The following items have been posted during the past two weeks on www.supportingfacts.com. The full text of each article is preceded by a short summary.
UN’S GODFATHER Tariq Ali argues the UN security council has always served as a venue for the US to bribe and coerce member states to do its bidding, a claim reinforced by a London Times report on current horsetrading over Iraq.
JUST BLUFFING? Mary Dejevsky of the Independent in Britain offers the contrarian view that the US actually wants to avoid war in Iraq, and is instead practising classic gunboat diplomacy to force the Hussein regime to disarm voluntarily.
WAR MADE EASY The US revolution in weaponry is serving as an incentive to war and to the indirect targeting of civilians in violation of international law, says an American expert in the London Review of Books.
ISRAEL’S CLEANSERS Israeli journalist Amira Hass, writing in le monde diplomatique, describes the gathering momentum for the expulsion of the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.
NO D-DAY Everyone is waiting for a massive ground invasion of Iraq, but military analyst William Arkin says the US has decided to use a more nuanced strategy to bring down the Hussein regime.
ASIA’S GM PUSH There is no stopping technology which raises living standards, despite health and safety concerns, as the rapid development of genetically modified crops in Asia testifies.
HUMAN SHIELDS British stagehand Ube Evans is one of some 200 foreign volunteers who have taken up positions at the South Baghdad Power Plant and other potential civilian targets in Iraq.
IRAQ”S KURDS To win Turkish support, the US may have agreed to sacrifice the self-governing Kurdish protectorate in northern Iraq – the territory often cited as the democratic model for its plans in the region.
BUSINESS AND WAR There is a widespread view that economic growth will revive when business uncertainty about Iraq lifts, but a Financial Times report suggests the slowdown is more than temporary.
DUMPING THE UN The international affairs editor of the Financial Times says the US has the most to lose by destroying the credibility of the UN which does “the dirty work for it.”
ECONOMIC FACTORS An article in the Wall Street Journal claims that economic considerations are not the main determinant of either US or European policy towards Iraq, but it has a narrow view of the stakes.
CULTURAL GULF His predecessor originated the US policy towards Iraq, but it seems only George Bush and his administration could have generated the intense anger which brought millions into the streets last weekend.
PROTESTS’ IMPACT The New York Times may be exaggerating when it says public opinion is now the world's second superpower, but this weekend’s huge protests are impeding the move to a war consensus by the US and its allies.
SPECTACULAR TURNOUTS Even the right-wing Daily Telegraph acknowledged that more than a million protesters thronged central London today, making it the largest peace demonstration in British history.
BUYING TIME World opinion has been buoyed by the more positive tone of the latest UN inspectors report and its general acceptance by the Security Council, but the French could still vote for war next month.
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