Noam Chomsky (new)-How the US can help Iraq

[IChing]

How can the United States actually help the Iraqi people, without keeping troops in the country?

Noam Chomsky:

There was a revealing front-page article about this in the Wall St Journal, April 19, discussing a conflict between the State Dept and the Pentagon about tactics for "rebuilding Iraq" and winning support from Iraqis. It describes how the reconstruction was first handed over to Halliburton, Bechtel, etc., with the predictable effect of tossing tens of billions of dollars into their deep pockets with nothing much to show for it. Then State and DOD took over with their different approaches. Story opens with a description of a State Dept supervisor explaining to an Iraqi engineer how to repair shoddy work. Next sentence reads: "`We can't build this for you,' he snapped."

Iraqi engineers performed near miracles of keeping the country functioning after the utterly devastating 1991 war, which aimed specifically at destroying infrastructure for a viable society, then through the Clinton sanctions that were denounced as "genocidal" by the two successive directors of the "oil-for-food" program who resigned in protest., and up to the Bush invasion. The reporter, Yochi Dreazen, who knows Iraq well, describes the comment as "the core of the problem," but doesn't amplify. It's not hard to do so. Why should they rebuild the country for its new owners?

The wailing about how the Iraqis are not up to it is not an unfamiliar one from conquerors. Right now, some very interesting work is being done by a former Russian soldier in Afghanistan, on the coverage of the Afghan invasion and occupation in the Soviet press. Very familiar, including distress that the Afghans are just not up to it and have to be held accountable. Colonial administrators, slave masters, and others like them constantly express great irritation at the shiftlessness and irresponsibility of their wards, not properly following commands -- issued for their benefit, of course.>>>>snip

http://blogs.zmag.org/node/3051

[Roland99]

1. I tried to explain that to someone the other day.

This person is generally against the war but is for a continued US presence to "clean up the mess Bush made".

He doesn't understand that the Iraqis see us as an occupier. Not much difference than when they were under British colonial control and as along as we are there in force, nothing will get that country on the healing path.

[IChing]

2. Few realize that Iraq was once a modern Arab state with a

highly educated middle class that had pride in their achievements
and a civilization that is 5000 years old.

[Terri S]

3. very early on in the occupation...

Christian Parenti was on the News Hour and talked about how the occupation was a failure because we brought Halliburton et al in instead of having the Iraqis do the rebuilding and restoring of their own country. The next day Jim Leher made an on-air apology for that, saying it did not give equal time to an opposing view. I was LIVID!! Parenti told the absolute truth and they actually make a formal apology, while just the day before Cheney was on spouting his lying bs and gee..no one was on giving an opposing view...gee... no on-air apology for that or the gazillion other times administration lackeys were on pushing the lies that continued with no challenge whatsoever.

FAIR started a letter-writing campaign..I wrote a fairly strong one, and the News Hour stuck to the 'wanting to keep it balanced' line. I never watched the show again.

Parenti was right, of course. And I have never heard any news that PBS ever released any on-air apology for aiding and abetting this lying, manipulating adminstration.

[Lilith Velkor]

4. Cha-cha-chomsky!

:kick: