From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.misc,alt.desert-storm
Subject: Gulf "War"'s Selective "Principles"
Date: 17 Aug 92 05:17:21 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB

TO: alt.activism,talk.politics.misc,alt.desert-storm
CC: mideast.gulf @ PeaceNet
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*From: juha.veijalainen@compart.fi (Juha Veijalainen) 
*Newsgroups: alt.desert-storm
*Subject: Re: Gulf "War"&Chomsky --
*Message-ID: <60.1929.uupcb@compart.fi>
*Distribution: world
*
*I beg to differ.  I'm certainly not a supporter of N/B/C weapons, but
*Iraq is certainly different from other countries with those weapons
*in their arsenal.  Iraq has several times demostrated that it will
*use those weapons.  It was probably the first user of chemical
*weapons in Iran-Iraq war and during that war Iraq even killed its own
*citizens with gas.
*
*To me that demostrates extreme ruthlessness and willingness to use
*these weapons whenever Iraq (Saddam?) decides.

Putting aside the "mere hypocrisy" of Bush's support for Saddam
(formerly "President Hussein") *after* such "demostrations of extreme
ruthlessness" as Saddam's earlier invasion, it surely follows that the
*far more massive killing of 1,500,000 people then justifies at the
veery least the same treatment of South Africa (which unlike Iraq
already has Nuclear weapons) namely, ultimatums, which, if not
followed promptly, are to be followed by a quick resort to force,
bombing them (the white folks too, now..) to bits:

    "To mention only one small element of a growing catastrophe, a
    study of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa estimates that
    "South Africa's military aggression and destabilization of its
    neighbors cost the region $10 billion in 1988 and over $60 billion
    and *1.5 million lives in the first nine years of this decade."*
    Such figures are considered too insignificant to merit notice in
    the Newspaper of Record, which avoided the matter.

	[use GET command [see bottom] with CHOMSKY VICTORS2 for a copy
	    of the full article]

Or, as reiterrated in the Post War Teach In:

[...]

"In one of the more serious efforts to address some of the
questions, Timothy Garton Ash asserts in the @u<New York Review>
that while sanctions were possible in dealing with South Africa
or Communist East Europe, Saddam Hussein is different.  That
concludes the argument.  We now understand why it was proper to
pursue "quiet diplomacy" while our South African friends caused
over $60 billion in damage and 1.5 million deaths from 1980 to
1988 in the neighboring states -- putting aside South Africa and
Namibia, and the preceding decade.  They are basically decent
folk, like us and the Communist tyrants.  Why?  No answer is
offered here, but a partial one is suggested by Nelson Mandela,
who condemns the hypocrisy and prejudice of the highly selective
response to the crimes of the "brown-skinned" Iraqis.  The same
thought comes to mind when the @u<New York Times> assures us that
"the world" is united against Saddam Hussein, the most hated man
in "the world" -- the world, that is, minus its darker
faces.@note{Ash, "The Gulf in Europe," @u<NYRB>, March 7, 1991.
"Inter-Agency Task Force, Africa Recovery Program/Economic
Commission, @u<South African Destabilization: the Economic Cost
of Frontline Resistance to Apartheid>, NY, UN, 1989, 13, cited by
Merle Bowen, @u<Fletcher Forum>, Winter 1991.  Mandela, AP,
@u<NYT>, Nov. 8, 1990.  Editorials, @u<NYT>, Feb. 23, 27, 1991.}

"The emergence of Western racism with such stunning clarity is
worth notice.  It is an understandable consequence of the end of
the Cold War.  For 70 years, it has been possible to disguise
traditional practices as "defense against the Soviets," generally
a sham, now lost as a pretext.  We return, then, to earlier days
when the New York press explained that "we must go on
slaughtering the natives in English fashion, and taking what
muddy glory lies in the wholesale killing til they have learned
to respect our arms.  The more difficult task of getting them to
respect our intentions will follow."@note{See @u<Turning the
Tide>, 162.} In fact, deprived of the benefits of our form of
civilization, they understood our intentions well enough, and
still do.

[...]

[use GET command with POST-WAR TEACH-IN

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