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War
changes everything
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the view
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by
Tarek Atia |
Links that make you think
May 1, 2003
| US President
George W Bush declared the end of the combat phase of the Iraq
invasion today, stopping short of calling it a victory, in order
to avoid some of the thornier aspects of the Geneva Convention and
-- perhaps primarily -- to avoid being called "an occupying
power," according to the Washington
Times.
 The
dynamic is interesting, for as the next phase of the invasion --
reconstruction -- begins, the actual occupying force of the United
States will only be that much clearer. "Goodbye, dreary old
antiquity! Hello, "Friends"!" is how an opinion piece
in the New York Times describes the up-coming de facto Iraq
culture war
that has really already begun.
The net
result may be a mix of old and new, something like the way East and
West have merged in other countries where US cultural influence has
been warmly embraced.
In a hint of what may be
in store for Iraq, another article in the Times tells us that Saddam-era
Iraqi TV announcers want to go back
on the air. The Iraqi announcers are critical of the broadcasts
currently being controlled by the US military, which feature
snippets of news read out by Iraqi exiles plus footage from American
networks like Fox.
"It's
disgusting — they are showing us the things they want to show
us," said a woman who worked as an announcer for Shabab
Television... They showed nothing about the explosion at the
ammunition dump used by the Americans that killed so many Iraqis."
Her comment makes it seem
like that infamous tool of state-controlled media -- leaving things
out of the news that don't make you look so good -- may be used in
the post-Saddam era as well.
The article also
mentions that former CIA director James Woolsey was being considered
for an advisory post to the new Iraqi Ministry of Information.
That would certainly lend some perspective to
the matter.
Meanwhile, in
Slate, Gary
Kamiya discusses the anguish of those who were against the war.
"If you have a conscience and a brain, this war is slowly but
surely driving you off the deep end... for many of us who oppose the
war, it has induced what almost might be called a kind of moral
schizophrenia."
He's right. And it looks
to only get worse.
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your comments to Tarek
Atia
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