A Peaceful Call to Arms

So, this was the article I had to read for my Speech Communication class. Our teacher thought it would be a hostile topic to talk about in class, which it was. This is actually quite relevant still, though printed in 2006, because it talks of reinstating the draft to make Iran afraid of possessing nuclear weapons. Of course, Kane talks about the instance where the drafts "worked", but does not mention when it failed (Vietnam). It shows a biased opinion, with no facts to back it up.

They learn from the best

Turkey has refused to set a timeline for withdrawal from Northern Iraq.

And, just like here, Turkey is tightly regulating Turkish media's coverage of the events, leading to conflicting reports between what the PKK and the Turkish government are claiming as casualty figures.

Playing Both Sides

With the recent invasion of Iraq's Kurdistan region by Turkey last week, the tenuous position of the US in Iraq was made even more evident.

The problem for the US is who should be supported in the incursion. Washington cannot risk isolating Istanbul any more than it already has, but it simultaneously has been supportive of the the Iranian branch of the PKK for a number of years. According to the Telegraph:

"US army helicopters are reportedly used to shuttle officers to regular meetings with Kurdish fighters.

There is a landing pad complete with spotlights near Mr Karayilan's headquarters, while four-wheel-drive vehicles belonging to a US private security contractor, are easily seen."

The PKK was also supported by the Washington during the invasion, much in the same way that the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan during the 1980s - and look how well that turned out. During the invasion, Washington relied on the Kurds in the north of Iraq to fight the Iraqi army there, allowing US forces to take the south with less resistance. This was even after the US government officially listed the PKK has a "terrorist organization," leading to an interesting question: why would Washington support the independence of Albanian Kosovo from Serb Serbia, while labeling the group dedicated to creating an independent Kurdistan a terrorist organization.

One answer may be that "destabilization" in the Balkans is far less threatening to US hegemony and international oil than if it happened in the Middle East. Another possible, albeit less likely answer is that the PKK is Marxist-Leninist and Nationalist organization. Holdover prejudice and fear from the Cold War may force Washington to target Leftist groups out of pure reflex, rather than analysis of the situations. Finally, alienating Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq by supporting an independent Kurdistan made up of territory from the above countries would destroy US integrity and soft power in the Middle East - more so than has already been eroded by the war - and seriously threaten American interests in the region.

So when Turkey invaded Iraq last Thursday and ignored the fledgling new puppet government's national sovereignty, Washington was put in a bind. It had to support Turkey's actions, while simultaneously ensuring that the work it put into training Kurdish militants in Iran did not go to waste and also while enforcing Iraq's sovereignty. These three competing and mutually exclusive goals have led to a milquetoast statement by the US urging restraint on all sides.

The Iraqis, however, have not taken kindly to this unilateral action by Turkey. An Iraqi government spokesman has said,

"The cabinet in a meeting today expressed its rejection and condemnation of the Turkish military incursion which is considered a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.

"The cabinet stresses that unilateral military action is not acceptable and threatens good relations between the two neighbours."

All that remains now to is see how the US will react: whether it will defend the national sovereignty of Iraq as it is supposed to do as an occupying force, or whether it will allow Turkey to pursue it's unilateral actions in the north of Iraq. Either way, Washington will be in the wrong. If it fails to defend Iraq, it will be failing in its job as an occupying force - not particularly new for Washington, since it has already failed dramatically and continuously in this area, but rather one more example of the criminal incompetence of the occupation. If, on the other hand, it rejects Turkey's right to unilaterally and preemptively attack an enemy, it will show that the idea of American Exceptionalism is far from dead.

The Wheelchair Suicide Bomber

I was listening to NPR this morning and on comes a story about a suicide bomber in Baghdad today attacked a police station. They went on to talk about how insurgents have brutally used the disabled in the past as weapons. Of course I was saddened by this news but I wondered to myself, where is the story about the shi'ite pilgrims (a large number women and children) that were wounded and killed on Sunday in the town of Iskandariya, 40km south of Baghdad on their way to Karbala to attend a religious ceremony? Or the report about the 33 dead PPK members in the Kurdish Northern Iraq as result of the "Turkish incursion" that commenced last Thursday?

Why did NPR decide to report about this particular bombing when they miss so many other events that take place in Iraq on daily basis? For me, it has to be the motivated by the need to make the Iraq resistance to look as evil as possible. While talking with my dad briefly about the war (we have to avoid it all costs because it just leads to a big fight) he cited a suicide bomber where a mentally challenged girl was used as the weapon and he had no information about the torture tactics used by the US military against innocent prisoners. Even from a liberal source such as NPR, the information is still skewed. I have so little faith in our media.

The Toll of the War

I was listening to NPR online today and clicked on this sidebar link about the death toll in Iraq entitled The Toll of War . I think they really did a wonderful job showing statistics of both the American troops and the Iraqi civilians. Another great feature is that you can click on a particular month and a box pops up with a story pertaining to casualities in that month along with the option of listening to an excerpt from a sound clip of the story.

For example, in January 2007 the title reads: Schools Targeted and then gives an short summary. "In Baghadad car bombs kills 70 at a university..." You can click to see the whole story. Each month has another story. I totally recommend checking it out.

The Folly of Attacking Iran

Yesterday afternoon U of I had the privilege of hosting Stephen Kinzer, the author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (a book about the 1953 American coup of Iran), on his nationwide tour promoting diplomacy with Iran. Hadi Esfahani, a professor here and Iranian scholar, also joined Kinzer talking about his experiences in his homeland. I learned so much from both their talks and wanted to share some key points.

One of the most important things that I think everyone needs to understand is that the people of Iran do not hate Americans and in fact there is a long history of Iranians looking up to the US as a young superpower who battled the British, the main imperialist regime of their own country. Esfahani told a story about how over the summer an acquaintance of his who worked for the governor’s office in the Iranian region where he is from originally, asked him about how local political here in the US offices deal with economic policies, road rebuilding etc. He was trying to demonstrate that people there don’t view Americans as evil, as many of us (me included) think most of the Middle East feel, but still look admire the US as a country. These years of respect and esteem would be completely destroyed “in one hour” if we bombed Iran. I was really pleasantly surprised by this information and gave me hope that maybe could ally with Iran instead create yet another enemy. The American government needs to start giving the Iranian government the respect they deserve!

Another thing that real was a real mind fuck to me was how in 1953, it only took three weeks for top CIA official, Kermit Roosevelt (grandson of good ol’ Teddy), to completely destabilize Iran. These actions led to horrible consequences that took a democratically elected government out of power just because they wanted to take back control of their own oil. I couldn’t believe it only took three weeks to completely demonize Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq who was just looking out for the best interest of his people.

During question and answer time, one guy brought up an article in the Economists from a couple weeks ago that pretty much advocated for bombing Iran. This just shows that that the idea to military measures in Iran is still very hot on the table of US political consciousness. I decided to checkout the their website and was disgusted by the way Iran was represented in several of their articles. I quote from the article Has Iran won? “Who would have thought that a friendless theocracy with a Holocaust-denying president, which hangs teenagers in public and stones women to death, could run diplomatic circles around America and its European allies?”

Mainstream media is feeding this garbage to US citizens to create an atmosphere of shock and appall so that military measures can be taken in the future if necessary. I refuse to see a repeat of Iraq! I yahooanswered "Iran Politics" and got these are some of the things people said:

~Iranian President: "Blah blah blah blah blah"Iranian Politician: "I don't agree with that!" Iranian President: "SHOOT THE INFIDEL!"Just a day in the life I suppose...,

~A theocracy gone very bad

~If a person agrees with dictatorships,and the agenda of world domination,then they will probably like the policies of Iran

~They are a corrupt nation who desperately wants power through hate of Israel and America..it plays well with an uneducated populace

It's pretty bad that people have such a tainted view of Iranian politics and the country in general. This totally comes from lack of understanding which is an underlying theme in many major catastrophes and disputes.

Both talks were rich with so much information and something pretty sweet happened. Timothy V. Johnson’s, Champaign’s representative in the House. press manager and right hand man came to the talk and was so impressed that he bought the Kinzer’s book and plans to talk to Johnson. Hopefully he’ll vote on some good bills, jo.

Overall I was totally impressed and it got me thinking about some crucial ideas.

CAN's Blog is up and running!

Blogging today from the basement of the Espresso Royale on 6th and Daniel, the Campus Antiwar Network's newly formed media group is pleased to make our first blog post.

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We are the Campus Antiwar Network! We are the students and community of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and we are sick and tired of the illegal occupation of Iraq, and the continuing occupation in Afghanistan! As the predominant antiwar group on campus, we are dedicated to reaching out to other organization who sympathize with our position and goals, and are always trying to recruit more students to fight the illegal war in whatever way they can. We also try to reach across the gap separating undergraduate and graduate students, and the gap between students and teachers, and students and the community, to create one united antiwar community in Urbana-Champaign.

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CAN calls for the immediate withdrawal of troops and contractors from Iraq.
CAN calls for an immediate end to US Imperialism in the Middle East.
CAN will not accept a redeployment of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
CAN understands, and helps to foster the understanding, that the war is directly linked to economic, environmental, educational, and social issues currently being discussed across the nation.
CAN supports war resistors and the Iraq Veterans Against the War.
CAN rejects Imperialism, Racism, Classism, Sexism, Hompohobia, and Islamophobia.

CAN promotes peace.