NP America: Evil Empire?

[Otto]

For my taste the reviewer goes a little too quick over these points:

"we are reminded of the human toll of sanctions policy towards Iraq, of the
Bush White House's links to the oil business, and George Bush snr's role as
consultant to the bin Laden family through something called the Carlyle
Group."

I've read a lot about all this in the past weeks, especially when Bush
called for "moral integrity" in the trade, and when there were news about
how the USA want to go to war against Iraq, trying to drag peaceful little
Jordan into a war it doesn't want and cannot afford. We simply cannot ignore
those children dying through UN-sanctions, because every suicide bomber has
them in mind too, and we cannot ignore the fact that the number of killed
civilian Afghans ("collateral damage") has outnumbered the death toll of
September 11.

I miss the keyword "Fort Benning, Georgia" in the review. Could it be that
Pilger and Ali have forgotten to mention the famous terrorist camp on
American soil?

Every Empire is evil by definition, by structure, inevitably . . . but this
doesn't mean that all its opponents are nice people, which seems to be
Pilger's major error. In this Pilger reminds me more he would admit on the
Bush-administration with their whitewashing of the racist and imperialist
Israeli politics.

By the way: it's a good thing that Amnesty International has condemned
suicide bombing, I add this just to make sure that I'm not whitewashing the
other side, those on the Palestinian side who don't want peace either.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 3:07 AM
Subject: NP America: Evil Empire?


> Interesting review, by Christopher Kremmer, of recently-published books by
> Tariq Ali and John Pilger:
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/12/1026185105711.html
>
> Excerpt:
>
> [...]
>
> "Pilger's style is to eschew balance and thereby maximise impact. This
> campaigning, adversarial journalism has won Australian-born Pilger
numerous
> awards, and his books sell well. There is a market for his approach, and
one
> he adroitly taps by spinning off books from television series from books.
>
> The catch is that by always demonising one side in any war, he falls into
> the trap of whitewashing the other. So, in his drive to condemn the US and
> its mujahideen allies in Afghanistan, the murderous Afghan communists who
> did so much to destroy that country get off lightly.
>
> His suggestion that the US could have negotiated with the Taliban to get
bin
> Laden handed over demonstrates a failure to understand either side of the
> conflict.
>
> For a journalist who has enjoyed so much success, his sectarian bitterness
> towards other hacks and the sense he gives of jealously guarding
> proprietorial rights to certain major stories are puzzling. His claim that
> the Western media ignored the story of East Timor is simply ridiculous.
>
> By being holier-than-thou, Pilger also risks being wrong-footed by
history.
> How will he cope with Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's call for
> engagement with the State Law and Order Restoration Council?
>
> Political problems are rarely black and white, and the solutions almost
> never are. Many Afghans support the US's role in ousting the Taliban and
> kick-starting moves towards re-establishing an indigenous political
process.
> It's the main game, yet Pilger's one-sided agenda prevents him from having
> much to say about it.
>
> Reviewing Pilger's 1989 book, _A Secret Country_, the late Manning Clark
> wrote:
>
> 'His heart is in the right place. What he does not tell us is how these
> ancient and modern wrongs are to be rectified. But perhaps he will address
> himself to that in his next work.'
>
> We are still waiting."
>
> best
>




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