Alternative Perspective
 New Iraq: Snapshots of Life after a Year
Issue 49, April 9th, 2004
Compiled by Madhukar Shukla

 Alternative Perspective is an attempt to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media. Please feel free to share/ forward/ distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested.

History is apriori amoral, and does not judge - and mold - events by the yardstick of human ethics... Today marks the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, and the supposed liberation of Iraq... one may also call it the Anniversary of when The World - ...er, sorry, the "International Community" - Was Taken For A Ride[1]. Amidst all the mainstream news reports about progress being made, democracy arriving to Iraqi people, life becoming better, etc., there are many stories which do not find their way to people. This issue present some snapshots of life in the New Iraq.



Note: The URLs of sources used in the text are numbered and given at the end of the Newsletter.

In This Issue:
  • Living in Fear under a Rule with Total Impunity
    According to the "liberators", life in Iarq has improved, and it is only the "minority" - consisting of Baath Party loyalists, Shiaite Sadrist, people in Sunni Triangle, unruly "thugs and killers" hiding in mosques, terrorist elements in Baghdad, Tikrit, Mosul, Kut, Fallujah, Basra, Nasariya, etc., - who don't want to see the happiness of 25mn Iraqi civilians. One does not know what a common Iraqi feels about getting liberated, but according to the Amnesty International Report[2]: "Coalition Forces appear in many cases to be using the climate of violence to justify violating the very human rights standards they are supposed to be upholding... They have shot Iraqis dead during demonstrations. They have tortured and ill-treated prisoners and detainees."
    http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1873116.htm

  • The Two Troublemakers
    Story of two young Iraqis who "disappeared", were held without charges, denied access to legal advice or family...There is a certain deja vu about so many stories like these[3]... In a philosophical perspective, these also underscore an age-old truth: in a bond of hatred, and we all tend to become more like our enemies[4]... the same, by the way, is true for bond of love also.
    http://electroniciraq.net/news/1278.shtml

  • Rebuilding the Security Environment in Iraq: The Band of Brothers
    This was described by the Wall Street Journal as "the largest reconstruction effort since World War II." Naturally, the freed economy - along with widespread destruction of infrastructure - has thrown open big business opportunities for anyone who wants to make a killing[5] (pdf file). But there is another new kind of business which is thriving in Iraq - Time magazine, in its own form of newspeak, calls these "private security contractors". In normal language, one will call them "mercenaries"[6], who given the current security environment have become indispensible to live in Iraq. You can earn as much as $1000-1500 per day for your services!!!
    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040412-607775,00.html?#

  • Design of a Democracy without Free Press
    Freedom - or, in the case of Free Iraq, absence of institutional order (since all institutions were reduced to rubbles) - encourages new voices and viewpoints, some of which may not be very charitable to the liberators. To rectify such "misreporting" - almost like a replay of George Orwell's 1984[7] - and to bring free speech and democracy to Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority was left with no other alternative but to put a ban on free press[8]
    http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0327/nawa.php

  • Life in Iraq or how to make enemies
    Liberation of Iraq would be a good example of the Law of Unintended Consequences (which can occur due to complexity of a situation, or due to stupidity of one's actions)... in just one year, the jubiliations and hand-shakes have turned into conflicts and clashes (notwithstanding, George W Bush's gem on 7th April '04: ""These people hate freedom. And we love freedom. That's where the clash occurs."). This first hand report by Noami Klein is worth a read... one of the few narrations which describe the day-to-day realities of living in the New Iraq, and how the new Iraq is the potential breeding ground for more enemies...
    http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040419&s=klein


    Other Sources Quoted in the Newsletter:
    [1]: http://www.lunaville.org/WMD/billmon.aspx
    [2]: http://news.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGMDE1418032004
    [3]: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0328-04.htm
    [4]: http://www.forrelease.com/D20030810/nysu013a.P1.08102003112243.02057.html
    [5]: http://www.misleader.org/pdf/specialreport1_bandofbrothers.pdf
    [6]: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0414/mondo6.php
    [7]: http://www.globalaware.org/Artlicles_eng/1984.htm
    [8]: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/05/EDGLU4UE3R1.DTL


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