Bitter Rice

By Uri Avnery

Media Monitors.com

3-24-3

Some thoughts about the war:

 

Beware of the Shiites

 

The troubles of the occupation will start after the fighting is over.

Here is a personal story and its lessons:

 

On the forth day of the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon, I crossed the

border at a lone spot near Metulla and looked for the front, which had

already reached the outskirts of Sidon. I was driving my private car,

accompanied only by a woman photographer. We passed a dozen Shiite

villages and were received everywhere with great joy. We extracted

ourselves only with great difficulty from hundreds of villagers, each

one insisting that we have coffee at their home. On the previous days,

they had showered the soldiers with rice.

 

A few months later I joined an army convoy going in the opposite

direction, from Sidon to Metulla. The soldiers were now wearing

bulletproof vests and helmets, many were on the verge of panic.

 

What had happened? The Shiites received the Israeli soldiers as

liberators. When they realized that they had come to stay as occupiers,

they started to kill them.

 

When the Israeli troops entered Lebanon, the Shiites were a

down-trodden, powerless community, held in contempt by all the others.

After a year of fighting the occupiers, they became a political and

military power. The Shiite Hizbullah is the only military force in the

Arab world that has beaten the mighty Israeli army.

 

Sharon is the real father of the Shiite force in Lebanon. Bush may well

become the father of Shiite power in Iraq. The Shiites, 60% of the

Iraqi population, have been until now down-trodden and powerless. When

they will realize that the Americans intend to stay, they will start a

deadly guerilla war. Bush does not intend to leave Iraq, as Sharon did

not intend to leave Lebanon.

 

Then what? America will argue that Iran, the great Shiite neighbor, is

behind the Shiite guerilla. In Iran there is a lot of oil. Thatís the

next target.

 

Blood for Oil

 

George Bush is a primitive man, but the people behind him are far from

being stupid. They are the oil barons and the arms industry giants.

They want to do what great powers have always done: use their military

might in order to acquire economic hegemony. In simple words: to rob

the poor peoples in order to enrich themselves even more.

 

The military occupation of Iraq will last many years and secure for

America the control over the vast oil reserves of Iraq, as well as the

Caspian Sea reserves and all the Arab oil. That will give it control

over the worldís economy and prevent the emergence of a competing,

independent European economic bloc. America is fighting against Europe

as much as against Iraq. That is part of the reason for Europeís angry

response.

 

Germany

 

Germany is against the war. Against any war. In no other country was

the anti-war outburst so authentic, emanating from the innermost

feelings of the masses.

 

And who is furious about this? Israel, the country of the Holocaust

survivors. How do they dare, these damn Germans, to object to the war?

 

A sad irony of history: all German TV stations show citizens,

intellectuals and ordinary folk, who pray for peace, all Israeli TV

screens show retired generals, obviously enjoying themselves,

discussing with great relish how to employ giant bombs and other

instruments of death.

 

Intoxication of power

 

This is the first war of the 21st century, and it bodes ill.

 

This century has inherited from its predecessor a world containing one

sole super-power. America has no competitors, no possible combination

of other forces can measure up to it. It can literally do what it

wants, and now it is doing just that openly and brutally.

 

When America won its cheap and easy victory in Afghanistan, using smart

bombs and suitcases filled with cash, it was clear it could not stop

itself anymore. A huge machine like that wants to go on fighting and is

searching for an enemy. Now itís Iraq. Who next? Iran? North Korea?

 

That is what happened to the Roman Empire. That is what happened to

Napoleon and Hitler. The intoxication of power knows no boundaries. And

no one of these was in the situation of the United States now: alone in

the world, without enemies that can stand up to it.

 

A Jewish War?

 

The anti-Semites proclaim that this is not a war for American

interests, but for Israel. As proof, they point to the group of

American Jews that took a leading part in initiating this war, people

like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith at the Defence

Department, Elliott Abrams at the National Security Council (as well as

Ari Fleisher at the White House and even Dan Kerzer, the US ambassador

in Tel-Aviv). These people support haron and the extreme right in

Israel, some of them speak Hebrew, a group of them has acted as

advisors to Benyamin Netanyahu, when he became prime Minister. Together

with the two non-Jews, Cheney and Rumsfield, they pushed Washington

into the war. Thus say the anti-Semites.

 

That is true by itself, but this is first and foremost a war for

American interests. However, Bush and Sharon believe that American and

Israeli interests are practically identical. The Jewish war group in

Washington acts in close cooperation with the Christian

fundamentalists, who now control the Republican party and who have a

hidden anti-Semitic agenda.

 

The anti-Semites will point to another obvious fact: Israel is the only

country in the world where not one single politician nor any part of

the media has raised their voices against the war. While millions march

all over the world, only one single anti-war demonstration, organized

by Gush Shalom and some other peace organizations, has taken place in

Israel. It attracted 2500 people.

 

In the struggle between Bush and world opinion, the government of

Israel has chosen chose Bush. On the face of it, that seems sensible,

since Bush has might on his side and sides with Sharon. But in the long

run, it may turn out to be the wrong bet.

 

The popeís divisions

 

"How many divisions does the pope have?" Stalin asked sarcastically

when told that the Holy Father objects to his actions. Today, the

question is: how many divisions does world public opinion command?

 

All over the world, the public opposes the war. There is an immense

majority against it even in countries whose leaders have joined Bushís

"coalition". For the first time, there is something that can be called

"world opinion".

 

Only the future will tell if this constitutes a real force. Thomas

Jefferson, one of the fathers of American democracy, once said that no

country could conduct its affairs without "a decent respect for world

opinion."

 

Perhaps the 21st century will witness a struggle between the brute

force of a mighty military-economic super-power and world public

opinion, assisted now by modern technology.

 

Mercenaries

 

This is a war fought by mercenaries. The fighters are professional

soldiers, the sons of the poor, many of them black. Therefore it is

easy for middle class citizens, and especially the Republican voters,

to approve of the war. It is not their sons who will be killed.

 

In the past, the European left demanded the abolition of the

professional army and the introduction of general conscription. At the

time, that was a "progressive" idea. When the left put on weight, it

forgot all about it.

 

The Vietnam war was still fought by drafted soldiers. Resistance to the

war grew when the body bags started to arrive. George W. Bush, who

supported the war with all his heart, took no part in the fighting.

Father arranged a job for him back home. He was just another shirker.

 

Jefferson again: "Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that

God is just."

 

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"Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." Thoma Jefferson