Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Volume 3,  Number 11              April 13 - 19, 2003            Quezon City, Philippines


 





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Truths and Lies in the U.S. War Against Iraq

In late last week’s forum in U.P. Diliman that was attended by an overflowing crowd of activists, academics, professionals and church and health advocates, fellows of the Center for Anti-Imperialist Studies (CAIS) took turns discussing the nuances of the current U.S. war against Iraq: truths and lies that are hardly touched by the mainstream media and network cables.

By Ronalyn Olea
Bulatlat.com

Contrary to U.S. President George W. Bush’s claims, the decision to invade Iraq was made 11 years ago.

This was revealed in the forum Invasion and Resistance of the Center for Anti-Imperialist Studies(CAIS) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan held April 9 at the Conference Room of  Balai Kalinaw, UP Diliman.

A paper presented by CAIS Fellow Bobby Tuazon cited the Defense Policy Guidelines of 1992 calling for “regime change” in the Middle East and setting up of military bases in Iraq. The DPG, Tuazon said, was authored by Republican hawks in 1992. 

The overall objective, DPG states, is for the U.S. to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. access to the region’s oil.

Tuazon’s paper argues that a takeover of Iraq addresses the U.S.’s immediate threat from Iraq as a potential regional power that has far-reaching implications on U.S. hegemony in the Middle East.

“The occupation of Iraq will give the U.S. a strong leverage for effecting regime changes in other countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya while tightening U.S. grip on Saudi Aurabia anf other oil states in the Gulf,” Tuazon, who teaches international politics in the University of the Philippines, said.

Iraqi resistance

Another CAIS Fellow, Danilo Vizmanos, a retired navy captain, said during the same forum that “the Bush regime has jumped into a snake pit without realizing it” with the invasion of an Arab nation without United Nations sanction and against international public opinion.

Vizmanos said the Iraqi resistance continues with irregular warfare by small units.  He cited as disadvantageous to the “coalition forces” the lack of fixed and defined targets.  “The effectiveness of superior air, armor, artillery and missile forces has diminished,” Vizmanos said.

“More casualties (on the side of the coalition forces) in protracted urban warfare will force the invading forces to take suppressive and repressive measures, including martial law conditions and human rights abuses in pacification campaigns.”  “This contradicts and negates the winning-the-hearts-and-minds’ psywar strategy of the coalition forces,” he said.

“Battles may be won yet war can be lost in the long term,” Vizmanos said.  “A war may be beneficial to U.S. power elite and military-industrial complex.””In the long run, it is debilitating and self-destructive to American society,” he added.

Vizmanos warned that war will not be confined to U.S. versus Iraq, rather, it would eventually be U.S. versus Islam people in a “war of attrition without end.”

Eliminating the truth

Meanwhile, Rowena Carranza-Paraan of Bulatlat.com, also of CAIS, discussed the propaganda war launched by the Bush regime before and during the invasion.

Paraan said the militarist line of the Bush government is echoed by the U.S. media beholden to corporate interests.

She revealed how the policy of embedding (journalists) “controls and distorts” the information divulged to the public.

Implications to the Philippines

Edberto Villegas, on the other hand, stressed the implications of the U.S. war in Iraq to the Philippines.

Villegas, a UP professor, cited the retrenchment of overseas Filipino workers as the immediate effect of U.S. war.  He said that the Philippines has the highest rate of unemployment (13 percent) in Southeast Asia.

Villegas also lambasted Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo for flaunting 100,000 reconstruction jobs in Iraq.  Parang chikiting na buwitre ang pamahalaan ni Macapagal-Arroyo na sasama sa mga buwitreng kompanya ng Kano upang lapain ang bangkay ng lipunang Iraq” (The Macapagal Arroyo government is like a little vulture joining the U.S. companies in devouring the corpse of Iraqi society), Villegas said.

With the Philippines as the second front of the U.S. government’s war on terrorism, Villegas warned of the military implications of the U.S. war.  Villegas said the country’s strategic position in the Pacific Ocean and China Sea makes it a favorable launching pad for U.S. wars of aggression in the region.  

Villegas said that the Balikatan war exercises between the U.S. and Filipino troops aim to strengthen counter-insurgency measures to crush the New People’s Army, Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other anti-imperialist movements.

Paul Quintos, another CAIS fellow and deputy executive director of the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, also showed a powerpoint presentation focusing on the Iraqi people's resistance and the humanitarian costs of the U.S. war.

The April 9 forum was co-sponsored by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan. CAIS recently published a book, “Unmasking the War on Terror: U.S. Imperialist Hegemony and Crisis,” that has been acclaimed by progressive circles in the Philippines and abroad. Bulatlat.com

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