U.S. Get Out of Iraq

"Tens of thousands of protesters demanded on Friday that the United States get out of Iraq while leaders of the Arab nation's neighbors meeting in Saudi Arabia also called for U.S. forces to leave quickly and warned Washington against trying to exploit Iraq's oil wealth."

and this one as well:

Protesters call for 'army of occupation' to quit Iraq

"The protest, well organised and orderly, sent a forceful signal of the widespread and steadily growing anger against the American forces and the near-anarchy that has followed their arrival. Days of looting have gone unchecked and US authorities are also being blamed for not restoring electricity and water to the capital."

 

[mullaney]

not the version being made into a made for TV movie

So who really did save Private Jessica?

"THE rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, which inspired America during one of the most difficult periods of the war, was not the heroic Hollywood story told by the US military, but a staged operation that terrified patients and victimised the doctors who had struggled to save her life, according to Iraqi witnesses."

 

[mullaney]

don't bother asking George...

I think he genuinely believes the "intelligence" reports that helped convince the American public that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction.

So where are they, Mr Blair?

"Not one illegal warhead. Not one drum of chemicals. Not one incriminating document. Not one shred of evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction in more than a month of war and occupation"

 

[mullaney]

More even than the Palestinians.

So the question for Monday morning is... Are we ever going to leave Iraq? It looks like some in the Bush administration want to set up permanent bases there. We seem to be making a lot of decisions about the future of Iraq when we haven't really consulted with the Iraqis themselves. Be sure to read the second article. I don't think that the Iraqis will put up with us for long. The Shias are getting organized and taking control of towns in southern Iraq. Their agenda will not be same as Rumsfeld and Cheney.

US 'to keep bases in Iraq'

"The US is planning a long-term military presence in Iraq, in a move which will dramatically extend American power in the region and spread dismay and fear among its opponents across the Arab world."

Religion and politics converge in march of a million Iraqi Shias

"A vast army of Iraqi Shia Muslims – and a few from neighbouring Iran, too – was on the move, pouring out of the towns and villages towards one of their holiest cities in a traditional annual march that was banned under Saddam Hussein. From Baghdad, the journey takes two days. But some of those who live further afield said they had been walking for five."

 

[mullaney]

Freedom of speech... just watch what you say.

I sure am glad that American newspapers are analyzing this and standing up for our right to speak our mind! Oh right, they're not. I once again had to get this story from a British news source.

By the way, when I lived in London, the Independent was as mainstream as you can get. It's a broad sheet like the Times or The Washington Post, it's not some lefty news source like some might have you believe.

Hollywood revives McCarthyist climate by silencing and sacking war critics

"Another person who does not find Hollywood particularly liberal these days is the comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo, whose outspoken views on Iraq have made her the object of a vicious e-mail and telephone campaign that has intimidated ABC into pushing her new sitcom, Slice O'Life, into next year's mid-season. Again, the network's fear of losing viewers and advertisers seems rather stronger than its desire to defend one the freedom of speech of of its stars."

Also take a look here at the full transcript of Tim Robbins speach to the national press club:

'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...'

"For all of the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11, there was a brief period afterward where I held a great hope, in the midst of the tears and shocked faces of New Yorkers, in the midst of the lethal air we breathed as we worked at Ground Zero, in the midst of my children's terror at being so close to this crime against humanity, in the midst of all this, I held on to a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption that something good could come out of it."

Now it's not like the U.S. press is not covering this issue at all. I'm just a little baffled by their spin on the story. No outrage in the American press about a new McCarthyism. Apparently the Washington Post thinks it's just a barrel of fun to come under political fire for speaking up for your beliefs.

The Spoils of Antiwar

"Janeane Garofalo sounds energized about her whole antiwar thing: 'I knew when I started speaking out that it was going to be unpleasant,' says the actress-comedian, 'and I've taken my punches. But the positives have far outweighed the negatives.'"

What the hell is Janeane's "whole anitwar thing" anyway?