Another
Quagmire For The AmeriKKKan Empire
By Junious Ricardo Stanton
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There is no question
that the US government was ill-prepared for the
aftermath of a war well fought. Many facilities, such as
electrical transformers and oil pumping stations that
had been meticulously spared by the air campaign, were
destroyed by looters and saboteurs. Many members of the
old regime escaped and have come back to haunt the
occupying authorities. Both problems have set the
reconstruction process back. The administration
implicitly conceded that something was amiss early on
when it sacked Jay Garner, a mild-mannered former
general, and replaced him as viceroy with the
tough-talking Paul Bremer. Mr Garner complained that his
outfit - the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and
Humanitarian Assistance - had been hastily assembled and
given neither the time nor the resources to prepare for
running a country of 24m people. Mr Garner had only two
months to plan and no more than 200 staffers to work
with. The lack of preparation is astounding not only
because the Iraq invasion had been long foreseen but
also because America and its allies have run so many
similar nation-building exercises in recent years:
Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Afghanistan.
Yet there has been little attempt to apply the lessons
of those places in Iraq.—Financial Times
July 2, 2003 |
The Bush cabal as Laurel and Hardy used to
say, have gotten themselves into another fine mess. The invasion
and occupation of Iraq was supposed to be a smooth orderly romp
in the park. Instead it displays the omens of a protracted
bitter struggle. Just as AmeriKKKa arrogantly went into Vietnam
to uphold European imperialism foolishly underestimating the
Vietnamese' will to resist foreign domination, so too have Bush
and Co. underestimated the Afghani and Iraqi people's will and
resolve.
US soldiers are dying on a daily basis in
Iraq and now the spotlight is back on Afghanistan as hostilities
flair up. Things are getting so hot the US propaganda machine
can no longer blame escalating US casualties in both Afghanistan
and Iraq on auto accidents or friendly fire.
In an article in the July 2 2003 online
version of Financial Times an Op-Ed piece written by a
senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations called for the
US to establish a Colonial Office. I suggest you read the piece
at www.FT.com—it addresses the real issue, imperial
occupation, what must be done to "stabilize" Iraq. The
writer Max Boot asserts the situation in Iraq should have been
foreseen given the US involvement in other actions around the
world.
Boot's perspective on Iraq is typical of a
colonizer: arrogant to the point of dismissing the natural urge
of people to defend their families and homeland against takeover
by imperialist forces. He states quite candidly the imperialist
intentions of Bush and Co, "The lack of preparation is
astounding not only because the Iraq invasion had been long
foreseen but also because America and its allies have run so
many similar nation-building exercises in recent years: Somalia,
Haiti, Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Afghanistan. Yet there has
been little attempt to apply the lessons of those places in
Iraq."
What lessons is he talking about? Haiti is
still feisty thank goodness. The last I heard there is fierce
resistance in Afghanistan; warlords hastened AmeriKKKa's
withdrawal from Somalia; East Timor was no piece of cake. The
jury is still out on Bosnia and Kosovo: despite seventy-some odd
days of "shock and awe" NATO bombings, ground troops,
and mercenaries are still needed in those countries to maintain
"order" years later! So what lessons can be learned
from these actions other than the possibility of long drawn-out
animus and conflict a la Vietnam?
Bush and Co have bitten off more than they
can chew especially since the US military forces are being
overextended all over the globe. Unlike US troops in Japan and
Germany following WWII when the US government succeeded in
molding pro-US governments, the people of Afghanistan and Iraq
detest the AmeriKKKan presence.
Boot called for an office of colonial
affairs, "We need to create a colonial office—fast. Of
course, it cannot be called that. It needs an anodyne euphemism
such as Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
But it should take its inspiration, if not its name, from the
old British Colonial Office and India Office. Together, these
two institutions ran large swaths of the world with a handful of
bright, honest, industrious civil servants. They had an enormous
impact, given the small numbers involved; there were seldom more
than 1,000 members of the Indian civil service to administer
hundreds of millions of Indians. Like its British predecessors,
the US colonial service needs to be an elite civilian agency
that can call on forces for assistance where appropriate."
Boot fails to realize Bush and Co are a bunch
of cold-blooded thieves who are used to doing their dastardly
deeds in the dark, they have their hands full trying to deal
with open resistance to their occupation by two very stubborn
nations while also trying to secretly expropriate the rest of
the world's resources. Boot also fails to recognize another
lesson of history, Britain lost its American colonies because it
overextended itself in wars around the world. The longer the
resistance to AmeriKKKan occupation goes, the deeper Bush and Co
will sink into the quagmire.
5 July 2003
Noam Chomsky: Obama Administration and US Foreign
Policy /
Chomsky talks about the secret US foreign policy
Chomsky talks about the secret US foreign policy 2
/
Noam Chomsky—Interview w/ Israeli News 2010 2 of 3
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The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
By Daniel Yergin
Renowned energy authority Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Prize, in this gripping account of the quest for the energy the world needs—and the power and riches that come with it. A master story teller as well as one of the world's great experts, Yergin proves that energy is truly the engine of global political and economic change, as well as central to the battle over climate change. From the jammed streets of Beijing, the shores of the Caspian Sea, and the conflicts in the Mideast, to Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley, Yergin takes us inside the decisions and choices that are shaping our future. Without understanding the realities of energy examined in The Quest, we may surrender our place at the helm of history. One of our great narrative writers, Yergin tells the inside stories—of the oil market, the rise of the "petrostate," the race to control the resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive corporate mergers that transformed the oil landscape. He shows how the drama of oil—the struggle for access to it, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, the consequences of its use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it—will continue to shape our world. He takes on the toughest questions—will we run out of oil, and are China and the United States destined to conflict over oil? Yergin also reveals the surprising and turbulent history of nuclear, coal, electricity, and natural gas. He investigates the "rebirth of renewables" —biofuels and wind, as well as solar energy, which venture capitalists are betting will be "the next big thing" for meeting the needs of a growing world economy. He makes clear why understanding this greening landscape and its future role are crucial. |
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Hopes and Prospects
By Noam Chomsky
In this urgent new book, Noam Chomsky
surveys the dangers and prospects of our
early twenty-first century. Exploring
challenges such as the growing gap
between North and South, American
exceptionalism (including under
President Barack Obama), the fiascos of
Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.-Israeli
assault on Gaza, and the recent
financial bailouts, he also sees hope
for the future and a way to move
forward—in the democratic wave in Latin
America and in the global solidarity
movements that suggest "real progress
toward freedom and justice." Hopes and
Prospects is essential reading for
anyone who is concerned about the
primary challenges still facing the
human race. "This is a classic Chomsky
work: a bonfire of myths and lies,
sophistries and delusions. Noam Chomsky
is an enduring inspiration all over the
world—to millions, I suspect—for the
simple reason that he is a truth-teller
on an epic scale. I salute him." —John
Pilger
In dissecting the rhetoric and logic of
American empire and class domination, at
home and abroad, Chomsky continues a
longstanding and crucial work of
elucidation and activism . . .the
writing remains unswervingly rational
and principled throughout, and lends
bracing impetus to the real alternatives
before us.—Publisher's
Weekly
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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