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From death row, Mumia speaks out on war in the Middle East.
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Mumia Abu-Jamal
on War and Peace
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
SeeingBlack.com Contributing Writer
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Following are four essays written by journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal
from death row in Pennsylvania. Though imprisoned, Abu-Jamal has
been one of the most prolific Black voices about war, peace, violence
and protest. SeeingBlack.com is privileged to be able to bring
you these of his recent writings.
The Inevitability of War
(9/28/02)
It is impossible for us to read a newspaper, watch a newscast,
or listen to radio without receiving the undeniable message that
war with Iraq is inevitable.
Why is this so?
Why, in a nation that claims to be a democracy, is it inevitable,
almost unquestionable, beyond the realm of questioning, that war
against a sovereign nation is virtually, a done deal?
Where are the voices of dissent? …of divergent opinion?
If this be a democracy, it is a democracy of fear; fear stimulated
and exploited by political leaders in Washington, D.C., and underwritten
by the shameless cheerleading of the corporate media.
Iraq, we are told, is a rogue government, and its leader, Saddam
Hussein, is a new-age Hitler. It seems like every time the government
wants to demonize someone, they call him a "Hitler." It always works,
doesn't it? It doesn't matter that the U.S. government was quite
friendly to Hussein and the Ba'ath regime when they were at war
with their neighbor, Iran.
Let's think a little about the real Hitler, and the Nazi
regime during war time.
During World War II, when millions of Americans, British and the
French lived in dread of the Nazi's, do you know that a number of
American firms traded with the enemy? Companies like the Chase Bank,
Ford, International Telephone, and Standard Oil?
The Hitler tank divisions were built by Adam-Opel and Ford of Cologne,
wholly owned subsidiaries of General Motors and the Ford Motor Company.
Speaking of Ford, did you know that Hitler awarded the Nazi's highest
civilian honor, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, to American
automaker, Henry Ford?
Charles Higham in his 1984 book, Trading With the Enemy
(Dell) writes:
Suppose the public had discovered that the Chase Bank in Nazi-occupied
Paris after Pearl Harbor was doing millions of dollars' worth
of business with the enemy with the full knowledge of the head
office in Manhattan…? Or that Ford trucks were being built
for the German occupation troops in France with the authorization
from Dearborn, Michigan? …Or that ITT built the Focke-Wulfs
that dropped bombs on British and American troops? Or that crucial
ball bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated customers in Latin
America with the collusion of the Vice-Chairman of the U.S. War
Production Board in partnership with Goering's cousin in Philadelphia
when American forces were desperately short of them?
Let's be clear—many American corporations got rich when Hitler's
war machine was raging. They didn't care about Hitler then, nor
about so-called "Hitlers" now. It's about oil, the money it brings,
and the power it unleashes.
Don't let war be inevitable; fight the corporate lies.
A Knowing Voice on Iraq
(9/28/02)
In this day and time, when it seems like the U.S. media is a virtual
echo chamber urging Americans into war (once again) it may be quite
difficult to find someone willing to provide an opposing yet informed
view on the looming threat of war.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is that someone. New York-based
publisher Context Books is putting out a timely instant book featuring
an indepth interview with the conservative ex-Marine that explodes
many of the popular and misleading myths supporting the war. The
book is entitled, War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You
to Know, by William Rivers Pitt, with Scott Ritter.
For many Americans, the book features a short, but informative
history of Modern Iraq. Check this out: Does the U.S. really want
"democracy" in Iraq? Most folks will say, "yeah, sure." But do they
know that the vast majority of Iraqis, some 60%, are followers of
Shi'a Islamic faith, like Iran? What about weapons of mass destruction
(WPM) of a chemical, biological or nuclear nature?
Let me quote from William Pitt's "War on Iraq" on that:
The case for war against Iraq has not been made. This is a fact.
It is doubtful in the extreme that Saddam Hussein has retained
any functional aspect of the chemical, nuclear, and biological
weapons programs so thoroughly dismantled by the United Nations
weapons inspectors who worked tirelessly in Iraq for seven years.
This is also a fact. The idea that Hussein has connections to
fundamentalist Islamic terrorists is laughable—he is a secular
leader who has worked for years to crush fundamentalist Islam
within Iraq, and if he were to give weapons of any kind to Al
Qaeda, they would use those weapons on him first. [p. 10]
Think about this the next time you hear media reports about Iraq
working with Al Qaeda. They know that the ruling clique in Iraq
is rooted in the socialist Ba'ath party, and they hate him and his
cronies almost as much as they hate the Americans. Further, as the
administration strains to justify their Iraq adventure, with a cowed
Congress and a complicit media, it will be harder and harder for
such voices as these to be heard, or found. Pray that the prediction
in the Pitt/Ritter book doesn't come true:
An attack on Iraq could bring about a wider world war America
cannot afford, and that a vast majority of Americans do not desire.
[p. 10]
At less than 100 pages "War on Iraq" is an easy read. Before Armageddon
is unleashed, it's hoped that many Americans study this issue soon.
Imperial Promises
(10/3/02)
It is well for those who know to be leery of promises made by an
Empire. For they will fulfill those they feel necessary to fulfill,
and simply ignore those they feel are worthy of ignorance.
That is the very nature of empires.
At the end of the Vietnam War, a war-weary U.S. government, ready
to leave Indochina for the shores of the United States, pledged
to help reconstruct the war-ravished Vietnam, and in fact, agreed
to pay reparations.
Over 30 years later, and not a dime, not a U.S.nickel has been
paid to the People's Republic of Vietnam. Nor did the U.S. ever
have any real intention of fulfilling the terms of the peace agreement
signed at the negotiating table in Paris. An estimated 3 million
Vietnamese people killed in the war, the rice fields and rivers
poisoned by the herbicide, Agent Orange (which continues to poison
an untold number of Vietnamese, generations later!), CIA assassinations
of NLF, civilians and party leaders, torture, and thousands of American-fathered
Vietnamese babies born in scorn, and the USA left in an imperial
huff, and never looked back.
The lessons from history are indeed instructive, as we look at
the looming specter of war on the horizons in Iraq. Predictably,
there are promises from Bush Administration spokesmen that they
will introduce "democracy" into Iraq, an echo of their promises
in Vietnam. What motivates them, in truth, isn't 'democracy' (if
you doubt this, you need only ask the citizens of Florida, who haven't
seen any semblances of 'democracy' in the last few years), but the
lure of 'black gold', 'Texas tea', or, as they used to say in the
intro to that TV comedy, "The Beverly Hillbillies", "…Oil,
that is."
Again, a lesson from history, about what the Americans really care
about, from a previous U.S.-Iraqi conflict, about 30 years ago:
General [Ahmed Hassan] Bakr nationalized Iraqi oil in 1972. President
Richard Nixon immediately began to plot the reversal of his declaration,
as America had done when Iran nationalized its oil in 1951. Nixon,
along with the Shah, orchestrated the arming of the Iraqi Kurds
against Bakr. Iraq was placed on America's list of nations that
sponsored terrorism. This course of action was abruptly halted in
1975, when then Vice President [Saddam] Hussein and the Shah reached
an agreement that ceded control of the strategically vital Shatt-al-Arab
waterway in the Persian Gulf to Iran. In retrospect, it seems all
too clear that Iraq's control of this waterway was the primary concern
behind America's agitation against Iraq. Once the American-controlled
Shah owned this passage to the Gulf, all American support to the
Kurds ceased entirely. In commentary on this, Henry Kissinger stated,
"Covert operations should not be confused with missionary work."
Under Nixon, the arming of Iran by the United States was dramatically
stepped up. [Pitt, William Rivers & Scott Ritter, War on Iraq:
What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know (New York: Context Books,
2002, p. 18)]
Human Rights? War on Terrorism? Fight for Democracy? Like a 3
Card Monte game at 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, the real play
keeps moving, right before your eyes. But it's never what you think
it is.
Recently, the Bush Administration's mouthpiece publicly advocated
the assassination of a foreign leader. Bush flack Ari Fleisher,
asked about the costs of a war with Iraq, answered that the cheapest
price could be one bullet. When pressed, he said that the government
wasn't advocating assassination, but noted that if someone in Iraq
wanted to make the price of the war cheap, "one bullet" (for Saddam,
of course) would be cheapest.
Imperial Promises.
War without End.
For profit and for Privilege. Forever.
Amen.
No War for Oil 3
(10/5/02)
On the Move, Long Live John Africa. I thank you for gathering in
Washington and in San Francisco, against the gathering forces of
war. The one thing I would like to stress is this: War is not inevitable.
The media echo chambers of corporate greed may wish you to think
that, but that is just to sap your will and deaden your purpose.
If you, the real people of this nation, it's students, its workers,
its housewives and its children, really believe that war is inevitable,
then you wouldn't be here today. Also you would be admitting that
you really don't believe in democracy, for if the people don't want
war, then who are all the politicians really representing? If they
don't represent the will and the wishes of the people, then who
do they represent?
If you organize, if you build forces among the people, the politicians
won't be able to ignore you. They won't be able to act as if you
don't exist. So build those forces against a bloody war for oil.
You know, we have been here before. Way back in 1972 Iraqi general
Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr Nationalized Iraq's oil. Nixon approved the
arming of the Kurds in Northern Iraq and promptly placed Iraq on
America's list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Three years later
Iraq's vice president, a man named Saddam Hussein, made a deal with
the Shah of Iran for control over the Shatt al Arab waterway in
the gulf. Once the U.S. puppet, the Shah, has his way opened to
the Persian Gulf, America ceased all support to the Kurds. They
were once again on their own. America cared about one thing, oil.
The same thing they care about now. This war has nothing to do with
democracy, nothing to do with human rights, nothing to do with the
oppression of the Kurds, and everything to do with oil.
So say No to Exxon, to British Petroleum, to Harkin Oil, to Blood
for Oil and to war for Oil.
Thank you all.
Ona Move, Long live John Africa. Free the Move 9.
This is Mumia Abu-Jamal
All Columns ©Copyright 2002 Mumia Abu-Jamal.
http://www.mumia.org
and http://www.movenet.org
To download Mp3's of Mumia's commentaries visit www.prisonradio.org
or www.fsrn.org.
The Power of Truth is Final — Free Mumia in 2002!
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709 Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812
Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - icffmaj@aol.com AND
OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Marpessa Kupendua, nattyreb@comcast.net
on 10/26/2002
-- November 16, 2002
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2001-05 Seeing Black, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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