[Marxism] Re: Europe's leaders threaten sanctions [against Iran for Holocaust remarks]

[Administrator Shannon <brian_shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I stand by my earlier comment: Iran's president is a fucking moron.
> He would have made a very powerful argument if he left the
> Holocaust denial out (or what some say was and was likely to be
> mistranslated as a Holocaust denial). Of course, they wouldn't be
> covered at all if he had done so.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones (but words will never hurt
me)." --An old idiom.

It is not just the schoolyard where this expression is criticized.
Unfortunately the words of Iran's president hurt the cause of freedom
in the middle east. They undermine the ability to mobilize
progressive forces in the heartland of the imperialist attackers.
While a primary task of socialists is to defend the nations of the
world against the direct and indirect intervention of imperialism,
there is an ancillary duty to point out how this can best be done and
also to dissociate itself from ignorant statements such as the
Holocaust denial statement of the president of Iran.

At this point in world history, it may appear unseemly to go over the
grounds again, but where revolutionists are in a position to do so,
the history of what Hitlerism and fascism meant and what happened to
the Jews should be restated to the greatest extent possible in the
Middle East. An indispensable element of this would be to trace the
manipulation of the Jewish Holocaust and of Zionism by the
imperialist powers.

EUROPE THREATENS SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN WHILE  IT SENDS
MORE TROOPS TO HELP THE U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN
While imperialist Europe threatens sanctions against Iran, which can
only hurt the Iranian people, and which will tend to increase a
defensive attitude in support of their president, it is also
increasing its cooperation with U.S. imperialism, by going to its aid
in Afghanistan. Just when the U.S. is under increasing pressure at
home to withdraw, Europe is bailing it out by replacing the U.S.
troops with its own.

This would seem to be an important focus for the European Left.
Holocaust denial by the President of Iran undermines this task. It is
here that the "Sticks and Stones" idiom may still be of use, at least
in a rhetorical sense. Despite Ahmadinejad's "words" about the past,
his main emphasis was on the responsibility of Europe for what
happened to the Jews and for the creation of Israel on the bones of
the Palestinian people.

While Ahmadinejad is using words, it is Europe that is sending modern
Sticks and Stones against the Afghanistan resistance and it is Europe
that is allowing the U.S. to draw its troops down there while it
continues to fight to establish a permanent militant and governmental
presence in Iraq.

Here is the AP article on what Condoleeza Rice achieved. European
leaders were "very satisfied" with her denial that the U.S. condoned
torture.

Brian Shannon
___________________________


NATO approves plan for Afghan expansion
December 8, 2005
By PAUL AMES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO foreign ministers approved plans Thursday
to send up to 6,000 troops into southern Afghanistan, a major
expansion of the alliance's peacekeeping mission into some of the
most dangerous parts of the country.

The deployment next year of mostly European and Canadian troops will
free up U.S. forces to focus on counterinsurgency operations against
Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan's volatile south and east.

"They will bring peace to more people in Afghanistan," said NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "They will help ensure that
terrorism cannot take hold again of this country and use it as a base
from which to threaten the world."

NATO's expansion should allow the United States to scale back its
about 18,000-strong military presence almost five years after it
invaded the country following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and
Washington. The Pentagon, however, has yet to say how many troops it
will withdraw.

The plans give the NATO peacekeepers a stronger self-defense mandate,
guarantee support from U.S. combat troops if they face a serious
attack and set out rules for handling detainees - all issues that
have concerned some European allies mulling participation in the
expanded force.

Ministers also agreed to a request from Afghan President Hamid Karzai
to develop increased support in developing his country's fledgling
security forces and the Defense Ministry.

"NATO wants to work on a long-term plan of security cooperation and
training and support for Afghanistan to help reform and strengthen
its defense institutions," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a
news conference.

De Hoop Scheffer appealed for the European Union, United Nations and
the G-8 group of economic powers to help by doing more to help
rebuild the country's economy. A conference is planned for late
January in London to relaunch development efforts.

"NATO cannot do it all by itself," he told reporters. "What
Afghanistan needs the commitment of the entire international community."

The military expansion will take NATO's peacekeeping mission to about
16,000 and make it responsible for security in about three-quarters
of the country. The separate U.S.-led combat force will keep the lead
role in the eastern sector where Taliban holdouts have been most active.

Violence has persisted in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks.
Hostile fire forced two U.S. military helicopters to make emergency
landings Sunday, and NATO-led forces have been targeted in the areas
where they already operate.

The extra NATO troops are scheduled to start moving into southern
Afghanistan around May. Britain will play a lead role in the region,
running a headquarters in the main southern city of Kandahar. NATO
units led by troops from Canada, the Netherlands, Britain and the
United States are expected to fan out into four southern provinces.
Germany will lead NATO forces in the north and Italy in the west.

Rice appeared to ease European concerns over the allegations that the
CIA mistreated terrorist suspects in secret prisons and flew
detainees around Europe on clandestine flights.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Rice assured
them the U.S. administration does not interpret international
humanitarian law differently from its allies. His Dutch counterpart
Ben Bot told reporters he was "very satisfied" with Rice's explanation.

Bot also said his government had reached an understanding with Afghan
authorities guaranteeing that any detainees handed over by Dutch
troops there would not face the death penalty or torture.

Rice said the NATO mission will give "special attention to problems
of counternarcotics." However, the military rules only say that NATO
forces will back up Afghan authorities and won't destroy opium poppy
fields or launch military action against heroin producers.

Drug production has boomed since the fall of the Taliban, stoking
fears that Afghanistan - source of nearly 90 percent of the world's
opium and its derivative heroin - is becoming a narco-state.




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