A Week Later
I'm back, just in time for the chest bumping, hand slapping, and triumphal rhetoric about how we've liberated the Iraqis and toppled their evil dictator. Images like these are sure to be shoved down our throats for some time as hubris and imperial arrogance runs rampant.
But things are just getting started. With an occupation, installation of a puppet, and further interventions in the Mid East on the way, it's much too early to say whether we have achieved anything close to a "victory."
With that in mind, here's some stuff from the past week or so that you're hopefully familiar with already:
* CNN's Aaron Brown was interviewed on Democracy Now! last week. Not surprisingly, he tap danced around the tough questions.
* Bush's constant invocation of God makes Europeans nervous. Me, too.
* Ari Shavit explores the the burden of the neocons in Ha'aretz.
* The Iraq war is meant to send a signal to the rest of the world. "We are hopeful that a number of regimes will draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq that the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction is not in their national interest," says John Bolton, the American undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. In particular, Syria is the next candidate for regime change. North Korea might be put on the war agenda, too.
* Lance Brown has started up a worthwhile project to catalog the activities of the neocons and those affiliated with the Project for the New American Century: PNAC.info. Check it out, bookmark it, and spread the word.
* The Iraq war may be coming to an end, but it also signals the beginning of a much longer, sustained conflict that will likely last the next 30 years, according to Paul Rogers. In other words, the campaign against Saddam was a trial run for a much more ambitious project.
* Check out Spinsanity's list of some of the misconceptions and myths about the Iraq war.
* Ever wonder what it would have been like if Fox News had been around during key historical moments of the past? Go here for a sneak peek.
* Former CIA director James Woolsey announced that the campaign in Iraq signals the start of World War IV. Considering this provocative declaration, it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on Woolsey, as Jim Lobe suggests.
* Matt Welch says it's time to start preparing for the second Patriot Act. Republicans want to make such legislation permanent.
* If you haven't already, read Arundhati Roy's piece from last week's Guardian.
* Al Jazeera may be biased, but it's not nearly as biased as the US media.
* Did the US military deliberately target journalists? Reporters Without Borders thinks so.
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
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