Peace and Justice Post

By Robert Parry, Consortium News. Posted January 24, 2008.

It seems naive to hope Bush’s successor will reject his most destructive policies.

The political calendar indicates that in one more year – on Jan. 20, 2009 – the presidency of George W. Bush will come to an end. However, the worst consequences of his disastrous reign, including the Iraq War, may be nowhere near ending.

Today’s presidential frontrunners, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, were early prominent supporters of the Iraq War and appear to have suffered little political damage for lining up behind Bush in 2002 when he was at the peak of his power.

For his part, McCain – who campaigns with neoconservative independent Sen. Joe Lieberman – has no plan to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq, indeed talks about keeping U.S. troops there for centuries. Clinton, who was a late convert to an anti-war position, now vows to “start withdrawing” U.S. troops by early spring 2009.

So, it seems a sure bet that a McCain presidency would continue Bush’s Iraq policies indefinitely. And it looks like a gamble whether Clinton would press ahead with her “hope” of bringing “nearly all the troops out by the end of” 2009 – or revert to the neocon-lite position that she embraced from 2002 until the start of the Democratic campaign in 2007.

Might Hillary Clinton be to George W. Bush on Iraq what Richard Nixon was to Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam, a President who continued a war for years while gradually moving to wind it down?

Continued . . .

The beating and arrest of a human rights worker by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday were a part of “a policy of systematically harassing human rights defenders,” the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem said on Sunday.

B’Tselem fieldworker Issa Amro was assaulted, then detained by the Israeli military while filming a group of Israeli settlers while they attacked a Palestinian home.

Witnesses told Ma’an’s reporter that four women and two children were also injured when settlers pelted Palestinian homes with stones in Hebron’s Wadi Abu Hussain neighborhood.

“Although a large force of soldiers and police were present,” B’Tselem said “they did nothing to protect the Palestinians and remove the settlers. Two B’Tselem workers were filming the incident from across the street, where they stood along with a number of Palestinians and international activists.

A lieutenant colonel approached ‘Amro and “demanded that he stop filming. A group of settler women then gathered around the B’Tselem workers and two of them tried to grab Amro’s camera. A number of soldiers joined in the fray, beat ‘Amro and then arrested him. They then took him to an army jeep and beat him again.”

Link: imeu.net/news/article007663.shtml

Retired Military Group in Pakistan Tells President to Step Down

By John Ward Anderson and Robin Wright
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 24, 2008; A15

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 23 — As critical elections in Pakistan approach, President Pervez Musharraf is increasingly losing support from major constituencies, including his traditional military base, amid growing questions in both Pakistan and the United States about his ability to govern.

On Wednesday, a group of more than 100 retired military officers, including influential air marshals, admirals, generals and security agency chiefs, called on Musharraf to step down immediately in order to help restore democracy and deal with Islamic radicals who have made territorial inroads in recent months.

A statement from the Ex-Servicemen’s Society said that it had been monitoring recent events “with great concern and anguish” and that Musharraf’s resignation was “in the supreme national interest.”

Musharraf has repeatedly defied expectations of his political demise, and few observers believe that the parliamentary balloting Feb. 18 will lead to his immediate ouster.

But Pakistani analysts and U.S. officials said that the political challenges Musharraf faces are greater than they have been in the past and that his allies at home and abroad are fewer. While he has alienated former military leaders, there are signs that active-duty officers may be distancing themselves from him as well.

Keep reading . . .

The American Muslim (TAM), January 23, 2008

by Sheila Musaji

Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who has made a 10 minute film on the Qur’an. He says that he wants to “expose” the Qur’an, and his previous statements about the Qur’an and Islam seem to show a commitment to provocation and bigotry that make it clear that this will not be a balanced or honest film.

“The maverick politician’s remarks about Islam have become increasingly radical. In February last year he said that if Muslims wanted to stay in the Netherlands, they should tear out half of the Koran and throw it away. In parliament he then called for the Koran and Hitler’s Mein Kampf to be banned, a proposal that was rejected.” Jason Burke, The Observer 1/20/08

“Wilders has a less-than-stellar record when it comes to cultural sensitivity on the issue of Islam. He has demanded an outright ban on Islam’s holiest book, which he calls a “fascist” text. And he means it when he says ban, according to his website: “Not only the sale, but also the use in mosques and ownership in a household context should be punishable. If the current legislation does not allow that, then a new law on banning the book should be introduced. This book incites hate and murder, and therefore does not fit in with our rule of law. If Muslims want to participate, they must distance themselves from the Koran. I know that is asking a great deal, but we have to stop making concessions.”” Borzou Daragahi, L.A. Times 1/22/08

There is some question as to whether or not the film will be shown on Dutch television.

Continued . . .

Telegraph.co.uk, January 24, 2008

By Joan Clements in The Hague

A politician has warned that a “fear of Islam” is governing Holland after he delayed the release of a short film attacking the Koran.

Geert Wilders, 44, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, who compares the Muslim holy book to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, sparked government panic after saying the anti-Islam film would be released tomorrow.

As Dutch police prepared for a weekend of riots and Mr Wilders was told by the authorities that he would have to leave country, he launched a new attack on “intolerant” Islam while announcing that his 10-minute film attacking the Muslim faith would be postponed for two weeks.

“If I had announced that I was going to make a film about the fascist character of the Bible would there have been a crisis meeting of Holland’s security forces?” he wrote to the Volkskrant newspaper.

“Would I have received as many death threats as I have done since announcing I was making a film about the Koran? Of course not.”

Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, this week warned of “extensive repercussions from Muslims throughout the globe” if the film was broadcast.

In an attempt to defuse tensions, the Dutch government will tomorrow announce that it will not implement a ban on the Islamic burqa dress.

Highly touted increase in U.S. troops impetus for surge in civilian casualties

American Free Press, Issue No. 3, January 21, 2008

By Richard Walker

While the Pentagon and White House, as well as many in Congress declare the “surge” in Iraq a success, little is said about the fact that as many as 24,000 Iraqi civilians died in 2007, representing the second highest casualty figure since the invasion in 2003.

Most of the dead were from areas outside of the capital, Baghdad, where the surge has been concentrated, obscuring a drastic increase in violence in other parts of the country. While the surge has reduced high levels of sectarian deaths in the capital, there is a drastic increase in killings elsewhere.

The problem with representing the surge as a major success is that the overall picture of life in the country is obscured and the level of human tragedy minimized.

In comparing last year’s death toll with that of 9-11, Iraqi civilian casualties in 2007 were 800% higher. That does not include civilians injured and maimed for life, or the dead and wounded within the ranks of the U.S. military and its coalition partners. In 2007, there were close to 900 U.S. military deaths and 5,648 wounded. Forty-seven British soldiers were killed. Those figures hid another statistic: the number of soldiers evacuated from Iraq for treatment related to behavioral and psychiatric issues.

Some reports suggested that close to 1,000 soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at the Army medical facilities at Landsthul in Germany. Most were from Iraq and fell into the category of victims of “mental trauma.”

Continued . . .

Yahoo News, January 23, 2008

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President George W. Bush and his top officials ran roughshod over the truth in the run-up to the Iraq war lying a total of 935 times, a study released Wednesday found.

Bush and his administration “waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein‘s Iraq,” said the damning report entitled “False Pretenses.”

According to the Center for Public Integrity, eight administration officials “made at least 935 false statements” about Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, or links to Al-Qaeda, on 532 separate occasions.

“In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.”

Continued . . .

Counterpunch, January 23, 2008

What Gives the US the Right to Claim a Moral Monopoly Over the World?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

“The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.”

Five Western military leaders.

I read the statement three times trying to figure out the typo. Then it hit me, the West has now out-Owellled Orwell: The West must nuke other countries in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction! In Westernspeak, the West nuking other countries does not qualify as the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The astounding statement comes from a paper prepared for a Nato summit in April by five top military leaders–an American, a German, a Dutchman, a Frenchman, and a Brit. It can be found here.

The paper, prepared by men regarded as distinguished leaders and not as escapees from insane asylums, argues that “the West’s values and way of life are under threat, but the West is struggling to summon the will to defend them.” The leaders find that the UN is in the way of the West’s will, as is the European Union which is obstructing NATO and “NATO’s credibility is at stake in Afghanistan.”

And that’s a serious matter. If NATO loses its credibility in Afghanistan, Western civilization will collapse just like the Soviet Union. The West just doesn’t realize how weak it is. To strengthen itself, it needs to drop more and larger bombs.

Keep reading . . .

 Telegraph.co.Uk, January 24, 2008

By Tim Butcher on the Egyptian side of Gaza’s border

Tens of thousands of Palestinians swept into Egypt after Hamas militants blew holes in Israeli-built border defences that had kept them penned inside the crowded Gaza Strip.

The day Gaza’s Berlin Wall came down Listen now: Tim Butcher describes the Egypt wall breach Leader: Hamas can’t be ignored With Egypt showing no appetite to restore order immediately, Israel’s decades-old control of goods and people reaching Gaza was brought to an end the instant explosive charges punched eight holes in the concrete and steel frontier. It immediately relieved pressure from the recent blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza to try to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets across the perimeter fence into the Jewish state. And it raised the very real threat of Palestinian militants ramping up arms smuggling into Gaza from Egypt to increase attacks on Israel. The international community appeared wrong-footed by the border breach with the United Nations appealing for calm and Jordan warning any Israeli retaliation could derail the peace process. Coninued . . .