World Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

Everyone likes surprises, and the brutal military regime that has ruled Burma since 1990 are no exception. Back in September 2005 people were dumbfounded to hear that the generals had moved the capital 400 miles to the north; almost two years later they woke up to find the cost of diesel – the country’s main fuel - had doubled, while that of gas – much used by private bus companies following orders from a greenwashing junta – increased by five times.

As the United States is the sole superpower and empire in the world today, most commentators focus primarily just on relations between America and Iran to explain the current situation developing between the two countries, usually not going further back than just a few years, and as far back as the mainstream media will tell the story is to 1979, when Iran had a revolution, in which they threw out the Shah of Iran, who was backed by the Americans and British, and replaced that form of secular government with a religious one. However, as important as this event was between Iranian and American relations, it is important to go further back to truly understand the dynamic relations that the United Kingdom, and later, the United States (the Anglo-American alliance) have had with Iran.

Two well-respected US peace activists, CODEPINK and Global Exchange cofounder Medea Benjamin and retired US Army Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright, were denied entry into Canada today (Wednesday, October 3). The two women were headed to Toronto to discuss peace and security issues at the invitation of the Toronto Stop the War Coalition. At the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Bridge they were detained, questioned and denied entry. They will hold a press conference on Thursday afternoon in front of the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC to ask the Canadian government to reverse its policy of barring peaceful protesters.

George W. Bush has transformed elite units of the U.S. military – including Special Forces and highly trained sniper teams – into “death squads” with a license to kill unarmed targets on the suspicion that they are a threat to American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to evidence from recent court cases.

Undoubtedly what is happening in Iraq is a continuing 2-decade HOLOCAUST (i.e. involves a huge number of deaths).

The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death toll.

As we recently reported, only a handful of media outlets covered a new ORB poll revealing that 1.2 million Iraqis had been murdered since the 2003 invasion. BBC Online provided a rare example:

“A UK-based polling agency, Opinion Research Business (ORB), said it had extrapolated the figure by asking a random sample of 1,461 Iraqi adults how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.

“The results lend weight to a 2006 survey of Iraqi households published by the Lancet, which suggested that about 655,000 Iraqi deaths were 'a consequence of the war'.

“However, these estimates are both far higher than the running total of reported civilian deaths maintained by the campaign group Iraq Body Count which puts the figure at between 71,000 and 78,000.” (BBC Online, ’US contractors in Iraq shootout,’ September 17, 2007;  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6998458.stm)

BBC’s Newsnight programme used IBC’s figures in the same way:

“More than a million Iraqis have been killed since the invasion in 2003, according to the British polling company ORB. The study’s likely to fuel controversy over the true, human cost of the war. It’s significantly up on the previous highest estimate of 650,000 deaths published by the Lancet last October... The independent Iraqi [sic] Body Count group puts the current total at closer to 75,000.” (Newsnight, BBC2, September 14, 2007)

These reports again raise serious issues about what IBC’s figures actually mean, how they are being used and misused to cast doubt on higher numbers, and about what IBC is doing to promote or reduce the confusion. (See our 2006 Media Alerts archive for previous analysis, beginning with:  http://www.medialens.org/alerts/06/060125_paved_with_good.php)

Forget the Neo-Con, the Neo-Dem, the Neo-Lib and the Neo-Nuts. The role the demonization and dehumanization of the (many, many, many...) Empire’s enemies has played in supporting imperialism and colonialism can be more easily seen in those Western liberal and progressive writers, journalists, intellectuals and anti-war movement’s planners who always resort to human rights, women rights, gay rights’ violations of the Empire’s enemy of the month as the reason why we, the enlightened people, can’t surely sympathies, let alone support the "other" peoples who try to defend themselves and resist against wars of aggression and occupations, which is to say, colonialism and imperialism.

So Britain lectures Burma on the right of people to protest, the U.N., sends an envoy there and the U.S. - whilst behaving in Iraq and Afghanistan as Burma's Junta, shooting, beating, torturing, imprisoning without trial - go in to broken record mode about the right to peacefully demonstrate and 'freedom and democrocy'. Meanwhile, the British government, under the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown (who as Chancellor of the Exchequer write the cheques for the Iraq and Afghanistan bloodbaths) has instructed the police to ban a peaceful march and Lobby of Parliament - on 8th October, the day that Parliament re-convenes after the summer break - demanding that British troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan.

How American politicians can call Iran a dangerous country and claim that it poses a threat to the U.S. is a mystery. On second thought, it is not a mystery. It just tells you that the politicians think you and I are so stupid that we will fall for the exact same parade of lies and exaggerations that was used to justify the war against Iraq.

The news media in times of crisis and war reproduce and do not question the consciousness and attitudes of the elites. Wars are seen as exceptional situations by the media in which patriotism outweighs the journalistic self-image of critically distanced reporting.

The long-awaited “progress report” of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on the status of the occupation of Iraq has been made, providing Americans, via the compliant media, with the spectacle of loyal Bush yes men offering faith-based analysis in lieu of fact-based assessment. In the days and weeks that have since passed, two things have become clear: Neither Congress nor the American people (including the antiwar movement) have a plan or the gumption to confront President Bush in anything more than cosmetic fashion over the war in Iraq, and while those charged with oversight mill about looking to score cheap political points and/or save face, the administration continues its march toward conflict with Iran unimpeded.

We bring to the attention of our readers this carefully researched analysis.

"Given the warnings of incipient terrorist attacks that had been repeatedly received by the Administration and the FBI, why would anyone coordinate two major annual air training exercises at this time, and divert key resources to the North Pole on an outdated mission? Who was in a position to do this?"

Members of the Karen community in Sheffield were joined by activists and others to express solodarity with those opposing the regime in Burma.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman of Neturei Karta International, issued the following statement on the eve of the group's meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

People from across the United Kingdom and Europe are heading towards the west coast of Scotland to participate in Monday's "Big Blockade" of Faslane naval base, home of the UK's nuclear weapons arsenal.

I'm beginning to understand the role of electronic vote (rigging) machines used in the last election. A Republican win would have been unbelievable, so these machines were used to install "friendly" Democrats (members of the RepubliCrat Party) to the halls of power, ensuring nothing would change, and that this Madness could expand.

The day before the election, CNN ran a priceless report, saying that E-Voting was provably 'unreliable', but that 76% of Districts were using the machines anyway. Then they cut back to the anchors, who paused for a moment, looking defeated, then basically said, "Oh, well" ...

Wonder if the "news" media will ever report the story ...

There's been a lot of talk about Ahmadinejad's statement about how Iran supposedly "doesn't have gays like you do" - which of course totally distracts from the substance of his speech in which he proclaimed that Iran was not going to attack anyone and that he didn't deny the holocaust as claimed but only questioned why the Palestinians had to suffer for it.

Watch for the US to apply 'substantial pressure' on the IAEA between now and then.

As SchNEWS Examines The Sudden Iintrest In Human Rights In Burma

"I call on those who embrace the values of human rights and freedom to support the legitimate demands of the Burmese people." - George Bush.