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Historic Iraqi concord

Marathon talks in Baghdad that ended in the early hours of Monday will go down in history for the creation of a consensus-built road map that can lead the country toward a modern democratic state.

News Index

Index of current news items

Iraqi Shiites Fail to Sign Pact After Cleric Balks

BAGHDAD, March 5 - Leaders of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority balked at approving an interim constitution just hours before it was scheduled to be signed on Friday when the country's top Shiite cleric rejected provisions in the document aimed at protecting minority rights, aides to several council members said.

Iraqis to Sign Constitution Despite Shi'ite Doubts

"We don't want the rest of the Council to fear that the Shi'ites want to demolish the whole process. We don't want them to fear that the Shi'ites are trying to control things."

just another test run

will see what happens if I create a blog folder

Engels on Hegel - all that is real is rational; and all that is rational is real.

This is part 1 of Frederick Engels' article "Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy. (1886)

Hegel and the Pseudo-Left (Postings from the old LS forum)

Three postings from our old forum discussing Hegel's (1886) statement "All that is real is rational; and all that is rational is real." in relation to current pseudo-left ideology.

Shiites May Demand Lifting of Limits on Their Power

The disputes go to the core issue in Iraq, how the inevitability of Shiite majority rule can be made palatable to the Sunni minority that has been dominant here since the 1920's, and to other groups, principally the Kurds.

Faith, Shame, and Insurgency

 

discusssion topic - appeasement and lack of leadership

The global democratic revolution has such flaky "leaders". Bush, Blair, Howard are not Hegel's "world historical men".

Discussion topic index

It's time we started discussing things again on Last-Superpower. This page contains a list of discussion topics - some new and also some that I've rescued from our old forum.

The Future and its Enemies

 

Analysing the pseudo-left

 

Stability and US Policy

 

Stability, America's Enemy

A new century demands new ideas. The notion that stability is the fundamental strategic virtue is not going to be one of them.

The Bewildered Right

 

Demarcations: left, pseudo-left, right...

 

Debate with Clive Bradley

This is a long debate between Clive Bradley (from the British Trotskyist group "Alliance for Worker's Liberty") and members of LastSuperpower.

Iraq and the American Civil War

 

Hal Draper - Students in the 1930s

 

United Fronts

 

Barry York: The Future and its Enemies

(21/03/04) Barry York's review of Postrel's book 'The Future and its Enemies'

SYRIA FACES UPRISINGS IN KURDISH AREAS

The political developments in eastern Syria come as other internal opponents of the Baathist regime have grown bolder in the last week. `The fact there is a strong Kurdish movement emerging in Syria is an interesting development. This is certainly a result of Kurds in Syria seeing what the Kurds in Iraq have accomplished.`

Syria's Dictatorship has an Achilles Heel

The Kurdish people are aware of a second Saddam (Assad), but we have to wait for the International Community to take a similar action as it happened in Iraq last year. A hundred miles must begin with a single step.

Syria: Address Grievances Underlying Kurdish Unrest

"Syria's Kurds have endured decades of severe discrimination under Ba'ath party rule," said Joe Stork, acting executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

The Signatures Saved Iraq from Collapse

The process that led to the transitional law of Iraq is unique in the Middle East. Despite terror attacks and political assassinations, the political forces have refrained from accusations and retaliation and instead taken a path characterised by negotiations and compromises, writes Khaled Salih.

New Document Index

Index to new documents (ie docs which were not on the old Last Superpower site.)

Medscape reports : Many Physicians in Iraq Forced to Participate in Torture

Under threats of murder to themselves or family members, many physicians in Iraq were coerced into participating in torture and other human rights abuses since 1988, according to an article by Physicians for Human Rights.

Israel: fantasy and reality

The Bush administration`s criticism of the killing of Yassin as `very troubling` may have sounded mild - but considering that this is an election year, when presidents are keen to keep the Jewish lobby in America on board, and that Hamas is close to the top of America`s list of outlaws, it is striking that America expressed concern, rather than congratulations, about Israel`s actions. It has been the USA telling Israel to get the settlers out, and the USA making it very clear that the peace process is its only option for the future.

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BBC Survey

An opinion poll suggests most Iraqis feel their lives have improved since the war in Iraq began about a year ago. The survey, carried out for the BBC and other broadcasters, also suggests many are optimistic about the next 12 months and opposed to violence.

John Pilger on ABC Radio

 

Kurdish leaders urge Shiites, former Baathists to join reconciliation drive

The conference named Barzani president of the NRC and decided to set up reconciliation committees in each of the country's 18 provinces.

People of the Middle East should have freely chosen their future

The international community, for long decades, has ignored the suffering of the Kurdish people. The kurds are responding to the new appeals for democracy in Middle East, generated by the repeated and strong plea from the USA and the West. They want to be an active part in the process of democratization of the region and are ardently asking for their legitimate and inalienable rights of self-determination. These rights are clearly stated in the UN convention. The Kurds and the peoples in the region have listened to what Mr. Bush said in November 2003: "Our part, as free nations, is to ally ourselves with reform, wherever it occur.

The second spring of freedom in the Middle East and the Kurds

The Middle East has to change; it needs to go back to its noble beginnings, where humanity took its first baby steps in the fields of light that separated us from the beasts of burden.

Hitchens: Fallujah - A reminder of what the future might look like if we fail.

...this "Heart of Darkness" element is part of the case for regime-change to begin with. A few more years of Saddam Hussein, or perhaps the succession of his charming sons Uday and Qusay, and whole swathes of Iraq would have looked like Fallujah. The Baathists, by playing off tribe against tribe, Arab against Kurd and Sunni against Shiite, were preparing the conditions for a Hobbesian state of affairs. Their looting and beggaring of the state and the society--something about which we now possess even more painfully exact information--was having the same effect. A broken and maimed and traumatized Iraq was in our future no matter what.

Road to Damascus: The Kurds nominate Syria for regime change.

This indecision is partially replicated in Washington, which is in no hurry to alarm its Turkish ally with too much talk of Kurdish self-determination in either Iraq or Syria. But "regime change," as those of us who favor it have always maintained, is not something that can too easily be manipulated. Colin Powell, who has always detested the policy, may have spent the past few days trying to reassure the Saudis that nothing too revolutionary is intended by American pronouncements about democracy. As usual, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Syria, and tomorrow in Iran, there are forces at work who intend to take these pronouncements with absolute seriousness. It would be nice if American liberals came out more forcefully and demanded that the administration live up to its own rhetoric on the question.

Turning the Muqtada Crisis into a Milestone for Iraqi Sovereignty

Clashes in Baghdad and Iraq’s south involving the followers of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and coalition forces cast Iraq’s future into doubt. Dozens of Shias and 20 coalition troops have been killed in the past 48 hours.

Press Release: Kurdish Leadership Console of Western Kurdistan of Syria

 

A Year After Liberation

While a robust military response from the coalition is unavoidably the immediate requirement, Iraqis must be empowered to assume a more active role in protecting their country and taking responsibility for their own fate. Iraqi political leaders must be unequivocal in facing their responsibilities. There is no margin for political opportunism in confronting terrorism and extremism in our midst. If the terrorists and extremists are seen to win in any way, seen in any manner to inflict setbacks upon Iraq's burgeoning democracy, then the whole of the Middle East could be set ablaze. If the terrorists lose, then there is hope not just for the stability of the Middle East but for the rest of the world and our common battle against terrorism.

Stability, America's Enemy

 

TIME TO TAKE OFF THE GLOVES

Despite the fact that Sadr and his friends have spent vast sums of Iranian money, often entering Iraq in the form of crisp notes in briefcases, even the theological seminaries of Najaf and Karbala have kept their doors shut to his brand of religious fascism. Numerous opinion polls, including some financed by the opponents of the liberation, show that in any free election the overwhelming majority of the Iraqis will not vote either for the Saddamites or the various brands of Islamist fascism.

Tony Blair on the current situation in Iraq

They know it is a historic struggle. They know their victory would do far more than defeat America or Britain. It would defeat civilisation and democracy everywhere. They know it, but do we? The truth is, faced with this struggle, on which our own fate hangs, a significant part of Western opinion is sitting back, if not half-hoping we fail, certainly replete with schadenfreude at the difficulty we find.

Hitchens:Vietnam? Why the analogy doesn't hold water.

I can't see how this compares to the attempt to partition and subjugate Vietnam, bomb its cities, drench its forests in Agent Orange, and hand over its southern region to a succession of brutal military proxies. For one thing, Vietnam even at its most Stalinist never invaded and occupied neighboring countries (or not until it took on the Khmer Rouge), never employed weapons of genocide inside or outside its own borders, and never sponsored gangs of roving nihilist terrorists. If not all its best nationalists were Communists, all its best Communists were nationalists, and their combination of regular and irregular forces had beaten the Japanese and French empires long before the United States even set foot in the country, let alone before the other Kennedy brothers started assassinating the very puppets they had installed there.

In Major Shift, Bush Endorses Sharon Plan and Backs Keeping Some Israeli Settlements

"I don't think that reaction is going to stop progress because there are real benefits here for Palestinians, and they're going to see those benefits here clearly," said a senior administration official who asked not to be identified because he wanted to speak more freely. "The main benefit is that a Likud government of Israel is going to withdraw from settlements. Israel has not withdrawn from a settlement since 1967. This is therefore going to be a very big deal." Administration officials also held out hope that Mr. Sharon had embarked on a process of withdrawal that would be rejected by Mr. Sharon's far-right coalition partners, which would force him to bring the left-of-center Labor Party into the government and create a political climate the Palestinians might consider more hospitable.

Paul Berman: Will the Opposition Lead?

The whole point in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, from my perspective, was to achieve those large possibilities right in the center of the Muslim world, where the ripples might lead in every direction........ But Mr. Bush muddied these issues long ago by putting too much emphasis on weapons in Iraq

Bush and Blair, United in Unwavering Stance on Iraq Policy, Part on Mideast Plan

But even as he put up a united front on Iraq, Mr. Blair distanced himself a bit from Mr. Bush's new stand on the Arab-Israeli conflict....Mr. Blair signaled that he now wanted the emphasis to shift to helping the Palestinians achieve the promise of an independent, viable state.

Coalition Provisional Authority Briefing With United Nations Special RepresentativeLakhdar Brahimi And Massoud Barzani, President, ICG

 

A transitional law worth fighting for

The US-led coalition in Iraq is engaged in belated pacification on two fronts. On one, it has been fighting Ba'athists, including members of Saddam Hussein's presidential guard, in Fallujah and the "Sunni triangle". On the other, it is pressing for the surrender and disbanding of Moqtada al-Sadr's "Mahdi Army" in predominantly Shia suburbs and cities.

The Arab media's distortion of reality in Iraq

Since the US-led operation that led to the toppling of the Saddam regime, the Arab media has played a significant role in providing a one sided perception of the news. This biased reporting has had a considerable impact on opinions around the globe.

Rumsfeld: post-war problems of ‘occupation’ underestimated

MATTHEWS: What’s different? RUMSFELD: Well, in Vietnam, you had a government that was not a popular government in the south. They didn’t have—hadn’t fashioned their own constitution. They hadn’t had their own elections. They were governments that were considered by the rest of the Vietnamese people to be puppet governments.

Hitchens: Covering the 'quagmire'

It's now fairly obvious that those who cover Iraq have placed their bets on a fiasco or "quagmire" and that this conclusion shows in the fiber and detail of their writing.

Chalabi Compares U.S. Policy on Baathists with Nazis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. policy shift that may allow former Baathists join a new Iraqi government was akin to putting back Nazis in charge of Germany, Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi said on Friday.

Support for Iraqi Democrats

 

peace movement

 

There's a hole in the bucket

 

hole in the bucket

 

The enemy is not America

Why is international public opinion not outraged at the treatment of women in Islamic fundamentalist societies? Why is it easier for millions of people around the world to see America as the great evil, rather than the countries in which governments ignore such horrific abuses of women?

Chalabi: What Iraqis Want

A year after Saddam was deposed, the Iraqi people are grateful for liberation but tired of occupation and delayed promises. Only sovereignty, democracy and justice will satisfy us now.

Prison Mutiny:What the torturers of Abu Ghraib have wrought.

Either these goons were acting on someone's authority, in which case there is a layer of mid- to high-level people who think that they are not bound by the laws and codes and standing orders. Or they were acting on their own authority, in which case they are the equivalent of mutineers, deserters, or traitors in the field. This is why one asks wistfully if there is no provision in the procedures of military justice for them to be taken out and shot.

Misbehaviour before the enemy

 

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Jose Ramos-Horta: Keep fighting the good fight

Credible opinion polls show that a large majority of Iraqis feel better off than a year ago. There is real freedom of the press with newspapers and radio stations mushrooming in the new Iraq. There is unhindered internet access. NGOs covering everything from human rights to women's advocacy have emerged. In short, Iraq is experiencing real freedom for the first time in its history. And that is exactly what the religious fanatics fear.

Pamela Bone: Not all news in Iraq and Afghanistan is bad

Some people would prefer to see Iraq fail than America succeed, writes Pamela Bone.

Albert Langer: Back the Iraqi compromise

Letter published in "The Australian" newspaper in response to Horta's article "Keep fighting the good fight"

US Still Welcome in Kurdistan

Kurdish peshmerga fighters even protect the American base and accompany soldiers on main roads.

Black Monday/Sunny afternoon

"Theory, my friend, is grey, but green is the eternal tree of life." But the real idea behind those words, as used (often) by Marxists is precisely that the theoretical struggle is the struggle for life to break through the dull dogmas of those who simply will not and cannot analyse things as they are growing and developing.

Ahmad and Me: Defending Chalabi

Christopher Hitchens defending Chalabi.

What Went Wrong? The flaw in Seymour Hersh's theory

But the battle against Islamic jihad will be going on for a very long time, against a foe that is both ruthless and irrational. This means that infinite patience and scruple and intelligence are required, as well as decisiveness and bravery. Given this necessary assumption, all short-cut artists, let alone rec-room sadists, are to be treated, not as bad apples alone, but as traitors and enemies. If Rumsfeld could bring himself to say that, he could perhaps undo some of the shame, and some of the harm as well.

Kurdish parliament calls UN Security Council resolution positive

"The Kurdish parliament has decided to adopt a positive position toward the UN Security Council resolution because the entire world has expressed its respect for the fundamental law," said Roj Nuri Shawis, a vice president in Iraq's caretaker government and the Kurdish parliament speaker.

Ralph Peters: BETRAYAL

When Washington chooses short-term political gains over long-term strategic advantage, we repeat our worst past errors, from buttressing the Shah of Iran to supporting Saddam Hussein. Appeasement isn't a strategy. Quiet isn't peace. Iraq was quiet under the old regime.

Albert Langer: Latham v reality: the looming crisis

Labor's blatant and cowardly appeasement strategy is exposed as never before, writes Albert Langer.

Old Document Index (2)

Index of documents retrieved from our old site.

Liberty Leading the People

The item below refers to the painting by Delacroix - "Liberty Leading the People" - which currently appears at the top of every LastSuperpower page .

responses in "The Age"

Four letters to the editor....

Trauma and Transition: Mental Health in Iraq

I would put the root cause down to the tyranny of the Ba’ath and, the totalitarian policies of the Ba’ath. Without that there would have been no wars, because the wars were created quite consciously and deliberately by that regime. The regime diverted resources of the State, almost completely towards the military and towards non productive spheres, the services, the welfare services were, again, deliberately starved of funds and neglected. So health and education were completely neglected. In fact there has been no investment in health in Iraq, and I’m not just talking about mental health now, since about 1983-84. So for the last 19 to 20 years of the regime there was no investment at all in the infrastructure of health. Teaching hospitals that were state of the art when I left them in the late 70’s, in 2003 they looked like shells. You know they were crumbling.

Iraqi People Must Take Responsibility, Kurdish Leader Says

Many young people in Iraq’s Kurdish north are disappointed by the new government and want full independence for Kurdistan. Talibani jovially said that young people will dream and it’s important to not crush their dreams, but it’s more important for them to understand that a unified Iraq is the only practical solution.

Unfairenheit 9/11: The Lies of Michael Moore

If Michael Moore had had his way, Slobodan Milosevic would still be the big man in a starved and tyrannical Serbia. Bosnia and Kosovo would have been cleansed and annexed. If Michael Moore had been listened to, Afghanistan would still be under Taliban rule, and Kuwait would have remained part of Iraq. And Iraq itself would still be the personal property of a psychopathic crime family, bargaining covertly with the slave state of North Korea for WMD. You might hope that a retrospective awareness of this kind would induce a little modesty. To the contrary, it is employed to pump air into one of the great sagging blimps of our sorry, mediocre, celeb-rotten culture.

Kurdish views and Issues

Below you will find links to material on the site related to Kurdish issues and views. It's very incomplete at this stage - however we will gradually be adding more material from our old site as well as entirely new material.

Speech by Dr. Barham Sahlih (January 2003)

Speech presented by Dr Barham Salih Prime Minister, Kurdistan Regional Government - Iraq to The Socialist International (SI) Council, Rome, January 20th, 2003

A Plea from the People of Iraq

No one wants a war in Iraq less than the Iraqi people. But we don't have the luxury of being anti-war.

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document.2004-07-04.8677759733

 

Once all was lost, but now there's hope

Don't ask me. I'm still wondering why millions of people marched last year not to denounce the world's worst dictator but to prevent the overthrow of that dictator.

Barham Salih: The Kurdish Dream

"Today, we fight alongside you because in a world of cynicism, the U.S., and its genuine allies, understand that they cannot use the Kurdish dead to justify this war and then sell out the Kurdish living. We have been sickened to hear those who armed Saddam preach to us about the horrors of war, to listen to those who helped prop up the dictator prate about international law."

BARHAM SALIH: What the Kurds Want

The transition in Iraq will not be easy, and must be assessed in its proper context. Iraq's decimated civil society - coupled with the many external influences - will inevitably make the transition a rather complicated process. The future of Iraq is of consequence not only to the people of Iraq, but also the wider Middle East and beyond. The stakes cannot be any higher: for those of us who would like the Islamic Middle East to aspire toward more democracy, as well as for those who seek to maintain the status quo.

Feb.7, 2004: Speech by Barham Salih to the Socialist International

I as a Kurd and as an Iraqi, I know, perhaps more than others, that war is devastating and should be questioned. However, for us, this war was to end the brutal war that has been waged against the people of Iraq. It was a war to bring us the opportunity of peace and freedom. And I will tell you unequivocally we are grateful to the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Italy and So many other nations that have come from a far to deliver us from tyranny and fascism. Moreover, being here in Spain I must offer our profound gratitude to the Spaniards who have come to help in our hour of need, and paid with their lives for freedom and justice.

The Pro-War Lobby is in Denial

An article which appeared in "The Age" newspaper with Cartoon above it by Dyson, "Civilising the debate". Followed by an unpublished letter to the editor in response to it. Cartoon shows large younger thug in military fatigues carrying studded club saying - "I fear we are no closer to a resolution". Small older man biting his leg saying - "I reluctantly concur".

"Civilising the debate" by Andrew Dyson.

accompanies the news item "The pro-war lobby is in denial" by Shaun Carney. July 3, 2004.

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testing epoz

Can I use EPOZ here?

Phillip Adams descends to the depths

Adams descends to holocaust revisionism about the Kurdish Anfal -- Remembering their dead is a "distraction" from the "central issue" of lies about WMDs for an "unjustified war" against a regime that really might not have been all that bad. See also reply by Christopher Hitchens.

Christopher Hitchens: It happened, Mr Adams

Where is everybody? That's what the survivors want to know. Adams -- who uses the suggestive phrase "forced to confess" only when jeering at Blair, and who incidentally attributes all casualties in the anti-Saddam wars only to the Coalition -- now offers the only defence that Saddam's attorneys haven't come up with. Why didn't they think of pleading "No big deal"?

Kirkuk Kurds Should Reclaim Land - Iraq President

"The situation in Kirkuk should return to what it was before 1968."

Talabani interview 2004-07-10

PUK leader on interim cabinet, Sadaam trial, death penalty, israeli rumours, federalism, and integration between two kurdish administrations.

Ann Clwyd: The Iraqi 'resistance' offers only bloodshed and chaos

No one would deny that the Coalition Provisional Authority made some fundamental errors in policy in its 14 months of power. And no one should be blind to the dangers that lie ahead. But at this point in Iraq's history the choice is a stark one. Either we support those who offer the chance of a democratic Iraq, with laws that protect the rights of all Iraqis and a civil society that ensures the country never returns to the evil days of dictatorship, or we embrace the gunmen and the bombers, who have already demonstrated their contempt for human life.

Christopher Hitchens: Firehouse rot

And then on Thursday night, Sen. Kerry quite needlessly proposed a contradiction between "opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in the United States of America." Talk about a false alternative. To borrow the current sappy language of "making us safer": Who would feel more secure if they knew that we weren't spending any tax dollars on Iraqi firehouses?

Letters re Hitchens-Adams: The Left supports the Iraq war

Some published Letters to the Editor following reply to Phillip Adams by Christopher Hitchens and letter from Robert Manne with similar line to Adams and other letters demanding appeasement of terrorist hostage takers, just before as Hitchens article demolishing them. "The Australian", August 2, 3 and 4, 2004