thoughtmechanics

I’ve had precious few words to say on Iraq lately. Not because I have nothing to say, but because words fail on a country so utterly and completely lost. I don’t think in the worst nightmares of anti-war hopefuls who wanted a failed Iraq to prove George Bush’s war was morally repugnant, did they expect this kind of bloodbath. To note that, on an average day, over one hundred Iraqi’s are dying, is beyond the word “appalling”. I am so disturbed by events in Iraq that I would rather have a Bush vision of Democracy through force than this dystopian nightmare of sectarian genocide.

American troops have been relegated now to little more than cleanup crews as Sunni and Shia attacks are leaving mangled corpses that are overflowing in the mortuaries. The so-called Democratic government of Iraq is very nearly toppled, completely ineffective, and entirely impotent to do anything short of watch American soldiers watch Iraqi’s murder each other.

After organized attacks on Sunni mosques on Friday, reprisals in the form of attacks on Shi’ite civilians in Diyala province saw 21 men murdered in front of their family. The violence in Baghdad has completely shut down the airport, and forced the cancellation of President Jalal Talibani to a trip to Iran to ask for assistance in quelling Shi’ite sectarian uprisings.

Meanwhile, more than 200 people were killed in the Moqtada al-Sadr slum of Baghdad on Thursday by Sunni insurgents. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is depending on a pathetically fragile coalition which includes al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. But the cleric is blaming the U.S. for all the violence, and warned to withdraw from the coalition if he meets President George Bush in Jordan on Thursday.

Iran may see the flailing American forces, the sentiment at home in the U.S., and the sectarian violence as their cue to devastate the U.S. by launching their own support for Shi’ite militants. If the U.S. withdraw from Iraq in the state it is in, Iran could easily usurp power as the preeminent force in the Middle East, with weaponry piling in from Russia.

Shi’ite militia have launched some of the most brutal attacks in the Iraq war. On Friday they kidnapped six Sunni’s praying and burned them alive with gasoline. They threw hand grenades into houses and shops as they drove by. The rise in violence cannot be stopped even with condemnation from powerful imams, Ayatollahs, and government and spiritual leaders.

Beleaguered Vice-President Dick Cheney is in Saudi Arabia to to rally support from regional countries that want no part of the chaos. It seems that the U.S. may eventually have to grovel into a compromise with two members of the region they classified as terrorist states: Syria and Iran. If the U.S. can broker a peace deal by utilizing Syria and Iran, it could cement the reputation of the U.S. as a fallen superpower, and mark the emergence of Iran as a new one.

It takes a political assassination like the one in Lebanon of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel for people with a bit of historical memory to look about and see how easy it is for most others to forget. Most culpable, of course, are the press, who tend to cultivate this forgetfulness for various reasons, often to do with shifting alliances and the fact that most of the ‘mainstream’ press is owned and operated by those who have the means ($) and the vested interest in the forgetfulness of the majority.

Why am I saying all this, and what does it have to do with Pierre Gemayel? Well, it doesn’t have to do so much with Pierre as it does with his dad and his uncle who, as has been stated over and over during the last few days, headed and head the Phalangist movement of Lebanon. These past few days, this notorious family which has untold blood on its hands has been elevated to the status of a holy and royal family. The historical facts, though, tell a different story…

The Phalangists, as most probably have well forgotten, were responsible for the massacre of anywhere between 2000 and 3500 Palestinian refugees in September of 1982 at the Sabra and Shatilla camps near Beirut. While Ariel Sharon stood guard with his Israeli Army so that nobody interfered with the ‘work’ being carried on in the refugee camps, the Phalangists slaughtered Palestinians from the 16th to the 19th of September.

I remember the global outcry at that time. I also remember that an Israeli inquiry (the Kahan Commission) clearly stated that “Mr. Sharon was found responsible for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge when he approved the entry of the Phalangists into the camps as well as not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed.�

This is where Sharon picked up the ‘butcher of Beirut’ nickname, just in case people wonder. Of course, the prime minister of Israel at that time was Menachem Begin, who just happened to be a member of an extremist Jewish terrorist organization. As well, the Foreign Minister of Israel at that time was Yitzhak Shamir, who was also a member of an extremist Jewish organization. He later went on to become Prime Minister and the first Palestinian Intifadah took place under his reign. It is no wonder then that Sharon was never prosecuted. If it wasn’t for the stroke that has incapacitated him, he would still be prime minister of Israel today. I know of no other country that has had so many prime ministers that had at one time or another been linked to war crimes or were members of terrorist organizations.

But, to get back to the Gemayels, the Phalangists were at that time angry that Pierre’s Uncle Bashir who had just been elected was assassinated on Sept. 14th. Amine Gemayel became the leader of the Phalangist movement, (it was a family affair) and they took out their anger, with the protection of their patrons the Israelis, on the Palestinians. As a matter of record, to this day there has never been an assumption of responsibility for that assassination.

Meanwhile, the Israelis had invited the Phalangists into the Palestinian refugee camps in order to drive out 2000 ‘terrorists’ whom they believed were still there. Pierre’s dad Amine, took up the invitation and, under the watchful eye of Sharon enetered the camps. The PLO had been driven out by the Israeli Army in August of that year, so the brave christian Phalangists were able to just walk in and slaughter for days, knowing that Israeli troops were stationed outside in case someone tried to interfere with the undoubtedly tedious work of killing unarmed women and children. All done and told, the 2000 ‘terrorists’ turned out to be children, women and old men.

Well, in the famous Israeli tradition of rewarding terrorists and war criminals with high government positions, Amine Gemayel was enthroned in 1982, under the loving eye of Ariel Sharon, as President of Lebanon. He remained president until 1988, when it seemed obvious that the Lebanese would not stand for this man any longer, Israeli occupation or not.

More on these details, for those who want to refresh their memory, can be found at the Jewish Voice for Peace site, as well as at the Global Policy Organization site.