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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (2498)	11/6/2002 3:48:54 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 3959

Re: I believe the oil factor is a huge part of the equation. Well, I do believe that oil is a side issue, if a useful one... Indeed, the "oil spin" allows the left to circumvent the thorny issue of Israel and Zionism and the threat of anti-Semitism. Since many liberals in Europe and the US are Jewish liberals, it'd be counterproductive, to say the least, to mobilize the anti-war crowd on the issue of Israel --hence the hype about oil, Texas, and the Bush family's alleged ties to the oil industry. Furthermore, although oil is indeed part of the "Iraqi equation", it's somehow part of ANY equation that deals with the Middle East and/or Central Asia, hence it's not the "swing variable"... Actually, I'd even stretch it a bit further and say that I could find the "oil factor" in just about EVERY US policy issue --which makes that factor rather irrelevant to understand the behavior of the US. Gus

To: Thomas M. who wrote (2498)	11/6/2002 5:28:01 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3959

Footnote... straight from the horse's mouth: A deafening silence By Salama A Salama In Washington as well as in European capitals, anti- war marches are demanding a halt to the current preparations for a military strike against Baghdad. Demonstrators are calling on the Bush administration to avoid the madness of war and pay more attention to the troubles of the US economy. Hardly a week passes without news of thousands of ordinary people taking to the streets in various parts of the world to voice their opposition to the war, in tones that grow louder at a rate commensurate with that at which war preparations are being made. Even in Moscow, a capital not particularly known for public dissent, thousands took to the streets to demand an end to the war in Chechnya. The demonstrations went on even as a group of armed Chechen men took several hundred people hostage and threatened to kill them unless Russian troops withdrew from Chechnya. Perhaps the voice of the people is not enough to sway governments. And governments have proven able to whip up pro-war sentiment with a variety of methods. They have claimed they are defending peace, fending off foreign threats, fighting terror or intimidating enemies. But free nations can tell the difference between fact and fiction. Ordinary people can distinguish between military acts that might bring security and stability and those prompted by the parochial interests of politicians, pressure groups and the arms industry. One example of free people distinguishing between justifiable defence and unjustifiable expansionism is the war protests of three decades ago. When students and intellectuals, writers and artists, in both the US and Europe, protested against what Presidents Johnson and Nixon were doing in south-east Asia, and when Bertrand Russell held a war trial for the politicians responsible for the bloodshed in Vietnam, the bloodshed stopped. The people spoke, and they made a difference. Now, a devastating war is just around the corner, but Arab nations are silent. Troops and sophisticated weaponry are being sorted and shipped with deadly intent to use this region for target practice with the aim of bringing us to our knees and making the area more comfortable for the Israelis. And yet, no sign of Arab protest. Arab governments are oppressing anti-war dissent. They do not want their own people to speak out against the war against Iraq, even though everyone knows that it would only bring havoc to the region, not to mention ushering in foreign hegemony to an unpredictable extent. Is it odd that thousands would protest against the war, on the streets of Washington and Rome, of Berlin and Paris, but not in Cairo, not in Amman, Beirut, or Damascus? Why? Simply because Arab nations are supposed to cheer and applaud their leaders, and not speak unless spoken to. In this respect there is the recent referendum in Iraq, in which Saddam Hussein carried off 100 per cent of the vote. Surprising? What is one to make of this, except perhaps consider it a vote against Bush rather than a victory for Hussein, because under these sorry circumstances, such passive objection is the only recourse left to Arab nations. Western analysts and writers commenting on the reaction of the Arab world to the Iraqi crisis, not surprisingly, give little weight to Arab public opinion. Arab leaders continue to treat the views of their own people as dirty linen, as a shameful secret that should not be exposed in public. This being the case, a unified Arab stand would be too much to ask. © Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved ahram.org.eg