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Recent
Stories
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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April 18,
2003
The Road to
World War IV
Bashing Syria Pleases Neocons, But
Could Spell Disaster
by
HUSSEIN IBISH
Neoconservative hawks have said time and again
that they'd like the U.S. government to use the war in Iraq as
the starting point in a campaign completely to reshape the Middle
East. In that light, recent comments from President Bush and
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatening Syria are exceptionally
alarming.
Many Americans supported the war in Iraq
because they genuinely believed it would make our country safer
and bring freedom to a people living under brutal tyranny. They
never signed on to an agenda that amounts, as former CIA director
James Woolsey puts it, to "World War IV."
The neocons have wasted no time in laying
down the basic charges that would form the case for an attack
against their next target of opportunity: Syria.
First, Syria is accused of cooperating
with Iraq by allowing weapons to be smuggled back and forth across
the border during the war and of harboring former Iraqi officials.
No evidence has been presented on either of these counts, but
even if true, they would hardly form a legitimate cause for war.
Under no circumstances could one argue
that the Syrian and Iraqi governments have been allies during
the past 25 years. The antagonism between these two intense Baathist
rivals has been profound, as witnessed by Syria's participation
in the first Gulf War in 1991 on the American side.
Obviously, if indeed any arms were sent
or smuggled to Iraq through Syria in recent weeks, they had no
impact on the conflict or its outcome. And if former Iraqi officials
either went to or through Syria, it does not take a historian
to recall the legion of deposed despots whose flight was facilitated
by ourselves or our allies.
Second, Syria is charged with supporting
terrorist organizations. This is essentially an Israeli accusation
adopted wholesale by our government to provide leverage for Israel
in negotiations with Syria. American officials have made it clear
for years that Syria's presence on the list of "state sponsors
of terrorism" would be ended immediately upon the signing
of an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty.
More importantly, while Israel has its
own agenda, Syria can and has been an extremely helpful partner
in the war against al-Qaeda, whose ultrareligious agenda is not
tolerated by Damascus. American officials have acknowledged that
Syrian help was vital in thwarting a number of dangerous al-Qaeda
plots to kill large numbers of American troops in the Middle
East. This sort of cooperation needs to be cultivated.
Third, Syria is accused, most recently
by President Bush, of having chemical weapons. This may or may
not be the case, but the absence of any sign of Iraq's alleged
weapons of mass destruction ought to give everyone some pause.
Scores of countries possess nonconventional
weapons of some kind or other. Are all such countries now subject
to bullying and possible unprovoked attack? Iraq, we were repeatedly
told, was a special case because it had used these weapons in
the past and had been ordered to renounce them by the United
Nations Security Council. Neither of these things applies to
Syria. Moreover, it is absurd to make an issue out of Syria's
alleged chemical weapons when its immediate neighbor Israel is
a major nuclear power.
Fourth, Syria is charged with occupying
Lebanon, usually by people who have no objection to Israel's
occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. To them,
any comparison between these two situations is odious. Israel
has been declared the "occupying power" in the Palestinian
territories by the Security Council on numerous occasions. Syria's
presence in Lebanon, however problematic, is pursuant to the
American-brokered Taiff agreements, several Arab League declarations,
and the stated wishes of the recognized government of Lebanon.
As a person born and raised in Beirut,
I share the misgivings many Lebanese feel about Syria's often
heavy-handed presence in that country. And that presence may
soon outlive its usefulness in the rest of the country, as it
has in Beirut, where no Syrian troops remain. That said, American
antagonism to Syria does nothing whatever to help the Lebanese.
Fifth, it is observed that Syria is a
dictatorship, and certainly the Syrian people suffer from a notable
lack of democracy in a one-party state. Real reforms are clearly
in order, as in almost all Arab states, but cannot come at the
point of a gun.
There is no comparison between the authoritarian
government in Syria and the horrors of Saddam's Iraq. It is certainly
not more oppressive than many of our staunch allies in the Gulf.
We have yet to see a single result of American foreign policy
promoting any form of democracy in the Arab world.
None of these charges, or even all of
them taken together, amount to a coherent argument in favor of
American belligerence toward Syria. Such recklessness does nothing
to promote the interests of the American people, who have no
need and no taste for anyone's schemes to launch World War IV.
Hussein Ibish
is communications director for the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Today's
Features
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
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