Iraq and the "War on Terrorism" by Michel Chossudovsky

[Dirk39]

"Before the war, Osama was said to be supporting Saddam. In the wake of the war, the propaganda ploy now consists in presenting Osama as a spokesman for the Iraqi resistance."

"The tape in all likelihood is a hoax of US intelligence. The propaganda ploy consists not only in upholding the US led-occupation of Iraq as part of the broader "war on terrorism", it also provides a pretext to Western governments, pressured by citizens movements across Europe, to remain in Iraq. In the words of president Jacques Chirac, "nothing can justify terrorism and, on that basis, nothing can allow any discussion with terrorists."

"Before the war, Osama was said to be supporting Saddam. In the wake of the war, the propaganda ploy now consists in presenting Osama as a spokesman for the Iraqi resistance."



http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO404D.html

What do you people think?

Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[teryang]

1. The excesses of the US forces

...primarily involve violation of proportionality principles in the law of land warfare. The use of AC130 gunships, an area denial weapon which kills everything in the designated target area and air attacks with imprecise weapons like rockets in residential neighborhoods is outrageous.

I could see our military officers justifying this. After all, complete destruction of residential areas was done in Vietnam, Korea and WWII and virtually no American politicians have a problem with it. It was fundamentally a terror tactic, although we have forgotten it's senseless origin. It can also be viewed as reprisal, another forbidden activity. Whether it is or not is debatable as far as the American military is concerned. After all, we are only destroying neighborhoods, multiple blocks at a time, not the whole city. (sarcasm) However, Sistani is appalled by it and we are treading on very dangerous political ground. When we discuss terrorism with Iraqis we are viewed as hypocrites. We view our attacks as precise and carefully controlled but very, very violent with overwhelming force. They view it as criminal due to the large number of civilian deaths.

The majority of people killed in Fallujah are non-combatants. This is a major problem that won't be resolved politically. The harm is already done. It reinforces the death and destruction that we have rained down on the country on prior occassions. There is no recouping politically from where we are today. As far as American snipers or other soldiers on the ground deliberately targeting non-combatants, this sounds like propaganda. I'm skeptical of these charges. I don't think that individual soldiers are killing civilians with rifle fire deliberately. But after the slaughter of civilians the past several days with larger weapons from platforms, I'm sure Iraqis view this as quibbling.

As far as his political analysis of the lies concerning Al Qaeda and Iraq it is spot on. This whole affair was fraudulent and contrived from the get go. Al Qaeda like other terrorist groups are a tool manipulated by governments. I too, question the authenticity of a tape which originates in an American embassy. As far as the Sunnis, Shia and foreign "terrorists" working together in Iraq against the common enemy, us, we brought that about. It's similar to the communist-republican common effort against the Japanese in China. In that case, the Flying Tigers could be regarded as "terrorists."

As far as the complaint that there is going to be a civil war or a theocratic government in Iraq, who is responsible for that? It is time to find a fig leaf and leave.

[bemildred]

2. The content of the tape is interesting.

Read in it's own context, it is not apparently a CIA rendition
of a terrorist rant, and the points it makes are not ones that
Western governments want made in public, so it's very good work if
it's a fabrication. I am for now inclined to give it credence.
This is not to say that your reservations about it's origin are not
well placed, or that Western governments do not attempt to use these
organizations for their own purposes, but it is wise to keep in mind
that the natives are not necessarily naive or of inferior intellect.

I think the killing of civilians is a form of hostage taking, the
entire civilian population held hostage in an attempt to sway the
enemy combatants. Both sides are doing it, e.g. the 9.11 attacks
and other "terrorist" efforts against civilians. It is telling that
OBL and his minions put it precisely that way, too. "You will not
be secure until we are". It seems to me to be the strategically
correct response to Western economic and military colonialism, which
has always been predicated in the colonized's inability to effectively
retaliate for atrocities committed in the colonial arena.

The effects of the modern inability of governments to control to flow
of information is telling also, one could see the frustration of the
military spokespersons with all those pictures coming out of Iraq
giving the lie to their propaganda. This goes back to VietNam too,
and one has to wonder at their willfull blindness to the fact that
their actions must be expected to be public.

[teryang]

3. Good points about the tape

I understand that it was published on Al Jazeera. That is more typical. I noticed on the file tapes published on CNN with it, that OBL is taped watching an attack on nearby positions. It follows that whenever that tape was taken his whereabouts were known. This guy is threat that is rolled out on cue to fulfill desired political needs. It's the CIA, ISI, OBL pipeline.

Placing a city under siege or taking a city is obviously a militarily effective strategy in many cases if you have sufficient forces and are willing to take casualties. Bombing civilians, on the other hand, is almost never effective tactically or politically as it tends to strongly reinforce the resolve of the population to resist.

911 was a contrived plot in which our current government was complicit. No one did it to us. We did it to ourselves to get this war going and to reinstate the political and industrial complex to its former glory. The obstruction of justice in UA and AMR put call scandal and the obstruction of justice in the anthrax investigation make that obvious.

[bemildred]

4. "Bombing civilians, ..., is almost never effective ..."

That is true, but they keep trying, ever since Guernica.
It's like they just cannot believe it won't work. Or it could
just be that they would all be out of a job if it was once
admitted that it was futile both politically and militarily.
It is often the case with foreign adventures that how it plays
with the home crowd is the only relevant consideration, anyway.

Correct, OBL and al Qaeda are trotted out whenever convenient. A
habit not unique to the US Government, OBL is convenient for political
hacks worldwide.

In this case the Boogy man is real, and I submit they underestimate
their enemies a good deal. This is based on an assessment of who
in this game is achieving their strategic objectives and who is not.

I agree about 9/11 in general, the story is yet to be told there, but
clearly our government was at least complicit, and lord knows there
is plenty of precedent for that. I do wonder if it was a bit more
than they bargained for.

[reprehensor]

5. Dirk...

What do YOU think?

Chossudovsky ventures a lot of unique and interesting perspectives, but I think this 'asset' became a loose cannon, and the US suffered 'Blowback'. Chossudovsky believes that 'Blowback' is a sham as well.

I think there is a possibility that the tape is bogus, just as the Zarqawi cd 'letter' was possibly bogus.

Eurasia has NEVER been at war with Oceania.

[Dirk39]

6. I'm not sure what to think...

I'm sure that the sources for the Madrid attack given were wrong. They took statements, made on a webpage like D.U., and put them out of context and sold this as Al-Quaida claiming responsiblility for the attack. This was nearly as ridiculous as Blaire, who sold us a 10 year old work from a student found on the Web as a proof that Iraq has WMD's.

And I hardly doubt that Al-Quaida exists in the way it is sold to us.

The Osama-tape sounds a lot, as if one tries to associate thoughts of liberals and leftists with those of terrorists to descredit them. When the Soviet Union did still exist, everyone who dared to critizise capitalism was fabricated as a "stalinist", now the same is happening again.
You could as well turn this around and claim, Bin-Ladden tries to "win" the opposition in Europe and the USA making some pseudo critical statements against capitalism.

Aznar didn't care at all to lie about the attack in Madrid and to force the media to spread his lies. I don't think that those in power in the USA would have any kind of scruples.

Thanx for your reply,
Dirk