Free Iraq
The US's occupation of Iraq will see to it that the Lion of Babylon rises again .. سنـُبعـَث ُ من جَديد ، وإلى ضَـيـرِِهِـم
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| Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program: 1981-1991 | معالم وأحداث غير مكشوفة في البرنامج النووي الوطني العراقي 1981-1991 | 
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006
From Beirut ... من بيروت
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Lebanon fighting continues as UN meets
Lebanese dead going unburied
Michael Boldin, Collateral Damage is Murder
Professor Paola Manduca, New and unkown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces: 'direct energy' weapons, chemical and/or biological agents, in a macabre experiment of future warfare
Lebanese dead going unburied
Michael Boldin, Collateral Damage is Murder
Professor Paola Manduca, New and unkown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces: 'direct energy' weapons, chemical and/or biological agents, in a macabre experiment of future warfare
2 Iraq Journalists Reported Slain in Iraq: Last week, Reporters Without Borders, a French press freedom organization, said that no armed conflict since World War II "has been so deadly for the press" as the conflict in Iraq.
Reporters Without Borders said about 100 journalists and media assistants are known to have been killed in Iraq since 2003. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists puts the number at 75 journalists and 27 media assistants killed, including at least 54 Iraqis.
Bombings, Shootings Kill 31 Across Iraq
40,000 U.S. Troops Have Deserted Since 2000: "They lied in Vietnam with the amount of opposition to the war and they're lying now."
Reporters Without Borders said about 100 journalists and media assistants are known to have been killed in Iraq since 2003. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists puts the number at 75 journalists and 27 media assistants killed, including at least 54 Iraqis.
Bombings, Shootings Kill 31 Across Iraq
40,000 U.S. Troops Have Deserted Since 2000: "They lied in Vietnam with the amount of opposition to the war and they're lying now."
Patrick Cockburn, Requiem for Baghdad: The City is Dying: This vast city of seven million people, almost the size of London, is breaking up into a dozen cities, each one of which is becoming a heavily armed Shia or Sunni stronghold. Every morning brings its terrible harvest of bodies. Many lie in the street for hours, bloating in the 120F heat, while others are found floating in the Tigris river.
Imad
Here's what the nice Israelis are doing, in trying to "save Israel from terrorism". (From today's New York Times below, And I will copy it in full, just for the record).
The victim(s) in this story, need it be said, had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism and the Israelis knew that in advance, just like they did for the victims of Qana or for the hundreds and thousands of others they have so far so cruelly slaughtered in Lebanon, with their American-supplied, high tech war toys.
But let me state, for the record, that had any person, group or state, God forbid, done to me and my family what the Israelis did so cruelly and callously, without so much as a thought as to the consequences to innocent victims of their brutal, illegal, criminal air assault on defenceless Lebanon, my life would then have a new, different goal:
To slaughter as many Israelis as I could, preferably starting with Ehud Olmert, even at the cost of my own life -- I'd have nothing left to live for, anyway.
This poor fisherman that you see in the story below, has nothing left to live for, except revenge. You can be sure that he, or his relatives, will be lining up at the local Hezbollah office, real soon now.
Then the Israelis can turn around and say, "see? the Lebanese are all terrorists, we can't reason with them". (They've been doing this with the Palestinians for over 40 years, by stonewalling and discrediting Yassir Arafat and those few "moderate" Palestinian leaders, by slaughtering and humiliating average Palestinians so that the latter turn, in desperation, to groups like Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah.) This is exactly what the Israelis want, so they never have to give up occupied land and make a lasting peace settlement that forces them to make even the slightest of compromises.
So they can keep killing women and children, because that's what they like to do.
===========================================
After Bomb Kills Loved Ones, Life Turns Ghostly
The New York Times
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: August 8, 2006
TYRE, Lebanon, Aug. 7 — After a bomb hits, the remains of a life are modest.
Ghazi Samra, a fisherman, is feeling the new shape of his. Last month, his wife, one of his daughters and a granddaughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Since then, his life has shrunk to the size of one crooked city block. He tries to sleep in an apartment that is not his own. He wears his wife’s glasses, more out of a craving for closeness to her than as an aid to see. The shirt and shorts he is wearing are his brother’s. He has not felt able to return to his own apartment.
“I became a different person,” said Mr. Samra, sitting on a battered chair in a local gathering space at the intersection of two narrow stone streets. “I can’t talk with my children. I’m not wearing my own clothes.”
Across Lebanon and Israel, missiles, rockets and bombs have punched holes into families and, slowly, painstakingly, the survivors are trying to put themselves back together again. It is a quiet process that unfolds in the private space of people’s lives. It is full of ache and of empty places. It is a major consequence of war that often goes unnoticed, after the flash of bombs and the headlines that chronicle them fade away.
For Mr. Samra, who is 50, the healing is happening in a warren of narrow stone streets in the old section of this town. He begins his day with a short walk down a narrow alley to the place, several doorways down, where he passes the hours. He walks slowly, in leather sandals, usually smoking a cigarette. It is supposed to be an exercise in forgetting, but often it is the first few minutes of another day full of extremely painful memories.
Those memories began on the late afternoon of July 16, when his wife, a granddaughter and four of his children, afraid of a possible airstrike, sought shelter in the basement of a nearby building, as theirs lacked one. The building housed the main office for the city’s emergency workers, and the family felt sure it would be safe.
They were wrong. Around 5:30 p.m., missiles struck the building’s foundations and its top floors. Residents now say a Hezbollah official may have been living there. There was no response from the Israeli Defense Ministry to a request, submitted last week, for comment about the target.
Mr. Samra had been sitting with friends elsewhere. He raced to the building and frantically began to dig. He found his 5-year-old daughter, Sally, torn apart. Her torso and an arm lay separate from her legs. Another daughter, Noor, 8, was moving under the rubble. His granddaughter Lynn, not yet 2, had part of her face smashed. His wife, Alia Waabi, had died immediately.
Two other daughters, Zahra and Mirna, made it to safety, though Zahra was badly injured.
“This is my family,” he said, his face creased, sitting under the eaves of the stone houses. “Three of them are buried and three of them are in hospitals.”
After the adrenaline of the rescue and its aftermath fell away, Mr. Samra sank into blankness. He could not focus on anything. He had trouble remembering things. His vision seemed to blur.
He found it difficult to process what had happened. One thing that keeps him from mourning properly is that his wife and daughter will not be able to have a proper burial until the violence has died down. They were temporarily buried in an empty lot with dozens of others. They were assigned numbers. Alia is No. 35 and Sally is No. 67.
“They are numbers now,’’ he said. “There are no names anymore.”
He tried twice to return to his apartment, but he turned back both times. On Sunday, his friend opened it for a visitor. The rooms were still neatly composed, life suspended. Dishes were done. Laundry — tiny pink pants, a head scarf, a bra — was hanging on lines. But details showed something was wrong. The clothes were dusty from the pulverized concrete and soot of the explosion. A bowl of cucumbers and a pot of beans in the refrigerator were covered with mold.
As is often the case, the deaths felt arbitrary. On another day, Mr. Samra’s family might not have gone to the building at all. It was the first time they decided to hide. The timing of the missile strike could not have been worse. The family had eaten dinner early to be underground before dark.
This plunged Mr. Samra into guilt. He would often take his family to Cyprus in times of danger, throughout Lebanon’s fraught recent history, and briefly considered it in this case, but assumed Tyre would be safe.
Areas hit by bombs are often a jumble of incongruities. Bread spilled out into the road from a van that was hit by a missile in northern Tyre on Sunday morning. The area around the basement where Mr. Samra’s family was hit was a swirl of household items — a shampoo bottle, a high heel from a shoe, a shower curtain — mixed with ragged concrete and wire.
“Regret is killing me inside,” Mr. Samra said. “I should have taken them away.”
The rest of the family was having difficulties of its own. When 17-year-old Zahra awoke in her hospital bed, she did not know that her mother had been killed. Mr. Samra did not have the heart to tell her. Her face had been burned, and when she walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror, she sobbed, said her brother Muhammad, who was with her.
Mr. Samra passed the afternoon watching the small neighborhood move around him. He has not returned to work. Muhammad has taken over visiting the hospitalized girls.
“My wife was my life,” he said, looking toward a television set up near the couches in the narrow alley.
“My heart aches.”
Here's what the nice Israelis are doing, in trying to "save Israel from terrorism". (From today's New York Times below, And I will copy it in full, just for the record).
The victim(s) in this story, need it be said, had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism and the Israelis knew that in advance, just like they did for the victims of Qana or for the hundreds and thousands of others they have so far so cruelly slaughtered in Lebanon, with their American-supplied, high tech war toys.
But let me state, for the record, that had any person, group or state, God forbid, done to me and my family what the Israelis did so cruelly and callously, without so much as a thought as to the consequences to innocent victims of their brutal, illegal, criminal air assault on defenceless Lebanon, my life would then have a new, different goal:
To slaughter as many Israelis as I could, preferably starting with Ehud Olmert, even at the cost of my own life -- I'd have nothing left to live for, anyway.
This poor fisherman that you see in the story below, has nothing left to live for, except revenge. You can be sure that he, or his relatives, will be lining up at the local Hezbollah office, real soon now.
Then the Israelis can turn around and say, "see? the Lebanese are all terrorists, we can't reason with them". (They've been doing this with the Palestinians for over 40 years, by stonewalling and discrediting Yassir Arafat and those few "moderate" Palestinian leaders, by slaughtering and humiliating average Palestinians so that the latter turn, in desperation, to groups like Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah.) This is exactly what the Israelis want, so they never have to give up occupied land and make a lasting peace settlement that forces them to make even the slightest of compromises.
So they can keep killing women and children, because that's what they like to do.
===========================================
After Bomb Kills Loved Ones, Life Turns Ghostly
The New York Times
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: August 8, 2006
TYRE, Lebanon, Aug. 7 — After a bomb hits, the remains of a life are modest.
Ghazi Samra, a fisherman, is feeling the new shape of his. Last month, his wife, one of his daughters and a granddaughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Since then, his life has shrunk to the size of one crooked city block. He tries to sleep in an apartment that is not his own. He wears his wife’s glasses, more out of a craving for closeness to her than as an aid to see. The shirt and shorts he is wearing are his brother’s. He has not felt able to return to his own apartment.
“I became a different person,” said Mr. Samra, sitting on a battered chair in a local gathering space at the intersection of two narrow stone streets. “I can’t talk with my children. I’m not wearing my own clothes.”
Across Lebanon and Israel, missiles, rockets and bombs have punched holes into families and, slowly, painstakingly, the survivors are trying to put themselves back together again. It is a quiet process that unfolds in the private space of people’s lives. It is full of ache and of empty places. It is a major consequence of war that often goes unnoticed, after the flash of bombs and the headlines that chronicle them fade away.
For Mr. Samra, who is 50, the healing is happening in a warren of narrow stone streets in the old section of this town. He begins his day with a short walk down a narrow alley to the place, several doorways down, where he passes the hours. He walks slowly, in leather sandals, usually smoking a cigarette. It is supposed to be an exercise in forgetting, but often it is the first few minutes of another day full of extremely painful memories.
Those memories began on the late afternoon of July 16, when his wife, a granddaughter and four of his children, afraid of a possible airstrike, sought shelter in the basement of a nearby building, as theirs lacked one. The building housed the main office for the city’s emergency workers, and the family felt sure it would be safe.
They were wrong. Around 5:30 p.m., missiles struck the building’s foundations and its top floors. Residents now say a Hezbollah official may have been living there. There was no response from the Israeli Defense Ministry to a request, submitted last week, for comment about the target.
Mr. Samra had been sitting with friends elsewhere. He raced to the building and frantically began to dig. He found his 5-year-old daughter, Sally, torn apart. Her torso and an arm lay separate from her legs. Another daughter, Noor, 8, was moving under the rubble. His granddaughter Lynn, not yet 2, had part of her face smashed. His wife, Alia Waabi, had died immediately.
Two other daughters, Zahra and Mirna, made it to safety, though Zahra was badly injured.
“This is my family,” he said, his face creased, sitting under the eaves of the stone houses. “Three of them are buried and three of them are in hospitals.”
After the adrenaline of the rescue and its aftermath fell away, Mr. Samra sank into blankness. He could not focus on anything. He had trouble remembering things. His vision seemed to blur.
He found it difficult to process what had happened. One thing that keeps him from mourning properly is that his wife and daughter will not be able to have a proper burial until the violence has died down. They were temporarily buried in an empty lot with dozens of others. They were assigned numbers. Alia is No. 35 and Sally is No. 67.
“They are numbers now,’’ he said. “There are no names anymore.”
He tried twice to return to his apartment, but he turned back both times. On Sunday, his friend opened it for a visitor. The rooms were still neatly composed, life suspended. Dishes were done. Laundry — tiny pink pants, a head scarf, a bra — was hanging on lines. But details showed something was wrong. The clothes were dusty from the pulverized concrete and soot of the explosion. A bowl of cucumbers and a pot of beans in the refrigerator were covered with mold.
As is often the case, the deaths felt arbitrary. On another day, Mr. Samra’s family might not have gone to the building at all. It was the first time they decided to hide. The timing of the missile strike could not have been worse. The family had eaten dinner early to be underground before dark.
This plunged Mr. Samra into guilt. He would often take his family to Cyprus in times of danger, throughout Lebanon’s fraught recent history, and briefly considered it in this case, but assumed Tyre would be safe.
Areas hit by bombs are often a jumble of incongruities. Bread spilled out into the road from a van that was hit by a missile in northern Tyre on Sunday morning. The area around the basement where Mr. Samra’s family was hit was a swirl of household items — a shampoo bottle, a high heel from a shoe, a shower curtain — mixed with ragged concrete and wire.
“Regret is killing me inside,” Mr. Samra said. “I should have taken them away.”
The rest of the family was having difficulties of its own. When 17-year-old Zahra awoke in her hospital bed, she did not know that her mother had been killed. Mr. Samra did not have the heart to tell her. Her face had been burned, and when she walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror, she sobbed, said her brother Muhammad, who was with her.
Mr. Samra passed the afternoon watching the small neighborhood move around him. He has not returned to work. Muhammad has taken over visiting the hospitalized girls.
“My wife was my life,” he said, looking toward a television set up near the couches in the narrow alley.
“My heart aches.”
Robert Fisk, Crocodile tears of leaders as city burns: Shortly after 4am, the fly-like buzz of an Israeli drone came out of the sky over my home. Coded MK by the manufacturers, Lebanese mothers have sought to lessen their children's fears of this ominous creature by transliterating it as "Um Kamel", the Mother of Kamel. It is looking for targets and at night, like all the massacres being perpetrated by the Israeli air force across southern Lebanon, you usually cannot see it.
Dan Plesch, The end of the beginning: Regardless of any impending ceasefire, the removal of Hizbullah and the Iranian nuclear position sets up the prospect of an US war against Iran
Cindy Sheehan, We are not winning hearts and minds: I will stand or sit all month to demand that George stop killing my heart family. That he and his administration truly get to the work of peace and not killing to justify more killing.
Thirty-one Gaza children killed in Israeli offensive in thirty-one days
Haaretz.com, UN to hold special session over Israel's alleged human rights violations (Yes, you read that right: 'alleged')
Red Cross: Israel denying safe passage
Picture Album, Lebanon's 9/11 or Why Do They Hate Us?
In Pictures, The Killing Continues In Lebanon
Haaretz.com, UN to hold special session over Israel's alleged human rights violations (Yes, you read that right: 'alleged')
Red Cross: Israel denying safe passage
Picture Album, Lebanon's 9/11 or Why Do They Hate Us?
In Pictures, The Killing Continues In Lebanon
(Reproduced in full)
Hesham Tillawi,PhD, The New Middle East: Be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it *
"What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing -- the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one." Condoleezza Rice in a Press Conference on July 21, 2006.
Madam Secretary, one question please: Will your country claim the newborn if it happens to be the wrong color? (emphasis added)
I remember reading about the new Middle East in a document written back in 1996 called "A Clean Break:A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (ACB). It was authored by a group of policy advisors to Israel. Subsequently, nearly all members ascended to influential policy making positions within US government, media, and academic circles and were instrumental in taking the US to war against Iraq under false pretenses. Many of the ACB policies, such as toppling the government of Iraq, are now in full implementation and present new challenges to the global community. The ACB contained six pages of policy recommendations for then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The authors of this policy paper included Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser amongst others, who became known as the Neo-conservatives or Neocons for short.
The paper was an outline of what Israel should do to subjugate not just the Palestinians but also everyone else around it. It was written: "Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right." They also did not like the " Land for Peace" deal that Israel signed with the its neighbors including the Palestinians and suggested Israel should pursue a different formula based on "Peace for Peace". This means that they would create a situation on the ground that is so big, using Israel's military might in order to change the "Land for Peace" formula into a plea to "just please give us peace and take our piece", or so they thought. Therefore, they would be creating a "New Middle East" once they neutralized Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria by following the new formula for peace. They wrote about: "Efforts to salvage Israel's socialist institutions which include pursuing supranational over national sovereignty and pursuing a peace process that embraces the slogan, "New Middle East"
Aha, so this is where I heard what Rice murmured on July 12 2006. It was actually written 10 years before !!!
I believe we are watching these very painful birth pangs. I just don't think Israel and America will like, or even claim the baby, once it's delivered. Israel's attack on Lebanon has accomplished something the Lebanese have been trying to do for over a 100 years..... Unity. For 19 years, the Lebanese fought each other in one of the bloodiest conflicts witnessed in the 20th Century. The Phalanges Kataeb Party fought the people who have now belonged to the Hizbullah and Amal movements for years.
Last night, the Secretary General Karim Bakradoni of the Phalanges Party said that he supports the Government of Lebanon and the Lebanese Resistance, which is a term used solely to describe Hizbullah. We are witnessing a new Middle East, because the Phalanges is the same Party that lined itself up with the Israelis back in 1982 and was rewarded by Israel's making its Chief, the late Bashire Jumayel, the President of Lebanon. Things are different now. Hizbullah represents close to 35 percent of the population in Lebanon and is represented in all aspects of the government; the military, civil and social organizations in Lebanon. Before it's all over, and no matter who wins this war, Hizbullah has already won, even if it looses. Its policies will end up making the next Lebanese government's policy. This is something similar to what happened in Palestine with Hamas. Would the United States like to raise this baby? I think not.
This will strengthen relations between Syria and Lebanon to levels never seen before and, of course, will spill over to other countries in the Middle East who will put pressure on their governments to take a harder position towards Israel and the United States in particular, and the West in general. We will then see new alliances made with regional and continental powers other than the US. We already see a total sympathy with Hizbullah all over the Arab and Muslim worlds. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood offered to send 10,000 highly trained and equipped fighters to help Hizbullah in Lebanon. If the United States is having a hard time in Iraq, wait tell you see Lebanon.
The United States somehow missed its bidding again when it bid on leaders such as the Arab leader who called Olmert, in the first days of fighting, and asked him to fight until Hizbullah is destroyed: Or like the Foreign Minister of an Arab country with no official relations with Israel, at least not public, cut his vacation in Tel-Aviv short because of the war and was forced three weeks later to send a private Jet to pick up his family, who was still vacationing in Tel-Aviv, because Hizbullah threatened to attack Tel-Aviv.
You want a new Middle East? You will get a New Middle East. You will have a Middle East, which sees Israel and the US as the enemy, an enemy to despise and fight, one that will one day be united in its struggle against the new invaders, and colonizers. This time around, Sykes-Picot will not be around to decide on whom rules the pieces. This time around, they will be faced with a New Middle East just like they wanted.
In Kuwait, people took to the streets; the same people who took to the streets in 1992 celebrating the liberation of their country by waving American flags and pictures of George Bush the father. However, today they were burning the American flag and chanting "death to Israel and America."
America has lost dearly in the Arab and Muslim worlds due to its policies in the Middle East that are biased towards Israel. American interests are being threatened due to this blind support for a state that cannot survive without state terrorism.
Just be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it.
----------------------
* Unable to access the actual article link, I've rather provided the site link. (Superb material; recommended to Free Iraq visitors.) I believe a more direct link - the one I'm unable to access - is tillawi@currentissues.tv
Hesham Tillawi,PhD, The New Middle East: Be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it *
"What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing -- the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one." Condoleezza Rice in a Press Conference on July 21, 2006.
Madam Secretary, one question please: Will your country claim the newborn if it happens to be the wrong color? (emphasis added)
I remember reading about the new Middle East in a document written back in 1996 called "A Clean Break:A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (ACB). It was authored by a group of policy advisors to Israel. Subsequently, nearly all members ascended to influential policy making positions within US government, media, and academic circles and were instrumental in taking the US to war against Iraq under false pretenses. Many of the ACB policies, such as toppling the government of Iraq, are now in full implementation and present new challenges to the global community. The ACB contained six pages of policy recommendations for then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The authors of this policy paper included Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser amongst others, who became known as the Neo-conservatives or Neocons for short.
The paper was an outline of what Israel should do to subjugate not just the Palestinians but also everyone else around it. It was written: "Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right." They also did not like the " Land for Peace" deal that Israel signed with the its neighbors including the Palestinians and suggested Israel should pursue a different formula based on "Peace for Peace". This means that they would create a situation on the ground that is so big, using Israel's military might in order to change the "Land for Peace" formula into a plea to "just please give us peace and take our piece", or so they thought. Therefore, they would be creating a "New Middle East" once they neutralized Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria by following the new formula for peace. They wrote about: "Efforts to salvage Israel's socialist institutions which include pursuing supranational over national sovereignty and pursuing a peace process that embraces the slogan, "New Middle East"
Aha, so this is where I heard what Rice murmured on July 12 2006. It was actually written 10 years before !!!
I believe we are watching these very painful birth pangs. I just don't think Israel and America will like, or even claim the baby, once it's delivered. Israel's attack on Lebanon has accomplished something the Lebanese have been trying to do for over a 100 years..... Unity. For 19 years, the Lebanese fought each other in one of the bloodiest conflicts witnessed in the 20th Century. The Phalanges Kataeb Party fought the people who have now belonged to the Hizbullah and Amal movements for years.
Last night, the Secretary General Karim Bakradoni of the Phalanges Party said that he supports the Government of Lebanon and the Lebanese Resistance, which is a term used solely to describe Hizbullah. We are witnessing a new Middle East, because the Phalanges is the same Party that lined itself up with the Israelis back in 1982 and was rewarded by Israel's making its Chief, the late Bashire Jumayel, the President of Lebanon. Things are different now. Hizbullah represents close to 35 percent of the population in Lebanon and is represented in all aspects of the government; the military, civil and social organizations in Lebanon. Before it's all over, and no matter who wins this war, Hizbullah has already won, even if it looses. Its policies will end up making the next Lebanese government's policy. This is something similar to what happened in Palestine with Hamas. Would the United States like to raise this baby? I think not.
This will strengthen relations between Syria and Lebanon to levels never seen before and, of course, will spill over to other countries in the Middle East who will put pressure on their governments to take a harder position towards Israel and the United States in particular, and the West in general. We will then see new alliances made with regional and continental powers other than the US. We already see a total sympathy with Hizbullah all over the Arab and Muslim worlds. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood offered to send 10,000 highly trained and equipped fighters to help Hizbullah in Lebanon. If the United States is having a hard time in Iraq, wait tell you see Lebanon.
The United States somehow missed its bidding again when it bid on leaders such as the Arab leader who called Olmert, in the first days of fighting, and asked him to fight until Hizbullah is destroyed: Or like the Foreign Minister of an Arab country with no official relations with Israel, at least not public, cut his vacation in Tel-Aviv short because of the war and was forced three weeks later to send a private Jet to pick up his family, who was still vacationing in Tel-Aviv, because Hizbullah threatened to attack Tel-Aviv.
You want a new Middle East? You will get a New Middle East. You will have a Middle East, which sees Israel and the US as the enemy, an enemy to despise and fight, one that will one day be united in its struggle against the new invaders, and colonizers. This time around, Sykes-Picot will not be around to decide on whom rules the pieces. This time around, they will be faced with a New Middle East just like they wanted.
In Kuwait, people took to the streets; the same people who took to the streets in 1992 celebrating the liberation of their country by waving American flags and pictures of George Bush the father. However, today they were burning the American flag and chanting "death to Israel and America."
America has lost dearly in the Arab and Muslim worlds due to its policies in the Middle East that are biased towards Israel. American interests are being threatened due to this blind support for a state that cannot survive without state terrorism.
Just be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it.
----------------------
* Unable to access the actual article link, I've rather provided the site link. (Superb material; recommended to Free Iraq visitors.) I believe a more direct link - the one I'm unable to access - is tillawi@currentissues.tv
Israel Strikes Palestinian Refugee Camp: The camp is home to about 75,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Some 350,000 Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon that have developed over the years into shanty towns.
New Israeli General in Charge of Lebanon: Israeli media linked the change to a possible intensification of the offensive ...
Qatar Warns Against U.N. Mideast Draft: Qatar's foreign minister told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that a draft resolution seeking a halt to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah would only make the crisis worse because it does not demand the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.
South Lebanon Closed; Strikes Kill 19: Israel shut down south Lebanon with a threat to blast any moving vehicles, ...
Kurt Nimmo, Starving Babies and Making Lebanon Dark: It should be obvious by now Israel intends to ethnically cleanse southern Lebanon, all the way up to the Litani River where the United Nations proposed rebuilding a bridge in order to deliver humanitarian aid. “UN officials contacted the Israeli army to inform them that a team of Chinese military engineers attached to the UN force in Lebanon intended to repair the bridge on the Beirut to Tyre road to enable the transport of humanitarian supplies,” reports the Guardian. “According to the UN, Israeli officials said the engineers would become a target if they attempted to repair the bridge.”
Did I mention that all Lebanese are Hezbollah? As such, only a trickle of humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter the country. Meanwhile, instead of negotiating an end to the “conflict” (invasion and massive violations of international law), Bush is kicking back at his faux cowboy ranch in Texas and Tony Blair is on the beach in Barbados, a former British colony and one-time transit point for African slaves.
Of course, the Israelis would not admit they are deliberately denying vital humanitarian aid to Lebanese babies and grandmothers—or rather those they have not killed with artillery and missiles, courtesy of the United States. No, instead they tell us humanitarian aid is an excuse for Iran to deliver weapons to Hezbollah. ...
Meanwhile, in Gaza, pushed out of the headlines by Israel’s invasion and crimes against humanity in Lebanon, UNICEF special representative in occupied Palestinian territory Dan Rohrmann said “it is clear that children are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, fear and anxiety,” according to a UN press release. “UNICEF reminds all parties that all children have rights, including those to health, water, education and protection. These rights must be safeguarded irrespective of the environment they happen to live in. Protection of civilians including children, as per the 4th Geneva Convention, is an obligation under international humanitarian law, the press release concluded,” reports IRNA.
Obviously, the bureaucrats at UNICEF are clueless. Killing and traumatizing children is part of the Master Plan for Greater Israel, what Condi calls the New Middle East. ...
Did I mention that all Lebanese are Hezbollah? As such, only a trickle of humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter the country. Meanwhile, instead of negotiating an end to the “conflict” (invasion and massive violations of international law), Bush is kicking back at his faux cowboy ranch in Texas and Tony Blair is on the beach in Barbados, a former British colony and one-time transit point for African slaves.
Of course, the Israelis would not admit they are deliberately denying vital humanitarian aid to Lebanese babies and grandmothers—or rather those they have not killed with artillery and missiles, courtesy of the United States. No, instead they tell us humanitarian aid is an excuse for Iran to deliver weapons to Hezbollah. ...
Meanwhile, in Gaza, pushed out of the headlines by Israel’s invasion and crimes against humanity in Lebanon, UNICEF special representative in occupied Palestinian territory Dan Rohrmann said “it is clear that children are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, fear and anxiety,” according to a UN press release. “UNICEF reminds all parties that all children have rights, including those to health, water, education and protection. These rights must be safeguarded irrespective of the environment they happen to live in. Protection of civilians including children, as per the 4th Geneva Convention, is an obligation under international humanitarian law, the press release concluded,” reports IRNA.
Obviously, the bureaucrats at UNICEF are clueless. Killing and traumatizing children is part of the Master Plan for Greater Israel, what Condi calls the New Middle East. ...
lebanonsolidarity.org, Civilian Resistance: Call For Action & Solidarity For Lebanon
Download Arabic version (.pdf, 46kb)
Spanish version below
Endorse this call for nonviolent action!
We, the people of Lebanon, call upon the local and international community to join a campaign of civil resistance to Israel’s war against our country and our people. We declare Lebanon an open country for civil resistance.
In the face of Israel’s systematic killing of our people, the indiscriminate bombing of our towns, the scorching of our villages, and the attempted destruction of our civil infrastructure, we say NO!
In the face of the forced expulsion of a quarter of our population from their homes throughout Lebanon, and the complicity of governments and international bodies, we re-affirm the acts of civil resistance that began from the first day of the Israeli assault, and we stress and add the urgent need TO ACT!
We urge you to join us in defying Israel’s aggression against our country and in defending the rights of the inhabitants throughout Lebanon, and particularly in the South, to live on their land. When the United Nations, created to preserve peace and security in the world, is paralyzed; when governments become complicit in war crimes, then people must show their strength and rise up. When justice and human rights are scorned, those who care must unite in their defense.
Building on our belief in our country, the efforts of the civil resistance, and on the arrival of the internationals coming to Lebanon for solidarity, we declare that Lebanon is an open country for civil resistance, starting from August 12.
On August 12 at 7 am, we will gather in Martyrs’ Square to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will carry relief as an expression of solidarity for the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military.
After August 12th, the campaign will continue with a series of civil actions for which your presence and participation is needed. Working together in solidarity we will overcome the complacency, inaction, and complicity of the international community and we will deny Israel its goal of removing Lebanese from their land and destroying the fabric of our country.
To sign up to join the convoy, send us an email through our contact page or contact one of the following: (Here, 3 contacts listed)
Please check the website of this campaign after midnight tonight: www.lebanonsolidarity.org
Download Arabic version (.pdf, 46kb)
Spanish version below
Endorse this call for nonviolent action!
We, the people of Lebanon, call upon the local and international community to join a campaign of civil resistance to Israel’s war against our country and our people. We declare Lebanon an open country for civil resistance.
In the face of Israel’s systematic killing of our people, the indiscriminate bombing of our towns, the scorching of our villages, and the attempted destruction of our civil infrastructure, we say NO!
In the face of the forced expulsion of a quarter of our population from their homes throughout Lebanon, and the complicity of governments and international bodies, we re-affirm the acts of civil resistance that began from the first day of the Israeli assault, and we stress and add the urgent need TO ACT!
We urge you to join us in defying Israel’s aggression against our country and in defending the rights of the inhabitants throughout Lebanon, and particularly in the South, to live on their land. When the United Nations, created to preserve peace and security in the world, is paralyzed; when governments become complicit in war crimes, then people must show their strength and rise up. When justice and human rights are scorned, those who care must unite in their defense.
Building on our belief in our country, the efforts of the civil resistance, and on the arrival of the internationals coming to Lebanon for solidarity, we declare that Lebanon is an open country for civil resistance, starting from August 12.
On August 12 at 7 am, we will gather in Martyrs’ Square to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will carry relief as an expression of solidarity for the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military.
After August 12th, the campaign will continue with a series of civil actions for which your presence and participation is needed. Working together in solidarity we will overcome the complacency, inaction, and complicity of the international community and we will deny Israel its goal of removing Lebanese from their land and destroying the fabric of our country.
To sign up to join the convoy, send us an email through our contact page or contact one of the following: (Here, 3 contacts listed)
Please check the website of this campaign after midnight tonight: www.lebanonsolidarity.org
War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution: The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.
Anisa Abd el Fattah, Pre-emption Gone Wild! :: UN obliterates laws protecting sovereign borders to accommodate Israeli violence and war crimes - Wake up world, it is time to decide. Will we have a world ruled by law, or a world ruled by Israel? Will it be the same law for every country, or different laws for Israel?
After reading the UN draft resolution that calls for a crease fire, anyone can understand why Condoleeza Rice was right when she suggested that a UN resolution calling for a cease fire will only be a first step towards resolving the problems that have plagued the Muslim and Arab world since Israel’s founding. We might disagree with Rice as to what exactly those problems are. The second step, which is not yet mentioned, will be to remove all rights to sovereign borders, rights to bear arms, and rights to defend ones life and country against Israel, as well independence and equal rights and status at the UN for Muslim and Arab countries. ... The Israeli pre-emption doctrine has broken the reigns of reason and morality and has gone wild, and unless someone steps up to outlaw pre-emption, and to chastise those countries that use violence to settle disputes, every country in the developing world is a potential target.
After reading the UN draft resolution that calls for a crease fire, anyone can understand why Condoleeza Rice was right when she suggested that a UN resolution calling for a cease fire will only be a first step towards resolving the problems that have plagued the Muslim and Arab world since Israel’s founding. We might disagree with Rice as to what exactly those problems are. The second step, which is not yet mentioned, will be to remove all rights to sovereign borders, rights to bear arms, and rights to defend ones life and country against Israel, as well independence and equal rights and status at the UN for Muslim and Arab countries. ... The Israeli pre-emption doctrine has broken the reigns of reason and morality and has gone wild, and unless someone steps up to outlaw pre-emption, and to chastise those countries that use violence to settle disputes, every country in the developing world is a potential target.
Demand an Immediate International Criminal Tribunal for Israel to Stop Global War!
To: The United Nations General Assembly
The brutal bombings and invasion of Lebanon and Gaza are acts of Israeli state terrorism. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the present U.S.-Israeli threat to Syria and Iran indicate their ruthless struggle for hegemony in the oil-rich Middle East, which would escalate into a global war.
[ . . . ]
We, the undersigned, demand that The United Nations General Assembly immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ‘subsidiary organ’ under U.N. Charter Article 22 to prosecute the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, Chief of Staff Halutz and Israel’s other top generals and war criminals for their infliction of international war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.
Click Here to Sign Petition
To: The United Nations General Assembly
The brutal bombings and invasion of Lebanon and Gaza are acts of Israeli state terrorism. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the present U.S.-Israeli threat to Syria and Iran indicate their ruthless struggle for hegemony in the oil-rich Middle East, which would escalate into a global war.
[ . . . ]
We, the undersigned, demand that The United Nations General Assembly immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ‘subsidiary organ’ under U.N. Charter Article 22 to prosecute the Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, Chief of Staff Halutz and Israel’s other top generals and war criminals for their infliction of international war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.
Click Here to Sign Petition
15 Members of Lebanese Family Killed: Ali Rmeity lies broken and bandaged on a hospital bed, wincing in pain. Three of his children and his parents are dead - but he doesn't know all that yet. Doctors fear telling the 45-year-old now would be a bigger blow than he can sustain.
Excerpt -
Nicholas von Hoffman, A Handy-Dandy Guide To U.S. Foreign Policy -
Q: What is the difference between a regime and a government?
A: A regime is a government disliked by the United States. A government is a regime that the United States likes.
Q: Are all axes evil?
A: No. An example of an axis of good is the Washington-London axis, which is an axis of very good because it is mostly Anglo-Saxon. The Paris-Berlin axis is good, but not as good as Washington-London.
Q: It seems that the attacks and killings in Iraq are growing. What should a current-events buff make of it?
A: Higher levels of violence indicate that the terrorists are growing weaker and more desperate. We should welcome news of larger slaughters as proof of progress and an indication that our troops will be home sooner.
Q: What are some of the signs that show we are winning the war in Iraq?
A: When we first liberated Iraq, the locals only tried to kill American military and were often not successful. Over time they have gotten better at that, which is proof of how American foreign aid is working. But the sign of the biggest improvement is that the Iraqis are now killing each other. In the bad old pre-American days, a few of them under Saddam Hussein’s orders used to kill other Iraqis, but most Iraqis were forbidden to kill each other—but now, under democracy, all can slaughter each other. And next year there will be vastly improved electric service.
Q: Why are the Arabs always kidnapping Israeli soldiers?
A: They claim they do it because the Israelis have 9,000 of their people in jail and that’s the only way they can get them out. But, of course, the real reason is that they wish to drive Israel into the sea, ...
Q: Is Israel like Nazi Germany?
A: No.
Q: How do the two differ?
A: Israel is a deeply religious democracy with its own Bible containing a real-estate deed to the Middle East, while Nazi Germany did not have a Bible and did not put much stock in God since it had Adolf Hitler instead.
Q: What is a ceasefire?
A: It is a word for surrender to people who do not have the stomach to see the war on terror through to the end.
Nicholas von Hoffman, A Handy-Dandy Guide To U.S. Foreign Policy -
Q: What is the difference between a regime and a government?
A: A regime is a government disliked by the United States. A government is a regime that the United States likes.
Q: Are all axes evil?
A: No. An example of an axis of good is the Washington-London axis, which is an axis of very good because it is mostly Anglo-Saxon. The Paris-Berlin axis is good, but not as good as Washington-London.
Q: It seems that the attacks and killings in Iraq are growing. What should a current-events buff make of it?
A: Higher levels of violence indicate that the terrorists are growing weaker and more desperate. We should welcome news of larger slaughters as proof of progress and an indication that our troops will be home sooner.
Q: What are some of the signs that show we are winning the war in Iraq?
A: When we first liberated Iraq, the locals only tried to kill American military and were often not successful. Over time they have gotten better at that, which is proof of how American foreign aid is working. But the sign of the biggest improvement is that the Iraqis are now killing each other. In the bad old pre-American days, a few of them under Saddam Hussein’s orders used to kill other Iraqis, but most Iraqis were forbidden to kill each other—but now, under democracy, all can slaughter each other. And next year there will be vastly improved electric service.
Q: Why are the Arabs always kidnapping Israeli soldiers?
A: They claim they do it because the Israelis have 9,000 of their people in jail and that’s the only way they can get them out. But, of course, the real reason is that they wish to drive Israel into the sea, ...
Q: Is Israel like Nazi Germany?
A: No.
Q: How do the two differ?
A: Israel is a deeply religious democracy with its own Bible containing a real-estate deed to the Middle East, while Nazi Germany did not have a Bible and did not put much stock in God since it had Adolf Hitler instead.
Q: What is a ceasefire?
A: It is a word for surrender to people who do not have the stomach to see the war on terror through to the end.
Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St Clair, The Sweetness of Lieberman’s Defeat: Lieberman’s rise as a national politician coincided with the Democratic Party’s refashioning as full-time corporate whore-without-shame, in the late 1980s. ...
The simplest message of all that comes out of Connecticut is that the war in Iraq is hugely unpopular, and since that war was supported by about 90 per cent of the US congress, all its members have something to fear from the voters, which is why many of them are redeploying as advocates of withdrawal.
The simplest message of all that comes out of Connecticut is that the war in Iraq is hugely unpopular, and since that war was supported by about 90 per cent of the US congress, all its members have something to fear from the voters, which is why many of them are redeploying as advocates of withdrawal.
Johathan Cook, How “Indiscriminate” is Hezbollah’s Shelling? Hypocrisy and the Clamor Against Hizbullah: The claim being made against Hizbullah in Lebanon -- that it is “cowardly blending” with civilians, according to the UN’s Jan Egeland -- can, in truth, be made far more convincingly of the Israeli army. While there has been little convincing evidence that Hizbullah is firing its rocket from towns and villages in south Lebanon, or that its fighters are hiding there among civilians, it can be known beyond a shadow of a doubt that Israeli army camps and military installations are based in northern Israeli communities.
This debate is important because it will determine in the coming months and years who will be blamed by the international community -- and future historians -- for committing war crimes. Hizbullah deserves as fair a hearing as Israel, though at the moment it most certainly is not getting it.
Like every army in a war, Hizbullah may not acting in a humane manner. But it is demonstrably acting according to the same standards as the Israeli army -- and possibly, given Israel’s siting of military targets in civilian areas, higher ones. The fact that the contrary view is almost universally held betrays our prejudices rather than anything about Hizbullah’s acts.
This debate is important because it will determine in the coming months and years who will be blamed by the international community -- and future historians -- for committing war crimes. Hizbullah deserves as fair a hearing as Israel, though at the moment it most certainly is not getting it.
Like every army in a war, Hizbullah may not acting in a humane manner. But it is demonstrably acting according to the same standards as the Israeli army -- and possibly, given Israel’s siting of military targets in civilian areas, higher ones. The fact that the contrary view is almost universally held betrays our prejudices rather than anything about Hizbullah’s acts.
Gilad Atzmon, Operation Security Roof: Developing Story… (Acknowledgment: Having read this article, I post it, nontheless!)
(Watch this interview.)
Video (7 min), Hizbullah “is not anti-Jewish. I repeat, they are not anti-Jewish.”
Video (7 min), Hizbullah “is not anti-Jewish. I repeat, they are not anti-Jewish.”
Bring It On!, Israel — Stop Killing Civilians: Israel must stop the deliberate targeting of Lebanese civilians. Hezbollah must do the same but lets start with the supposedly more civilized party involved in these atrocities. These photos are not from Reuters and no — they are not staged. [Graphic image warning]
King George — feel free to interrupt your vacation and fly back to Washington D.C. to tell Israel that it would be better to err on the side of life. Hell, you did it last year for one brain dead person, how about doing it for a few thousand people that are still alive.
King George — feel free to interrupt your vacation and fly back to Washington D.C. to tell Israel that it would be better to err on the side of life. Hell, you did it last year for one brain dead person, how about doing it for a few thousand people that are still alive.
Dahr Jamail & Tom Engelhardt, The Damage in Lebanon – and Beyond : When you are in Syria or, I suspect, in most other Arab states today, and utter the words "terrorist organization," it doesn't even occur to people that Hezbollah might be the topic of conversation. They take it for granted that you're referring either to Israel or the United States.
Eric Margolis, A Foolhardy War, Unleashed by Fools: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice looked even more pathetic than usual after proclaiming a temporary humanitarian cease-fire in Lebanon – which Israel promptly ignored. While pretending to talk peace, she was actually blocking international efforts to impose a cease-fire in the hope that Israel would quickly finish off Hezbullah. ...
Dahr Jamail & Arkan Hamed, Mothers wail, ‘What human would ever do this?’: About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are 15 or younger, hospital records show.
Excerpt -
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Merav Yudilovitch, Apocalypse Near: Virtually all informed observers agree that a fair and equitable resolution of the plight of the Palestinians would considerably weaken the anger and hatred towards Israel and the US in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Such an agreement is surely within reach, if the US and Israel depart from their long-standing rejectionism. ...
... In 2003, Iran offered to negotiate all outstanding issues with the US, including nuclear issues and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The offer was made by the moderate Khatami government, with the support of the hard-line “supreme leader” Ayatollah Khamenei. The Bush administration response was to censure the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer.
The US and Israel do not want to hear any of this. They prefer to hear that Iran “is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state” (Jerusalem correspondent Charles Radin, Boston Globe, 2 August), the standard and more convenient story.
They also do not want to hear that Iran appears to be the only country to have accepted the proposal by IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei that all weapons-usable fissile materials be placed under international control, a step towards a verifiable Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT), as mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1993. ElBaradei’s proposal, if implemented, would not only end the Iranian nuclear crisis but would also deal with a vastly more serious crisis: the growing threat of nuclear war, which leads prominent strategic analysts to warn of “apocalypse soon” (Robert McNamara) if policies continue on their current course. The US strongly opposes a verifiable FMCT, but over US objections, the treaty came to a vote at the United Nations, where it passed 147-1, with two abstentions: Israel, which cannot oppose its patron, and more interestingly, Blair’s Britain, which retains a degree of sovereignty. The British ambassador stated that Britain supports the treaty, but it “divides the international community” – 147 to 1. These again are matters that are virtually suppressed outside of specialist circles, and are matters of literal survival of the species, extending far beyond Iran.
It is commonly said that the “international community” has called on Iran to abandon its legal right to enrich uranium. That is true, if we define the “international community” as Washington and whoever happens to go along with it. It is surely not true of the world. The non-aligned countries have forcefully endorsed Iran’s “inalienable right” to enrich uranium. And, rather remarkably, in Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, a majority of the population favor accepting a nuclear-armed Iran over any American military action, international polls reveal.
The non-aligned countries also called for a nuclear-free Middle East, a longstanding demand of the authentic international community, again blocked by the US and Israel. It should be recognized that the threat of Israeli nuclear weapons is taken very seriously in the world. As explained by the former Commander-in-Chief of the US Strategic Command, General Lee Butler, “it is dangerous in the extreme that in the cauldron of animosities that we call the Middle East, one nation has armed itself, ostensibly, with stockpiles of nuclear weapons, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, and that inspires other nations to do so.” Israel is doing itself no favors if it ignores these concerns.
It is also of some interest that when Iran was ruled by the tryant installed by a US-UK military coup, the United States – including Rumsfeld, Cheney, Kissinger, Wolfowitz and others -- strongly supported the Iranian nuclear programs they now condemn and helped provide Iran with the means to pursue them. These facts are surely not lost on the Iranians, just as they have not forgotten the very strong support of the US and its allies for Saddam Hussein during his murderous aggression, including help in developing the chemical weapons that helped kill hundreds of thousands of Iranians.
I should add that to the outside world, it sounds a bit odd, to put it mildly, for the US and Israel to be warning of the “Iranian threat” when they and they alone are issuing threats to launch an attack, threats that are immediate and credible, and in serious violation of international law; and are preparing very openly for such an attack. Whatever one thinks of Iran, no such charge can be made in their case. It is also apparent to the world, if not to the US and Israel, that Iran has not invaded any other countries, something that the US and Israel have done regularly. (emphasis added)
... The US and Israel are stirring up popular forces that are very ominous, and which will only gain in power and become more extremist if the US and Israel persist in demolishing any hope of realization of Palestinian national rights, and destroying Lebanon. ... The remarkable incompetence of Bush planners has created a catastrophe in Iraq, for their own interests as well. They are even facing the possibility of the ultimate nightmare: a loose Shi’a alliance (including Shi’ite-dominated Iraq, Iran, and the Shi’ite regions of Saudi Arabia), controlling the world’s major energy supplies, and independent of Washington – or even worse, establishing closer links with the China-based Asian Energy Security Grid and Shanghai Cooperation Council. The results could be truly apocalyptic. And even in tiny Lebanon, the leading Lebanese academic scholar of Hezbollah, and a harsh critic of the organization, describes the current conflict in “apocalyptic terms,” warning that possibly “All hell would be let loose” if the outcome of the US-Israel campaign leaves a situation in which “the Shiite community is seething with resentment at Israel, the United States and the government that it perceives as its betrayer” (Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Washington Post, 23 July).
... [W]e can be reasonably confident that viewing the world through a bombsight will bring further misery and suffering, perhaps even “apocalypse soon.” (emphasis added)
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Merav Yudilovitch, Apocalypse Near: Virtually all informed observers agree that a fair and equitable resolution of the plight of the Palestinians would considerably weaken the anger and hatred towards Israel and the US in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Such an agreement is surely within reach, if the US and Israel depart from their long-standing rejectionism. ...
... In 2003, Iran offered to negotiate all outstanding issues with the US, including nuclear issues and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The offer was made by the moderate Khatami government, with the support of the hard-line “supreme leader” Ayatollah Khamenei. The Bush administration response was to censure the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer.
The US and Israel do not want to hear any of this. They prefer to hear that Iran “is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state” (Jerusalem correspondent Charles Radin, Boston Globe, 2 August), the standard and more convenient story.
They also do not want to hear that Iran appears to be the only country to have accepted the proposal by IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei that all weapons-usable fissile materials be placed under international control, a step towards a verifiable Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT), as mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1993. ElBaradei’s proposal, if implemented, would not only end the Iranian nuclear crisis but would also deal with a vastly more serious crisis: the growing threat of nuclear war, which leads prominent strategic analysts to warn of “apocalypse soon” (Robert McNamara) if policies continue on their current course. The US strongly opposes a verifiable FMCT, but over US objections, the treaty came to a vote at the United Nations, where it passed 147-1, with two abstentions: Israel, which cannot oppose its patron, and more interestingly, Blair’s Britain, which retains a degree of sovereignty. The British ambassador stated that Britain supports the treaty, but it “divides the international community” – 147 to 1. These again are matters that are virtually suppressed outside of specialist circles, and are matters of literal survival of the species, extending far beyond Iran.
It is commonly said that the “international community” has called on Iran to abandon its legal right to enrich uranium. That is true, if we define the “international community” as Washington and whoever happens to go along with it. It is surely not true of the world. The non-aligned countries have forcefully endorsed Iran’s “inalienable right” to enrich uranium. And, rather remarkably, in Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, a majority of the population favor accepting a nuclear-armed Iran over any American military action, international polls reveal.
The non-aligned countries also called for a nuclear-free Middle East, a longstanding demand of the authentic international community, again blocked by the US and Israel. It should be recognized that the threat of Israeli nuclear weapons is taken very seriously in the world. As explained by the former Commander-in-Chief of the US Strategic Command, General Lee Butler, “it is dangerous in the extreme that in the cauldron of animosities that we call the Middle East, one nation has armed itself, ostensibly, with stockpiles of nuclear weapons, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, and that inspires other nations to do so.” Israel is doing itself no favors if it ignores these concerns.
It is also of some interest that when Iran was ruled by the tryant installed by a US-UK military coup, the United States – including Rumsfeld, Cheney, Kissinger, Wolfowitz and others -- strongly supported the Iranian nuclear programs they now condemn and helped provide Iran with the means to pursue them. These facts are surely not lost on the Iranians, just as they have not forgotten the very strong support of the US and its allies for Saddam Hussein during his murderous aggression, including help in developing the chemical weapons that helped kill hundreds of thousands of Iranians.
I should add that to the outside world, it sounds a bit odd, to put it mildly, for the US and Israel to be warning of the “Iranian threat” when they and they alone are issuing threats to launch an attack, threats that are immediate and credible, and in serious violation of international law; and are preparing very openly for such an attack. Whatever one thinks of Iran, no such charge can be made in their case. It is also apparent to the world, if not to the US and Israel, that Iran has not invaded any other countries, something that the US and Israel have done regularly. (emphasis added)
... The US and Israel are stirring up popular forces that are very ominous, and which will only gain in power and become more extremist if the US and Israel persist in demolishing any hope of realization of Palestinian national rights, and destroying Lebanon. ... The remarkable incompetence of Bush planners has created a catastrophe in Iraq, for their own interests as well. They are even facing the possibility of the ultimate nightmare: a loose Shi’a alliance (including Shi’ite-dominated Iraq, Iran, and the Shi’ite regions of Saudi Arabia), controlling the world’s major energy supplies, and independent of Washington – or even worse, establishing closer links with the China-based Asian Energy Security Grid and Shanghai Cooperation Council. The results could be truly apocalyptic. And even in tiny Lebanon, the leading Lebanese academic scholar of Hezbollah, and a harsh critic of the organization, describes the current conflict in “apocalyptic terms,” warning that possibly “All hell would be let loose” if the outcome of the US-Israel campaign leaves a situation in which “the Shiite community is seething with resentment at Israel, the United States and the government that it perceives as its betrayer” (Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Washington Post, 23 July).
... [W]e can be reasonably confident that viewing the world through a bombsight will bring further misery and suffering, perhaps even “apocalypse soon.” (emphasis added)
Alice Gray, "Positive Conditions" - The Water Crisis in Gaza: The political rhetoric and frequent violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often serve to mask underlying environmental issues which, if not resolved, may pose an even greater threat to the well-being of the Palestinian population than the guns and bombs of the military occupation.
Shiites Press for a Partition of Iraq: A U.S. Embassy spokesperson declined to comment publicly on such a volatile issue. But U.S. policymakers also have begun to warm to the idea. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, one of the Democratic Party's leading voices on foreign policy, began openly advocating such a move this year.
Robert Fisk, What do you say to a man whose family is buried under the rubble?: There were bulldozers turning over the tons of rubble, a cloud of dust and smoke a mile high over the smashed slums of Beirut's southern suburbs and a tall man in a grey T-shirt - a Brooklyn taxi driver, no less - standing on the verge of tears, staring at what may well be the grave of his grandfather, his uncle and aunt. Half the family home had been torn away and the entire block of civilian apartments next door had been smashed to the ground a few hours earlier by the two missiles that exploded in Asaad al-Assad Street.
Bush and Condi clash over Israel; president overrules her for the first time: The U.S. response to the Israeli-Hezbollah war was said to have divided both the administration as well as the family of President George W. Bush. ...
Ms. Rice has garnered support from several senior Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee, including chairman Sen. Richard Lugar. Members of the inner circle of Mr. Bush's father, the former president, have also been advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, with subsequent pressure on Israel for a diplomatic settlement with the Palestinians.
The sources said Mr. Bush's position has been supported by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and to a lesser extent National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. They have urged the president to hold off international pressure and give Israel more time to cause strategic damage to Hezbollah as well as Iranian and Syrian interests in Lebanon.
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Ms. Rice has garnered support from several senior Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee, including chairman Sen. Richard Lugar. Members of the inner circle of Mr. Bush's father, the former president, have also been advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, with subsequent pressure on Israel for a diplomatic settlement with the Palestinians.
The sources said Mr. Bush's position has been supported by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and to a lesser extent National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. They have urged the president to hold off international pressure and give Israel more time to cause strategic damage to Hezbollah as well as Iranian and Syrian interests in Lebanon.
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