[lbo-talk] Juan Cole: What if America looked like Iraq?

Michael Dawson mdawson at pdx.edu
Sun Sep 26 23:18:08 PDT 2004


None of this is effective as an anti-war argument. Who doesn't know this kind of stuff is part and parcel of the situation? And who can't easily make such projections?

Meanwhile: The invasion was illegal and unpopular in its epicenter. What the hell do you expect to result from it?

I hate to say it, but Yoshie is right on this one: The DP sucked the life out of the anti-war movement. As a result, all the obvious facts are sucked down the memory hole.

It's not going to get better. It's disgusting, too.

People driving around with certain stickers and flags should be automatically enlisted, if we had a decent system of ethics on the ground. Outside ghettoes, we don't.

Old news.

-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Michael Pollak Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 5:51 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] Juan Cole: What if America looked like Iraq?

http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#109582366638394688

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the

pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation?

The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of

statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent

proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died

in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and

aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the

deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an

ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in

the capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line,

in Boston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco?

What if the grounds of the White House and the government buildings

near the Mall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost

nobody in the State Department at Foggy Bottom, the White House, or

the Pentagon dared venture out of their buildings, and considered it

dangerous to go over to Crystal City or Alexandria?

What if all the reporters for all the major television and print media

were trapped in five-star hotels in Washington, DC and New York,

unable to move more than a few blocks safely, and dependent on

stringers to know what was happening in Oklahoma City and St. Louis?

What if the only time they ventured into the Midwest was if they could

be embedded in Army or National Guard units?

There are estimated to be some 25,000 guerrillas in Iraq engaged in

concerted acts of violence. What if there were private armies

totalling 275,000 men, armed with machine guns, assault rifles,

rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out

in dangerous urban areas of cities all over the country? What if they

completely controlled Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake

City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha, such that local police and Federal

troops could not go into those cities?

What if, during the past year, the Secretary of State (Aqilah

Hashemi), the President (Izzedine Salim), and the Attorney General

(Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim) had all been assassinated?

What if all the cities in the US were wracked by a crime wave, with

thousands of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings in

every major city every year?

What if the Air Force routinely (I mean daily or weekly) bombed

Billings, Montana, Flint, Michigan, Watts in Los Angeles,

Philadelphia, Anacostia in Washington, DC, and other urban areas,

attempting to target "safe houses" of "criminal gangs", but inevitably

killing a lot of children and little old ladies?

What if, from time to time, the US Army besieged Virginia Beach,

killing hundreds of armed members of the Christian Soldiers? What if

entire platoons of the Christian Soldiers militia holed up in

Arlington National Cemetery, and were bombarded by US Air Force

warplanes daily, destroying thousands of graves and even pulverizing

the Vietnam Memorial over on the Mall? What if the National Council of

Churches had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to

converge on the National Cathedral to stop the US Army from

demolishing it to get at a rogue band of the Timothy McVeigh Memorial

Brigades?

What if there were virtually no commercial air traffic in the country?

What if many roads were highly dangerous, especially Interstate 95

from Richmond to Washington, DC, and I-95 and I-91 up to Boston? If

you got on I-95 anywhere along that over 500-mile stretch, you would

risk being carjacked, kidnapped, or having your car sprayed with

machine gun fire.

What if no one had electricity for much more than 10 hours a day, and

often less? What if it went off at unpredictable times, causing

factories to grind to a halt and air conditioning to fail in the

middle of the summer in Houston and Miami? What if the Alaska pipeline

were bombed and disabled at least monthly? What if unemployment

hovered around 40%?

What if veterans of militia actions at Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma

City bombing were brought in to run the government on the theory that

you need a tough guy in these times of crisis?

What if municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the

new "president" quietly installed in the statehouses as "governors?"

What if several of these governors (especially of Montana and Wyoming)

were assassinated soon after taking office or resigned when their

children were taken hostage by guerrillas?

What if the leader of the European Union maintained that the citizens

of the United States are, under these conditions, refuting pessimism

and that freedom and democracy are just around the corner? ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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