Red Rag

The news that Iraq has begun to use suicide bombers is indeed terrible, but every dark cloud has a silver lining, however small. In this case, it is Heath Gibson’s entertaining observation:

There are conflicting reports of the damage caused by the bombing. The US/UK version is “A US official said a car exploded at a checkpoint near the Shi’ite Muslim shrine city of Najaf, about 160km south of Baghdad, killing four soldiers who were searching it. The driver also died in the blast.”

The Iraqi version is “the attack had killed 11 American soldiers and destroyed two tanks and two armoured personnel carriers. ”

Now unless they packed this car with something very unconventional, well, I think it should be fairly obvious who is stretching the truth the most here.

Some balance in the protest reporting at last (though I can’t find this article at The West Australian’s website):

Lawyers representing dozens of anti-war protestors are preparing a report on Wednesday’s violent protest outside the US Consulate to give to police, the Ombudsman and State Government.

… Lawyer Mark Cox, a member of the No War Alliance, said he hoped the report could force a review of WA police practices at protests. In the long term, the report would influence whether protestors took civil action.

Among claims being investigated by Mr Cox are that a 15-year-old girl’s pants were pulled down and remained below her knees while she was marched inside the consulate building with her hands cuffed behind her back, a 14-year-old boy’s ankle was broken after being trampled by a horse and a girl, also 15, was punched in the face by police.

Mr Cox said photographs, video footage and witness statements would be used to compile the report, which will also document allegations of racist and sexist remarks, sexual harrassment, intimidation, name gathering and search and seizure by the police.

I saw several incidences of unprovoked violence by the police myself. Unfortunately, probably nothing will come of it.

A week into the war and I’m already sick of watching the news. But here are some interesting stories I’ve come across recently:

American troops don’t like journalists (part 1):

The BBC was anxious to find out how it was that its correspondent William Reeve, who had just re-opened the corporation’s studio in Kabul and was giving a live, down-the-line TV interview for BBC World, was suddenly blown out of his seat by an American smart missile. The studio was showered with shrapnel but he was not hurt.

Four hours later, a few blocks away, the office and residential compound of al-Jazeera, which had broadcast the Osama bin Laden tapes, was hit by two more American missiles. German ARD and ZDF, Turkish television, the ABC and Reuters had been using the al-Jazeera office to feed material back to their headquarters but fortunately no one was there at the time.

With the Bush administration already gearing up for war on Iraq, the BBC, al-Jazeera and the US Committee to Protect Journalists thought it prudent to find out from the Pentagon what had gone wrong and what steps they could take in the event of another war to protect their correspondents. What they learnt alarmed them.

Basically, nothing had gone wrong. It had been deliberate. The Pentagon explained that it was indifferent to media activity in territory controlled by the enemy, that it made no effort to distinguish between legitimate satellite uplinks for broadcast news communications and enemy radio or satellite communications.

American troops don’t like journalists (part 2):

US troops in southern Iraq detained and beat up two public RTP television journalists from Portugal travelling in the company of two Israeli colleagues after accusing the four of spying, the RTP news director said today.

… “The American soldiers said we were terrorists and spies and treated us as such … in spite of our explanations they threatened us for hours with their arms,” said Scemama.

The Americans can’t pretend they accidentally bombed a busy marketplace last week — they’ve done it again. It seems like minimising civilian casualties takes too long, so they’ve given up that approach:

At least 52 people were killed and dozens injured when a working class suburb of Baghdad was hit by an explosion last night. The blast appeared to be the result of a second American attack on a Baghdad marketplace since Wednesday when 14 people were killed…

America’s target in last night’s attack was not immediately clear. The Shawala neighbourhood, a collection of mean, one-storey houses, lies at the southern extremes of Baghdad, far removed from the security installations and grotesque palaces of Saddam Hussein that have been the primary targets of US bombs.

But in recent days, as the US has settled into a pattern of round-the-clock bombardments, it has increasingly targeted residential neighbourhoods of Baghdad, as well as the civilian infrastructure.

Penultimately, the Americans want a puppet government in Iraq, but they want somebody else to look after the human cost of the war:

The United States clearly wants to have political control over what happens in a new Iraq, experts say… [T]hey would like to see a government in Iraq friendly to American interests. At a recent briefing, Secretary of State Colin Powell said: “We didn’t take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant, dominating control over how it unfolds in the future.”

… The plan also calls for a U.N. coordinator for humanitarian aid.

The UN has thankfully put aside irresponsible French and Russian objections to recommence the oil-for-food program. But it also points out that America’s plan — to take political control of Iraq and let other people deal with the humanitarian problems — is illegal:

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to resume a massive UN humanitarian program for Iraq once the US-led war subsides.

… While the oil-for-food program will remain a cornerstone of the humanitarian lifeline for Iraq, the resolution makes clear that under the Geneva Conventions “the occupying power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population”.

It seems the US has begun to ignore the people it claims to be fighting to liberate. It is up to us, the global citizenry, to remind them of their responsibilities.

Having used the Police portfolio to demonstrate his fascistic tendencies, apparently Michael Costa will be moved to Transport — so he can make the trains run on time…

Jason Soon is in Perth at the moment defending the right of workers to bargain collectively through a union (albeit the bourgeois AMA). I caught up with him today at the invitation of Gareth Parker. Jason is a very nice man, and — though it pains me to say it — so is Gareth.

I was arrested at the peace rally yesterday. I intend to plead not guilty to a charge of failing to comply with the verbal direction of a police officer.

Just to clarify a couple of the ridiculous stories being pushed by the police and perpetuated by the media — nobody threw bricks or rocks; the only urine there was pissed all over the pavement by the police horses.

You can see some photos at the Perth IMC (warning: lots of large images). I’m seen in a couple of them — the guy with too much hair holding a large banner with black and red print on it.

Gareth Parker’s site (see? I have manners and use both your names) has exceeded its bandwidth limit. Perhaps it’s linked to my announcement there moments ago that I was arrested yesterday? Or perhaps not.

Robert Kuttner’s excellent analysis of the antiwar movement(s): “After the battlefield smoke clears and the collateral damage becomes apparent, a mainstream movement opposed to future Iraq wars and supportive of multilateralism is only likely to grow.”

After a big night on Thursday, I flew back to Perth on Friday morning. In the evening, I had Adam’s 21st. He managed a yard of beer and champagne in pretty good time.

Next day, the peace rally. The Sunday Times referred to a police estimate of at least 10 000 in attendance, which makes you wonder how today’s West Australian came up with a figure of 7000. Then there was Natale’s 21st, at the Port Beach Surf Club and then on to Metros.

Yesterday I woke up at lunch time, played Pictionary and then went to see You Am I play live and for free at an all-ages gig. Tim Rogers got stuck in to the little idiots who were crowd surfing, telling them they had just publicly declared, “I have a small penis.” He also cracked plenty of jokes about the age of the crowd, and told them they’d enjoy it more next year when someone they knew was playing.

This week I have meetings, meetings and more meetings. Then some time in the library, a student strike, and beer. Fun.

John Howard is on TV. I’ve missed the start of what he said. There will be a regular military briefing at 11am every day. We should all be united in our hope that the troops will return home safe and sound, whatever we think of the war.

Now there’s questions from journalists:

What time was JH aware? Not going into detail.
Are we at a greater risk of terrorist threats? In speech tonight I’ll put it in context.
Are our troops at risk because of legality? No, even if the war is illegal.
Should public prepare for casualties? Always a risk.

As an aside, he’s used the terms “predeployed” and “deployed” interchangably, showing that the former term is nothing but a propaganda tool to hide the fact we were committed to war a long time ago.

The war has begun.

I’m watching CNN — the US has started to bomb Iraq.

Air raid sirens heard in Baghdad, and a cruise missile strike has apparently occurred. Ari Fleischer has announced, “The disarmament of Iraq has begun.”

The ABC reports that Explosions rock Baghdad, jets overhead:

A handful of explosions have rocked Baghdad at dawn as jets roared overhead, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries opened up and air raid sirens sounded.

The blasts appeared to come from the southern suburbs.

CNN has said that cruise missiles were fired at a “target of opportunity”. US officials have also described it as a “leadership target” and something that has not suddenly appeared but that they’ve known about and planned to target for some time.

CNN is now speculating that further cruise missile strikes might presently be occuring on other “targets of opportunity”. Anti-aircraft guns are being fired intermittently against something the journalists can’t see or hear.

The Age has more detail on the bombings:

Reuters correspondent Nadim Ladki … heard two or three explosions, followed by a similar number at about 5:30am local time, an hour and a half after a US deadline for war on Saddam Hussein had passed.

The earlier air strikes, claimed by the Coalition of the Willing (CoW) to be nothing more than routine enforcement of the no-fly zone, were clearly the real beginning of the war. They were clearing a path for this bombing.

The CNN website has finally caught up with its broadcast.

Dubya is on now: “On my orders, Coalition forces have begun striking selected targets…” He’s softening us up for civilian casualties, blaming Saddam Hussein. Campaign could be longer and more difficult than some predict. Requires sustained commitment. No ambition but to restore control to Iraqi people. America is praying with you. For your sacrifice (ie, when we kill you in order to free you), you have the gratitude of the American people. Invoking 9-11.

The speech took about four minutes.

CNN has been told that it was a “decapitation strike” aimed at killing Saddam Hussein or his senior leadership. Or to frighten them. Now they’re saying the strike was not the start of the war, which seems ridiculous given Bush’s speech.

Sky News is showing Alexander Downer speaking in Parliament. He’s talking about getting people out of Iraq. It’s just Question Time, though, so it’s not really a speech.

NBC has those annoying tickers running across the bottom, so I’m not going to bother with it.

Tim Blair notes that Fox is reporting that the US have hijacked Iraqi airwaves and are broadcasting, “his is the day you have been waiting for.” Sean Paul backs up the story with a CNN report. But some of his readers contradict him, and he’s updated again. (He has excellent coverage, so I’ll stop now.)

NB: This post will be updated occasionally.

Indigodess on the unnamed members of the Coalition of the Killing: “How do you wage war anonymously? How exactly does that work? Like, you send soldiers but like, on their uniforms, where their flag should be there’s just a little blurry spot like a breast-shot on COPS? No, really — I want to know.”

On the ABC news a minute ago, the economics guy read a couple of quotes from market analysts. Then he added, “Here’s my translation: We don’t know what we’re talking about.” Classic.

I just received an excellent email. (For some reason it reminded me of The Road to Surfdom, but I can’t put my finger on it.)

PeaceNik: Why did you say we are we invading Iraq?

WarMonger: We are invading Iraq because it is in violation of Security Council resolution 1441. A country cannot be allowed to violate Security Council resolutions.

PN: But I thought many of our allies, including Israel, were in violation of more Security Council resolutions than Iraq.

WM: It’s not just about UN resolutions. The main point is that Iraq could have weapons of mass destruction, and the first sign of a smoking gun could well be a mushroom cloud over NY.

PN: Mushroom cloud? But I thought the weapons inspectors said Iraq had no nuclear weapons.

WM: Yes, but biological and chemical weapons are the issue.

PN: But I thought Iraq did not have any long range missiles for attacking us or our allies with such weapons.

WM: The risk is not Iraq directly attacking us, but rather terrorists networks that Iraq could sell the weapons to.

PN: But couldn’t virtually any country sell chemical or biological materials? We sold quite a bit to Iraq in the eighties ourselves, didn’t we?
Read the rest of this entry…

Check out The Economists. Mildly amusing. (Just don’t go anywhere else on the site or you’ll disappear under a million popups.)