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Tuesday, February 11, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
- - Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson, Chief US Prosecutor, Nuremberg Tribunal, 8/12/1945.
RHINO HERE:
So far, none of the moral or legal arguments against starting a war in the Middle East have convinced the shrub gang that it's not a good idea. They're not telling the American people nor our supposed allies much, except that: 1) starting this war will make "the free world" safer in the long run, and 2) starting this war will make the lives of the Iraqi people better. So today's blog is an attempt to refute both of those assertions.
That the war will make "the free world" safer in the long run is addressed by THE BOTTOM LINE article, which is a bit of a history lesson on what has happened each time the U.S. Government has intervened in the Middle East. How we meddled in the affairs of the following countries and what resulted are summarized by Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus Project,
http://www.fpif.org
and Associate Professor of Politics & Chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. It's excerpted from his book "Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism". The countries involved were: Iran, 1953, Lebanon, 1958 and 1982-84, Libya, 1981-86, Iran-Iraq war, 1980-90, The Gulf War, 1991: Sudan, 1998, Afghanistan, 1979-90, 1998, and 2001-present.
That this war will make the lives of the Iraqi people better is refuted by a brief foreign policy quiz which I've posted on my blog before, but its been many months and the times have evolved so that it is more relevant than ever.
QUICK FOREIGN POLICY QUIZ
This test consists of one (1) multiple-choice question. Here's a list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum:
China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991-2002
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
Now here's the question. In how many of these instances did a democratic government, respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result?
Choose one of the following:
(a) 0
(b) zero
(c) none
(d) not a one
(e) a whole number between -1 and +1
8:56:24 AM 
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THE BOTTOM LINE
"A History Lesson: U.S. Intervention in the Middle East Has Always Ended Up Being a Disaster for American Interests"
by Stephen Zunes, Monday, February 10, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
For those who argue that a U.S. invasion of Iraq will somehow advance American interests in the Middle East, an overview of the major cases of U.S. intervention in the region during the past fifty years appears to indicate otherwise. Below is a list of major interventions in the region during the five decades along with a brief description of the U.S. role and its result:
Iran, 1953: When the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the resulting sanctions on the country - led by Great Britain and the United States - resulted in economic hardship and political unrest. Fearing that such instability could result in a communist takeover and concerned about the precedent of nationalization on American oil companies elsewhere in the Middle East, agents of the Central Intelligence Agency organized a military coup in 1953, ousting the elected prime minister. The United States returned the exiled Shah to Iran, where he ruled with an iron fist for more than a quarter century. Tens of thousands of dissidents were tortured and murdered by his dreaded SAVAK secret police, organized and trained by the United States. The repression was largely successful in wiping out the democratic opposition. The SAVAK was less successful in infiltrating religious institutions, however, so when the revolution finally took place, toppling the Shah in 1979, the formerly secular Iran came under the leadership of virulently reactionary and anti-American Islamists. The result of the Islamic revolution was not only the end of one of America's strongest economic and strategic relationships in the Middle East, but also the hostage crisis of 1979-81, Iranian support for anti-American terrorist groups, and a series of armed engagements in the Persian Gulf during the 1980s. Had the United States not overthrown Iran's constitutional government in 1953 and replaced it with the dictatorial Shah, there would not have been the Islamic Revolution and its bloody aftermath.
Lebanon, 1958 and 1982-84: U.S. Marines briefly entered Lebanon in 1958 to block an attempt by Arab nationalist forces to topple the confessional representation system imposed by departing French colonialists fifteen years earlier. This system effectively kept elites of rival clans in control of the country, particularly those of the pro-Western Maronite Christian minority. Tensions grew in subsequent years as rival factions began forming heavily-armed militias...
TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, GO TO:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0210-07.htm
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8:47:59 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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