Archive for March, 2003
The Peace Movement
"Keeping Hope Alive" -- William Hartung in The Nation, 4/7/03 (posted 3/25/03):
The chances of preventing George W. Bush -- a true believer in the cleansing powers of military force if there ever was one -- from going to war with Iraq were always small. But look what the global antiwar movement accomplished: [...]
No Immediate Evidence of Banned Weapons
Charles J. Hanley, "Evidence of Iraq Weapons Remains Elusive" (AP article in The Hartford Courant, 3/25/03):
[T]he British government issued a dossier Feb. 3 on Iraq's "infrastructure of concealment," a paper praised by Powell in his own indictment of Iraq before the Security Council two days later. But the British dossier was subsequently [...]
US Rebukes Canada for Failure to Support War
US rebukes Canada for failure to support war (Gloria Galloway in the Toronto Globe and Mail, 3/26/03):
Washington's ambassador to Canada has delivered the sternest public rebuke by a U.S. representative since the Trudeau era, saying Americans are upset at Canada's refusal to join the war in Iraq and hinting there could be economic fallout.
At a [...]
The Larger Plan
The larger administration plan for the Middle East, of which the Iraq war is the first stage (and how first-stage failures will be used to justify confrontations with other states): Joshua Micah Marshall,
"Practice to Deceive", Washington Monthly, April 2003:
[T]o the Bush administration hawks who are guiding American foreign policy . . . . invasion [...]
United Nations Options
UN Security Council meets today -- possible prologue to an emergency session of the General Assembly and consideration of a "Uniting for Peace" vote under Resolution 377? (The Hindu, 3/26/03):
At this stage, it is not clear if the 15-member Security Council will be pushing for a formal resolution at the end of this open [...]
Geneva Conventions?
Linda S. Heard on the hypocrisy of US protestations over Iraq's treatment of POWs (Counterpunch, 3/26/03):
There was no talk about the Geneva Conventions when contingents of Arabs and Moslems were flown to Guantanamo Bay, shackled, handcuffed, gagged, hooded and chained to their aircraft seats only to be thrown into chicken coops open to the [...]
Strategy: Win in Iraq with Lightweight Forces
"The Garbo Doctrine" (Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian, 3/26/03):
In the months before war a debate raged in the Pentagon between, crudely put, the uniforms and the suits. The soldiers wanted more time, so they could build up to the 250,000 troops that would constitute the "overwhelming force" believed since the first Gulf war to be [...]
Protests in the Middle East
"Arab Governments Struggle to Control Protests against US" (Andrew Gumbel in The Independent, 3/26/03):
Popular fury over the war and continuing noisy street protests are threatening the stability of many autocratic governments in the Gulf region that rely on US support.
Protests also swept across Muslim countries in Asia yesterday. Bangladesh postponed its annual independence celebrations because [...]
Fallout in Jordan
King Abdullah threatened as Jordanian anger over the war intensifies (Justin Huggler, The Independent, 3/26/03):
King Abdullah is walking a tightrope. For years his small kingdom, trapped between Iraq and Israel, Syria and Saudi Arabia, mostly desert with few natural resources, has thrived on its status as an American ally. But now he is under intense [...]
Protests
More protests: Australia, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Bahrain, Pakistan, and Lebanon. Many protests target US embassies (Guardian, 3/26/03).
More protests: Greece, Germany, Italy. European press analysts suggest that the news and images produced during the first week of war are bearing out protesters' fears that the war would be brutal and that the United States [...]
Civil Disobedience and Other Strategies
Peace movement strategies as war continues -- support those troops (Washington Post, 3/26/03):
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson are frightened for their son Joe, a 25-year-old Arab-language specialist with the Marines who is stationed somewhere in the Persian Gulf region. They are also frightened for all the sons and daughters of the families they have met [...]
Public Opinion: Perception of War Changes Swiftly
Pew Research Center Poll, 3/25/03: "Public Confidence In War Effort Falters, but Support for War Holds Steady": About 3/4 of Americans continue to support the war, but the proportion who think it is "going very well" is dropping.
The percentage of the public thinking the war was going very well was as high as 71% [...]