[OPE-L] The "clash of civilisations" and US foreign policy

From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Sun Oct 22 2006 - 14:59:05 EDT


IRAQ:
Resistance Growing Up at School
Ali Al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail

KHALDIYA, Oct 12 (IPS) - The bomb went off just outside the school as the
IPS correspondent stood speaking to children and teachers within. The
headmaster smiled. "You will hear many of these every day if you stay here
another day or two," he said. "The resistance will not stop until the last
American leaves." The children too took no notice of the blast, which shook
the doors and windows of the half-destroyed school in this town near
Fallujah, 70km west of Baghdad.

The children are growing up in occupied Iraq - and they are resisting it.
"Americans are bad," said 11-year-old Mustafa. "They killed my family." The
family were killed in Operation Phantom Fury of November 2004 as they tried
to flee the city, teachers said. That operation killed thousands and
destroyed much of Fallujah and towns around it. "God will send all Americans
to hellfire," cried another child in the classroom. Attempts to suggest that
not everyone they thought American was bad proved fruitless.

"How can we teach them forgiveness when they see Americans killing their
family members every day," the teacher in the classroom who gave her name as
Shyamaa told IPS. "Words cannot cover the stream of blood and these signs of
destruction, and words cannot hide the daily raids they see." For the
headmaster, the idea of a clash of civilisations is not just an idea. "The
gap between civilisations is widening thanks to the U.S. administration's
crimes against humanity all over the world," he said. "They seem determined
to tear the world apart, and their footprints cannot be removed for the
coming generations." (...)
 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35079
On the collapsing education system in Iraq:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1887804,00.html

Public Wants "New Approach" on Foreign Policy
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (IPS) - More than 70 percent of the U.S. public,
including nearly half of self-identified Republicans, say they prefer
candidates for Congress in the Nov. 7 mid-term elections who will pursue a
"new approach" to U.S. foreign policy, according to a new survey released
here Friday by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
The survey, which echoes many of the key findings of two other recent major
polls of U.S. foreign policy attitudes, found that voters are increasingly
disillusioned with critical aspects of policy preferences of the
administration of President George W. Bush, particularly his reliance on
military power, penchant for unilateral action, and disdain for
international opinion. "Voters are calling for a sea change in U.S. foreign
policy," said PIPA's director, Steven Kull, who noted that, unlike most
mid-term elections, foreign policy has taken centre stage in this year's
Congressional races. "They want less emphasis on military force, and more on
soft power." (...) http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35175
PIPA
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/262.php?nid=&id=&pnt=262&lb=hmpg1


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