Smarter Than The Average Bear
This morning I listened to a spectacularly erudite and informative interview with Tariq Ali, pimping his new book Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq. Unfortunately, the interviewer Angie Coiro wasn’t so smart and, in a classic example of ethnic ignorance, seems to habitually confuse and conflate Arabs with Afghans. But despite her errors, Ali managed to get out some genuinely unique insights as he compares the current US/UK occupation with previous colonialist occupations of that territory dating back several centuries.
The big thing will happen is when the Shiite groups in the south of Iraq decide enough is enough and join the resistance and, when they do, it really will be the beginning of the end … All the indications are that they are getting very fed up. I mean, for Gods sake, in all the Shiite cities in the South, Najaf in particular, there are Polish troops there. What the hell are these Poles doing in Najaf? I mean, people are just bewildered by this and getting angry and they are very angry also in the southern the south of Iraq with the British presence. These are British troops who are coming back to occupy bases which they occupied in the 20s, 30s and 40s, so people are seeing a re-run of history, this time dominated by the United States … The targeting of the United Nations, which created shock-and-horror waves in the West, did not create the same did not have the same results in the Arab World, because everyone knows the role the United Nations has played in sustaining the sanctions for twelve years, which cost the lives of half a million kids, according to UNESCO-figures, and sanctioned the weekly bombing raids by the United States and Britain of that country for twelve years prior to the occupation, so, even if you talk to ordinary Iraqis, they hold the UN responsible for policing the sanctions.