Worldview: International Articles: 2008

THE MYTH OF THE SURGE
Nir Rosen, Rolling Stone, March 2008 edition

The American forces responsible for overseeing 'volunteer' militias like Osama's have no illusions about their loyalty. 'The only reason anything works or anybody deals with us is because we give them money', says a young Army intelligence officer. The 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, which patrols Osama's territory, is handing out $32 million to Iraqis in the district, including $6 million to build the towering walls that, in the words of one U.S. officer, serve only to 'make Iraqis more divided than they already are'. In districts like Dora, the strategy of the surge seems simple: to buy off every Iraqi in sight. All told, the U.S. is now backing more than 600,000 Iraqi men in the security sector — more than half the number Saddam had at the height of his power. With the ISVs in place, the Americans are now arming both sides in the civil war. 'Iraqi solutions for Iraqi problems', as U.S. strategists like to say. David Kilcullen, the counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. Petraeus, calls it 'balancing competing armed interest groups'.
But loyalty that can be purchased is by its very nature fickle. Only months ago, members of the Awakening were planting IEDs and ambushing U.S. soldiers. They were snipers and assassins, singing songs in honor of Fallujah and fighting what they viewed as a war of national liberation against the foreign occupiers. These are men the Americans described as terrorists, Saddam loyalists, dead-enders, evildoers, Baathists, insurgents. There is little doubt what will happen when the massive influx of American money stops: Unless the new Iraqi state continues to operate as a vast bribing machine, the insurgent Sunnis who have joined the new militias will likely revert to fighting the ruling Shiites, who still refuse to share power.
'We are essentially supporting a quasi-feudal devolution of authority to armed enclaves, which exist at the expense of central government authority', says Chas Freeman, who served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia under the first President Bush. 'Those we are arming and training are arming and training themselves not to facilitate our objectives but to pursue their own objectives vis-a-vis other Iraqis. It means that the sectarian and ethnic conflicts that are now suppressed are likely to burst out with even greater ferocity in the future.'

Independent: Pakistan election winners vow to form a coalition

Ivan Eland: What to Do About Pakistan

Ivan Eland: Bush Triples Down in Pakistan

Eric Margolis: Why Europeans are not eager to die in Afghanistan

Israel

Uri Avnery: A popular insurgency is bound to win

Kathleen Christison: Palestine in the Mind of America

AN EXPERIMENT IN FAMINE
Neve Gordon, Counbterpunch, 30 January 2008

Ehud Barak, Israel's Minister of Defense, did not stammer when he justified his decision to experiment with famine; he had no qualms about introducing a policy that historically only the most brutal leaders have adopted.
His argument seems rational. Barak said that no government in the world would tolerate the ongoing bombardment of its citizens from across the border. Since other measures — like harsh economic sanctions, extra-judicial executions, the ongoing barrage of northern parts of the Strip as well as the bombardment of several critical infrastructure sites, like the electric power plant and Palestinian government offices — did not do the job, Israel had no other option.
This ostensibly rational argument conveniently ignores the fact that since its victory in the January 2006 democratic elections Hamas has proposed several cease-fire agreements, the latest emerging just last week. In these proposals, Hamas agrees to stop launching missiles at Israeli citizens, in exchange for Israel ending its incursions into Gaza, the assassinations of militants and political leaders, and the economic blockade.

Norman Finkelstein: Israel must suffer a defeat

Ran HaCohen: Israel Says 'No'

Noam Chomsky: The World's Most Wanted

Balkans

Pat Buchanan: Does Balkanization Beckon Anew?

Diana Johnstone: NATO's Kosovo Colony

Diana Johnstone: Kosovo: Waiting for War, Dreaming of Diplomacy

George Szamuely: A Saga of Injustice and Hypocrisy

Stephen Zunes: Kosovo and the Politics of Recognition

Eric Margolis: American rescues the Albanians

Other

Chalmers Johnson: Tom Friedman's Folly: The Lies Behind 'Free Trade'