Archive 1986 – 2017

There comes a time when the prevarications and faulty logic of official policy become so extreme that only satire can shed light on the truth. We have reached such a point with respect to the warmongering of the United States and Britain in relation to Iraq’s alleged possession of a threatening stockpile of chemical and biological weapons. George Bush and Tony Blair are trying to impose a deadline of March 17th, just days away, for Saddam Hussein to prove that he does not have weapons of mass destruction. If Bush and Blair succeed in getting the support of the UN Security Council for this, they are prepared to proceed to war. From their pronouncements, they seem determined to proceed to war even without Security Council approval. But how can Hussein prove that he doesn’t have something? What would the proof be that something doesn’t exist? If he were asked to...

Krig er intet alternativ For mange af os er krig som metode til at løse politiske problemer noget utænkeligt, uciviliseret, forældet. Som Gerhard Schröder sagde i sin begrundelse for at modsætte sig angrebet på Irak: krig må aldrig opfattes som en brugbar politisk metode. Denne holdning præger hele fredsbevægelsen og udtrykkes f.eks. i mange af de over 100 slogans, som findes på en enkelt demonstration for fred i San Francisco i januar 2003: War is stupidNot in my nameBig boys use wordsWar is simply not healthyThis war is wrongBasta, enough Eller, mere alvorligt: put an end to war, or war will kill mankind. Men vi må nu tænke det utænkelige, for krigen er virkelig og den nærmer sig alt for hastigt. Konsekvenserne er dystre. En FN-rapport forudsiger flere hundrede tusinde op til 500.000 døde i krigens første faser. Angsten er der allerede blandt Iraks børn og Amerikas mødre, og derefter lidelser, meningsløs...

Av Håkan Palm 24 mars 2003 Helsingborgs Dagblad 2 mars 2003 Den irakiska regimen står inte och faller med Saddam Hussein. Maktens trådar väver via klanerna djupt ner i samhället på ett komplicerat sätt. Många irakier har mycket att förlora på ett regimskifte. USA kan heller inte skaka fram en trovärdig ersättare över en natt, hävdar Khaled Bayomi, historiker vid Lunds universitet. Takhalof är ett arabiskt ord s om betyder “att hamna på efterkälken”. Det är ett viktigt begrepp i arabismens nationalistiska världsbild som används för politisk mobilisering, berättar Khaled Bayomi, expert på arabstaternas statliga propaganda. Takhalof är den sorgliga fortsättningen på en svunnen guldålder, det tillstånd av dekadens som infann sig sedan det arabiska världsväldet vittrat sönder och överflyglats av Europa och övriga västvärlden. Men tanken på come back i stor stil är ständigt levande. Drömmen om en pånyttfödelse är ett starkt retorisk instrument som arabiska och muslimska ledare...

Måske er det ikke FNs mest kendte fredsmission, men vi kan være sikre på snart at høre mere om den, idet den befinder sig på grænsen mellem Irak og Kuwait. Navnet er UNIKOM (UN Irak-Kuwait Observation Mission), http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unikom/index.html. Den blev etableret ved FNs Sikkerhedsråds-resolution 687, i 1991. Da TFF var på analyserejse i Irak i januar i år, besøgte vi denne FN-mission på pladsen. Rapporter fra de seneste dage fortæller at bevæbnede USA-marinesoldater er gået ind i denne demilitariserede zone, DMZ, mellem Irak og Kuwait. På Kuwait-siden er indhegningen blevet skåret op og 7 porte sat ind, tilsyneladende for at forberede en invasion og besætelse af Irak. Vi, forfatterne, er ikke eksperter i folkeret og kan ikke bedømme om dette er et brud på en Sikkerhedsrådsbestemmelse og/eller andre internationale love, eller om der et eller andet sted med småt står noget, der kan legitimere dette under visse betingelser. Men vi betvivler...

Perhaps it is not the most well-known peace mission of the UN, but you will be sure to hear more about it soon as it is situated on the border between Iraq and Kuwait. Its name is UNIKOM (UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission), http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unikom/index.html. It was established by Security Council Resolution 687 in 1991. During TFF’s fact-finding mission to Iraq in January this year, we visited the UN mission there. Reports from the last few days tell that armed US Marines and vehicles have entered this demilitarised zone, DMZ, between Iraq and Kuwait. On the Kuwaiti side, they have cut down fences and set up 7 gates, presumably in preparation of an invasion and occupation of Iraq. We, the authors, are not experts in international law and shall not judge whether this is a breach of the Security Council Resolution and/or other parts of international law, or whether there is some fine...

The United States is by circumstance and design an emergent global empire, the first in the history of the world. Prior empires have had frontiers and boundaries, although occupying large expanses of territory, and exerting control from a distant center that due to available technologies of communication and transportation were further away in time than is any part of the global from Washington. In purely temporal terms, the American Empire is thus smaller than earlier great empires associated with China, the Ottomans, the Persians, the Austro-Hungarian, and the overseas empires of the British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese. It is important to appreciate the consequences of an empire of global scope. Such an empire, to the extent that it is established and sustained without significant resistance, raise a special challenge to world order. Over the course of modern history, in particular, stability in international relations has been maintained primarily by...

The war against Iraq has already begun after passing the deadline given by the President of the American empire. Some three hundred thousand men and women, using the most advanced weapons in the history of war, are attacking Iraq, another country, aiming to change its political leaders and regime. In the past few nights, thousands of missiles set Baghdad alighted, sending “shock and awe” to the regime waiting to be “decapitated” by the sword of the empire. At the time of this writing, the US-led ground forces continue their activities, some at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers from Ancient Baghdad. According to figures given by both sides, the number of lives lost from the attack have been strikingly low as a result of the advanced technology of killings used. It goes without saying, however, to assume that as war continues, number of civilian casualties will rise. Saddam...

Kriget har sin egen logik. När så stora krig pågår för fullt blir fredsmarchernas “Stoppa kriget” tyvärr orealistiskt- vill säga, medmindre USA kommer att sitta fast eller barbariet blir så vidrigt och kriget sprida sig så en förhandlat vapenvila måste förhandlas fram mellan många parter. George W. Bush och Saddam Hussein har satsat allt på vad jag förmodar kan bli bådas sista kraftmätning. De lyssnar inte på folkopinionen, de lever isolerade i sin egen värld utan mycket kontakt med verkligheten eller empati med andras lidande. Dessutom står i detta kriget ofantligt stora statliga intressen på spel för såväl USA och övriga västvärlden som för Irak. Det kan bli det mest konsekvensrika kriget sedan 1945. Men i de kommande månaderna blir det viktigt att ständigt dokumentera krigets allmänna meningslöshet, inhumanitet och diktatur. Vi måste hela tiden visa hur kriget självt och dess resultat står i motsats till de officiellt framförda motiven...

“There will be another war, a second war of civilisations.” It is with those terms that I had predicted the current situation in a declaration that I had made on October 6, 1990 on Radio France International. And today I am stating it again “yes, the second war of civilisations has already begun.” What does a war of civilisations mean? How does one determine the dimensions of such a confrontation and evaluate the mechanisms and means that the belligerents intend to exploit in order to attain their objectives? There are many sayings that history has classified in the proverb category or simply in the category of the imagined words that sum up the wisdom of the Peoples through the expressive strength of popular language and its everlastingness in the collective memory through the different centuries. There is a saying in Morocco that reflects the present situation in the world: “I gave him...

“Det finns något anarkistiskt då det gäller hur människor reagerar på våld. Irakierna runt mig stod och tittade, liksom jag själv, då väldiga eldtungor slog ut från de övre våningarna av Saddams palats, långt upp i himlen. Märkvärdigt nog fungerade elnätet fortfarande och runt om oss slog trafikljusen om mellan rött och grönt. Affischer fladdrade i vinden från chockvågorna och belysningen fortsatte att flöda över de offentliga byggnaderna. Över oss kunde vi se täta rökridåer driva över Bagdad, vita av explosionerna, svarta av de brinnande målen. … Så rapporterar Independents legendariske journalist Robert Fisk i lördagens tidning (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=389497). Han sammanfattar missilernas budskap: “… att USA måste lydas. Att ingenting får stå i dess väg, varken EU, FN, Nato eller något annat.” I senaste numret av den franska månadstidningen Le Monde Diplomatique uttrycker sig den indiska författarinnan Arundhaty Roy på liknande vis: “Vad kan vi göra? … Vi kan visa fram George Bush...

LONDON – This war, if it happens, won’t leave the world as it found it. And this is true not only for the Muslim world but for Europe and America too. The irritations that seem a constant of American-European relations the last few years have become almost a battle zone. If the academic studies were not so convincing on the subject that democracies never go to war with each other one could perhaps imagine in the foreseeable future a state of armed hostilities between the rival camps. Certainly the common mood all over Western Europe is that we don’t want to be part of the great transatlantic alliance anymore, if it means that every couple of years we have to follow America to war. In the crucible of the preparations for war European citizens have forged their own common foreign policy. Europeans have never been so aware of their common identity...

LONDON – This war, if it happens, won’t leave the world as it found it. And this is true not only for the Muslim world but for Europe and America too. The irritations that seem a constant of American-European relations the last few years have become almost a battle zone. If the academic studies were not so convincing on the subject that democracies never go to war with each other one could perhaps imagine in the foreseeable future a state of armed hostilities between the rival camps. Certainly the common mood all over Western Europe is that we don’t want to be part of the great transatlantic alliance anymore, if it means that every couple of years we have to follow America to war. In the crucible of the preparations for war European citizens have forged their own common foreign policy. Europeans have never been so aware of their common identity...