The Mideast perspective on PNAC & Sadaam‘s Trial (Why we’re screwed!)

[LunaC]

The author of this article from a Cairo weekly really has the neocon situation pegged! He sure sounds as though he’s very familiar with PNAC 101 - Rise of the Neocons


Why Saddam is important

The trial of Saddam Hussein is the lynchpin of America's bid for global hegemony and the verdict is already in: America loses, writes Ian Douglas

The trial of Saddam Hussein is the straw that will break the back of America in Iraq<, whichever way it goes. A conviction on the basis of what we are seeing [b>will make a martyr of Saddam, reveal the entire process as a foregone conclusion, and steel the national popular resistance for years. Unless the neocons in Washington have a secret agenda of bankrupting the United States, it is already over for them, bar the shouting. The resistance fights not for Saddam, but the trial will be seen -- like the constitution, like the elections -- as another fait accompli railroaded upon Iraq, and to which the resistance will respond. Even if Saddam's defence fails, America has already lost., it is one thing to establish an illegal tribunal (and under articles 64 and 67 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the keystone of international humanitarian law, this tribunal is outlawed), but it is quite another to televise proceedings which expose law as machination in naked iniquity. This is what this trial is achieving. On the other hand, if the prosecution fails, and Hussein walks -- and on the basis of its opening salvo it would be hard to proffer otherwise -- the second shoe falls, after the lies about weapons of mass destruction, and no justification remains for the illegal pre-emptive war the neocons waged. Bye, bye the Iraq chapter of the Project for a New American Century.

Let us roll up our sleeves and be frank. The United States did not enter Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people. Nor was the euphemism of Saddam being a "threat to his neighbours" -- read the state of Israel, not Kuwait or Iran on Iraq's borders -- credible. The United States waged war on Iraq because the oil economy is on death row. At current rates of consumption, it has 35 years left. So the world's most oil-dependent economy, backed by the world's least ethically educated military, took advantage of the opportunity of the "new Pearl Harbour" that was 11 September in one of the most audacious moves in the history of power politics. But ours must be an infamous age, because none could tell the truth of what was really in play. Every justification, bar the honest one, was evoked: weapons of mass destruction, Saddam's regional ambition, ties to Al-Qaeda and the events of 9/11, gross human rights violations. While the majority of the world's population instinctively understood the lie, corporate media -- fearful of government disfavour -- fell into line. The best we get now is "We should have probed deeper." Yet truth was on the surface. Who but the gullible or idle was convinced by Powell's UN performance? Not even he is proud of it. And who believed Hans Blix had a free hand, or that anyone would have listened if his final report contradicted what had already been decided, as indeed it did?

The neocons who staged a coup d'etat in Washington in 2000 prepared for regime change in Iraq in the 1990s. This was their contribution to the legacy of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Everything now was possible. And by the time they were ready, Saddam wasn't playing ball. On 1 November 2000, Iraq began selling oil in euros, and others (Venezuela, Iran, Russia, Libya) soon followed. Later Iraq converted its $10 billion reserve fund at the UN, also to euros. So in the aftermath of the 7 November 2000 presidential election, with a supplicant media and collapsed domestic opposition, time was not merely ripe but urgent. Having seized enough room for manoeuvre, the Republican right dusted off their wildest dreams, driven by their gravest nightmares. If the oil economy were to shift to euros (the US long having forced the situation whereby OPEC oil sales would be transacted only in dollars, in exchange -- particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia -- for security guarantees), the American economy would collapse. This is the context surrounding the secret deliberations of the Bush energy policy task force in early 2001. All indications are that this was also the time when the draconian measures later embodied in the Patriot Act, Patriot Act II and the Homeland Security Bill were drafted. The ground was being prepared not only for the destruction of Iraq, but ahead of the global war sure to occur -- most likely in the middle period of this century -- as capitalism confronts the largest challenge it has ever faced: the end of the oil economy, and the dollar economy with it.

The crisis ahead will make the Cold War look like a storm in a children's paddling pool. The United States, under the leadership of the neocons, is preparing for that moment by perfecting its methods as history's most vicious imperial empire. Indeed, 11 September was a convenient trigger. Serious questions about that day remain completely unanswered and practically untouchable by mainstream media. With a swiftness that is suspect, US military planners launched the "global war on terror"; a war (and at least they are candid on this point) that Vice President Dick Cheney said would "not end in our lifetimes." Indeed, Iraq is just the beginning. But this is also what makes Iraq so important. At stake is not only the moral right of a people to live and be sovereign on the lands of their forefathers, free from oppression by foreign forces, but the future of all nations as the primary source of global energy production dwindles. The golden age has already passed. Until New Year's eve 2040 there are two possibilities: one player controls everything (the United States), shielding itself from the effects of the destruction of capitalism at the cost of all others, or the community of states wakes up, faces the inevitable, and the preventable, and charts a common path to a different way of living and co-existing in this world. Though the responsibility was not of their choosing, the Iraqi popular resistance bears the burden of being the most important anti-imperial force in history, for above all other demands they fight for sovereignty over Iraq's natural resources.

More........

[OneBlueSky]

1. kicked and highly recommended . . . n/t

.

[cantstandbush]

18. Get this in the hands of as many Congress members and media as possible.

I'm starting with my Senators and Reps. (MD)

[cantstandbush]

19. More importantly get this in the hands of as many Cong. STAFFERS as

possible. They are the ones who read, analyze, and stick issues under the noses of their bosses!

There is a directory of Congressional staffers available in book stores. I am searching to see if there is one on line.

[LunaC]

2. The author

is visiting professor of political science at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine, fwiw.

The whole damn world is hip to PNAC! Where the hell are our Dem "leaders" on this issue? I get more and more pissed off every day by their silence.

[Hardrada]

3. They're paid off by AIPAC

which is in bed with the PNAC people.

[LunaC]

5. Damn---you’re right!

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2000 Congressional Candidates - 1999-2000 Cycle

TOTAL for 1999-2000 Election Cycle $2,044,606
TOTAL 1978-2000 Funds to Congressional Candidates $34,607,182
TOTAL No. of Recipient Candidates, 1978-2000 1,732

Related figures:
Total US aid to Israel since 1948:
According to the US government: $82 Billion
According to WRMEA's calculations: $94 Billion

This site lists the names of CongressCritters who have accepted contributions and the amount they received. A real eye-opener!

http://www.wrmea.com/html/aipac.htm

[leftchick]

51. neocon lieberman (R-CT) got the motherlode....

Lieberman, Joseph* D I 86,000 226,508

[Behind the Aegis]

28. .

:eyes:

[julianer]

4. He's right

the options are carry on as we are to untold barbarism or to construct a new econonmic and social order based on equality and sharing.

As Rosa Luxembourg presciently put it the choice is 'socialism or barbarism'. What form the socialism part takes is up to us and open for debate.

[bananas]

6. "Unless the neocons... have a secret agenda of bankrupting the U.S."

Drowning it as per Grover "the Grinch" Norquist.
"Unless the neocons in Washington have a secret agenda of bankrupting the United States, it is already over for them"

[Karenina]

9. What "secret agenda"???????

They're DOING IT RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN!!! :banghead:

[FreedomAngel82]

39. And the reason for that is

nobody can stop them who has the power. We can't stop them. So who will? They have the voting machine's. We can only work at the local level where that is concerned. Sooner or later someone will stop them. They did Hitler and they will Bush too (and remember that Hitler and his people were way smarter than Bush and his). This article is great at pointing out how the trial of Saddam is nothing more than smoke and mirrors for the bigger picture and how it's illegal. Saddam was right to leave and not come back when he did. I would've done the same thing too. He knows I think. And also it shows this is the way to lock up Saddam's mouth from telling what he knows on everything. From the article: The court is far from impartial: funded to the tune of $75 million and politically vetted by the United States, it's hard to imagine that anything but conviction -- which means execution -- awaits those over whom it claims to hold jurisdiction.

[me b zola]

40. Yes they are, as the media cheers

It is being done before our eyes.

[FreedomAngel82]

41. And the reason for that

is all the MSM is bought and paid for. The only reason why they are rightwing is because the rightwing works for the big corporations (see the whole Abramoff ordeal). Everything ties together. Everything including Abramoff to Valerie Wilson's outing. The Saudi's even own portions of the media.

[me b zola]

45. The House of Bush & Saud...........n/t

[XOKCowboy]

7. People around the world get real news

We get what the corporate media thinks will make it more money.

I hate to say it but North Korea, China, Nazi Germany and George Orwell come to mind. The complete takeover of the media and the way the message is controlled in the US is getting scary. We are only told what they want us to hear and way too many people are gullible enough to believe it.

[AntiFascist]

8. Warning to the Iraqi resistance:

please don't ally with al-Qaida, that's what the neocons want.

[xchrom]

10. k & r

[PATRICK]

11. Swallowed up by its own illegitimacy

International cooperation and a trial in the Hague might have done the trick in many ways, but the whole thing became an open narrow deceit where they could not trust true justice safely outside of Iraq.

They(PNAC crowd, whatever) are locked into an open war against the world, squeaking pretensions that maybe they might believe(they are that self-deceived and self-made stupid).

Talk about blind doomed. You barely need a sentence to point it out.

[lildreamer316]

12. THIS IS A MUST READ.

THIS IS IT. All in one place. Succcinct and clear. Cannot recommend this enough.

[FreedomAngel82]

42. I found this part to be big

After complaining about his guards to the judge and receiving the answer that the judge in his capacity would ask for rectification of his grievance, Hussein snapped back, "You are the chief judge. I don't want you to tell them. I want you to order them. They are in our country. You have the sovereignty. You are Iraqi and they are foreigners and occupiers. They are invaders. You should order them!" I also wanted to add: It was not human rights abuses under Saddam that pricked the ears of the Americans. It was how close Iraq came to the potential of being an independent, secular welfare state, whose population was able to achieve democracy in the Middle East, a function of the insistence of Saddam on the control of Iraqi oil as the age of oil ends. An international court would be victor's justice cloaked in legal precision.

[chknltl]

13. Thaks for this piece. Nominated and bookmarked nt

[lildreamer316]

14. KICK

[CJCRANE]

15. Very good article nt

[cantstandbush]

16. This is a must read. And the important part is this...

"The neocons who staged a coup d'etat in Washington in 2000 prepared for regime change in Iraq in the 1990s. This was their contribution to the legacy of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Everything now was possible. And by the time they were ready, Saddam wasn't playing ball. On 1 November 2000, Iraq began selling oil in euros, and others (Venezuela, Iran, Russia, Libya) soon followed. Later Iraq converted its $10 billion reserve fund at the UN, also to euros. So in the aftermath of the 7 November 2000 presidential election, with a supplicant media and collapsed domestic opposition, time was not merely ripe but urgent. Having seized enough room for manoeuvre, the Republican right dusted off their wildest dreams, driven by their gravest nightmares. If the oil economy were to shift to euros (the US long having forced the situation whereby OPEC oil sales would be transacted only in dollars, in exchange -- particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia -- for security guarantees), the American economy would collapse. This is the context surrounding the secret deliberations of the Bush energy policy task force in early 2001. All indications are that this was also the time when the draconian measures later embodied in the Patriot Act, Patriot Act II and the Homeland Security Bill were drafted. The ground was being prepared not only for the destruction of Iraq, but ahead of the global war sure to occur -- most likely in the middle period of this century -- as capitalism confronts the largest challenge it has ever faced: the end of the oil economy, and the dollar economy with it."

I said this back in 2002 when the rumor first started about Saddam wanting to trade in EUros.

[FreedomAngel82]

44. And they're still there

trying to just totally trash the country so they can't become independent. If they're independent they'll go to Euros and make more money that way and leave us blowing in the wind.

[Raster]

17. so many in this country have no clue... or don't want to have a clue

:kick:and nominated.

[bpilgrim]

20. k&r

this is why i love DU great source for excellent reading on todays hot topics.

thanks for sharing :toast:

peace

[neweurope]

21. kick

[progressoid]

22. ...

[bonito]

23. The way I see it

There is only one possibility for the worlds peaceful future, Greater involvement in world affairs by united nations.
I'm not so naive to think that once US forces leave Iraq there won't be another Oil grabbing country in its place. this all has to stop. Peace

[RJRoss]

24. Corporate-owned government

I believe there are very few Congressmen who disagree with George H. W. Bush - "The American way of life is non-negotiable". They are nearly all beholden to corporate interests, whose goal of constant economic growth will be unattainable without seizing the lion's share of the world's remaining oil reserves.

The American way of life as it exists today is unsustainable, unless we maintain our policy of resource empirialism to keep China and India from growing their economies.

Paraphrasing from James Howard Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" - the American economy is based on people driving around buying things they don't need. Are we willing to remain in a constant state of "War on Terror" to keep our stranglehold on the world's oil supplies?

I'm 46 years old, a product of the automobile culture, and I can see our country going through some devastating and monumental changes in my remaining lifetime - a return to local economies and the death of suburbia - after a serious global economic depression.

[LunaC]

25. Kick for the daytime crowd

This is an important article that shouldn't sink into oblivion just yet.

[bloom]

26. kick...

:kick:

[lildreamer316]

27. Kick--everyone must read!! n/t

[mistertrickster]

29. Somebody that knows economics, explain to me why pricing oil in Euros will

destroy the US economy.

It will make the dollar fall, yes, particularly against the euro. But why is that bad? It makes all the stuff we produce (well, what little Wal-Mart hasn't shipped to China) less expensive to Europe and makes their stuff more expensive to us.

That's not so bad, is it? That's exactly what China is deliberately doing by keeping its yuan so ridiculously low against the dollar.

On edit--I mean, I've heard this argument before (we invaded to maintain dollar denominated oil), but it seems like oil (like computers from China or Dodge engines from Mexico) is going to be priced in dollars to us anyway it turns out . . .

[AntiFascist]

34. It may be a banking issue....

I'm just trying to brainstorm here, but it seems that there is a whole dark side to our economy which exists based on money laundering, drug and arms trade, international bribery, you name it.... Recall that the Iran-Contra investigation was put to an end because of the effect it could have had on the economy. If petro-dollars are kept in European banks then Americans may lose the kind of control they currently enjoy. Euro intelligence also seems to be much more on the ball about tracking down criminal activities.

There was also the threat of a European Union superpower forming that could have turned into a threat to the US on the order of China.

[skids]

35. Because we owe so much money.

If the dollar falls too much, the people who actually own large amounts of them (hint, they aren't Americans) will sell them off. After the dollar bulls buy them, and lose faith that that was a good move, they will trade them in for real-estate or ownership of companies or other assets here in America. If we had an exportable product they might buy that, but we don't have too much of that these days.

In order to get other people to buy our debt, to stave off this buyout of American real assets (though it's arguable that's already happened to a large extent,) we'd have to raise interest rates way high. Extremely high. So high it would stifle the economy, since noone in their right mind would borrow any money at that rate. As growth falls, there ends up being noone left to actually *pay* the interest. It's at that point that we lose all control and the economy blows up completely.

[mistertrickster]

53. This makes sense, thanks to you and the others . . . nt

[Old and In the Way]

36. Pricing oil in USD is advantegeous for us.

Countries need to buy dollars before they can buy the oil. We get to set the exchange rate on that transaction. We can extract more foreign monetary value by setting a less favorable rate to purchase our dollars. If we lose control of the exchange and the Euro becomes the standard, we lose the exchange advantage and it'll cost us a lot more dollars to purchase the same barrel of oil. We'll be exchanging more of our dollars to buy the equivalent amount of oil. At least that's what I glean off this. And, given our awful fiscal budget...I'm surprised that foreign investors are still buying dollars as a currency hedge. We have a huge imbalance in trade, our deficits are trillions higher, we're destabilizing the world.....seems like we wouldn't be a safe place to park international investments and starving te machine would be a smart move for the rest of the world.

Thing is, there's so much money invested in the US that any currency wars would probably hurt foreign investors as much as us. If China was to float the Yuan, it would probably increase 30% against the dollar. But the China bankers who hold a lot of US securities would see their investment worth 30% less.... The Saudi's have trillions invested in our economy...if they tried to cash out...they take a bath. So it's sort of a MAD financial strategy as I can see it.

[FreedomAngel82]

46. I think this is also why

some have been calling for the minimum wadge to grow. Of course Bush and the neocons and their fat cat friends don't want that so they can be more rich and wealthy.

[Nightjock]

30. Doesn't it bother anyone that

this article appears to condone the death of American soldiers?



"Though the responsibility was not of their choosing, the Iraqi popular resistance bears the burden of being the most important anti-imperial force in history, for above all other demands they fight for sovereignty over Iraq's natural resources."

I think it is an amazing ACCURATE piece. But I can't get past that sentence. Please don't flame me.
I agree with all of the points but that sentence is really upsetting to me. Am I wrong?

[bonito]

49. No, your not wrong

I think its upsetting to everyone, and the facts of that sentence is a result of another fact, the deceptive manipulations of this administration to all of america. Peace

[pberq]

31. K&R

[Amonester]

32. Kicking & Recommending (Please Do Keep It Up)

All the lies we hear
All the crimes they commit
All the stupidities they impose
All to defraud every human being they
Want to take advantage of, day in, day out,
They have no shame, nor any respect for any law.

[LiberalAndProud]

33. but this COULD be the agenda ...

"Unless the neocons in Washington have a secret agenda of bankrupting the United States, ... "

[newspeak]

37. unprecedented debt in the history of the US

It seems, besides, gutting our surplus, this administration has indebted our country to Communist China and numero uno human rights abuser, Saudi Arabia. I wonder how many of the good ole Bush lock steppers know about that. I wonder what they would think to know their country along with themselves have been sold down the river. I don't care who Pooh poohs Jimmy Carter, he knew. He worked for conservation and energy independence, then ole Ronnie and the Bush gang come along, and it's all over.

[FreedomAngel82]

38. This also makes sense

with the report that Greg Palast made where he shows that the Bush team wanted to privitize the war profits from Iraq. Other oil companies said "no" because they wanted part of the action too. And he shows how Bush didn't want elections in Iraq but had someone in mind to take over so we could get all the oil and be ahead of the other countries who have better economies. This is also why they are against waging the minimum wage so they can get richer. It's all about money. You can see Palast's segment on this at his site: http://www.gregpalast.com Don't forget how Saddam got to where he is today.

[newspeak]

43. this is what makes me so ill

back in the seventies, we could have started to turn things around energy-wise in this country, but NO, the old dinosaurs have to rape and pillage until the last drop of crude is gone. Thirty years ago, we could have become more energy conscious and technologically advanced than we are today, but the greedheads have to have their pound of flesh-unfortunately it's our flesh, it's the Iraqi's flesh, it's the world's flesh.

[LunaC]

47. That’s always pissed me off too

The “oil crisis” of the 70’s that had us lining up at gas stations according to even/odd license plate numbers was the wake-up call to develop alternative energy technologies and wean the US off the oil and gas teat. If our fearless “leaders” had the foresight back then, we could have been industry leaders in solar, wind and wave energy today.

[JohnyCanuck]

48. This looks like a job for Karen Hughes.

She better get on the horn toute suite and give the Al-Ahram Weekly a call and straighten them out. Let her explain how Dubya and the Big Dick, really, really did bomb the shit out of Iraq and spread poisonous depleted uranium dust over its landscape because they so wanted to free the poor, downtrodden Iraqis from an evil-doing dictator and not at all to ensure US control over all the black gooey stuff that lay underneath their sand. I am sure she would sound most convincing to Al-Ahram and its Arab readership.

Karen Hughes To Work on The World's View of U.S.

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer

Former White House counselor Karen P. Hughes will take over the Bush administration's troubled public diplomacy effort intended to burnish the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world, where anti-Americanism has fueled extremist groups and terrorism, a senior administration official said yesterday.

Hughes, 48, who has been one of President Bush's closest advisers since his tenure as Texas governor, plans to return to Washington soon to rejoin the president's team after a three-year absence and set up shop at the State Department, where she will work with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reinvigorate the campaign for hearts and minds overseas.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25347-2005Mar10.html

[LunaC]

50. Karen Hughes is a joke but the DU certainly isn't!

DU is screwing up the entire planet...if you decide to read this whole interview, be prepared to be saddened and outraged.

"The atmosphere globally is contaminated with it. It’s completely mixed in one year. I’m an expert on atmospheric dust. I’m a geoscientist, a geologist, and that’s what I studied and did my research on. It’s really a fascinating subject. We have huge dust storms that are a million square miles and transport millions of tons of dust and sand every year around the world. The main centers of these dust storms are the Gobi Desert in China, which is where the Chinese did atmospheric testing, so that’s all contaminated with radiation, and it gets transported right over Japan, and it comes straight across the Pacific and dumps all its sand and dust on the U.S., North America. It’s loaded with radioactive isotopes, soot, pesticides, chemicals, pollution -- everything is in it -- fungi, bacteria, viruses.

"The Sahara Desert is another huge dust center, and it goes up all over Europe and straight across the Atlantic, to the Caribbean, and up the East Coast. Of course, you get it in Texas with those hurricanes. They all originate in the Sahara Desert.

"The third region is the Western United States, which is where the Nevada test site is located. We did 1,200 nuclear weapons tests there, so all this radiation that is already there, which is bad enough, has caused a global cancer epidemic since 1945. All of that radiation was the equivalent of 40,000 Nagasaki bombs. We’re talking about 10 times more.

"In April of 2003, the World Health Organization said they expect global cancer rates to increase 50 percent by the year 2020.

"Infant mortality is going up again all over the world. This is an indicator of the level of radioactive pollution.

"When the U.S. and Russia signed the partial test ban treaty in 1963, the infant mortality rate started dropping again, which is normal. Now they are going up again. It’s the global pollution with this radiation.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6232

[JohnyCanuck]

52. Nasa animation shows how dust from Africa ends up in the Americas

Check out the gif on the NASA web page below showing how dust particles in the Middle East and Sahara desert can mix and blow across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas. It illustrates the point Leuren Moret was discussing in the interview linked above, i.e. just how easy it will be for the depeleted uranium particles to be mixed in with the normal dust particles and eventually transported all over the globe. It isn't just the Iraqis and the US troops and their own children (like this one: http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2298 ) who will end up paying the cost for this insane, disgusting, criminal behavior by the Pentagon war machine. Don't talk to me about "terrorism" while the USA goes about spreading this shit willy nilly over the face of the earth.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26jun_1.htm

The Health Effects of DU Weapons in Iraq
by Thomas Fasy, MD PhD

<snip>

Following impact with hard targets, uranium metal undergoes combustion releasing large quantities of very small uranium oxide dust particles into the environment.

These dust particles derived from depleted uranium weapons are drastically different from the natural uranium that is normally present in rocks and soil.

Soil particles contain uranium at very low concentrations, typically less than 5 parts per million; the vast majority of these soil particles, however, are too large to be inhaled deep into the lungs. In contrast, the dust particles derived from depleted uranium weapons contain very high concentrations of uranium, typically more than 500.000 parts per million; moreover, most of the D.U. dust particles are sufficiently small to be inhaled deep into the lungs. Thus, compared to the uranium naturally present in the environment, D.U. dust contains uranium in a form that is vastly more bio-available and more readily internalized.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4124449