Noam on the war, etc.

ZNet | Interviews | Noam Chomsky Interviewed

THE light was a strange yellowy grey and the wind was coming up, the
beginnings of a sandstorm. The silence felt almost eerie after a night of
shooting so intense it hurt the eardrums and shattered the nerves. My
footsteps felt heavy on the hot, dusty asphalt as I walked slowly towards
the bridge at Nasiriya. A horrific scene lay ahead.

US Marines turn fire on civilians at the bridge of death

Another good resource?

globalsecurity.org - Target Iraq

For example, the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board--chaired by JINSA/CSP adviser and former Reagan Administration Defense Department official Richard Perle, and stacked with advisers from both groups--recently made news by listening to a briefing that cast Saudi Arabia as an enemy to be brought to heel through a number of potential mechanisms, many of which mirror JINSA's recommendations, and which reflect the JINSA/CSP crowd's preoccupation with Egypt. (The final slide of the Defense Policy Board presentation proposed that "Grand Strategy for the Middle East" should concentrate on "Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot [and] Egypt as the prize."

Oh and by the way - Richard Perle resigned today. All of the "open arms" and "liberation" talk of how the Iraqi people would react come from his direction. Lots of interesting talk at the Agonist right now...

The Men From JINSA and CSP

"LAHORE, March 24 (Online): The next target of US after capturing Iraq will be replacement of religious government in Iran with a secular government as the US forces in Afghanistan have already started implementation on action plan in this regard."

Iran to be US next target: CIA Report - PakTribune

"Moscow, March 23, IRNA -- Iraqi Ambassador to Moscow Abbas Khalaf said
the US and British forces might use weapons of mass destruction in
military operations in Iraq.
Khalaf told a press conference that the coalition forces would
possibly use these weapons due to the casualties they have so far
suffered."

My inner cynic agrees with Sean Paul Kelley - I can't think of a better way to get people ready for me to use some kind of WMD than to go ahead and start pointing fingers at the next guy.

Islamic Republic News Agency ( I R N A )HeadLines News

This is an excellent link. Someone should give this guy a few A's for effort.

I hope it lasts.

RE: The Agonist--by Sean Paul Kelley

Decius wrote:

] I don't really need to rip the Iraqi propaganda. The press is
] happy to offer every imaginable question about it whenever it
] is released. However, at least the American press is never,
] ever seen to question the information coming out of the U.S.
] Military. I've turned my TV off serveral times simply because
] I didn't feel like I wanted to be treated like an idiot
] anymore. They are covering this like a football game, and they
] seem completely naive about how they are being manipulated.
]

This is finally getting to me. How on earth can you reconcile the worlds of military intelligence, battlefield tactics and 24-hour news channels? Are we looking at the best possible compromise, or just being force-fed the Gerber Baby Propaganda?
We all know that everyone else in the world (including Iraq) is watching CNN. How much can we expect from any such coverage?

I'm afraid to say that this whole thing is showing that we (the info-rich individuals with half of a skeptic bone in our body who wish that the Internet was able to serve us the raw data that it SHOULD) have absolutely nothing when compared with the MediaMachine. Raw Data? The lowest common demoninator rules this land, and the LCD just loves to know that the RedWhiteBlue is flying high over some poor little brown people who need to be liberated. In the meantime, CNN is going to show the LCD what it wants to see, which is tanks rolling across the battlefield. In the meantime, when someone finds a good (deleted) who can forward along battlefield recon data, let me know - I'm game.

] Seriously, in Bush's talk on Monday he gave the EXACT time
] when the conflict would begin. We ALL turned on our TVs at
] that exact time. We all saw exactly what we expected to see.

Well, give them a little bit of credit ... When you know that the war machine is about to come barrelling over you and you have a chance to avoid it... I seem to recall that there were some memes around here about Saddam making some kind of movement in the last few hours... which actually seemed kind of likely, didn't it?

Sorry. I'm just mad because I've spent a lot of good time and effort towards helping my inner child defeat my inner cynic. The inner cynic has, in the past few days, fairly abused my inner child.

My inner cynic says he's worried that Baghdad will go up in a nuclear blast as soon as it looks like it's about to be taken, but my inner cynic is also paranoid as hell.

RE: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military mind games

"The end is coming for Saddam. Right now. He knows it, his torturers know it. In the words of a new song?to be released in April?by Iraq's most famous singer, Kazim Al Sahir (his name has many spellings; he's also called Kadim Al Saher), "The War Is Over."

Still, if the war to come does indeed end by April, the divided nature of Iraq?and of its music?will not end. Indeed, the division may widen, as Iraq's Arabic majority population and its Kurdish minority each feel free to develop their already flourishing, very dissimilar cultures. The new Iraq may well look?and sound?something like today's Belgium, where the techno-heavy music of that country's Flemish-speaking regions bumps up against the Parisian Euro-pop of its francophone southern half. If so, those of us who want to know well the new, hopefully democratic Iraq dare not overlook the music of Kurdistan."

The Village Voice: Music: After Saddam, The Music by Michael Freedberg

] In any case, we shall continue our work at the
] waitingforthewebcaminiraq so that you could organize the
] projections at the walls and screens of your towns. Also,
] journalist Antonio Baquero is going to try to send us a
] usual everyday photo from a Baghdadi street that we would
] like to film.

Baghdad Webcam update. Evidently technical and licensing problems are preventing the installation of the webcams themselves so far, though there is a journalist who is sending out daily photos which are being posted on this site at http://www.webcaminiraq.org.

There also seems to be information and pics at the following domain:
http://www.waitingforthewebcaminiraq.org

And an explanation of some of the difficulties in obtaining a "webcam license" from the Baghdad authorities, who are evidently indicating some suspicion about the use of the webcam, here:
http://www.webcaminiraq.org/estado_english.htm

The WebCamInIraq site seems to be posted by Spanish journalists, with text in either Spanish or (moderately understandable) English. At least it's a daily pic update though!

Thanks to Mr. Kobeissi of Asharq Al-Awsat for the info and links!

Webcam in Iraq Project