[lbo-talk] Bix: Mesopotamian Manchukuo

Brad Mayer Bradley.Mayer at Sun.COM
Mon May 3 11:36:32 PDT 2004


One can go even further with specific comparisions with old Imperial Japan, especially with the combination of a nuanced integration of fascistic/protofascistic elements deployed at the imperialist "fringe", with a seemingly immovable and "tranquil" status quo in the metropole, the latter in reality a highly unstable political regime forced to lurch from crisis to greater crisis in an ever more desperate effort to avoid the final collapse.

And that day is coming for America - see especially Greider http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040510&s=greider http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20020923&s=greider

Notice that in his latest, Greider is unable to describe a political way forward. Consequentially, his reform proposals (some of them reactionary, IMO) are pipe dreams.

Back to Bix:

Not since the Japanese imperial army established "suzerainty" over "Manchukuo" in 1932, and later ruled occupied China from behind the façade of other puppet governments had an imperialist power resorted to such a nakedly colonial formula. But Bremer communicated precisely that to Iraqis: Outwardly the U.S. would proclaim the existence of a new state of affairs; in practice it would continue to exercise complete dominion over Iraq and not allow it to control its armed forces, police, or foreign policy, let alone rescind his earlier orders privatizing the Iraqi economy. This legerdemain was to be displayed for all the world to see on June 30, the day something called "sovereignty," which the U.S. never legitimately possessed, was "transferred" to some other U.S.-selected entity.

and

For the past three years researchers in Japan and Europe have been gathering and sifting evidence of possible American war crimes in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Their ultimate aim has been to bring before an international tribunal, in absentia, President George W. Bush, the leader who bears the highest responsibility for crimes committed in pursuit of his policies. At public hearings held in Japan on sixteen different occasions between December 2002 and November 2003, Japanese field researchers presented their findings, which were later published in seven volumes.{23} Human Rights Watch has also reported on how American troops in Afghanistan "are operating outside the rule of law, using excessive force to make arrests, mistreating detainees and holding them indefinitely."{24} Amnesty International and Occupation Watch, Physicians for Human Rights and other NGOs, UN officials, independent journalists and researchers are all documenting the criminal acts that American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are repeatedly committing against civilians and prisoners of war. .... Today, in a time of perpetual American global wars and colossal American policy failures, it is incumbent on historians to condemn governments that turn their soldiers into terrorists, and work politically to punish arch war criminals.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=17&ItemID=5446



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