More than Saddam Hussein, the American imperialists are now looking for his elusive successor. In Jay Garner, they have already got an American viceroy to look after Iraq’s transition to ‘freedom and democracy’. This retired US Army General has got impeccable credentials for the job: he has a very close rapport with the Israeli regime and he is also president of a company involved in the making of the famous Patriot missile! But finding an Iraqi mask for Garner is proving rather difficult.
Amidst hectic diplomatic parleys as to whether the UN should get a ‘central’ role or just a ‘vital’ role in the reconstruction of Iraq, and whether the UN role should merely have a humanitarian dimension or it should also have a political component, George Bush has already declared that American troops may have to stay for at least two years in Iraq. Meanwhile the economics of reconstruction have long been under discussion in the boardrooms of corporate America. The Iraqi currency has been pushed into an abysmal low and all Iraq’s finances are now almost completely under American control. President Bush has now called for an early lifting of sanctions on Iraq so that Iraqi oil can be ‘freely’ traded in the international market to pay for the country’s reconstruction.
But for the irrepressible voice of Iraqi resistance and popular protests, Iraq might have already receded into America’s chambers of selective amnesia. Instead of getting stuck in Iraq, the American propaganda and war machine would like to move on to the next target – Syria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia … The ‘excitement’ must be retained and the media must continue to focus on the theatres of ‘action’. After all, who cares for whatever may now be happening in Afghanistan? Just as it is important to televise details of destruction to send shudders of shock and awe around the world, the economics and politics of reconstruction are best executed in the dark chambers of history!
It is well known that ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ is as much about grabbing Iraq’s oil as reshaping the Middle-East. The US has already made its intentions clear by issuing serious warning to Iran and Syria even as the war was on in Iraq. Just as Iraq was accused of having weapons of mass destruction and links with Al-Qaeda, Syria is now being accused of sheltering Saddam Hussein and his close associates and also having chemical weapons! It is anybody’s guess if and when all these accusations would stretch Bush’s Iraq war to Syria. Then as we have already noted effective US control over Iraqi oil would enable Washington to renegotiate its ties with Saudi Arabia. And to consolidate a changed balance of forces within the Arab and the larger Islamic world, the US will pressurise the Palestinian leaders into accepting a ‘solution’ to the Palestine question on terms dictated by the US-Israel combine. While George Bush has repeatedly said that ouster of Yasser Arafat is a prerequisite for settling the Israel-Palestine conflict, the US national security strategy adopted in September 2002 says Israeli forces would have to withdraw to positions they held prior to September 28, 2000. This means validating decades of relentless Israeli incursion into, and occupation of, Palestinian territory!
Box
NewSpeak, BushSpeak or DoubleSpeak?
George Orwell’s satire, 1984, wrote about how totalitarian regimes change the very meaning of words into their opposite. Bush & Co as well as corporate media, have done exactly the same thing. In the black comedy scripted by them, language has been transformed completely. We present a new glossary to understand this latest and most brazen version of Orwellian Newspeak. Shall we call it Bushspeak?
Note: These definitions are not products of our imagination – the US state has come up with words/phrases in real life, which are more bizarre than anything Orwellian imagination could dream up. One instance: The CIA had created a committee which used biological weapons to commit political assassinations – for instance, it sent a poisoned handkerchief to Iraqi leader Qasem, in an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate him. This committee was called – the “Health Alteration Committee”!! (See Frontline, April 11, 2003, p.123) Murder does ‘alter health’, after all!
War Glossary : Bushspeak Edition
Collateral Damage : Buildings, hospitals, bridges, marketplaces and the people inside them, which sacrifice themselves to make ‘liberation’ possible. See precision bombing.
Allies : Tony Blair. See coalition.
Balanced reporting : Media reports censored by the Pentagon, e.g. CNN, BBC. see embedded journalism
Coalition of the Willing : Otherwise known as the Gang of the Bullied and the Bought.
Democracy : An ideal political system prevalent in the USA where CEOs of corporations, oil corporations for preference, become heads of state through rigged elections. As in “We will turn Iraq into a democracy like the USA”.
Defence : Sophisticated military offensives used by the US to invade tiny countries which lack even an air force. Caution: ‘Defence’ applies only to US military offensives. Iraqi troops defending their country are referred to as ‘Arabs’ or ‘Saddam’s men’.
Embedded Journalism : Takes pride in relying only on authentic sources,i.e, the US Troops. Uncharitable people have called it ‘presstitution’. Embedded journalists prefer to be compared to the ancient court poets, who earned name and fame writing heroic verse in praise of the kings, in return for patronage and protection.
Empire (abbr.) : The short form for ‘American Empire’. A state where 196 countries are eternally grateful, (or should be) for being plundered and controlled by the 197th.
Freedom : The state enjoyed by the people after being massacred by the US army. Also, fried potatoes, as in “Freedom Fries”.
Friendly Fire : Analogous to ‘same side goal’ in football. Occurs when Bush’s Boys panic in sandstorms and bomb Blair’s Boys instead of Saddam’s Bad Boys.
Humanitarian Aid : Small amounts of food being distributed in front of CNN cameras, by US troops to people who have been reduced to starvation by the same troops.
International Law : The unwritten laws of ‘Might is Right’, and ‘US has Unchallenged Might’. See UN and Rogue State.
Liberation : Occupation/Invasion.
Mutiny : Protests by people ignorant and uncivilized enough not to be grateful for ‘liberation’.
Oil : God-given gift to American corporations, mysteriously to be found under Arab soil.
Peace : The mythical state achieved when every country of the world bows down to the US, under the International Law (i.e. Might is Right etc…). See international law.
People of Iraq : See Saddam Hussein.
Precision Bombing : When US cruise missiles target houses, hospitals, marketplaces, buildings, to kill people in order to free them from dictatorship. Ignorant people tend to confuse this with ‘terrorism’. See collateral damage
Pre-emptive Attack : Attacks by the world’s strongest military, against the weakest, to punish the weakest nations for the assaults they are yet to launch on the strongest nations. Similar to arresting and hanging innocent people to save them from the danger of committing future crimes.
Prisoners of War : American soldiers captured by Iraqi army. It is a serious human rights violation to interview them on Arab TVs. Caution: Does not apply to Iraqi or Afghan soldiers taken prisoners by the US army. These are called ‘unlawful combatants’, and, since they are sub-human, it is no violation of human rights to display them in the media with their hands bound, mouths gagged, eyes covered, crawling on their knees at gunpoint.
Proof : Sales receipts, especially dated between 1980-90. As in, ‘We have proof of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction’.
Reconstruction : A profitable business, in which corporations owned by US Defence personnel get juicy contracts to rebuild a country that the US Defence bombs to dust.
Regime Change : Modern usage for the obsolete term, ‘Coup’.
Rogue State : Countries which commit the crime of having oil reserves, or which pose a threat to International Law quoted above.
Saddam Hussein : The nation of Iraq, population 24,002,000, area 172,476 sq. ml., centred on the ancient Tigris and Euphrates rivers, previously known as Persia and Mesopotamia; one of the oldest continuously civilized regions in the world. “Iraq” and “Saddam Hussein” are generally used interchangeably, as in “We’re going to bomb the hell out of Saddam Hussein”.
Shock and Awe : Modern usage for the obsolete phrase ‘war crime’.
Terrorism: When American civilians, once in two centuries, are bombed by men in two planes. Ignorant people fail to see the subtle difference between this and ‘precision bombing’ or ‘War of Liberation’, in which US troops in hundreds of sophisticated war planes bomb thousands of Arab, Latin American and Asian civilians, every year.
United Nations : An institution where all nations of the world are bound to respect the International Law quoted above. This institution is being phased out, and will soon be synonymous with the USA, or Empire. See international law.
War : See pre-emptive attack.
War on Terror : A marketing strategy/ ad campaign to ensure the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004, by offering an “endless war” for years to come. Replaces the previous, unsuccessful campaign : “he’s not really as dumb as he looks”.
Weapons of Mass Destruction : Nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Possession or use of these will make a nation a ‘rogue state’, without the prior permission of the USA, who has the monopoly on the sales, manufacture and use of these weapons.
[This glossary is inspired by GeovParrish’s ‘War Glossary – Doublespeak Edition’, and some of the contributions owe a debt to Arundhati Roy’s ‘Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire’ in Frontline, Apr 12-25, 2003.]
