| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
10 Apr 2004 05:24:27 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Iraq's enemy within |
Iraq's enemy within
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1189273,00.html
The US-appointed governing council cannot deliver democracy
Haifa Zangana
Saturday April 10, 2004
The Guardian
In Iraq we say: "Choose the companion first, then the road." We
believe it very important to know who one is travelling with. On June
30 the US-led occupation forces will hand power to an Iraqi
government. Iraqis would like to begin our journey towards a
much-needed stability and democracy. But at the moment our
"companions" are the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and their
appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). We have not chosen them.
Haifa Zangana
http://news.google.com/news?q=%20%22Haifa%20Zangana%22&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=gn
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Haifa+Zangana%22&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=nw&sa=N
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=Haifa%20Zangana&safe=images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_scoring=d&lr=&num=100&hl=en
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| User: "Bob Dog" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Iraq's enemy within |
12 Apr 2004 04:04:21 PM |
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(maff) wrote in message news:<18510aff.0404100224.48c3b8@posting.google.com>...
Iraq's enemy within
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1189273,00.html
The US-appointed governing council cannot deliver democracy
Haifa Zangana
Saturday April 10, 2004
The Guardian
In Iraq we say: "Choose the companion first, then the road." We
believe it very important to know who one is travelling with. On June
30 the US-led occupation forces will hand power to an Iraqi
government. Iraqis would like to begin our journey towards a
much-needed stability and democracy. But at the moment our
"companions" are the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and their
appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). We have not chosen them.
Given the US's history of overthrowing legitimate democracy
and prior acts of installing phony puppets and calling them
democracies, one would think they'd learn. Evidently not.
Take a look next door: Iran. It's not fully democratic, but
in 25 years since the Shah's ouster, they've come a long way.
Democracy isn't something imposed by an external dictator, it
comes from a desire within by the people. Or does the US's
own history not matter, how England's dictatorship was shaken
off to create their own?
Bob Dog
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Iraq's enemy within |
13 Apr 2004 03:52:58 PM |
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On 12 Apr 2004 14:04:21 -0700, (Bob Dog), Message
ID: <4fa573de.0404121304.44d3fbcb@posting.google.com> wrote in
alt.atheism;
maff91@yahoo.com (maff) wrote in message news:<18510aff.0404100224.48c3b8@posting.google.com>...
Iraq's enemy within
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1189273,00.html
The US-appointed governing council cannot deliver democracy
Haifa Zangana
Saturday April 10, 2004
The Guardian
In Iraq we say: "Choose the companion first, then the road." We
believe it very important to know who one is travelling with. On June
30 the US-led occupation forces will hand power to an Iraqi
government. Iraqis would like to begin our journey towards a
much-needed stability and democracy. But at the moment our
"companions" are the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and their
appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). We have not chosen them.
Given the US's history of overthrowing legitimate democracy
and prior acts of installing phony puppets and calling them
democracies, one would think they'd learn. Evidently not.
They're theists, currently rabid fundamentalists. Learning, and
thought, doesn't come into play.
Take a look next door: Iran. It's not fully democratic, but
in 25 years since the Shah's ouster, they've come a long way.
Yes.....and the US has reversed direction.
Democracy isn't something imposed by an external dictator, it
comes from a desire within by the people. Or does the US's
own history not matter, how England's dictatorship was shaken
off to create their own?
Nope. Superstition and profit$ uber all.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Iraq's enemy within |
11 Apr 2004 08:18:16 PM |
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On 10 Apr 2004 03:24:27 -0700, (maff), Message ID:
<18510aff.0404100224.48c3b8@posting.google.com> wrote in alt.atheism;
Iraq's enemy within
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1189273,00.html
Comment
Iraq's enemy within
The US-appointed governing council cannot deliver democracy
Haifa Zangana
Saturday April 10, 2004
The Guardian
In Iraq we say: "Choose the companion first, then the road." We believe
it very important to know who one is travelling with. On June 30 the
US-led occupation forces will hand power to an Iraqi government. Iraqis
would like to begin our journey towards a much-needed stability and
democracy. But at the moment our "companions" are the Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) and their appointed Iraqi Governing Council
(IGC). We have not chosen them.
The governing council is as responsible as the US-led occupation forces
for Iraq's rapid slide into chaos and bloodshed. They stood aside last
Sunday when the Sadr City demonstration against the closure of a
newspaper was machine-gunned from helicopters - 32 people were killed
and hundreds injured. They stood aside when rockets were fired into the
Shulla neighbourhood further north in Baghdad, with more casualties.
They have been watching in silence while Iraqis have been killed in
Basra, Nassiriya, Kirkuk, Amara, Baquba, Kut, Kerbala and Najaf.
It was left to journalists and organisations like Amnesty International
and Occupation Watch to document and condemn hundreds of occupation
excesses and outright atrocities, starting from the shooting of 17
civilians at a demonstration in Falluja in April last year.
While the IGC denounced the savage mutilation last week of four American
mercenaries in Falluja, they failed to issue an equal condemnation of
the US marines' besieging of the town, sending tank columns into
neighbourhoods, guns blazing, and attacking a mosque with F-16 planes,
killing 40 people. The odd IGC member who could not hide from
journalists does no more than murmur about the need for "restraint on
both sides" or mouth well-worn phrases about foreign hands trying to
delay the handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi people. What sovereignty?
The 25-member IGC was appointed on the basis of their ethnic and
sectarian backgrounds. The council had some power, but Paul Bremer, the
US administrator of Iraq, retained a veto on its decisions. The IGC
appointed the Iraqi interim government based on a similar ethnic and
sectarian quota. But American officials run all the ministries.
The IGC, the CPA and the occupying forces are in agreement: the Iraqis
are not yet ready for elections. The climate is ripe for civil war, they
say. So we are faced with the likelihood that the existing IGC members
and their chosen ministers will be at the core of the next government,
which will be run "informally" by American officials.
The CPA and IGC's early promises were colourful: they would build a new
democratic Iraq, they said, guaranteeing human rights and freedom. But a
year on, the picture they painted is fading. Car bombs, shootings and
kidnapping have become part of daily life. Only 50% of the population
have fresh water, compared with 60% before "liberation". Electricity is
intermittent. Drugs are sold openly in the streets. Ten thousand Iraqi
civilians have been killed since the start of the conflict. But it is
not for the security crisis alone that the majority of Iraqis hold IGC
members in utter disdain.
Corruption is widespread. To get a job, one needs a tazkia (letter of
recommendation) from one of the IGC parties. Allocation of subcontracts
only follows a payment of 5%-10% of the value of the contract to the
American contractors. Nepotism starts at the very top (eight ministers
are close relatives of the IGC members).
Although most of the IGC members were once victims of Saddam's regime,
they now turn a blind eye to the violations of human rights by
occupation troops. One of the first things the CPA did was to issue a
memorandum to remove the jurisdiction of Iraqi courts over any coalition
personnel in both civil and criminal matters. According to a recent
Amnesty International report: "Coalition forces appear in many cases to
be using the climate of violence to justify violating the very human
rights standards they are supposed to be upholding. They have shot
Iraqis dead during demos, tortured and ill-treated prisoners, arrested
people arbitrarily and held them indefinitely, demolished houses in acts
of revenge and collective punishment."
The CPA also ignores the violent activities of the four militias in
Iraq, which have taken the law into their own hands: the peshmergas of
the two Kurdish parties; the Badr brigade of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq; Ahmed Chalabi's troops; and the ex-Ba'athist
Mukhabarats under Iyad Alawi's national accord. These militias are run
by members of the IGC and no one can touch them. No high-ranking
official of Saddam's regime has yet been prosecuted either, despite the
wish of most Iraqis that they be bought to justice.
For all the talk of democracy, opposition in any form to the IGC and the
occupation is not acceptable. I saw women queuing for hours at the gates
of Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad begging for news of their loved ones,
many of whom are political prisoners. It brought back bad memories. In
the 1970s, under the Ba'ath regime, my mother had to wait in the same
place desperate to hear if I was held inside.
In Baghdad, on January 12, I met Abdullatif Ali al-Mayah, professor of
politics and director of Baghdad's Centre for Human Rights. He was
concerned about women's and young people's rights. A believer in human
dignity and justice, he spoke with anger about the plight of Iraqi
people under occupation. We arranged to work together. On January 18, on
al-Jazeera television, he denounced IGC corruption and demanded
elections as soon as possible. Twelve hours later, he was killed.
Al-Mayah, a former prisoner of Saddam's regime, was no Saddamist or Bin
Ladenist. The CPA and IGC met his murder with silence - as they did the
murder of at least 17 other Iraqi academics. With this silence, the
oppressed becomes oppressor.
The IGC has allied itself with the occupation administration. Its role
is to shield occupation forces, not its own people. The gulf between it
and the majority of Iraqis has widened. Away from the vulnerable
majority, they stand well-protected by bodyguards driving special cars
and carrying free mobile phones courtesy of the US.
The interim constitution was written behind closed doors. Iraqis were
not consulted, but Paul Bremer and Jeremy Greenstock, the British
ambassador, were. As the countdown to the supposed end of the occupation
begins, Bremer has already announced measures and laws that will in
effect thwart a new government from overturning his decisions of the
past year
The CPA is in favour of rapid privatisation. At the end of April, 15
ministers will be in London to attend an event described in its
colourful brochure as: "An excellent opportunity to do business in Iraq
without having to consider the current security risks of visiting the
country." Shell, Chevron Texaco, Exxon and Mobil are sponsoring the
event, among others.
The UN still has a role to play in Iraq. It has to be clearly defined:
to work with Iraqis to rebuild their country, restore democracy and
regain their dignity, not to legitimise US-led occupation. Also, in the
rush to mortgage Iraq, Iraqi people should not be bound by contracts and
long-term agreements signed on their behalf, nor should they be liable
for odious debt incurred by Saddam's regime. Why should they repay loans
from a long list of foreign governments, all of whom surely lent the
money in the full knowledge that it would be used to arm and support
their persecutor?
· Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and artist. She is a former
political prisoner of the Ba'ath regime
haifa_zangana@yahoo.co.uk
(c) 2004 Guardian Newspapers
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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| User: "Shexmus" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Iraq's enemy within |
12 Apr 2004 01:33:33 AM |
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*SNIP*
The CPA also ignores the violent activities of the four militias in
Iraq, which have taken the law into their own hands: the peshmergas of
the two Kurdish parties; the Badr brigade of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq; Ahmed Chalabi's troops; and the ex-Ba'athist
Mukhabarats under Iyad Alawi's national accord. These militias are run
by members of the IGC and no one can touch them. No high-ranking
official of Saddam's regime has yet been prosecuted either, despite the
wish of most Iraqis that they be bought to justice.
Violent activites of Peshmerga? The Peshmerga is a militia? Who are
you fooling? Why stay so ignorant and spread ignorance?
The Peshmerga is a fully volunteer based military institution that for
eighty years has fought for the freedom of the dispossed and the
oppressed Kurdish people. The Peshmerga was bravely fighting fascist
Saddam while the rest of the world was looking away, and while the
rest of Iraq cowered. The Peshmerga made tremendous sacrifices for the
Kurdish people and is currently the most trusted and beloved
institution of the Kurdish people. The Peshmerga is the guarantor of
the Kurdish people's freedom, safety and security and will be so
post-Saddam just it has been so during and prior to Saddam.
The former Peshmerga fighters is much, much more revered among the
Kurds than the USA values its veterans. Having fought among the ranks
of Peshmerga is the most prized badge of honour a Kurdish man can
have. In fact, a man is not a "man" unless he has fought with the
Peshmerga. Even women have joined the ranks of Peshmerga to fight
alongside their couragous sons and fathers and brothers over decades
lang Kurdish national liberation movement. It was the Peshmerga that
liberated Kirkuk and Mosul from Saddam, it was the Peshmerga that
ensured there was no revenge killing in Kirkuk and it is the Peshmerga
that ensures the two-hundred-thousand ethnically cleansed Kurdish
refugees do not forcibly repossess their stolen homes and property
from Saddam loyalist Arabs, so that a more orderly repatriation
program takes place.
It is obscene to put the fifty-thousand-strong, honourable, brave,
well-trained and well-disciplined Peshmerga alongside those other
tiny, untrained, undisciplined rabble which cropped up only after fear
of Saddam was gone.
Shexmus
*SNIP*
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Iraq's enemy within |
12 Apr 2004 04:53:21 PM |
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On 11 Apr 2004 23:33:33 -0700, (Shexmus),
Message ID: <de9df79f.0404112233.3c0ede38@posting.google.com> wrote in
alt.atheism;
*SNIP*
The CPA also ignores the violent activities of the four militias in
Iraq, which have taken the law into their own hands: the peshmergas of
the two Kurdish parties; the Badr brigade of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq; Ahmed Chalabi's troops; and the ex-Ba'athist
Mukhabarats under Iyad Alawi's national accord. These militias are run
by members of the IGC and no one can touch them. No high-ranking
official of Saddam's regime has yet been prosecuted either, despite the
wish of most Iraqis that they be bought to justice.
Violent activites of Peshmerga? The Peshmerga is a militia? Who are
you fooling? Why stay so ignorant and spread ignorance?
Please keep in mind I didn't write the article. I thought it would be
of interest to people so I posted the article, nothing more.
The Peshmerga is a fully volunteer based military institution that for
eighty years has fought for the freedom of the dispossed and the
oppressed Kurdish people. The Peshmerga was bravely fighting fascist
Saddam while the rest of the world was looking away, and while the
rest of Iraq cowered. The Peshmerga made tremendous sacrifices for the
Kurdish people and is currently the most trusted and beloved
institution of the Kurdish people. The Peshmerga is the guarantor of
the Kurdish people's freedom, safety and security and will be so
post-Saddam just it has been so during and prior to Saddam.
The former Peshmerga fighters is much, much more revered among the
Kurds than the USA values its veterans. Having fought among the ranks
of Peshmerga is the most prized badge of honour a Kurdish man can
have. In fact, a man is not a "man" unless he has fought with the
Peshmerga. Even women have joined the ranks of Peshmerga to fight
alongside their couragous sons and fathers and brothers over decades
lang Kurdish national liberation movement. It was the Peshmerga that
liberated Kirkuk and Mosul from Saddam, it was the Peshmerga that
ensured there was no revenge killing in Kirkuk and it is the Peshmerga
that ensures the two-hundred-thousand ethnically cleansed Kurdish
refugees do not forcibly repossess their stolen homes and property
from Saddam loyalist Arabs, so that a more orderly repatriation
program takes place.
It is obscene to put the fifty-thousand-strong, honourable, brave,
well-trained and well-disciplined Peshmerga alongside those other
tiny, untrained, undisciplined rabble which cropped up only after fear
of Saddam was gone.
Shexmus
*SNIP*
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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