Joseph Biden: Tax Cuts and National Security Jeremy Brecher: Triumph and Tragedy After Iraq Marcus Corbin: Iraq's lessons about military transformation Melia Amal Bouhabib: I would like to be wrong about this Fariba Nawa: Afghanistan, bombed and betrayed

New York University

ANTI-AMERICANISM IS BACK IN STYLE
Boston University professors Margaret and Melvin DeFleur have updated their study of attitudes about America in different countries of the world. Click here to see the an interactive guide.

Click here for the full report as a pdf file

The US State Department's Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism

"…The march comes as Shiites are flexing newfound strength since the fall of Saddam, whose mostly Sunni Muslim government severely repressed Iraq's Shiite majority. Shiites have been setting up local administrations to reestablish order, and religious leaders have emerged as key sources of political power, especially in southern Iraq…Two groups of 100 men in white robes slashed their heads with long sharp swords in a self-mutilation ritual, spraying blood on those near them.
(David Guttenfelder and Basem Mroue in the Independent, April 22, 2003)
Columbia's Hamid Dabashi, Brandeis University's Yitzhak Nakash and the Washington Post's Caryle Murphy discuss the implications on Jim Lehrer's NewsHour

SARS (SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME) ERUPTS IN HONG KONG’S AMOY GARDENS Newsday’s Laurie Garrett visits Hong Kong’s Amoy Garden apartment complex. Of a total population of 17,000 people, the housing project has accounted for 326 cases of SARS-- nearly a fourth of the 1380 cases that have hit Hong Kong so far. Amoy’s epidemic started with the visit of one dying man from the Chinese mainland. The firestorm of SARS cases has largely burned it self out in Amoy Gardens, but the rest of Hong Kong continues to treat its residents like lepers. (Laurie Garrett, Newsday, April 21, 2003) The Virus is mutating rapidly (BBC-April 22, 2003) World Health Organization SARS Alert Page Center for Disease Control's SARS Alert Page Far Eastern Economic Review: SARS has cost Asia $11 billion

WARFARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF MACHINES
A fear of taking American casualties has been a major obstacle to warfare since Vietnam. Donald Rumsfeld’s revolutionary vision of the Pentagon hopes to change that by instituting a radical shift to automation. The Predator unmanned aircraft equipped with hellfire missiles is only a partial step in that direction. The next generation of robot weapons will not have to rely on human guidance at all. It will be programmed to seek out and destroy on its own. All the operator needs to do is press the "enter" key on a computer keyboard. The New York Times Magazine takes a look at the most recent developments.
(Matthew Brzezinski, New York Times Sunday magazine, April 20, 2003)

THE U.S. HAS WON THE WAR, BUT FINANCIALLY, THE COUNTRY IS ON DANGEROUS GROUND
The U.S. may control Iraq’s political future, but foreign creditors now control $8 trillion of U.S. financial assets, and we are now facing a balance of payments deficit of $3 trillion. Much of that is owed to Europe, which is now facing a third year of disappointing returns from Wall Street. Niall Ferguson analyzes the situation in the New York Times Week in Review.
(Niall Ferguson, New York Times, April 20, 2003)

THE U.S. OBJECTS TO LETTING U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTORS BACK INTO IRAQ
The United States has rejected demands that U.N. inspectors be included in the search for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. While the U.S. says it does not need the extra help at this time, critics charge that the administration needs to to justify the rationale for going to war, and for that reason it may be useful to have independent observers on the ground. The counter argument is that Blix was less aggressive than the U.S. might have wished for when he ran inspections for the U.N. (Jim Lehrer NewsHour with the New York Times' Judith Miller, Hans Blix and US ambassador to the U.N. , John Negroponte, April 22, 2003)

NEW YORK TIMES GETS SCOOP ON IRAQ’S CHEMICAL WEAPONS, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SOURCE?
The Times’ Judith Miller reported that Iraq destroyed its chemical arsenal just days before U.S. troops invaded. The only problem is that Miller wasn’t allowed to talk to the Iraqi scientist who allegedly revealed the information to the U.S. Army’s Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha. Miller had to promise the army not to try to contact the source directly, and she had to agree to submit to military censorship concerning the nature of the chemicals found. The heavy reliance on hearsay information at a time when the U.S. is desperate to find evidence that weapons of mass destruction really were in Iraq has raised a few questions.
Jack Shafer comments in Slate
Judith Miller's story in the New York Times (April 21, 2003)

THE U.S. IS NOT THE FIRST TO DREAM OF USING IRAQ TO STABILIZE THE MIDDLE EAST
Yale historian Paul Kennedy notes that Britain had similar notions nearly 90 years ago. Observes Kennedy: "The ideas of World War I-era imperialist intellectuals such as Mark Sykes and Leo Amery bear an uncanny resemblance to those of today's American neo-conservatives and provided their political masters with similar justifications for an expansionist policy. They, too, wanted to diminish French, Russian and German influence in the region. They sought secure access to Middle East oil, and to sites for staging-posts and air bases. They also believed that British genius could reconcile Arab and Jewish interests in Palestine. .."
(Paul Kennedy in the Washington Post, April 20, 2003)

THE FLAP OVER HOW LONG THE U.S. PLANS TO STAY IN IRAQ
Until now, most observers have expected the U.S. to keep a long term military relationship with its protégés in Iraq, and when the New York Times reported that U.S. troops would eventually concentrate themselves in four military bases at key locations, it hardly seemed surprising. The Times didn’t count on Donald Rumsfeld who went ballistic, charging that no discussions about future deployments have been made yet.
( Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt in the New York Times, April 21, 2003)
Rumsfeld lashes out at the New York Times story in a Pentagon news conference
Rumsfeld tells reporters: "…There haven't been decisions made, there haven't been conclusions reached, and it's just a fact that the implication that, as it says here, that the United States is planning a long-term military relationship with an emerging government of Iraq -- there isn't even an emerging government to plan it with at the present time -- one that would grant the Pentagon access to military bases -- a subject that has not come up with anybody senior -- and "project American influence into the heart of the unsettled region" -- I mean, not so! Not so! And I would say enormously unhelpful…I mean, let me just get this off my chest. (Laughter.) I have no idea who these people talked to. But I'll tell you, if I were a journalist, I would find -- remember who they are, and I'd write their name down, and I would rank them right at the bottom in terms of reliability, credibility, judgment, knowledge. They are unhelpful…"
(Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Department Press Conference, April 21, 2003)

BECHTEL IS NO STRANGER TO IRAQ. IN 1983 DONALD RUMSFELD LOBBIED SADDAM TO LET THE GIANT CONSTRUCTION FIRM BUILD A NEW OIL PIPELINE.
When President Reagan dispatched Donald Rumsfeld to chat with Saddam on December 20, 1983, there was no discussion of the U.S. concern over Iraq’s use of chemical weapons. Instead, the topic that dominated the conversation was oil. Bechtel wanted to build a pipeline. Rumsfeld wanted Saddam to increaseoil exports and Saddam wanted a promise from Washington to keep Israel from attacking the pipeline that he hoped would transit Jordan to Aqaba. Rumsfeld also wanted Saddam’s help in controlling Syria. The National Security Archives publishes A photocopy of the declassified State Department notes of Rumsfeld’s 90-minute discussion with Saddam.
(U.S. State Department declassified secret memorandum, December 20, 1983—pdf file)
National Security Archives recap of U.S. dealings with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War (with declassified State Department documents)

The Institute for Policy Studies: The U.S. has a long history of oil serving as the driving force in relations between the U.S. and Iraq.

U.S. WILL MEET WITH NORTH KOREANS ON APRIL 23-25.
The state Department's Richard Boucher explains: "We intend to conduct serious talks on the situation created by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, and, indeed our interagency delegation for those talks has already departed Washington and is on its way to Beijing.
The interagency U.S. delegation will be headed by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly. The North Korean delegation will be headed by Deputy Director General Li Gun from the American Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese delegation will be headed by Director General for Asian Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Fu Ying.". (U.S. State Dept. Briefing, April 21, 2003)

IRAQ’S OIL INDUSTRY WILL NEED MASSIVE NEW INVESTMENT
Alan Taylor, AT Energy Ltd. Writes in the Middle East Economic Survey that Iraq’s oil production capabilities have suffered from 13 years of neglect—not the war. The suggestion that oil will finance Iraq’s reconstruction is delusory. What Iraq’s industry needs now is investment and upgrading. Iraq’s petroleum ministry is highly competent and should retain control, but the best arrangement may be production sharing agreements with foreign producers.
(Alan Taylor, MEES, April 21, 2003)

SYRIA TORN BETWEEN TWO POLES
Syria’s president Bashar al Assad was educated in England and had high hopes of modernizing Syria and loosening the rigid system installed by his father. But Bashar also depends on Syria’s old guard to hold on to his position. As a result, the reform process has stumbled and Bashar feels he needs to be cautious about how he deals with his own domestic constituency.
(Shibley Telhami, the Brookings Institution, April 20, 2003)

FRANCE HAS MORE EXPERIENCE DEALING WITH TERRORISM THAN THE U.S.
The French have been dealing with Middle eastern terrorism for the last two decades. That may explain why they were hesitant to charge into Iraq without first considering the consequences.
(Jeremy Shapiro, Brookings, Spring 2003)

ARAFAT CLASHES WITH HIS PUTATIVE PRIME MINISTER ABU MAZEN
It may be the most severe leadership crisis yet to hit the Palestinian movement. Neither Arafat nor Abu Mazen can seem to agree on who should be in the new government, or what their functions should be. The dispute underscores Arafat’s growing weakness and his difficulty in giving ground.
(Danny Rubinstein in Ha’aretz, April 22, 2003)

ISRAEL FRETS OVER IRAN
With Iraq out of the way, Israel now fears there may be no counterweight to Iran. A fundamentalist backlash against the U.S. is everyone’s worst nightmare.
(Leslie Susser, JTA, April 22, 2003)

IRAQ CHANGES THE LANDSCAPE FOR ISRAEL
Graham Usher, writing in Al Ahram, sums up the tectonic shift: "The conquest of Iraq has created a new situation in an old world," Ariel Sharon told Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Wednesday, one of a slew of interviews the Israeli prime minister has given for the Jewish Passover holiday. It is an accurate description, applying equally to him and the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister designate Mahmoud Abbass (Abu-Mazen). Both men are trying to graft the "new situation" into old casts and finding that mould does not always fit."

IS THE U.S. MEDIA FAILING TO PROVIDE CONTEXT? YOU BET!
The American journalism Review’s Lori Robertson deconstructs the Great Duct Tape Scare of last February and remarks that panic can make a great story, while placing events in context tends to diminish viewer interest. Robertson surveys how the various media outlets reacted to the stampede.
(Lori Robertson, American Journalism Review, April 2003)

THE MOST VIOLENT PLACE IN IRAQ
Phillip Robertson writes in Salon: "…The donkey had lost its mind and walked in dumb circles in the dead center of the road. We nearly ran it over on our way back to Mosul, on April 13, two days after the city fell. As the damaged animal walked the same tight circle, its brain stuck in a deep rut, the sight of it made the driver Rashad laugh. A dog drank black oil from a ditch. Incomprehensible things would appear whenever we drove into this city, rising up in front of the car in a slow horror show. These apparitions have come to mark the place for me now that Mosul is fast becoming an Arab version of Mogadishu, complete with no-go areas, haphazard self-defense militias and armed criminal gangs. No one is safe.
The city is going through a violent political mutation. Various factions are combining and coming into being in the chaos of the old regime's demise, assembling out of its bitter proteins. Some former Baathists and Iraqi military men are beginning to organize underground opposition to the American occupation, collecting at mosques around the city. There are Iraqi provocateurs and on the other side American soldiers who have accidentally wounded civilians. In the middle are Iraqis who are trying to re-create a civil society. They are failing….
Only the chaos is certain. The New York Times has called this city of more than 600,000 "the most violent place in all of postwar Iraq," with at least 31 dead and 150 wounded in clashes in the past nine days. Arabs are fighting with Kurds. Pro-Saddam residents are fighting with anti-Saddam Arabs. And just about everyone is angry at the United States. For Americans, especially, Mosul is not a safe place…"
(Phillip Robertson, Salon, April 21, 2003)

THE "GOOD" KILLS
War may or may not be justified, but in the end it is about killing other human beings, and in the confusion of combat, the ones being killed are not always the enemy. Peter Maas in describing the progress of the marine's 3rd Battalion notes that "collateral damage is far easier to bear for those who are responsible for it from afar--from the cockpit of a B-1 bomber, from the command center of a Navy destroyer, from the rear positions of artillery crews. These warriors do not seefaces of the mothers and fathers they have killed. They do not see the blood and hear the screams and live with those memoriesfor the rest of their lives...The Third Battalion could not feel as joyous as the officers in the rear, the generals in Qataar and the politicians in Washington... it was war as it has always been, war at close range, war as Sherman described it, bloody and cruel."
(Peter Maas in The New York Times Magazine, April 20, 2003)

The Effect of Seeing the War on Arab Television
The following is a translation of a column in the March 31 edition of the Beirut newspaper As Safir. It is a letter from a former Lebanese army officer to his cousin, explaining why he suddenly volunteered to fight against the United States:
"...I could no longer take sitting around for hours as if drugged, or like an idiot, in font of the satellite TV channels, watching my people being killed by bombing raids, or under the rubble of their destroyed homes. I couldn’t take the conversations with my neighbors about the various types of mass killing weapons, or the range of cruise missiles, or the latest models of jet fighters being used, or the legendary capabilities of Apache helicopters. ...As for the demonstrations, they will remain in my opinion, emotional expressions, or perhaps political statements by their organizers and participants, but they will not quiet the rage I feel.
I need to be the one killed, not the one watching.
In all honesty, I see impact and power in the protests occurring in Europe and America that I can’t achieve here. I don’t understand politics, but over there they are acting according to their conviction that this aggression is against their national interests and against the honor of their people. They reject American dominance, and they reject the unipolar (i.e. American) world.
My problem is very simple—I can’t just sit around and watch. Didn’t the Prophet, or Imam Ali, I can’t remember, say the person who is silent in the face of truth is like a dumb devil. What can I do! I thought about it....
I heard that some young people are volunteering to go to Iraq. They are not more patriotic than I, I thought. Some of them barely know how to fire a weapon. I value their patriotism, but I can help our people in Iraq at least as much as they can.
I asked around about how to do it, so I registered, and now I am preparing my affairs so as not to leave any problems for my family...
You want to know the truth? I feel so much more at peace with myself since I made the decision. Nothing is worse than the feeling we have that we are dead before dying. How long will I turn my eyes away from the eyes of the Iraqi children gazing at me, over the TV screens, frozen by terror. How long will I cover my ears from the screams of Iraqi mothers as they weep for their husbands and children, whose bodies have been so mangled that they have become unrecognizable, except by a loving wife or mother.
I tell you the truth. I didn’t make this decision quickly. I had wanted to go to Palestine, but I couldn’t find my way there, even though Palestine inhabits me. So I said to myself, It is the same battle. Now there is just a wider front. A defeat in Iraq will kill our future. The enemy is the same. Israel is fighting us with American weapons and American financial aid and American political protection. And now here comes America itself, with its own army, to Iraq fighting us in our own land. And Iraqis are fighting back.
As long as the road to Iraq is open, thanks to Syria, which has taken a courageous stand, then why not move. The other day, I saw pictures of Syrian volunteers in Mosul (Northern Iraq), and I have been hearing the news about all the volunteers from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, and Jordan who are now in Baghdad, or on their way. My cousin, do you want me to be less patriotic, or less willing to sacrifice my own life, than these people who have traveled so far from their homes? And we are so much closer?
Whenever I look at the faces of the people of Basra, Nasiriyya, Najaf, and Karbala, I feel like I know them. They are like our fathers and uncles. I have seen the face of my own mother in the faces of many Iraqi women. And sadness overcame me as I saw them standing at the metal barriers of US and British military checkpoints, begging for some food and water to bring back to their families under siege.
If I stay here, I will die out of sheer depression. But there, may be I will save a child or an old man or a woman by disarming an explosive meant to kill them. May be I can disassemble an unexploded missile, thereby protecting the life of some people who have been visited by death from faraway. People will die on their appointed day, and you know that death will come to us, no matter where we happen to be. I am tired of sitting around and crying; it humiliates me."

(An unidentified volunteer, As Safir, March 31, 2003 via Muslim Wakeup.com)

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