The War on Iraq: While It Will Happen and What We Can Do

by Umar ben-Ivan Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2002 at 10:13 AM
ubenivan@yahoo.com

The war on Iraq.

The War On Iraq: What It's About and What We Can Do
by Umar ben-Ivan 2:55pm Tue Aug 27 '02 article#3297
instruggle@hotmail.com

What activists can do, and what they will do.
As the Bush administartion continues to beat the drums of war and Vice Preseident Cheney yetserday told the veterans of foerign wars that " the US cannot afford to ignore Iraq". We must now realize that the US is going to go it alone, without the support of the UK, EU, Arab world, China, Japan, India, Pakistan ( or any Muslim nation).

The only head of state to endorse this war has been Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This is not suprising since the neo-conservative element of the Republican party is now at such a prominent level within the party; Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, etc. . The neo-conservative movment, with The Weekly Standard of Willam Krystol as it's most important publication, has routinely in recent months published pieces that are racist against Arabs and Muslims, making indictments over entire peoples and cultures( I encourage all to check the archives).

Furthermore, there is a growing popularity amongst the right to embrace a new outright American impeariailsm in the Muslim world.A recent lecture at the Pentagon encouraged the US to attack Saudi Arabia after being finished with Iraq, by seizing the oil fields in the eastern province, and if necassary "teaching the Saudis a lesson by occupying the holy sites" in Mecca and Medinah.This trend can also be seen in how the Bush administartion have encouraged Pakistani President Musharraf to cancel elections and to consolidate power( and for that matter in the encouragement of the Venezualan military in their coup efforts against President Hugo Chavez).

If there is going to be an alternative to unfettered capitalism, to the politics and culture of greed, and the decadent culture this has created ( amongst the left and right, maybe more so in the left), it should now be clear that it will come from the Muslim world. No, this sould not be misinterpreted as saying that what the Muslim world has today is what the world needs, the Muslim world today is a basket case full of corruption at every level, but in the Muslim world you see the last bastion of masses who are not brainwashed and therefore have the potential to create a better order, and this scares the global order, in particular it scares America.

The war on Iraq is being set-up as the first battle in the American war to culturally, economically and politcally occupy the Muslim world. In Iraq , in the words of Indiana Senator Richard Lugar " America will run the oil business, run it well, and make a lot of money", and the US will seek to set a societal structure that they will seek to export to the rest of the Muslim world, and along with it spread death and destruction.

It is incumbent on us today, as activists as people who are concerned with peace and justice, to do all that is in our power to stop this war from ever happening, and that if the war does occur, that we do all that we can to help the people who will be suffereing.

Activists are often too busy with marches and protesters and forget that there are real things that we can be doing in our everyday lives that will help real people. It may not be hip, may not be cool, may not get us on the news, but if we want to help people and not just talk about how they got it bad, then we need to do these things. These things are; helping refugees in our areas, sending money to humanitarian organizations, volunteering for overseas health organizations, writing your represenatives, writing the media, talking to people who support the war and giving them a rational counter-argument.

The US has not been attacked by Iraq, Iraq had nothing to do with any attacks against America, nothing has been even suggested to indicate that. This is so-called " pre-emptive security". The argument is that Iraq has weapons of mass-destruction, is Iraq alone in that? Even if Iraq has one or two, does that threaten Americas existence? The answers are clear.

American officials speak about the human rights record of Saddam Hussein, while supporting regimes ( such as Turkey) who have equal, if not worse human rights records.

This is not about human rights, and it is not entirely about oil, which the left wrongly claims, it is about wiping out any resistance to the established world order.Unfortunatley, this war will not be fought by neo-conservatives, or the wealthy elite, or even their children, it will be fought by the poor, the workers, blacks, Latinos and those who do not have a piece of the American pie. add your own comments