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Posted on 04/12/2003 5:23:54 PM PDT by jedi150
Iraqi jubilation has anti-warmongers flabbergasted
ALAN DAWSON
The worst nightmare has come true for the anti-war, anti-globalisation, anti-American mobs. The people of Iraq say they have been liberated.
It will be interesting to see how those who supported keeping Saddam Hussein in power _ unwittingly or purposely _ will squirm out of the predicament.
Certainly, none of them will admit they were wrong. But they were.
The Iraqi people did not organise to resist the American-British coalition, although The Guardian of London said on March 30 they already had.
``Instead of rising up to welcome the invaders,'' the paper thundered in its ``news'' columns, ``Iraqi nationalism has been strengthened and people have been galvanised into resistance.''
It was a huge jump in logic for anyone to expect Iraqis to fight for Saddam Hussein.
After all, the French welcomed American invaders, the Cambodians welcomed Vietnamese invaders. Indeed, there was no national Thai resistance to the Americans who entered Thailand with hostile intentions in 1945.
One expects drivel like ``The US military now finds itself face-to-face with a hostile people prepared to fight and die to defend their country'' from the likes of The World Socialist Web Site (voice of the Fourth International).
But it's a little harder to take from Russian President Vladimir Putin, commander-in-chief of one of the most vicious campaigns against civilians currently under way in the world, in Chechnya.
On March 28, Mr Putin said, ``The only means to resolve the Iraqi problem is an immediate halt to hostilities.''
The streets of Baghdad and Basra were filled this week with tens of thousands of Iraqis showing just how much they disagreed with him.
War solved their problem, at least in the short term.
Those dancing, singing Iraqis, bashing pictures of Saddam, are trouble to the subset of people who fought against the liberation of Iraq.
Here is what they should do, because they certainly will never apologise.
``Occupy'' is your buzzword of the month, and possibly next month as well. Coalition forces will be busy restoring order, mopping up holdouts, handing out food, giving water to thirsty people and running medical clinics. So long as they remain in Iraq, they are occupiers, don't forget it.
Point out that the coalition didn't go into Iraq to liberate it. They went to find weapons of mass destruction. This is only a partial lie, so you won't have to repeat it so often to make it believable.
Sure, the stated reason of the invasion was regime change, but pointing out that the US-led forces didn't find any terrible weapons as they blitzed to victory puts the somewhat dazed anti-war, pro-Saddam crowd on the offensive for now.
Be aware of the risk, however.
There has been no serious hunt yet for those terrible weapons in Iraq because of the war. If opponents of the Iraqi liberation stress these weapons too much, they risk even greater discombobulation down the line if any are found.
So in preparation, they should stress that the US imperialists may be planting weapons now that can be found later.
This could help to repair the terrible lack of preparation the anti-whatevers showed in the past few weeks. None of them seemed to think there was an actual chance that Iraqis would line up to kiss and dance with US and British forces, and had no defence ready when it happened. So there should be an increasing campaign to suggest, and then to protest against, the planting of fake weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The anti-people should entirely ignore the mass celebrations in Iraq and point out that there is still some fighting, and some women and children will be hurt _ because it's half true. They should ignore anyone who points out the Basra, Baghdad, Najaf and other celebrants may have felt that some casualties now were preferable to a lot of casualties under a continuing Saddam regime.
The anti-war crowd from which Saddam Hussein claimed to find inspiration and support should point out that many pointy-heads in the Arab world _ academics, especially _ are ``wary'' and ``fearful'' of American aims in the Middle East. Cite the Mongols, often, since no one is actually going to look up the real history of Baghdad, and vague references to the great Khan will stress the vague ``fears'' of those academics.
It's entirely safe to point out that democracy is an alien institution in Iraq, and extrapolate that the Iraqi people couldn't possibly be ready for such a concept as an accountable government. If anyone asks about the implicit racism and arrogance of such a statement, they should accuse him of pandering to the Iraqis, because a good offence will beat a pertinent inquiry so long as the offence is extremely loud and, well, offensive.
In this, the mob leaders can safely retreat behind, say, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, who thinks that democracy and freedom are all right in theory but, as Dr Mahathir put it in a nice presentation to the rulers of Burma: ``Too much democracy can lead to violence and instability.''
Too much freedom and democracy is just another name for American imports. And everyone knows how bad American imports are, things like Coca-Cola, elevators, McDonald's, light bulbs, polio vaccine, air conditioning and so on.
The word ``instability'' will be useful to ignoring the scenes of Iraqis celebrating liberation. Post-war Iraq could be unstable, the Mideast could suffer instability, and Arab governments could face unstable times.
The antis must be careful with the last one, though. Some Arab governments could well become more unstable in the post-Iraq era. But the only real threat of this comes from Arabs who saw the trough Iraq now feeds from and want a place themselves. Demands to oust dictators usually cause short-term instability and violence when the tyrants resist. The antis can't be against regime change willy-nilly, or they simply turn into the reactionaries they are (supposedly) protesting against.
But they must stress, repeat and magnify each act of instability that occurs in Iraq: Every pickpocketing, murder, lack of hepatitis vaccine and problem apprehending Ba'ath Party death squad leaders. It is important to create the appearance of instability and overwhelming problems in the new Iraq, just in case there aren't enough for real news people to report.
One item the antis can have both ways for sure is the future of the United Nations in Iraq. Those who have wittingly or accidentally helped Saddam Hussein for the past seven months should now take one of two tacks. If the US, Britain and Australia appoint Iraqi governments, local and national, they should rail at the lack of involvement of the United Nations. If the United Nations becomes involved, they should jump on every claimed disagreement with coalition members or forces. They can't lose in this.
Still, the anti-whatevers face some serious problems. They shouldn't organise anti-war protests for now, or anti-American protests either. They could be embarrassed at the turnout.
A large majority of people still realise that it is unwise to judge leaders like President George Bush or Prime Minister Tony Blair on their promises. Instead, they should be judged on their actions.
The leaders of the anti-war, anti-US, anti-globalisation movement won't apologise for being wrong about how Iraqis would hate to be liberated. But they will have to deal with the fact that they have a nightmare to overcome.
Certainly, none of them will admit they were wrong. But they were.
Certainly, none of them will admit they were wrong. But they were.
Certainly, none of them will admit they were wrong. But they were.
Certainly, none of them will admit they were wrong. But they were.
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So true. I already saw a sign saying "occupation is not liberation".
"The American war plan has failed...", Benedict Arnett
LTIH (Laugh Till It Hurts)
Rita scoffed with contempt at Asner's claim that Afghanistan is much worse off since US went in.
What a jerk!
A fat, has been, America hater!
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