Gary Younge (Guardian Utd): In a warped reality

Form the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Monday March 21

In a warped reality
Two years on, the occupiers justify the war by embracing the irrelevant and ignoring the inconvenient
By Gary Younge

This is a tale of one war, two anniversaries, three different demonstrations - and inconsistencies, contradictions and civilian deaths that are too numerous to count.

On April 18 2003, tens of thousands of Sunni and Shia protesters took to the streets of Baghdad to call for the Americans to leave Iraq. "You are the masters today," Ahmed al-Kubeisy, the prayer leader, told the Americans as he addressed the men emerging from Friday prayers. "But I warn you against thinking of staying. Get out before we kick you out."

Two years later, the US is still there. The anti-American protest was hailed in the White House as a vindication for the US strategy of bombing and then occupying the country. "In Iraq, there's discussion, debate, protest - all the hallmarks of liberty," said President George Bush that week. "The path to freedom may not always be neat and orderly, but it is the right of every person and every nation."
On February 22 2005, tens of thousands of Lebanese protesters took to the streets of Beirut to call for the Syrians to leave the country. Within a week the Syrians announced indefinite plans to leave. Front covers of magazines carried pictures of pretty young Lebanese women waving flags (at last, some Arabs editors could fancy) proclaiming a "cedar revolution" and "people power". The protest was hailed in the White House as a vindication for the US strategy of bombing and occupying Iraq. "By now it should be clear that authoritarian rule is not the wave of the future," said Bush. "We want that democracy in Lebanon to succeed, and we know it cannot succeed so long as she is occupied by a foreign power."

On March 8 2005, 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters took to the streets of Beirut to oppose US and European interference . . . . People carried banners saying "Death to America". It was several times bigger than the first anti-Syrian protest. They too waved Lebanese flags. But editors didn't find them pretty.

Read more.

I don't like to use the over-used term "must read", but this is a must read.

And it should be no surprise that we must look away from the American corporate media, in this case the the foreign press, to find a writer hitting the nail on the head as firmly as does Mr. Younge does here.

"Department of Irony" indeed.

It leads me to think to think of the "Bullshit is Philosophy",
meaning nihilism, piece.

excerpts:
Most recently, we have been told to believe that the limited and as yet untested moves towards democracy in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the thawing in Palestinian-Israeli relations (largely the result of Yasser Arafat's death) and the proposed withdrawal of Syrian troops (prompted by an outcry over the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri) all justify the bombing.

As further proof they point to January's elections in Iraq. This was a vote that the Americans wanted to postpone, in which many people could not participate, that produced a victory for Islamists with close ties to Iran who want the US troops out as soon as possible. If all of this amounts to victory, I would hate to see what their idea of defeat looks like.

It's absolutely amazing how the events described above have generated a "conventional wisdom" in the United States that the Middle East is experiencing a flowering of democracy as the result of the Bush administration's actions in Iraq.

Bush believers are loudly proclaiming victory and vindication, despite the continuing horrors and the very real possibility that the war in Iraq and its fallout will pose a greater threat to America than Saddam ever did.

Forget about one hundred thousand corpses -- just keep repeating the mantra of freedom and democracy.

I've kept the same sig line (below) for quite some time, and it's more relevant now than ever.

But all they're doing is telling lies louder.