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To: sciAticA errAticA who wrote (32187)	4/23/2003 7:30:58 AM
From: sciAticA errAticA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

The real significance of Kerbala Religious leaders are legitimising Iraqi resistance to occupation Kamil Mahdi Wednesday April 23, 2003 The Guardian The massive expression of religious sentiment in Kerbala this week has political significance beyond the symbolism of the end of Saddam's repression. Saddam repressed popular religious rituals because they provided the environment for a wider expression of political and social grievances. Now the Iraqi masses are taking to civic engagement and have begun to articulate political demands that reject occupation. Both Shia and Sunni religious leaders have emerged as voices for unity and as legitimising authorities for political action, not necessarily as substitutes for political leadership. Last Friday's prayer at the Imam Abu-Hanifa shrine in Baghdad reflected the coming together of Shias and Sunnis in times of crisis, and the commemoration of Imam Hussein at Kerbala has also been conducted in a manner that emphasises freedom rather than ascendancy. Iraq is under a foreign military occupation that has shown little respect for international law, and the people of Iraq need institutions that can symbolise their unity and prevent the US from hijacking their national will. Iraqis have suffered decades of war, sanctions and dictatorship - the country now needs the support of friends and the extensive involvement of UN and humanitarian organisations. However, a distinction must be made between such involvement and commercial, political and cultural intervention through the illegal channel of occupation. The occupation forces came with an administration blueprint and detailed policies formulated by the US state department. Under the pretext of a search for banned weapons, foreign troops are continuing the destruction of Iraq's civil administration and attempting to install a new apparatus answerable to them. Former Iraqi exiles have been financed and organised by the US government and are being set up in positions of authority. This is not liberation. For a decade now, Iraq has been disarmed both literally and proverbially. Its people have endured, under sanctions, astronomical rises in infant mortality, malnutrition and disease. Having instilled terror and fatalism through this latest one-sided military campaign, the occupation forces unleashed criminal elements in Iraqi society on to the fabric of the society itself, and against its institutions and culture. Troops have assisted the destruction of that which is indispensable for a stable civic life. Population, land, employment, business, the banking system, schools, hospitals, public utilities, public sector institutions, industrial plants, food and medicine warehouses, shops and even homes have been looted and destroyed. Under the pretext of security operations, the forces of occupation smashed into public buildings, leaving them unsecured. Occupation troops were able to control extensive oil facilities while claiming lack of capacity to protect civil facilities. British and US military commands in Iraq have tried to bypass the entire Iraqi state administrative infrastructure, and appear to be working to dismantle central state institutions in order to replace them with a weak framework and stronger ethnically and tribally based local administrations. The attacks on Iraq's culture and institutions are perceived by many Iraqis as part of this effort to undermine the country's national integrity and identity. The thrust of occupation policies and propaganda is to create conditions of dependency. But Iraqi professionals and community leaders remain confident in their ability to manage their basic utilities and civil institutions and to repair most of the damage already done. They do not need US and British engineers to operate their utilities, nor do they need the occupation to manage their economic and political affairs. Ministries and public establishments can be managed by committees of their own employees, while civil affairs at local levels can be run by communities, led by respected elders. Iraqis need humanitarian assistance from organisations which they themselves invite. Iraqis will also want to do business with outsiders on the basis of mutual benefit, but not with those who come to seek unfair imperial advantage. In order to rebuild their national institutions and conduct foreign affairs, Iraqis need help from the UN and from Arab and Islamic countries. Any security element must be multinational, short- lived and under UN command. Above all, a credible security force must exclude participation from countries that have supported or participated in this war. Iraq's oil revenues must be placed under professional Iraqi management with UN supervision until a constitutional government is established. It is important that France, Russia and Germany do not compromise on this fundamental issue. The oil-for-food programme must remain under UN care until all foreign military forces leave. The Saddam regime is gone, and a new Iraq is in the making in which the popular will is likely to be stronger. · Kamil Mahdi is an Iraqi and lecturer in Middle East economics, University of Exeter guardian.co.uk

To: sciAticA errAticA who wrote (32187)	4/23/2003 7:31:24 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 74559

Kerbala The IRNA seems to have hired the former Iraqi Information Minister. That 4 MM estimate is 200% of any others I've seen. <g> CBS has a 1 MM figure: cbsnews.cbs.com ABC allows "over 1 MM": abcnews.go.com *********************** This just in....... -- TREASURY OF DEATHLESS QUOTES -- welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com GO MO!

To: sciAticA errAticA who wrote (32187)	4/23/2003 11:04:10 AM
From: jim black	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

This has me ROLLING ON THE FLOOR laughing with a mirthless roar. OH, GAWD what have we done says Duncefeld? "Oh GAWD what did you do" will scream the Democrats trying to make hay out of this and have one of those ants running against the shrub supposedly come up with the "smart way" to deal with the world as it now exists...And the shrub will again say that izzslum is such a peaceful religion. I have said it before. It is a told you so I do not enjoy proclaiming to the West...It's a war folks...WWIII...21st century against izzslum...when we will ever learn? Rushdie warned us. Anyone who has read the Qur'an could warn anybody else who has not. Richard Lionheart was one of history's greatest failures. Izzslum must be exterminated like SARS. I said it. I am called nuts and extremist for saying it. I am "anti-American" at my core. I am inhuman and inhumane...just wait and see...ah, the STUPIDITY of it all. 9/11 was real and just a beginning. We will be killing them in our own streets before long. Canada is overrun with izzslumists. USA has way too many. (One is too many). The USA is full of naive fools and ostriches. I wish puking would help. Jim Black