Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Limiting the Catastrophe

Adrian Pohr | 30.10.2006 18:18 | Anti-militarism | World

Leslie Gelb in Time Magazine writes that admission of a defeat in Iraq is not the worst thing but rather serves to minimize the extent..According to La Republica, Since president Bush kindled the fire, he now has to put it out. The pyromaniac is forced to become the firefighter.

LIMITING THE CATASTROPHE

By Adrian Pohr

[This article published in: DIE ZEIY, October 2006, is translated from the German on the World Wide Web,  http://www.zeit-fragen.ch/.]


Everything stays on course. “We want victory in Iraq,” George W. Bush announced over the weekend, irrespective of the desolate situation in the country and the enormous and increasing death toll that the American troops must pay there. Only the tactics will be revised. This was the result of the president’s conversation with his generals. This change in tactics will be made known first after the American mid-term elections in November. That a long-term occupation of Iraq is excluded seems obvious in view of the situation and the mood in the US.

The discussion about the role of the West in Iraq concentrates on a simple question: How soon? How soon will Great Britain and America withdraw and what kind of country will they leave behind? “No one thinks we should remain for ever; few believe we should withdraw tomorrow,” the British Daily Telegraph replies. “The use of our soldiers to create a stable democracy in Iraq is not a tenable goal any more. A speedy withdrawal is the best option for us and for the Iraqi population.”

The British Independent sees this differently: “We made a mistake in occupying Iraq and would make a mistake by withdrawing now.” The Washington Post urges an immediate withdrawal: The most unattractive option is a withdrawal in phases. The “job” that president Bush resolved to finish in Iraq will probably never end, the Washington Post said. “How many Americans and Iraqis must die before the president admits what Americans already know: “I made a mistake.”

The problems in Iraq resulted from deploying “too few” US soldiers, the Los Angeles Times said. For a country with the third-largest population, Americans have a markedly small army. In 2004, 1.427 million had served, “significantly less than the two million American prison inmates.” Only a fifth of the soldiers were in foreign deployments in 2004, 171,000 of them in Iraq. This amounts to 0.06 percent of the US population. This is a strange number since the American military budget is several times greater than all other countries.

The Chicago Tribune makes different calculations. More than 300,000 Iraqi soldiers were trained in 2005, only 13,000 less than planned. Two-thirds of the soldiers waged combat operations, according to the Defense Department. Why not withdraw its own forces? The answer is simple: Despite enlarging its forces, the violence in Iraq increases. The Chicago Tribune concludes that remaining there and fighting actively for peace is important.

By contrast, Leslie Gelb in Time Magazine writes that admission of a defeat in Iraq is not the worst thing but rather serves to minimize the extent. The New York Times as the liberal spearhead drafts a plan to avert disaster. First of all, a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops must be made public and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld fired. The newspaper calls this “cleaning up house.” Conversations must be started between the Iraqi groups. Bagdad’s stabilization is obligatory. In addition, dialogue with refractory Teheran and Damascus must be promoted to create long-term peace in the Middle East. Finally with a sideswipe at Bush’s years of denying reality, the seriousness of the situation must be recognized with prompt negotiations. Only a few options are on the table. While the prospects are trifling, they are worth striving for given the terrible alternative scenarios for the future of the whole region.

The Lebanese Daily Star asks whether the US government sees its mistake. The greatest error of the Bush administration consisted in exacerbating America’s missing integrity in the region.” Bush intensified this deficiency by beginning an unnecessary war in Iraq.

The People’s Daily newspaper published in China is ready for fundamental criticism of the US. The US had always explained Islamic terror and the growing anti-Americanism as envy for its national strength and hatred for American values. However most countries in the world believe anti-Americanism was against the misguided foreign policy and the hegemonial actions of the US. “In the last years, the US has consciously capitalized on the incident of September 11 to pursue its global strategic interests with disdain for international norms. The inhuman catastrophes and sufferings inflicted on people spreads anti-Americanism in a globally uncontrolled way.” The Chinese newspaper concludes: “No one but the US itself caused its own defeat.”

Only one man can avert this defeat, according to the Italian La Republica: “Since president Bush kindled the fire, he now has to put it out. The pyromaniac is forced to become the firefighter.”

On the theme

Is London planning to withdraw its soldiers from Iraq next year? The government in Bagdad is worried.

Bush’s late insight – “The US government is considering a change in strategy in Iraq.”

Adrian Pohr
- e-mail: mbatko@lycos.com
- Homepage: http://www.mbtranslations.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech