http://lnk.nu/telegraph.co.uk/6o3.jhtml

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US Army admits Iraqis outnumber foreign fighters as its main enemy

By Toby Harnden in Ramadi
(Filed: 04/12/2005)

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Iraqis, rather than foreign fighters, now form the vast majority of the insurgents who are waging a ferocious guerrilla war against United States forces in Sunni western Iraq, American commanders have revealed.

Their conclusion, disclosed to the Sunday Telegraph in interviews over 10 days in battle-torn Anbar province, contradicts the White House message that outsiders are the principal enemy in Iraq.


On patrol: An American marine
searches an Iraqi

Of 1,300 suspected insurgents arrested over the past five months in and around Ramadi, none has been a foreigner. Col John Gronski, senior officer in the town, Anbar's provincial capital, said that almost all insurgent fighting there was by Iraqis. Foreigners provided only money and logistical support.

"The foreign fighters are staying north of the [Euphrates] river, training and advising, like the Soviets were doing in Vietnam," he said.

Although there are tensions between Iraqi insurgents and foreigners from the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Jordanian zealot Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, there are also alliances of convenience.

Col Gronski identified Mohammed Bassim Hazim, a former Ramadi taxi driver known as Abu Khattab, as the leader of the town's insurgency. Abu Khattab has become an "affiliate" of Zarqawi's group, many of whose members are Iraqis, and has been responsible for most of the 1,770 attacks against US and Iraqi forces in the past three months.

Ramadi, unlike neighbouring Fallujah, where 10 marines were killed by a bomb on Friday, has never been taken over by rebels. But it remains disputed turf at best. Thirty-four troops have died there since the beginning of September. Insurgent casualties have been much heavier - more than 180 in the same period in the town's eastern half alone.

American troop strengths have doubled in the past year with a US Army armoured battalion now supplementing a US Marine light infantry battalion.

Lt Col Michael Herbert, a brigade intelligence officer, said Abu Khattab has become an almost mythical figure. "He is the face of the insurgency in Ramadi. He has been behind the majority of the attacks." He was arrested by US forces last year but released, apparently due to lack of evidence and because his significance was not then appreciated. His photograph shows him wearing a Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuit.

The insurgents have the support of most locals. "They have the ability to move freely around the city," said Capt Twain Hickman, the commander of India Company of the 3/7 US Marines battalion. "That means they can attack at a time of their choosing."
 

Most wanted: An American sniper's
picture of Abu Khattab

Col Gronski said the local nature of the insurgency meant that even the few civic leaders prepared to work with the Americans view the fighters as legitimate. "They see them as resistance. They don't view these local guys placing IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and firing mortars at us as insurgents."

Some Iraqis in Ramadi now adhere to Zarqawi's radical Islamist philosophy, but for most the insurgency is about removing the occupiers, Col Herbert said. "Their family and tribal honour has been impugned if we're on their ground. They're almost duty bound to fight."

Unemployment, which is over 50 per cent, and widespread intimidation are also fuelling the insurgency. "It's economic," said Lt Col Robert Roggeman, who commands the 2/69 US Army battalion. "Two hundred bucks to shoot at an American, 50 bucks to lay down an IED."

Iraqi officials who deal with the Americans are routinely killed. Ma'amoun Salmi Rasheed, the governor of Anbar, has survived a dozen assassination attempts. His predecessor and deputy were murdered. Little reconstruction is being done, said Col Roggeman. "Here, it's security first."

The Pentagon plan for the country is to hand over "battle space" to Iraqi forces once they are capable of combating the insurgency so that American forces can withdraw. But this scheme has been beset by problems in Ramadi.

A year ago the local police force was disbanded because many of its members were insurgents. In October, the provincial police chief was arrested on suspicion of diverting salaries to fund the insurgency.

There are three Iraqi army battalions in the town, comprised mainly of Shia troops from outside Ramadi, where the population is Sunni. If American troops exit prematurely, this could be a factor in sparking a civil war.

Splits among insurgents, however, could assist the US aim to isolate Zarqawi's group. Recent weeks have seen what the military terms "red on red" gun battles between insurgent groups.

Bombs near houses and one that killed civilians on a bus prompted the clashes and could have eroded Abu Khattab's support. "He is feared rather than popular," said Col Herbert. "He might be overstepping the mark."

But the commander of one of the Iraqi battalions, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said it would be "at least two or three years" before his men were ready to fight alone.

"The terrorists control Ramadi and the mosques assist them," he said. "We are getting better but the Iraqi army is still weak and we need equipment. We always rely on the Americans to do the hardest jobs for us."

Each week, US forces achieve successes. In the recent Operation Machete, Capt Hickman's men uncovered an Aladdin's cave of arms buried in caches close to the banks of the Euphrates.

There had been intelligence that the munitions were being transported across the river on small boats. But since Iraq still has huge stockpiles of weapons from the Saddam era, insurgents are unlikely to run out of supplies.

"These insurgents have a great deal of tactical and operational patience," said Col Gronski. "They will continue to look for the time and the place because time is on their side."

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"Nothing can persuade the peoples of the earth that any governing power has any right or need to inflict the consequences of war on its own or any other people save in the cause of self-evident home defense." - President Franklin Roosevelt, in a 1939 letter to Adolph Hitler

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau12032005.html

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Weekend Edition
December 3/4, 2005

"I Have a Quota of Kids to Recruit, So What the Hell?

Latino Troops Have Parents

By SAUL LANDAU

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In the faculty dining room at the California State University where I teach, a Mexican-American woman places thin slices of turkey on bread. Stress lines radiate down from her high cheekbones. One of her sons left last week for Iraq. "I pray every day," she says, smearing mayonnaise on bread.

"Why did he join the military?"

She smiles, resigned to her lack of control over an adolescent growing up in a combat culture. "He's a good boy. I ask God to return him to me," she says. "What can I do? I'm desperate."

Desperation describes the mood of hundreds of thousands of Latino parents whose kids serve in war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. It also describes the actual situation of those once confident imperial managers who have gotten 200,000 young men and women stuck in two quagmires without an exit strategy.

Bush's wars and the subsequent occupation of Iraq have clearly divided the nation and fomented anti-Americanism throughout the world. They have also strained the resources of the mighty Pentagon. The 2005-6 "Defense Budget" of $640+ billion--counting the Intelligence budget--comes to almost twice what the rest of the world spends on "defense."

Until the 21st Century Middle East wars, the military casually filled its recruiting quota from amongst poor youth around the country. National Guard service appeared attractive since the chances of having to engage in an actual war seemed remote. But after Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and discovered that he had insufficient troops to occupy both places, he called up more than 100,000 National Guard troops and launched an aggressive recruiting campaign. But the growing dead and wounded count filtered through the Administration's optimistic spin. Even the usually gullible teenagers began to think twice about "joining up."

Over the last decades, the Pentagon has raised salaries and increased benefits top attract a non-draft army. In less than twenty years, salaries have leaped up to four times. In 1981, a low-ranking private earned less than $4,500 a year. Today, that same rank comes with a salary of almost $15,000. A corporal, two short grades up, leaped from $5,000 to $22,000. In addition, he or she gets free food, housing and clothing--uniform--and discounts on most consumer goods.

Officers without post graduate degrees can earn up to $125,000 and enjoy privileges like ski resorts in the Alps. For the first time in its history, the United States had a large, standing professional army.

Yet, in 2003, despite increases in salaries and bonuses--and other promises of free training and education -- offered by the armed forces, the recruiters fell short of their quotas. The slogan "be all you can be in the army" did not convince those who knew of or heard of stories involving friends and family members getting killed or permanently disabled. The body count and wounded numbers rose in the war zones. By late November, more than 2,100 servicemen and women had died; estimates of more than 20,000 wounded. The Pentagon has not released a count on how many of the wounded have died of their injuries.

"As dimwitted as American teenagers are," a Mexican-American army recruiter confessed to me in June in Pomona California, "they're not stupid enough to fall for the crap we're selling to get them to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Don't quote me."

I'm quoting him, but omitting his name and rank. His parents came from Sinaloa and settled in San Bernadino, where he grew up and decided to make an army career after he dropped out of high school. "It pays OK and I don't work too hard. I'd rather be here than in Iraq or Afghanistan. I'll tell you that."

His partner, a young woman with sergeant stripes on her sleeve whispers to him in Spanish. "Estas loco? No digas mas. No te chingas cabron." He laughs.

Next to his recruiting table outside the university student center, some undergraduates had set up a "de-cruiting" table, offering prospective recruits "the facts about the US military," including the numbers of dead and wounded that the two wars had already exacted. In addition, the anti-military students "clarified" some of the army's promises about loans and other benefits, were far less than the military had promised. They had statements from some returning wounded veterans to the effect that the army had docked their pay and cut their benefits.

The sergeant made no attempt to counter the students at the adjoining table. He handed out pamphlets, shook hands and laughed. "It's my job. I have a quota of kids to recruit, so what the Hell."

Hell, indeed. That word has spread even to those black and Latino communities that have traditionally supplied more than their share of youth for the US military's frequent overseas and violent excursions.

For "illegal" Mexicans or those who want a quick route to citizenship, the military holds a strong attraction. Since Mexico provides the closest and most logical recruiting arena, Mexican "illegals" numerically outstrip all other Latin Americans living in the United States and in Iraq itself. Some 8000 Mexicans have now volunteered for official military service (John Ross, Counterpunch February 21, 2005).

Mexicans and those of Mexican descent make up more than half of the approximately 110,000 Latinos mostly, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Central Americans currently serving in the U.S. military. In addition, almost 25,000 other Mexicans have enlisted as a means of obtaining US citizenship. Coyotes smuggled some of these Mexicans into the country as children who never had any "legal" documents.

The recruiters target high schools with heavy population of Mexican descent. The Marines have had particular success in their forceful publicity campaign. They claim that youth of Mexican origin make up 13% of the Corps. But that high percentage of Latinos also shows up in the high dead and wounded count.

Even before the bloody November 2004 battle of Fallujah which exacted a heavy toll, Mexican families began to feel the pain of war. The dead, the legless, armless, eyeless and brain dead wounded began to come home. On both sides of the Rio Grande, Mexican parents shared a common anguish. 122 Latinos were among the first 1000 U.S. casualties in Iraq. 70 of them were of Mexican descent.

On December 24, 2004, the day before Christmas, Sergio Diaz Varela died in Ramadi. His family and friends attended his funeral in Guadalajara, where "armed troops from Fort Hood, Texas led by General Ken Keene accompanied the young soldier to his final resting place, and U.S. ambassador Tony Garza commended the boy's soul to God" (John Ross, Counterpunch, Feb 21, 2005).

Similar funerals took place in San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato and in the Altos de Jalisco. On the invasion day, the first GI killed was Mexican American. Fernando Suarez del Solar, father of Jesus, a resident of Escondido, California, spoke in Spanish. The 48 year old man, slight of build, said he had immigrated from Tijuana 1997. He now worked as cashier at a convenience stores and delivered newspapers.

He began hesitatingly. "El dia de hoy estoy aqui demandando el retorno inmediato de nuestras tropas," he told a student audience at the California State Polytechnic University in California. "Yo perdi a mi hijo, a mi Guerrero Azteca, Jesus Alberto, por negligencia del comando Americano en Irak en esta guerra ilegal llena de mentiras del presidente Bush."

As he spoke he seemed to gain confidence and strength. "Ustedes saben que mi hijo muere por pisar una granada "AMIGA," una granada puesta la noche anterior por el Army y nunca avisaron a la unidad de mi hijo y les dieron la orden de avansar y como mi hijo era el explorador piso una de ellas y duro casi tres horas para recibir atencion medica, para que un helicoptero llegara con auxilio. Esto es una muestra de nuestro ejercito invensible? Es una muestra de la proteccion que les dan a nuestros muchachos?" A tear of grief or rage or both fell onto his cheek.

He got no answers from the Pentagon. So, he traveled to Iraq to find the truth about his son's death. He joined Military Families Speak Out. With other relatives of dead and wounded servicemen and women, he speaks and organizes against the war.

Fernando Suarez does more than ask God for help. "Señor Bush," he shouted to a California student group in the Fall of 2004. "Cuantos hijos de nosotros nesecita para llenar su tanque de gasolina? Cuantos hijos americanos muertos nesecita para parar esta guerra llena de mentiras? Yo no quiero mas muertes de nuestros hijos de sus padres, esposos. paremos esto YA!!! Señor Bush, espero que dios le perdone, porque yo no puedo."

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Saul Landau is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/771/op2.htm

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The truth you don't hear

The on-the-ground reality of Israel's moral bankruptcy in its genocidal policies towards the Palestinians remains as clear as ever, writes Mustafa Barghouti*

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What is the current situation on the ground in Palestine? The Israeli narrative that continues to dominate the international media presents an image that is absolutely at odds with reality. The Gaza redeployment was spun as the beginning of a peace process; a great retreat by General Ariel Sharon, who was portrayed as a man of peace. Yet the fact remains that Palestine is 27,000 square kilometres, of which the West Bank constitutes only 5,860 square kilometres, and the Gaza Strip, just 360 sq km. This is equal to only 1.3 per cent of the total land of historic Palestine. So even if Sharon really had withdrawn from Gaza, this would amount to just 5.8 per cent of the occupied territories.

But the Israelis did not get out of Gaza. A big fuss was created about the great sacrifice Israel was making and how painful it was for settlers to leave. If you steal a piece of land and keep it for 20 years, of course it becomes painful to leave it but it is still something stolen that should be returned to its owners. Prior to the disengagement, a total of 152 settlements existed in the occupied territories: 101 in the West Bank, 30 in East Jerusalem, and 21 in the Gaza Strip. These figures do not include the settlements that Sharon and the Israeli army have created in the West Bank without officially recognising them. With the disengagement, and the evacuation of settlements in Gaza and four small settlements in the Jenin area of the West Bank, 127 settlements have been left in place.

The total population of settlers -- illegal under international law, and under the 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which states that the separation wall and every settlement in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem must be removed -- numbers some 436,000: 190,000 in Jerusalem, and 246,000 in the West Bank. Just 8,475, or two per cent of the total number of illegal settlers in the occupied territories were removed from the Gaza Strip and Jenin area. Yet in the same period, the settlement population in the West Bank has grown by a massive 15,800.

So why remove settlers from Gaza if the disengagement was simply an exercise in relocation? Firstly, Israel never really wanted to keep them there. They were a bargaining chip to use when the time came to talk about the future of the occupied territories. But providing security for this relatively small number of settlers through a sustained military presence in the Gaza Strip was proving costly.

Secondly, Israel had already exhausted the water resources in Gaza by tapping the flow of underground water east of Gaza -- resulting in the seepage of seawater into Gaza's coastal aquifer -- and through the over-pumping of the existing aquifer by Israeli settlements. As such, Gazans have been left with brackish water resources that cause high rates of kidney failure. The maximum accepted level of chloride in drinking water, as set by World Health Organisation standards, is 250 mg per litre. In most areas of Gaza, the level stands between 1,200 and 2,500 mg per litre.

A further myth that Israel has been so successful in sustaining is that the withdrawal of its settlers has signalled an end to the occupation of Gaza. Yet the Strip is still as occupied as it used to be. What has changed is only the structure of occupation. Freed of the responsibility of maintaining a physical presence inside Gaza in order to "protect" its settlers, it is now much easier, and less costly for Israel to control the Gaza Strip from a distance using its state of the art military technology.

The Israeli army is located in the Erez area, in northern Gaza. From here, it continues to occupy a strip of land along the eastern border of Gaza some 900 metres to one kilometre deep -- again, all in an area of only 360 square kilometres -- and maintains control over Gaza's airspace, coastline and territorial waters. All entry and exit points to the Strip remain under Israeli control, and it is Israel that decides whether hundreds of patients who are in urgent need of treatment are allowed to leave the Gaza Strip or not. Despite the latest agreement brokered by Condoleezza Rice on the opening of the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, Israel retains complete control over the passage of goods and its right to monitor the movement of Palestinians; responsibilities it has frequently abused in the past.

Gaza remains a huge prison, and prospects for economic development in such a context are gloomy. The risk that Israel's continued control over Gaza will only deepen long-term efforts to sever it from the West Bank, destroying the unity and linkage between Palestinians, and the right of Palestinians to be in one unified state in the future, is a serious concern.

Sharon is using the redeployment from Gaza, which was exaggeratedly portrayed as an epic concession, to unilaterally impose the future of this area. The construction of his ignominious wall and the expansion of settlements will eventually result in the total annexation of no less than 50 per cent of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the destruction of any potential for a coherent, contiguous, and viable Palestinian state.

The wall cuts as deep as 35 kilometres into the West Bank. Its construction has already resulted in the annexation of 9.5 per cent of the land of the West Bank. The area expropriated for settlement adds another eight per cent to this figure, while the building of the eastern wall in the Jordan Valley will allow Israel to annex a further 28.5 per cent of the West Bank.

The wall is being built at very high speed, regardless of the ICJ advisory opinion. It will be around 750 kilometres in length: three times as long and twice as high as the Berlin Wall. Over 1,060,000 trees -- mainly olive trees -- have been uprooted by Israeli bulldozers in the West Bank. This wall is not built inside Israeli territory, nor along 1967 borders, but inside the occupied territories, separating Palestinians from Palestinians, and not Palestinians from Israelis as Sharon claims.

This wall will isolate no less than 250,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem alone. At least 50-70,000 other Palestinians with Jerusalem ID cards will end up outside the wall, unable to access Jerusalem freely, and will lose access to health and educational services. This is the beginning of a process that will end up with taking away their IDs and forcing them to be outside the area of Jerusalem to which they belong.

In some places, the wall cuts houses into two. In Jerusalem, near Anata, the wall cuts off the playground and fields of a school from the school building itself. In the city of Qalqilya, 46,000 people are surrounded by the wall from all directions, leaving only one passage, a road 8m wide with a gate, through which they can pass. Israeli soldiers have the key to this gate, and can shut off the city whenever they choose.

A permit is required to cross the wall; one that is near impossible to obtain. And even if you succeed in obtaining this permit, you still have to negotiate unaccommodating gate opening times. In the Jayous area, you can cross between 7.40am and 8am, between 14pm and 14.15pm, and between 18.45pm and 19pm: a total of 50 minutes per day. Sometimes the army "forgets" to open the gates, and schoolchildren, teachers, farmers, patients and other ordinary people are left to wait indefinitely.

If the 1947 UN partition plan had been implemented, there would be two states: a Palestinian state on 45 per cent of the land of historic Palestine, and an Israeli state on 55 per cent. In 1967, the Israeli state constituted 78 per cent of this land. What remained was the West Bank and Gaza Strip; what Palestinians came to terms with in 1988 when the Palestinian National Council accepted a two-state solution. This represented an unprecedented compromise for Palestinians as it effectively gave up more than half of what was assigned to them by the UN.

What was offered to Arafat by Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000 was no different from Sharon's plan, in that he wanted to retain the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem and big parts of the settlements. Having brought the Palestinians to their worst ever economic and humanitarian condition, Sharon has created a situation whereby he can act independently to decide the shape any future "peace process" will take. His plan, if he finishes his wall, and if he succeeds in his unilateral action to impose a solution, which is hailed and appreciated by so many leaders in the international community, will transform the idea of a Palestinian state into something that can only be described as Bantustans and clustres of ghettos.

Herein lies the real motivation behind the wall. Far from being built for security reasons, it symbolises a pre-determined plan by the army to annex the occupied territories and determine the outcome of the so-called peace process. The Israeli army has re- imposed closures and severe movement restrictions in the West Bank, declaring that main roads are barred to Palestinian vehicles, with the exception of some public transport. Instead, these roads have been designated for use by Israeli settlers and the army only, reflecting an element of segregation that did not even happen at the height of apartheid in South Africa.

Ordinary Palestinians cannot go to work, women who are pregnant cannot get to hospital to give birth, patients who are in serious need of kidney dialysis or urgent treatment for heart attacks could die at home without being able to reach a hospital, and the Palestinian economy is completely paralysed.

Where is the peace process in all of this, and when Sharon refuses to recognise the presence of a Palestinian partner, and the idea of an international peace conference? Sharon claims that there is no place for negotiations about Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, settlements, and that he will decide the future unilaterally without any Palestinian or international participation. And if there are negotiations, they are taking place between the right-wing Likud Party leadership and the more extreme right-wing leadership represented by Netanyahu, or between Sharon and the settlers.

Our demand is for an international peace conference where resolution to the conflict would be returned to its basis in international law, and where the ICJ advisory ruling would be addressed.

What is happening on the ground is the creation of a system of apartheid. Of 960 million cubic metres of water that is generated in the West Bank, Palestinians are allowed to use only 109, one-tenth of our water. The rest goes to Israel. On average, a Palestinian citizen in the West Bank is allowed to use no more than 36 cubic metres of water per year, while Israeli settlers in the West Bank can use up to 2,400 cubic metres. We are not allowed to use our own roads and streets. We are not allowed to build houses. We are not allowed to move freely. Our GDP per capita is less than $1,000 while Israel's is almost $20,000, and still we have an imposed tax and market union which obliges us to buy products at the same cost as Israelis.

This is well illustrative of the severe imbalance of power on the ground, one that cannot be redressed without the intervention and support of the international community.

One way to correct this situation is to do what was done very successfully in the case of South Africa, which is to impose sanctions. A key aspect of this lies in the discontinuation of military ties with Israel, the fourth largest military exporter in the world. We need a movement of military non- cooperation that concentrates on divestment and connects economic agreements with Israel's abidance by international law and the implementation of international resolutions.

The Palestinians deserve to be freed from the long- term suffering they have endured through 600 years of foreign rule, 58 years of dispossession and 38 years of a military occupation that has become the longest in modern history. The Israelis themselves will never be truly free unless they end this suppression of the Palestinian people.

There comes a time in people's lives when they can no longer bear injustice. This time has come for Palestinians. We aspire to be free, and we will be free.

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* The writer is secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative

© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly.

http://lnk.nu/news.com.au/6og.html

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US backed Timor invasion

From correspondents in Washington
03-12-2005
From: Agence France-Presse
 
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THE US knew well in advance of and explicitly approved Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975, newly declassified documents say.

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Released this week by the independent Washington-based National Security Archive (NSA), the documents showed US officials were aware of the invasion plans nearly a year in advance.

They adopted a "policy of silence" and even sought to suppress news and discussions on East Timor, including credible reports of Indonesia's massacres of Timorese civilians, according to the documents.

East Timor is today an independent nation.

The people of East Timor voted in favour of breaking away from Indonesia in a UN-sponsored ballot in August 1999 before gaining full independence in May 2002 after more than two years of UN stewardship.

But the path to independence was bloody. Militia gangs reportedly directed by Indonesia's military went on a killing spree before and after the East Timorese referendum, killing about 1400 independence supporters.

Thirty years after the Indonesian invasion, the formerly secret US documents showed how multiple US administrations tried to conceal information on East Timor to avoid a controversy that would prompt a Congressional ban on weapons sales to Indonesia.

"I'm assuming you're really going to keep your mouth shut on the subject," then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger told his staff in October 1975 in response to reports that Indonesia had begun its attack on East Timor.

The administration of President Gerald Ford knew that Indonesia had invaded East Timor using almost entirely US equipment, and that the use of that equipment for that purpose was illegal, the documents showed.

In 1977, officials of the administration of Ford's successor, Jimmy Carter, blocked declassification of an explosive cable transcribing President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger's meeting with Indonesian President Suharto.

At the meeting in December 1975, they explicitly approved of the East Timor invasion, according to the documents.

Through the 1980s, US officials continued to receive -- and deny or dismiss -- credible reports of Indonesia's massacres of Timorese civilians.

The National Security Archive had provided more than 1000 formerly classified US documents to help an East Timorese commission of inquiry into human rights abuses that occurred between 1975 and 1999.

East Timor president Xanana Gusmao handed the commission's 2500-page report to the Timorese Parliament last Monday but wanted it withheld from the public, amid an outcry from opposition politicians and rights activists.

Brad Simpson, Director of the National Security Archive's Indonesia and East Timor documentation project, said he expected the commission's final report to show that Indonesia's invasion of East Timor and resulting crimes there "occurred in an international context in which the support of powerful nations, especially the US, was indispensable."

"These documents also point to the need for genuine international accountability for East Timor's suffering," he said.

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"From 1945 to 2003, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements fighting against intolerable regimes. In the process, the US bombed some 25 countries, caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair." - William Blum

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12032005.html

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Weekend Edition
December 3/4, 2005

An Economy Driven By Debt

Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

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The November payrolls job report was announced Friday with the usual misleading hype. Spinmeisters made the most out of the 215,000 jobs. Looking beyond the glitter at the real facts, this is what we see. 21,000 of those jobs were government jobs supported by taxpayers. There were only 194,000 new jobs in the private sector.

Of those new jobs, 37,000 are in construction and only 11,000 are in manufacturing. The bulk of the new jobs--144,000--are in domestic services.

Wholesale and retail trade account for 20,000. Food services and drinking places (waitresses and bar tenders) account for 38,000.

Health care and social assistance account for 27,000. Professional and business services account for 29,000. Financial activities gained 13,000 jobs. Transportation and warehousing gained 8,000 jobs.

Very few of these jobs result in tradable services that can be exported or help to close the growing gap in the US balance of trade.

The 11,000 new factory jobs and the 15,000 of the previous month are a relief from the usual loss. However, these gains are more than offset by the job cuts recently announced by General Motors and Ford.

Despite the gain in jobs, total hours worked declined as the average workweek fell to 33.7 hours. The decline in the labor force participation rate, a consequence of the shrinkage in well-paying jobs, masks a higher rate of unemployment than the reported 5 percent. The ratio of employment to population fell again in November.

Average hourly earnings (up 3.2 percent over the last year) are not keeping up with the consumer price index (up 4.3 percent).
Consequently, real incomes are falling.

This is not the picture of a healthy economy in which growth in high productivity, high value-added jobs fuel the growth in consumer demand and provide savings to finance Washington's red ink. What we are looking at is an economy that is coming unglued from the loss of jobs that provide ladders of upward mobility and from massive trade and budget deficits that are resulting in unsustainable growth in indebtedness to foreigners.

The consumer price index measures inflation at 4.3 percent over the past year. Many people, experiencing household budgets severely impacted by fuel prices and grocery bills, find this figure unrealistically low. PNC Financial Services has a Christmas price index consisting of the gifts in the song, "The 12 Days of Christmas." The index reports that the cost of the collection of gifts has risen 6 percent since last Christmas. Some of the gifts have risen substantially in price. Gold rings are up 27.5 percent, and pear trees are up 15.4 percent. The cost of labor (drummers drumming, maids-a-milking) has remained the same.

Populations are hard pressed when the prices of goods rise relative to the price of labor, because this makes it impossible for the population to maintain its standard of living.

The US economy has been kept alive by low interest rates, which fueled a real estate boom. Consumers have kept growth alive by refinancing their home mortgages and spending the equity in their houses. Their indebtedness has risen.

Debt-fueled growth is qualitatively different from economic growth that results from an increase in high value-added jobs. Economists who look at the 3+ percent economic growth rate and conclude that things are fine are fooling themselves and the public. When the real estate boom ends, what will be the source of new spending power?

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Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.