3 rants

[Ivo Skoric]

War on Iraq

As the oil exports from Venezuela were cut to 1/8 due to the anti-Chavez 
strike, the SUV nation was forced to source even more crude from its 
Middle East nemesis. This placed more demand on super-tankers, and 
the cost of transporting crude oil from the Gulf to the US more than 
doubled, contributing to even higher retail price of oil (which already has 
increased due to the reduced Venezuelan and Iraqi supply). However, 
this development means that it would be more sense for the US to bomb 
Venezuela than Iraq. 

In its tireless bid for casus belli, the US Administration tries to convince 
us how nearly everyone is pro-war. Rumsfeld says that besides the nay-
saying Germany and France, there are other countries in Europe that 
support Bush’s war. Which ones? Even in the UK the support for war is 
lukewarm outside of the Downing Street - only about 20% of population 
subscribe to the outright pro-war camp. Worse, there is not that much 
popular support for the war in the U.S., either. 

There is no reason not to believe Hans Blix when he says that Iraqi 
regime has not been forthcoming enough in its efforts to prove the world 
that it indeed was willing to disarm and abandon its weapons of mass 
destruction. But sole possession of such weapons should not be a 
reason for military action against Iraq - because score of other nations, 
including the US, have those (and other) weapons, too. 

The unprovoked willingness to use those weapons (Iraq was the first 
country that used chemical weapons against its enemies since the World 
War I - in its war against Iran) is. So, maybe Iran should have good 
reasons to bomb Iraq (instead, Iran is allowing the Iraqi opposition Shiite 
leader to operate from there). U.S. does not. And should not. And its 
administration should stop lying to its people telling them how they all 
support the war, when in reality, they do not. 

The U.S. is experiencing the largest anti-war movement since the days of 
Vietnam war - and this is all before the bombing even started - down to 
moveon.org grass-roots anti-war group’s repeating of the 1964 anti-war 
TV ad (“daisy” ad, originally produced by President Johnson’s 
campaign). Both moveon.org and snoopwatch.org featured full page paid 
advertisements in The New York Times recently (with ‘Let the 
inspections work’ anti-war message and ‘Big brother isn’t coming. He is 
already here.’ pro-civil liberties message, respectively). 

University of California at Berkeley, once the birth place of the anti-war 
movement, was embarrassed into reinstating the quotations of Emma 
Goldman, Russian born anarchist that opposed American involvement in 
the WW I, in the solicitation letter of the university’s Emma Goldman 
Papers Project. Even the biased big media polls show less and less 
popular support for unilateral American military action, regardless of the 
rubber-stamp Congress approval. And there are conspicuous new 
stickers to be found on the doors of New York subway cars: over the ‘Do 
not lean on doors’ ones, there are new ones with identical fonts and 
colors saying: “Do not bomb Iraq.” 

Israel - Palestine

Middle Eastern states are all facing the same fundamental problem: the 
unfinished separation of church and state. Medieval Europe was ridden 
with wars and insecurity partially due to the enormous power Catholic 
church had over sovereign states in those times. The same goes for 
Islamic countries of the Middle East today. 

But, Israel is not the exception to that, as many believe. Israel is defined 
as the ‘Jewish state’, not as the state of its citizens. Israeli policies are 
often held hostage by the ultra-religious that constitute the bulk of 
settlers, while they constitute a minority with undue privileges and no 
responsibilities (they are exempt from draft, and given stipends). 

It is, therefore, encouraging to see the appearance of a new party in 
Israeli political life - Shinui, lead by Tommy Lapid - which made 
separation of religion and state in Israel its priority. On top of that, 
Lapid’s talent for self-promotion, made his party the third most popular 
in Israel already. As an additional benefit, his beautiful campaigners may 
convince a prospective suicide bomber that he is already in heaven, so 
he forgets to blow himself up.

Americania

Relatives of two people killed by Lee Malvo and John Muhammad, filed a 
suit on January 16 against the manufacturer seller of the Bushmaster XM-
15 rifle used by the homeless DC snipers
(Bushmaster Firearms of Windham, ME and Eye Shooter Supply of 
Tacoma, WA). 

I wonder weather the Democratic anti-gun lobby will seize on that 
opportunity. It is euphemism to say that Democratic party in America is 
in disarray. It would be better to say that they are like a ship with no 
engine and no compass. 

Living in the shadows of Republicans in practically every aspect. Deep 
as it is, that embarrassment was made even deeper by the fact that the 
first governor that declared general clemency and commutation of all 167 
state’s death sentences, was Gov. George Ryan of Illinois, a Republican. 
While many Democrats are trying to emulate Republicans, some 
Republicans are dissenting from their own party. 

In theory the third US party may be dissenting, centrist Republicans. The 
Republican party in the US today is about as strong and diverse as 
Croatian HDZ was during the last years of Tudjman’s presidency: 
meaning there is enough resources within it for two strong political 
parties, giving temporary advantage to Democrats. 

Of course, this all depends whether the Stuttering John of American 
politics may catastrophically fail - either with war on Iraq or later with 
economy issues. The New York Times Magazine calls Bush ‘audacious’ - 
an attribute that no one would ever associate with Gore - except for that 
one anti-war speech, perhaps - and people adore audacious leaders, even 
when they lead them to a disaster, as history shows. 

However, the real lesson is that being audacious is not enough to stave 
off disaster. Likewise, any measure, no matter how well intentioned, may 
have unintended negative consequences. Gov. Ryan’s clemency decree 
left Danny Edwards, the murderer of Ryan’s family neighbor and part-
time baby sitter, publisher Stephen Small, disappointed. Reasonably, 
Small’s wife was apoplectic about Ryan’s decision, but why would 
Danny be against it? After all, the decision spared his life! 

Danny, however, prefers death to life imprisonment. Which opens 
another interesting debate for people interested both in justice and in its 
humanitarian implementation: why would life imprisonment be more 
humane than death penalty? While I can’t see myself burying another 
person alive and letting him slowly suffocate (what Edwards did to 
Small), I can understand Edwards in his ambivalence about the clemency: 
I for one would much prefer quick death to slow decay behind bars....

Ivo