John McGrath recently argued persuasively here that the Iraq War deserves to be taken more seriously by environmentalists.
No one bothers to deny it's an oil war anymore; the time has come to take it seriously as such. It's important to know what precisely is happening on the ground in Iraq, and to try to get a handle on the labyrinthine politics now at play.
To that end, here are two blunt recent reports.
First, Amy Goodman of the essential Democracy Now radio program has broadcast a startling interview with Nir Rosen of the New America Foundation, who has been been reporting from Baghdad for a while. I implore all of you to listen.
Summary: Bush is irrelevant in Iraq. Sure, a powerful militia answers to him, but no one respects it. Bush's militia can control a street corner when it masses troops there; as soon as they leave, that control evaporates. The Shia cleric Al-Sadr runs the show. Confronting him would be catastrophic; not doing so might mean a genocide of the Sunnis.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki? He's irrelevant; he's got no militia.
In the same show, Goodman also interviews Tom Hayden, who's been gathering some pretty fascinating information on behind-the-scenes U.S. machinations.
Meanwhile, over on Counterpunch, Patrick Cockburn has been issuing frank reports from the ground in Iraq since the war started. In his latest, he argues that the debacle is nearing its "Saigon moment."
Comments
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David Roberts Posted 4:06 am
30 Nov 2006
www.grist.org
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Tom Philpott Posted 4:28 am
30 Nov 2006
Meanwhile, I meant to drop in the following stark bit from the Cockburn piece, in which he echoes a point made by Nir Rosen in the above-linked interview. It involves the rotten state of the Iraqi police force, often hailed by Bush as the nation's savior:
Iraq may be getting close to what Americans call 'the Saigon moment', the time when it becomes evident to all that the government is expiring. "They say that the killings and kidnappings are being carried our by men in police uniforms and with police vehicles," said the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari with a despairing laugh to me earlier this summer. "But everybody in Baghdad knows that the killers and kidnappers are real policemen."
Victual Reality
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caniscandida Posted 10:31 pm
30 Nov 2006
Mesopotamia, ecologically, is of course not a high priority at all for the US government and military. One perhaps understands military necessities. One does not at all understand the dread of seeming "Liberal" back home, in view of the Republican, military-loving, religiously Conservative-identifying base.
At least, Saddam Hussein's policy, to dry up the wetlands in the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, has been turned around, and there is now some hope for the Marsh Arabs.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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bookerly Posted 7:42 am
01 Dec 2006
It's not just that US policy is insane, it's that Americans are largely silent while it continues. I wish the Democrats were really going to do something different, but so far I see few ideas issuing forth.
The irony is that they won on discontent with the war, but have no plans to address the war. At least none visible.
The terrible suffering of the Iraqi people will continue for sometime, whether Americans stay or withdraw. There is still no real plan for providing them with electricity, water or job opportunities. Health care and education have ceased to exist.
Little of the money poured into the country reaches Iraqis (except the few talking heads hiding in the green zone).
Asia Times is a good source for following what is going on with reporting from various viewpoints.
http://www.atimes.com/
What a hell on earth we have created.
patrick
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