The Farce of US occupation of Iraq: I just watched the news coverage about Iraq on AlJazeera and Al-Manar TV. Al-Jazeera's offices are still closed but they still manage to cover Iraq pretty well. In fact, the closure has backfired; the station is more biting and sharp in its coverage of Iraq than ever. But now we know that the closure of AlJazeera was not coincidental: that it was arranged to ensure no-coverage of the Najaf offensive. Of course, that strategy failed miserably. US officials did not know that Arabs have access to more than one TV news channel, and US officials did not know that Arabs are genetically capable of handling camcorders. But AlJazeera anchorman was assuming today that the coverage of the Najaf carnage is extensive in the US press: he did not know that the Peterson's court was playing Amber Frey's taped phone conversations. We know our news priorities here. There was the first footage of As-Sadr. I must confess that I was surprised; I have often commented about his lack of charisma and weak command of Arabic (unlike Shi`ite clerics). But he seems to be like `Arafat (who also lacks charisma): he is at his best under pressure. This man who I rarely see smile, had a wide smile on his face, and people were staring at him like he was a rock star. He appeared to have conducted this recent chapter with skill and effectiveness, from the standpoint of his followers. It will help his political fortunes that he did not flee Najaf. And even America's friends in Iraq are rallying to his side: that bodes ill for the Iraqi puppet government, and its symbol the prime minister/car bomber/former Saddam's assassin/embezzler-in-Yemen, Iyad `Allawi. One of US closest allies during the invasion of Iraq, `Abdul-`Aziz Al-Hakim (head of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) issued a statement today in which he wondered aloud whether the US treats dissidents in the US the way Iraqi dissidents are treated with fighter jets and tanks. Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah issued another fatwa today prohibiting Shi`ites from giving any assistance to Iraqi puppet forces. In conclusion, mark another political defeat for the US and its occupation project in Iraq, not that I wish success for the US colonial project in Iraq. You know how Marx quotes Hegel (although nobody has ever been able to find the quotation in any of Hegel's writings--and I even looked one time and the closest you will find is this in his Philosophy of History: "A coup d'état is sanctioned as it were in the opinion of the people if it is repeated. Thus, Napoleon was defeated twice and twice the Bourbons were driven out. Through repetition, what at the beginning seemed to be merely accidental and possible, becomes real and established.") in his book the 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon that "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." I have seen occupations before, but this is a farce of colonization and occupation.