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The Road to Surfdom notes that Bush administration officials are finally acknowledging that Noam Chomsky was right with regards to the
real reasons for the invasion of Iraq.

But let’s acknowledge what they have admitted: that Iraq was being used as an example to the rest of the region, if not the world, and that the idea was simply to enact a show of force.

[…]

So what Chomsky had gleaned from largely unheralded sources is now being confirmed by Administration officials via a major media outlet. Which is not to say that I agree with every inference Chomsky makes. And it is interesting to note that concern at such actions has come from rather more mainstream sources: the ABC article quotes, for instance, former CIA director, James Woolsey saying, “I don’t think you should go to war to set examples or send messages.”

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Nathan Newman on the latest humanitarian Congressional mandate

Congress is getting ready to mandate US-based cell phone technology in Iraq, aceing out European cell phone companies.

The idiocy of the mandate is that surrounding countries use the European-based GSM technology not the US- based CDMA standard:

If CDMA were the dominant technology in Iraq today, customers traveling to a nearby country that has only a GSM network wouldn’t be able to use a CDMA phone there.

Of course this war isn’t about oil; it’s about so many more business opportunities too.

Tapped: not too bright

There’s a reason Tapped is not my blogroll: posts like this:

WHAT NEXT? CONT’D. So now that the war is begun, what do liberals turn their energy towards? The University of Illinois’ Michael Bérubé suggests, for starters, taking to task the Bushies for their apparent consideration of rehabilitating the Iraqi Ba’ath Party once the war is over.

I wonder whether the sane left couldn’t start agitating now for a fairly simple but critical postwar position: No Ba’ath Party officials in a post-Saddam government. This is supposed to be a war of national liberation? Saddam is supposed to be Hitler, and antiwar liberals are being likened to Chamberlain? Fine, let’s run with the stupid analogy: Imagine Allied officials in June 1945 saying, “Hitler is dead and Germany has been defeated, but you know, a lot of these here Nazis know a great deal about running the country, they have over a decade of experience, we think they’re the people to work with in this crucial time of rebuilding.”

The point of this position, of course, is to hoist the Bush imperium by its own petard, and — incidentally — to get the antiwar left to be serious about coming up with a postwar agenda more plausible and cogent than “US Out of Everywhere.” I’m now in the process of printing up 500,000 “Peace-Loving Americans for de-Ba’athification” buttons and bumper stickers– a really catchy slogan, I think, even better than “No Blood for Oil.”

Sounds good to us.

“Get the antiwar left to be serious”? Mate, we’re more fucking serious than an ivory tower nitwit like you. At least we know this is about people being killed in a cynical attempt to built an empire, not bloody party politics. The point is to stop the suffering in Iraq, not to “host Bush by his own petard”.

The point is to stop this:

An Iraqi man carrying an injured child

If you have a strong stomach and want to see how Bush and co are liberating Iraq, take a look here. Not pretty pictures, not pictures you want to see, but pictures you should see at least once, just to remind yourself why we still need to stop this war.

Time to get serious

You may have noticed I have not blogged much this week; with the war now officially started I really have not felt like it. Now more then ever it feels like shouting into a vacuum. I just feel so helpless, you know? Bush finally has his war, innocent people are dying already and many more iwll die before this war is over and I get the feeling none of the socalled adults is taking this fucking serious. William Hague smirking his way through the war debate in the Commons on Tuesday, making oh so clever jokes about Claire Short. Bush and his cronies mouthing platitudes about peace and democracy, Blair and his cronies blaming France for this war because they opposed this war. The fucking reporters on the fucking BBC sounding so fucking pleased with the bombardments going on right now in Baghdad, getting their hardons from all this kewl military stuff. Finally, here’s the New and Improved Gulf War for all those boys and girls who missed the first one: now they too can do the Hero Reporter from Beleaguered Baghdad or Tel Aviv or Kuwait or where fucking ever. Then, escaping to the wonderful world of blogging, I get the same sanctimonious pricks who all along told me I Was Doing it All Wrong whinging that mass protests or direct action is sooo passe and shouldn’t I just vote Democratic and get involved into nice, respectable ways of doing politics. You know the same sort of politics that DIDN’T WORK BEFORE EITHER?? Fuck ’em.

There’s a war going on. It’s time to get serious.