[Reader-list] Fw: Outlining the beast

[s.choudhary]

> > 
> > The Outline Of the Beast
> > An Interview With Arundhati Roy
> > Socialist Worker 
> > April 08, 2003 
> > Arnove: The Corporate media ask the question over and over again: 
> > What can be done about Saddam Hussein? What's your response? 
> 
> > The question is disingenuous. Let's turn it around and ask instead: 
> > What do we do with George Bush and Tony Blair? Should we just stand 
> > by and watch while they bomb and kill and annihilate people? Saddam 
> > Hussein is a killer, and in the past, the U.S. and the UK governments 
> > have supported many of his worst excesses. 
> > The U.S. and UK have bombed Iraq's infrastructure, fired depleted 
> > uranium into Iraq's farmlands, blocked vaccines and hospital 
> > equipment, contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths of 
> > children under five. Denis Halliday, the former UN humanitarian 
> > coordinator in Iraq, has called the sanctions a form of genocide. 
> > If you lifted the sanctions, Iraqi society might have gained the 
> > strength to overthrow their dictator (just like the people of 
> > Indonesia, Serbia, Romania overthrew theirs). 
> > And if it's repression, sectarianism and human rights abuses we're 
> > concerned about, let's also turn our attention to Colombia, Turkey, 
> > Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Central Asian Republics, Israel, Russia, 
> > China, India, Pakistan, Burma and, of course, America...Shall we pre-
> > empt Saddam and bomb them all? Then he won't have anyone left to 
> > kill. 
> > The greatest threat to the world today is not Saddam Hussein, it's 
> > George Bush (joined at the hip to his new foreign secretary, Tony 
> > Blair). 
> 
> > Bush says that he's leading an "international coalition" against 
> > Iraq. What's your reaction to that? 
> 
> > The international Coalition of the Bullied and the Bought is what 
> > that coalition is more commonly called. 
> > The important thing to keep in mind is that it is governments that 
> > have been coerced, one way or another. Even the major "shareholders" 
> > in the coalition--governments of countries like Spain and Australia--
> > don't have the support of the majority of their people. 
> > There have been some interesting studies showing the nature of the 
> > regimes of some of the countries in this "coalition." Many of them 
> > are high up on the list of human rights violators--and have no 
> > business to criticize Saddam Hussein given their own reputations. 
> > Bush also says that this war is "defensive," and that it would 
> > be "suicidal" not to attack Iraq. 
> > That's like an elephant taking a long run-up to smash an ant to death-
> > -and then saying that it was "defensive," and that to let the ant 
> > remain alive would have been suicidal. It would be fair to call the 
> > elephant paranoid and unstable. 
> > Oh, and that doesn't include the business of using the UN to disarm 
> > the ant before the elephant attacks. Apart from calling it paranoid 
> > and unstable, you could also call it a coward and a cheat. 
> 
> > In an interview on the Pacifica Radio program "Democracy Now!" you 
> > spoke about the "murder of language." Can you elaborate on that? 
> 
> > Freedom means mass murder now. In the U.S., it means fried potatoes 
> > (freedom fries). Liberation means invasion and occupation. When you 
> > hear the words "humanitarian aid," it's advisable to look around for 
> > induced starvation. We all know what collateral damage means. 
> > Of course, none of this is new. When the U.S. invaded South Vietnam 
> > and bombed the countryside, killing thousands of people and forcing 
> > thousands to flee to cities where they were held in refugee camps, 
> > Samuel Huntington called this a process of "urbanization." 
> 
> > The New York Times Magazine recently ran a cover that read "The New 
> > American Empire: Get Used to It." How is that message playing in 
> > India and elsewhere outside the United States? 
> 
> > In India, there is a dissonance between what people think of the war 
> > and the American Empire, and the deliberately ambiguous position of 
> > the Indian government. This war against Iraq has fuelled a lot of 
> > anger among a majority of people, but there are the opportunists, 
> > among the elite in particular, who are rather stupidly hoping to be 
> > thrown some crumbs in the "reconstruction" era. They're like hyenas. 
> > Vultures. 
> > No one's going to "get used" to the American Empire--no one can. This 
> > is because that empire can only survive and hold its position if it 
> > continues with its agenda of mass murder and mass dispossession. 
> > These are not things people get used to, however hard they try. You 
> > can expect to be killed, but you can't get used to the idea. 
> > It will be a bloody battle, this battle for the establishment and 
> > perpetuation of hegemony. The world is not a static place. It's wild 
> > and unpredictable. The American Empire isn't going to have all that 
> > easy a ride. The people of the world will not be lining the streets 
> > raining roses on the emperor. 
> 
> > More than 10 million people demonstrated around the world on February 
> > 15, including millions in the countries leading the war on Iraq. Why 
> > do you think we are seeing such large protests? 
> 
> > I think that there's only one reason. America has been stripped of 
> > its mask. Its secret history of brutal interventions and unforgivable 
> > manipulations is street talk. The dots have been joined, and the 
> > outline of the beast has emerged.
>  
> 
> 
> Shubhranshu Choudhary
> 312, Patrakar Parisar
> Vasundhara sector 5
> Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
> Ph - 0091 120 288 3351
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> e mail -smitashu at vsnl.com
>