Laura Flanders and Anthony Arnove discussed realities about Iraq Saturday on RadioNation with Laura Flanders

Saturday on RadioNation with Laura Flanders, Flanders had a great deal to cover (and, no surprise, she did so -- and did so wonderfully). We're going to focus on one guest, Anthony Arnove, the author of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal. This was a wonderful discussion (between Flanders and Arnove and, later, between them and callers).

Flanders asked him to speak of the liberation talk being bandied about (that we're over there for 'liberation') and he noted that "The rhetoric's been used by many countries" to take control of an area and then went on to offer some examples (including the Phillipines -- which, he reminded listeners, Bully Boy had seen as a good model).

"What's interesting is that the argument that's been put foward," the we must stay to liberate talk, Arnove said, "has been put foward by people who call themsevles liberals."

This despite the fact that the occupation has fueld and continue to fuel the "secretarian conflict in Iraq."

The longer the occupation continues, the bigger the mess.

"It gets worse the longer the United States stays," he noted.

Also discussed was the bait and switch of "reasons" for the war. WMDs as the invasion began, 'liberation' and 'democracy' after it was underweigh. But we aren't supposed to notice that or to comment on it any more than we're supposed to comment on the oil that Iraq has.

Noting Howard Zinn, whom Flanders pointed out wrote the preface and afterword to Arnove's book, Arnove discussed how, in 1967, Zinn had published Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawl. Also addressed was how we need to get honest and look at what was going on because he didn't want to be back on Flanders' show ten years from now talking about the logic of withdrawing from Iran, Venezuela . . .

We have used military agression to maintain our economic control and until we can face that, we'll be in that "long war" (over and over) that Bully Boy keeps insisting we're in.


With Memorial Day on Monday, Arnove noted that "the United States is not honoring those who sacrificed as George Bush claimed" but instead just piling up more casulities and fatalities.

"They've had to come up with a new series of lies to keep us in Iraq," Arnove noted.

The only way to combat that is to stay informed and to stay active. Forget Arnove being on with Laura Flanders in ten years to talk about another war -- when he said that Howard Zinn published Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawl in 1967 and began with the preface of not wanting to be on the show in ten years . . . We thought he was going to finish the sentence with, "Still talking about why we need to withdraw from Iraq."

We didn't leave Vietnam in 1967, or 1968, or 1969, or 1970, or 1971 or . . .

It's really past time to be active and aware and, as Ava and C.I. note in their TV commentary that will go up in a bit, posting at a web site about a book with a controversial title being carried into an Abu Ghraib trial by a witness doesn't really cut it for your coverage of the week on Iraq.
(But yes, a site did just that. That was their coverage of Iraq for the week. A few sentences about a book whose title, Ava and C.I. note, rhymes with "runt." If you're confused, the word starts with a "C.")

It's past time to get serious and it's a real shame that so many have so little to say. Laura Flanders always has something to say.

Broadcasting over local airwaves on Air America Radio, over XM satellite radio and online,
RadioNation with Laura Flanders can be heard from seven to ten p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Saturday and Sunday nights. Here's what's scheduled for tonight:

SUNDAY:
MASSIE RITSCH, of Washington's Center for Responsive Politics, on Ken Lay's days as W's biggest donor.
A Media Roundtable with GARANCE FRANKE-RUTA, Senior Editor with The American Prospect and DOUG HENWOOD, Nation Contributor and Editor of the Left Business Observer.
Then the return of our independent bookstore hour with JOAN GRANIER from Odyssey Books in South Hadley, MA. And PEGGY HALEY of Book People in Austin, TX.