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Prometheus unhinged: Iraq, the ethics of military intervention and the politics of the new century.

Article Excerpt
Prior to the invasion of Iraq, noted humanitarian Rupert Murdoch suggested that one fantastic result of the war would be oil at $20 a barrel. Quite aside from being about as bare-knuckled an expression possible of the deep immorality of the war--an absence of hypocrisy usually held to be 'refreshing' by those not in its cross-hairs--it is also as prime an example of the cackhandedness of those who counted on a 'nice little war'. Oil is currently standing at $46 a barrel and it isn't coming down anytime soon. The continued occupation has called out insurgents of a wide variety of motives from both the Iraqis themselves and from surrounding countries. The US-sponsored Government has, in the past weeks, reintroduced the death penalty for 'crimes threatening national security'; banned Al-Jazeera; issued arrest warrants for former US-favoured leader Ahmed Chalibai (on real or spurious charges--who knows?); attacked--with unknown civilian casualties--its own cities and people; and is possibly using torture. The US is devoid of an exit strategy, its low personnel, hi-tech army is overstretched by the commitment, and Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib has not only taken the US to its lowest level of trust in the Islamic world, but has put permanent distance between itself and its allies. Inquiries in the UK and Australia have established that politicised and compliant intelligence services fed the Bush, Blair and Howard Governments what they wanted to hear. This...

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