The Lie Of Liberation
Cheering Iraqis are just a diversion, folks. BushCo's real goal is only just beginning
By Mark Morford

Yay! The gorilla has crushed the mouse. The bazooka has blown apart the BB gun. The dinosaur has stomped the fly. Yay!

Rejoice in the streets! The bright shiny righteous angry Christian god has obliterated the angry sullen foreign god. Or something.

Except, of course, it hasn't, not by a long shot. But, hey, we've more or less taken Baghdad, right? Headlines are screaming, it looks like victory, it smells like victory ... it must be victory! We've won! Sort of! But not quite! Savor it like bloodied candy, we will!
[more]

The national gloat
On the fall of Baghdad, and the wars to come
by Geov Parrish

America's triumphalism is delusional for two reasons. First, its armed forces have managed, between Afghanistan and Iraq, to rout the rag-tag armies of two of the world's poorest countries, the latter ravaged by eight years of war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War, and especially the economic sanctions that put the country in a stranglehold for 12 long years. That Iraqis were willing to fight at all against so much greater a military force should be a warning sign of the resentments America is unleashing.

The second delusion is the war itself. The war Americans witnessed -- clean, antiseptic, with only minor delays along the supply lines to counter rear- guard attacks -- is not the war witnessed by much of the rest of the world. From Morocco to Mindinao, and Sydney to Stockholm, the images of American soldiers wrapping the head of Saddam's statue in a flag, or sitting in Saddam's chair in the rubble of a presidential palace, are not the actions of a liberator; they are the actions of an imperial power, boasting to the world of its fearsome might.

In America, the general impression is that Iraqi civilians were spared by the awesome precision of American weaponry. In the rest of the world, the more gruesome truth -- that in war, some people die, and many more suffer horribly -- has been broadcast in living color every day for three weeks. Those images will linger long after Saddam Hussein is forgotten.
[more]

We said it would be a nightmare
And yes, that's exactly what it is
by Alexander Cockburn

Baghdad's hospitals admit a hundred casualties an hour and have run out of anesthetics. Surgeons try to numb up mangled children with short-term pain-killers, but even these are in dwindling supply. Iraqi families who fled into the desert face 100-degree temperatures and no water. U.S. tanks inflict mayhem and slaughter in Baghdad's streets.
[more]

But...but we won...didn't we?

What amazes me is the patronizing way that commentators have watched the total collapse of law and order in Iraq so sanguinely. As if they're waiting for us to get set up. Oh, things will calm down once we get the exiles and the occupation government in place, seems to be the theme.

According to the BBC, Rummy was peeved when he was asked about the collapse of civil order in Iraq's main cities. He said the media was exaggerating. They were 100 percent accurate when showing US Marines pulling down yet another statue from Saddam, even though a wide shot shows a much smaller crowd than one you see on TV, yet when they show five major buildings burning like a bonfire, they're exaggerating. The doctors and the photographers are using Photoshop to create those images. It's like that old Richard Pryor joke: believe me, not your lying eyes.
[more]

How Iraq could devolve into Civil War

Iraq is clearly suffering a period of disorder, the question is will it shift into civil war?

I am not predicitng a civil war. What I am saying is that there will be signs of a country slipping into civil war which should be clear. I don't know what will happen. Maybe the exiles and the US can build peace. I certainly hope so, because the alternative could be a catastrophy for both Americans and Iraqis.
[more]

What Lurks in the Ruins?

The war against Iraq is on the road to failure in its most important, durable objective: to transform this construct of British imperialism, Baathist oppression, and American fantasies into a willing replica of Western democracy.
[more]

Power vacuum that has taken US by surprise
Washington row over who will take reins of government

The US won the war with relative ease: the peace is proving to be a lot harder. The collapse of Saddam's regime has left a power vacuum that has taken America by surprise.
[more]

The Night After
The Easier the Victory, the Harder the Peace
by Uri Avnery

It is now fashionable to talk about "the day after". Let's talk about the night after.

After the end of hostilities in Iraq, the world will be faced with two decisive facts:

First, the immense superiority of American arms can beat any people in the world, valiant as it may be.

Second, the small group that initiated this war--an alliance of Christian fundamentalists and Jewish neo-conservatives--has won big, and from now on it will control Washington almost without limits.
[more]

Who's Next for Global Vigilante?

A reader's letter published in the Los Angeles Times last week said it all: "We have learned two things from the war in Iraq. We have learned that the Tigris flows through Baghdad, and the Hubris flows through the White House."
[more]