[lbo-talk] Iraq & the Israeli Occupied Territories (was Chomsky on ending occupation)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 11:50 PM +0200 7/23/03, Bryan Atinsky wrote:
>The problem in Iraq is not that there aren't organizations capable 
>of administering society, it is that there are several of them.  You 
>have a well armed population (not in comparison to the US, but 
>enough for a sustained civil war), a Shia majority that wants one 
>form of rule, a Sunni population that is used to leaders from its 
>ranks being in power, and a Kurdish population in an oil rich region 
>who would like their own territory, which neither the Sunni nor the 
>Shia would be interested in letting go of (or for that matter the 
>Turks).  And this is just the major power groupings, saying nothing 
>of how each of them break down into competing tribes and factions, 
>secular and religious interests.  And this also doesn't include the 
>regional power interests who would like their say in how Iraq's will 
>look religiously, ethnically, politically and militarily.

The same problem of political, religious, ethnic, and other divisions 
besets all colonized societies.  One can say roughly the same about 
Palestinians under the Israeli occupation, too, and yet I don't hear 
Israeli leftists saying that Israel must continue its occupation of 
the West Bank and Gaza unless and until the UN peace-keepers come in, 
set up a UN mandate, disarm Palestinians to prevent a civil war among 
contending political factions, and supervise the formation of an 
interim Palestinian government.  "End the occupation" is the main 
slogan of the Israeli left, of which refusers are an important part 
-- this despite the fact that, due to decades of settlement 
construction, ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza 
will be a far more traumatic process for Israelis than ending the 
newly-begun US occupation of Iraq will be for Americans.  What's 
wrong with US leftists?
-- 
Yoshie

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