June 2003

Latest News
Posted: Monday, June 30, 2003

¤ BBC documentary on Israel's nuclear arsenal
¤ How believable is it that looters stole Saddam's weapons?
¤ Britain and US 'ignored Iraq weapons counter-evidence'
¤ Israel's nuclear arsenal source of threat in region
¤ Blast at Iraq Ammunition Dump Kills 30 - Residents
¤ U.S. Detains Mayor of Iraqi City
¤ Damage control and blame games
¤ BBC set to sue Minister over Iraq 'lies' claim
¤ American death toll in Iraq passes 200
¤ American soldiers face new deadly enemy
¤ Quicker and stronger: US Navy's new battle plan
¤ Rebels may be given immunity for talks
¤ Australian injured in Iraq attack
¤ Palestinian Relief at Gaza Pull-Out, Scars Remain
¤ Russia, Iran discuss atomic energy cooperation
¤ Reporter Injured in Iraq Grenade Attack
¤ Straw rules out any British attack against Iran
¤ A hard line on Bush
¤ U.S. Returns Syrians Injured in Clash
¤ Bush goes back to well
¤ Top U.S. Officials Discuss Expanding 'War' to Iran, Beyond
¤ U.S. Must Destroy Several Sites To End Iran's Nukes
¤ Knives Out For Blair's King Of Spin
¤ Democracy will have to wait, US tells Iraq
¤ Bush and Blair promised justice in Iraq. Another lie
¤ Syria, Iran oppose Indian troops in Iraq
¤ US hits back at insurgents
¤ BBC has fresh details to support its dossier claim
¤ Israel dismisses intifada truce
¤ Behind the bravado, fears of impotence
¤ US begins Iraq crackdown as soldiers found dead
¤ Iraq weapons amnesty 'a washout'
¤ An etiquette of condolences
¤ Terrorism and the origins of Zionist efforts for 'Eretz Israel' - II
¤ U.S. Iraqi Detentions Violate Law
¤ A skewed American pie
¤ How we helped liberate Iraqi fundamentalism
¤ Bush presented with holy books, booze last year
¤ WMDs Gone MIA
¤ Why don't they look for the mole?
¤ US aid, democracy not linked, says Musharraf
¤ Field of dreams - or just a naked appeal for attention?
¤ 16 more killed in held Kashmir violence
¤ Taliban commander dies in Zabul gunbattle
¤ The voters do not like bullies
¤ Iran says no to surprise IAEA inspections
¤ Saddam must be caught or killed, says Bremer
¤ US ready to intervene in Liberian conflict
¤ Rice more ally than enemy to former general Powell

White America unfit for global role
Posted: Sunday, June 29, 2003

Blind, deaf, dumb and deluded

www.blackcommentator.com

An exhaustive international survey shows conclusively that the planet has a great deal to fear from the people of the United States. By this we mean the majority of the white people of America, a group so alienated from the rest of humanity that they represent a collective threat to the survival of the species.

Earthlings are awakening to the danger. In nearly every corner of the globe, perched or crouched in niches high and low, humanity hears the hounds barking and the master's voice in the distance, shouting to the horizon, "This is all mine, and everybody in it!" It would be comforting to believe that Massa Bush's men are tearing around the planet on a private spree, without the blessing of the good folks back home. But such is not the case. Between 70 and 80 percent of Americans heartily applaud the general military role played by the U.S. in the world. They are the living, breathing, popular mandate for, not just George Bush's adventures, but also those of other Presidents who follow.

Last week the BBC unveiled the results of "What the World Thinks of America," a survey of 11,000 people in eleven countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Brazil, France, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. The survey, conducted in May and June, provides both useful and ambiguous data on attitudes toward U.S. cultural, economic, political and military influence. At times maddeningly murky, involving questions and answers that require the reader to have some knowledge of conditions in the various nations, the survey does succeed in revealing the vast chasm that separates American public opinion from every other nation polled – with the dramatic exception of Israel.

On key questions relating to world security, only Israel and three other nations can be considered part of the American political conversation: Britain, Canada, and Australia. One is the "mother country," the other three began as European settler states. And, leaving aside the Israeli "special relationship," even the English-speaking nations only barely agree with much of what they hear from the Americans.

On the question of whether the U.S. is a "force for good in the world," positive responses were: U.S. 79 percent, Israel 44 percent, Canada 34 percent, and Australia and Britain, 20 percent. Public opinion in the other nations surveyed was negative.

Is the U.S. a "beacon for hope for the world?" Positive answers: U.S. 85 percent, Israel 51 percent, Canada 46 percent, Britain 20 percent, Australia 14. Every other country registered negatively.

Is the U.S. "reaping the thorns planted by its rulers in the world?" (A question Americans must have found unfamiliar and disturbing.) Every country tallied majorities in agreement – except the U.S.

Seventy percent of Americans think that other countries do not appreciate how much America does to avoid civilian casualties in Iraq. In no other nation does a majority feel that way. Thirty eight percent of Israelis agreed with the American supermajority, 37 percent of Australians, 36 percent of Canadians, followed by France and Britain at 22 percent each. In the rest of the surveyed countries, only percentages in the teens and single digits thought the U.S. did enough to avoid hurting civilians.

Eighty percent of Americans agree that the "U.S. military presence around the world helps bring international peace and stability." Fifty-one percent think people living in countries where the U.S. military are based support that presence. Except for the English-speaking club and Israel, only South Korean majorities agree. (South Korea also thinks the U.S. is a bigger danger than North Korea – evidence of the South's schizophrenia.)

To the question, was the U.S. right to invade Iraq, 74 percent of American respondents answered, yes. Bare majorities in Australia and Britain agreed (54 percent each), only 44 percent of Canadians approved the invasion – but Israel is more pro-invasion than the U.S., at 79 percent. In keeping with the clear pattern, the rest of the survey is opposed.

Jordan stood in for the Arab world. Only 7 percent of Jordanians supported the invasion. Interestingly, Jordanians also dearly wished that their nation could emulate the U.S. in military power – 68 percent. If sarcasm can be found in a survey, this is it.

Perhaps the strangest American response involved multiple choices of "dangerous" states. Americans believe that Syria is more dangerous than the U.S. (73 percent), as are Iran (78 percent) France (57 percent), Al Qaeda (83 percent), Russia (66 percent), China (78 percent), and North Korea (83 percent). However, it then dawns on the reader that Americans would consider Switzerland and Swaziland to be more "dangerous" than the U.S., because they believe that the U.S. presents no danger to anyone.

It requires only a few minutes of reading the non-security-military responses to the survey to conclude that supermajorities of Americans believe the U.S. is superior in all aspects of material, cultural and spiritual life.

At the other end of the American spectrum is the lonely 15 percent or so of Americans who refuse to join in the national boosterism. No racial breakdown is available, but experience teaches us that at least half of these Americans are Black.

Premeditated ignorance

The crisis of disintegrating order that is gripping the globe, although initiated by the Bush Pirates and materially rooted in the contradictions of multinational capital, is made grotesquely more complicated by a cruel trick of history. The population of the superpower that seeks to subdue and reorder the world is cognitively damaged. Americans appear to be incapable of perceiving the social realities of other peoples and nations. It is a brain-lock so profound, so nearly perfect in its insulating mechanisms, as to be described as a society floating in a bubble.

Bubble