There was considerable debate at the recent AAG meeting and the AAG has
passed a resolution (posted yesterday on this forum).
To add to the other critical readings suggested I would refer people to
the article "An unnecessary war" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in
the (UK based) Prospect magazine:
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/Start.asp
This article (originally published in Foreign Policy no. 134) is not by
antiwar radicals...Walt is academic Dean at Harvard's Kennedy School and
Mearsheimer is a professor at Chicago. Whilst like most who read this
forum I expect, I am no friend of the Baathist regimes in Iraq and
Syria, I found "An unnecessary war" to be quite a persuasive argument.
As I write this posting, I hear on the BBC that the "military action"
has just begun with explosions being heard in Baghdad this morning. But
this war never really stopped did it...given the more or less continuous
allied bombing in the "no fly zones" over the last decade (see Tariq
Ali, 2000, 'Our Herods' New Left Review 5, 5-14) since the conflict of
1990-91 after Iraq occupied Kuwait.
James D Sidaway
Associate Professor
The Department of Geography
1 Arts Link
National University of Singapore
Singapore 117570
www.fas.nus.edu.sg/geog/
-----Original Message-----
From: D F J Wood [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 March 2003 01:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: A deliberate provocation...
This foum is pathetic!
Even on the cycling forum of which I am a member, there have been
serious dicussions of the current international situation with opposing
(and sometimes quite erudite) views exchanged.
There is about to be a war which has enormous geographical significance
and implications and there has been scarcely a word apart from the
posting of the AAG statement.
What did people think of this by the way?
I suppose it was as much as could be expected (i.e.: a bit limp!). Was
there any debate at the AAG? Was it worthwhile? is anybody going to tell
those of us who weren't there? Do we, as geographers, have any insights
at all?
Being busy at work hardly qualifies as an excuse for the utterly
inactive nature of this 'critical' forum at a time like this. Are we all
out marching on our legislatures? Or have we all sunk into cynical
depression?
Come on people!
David
Dr David Wood
Global Urban Research Unit (GURU)
School of Architecture Planning and Landscape
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
tel: +44 (0)191 222 7801
fax: +44 (0)191 222 8811
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
website: www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/d.f.j.wood/
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