(Fwd) Avnery - Some thoughts about the war

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

FYI
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	Uri Avnery 

Uri Avnery
22.3.03

					Bitter Rice		

     Some thoughts about the war:
     
     # Beware of the Shiites. The troubles of the occupation 
will start after the fighting is over. Here is a personal story 
and its lessons: 
     On the forth day of the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon, I 
crossed the border at a lone spot near Metulla and looked 
for the front, which had already reached the outskirts of 
Sidon. I was driving my private car, accompanied only by a 
woman photographer. We passed a dozen Shiite villages 
and were received everywhere with great joy. We 
extracted ourselves only with great difficulty from 
hundreds of villagers, each one insisting that we have 
coffee at their home. On the previous days, they had 
showered the soldiers with rice.
     A few months later I joined an army convoy going in the 
opposite direction, from Sidon to Metulla. The soldiers 
were now wearing bulletproof vests and helmets, many 
were on the verge of panic. 
     What had happened? The Shiites received the Israeli 
soldiers as liberators. When they realized that they had 
come to stay as occupiers, they started to kill them.
     When the Israeli troops entered Lebanon, the Shiites 
were a down-trodden, powerless community, held in 
contempt by all the others.  After a year of fighting the 
occupiers, they became a political and military power. The 
Shiite Hizbullah is the only military force in the Arab world 
that has beaten the mighty Israeli army.
      Sharon is the real father of the Shiite force in Lebanon. 
Bush may well become the father of Shiite power in Iraq. 
The Shiites, 60% of the Iraqi population, have been until 
now down-trodden and powerless. When they will realize 
that the Americans intend to stay, they will start a deadly 
guerilla. Bush does not intend to leave Iraq, as Sharon did 
not intend to leave Lebanon.
     Then what? America will argue that Iran, the great Shiite 
neighbor, is behind the Shiite guerilla. In Iran there is a lot 
of oil. That’s the next target.

     #  Blood for Oil. George Bush is a primitive man, but the 
people behind him are far from being stupid. They are the 
oil barons and the arms industry giants. They want to do 
what great powers have always done: use their military 
might in order to acquire economic hegemony. In simple 
words: to rob the poor peoples in order to enrich 
themselves even more.
     The military occupation of Iraq will last many years and 
secure for America the control over the vast oil reserves of 
Iraq, as well as the Caspian Sea reserves and all the Arab 
oil. That will give it control over the world’s economy and 
prevent the emergence of a competing,  independent 
European economic bloc. America is fighting against 
Europe as much as against Iraq. That is part of the reason 
for Europe’s angry response.

     # Germany. Germany is against the war. Against any 
war. In no other country was the anti-war outburst so 
authentic, emanating from the innermost feelings of the 
masses. 
     And who is furious about this? Israel, the country of the 
Holocaust survivors. How do they dare, these damn 
Germans, to object to the war?
     A sad irony of history: all German TV stations show 
citizens, intellectuals and ordinary folk, who pray for 
peace, all Israeli TV screens show retired generals, 
obviously enjoying themselves, discussing with great 
relish how to employ giant bombs and other instruments 
of death.

     #  Intoxication of power. This is the first war of the 21st 
century, and it bodes ill. 
     This century has inherited from its predecessor a world 
containing one sole super-power. America has no 
competitors, no possible combination of other forces can 
measure up to it. It can literally do what it wants, and now it 
is doing just that openly and brutally.
     When America won its cheap and easy victory in 
Afghanistan, using smart bombs and suitcases filled with 
cash, it was clear it could not stop itself anymore. A huge 
machine like that wants to go on fighting and is searching 
for an enemy. Now it’s Iraq. Who next? Iran? North Korea?
     That is what happened to the Roman Empire. That is 
what happened to Napoleon and Hitler. The intoxication of 
power knows no boundaries. And no one of these was in 
the situation of the United States now: alone in the world, 
without enemies that can stand up to it.

     #  A Jewish War? The anti-Semites proclaim that this is 
not a war for American interests, but for Israel. As proof, 
they point to the group of American Jews that took a 
leading part in initiating this war, people like Paul 
Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith at the Defence 
Department, Elliott Abrams at the National Security 
Council (as well as Ari Fleisher at the White House and 
even Dan Kerzer, the US ambassador in Tel-Aviv). These 
people support haron and the extreme right in Israel, some 
of them speak Hebrew, a group of them has acted as 
advisors to Benyamin Netanyahu, when he became prime 
Minister. Together with the two non-Jews, Cheney and 
Rumsfield, they pushed Washington into the war. Thus 
say the anti-Semites.
     That is true by itself, but this is first and foremost a war 
for American interests. However, Bush and Sharon believe 
that American and Israeli interests are practically identical. 
The Jewish war group in Washington acts in close 
cooperation with the Christian fundamentalists, who now 
control the Republican party and who have a hidden anti-
Semitic agenda.
     The anti-Semites will point to another obvious fact: 
Israel is the only country in the world where not one single 
politician nor any part of the media has raised their voices 
against the war. While millions march all over the world, 
only one single anti-war demonstration, organized by 
Gush Shalom and some other peace organizations, has 
taken place in Israel. It attracted 2500 people.
     In the struggle between Bush and world opinion, the 
government of Israel has chosen chose Bush. On the face 
of it, that seems sensible, since Bush has might on his 
side and sides with Sharon. But in the long run, it may turn 
out to be the wrong bet. 

     #  The pope’s divisions. “How many divisions does the 
pope have?” Stalin asked sarcastically when told that the 
Holy Father objects to his actions. Today, the question is: 
how many divisions does world public opinion command?
     All over the world, the public opposes the war. There is 
an immense majority against it even in countries whose 
leaders have joined Bush’s “coalition”. For the first time, 
there is something that can be called “world opinion”.
     Only the future will tell if this constitutes a real force. 
Thomas Jefferson, one of the fathers of American 
democracy, once said that no country could conduct its 
affairs without “a decent respect for world opinion.”
     Perhaps the 21st century will witness a struggle 
between the brute force of a mighty military-economic 
super-power and world public opinion, assisted now by 
modern technology.

     #  Mercenaries. This is a war fought by mercenaries. 
The fighters are professional soldiers, the sons of the 
poor, many of them black. Therefore it is easy for middle 
class citizens, and especially the Republican voters, to 
approve of the war. It is not their sons who will be killed.
     In the past, the European left demanded the abolition of 
the professional army and the introduction of general 
conscription. At the time, that was a “progressive” idea. 
When the left put on weight, it forgot all about it.
     The Vietnam war was still fought by drafted soldiers. 
Resistance to the war grew when the body bags started to 
arrive. George W. Bush, who supported the war with all his 
heart, took no part in the fighting. Father arranged a job for 
him back home. He was just another shirker.

     # Jefferson again: “Indeed, I tremble for my country 
when I reflect that God is just.”