DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG’S US WAR TEACH-IN
October 3, 2014
The last two days,
democracynow.org has offered a comprehensive teach-in on US warfare in Iraq and
its wider history:
·
Yesterday’s first segment, an interview with
Iraqi novelist and journalist Sinan Antoon, on how the US de-Ba’athified and
divided occupied Iraq, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/2/after_us_sanctions_wars_tore_iraq
.
·
Background: Henry Kissinger’s proposal that if
elected to stay in office, President Ford bomb Cuba to destroy the state, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/2/secret_history_of_us_cuba_ties
.
·
First segment in today’s broadcast, home page at
http://www.democracynow.org: Iraq
Veterans Against the War. They are about
to put out a statement condemning renewed US air bombardment there.
·
The second segment is a return interview with
Jeremy Scahill, trained both in law and at democracynow.org itself. Scahill, author of “Dirty Wars,” has been on
the ground in virtually every recent war ground, from Iraq through Yemen. His is the most well-nuanced, succinct
summary of recent US involvement in Iraq and its results I have heard. He is co-founder of The Intercept.
I return to a simile I drew when the
US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. The US
has figured out how to kill without being killed, so spectacularly so that we
fire Cruise missiles by the hundreds at over a million dollars a shot, and
release bombs bursting to the media.
Scahill mentions that one ISIL leader is a former Iraqi Ba’athist
general, cast out by Paul Bremer in May 2003.
Participants in all three segments agree that the bombardment creates
more US enemies than it kills. As I said
of Afghanistan, US bombardment has the same effect as fighting a grease fire
with a water hose. Sad but true. Love and peace, hal
No comments:
Post a Comment