[lbo-talk] Pollitt on Dean

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Aug 28 04:10:17 PDT 2003


At 12:12 AM -0400 8/28/03, DoreneFC at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 8/28/2003 4:26:03 AM GMT Daylight Time,
>cbcox at ilstu.edu writes:
>
>>>He [Dean] strongly opposed the war in Iraq, but committed to not
>>>leaving Iraq in a mess and involving the UN.
>>
>>No possible policy that leaves a foreign army in Iraq can lead to
>>other than disaster. But although "No U.N. involvement, U.S. Out"
>>'ought' to be one of the core slogans of the anti-war movement, it
>>will be a while (and many 10s or 100s of thousands of deaths)
>>before a movement can began to coalesce around that. I think it
>>important for at least a few of us to keep saying that however.
>
>10's or 100's of thousands of deaths? and why are we depending on
>Presidential candidates to be sqare about that? I'd be happy if
>major media ever mentioned Iraqi casualties lost to their
>"liberation."
>
>My vote: US OUT yesterday! Send in the UN.

The UN is already in Iraq, with the US, the WB, the IMF, and US-based multinationals. The UN compound got bombed, and the top UN rep in Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello got killed. That will be Iraqi responses to "UN troops" as well.

***** Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 15:08:05 -0400

People may find these talking points from several people useful.

--Hany Khalil

Talking Points on the Attack on UN Headquarters August 20th, 2003

By Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies (D.C.) pbennis at compuserve.com

Bennis is author of "Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's U.N." and "Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis."

. . . 3. The UN should never have agreed to participate under the authority of that occupation force; to do so provides a political fig leaf for an illegal occupation. And now we're seeing the inevitable results of that participation, as anti-U.S. militants target anyone working under the auspices of the U.S. -- including American, British and Danish soldiers, Iraqi translators, and now the civilian staff of the United Nations. . . .

The U.N. Role in Iraq: Interviews Available Institute for Public Accuracy August 20th, 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * www.accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org ----------------------------------------------------------------

NANCY LESSIN, CHARLIE RICHARDSON mfso at mfso.org, http://www.bringthemhomenow.org, http://www.mfso.org

Co-founders of Military Families Speak Out, Lessin and Richardson have a son, Joe, who just returned from Iraq. They said today: "Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and others are arguing that attacks in Iraq mean we have to send more troops. We have 58,000 names on a wall -- and millions of dead Vietnamese -- to tell us where that road leads."

EMAN AHMED KHAMMAS In Baghdad via: eman at occupationwatch.org, http://www.occupationwatch.org

Khammas is co-director of the Occupation Watch Center in Iraq. She said today: "The U.N. is not very reputable here. Many people consider the U.N. responsible for the suffering of the last 13 years, the sanctions and the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Despite some statements, it was largely silent when Iraq was attacked. In the last month, the U.N. has been friendly with the American authorities. These may or may not be the reasons for this attack, but if this is resistance, and it could well be, these are some of the grievances toward the United Nations.

"Before the invasion, the U.N. was paralyzed and did not stop the U.S. attack. Some people think of it as a department of the U.S. government. Security Council Resolution 1483 basically gave legal cover for the occupation and to legitimize the attack on Iraq. This is a pity, since the U.N. does good work through UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP and the World Health Organization.... Sergio Vieira de Mello had praised the governing council and was friendly with Paul Bremer."

DENIS HALLIDAY djhalliday at msn.com, http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR032803.htm

Available for a limited number of interviews, Halliday is former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq. He said today: "We all think of the U.N. as this benign entity, but in Iraq it's held responsible for a great deal of suffering of the Iraqi people. The U.N. has been particularly corrupted by the Security Council. Resolutions on Israel go unenforced. We love to talk about our good humanitarian work -- and there's certainly truth to that, good people trying to help Iraqis were just killed -- but the Secretary General has implemented programs which are inherently incompatible with the U.N. Charter."

---------------------------------------------------------------- For more information, contact the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 ***** -- Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list