Must Reads on the Middle East

You could add Beverly Milton-Edwards` ``Contemporary Politics in the Middle East`` and ``Islam and Politics in the Contemporary World`` by the same author to the list.
Sujata Ashwarya Cheema

``After a decade of killing, torture, disappearances and mass arrests, Latin America`s military crushed the Marxist ``terroristas``. Military regimes eventually gave way to democratic governments which, in the 1990s, began prosecuting military officers for crimes committed during the ``Dirty War``. General Pinochet, who, ironically, opened the way for democracy and prosperity in Chile, became the icon of military brutality.

The same ``dirty war`` process has been happening in the United States since 9/11. That attack, a massive criminal-political act, quickly led to a militarized response. President George Bush ordered US armed forces to invade Afghanistan, then Iraq, and attack Muslim militants and Mujahideen around the globe.

FBI documents recently revealed by the American Civil Liberties Union show the White House apparently gave the military and intelligence agencies carte blanche to use any means, including torture, to crush Islamic militancy. Many senior Latin American officers have been jailed or now face prison for massive human rights violations. Having been ordered to win the dirty wars, no questions asked, they are now paying the price for the shame and guilt felt by their homelands for using illegal tactics against Marxist rebels that were almost as vicious and murderous as those used by communist regimes against their opponents.

Senior members of the White House, Pentagon and national security agencies should think hard about the last ``war on terrorism``, how it corrupted Latin America, and brought patriotic, well-meaning soldiers and politicians to be charged as war criminals.

So should Pakistan`s security establishment as it wages its own ``war on terror`` against fellow Muslims. FBI agents, who are trained in law, wrote to the Pentagon and White House to protest torture of Muslims they witnessed in American-run prisons.

They were clearly preparing for the day when those in Washington who authorized torture and murder are brought to book.``(Eric Margolis)

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Like Pinochet -- one day George Bush and his lawless gang of four -- Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice and Wofowitz -- will be dragged out -- by this law abiding country of Jefferson and Washington -- to the docks -- to stand trial as War Criminals for Crime against Humanity -- before this sordid American decade of murder and mayhem against an innocent country -- ends in ignominy.....

Fighting erupts in Fallujah as refugees return; three Marines killed in action.
NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, December 23, 2004

(12-23) 10:05 PST FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) --

U.S. Marines battled insurgents in Fallujah on Thursday, with warplanes dropping bombs and tanks shelling suspected guerrilla positions in the heaviest fighting in weeks, erupting as the first residents returned to the devastated city. At least three Marines were killed in the area, the military said.

Fallujans lined up in cars and on foot at checkpoints, brandishing documents to Iraqi police to show they had the right to re-enter the city. Once inside, they returned to the remains of bombed-out and looted homes, some with bodies still inside from weeks of fighting.....

But the new fighting highlighted that the city is far from completely tamed....(AP)


Abhay Mehta was not kidding.....

Fallujah -- by Abhay Mehta (Contd)

Now if these were not only repulsed, but perhaps defeated, it leads to something that ought to be examined more carefully.

Despite being flattened (perhaps about 12,000 to as much as 20,000 homes out of an estimated 50,000 razed) by the application of, as US Army Gen. John Abizaid put it, ``more military power per square inch than anybody else on earth``.

Curiously, the US general then very very strangely goes on to add: ``If you ever even contemplate our nuclear capability, it should give everybody the clear understanding that there is no power that can match the United States militarily.``

Oh. Let me contemplate the nuclear capability of the US. Never mind. It is a bore.
So?

The General also said, when talking about generating ``more military power per square inch than anybody else on earth``.that ``every one knows it``. Oh. The words of the General--the mightiest general of them all--Commander Centom, do not appear to have been heard. At least, the Iraqi resistance has not heard them.

The mightiest military machine ever in world history with the mightiest firepower the world has ever seen has been mightily trying to capture Fallujah. But no luck so far.

Instead the Americans faced an opposition that broke the back of the assault. Instead of ``breaking bone by bone`` and crushing ``the backbone of the insurgents``, it seems to appear that the same has been done unto them as they were planning to do unto the resistance.

At the peak of the assault, the Americans held no more than 35-40% of Fallujah (largely the north on or around the 18th of November) Thereafter, they appear to have been steadily repulsed and in fact the coalition forces currently have been repulsed to where they were on November 13th or thereabouts and to the outskirts of Fallujah.

Now consider the fate of the rest of the occupation. It is in tatters.

The mightiest military in the world cannot control an 8 km stretch of road, perhaps the single most important road in all of Iraq – the Airport Road from the center of Baghdad to the airport.

The purported troop concentration is 120 soldiers per km of a open road and despite that the Australian defence minister could not even make it to the green zone and simply flew back from the airport.

Unlike Vietnam, where the American were largely in control of the cities for most parts (save Tet, and even there complete control was not lost), the US/UK garrisons are isolated in the middle of a hostile population.

They cannot even traverse a km or two out of the `green zone``.

Their supply convoys have come to a standstill over the last month and a salvage operation of re-supplying by air has started over the last 10-12 days. Air supplies are limited and there is no reason to believe that these can be significant (a max of 400 tonnes a day, slated to rise to 1600 tonnes a day against an estimated minimum 20,000 odd tonnes needed daily to keep a force of 160,000+ fed, watered, armored and resupplied).

The 300 mile long supply line is toast. Well, at least any thing dark, metallic, armored or otherwise. (4000 pounds of armor on a humvee that can carry a max load of 5000 pounds) Can it move? And even that is not helpful – in the words of the great military strategist, Rumsfeld, circa Dec 04, even tanks blow up. Why bother at all?

Against the most heavily armed opponent in the history of War, Fallujah has still not let itself be ``taken`` to date (As of 20th Dec, 2004).

Falluah and indeed the rest of Iraq post April 2003, heralds ``supersymmetrical`` warfare and the end of conventional warfare. This represents a turning point in military affairs – the end of warfare--as practiced by the Americans i.e the application of overwhelming force to obtain a victory.(Outlook)

In reply to #47 by anzar

``bunch of youth brought up on the street after having lost their family at the age of 11. ``

Will you also sympathise and rationalise with those Israelis whose relatves/friends have been killed/maimed by Palestinian human bombs or gunmens. Will you just consider it a natural reaction by them to kill and harm Palestinains? If yes, then instead of them IDF is taking care of it.


``Say you belonged to an ethnic/relgious group X and live in country C. Someone goes around killing/persecuting other members of X who live in countries A and B. I am sure you, in country C, will at some point think of the following, even if not in the same order:

* why are people being killed/persecuted in country A and B?
* why are these people members of group X only?
* so am I or my family next now in Country C? ``

Well there can be an exact opposite to this scenario like,

Say you belonged to an ethnic/relgious group X and live in country C. And people belonging to this group are having problems all over the globe in countries like A, B, D, E where they are in sizeable population. Not only one country but several of them are looking at what is wrong with these people. X don`t want to enter the mainstream they want their own religious identity, their own customs, their own system of justice. And now, countries P, Y and Z who also have sizeable X population wonder whether this they will also face this kind of problem.

So you see it all depends on your perspective. Also, for your situation there is an answer. If X feel marginalised and persecuted they can definitely go to the countries which are created for them or where they constitute more than 90%.
i think the Ummah should facilitate it through OIC.

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Personally, I would expect more logic and cool-headedness from a democratically elected parliament run by seasoned grey-haired politicians rather than a bunch of youth brought up on the street after having lost their family at the age of 11. Which party do you think is more prone to `brainwashing`?

Even if one of these fighters were to start thinking logically what political options do his occupiers give him? This applies to other occupied territories as well.

Here is a spine-chilling Mother of all -- ``must reads`` -- titled -- Fallujah by Abhay Mehta -- an unembedded Indian journalist writing from Falluja Iraq.

``Fallujah per se, on the face of it, is not a strategic or a militarily significant target. It however represents the ``great challenge`` to the US/UK`s military occupation of Sovereign Iraq since April 2003.

In the first siege of Fallujah in April 2004, the Iraqi Resistance inflicted a severe defeat on the Americans. In April 2004, while over 1,200 Iraqis were killed, blown up, burnt or shot alive by the Americans -- two thirds of them civilians, mostly women and children -- while 2,000-pound bombs were falling on the the city, AC-130 Spectre gunships were demolishing entire city blocks in less than a minute and of course silence of the plop as Iraqis targeted by marine snipers hit the ground, nonetheless the operative portion remains: the Marines were beaten back in no uncertain terms. This was followed by a ``truce``.

The truce did not hold for very long.

This humiliation of the American military was spun as a ``strategic retreat`` but the desire to get rid of the ``weeping sore that Fallujah was`` has been on top of the US agenda since then. Fallujah represented a ``stellar act of defiance`` one that allowed the resistance to ``actually secure and control a city, and to beat off the US military``

The second formal large scale assault on Fallujah (Nov./Dec 2004) pitted images of the world`s most powerful military force against fighters in tennis shoes, wielding homemade rocket launchers.

There were three declared tactical objectives. The first was to either kill or capture the Jordanian born ``terrorist`` ``Abu Musab al-Zarqawi`` (if indeed he exists) and to ``battle and destroy some 4000 to 5000 suspected fighters``. The Americans also vowed to ``liberate`` the residents of Fallujah from ``criminal elements`` and to ``secure Fallujah`` for the January elections.

Lastly, it appears an additional declared tactical/political objective of the American Military`s task was to engage in a ``fight of good versus evil``. Additionally it appears (presumably per their intelligence reports) that the mission also was to ``destroy`` ``Satan`` since it appears that ``he lives in Fallujah``

On the face of it, it appears as if none of these tactical/military objectives have been met, including, it appears, the desire to presumably meet Mr Satan, resident of Fallujah.

As for the other very laudable and rationally quantifiable objectives including that of stuffing democracy into a city by simply obliterating it, all of these seem to be a bit astray.
48 hours into the offensive, the official narratives were filled with reports that Zarqawi (if indeed such a entity exists) may have ``slipped outside`` of their perimeter defenses.

This of course left Mr ``Satan`` still in residence together with the rest of the unfortunate inhabitants of the ``militant stronghold``. The city of 300,000 residents had perhaps an estimated 40,000 civilians left per the US military. Since this estimated number included 5000 resident ``militants``, one can presume that the rest (per the US military) would be civilians.

The actual civilian count remaining in the city on the 8th of November is around around 60,000 to as much as 100,000 since males between the ages 16 and 60 were disbarred by the US military from leaving the city.

One can also infer the most vulnerable--the poor, the old, the women, children and the sick--continued to reside in their city in significant numbers -- of the order of 40,000+
With the ``target softening`` bombing raids that killed a few hundred civilians in the first week of November, the first formal target of the US military armored assault was doctors and the nurses. These were the first to be eliminated as these were ``legitimate military target`` and since ``insurgents`` were ``forcing the doctors there to release propaganda and false information``.

The assault has left as many as 10,000 civilian dead--perhaps much much more . The Red Cross/Red Crescent estimate was upwards of 6000 as of November 25th. Till date no formal Red Cross/Red Crescent operation has been allowed in the city.

What the images of Phantom Fury did not convey is that this assault is the largest concentration of heavy armor in one place, since the fall of Berlin. This was the first time since World War II that ``an American armored task force`` has been turned ``loose in a city with no restrictions``.

More to the point, the force of as much as 20,000 soldiers (12,000 to 17,000 American/coalition soldiers, about 2000 odd Iraqi ``National guards`` and perhaps 1000 odd peshmergas) were supported by an estimated 1100 to as much as 2000 armored vehicles and tanks. Air support was largely carrier based out of the gulf and B-52`s from bases outside of Iraq.

The armor alone represents the heaviest ever concentration of armor since the fall of Berlin (1945) in one place against a single military objective.
Phantom Fury was officially underway on the 8th of November and declared to be a sweeping victory on or about the 15th of November.

Thereafter the military communiqués and the press reports have been limited to occasional deaths in the ``Anbar province``. That all of Fallujah is under ``coalition`` control since then i.e on or about November 15th 2004. Since then detailed stories on Fallujah in the official narrative have stopped completely or refer to action/discoveries between the 8th and the 19th of November 04.

There is no evidence of what has transpired save intermittent but very very regular losses attributed to ``pockets of resistance`` in the ``Anbar Province``. And, yes, reportage on the brand new movie on Fallujah starring Harrison Ford.

Now for a moment, consider the substantive anomalies in the official discourse. Consider one such example- Satellite Imagery of Fallujah (block by block including ``after action``) available to the media till the 15th of November and carried in graphic detail day by day from the 8th of Nov. through the 15th stopped abruptly. There are no explanations.

There are no satellite pictures of Fallujah available in the public domain after November 15th.

Or consider that the Red Cross/Red crescent has not been allowed to enter the city in any substantive manner. Today is the 20th of Dec and it has still not been allowed.

Or consider another break in the regular stream of consciousness. No reporter has set foot in the city or after the 22nd of November.

A ``Great Victory`` like this and no footage?

These anomalies are noteworthy. Therefore it is very unclear whether this is indeed the case or, as a matter of fact, the converse is.

Fallujah has not been taken. Not only has Fallujah not been taken, but the coalition forces have staged several retreats and are now confined largely to the outside of the city.

The Iraqi resistance is currently in control of most of the city and have forced back at least three of the largest armored assaults in recent history.

In fact, one can make a claim that this was the largest series of armored assault ever. The objective is 16 sq km and if one were to normalize over time and term for incremental intensity in firepower that this represents, then these are historically unprecedented...

..(to be contd)

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A bit of what Farzana would call nit-picking here. Do we HAVE to refer to the Middle East? Surely the more PC (politically correct, for those who came in late) term should be, especially for us South Asians, West Asia? The Middle East is a colonial term. Remember Said and Orientalism?
And how about trying to separate ``factual`` analyses from pieces that are meant to be read as fiction? Of course, the postmodern/new historicist view doesn`t distinguish between the two, but I guess the discussion here is hardly postmodern!

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42/anzar
//...you don`t like a Muslims calling thmselves an Ummah...you don`t want one sticking out for his brother.//

Personally, I don`t care. All I am saying is that - for us non-muslims, this so called ``brother-hood`` of muslims doesn`t make any sense.

Any case - if you think this so called ``brother-hood`` works for you folks - then go ahead. But quite clearly - it doesn`t work. Actually, it works to your detriment. That`s why I said ummah doesn`t exist and it shouldn`t exist.

But some folks [bin laden etc] are desperately trying to create such a brotherhood - hence there are lot of brain-washing going on all around. Many people from different countries are falling prey to such a illusory ideology and flying planes into building under influence of a mistaken belief that they will gain heaven by comitting suicide.

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//..you have no problems when ``a palestinian is getting wrong end of the stick``?..//

Nope - Why should I? I mean - if I, a hindu, ever gets the wrong end of stick from anybody - would palis or other muslims help me? I don`t think so. So I am just an observer here............ As far as I am concerned - arabs and jews are two tribal people who have been killing each other for thousands of years - and they will continue to do so into foreseeable future. It`s in their bedouin blood. Nobody can help these folks.

#39 by arjun_m

Thats exactly true: because anyone can be X you can fit anyone into the equation.

Answer a simple question:

Say a guy blows himself up killing many people at a resturant. Now which one of the following seems to be a logical and cool-headed step towards ensuring this never happens again:

A) Bull-dozing that guy`s house, killing his mother and daughter who couldnt move out in time and thus turning his son and brother into time-bombs.

B) Finding out what was bothering him so much that he chose to abandon his family and end his life, and solving that problem to make sure no one else takes this wrong and violent step again.

Don`t you think following (B) will ensure you a peaceful future?

`US, India and Israel`, being the innocent victims of senseless terrorism that they are, want their homes and businesses safe from the threat of terrorism. They should make sure the people who have turned violent get what is rightfully their`s.

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you`ve just justified the clash of civilizations....
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How can you still think the `clash` is yet to come?

#40 by mohar11
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Why should muslims born and brought-up in UK fly a plane into buildings because a palestinian is getting wrong end of the stick?
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Please read #38. And remember its not just Palestine; Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Gujrat, Kashmir and so on: I`d say that`s a lot of sticks and a lot of wrong ends.

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Ummah is a fiction - it doesn`t exist.
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Is it really? What`s all the hype about then?

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Regarding your conclusion that muslilms behave like a group thats true, and is a good reason to keep them in check.
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(Netizen, #34)

#40 by mohar11
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This should change.
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Let me get this straight: you don`t like a Muslims calling thmselves an Ummah, you don`t want one sticking out for his brother.

But you have no problems when ``a palestinian is getting wrong end of the stick``?

anzar
//Because for them Allah matters more than motherland. ......This always has been the case and it always will, I`m afraid. ..//

You are talking as if this is a fait accompli. It doesn`t have to be that way. Why should muslims born and brought-up in UK fly a plane into buildings because a palestinian is getting wrong end of the stick?

This should change. Ummah is a fiction - it doesn`t exist.

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Someone has recommended me a very nice book which I have bought today, called A Peace to end All Peace written by David Fromkin.

The critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling account of how the modern Middle East came into being after World War I, and why it is in upheaval today

I have taken the liberty of picking up the synopsis of the book from Amazon.

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In our time the Middle East has proven a battleground of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and dynasties. All of these conflicts, including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis that have flared yet again, come down, in a sense, to the extent to which the Middle East will continue to live with its political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed upon the region by the Allies after the First World War.

In A Peace to End All Peace, David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies came to remake the geography and politics of the Middle East, drawing lines on an empty map that eventually became the new countries of Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all-even an alliance between Arab nationalism and Zionism-seemed possible he raises questions about what might have been done differently, and answers questions about why things were done as they were. The current battle for a Palestinian homeland has its roots in these events of 85 years ago.

Unquote

It has 77 reviews on amazon with a near 5 stars which is really remarkable.

Malik sahib, I never questioned abot the validity or unvalidity of the book since I have never heard about it. I just mentioned Henry Ford`s bias against Jews.

mbzisphahani

I understand your logic, and find your responses interesting. However u end by writing

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mbzi will take them on - canada /Libya

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Why would u take on Canada and Libya, only if u r passionately angry with them which means
1. Either they have really done something bad.
2. Someone or you yourself have convinced yourself (Brainwashed) that they have victimized you, but reality is different.

Noone will create terror for the sake of creating terror.