Friday, April 16, 2004

Posted here Friday, April 16, 2004 at 9:58:14 AM     See Juan Cole in Salon http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/16/israel/ April 16, 2004  |  One year after Baghdad fell to victorious U.S. troops, the Americans had to conquer the country all over again. The great rebellion of April 2004 expelled the U.S. from much of the capital, humiliated coalition allies, cut supply and communications lines to the south, and revealed a reservoir of popular hatred for the U.S. among both some Sunni Arabs in Fallujah and some Shiites in their cities. But perhaps the most ominous development for the U.S. was that the events tied together two occupations and two intifadas, or popular uprisings -- Iraq and Palestine. ********

Posted here Friday, April 16, 2004 at 9:08:06 AM     In iraq the likely outcome is a regime much like Saddham's, just as post WW2 led Yugoslavia to have its Tito. Otherwise, given the internal tensions,  it cannot hold. This suggests that the Iraq problem, for which we blame Saddham, was really situational, and Saddham was the slected and well adapted response. The situation created saddham, not saddham the situation. ********

Posted here Friday, April 16, 2004 at 9:05:19 AM     Iraq as failed state http://www.agonist.org/archives/015179.html#015179 Iraq is, like Columbia and a dozen other states, a failed state. It's politics are driven by brutal conflict over the control of a few key resources, mainly the exportable resources, and the banking system and legal system which conferes legitimacy on laundering the profits to the outside world. US ally, one cannot say tool about anyone as canny and as self-serving as he, Chalabi is in control of the banks - which owe millions to the outside world in judgements and settlements over the last decade. The hand over of sovereignty will be the starting gun for a mass exodus of money out of the country, and into the hands of people burned in their financial dealings with Saddam. Much of that money will flow back in, by buying up the oil resources which constitute the primary export. What we see is that a state (already a problem originating in the 19th century) is weak when it has one key resource that allows an elite to organize and self fund around its extractible value. But it takes the rest of us, wanting that resource, to make it happen. ********

Posted here Friday, April 16, 2004 at 7:01:44 AM     And to round out the week Spurned Blair in plea to Bush Prime minister urges US president to restore 'even-handed' approach over Middle East peace Nicholas Watt and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Friday April 16, 2004 The Guardian http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1193134,00.html Tony Blair will today attempt to restore British influence in Washington when he warns President George Bush that the Middle East "road map" remains the only viable option for achieving a lasting political settlement. Less than 48 hours after Mr Bush spurned his plea for an "even-handed" approach to the Middle East, the prime minister will make clear in private that Britain cannot sign up to Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan which was all but endorsed by the president. ********