Arbete
Asien
Atomvapen
Bibeln
Borgerligheten
Brott och straff
Demokrati
Ekonomi
EU och EMU
Fackföreningar
Faktabetonade
Fascism
Feminism
Folkpartiet
Hatet mot upprorsmakarna
Historia
Högerns historia
Homofobi
Ideologier
Ideologiproduktion
Imperialism
Internationella högerspöken
Japan
Kalla kriget
Känt folk talar ut
Klassamhället
Kolonialism
Konflikter
Könsmaktsordningen
Könsroller
Krig
Krigsförbrytelser
Krigspropaganda
Kristdemokraterna och centern
Kritiskt tänkande
Kultur
Kungahuset
Kunskap
Latinamerika
Människosyn
Marx
Media
Mellanöstern
Militarism
Miljö
Moderaterna
Moral och moralism
Nationalism
Organisering
Överklassen
Övriga
Pengar och rikedom
Perifera
Plundringen
Rasism
Rättigheter
Regimerna i Syd
Reklam
Religion
Säga som det är
Sanningssägande borgare
Socialdemokratins sämre sidor
Socialism
Solidaritet
Staten
Tortyr
USA
Wallenberg
Yttrandefrihet

 
 

Mellanöstern

Det var inget krig. Inga strider. Det var bara ett planerat, systematiskt folkmord på en försvarslös befolkning, närapå utan att man satte en fot på irakisk mark. 1967, när Dr. Martin Luther King sade att den största våldsverkaren på jorden är min regering, kunde han inte i sina värsta mardrömmar föreställa sig vad USA gjorde mot Irak.
Ramsey ClarkFrihetlig Press #4, maj 1999

Skillnaden mellan Israel och apartheidstaten Sydafrika är att Israel avrättar fler människor och håller fler inspärrade eller i militärt omringade gettobildningar.
Jan Guillou

Covert operations should not be confused with missionary work.
Henry Kissinger describing why US withdrew aid to the Kurds, 1975

That's a nice list of targets, but that's not enough. [...] [It is also important to target] ...what is unique about Iraqi culture, that they put very high value on, that psychologically would make an impact on the population and regime. [....] If push came to shove, the cutting edge would be downtown Baghdad. If I want to hurt you, it would be at home, not out in the woods someplace.
General Michael Dugan, US Airforce Chief of Staff, 15th September 1990. He was removed from his post shortly afterwards, with US Secretary of Defence Dick Cheney describing Dugan's comments as 'inappropriate'.Washington Post, 15th September 1990

If they turn on their radars we're going to blow up their goddamn SAMs. They know we own their country. We own their airspace ... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great ahout America right now. It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need.
US Brig. General William Looney, on the continous attacks on Iraq in the end of the 1990sBlum, William (2003), "Rogue State", Spearhead 2003, ISBN 1 84277 221 X pb, p. 159

It's really not a number I'm terribly interested in.
Colin Powell answering a question about the number of Iraqis killed in the Gulf war, 1991Blum, William (2003), "Rogue State", Spearhead 2003, ISBN 1 84277 221 X pb, p. 69

Iran, like ourselves, has seen benefit in a stalemate situation ... in which Iraq is intrinsically weakened by the Kurds' refusal to relinquish semi-autonomy. Neither Iran nor ourselves wish to see the matter resolved one way or the other.
CIA memo from 1974, about the military aid they provided to the Kurds fighting for their autonomy in IraqBlum, William (2003), "Rogue State", Spearhead 2003, ISBN 1 84277 221 X pb, p. 145

Nobody can influence me. Nobody at all. And a woman still less.
The ex-Shah of Iran Petras, Ross & Petras, Kathryn: "The 776 stupidest things ever said", Doubleday 1993,  ISBN 0-385-41928-7

Vi vill att Falluja ska förstå vad demokrati handlar om.
Överstelöjtnant Pete Newell talar till de 500 soldaterna i "Task Force 2-2" inför attacken mot Falluja. Minuten senare skriker han att "denna hög av skit måste rensas ut".Daily Telegraph 041108 / Flamman 041118

For the British Government to say that the quantities involved for vaccinating kids are going to produce weapons of mass destruction, is just nonsense. That's why I've been using the word 'genocide', because this is a deliberate policy to destroy the people of Iraq. I'm afraid I have no other view at this late stage.
Denis Halliday, August 2000ZNet daily commentary,

I never think back. Since I cannot change the past, why should I deal with it?
Shimon Peres about the cooperation between Israel and South AfricaChris McGreal (2006): "Brothers in arms - Israel

We created the South African arms industry. They assisted us to develop all kinds of technology because they had a lot of money. When we were developing things together we usually gave the know-how and they gave the money. After 1976, there was a love affair between the security establishments of the two countries and their armies.
Alon Liel, former Israeli ambassador to PretoriaChris McGreal (2006): "Brothers in arms - Israel

What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs
Head of an IDF rocket unit in the 2006 war against LebanonHaaretz 060912, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/761781.html 060913

Om vi antar att till och med FN:s egna uppskattningar av skadeverkningarna på civilbefolkningen i Irak är något så när korrekta [så har sanktionerna orsakat] fler dödsoffer i Irak än det totala antalet människor som har dödats av alla så kallade massförstörelsevapen genom hela historien.
John och Kark Mueller, professorer vid University of RochesterJohn Pilger: "Det vi inte fick veta", Ordfront förlag 2001, s 171

Vi har förlorat en del av vår medkänsla och vårt civiliserade sätt som jag tror gjorde oss så speciella för fyra år sedan. Jag tar mig själv som exempel. Då för nära fyra år sedan ryckte jag till varje gång jag hörde talas om en dödad amerikansk soldat. Det var ockupanter, men samtidigt var de mänskliga varelser och bara vetskapen om att de dödats i mitt land gav mig sömnlösa nätter. Det spelade ingen roll att de korsade oceanen för att attackera Irak. Jag kände verkligen för dem. Hade jag inte uttryckt dessa känslor i just denna blog, hade jag idag inte trott det.
Den irakiske bloggaren Riverbend i slutet av 2006www.fredskoalitionen.se, 061230, översättning Ingrid Ternert

Jag tycker att alla utlänningar borde sluta blanda sig i Iraks inre angelägenheter. Dom som vill hjälpa till är välkomna. Dom som vill förstöra är inte välkomna.
Paul Wolfowitz, biträdande försvarsminister i USAInternationalen #31/2003

Vittnesmålen om terrorn och tortyren i Irak blir en flodvåg i världens medier.
Per Ahlmark spår Iraks framtid vid en amerikansk ockupation, oktober 2002Per Ahlmark (2002): "Det kommande jublet i Bagdad", DN 021010, http://www.dn.se/DNet/road/Classic/article/0/jsp/print.jsp?&a=64188 050929

Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves .. politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.
David Ben Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel

Let me tell you what happened briefly. There were 114,000 seperate aerial sorties in 42 days - one every 30 seconds. Eighty-eight thousand tons of bombs were dropped. Only seven per cent were guided. Ninety-three percent were free-falling bombs that hit were chance, neccesity and no free will took them. There were 38 aircraft lost by the US in the slaughter. That number is less than the accidental losses in war games where no live ammunition is even used. No enemy aircraft rose to meet them.
When the ground war came... there was no ground war. Name one battle. It wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. General Kelly said when the troops finally moved forward that there were 'not many of them left alive to fight'. We killed at least 125,000 soldiers and to date 130,000 civillians. We killed as many as we dared.

Ramsey Clark, Former US Attorney General, on the Gulf War

The target suffered a terminal illness before a firing squad in Baghdad.
CIA officer testifying to US Senate hearing, after bloody CIA aided coup overthrew Iraqi Prime Minister Abdel Kassem, 1963

Arabs tend to confess; it's part of their nature.
Moshe Etzioni, an Israeli high court justice, in an interview with Amnesty International, when asked about the unusually high rate of confessions from Palestinians (indicating Israel's use of torture), 1977

The USS New Jersey started hurling 16-inch shells into the mountains above Beirut, in World War II style, as if we were softening up the beaches on some Pacific atoll prior to an invasion. What we tend to overlook in such situations is that other people will react much as we would.
Colin Powell in his 1995 memoirBlum, William (2003), "Myth and Denial in the War on Terrorism", 030812, http://www.counterpunch.com/blum08122003.html 030813

We have come here not as conquerors but as liberators to free you from generations of tyranny.
Sir Stanley Maude 1917, before the british invasion of what is today Iraq

Israel and South Africa have one thing above all else in common: they are both situated in a predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark peoples.
From a South African government's yearbook, commenting on the 1976 Israeli state visit of South African Prime Minister and former Nazi sympathiser John Vorster Chris McGreal (2006): "Brothers in arms - Israel

Olja är en alldeles för viktig vara för att lämnas i arabernas händer.
Henry KissingerAftonbladet 020410

They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen.
Senior British commander in southern Iraq 2004Sean Rayment (2004): "US tactics condemned by British officers", The Telegraph 040411, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ 060601

Our presence in the country is the main cause of the war. I'm not saying that if we now withdraw peace and harmony will immediately break out. I'm not saying that withdrawal is a sufficient condition, but it is a necessary condition. If we don't withdraw there will never be a solution.
George Galloway on IraqMR Zine 060714, http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/moore140706.html 060926

Europeiska rådet välkomnade den senaste tidens positiva politiska utveckling när det gäller Irak.
Europeiska rådet i Bryssel, 25-26 mars 2004Flamman 040408

Obviously, I didn't think, and nobody else did, that the Iraqis were going to take all of Kuwait.
Former Ambassador April Glaspie, in reponse to accusations that the U.S. invited Saddam Hussein to take Kuwait

We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours ... When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle.
Rafael Eitan, Israeli Chief of Staff

In every city we visited, we documented severe damage to homes, electrical plants, fuel storage facilities, civilian factories, hospitals, churches, civilian airports, vehicles, transportation facilities, food storage and food testing laboratories, grain silos, animal vaccination centres, schools, communication towers, civilian government office buildings, and stores. Almost all facilities we saw had been bombed two or three times, ensuring that they could not be repaired. Most of the bridges we saw had been bombed from both ends.
Adeeb Abed and Gavrielle Gemma, Independent Commission of Inquiry staff members, fact find finding trip to Iraq, April 3rd-14th 1991

That's absolute garbage, the fact is that before Saddam Hussein got himself into trouble in Iran, and then of course in Kuwait, they had invested massively in civilian infrastructure. Health care clinics, rural clinics, education, 10,000 schools scattered throughout the country, an educational and healthcare system which was the envy of all its Arab neighbours. Iraq had a very widespread food distribution system of its own before we got involved.
Denis Halliday on the claim that lifting sanctions would do no good, because the Iraqi regime does not care about its own citizens

- It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward.
- Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?
- A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death.
- I think that one of the positions took her out.
- I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over.

Radiokonversationen då en israelisk kapten lät skjuta ihjäl 13-åriga Iman al-Hams med 17 skott. Kaptenen friades av en militärdomstol.The Guardian 051116, http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1643573,00.html 051120

It seems to me indecent for Clinton to have gone to war, dragging all of NATO with him and destroying Serbia in the process on behalf of the Kosovo Albanians' right of return, and then ask Palestinians to renounce theirs.
Edward SaidZNet Commentary, Edward Said, "Trying Again and Again", Jan 11, 2001 / medialens.org 020709

...a trial at which the former Iraqi mass murderer was formally forbidden from describing his relationship with Donald Rumsfeld, now George Bush's Secretary of Defence. Remember that handshake?
Robert FiskThe Independent 061106, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1959051.ece 061107

Our strategic and security interests throughout the world will be best safeguarded by the establishment in suitable spots of 'Police Stations', fully equipped to deal with emergencies within a large radius. Kuwait is one such spot from which Iraq, South Persia, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf could be controlled. It will be worthwhile to go to considerable trouble and expense to establish and man a 'Police Sation' there.
British Foreign Office, policy memo, 1947

...we have a solution, that you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wants to can leave - and we will see where this process leads. In five years we may have 200,000 less people - and that is a matter of enormous importance.
Moshe Dayan, encouraging the transfer of Gaza strip refugees to Jordan

Saddam Hussein can not restore his own electricity. He needs help. If there are political objectives that the UN coalition has, it can say: 'Saddam, when you agree to do these things, we will allow people to come in and fix your electricity.' It gives us long-term leverage.
US Colonel John A. Warden III, June 1991 quoted in
Gellman

They went way beyond the military. They destroyed schools, and hospitals and bridges, and roads, places of employment, factories, consumer, industry and so on. That's left massive unemployment to this day. They destroyed railways, domestic airports, including not just the production of oil which they bombed and missiled again and again, but they also wiped out Iraq's capacity to produce potable water, the sewerage systems were heavily damaged, water treatment plants were damaged. It was a very all-comprehensive attack. And that is still rather apparent today.
Denis Halliday on the attack on Iraq in 1991

Jag är säker på att han inte har något emot att jag kallar honom Iraks diktator. Han har pengarna. Han har makten. Inget händer utan hans medgivande i detta land.
Lakhdar Brahimi, FN-sändebud i Irak, om USA:s guvernör Paul Bremer, efter att ha blivit överkörd vid bildandet av Iraks "övergångsregering"Guardian 040603 / Flamman 040610

I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say [things in Iraq are] going very, very well from everything you look at.
General Peter Pace, the most senior military officer of the U.S., March 5, 2006Brian Cloughley (2006): "General Insanity", http://www.counterpunch.com/cloughley03182006.html 060320

The United States did not go to war in Iraq solely because of WMD. I doubt it was even the principal cause. Yet it was the public face that was put on it.
George Tenet, former CIA DirectorGeorge Tenet: "At the Center of the Storm", Chapter 17 / http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/02/898/ 070504

There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist.
Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel

That is really not a matter I am terribly interested in.
General Colin Powell, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, on being asked his assessment of Iraqi military and civilian casualties, April 1991 The Nation 020211

[Middle East oil is] a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history.
U.S. State Department, 1945

We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.
Denis Halliday in 1998 on the sanctions against Iraq

It wasn't a war. It was a massacre. It's well documented. ... There's no denying it. It was murder.
Peter Leibovitch from the international war crimes tribunal set up after the Gulf War

The recent conflict has wrought near apocalyptic results; Iraq has been relegated to a pre-industrial age.
All electrically operated installations have ceased to funtion. Food can not be preserved, water can not be purified, sewage can not be pumped away. Nine thousand homes are destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The flow of food through the private sector has been reduced to a trickle; many food prices are already beyond the purchasing power of most Iraqi families. The mission recommends that sanctions in respect of food supplies should be immediately removed.

Martti Ahtisaari, UN Under Secretary for Administration and Management, March 20th 1991. Ahtisaari was the first UN official to visit post-war Iraq.

Vad kan man säga om valet i Irak? President Bush besvarade själv frågan när han sa: 'Vi kan inte gå med på att fria demokratiska val kan hållas i ett land som befinner sig under utländsk ockupation'. Jag var tvungen att läsa uttalandet två gånger innan jag insåg att han talade om Libanon och Syrien.
Harold PinterThe Independent 051014  / FiB-Kulturfront #11/2005

Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.
Henry Kissinger, on why the U.S. suddenly let the Iraqi regime crush the Kurdish rebellion in 1975Blum, William (2003), "Rogue State", Spearhead 2003, ISBN 1 84277 221 X pb, p. 146

This policy was not imparted to [the Kurds], who were encouraged to continue fighting. Even in the context of covert action, ours was a cynical enterprise.
The congressional Pike Committee, about the CIA prefering the Kurds in Iraq not to win, but still supported their struggle with military aid in order to keep the Iraqi forces busy Blum, William (2003), "Rogue State", Spearhead 2003, ISBN 1 84277 221 X pb, p. 145

Det är ju inte så lätt i krigsplanering att veta att en väldig massa människor skulle bli tokiga i Irak och börja bära sig extremt konstigt åt.
Staffan HeimerssonSR-Korrespondenterna, 070616

That was the most expensive 'no' vote you ever cast.
US Ambassador Pickering to Yemeni Ambassador Abdallah Saleh al-Ashtol, after Yemen voted against Resolution 678, 29th November 1990. The US $70 million aid package to Yemen was cancelled the following day. 900,000 Yemeni migrant workers were later

The agony and moral anguish that ought to accompany an act of mass killing - yes, even in a war - seemed wholly absent from American culture.
Ruth Rosen, history professor, about the Gulf war

Blubb, blubb, blubb.
General Chaim Ben Ami, f d chef för den israeliska säkerhetstjänstens förhörsavdelning, beskriver hur det lät när de dränkte två misstänkta palestinska terroristerAftonbladet 050102, http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,755354,00.html 050102

Neither the foreign head of state (the Shah) nor the President nor Dr. Kissinger desired a victory for our clients (the Kurds). They merely hoped to ensure a level of hostilities high enough to sap the resources of the neighbouring state (Iraq). Even in the context of covert action, ours was a cynical enterprise.
US Congressional Pike Report, describing President Nixon and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's policy of arming the Kurds, 1972

Just watch. Everything... everything.
George Bush Sr, in response to press enquiry if US enforcement of sanctions would include food and essentials, August 14th 1990

If they turn on the radars we're going to blow up their goddamn SAMs (surface-to-air missiles). They know we own their country. We own their airspace... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need.
U.S. Brig. General William Looney, referring to the 10,000 sorties by American/British war criminals in the first eight months of 1999Washington Post, August 30, 1999

[The bombing missions in the Gulf war were a] turkey shoot... it's almost like you flipped on the light in the kitchen at night and the cockroaches start scurrying, and we're killing them.
US Pilot Colonel Richard Whitequoted in The
Independent, 6th 
February 1991

Jag upplevde bombningarna av Kambodja, men det här var inte alls samma sak...
Varje natt kom det tre bombvågor. Efter tjugo minuters bombmattor blev det tyst och man kunde höra ljudet av skrikande barn och vuxna. [De överlevande] gick runt som zombier.

Paul Roberts, journalist, om bombningarna av Irak under GulfkrigetJohn Pilger: "Det vi inte fick veta", Ordfront förlag 2001, s 120

Israelerna börjar påminna om vita sydafrikanska rasister, eftersom de betraktar palestinier som en lägre stående livsform.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, säkerhetsrådgivare under president CarterArbetaren #17/2002

Irak utgör inte längre något hot mot sina grannar.
William Cohen, USA:s dåvarande försvarsminister, till George W Bush den 10 januari 2001Aftonbladet 020410

The claim that we lost is unfounded. Half of Lebanon is destroyed; is that a loss?
Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Osrael, after the attack on Lebanon in 2006http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/758660.html 060930

The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house.
Abu Ghraib detaineeBenjamin Dangl (2005): "Unembedded Reporting From Iraq: An Interview with Dahr Jamail",  http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/interviews/000313.php#more 051104

Så länge inga fångar dog, var det okej. Vi hörde rykten om att fångar var döda, så vi blev mer försiktiga. Vi nöjde oss med att bryta armar och ben.
Amerikansk sergeant från Camp Mercury i FallujahHuman Rights Watch (2005): "Leadership Failure", http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/ 050928, översatt i SvD 050928

Jag tror att vi alla skulle vara förtjusta om Irak kunde utveckla en demokrati som liknade Amerikas i början av 1900-talet. Jag menar, kvinnors rättigheter är inte avgörande för framväxten av demokrati.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, ClA:s tidigare Meiianöstern-expert, om den irakiska konstitutionenRe:Public Service #2/2005