iraq - what kind of democracy?

I just listened to Tariq Ali on the ABC's Lateline and the sense I got was that Tariq seemed sceptical of "The West" (read "the U.S.") allowing any democracy to evolve in Iraq that wasn't pro-Western (read "pro-US")

I can't help but agree with Tariq Ali.

My reading of US foreign policy over the last 50 years indicates that the U.S. will actively try to destroy any democratic movement that is not "pro-US Interests" (read pro-US's Big Business interests.)

Good luck, Iraq. You'll need it. And just remember, Iraq, this wouldn't be happening if you didn't have oodles and oodles of oil (which God told George Bush to go get!)

what is anti-semitism?

Brian Klug (The Guardian) has this to say:

An anti-semite sees Jews this way: they are an alien presence, a parasite that preys on humanity and seeks to dominate the world. Across the globe, their hidden hand controls the banks, the markets and the media. Even governments are under their sway. And when revolutions occur or nations go to war, it is the Jews - clever, ruthless and cohesive - who invariably pull the strings and reap the rewards.
When this fantasy is projected on to Israel because it is a Jewish state, then anti-Zionism is anti-semitic. And when zealous critics of Israel, without themselves being anti-semitic, carelessly use language, such as "Jewish influence", that conjures up this fantasy, they are fuelling an anti-semitic current in the wider culture.
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Ok, I have this problem: I do not see myself as being an anti-semite, but I do believe the following logical premises are valid:
1. The U.S. is trying to control the world.
2. The U.S. internal politcal scene is unduely influenced by a Jewish lobby.
3. The U.S. is the world's dominant superpower.
Ergo, the Jewish lobby has undue influence on the world.

Does that make me an anti-semite? According to some, yes. I challenge this. I have no problem with Jews generally, I have a problem with some forms of Zionism. So what is Zionism?

Is Zionism about a sovereign State of Israel bounded by the Green Line? If so, I'm pro-Zionist. Is Zionism about killing and dispossessing the Palestinians in Gaza and The West bank? If so, I'm anti-Zionist. Is Zionism about a belief that Jews are "real" humans and gentiles are not? If so, I'm a staunch anti-Zionist. So, about being pro-Zionist or anti-Zionist, I'm a bit confused.

But I'm NOT confused about the wrongness of the killing and dispossession of the Palestinian people. I believe the Palestinian people have a right to their own sovereign state and that this state must include the whole of the West Bank and Gaza.

And, given that the Jewish people have made such a huge noise about compensation from the German state for their dispossession, grief and suffering, the Isrealis now ought to honour the same rationale and compensate the Palestinians, instead of that endless stream of obfuscations that comes from the Zionist propaganda machine.

What about the suicide bombers you say? I say this: The suicide bomber has already paid for his/her crime with his/her life. No further "justice" is justified. Punishing their relatives or their community amounts to pure Nazi tactics, and that's the end of that story.

cash for corruption...

Pratap Chatterjee over at CorpWatch says:

A fortnight before Iraq is to be handed over to a new government, the world's largest private army is being set up by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former British commando who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world.

United States taxpayers will pay up to $293 million for a contract to Aegis Defence Services of London, a new company created by Spicer. (Spicer was the chief executive officer for Sandline, which first made the headlines in the British media when Spicer was jailed in Papua New Guinea in 1997 for attempting to mount an invasion of the island of Bougainville and later for this role in smuggling arms to Sierra Leone in 1998 in violation of a United Nations embargo.)

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bush's mercenary army...

Stewart Nusbaumer, writing for Intervention Magazine, comments:

"To reduce American casualties, U.S. troops are now being garrisoned so that the 'friendlies' can't kill as many of their 'liberators.' With the military pulling back, the vacuum is being filled not by Iraqi troops--who are as willing to die for a silly American dream as the South Vietnamese were--but by hired mercenaries. When killed or wounded, they're not counted as U.S. casualties, and there is little political backlash; in fact, no one seems to care if they die. This is an attempt, then, to fight an increasingly unpopular war without the political costs of our soldiers dying in an unpopular war."

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zionism, anti-semitism and the people of palestine...

Noel Ignatiev, writing for Counterpunch, has this to say:

Israel is a racial state, where rights are assigned on the basis of ascribed descent or the approval of the superior race. In this respect it resembles the American South prior to the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, Ireland under the Protestant Ascendancy, and, yes, Hitlerite Germany. But in its basic structures it most closely resembles the old South Africa. It is therefore not surprising that Israel should have developed a close alliance with South Africa when that country was still under apartheid.

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psssst... wanna buy some cheap gas, arnie?

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I saw Little Johnnie Howard on TV tonight, sidling up to Arnie the Governator, and he was flogging natural gas. He says "we can reliably supply it in large quantities". He says "we've got more gas than most other countries".

Say what? If we've got "more gas than most other countries", and we've got enough to "reliably supply it in large quantities", why did we need to dud the East Timorese out of theirs?

Another angle perhaps: Is he over there flogging "large quantities" because, gas being something that's not all that easy to stockpile, he needs to shift lots of East Timor gas in a hurry, before we lose access to it in the International Court of Justice? Sell it quick? While we can still get at it?

To me, he's looking more and more like a sleazy little thief. Bush, of course, is Little Johnnie's role model. But then, what would I know...
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