Naomi Klein - How to End the War

[realFedUp]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2103/

How to End the War
By Naomi Klein May 5, 2005

The central question we need to answer is this: What were the real reasons for the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq?

snip

When I was in Iraq a year ago trying to answer that question, one of the most effective ways I found to do that was to follow the bulldozers and construction machinery. I was in Iraq to research the so-called reconstruction. And what struck me most was the absence of reconstruction machinery, of cranes and bulldozers, in downtown Baghdad. I expected to see reconstruction all over the place.

I saw bulldozers in military bases. I saw bulldozers in the Green Zone, where a huge amount of construction was going on, building up Bechtel’s headquarters and getting the new U.S. embassy ready. There was also a ton of construction going on at all of the U.S. military bases. But, on the streets of Baghdad, the former ministry buildings are absolutely untouched. They hadn’t even cleared away the rubble, let alone started the reconstruction process.

The one crane I saw in the streets of Baghdad was hoisting an advertising billboard. One of the surreal things about Baghdad is that the old city lies in ruins, yet there are these shiny new billboards advertising the glories of the global economy. And the message is: “Everything you were before isn’t worth rebuilding.” We’re going to import a brand-new country. It is the Iraq version of the “Extreme Makeover.”

It’s not a coincidence that Americans were at home watching this explosion of extreme reality television shows where people’s bodies were being surgically remade and their homes were being bulldozed and reconstituted. The message of these shows is: Everything you are now, everything you own, everything you do sucks. We’re going to completely erase it and rebuild it with a team of experts. You just go limp and let the experts take over. That is exactly what “Extreme Makover:Iraq” is.

continued

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. An excellent article

It goes to the heart of the matter: What does Iraq need now? And is there a way we can stop Bush and his corporations from getting the profits and power they want?

[chlamor]

2. nominated n/t

[Griffy]

3. PNAC is clear, why do people think we are leaving...

The ONLY way to get out is to oust bush... impeach him in '06 after we expose his lies, through the new media we are building we can take the house and get this done! We will have our own exit polls and then we can exopse the election fraud too. This will take time, but somehow the truth must break free!

Truth is on the march!

[clem_c_rock]

7. THANKS!! - Why the hell don't people not get this!!!!!????

They post their intentions in everyone's goddamn face and everyone spends their time discussing the mainstream media's version that they mean well but things are just difficult.

It's unreal.

[Helga Scow Stern]

4. She should be a guest on Bill Maher's show.

He keeps repeating the lie that the invasion had the unexpected benefit of creating democracy in Iraq.

[realFedUp]

5. I like to see/hear her whereever/whenever I can

she's a treasure. This essay should be
read by every Dem politician. She has
it right.

[clem_c_rock]

8. These are the people w/ the real news

Independent journalist. Very brave folks that should be commended.

Greg Palast: http://www.gregpalast.com/

Naomi Klein: http://www.nologo.org/

Dar Jamail: http://www.dahrjamailiraq.coms/

Robert Fisk: http://www.robert-fisk.com

John Pilger: http://pilger.carlton.com/

Symore Hersh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh

Micheal Ruppert: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/

[bloom]

6. kick

[teryang]

9. I hate to say this

Because this article has many good points. My critique is that it is condescending in one sense and misses a significant feature of the politics of warfare of conquest.

Whether we root for "the resistance" or not, they will determine their own fate. When they pick up a gun or a bomb, this is the ultimate manifestation of self determination.

You are never more free than when you pick up gun against a foreign invader. It is the ultimate political act with an intrinsic legitimacy. This is why so many diverse elements comprise the resistance and receive support from throughout the Islamic world. For those appalled by these thoughts, I can only say that I am a pacifist until the invader bombs my house. It is only in the most desperate of circumstances that one could adopt violence as a postive measure. Unfortunately, our government is belligerent and has adopted a policy of elective violence.

The notion that what we do at home determines the outcome is simply not true and is a different kind of chauvinism with underlying elements of racism. It plays into the delusional syndrome that believes the Vietnam war was lost because of dissent or defeatism in the US. The Vietnamese drove us out. The same will be true in Iraq.

The US Congress has thus far been completely unresponsive to public sentiment about the war. It has ignored the public and kowtowed to every single war mongering request by the illegimate executive power we have now. One has to wonder what kind of government we have. However, this is a domestic issue. Our government will be forced to withdraw from Iraq because of what Iraqis do. This process may empower the left and reverse the United States transition into a right wing dictatorship.

We must experience more pain in order to generate mass politics capable of disrupting the alliance of interests profiting from the war without end. It is the Iraqis who will provide the pain. The Congress is still in the crescendo phase believing that more money, more bombs, more hare brained political schemes will defeat the resistance. This is a futile but necessary phase the power brokers go through before they concede defeat. They and their corporate string pullers are still getting rich and improving their positions, while the country is bled white (mostly economically) by a reallocation of national resources incident to a hopeless "patriotic" conflict. The right's opposition to the draft and the levee of massive armies is the effort to prevent political linkage of mass politics to war in a far away place.

A similar delusion about the role of the left and dissent at home permeated and motivated the German right after their tremendous losses in WWI. The myth was propagated that leftists and defeatists were the cause of their defeat rather than the imperial ambitions and corruption of the age. The so called "treason of the left" was Hitler's message which was embraced by the corporate elites and generated the impetus for the next war.

It is possible that the right prefers a hopeless interminable conflict to keep the left at bay. Military defeat would empower the left for a generation. Pressure from the left will not generate that defeat. The right has already earned that defeat as the consequence of decisions they have already made.