>What you two object to -- the idea that the US government has
>already resorted to do in Iraq what the state of Israel has been
>doing -- is not so much Brad's own take as the headline and main
>argument of the top front-page article in the _New York Times_ today.
No. I read the Times piece and thought it was quite good. The Israeli parallels are all over the article. What I objected to in Brad's subject heading was the use of the word "disease," which sounds too much like classic slurs against Jews being a foreign body, an infectious agent, and also that it located the source of the problem in Israel and not in U.S. imperialism (rather like that creepy Counterpunch collection on anti-Semitism, which dismisses the idea that Israel serves U.S. imperial interests in favor of the notion that the Jewish lobby has hijacked U.S. policy for its own ends).
There are quotes like this in the story too:
>"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company
>commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood
>outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is
>force - force, pride and saving face."
>The next day, an American jet dropped a 500-bomb on the house that
>had been used to attack them. The Americans arrested eight sheiks,
>the mayor, the police chief and most members of the city council.
>"We really hammered the place," Maj. Darron Wright said.
>
>Two and a half weeks later, the town of Abu Hishma is enclosed in a
>barbed-wire fence that stretches for five miles. Men ages 18 to 65
>have been ordered to get identification cards. There is only way
>into the town and one way out.
>
>"This fence is here for your protection," reads the sign posted in
>front of the barbed-wire fence. "Do not approach or try to cross, or
>you will be shot."
>
>American forces have used the tactic in other cities, including
>Awja, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. American forces also sealed
>off three towns in western Iraq for several days.
>
>"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for
>projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to
>help them," Colonel Sassaman said.
"The Arab mind," "we really hammered the place," "the fence is here for your protection," "a heavy dose of fear and violence," and "we are here to help them" all evoke very American ideas of applying overwhelming power under the cover of charitable operations. A phrase like "the Israeli disease" obscures that.
Doug