>Date: 15 Sep 2001 00:24:01 -0000 > "Chris Boyce" <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] Fwd:ZNet Commentary / Pilger and Herman / Context / Sept 14 >On Thu, 13 Sep 2001 21:36:07 -0400 Michael Albert <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>Hello, >> >>During September we are mailing to ZNet's 50,000 Free Update Recipients >>our Daily Sustainer Commentary which usually goes only to our Sustainer >>Program members. >> >>If you don't want these mailings you can turn them off at the ZNet Top >>Page (www.zmag.org/weluser.htm). >> >>Today's commentaries, responding again to the recent terror in the U.S., >>are by John Pilger from England, and Edward Herman from the U.S. >> >>We hope you will consider joining our Sustainer Donor Program to help us >>enlarge ZNet's offerings and sustain Z Magazine and our summer school >>(ZMI) as well. >> >>To learn more about the Sustainer Program and for links you can use to >>join it, please visit: >>http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm >> >> >>====== >> >> >>Brief Preparatory Note: >> >>A number of folks receiving ZNet Commentaries say they want help dealing >>with their neighbors', school mates', friends', and family's >>militaristic feelings and even with their own emotions. They wonder how >>our recent essays, full of context and history, bear on all that. >> >>There could be about 5,000 deaths from the horrific events in NYC. If >>so, some relevant context is that the same level of human loss would >>have to happen in the U.S. once every month, all year long, for over >>fifteen years, for the death toll to match what U.S. policies have >>imposed on Iraq. This grisly accounting doesn't make the pain here any >>less, but it may help reveal that the pain elsewhere, induced by U.S >>policies, is even greater, perhaps opening the way to compassion and >>solidarity. >> >>If there is a moral principle that ought to apply to bin Laden or the >>Taliban or to anyone who may commit or abet acts of terror, shouldn't >>that principle also apply to us? If so, a relevant bit of context is >>that to employ terror was our stated policy in Iraq and Yugoslavia, >>where in both cases we admitted and even bragged that we were attacking >>the population to collapse the governments. So who brings us to justice? >>And do we really think being brought to justice ought to mean suffering >>terror, in turn? >> >>In my experience, sometimes using the kinds of information in ZNet's >>essays to make such connections opens avenues of understanding. On the >>other hand, I have to admit, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe others have >>better ideas about how to connect with people and if so, sharing those >>ideas and experiences in coming days may help. Changing minds is not >>easy or fast, but it is certainly necessary, and contrary to what many >>pundits are saying, I think the public is mostly confused, and not >>mostly lusting for blood. >> >>----------------- >> >>Inevitable ring to the unimaginable >>By John Pilger >> >>If the attacks on America have their source in the Islamic world, who >>can really be surprised? >> >>Two days earlier, eight people were killed in southern Iraq when British >>and American planes bombed civilian areas. To my knowledge, not a word >>appeared in the mainstream media in Britain. >> >>An estimated 200,000 Iraqis, according to the Health Education Trust in >>London, died during and in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter >>known as the Gulf War. >> >>This was never news that touched public consciousness in the west. >> >>At least a million civilians, half of them children, have since died in >>Iraq as a result of a medieval embargo imposed by the United States and >>Britain. >> >>In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Mujadeen, which gave birth to the >>fanatical Taliban, was largely the creation of the CIA. >> >>The terrorist training camps where Osama bin Laden, now "America's most >>wanted man", allegedly planned his attacks, were built with American >>money and backing. >> >>In Palestine, the enduring illegal occupation by Israel would have >>collapsed long ago were it not for US backing. >> >>Far from being the terrorists of the world, the Islamic peoples have >>been its victims - principally the victims of US fundamentalism, whose >>power, in all its forms, military, strategic and economic, is the >>greatest source of terrorism on earth. >> >>This fact is censored from the Western media, whose "coverage" at best >>minimises the culpability of imperial powers. Richard Falk, professor of >>international relations at Princeton, put it this way: "Western foreign >>policy is presented almost exclusively through a self-righteous, one-way >>legal/moral screen (with) positive images of Western values and >>innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted >>political violence." >> >>That Tony Blair, whose government sells lethal weapons to Israel and has >>sprayed Iraq and Yugoslavia with cluster bombs and depleted uranium and >>was the greatest arms supplier to the genocidists in Indonesia, can be >>taken seriously when he now speaks about the "shame" of the "new evil of >>mass terrorism" says much about the censorship of our collective sense >>of how the world is managed. >> >>One of Blair's favourite words - "fatuous" - comes to mind. Alas, it is >>no comfort to the families of thousands of ordinary Americans who have >>died so terribly that the perpetrators of their suffering may be the >>product of Western policies. Did the American establishment believe that >>it could bankroll and manipulate events in the Middle East without cost >>to itself, or rather its own innocent people? >> >>The attacks on Tuesday come at the end of a long history of betrayal of >>the Islamic and Arab peoples: the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the >>foundation of the state of Israel, four Arab-Israeli wars and 34 years >>of Israel's brutal occupation of an Arab nation: all, it seems, >>obliterated within hours by Tuesday's acts of awesome cruelty by those >>who say they represent the victims of the West's intervention in their >>homelands. >> >>"America, which has never known modern war, now has her own terrible >>league table: perhaps as many as 20,000 victims." >> >>As Robert Fisk points out, in the Middle East, people will grieve the >>loss of innocent life, but they will ask if the newspapers and >>television networks of the west ever devoted a fraction of the present >>coverage to the half-a-million dead children of Iraq, and the 17,500 >>civilians killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The answer is no. >>There are deeper roots to the atrocities in the US, which made them >>almost inevitable. >> >>It is not only the rage and grievance in the Middle East and south Asia. >>Since the end of the cold war, the US and its sidekicks, principally >>Britain, have exercised, flaunted, and abused their wealth and power >>while the divisions imposed on human beings by them and their agents >>have grown as never before. >> >>An elite group of less than a billion people now take more than 80 per >>cent of the world's wealth. >> >>In defence of this power and privilege, known by the euphemisms "free >>market" and "free trade", the injustices are legion: from the illegal >>blockade of Cuba, to the murderous arms trade, dominated by the US, to >>its trashing of basic environmental decencies, to the assault on fragile >>economies by institutions such as the World Trade Organisation that are >>little more than agents of the US Treasury and the European central >>banks, and the demands of the World Bank and the International Monetary >>Fund in forcing the poorest nations to repay unrepayable debts; to a new >>US "Vietnam" in Colombia and the sabotage of peace talks between North >>and South Korea (in order to shore up North Korea's "rogue nation" >>status). >> >>Western terror is part of the recent history of imperialism, a word that >>journalists dare not speak or write. >> >>The expulsion of the population of Diego Darcia in the 1960s by the >>Wilson government received almost no press coverage. >> >>Their homeland is now an American nuclear arms dump and base from which >>US bombers patrol the Middle East. >> >>In Indonesia, in 1965/6, a million people were killed with the >>complicity of the US and British governments: the Americans supplying >>General Suharto with assassination lists, then ticking off names as >>people were killed. >> >>"Getting British companies and the World Bank back in there was part of >>the deal", says Roland Challis, who was the BBC's south east Asia >>correspondent. >> >>British behaviour in Malaya was no different from the American record in >>Vietnam, for which it proved inspirational: the withholding of food, >>villages turned into concentration camps and more than half a million >>people forcibly dispossessed. >> >>In Vietnam, the dispossession, maiming and poisoning of an entire nation >>was apocalyptic, yet diminished in our memory by Hollywood movies and by >>what Edward Said rightly calls cultural imperialism. >> >>In Operation Phoenix, in Vietnam, the CIA arranged the homicide of >>around 50,000 people. As official documents now reveal, this was the >>model for the terror in Chile that climaxed with the murder of the >>democratically elected leader Salvador Allende, and within 10 years, the >>crushing of Nicaragua. >> >>All of it was lawless. The list is too long for this piece. >> >>Now imperialism is being rehabilitated. American forces currently >>operate with impunity from bases in 50 countries. >> >>"Full spectrum dominance" is Washington's clearly stated aim. >> >>Read the documents of the US Space Command, which leaves us in no doubt. >> >>In this country, the eager Blair government has embarked on four violent >>adventures, in pursuit of "British interests" (dressed up as >>"peacekeeping"), and which have little or no basis in international law: >>a record matched by no other British government for half a century. >> >>What has this to do with this week's atrocities in America? If you >>travel among the impoverished majority of humanity, you understand that >>it has everything to do with it. >> >>People are neither still, nor stupid. They see their independence >>compromised, their resources and land and the lives of their children >>taken away, and their accusing fingers increasingly point north: to the >>great enclaves of plunder and privilege. Inevitably, terror breeds >>terror and more fanaticism. >> >>But how patient the oppressed have been. >> >>It is only a few years ago that the Islamic fundamentalist groups, >>willing to blow themselves up in Israel and New York, were formed, and >>only after Israel and the US had rejected outright the hope of a >>Palestinian state, and justice for a people scarred by imperialism. >> >>Their distant voices of rage are now heard; the daily horrors in faraway >>brutalised places have at last come home. >> >> John Pilger is an award-winning, campaigning journalist. >> >>September 13, 2001 >> >>------ >> >>FOLKS OUT THERE HAVE A "DISTASTE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND CULTURAL >>VALUES" >> >>Edward S. Herman >> >>One of the most durable features of the U.S. culture is the inability or >>refusal to recognize U.S. crimes. The media have long been calling for >>the Japanese and Germans to admit guilt, apologize, and pay reparations. >>But the idea that this country has committed huge crimes, and that >>current events such as the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks may >>be rooted in responses to those crimes, is close to inadmissible. >>Editorializing on the recent attacks ("The National Defense," Sept. 12), >>the New York Times does give a bit of weight to the end of the Cold War >>and consequent "resurgent of ethnic hatreds," but that the United States >>and other NATO powers contributed to that resurgence by their own >>actions (e.g., helping dismantle the Soviet Union and pressing Russian >>"reform"; positively encouraging Slovenian and Croatian exit from >>Yugoslavia and the breakup of that state, and without dealing with the >>problem of stranded minorities, etc.) is completely unrecognized. >> >>The Times then goes on to blame terrorism on "religious fanaticism...the >>anger among those left behind by globalization," and the "distaste of >>Western civilization and cultural values" among the global dispossessed. >>The blinders and self-deception in such a statement are truly >>mind-boggling. As if corporate globalization, pushed by the U.S. >>government and its closest allies, with the help of the World Trade >>Organization, World Bank and IMF, had not unleashed a tremendous >>immiseration process on the Third World, with budget cuts and import >>devastation of artisans and small farmers. Many of these hundreds of >>millions of losers are quite aware of the role of the United States in >>this process. It is the U.S. public who by and large have been kept in >>the dark. >> >>Vast numbers have also suffered from U.S. policies of supporting >>rightwing rule and state terrorism, in the interest of combating >>"nationalistic regimes maintained in large part by appeals to the >>masses" and threatening to respond to "an increasing popular demand for >>immediate improvement in the low living standards of the masses," as >>fearfully expressed in a 1954 National Security Council report, whose >>contents were never found to be "news fit to print." In connection with >>such policies, in the U.S. sphere of influence a dozen National Security >>States came into existence in the 1960s and 1970s, and as Noam Chomsky >>and I reported back in 1979, of 35 countries using torture on an >>administrative basis in the late 1970s, 26 were clients of the United >>States. The idea that many of those torture victims and their families, >>and the families of the thousands of "disappeared" in Latin America in >>the 1960s through the 1980s, may have harbored some ill-feelings toward >>the United States remains unthinkable to U.S. commentators. >> >>During the Vietnam war the United States used its enormous military >>power to try to install in South Vietnam a minority government of U.S. >>choice, with its military operations based on the knowledge that the >>people there were the enemy. This country killed millions and left >>Vietnam (and the rest of Indochina) devastated. A Wall Street Journal >>report in 1997 estimated that perhaps 500,000 children in Vietnam suffer >>from serious birth defects resulting from the U.S. use of chemical >>weapons there. Here again there could be a great many people with >>well-grounded hostile feelings toward the United States. >> >>The same is true of millions in southern Africa, where the United States >>supported Savimbi in Angola and carried out a policy of "constructive >>engagement" with apartheid South Africa as it carried out a huge >>cross-border terroristic operation against the frontline states in the >>1970s and 1980s, with enormous casualties. U.S. support of "our kind of >>guy" Suharto as he killed and stole at home and in East Timor, and its >>long warm relation with Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, also may >>have generated a great deal of hostility toward this country among the >>numerous victims. >> >>Iranians may remember that the United States installed the Shah as an >>amenable dictator in 1953, trained his secret services in "methods of >>interrogation," and lauded him as he ran his regime of torture; and they >>surely remember that the United States supported Saddam Hussein all >>through the 1980s as he carried out his war with them, and turned a >>blind eye to his use of chemical weapons against the enemy state. Their >>civilian airliner 655 that was destroyed in 1988, killing 290 people, >>was downed by a U.S. warship engaged in helping Saddam Hussein fight his >>war with Iran. Many Iranians may know that the commander of that ship >>was given a Legion of Merit award in 1990 for his "outstanding service" >>(but readers of the New York Times would not know this as the paper has >>never mentioned this high level commendation). >> >>The unbending U.S. backing for Israel as that country has carried out a >>long-term policy of expropriating Palestinian land in a major ethnic >>cleansing process, has produced two intifadas-- uprisings reflecting the >>desperation of an oppressed people. But these uprisings and this fight >>for elementary rights have had no constructive consequences because the >>United States gives the ethnic cleanser arms, diplomatic protection, and >>carte blanche as regards policy. >> >>All of these victims may well have a distaste for "Western civilization >>and cultural values," but that is because they recognize that these >>include the ruthless imposition of a neoliberal regime that serves >>Western transnational corporate interests, along with a willingness to >>use unlimited force to achieve Western ends. This is genuine >>imperialism, sometimes using economic coercion alone, sometimes >>supplementing it with violence, but with many millions--perhaps even >>billions--of people "unworthy victims." The Times editors do not >>recognize this, or at least do not admit it, because they are >>spokespersons for an imperialism that is riding high and whose >>principals are unprepared to change its policies. This bodes ill for the >>future. But it is of great importance right now to stress the fact that >>imperial terrorism inevitably produces retail terrorist responses; that >>the urgent need is the curbing of the causal force, which is the >>rampaging empire._ >> >> >> >> >> > >________________________________________________________ >The Best News Source On The Web - http://www.disinfo.com - "Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being." (Albert Camus) ------------------------------------------------------------ the cry! arts and humanities http://www.thecry.com