[PEN-L:36080] Basra pumping station

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

BBC this morning, despite presumably having the best of contacts with the
British military authorities responsible for Basra, can shed no light on
what is wrong with the Basra pumping station and why half the city has no
safe drinking water. 

Not credible.

The Red Cross is sending urgent messages that it must be repaired. The
Brits have no answer as to why it cannot be repaired.

Except let us notice that to get it repaired would require negotiating,
even through intermediaries, with the Saddam regime. And that was the
essence of the reason why the hegemons went unilateralist - no further
negotiations!

So the technical details of what actually has gone wrong, how it is to be
investigated, and how it is to be repaired, potentially blow open all the
cracks in the hegemonic alliance. 

The aggressors will have to concede the existence of an authoritative
body at present in command of Basra, and will have to negotiate a
compromise with them in the name of humanity. 

At best they will have to settle down to a long siege in the hope
that the much delayed revolt of the southern Shia, will arise during the
course of long negotiations with the existing authorities. At best they
will shower the city with leaflets repeatedly, in what will get bogged
down as a political struggle. But they will not be able to identify any
foci of revolt against the Baathists for the population to rally around
for fear of retaliation. They would have to accelerate the development of
a complex civil society in a city under siege by foreign invaders. 

Meanwhile Wolfowitz now stutters that of course mass surrenders cannot be
expected until the regime is overthrown (when the entire unilateralist
strategy depended on instant revolts). So they will have to attack
Baghdad while Basra is besieged 

The Brits will want to "win hearts and minds" by distributing
aid coming in from the just-about secured Umm Qasr. But that will again
mean negotating with the enemy.

In the axis of virtue, Blair may find it convenient to back people like
Claire Short versus Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. 

Room for plenty of splits as the contradictions in the hegemonic bloc
open up chaotically. External causes become the conditions of change;
internal contradictions are the basis of change.

There is a pump in a station outside Basra, and despite the fact that
pumping water is 19th century technology, no one, apparently, knows how
to fix it. There is an empty silence.

Bless that pump.

Chris Burford
London