Re: [Nettime-nl] Oorlog is Vrede (4)

[Case Roole <cjr@xs4all.nl>]

On Wednesday 24 October 2001 01:09, you wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nettime-nl-admin@nettime.org
> > [mailto:nettime-nl-admin@nettime.org]On Behalf Of Case Roole
> > Sent: 24 October 2001 01:01
> > To: nettime-nl@nettime.org
> > Subject: Re: [Nettime-nl] Oorlog is Vrede (4)
> >
> >
> > dan speculatie is. Het op te lossen probleem is dat veel mensen niet
> > overtuigd zijn van de beschrijving door de VS van een bipolaire morele
> > situatie waarbij er slechts twee elkaar uitsluitende opties open staan:
> > men staat achter de terroristische aanslagen in New York en Washington of
> > men staat achter iedere handeling die de VS momenteel verrichten
> > inclusief de genocide in Afghanistan.
>
> En genocide lijkt ietwat aan de overdreven kant.

Als reactie is genocide zeker overdreven, als beschrijvend concept lijkt het 
mij de lading van de huidige activiteiten van de "wereldcoalitie" te dekken. 
Ik sluit mij aan bij het volgende van Chomsky (mijn verontschuldigingen voor 
de rottige vraagtekentjes):


1. What’s Happening Right Now?

Starvation of 3 to 4 Million People

Well let’s start with right now. I’ll talk about the situation in 
Afghanistan. I’ll just keep to uncontroversial sources like the New York 
Times [crowd laughter]. According to the New York Times there are 7 to 8 
million people in Afghanistan on the verge of starvation. That was true 
actually before September 11th. They were surviving on international aid. On 
September 16th, the Times reported, I’m quoting it, that the United States 
demanded from Pakistan the elimination of truck convoys that provide much of 
the food and other supplies to Afghanistan’s civilian population. As far as I 
could determine there was no reaction in the United States or for that matter 
in Europe. I was on national radio all over Europe the next day. There was no 
reaction in the United States or in Europe to my knowledge to the demand to 
impose massive starvation on millions of people. The threat of military 
strikes right after September…..around that time forced the removal of 
international aid workers that crippled the assistance programs. Actually, I 
am quoting again from the New York Times. Refugees reaching Pakistan after 
arduous journeys from AF are describing scenes of desperation and fear at 
home as the threat of American led military attacks turns their long running 
misery into a potential catastrophe. The country was on a lifeline and we 
just cut the line. Quoting an evacuated aid worker, in the New York Times 
Magazine.

The World Food Program, the UN program, which is the main one by far, were 
able to resume after 3 weeks in early October, they began to resume at a 
lower level, resume food shipments. They don’t have international aid workers 
within, so the distribution system is hampered. That was suspended as soon as 
the bombing began. They then resumed but at a lower pace while aid agencies 
leveled scathing condemnations of US airdrops, condemning them as propaganda 
tools which are probably doing more harm than good. That happens to be 
quoting the London Financial Times but it is easy to continue. After the 
first week of bombing, the New York Times reported on a back page inside a 
column on something else, that by the arithmetic of the United Nations there 
will soon be 7.5 million Afghans in acute need of even a loaf of bread and 
there are only a few weeks left before the harsh winter will make deliveries 
to many areas totally impossible, continuing to quote, but with bombs falling 
the delivery rate is down to ½ of what is needed. Casual comment. Which tells 
us that Western civilization is anticipating the slaughter of, well do the 
arithmetic, 3-4 million people or something like that. On the same day, the 
leader of Western civilization dismissed with contempt, once again, offers of 
negotiation for delivery of the alleged target, Osama bin Laden, and a 
request for some evidence to substantiate the demand for total capitulation. 
It was dismissed. On the same day the Special Rapporteur of the UN in charge 
of food pleaded with the United States to stop the bombing to try to save 
millions of victims. As far as I’m aware that was unreported. That was 
Monday. Yesterday the major aid agencies OXFAM and Christian Aid and others 
joined in that plea. You can’t find a report in the New York Times. There was 
a line in the Boston Globe, hidden in a story about another topic, Kashmir. 

Silent Genocide

Well we could easily go on….but all of that….first of all indicates to us 
what’s happening. Looks like what’s happening is some sort of silent 
genocide. It also gives a good deal of insight into the elite culture, the 
culture that we are part of. It indicates that whatever, what will happen we 
don’t know, but plans are being made and programs implemented on the 
assumption that they may lead to the death of several million people in the 
next couple of weeks….very casually with no comment, no particular thought 
about it, that’s just kind of normal, here and in a good part of Europe. Not 
in the rest of the world. In fact not even in much of Europe. So if you read 
the Irish press or the press in Scotland…that close, reactions are very 
different. Well that’s what’s happening now. What’s happening now is very 
much under our control. We can do a lot to affect what’s happening. And 
that’s roughly it.

Zie:
http://www.zmag.org/GlobalWatch/chomskymit.htm

-cjr
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