MUST READING -- Robin Cook (Ex Foreign Sec, UK) on Iraq, Wow!

[cloudythescribbler]

This is what is NOT being reported in the press in the US and it is about as mainstream as you can get in the UK:
Posted originally at D.A.W.N. (DC Anti War Network) internet site
(fyi
interesting read
jose)


--- moderator@... wrote:

The Guardian (UK)
July 15, 2005

Our troops are part of the problem

Heavy-handed occupation is not a solution to the
Iraqi insurgency

By Robin Cook

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1528954,00.html

In the single week since the London
bombings there have been 11 suicide
attacks in Iraq. One car bomb this week wiped
out 30 children, one as young as six, who had
gathered to plead for western chocolates from
American soldiers.

I do not draw a parallel between London and Baghdad
to diminish the pain and horror caused by the crime on
our own shores, but because that appalling experience
should give us some insight into the violence that is
now a daily occurrence in Iraq. And as the occupying
force we bear responsibility for its security. There may
be room for debate over whether there is a connection
between the war in Iraq and the London bombings, but
there is no escaping the hard truth that the chaos in
that country is a direct result of the decision to invade
it, taken in defiance of the intelligence warning that it
would heighten the terrorist threat.

And still those who took us into the war are not
frank with us. For months those of us who have asked
for a timetable for withdrawal from the occupation of
Iraq have been told that it would encourage the
insurgents to circle that date in the calendar. Yet at
the weekend we learned from another leaked minute
that the Ministry of Defence has ticked the middle of
next year as the target by when it will have reduced
the British presence to about a third of its present
level.

This has nothing to do with progress against the
insurgents, who are growing bolder rather than
weaker. It is entirely to do with American
domestic politics. As George Bush sinks in
popularity back home, his desperation rises to
cut his losses in Iraq. The leaked memo confirms
that the Bush administration is planning to cut its
occupying forces to a third by the first half of 2006,
which would make it politically impossible at
home for Britain not to do the same.

*** Edited by Admin. Please limit excerpts of copyrighted material to no more than four paragraphs. ***

[snowbear]

1. You have to admit.....

You'd never see the MSM in the U.S. end an article with a paragraph like that one just did!:

..."Now the timing of the exit from occupation
is going to be determined not by progress in restoring
security in Iraq but by the date of next year's mid-
term congressional elections in the US."

[burrowowl]

2. Long live the GUARDIAN!

Damn good paper! As well as Le Monde, Liberation, etc.

[1932]

3. Naomi Klein wrote an article about her trip to Baghdad.

She said there is plenty of construction in the Green Zone and the oil fields are all protected, but the rest of Iraq is a mess, and there's no sign of any effort to make life better for Iraqis.

If the US pulls out and leaves Iraq in chaos, it might be part of the plan. It will guarantee that no government will become organized enough to evict the US from the Green Zone and the oil fields, and the US will be able to make their money off the oil.

That isn't an argument for US troops to remain. But it is where I see this heading.

[ikri]

4. Robin Cook

Is a superb politician. A man of genuine principles and with great insights. Pretty much all of his writing for The Guardian since his resignation has been very precise.

Unfortunately, he does bear an uncanny resemblance to a garden gnome.



He won the award for politician of the year from Channel 4 news here in the UK for his resignation speech (when he resigned in protest over the Iraq war).

[Emendator]

9. Good man

I'm not sure if he's a superb politician, but he's a good man. Often the two are mutually exclusive. He had the courage to resign rather than go along with something he knew to be wrong - unlike Colin Powell, the only American leader with the clout to have possibly put a stop to the war.

[cloudythescribbler]

10. and yet ZERO mention of this crucial material in US MSM to my knowledge

[against all enemies]

5. He is so un-American. Another traitor. Why is the rest of the

world so smart? And why are we so dumb?

[cloudythescribbler]

6. it's the powers that pee my man -- the powers that pee

The US is where the power is, not Britain, France, Germany, Japan, or Russia. So those who really want to grab power, wherever they are on the planet, make sure they control the BIG CHEESE. And power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You do the math -- it takes self conscious effort of massive proportions by the citizenry, many times more powerful and dedicated than the Civil Rights movement (the most powerful democratic movement since WWII in the US) to turn this thing around. We have no choice, the stakes of the world are here and we are the ones who have to carry that enormous burden to victory. Is it a long shot?
Yes, but the fate of the WORLD is in the balance.

[grumpy old fart]

7. pardon?

[cloudythescribbler]

8. the fate of the world now hinges on the direction of power in the US

That's one reason the ruling powers of the planet can afford glimpses of sanity in some of the small-fry (relatively) other countries that aren't decisive. It's the US the powers that pee want to control, so we have LESS freedom because of the power of our country, rather than more.

Is that still too cloudy?