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| April 7, 2004 |
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World Media Watch by Gloria R. Lalumia BUZZFLASH NOTE: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints. * * * WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 7, 2004 1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--SPEAKING FREELY: THE CHAOS THEORY IN ACTION (If Iraq is sliding toward chaos, this is exactly where most Iraqis believe the US wants them to be. A prominent Iraqi psychiatrist who has worked with the CPA and US military explained to me that "there is no way the United States can be this incompetent. The chaos here has to be at least partly deliberate." The main question on most people's minds is not if his assertion is true, but why. In this context, the sending of foreign contractors into Falluja in late-model SUVs with armed escorts - down a street clogged with traffic where they would literally be sitting ducks - only feeds suspicion that the US is deliberately instigating more violence as a pretext for "punishment" and further chaos courtesy of the US military. ...Colgate University professor Nancy Ries describes the chaos in Iraq as "sponsored chaos", which fits into the broad definition of chaos theory as an ordered system or purpose underlying seemingly random events. That is, war and occupation are wonderful opportunities for corporations to make billions of dollars in profits, unchecked by the laws and regulations that hamper their profitability in peace time.) 2//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--NO PLANS TO SEND MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ: PM (The Prime Minister, John Howard, buoyed by polls that appear to support his opposition to withdrawing troops from Iraq, says that there are no plans to provide more forces in response to the mounting turmoil in the country...on reports that US military authorities were suggesting the need for an increased coalition contribution, Mr Howard said: "We don't have any plans to provide more.") 3//The Guardian, UK-- BLAIR: WE MUST HOLD FIRM IN IRAQ (The meeting with Hoshyar Zebari, who was appointed by the Iraqi interim governing council, was prearranged, but in a session with reporters Mr Blair and Mr Zebari insisted that "moderates will succeed" in Iraq.The brief meeting in Downing Street came as the Ministry of Defence announced fresh troop deployments to Iraq...Mr Zebari called for thousands more troops to deal with the spiralling violence...The US is considering sending more soldiers out after a fresh wave of violence. But the MoD was adamant that the latest British contingent did not constitute "extra" troops. "They are not additional," a spokesman said.) 4//The
International Herald Tribune, France--SPANIARDS
SAY WAR MAKES THEM A TARGET (Prime Minister-elect
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who
is due to take office on April 16, has stuck by
his campaign promise to pull Spain's 1,300 troops
out of Iraq at the end of June unless the United
Nations has taken control of the occupation by
then. This pledge was made before 10 coordinated
bombs ripped apart four commuter trains and killed
191 people on March 11. But now, many in Spain
say they do not think about a UN mandate when they
talk about the need to withdraw troops. They say
they think about avoiding more terrorist attacks,
leaving the new government's motive for a possible
pullout uncomfortably out of line with views on
the street... Thousands of people have taken to
Madrid's streets over the past two days, protesting
against terrorism and decrying Spain's involvement
in Iraq. Many banners focused on the war, reading "Get
the troops out of Iraq now" and "No more
blood for oil.") * * * 1//Asia
Times Online, Hong Kong April 6, 2004 SPEAKING
FREELY: THE CHAOS THEORY IN ACTION By Mark LeVine It is perhaps hard for Americans to understand their occupation of Iraq in the context of globalization. But Iraq today is clearly the epicenter of that trend, and in this context chaos is king. Here, military force was used to seize control of the world's most important commodity, oil. While corporate prospectors allied with the US search the country like safari hunters on elephants for any opportunity to profit from Iraq's misery - that's how conspicuous they are - inside the Green Zone their innocuous-looking counterparts draft regulations for privatizing everything from health care to prisons. It is chaos that makes this whole system possible. Without the chaos, Iraqis would not allow the country to be sold off wholesale, or allow the US troops to remain after the June 30 "transfer" of sovereignty. Without chaos, there is little reason to assume that the imposition of neo-liberal globalization, which has wreaked such havoc in so many other countries of the developing world, would be in the process of entrenchment in Iraq. Without the chaos, there would be more reporting on the appalling conditions in the hospitals and schools, which are violations of the US obligations as occupying power under the Geneva and Hague Conventions. (SNIP) It is also chaos that allows the mainstream press to focus on the overt violence without addressing what an unmitigated disaster the occupation is viewed holistically. As I was writing this article, I received a call from a major TV news program to join a panel on Falluja. After a 40 minute pre-interview, the producer decided that I "didn't fit into the mix" of the guests he was putting together, which wound up being three middle-aged men: a retired general, colonel and a professor, none of whom had driven on the road to Falluja, and none of whom dared discuss the roots of the deepening quagmire in Iraq. If Iraq is sliding toward chaos, this is exactly where most Iraqis believe the US wants them to be. A prominent Iraqi psychiatrist who has worked with the CPA and US military explained to me that "there is no way the United States can be this incompetent. The chaos here has to be at least partly deliberate." The main question on most people's minds is not if his assertion is true, but why. In this context, the sending of foreign contractors into Falluja in late-model SUVs with armed escorts - down a street clogged with traffic where they would literally be sitting ducks - only feeds suspicion that the US is deliberately instigating more violence as a pretext for "punishment" and further chaos courtesy of the US military. (SNIP) If we realize that companies like Blackwater Security services (whose personnel were killed in Falluja) constitute a $100 billion a year business, it's hard to imagine how the people in charge - all well-trained military personnel with lots of combat experience - couldn't foresee they were sending their people into a death trap. Or is it possible that they are that arrogant and that ignorant? I'm not sure which is worse. Colgate University professor Nancy Ries describes the chaos in Iraq as "sponsored chaos", which fits into the broad definition of chaos theory as an ordered system or purpose underlying seemingly random events. That is, war and occupation are wonderful opportunities for corporations to make billions of dollars in profits, unchecked by the laws and regulations that hamper their profitability in peace time. (SNIP) But when you're on the ground and you experience the daily impact and scale of the chaos, it's much harder not to understand the situation at least as a combination of what one activist described as "the chaos that is the occupation, plus the chaos the US is specifically creating to further the occupation". Whatever the cause, a lot of Iraqis and Americans are dying needlessly - unless you consider that the billions being made off the occupation, and the larger war on terror, is worth the price in blood and hatred.
NO PLANS TO SEND MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ: PM The Prime Minister, John Howard, buoyed by polls that appear to support his opposition to withdrawing troops from Iraq, says that there are no plans to provide more forces in response to the mounting turmoil in the country. Mr Howard said yesterday that developments in Iraq in recent days were "quite ugly" but it that was unclear whether they were representative of changing public opinion or the work of a relatively small and hard-core group. Asked about increasing doubts as to whether the US President, George Bush, would meet the June 30 deadline for handing sovereignty back to Iraq, Mr Howard said: "Well let's just wait and see how things develop." However, on reports that US military authorities were suggesting the need for an increased coalition contribution, Mr Howard said: "We don't have any plans to provide more."
BLAIR: WE MUST HOLD FIRM IN IRAQ The meeting with Hoshyar Zebari, who was appointed by the Iraqi interim governing council, was prearranged, but in a session with reporters Mr Blair and Mr Zebari insisted that "moderates will succeed" in Iraq. The brief meeting in Downing Street came as the Ministry of Defence announced fresh troop deployments to Iraq and US engaged in helicopter gunship operations in the sealed town of Fallujah. Mr Blair was defiant in the light of the last 48 hours, saying: "Our response should not be to run away in fright or hide away or think we have done something wrong. Our reaction must be to hold firm." The prime minister said radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia had no place in the new Iraq. All those opposed to the creation of a modern democratic state were deliberately seeking to destabilise the situation, said Mr Blair. Mr Zebari - a Kurd who was educated at Essex university - said Mr Sadr did not represent the views of the majority of the Shia population, let alone the majority of Iraqis. He called for a new UN resolution ending Iraq's occupied status. (SNIP) Mr Zebari called for thousands more troops to deal with the spiralling violence. He said the recent upsurge of violence would worsen in the three months leading up to the handover of power. Coalition troops should be returned to the levels they were at during the war, he said. Speaking to journalists after meeting Mr Blair, Mr Zebari said there were now 105,000 troops in Iraq compared to the 130,000 during the war. "That gap maybe should be filled again," he said. Fresh troop deployments Meanwhile, the MoD announced today that thousands of British troops will fly out to Iraq this week to relieve peacekeeping forces. Almost 5,000 soldiers are going out to the Gulf to take over from four or five brigades which will return home, the MoD said. (SNIP) The US is considering sending more soldiers out after a fresh wave of violence. But the MoD was adamant that the latest British contingent did not constitute "extra" troops. "They are not additional," a spokesman said. "It is one brigade taking over from others. We always keep things under consideration and review but there are no plans in the pipeline at the moment to send out additional troops." (MORE)
SPANIARDS SAY WAR MAKES THEM A TARGET Many want nothing to do with Iraq That could spell unexpected trouble for the new Socialist administration, which won election three days after last month's bombings in part because it opposed the war, like 90 percent of the Spanish population. Prime Minister-elect José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is due to take office on April 16, has stuck by his campaign promise to pull Spain's 1,300 troops out of Iraq at the end of June unless the United Nations has taken control of the occupation by then. This pledge was made before 10 coordinated bombs ripped apart four commuter trains and killed 191 people on March 11. But now, many in Spain say they do not think about a UN mandate when they talk about the need to withdraw troops. They say they think about avoiding more terrorist attacks, leaving the new government's motive for a possible pullout uncomfortably out of line with views on the street. It also makes it more vulnerable to criticism from abroad, notably from some Americans, that Spaniards are appeasing terrorists by demanding a troop withdrawal. In an opinion poll conducted last week for the Spanish radio broadcaster Ser, 38 percent of respondents wanted Spanish troops to stay in Iraq if a UN resolution was passed. Forty-two percent said they wanted troops to come back even if the UN took control of the country. "Even if a UN resolution gets passed, a large percentage of people still would want the soldiers out of Iraq," Diego López Garrido, general secretary of the Socialist Party's parliamentary group, said in an interview. "But this is a promise we made long before March 11. We can't just change it because there was a terrorist attack." (SNIP) "This is all the fault of the United States; they got us into this," said Santiago Ruíz, a 55-year-old electrician who lives in suburban Leganés, a block from where the four suspects killed themselves and a police officer on Saturday. "The way to combat terrorism isn't the way Bush has done. Spain is paying the consequences of its solidarity with the United States." Thousands of people have taken to Madrid's streets over the past two days, protesting against terrorism and decrying Spain's involvement in Iraq. Many banners focused on the war, reading "Get the troops out of Iraq now" and "No more blood for oil." "There is a growing feeling in the population that there is a direct link between our troops in Iraq and the terrorist threat - it's an emotional reaction," said Araceli Mangas, professor of political science at the University of Salamanca. "It's irrational and incoherent, but it's real. The new government needs to explain very carefully why it is pulling troops out, if it does." (MORE)
MIDDLE EAST STABILITY TOPS YEMENI TALKS President Vladimir Putin pledged Russian help Tuesday in promoting stability in the Middle East, telling visiting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh that Moscow was paying close attention to the troubled region. (SNIP) Russia is "ready to do everything to assist the stable development in Yemen and in the region," Putin said. Both leaders also said they would discuss bilateral cooperation, particularly in expanding business ties. The Soviet Union and then Russia have delivered some $8 billion worth of military technology and arms to Yemen, Interfax reported, citing a defense industry source. Deliveries have included a shipment of 31 T-80 tanks in 2000, according to the Newsru.com news agency. In 2001, Yemen signed a contract for MiG-29 fighter planes, the first batch of which was delivered the following year. "The Russian business community's interest in cooperation with your country is growing," Putin told Saleh on Tuesday. (SNIP) Topping the agenda, however, was the ongoing violence in the Middle East and the situation in Iraq. Saleh said his nation had a number of new proposals that they had hoped to present at the Arab League Summit in Tunisia, which was postponed last month. Some of the proposals, he said, related to efforts to boost the United Nations' role in stabilizing Iraq. A Kremlin official said Yemen and Russia share the goal of widening the influence of the United Nations as a guarantor of international rights. International terrorism was also on the agenda, with Putin congratulating Saleh for his "principled position in the fight against terrorism." Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal said Sunday that Yemen -- the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden -- has dismantled 90 percent of his al-Qaida cells in the country, in part by payoffs to tribes that once sheltered them. (MORE) | ||||||
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