Occupation Fuels Resistance by Tariq Ali

[dudeness]

by Tariq Ali and Anthony Arnove
Socialist Worker
October 20, 2003


IRAQ

Arnove: YOUR NEW book Bush in Babylon makes the case that the war on Iraq was based on deception. If the invasion wasn't about weapons of mass destruction or Iraq's ties to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, what was it about?

Ali: IF THE weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had been real, rather than imaginary, the U.S. would never have invaded. And it's worth repeating that outside the United States, nobody believes that there were any links between the Iraqis and al-Qaeda.

The state of ignorance within the U.S. population is, I guess, a tribute to the three information monkeys--the networks and Fox TV--whose motto appears to be: see no truth, hear no truth, speak no truth. How can there be a vigilant and alert citizenry (surely a key prerequisite even for capitalist democracy) in these conditions of officially inspired ignorance?

The main reason for the war, in my opinion, was to demonstrate imperial power--to show the region and the world that the American Empire was determined to preserve its hegemony by any means necessary. Where the economic war was ineffective, a military offensive could be unleashed.

This was a shot across the bows of the Far Eastern states and the West Europeans. The message was clear: we have the capacity and power to intervene military at will. A subsidiary reason was to satisfy the Israeli regime, which saw Iraq and Syria as the only regimes in the region that resisted the Pax Israeliana.

With a puppet regime in Iraq, the plan was to topple the Syrian Baathists. As Tony Blair confided in an off-the-record briefing to three senior liberal journalists, Iraq was designed to make wars against Syria and Iran unnecessary. The success in Iraq meant that bullying, intimidation and threats would be enough. The Iraqi resistance has dispelled that particular illusion.

snip..

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=4373

[izzie]

1. I have ordered 2 books by this man.

He gives good talks. I hope they are as good.

[dudeness]

2. the books are excellent

'the clash of fundamentalisms"..took me a couple of reads..mainly due to my ignorance of islam..