[Nettime-bold] State of the Union?

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

When Eugene Angelopoulos, professor at the National Technical 
University of Athens invited by the New York University to speak at 
a conference on Philosophy and Politics, last week arrived at John 
F. Kennedy airport, he was detained, shackled, and asked if he is 
anti-American and whether he opposes the war against Iraq.

More than 20 leading scientific journals in the U.S. have made a 
pact to censor articles that they believe could compromise 
‘national security’, regardless of their scientific merit. New York 
Immigration Coalition meets in the French cultural center in New 
York, and anti-war protesters congregate in front of the German 
Consulate.  Is there a time coming when Americans are going to 
seek asylum in other countries?

The U.S. government tried every possible way to prevent citizens 
from exercising the 1st and 4th amendments and demonstrate in 
New York city. Attorney general, Ashcroft, filed legal papers trying 
to stop it. Rumors were spread that protest had been canceled. 
NYPD for days refused to issue a permit, citing ‘security concerns’ 
- and finally it allowed only rally, but not a march, and it withheld 
portable toilets from the rally, just to make protesters more 
uncomfortable and less likely to gather.

Heavily armed NYPD officers were issuing $50 tickets to those who 
were handing out fliers in Grand Central Station. Bus operators in 
outlying areas, who've rented vehicles to protesters, have received 
calls from something called the Police Intelligence Unit. The callers 
warn that New York is on high terror alert, and ask for names and 
numbers of those who intend to ride. During the protest horse 
mounted NYPD officers controlled the movement of protesters - 
protesters were literally fenced in their blocks and not allowed to 
move. Particular care was taken that two blocks closest to the 
stage, that were covered by the television cameras, remain 
scarcely populated, probably in an effort to make protest crowd 
looking smaller than it was.

More than 10 million people in more than 600 cities in practically 
every country around the globe marched on February 15 against 
Bush’s unilateral pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Austria meanwhile 
blocked the transport of U.S. military equipment by rail from 
Germany to friendlier Italy via Austria. Rumsfeld is threatening to 
withdraw U.S. forces entirely from Germany, with intent, he said, to 
hurt German economy. Does this guy read business section of 
daily newspapers? 

German economy is long past being dependent on handouts from 
Americans. It is the other way around, it looks like. And Germany 
have its share of experience with ‘pre-emptive’ warfare, and its 
consequences, so maybe their advice is worth listening to.

A friend of mine attended a half a million strong rally in NYC, and 
this is an excerpt from his account of the event: “A Black cop had 
Nikon camera and was viciously taking pictures of demonstrators. I 
had him take picture of my middle finger from various angles. Hope 
it helps NYPD fight crime and terrorism.  The cops did not check 
backpacks or sneakers for explosives, anthrax and cyanide. But 
we were all safe, no incident occurred. I guess if you are not 
evildoer, or an arrogant aggressor, you shouldn't worry
about being attacked by the terrorists.... I saw a sign - Bush and 
Bin Laden: Both unelected,
both want war..."

It is true that Saddam Hussein is in violation of UN resolution and 
that he broke his agreement to disarm, that he promised to do after 
losing a war to ‘the coalition’ of 1991. But Israel also violated UN 
resolutions. And in 18th century this would be treated as a colonial 
problem of the U.S or, rather, U.K. at that time. But this is 21st 
century, and it is indeed the U.S. that always insist on building 
coalitions, because Americans do not like to look like imperialists, 
like those from the ‘Old Europe’. 

British went alone to Falklands, blissfully unashamed of their 
imperialist posture. The U.S. wants to be granted permission by 
the world to do something that would only benefit their private 
imperialist designs on the world, and the U.S. government is 
whining and calling heads of states pygmies, labeling whole 
countries as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as irrelevant, 
when their support is not forthcoming.

And the U.S. Congress still so far goes along with this insanity. 
“We stand passively mute in the United States Senate, paralyzed 
by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of 
events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers is there 
much substantive discussion of 
the prudence or imprudence of engaging in this particular war.” said 
senator Robert Byrd in his speech on the Senate floor. White 
House spokesperson Ari Fliescher said that Bush was in direct 
contact with God, or if not God, then at least Providence. Perhaps 
only Israeli settlers or Iranian mullahs can then converse with him.

War on Afghanistan costed so far $37B, war on Iraq, judged by 
government-friendly estimates, may cost $200B. It may cost much 
more in a long run. And, already stock valuations have fallen 33% 
since Bush became president; investors are still withdrawing 
money; consumer sentiment is at historic lows;
consumer debt is at historic highs; the U.S. faces the worst hiring 
slump in twenty years; production as measured by the GDP minus 
government is falling; the deficit is ballooning; oil and gas prices 
are soaring even as retail and travel sectors slash prices. Does 
government seriously intend to advise us to use duct tape as a 
solution to all those problems?

Duct tape is indeed a great help - I use it a lot on my snowboard 
gloves and snowboard pants, but I never contemplated it as a 
measure against the permanent global war in which this 
administration is plunging us all. Governments that support U.S. in 
its war plans do not have support of their people - in Spain, Italy, 
Netherlands, Denmark and UK most of people oppose the war - 
just as the U.S. government does not have support of its people. 
Bush shrugged the will of the people off, telling that HE disagreed 
with them. The U.S. is not any more a Republic by the people, for 
the people. It became an empire. But Tony Blair softened British 
pro-war rhetoric following the protests, leaving the U.S. in danger of 
losing that last ally in the world.
							
The planners of this war, as Ralph Nader has forcefully said, are 
chicken hawks, that is, hawks who are too cowardly to do any 
fighting themselves. Wolfowitz, Perle, Bush, Cheney and others of 
that entirely civilian group were to a man in strong favour of the 
Vietnam War, yet each of them got a deferment based on privilege, 
and therefore never fought or so much as even served in the armed 
forces.

Their belligerence is therefore morally repugnant and, in the literal 
sense, anti-democratic in the extreme. What this unrepresentative 
cabal seeks in a war with Iraq has nothing to do with actual military
considerations. Iraq, whatever the disgusting qualities of its 
deplorable regime, is simply not an
imminent and credible threat to neighbours like Turkey, or Israel, or 
even Jordan (each of
which could easily handle it militarily) or certainly to the US.

I am quoting this excerpt from Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery’s 
brilliant article in entirety, because there is not a word I would add 
or subtract from what he wrote: 
“The American occupation of Iraq will ensure American control not 
only over the vast oil reserves of Iraq itself, but also of the Caspian 
Sea and the Gulf States.  The hand on the oil tab of the world can 
choke Germany, France and Japan, because it can manipulate at 
will the price of oil throughout the world.  Lower the price, and you 
choke Russia.  Raise the price, and you choke Europe and Japan.

Therefore, preventing the war is an essential European interest, in 
addition to the profound longing for peace of the European peoples.

Washington does not even hide its desire to bring Europe to its 
knees. Lately, there is a crude American effort to create a coalition 
of peripheral countries in order to oust Germany and France from 
the leadership of the European Union.  America is organizing a 
bloc of the former Communist nations, who are about to join the 
Union, together with the UK, Spain and Italy.  The Paris-Berlin 
axis, aided by Moscow, is designed as a defense against this ploy, 
too.
This war, then, goes much beyond the Iraqi problem.  It is not a 
war against Saddam's microbes.  It is, quite simply, a war for world 
dominion, economic, political, military and cultural.  Bush is ready 
to spill a lot of blood to achieve this (as long as it is not American 
blood).

Israel is involved in this game without quite knowing what it is doing 
there, a boy in a game of world-league bullies.  It has nothing to 
gain, it can only lose.”
 
As the disagreement over handling Iraq arose in NATO, placing 
Belgium, France and Germany in the anti-war bloc, the Belgian 
courts issued a notice to Israel’s Sharon, that he is going to have 
to face trial in Belgium as soon as he leaves office. Sharon, pissed, 
recalled Israel’s ambassador from Belgium, and called Belgium 
‘that little country’. It is true that Belgium had its share of horrible 
human rights abuses in Congo as late as the beginning of 20th 
century, but this does not justify Sharon’s recalcitrance.

It is like Croatia justifying not surrendering generals Bobetko and 
Gotovina to the Hague, because they were helping Croatia’s 
struggle for survival, so their alleged crimes against humanity are 
beyond reproach. Israel’s future government will have to deal with 
Sharon and Yaron, like Croatia today has to deal with Bobetko and 
Gotovina.

And the U.S. in 2006 may surrender George W. Bush to The 
Hague.

Ivo
					

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