---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Delivered-To: •••@••.••• Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 17:01:29 -0400 Subject: SFP Weekly Commentary: Fisk on Bush and The Axis of Evil From: Paul Hamel <•••@••.•••> To: SfP International <•••@••.•••>, SfP Canada <•••@••.•••>, SfP Ontario <•••@••.•••>, SfP Toronto <•••@••.•••> Greetings. The Science for Peace Commentary has been away for the summer but has started up again. Tomorrow marks that infamous day in which the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by General Pinochet in 1973. It marks, too, the beginning of the horrific three days in 1982 when General Sharon approved orders to allow an armed militia to enter the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila in southern Lebanon in order to murder several thousand refugees. In 2001, close to 3000 people were murdered in New York, Washington D.C. and in Pennsylvania due to terrorist attacks. These latter events precipitated the events which resulted in the murder of between 3000 and 5000 civilians in Afghanistan. Indeed, the horrible acts of September 11 have been shamefully exploited to increase the U.S. military budget to more than one billion dollars pay day and to violently expand U.S. "interests" in all regions of the world. Finally, given the likely collapse of any serious Iraqi military response to U.S. bombing, one might ask what is the real purpose of this campaign. Presumably that other "axis of evil" member, Iran, is the actual target here, given its ballistic capabilities and antagonistic past with the U.S. More on this theme is presented by Robert Fisk in his article in the Independent and is presented below. Finally, if you receive these commentaries, I encourage you to consider joining Science for Peace this year. We are about to launch a new version of our web site which will be interactive and allow coordination of projects and campaigns across Canada and around the world. A number of new educational materials will be available for use in schools, universities and other meeting places. We plan further that our forums and meetings will be broadcast live over the internet. Indeed, your contributions to these efforts would be greatly appreciated and are need more than ever. More details in a Science for Peace update will be sent out next week. Bush is intent on painting allies and enemies in the Middle East as evil By Robert Fisk 10 September 2002 Just as Americans are recovering from the harrowing television re-runs of the 11 September attacks, their President is going to launch the biggest reshaping of the Middle East since the British and French parcelled out the Arab lands after the 1914-18 war. When he addresses the United Nations on Thursday, George Bush will be threatening not only Iraq - which had absolutely nothing to do with the crimes against humanity in New York and Washington - but Syria, Iran and, by extension, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Syrian Accountability Act, which accuses Damascus of supporting "terrorism", will come into force as President Bush is speaking and will follow only days after the State Department branded the Lebanese Hizbollah as the "A-team of terrorism", more dangerous even than Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida. Like Iraq, the Hizbollah had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks - indeed, they were among the first to condemn them - but the White House now seems set on painting allies and enemies alike in the Middle East as a focus of evil. Only The Nation among all of America's newspapers and magazines has dared to point out that a large number of former Israeli lobbyists are now working within the American administration and the Bush plans for the Middle East - which could cause a massive political upheaval in the Arab world - fit perfectly into Israel's own dreams for the region. The magazine listed Vice-President Dick Cheney - the arch-hawk in the US administration - and John Bolton, now under-secretary of state for Arms Control, with Douglas Feith, the third most senior executive at the Pentagon, as members of the advisory board of the pro-Israeli Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa) before joining the Bush government. Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is still an adviser on the institute, as is the former CIA director James Woolsey. Michael Ledeen, described by The Nation as "one of the most influential 'Jinsans' in Washington" has been calling for "total war" against "terror" - with "regime change" for Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Mr Perle advises the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld - who refers to the West Bank and Gaza as "the so-called occupied territories" - and arranged the anti-Saudi "kernel of evil" briefing by Laurent Murawiec that so outraged the Saudi royal family last month. The Saudi regime may itself be in great danger as the princes of the House of Saud attempt to seize more power for themselves in advance of the departure of the dying King Fahd. Jinsa's website says it exists to "inform the American defence and foreign affairs community about the important role Israel can and does play in bolstering democratic interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East". Next month, Michael Rubin of the right-wing and pro-Israeli American Enterprise Institute - who referred to the outgoing UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson as an abettor of "terrorism" - joins the US Defence Department as an Iran-Iraq "expert". According to The Nation, Irving Moskovitz, the California bingo magnate who has funded settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, is a donor as well as a director of Jinsa. President Bush, of course, will not be talking about the influence of these pro-Israeli lobbyists when he presents his vision of the Middle East at the United Nations on Thursday. Nor will he give the slightest indication that the region is, in the words of its own kings and dictators, a powder keg of resentment and anger. The tectonic plates of the Arab world are now grinding with increasing violence. Into this political earthquake zone, Mr Bush now seems intent on leading his country, with his loyal British ally. Most of today's Arab nations were fashioned out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire by Britain and France in the aftermath of the First World War - and Palestinians still blame Britain today for supporting the formation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Both European nations stationed tens of thousands of troops across the region, suppressing Arab revolts in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon - itself created by the French at the request of its Christian Maronite community. The whole colonial framework led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives before both the British and French retreated from the Middle East. Now President Bush seems set on following the colonial powers into the region for another military and political adventure - ostensibly to spread "democracy" among those nations it most despises (Iraq, Palestine and Iran) but in fact more likely to increase American control of an increasingly anti-Western Arab world. The Arabs themselves warn that this will lead to massive instability and widespread violence. The Israelis - and their allies in the US administration - are hell bent on the whole shebang. Paul A. Hamel Toronto, Ontario, Canada 416-978-8741 (phone) / 416-978-5959 (fax) •••@••.••• (e-mail) http://128.100.207.16 (web page) Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all people are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all people and all countries - not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of humankind as civilized. --Albert Einstein, 1945. "Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all." -- Economist John Maynard Keynes "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." __George Orwell ------------------------------------------------------- To [remove]add your address to this list, email: •••@••.••• with no message in the text and Subject: [unsubscribe]subscribe sfpcan. 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