The Spirit of the Internet Weekly

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Waiting for the Barbarians: The Twilight of American Culture (Morris Berman, “The Guardian” October 6, 2001)
“The contemporary American situation could be compared to that of Rome in the Late Empire period, and the factors involved in the process of decline in each case are pretty much the same: a steadily widening gap between rich and poor; declining marginal returns with regard to investment in organisational solutions to socioeconomic problems (in the US, dwindling funds for social security and medicare); rapidly dropping levels of literacy, critical understanding, and general intellectual awareness; and what might be called "spiritual death": apathy, cynicism, political corruption, loss of public spirit, and the repackaging of cultural content (eg "democracy") as slogans and formulas.”

The West Ignors Arab Resentment At Its Peril (David Hirst, “The Guardian” October 9, 2001)
“InSaudi Arabia and the Gulf, Bin Laden commands a sneaking sympathy beyond his own, ultra-orthodox Islamist constituency. "What he says," said an influential western-educated Saudi lawyer, "represents what most Muslims and Arabs want to say and can't." In the wider Arab domain, rulers fear that their people will see the Afghan campaign as yet another flagrant expression of US double standards at the expense of Arab and Muslim causes. Even the resolutely pro-American King Abdullah of Jordan told the US that he doubted New York would ever have happened had it addressed the Arab-Israel conflict in a more serious, less partisan, way.”

The War Bin Laden Has Already Won (Jonathan Freedland, “The Guardian” October 10, 2001)
“Inother words, few in the Muslim world see an attack on the Afghan regime as a long-overdue assault on a barbaric dictatorship. Many, perhaps most, see it as an attack on them. They do not denounce the Taliban and cheer their probable collapse; they see them as brothers, the newest victims of the western "crusade" to humiliate Islam. On this they agree with Osama bin Laden.”

It Is Always About Oil (Ted Rall, Alternet.org, October 11, 2001)
“As recently as 1999, U.S. taxpayers paid the entire annual salary of every single Taliban government official, all in the hopes of returning to the days of dollar-a-gallon gas. . . . Finally the Bushies had the perfect excuse to do what the U.S. had wanted all along: invade and/or install an old-school puppet regime in Kabul. Realpolitik no more cares about the 6,000 dead than it concerns itself with oppressed women in Afghanistan; this ersatz war by a phony president is solely about getting the Unocal deal done without interference from annoying local middlemen.”

TV News: A Militarized Zone (Norman Solomon, Media Monitors Network)
“And so, a bait-and-switch process of patriotic imagery is near completion. For weeks, in the aftermath of the horrendous events of Sept. 11, the public embraced Old Glory as a symbol of grief, human solidarity and love of country. Now the ubiquitous American Flag is being affixed to military means of destruction. This will be a long war," George W. Bush promised on Monday. From all indications, the TV networks are ready to do their part for the military operation that has been named Enduring Freedom. But far from the comforts of televisionland, many people will be enduring our freedom to kill.”

Terrorism and Nonviolence byArun Gandhi
“First, we must understand that nonviolence is not a strategy that we can use in times of peace and discard in a moment of crisis. Nonviolence is about personal attitudes, about becoming the change we wish to see in the world. Nonviolence is about building positive relationships with all human beings -- relationships that are based on love, compassion, respect, understanding and appreciation.

Nonviolence is also about not judging people as we perceive them to be -- that is, a murderer is not born a murderer; a terrorist is not born a terrorist. People become murderers, robbers and terrorists because of circumstances and experiences in life. Killing or confining murders, robbers, terrorists or the like is not going to rid this world of them. For with everyone we kill or confine, we create another hundred to take their place. What we need to do is dispassionately analyze both the circumstances that create such monsters and how we can help eliminate those circumstances. Focusing our efforts on the monsters, rather than what creates the monsters, will not solve the problems of violence. Justice should mean reformation and not revenge.”

The Roots of Conflict (Umberto Eco, “The Guardian” October 13, 2001)
“We are a pluralist civilisation because we allow mosques to be built in our countries, and we are not going to stop simply because Christian missionaries are thrown into prison in Kabul. If we did so, we too would become Taliban. The parameter of tolerating diversity is certainly one of the strongest and least open to argument. We consider our culture mature because it can tolerate diversity, and those who share our culture, while rejecting diversity to be uncivilised, period. We hope that, if we allow mosques in our countries, one day there will be Christian churches in their countries, or at least Buddhas won't get blown up there. If we believe we have got our parameters right, that is. . . . But there is a great deal of confusion. Funny things happen these days. It seems that defending western values has become a rightwing prerogative, while the Left, as ever, is pro-Islamic. Now, apart from the pro-third world, pro-Arab stance of some rightwing and Catholic activist circles, and so on, this ignores a historical phenomenon which is there for all to see.”

Albert Einstein’s comments about war.
“I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Folly of Aid and Bombs (George Monboit, “The Guardian” October 9, 2001)
“Four weeks remain before winter envelops Afghanistan, during which enough food must be delivered to last until March. Yet the US is prepared to drop, at its own best estimate, barely one quarter of one day's needs.”

Killing Them Softly (Norman Soloman)
“While thousands of kids across the United States stuff dollar bills into envelopes and mail them to the White House, the U.S. government continues a bombing campaign that is accelerating the momentum of mass starvation in Afghanistan. . . . In tandem with the bombing campaign, the U.S. government launched a PR blitz about its food-from-the-sky effort. But the Nobel-winning French organization Doctors Without Borders has charged that the gambit is "virtually useless and may even be dangerous." One aid group after another echoes the assessment. The U.S. has been dropping 37,000 meals a day on a country where several million Afghans face the imminent threat of starvation. Some of the food, inevitably, is landing on minefields.”

Ten Things To Know About U.S. Policy in the Middle East (Stephen Zunes, Alternet.org, September 26, 2001)

The above story provides details on the following points:

The United States has played a major role in the militarization of the region.
The U.S. maintains an ongoing military presence in the Middle East.
There has been an enormous humanitarian toll resulting from U.S. policy toward Iraq.
The United States has not been a fair mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
U.S. support for Israel occupation forces has created enormous resentment throughout the Middle East.
The United States has been inconsistent in its enforcement of international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
The United States has supported autocratic regimes in the Middle East.
U.S. policy has contributed to the rise of radical Islamic governments and movements.
The U.S. promotion of a neo-liberal economic model in the Middle East has not benefitted most people of the region.
The U.S. response to Middle Eastern terrorism has thus far been counter-productive.

Stop the war, plead parents of NY victim
“Your response to the attack does not make us feel better about our son's death... It makes us feel our government is using our son's memory as justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands.”

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