New book from Univ. of North Carolina Press, "American Orientalism, " has a chapter on Iraq Ba'athists, the CIA, NSC and JFK. Intense interest was taken by JFK and principals on the NSC in assisting the Ba'athist slaughter of Communists, which I remind Lou, according to a Swedish comrade in touch with exile Iraqi Communists, was on the order of 150,000 victims.
Much documentation in the American Orienalism book from NSC docs.Michael Pugliese, How About Some Global War, Ghost of Marcy?
On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 13:07:35 -0500, LouPaulsen <LouPaulsen at attbi.com> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>
>> LouPaulsen quoted Workers World:
>>
>> >But revolutionary Iraq didn't have a moment's peace. The country went
>> >through years of upheaval and several coups as U.S. and British covert
>> >operations, sabotage, intrigue and constant military efforts attempted
>> to
>> >restore the status quo ante. By 1972, however, the oil had been
> nationalized
>> >and the biggest landowners expropriated. With Iraq's vast oil resources
> in
>> >the hands of the state, a spectacular social transformation happened
> within
>> >two decades. Many problems rooted in age-old bias and backwardness were
>> >resolved. Iraqi women made the greatest social gains of women anywhere
>> in
>> >the Arab world.
>>
>> Lou, doesn't this rather overlook SH's long partnership with the CIA,
>> and the fact that his regime liquidated thousands of Iraqi communists?
>>
>> Doug
>
> Well,
> (a) the article in question was not 'everything of importance about
> Iraq',
> it was about the effect of the US war on Iraq on the women of Iraq.
>
> (b) On the CIA thing: how much of what you are referring to is based on
> that
> one long article from UPI about SH being involved in all these
> assassination
> plots? I have my doubts about how far you can take that as gospel. Not
> that this makes a lot of difference, really. I mean, there was clearly a
> lot of cooperation between the government of Iraq and the US before 1991,
> so
> whether it was the CIA or some other agency doesn't matter a lot...
>
> (c) Speaking as a communist of couse it matters to me that he liquidated
> communists, and for that matter that he suppressed the Kurds and fought a
> miserable bourgeois war with Iraq.
>
> (d) But the point of my post was to take gentle issue with Yoshie's
> declaration that nobody on the left had mentioned the positive aspects of
> the Ba'ath system. (The policy implication is that she should get a
> subscription to WW if she doesn't have one already :-) ) Not to say
> that
> there were no negative aspects. (The term 'negative aspects' is not
> intended as dismissive. It includes a lot of awful stuff.)
>
> LP
>
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>
-- Michael Pugliese
"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy