Archive 1986 – 2017

There are basically three wars or struggles in the Iraq conflict. There is the war the media is waging for the hearts and minds of people. Second, there is the military war and the promised removal of the Iraqi regime. And, third, there is the war to control and run post-war Iraq and live up to the official motives of bringing freedom, democracy, welfare and prosperity to its 24 million citizens. War # 1: The public relations war The public relations war is aimed at the hearts and minds of people around the globe. It attempts to demonise the Baghdad regime while contrasting it with the noble, altruistic goals to be achieved by the war. Heads of state and governments that were in favour of war have promoted these aims through propaganda, public relations campaigns, psychological warfare, etc, in an effort to sell the war to audiences in the West,...

21 maj 2003 Den delade ön Cypern är inte sig lik. Sedan en tid strömmar grek- och turkcyprioter över gränsen mellan den turkcypriotiska norra och grekcypriotiska södra delen av ön, en gräns som sedan 1974 varit i det närmaste hermetiskt sluten. Det är nu möjligt för var och en att besöka platser som varit utom räckhåll i nära tre decennier. Den 21 april meddelade den turkcypriotiska regeringen överraskande att man beslutat tillåta fri passage i båda riktningarna. Turkcyprioter skulle inte längre behöva tillstånd från sina egna myndigheter för att besöka den södra delen av ön. Grekcyprioter, som endast kunnat passera gränsen undantagsvis och under hårt kontrollerade former, skulle nu till och med kunna ta bilen över för ett besök i norr. Besöken tidsbegränsades dock i båda riktningarna: grekcyprioterna tillåts stanna i tre dagar medan turkcyprioterna måste vända åter innan midnatt. Redan två dagar senare trädde de nya reglerna i kraft...

Comments about Operation Iraqi Freedom and about the mediaBy TFF’s Iraq Conflict-Mitigation team & Associates “It is enough that a lie is believed for three days – it has then served its purpose.”Marie de Medici, 1573-1642, queen consort and queen regent of France  # 3 April 28 till now. Start at bottom   # 1 March 27 – April 8 # 2 April 9 – April 27 54. Kill the looters, says Ambassador Bremer and echoes the colonial mantra: Exterminate all the brutes… Day 57 – May 15, 2003 – Day 57 – May 15, 2003 – Contrary to all the propaganda, a rule can now be established: war criminals and other “bad guys” are not found and brought to justice for two reasons. First, they could tell embarrassing things about the US and other Western governments. Second, they are needed as symbols of the terrible threat against which we must permanently...

There are always lessons to be learned after a war. Often governments and pundits focus only on lessons having to do with military strategies and tactics, such as troop deployments, engagement in battles, bombing targets and the effectiveness of different weapons systems. There are, of course, far bigger lessons to be learned, and here are some of the principal ones from the Iraq War. 1. In the eyes of the Bush administration, the relevance of international organizations such as the United Nations depends primarily upon their willingness to rubberstamp US policy, legal or illegal, moral or immoral. 2. The Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War may be employed against threats that have no basis in fact.  3. The American people appear to take little notice of the ìbait and switchî tactic of initiating a war to prevent use of weapons of mass destruction and then celebrating regime change when no such...

LONDON – The latest polls tell us that a majority of American public opinion doesn’t care that much if no proof comes to light of Iraq possessing significant numbers of weapons of mass destruction. Not just for President George Bush but for America as a whole it has been “a good war”. Nevertheless, deep down the Administration is a little nervous about the course of events in Iraq. How else to explain the rapid change in American senior personnel supposedly running Iraq? But it can’t be that concerned about its long-time bete noire, nation-building, as otherwise it would have asked for a sizeable appropriation in the 2004 budget for reconstruction in Iraq. But not only did it not ask Congress for any money for Iraq, neither did it for Afghanistan. The old jibe that America only does wars not peace has a sad ring of truth. If one wanted to be...

PressInfo # 183 – Part 2 Continued from Part 1. DONALD RUMSFELD, PAUL WOLFOWITZ & RICHARD PERLE Secretaries.Ideologists with their own Special Plans. Masters of a war meaning peace and other “Newspeak” With the illegal war on and occupation of Iraq, the first two personalities need no further introduction. They are Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secreary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz. Then there one of the leading architects of the whole Iraq imbroglio, “The Prince of Darkness”, Richard Perle of the American Enteprise Institute and of the Defense Policy Board. It’s objective is to “serve the public interest by providing the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy. Nine members of the Board have ties to defense contractors. Further, Perle is well-connected to the international media world through Hollinger Digital Inc., the media management and investment arm of Hollinger International Inc. whose online newspapers and...

/0214prepare.htm”>Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance that comes under Pentagon. Here are the backgrounds and profiles about some of them. Interestingly, there are very few questions asked in the free press about this completely undemocratic, ambiguous method to take over a country and shape its future. JAY GARNER Governor – Co-ordinatorRetired US general, pro-Israel from the defence industry, with a past job in Northern Iraq, supposed to be the highest authority Sometimes called the new “viceroy” of Iraq, Retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner is the man in charge of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. Here is how the New York Times presents Jay Garner. And here follows a critical background from The Guardian: “There is no argument among Arab opinion formers, who with rare unanimity have been condemning his appointment as another sign of American contempt for Iraqi feelings,” “One is the general’s work since retiring from the army as president of defence contractor SY Coleman, now...

PressInfo # 183 – Part 1 By They are people with a background in the far-right of the Republican Party, the Israel lobby, Perle and Wolfowitz henchmen, central to the war on terror, to the Homeland Defence authorities, to anti-ABM and pro-Ballistic Missile Defence (Star Wars), close to conservative think tanks, affiliated with mercenary companies, the military-industrial complex (MIC) and CIA. They are former “stabilisers” in Bosnia and Kosovo, and Marine Corps-people (many in Vietnam); they are private consulting firm executives affiliated with the inner circles of power in Washington. And, of course, several are associated with the oil industry, the computer industry as well as the media and public relations industry. With a few exceptions they are Pentagon and not State Department people, they are generals and technocrats. Less than a handful have any prior experience in Iraq or in nation-building, conflict-resolution, reconciliation, post-war trauma healing, civil society empowerment...

LONDON – Europe, including Britain, is going through an agony of heart searching about what its future relationship with America is going to be. American policy makers seem to have no compunction about telling Europeans that they no longer need Europe to do what they want to do in the world. The mood may be extreme- one can’t imagine ex president Bill Clinton allowing it to run away with itself as it has the last six months. But Bush, aided by the fallout from September 11th , seems quite capable of making these so called neo-conservative views the mainstream over the next five years. On the European side the signs of estrangement are just as manifest. While in Britain, always at heart a warrior nation, public sentiment, following victory in the war, has swung back in favour of American leadership, in the rest of Europe opinion is firmly against being under...

Dagen före statyfällningen på Paradistorget i Bagdad dödades (8/4) tre journalister under mycket anmärkningsvärda omständigheter, som Robert Fisk diskuterat i brittiska The Independent (26/4). Två av dem dog när en amerikansk stridsvagn sköt mot Hotel Palestina, där merparten av de internationella journalisterna bodde. USA:s utrikesminister Colin Powell påstod att man besvarade “fientlig eld från hotellet”. Men Fisk hänvisar till en film tagen av franska television av samma amerikanska stridsvagnar. Ljudspåret är tyst till det ögonblick stridsvagnen skjuter. Ingen av journalisterna på hotellet ifråga har heller rapporterat om krypskyttar eller liknande där. Till saken hör också att hotellets byggnad är en av de största i området. Det är ytterst svårt att tänka sig att de amerikanska trupperna inte visste att det rörde sig om journalisternas hotell. Tre timmar tidigare samma dag attackerade ett amerikanskt flygplan den oberoende arabiska TV-sändaren al-Jaziras kontor i Bagdad. En av al-Jaziras reportrar dödades. Vad var det...

By Majid Tehranian University of Hawaii and Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research May 7, 2003 Wars work like narcotics; they produce illusions.  This is true for those who engage in wars and for those who become victims of war propaganda.  For war leaders, this means that they often have to fool themselves before they can fool others.  Instructed by his mentor Aristotle, Alexander was under the illusion that he is uniting Greek and Persian civilizations.   Napoleon believed that he is spreading the French democratic ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity.   In his war projects, Hitler wanted to ensure the rule of the Aryan master race.  Saddam Hussein was on a mission to unite the Arab nation against the Persians, Jews, and Americans.   Ayatollah Khomeini wanted to unite the Islamic world against all domestic and foreign infidels.   Sharon is hoping to force the Palestinians into submission.  The suicide...

LONDON – Woodrow Wilson, the idealistic president of the United States during the First World War, said that the U.S. world role came “by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God that led us into this way”. Until Vietnam this view was held right across the American political spectrum. America was the God-given example to other nations and was the leading nation on a progressive scale of historical development. The Vietnam-induced pause in this historical march now seems to be a long time ago. The forward momentum of the exceptional American spirit continues with a union under President George Bush of  two powerful schools of American foreign policy: the Wilsonian liberals anxious to extend democracy and the neoconservatives, unilateralist inclined, who believe in power projection and who also think that an aggressive American leadership around the world will work for the good of all societies. Yet the...