[Peace] News notes, Mar. 17 (part 2 of 2)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[continued from part 1]

**SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2002, A DAY OF MALIGN ANNIVERSARIES

THE FAILURE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.  On this day in 1921, the
Bolsheviks stage final bloody assault on rebellious Kronstadt sailors. The
Provisional Revolutionary Committee of the Sailors, Soldier & Workers of
Kronstadt, having tossed the yoke of party rule, refuses to surrender to
right-wing "Marxists." With their defeat the democratic phase of the
Russsian Revolution (1917-21) comes to an end.

THE CONDUCT OF US COLONIAL WARS. On this day in 1968, American soldiers
murder and rape civilians at My Lai, Vietnam. While the upper brass
circles overhead in helicopters, the men of Charlie Company, First
Battalion, American Division, enters the hamlet of My Lai 4, in South
Vietnam's Quang Ngai Province, & methodically & ruthlessly murders an
estimated 347 civilians over an 8-hour period. Most are women, children &
old men. Some are slain by bullets fired into their houses, others are
herded into small groups & mowed down, & still more die when they are
hurled into a ditch & sprayed with automatic rifle fire. The Army first
tries to cover it up & the US media refuses to report it (despite news
stories in Europe). Later they will portray it as a aberration, one bad
guy (Calley), one good guy (who stops it). Calley is convicted, sent to
his room for being a bad boy, then released after a year or so under house
arrrest.  It was the way the war was conducted against the people of South
Vietnam, whom we ere supposedly "defending." The rising young Col. Colin
Powell is assigned to write a report on the matter; he concludes that
nothing unusual happened...

AND HE GASSED HIS OWN PEOPLE (AS OUR ALLY). On this day in 1988 Saddam
Hussein orders massacre of Kurds with mustard & nerve gases in Halabja,
Iraq. US & European weapons & chemical companies are supplying Iraq with
the ok of the US, which is backing Iraq's war against Iran. This is the
event the US government constantly refers to as the proof of Saddam's
perfidy: they're right, of course...

WHY IRAQ IS 'PHASE TWO.' Noam Chomsky writes with regard to the seemingly
impending attack on Iraq, "I presume we need not waste any time on the
official reasons, even more transparently hypocritical than usual. But
there are solid long-standing reasons. In particular, Iraq has the second
largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia, and there has never
been much doubt that the US would sooner or later act to regain effective
control over them, denying privileged access to adversaries (primarily now
France and Russia). Maybe planners think they can exploit the present
situation as yet another "window of opportunity." It's hardly
unproblematic, though not for narrow reasons of military power. One major
problem is ensuring an undemocratic outcome, which will keep minority
Sunnite elements in power. Presumably that's why the CIA and State appear
to be establishing contacts with defecting Iraqi generals, including one
who has been charged with participation in the gassing of the Kurds.
Recall the cheery analysis by Thomas Friedman, then chief diplomatic
correspondent (aka State dept spokesperson) at the NY Times, in April
1991, when the Bush I administration had just quietly observed Saddam
Hussein's massacre of the Shi'ites who had rebelled and might have
overthrown the gangster if the US had allowed it. As Friedman explained,
the best of all worlds for the US would be an iron-fisted military junta
that would rule Iraq just as Saddam did, only with a different name,
because his was now embarrassing. Not easy to work out." [ZNET FORUMS]

**SUNDAY, MARCH 17,2002

A PEACE SCARE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Neither the NYT nor the WP relay much
optimism that the violence will end anytime soon. The WP quotes the chief
of staff of the Israeli army: "I don't think it will end in the next month
or two. It could last anywhere from several months to longer than that."
[SLATE]

HE JUST POINTED OUT THAT THE GOVERNMENT WAS CORRUPTED BY DRUGS. Gunmen
have shot dead Isaias Duarte Cancino, the Roman Catholic archbishop of
Cali, Colombia's third largest city, church sources in Bogota reported.
Duarte Cancino, 63, was killed when he was traveling late Saturday with a
priest and his driver after delivering mass. The gunmen approached the
vehicle and shot him six times, sources said. The archbishop was rushed to
a Cali clinic, where he was pronounced dead at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT Sunday).
Duarte Cancino was known for his tough criticism of both drug lords and
guerrillas. [AFP]

SNAKE SHEDS ITS SKIN? US officials acknowledged that they are uncertain
how many Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were killed during a 12-day
offensive and whether others escaped or are still hiding in the mountains
of eastern Afghanistan. American, Canadian, and Afghan troops scoured the
hills and the booby-trapped caves of Paktia province for the remnants of
Al Qaeda and Taliban forces and for additional intelligence information
following Operation Anaconda . . . However, celebrations by US and Afghan
allied forces over the success of the operation, the most intense during
the five-month-long war in Afghanistan, remained tempered by conflicting
versions of enemy casualties . . . Originally, US commanders estimated
that 150 to 200 enemy fighters were hiding in the mountains of Shah-e-Kot
district. After a few days of surprisingly heavy resistance, US commanders
revised that estimate to as high as 1,000. Afghan military commanders
predicted the enemy force could even be significantly larger . . . US
spokesmen have said they believe that as many as 800 of the enemy fighters
may have been killed in the 12-day assault. But as US and allied forces
this week started to search the villages and cave complexes, they found
little evidence of Al Qaeda or Taliban casualties. [BOSTON GLOBE]

WE KNOW THEY'RE UNDER THE BED. U.S. troops could be targeted by al-Qaida
fighters hiding among civilians in Afghan cities, the leaders of the
Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said
the battles ``probably will be smaller in scale, but could be even
bloodier in terms of casualties,'' than the fighting in recent weeks in
the Shah-e-Kot valley. ``It's going to be urban warfare in small
settings,'' Graham, the committee chairman, said on CNN's ``Late
Edition.'' He said three or four Taliban or al-Qaida fighters could hide
among civilians in a marketplace, waiting to attack Americans. Sen.
Richard Shelby of Alabama, the panel's top Republican, said the potential
for urban fighting is a concern, but U.S. forces are prepared. ``They're
very much aware of this,'' he said. ``They know this war is not over with
over there, although we're doing very well.'' [AP]

WHY WE WANT OT FORGET THE US ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN FROM THE 1970S.
Reporters for the NYT have collected over 5,000 pages of al-Qaida
documents from abandoned safe houses and training camps destroyed by bombs
in Afghanistan. The documents provide a glimpse into the minds of al-Qaida
operatives, their indoctrination, and their training. With over 20,000
recruits passing through Osama Bin Laden's organization, the NYT notes,
"this community of militants had progressed so far that it took on the
feel of a bureaucracy. There were forms to keep track of ammunition,
spending and more." The article claims that its documents paint a
different picture of the training camps than the one offered by the Bush
administration. Instead of factories churning out terrorists, as the White
House has maintained, the camps were more focused on producing an army to
support the Taliban in its long ground war against the Northern Alliance.
[SLATE]

THIS IS GETTING EMBARRASSING.  A "Newsnight" investigation explores the
possibility that the anthrax attacks resulted from a CIA project to
investigate methods of sending anthrax through the mail, that spiralled
out of control. [BBC]

MEANWHILE OUR SOCIETY DETERIORATES. The NYT fronts news that more and more
doctors are refusing to take new Medicare patients, claiming the
government pays them too little to cover the costs of caring for the
elderly. Medicare cut payments to doctors by 5.4 percent this year, with a
total drop of 17 percent by 2005 expected. Even with the cost-cutting
measures, government spending on Medicare has risen 24 percent in the last
five years. Says one Brooklyn doctor, "My expenses go up and up and up
every year. For the government to lower what it pays me when my expenses
are rising-that doesn't make sense. It's an insult." [NYT]

	***

WHAT THE W.O.T. IS DISTRACTING US FROM. The nation doesn't need to keep
Vice President Dick Cheney and a bunch of bureaucrat gnomes holed up in
expensive caves to run things if a terrorist attack destroys Washington.
When G.W. Jr. moved into the White House, a shadow government moved in
with him. The National Rifle Association became the shadow Justice
Department, Enron took over the Energy Department, Exxon and Shell pull
the strings of the Department of Interior, International Paper became the
director of the Forest Service, Lockheed Northrop took control of Defense
Department procurement, and Microsoft became head of Anti-Trust. If a
terrorist sneaks a bomb into Washington it won't make much difference. Our
government is pretty much controlled by corporate executives scattered
around the country. This was made clear with the resignation last week of
one of the Environmental Protection Agency's top pollution-enforcement
officials. A Republican first appointed by the senior Bush, Eric Schaeffer
quit in disgust, saying that the second Bush's administration is
"undermining" the Clean Air Act. [In additon], Bush has: 

	* Cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million. 
	* Taken corporate polluters off the hook for cleaning up the toxic
messes they leave behind, making John Q. Taxpayer foot the bill. 
	* Suspended rules denying government contracts to companies that
violate government regulations, including environmental and workplace
safety rules. 
	* Suspended rules that require hard-rock mines to clean up their
pollution on public lands. 
	* Rescinded a proposal to give the public information about public
health and safety consequences of chemical plant accidents. 

Specifically for his oil/gas industry and Enron buddies, Bush has: 

	* Cut funding for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and
trucks by 28 percent. 
	* Canceled the 2004 deadline for automakers to develop
high-mileage prototypes. 
	* Abandoned his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide
levels. 
	* Rescinded rules mandating energy efficiency regulations for air
conditioners and heat pumps. 
	* Cut funding of renewable energy source research by 50 percent. 
	* Put pressure on state officials to open up national monuments
for oil and gas drilling, coal mining and clear-cut timber harvests. 

To pay off anti-government, free-market conservatives, Bush has: 

	* Proposed elimination of marine protections for the Channel
Islands of California and the coral reefs of Hawaii. 
	* Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program which
encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat. 
	* Abandoned his campaign pledge to invest $100 million in rain
forest conservation. 

To demonstrate interest in non-CEO Americans, G.W. Jr. has: 

	* Reduced the Community Access Program (for people without health
insurance) by 86 percent. 
	* Cut $60 million from a Boys & Girls Club of America program for
public housing. 
	* Cut child care to low-income families moving from welfare to
work. 
	* Cut $700 million from the repair and maintenance budget for
public housing. 
	* Cut $15.7 million earmarked for child abuse and neglect
investigations. 

But the budget he sent to Congress spends more on defense than all other
countries of the world, combined. Big shots of American industry love G.W.
Bush ... they bought and paid for him. But can the rest of the United
States afford him? [JOHN DAVID ROSE TRUTHOUT.COM]

	***

	Rocky Mountain News 
	Jensen: The language of violence 
	In a land torn by strife, words pave the road that brings
destruction to everyone's doorstep 
	 

Three Palestinian teen-agers are killed by Israeli tank fire while walking
home from a soccer game in Gaza. The bodies are returned to their parents
labeled "Terrorist No. 1," "Terrorist No. 2" and "Terrorist No. 3." 

At a subsequent investigation, the Israeli tank commander said he saw
"suspicious movements" and fired before determining what they really were.
The three teen-agers then became what Israeli military spokesmen call
"superfluous deaths." 

Both sides engage in a curious doublespeak to justify the excesses of a
conflict that grows bloodier by the day. 

In the Israeli lexicon, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not "occupied,"
they are "disputed." This permits the confiscation of Arab land for the
building of Jewish settlements, which would be forbidden if the
territories were "occupied" because the Fourth Geneva Convention makes it
a war crime to transfer civilian populations onto territory captured in
war. 

Only Israel has a "security problem." The word "security" is never applied
to Palestinians, who may feel decidedly insecure when they're being
shelled by Israeli tanks or bombed by F-16 jets. 

That's because Palestinians "terrorize" while Israeli troops only
"retaliate." Although this retaliation sometimes involves the use of
massive firepower against civilian population centers, it is justified as
self-defense in a "war on terrorism." 

Palestinians, for their part, never use the word "terrorism" in describing
attacks that kill innocent Israeli civilians. Suicide bombers are
"martyrs" to be admired. Their blowing up of discotheques and pizza
parlors are "operations" and the victims of those attacks are the "Zionist
enemy." 

While many Palestinians make a distinction between Israelis killed in
Israel proper and those killed in the occupied territories, they make no
distinction between settlers and soldiers. Both the latter are fair game. 

Because they are "terrorists," any arms the Palestinians try to acquire
are for terroristic purposes and therefore unacceptable. Hence, much was
made of the Karine A, a ship carrying 50 tons of arms and explosives
intercepted by Israeli commandos. 

But there's little condemnation of Israel's use of F-16s, Apache
helicopter gunships, laser-guided missiles and other American arms. As a
nation state, Israel has every right to arm itself against potential
attack from hostile neighbors such as Iran or Iraq. But Palestinians
question the legality of using these arms against what Israel calls an
"internal threat." 

The Israeli version of the failed peace process, supported by President
Clinton, is that former Prime Minister Ehud Barak made the most generous
concessions any Israeli leader had ever offered the Palestinians at Camp
David in 2000. An unreasonable Yasser Arafat rejected that offer and
turned to terrorism in order to achieve his goals.