http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/war+in+iraq/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Fri, 11 Oct 2002 20:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/501/they_doth_protest_too_much/ An incredibly successful protest took place September 22. Activists around the country attracted attention to the unjust actions of their government and its leader—a man whose rule many consider illegitimate and whose policies they likened to fascism. I am speaking, of course, of the largest rally in British history, when 400,000 people converged on London to protest a proposed ban on fox hunting. The event’s organizers—the Countryside Alliance—called it the “Liberty and Livelihood” march, and it’s tough to predict which group would be more offended by the comparison to the anti-World Bank protests that took place in Washington the next weekend. Both protests were in fact about much more. The World Bank protests were for many an opportunity to rail… international affairs social justice war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 25 Oct 2002 20:09:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/499/bush_apologistas/ In the past couple of months, as the Bush administration flogs its plans for war against Saddam Hussein, a flurry of commentators, most notably Christopher Hitchens of Vanity Fair and David Brooks of The Weekly Standard, have taken the left to task for its opposition to the war. Hitchens smothers “peaceniks,” “peace-mongers” and “Ramadanistas” with rhetorical meringue, sweet but insubstantial blather about how the war’s opponents are plagued by either “a masochistic refusal to admit that our own civil society has any merit” or “a nostalgia for Stalinism.” Brooks, letting Stalin lie, accuses “peaceniks” of repeating “the hatreds they cultivated in the 1960s, and during the Reagan years, and during the Florida imbroglio.” Brooks has a point. Doubts about the… media war in iraq David Moberg Mon, 27 Jan 2003 12:37:57 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/543/attack_iraq/ The Bush administration has offered three main reasons for war with Iraq. First, Iraq has developed and may possess weapons of mass destruction, has a history of aggression against its neighbors, and has sponsored international terrorism. The administration argues that since Iraq might share such weapons with terrorists, only war can eliminate this threat to the United States. Second, the Iraqi regime is a brutal dictatorship that has used lethal weapons against its own citizens. The administration argues that only war can ensure its removal and the installation of a democratic successor, opening up, they say, a whole new era of democracy throughout the Middle East. Third, Iraq has repeatedly violated U.N. Security Council resolutions. The administration says that since… David Moberg Fri, 31 Jan 2003 19:15:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/426/the_first_stone1/ Sectarian Reality Opposition to President Bush’s plans for a war against Iraq has burgeoned over the past weeks. But one would never know the extent of that opposition from reading national newspapers or listening to network newscasts. What little discussion there is about the anti-war movement has tended to focus on dissent within the movement, specifically criticism of International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), the coalition that helped organize the national demonstrations on January 18. ANSWER was founded in part by the Workers World Party, a Trotskyist group that grew out of a 1959 split with the Socialist Workers Party over the Chinese Revolution. In 1989, Workers World supported the Chinese government in its Tiananmen Square… media social justice war and peace war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 31 Jan 2003 19:30:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/425/stopping_the_drive_to_war/ Opposition to war against Iraq has grown steadily in recent weeks, both at home and abroad. The January 18 demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco attracted hundreds of thousands of people, more than even the biggest anti-Vietnam War marches in the ’60s. The polls show that more than two-thirds of Americans oppose the Bush administration’s plans to unilaterally attack Iraq. Still, the media all but ignore the unprecedented activity against the war. In Chicago, for example, the City Council passed a resolution opposing unilateral action by the United States by a vote of 46 to 1. Something like this was inconceivable in the ’60s, yet the Chicago Tribune buried this news in a paragraph hidden in a more general story,… social justice war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 14 Feb 2003 16:08:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/428/war_with_no_winners/ In his address to the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq poses “a threat to international peace and security.” But how solid is the evidence? Powell told the world, “Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network, headed by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda lieutenants.” This information, Powell said, came from “detainees.” But American officials have admitted those very detainees are subjected to torture, raising questions about the reliability of that information. An administration source explained to the Washington Post: “We don’t kick the shit out of them, we send them to other countries so they can kick the shit out of them.” Meanwhile, someone at Britain’s Defense Intelligence… war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 14 Feb 2003 16:30:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/427/the_proof_is_in_the_padding/ The country has been put on high alert, and I too have heightened my alertness—for balderdash masquerading as bald facts. I’d urge everyone to adopt the same attitude. We can start by going back for a more careful look at Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Security Council address on February 5, which pundits and politicians—and, according to a new poll, a majority of the American public—are calling a powerful argument for an assault on Iraq. Among other things, Powell praised a British intelligence report on Iraq that was later revealed to be based on plagiarized material from magazine articles and someone’s old doctoral thesis. Even more telling was the section of Powell’s presentation that came closest to revealing the long-sought… technology war in iraq David Moberg Thu, 20 Feb 2003 15:55:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/432/arabs_and_jews_against_the_war/ In early February, 10 Israelis from different grassroots organizations crossed the Qalandia checkpoint and entered besieged Ramallah, a city located in “Area A” of the Palestinian territories and therefore legally out of bounds for Israeli citizens. They were met by a group of Palestinian representatives, including Raja Shehadeh of the human rights organization Al-Haq and Moustafa Barghouti of PNGO, the umbrella association of all Palestinian non-governmental organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to explore new venues for cooperation following the recent Israeli elections, in which the right-wing parties won their greatest victory in history: They now control two-thirds of the seats in the Knesset. The discussion rapidly turned to the looming war against Iraq and the effects such a… social justice war in iraq middle east David Moberg Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:30:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/429/sweeps_week_war/ The latest pronouncement by our Cowboy-in-Chief about the possibility of war dipped into the president’s vocabulary of the vernacular: “The game is over.” Could the administration be looking to popular culture for more than just catch phrases? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal pointed out a new development in television that is disappointing, inevitable and curiously reminiscent of Bush’s governing strategy. The Journal reported that “sweeps week,” long the haven of stunt programming designed to breathe momentary life into established series (with such attention-getting stunts as celebrity guest stars and the opening of various tombs and vaults), has become a sad, self-contained mini-season all its own—designed to expire ingloriously after the advertising rates are secured. Upcoming during this… media politics war in iraq David Moberg Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:30:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/430/the_first_stone/ Iraqis dissent Many exiled Iraqis are speaking out against the looming war with Iraq. Three Iraqi dissidents, members of Iraqis in Exile Against the War and Sanctions, write in the current issue of Red Pepper: “Iraqis are not being allowed the space to develop their own resistance or to rebuild their country and institutions with their own resources. They are confronted with a stark choice between Saddam’s dictatorship and a U.S. war. Iraqis are aware of the interaction between domestic and external factors, and many would argue that the regime could be gradually stripped of power if there was a real desire in the outside world. This would mean supporting and empowering the people and placing the emphasis on human… civil liberties social justice technology war in iraq David Moberg Mon, 10 Mar 2003 10:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/435/total_information_control/ “Size of protest—it’s like deciding, well, I’m going to decide policy based upon a focus group,” said George W. Bush, trying to dismiss the millions of demonstrators who took to the streets on February 15 to protest the administration’s plans for war with Iraq. Bush said what he did, no doubt, because White House strategist Karl Rove had discovered through focus groups that Americans view “focus groups” as a negative. The Defense Department, at the request of the Senate, has put the price tag on war with Iraq at $95 billion—and 99 cents. But the Pentagon has yet to release an estimate of the human cost, and the Senate hasn’t requested one. (Could it be that “conflagrating innocent civilians” is… activism media politics social justice war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 14 Mar 2003 13:46:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/436/spies_like_us/ In its drive to sell the world on its plans for war with Iraq, the Bush administration has deployed its intelligence agencies to spy on friendly governments and to doctor evidence to prove Iraqi wrongdoing. On January 31, Frank Koza, a National Security Agency official, sent a “Top Secret” memo to NSA agents and British intelligence, informing them that the NSA is spying on U.N. Security Council members “for insights as to how membership is reacting to the on-going debate.” In that memo, leaked to the Observer of London, Koza wrote that NSA is monitoring all communications of “UN Security Council members (minus US and GBR of course).” Specifically, Koza asks his agents to use their electronic surveillance “product lines”—bugging… government: administration media politics war in iraq David Moberg Thu, 20 Mar 2003 17:48:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/437/shock_and_awe_how_to_combat_awful_war_coverage/ Now that Team Bush has gotten its way and unilaterally launched an invasion of Iraq, those of us who oppose this immoral madness are sick at heart. It’s easy to feel impotent and, worst of all, like exiles in our own country. That is certainly one of the top goals of the Bush Board of Directors: to convince us that we are a tiny, marginal, unrepresentative minority. This is false. While more Americans support this war than many of us would like, 52 percent of those polled by CBS from March 7 to 9 wanted to give the arms inspectors more time, and 42 percent disapproved of how Bush was handling the situation in Iraq. (51 percent approved.) This is… media social justice war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 28 Mar 2003 15:26:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/439/the_un_american_media/ There was a time you could safely assume that anyone calling skeptical coverage of the war in Iraq “un-American” was probably also speed-dialing Rush Limbaugh. Now it seems that calling skeptical coverage of the war “un- American” is probably correct, if only in the most literal sense. With the American press largely distracted or enraptured with the spectacle of combat, the duty of examining the motives behind the war has fallen to the world’s other media outlets. The audience for these un-American stories is becoming more and more American. In the past month, foreign news Web sites have seen large volumes of traffic from computers in the United States. Wired reported that almost half of the visitors to the Guardian… media war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 04 Apr 2003 17:20:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/441/virtual_war_and_reality/ The technology of smart-bomb war transports death and destruction to the virtual realm. With one hand on a joystick and eyes on a video screen, a bomb can be dropped here, a cruise missile targeted there. The vaunted accuracy of these weapons (and they can be accurate) make the splattered guts of what once were human beings (in those too-common instances when a market or hospital is bombed) the fault of a technical glitch, an unfortunate failure in a system that otherwise delivers surgically precise mayhem. Time to reboot and accept that what was lost is no longer there. This distancing of cause and effect takes advantage of the natural human propensity to disconnect ourselves from the results of our… government: military technology war in iraq David Moberg Mon, 14 Apr 2003 11:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/440/the_people_vs_richard_perle/ March should have been a triumphant month for Richard Perle. The former American Enterprise Institute fellow and assistant secretary of defense has been calling for regime change longer and louder than anyone. But on March 27, as the media dug ever deeper into his encyclopedic catalog of conflicts of interest, Perle abruptly left his post as chairman of the Defense Policy Board (he will still serve as a director on the board). Reaching Perle on the phone to discuss his resignation, the New York Times found the iconic neoconservative in kind of a cranky mood: “Let me just tell you something,” Perle said to the reporter, refusing to confirm his departure before angrily hanging up. “If I had [resigned], you’d… government: judiciary media war in iraq David Moberg Mon, 28 Apr 2003 14:15:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/443/bush_can_be_beaten/ Let’s face it: For now, Team Bush has won. What happens in Iraq over the next months and years is, of course, up for grabs, but whether most Americans will care remains to be seen. Polls indicate that most don’t mind if any “weapons of mass destruction” are ever found, even though their elimination was allegedly one of the big reasons the United States invaded in the first place. The Team Bush propaganda machine worked nearly flawlessly: It convinced most Americans that Saddam Hussein was complicit in 9/11. The war as telecast in the United States was a highly sanitized affair culminating in grateful Iraqis kissing the Marines. Bush, whose popularity has once again soared, is seen going to church… war in iraq David Moberg Mon, 28 Apr 2003 16:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/442/regime_change_begins_at_home/ How great it was. By most accounts—that is, what one sees on television and reads in the mainstream press—the war in Iraq was a resounding success. Iraqis are rid of Saddam Hussein, which is great, and only a few score Americans are dead. (The Iraqi dead from sanctions and the two wars are not part of the calculation, having never really counted—or been counted.) Those in the media also see themselves as winners. “We had total freedom to cover virtually everything we wanted to cover,” NBC’s Chip Reid told The Associated Press. CBS News President Andrew Heyward put it this way: “This really has been, not just a quantitative change, but a qualitative change in war journalism.” Say what? Yes,… media war in iraq David Moberg Wed, 28 May 2003 16:09:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/450/isn_that_special/ France has charged that U.S. media are publishing misinformation received from anonymous Bush administration officials who are orchestrating a “disinformation campaign aimed at sullying France’s image and misleading the public.” If the charges are true—and, based on the documentation provided by the French government, they appear to be—the White House is engaged in a domestic covert operation to pervert American public opinion. Such campaigns are illegal under the laws governing U.S. intelligence agencies. In a May 15 letter to members of Congress, the Bush administration and the U.S. media, French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte draws attention to eight reports that appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, MSNBC and Newsweek (www.info-france-usa.org). The stories range from France’s… media politics war in iraq David Moberg Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/458/next_stop/ Such optimism. Such scheming. Such giddiness. It has been nearly 40 years since so many have felt so compelled to fight back, to take on an imperial president and oppose a sweeping corporate agenda. The antiwar movement, celebrated or otherwise, is the big story. The outcome of the assault on Iraq was no surprise. The war was over before organized opposition, which significantly delayed its launch, could stop it altogether. But this antiwar movement is different. It refuses to demobilize. As many who took to the streets now realize, the war wasn’t the main issue, after all. It was, and is, the Bush administration. Consequently, this antiwar movement promises to be a feature of the political landscape, at least through… activism politics social justice election 2004 war in iraq David Moberg