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Here's an article by Mumia Abu-Jamal on the Iraq situation.
Andrew
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IMPERIAL PROMISES
[Col.Writ. 10/3/02] Copyright '02 Mumia Abu-Jamal]
It is well for those who know to be leery of promises made by an
Empire. For they will fulfill those they feel necessary to fulfill,
and simply ignore those they feel are worthy of ignorance.
That is the very nature of empires.
At the end of the Vietnam War, a war-weary U.S. government, ready to
leave Indochina for the shores of the United States, pledged to help
reconstruct the war-ravished Vietnam, and in fact, agreed to pay
reparations.
Over 30 years later, and not a dime, not a U.S.nickel has been paid
to the People’s Republic of Vietnam. Nor did the U.S. ever have any
real intention of fulfilling the terms of the peace agreement signed
at the negotiating table in Paris. An estimated 3 million Vietnamese
people killed in the war, the rice fields and rivers poisoned by the
herbicide, Agent Orange (which continues to poison an untold number
of Vietnamese, generations later!), CIA assassinations of NLF,
civilians and party leaders, torture, and thousands of
American-fathered Vietnamese babies born in scorn, and the USA left
in an imperial huff, and never looked back.
The lessons from history are indeed instructive, as we look at the
looming specter of war on the horizons in Iraq. Predictably, there
are promises from Bush Administration spokesmen that they will
introduce "democracy" into Iraq, an echo of their promises in
Vietnam. What motivates them, in truth, isn’t 'democracy' (if you
doubt this, you need only ask the citizens of Florida, who
haven’t seen any semblances of 'democracy' in the last few years),
but the lure of 'black gold', 'Texas tea', or, as they used to say in
the intro to that TV comedy, "The Beverly Hillbillies", "...Oil, that
is."
Again, a lesson from history, about what the Americans really care
about, from a previous U.S.-Iraqi conflict, about 30 years ago:
General [Ahmed Hassan] Bakr nationalized Iraqi oil in 1972.
President Richard Nixon immediately began to plot the reversal
of his declaration, as America had done when Iran nationalized
its oil in 1951. Nixon, along with the Shah, orchestrated the
arming of the Iraqi Kurds against Bakr. Iraq was placed on
America’s list of nations that sponsored terrorism.
This course of action was abruptly halted in 1975, when then
Vice President [Saddam] Hussein and the Shah reached an
agreement that ceded control of the strategically vital
Shatt-al-Arab waterway in the Persian Gulf to Iran. In
retrospect, it seems all too clear that Iraq’s control of
this waterway was the primary concern behind America’s
agitation against Iraq. Once the American-controlled Shah
owned this passage to the Gulf, all American support to the
Kurds ceased entirely. In commentary on this, Henry
Kissinger stated, “Covert operations should not be confused
with missionary work." Under Nixon, the arming of Iran by the
United States was dramatically stepped up.
[Pitt, William Rivers & Scott Ritter, "War on Iraq: What Team Bush
Doesn’t Want You to Know" (New York: Context Books, 2002,
p. 18)]
Human Rights? War on Terrorism? Fight for Democracy? Like a 3 Card
Monte game at 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, the real play keeps
moving, right before your eyes. But it’s never what you think it is.
Recently, the Bush Administration’s mouthpiece publicly advocated
the assassination of a foreign leader. Bush flack Ari Fleisher, asked
about the costs of a war with Iraq, answered that the cheapest price
could be one bullet. When pressed, he said that the government wasn’t
advocating assassination, but noted that if someone in Iraq wanted to
make the price of the war cheap, "one bullet" (for Saddam, of course)
would be cheapest.
Imperial Promises.
War without End.
For profit and for Privilege. Forever.
Amen.
Copyright 2002 Mumia Abu Jamal
=======================================
********************Please forward and post**********************
ON NOVEMBER 2nd COME TO PHILADELPHIA AND TAKE A STAND TO FREE
MUMIA, STOP THIS WAR, ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY AND FREE ALL
POLITICAL PRISONERS!
BE THERE ON NOVEMBER 2nd and take a stand with a diverse
European Delegation flying in to Philadelphia to let this system know
that the whole world is watching the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. At
Philadelphia City Hall at 11am people will be coming from all over
the globe to demand that this injustice end.
Come hear first hand the anti-war commentaries written and
spoken by Mumia Abu-Jamal from his death row cell. Be There with
Julia Wright (daughter of author Richard Wright) to demand an end to
the death penalty just as her father did years ago. Stand with Mumia
in demanding an end to this war : be there on Nov. 2nd!
FREE MUMIA, END THIS WAR AND
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
======================================
MUMIA'S COLUMNS NEED TO BE PUBLISHED AS BROADLY AS POSSIBLE TO HELP
CALL ATTENTION TO HIS CASE. The campaign to kill Mumia is in full
swing and we need you to **please** contact as many publications and
information outlets as you possibly can to run Mumia's commentaries
(on-line and **especially off-line**)!!
These are VERY SERIOUS TIMES for political activists in this country
and around the world. Get full details and keep updated by reading
ACTION ALERTS!! at www.mumia.org and www.movenet.org.
========================================
To download Mp3's of Mumia's commentaries visit
www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org
==============================================>
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia in 2002!
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180/ E-mail - icffmaj@aol.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
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