Blair himself is stating that there is no rush to war and that inspections need to go on longer.
And Bush and Blair have just lost their "democracy rhetoric" as promises to Turkey to squash the Kurds now mean that they are no longer promising a democratic state in Iraq, since that would probably mean independence for the Kurds, so we will likely see some of the liberal hawks peeling off from support in the coming days.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Johanning" <jjohanning at igc.org> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 5:37 PM Subject: Re: "US is abandoning plans to introduce democracy in Iraq"
On Tuesday, February 18, 2003, at 09:17 AM, lbo-talk-digest wrote:
>
> lbo-talk-digest Tuesday, February 18 2003 Volume 01 : Number
> 7437
>
>
>
> In this issue:
> ==============
>
> Turkish/US occupation of Kurdistan
> Re: Vive la France, cont.
> NATO'S BAGHDAD PACT: The CIA relies on Putin
> Re: Vive la France, cont.
> Re: Vanishing Marxism on LBO-talk Re: ANSWER, cops, breakaways
> Millions March Feb. 14-16
> Re: Le Monde: odd things about Osama tape
> The Laws of War, US-Style
> Re: Le Monde: odd things about Osama tape
> RE: Honor rape
> Re: Le Monde: odd things about Osama tape
> earn big money & change the world!
> Fwd: A Nation Divided, With No Bridges Left To Build (from ZNet)
> Re: The thread previously known as 'Lerner presumably'
> Re: Nigeria oil union set for total strike
> Re: Le Monde: odd things about Osama tape
> Re: "US is abandoning plans to introduce democracy in Iraq"
On Tue, 18 Feb 2003 09:16:59 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Reed Tryte wrote:
>
>> The Kurdish leaders are enraged by an American plan to
>> occupy Iraq but largely retain the government in
>> Baghdad. The only changes would be the replacement of
>> President Saddam and his lieutenants with senior US
>> military officers.
>
> Which is pretty much what the U.S. did in Germany & Japan in 1945,
> right?
Except that the U.S. occupation forces stayed in those countries for some years, and succeeded in helping the moderate capitalists to set up somewhat more democratic governments that the Nazis and Japanese militarists. Even that is unlikely to be done in Iraq.
It's abundantly clear by now that (a) the Bushies don't know what the hell they're going to do or what will happen once the smart bombs hit the fan (see the NY Times story today about the uncertainties even Rumsfeld is worrying about) and (b) all they're really interested in doing is taking over the country, finding all the "weapons of mass destruction" they can (which will be a damned hard process in itself, according to that NY Times story), setting up the oil concessions situation to satisfy the U.S. oil companies, and getting their butts out as fast as possible.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org _____________________________ Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx