Category: gmoses

Please, not another Lynch Mob

By Greg Moses

Published at Counterpunch

As it takes courage to insist upon the humanity of terrorists, so it takes courage to insist that torturers, too, were born crying like the rest of us. Now is not the time to replace one set of demons and witch hunts with another.

The opportunity is tempting enough for the world’s majority. We have been offended long enough by the demonizing rhetorics of the Bush-led war on terror. And we will not accept the apology, that beneficence is the ultimate value of his so-called anti-terror machine.

In opposing the Bush world order, we have to root out this logic of demonology, where evil actions are to be explained solely in terms of an isolated, evil few.

The logic of demonology, for instance, dominates the world view of CACI International Chair and CEO, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London, who says flat out, regarding “our enemies” in the war on terror that, “These people must be eliminated.”

The danger today is that a world, which has too long suffered the effects of such demonology, will attempt to grab the essential logic of this war as its weapon, leaving only the question of conquest in place.

Dr. London’s logic is instructive for understanding how the Bush machine deploys itself as a system of power. “For centuries, the maxim was, ‘divide and conquer,” says Dr. London. “In the new, networked world, however, the watchwords are, ‘communicate and conquer.”

If the majority of the world is going to get out of this game alive, it important that we not re-deploy these logics of conquest or elimination. Otherwise, as we seek justice against the multiple atrocities that fill our lives, we will have nothing but more wars and more prisons before us.

The prison guards at Abu Ghraib bring us a warning that exceeds the meaning of their individuality. What they give us are images of a future speeded up, a future that we will certainly achieve worldwide if we do not reorganize ourselves thoroughly. And we have to begin that transformation today.

President Bush is saying that US prison workers in Iraq do not represent us as a nation. He wishes to disown them. But in his State of the Union Address this year, the President talked about 600,000 prisoners in America who will be released to the streets in 2004. US prisons, like Iraqi prisons, are terrible witnesses to freedom and justice. Nothing about them serves as evidence that we are a freedom-loving people.

In the US we have been party to a prison boom at home. Not only are we building and filling more prisons, but we are also intensifying the pain of prison life by withdrawing education, programs, and basic human comforts. Slavery in the USA is still Constitutional, according to the 13th Amendment, so far as convicts are involved.

When Bush’s logic of demonology is grafted to Dr. London’s theory of communication, it disables our ability to think our way into a democratic future. Privatized media, privatized corrections, and now privatized squads of torture, practice the cynical assumption that public democracy is irretrievable.

The peace movement argued against all these odds that Bush’s logic of war would aggravate the violence, not cure the world. Terrorists, argued the peace movement, have histories, and their histories are connected to our own histories in ways that—if we examine ourselves and our choices diligently—implicate us in a common world of pain.

Likewise now with the young American torturers. Their histories are bound up with our national logics of demonology, elimination, and conquest. They have exported into Iraq a garrison mentality and a theory of communication that promotes progress through iron will. The kind of justice we seek has to break these cycles of inhumanity, or we will have no peace in the end, even if the torturers are disowned and put away for life.

Two hundred billion dollars we can summon to pay contractors and wage war half a world away. Yet we have no money to fund a first-class initiative for public health or education. In Texas, school children will be lucky to get two percent more next year, just to name one example of bad faith. God protect our income from taxes. And please Lord, keep the contractors free to devour our public services at the going market rate.

The sickness of the terrorist is like the sickness of the torturer, and it is a sickness that begins in our own pocketbook of denuded ideals. We cannot afford to feed our frenzies any more. We have to reflect, forgive, and change paths. Now.

[After posting this, I read Stan Goff’s open letter to the soldiers of Iraq at Counterpunch, which counsels troops to analyze themselves for the role they play in deploying repression. I sent Stan the above article and he replied, “Dead On, Brother.” QED]

What if We Don’t Wait to Hear
What our Leaders Will Say Next?

By Greg Moses
May 2, 2004

http://peacefile.org/wordpress

As US Marines step back from Fallujah and military prosecutors pursue charges of crime in their own ranks, Americans are offered an opportunity to deeply reorganize. And we should begin without waiting for what our leaders will say next.

In the game of politics, as it is played for most of us, upon a checkerboard of images, there is a style of participation that simply waits to see what Bush is going to do next, what Kerry will say, or whether Nader will differ, and how we will rate them for their comparative poses? This is the spectator sport that we can broadly expect.

But the time has come to say goodbye to the Capital gangs for a while. If they enter our thoughts, we must be prepared to think against them, with well earned suspicion. Our political leaders and professional journalists, as a class, have failed us
miserably. Let them do their own healing while we do ours.

It is terrible but true: the nauseating pictures of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison bring the American people closer than ever to human relations with the Iraqi people. We should not wait for the opportunity to be squandered before we respond.

First of all, I think we need to say something to the young US soldiers who are finally being asked to step back. Your job has always been political and it always will be. The political process that put you there is large. You are stepping back, because that
process needs time to breathe.

Likewise to the prison guards. We will not disown you.

My sympathy for the troops and the prison guards has nothing to do with sympathy for the politics that put them where they are today. It has much to do with my
sympathy for all the victims of this war.

My sympathy for prison guards and cops in the US likewise has nothing to do with sympathy for US policies on crime or punishment, but is more closely connected to sympathy for the prisoners whose letters I have stopped answering. I don’t write letters to US prisoners anymore, because I have good reasons to worry about the hardships they will be tasked to endure when they are found in possession of the only
ideas that I can honestly convey. And that is the reality of homeland security in the USA today.

So I don’t care right now what Bush is going to say, or Kerry, or Nader. What I care about is what American people and Iraqi people, American troops and Iraqi insurgents, American prison guards and Iraqi prisoners, are going to work out during this brief
opportunity, with the inhumanity of our political order so vividly displayed.

We Americans can say we are sorry. We can ask to speak respectfully and directly to the people of Iraq.

Abner Louima could remind us that rape by broomstick is not confined to West Baghdad cells. His example also reminds us that the humanity of a Haitian immigrant circulates with more effect in the terror of such lone experiences than does the humanity of the
entire Haitian people who have also been recently “liberated” by US Marines.

If somehow, American, Iraqi, and Haitian, or for that matter, Israeli and Palestinian citizens, too, could unanimously resolve to ratchet all these powers down a notch, then we could talk amongst ourselves about what to do next–before reporters tell us the clumsy options that our various state leaders would have us choose between.

Bush is saying that the US prison guards in Iraq do not represent us as a nation. Either he is lying, or once again, he has no clue. US prisons are horrible places, made even more horrible during the past ten years by ever increasing repressions. Everyone sucked into that system gets warped by it.

In his State of the Union address, the President expressed concern that 600,000 prisoners will be released. What the president could honestly say is this: those US prison guards are only the latest examples of what prisons do to human beings every day,not only in Iraq, but in the US, too.

Thanks to the latest report from a truly professional journalist, Seymour Hersch, I followed a few links on the web relating to these “contractors” that now appear to be playing vital mercenary functions in Iraq. I have written a little about Parsons of
Pasadena.

The month of April began with vehement attacks on “contractors” from Blackwater. And the month ended with accusations that “contractors” have been fomenting the politics of torture. Suddenly the month of April makes more sense. Now we have names like
Titan (soon to be acquired by Lockheed Martin) and CACI International.

At the website of CACI International, you can find texts of speeches by the Chair and CEO, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London in which he conceptualizes a new role for communication. Says Dr. London more than once, “For centuries, the maxim was, ‘divide and conquer.’
In the new, networked world, however, the watchwords are, ‘communicate and conquer.’ Cue to Fox News.

Last year, Dr. London took, “a month-long trip to West Pac and Asia, to Vietnam, Korea, Japan and Hawaii. CACI provides support to our armed forces in a number
of locations in that part of the world. The dangers there are quite real, too.”

“Here at home,” reports Dr. London, “CACI personnel are delivering information technology solutions to the armed forces, to the Defense Department, the national
intelligence community and federal civilian and law enforcement agencies. I’m also proud to say that CACI solutions are leading and supporting the transformation of U.S. defense and intelligence, and are helping to ensure homeland security.”

When speaking to the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association last October in Texas, Dr. London also offered his expert opinion about the threat of fundamentalist Islamists: “their goals are new. Unlike previous enemies, they don’t want to seize our territory or our resources, or overthrow our political system. Their goal is to destroy Western civilization and our free, Judeo-Christian
ethic and our open way of life. The major component of this threat is radical, militant Islam and the fanaticism of ‘jihad.’ These people must be eliminated.”

Destroy is the word that Dr. London himself places in bold face. Eliminating people is the answer he gives. Communication for Dr. London is a word wrapped up in
a project of conquest, destruction, and elimination.

But Dr. London also worries that now is an awkward time. The very structures of corporate power that is sharpening the edges of the American sword across the world seem not to be presenting helpful images. Confidence in corporate leadership is declining. And Dr. London is distressed when corporate leaders do not show more concern for ethics.

As it turns out CACI International has a Code of Ethics that strictly guides the company’s moral mission, even as it helps to eliminate certain people from the face of the earth. Which is a long way of saying that the moral leadership of CACI International is not what we need right now. Let’s not wait to take leadership from Dr. London. I’m not saying that anyone should not be listened to, but why stall our
own talk in deference to that kind of ethics?

If I sound a little short of breath with Dr. London, I have to disclose a bias. I’m angry at this Jack London for ignoring everything that his namesake ever stood for. “The Call of the Wild”—that was about how you make a dog American style, whack, whack, whack. But it wasn’t intended to be used as a manual of procedure. Really, Jack, you should share that book with the White House for quiet reading, while the American people and the Iraqi people sort things out.

And please ask the President not to stop reading the Koran. He cited a fine passage in remarks posted at the White House website under the title, “Islam is Peace.” The remarks were made on Sept. 17, 2001, at the Washington, D.C., Islamic Center. And the
President said, “The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up
to ridicule.”

Americans might begin by asking Iraqis, how does that passage sound in Arabic? Make peace with communication, not war.

From the March 31 killings in Fallujah, we know about Blackwater.

Seymour Hersch’s report for the May 10 New Yorker on an Army internal investigation of Abu Ghraib prison “20 miles West of Baghdad” mentions Titan (which is planning a merger into Lockheed Martin) and CACI International.

The Blackwater website in turn lists Rutherford as an “alliance”.

In a March article for Counterpunch, I discussed Parsons.

Defense Contracts are listed at the Pentagon web page.

Quote: For centuries, the maxim was, “divide and conquer.” In the new, networked world, however, the watchwords are, “communicate and conquer.”–Dr. JP (Jack) London CACI Chairman and CEO from a speech headed, “CACI – Proud Partner in Homeland Security,” delivered on Jun2 10, 2002.

The quote is already harvested at Stephen DeVoy’s page on “Surveillance Whores.”

A google search for the phrase “communicate and conquer” yields this tidbit from the popular culture world of computer gaming in a review of “Final Fantasy XI” from Cinema Confidential:

“Communicate and Conquer

“Not only is Final Fantasy XI the first of the series to go online, but it’s also the first true MMORPG developed in Japan. The Japanese mindset is generally one of cooperation, and Final Fantasy XI reflects that by completely disallowing player-versus-player gaming–it’ll be interesting to see how this resonates with U.S. players, given their backstabbing predilections.

“Forming parties is essential, and fortunately, Final Fantasy XI has a number of well-thought-out systems to facilitate this. Up to 18 people can join a party, and there are a variety of fair ways to divvy up the items, like the drawing of lots for them amongst your party members. Additionally, players can form massive world-spanning chat groups by means of psychic shellfish known as link shells. These convenient magical chat items allow you to converse with people by giving them a link pearl, no matter where on Vana’diel they are.”

I don’t have the link handy, but the passage reminds me of a report that Afghanistan commanders are using “chat rooms” to coordinate their operations.

On the ethical superiority of CACI compared to jihadists, see London’s San Antonio speech of Oct. 15, 2003. It is the sort of ethics that includes statements such as, “These people must be eliminated.”

Dr. London’s San Antonio remarks were made at an AFCEA conference, that’s the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Read the AFCEA International Press offerings.

I don’t know if the firm, Unlocking Potential, got the phrase from Dr. London or if big ideas just show up in two places at once. But “Communicate and Conquer” is also the first of five keys listed by the Australian consulting company.

Although HIT Lab NZ uses the phrase accidentally, the research group reminds us that the ability to “communicate and conquer” is growning through their efforts in, “3D panoramic displays, virtual and augmented reality, voice and behaviour recognition and intuitive aural and tactile feedback.” The predator drone is like a Kitty Hawk version of the killing that might be enabled through such arts.

Bremer’s De-De-Baathification Gambit
Legitimates Fallujah Rebels

By Greg Moses

http://peacefile.org/wordpress

Lakhdar Brahimi and US Generals led the way last week, both camps hinting that de-Baathification in Iraq was a policy too stridently enforced by US civilian command. And by week’s end, their remarks were answered by Paul Bremer, who, “with Iraqi resistance growing, especially in the Sunni Triangle region west of Baghdad,” invited tens of thousands of Sunni Iraqis back into his nation-building plans.

And so began the de-de-Baathification of Iraq. Or was it just the gambit of the week?

Speaking from Rome Tuesday, Brahimi said, in code that had Baath written all over it, “The large number of political prisoners in Iraq and the large number of office workers who have been fired more than once without any clear reason, are a big problem for the international community with regard to the peace process and their efforts to pacify the country.”

Speaking almost simultaneously from a palace overlooking the Tigris River, US Major General John Batiste said that some of the million members of the Iraqi ruling party should be allowed to return to work. “They would be schoolteachers. They would be engineers.”

Bremer’s concession to peacemakers and generals came at the precise time when the US needed to isolate political support for armed insurgents in Fallujah. On the eve of a US assault on the city, Bremer relented on his policy of mass punishment toward Iraqi teachers and bureaucrats who had once belonged to the ruling party.

In a Wednesday article, “Don’t Forget the Alamo,” I reported that Brahimi’s support for old Baathists in the Sunni Triangle might be a deal-breaker for Kurds and Shi’a leaders who have constituted the ruled majority for so long.

Brahimi is under pressure by the White House to bring everyone together by June 30, and his rehabilitation of Baathists brings some gravity to the emerging government that had been previously missing. Ahmed Chalabi, the returned expatriate, will now be dropped, according to various recent sources.

With the Fallujah militia threatening to unify anti-US rebellion among Sunnis, Bremer’s reversal seems to be doing only what will be considered necessary to minimize the political fallout of a full-scale US assault on that city.

Yet Bremer’s reversal sends another message, too. By abandoning his criminal policy toward the Baathists, Bremer’s action shows that Fallujah militia may deserve some respect for representing legitimate complaints against the policies of US occupation.

Bremer’s de-Baathification policy had been questionable from the start. He fired thousands of teachers at a time.

Like Al-Sadr’s rebels in the Shi’a holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, the Fallujah militia seem to be saying things that the US authority needs to hear.

Rather than respect the rebels for bringing the civilian authority to its senses, President Bush persists in calling them, “a bunch of thugs and killers.”

Again, I say, don’t forget the Alamo. US forces can kill every rebel in several cities at once. But if those militia represent the heartfelt grievances of besieged Iraqis, then Iraqi history will be written like Texas history some day.