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[casi] Imperial Promises by Mumia Abu-Jamal



Here's an article by Mumia Abu-Jamal on the Iraq situation.
                                    Andrew
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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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