U.S, threatens Syria & Iran
Protest grows in Arab world
By Richard Becker
The corporate media's coverage of the U.S. war on Iraq goes
way beyond what is generally termed propaganda. They have
created an "alternative reality" for their U.S. viewers.
In their fabricated "reality," there is on one side an evil
demon, a "new Hitler," who plans to dominate the world, spread
terror and crush freedom at home and abroad. Never mind that
the "new Hitler" has no navy, no real air force, no long-range
missiles and an atrophied industrial base.
On the other side is "Freedom-loving America," supported by
"Democratic Britain," riding to the rescue, bringing
liberation, protecting civilian life and Iraq's oil wealth from
the demon, in order to usher in a new era of freedom and
democracy for the people of Iraq and the entire Middle
East.
"Invaders" should never be used to refer to the U.S./British
troops. And never, never call their cruise missiles and 5,000
pound bombs "weapons of mass destruction."
A "cowardly terrorist" is someone who sacrifices his or her
life fighting the invad ers, oops, liberators. Civilians
fighting to defend their homeland without proper uniforms are
committing "war crimes."
True courage consists of sitting in a submarine hundreds of
miles away, or in a B-52 at 35,000 feet--high above the other
side's anti-aircraft range--and firing cruise missiles into
populated areas.
This is the science fiction movie running on eight networks,
24/7 in the United States. Because it is so pervasive, it has
an influence on the population here.
But it doesn't play in the Middle East. With the exception
of the royal families and other U.S. clients and hangers-on in
the area, virtually the entire population is vehemently opposed
to the war.
There, the war is seen plainly and simply as an imperialist
invasion of Iraq by two "great" powers--"great" only in their
violence, as V.I. Lenin once said--who have dominated the
region for the past half-century and more.
It is universally viewed as a war not only against Iraq, but
against all the Arab and other oppressed peoples of the Middle
East.
War to dominate oil wealth
As is well-known by every Iraqi schoolchild, Britain was the
colonizer of Iraq from 1918 until the revolution of 1958,
during which time it shared-out Iraq's oil wealth with U.S.,
French and Dutch oil companies. Iraq owned 0 percent of its
petroleum reserves then.
Above all, the war is viewed as an attempt to "liberate"
Iraq from control of its oil resources as well as its
independence, and to restore its pre-1958 colonial status.
Equally widespread is the perception that if successful, the
U.S./British "coalition" would then move on to "restructure"
the entire region along the same lines.
The militant and growing demonstrations throughout the Arab
and Islamic world are fueled by this mass understanding of the
real motivation behind the war on Iraq.
Protests have swept across Lebanon, Morocco, Iran, Yemen,
Bahrain, Turkey and elsewhere. The repressive Egyptian and
Jordanian regimes, both of which are heavily supported and
dependent on Washington for their survival, have taken actions
designed both to suppress and co-opt the wave of protest.
Angry demonstrations on March 22 in Cairo, capital of the
largest of the Arab countries, were brutally attacked by the
U.S.-supplied Egyptian police. Many organizers, including a
progressive opposition member of parliament, were severely
beaten and imprisoned. Accord ing to many news reports, the
demonstrations were the most militant in recent times.
Given the intensity of the anger in the country, the
government of President Hosni Mubarak couldn't completely stop
the protests. A week later, on March 29, the authorities
allowed the outlawed, right-wing Muslim Brotherhood to lead a
march through Cairo, with the Brother hood agreeing to keep the
protesters under control.
Egypt's second-largest newspaper, Al Akhbar, carried a
typical headline on March 28: "A total war of genocide against
Iraqis."
Other newspapers in the region, most of them generally
considered moderate in their political views, carried similar
headlines. "Monstrous martyrdom in Bagh dad" read the
front-page of Al-Dus tur of Amman, Jordan, on March 29, the day
after a U.S. missile killed at least 58 Iraqis in a Baghdad
market.
"Yet another massacre by the coalition of invaders," was the
main headline on Saudi Arabia's al-Riyadh newspaper. Summer
Said, a journalist for the pro-Western Cairo Times, an English-
language news magazine, told the March 30 Washington Post: "I
thought at first, okay, maybe it isn't a war for oil. Maybe
America does want to help. Now it's genocide to me. Is the
American government trying to exterminate the Arabs?"
Protests in Syria and Palestine
Among the largest and most militant demonstrations have
taken place in Syria and the occupied Palestinian West Bank and
Gaza. On March 28, tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in
what was called "the biggest show of support ever for Iraq." In
Hebron, marchers burned a mock coffin inscribed with the names
of Arab leaders who have "betrayed Iraq." Similar
demonstrations have taken place in Palestinian refugee camps in
Lebanon and Jordan.
Hundreds of Palestinians, mostly residents of these same
camps, have traveled to Iraq to join the fight against the
U.S./ British invaders. So too have at least 5,000 Iraqis who
live outside the country, most of whom have made the dangerous
trip overland by bus from Jordan and Syria.
Many more Iraqis have entered Iraq than have left as
refugees, despite the intense U.S. bombing campaign. A refugee
camp at Ruweished, Jordan, just across the border from Iraq,
remains almost empty, despite the pre-war anticipation that it
would be overwhelmed with fleeing Iraqis.
Syria has also seen its largest demonstrations in recent
history. On March 26, following a U.S. missile strike on a
Syrian bus inside Iraq that killed five people and wounded 15
more, some 200,000 marched in the capital, Damascus.
In recent days, Secretary of "Defense" Donald Rumsfeld and
Secretary of State Colin Powell have threatened Syria, which
shares a long border with Iraq, for alleg edly "meddling" in
the war and supporting Iraq. Both Rumsfeld and Powell have also
made menacing gestures toward Iran, another of Iraq's
neighbors.
Syrian President Bashar Assad told the Lebanese paper
As-Safir on March 27, "We will not wait until we become the
next target."
The Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on March 31:
"Syria chooses to be with international official and popular
consensus that says: 'No to the aggression against Iraq; no to
the bombing of cities and the killing of people.' Syria also
chose to side with the brotherly Iraqi people who are facing an
illegitimate and unjustifiable invasion."
Powell's menacing words, in a speech to American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the leading pro-Israel
lobbying group in the U.S., made it clear that "next target"
may be exactly how Washington views Syria.
"Syria now faces a critical choice," said Powell on March
31. "Syria can continue direct support for terrorist groups and
the dying regime of Saddam Hussein, or it can embark on a
different and more hopeful course. ... Either way, Syria bears
the respon sibility for its choices, and for the
consequences."
But Syria also had a warning for the United States, though
one very different from Powell's threat.
Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran, in a March 25
interview with the Toronto Star, predicted that the U.S. faced
a future filled with resistance. "In Baghdad, they will find
themselves facing daggers drawn from every corner. It will be a
small-scale Vietnam. Small cuts will be made day after day and
week after week until the Americans are gone.
"It is incredible that George Bush has been deceived by his
advisers into believing he is poised for victory," Omran
said.
"This advice is based on the most stupid calculations ever
made of the social dynamic in Iraq."
Reprinted from the April 10, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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