Cole in Salon and Truthdig
In Salon.com today, I ask "Did Bush plan to Bomb al-Jazeera?" And present new evidence that Rumsfeld considered the Arabic satellite station's reporting to be a form of murder.
My article on Rumsfeld's complicity with Saddam Hussein when he was using chemical weapons is at Truthdig.com, a new site, the force behind which is veteran journalist and truth-teller Bob Scheer.
Cole will be travelling the next week or so. Blog entries will be made, but perhaps at unpredictable times. Email contact chancy. I've saved the Achcar & Shalom editorial, for which I'm grateful, for Thursday.
posted by Juan Cole @ 11/30/2005 10:14:00 AM
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this might be a bit out of context...it's a point of view from a german military professioanl on the war in afghanistan and iraq.
today i had the opportunity to listen to the ex general klaus reinhardt who came to my university. reinhardt commanded german troops in bosnia and kosovo, also in africa. he left active service not long ago and still has very good contacts with active serving people, sometimes still works as an advisor. he complained bitterly about both wars. in fact he called the german engagement in afghanistan a 'farce' and a 'masquarade'.
he said the troops are so ill equipped, the soldiers will not even be able to leave on their own and the ukrainians are being asked to fly soldiers and material in and out. he maintains that the impact of the nato-troops on the security situation is close to zero. apart from some heavily secured bases the country remains in a state of anarchy. the reconstruction is infested with corruption and laughably in-effective. surely you have seen the articles in the washington post about the schools that were build and now cannot be used. germany did equally foolish things. they did build a huge girls dormatory for lots and lots of money in a place in which there is not a single female student. that was known, but the thing was build anyway. and this while afghans are living in poverty without being able to get jobs.
he also claimed that the aftermath of the bombing campaign left thousands dead, because grain storages were also blown up on the grounds that the taliban could eat the grain.
he believes that the very cruel attack on the country, despite of being downplayed by the media, and the hairraising inability to rebuild anything is getting the afghans madder and madder. since the taliban have been able to skillfully exploit this and since the badly funded mission is pretty much impossible to succeed he recomands that the troops leave as soon as possible 'since that is the only option anyway'. he says he realizes that this will bring instability to the region, but he hopes that terrorist fighting is more a thing for the police forces of the regional states and that those states should be supported instead of wasting billions on pointless military adventures.
he was pretty sure that german troops would not go to iraq, since germany is literally broke.
he was equally gloomy on the situation in iraq. he explained that there are over sixty no-go areas in iraq (no-go for foreigners that is). he also explained that the german ambassador in iraq is protected not so much by the handfull of german soldiers at the embassey and also not by the us-troops but by very larges bribes that have been payed to serveral tribes in iraq. he says all nations who have ambassadors there (and lots of spare money) are handling the situation that way. he welcomed the latest approach by the us-government to talk to iran. enlisting and supporting the help of regional states are in his view the only realistic option to get the situation to calm down.
Let’s imagine there would be a leaked memo where leaders of two countries, Chavez and Castro discuss about bombing Fox’s headquarters. USA’s media would be in “flames” in seconds and the political elite would certainly condemn the Latin American leaders as terrorists with a good reason. But when the leaders of the free world (a self declared title by Americans) discuss about such totally unacceptable act, it is explained to been a joke. Can a man in a position as US president make jokes about such acts, which would directly mean killing hundreds of innocent journalists, secretaries, cleaners etc.? Is this man, who claims to be a real devoted Christian any better than his fanatical counterpart on the other side Osama bin Laden? Both of them are ready to ordering killings of innocent people to achieve their political aims.
It is sad to watch is this moral hypocrisy of these men, Bush and Blair and the gap between their words and actual events on the field. After 911 USA had some moral “justification” for its actions. But after the lazy efforts to catch bin Laden, Iraq’s vanished WMD’s, concentration camps and CIA planes, Abu Grahib tortures and sick sex games, white phosphorus in Fallujah, body burning in front of tv cameras in Afghanistan there is no more moral superiority. Now this War against global terrorism rhetoric is pure Big Brothers double talk and is taken seriously only by a handful of true believers.
During the cold war I tended to believe more the US (and western) propaganda than to Soviet propaganda. But now when I take a look back in history and the events during Bush’s regime I am not anymore so certain was I right then. Have the so called democratic countries been less aggressive and less expansive than the so called totalitarian countries? After WW2 USA has destroyed several democracies and countries taking steps towards democracy (Greece, Chile and Iran for example). Many more than the Soviets or local dictators like Saddam did.
The answer for Mr.Khanfar's question appears to be painfully simple. Quality journalism and analysis are the last thing neocons need. What they really want is disposable local stooges.
GU. Wadah Khanfar. Why did you want to bomb me, Mr Bush and Mr Blair?
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