March 2006 

HOW TO LOSE THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
PART 2: Handing victory to the extremists
The takfiris - those who view all Westerners as infidels and condemn moderate Muslims who talk with the West - have their counterparts in the West: those who fail to distinguish between terrorists and nationalists, between al-Qaeda and legitimate Islamists. With this "they're all the same" attitude, the takfiris in both camps undermine their own causes. Mark Perry and Alastair Crooke have tried to bridge the gap between the West and political Islam. (Mar 31, '06)

 PART 1: Talking with the 'terrorists' (Mar 30, '06)

NUCLEAR REACTIONS (Mar 31, '06) Iran: Options for a face-saving solution After three weeks of grueling haggling, the UN Security Council has laid its Iran nuclear cards on the table - or some of them, at least. Still unresolved is what to do about Iran if it fails to comply with the council's demands. Tehran's hand remains hidden, but it holds options for a face-saving compromise - if the International Atomic Energy Agency plays its cards right. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi What they think in Tehran Iranians of all stripes agree that their nation is a victim of Western propaganda and double standards and they're adamant about their right to a civilian nuclear program. - Pepe Escobar Indian deal: Bad timing by Bush The nuclear cooperation deal announced on March 2 was to be the cornerstone of a new Indo-US strategic partnership. But it is one thing to make a deal and another to get the necessary approvals from Congress, especially at a time when many congressmen are mad at President George W Bush. - Kaushik Kapisthalam

Democracy: Iraq votes, Bush vetoes
Call it desperation or preemptive regime change, but the US has started to take measures in Iraq that would wreck its most cherished goal there: democracy. Through its ambassador, Washington is attempting to have the leading candidate for the prime ministership dumped. Democracy in Iraq apparently means having President Bush's preferred candidate at the helm. - Ehsan Ahrari (Mar 30, '06)

THE ROVING EYE
Iran: The ultimate martyr
In the Islamic Revolution scale of values, to die as a martyr is an even greater honor than to live as a good, practicing Muslim. Yet the last thing Iran's clerical-political establishment needs at this moment is for President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to martyr the nation into the status of ultimate global outcast. It might be time for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step in. - Pepe Escobar (Mar 30, '06)

IRAN, IRAQ: PEACE BE DAMNED (Mar 29, '06) Neo-con cabal blocked 2003 nuclear talks So intent were neo-conservatives in the Bush administration on isolating Iran that when in 2003 Tehran proposed a "grand bargain" with the US, the Swiss envoy who relayed the message received a swift rebuke from Washington. Three years later, after tens of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars, the US is only now talking to Iran over stabilizing Iraq, and Tehran's nuclear program has evolved into a major trigger for conflict. - Gareth Porter Different beat to Iran war drums In comparison to the rush to war with Iraq, as evidenced by yet another leaked memo detailing discussions between President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the crisis over Iran's nuclear program is unfolding at a snail's pace. This does not mean, though, that the end result will not be the same. - Ehsan Ahrari What went wrong in Iraq? Wrong answer The media have a stock answer to the question, "what went wrong in Iraq?". It's an answer that ignores the neo-liberal economic "shock treatment" and draconian dismantling of society imposed on the country immediately after Saddam's overthrow. It was this upheaval that spawned the resistance by ordinary Iraqis willing to fight and die in the belief that if they did not, things would only get worse. - Michael Schwartz

Iraq: Headless chickens run amok 
(Mar 28, '06)
An increasingly desperate US is talking to Iran's Shi'ite leadership as Iraq drifts into civil war. At the same time, the American military is alienating Shi'ite sympathizers within Iraq by taking the fight to Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Iraq's Shi'ite-dominated interim government is now demanding that the US hand over control of the country's security. Meanwhile, the Kurds have fallen out with their Shi'ite allies and are courting Sunnis - to Tehran's concern; the Iraqi president and prime minister are at loggerheads; and there is still no sign of a real government. President Bush's "long haul" is getting longer.

 Talking to the enemy - Iason Athanasiadis

 Fighting with friends - Ehsan Ahrari

Iraq left to rebuild itself
The US, after spending US$21 billion, has told the Iraqi government that from now on it will have to pay for its own reconstruction, whether or not it is ready. Finding the necessary $70-100 billion will be another matter. (Mar 28, '06)

SPENGLER
The West in an Afghan mirror
Philistine hypocrisy pervades Western denunciations of Islamic law and the Afghan court that may well have hanged the Christian convert Abdul Rahman. Death everywhere and always is the penalty for apostasy, in Islam and every other faith, and the practice of killing heretics has nothing to do with what differentiates Islam from Christianity or Judaism. (Mar 27, '06)

THE ROVING EYE
Messages of hope from Iran
Iran has taken the initiative to counteract what is perceived as Islam and religion under fire, and to remedy the fact that Islam is not getting its message across to the West. Pepe Escobar was in fabled Isfahan for the "International Conference on Constructive Interaction Among Religions". (Mar 27, '06)

Losing faith in Afghanistan
Clerics seeking the execution of an Afghan who converted from Islam to Christianity are using the issue to bolster their fight to create a widespread popular front against foreign forces in Afghanistan. International leaders whose troops are stationed in the country are thus playing right into the hands of the clerics by taking the moral high ground and threatening withdrawal. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 24, '06)

A balance sheet for America's Iraq
Those who have benefited from three years of war in Iraq are precisely those whom the United States intended to be losers: Iran and Arab regimes that neighbor Iraq. Sami Moubayed examines how it all went so wrong for Washington and its allies. (Mar 24, '06)

The Kurdish defection
The Kurdish town of Halabja achived notoriety when Saddam Hussein gassed 5,000 residents to death in 1988. Last week, it was the site of riots and bloodshed, but this time the culprit, say residents, was Shi'ite Iran. Such is the topsy-turvy nature of Iraq, where Kurds and Shi'ites - once natural allies against Saddam's dominant Sunnis - have fallen out as the Kurds pursue their goal of independence. - Iason Athanasiadis (Mar 24, '06)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Interview with Chalmers Johnson
PART 2: What happened to Congress?
The US is suffering from imperial overstretch, excessive militarism and a supine Congress, historian Chalmers Johnson tells Tom Engelhardt, and the only thing that could reinvigorate it is bankruptcy. Otherwise, the country might be "crying for the coup". (Mar 23, '06)

COMMENTARY It's the media, stupid  An alliance of war-mongering politicians, ideologues, religious zealots and media moguls has the capability to sway the Western public any way it wishes, or so it seems, and no issue has been a greater victim of such manipulation than the discourse over Palestine and Israel. - Ramzy Baroud Study blasts US pro-Israel lobby Though Americans fight and die in the Middle East at the behest of Washington's powerful pro-Israel lobby, it is Israel that reaps most of the benefits while US national security and anti-terror efforts are jeopardized, argues a new paper on US foreign policy. Right on cue, the lobby has condemned the paper as anti-Semitic. (Mar 23, '06)

Revolution in the Pakistani mountains
The rigid tribal structure that has been the hallmark of Pakistan's tribal areas for centuries has been turned on its head, allowing the Taliban to establish themselves. But more important, the region is becoming the epicenter of a revolution, one that threatens to spread to the very heart of Kabul and Islamabad. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 22, '06)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Interview with Chalmers Johnson
PART 1: Cold warrior in a strange land
With 700 bases around the globe, a defense budget of US$6.8 billion per month and a burgeoning military-industrial complex, historian Chalmers Johnson says Americans don't want to admit how deeply the making and selling of weaponry has become their way of life. And, he tells Tom Engelhardt, the military budget is starting to bankrupt the country. (Mar 22, '06)

Iran scores a winner over Iraq
With Iran agreeing to talk directly to Washington about the stabilization of Iraq, it will be much more difficult for the US to resist pressure to discuss broader issues with Tehran, namely Iran's nuclear program and US efforts to isolate and destabilize the regime. - Gareth Porter (Mar 22, '06)

THE ROVING EYE
A frenzied Persian new year
Even though Iran is slowing down for New Year celebrations, the political temperature remains high. Tehran is closely watching as the UN Security Council debates its nuclear program, while proposed Iran-US talks on Iraq have done nothing to erase suspicions on both sides. And Iran has its own terror problem to deal with. - Pepe Escobar (Mar 21, '06)

Fear and loathing at Iraqi crossing
Truckers, businessmen and corrupt border guards jostle with each other at Kurdish Iraq's border post with Turkey. Ethnic and nationalist tensions simmer in a microcosm of the tragedy unfolding throughout the rest of the country. - Iason Athanasiadis (Mar 21, '06)

COMMENTARY
The rise and rise of the un-West
Fifty-plus years ago, in an eye-blink the US effected a regime change in Iran. It's a different story nowadays, with the world transforming into the more historically familiar shape of a multipolar system. And in this new world order, some nations that are either Islamic, or have very large Muslim minorities, will emerge as powers. - Coral Bell (Mar 21, '06)

The vultures circle Iraq 
The US ambassador to Iraq warns that if American troops pull out of the country, a regional conflict could result. Yet President George W Bush talks of Iraqi troops controlling most of the country by the end of the year. Iran, Turkey, Jordan and Syria will in this event be sorely tempted to forcefully assert their financial and political claims. - Ashraf Fahim (Mar 20, '06)

America's options for Iran
Military strikes would be a godsend for the regime in Iran and economic sanctions would not be enough to topple it. Other options for the US and its allies are either to support the development of Iran's civilian nuclear program or sit back and do nothing. The alternatives might unleash a vortex of anarchy stretching from Islamabad to Damascus. - Scott Bohlinger (Mar 17, '06)

Taking the sting out of the Samarra swarm
US and Iraqi troops are swarming all over Samarra and its surrounding areas, trying once again to wound the heart of the resistance mortally. Already the US claims to have seized some of the arms caches used to fuel anti-US attacks in other parts of the country. But the resistance would have been expecting the offensive, and it has alternative bases. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 17, '06)

THE ROVING EYE
Irreversible Iranians
The US strategy of trying to separate the Iranian people from the regime seems doomed to failure. Nationalist fervor regarding Tehran's nuclear rights is at a peak - and cannily manipulated by the government. What the rest of the world thinks, too bad. - Pepe Escobar (Mar 17, '06)

JOURNALISM UNDER SIEGE IN IRAQ, Part 2
Remote reporting and the Green Zone
Sooner or later, anyone involved with the Americans must go to the so-called Green Zone, a heavily fortified no-man's land where journalists, contract workers, foreign mercenaries and US soldiers watch as Iraqis kill other Iraqis and the country disintegrates. - Orville Schell (Mar 16, '06)

JOURNALISM UNDER SIEGE IN IRAQ, Part 1
Smothered in a security blanket
Iraq is largely beyond view. The foreign journalists who "cover" it live under virtual siege behind their "blast walls", concertina wire and private guards, frequently relying on their Iraqi helpers for the material for their reports. The bitter truth is that venturing out has become so dangerous as to be almost suicidal. The hacks can't even get together for a decent party. - Orville Schell (Mar 15, '06)

The fragile Europe-US 'alliance' on Iran
Unlike their disunity during the march to war against Iraq, the US and Europe seem to agree that something must be done to restrain Tehran's nuclear activities. But the trans-Atlantic convergence is much thinner than it appears, partly because Europe itself is divided. (Mar 15, '06)

Peace stays far away in southern Thailand
The Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand is no al-Qaeda-inspired jihad, a spokesman for one of the rebel groups tells Bertil Lintner. Rather, it's a fight to preserve the unique culture of the region's ethnic-Malay majority. The deadly violence continues despite - or because of - the hard line adopted by the Thaksin government. But even if Bangkok wanted negotiations, it's unclear to whom it should talk. (Mar 14, '06)

TALIBAN CALLING THE SHOTS
Iraq-style spring is sprung
Burned bodies of US soldiers, suicide attacks, bases going up in smoke and inspirational messages. These are just some of the images used on a CD made by a group in the Iraq resistance that is being used to motivate, and educate, the Taliban ahead of their spring offensive. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 14, '06)

COMMENTARY
Iran: Here we go again
As usual, a collateral casualty of the present US campaign against Iran is likely to be the UN. The Security Council has already allowed itself to be dragged into an intensely political and partisan issue, but it can expect no more gratitude than the Iranians received from the Americans. - Ian Williams (Mar 14, '06)

SPENGLER
How I learnt to stop worrying and love chaos
Pessimism has become unfashionable in the United States but like it or not, the US faces the specter of chaos, and cannot do anything to forestall it. The only question is what to do about it, and not only are America's pundits in deep denial on the point, the US has the wrong sort of military to engage the enemies it currently confronts. (Mar 13, '06)

Inside the US's regime-change school
Drinking hard and running up massive phone bills they believed the Americans would pay for: meet the power-hungry and ill-tempered recruits being trained in the finer arts of bringing down the government in Iran. An "apolitical" woman recounts her experience attending a US-organized "regime-change" workshop. (Mar 13, '06)

IRAQ'S SOVEREIGNTY VACUUM, Part 2
The campaign to pacify the Sunnis
The conflicts of present-day Iraq, including the increase of sectarian bloodshed, have metastasized from the ill-fated attempt by American-led forces to pacify Sunni communities. In the latest incident, over 40 people were killed on Sunday by bombs in Shi'ite districts of Baghdad. The effort to crush Sunni resistance has, in the end, resulted in stronger resistance and undermined all efforts by other parties to establish their own legitimacy and so to build a new and sovereign Iraq. - Michael Schwartz (Mar 13, '06)

The facade of Afghan-Pakistani tensions
Taliban attacks in Afghanistan are intensifying, as are suicide attacks, including the most recent, a failed attempt against a former president. But this alone does not explain the Kabul administration's belligerence toward Pakistan, accusing it of complicity with the Taliban. President Hamid Karzai has strong domestic compulsions to increase tensions with Islamabad. - M K Bhadrakumar (Mar 13, '06)

IRAQ'S SOVEREIGNTY VACUUM, Part 1
A government with no army, no land
It was touted as the beginning of a new era for Iraq, in which a freely elected permanent government would start asserting its sovereignty over the country, rising to the challenge of governing an unruly constituency. Three months later, the vision is in ruins. The government is notable only for its absence as new crises erupt daily outside its Green Zone fortress. The reason is simple: it does not have the means to enforce its rule. Iraq's soldiers are all in the US Army. - Michael Schwartz (Mar 10, '06)

Ignore North Korea at your peril
While Washington is severely distracted by events in Iraq and Iran, North Korea, the third member of the "axis of evil", has tested the limits of US patience with the firing of two short-range missiles. The temptation is to ignore this latest provocation from Pyongyang, but with the spiking in tensions between China and Japan, the move could have catastrophic results. - Brendan Taylor (Mar 10, '06)

Why Iran's oil bourse can't break the buck
Many pundits have pointed to the impending Tehran oil bourse, which could come on line as early as this month and deal in euros rather than US dollars, as the hidden reason behind the evident march to war on Iran by the Anglo-American powers. The thesis is simply wrong, for many reasons. - F William Engdahl (Mar 9, '06)

Iran's turn to face "coalition of the willing'
The US has implemented a three-tier approach to having Iran's nuclear dossier referred to the UN Security Council. First there was the European diplomatic smokescreen, then the rhetoric against Tehran, and finally dealing with reluctant China and Russia. All this has been accomplished. Now, as happened with Iraq, comes the fateful "alliance-building". - Ehsan Ahrari (Mar 9, '06)

US on human rights: Laugh yourself to death
It's that time of year for the US State Department's annual comedy classic, the "Country Reports" on human rights. Funnily enough, Iran is now among the worst offenders, along with Cuba, home to the US's own Guantanamo Bay prison for those not charged with any crime. But Iraq - great news - has seen a significant improvement, Abu Ghraib and Shi'ite death squads notwithstanding. Rib-tickling stuff - especially, no doubt, for US captives who have been "rendered" for torture. (Mar 9, '06)

Blaming the victims as Iraq disintegrates
Some US neo-conservatives, prior to becoming major figures in the Bush team, predicted back in 1997 that a post-Saddam Iraq would likely be "ripped apart" by sectarianism but called on the US to "expedite" such a collapse anyway. It has been one of the longstanding goals of such neo-conservatives to see the Middle East broken up into smaller ethnic or sectarian mini-states, and the US's actions in Iraq are fostering exactly this outcome. (Mar 8, '06) 

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
'Shark and Awe'
The latest brainwave out of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is to use sharks as high-seas stealth spies - just one of the many blue-sky ideas on the drawing board. Instead of researching new methods of global death, wouldn't it be nice to blue-sky just a tad about life? - Tom Engelhardt (Mar 8, '06)

Musharraf caught in an arc of turmoil
The choices are stark. Either Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf plays along with a Taliban plan for access into Afghanistan, or he comes down firmly on the side of the US. Neither option offers much respite from the pressures mounting against him. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 7, '06)

Pakistan battles the forces within
The Pakistani military attacks in North Waziristan, a virtual Taliban stronghold, have ramifications far beyond the battle for hearts and minds in the restive tribal area. The fight is turning into one for the soul of the country. All that's needed is a leader: many fancy cricketer turned politician Imran Khan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 6, '06)

A 'white coup' in Baghdad
The Americans, Kurds, secular Shi'ites and Sunnis don't want Ibrahim al-Jaafari as Iraq's next prime minister, even though he has been constitutionally chosen. The trouble is, the alternatives are as problematical, unless a way can be found to "reinvent" Iyad Allawi, a former premier. - Sami Moubayed (Mar 6, '06)

The march across Iran's red line
All of the protagonists in the escalating drama over Iran's nuclear program have distinct red lines beyond which they will not budge. Tehran, despite a "yellowing" of its line on its right to enrich uranium, cannot bend any further, as long as the other actors stick to their lines. The moment of crisis is at hand. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Mar 3, '06)

BOOK REVIEW
Another casualty of the 'war on terror'
For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire by James Yee and Aimee Molloy

Former army captain and Guantanamo chaplain James Yee's autobiography details his arrest on later-dismissed espionage charges. Instead of putting this American Muslim on a pedestal to help alleviate misunderstandings about Islam, the authorities tried to destroy him. - Imran Andrew Price (Mar 3, '06)

White-collar Iraqis targeted by assassins
Since the US occupation of Iraq began, more than 300 professionals in Iraq have been assassinated. US policy and Iranian influence are being blamed for what critics describe as a coordinated assault on the very people who are rebuilding the country. (Mar 3, '06)

How much chaos can America take?

Chaos in Iraq, that is, civil war, serves the US's long-term strategic interests, some ATol writers have argued recently. The question is, how long can Americans - both the troops on the ground and the folks back home - stand it? At home, support for the occupation is at an all-time low. Now comes the news that more than half the US troops in Iraq want complete withdrawal within six months. And at a certain point, the sheer dollar cost of it all is going to become unacceptable.

 US troops want out
- Jim Lobe

 When the dollars stop making sense
- Mark Engler

 Civil war all but declared
- Michael A Weinstein
(Mar 1, '06)

 

February 2006