Subject: Fw: from Fumiko Docker. A Must Read!
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 20:36:10 -0700 (PDT)

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From: "Fumiko Docker" <[email-masked]>
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Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 5:05 PM
Subject: Fwd: Read this if you get a chance.

> Another perspective
>
> > 'Brutality smeared in peanut butter'
> >
> > Why America must stop the war now. By Arundhati Roy
> >
> > Tuesday October 23, 2001
> >
> > As darkness deepened over Afghanistan on Sunday
> > October 7 2001, the US government, backed by the
> > International Coalition Against Terror (the new,
> > amenable surrogate for the United Nations), launched
> > air strikes against Afghanistan. TV channels
> > lingered on computer-animated images of cruise
> > missiles, stealth bombers, tomahawks,
> > "bunker-busting" missiles and Mark 82 high drag
> > bombs. All over the world, little boys watched
> > goggle-eyed and stopped clamouring for new video
> > games.
> > The UN, reduced now to an ineffective acronym,
> > wasn't even asked to mandate the air strikes. (As
> > Madeleine Albright once said, "We will behave
> > multilaterally when we can, and unilaterally when we
> > must.") The "evidence" against the terrorists was
> > shared amongst friends in the "coalition".
> > After conferring, they announced that it didn1t
> > matter whether or not the "evidence" would stand up
> > in a court of law. Thus, in an instant, were
> > centuries of jurisprudence carelessly trashed.
> > Nothing can excuse or justify an act of terrorism,
> > whether it is committed by religious
> > fundamentalists, private militia, people's
> > resistance movements - or whether it's dressed up as
> > a war of retribution by a recognised government. The
> > bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York
> > and Washington. It is yet another act of terror
> > against the people of the world.
> > Each innocent person that is killed must be added
> > to, not set off against, the grisly toll of
> > civilians who died in New York and Washington.
> > People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose
> > them. People get killed.
> > Governments moult and regroup, hydra-headed. They
> > use flags first to shrink-wrap people's minds and
> > smother thought, and then as ceremonial shrouds to
> > bury their willing dead. On both sides, in
> > Afghanistan as well as America, civilians are now
> > hostage to the actions of their own governments.
> > Unknowingly, ordinary people in both countries share
> > a common bond - they have to live with the
> > phenomenon of blind, unpredictable terror. Each
> > batch of bombs that is dropped on Afghanistan is
> > matched by a corresponding escalation of mass
> > hysteria in America about anthrax, more hijackings
> > and other terrorist acts.
> > There is no easy way out of the spiralling morass of
> > terror and brutality that confronts the world today.
> > It is time now for the human race to hold still, to
> > delve into its wells of collective wisdom, both
> > ancient and modern. What happened on September 11
> > changed the world forever.
> > Freedom, progress, wealth, technology, war - these
> > words have taken on new meaning.
> > Governments have to acknowledge this transformation,
> > and approach their new tasks with a modicum of
> > honesty and humility. Unfortunately, up to now,
> > there has been no sign of any introspection from the
> > leaders of the International Coalition. Or the
> > Taliban.
> > When he announced the air strikes, President George
> > Bush said: "We're a peaceful nation." America1s
> > favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds
> > the portfolio of prime minister of the UK), echoed
> > him: "We're a peaceful people."
> > So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War
> > is peace.
> > Speaking at the FBI headquarters a few days later,
> > President Bush said: "This is our calling. This is
> > the calling of the United States of America. The
> > most free nation in the world. A nation built on
> > fundamental values that reject hate, reject
> > violence, rejects murderers and rejects evil. We
> > will not tire."
> > Here is a list of the countries that America has
> > been at war with - and bombed - since the second
> > world war: China (1945-46, 1950-53), Korea
> > (1950-53), Guatemala (1954, 1967-69), Indonesia
> > (1958), Cuba (1959-60), the Belgian Congo (1964),
> > Peru (1965), Laos (1964-73), Vietnam (1961-73),
> > Cambodia (1969-70), Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), El
> > Salvador (1980s), Nicaragua (1980s), Panama (1989),
> > Iraq (1991-99), Bosnia (1995), Sudan (1998),
> > Yugoslavia (1999). And now Afghanistan.
> > Certainly it does not tire - this, the most free
> > nation in the world.
> > What freedoms does it uphold? Within its borders,
> > the freedoms of speech, religion, thought; of
> > artistic expression, food habits, sexual preferences
> > (well, to some extent) and many other exemplary,
> > wonderful things.
> > Outside its borders, the freedom to dominate,
> > humiliate and subjugate &shy; usually in the service
> > of America1s real religion, the "free market". So
> > when the US government christens a war "Operation
> > Infinite Justice", or "Operation Enduring Freedom",
> > we in the third world feel more than a tremor of
> > fear.
> > Because we know that Infinite Justice for some means
> > Infinite Injustice for others. And Enduring Freedom
> > for some means Enduring Subjugation for others.
> > The International Coalition Against Terror is a
> > largely cabal of the richest countries in the world.
> > Between them, they manufacture and sell almost all
> > of the world's weapons, they possess the largest
> > stockpile of weapons of mass destruction - chemical,
> > biological and nuclear. They have fought the most
> > wars, account for most of the genocide, subjection,
> > ethnic cleansing and human rights violations in
> > modern history, and have sponsored, armed and
> > financed untold numbers of dictators and despots.
> > Between them, they have worshipped, almost deified,
> > the cult of violence and war. For all its appalling
> > sins, the Taliban just isn't in the same league.
> > The Taliban was compounded in the crumbling crucible
> > of rubble, heroin and landmines in the backwash of
> > the cold war. Its oldest leaders are in their early
> > 40s. Many of them are disfigured and handicapped,
> > missing an eye, an arm or a leg. They grew up in a
> > society scarred and devastated by war.
> > Between the Soviet Union and America, over 20 years,
> > about $45bn (?30bn) worth of arms and ammunition was
> > poured into Afghanistan. The latest weaponry was the
> > only shard of modernity to intrude upon a thoroughly
> > medieval society.
> > Young boys &shy; many of them orphans - who grew up
> > in those times, had guns for toys, never knew the
> > security and comfort of family life, never
> > experienced the company of women. Now, as adults and
> > rulers, the Taliban beat, stone, rape and brutalise
> > women, they don't seem to know what else to do with
> > them.
> > Years of war has stripped them of gentleness, inured
> > them to kindness and human compassion. Now they've
> > turned their monstrosity on their own people.
> > They dance to the percussive rhythms of bombs
> > raining down around them.
> > With all due respect to President Bush, the people
> > of the world do not have to choose between the
> > Taliban and the US government. All the beauty of
> > human civilisation - our art, our music, our
> > literature - lies beyond these two fundamentalist,
> > ideological poles. There is as little chance that
> > the people of the world can all become middle-class
> > consumers as there is that they will all embrace any
> > one particular religion. The issue is not about good
> > v evil or Islam v Christianity as much as it is
> > about space. About how to accommodate diversity, how
> > to contain the impulse towards hegemony &shy; every
> > kind of hegemony, economic, military, linguistic,
> > religious and cultural.
> > Any ecologist will tell you how dangerous and
> > fragile a monoculture is. A hegemonic world is like
> > having a government without a healthy opposition. It
> > becomes a kind of dictatorship. It1s like putting a
> > plastic bag over the world, and preventing it from
> > breathing. Eventually, it will be torn open.
> > One and a half million Afghan people lost their
> > lives in the 20 years of conflict that preceded this
> > new war. Afghanistan was reduced to rubble, and now,
> > the rubble is being pounded into finer dust. By the
> > second day of the air strikes, US pilots were
> > returning to their bases without dropping their
> > assigned payload of bombs. As one pilot put it,
> > Afghanistan is "not a target-rich environment". At a
> > press briefing at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld, the
> > US defence secretary, was asked if America had run
> > out of targets.
> > "First we're going to re-hit targets," he said, "and
> > second, we're not running out of targets,
> > Afghanistan is ..." This was greeted with gales of
> > laughter in the briefing room.
> > By the third day of the strikes, the US defence
> > department boasted that it had "achieved air
> > supremacy over Afghanistan" (Did they mean that they
> > had destroyed both, or maybe all 16, of
> > Afghanistan's planes?)
> > On the ground in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance
> > - the Taliban's old enemy, and therefore the
> > international coalition's newest friend - is making
> > headway in its push to capture Kabul. (For the
> > archives, let it be said that the Northern
> > Alliance's track record is not very different from
> > the Taliban's. But for now, because it's
> > inconvenient, that little detail is being glossed
> > over.) The visible, moderate, "acceptable" leader of
> > the alliance, Ahmed Shah Masud, was killed in a
> > suicide-bomb attack early in September. The rest of
> > the Northern Alliance is a brittle confederation of
> > brutal warlords, ex-communists and unbending
> > clerics. It is a disparate group divided along
> > ethnic lines, some of whom have tasted power in
> > Afghanistan in the past.
> > Until the US air strikes, the Northern Alliance
> > controlled about 5% of the geographical area of
> > Afghanistan. Now, with the coalition's help and "air
> > cover", it is poised to topple the Taliban.
> > Meanwhile, Taliban soldiers, sensing imminent
> > defeat, have begun to defect to the alliance. So the
> > fighting forces are busy switching sides and
> > changing uniforms. But in an enterprise as cynical
> > as this one, it seems to matter hardly at all.
> > Love is hate, north is south, peace is war.
> > Among the global powers, there is talk of "putting
> > in a representative government". Or, on the other
> > hand, of "restoring" the kingdom to Afghanistan's
> > 89-year old former king Zahir Shah, who has lived in
> > exile in Rome since 1973. That's the way the game
> > goes - support Saddam Hussein, then "take him out";
> > finance the mojahedin, then bomb them to
> > smithereens; put in Zahir Shah and see if he's going
> > to be a good boy. (Is it possible to "put in" a
> > representative government? Can you place an order
> > for democracy - with extra cheese and jalapeno
> > peppers?)
> > Reports have begun to trickle in about civilian
> > casualties, about cities emptying out as Afghan
> > civilians flock to the borders which have been
> > closed. Main arterial roads have been blown up or
> > sealed off. Those who have experience of working in
> > Afghanistan say that by early November, food convoys
> > will not be able to reach the millions of Afghans
> > (7.5m, according to the UN) who run the very real
> > risk of starving to death during the course of this
> > winter. They say that in the days that are left
> > before winter sets in, there can either be a war, or
> > an attempt to reach food to the hungry. Not both.
> > As a gesture of humanitarian support, the US
> > government air-dropped 37,000 packets of emergency
> > rations into Afghanistan. It says it plans to drop a
> > total of 500,000 packets. That will still only add
> > up to a single meal for half a million people out of
> > the several million in dire need of food.
> > Aid workers have condemned it as a cynical,
> > dangerous, public-relations exercise. They say that
> > air-dropping food packets is worse than futile.
> > First, because the food will never get to those who
> > really need it. More dangerously, those who run out
> > to retrieve the packets risk being blown up by
> > landmines. A tragic alms race.
> > Nevertheless, the food packets had a photo-op all to
> > themselves. Their contents were listed in major
> > newspapers. They were vegetarian, we're told, as per
> > Muslim dietary law (!) Each yellow packet, decorated
> > with the American flag, contained: rice, peanut
> > butter, bean salad, strawberry jam, crackers,
> > raisins, flat bread, an apple fruit bar, seasoning,
> > matches, a set of plastic cutlery, a serviette and
> > illustrated user instructions.
> > After three years of unremitting drought, an
> > air-dropped airline meal in Jalalabad! The level of
> > cultural ineptitude, the failure to understand what
> > months of relentless hunger and grinding poverty
> > really mean, the US government1s attempt to use even
> > this abject misery to boost its self-image, beggars
> > description.
> > Reverse the scenario for a moment. Imagine if the
> > Taliban government was to bomb New York City, saying
> > all the while that its real target was the US
> > government and its policies. And suppose, during
> > breaks between the bombing, the Taliban dropped a
> > few thousand packets containing nan and kebabs
> > impaled on an Afghan flag. Would the good people of
> > New York ever find it in themselves to forgive the
> > Afghan government? Even if they were hungry, even if
> > they needed the food, even if they ate it, how would
> > they ever forget the insult, the condescension? Rudi
> > Guiliani, Mayor of New York City, returned a gift of
> > $10m from a Saudi prince because it came with a few
> > words of friendly advice about American policy in
> > the Middle East. Is pride a luxury that only the
> > rich are entitled to?
> > Far from stamping it out, igniting this kind of rage
> > is what creates terrorism. Hate and retribution
> > don't go back into the box once you've let them out.
> > For every "terrorist" or his "supporter" that is
> > killed, hundreds of innocent people are being killed
> > too. And for every hundred innocent people killed,
> > there is a good chance that several future
> > terrorists will be created.
> > Where will it all lead?
> > Setting aside the rhetoric for a moment, consider
> > the fact that the world has not yet found an
> > acceptable definition of what "terrorism" is. One
> > country's terrorist is too often another1s freedom
> > fighter. At the heart of the matter lies the world's
> > deep-seated ambivalence towards violence.
> > Once violence is accepted as a legitimate political
> > instrument, then the morality and political
> > acceptability of terrorists (insurgents or freedom
> > fighters) becomes contentious, bumpy terrain. The US
> > government itself has funded, armed and sheltered
> > plenty of rebels and insurgents around the world.
> > The CIA and Pakistan's ISI trained and armed the
> > mojahedin who, in the 80s, were seen as terrorists
> > by the government in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.
> > Today, Pakistan - America's ally in this new war -
> > sponsors insurgents who cross the border into
> > Kashmir in India. Pakistan lauds them as
> > "freedom-fighters", India calls them "terrorists".
> > India, for its part, denounces countries who sponsor
> > and abet terrorism, but the Indian army has, in the
> > past, trained separatist Tamil rebels asking for a
> > homeland in Sri Lanka - the LTTE, responsible for
> > countless acts of bloody terrorism.
> > (Just as the CIA abandoned the mujahideen after they
> > had served its purpose, India abruptly turned its
> > back on the LTTE for a host of political reasons. It
> > was an enraged LTTE suicide bomber who assassinated
> > former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989.)
> > It is important for governments and politicians to
> > understand that manipulating these huge, raging
> > human feelings for their own narrow purposes may
> > yield instant results, but eventually and
> > inexorably, they have disastrous consequences.
> > Igniting and exploiting religious sentiments for
> > reasons of political expediency is the most
> > dangerous legacy that governments or politicians can
> > bequeath to any people - including their own.
> > People who live in societies ravaged by religious or
> > communal bigotry know that every religious text -
> > from the Bible to the Bhagwad Gita - can be mined
> > and misinterpreted to justify anything, from nuclear
> > war to genocide to corporate globalisation.
> > This is not to suggest that the terrorists who
> > perpetrated the outrage on September 11 should not
> > be hunted down and brought to book. They must be.
> > But is war the best way to track them down? Will
> > burning the haystack find you the needle? Or will it
> > escalate the anger and make the world a living hell
> > for all of us?
> > At the end of the day, how many people can you spy
> > on, how many bank accounts can you freeze, how many
> > conversations can you eavesdrop on, how many emails
> > can you intercept, how many letters can you open,
> > how many phones can you tap? Even before September
> > 11, the CIA had accumulated more information than is
> > humanly possible to process. (Sometimes, too much
> > data can actually hinder intelligence - small wonder
> > the US spy satellites completely missed the
> > preparation that preceded India's nuclear tests in
> > 1998.)
> > The sheer scale of the surveillance will become a
> > logistical, ethical and civil rights nightmare. It
> > will drive everybody clean crazy. And freedom - that
> > precious, precious thing - will be the first
> > casualty. It's already hurt and haemorrhaging
> > dangerously.
> > Governments across the world are cynically using the
> > prevailing paranoia to promote their own interests.
> > All kinds of unpredictable political forces are
> > being unleashed. In India, for instance, members of
> > the All India People's Resistance Forum, who were
> > distributing anti-war and anti-US pamphlets in
> > Delhi, have been jailed. Even the printer of the
> > leaflets was arrested.
> > The rightwing government (while it shelters Hindu
> > extremists groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
> > and the Bajrang Dal) has banned the Islamic Students
> > Movement of India and is trying to revive an anti-
> > terrorist Act which had been withdrawn after the
> > Human Rights Commission reported that it had been
> > more abused than used. Millions of Indian citizens
> > are Muslim. Can anything be gained by alienating
> > them?
> > Every day that the war goes on, raging emotions are
> > being let loose into the world. The international
> > press has little or no independent access to the war
> > zone. In any case, mainstream media, particularly in
> > the US, have more or less rolled over, allowing
> > themselves to be tickled on the stomach with press
> > handouts from military men and government officials.
> > Afghan radio stations have been destroyed by the
> > bombing. The Taliban has always been deeply
> > suspicious of the press. In the propaganda war,
> > there is no accurate estimate of how many people
> > have been killed, or how much destruction has taken
> > place. In the absence of reliable information, wild
> > rumours spread.
> > Put your ear to the ground in this part of the
> > world, and you can hear the thrumming, the deadly
> > drumbeat of burgeoning anger. Please. Please, stop
> > the war now. Enough people have died. The smart
> > missiles are just not smart enough. They're blowing
> > up whole warehouses of suppressed fury.
> > President George Bush recently boasted, "When I take
> > action, I'm not going to fire a $2m missile at a $10
> > empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going
> > to be decisive." President Bush should know that
> > there are no targets in Afghanistan that will give
> > his missiles their money's worth.
> > Perhaps, if only to balance his books, he should
> > develop some cheaper missiles to use on cheaper
> > targets and cheaper lives in the poor countries of
> > the world. But then, that may not make good business
> > sense to the coalition1s weapons manufacturers. It
> > wouldn't make any sense at all, for example, to the
> > Carlyle Group - described by the Industry Standard
> > as "the world's largest private equity firm", with
> > $13bn under management.
> > Carlyle invests in the defence sector and makes its
> > money from military conflicts and weapons spending.
> > Carlyle is run by men with impeccable credentials.
> > Former US defence secretary Frank Carlucci is
> > Carlyle's chairman and managing director (he was a
> > college roommate of Donald Rumsfeld's). Carlyle's
> > other partners include former US secretary of state
> > James A Baker III, George Soros and Fred Malek
> > (George Bush Sr's campaign manager). An American
> > paper &shy; the Baltimore Chronicle and Sentinel -
> > says that former president George Bush Sr is
> > reported to be seeking investments for the Carlyle
> > Group from Asian markets.
> > He is reportedly paid not inconsiderable sums of
> > money to make "presentations" to potential
> > government-clients.
> > Ho hum. As the tired saying goes, it's all in the
> > family.
> > Then there's that other branch of traditional family
> > business - oil. Remember, President George Bush (Jr)
> > and Vice-President Dick Cheney both made their
> > fortunes working in the US oil industry.
> > Turkmenistan, which borders the north-west of
> > Afghanistan, holds the world's third largest gas
> > reserves and an estimated six billion barrels of oil
> > reserves. Enough, experts say, to meet American
> > energy needs for the next 30 years (or a developing
> > country's energy requirements for a couple of
> > centuries.) America has always viewed oil as a
> > security consideration, and protected it by any
> > means it deems necessary. Few of us doubt that its
> > military presence in the Gulf has little to do with
> > its concern for human rights and almost entirely to
> > do with its strategic interest in oil.
> > Oil and gas from the Caspian region currently moves
> > northward to European markets. Geographically and
> > politically, Iran and Russia are major impediments
> > to American interests. In 1998, Dick Cheney - then
> > CEO of Halliburton, a major player in the oil
> > industry - said, "I can't think of a time when we've
> > had a region emerge as suddenly to become as
> > strategically significant as the Caspian. It's
> > almost as if the opportunities have arisen
> > overnight." True enough.
> > For some years now, an American oil giant called
> > Unocal has been negotiating with the Taliban for
> > permission to construct an oil pipeline through
> > Afghanistan to Pakistan and out to the Arabian sea.
> > From here, Unocal hopes to access the lucrative
> > "emerging markets" in south and south-east Asia. In
> > December 1997, a delegation of Taliban mullahs
> > travelled to America and even met US state
> > department officials and Unocal executives in
> > Houston. At that time the Taliban's taste for public
> > executions and its treatment of Afghan women were
> > not made out to be the crimes against humanity that
> > they are now.
> > Over the next six months, pressure from hundreds of
> > outraged American feminist groups was brought to
> > bear on the Clinton administration.
> > Fortunately, they managed to scuttle the deal. And
> > now comes the US oil industry's big chance.
> > In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the
> > major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign
> > policy, are all controlled by the same business
> > combines. Therefore, it would be foolish to expect
> > this talk of guns and oil and defence deals to get
> > any real play in the media. In any case, to a
> > distraught, confused people whose pride has just
> > been wounded, whose loved ones have been tragically
> > killed, whose anger is fresh and sharp, the
> > inanities about the "clash of civilisations" and the
> > "good v evil" discourse home in unerringly. They are
> > cynically doled out by government spokesmen like a
> > daily dose of vitamins or anti-depressants. Regular
> > medication ensures that mainland America continues
> > to remain the enigma it has always been - a
> > curiously insular people, administered by a
> > pathologically meddlesome, promiscuous government.
> > And what of the rest of us, the numb recipients of
> > this onslaught of what we know to be preposterous
> > propaganda? The daily consumers of the lies and
> > brutality smeared in peanut butter and strawberry
> > jam being air-dropped into our minds just like those
> > yellow food packets. Shall we look away and eat
> > because we're hungry, or shall we stare unblinking
> > at the grim theatre unfolding in Afghanistan until
> > we retch collectively and say, in one voice, that we
> > have had enough?
> > As the first year of the new millennium rushes to a
> > close, one wonders - have we forfeited our right to
> > dream? Will we ever be able to re-imagine beauty?
> > Will it be possible ever again to watch the slow,
> > amazed blink of a newborn gecko in the sun, or
> > whisper back to the marmot who has just whispered in
> > your ear - without thinking of the World Trade
> > Centre and Afghanistan?
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
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>
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