---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 12:50:31 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Antiwar News...(# 23)
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[multiple items]
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(Anti-war links/resources at the end.)
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History Confirms War a Futile Business
<http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1024-06.htm>
Published on Wednesday, October 24, 2001 in the Toronto Star
by Dalton Camp
While our allied air forces continue the redistribution of the rubble in
Kabul, the objectives and purposes of this "new war" become, like the dust
rising from that battered city, more difficult to comprehend.
Historically, there have been necessary wars and wars fought whether
necessary or not. But it is a futile
business, as history will confirm.
According to one political scientist, who counted the wars of the great
powers, from 1495 to 1975, one or
another of them has been at war 75 per cent of the time. Astonishingly, one
of the more peaceful centuries
was the 20th, although it has been, thus far, the bloodiest, as a result of
its two world wars.
We have been, if you're counting, marching off to battle much of our time,
and here we are, marching off again.
There must be something to the view of man as a natural hunter and natural
killer.
Still, one would think that man would run out of wars to make or nations to
invade or, that at some epiphanous time, nations would conspire to stop the
killing, that war would become not the last resort but simply an
unthinkable one.
But here we find ourselves at war again, against half the world in general
and no one in particular, pulverizing ruins and inflicting "collateral
damage" - a euphemism for killing - on people we know nothing of, in a land
we have nothing against, hope never to see, in a cause so rhetorical and
clothed so much in hyperbole as to be unattainable.
I have been reading of late about the Allied bombing of the German city of
Hamburg, in World War II, during
July, 1944. At that time we (the Allies) had achieved air superiority. We
had also developed superior aircraft
and bigger bombs, as well as a means of deceiving the enemy's radar defenses.
On July 25, nearly 800 bombers attacked Hamburg, a nearly helpless city,
dropping their loads of 400- and
800- and 1,000-pound bombs and incendiaries. The city was soon ablaze, and
without water to fight the fires; in this cauldron, the temperatures would
exceed 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. In one week, the number of killed was put
at 50,000 - just 1,000 short of those British civilians killed by German
attacks in the first four years of the war.
Of course, we "won" the war against infinitely greater and more menacing
evil than that of terrorism. But more to the point, subsequent study by
professional appraisers has concluded not even all the slaughter of
civilians, not the collateral damage wrecked upon Hamburg, Dresden, Essen
and the rest made any significant difference either to the result or the
war's duration. It did, however, make a difference to those killed in the
exercise, including those of our own.
War is an exercise in excess. We emerge from battle choking on the blood of
innocents. Self-deception is
always helpful to those of delicate sensibility. Hence, we do try to limit
collateral damage and imagine
ourselves fighting for democracy, justice and - heaven help us - peace.
Should one be a refugee, a bombed out peasant or a child crippled by a
mine, a just war is a true oxymoron, at least for those accompanied by a
translator.
I have come to be wary of Pentagon briefers. These films of direct hits on
arbitrarily defined "objectives" remind one of the underlying irony of this
"new war." Bombing has become a kind of elliptical expression of military
frustration. When in doubt, bomb. It is to politics what paving used to be
to policy.
What is new about this "new war," at ground level where all wars are
finally settled, is that the terrorists in our midst - or in their caves -
have found the equalizer to war as an exercise in technology. Terror is an
extension of war by other means, including stealth, deception and disguise.
It is not new that it is a war waged upon innocents; the graveyards of
Europe are crowded with those who perished in their kitchens, in their
sleep, in their unknowing. What is new is that the oceans no longer protect
us from the risks and perils of war because the new enemy has new weapons
of an original design and unfamiliar ruthlessness.
Still, when it is finally over, when the struggle is exhausted, when we
achieve another peace between another war, we can band together in reunion
and, in common folly and arrogance, be reborn in our usual ways, boasting
of our superior means and inexhaustible bounty and, while the world will
not be the same, can never be so, we will hardly know the difference.
We should not, then, excessively fret over our present condition but view
it, as much as we can, as a passing inconvenience. After all, were it a
truly serious crisis, we would not, in our considerable genius, be acting
like fools and behaving with such compulsive, ruinous mindlessness.
The most dangerous man alive these days is the one who justifies our
present folly by asking, "Well, what
would you do?" Those who ask the question have no memory and even less
imagination. Perhaps, someone will awaken to other Canadian options and
possibilities before John Manley does.
---------
Dalton Camp is a political commentator. His column appears in the Toronto
Star on Wednesday and Sunday.
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Bush relies on advertising experts to win over Muslims
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0110/25/world/world10.html
By William Douglas in Washington
The Bush Administration, fearing that it might lose the public relations war
in Muslim and Arab nations to Osama bin Laden, is turning to Madison Avenue
for help.
The State Department is talking to the Advertising Council, a New York-based
non-profit group that develops advertising strategies for national causes,
about crafting a "public diplomacy" campaign on the military action in
Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.
Overseeing those talks is Charlotte Beers, the new Undersecretary of State
for public diplomacy and former advertising executive at J. Walter Thompson
who started in the industry marketing Uncle Ben's Rice.
Ms Beers was named to the post by President George Bush early in his
administration and was sworn in October 2.
Her job is to sell America, a difficult task in some Arab and Muslim
countries where citizens are protesting against the US military response to
the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
"I think the fact is, there is a battle for hearts and minds," said Philip
Reeker, a State Department spokesman.
"There's a lot of disinformation ... The difficulties we face in getting our
message out are quite clear."
Several advertising executives and media analysts say the Administration's
increased efforts will do little to sway Muslims and Arabs overseas, many of
whom say their distrust of the United States goes beyond the situation in
Afghanistan.
The US handling of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, for example, fuelled
Arab and Muslim anger and prompted many to dismiss the rationale for going
after bin Laden in Afghanistan, said the newspaper owner Osama Siblani.
"The United States lost the public relations war in the Muslim world a long
time ago," said Mr Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, a weekly
newspaper in Dearborn, Michigan. "They could have the prophet Muhammad doing
public relations and it wouldn't help."
That apprehension increased after September 11 because of what Mr Siblani
and some advertising executives called the Administration's muddled public
relations strategy.
Ms Beers told the Advertising Age last week that she would consider buying
air time on the Arabic-language al-Jazeera network, which is becoming the
CNN of the Arab and Muslim world, to get America's message across to a
foreign audience.
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Cluster bombs trap villagers.
BBC. 24 October 2001.
The United Nations has said that unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs
have trapped villagers after a raid near the western Afghan city of
Herat.
The cluster bombs were dropped around Herat on Monday during a raid in
which UN officials say a military hospital and a mosque were hit.
Cluster bombs are controversial weapons consisting of a canister which
breaks apart to release a large number of small bombs.
Dan Kelly, manager of a UN mine removal programme for Afghanistan, said
the people of Shaker Qala outside Herat were now living in fear of
stepping outside.
UN officials are calling on the United States to share basic information
about the type of munitions used so they know how to deal with them.
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Afghan Opposition Warns U.S. Over Civilian Deaths
Wednesday October 24, 2001
By Elizabeth Piper
KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, Afghanistan (Reuters) -
Afghanistan's opposition urged the United States and
its allies Wednesday to work harder to prevent
civilian casualties in its military campaign against
the ruling Taliban.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition's foreign
minister, said bombing raids against Taliban positions
had inflicted more pain on a people who had already
suffered under the rule of ''terrorists.''
``I think more attention has to be paid to avoid
casualties in the aftermath (of bombing raids),?? he
told a news conference.
``A major concern is that of civilian casualties...
which have to be avoided by any means. They have
suffered for so long under the rule of terrorist
groups... and now they are suffering in a different
way."
Abdullah, on his way to meet commanders in the
northeastern town of Khoja Bahawuddin, said the
opposition Northern Alliance had received confirmed
accounts of civilian casualties during the bombing
raids.
He said many Afghans had been killed or wounded in the
southern city of Kandahar and eastern city of
Jalalabad in the strikes, which Washington and its
allies launched earlier this month.
While the United States has dismissed the Taliban
claims of more than 1,000 civilian deaths, they have
confirmed that some bombs have gone astray.
The United Nations said Tuesday a military hospital
had been destroyed by bombing in the western city of
Herat on Monday but it had no information on
casualties. A U.S. defense official said in Washington
U.S. forces might have accidentally hit a home for the
elderly.
But most reports, such as a story by the
Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press Wednesday that 52
people were killed in the village of Chakor Kariz in
southern Afghanistan, were impossible to verify.
HELP REBUILD AFGHANISTAN
The airstrikes have been targeted at Taliban camps and
frontlines after the hard-line Islamist refused to
surrender Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, prime
suspect behind the attacks on U.S. landmarks.
``Yes this is not the target, and we know the target
is the terrorist camps and the bases of the Taliban...
but the strikes have exacerbated the problem (of
people fleeing their homes)," Abdullah said.
``How to get the targets without hitting the
civilians... needs to be dealt with in a very serious
manner."
Abdullah said the Northern Alliance, which has fought
the Taliban since it took Afghanistan's capital Kabul
in 1996, and the United States military were
cooperating, but more could be done.
``We are in contact with the Americans, we have
considered all aspects of cooperation... (But) better
coordination would bring better results, there is no
doubt about it," he said.
``But our expectations are realistic,?? he said,
adding that the recent bombing of a Northern Alliance
position was an unfortunate mistake and should be
avoided in future.
Abdullah called on the United Nations to help
Afghanistan's future reconstruction, saying the
country needed to rebuild its health service, schools
and demine swathes of land.
He said the international community had offered aid,
but Afghans did not want charity.
``Afghanistan has... great potential in a peaceful
time," he said. ``We have to pass through... this
phase of charity quickly and focus on
reconstruction."
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A Pacifist Dictionary
<http://www.nonviolence.org/commentary/110.php>
By Kate Maloy
Someone recently said to me: My pacifism stops when someone declares war on
me. She is apparently
a pacifist only until the condition that actually calls for pacifism
arises. She wants to know how we can
protect ourselves if we don't return violence for violence. She wants to
know what we should do.
No wonder she is at a loss. The human race has almost no experience with
lasting peace or its
strategies. Our default has always been war. When at risk, we want to
destroy the enemy that has put
us there. This is not our noblest option, it comes from reflex, not
reflection, but we nearly always
resort to it, first or last.
Those of us who hang onto pacifist ideals, even in times like these, are
dismissed, attacked, and
mocked. We are dismissed by the likes of NPR's Cokie Roberts, who, when
asked whether there is
any opposition to this current war, answered: None that matters. We are
attacked in editorials and
sometimes by our own friends or relatives as unrealistic, simple-minded,
airy-fairy, even dangerous.
We are mocked in mainstream media like Newsweek, in which there recently
appeared a snide
comment about anachronistic, bead-and-Birkenstock types.
The fear sparked by recent horrors intensifies suspicion toward pacifism.
People don't want their
traditional forms of defense, the only ones they know, called into doubt.
It makes them too afraid. And
in turn it makes them scorn us "peaceniks," as if our ideals deepen their
risk, as if we would sacrifice
the world before relaxing our principles.
The fact is, we see real safety as possible only through our principles.
The more surprising fact is, we can state our principles just like everyone
else. We are patriots, and we believe in defense. We love our freedoms,
desperately mourn the violence against our country, and long for justice.
We recognize the need for sacrifice and courage in these terribles times.
We pray for peace. It's just that we define the relevant nouns a little
differently.
Excerpts from a pacifist dictionary might read something like this (though
not in alphabetical order):
<> Patriotism. Unswerving loyalty to the first and foremost principle of
our country, which is also the first principle of humanity - All people are
created equal. Because violence betrays this principle, true patriotism
must seek nonviolent ways both to extend it and defend it.
<> Defense. Protection against violence achieved by eliminating its causes,
including hatred, intolerance, injustice, and fear. This is accomplished
through the universal application of humanity's first principle. When all
people are treated as equals, there remains little reason for warfare.
<> Freedom. A human condition that arises from a generous sufficiency of
food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, civil and religious
liberties, and employment opportunities. It is a self-limiting condition;
it breeds no desire for excess, whether material, behavioral, or political.
A truly free person or nation sees that in a world of finite resources the
drive for disproportionate wealth and power necessarily exploits or
subjugates others and thus betrays humanity's first principle.
<> Justice. All actions and policies that ensure and protect humanity's
first principle and guarantee to all people and nations an equal right to
freedom.
<> Sacrifice. Forgoing any over-use of resources by countries or
individuals so that the first principle can apply worldwide. The only
alternative to material sacrifice is blood sacrifice, the continued
endangerment or death of the young to save the old or the greedy.
<> Courage. The quality that overrides personal fear in order to keep faith
with ideals and act upon them.
<> Peace. An enduring condition that can come about only when patriotism,
defense, freedom, justice, sacrifice, and courage, the concepts defined
above, prevail among all people and nations. This condition is deeper and
stronger than history's periods of uneasy quiet between wars.
We pacifists know that our definitions are not in common usage. We know we
are a tiny minority. We know this war will run over our ideals like a tank.
We know we must either take the long view or despair altogether. Pacifism,
in the long view, is far from being illogical and powerless, as most people
think. It is the only logic and the only power.
The long view sees, for instance, that the use of ever more lethal weapons,
from teeth, feet, and elbows to chemical, biological, and nuclear threats,
has never increased security but rather has led us into the ultimate
danger. It sees that all weapons are powerless against hatred, as our
country's massive arsenal was powerless against militants with knives and
boxcutters. It sees the most terrible lesson of war, which is that it does
not neutralize peril but doubles it. War creates two kinds of danger, the
kind embodied in our global destructive power and the kind embodied in the
hatred that first spawned that power.
The only way to extinguish both hazards is to put humanity's first
principle first, to make that, instead of war, our default. The human race
has probably needed its wars in order to see the limits of war, but we
reached those limits at the end of World War II. That was when the world
truly changed. That was when we should have seen that we had forever ruled
out either war or humankind.
Thus in answer to that earlier question -- What should we do?--pacifists
would say: In every moment, act, vote, speak, and choose not for that
moment but for what it can give rise to, hatred or compassion, war or
peace. Be alert for the old ways and the old rhetoric and recognize what
they truly stand for, which is more and deeper peril. Uphold humanity's
first principle at every personal and national decision point, not just
when it is convenient. Do these things, and peace will fall into place,
slowly no doubt, but with infinite grace.
----------
KATE MALOY is a Quaker author and a pacifist. Her memoir, A Stone Bridge
North, will be published in January by Counterpoint Press.
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Women call for end to bombing on civilians
KARACHI, Oct 23: A peaceful demonstration, organized by various NGOs
working for the betterment of women, on Tuesday, called for an immediate
end to the US-led bombing on Afghanistan.
The women, who staged the demonstration at the Press Club, were raising
slogans for acceptance of their demands, urging the United States and
its allies to stop attacks on Afghan cities due to which, they said,
innocent civilians, including women and children, were being killed.
They condemned the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington
and termed it wicked and evil acts of sick minds.
The protesters said that it was imperative for all the nations to use
their competent minds and superior technologies to unearth the criminals
and eliminate them along with their networks. But the bombardment of the
helpless civilians of a country, already traumatized by hunger and war,
defied human compassion and all norms of justice and fair play, they
maintained.
Another terrible human tragedy was being witnessed in which, they said,
women and children were trapped in crossfire, forced to seek shelter in
remote areas with winter aggravating their plight.
They said that killing of 6,000 innocent civilians in the US could not
justify the annihilation of the Afghans. They said that the persistent
aerial strikes on Afghanistan would swell an influx of refugees into the
surrounding countries destabilising the entire region.
The participants called for a political solution through mediations and
negotiations within Afghanistan to bring about a viable peace.
The protesters raised slogans which included: "To eliminate terrorism,
make peace not war"; "UN resolve all outstanding conflicts, give justice
to oppressed peoples"; "US coalition stop the shameful bombardment of
helpless civilians in Afghanistan"; "No issue has ever been solved by
waging war"; "We are against terrorism, the world must stop killing
women and children in the name of justice and peace."
The demonstration concluded with a prayer, led by Shaista Zaidi, Nargis
Rehman, Rehana Afroze, calling for an end to terrorism, end to the
bombing on Afghanistan, prevalence of peace and harmony in the world,
and integrity and solidarity of Pakistan.
The demonstration was jointly organized by Karachi Peace Women's
Committee, Bazm-i-Aamna, and Working Women Welfare Trust, while the
representatives of various other NGOs including Lyari Women's Skill
Development, Lawyers for Human Rights, Mufaad-i- Aamma, Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Saarc Women Association, Shehri, CEDF,
Pawla, Falah Association, SEWA, Ladies Forum, Helpline, HANDS, Tehrik-i-
Niswan, EAWS, Samaj Sudhar Tehrik, Patients Welfare Association, etc
also participated.
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Bombings that hit wrong targets in Afghanistan
10-23-01
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Following is a list of non-military installations
allegedly bombed, apparently in error, by U.S. forces since they launched
attacks on Afghanistan on Oct. 7.
Some incidents have been confirmed, while no independent confirmation was
available for others. The U.S.-led forces say they are targeting Taliban
military installations and camps and facilities of Saudi born militant
Osama bin Laden.
- - - -
OCTOBER 22
HERAT - The Taliban said United States bombed a 100-bed hospital in the
western city of Herat, killing more than 100. The United Nations said
Tuesday it had learned that a military hospital in a military compound had
been destroyed in Herat on Monday but it had no information on casualties.
A U.S. defense official said in Washington that U.S. forces might have
accidentally hit a home for the elderly in Herat Monday.
OCTOBER 17
KANDAHAR - Taliban Information Ministry official Abdul Hanan Himat said a
U.S. bomb hit a truck packed with Afghans trying to flee air raids on the
town of Chunai near the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
He said all those in the truck had been killed but gave no casualty figure.
No independent verification was possible.
OCTOBER 16
KABUL - U.S. bombs hit warehouses operated by the International Committee
of the Red Cross in Kabul, destroying tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other
aid supplies intended for internally displaced Afghans.
ICRC said it was clearly a civilian facility, marked with a large red cross
on the roof. An ICRC Afghan employee was injured.
The Pentagon said a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet jet dropped 1,000-pound bombs
that inadvertently hit one or more ICRC warehouses. U.S. forces had
targeted a series of warehouses believed to be used by the Taliban to store
military equipment, the Pentagon statement said.
"Military vehicles had been seen in the vicinity of these warehouses. U.S.
forces did not know that the ICRC was using one or more of the warehouses,"
the statement said.
OCTOBER 13
KABUL - A U.S. Navy F/A-18 attack aircraft missed a Taliban military target
at Kabul airport and its 2,000-pound "smart" bomb blasted civilian houses a
mile from the Afghan capital, the Pentagon said.
A U.S. defense official said the satellite-guided bomb had missed because
of human error, in that incorrect coordinates had been entered into a
targeting system.
The Pentagon cited reports of as many as four dead and eight injured. A
Reuters reporter said at least one man was killed and four injured.
OCTOBER 11
JALALABAD - The Taliban say U.S. bombs flattened Khorum village, near the
eastern city of Jalalabad. Villagers said at least 160 people were killed
in the pre-dawn bombing.
International journalists invited to visit the village saw evidence of
widespread devastation and more than a dozen fresh graves but it was
impossible to confirm the death toll or what had caused the damage.
Rumsfeld did not deny the area had been targeted, but described the alleged
death toll as "ridiculous" and said the remote mountainous area was riddled
with tunnels containing munitions.
OCTOBER 9
KABUL - A U.S. bomb struck a U.N.-funded demining office in Kabul, killing
four people and slightly wounding one. The attack destroyed the four-story
building.
"People need to distinguish between combatants and those innocent civilians
who do not bear arms," U.N. Afghanistan coordinator for humanitarian aid
Mike Sackett said after the incident.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed regret for the deaths of
the four Afghans, but said he did not know if they had been killed by U.S.
weapons and added that some civilian casualties were inevitable.
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Pacifists are filing for CO status in growing numbers
By Jen Cooper -- Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
Ocotber 23, 2001
At 17, Daniel Fahey signed up for the Navy ROTC program and attended
the University of Notre Dame on a military scholarship. He did well and was
commissioned into the Navy as an officer in 1990.
In January 1991, when Operation Storm began, the Navy sent Fahey to
be trained to fire nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles.
That was when Fahey's own war began.
For six weeks, the man who had joined the Navy for adventure and
travel wrestled with his beliefs and came to the conclusion that because of
his moral and ethical code, he could not fire a nuclear missile, or any
missile, for that matter.
Fahey was granted conscientious objector status in February 1991, was
discharged from the Navy and over the next five years paid back his college
scholarships.
Fahey, who is now a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts,
said he confronted his beliefs when he was being trained to fire nuclear
missiles. Had there been no war or had he been assigned noncombat duties
upon entering the Navy, Fahey said he probably would have fulfilled the
final three years of his enlistment.
Now, with air strikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan underway,
other members of the military are wrestling with their own convictions.
Several peace organizations said they have received a dramatic increase in
phone calls and e-mails from military personnel who have questions about
conscientious objection and other types of discharges. The inquiries tend to
come from young enlisted personnel who joined the military within the last
10 years.
"A lot of people didn't give (their decision to join the military) much
thought, or what the implications are, or what you might be asked to do,"
Fahey said. "Maybe the current march to war is really making them evaluate
their beliefs."
Conscientious objectors - people opposed to any and all war - may be granted
an honorable discharge if their beliefs are found to be sincere.
Brian Cross, a staff member with the Central Committee for Conscientious
Objectors in Oakland, Calif., said many of the service personnel who call
are people who were already uneasy about their duties in the military, and
the renewed threat of war has caused them to think more seriously about
filing for conscientious objector status.
"Sometimes people are reluctant to take a stand until push comes to shove,"
he said.
Since Sept. 11, the committee has received hundreds of phone calls, and
Cross said 12 times as many people have requested literature as they did in
August.
Cross, who gained conscientious objector status during Vietnam, said America
has recognized conscientious objection since the time of the colonies.
"It's not part of human nature to want to kill somebody, even for a
political end and even for revenge," he said. "Patriotism is one thing and a
willingness to kill is another."
The CCCO is also associated with the GI Rights Hotline. The hotline had
anticipated 20,000 calls this year, but in light of the terrorist attacks,
staff members are expecting that number to jump to 30,000, Cross said.
Most of the military personnel who have called have been between the ages of
18 and 28, he said.
The organization also has received calls from high school counselors and
parents who are worried that America's war on terrorism will also mean a
reinstatement of the draft.
"It's difficult to have a concrete sense of what it's like to go to war,"
said Harold Jordan, coordinator of the National Youth and Militarism Program
in Philadelphia.
But the attacks that began Oct. 7 cemented the threat of military action,
and that has caused some members of the military to confront their beliefs.
The same scenario happened during the Gulf War, Jordan said.
Jordan's program is affiliated with the American Friends Service Committee,
a social justice and humanitarian organization that estimates 2,500 people
attempted to get out of the military during the 1991 Gulf War.
A General Accounting Office report said 447 people applied for CO status in
1991, up from 200 the previous year.
However, Jordan said that figure does not take into account the people who
were in the process of applying or who went to jail for refusing to go to
war.
Representatives for the service branches said they haven't yet seen any
increase in the number of people interested in or applying for conscientious
objector status.
Marine Capt. Jeff Pool, who works with Marine Forces Reserves in New
Orleans, said the response that he's seen is that Marines are anxious to
know whether they'll be mobilized.
"No one wants to be left behind, especially after an attack like that one,"
Pool said. "All the Marines I know are trying to get to go."
Air Force Col. Phillip Deavel, a senior judge advocate at Randolph Air Force
Base in Texas, said the United States military has long recognized
conscientious objector status as an important aspect of a democratic
society.
"This is not a program the military resists," he said. "It's an important
safety valve."
Deavel said conscientious objector status, however, is not to be used as a
way to skirt a commitment to military duty.
People applying for CO status must show that they have a deep and sincere
aversion to war, although that belief does not necessarily have to flow from
a religious conviction.
In order to prove that sincere belief, a CO applicant must make a written
statement, be evaluated by a chaplain and psychiatrist and have their
application undergo several legal reviews.
"The vast majority of us are morally comfortable with the justness of the
military," Deavel said. "Otherwise, we would not be in uniform in the first
place."
Conscientious objectors in the military
Because it is possible for service personnel to change their beliefs
after enlisting, the U.S. military offers conscientious objection as a
viable way to leave the military based on one's convictions.
The Pentagon receives, on average, 200 applications for
conscientious objector status each year.
But one of the biggest arguments as to why conscientious objectors are in
that military is that new recruits aren't given an accurate picture of what
military life is all about.
Harold Jordan, a spokesman for the Youth and Militarism Program,
agrees and said recruiters tend to focus on the benefits of military service
like loan repayment programs and job training.
"Traditionally, you see in ads that you go into the military to get
a leg up on life and get money for college and that war is not something
that's going to affect you or happen very often," he said. "There's
something inherently wrong and dishonest about how military service is
presented."
Slogans like "Be all can you be," "Fuel your future," "Aim High" and
"Accelerate Your Life," don't give people an accurate understanding of
military life, Jordan said.
The Army's new slogan, "Army of One", distorts what joining the
military is about, he said.
"It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen," he said. "The
notion that you go into the military as an expression of individuality is
not the reality."
The problem is worsened by schools and career centers that encourage
and pressure students to join the military.
"Schools just turn people over to recruiters as if they were
guidance counselors," he said.
Jordan said students should be allowed to hear balanced
presentations from veterans, not just "government salespersons."
The people who are calling Jordan's organization now are people who
he said were probably considering getting out before, but this new
possibility of a global war triggered them to take action now.
Jordan said the phone calls and e-mails he receives are from all of
the different service branches. However, during the Gulf War he said the
people calling were overwhelmingly from the Army and Marine Corps.
Army Capt. Jennifer Wabales, who works with recruiters in the Denver
area, acknowledged that people join the Army for different reasons,
including education and college benefits. But she said the Army is not
trying to disillusion people and trick them into joining the military.
"Commercials do focus on education and benefits but they also show
soldiers in rubber rafts floating down the jungle," she said. "There's the
implication that somewhere that training will be needed."
Wabales said a lot of her recruiters served in the Gulf War and show
pictures and tell stories to people considering enlisting.
Master Sgt. Ron Turner, a public affairs officer with the Marine
Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico Va., said from the time people first
meet their recruiter they are being told that they are being trained for
war.
Marine recruiters ask potential recruits whether they are a
conscientious objector and the same question is asked to all new enlistees
on the first day of boot camp.
If a person answers yes, they're sent home.
"The Marine Corps doesn't want anybody who doesn't want to be a
Marine," he said.
Regardless of their individual training or specialty, all Marines
understand that they are first and foremost riflemen, he said.
Lance Cpl. Brent Gregory recently graduated from boot camp in San
Diego, Calif., and said it was made very clear that they were being trained
to go to war.
His platoon practiced sticking bayonets into mannequins, shot at
rifle targets that were in the shape of a person and responded to certain
drills with "kill."
Gregory said they also sang cadences that talked about going into a
danger zone, getting killed and coming home in a body bag.
"People are ignorant to think they won't have to go to war," he
said.
And being a conscientious objector in the military goes against
everything the service trains for, he said.
"That's like saying I want to be a firefighter but I don't want to
go into a burning building," he said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bombs Hit Civilian Areas of Afghan Cities, U.S. Says
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-102401mili.story
Military: Strikes that went awry in Kabul and near home for elderly in Herat
could imperil anti-terrorism coalition.
By ESTHER SCHRADER
Times Staff Writer
October 24 2001
WASHINGTON -- Three U.S. bombs went astray in weekend strikes in
Afghanistan, landing in a residential neighborhood northwest of the capital,
Kabul, and near a home for the elderly outside the city of Herat, Pentagon
officials said Tuesday.
The two incidents were the latest examples of precision-guided weapons going
awry in the U.S.-led military campaign--mistakes that could hurt
Washington's efforts to win support in some Islamic countries for its war on
terrorism.
U.S. fighter jets and heavy bombers continued to strike forces loyal to the
Afghan Taliban regime north of Kabul on Tuesday. Opposition fighters watched
the strikes closely, hoping that the bombardment will open the way for their
advance on the capital.
Pentagon officials also reported that a U.S. helicopter came under fire in
Pakistan on Saturday. The aircraft was trying to retrieve the wreckage of a
Black Hawk helicopter that crashed while providing support for a U.S.
commando raid into Afghanistan staged earlier in the day.
The retrieval crew returned fire and left the area; no U.S. troops were hurt
in the incident. It was the first time that a U.S. aircraft involved in the
campaign has been shot at outside Afghanistan, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria
Clarke said. Many Pakistanis oppose their country's role in the U.S.
campaign.
Clarke said the Pentagon had no information on civilian casualties in the
weekend bombing mistakes, in which a Navy F-14 dropped two 500-pound bombs
on a residential area near Kabul on Saturday night and a Navy F/A-18 Hornet
dropped a 1,000-pound bomb near a home for the elderly near Herat on Sunday
morning.
Bombing Mistakes Called 'Rare Errors'
There was some confusion about what had been hit in Herat. In Pakistan, a
United Nations spokeswoman said U.S. air attacks had destroyed a military
hospital on the eastern outskirts of Herat, according to reports from U.N.
local staff in the area. The spokeswoman said the hospital was in a military
compound.
Clarke said she was uncertain whether the U.N. report referred to the home
for the elderly, which was 300 feet from a vehicle storage facility at an
army barracks that had been the bomb's intended target.
Taliban officials had claimed Monday that a hospital in the Herat area had
been bombed, killing about 100 people. They asserted Tuesday that the
civilian death toll since the U.S. air attacks began Oct. 7 has surpassed
1,000.
Clarke dismissed the Taliban claims as "outright lies" and said civilian
casualties have been "extremely limited."
"As we always say, we regret any loss of civilian life," she said. "U.S.
forces are intentionally striking only military and terrorist targets. We
take great care in our targeting process to avoid civilian casualties."
Still, analysts cautioned that even a small number of civilian deaths can
damage the U.S. effort to maintain support among Arab and Muslim nations for
the war on terrorism.
"It is a sensitive issue because of the question about whether this is a war
against terrorism or whether this is a war on the Afghan people and a war on
Islam," said John Pike, an analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy
research firm in Alexandria, Va. "When you hit the right target, it's a war
on terrorism, and when you hit the wrong target, it's a war on Islam."
Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, a senior official with the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, called the errant bombings "rare errors."
He also said he has seen evidence suggesting that some Taliban forces may be
hiding in residential neighborhoods, aware of the efforts by the U.S.
military to avoid hitting such areas.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator's office supported that theory Tuesday.
The office said its representatives in Afghanistan reported that residential
areas were indeed becoming more dangerous because Taliban troops have moved
into them. The office said reports from Kabul indicated that several bombs
have hit residential areas close to health and food aid centers.
So far, U.S. forces have used more than 3,000 bombs and missiles in the air
attack on Afghanistan. On each mission, Stufflebeem said, "we're going after
a very specific military Taliban target, and we're using very precise ways
to get at it."
Still, he acknowledged that technological or human errors can cause the
weapons to miss their targets. Weather also can be a factor, he said;
conditions such as dust, humidity or wind can affect the accuracy of the
laser-guided bombs and missiles the U.S. has been using.
Stufflebeem said bombing continued Tuesday throughout Afghanistan.
About 80 U.S. fighter jets and bombers struck 11 target areas Monday, he
said, including airfields, radar equipment, military garrisons, military
training facilities, bunkers and moving targets such as tanks.
Many of the attacks, he asserted, focused on Taliban forces fighting
opposition groups in northern Afghanistan.
As the airstrikes continue, Stufflebeem said that evidence is emerging that
supply lines for Taliban troops and their allies in the Al Qaeda terrorist
network have been disrupted, as have their housing and training facilities.
"We have struck all of the terrorist training camps that we are aware of,"
Stufflebeem said.
He also charged that Taliban forces have taken over several Red Cross
warehouses loaded with food and that they appear to be using the stored
goods to feed troops rather than civilians.
"They're denying that to the people who need it," Stufflebeem said. "I make
an assumption that they're keeping that for themselves because they don't
have an ability to resupply easily."
Monday's operation utilized about 60 tactical jets based on three carriers
in the region and about 10 land-based tactical aircraft, including AC-130
gunships, as well as about 10 long-range bombers.
Four C-17 cargo planes dropped 57,000 packages of food in Afghanistan on
Tuesday, while the military helped U.S. aid officials deliver 30,000
blankets to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Stufflebeem said.
The Pentagon also disclosed that during Saturday's commando raids into
Afghanistan, the landing gear and part of the undercarriage of an MH-47
helicopter were sheared off when the aircraft hit a wall. The helicopter was
flying fast and low as it ferried Army commando teams out of Afghanistan,
officials said.
It returned safely to an undisclosed base, officials said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US confesses to stray bombs.
BBC. 23 October 2001
The UN has announced that a military hospital has been destroyed in the
western Afghan city of Herat, as Washington admits that at least three
bombs have missed their intended targets.
United Nations spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker told a news conference in
Pakistan that the 100-bed hospital was reportedly struck on Sunday
during the air campaign.
The Taleban claims that 100 patients and medical workers were killed.
Taleban officials also say a US bomb fell on a mosque in the same city,
killing 15 people praying inside.
The Pentagon could not confirm the hospital incident, but an official
acknowledged that a "systems malfunction" was responsible for at least
three bombs going off-course over the weekend.
US Assistant Secretary of Defence Victoria Clarke said that two
500-tonne bombs had accidentally dropped on a residential area northwest
of Kabul on Saturday, and that on Sunday a 1,000-tonne bomb had been
dropped on a field next to an old peoples' residential home.
Washington is now also admitting that a helicopter involved in a raid
near Kandahar lost part of its landing gear after being shot at,
although it managed to return safely to base.
After a day-long respite for Kabul itself, American bombing resumed on
Tuesday, with residents reporting raids throughout the day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Propaganda, ignorance and jingoism
www.onlinejournal.com
By Chris Grant
October 24, 2001
Propaganda
"We are targeting military installations."
Propaganda. We are targeting whatever it is that we feel like. These
military installations appear to be innocent civilians. At least, that's
the way it appears to me. A little lower down, I ask for evidence to link
Osama bin Laden to the September 11 attacks, evidence that we were promised
nearly two months ago. To show good faith, I present my evidence of the
above accusation:
Eight in one family killed as planes hit Kabul suburb
Four children among dead as blood bank runs dry in city hospital
Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Monday October 22, 2001
Excerpt:
Eight members of an Afghan family were killed yesterday when their house in
a residential district of Kabul was blown apart in a wave of US military
strikes, witnesses said.
Compelling accounts from neighbours gave independent confirmation of one of
the worst attacks on civilians since the US bombing campaign began just
over two weeks ago.
The dead included four boys, aged four, five, seven and eight, and their
mother. Their home in the Khair Khana district, which is close to a
deserted military base and around two miles from the airport, was flattened
shortly before lunchtime.
Last night the bodies of the Kabul family lay on hospital beds covered with
bloodied sheets.
"There was no blood, otherwise we could have saved two of these children.
They died in the hospital," their uncle said.
End excerpt. If you want to read the entire story, I direct you to the
Guardian Unlimited website.
"We are the good guys."
Propaganda. In a war, there are no "good guys", nor are there any "bad
guys". There is, however, death, destruction, blood, massacres, the
relocation, dislocation and, in many cases, elimination of whole groups of
people (even if they are not killed). That's what war has. No "good guys",
no "bad guys". Only pain.
"The Taliban is lying to the people of the world."
The illegal Bush administration admitted that they are lying. They say that
this is to insure that operations go off as smoothly as possible. Point to
the separation between the two sides in this war, please.
"The country is united."
The country is far from united. At last check, there was anywhere from 10
to 30 percent opposed to this war. Those of you in the 70 to 90 percent
range of approval are probably about to say, "Majority rules." In your
minds and in the minds of way too many people, that maxim is true. However,
it is the least of us that the Constitution protects. The First Amendment
is one such protective measure. It insures that I can stand on a street
corner and say that I'm hungry and no one can tell me otherwise. Why do you
think there are appeals for those that lose cases but no appeals for
someone that believes that they should get more money out of a court case won?
This country is not united, no matter what phrase you wish to use.
Which leads me to...
"George W. Bush is a brilliant president."
George W. Bush is a former drunk (though there is speculation that he's
still taking a nip every other hour) who, grades not anywhere near adequate
to enter Yale had his daddy pull strings. George W. Bush is a former
cocaine addict (though, you know what they say about once an addict...)
who, once it appeared as if Vietnam was going claim him as one its victims,
had his daddy pull strings. George W. Bush is a failure in business. When
he started to flush the family fortune and "good name" down the toilet, his
daddy was once again there to save him, bailing him out (though I doubt
highly that this was the first time he had to bail him out). See below for
the name of one of these businesses George Sr. had to ride to the rescue
on. Why do you think George Jr. was placed in politics? It wasn't for his
smarts. It was simply to insure that the Bush family treasure chest would
exist a little while longer. Why use his family's money and piss it all
away when he can take other people's!
money (another drug that George was addicted to immediately)?
George W. Bush is not even the president. How can he be brilliant?
"Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect..."
That is the focusing lens. Look there, burn him down, hate him, hate him,
hate him.
I say, "Prove it." Colin Powell promised evidence on such a scale that you
would have absolutely no doubt as to bin Laden's guilt. We have yet to see
this proof. I've been told that we don't need proof, that we should
eliminate bin Laden, no questions asked. Are we vigilantes or are we a
"law-abiding" country?
In the 1980s, Osama bin Laden was our man in Afghanistan against the "evil
empire", the U.S.S.R. Now, Osama bin Laden is our target. We built bin
Laden. If you want to take him apart, you cannot take him apart alone.
Reagan and Bush, Sr. (alongside Bush, Jr. what with his Arbusto Oil
dealings with bin Laden) spring to mind immediately. How's about we take
the light and shine it on these cockroaches along with bin Laden before we
start stepping on anyone?
The administration would like us to...
March.
Click our boot heels together.
Raise our right arm and salute.
Say the magic words.
"Heil Bush! Heil Bush! Heil Bush!"
Die Leute! Das Vaterland! Der Fhrer!
Propaganda.
Ignorance
"We're feeding [the Afghani people]."
As I stated in my previous commentary, this is a lie. Yes, we are dropping
packets of what is supposedly food on the country of Afghanistan. That is
as far as the truth goes. The Northern Alliance has recovered food in
previous weeks and taken it to market to be sold to people who have nothing
to begin with. The Taliban is reported to have taken the packets and burned
them. The Americans dropping the food in the first place are dropping them
in minefields. The Americans dropping the food in the first place have
dropped bombs on an International Red Cross supply building. No one was
killed but the supplies were completely destroyed.
We're feeding them. We're bombing them. We're killing them. It's all
happening at the same time. The media would have you focus on one of the
above activities. Can you guess which one?
"We're doing this for the very survival of America."
Now who could disagree with that?
This is such a falsehood it should be under the propaganda section of this
commentary.
There are many, many other reasons why we're "doing this".
There are two obvious surface answers. This is the first.
But dig a little deeper. Find the answers that actually make sense.
Oil. Afghanistan has nice stores of the black gold that seems to make the
world go 'round. The US government has already struck deals in Pakistan for
their oil. Shall we take odds on who's going to get the first contract to
drill in Afghanistan?
Drugs. Heroin is the most productive natural resource in Afghanistan. And a
pet theory of mine is, "Why not bring all that good stuff into America?"
Get the next generation hooked into the machine, put them away or put them
in the hole with an addiction and the world is your oyster^until the next
generation. Then we go to war again.
Eliminate bin Laden to keep him from shedding light on dealings that he's
had with the Bush family or the Carlyle Group (they are almost the exact
same entity). We did it with Noriega. We attempted to do it with Hussein.
Why not bin Laden?
"This is being done because they killed 6,000 of ours."
This is the second obvious surface answer. And while the obvious wrong is
in the comment itself (of the 6,000 killed September 11, some 60 countries
were affected; it wasn't just "ours"), I have a proposal for you.
Go talk with a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, or a child of someone
that died in New York.
Go talk with a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, or a child of someone
that was killed in Washington.
Go talk with a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, or a child of someone
that died outside of Pittsburgh.
Go ask them if they feel good knowing that we're killing people that had
nothing to do with anything except for the fact that they attempt to
survive in Afghanistan.
Go ask them if they think that their parent, friend, sibling, spouse, son
or daughter would have wanted this.
Go ask them if they think that their parent, friend, sibling, spouse, son
or daughter would have cackled with glee as Afghanis fled from their homes.
I would hope that the door would slam in your face after they told you that
you were insane.
"We have a lot of reports from the ground to the effect that the Afghan,
innocent Afghan people are, are going about their affairs pretty much as
normal."
That came from the mouth of the same jackass that made the comment, "We're
not running out of targets, Afghanistan is." Donald Rumsfeld. You are a
thug, a punk and are obviously suffering from some neurological disorder,
Rumsfeld. This is S.O.P. in Afghanistan? Bombs fall on Afghanistan every day?
Let's hook your ass up to a bomb, Rummy. And, as you fall on Afghanistan,
maybe you can tell us whether or not the people of Afghanistan are "going
about their affairs pretty much as normal".
Jingoism
"Un-American."
Would you like to take my statement now, Mr. McCarthy?
"Terrorist."
Hi, nice to meet you. I must be Henry Kissinger.
"Unpatriotic."
No, I actually like the First Amendment.
"Say the Pledge of Allegiance."
Would you like to administer the loyalty oath now or later?
"Sing the National Anthem."
The people sang in German the last time they were forced to do this, didn't
they?
"Wave the flag."
Why? What would that accomplish except to cause a draft?
"God bless America."
When did this happen?
"Support the military. Support their actions."
Did the temperature in hell drop?
"God is on our side."
That's what the other side says, too. Must be two gods. No, wait. We both
believe in the same god. Must be that we both cut the deity in two. Which
half do we have this week?
"Send me a dollar. We'll get it to your counterpart in Afghanistan."
Using the children of America. Somewhere, Hitler smiled with admiration.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-war MPs in Labour resent gag order
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/0323000g.htm
The Hindu
October 23, 2001
By Hasan Suroor
LONDON, OCT. 22. The row in the Labour Party over the
continued bombing in Afghanistan has escalated with
the anti-war MPs refusing to tone down their criticism
despite a gag order which one MP called a
``McCarthyite witchhunt''. They have protested at
being treated like ``circus dogs'' with the party
whips trying to put them on leash in a bid to prevent
them from publicly airing their views on the military
action.
The row comes amid report that the British Government
is on the verge of committing its ground troops in
Afghanistan. One MP, Mr. Paul Marsden, has embarrassed
the leadership by briefing a tabloid on his
conversation with the party chief whip, Ms. Hilary
Armstrong, during which she sharply told him to fall
in line with the government policy. ``I want a
guarantee that you will not speak to the media unless
you speak to me first,'' she reportedly told him and
when he insisted that he had a right to air his views,
she retorted: ``It was people like you who appeased
Hitler in 1938.''
The Sunday Telegraph quoted Ms. Armstrong as saying
that Mr. Marsden had ``got problems'' but he would
``sort them out eventually''. He is among the most
outspoken critics of the Blair Government's all-out
support for the war in Afghanistan and is backed by
two senior MPs, Mr. Tam Dalyell and Mr. George
Galloway besides a host of younger backbenchers.
Already known as ``rebels'' on the issue, they are
reported to be busy mobilising support for a pressure
group called ``Labour Against the Bombing'' and,
according to The Guardian, they hope to attract upto
30 MPs in addition to the moral support of non-Labour
critics of the war. They plan to step up their demand
for a pause in the bombing so that sufficient food and
other relief material can be reached to the people
before the onset of winter.
Last week, they joined an American anti-war
campaigner, Mr. David Pickering's petition to Downing
Street opposing the ``instruments of war'' to deal
with the crisis following the September 11 outrage.
Mr. Pickering's website is said to have received
messages of support from over 50,000 Britons. As
reports point to a worsening humanitarian situation,
pressure for a halt in hostilities is mounting and,
according to a report in The Observer, the United
Nations is ``set'' to issue an appeal for a ceasefire
to facilitate relief work. It quoted a U.N. source as
saying that unless the bombing stopped there would be
a ``huge number of deaths'' due to starvation and
malnutrition.
The reported U.N. move, dismissed in some circles as
speculation, follows appeal by several international
aid agencies in the region for a pause in air strikes.
They have criticised Britain's Secretary for
International Development, Ms. Clare Short, for
claiming that the bombing was not coming in the way of
providing relief - a line strongly articulated by the
Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, who told Parliament
that it was the Taliban who were proving to be a
hurdle.
The British aid agency, Christian Aid, has term Ms.
Short's statement ``misleading'' alleging that the
Government's ``spin doctors'' were showing ``callous
disregard'' for people's suffering. Observers pointed
out that while the Government was right in accusing
the Taliban of creating problems it was also true that
because of the relentless bombing it was not possible
to get food to the people. A spokesman of the World
Food Programme, Mr. Michael Huggins, has said that
food distribution has been severely disrupted as truck
drivers refuse to go into areas where bombs are
falling.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peace Coalition Calls for Cross Canada Day of Action Against War and
Corporate Globalization
For Immediate Release
October 22, 2001
The September Eleventh Peace Coalition has called on groups across the
country to join a cross Canada day of non-violent action for Global
Peace and Justice Saturday November 17th, 2001.
Actions will call on the Canadian government to withdraw Canadian
Forces from military action and to asses WTO, IMF and World Bank
agreements and policies based on peace and economic development.
The coalition announced that already events are being planned in towns
and cities across the country. "Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto are among
the more high profile cities that will have non-violent actions against
war and corporate globalization," said Peter Coombes, National Organizer
of End the Arms Race, and Co-chair of the September 11 Peace Coalition.
The November 17th call for a cross Canada day of action for Global
Peace and Justice coincides with the recently announced meetings of the
G-20 Finance Ministerial meetings to be held in Ottawa on the same day.
"The Government must use the upcoming meetings of the G20, IMF, and
World Bank in Ottawa to asses current agreements and policies of
institutions such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank against Canadian
values of promoting peace, social justice, and security for all people,"
said Steven Staples of the Council of Canadians.
"The alternative to war is to begin rebuilding the world's
infrastructures and to provide the things that working people need, like
food, shelter, medical care, education, jobs and justice. Canadians
implicitly understand the need for real justice and that's why thousands
of people across the country will participate in the November 17th day
of Global Peace and Justice," said Deborah Bourque of the Canadian Union
of Postal Workers, and Co-chair of the September 11 Peace Coalition.
The September Eleventh Peace Coalition, which includes high-profile
national peace, labour, students, religious, women, environmental,
cultural and community groups formed October 5th to oppose Canada's
participation in military retaliation and to speak out against racist
attacks resulting from the September 11 terrorists attacks on the United
States.
For more information contact:
Peter Coombes, End the Arms Race 604-687-3223
Steven Staples, The Council of Canadians 613-233-2773 x235
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Large protests erupt in NATO countries
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC GOV'TS FEEL ANTI-WAR HEAT:
By John Catalinotto
Hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East to
Africa to Europe took part in major demonstrations against
the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan the weekend of Oct. 12-13.
Two of the larger protests took place in the heart of major
NATO powers--in London and Berlin.
These actions took place as the U.S. continued bombing
Afghanistan, using cluster bombs and killing Afghani
civilians. This put the onus of terror on the Pentagon in
the eyes of much of the world.
Bush's war of "long duration" showed all signs of being an
imperialist war to arrange the division of the world and its
energy resources--especially in the Middle East and Central
Asia. British and German participation in this war makes
even clearer its predatory character.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been traveling around
the world trying to build up support for the "coalition"
Washington is using to back its moves against Afghanistan.
Blair is a more articulate defender of imperialist interests
than Bush, but there is no way of separating Britain's role
from its history of colonialism, especially in that area.
British imperialism is in the role it has occupied since
1945--junior partner of U.S. imperialism. While its
political leaders put their experience running the British
Empire at the service of Washington, they make sure the
British ruling class gets its share of the plunder.
But while the New York Times happily reprints Blair's
speeches, he has aroused growing opposition at home.
What distinguished the march in London, which organizers
said was 50,000 strong, was the broad multinational
participation. There was an especially large contingent from
the Muslim community--mainly South Asian--living in England
that is now about 4 million people.
Salma Yakoob of the Stop the War Coalition in Birmingham,
speaking in Trafalgar Square, described it well: "If only
the leftists had been here today, people would have said we
were all lefties," she said. ''If only CND [Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament] had been here, they would have said it
was the middle-class elite. If it was only the Muslims, they
would have called us extremists. If it was only Asians and
Black people, they would have said it was the ethnic
minorities.
"Tony Blair, we are here united against this war. You cannot
dismiss us all.'' (The Independent, Oct. 13)
British anti-war activist Jean Hatton told Workers World,
"The most popular placard carried by the demonstrators
seemed to be 'Not in our name,' a slogan used widely by
protesters against sanctions on Iraq. Others highlighted the
double standards employed by Western nations, where the
deaths of thousands in Iraq caused by these sanctions go
largely unreported."
She added that even neighborhoods in smaller cities saw many
expressions of solidarity between the historically British
and the immigrant Muslim population, and a strong feeling
that the people of Afghanistan should not suffer any
additional hardships.
"There is great unease across Britain. Even people who
supported the bombing of Yugoslavia and Iraq are asking what
can possibly be achieved by bombing a country already
devastated by war," Hatton said.
A NEW ROLE FOR GERMANY
Since 1945, Washington has led the vast majority of
military assaults in the world, from Korea to Kosovo. London
and sometimes Paris send their troops in behind the
Pentagon; at times they act on their own. The German
military, however, was supposed to stay put--unless it was
fighting the USSR under NATO command.
Now for the first time Berlin has been openly invited to
take part in the action, and the Social Democrat/Green
government is jumping at the chance to send German youths to
their death.
In a major speech on Oct. 11, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder said, "The willingness to provide security through
the military is an important declaration for Germany's
allies." It "means a new self-conception of German foreign
policy.... Avoiding every direct risk cannot and must not be
the guideline of German foreign and security policy."
(Washington Post, Oct. 12)
He added, "There are more reasons why Germany must show its
active solidarity ... historical reasons, contemporary
reasons, and reasons to do with the position of Germany in
the future."
Schroeder's speech found an echo. "This is a defining moment
for Germany and its role is being fixed," said Karl Kaiser,
director of the German Council on Foreign Relations. "It
didn't go unnoticed that when Bush spoke of the coalition
around the U.S., he said it was Britain, France, Australia
and Germany. And that has enormous meaning."
The Christian Democrats also back this aggressive policy.
Only the Party of Democratic Socialism refused to vote for
German participation in the war on Afghanistan.
This new eagerness to send their youth--working-class youth,
that is--into danger should be recognized for what it is.
This is a declaration that the German government wants to
guarantee that German imperialism gets its share of the
spoils. In the current crisis, that means its share of
Middle East and Central Asian oil and gas.
PROTESTS IN BERLIN AND STUTTGART
As in the U.S. and Britain, an ever-larger part of the
German population began to fear that the Pentagon's bombing
of Afghanistan would kill and maim innocent people there
and only increase the dangers at home.
In Berlin a reported 50,000 people came out against the U.S.
war. Another 25,000 marched in Stuttgart.
Ruediger Goebel writing in the Berlin daily newspaper Junge
Welt on Oct. 15 noted that these protests were significantly
larger and more youthful than any during NATO's aggression
against Yugoslavia two years ago, with large numbers of high-
school students taking part.
This new youth activism is important, as it directly
confronts the move by German ruling circles to participate
in military adventures around the world. Some of these
youths had participated in anti-globalization actions.
Sebastian Schluesselburg, representing secondary-school
students, expressed the youths' dissent in a clear voice at
the Berlin protest. "Retaliatory military strikes have no
backing in the German student body, Mr. Chancellor," he
said. Earlier in the week students in Berlin had defied
threats of school punishment to take part in anti-war
activity.
Germany still has a drafted army, although it is moving in
the direction of a more streamlined, professional and
motorized force. A vocal opponent of German militarization,
Tobias Pflueger, has already called upon German youth to
refuse service and on German soldiers to refuse to take part
in any support of the U.S.'s open-ended war.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SECRET WARS
10/12/01
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
As this is written, the obscene whine of bombs pierces
the night sky over the capital city of Kabul, in the war-
shattered nation of Afghanistan. Once again, the American
Empire has come to the Middle East, armed with the
glittering array of war.
Although national opinion polls assure us that this nebulous
war against "terrorists, and all who support them," is a popular
one, high opinion poll ratings mask the very real and very deep
anxiety that people feel, in their hearts, and in their guts, about
the prospect of victory. That anxiety underlies a deep distrust
that Americans have historically felt about the government.
What don't they know? What are Americans not being told?
*How will this end?*
In truth, there is a good reason for this sense of anxiety, as
many Americans are, without their knowledge or okay, a part
of the secret wars that are raging around the world.
When the United States was a very young, and indeed, an
infant nation, a well-known national leader hatched a secret
plot to invade and overthrow Libya. An agent of his was given
tens of thousands of dollars, and 1,000 guns to raise a secret
army against Libya. This U.S. State Department official was
attached to the Navy and given the title, "Agent for the United
States Fleet in the Mediterranean." This secret agent,
working without the knowledge or permission of the U.S.
Congress, entered Egypt, organized a mercenary army, and
waged war against Libya, but was not able to destabilize the
government.
The government agent was Capt. William Eaton. He was
acting under the secret orders of U.S. President, Thomas
Jefferson, after a secret meeting of them on December 10,
1803. (See Jerry Fresia's Toward an American Revolution:
Exposing the Constitution & Other Illusions (Boston: South
End Press, 1988), p. 102).
Such secret wars have dotted the history of the U.S., and
made her the enemy of millions, on several continents. For
the poor in Latin America, in the Caribbean, in Africa and
parts of Asia, the U.S. is seen as a powerful, yet schizophrenic
child. She will arbitrarily remove leaders of governments, insert
agents of disorder, and wage vicious propaganda wars against
other countries through her media machine.
In an alleged 'democracy', why is there even *ever* a
need for secret war?
In a nation that claims to represent the interests of the
people, how can a secret war be waged? The two are
simply incompatible, for if the government is (in Lincoln's
famous words) "... of the people", how can the government
keep secrets from itself?
While the media may manipulate public opinion to
justify the waging of wars, the real beneficiaries are rarely
known, and indeed, rarely are the real causes known. The
causes are, more often than not, economic. While citizens
and soldiers wave flags, corporations wave wallets.
For example, you may still find old-timers, who will tell you
that the big, "WW II", was fought against the Nazi ideology of
Hitler. Few would argue with the old geezer. But how many
of us know that American corporations traded with the Nazis,
*even during the war?* Charles Higham, in his 1984 book,
Trading With the Enemy (Dell Books) wrote:
What would have happened if millions of Americans
and British people, struggling with coupons and lines
at the gas stations, had learned that in 1942 Standard
Oil of New Jersey [part of the Rockefeller Empire]
managers shipped the enemy's fuel through the
neutral Switzerland and that the enemy was shipping
Allied fuel? Suppose the public had discovered that
the Chase Bank in Nazi-occupied Paris after Pearl
Harbor was doing millions of dollars worth of
business with the enemy with the full knowledge of
the head office in Manhattan [the Rockefeller
family among others]? Or that Ford trucks were
being built for the German occupation troops in
France with authorization from Dearborn,
Michigan? Or that Colonel Sosthenes Behn,
the head of the international American telephone
conglomerate ITT, flew from New York to Madrid
to Berne during the war to help improve Hitler's
communications systems and improve the robot
bombs that devastated London? Or that ITT
built the FockeWulfs that dropped bombs on
British and American troops? Or that crucial
ball bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated
customers in Latin-America with the collusion
of the vice-chairman of the U.S. War Production
Board in partnership with Goering's cousin in
Philadelphia when American forces were
desperately short of them? Or that such
arrangements were known about in Washington
and either sanctioned or deliberately ignored?
[pp. 184-5] (Fresia's bk, pp. 108-90).
There are wars, and there are *wars*, apparently.
Unfortunately, there are also secret wars, and the ones
who are in the battle fields, or wave flags, are the last
ones to know.
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Just War or Criminal Bombing?
http://www.counterpunch.org/estabrook7.html
The Rule of Lawlessness
By Carl Estabrook
The Bush administration has answered the crimes of September 11 with crimes
of its own, potentially greater in scale. Launching a war on Afghanistan and
killing poor people whom we do not know, because people we do know have been
killed, is not only cowardly and vicious, it will also ramify in human
misery. It's not only a crime, it's a colossal blunder.
It's important to note that Mr. Bush's war is entirely illegal. As Canadian
lawyer Michael Mandel writes, "It violates international law and the express
words of the United Nations Charter." The administration in fact seems to
have a bad conscience on the point, nervously repeating that it is exerting
its "right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter." It's the
same transparent justification that the Clinton administration offered for
its attack on Serbia, also not sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
Article 51 of the UN Charter (as a treaty, binding on the US government)
says, "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of
individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a
Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures
necessary to maintain international peace and security." But no candid
observer could see the US-directed attack on Yugoslavia as "self-defense" to
"an armed attack ... against a member of the United Nations"; and, although
the US was surely attacked in the present instance, killing Afghan peasants
is hardly self-defense against that attack, or even an effective way to
prevent future such attacks. In fact, it will have the opposite effect:
Bush's war is the answer to Bin Laden's prayer, sending new recruits to
resist this further insult to the Muslim world.
The US government's contempt for the United Nations and the rule of
international law was illustrated once again the day after the bombing of
Afghanistan began. The new UN ambassador, John Negroponte, who participated
in the Reagan administration's terrorist war against Nicaragua as ambassador
to Honduras, delivered a brief letter to the Security Council that managed
to refer twice to "the inherent right of self-defense," and included a
top-lofty line that would be comical, were it not murderous: "We may find
that our self-defense [third mention] requires further actions with respect
to other organizations and other States." Even the diplomatic
Secretary-General admitted that that was "disturbing."
Some have argued that the atrocities of September 11 justify an armed
response by the US against those who might bear some responsibility for the
attacks or who supported them. Such a war would be a "just war," it is
argued, with reference to a long legal and philosophical tradition. It is in
fact a tradition worth examining, because it represents accumulated wisdom
on when you might kill someone. (The first president Bush called his
invasion of Panama "Operation Just Cause," and the original name for the
current assault was "Operation Infinite Justice.")
But one of the requirements for a just war is that it be a last resort, that
all attempts to settle the matter short of force be exhausted. That is
manifestly not the case in the present instance. Not only has the Bush
administration brushed aside the UN, it has also refused the offer from the
effective government of Afghanistan to discuss the terrorist networks
purportedly based in their country -- just as, it must be said, the US
refused offers to negotiate from the other side before both the Gulf War and
the Serbian War.
It has become clear in the last decade that military force -- killing
people -- is the area in which the US has its greatest comparative advantage
in competition with the rest of the world. The US government intends to make
sure that attempts, however brutal and horrific, to equal its readiness to
kill, will be met with even more killing. The US has simply refused to use
the mechanisms of international law -- the UN Security Council, authorized
to take "measures necessary to maintain international peace and security";
the World Court, which has rendered judgements about international terrorism
(admittedly, against the US); and perhaps a special court constructed for
the purpose, as in the cases of Lockerbie and the former Republic of
Yugoslavia -- to pursue the perpetrators of the September 11 crimes and
their accessories.
That would of course be easier, had the US not spent a generation
undermining the UN. In that period the US constantly ham-strung the Security
Council with vetoes, far more than any other country, and subverted the
specialized agencies, as in Iraq. The US, the state that advertises itself
as founded on reason and the rule of law, has transformed itself into an
international outlaw, the greatest rogue state. Much of humanity may suffer
from this crime for years to come.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US bombs hit civilian districts in chase for Taliban troops: UN
AFP; Reuters. 23 October 2001
U.S. Planes Kill 93 Afghans Near Kandahar, Jazeera.
ISLAMABAD and DUBAI -- The United Nations said Tuesday that US air
attacks were hitting civilian districts in the Afghan capital, Kabul,
because the Taliban was sending troops into those areas.
"Reports are indicating that several bombs have hit residential areas in
Khair Khana close to health and feeding centres," UN spokeswoman
Stephanie Bunker told a press conference in Islamabad.
"In addition a residential area called Macroyan has been hit.
"Residential areas and some villages around Kabul are becoming more
dangerous because Taliban troops are moving into those areas."
Meanwhile, Qatar's al-Jazeera television reported that U.S. military
strikes on Afghanistan Tuesday had killed 93 civilians in a village near
Kandahar, including 18 members of one family,
The satellite channel said that at least 40 other civilians were wounded
in the attack by U.S. warplanes on the village some 37 miles northeast
of Kandahar, which it identified as Chukar.
It said the 18 family members who died in the attack had fled Kandahar
for safety in the village following U.S. military strikes on the city, a
Taliban stronghold.
Jazeera broadcast videophone footage provided by its correspondent in
Kandahar, Youssef al-Shouli, showing a row of corpses wrapped in white
shrouds lined up against the wall inside a room.
At least one of the corpses was that of a child and a second was of an
elderly man.
The television also broadcast footage of children, women and elderly men
receiving treatment at a hospital in Kandahar.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UN confirms US attack on Afghan hospital
The United Nations has confirmed that the US bombed a military hospital near
the northern Afghan city of Herat yesterday, but said it has no information
on casualties.
Afghanistan's Taliban Government announced yesterday that a bomb had hit the
hospital, killing 100 patients and staff.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied the attack had taken place but
the UN said its sources inside the country have been able to confirm the
bombing.
The hospital was inside a military compound on the eastern edge of Herat,
according to the UN.
Officials said they are unable to say if the hospital was being used at the
time of the attack or whether any civilians or military personnel were
killed or hurt.
The Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said yesterday that
the attack proves the US is deliberately targeting civilians.
"It is now clear that the American planes are intentionally targeting the
Afghan people," he said.
"The goal is to punish the Afghan people for having chosen an Islamic
system."
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Qatar condemns US attacks on Afghanistan
http://www.iii.co.uk/uknews/?articleid=4220104&action=article
(AFX-Focus) 2001-10-23
TEHRAN (AFX) - Qatar's foreign minister has condemned the US-led military
strikes on Afghanistan as "unacceptable", following talks in Tehran.
"The attacks against Afghanistan are unacceptable and we have condemned
them. It is our clear position," Sheikh Hamad bin-Jassem bin-Jabr al-Thani
said.
He was speaking to reporters after a meeting between Qatar's emir, Sheik
Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and president Mohammed Khatami said.
"What is happening in Afghanistan concerns the Islamic world, and we think
that the culprits of the Sept 11 attacks, no matter who they are, should be
tried justly.
"We think that the Afghan people should not be the victims of these
attacks," the foreign minister added.
Speaking just ahead of the Qatari delegation's departure, the minister said
the two sides had talked over the Afghan "without discussing the future of
that country, because it is up to the Afghan people to decide" their fate.
"For Afghanistan, we do not have precise plans and we think that it is
unnecessary to call for a summit of the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference," he said.
Officials said the emir will visit Riyadh on Sunday for talks on the Afghan
and Palestinian crises.
The London-based Al-Hayat daily said the visit was scheduled after a
telephone conversation between Sheikh Hamad and Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah
bin Abdel Aziz, following a deterioration of the situation in the
Palestinian territories.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refugees who make it find Pakistan can be hell
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/1023/wor2.htm
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
From Miriam Donohoe, in Quetta, south Pakistan
PAKISTAN: This is supposed to be heaven compared to Afghanistan. But
thousands of refugees fleeing hunger and bombs are finding that Pakistan can
also be hell.
"I thought it was bad in my country, but I think it is even worse here. We
have no food, we have nowhere to live, and people don't want us," father of
five, Mr Ahmid Bashir, said after crossing the border at Chaman.
After two weeks of United States bombardment, the beleaguered people of
Afghanistan cannot take any more. They are moving in droves towards the
southern border with Pakistan. But they are receiving a cold welcome.
The Pakistan authorities insisted yesterday that it would not open its arms
to Afghan refugees. At Chaman, where there is a build-up of 15,000 refugees,
Pakistani guards fired over the heads of already frightened and shattered
people who tried to force their way into Pakistan.
Five people including a teenage boy were injured, most by stones thrown by
the refugees who turned violent after nervous officials stopped everybody
from crossing.
A UNHCR spokeswoman said they had received reports of injuries following
violent scuffles. "These people are so desperate they are willing to risk
injury to get across," she said.
The UNHCR estimates that 4,000 Afghans managed to slip through the Chaman
crossing yesterday, on top of 6,000 who crossed on Sunday, and 10,000 last
week.
Some families can be seen with their possessions in carts walking around
Quetta, after getting a bus from Chaman - such as Mr Bashir's family.
The UNHCR said most refugees stay with families, and end up living in
miserable and cramped conditions, or to already overcrowded camps.
Mr Bashir was not sure where his family would stay. "We are tired and
hungry. I don't know what is going to happen our family," said the labourer
who fled Kandahar five days ago to get away from bombs.
There are still no new refugee camps to cater for the influx on this side of
the border, and no food or medical aid yet being distributed. Yesterday the
UN called on Pakistan and other countries bordering Pakistan to open their
borders to the refugees.
A Pakistan Foreign Ministry official said it was not in a position to really
take care of massive flows of Afghan refugees into Pakistan.
He said while Pakistan's 1,560-mile border with Afghanistan cannot be
completely sealed, the government position not to allow people to cross into
Pakistan without valid documents continues to remain in force.
The spokesman said Pakistan was "trying whatever is possible" to allow
international humanitarian agencies to send food and other relief goods into
Afghanistan to contain pressure for Afghans to leave their country.
Many of the arrivals have injuries. They have grim tales of hundreds of
homes destroyed and water and electricity supplies being cut off. Looting of
houses is common, and Pakistani officials demanding money to let them
through.
According to the UNHCR the new refugees are coming from further afield and
their physical condition is visibly deteriorating.
The population of Kandahar, which has suffered the heaviest bombing in
recent days, is thought to be down to 40 per cent.
Only one third of the population of the capital, Kabul, is left.
There are only four border gates on the 1,500-mile frontier, and almost 300
crossings. Refugees are telling of paying bribes to officials, of anything
between 30 and 100 for a family, to get across.
Almost 1.1 million of Afghanistan's 26 million population are on the move
inside the country, trying to escape areas that might be targets of the US
attack. Such journeys are hazardous with around 10 million landmines
scattered across Afghanistan. One hundred people die in accidents every
week.
It is not just bombing they are fleeing. The country is on the verge of
famine after another year of drought. Before the bombing started, 3.8
million Afghans were dependent on food aid.
Oxfam spokesman Mr Sam Barrett, who arrived in Quetta yesterday, said they
have reports of 400,000 Afghans in the central highlands of Hazarajat facing
starvation. They had been living on grass but even that was running out.
Oxfam is planning to provide water at two planned new refugee camps near
Quetta.
The biggest camp will cater for 40,000 people. Concern is also involved in
providing services at the new camp.
The UN estimates that to avoid such mass starvation a minimum of 50,000
tonnes of food must get into Afghanistan in the next month. That is five
times the amount that went in last month.
However, the bombing means that many truck drivers are afraid to journey
deep into Afghanistan or load or unload food. What is going in is often then
left at warehouses and not reaching the people who need it. And in the past
week there have been reports of looting of aid supplies by the Taliban.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America's pipe dream
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,579174,00.html
A pro-western regime in Kabul should give the US an Afghan route for Caspian
oil
by George Monbiot
Tuesday October 23, 2001
The Guardian
"Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here," Woodrow
Wilson asked a year after the first world war ended, "that does not know
that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial
rivalry?" In 1919, as US citizens watched a shredded Europe scraping up its
own remains, the answer may well have been no. But the lessons of war never
last for long.
The invasion of Afghanistan is certainly a campaign against terrorism, but
it may also be a late colonial adventure. British ministers have warned MPs
that opposing the war is the moral equivalent of appeasing Hitler, but in
some respects our moral choices are closer to those of 1956 than those of
1938. Afghanistan is as indispensable to the regional control and transport
of oil in central Asia as Egypt was in the Middle East.
Afghanistan has some oil and gas of its own, but not enough to qualify as a
major strategic concern. Its northern neighbours, by contrast, contain
reserves which could be critical to future global supply. In 1998, Dick
Cheney, now US vice-president but then chief executive of a major oil
services company, remarked: "I cannot think of a time when we have had a
region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the
Caspian." But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only
route which makes both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan.
Transporting all the Caspian basin's fossil fuel through Russia or
Azerbaijan would greatly enhance Russia's political and economic control
over the central Asian republics, which is precisely what the west has spent
10 years trying to prevent. Piping it through Iran would enrich a regime
which the US has been seeking to isolate. Sending it the long way round
through China, quite aside from the strategic considerations, would be
prohibitively expensive. But pipelines through Afghanistan would allow the
US both to pursue its aim of "diversifying energy supply" and to penetrate
the world's most lucrative markets. Growth in European oil consumption is
slow and competition is intense. In south Asia, by contrast, demand is
booming and competitors are scarce. Pumping oil south and selling it in
Pakistan and India, in other words, is far more profitable than pumping it
west and selling it in Europe.
As the author Ahmed Rashid has documented, in 1995 the US oil company Unocal
started negotiating to build oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan,
through Afghanistan and into Pakistani ports on the Arabian sea. The
company's scheme required a single administration in Afghanistan, which
would guarantee safe passage for its goods. Soon after the Taliban took
Kabul in September 1996, the Telegraph reported that "oil industry insiders
say the dream of securing a pipeline across Afghanistan is the main reason
why Pakistan, a close political ally of America's, has been so supportive of
the Taliban, and why America has quietly acquiesced in its conquest of
Afghanistan". Unocal invited some of the leaders of the Taliban to Houston,
where they were royally entertained. The company suggested paying these
barbarians 15 cents for every thousand cubic feet of gas it pumped through
the land they had conquered.
For the first year of Taliban rule, US policy towards the regime appears to
have been determined principally by Unocal's interests. In 1997 a US
diplomat told Rashid "the Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis did.
There will be Aramco [the former US oil consortium in Saudi Arabia]
pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with
that." US policy began to change only when feminists and greens started
campaigning against both Unocal's plans and the government's covert backing
for Kabul.
Even so, as a transcript of a congress hearing now circulating among war
resisters shows, Unocal failed to get the message. In February 1998, John
Maresca, its head of international relations, told representatives that the
growth in demand for energy in Asia and sanctions against Iran determined
that Afghanistan remained "the only other possible route" for Caspian oil.
The company, once the Afghan government was recognised by foreign diplomats
and banks, still hoped to build a 1,000-mile pipeline, which would carry a
million barrels a day. Only in December 1998, four months after the embassy
bombings in east Africa, did Unocal drop its plans.
But Afghanistan's strategic importance has not changed. In September, a few
days before the attack on New York, the US energy information administration
reported that "Afghanistan's significance from an energy standpoint stems
from its geographical position as a potential transit route for oil and
natural gas exports from central Asia to the Arabian sea. This potential
includes the possible construction of oil and natural gas export pipelines
through Afghanistan". Given that the US government is dominated by former
oil industry executives, we would be foolish to suppose that such plans no
longer figure in its strategic thinking. As the researcher Keith Fisher has
pointed out, the possible economic outcomes of the war in Afghanistan mirror
the possible economic outcomes of the war in the Balkans, where the
development of "Corridor 8", an economic zone built around a pipeline
carrying oil and gas from the Caspian to Europe, is a critical allied
concern.
American foreign policy is governed by the doctrine of "full-spectrum
dominance", which means that the US should control military, economic and
political development worldwide. China has responded by seeking to expand
its interests in central Asia. The defence white paper Beijing published
last year argued that "China's fundamental interests lie in ... the
establishment and maintenance of a new regional security order". In June,
China and Russia pulled four central Asian republics into a "Shanghai
cooperation organisation". Its purpose, according to Jiang Zemin, is to
"foster world multi-polarisation", by which he means contesting US
full-spectrum dominance.
If the US succeeds in overthrowing the Taliban and replacing them with a
stable and grateful pro-western government and if the US then binds the
economies of central Asia to that of its ally Pakistan, it will have crushed
not only terrorism, but also the growing ambitions of both Russia and China.
Afghanistan, as ever, is the key to the western domination of Asia.
We have argued on these pages about whether terrorism is likely to be
deterred or encouraged by the invasion of Afghanistan, or whether the plight
of the starving there will be relieved or exacerbated by attempts to destroy
the Taliban. But neither of these considerations describes the full scope
and purpose of this war. As John Flynn wrote in 1944: "The enemy aggressor
is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are
always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to
regenerate our victims while incidentally capturing their markets, to
civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples while blundering
accidentally into their oil wells." I believe that the US government is
genuine in its attempt to stamp out terrorism by military force in
Afghanistan, however misguided that may be. But we would be nave to believe
that this is all it is doing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anti-war resources:
New this issue:
http://www.mediachannel.org/atissue/conflict/
--------
http://members.aol.com/HalpernTO/
http://www.counterpunch.org/wtcarchive.html
http://www.peacenowfreedomnow.net/
http://www.indymedia.org/peace/
http://www.nomorelostlives.org/
http://www.madre.org/toolkit.html
http://sf.indymedia.org/antiwar/
http://www.thecommunity.com/crisis/
http://action-tank.org/pfp/
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~dereka/
http://www.mpfweb.org/
http://www.forusa.org/NewsFrame.html
http://www.muslimsagainstterrorism.org/home.html
http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/mn/sept112001/index.html
http://www.fpif.org/justice/index.html
http://www.tenc.net/
http://www.prairie-fire.org/no-war.pdf
http://www.legitgov.org/Top5Lies.pdf
http://www.ten12.com/stickerpage.ten12
http://www.vsasf.org/
http://www.peacefulproductions.com/store/
http://www.justicenotvengeance.org/
http://www.peopleforpeace.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/special/feature.htm
http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html
http://www.geocities.com/miriamczc/czcpazsi.htm
http://www.peacenowar.net/
http://www.911peace.net/
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
http://www.zmag.org/6reasons.pdf
http://www.actionla.org/S11/
http://www.warisnottheanswer.org/
http://www.9-11peace.org/
http://pax.protest.net/
http://www.s29.org/
http://Antiwar.com
http://www.luver.org/
http://www.alternet.org/issues/index.html?IssueAreaID=26
http://www.sfbg.com/News/altvoices.html
http://www.peacefuljustice.cjb.net/
http://www.warresisters.org/attack9-11-01.htm#things
http://www.legitgov.org/peaceprotests.html
http://www.igc.org/inkworks/www/downloads.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/studentsnowar/files (members only)
http://www.honoringourhumangoodness.homestead.com/
http://www.earthflag.net/
http://www.peaceflags.org
http://www.mwaw.org
http://www.stopworldwar3.com/
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
www.internationalanswer.org
http://www.peace2001.org/
http://www.justresponse.org/
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