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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!! _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk