Wednesday, March 03, 2004

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C.A.N. STUDENT ACTIVIST, KHURY Talks at Harvard NOTES, MARCH 1, 2004

Notes taken by Nicole:

-traveled to Iraq first week of January

some history: Iraq has been under dictatorship for 30 years and at war
for 20 (starting with the Iraq/Iran war.. then 1991 Gulf War and the
US embargo that followed.. last spring the invasion and occupation)
-Gulf War, 200,000 Iraqis killed
-embargo, 1.5 million killed over the last 13 years
-also because of the embargo, basic construction materials couldn't be
traded, so many buildings/infrastructure are already in need of repair

* before the invasion some Iraqis had hope that the US would bring an
end to the war/suffering
*sense now is one of betrayal and anger "expected one thing and
experienced another" (still no work, no infrastructure, no
electricity..)

"everyone [in Iraq] is affected in big and small ways"
-detained, family members detained, possibly killed
-5-6 hour wait for gas in Baghdad (gas in currently being imported)

described first vision of US soldiers "behind big machine guns and
wearing ski masks.. they were terrifying"
some visions of bombed out buildings included "the ministry of
culture, a supermarket, an apartment building, a telephone exchange.."

occupation "takes a toll on the dignity of the people"

discussed what he called the "myth of clean invasion"
-basically the take over of Iraq was not done with surgical precision
as has been stated in certain media sources
-US used cluster bombs (big bombs that scatter more smaller bombs-
aimed at killing and maiming as many people as possible)
-mentioned stories from ppl he had met with including a random
civilian shooting and incidents of US soldiers ransacking houses

Health Care:
-visited one of the best hospitals in Iraq, found it was in need of
basic necessities (no lights, walls falling apart, filthy floors, lose
power and heat regularly)
-the hospital sits in a valley- there used to be 5 pumps in operation
to keep sewage out of the area. during the sanctions 3 of these
broke, and during the occupation the remaining 2 broke and raw sewage
flowed into the hospital. a doctor khury talked to described standing
in a pool of raw sewage while performing an operation
-there is also no sterile water to clean surgical instruments. used
tap water and river water.

Described the "contempt of the occupiers" with the following examples
-US currently using Saddam's old palaces, and conducting missions from
there
-in the Gulf War a bomb shelter was bombed through a ventilation
shaft, and 400 ppl were killed. since then this site has been turned
into a museum and is considered something of hallowed ground. during
the current occupation, the museum was ordered to close because it was
being kept open by a muslim organization. "having US soldiers
occupying this sacred space is disrespectful"
-US is also occupying a memorial of dead Iraqi soldiers from a
previous war (Gulf War? Iraq/Iran war? i'm not sure)

Khury also talked about US soldiers as being very frustrated since
many of them went over there with good intentions and expected to find
a different sort of reception from the Iraqis. Unfortunately he said,
many of them are taking out their frustrations on the Iraqi people. he
gave the example of soldiers pointing their guns at children.

"indignities of colonial occupation"

**talked with a psych professor at the university of baghdad, who said
"pretty soon we'll all be part of the resistance" **

Khury's perspective:
-end the occupation now, let Iraqis run their own country, get US
troops out now.
-the opinion that "Iraqis dont have a democratic culture" as defense
for keeping the occupying forces in Iraq is a racist comment, like the
white man's burden
-stresses the importance of organization "without organization all you
can do is comment on the history that is being made for or against
you" (he makes this comment referring both to the Iraqis' need for an
above-ground organized political opposition as well as a well
organized anti-occupation movement here in the US)
"We here in the US need to stand and say 'we don't support what the US
is doing. In fact, we stand against it.'"

Saturday, February 14, 2004

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Tariq Ali Talk Online

Tariq Ali gave a talk sponsored by HIPJ on February 12, 2004 here on the Harvard campus on the topic of the occupation of Iraq. For those who missed the talk, it is available here in .mp3 format. Please right click and download the talk if you are interested, rather than stream it.