[Marxism] Fwd from United for Peace of Pierce County

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cogent remarks by Mark Jensen, Pacific Lutheran University French Department
chairman, leader of United for Peace of Pierce County:

-----Original Message-----
From: jensenmk [mailto:jensenmk@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 10:31 AM
To: jensenmk
Subject: [snow-news] NYT, CNN: In 2006, GOP to exploit Dem. divisions by
'unambiguously embracing' Iraq war


NEWS: In 2006, GOP to exploit Democratic divisions by 'unambiguously
embracing' Iraq war (NYT)

[On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted 87-13 "against setting a firm deadline
for
withdrawing American troops from Iraq," the *New York Times*
eported.[1]  --
CNN reported the vote as 86-13, and added that "Minutes later, the Senate
rejected the proposal more popular with Democrats, a nonbinding
resolution --
which was offered by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, and Jack Reed, D-Rhode
Island -- that would call for the administration to begin withdrawing
troops,
but with no timetable for the war's end.  That was a closer vote, 60-39."[2]
--  As these votes illustrate, the Democratic party has failed to reach
consensus on the Iraq war, a failure Republicans hope to exploit in the 2006
elections.  --  In a front-page piece on Thursday, the *New York Times*
reported that Republicans will adopt a political analysis contained in "a
74-page briefing book to Congressional offices from the Pentagon to provide
ammunition for what White House officials say will be a central line of
attack
against Democrats from now through the midterm elections:  that the
withdrawal
being advocated by Democrats would mean thousands of troops would have died
for nothing, would give extremists a launching pad from which to build an
Islamo-fascist empire and would hand the United States its must humiliating
defeat since Vietnam."[3]  --  The briefing book implements a politics of
fear
by nonsensically merging the Salafism of al-Qaeda with other currents of
radical Islam to form an imaginary monolithic "Islamo-fascist" threat, just
as
rhetorical strategies of the Cold War systematically potrayed movements for
national liberation and against social justice as part of a monolithic world
Communist movement.  --  NOTE:  The term "Islamo-fascist" is a relatively
new
addition to the rhetorical panoply of the U.S. national security state.  --
The history of its use in the *New York Times* is notable.  --
"Islamo-fascist" first appeared in the *Times* only fifteen months ago, in
an
article quoting Geert Wilders, a "rising right-wing politician" in the Dutch
parliament.  --  Wilders's position is that "Islamic dogmas and democracy
are
incompatible," and he advocates a five-year suspension of "third-world
immigration," the closing of radical mosques in the Netherlands, and the
preventive arrest of terrorist suspects or, as he calls them,
"Islamo-fascist
thugs" (*New York Times*, Mar, 4, 2005).  --  The term "Islamo-fascist" next
appears a year later, toward the end of a long piece in the *New York Times
Magazine* about the Sudan conflict, in a quotation from Roger Winter,
special
representative for the Sudan conflict at the U.S. State Department:  "If you
want to liquidate an Islamo-fascist regime that committed genocide, the way
to
do it that is accepted by the international community is through the
[Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the North-South war] and
prosecutions by the I.C.C." (Elizabeth Rubin, "If Not Peace, Then Justice,"
*New York Times Magazine*, Apr. 2, 2006).  --  Today's use of
"Islamo-fascist"
is the third appearance of the term in the columns of the *New York Times*.
--  The migration of the term "Islamo-fascist" from a racist far-right Dutch
party to the Dept. of State to the Pentagon to the Republican leadership in
Washington, D.C., is instructive.  --Mark]

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/4697/

1.

U.S.

Washington

SENATE VOTES AGAINST IRAQ DEADLINE WITHDRAWAL
By David Stout

New York Times
June 22, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/washington/22cnd-cong.html

2.

Politics

SENATE REJECTS CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

CNN
June 22, 2006

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/22/iraq.senate.ap/index.html

3.

U.S.

Washington

G.O.P. DECIDES TO EMBRACE WAR AS ISSUE
By Jim Rutenberg and Adam Nagourney

New York Times
June 22, 2006
Page A1

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/washington/22capital.html



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