The Middle East

‘Stay the Course’
Means Endless Violence

by Max Elbaum

Israel ’s attacks on Lebanon killed 1,183 civilians, displaced nearly a million, destroyed 30,000 houses and crippled the infrastructure.

President Bush claims that “staying the course” is vital to defeating terrorism and bringing peace and democracy to the Middle East. But so far “the course” has produced only escalating violence and destruction.

Iraq is on the verge of exploding. Israel keeps threatening Lebanon with more assaults. Washington is building another lie-filled case for attacking Iran. The danger of engulfing the entire region--perhaps the planet--in uncontrollable violence looms ahead if we don’t change course.

Iraq Violence Stems from Occupation

Even pro-war New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman admitted in early August that the Iraq mission he championed “is not happening” and that Washington must prepare to withdraw.

At least 3,438 Iraqi civilians were killed in July, the highest monthly toll since the U.S. invasion. Top U.S. generals testifying before Congress spoke the forbidden words: “civil war.”

Attacks against U.S. troops and U.S.-led Iraqi troops have doubled since January. A senior Defense Department official admitted in early August that “the insurgency has more public support and is more capable in numbers of people active and in its ability to direct violence than at any point in time.’’

The most recent poll found that 92 percent of Iraqis want the U.S. to withdraw. An Aug. 17 U.S. News & World Report survey of Iraqis reported that 76 percent said the main reason the U.S. invaded Iraq was “to control Iraqi oil.” Less than 2 percent said it was “to bring democracy to Iraq.”

The occupation lies at the root of Iraq’s miseries. “There are three distinct types of terrorism in Iraq, all directly or indirectly connected to the occupation,” writes Michael Schwartz of Stony Brook University.

“The original terrorists were the officials of the Bush administration--starting with their ‘shock and awe’ bombing campaign . . . [Second] there are suicide car bomb attacks on restaurants, markets and mosques where large numbers of Shia congregate. These became common when a tiny proportion of the Sunni resistance movement became convinced that the Shia were the main domestic support for occupation.

“[Third], in 2005, Newsweek broke the story that the U.S. was establishing (Shiite) ‘death squads’ within the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. These death squads have now become a fixture in Baghdad, where thousands of corpses have been found with signs of torture.”

We have reached or are fast approaching the point when the collapse of government legitimacy, the destruction wrought by the war and the horror of terrorist violence become self-sustaining.

Lebanon — Interlude Between Wars?

Lebanon is still tallying the damage from more than 30 days of Israeli attacks. At least 1,183 Lebanese have been killed, one-third of them children. One million people were displaced from their homes. Thirty thousand houses were destroyed.

Amnesty International charges Israel with deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and committing war crimes during its assaults.

The U.S. supplied much of the weaponry used by Israel, including cluster bombs that are still maiming Lebanese civilians.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh has revealed that the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah was used as a pretext for Israel’s attack. He says the assault was planned ahead of time in consultation with Washington, which saw the Israeli attack as “a demo for Iran.”

But Israel’s campaign failed to destroy Hezbollah’s military capacity. It also failed to bully Lebanese Sunnis and Christians into turning against the Shiite-based Hezbollah. So Israel and Washington are already laying the groundwork for another war.

They never mention Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon (which killed 14,000 civilians) or its bloody, 18-year illegal occupation of Lebanese territory. Instead the public is bombarded with stories about the alleged mortal danger that “Iran- and Syria-backed” Hezbollah poses to Israel and the U.S.

Israeli leaders threaten to launch a new war almost daily. A former top U.S. intelligence official told Hersh: “When the smoke clears Rumsfeld and Cheney will say it was a success, and they’ll draw reinforcement for their plan to attack Iran.”

Palestine is the Pivot of Conflict

Israel invaded the Palestinian Gaza Strip two weeks before it invaded Lebanon--and never left. Israeli war hero and peace activist Uri Avnery points out that this invasion, too, “had been prepared for a long time” and that its real aim “is to destroy the Palestinian government.”

Israeli forces have kidnapped and imprisoned one-quarter of the members of Palestine’s democratically elected government. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, since June 28 Israel has killed at least 225 civilians, including 46 children and 10 women.

Israel is punishing the Palestinians for resisting Israel ’s unilateral plan to turn its draconian “Separation Wall” into a permanent border. This would mean annexing to Israel huge swaths of the West Bank, including its main water supply.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert never mentions that his annexation “solution” violates international law. U.N. Resolution 242 calls for Israeli withdrawal from all lands taken in the 1967 war.

The World Court has ruled the “Separation Wall” illegal. And U.N. Resolution 194, which Israel agreed to when it first joined the U.N., affirms the right of Palestinians displaced in 1948 to return to their homes.

Israel’s U.S.-backed dispossession of the Palestinians is the “open wound” (Avnery’s words) at the pivot of conflict and anti-U.S. sentiment throughout the Middle East. Until a just resolution is achieved, the region will remain explosive.

Insanity Defined: Iran in U.S. Gunsights

The biggest immediate danger is a U.S. attack on Iran. Though Washington’s militaristic strategy has resulted in one disaster after another, right-wingers are pushing for more war.

Unlike Israel, Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and consistently says it does not plan to build nuclear weapons. Iran allows U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities. And U.S. military experts say it would take years for Iran to produce nuclear weapons even if they decided to do so.

Most of the world--including 21 retired U.S. generals and security experts--supports negotiation to resolve differences over Iran ’s nuclear enrichment program. Top U.S. military leaders agree that a war with Iran would court catastrophe.

Such an attack would potentially kill tens of thousands of innocent Iranians and unleash full-scale regional war. The life of every U.S. soldier (and possibly every U.S. citizen) in Iraq, the Middle East and the Muslim world would be jeopardized.

Terrorism would undoubtedly spread exponentially. And it could drive oil prices over $100 a barrel, wreaking havoc on the world economy.

But Washington blames Iran for every problem from Lebanon to Iraq and keeps “all options on the table.” Seymour Hersh is pessimistic: “I don’t think this president is going to leave office with Iran being, as he sees it, a nuclear threat.”

That Iraq was just a prelude to more war ought to scare the entire world. A sensible definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result.

Max Elbaum has been active in antiwar and antiracist movements since the 1960s and is the author of Revolution in the Air.

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