Brought to you to as the bombs drop on Baghdad, this issue features the brilliant wartime poster spoofs of Micah Wright, Tom Tomorrow’s pertinent “This Modern World’ and David Rees’ hilarious online comic strip “Get Your War On”.

Plus links to the websites of respected British foreign correspondent Robert Fisk and controversial Israeli website DebkaFile, an interview with Edward Said by David Barsimian and also the 6th and final part of Johnny Marr’s interview with MJ.

For those of you who need to pause and take a slow, deep breath and think about more hopeful things we also link to the site of another one of our favourite philosophers, Alan Watts.

Questions? Is this a just war? And is it really just about Iraq’s alleged ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and the ‘liberation’ of the Iraqi people? Or do darker motives lie behind this ‘shocking’ and ‘awe inspiring’ show of brute force by the ‘coalition of the willing’? Has a rubicon now been crossed with the Bush administration’s stated doctrine of pre-emptive strikes and invasions against sovereign nations perceived as possible threats to US interests? Or will the end justify the means? Does the fact that the Bush administration is largely made up of ex-oil and defence executives cause you to feel uncomfortable? Suspicious? Or are they just acting in the best interests of all Westerners? Is this war illegal? Is this war immoral? Is this war in violation of the UN charter and international law? Or is it a morally justified crusade to free the Iraqi nation and help develop it’s wealth of natural resources for the benefit of it’s oppressed people? Are the French, Russians and Germans really more sensitive to world-wide public opinion? Or just trying to protect their own economic interests in the region? Are Arab nations justified in their suspicions that there is one rule for Arabs violating UN resolutions and another for Israelis? Or is this just baseless paranoia? Did the US really want Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors to succeed in their job? Were all peaceful means ‘really’ exhausted? Or were the UN inspections just a useful device to remove any lingering military threat Saddam might pose before going ahead with a war that was planned many, many months before? Can war really end terrorism? Or will this action be akin to pouring petrol onto naked flames? Has Prime Minister Blair slit his own throat politically by choosing to follow the orders of the US President instead of the will of the British people? Or is he displaying Churchillian courage and foresight by sacrificing his immediate political popularity for a longer term vision of a safer world? Is this a battle against a cunning and formidable foe? Or just a turkey shoot against a third world country that has been starved, disarmed and demoralised for 12 long years? Would America pick on a country that really could fight back? Would Britain dare go into this war without the protection of America? Has this now opened up a Pandora's box of world-wide hatred and terrorism that nobody will be able to put back and close?

These questions have been literally tearing the world apart for months, pitting ally against ally and threatening to undermine the very institutions that have formed the cornerstones of the international community since the second world war. Only time will tell of course but in the meantime you may want to go and vent your spleen in our humble Forum about anything that may have caught your eye on this Front Page. If you’re against the war or for the war then try ‘Current Affairs’. If you’d rather talk about anything ‘but’ the war then you may be more interested in the Forum’s ‘LifeStyles’ section where our very own Dr Stephanie will be more than happy to discuss any other issues that may have been secretly bothering you.

Let’s just pray that the war is short and with the minimum amount of casualties. Our thoughts are with the innocent Iraqi civilians.

With love from Matt Johnson, Jack Siddeley, Heather Bell and all at This Is TheThe Day.

www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war21.html

David Rees expresses what a number of left-leaning Americans feel: outrage over the way the current administration reacted to the 911 attacks, fear over what will happen next and absolute, flat-out disbelief that everything that's happening is now for real.

As the U.S. goess to war with the Axis of Evil "Get Your War On" provides a place to escape to and laugh your fears away. Rees won't win any awards for artistry, but his no-frills approach communicates the universal shock and numbness many people feel. The office workers in his comic strip are just like everyone else, except that they actually vocalise what a number of us are thinking.

Although the dichotomy between Rees' jaded, profane voice and the cheesy imagery elicits laughs, the reason "Get Your War On" is so funny is because it's true. When one character calls for "all my Americans who can now be detained indefinitely with no lawyer to wave (your hands) like you just don't care," it's devastating — that situation has happened and no one seems to give a damn.

REMIXED WAR PROPOGANDA

www.micahwright.com

After four years as an Airborne Ranger for the U.S. Army, Micah Wright took a radical career turn - to writing children's animation. In BACK THE ATTACK! this Emmy-nominated author combines these different roles, with a twist. This volatile collection of political posters reworks classic American World War I and II propaganda into timely commentaries on war, peace, and patriotism in the post-9/11 era. These 40 one-sided posters skewer the war mentality, the Bush White House, Homeland Security, the War on Terror, John Ashcroft, the 2000 Presidential election, the military-industrial complex, and much more. Famed posters of yesteryear such as "Loose Lips Sink Ships" and Uncle Sam's "I Want You" are reinvented with new messages of peace and protest. Back the Attack's images are ideal for enlarging and for use at political rallies and demonstrations. Visit his website now and buy these stunning posters to advertise your disgust at the Bush administration.

DESPATCHES FROM BAGHDAD

www.robert-fisk.com

Robert Fisk is one of Britain’s most respected foreign correspondents. Visit his website to read his daily bulletins on life in Baghdad during wartime.

World War II was an obscenity. It ended in 1945. Yet you would think, listening to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bush who have launched a war in the Middle East, that Hitler was still alive in his Berlin bunker. You would think, too, that our leaders and journalists and — let us be frank — the Arab dictators too, have not understood this. The Luftwaffe, if you listen to Messers Blair and Bush, is still taking off from Cap Gris Nez, ready to bombard London after years of appeasement of Nazi Germany. Saddam, of course, is Hitler.

Read more >

PART 6. J. How do you feel about 'Naked Self'? Are you happy with that album? M:  I was very happy with it. It think it’s probably my best album to date, it certainly got the best reviews I’ve ever had but It was just unfortunate about all the politics that surrounded it. Sony came over to New York to listen to the album and they were alarmed at how aggressive it was and were saying to me “Oooh, the industry has changed.” Read more >

A hive of mischief and misinformation? - after all DebkaFile was one of the first outlets to ‘break’ the story of the ‘defection’ of Deputy Prime MinisterTariq Aziz - Or a website with it’s finger on the pulse of what’s ‘really’ going on?

Offered in Hebrew and English, Debkafile offers a blend of anonymous tips, unsubstantiated rumors and chilling, detail-laden stories on Middle Eastern military, intelligence, diplomatic, and terrorist matters.

Based in the Jerusalem neighborhood of French Hill, equidistant from both Palestinian villages and the walls of the Old City, DebkaFile clearly reports with a point of view; the site is unabashedly in the hawkish camp of Israeli politics.

That slant, combined with Debkafile's breakneck pace - its eight-person staff updates the site as often as 5 or 6 times per day with terse, one-line tips and sparse news briefs - means it often airs unfounded, inaccurate rumors while breaking legitimate news.

www.debka.com

www.edwardsaid.org

Interviewed by David Barsamian

Born in Jerusalem and educated at schools there and in Cairo, Edward Said came to the U.S. in the early 1950s and attended Princeton and Harvard. His creative intellectual talents and abilities are infused with passion and a sense of outrage at the hypocrisies, contradictions, and indignities of what passes for political commentary, particularly when it comes to the Middle East. He is no doubt the most prominent spokesperson for the Palestinian cause in the United States.

Q: The events of September 11 have bewildered and confused many Americans. What was your reaction?

Edward W. Said: Speaking as a New Yorker, I found it a shocking and terrifying event, particularly the scale of it. At bottom, it was an implacable desire to do harm to innocent people. It was aimed at symbols: the World Trade Center, the heart of American capitalism, and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the American military establishment.

Read more >

www.alanwatts.com

Alan Watts become widely recognized for his Zen writings and for The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. He died in 1973 at his home in California.

For more than forty years he earned a reputation as a foremost interpreter of Eastern philosophies for the West. Beginning at age sixteen, when he wrote essay for the journal of the Buddhist Lodge in London, he developed an audience of millions who were enriched through his books, tape recordings, radio, television, and public lectures. In all Watts wrote more than twenty-five books and recorded hundreds of lecture and seminars, all building toward a personal philosophy that he shared in complete candor and joy with his readers and listeners throughout the world. His overall works have presented a model of individuality and self-expression that can be matched by few philosophers.

Read more >

www.thismodernworld.com

This Modern World first appeared in the groundbreaking San Francisco zine ‘Processed World’ not long after Dan Perkins moved to San Francisco in 1984. The zine dealt with the world of temps and office work, and most of the contributors took pen names to protect their identities from their employers. Perkins chose Tom Tomorrow.

By 1990 it was appearing in about 20 alternative weeklies, including the SF Weekly (it would move to the San Francisco Examiner in 1991). It now runs in more than 130 papers. His work has also entertained readers of the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Nation, the American Prospect, and even TV Guide (once). He had a brief stint with U.S. News and World Report, but Perkins says publisher Mort Zuckerman "really didn't like what I was saying in the least."

Whether at Madison Square Garden or in alternative weeklies, Perkins commonly finds himself in friendly territory, and some have accused him of preaching to the converted. But, he responds, "If preaching to the converted is such a bad thing, then why do Christians go to church on Sunday?”