Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Bush Makes Protesters 'Disappear': "We were not allowed anywhere near any kind of position where the president, or the media which follows him, would see or hear us. This is not America. This in not the land of the free and the home of the brave. This is some other country. I'm a patriotic American. I want the country I was raised to believe in, a country strong enough for political discourse and debate, with leaders courageous and decent enough to have the willingness to listen to all citizens, not just those who parrot their own views. ... The effort being made to hide political opposition in this country is more than cowardly, it's un-American.' "
S. Koreans Among 12 Killed in Iraq During Weekend (washingtonpost.com): "These deaths, announced Sunday by U.S. military officials, raised the total number of fatalities among U.S. and allied forces in November to 104, making it the most costly month in terms of soldiers killed since the outbreak of war in March. "
Army Officer's Actions Raise Ethical Issues (washingtonpost.com): "Even more disturbing than West's decision to fire his pistol near the head of the Iraqi detainee, the official said, was West's admission during the preliminary hearing that, before firing his pistol, he watched as his soldiers beat the Iraqi in an attempt to get him to talk.
... 'From a moral and ethical standpoint,' another official said, 'the U.S. Army can never allow such purported behavior. As horrific as war is, we cannot go down that slippery slope. Everything that we stand for as an Army and a nation would be undermined.' "
Why does Bush need $170 Million for re-election? For a massive campaign: "President Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004."
Economic View: As Stimulus, Tax Cuts May Soon Go Awry: "By this reckoning, the Bush tax cuts will not do much to lift the economy. The $117 billion in fiscal 2003 gives birth to only $40 billion in effective stimulus. Much more of the cuts, perhaps every nickel, would have been spent if the money had been channeled to the states instead, to pay the salaries of teachers who were fired to balance budgets. The economy surged in the third quarter, but as Mr. Slemrod notes, 'the tax cuts were not a major part of that growth.'' "
U.S. Plan May Be in Flux as Iraqis Jockey for Postwar Leverage (washingtonpost.com): "the Bush administration's decision to hand over the reins in seven months has limited U.S. leverage to solve problems during this delicate period, Iraq experts say. Despite his power on paper, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer is effectively a lame duck, and everyone who disagrees with the U.S. plan knows it. "
Economic View: As Stimulus, Tax Cuts May Soon Go Awry: "LAUDING the Bush tax cuts isn't easy. They have turned a comfortable budget surplus into a constraining deficit, and they are enriching the wealthy far more than families with only five-figure incomes.
The one mitigating factor is stimulus. The tax cuts are helping to revive the economy by putting more spending money into people's pockets. But even that will soon backfire.
The stimulus is at its peak right now. During the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, the nation's taxpayers pocketed $117 billion, mainly from rebates and from reductions in paycheck withholding as lower tax rates went into effect. That $117 billion, which is the portion of the tax cut going only to individuals and not to companies, rises to $200 billion in the current fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office reports.
Most of the windfall from both fiscal years is packed into the 12 months that started last summer and will end next summer. Not surprisingly, this front-loading of the tax cuts coincides with the improving economy. But then the payout declines gradually, snuffing out the stimulus - unless there is another big tax cut. Or as Chris Varvares, president of Macroeconomic Advisers, put it, 'We have reduced the scope of using fiscal policy to cushion the economy in the next downturn.''"
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Yahoo! News - Oil Experts See Long-Term Risks to Iraq Reserves: "A 2000 United Nations (news - web sites) report on the Kirkuk field said 'the possibility of irreversible damage to the reservoir of this supergiant field is now imminent.'
American officials acknowledge the underground problems, but figuring out how to address them is a quandary for the United States. The Bush administration and the Iraqis are banking on oil revenues to help pay for Iraq's reconstruction, and American officials say that aggressively managing the reservoirs is crucial to keeping oil and revenue flowing. But so far, American officials have steered clear of delving below ground, partly, they say, out of fear of adding to suspicion in the Arab world that the United States invaded Iraq to control its oil. "
Remember the assurances from Wolfowitz and others before Congress that Iraqi reconstruction would be financed from Iraqi oil sales? Turns out that this UN report from 2000-two years before his testimony, showed that the Iraqi oil fields were in bad shape. He should have known that they wouldn't be able to generate enough revenue from oil sales. And sure enough, they haven't been. Another deception, or another incompetent mistake? Either way, Wolfowitz should either resign or be sacked for gross incompetence and misleading congress and the american people. So should the entire administration in my opinion.
60 Years On, Again Battling an Abomination of Power: "These are events that most Americans thought could never happen again [US citizens being deprived of their constitutional rights and freedoms en masse]. After all, Korematsu was given the Medal of Freedom in 1998 (the highest U.S. civilian honor) for his fight against internment, and Congress awarded reparations to the Japanese Americans sent to the camps. President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, apologized to Japanese Americans on behalf of the U.S.
Yet, last year, Korematsu, who lives in Northern California, watched as hundreds of people were sent to a camp in Cuba without hearings required under international law or access to U.S. courts. He watched as U.S. citizens were being stripped of their constitutional rights as 'enemy combatants' and held in this country effectively as non-persons.
... Korematsu resolved to go back before the court that had failed him and thousands of other citizens decades before. His statement to the court in his brief is simple: "[t]o avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, this court should make clear that the United States respects fundamental constitutional and human rights — even in time of war." "
A Prisoner Of Panic After 9/11: "On the evening of Sept. 11, Benatta said, officers walked into his cell and asked about his military background and the false identification papers he allegedly carried with him. Within hours, he was on his way to a holding cell in upstate New York, where an FBI agent showed him a photo of the World Trade Center and told him of the attack.
'The agent warned that if I say I have no connection with this terrorism, I will spend the rest of my life in prison,' Benatta recalled. 'I thought they would offer me to the American people as the one who did this attack. I thought my life was done.'"
Prisoner with no connection to terrorism 'deprived of his liberty,' for 26 months by Dept of Justice prosecutors: "federal prosecutors and FBI and immigration agents engaged in a 'sham' to make it appear that Benatta was being held for immigration violations. Prosecutors trampled on legal deadlines intended to protect his constitutional rights and later offered explanations for their maneuvers that 'bordered on ridiculousness,' [investigating Judge] Schroeder wrote. And he found that the government compounded its mistakes by failing to act once it was clear that Benatta was not an accomplice to terrorists.
'The defendant in this case undeniably was deprived of his liberty,' Schroeder wrote, 'and held in custody under harsh conditions which can be said to be oppressive.' To keep Benatta imprisoned any longer, the magistrate concluded, 'would be to join in the charade that has been perpetrated.' "
'The War That Cried Wolfowitz': Readers Name George's War: "The five winners, each of whom gets a 250-dinar note left over from my last Iraq trip, are: Brad Corsello of New York for "Dubya Dubya III"; Richard Sanders for "Rolling Blunder"; John Fell of California for "Desert Slog," Will Hutchinson of Vermont for "Mess in Potamia"; and Willard Oriol of New York for "Blood, Baath and Beyond."
More seriously, during this holiday weekend, I hope we'll think often and appreciatively of those Americans who are in Iraq right now. Humor cannot erase their fear and loneliness in the face of Washington's policy failures, or the heartbreak here in so many homes where bereaved parents, spouses and orphans are struggling in this season to remember why they should be giving thanks. "
Friday, November 28, 2003
Iraqi citizens are fighting the US occupation: "Despite all accusations that they are terrorists, these are Iraqi citizens who are fighting the occupation,'' Prime Minister Naji al-Otari said in remarks were published Friday in the Egyptian magazine Al-Mussawar."
We don't know who is fighting the US in Iraq. The army commanders have admitted that. So have some of our political leaders. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that some of them may be freedom fighters, and not "saddam loyalists" or "insurgents" or al Qaida.
That should give us pause. Do we want to fight ordinary Iraqi's? Surely, if we have liberated them, and they want us to leave, then we would be a hostile occupation to them if we stay.
Assassins R Us: "It appears that 'staying the course' in Iraq may soon enough involve smaller scale versions of those Vietnam staples, the saturation bombing of cities and towns, the herding of civilians into barbed-wire enclosed 'strategic hamlets,' and a rerun of the Phoenix Program in which the CIA and Special Forces assassinated some 30,000 suspected Viet Cong leaders.
Not only is this thuggish behavior completely unacceptable under international law but, as in Israel, it is unlikely to achieve the ends that are so confidently being predicted."
Iraq Director Makes First Movie Since '92: "'What's Baghdad like today?' Moataz asks Hassan in one scene. 'Horror, Baghdad is not Baghdad anymore,' Hassan replies. 'There is pain in every meter you walk. The freedom we wanted for years came, but it's mired in blood and dirt.' "
HOWARD DEAN FOR PRESIDENT: "Only after 9/11, however, did Bush begin acting like a dictator: jailing innocent people solely because they were Muslim, authorizing the FBI (news - web sites) and CIA (news - web sites) to spy on political opponents, converting Guantánamo Bay into a concentration camp for 12-year-old prisoners seized in Afghanistan (news - web sites). Thanks to tax cuts diabolically devised to minimize the possibility of economic stimulus, a ten-year $4 trillion surplus has become a $6 trillion deficit. Now he has us stuck in a unilateral, losing war in Iraq (news - web sites), a vicious quagmire that has given us neither preemption from WMDs nor cheap oil--just $500 billion wasted along with 350 dead soldiers and more than a thousand who will never walk again. "
This is exagerrated commentary, but I think it's important to see how Bush is polarising this country, just as he is doing in the world.
Bush's Thanksgiving Day surprise ties him more tightly to the outcome in Iraq: "it is too soon to know whether the image of Bush in his Army jacket yesterday will become a symbol of strong leadership or a symbol of unwarranted bravado.
Iraqis may be reassured that the United States will put down the insurgency and restore order in their country. Or they may take the image of Bush landing unannounced at night without lights and not venturing from a heavily fortified military installation as confirmation that the security situation in Iraq is dire indeed.
But one thing is certain. Bush's Thanksgiving Day surprise ties him, for better or worse, ever more tightly to the outcome of the Iraq struggle. "
How do we get out of Iraq?: "Baghdad has become a city besieged by fear. Coalition locations such as the "green zone" - Iraq's governmental institutions and the capital's hotels - have been reduced to sandbagged fortresses behind miles of concrete blocks. The traffic is unbearable, probably losing the faltering economy millions of dinars a day. And the stream of bombings, by insurgents and coalition forces alike, has picked up speed.
... the coalition has been hampered by its own mistakes. First, the disbandment of the army; second, the policy of de-Ba'athification; and third, above all, the creation of the governing council (GC). This unrepresentative, power-hungry and reactionary body has done a great deal to hold back political progress in Iraq.
If an elected government were in place, it would probably ask the coalition to stay to help anyway. No fledgling Iraqi government could run the country in its first few years without the presence of the coalition. But the onus of responsibility for the country's security and progress would be in the hands of Iraqis."
The dollar is a one-way bet: downward: "[The British Pound] powered to a five-year high against the dollar for a second day as concerns over the US current account deficit continued to outweigh evidence of a rebounding economy.
Traders believe selling the dollar is a one-way bet, and some latched on to rumours that speculators were building "short" positions on the dollar - betting it will tumble in the coming months."
This is the seed of a massive depression folks. George Bush is claiming a great economic revival, but that is based on his record deficit--funded by borrowing. Next year the cost of borrowing will soar because of the decline in value of the dollar. And that is going to cause higher deficits and so we'll enter a spiral of decline that will be extremely painful to stop. Who will feel the pain most? The GOP's favorite "lucky duckies", the ones who earn the least. The one's they care about least.
Thursday, November 27, 2003
How British charity was silenced on Iraq: "One of Britain's most high-profile charities was ordered to end criticism of military action in Iraq by its powerful US wing to avoid jeopardising financial support from Washington and corporate donors, a Guardian investigation has discovered. "
'Battlefield' Arrest Makes Mockery of Constitution: "The president can not substitute military justice for civil law. The Constitution gives that power to Congress. "
Truth and Other Casualties: "A few days ago, the 50th casualty of the U.S. First Airborne Division, which is based at Fort Campbell, Ky., arrived home and was honored with a funeral procession estimated to be 80 kilometers long. "
Was this on TV? A funeral procession 50 miles long is something I have never heard about. Surely this should be front page news, unless it's true that the news about dead soldiers returning from Iraq is being censored.. "The U.S. television networks have feebly accepted the new Pentagon ruling that they can't show the coffins of America's young men returning from Iraq. The dead may come home, but they do so in virtual secrecy."
Truth and Other Casualties: "Yet a top-secret report, drafted by the National Intelligence Council for George W. Bush on Oct. 1, 2002, but now public knowledge, confirms that the U.S. has, once again, been pulled into war by a lie. The report states that Baghdad did not sponsor recent terrorist attacks against America; was not operating in concert with al-Qaeda; and was not at the time a terrorist threat to America."
Truth and Other Casualties: "Ron Ray, U.S. Marine Corps colonel (ret.), and a former assistant secretary of defense, says he sees the latest retraction as part of a pattern of misinformation that started long before the hyped-up rescue of Jessica Lynch and the revelation that soldiers had never sent 11 identical upbeat letters home. A combat veteran of Vietnam, now a prominent constitutional lawyer, Mr. Ray warned last year, before the U.S.-led war began, of the need for 'hard evidence that war in Iraq is required to maintain the security of the United States.' As a young lieutenant, he had believed that North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. 'That's why Congress voted to go to war in 1965,' he says now. 'I survived that war and was studying law when the senior senator from Kentucky, Thruston Morton, told me there had been no attack -- 58,000 dead for a lie.'"
Telling the Truth Won't Set You Free: "the number of seriously wounded U.S. soldiers brought home from Iraq is approaching 2,200, many of whom have lost limbs or suffered facial wounds. In all, there have been nearly 7,000 medical evacuations of soldiers from Iraq, many with psychological problems."
7,000 medical evacuations! That's almost one in every 20 GI's! A 5% casualty rate. This is completely unacceptable to me. George Bush should be held to account for all these completely unnecessary deaths and injuries, together with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and Powell. They are a disgrace to the military that they are using so harmfully. And I am sure that some of their uses are abuses. Certainly we are being abused as a people, and the true costs are not being made clear until after the fact, when we are already embroiled and it's a fait accompli. Folks, we've been had by this administration and we're on the hook for hundreds of billions already, possibly a trillion dollars if things keep on their current trajectory, just for Iraq.
Don't vote for Bush again and then complain when you're kids inherit a debt so large that they'll be paying it back rather than supporting you in your old age.
Oh, you won't need them too? You'll have enough invested in the stock market? Oh I see. Well, I hope that those investments are still worth something you can retire on after this crowd has worked its magic on out economy.
There is a serious doubt about that. Look what the international markets are saying about the dollar. It's a one way bet, downhill.
And if you were thinking about relying on medicare or medicaid, or social security, well, your radical GOP government is dismantling those programs, so they'll still be around, with fabulous new names-dreamed up by Karl Rove-but they'll be largely worthless.
So don't vote for Bush, unless you want that to happen. Because it will, with him and his cronies in power. It's already started. And for your stocks, this is 1930. The dead cat bounce.
Time to wake up, America. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Sharon: Israel Must Make Land Concessions: "Sharon made clear that he will not fully abide by a road map requirement that Israel dismantle the scores of West Bank settlement outposts, many of them no more than a few trailer homes, which were established in recent years. He said some outposts have ``supreme security value'' and that ``what is necessary will remain'' -- a statement Palestinians blasted as a blatant violation of the plan."
Iraqis Ponder the Meaning Behind Surprise Bush Visit (washingtonpost.com): "'It seems that he was afraid,' said Muhanned Muhie, the 35-year-old owner of a grocery store in the neighborhood of Jadriya. 'His visit was short because the security situation is so bad.' "
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
'Evidence' for Link Is Administration Ploy: "An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that a full 79% of Americans didn't believe the war in Iraq had made them safer from terrorism. This is why eight months after we took Baghdad, the conservatives continue to leak questionable secrets to justify their actions. "
'Evidence' for Link Is Administration Ploy: "For those who have watched this pattern, the modus operandi is familiar: Leak to the media or place in speeches intelligence nuggets of questionable value - aluminum tubes, Nigerian uranium, the undocumented Prague meeting - then retreat when pressed. Keep the story alive in the friendly pockets of the media, like William Safire's column or Fox News. When the factoid's cracks start showing, replace it with a new one. Repeat as needed. "
Iraq's Shiites Oppose U.S. Election Plan: "Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim leadership declared its opposition Wednesday to the U.S. plan for indirect elections for a provisional administration, complicating American hopes for a smooth transfer of power to Iraqis by July 1. "
'Evidence' for Link Is Administration Ploy: "Two weeks ago, a flurry of opinion polls from CBS News and elsewhere showed that Americans were increasingly unhappy with the war in Iraq and didn't believe that it had achieved its aims or made us any safer. The following week, the Weekly Standard, the organ of the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, published extensive excerpts of a leaked, top-secret memo sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee the previous month by Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith, a leading neocon ideologue in the Bush administration. The memo sought to retroactively defend the debunked claims that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden had meaningful ties."
Pentagon Sending More Marines to Iraq: "For reasons not explained in the announcement Wednesday, the Pentagon said it had decided to send an additional three battalions of Marines. Those would be beyond the 20,000 who were designated on Nov. 6. The initial group of 20,000 is headed by the 1st Marine Division, from Camp Pendleton, Calif. "
Garner: U.S. Made Postwar Iraq Mistakes: "the military did not act quickly enough to restore law and order and key services in the city.
After the collapse of the Baath regime, looters rampaged for days, sacking businesses and government buildings. The chaos shocked many Baghdad residents, and crime remains a problem in the capital.
'If we did it over again, we probably would have put more dismounted infantrymen in Baghdad and maybe more troops there,' Garner said, speaking to the BBC from his home in Florida.
He also criticized Bremer for disbanding the Iraqi army at a time when manpower was needed for rebuilding. The original plan had been to pay the army to take part in reconstruction work. "
60 US GI deaths in Iraq this month: "More than five dozen U.S. troops have been killed by hostile fire in November, more than any other month since the official end of major combat in Iraq on May 1. "
Retired General Discusses US Mistakes in Iraq: "The retired American general who headed the first occupation government in Iraq said Wednesday the United States made major mistakes, including disbanding the Iraqi army, putting too few troops on the ground and failing to explain the goals of the war. "
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Op-Ed Columnist: The Uncivil War: "All this fuss about civility, then, is an attempt to bully critics into unilaterally disarming — into being demure and respectful of the president, even while his campaign chairman declares that the 2004 election will be a choice 'between victory in Iraq and insecurity in America.'"
Monday, November 24, 2003
Demographics of US deaths in Iraq show that those who die are poor, country folk, mostly: "The whole country may be at war, but the whole country isn't doing the fighting. In today's all-volunteer military, [poor, rural areas] appear to be overrepresented. They are sending their young off to die in Iraq at more than twice the rate of the nation's metropolitan centers. "
Tbilisi's 'Revolution of Roses' Mentored by Serbian Activists (washingtonpost.com): "The Georgian opposition movement modeled its campaign on the popular uprising that deposed Yugoslavia's president, Slobodan Milosevic, in October 2000 and even adopted its slogan. Opposition leaders traveled to Belgrade for advice and brought their Serbian counterparts to Tbilisi. Thousands of Georgians were trained in the techniques honed in Belgrade. And the opposition persuaded Georgia's independent television network to air a documentary on the Serbian uprising not once but twice in the last 10 days.
'Most important was the film,' said Ivane Merabishvili, general secretary of the National Movement party that led the revolt. 'All the demonstrators knew the tactics of the revolution in Belgrade by heart because they showed . . . the film on their revolution. Everyone knew what to do. This was a copy of that revolution, only louder.' "
I'd like to see this movie. Think we'll need to know how in Nov. 2004?
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Wars of Choice (washingtonpost.com): "The debate can and will go on as to whether attacking Iraq was a wise decision, but at its core it was a war of choice. We did not have to go to war against Iraq, certainly not when we did. There were other options: to rely on other policy tools, to delay attacking, or both. "
A War That Can Never Be Won: "The bombast has increased with the bombs. We saw two disturbing escalations this week. The explosions that devastated the British consulate and the HSBC bank in Istanbul mark a significant widening in the choice of targets by those Islamist radicals who use terror to express their hatred of British and US policy in Iraq and the Middle East. The Blair/Bush response reached an equally alarming new level of ferocity. "
This is an important perspective. Bush and Bin Ladin are coins in the same currency--the currency of violence. They play off each other and the result is an escalation of violence. What is the result? As Ghandi said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
We have to stop the violence, not escalate it. We have to target the terrorists, but you can't do that with an army. Terrorism is a crime and needs to be addressed as such. It is not a country to be attacked, as this author points out."
U.S. Tactics in Iraq May Backfire, Critics Say: "'The increasing American violence may lead to the killing or arrest of some resistance fighters,' said Dr. Wamid Nadmi, a professor of political science at Baghdad University. 'But the other side is this will increase the people's rage against the Americans, especially those people whose homes are being destroyed or family members are being killed.'
...But in at least three instances in Tikrit and one in Baghdad, families of suspected guerillas were hauled out of their homes moments before tanks and helicopters reduced them to rubble. Amnesty International on Thursday condemned the Israeli-style tactic.
'The U.S. government should clarify whether it has officially permitted house demolitions as a form of collective punishment or deterrence,' said the group in a letter to the U.S. government. If so, 'it would constitute a clear violation of international humanitarian law.' "
Georgian Leader Resigns Amid Protests: "TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned Sunday, after the opposition threatened to seize his residence and his support began to crack, with soldiers joining tens of thousands of protesters in the streets of the capital.
The crowd of protesters massed in front of parliament erupted into cheers and waved flags after opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili went on national television and announced the president's resignation.
...the 75-year-old president's support was crumbling. The defense minister said the military would not intervene in the standoff. Shevardnadze had to fire his top security aide, Tedo Dzhaparidze, who on Friday publicly acknowledged fraud in the elections."
This is great news. A President who rigged elections is not allowed to take office by the people. He threatens to use the police and the army against his people. The army refuses. He resigns. No blood is shed.
Let us Americans remember this example in 2004. If we have another fraudulent election, let us not accept the outcome. Let us not allow martial law to be used against the people. Let the President resign peacefully and new elections be held."
Three G.I.?s Killed in Separate Attacks in Iraq: "the coalition was ``not worried in the least'' by the continuing attacks on its forces.
``We have nothing at this point that causes us to be concerned,'' he said. ``This is an enemy that cannot defeat us militarily.''"
Denial from the army. Denial from the President. Denial won't get us anywhere, though it means that they won't be addressing reality any time soon. What does that mean?
It means more US soldiers will die needlessly in Iraq, while Bush claims their sacrifice is in a good cause--and denies that he has blundered outrageously into a disaster of his own making. It means more Iraqi's will die from the chaos and violence of the US' heavy handed tactics against the civilian population, and from the terrorist attacks which are killing so many of them.
There is no easy solution here. But Bush's only effort to find one is to lightly train thousands of Iraqi's for police duty. And to spend $87 B US a year there.
He needs to get the UN completely involved here, give up US control of Iraq, and contribute to a stabilization force that contains a true coalition of the world. Not a coalition of the willing to be bribed and led by America, which is what we have now.
F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies--Sends Chilling Message to US Citizens: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.
Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law professor at American University who has written about F.B.I. history, said collecting intelligence at demonstrations is probably legal.
But he added: "As a matter of principle, it has a very serious chilling effect on peaceful demonstration. If you go around telling people, `We're going to ferret out information on demonstrations,' that deters people. People don't want their names and pictures in F.B.I. files." "
Saturday, November 22, 2003
2 Bills Would Benefit Top Bush Fundraisers (washingtonpost.com): "The energy bill provides billions of dollars in benefits to companies run by at least 22 executives and their spouses who have qualified as either 'Pioneers' or 'Rangers,' as well as to the clients of at least 15 lobbyists and their spouses who have achieved similar status as fundraisers. At least 24 Rangers and Pioneers could benefit from the Medicare bill as executives of companies or lobbyists working for them, including eight who have clients affected by both bills.
... "The energy and Medicare bills were drafted with the cooperation of representatives from dozens of industries. Power and energy company officials; railroad CEOs; pharmaceutical, hospital association and insurance company executives; and the lobbyists who represent them are among those who have supported the bills and whose companies would benefit from their passage. "
Let's have some democracy in the old USA! If this is what you want to export to the rest of the world, George, it's not democracy. They already have this kind of corruption, so don't waste your time or our resources."
Friday, November 21, 2003
Bush Says Mounting U.S. Casualties Not Affecting Iraq Transition (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush believes the current phase of the war in Iraq is 'going as expected' and strongly rejects the idea that the United States is being forced to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis sooner than planned because of mounting U.S. casualties and international pressure, according to an interview published today by an Arabic newspaper in London."
How can he say that the war is going as "expected"? Does he mean that when he invaded, he expected to find no WMD, not find Saddam, lose more troops after the Iraq army disbanded than before and see the country descend into chaos after all it's institutions were looted or destroyed? Does he mean that his claims that Iraq would be able to fund it's own reconstruction, made before the war by many in his administration in testimony to Congress and in the media, was a lie, and that he expected that he would have to borrow $20 billion within a few months to fund the reconsctruction effort, and that he would simply give that money to Iraq?
Come on, you journalists, ask him. Is that what he means? Why do you report his words without examining their meaning and questioning them? What is your job? And why do you fail to do it so consistently?
U.S. Commander in Iraq Says Insurgency Home-Grown: "The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites)'s northern province of Kirkuk said Friday he had no evidence foreign Muslim militants were fighting alongside former Baathists he blamed for anti-U.S. attacks. "
The Incredible Bloated Money Bill: "The Republican-led Congress is wallowing toward a garishly spectacular finale: a $284 billion omnibus spending bill, a haphazardly stitched hulk that... begins by combining five expensive measures that deserve separate votes because they are vital for financing much of the government next year."
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Terrorism: Attacks on Turkey Try to Sever a Bridge Between Islam and West: "The war in Iraq may have tipped the balance toward actual terrorism. 'Before, the threat was more or less theoretical,' said Rifat Bali, a writer in Istanbul."
Plea for security rethink as French aid worker is buried: "On Tuesday, UNHCR announced the immediate closure of its four refugee reception centres outside Kabul, and the withdrawal of its 30 foreign staff.
'We can no longer risk the lives of our expat staff: a dead aid worker can't help anyone, ' said UNHCR's Maki Shinohara, yesterday. 'The international community must seriously rethink the security situation in Afghanistan. Failing that, we will not be able to continue.' "
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | And down comes the statue... but this time it's Trafalgar Square: "At first George Bush gently rocked, then he began to sway, before finally the figure started toppling, slowly but inexorably on to the pavement below. "
Crimes Against Nature: "'Why,' they'll ask, 'is the president allowing coal, oil, power and automotive interests to fix the game?' "
BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | Thousands protest against Bush: "Tens of thousands of people have protested in London against President Bush and the war on Iraq.
Organisers claim more than 150,000 joined the demonstration but police put the numbers closer to 100,000. "
President Reaps the Wages of Arrogance: "That deposing a brutal tyrant like Hussein could be cause for global revulsion against the U.S. will surely go down as one of the most profound diplomatic failures in history."
Tens of Thousands in Britain Protest Bush Visit (washingtonpost.com): "Tens of thousands demonstrators marched through the heart of London on Thursday, toppling a 17-foot tall papier mache statue of President Bush to show their anger for the Iraq war and Prime Minister Tony Blair's support of the invasion.
... 'We're angry that Bush appears to be leading our country,' said marcher Ted Edwards. 'Why Blair is allying himself to Bush I do not know.'
Many in the crowd said Thursday's bombings in Istanbul, which killed more than two dozen people, strengthened their resolve to oppose U.S.-British policy in Iraq.
'There have been more and more bombings since the action in Iraq and more terrorism,' said Mischa Gorris, a 37-year-old London lawyer. 'You will never change the hearts and minds of terrorists by bombing them. This is what you will get.'"
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
U.S. Scrambles to Rebuild Iraqi Army (washingtonpost.com): "[The decision to disband the Iraqi army] came with formidable force and decisiveness, as the president's policy. Nobody was supposed to challenge it and that was that,' said one U.S. official in Baghdad at the time. Another said: 'There was never a discussion that I was involved in where we would disband the military. It caught me completely by surprise.' "
Monday, November 17, 2003
Prescription drug bill is a Trojan Horse: "many studies predict that private insurers would cherry-pick the best (healthiest) prospects, leaving traditional Medicare with retirees who are likely to have high medical costs. These higher costs would then be reflected in the extra payments required to stay in traditional fee-for-service coverage. The effect would be to put health care out of reach for many older Americans. As a 2002 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation judiciously put it, 'Difficulties in adjusting for beneficiary health status . . . could make the traditional Medicare FFS program unaffordable to a large portion of beneficiaries.'
What's going on? Why, bait and switch, of course. Few politicians want to be seen opposing a bill that finally provides retirees with prescription drug coverage. That makes a prescription drug bill a perfect vehicle for smuggling in provisions that sound as if they have something to do with improving Medicare, yet are actually designed to undermine it. "
Saddam tape follows 17 dead in Black Hawk loss: "initial reports suggested that the Black Hawks were flying in formation, and collided when one took evasive action after coming under fire.
Some witnesses said a rocket-propelled grenade had slammed into the tail of one helicopter, sending it careering into the other. "
No proof Saddam armed al-Qaida, says CIA: "The CIA has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological weapons or technology to al-Qaida or any other groups, according to a new American report. "
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
CIA Report Says U.S. Losing Popular Support in Iraq: "A CIA report concludes that ordinary Iraqis increasingly are siding with the insurgency amid doubts about the U.S. ability to stamp it out,"
Another day, another rationale for Iraq war: "President Bush, in his shifting rationales for the war in Iraq, is now justifying it [as]a ... noble mission of freeing 'oppressed people until the day of liberation and freedom finally arrives.'
That was certainly a quantum leap from the simple justification on which he sold the Iraq invasion to the American people. Then the war's rationale was stated as the need to remove the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that supposedly imperiled the United States and others.
An accompanying rationale for immediate military action was to bring about 'regime change' in Iraq by removing Saddam Hussein, seen as the embodiment of that threat and a cruel dictator who inflicted unspeakable horrors on his own people and neighbors.
... The president's speech was only the latest effort to put the most defensible face on a war whose necessity remains seriously challenged, for which financial support has been granted grudgingly by Congress and both military and financial aid flatly refused by most other major nations.
The question now is whether American voters who were led to believe that the invasion of Iraq was a matter of our national security will accept Mr. Bush's latest characterization of the war "
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Government Outgrows Cap Set by President (washingtonpost.com): "Confounding President Bush's pledges to rein in government growth, federal discretionary spending expanded by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, capping a two-year bulge that saw the government grow by more than 27 percent, according to preliminary spending figures from congressional budget panels."
These big spenders are the ones who are cutting spending on services that help the poor, refusing to fund their education policies and putting injured soldiers in lousy conditions without adequate care. At the same time, they are cutting taxes for very high income people--their campaign contributors--and declaring the right to attack any nation that they declare a threat to the USA.
They are the people who label democrats as big spenders; the party of big government. The truth is they are the big spenders, the mean people who enrich their friends, call those who work but earn so little that they don't pay income tax "lucky duckies", and reward polluters. Who are the big spenders? Bush and Reagan. Who demonstrates a much better record of financial responsibility and trimming the size of government? Clinton--the hated Clinton. Read the story.
US demands ban on protests in UK during Bush visit: "US authorities have demanded a rolling 'exclusion zone' around President George Bush during his visit, as well as a ban on marches in parts of central London."
Bremer flies to America for crisis talks: "Iraq's US governor, Mr Paul Bremer, arrived in Washington for crisis talks and is expected to meet with top officials at the White House for what is likely to be a decision-making session, a US official said in Washington.
... Mr Bremer's return for what officials called "consultations" comes amid growing frustration in Washington with the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and what some officials say is increasing friction with Mr Bremer himself.
Mr Bremer had left Iraq at short notice and cancelled a meeting today with visiting Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, the Polish delegation said."
Bush: all bait and switch, all the time: "last week the magazine Army Times ran a story with the headline 'An Act of `Betrayal,' ' and the subtitle 'In the midst of war, key family benefits face cuts.' The article went on to assert that there has been 'a string of actions by the Bush administration to cut or hold down growth in pay and benefits, including basic pay, combat pay, health-care benefits and the death gratuity paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty.'
At one level, this pattern of cuts is standard operating procedure. Just about every apparent promise of financial generosity this administration has made (other than those involving tax cuts for top brackets and corporate contracts) has turned out to be nonoperational. No Child Left Behind got left behind — or at least left without funds. AmeriCorps got praised in the State of the Union address, then left high and dry in the budget that followed. New York's firefighters and policemen got a photo-op with the president, but very little money. For that matter, it's clear that New York will never see the full $20 billion it was promised for rebuilding. "
Cheney Blurs Focus on Al-Qaeda: "Vice President Dick Cheney has in recent speeches mentioned the major bombings in Iraq this past summer in the same breath as the deadly strikes in Bali, Casablanca and Riyadh, which authorities say were carried out by Al Qaeda or groups affiliated with it.
... Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the American ground commander in Iraq, said recently, 'We do not have any confirmed Al Qaeda operatives actually in custody at this point.'
... "To paint all these groups with such broad brush strokes does a great disservice," said Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat on the Armed Services Committee and a former officer in the 82nd Airborne Division. "We'll lose our focal point on what's the greatest threat.""
Monday, November 10, 2003
Bush and Blair chose war when Saddam Hussein offered to give them everything they wanted--and lied about it: "Saddam proposed to give Bush and Blair almost everything they wanted before a shot had been fired. Our governments appear both to have withheld this information from the public and to have lied to us about the possibilities for diplomacy.
... these proposals reached the White House, but were "turned down by the president and vice-president". "
Yahoo! News - Bremer Sees More Iraq Attacks, Oilman Shot: "In Falluja, some of the few people who did not share the town's fierce anti-American sentiments changed their minds after U.S. F-16 jets dropped 500-pound bombs near their home, spraying shrapnel within three meters (yards) of their door.
Two civilians were wounded in the night raid that residents said erupted without warning as they slept.
'We used to have hopes of the Americans after they removed Saddam,' said Khatoun Jawal, in his dirt-poor home on the edge of town. 'We had liked them until this weekend. Why did they drop bombs near us and hurt and terrify my children like this?' "
Yahoo! News - General Warns Iraqis Attacks Must Stop: "'Neither America, nor the father of America, scares us,' said one resident, Najih Latif Abbas. 'Iraqi men are striking at Americans and they retaliate by terrifying our children.'
Fakhri Fayadh, a 60-year-old farmer, said reprisal attacks "will only increase our spite and hatred of them. If they think that they will scare us, they are wrong. Day after day, Americans will be harmed and attacks against them will increase." "
Bush undermines our democracy: "Gore charged that the Bush administration 'had turned the fundamental presumption of our democracy on its head' by seeking to withhold information about its own activities, even while acquiring ever more information about the activities of private citizens.
... "I believe that the Patriot Act has turned out to be, on balance, a terrible mistake, and that it became a kind of Tonkin Gulf Resolution conferring Congress' blessing for this president's assault on civil liberties," Gore charged."
This is a key point about this administration--it demands less rights for individuals, more for government. And at the same time it seeks to emascualte government controls on corporations. So what happens to government by the people, for the people? It gets stiffed. Willfully so. And why? So this cabal in power can do whatever their constituency of rich CEO's wishes. It's as banal as that. But brilliantly executed, I'll give them that. But it's only working because the media and other power brokers represent the corporations, not the people.
Yahoo! News - Dems decry Dean move: "Dean's argument for leaving the system is that he needs the money to compete with Bush, who is raising an estimated $200 million for his uncontested primary. "
The difference between Bush and Dean opting out is that Dean is getting small contributions from hundreds of thousands, and is aiming to get donations from millions. Bush is getting millions from thousands of people and corporations. Dean's funds strengthen democracy. Bush's weaken it.
Democratic opponents of Dean are wrong to "decry" his opting out, or to stand on principle. The key thing in this campaign is for the people to take back America , by the people, for the people. Dean's campaign financing move is in line with this, and that's why I support him. It is profoundly democratic.
When he is President, I believe there needs to be campaign finance reform to get corporate money and influence peddling out of politics.
Sunday, November 09, 2003
'No President has lied so baldly and so often and so demonstrably': "'The intelligence process is a bit like virginity,' says Ray McGovern, who worked as a CIA analyst for 27 years. 'Once you prostitute it, it's never the same. Your credibility never recovers.
'Watching what has happened with Iraq over the past several months has been like watching your daughter being raped.'"
Case for war confected, say top US officials: "An unprecedented array of US intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials have gone on record to lambast the Bush administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq. In their view, the very foundations of intelligence-gathering have been damaged in ways that could take years, even decades, to repair."
Bush Education Policy Also Built on a Lie?: "the Houston Independent School District -- showcase for the 'Texas educational miracle' that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math.
... If this were any other school district in the nation, few people would pay much attention. But Houston is the political springboard for U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige. He was school superintendent here before moving to Washington, and what originally began as an argument over dropout data has expanded into a debate about the administration's entire approach to educational reform."
Seems like there is a persistent pattern of falsifying data with these Bushies. Here they create a model for the nation, and base it on false results. (E.g. They create a critical test for all 10th grade students. Then they keep the students who won't pass out of 10th grade, and guess what? They get fabulous scores on the 10th grade tests. Wow! It looks like these tests transform schools. Let's do them nationwide. Ooops, Wrong!)
Where else have we seen false claims being made or data reported by this administration? Well, I am half asleep, but I remember the EPA's assurances to the people of NYC after 9/11 about the air quality being fine. Well, turns out that the EPA's public pronouncements were "edited" by someone at the White House, to say that, when the truth was that the air was full of toxic pollutants.
What about the tax cuts--you know, the one's we are borrowing $200 Billion, annually, to pay to the wealthiest 1%, so that they can create a few jobs for the rest of us--well Bush brings on a family to show how the tax cuts will effect the middle class. What he doesn't say is that he will get as much of a tax cut himself as the total income of that family of four. The family of four--hardly representative of the entire nation--will get less than 10% of the cut he will get in dollar terms.
I am so f**king sick of these lies and distortions. Stop it Bush.
And I am completely perplexed at how the American public can be so gullible that they just accept one lie after another. Not little ones. Big ones. $87.% Billion ones. $200 Billion ones. Ones that kill hundreds of American troops for no good reason. Just based on his lies, and the fact that he is called President.
As he so eloquently didn't say, Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Growing list of casualties dents Bush's public image: "The most recent Gallup poll published by USA Today suggests that a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Mr Bush is handling the situation in Iraq. While a majority still say the war was 'worth it', 54 per cent are unhappy with the performance of the Commander-in-Chief."
Saturday, November 08, 2003
The Rise of a New Movement: "To globalize and militarize are the two strategies of the US will to empire, driving our movements toward a unified opposition. "
Is there a pattern: "Dead soldiers worry me. Here's something that may be even worse: It's not that one or two convoys or patrols are attacked every day, it's that after each successful attack, Iraqis gather around the site and cheer. If that doesn't worry you, you aren't old enough to remember Vietnam. "
Military Families Protest Way War Is Run (washingtonpost.com): "'It's our job and our duty to question our government and hold it accountable for what they're doing over there,' said Shannon Sharrock, of Temple. "
Congress rolls over for Bush: "'You get, in effect, the equivalent of a French poodle that occasionally yaps at its master and bares its teeth, but if there's something of consequence to the administration, particularly when it comes to international affairs, it's going to back down,' said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute."
Read this story! Bush got his way by losing his temper with Republican Senators. They were intimidated, and rolled over. Abdicating their role as an independent arm of government, appeasing Bush's intemperate policies. It's one shame layered on top of another after another with this crowd.
It makes me wonder what happened to America. What happened to the system of government that the founding fathers wrought?
What happened to the system of checks and balances that was meant to protect us from a tyrannical government? Well, thanks to some extremely clever and persistant GOP politicking, it's dying in front of us--justified in the name of "Defehnding Freedom in Amuhrica" (sic).
US had no plan for the occupation of Baghdad: "An official US army review leaked to the US NGO globalsecurity.org has revealed that the army had no plan for the occupation of Baghdad. "
Lay had resisted giving up the documents for more than a year: "Kenneth L. Lay agreed Friday to turn over personal and corporate documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating the bankrupt Houston energy company he headed.
Lay had resisted giving up the documents for more than a year, contending that surrendering them would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. "
Lay and Bush--any connection? Well Bush says that he barely knows him, despite their close personal relationship that involved the exchange of millions of dollars in campaign financing for him and his father. But I'm talking about the similar ways they respond to legal matters. They refuse to reveal documentary evidence. Lay stonewalled for a year. Bush is stonewalling on investigations into 9-11 (and how about 3,000 lost their lives--was he warned in advance? why didn't fighters shoot the planes down?) the energy task force (who set this policy?), and he has placed all his fathers Presidential papers and his own from his time as Governor off limits.
Again. Any connection? Or do we just have a culture of arrogance and disregard for the law amongst our political and corporate leaders, and we just didn't know it?
U.S. Pounds Saddam's Hometown; 2 GIs Die: "U.S. rocket and heavy machine gun fire destroyed a warehouse and two houses believed to have been used by militants. Air Force fighters screeching overhead dropped bombs, which rattled houses. Mortar rounds howled, and tracer bullets lit up the sky.
'We want to remind this town that we have teeth and claws and we will use them,' said Lt. Col. Steven Russell of the 4th Infantry Division, who led raid in Tikrit, a city of 120,000 people about 120 miles north of Baghdad. "
I can understand the frustration and grief of our troops in Iraq might want to make them lash out. They are in an impossible situation, trying to bring peace when their very presence is causing war. But indiscriminate attacks by our soldiers are commonplace in Iraq after they are attacked. (See story below : for how the Iraqis react, and where those bullets and rockets do when they go into someone's house.)
Our political leaders carry a heavy responsibility for putting them in this shooting gallery, where they are the targets. But going on a rampage and shooting up buildings is not going to "win hearts and minds". It is criminal behavior. The fact that it seems to be authorized by a Col. Russell indicates that this is a pre meditated strategy. If so, he and others in command must be held to account. Unless of course we actually intend to fight terrorists with terrorism of our own? In that case, god help us and forgive us.
Americans sow seeds of hatred: "'It is their routine,' said her grandfather, Turk Jassim. 'After the Americans are attacked, they shoot everywhere. This is inhuman - a stupid act by a country always talking about human rights.'
Last September, US forces shot dead Sarab's two-year old sister, Dunya, and wounded two other girls in her family, 13-year-old Menal and 16-year old Bassad. The family belongs to the Albueisi tribe who farm the rich land along the Euphrates river south of Falluja. The Albueisi fought against the British and even Saddam Hussein found them difficult to control. Since April, at least 10 members of the tribe have been killed by US forces, including five policemen. "
Friday, November 07, 2003
U.S. repeats past mistakes: "Iraq, like Vietnam, already has become a quagmire for the United States, with few easy exit options. Driving both Vietnam and Iraq: a set of unquestioned, flawed assumptions held by a president and his policy team. Our latest quagmire is sustained by four familiar, misguided beliefs. "
Washington turning to Vietnam exit strategy in Iraq: "Moving to pull US troops from Iraq amid intensifying attacks, replacing them with a hurriedly trained Iraqi force, Washington is accused of seeking an exit strategy similar to the Vietnam war.
The move to 'Iraqify' military and police forces is reminiscent of the option taken by Washington over the so-called Vietnamization that came before south Vietnam collapsed before northern forces in 1975, observers and politicians say. "
The War in Iraq, Its Parallels to Vietnam and Congress' Unwillingness to Pay for It: "This is not and was not a part of the war on terror. Yes, there are terrorists in there now, but Iraq was not a part of the war on terror. It was quiet. It was not bothering anybody. They did not have al-Qaida. They did not have nuclear capabilities. They were not connected in any way to 9/11. We went in there under a mislead.
We learned in World War II that no matter how well the gun was aimed, if the recoil is going to kill the guncrew one does not fire the gun.
Yes, it was a good aim to get Saddam but now look at the headline. I ask unanimous consent to include this particular article from the Financial Times, 'Al-Qaida Exploits Insecurity in Iraq to Acquire Weapons and Swell Its Ranks.'
I thank the distinguished Chair. We now have more terrorism than less terrorism. That is the fact. We have the entire world turned against us. When we cannot get Mexico and Canada to go along with us, we are in trouble. "
This is part of the same story as the one below.
Why did the Senator from South Carolina vote for the Iraqi Invasion?: "why did we go in and why did the Senator from South Carolina vote for the resolution last October? Why? I can tell my colleagues why. On August 7, Vice President Cheney, speaking in California, said of Saddam Hussein: What we know now from various sources is that he continues to pursue a nuclear weapon.
Then on September 8: We do know with absolute certainty that he is attempting to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.
Then the President of the United States himself said, in his weekly address on September 14, before we voted in October: Saddam Hussein has the scientists and infrastructure for a nuclear weapons program and has illicitly sought to purchase the equipment needed to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon.
Then on September 24, Prime Minister Blair said that the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt that Saddam continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
On September 8 of last year, Condoleezza Rice said that we do not want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.
On October 7, President Bush said: Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
Now, any reasonable, sober, mature, experienced individual listening to that litany knows to vote against that resolution would have been pure folly. One has to back the President.
...If I went to a funeral this afternoon of a fallen soldier in Iraq, what would I say? Did they fall there for democracy? They are not going to have a democracy. It is going to be the Shiite democracy, like they have in Iran -- at best. That is exactly what Secretary Rumsfeld said we were not going to have.
Was it for nuclear? No.
Was it for terrorists? No, they didn't have terrorists there.
Your son gave his life for what? As their Senator, I am embarrassed. It wasn't for any of those things. Why we went in, the administration has yet to tell us. They keep changing the rules and the goalposts every time. But somehow, somewhere they have to really put the force in there, quit trying to do it on the cheap, put the force in there and clean out that city, so they will quit killing them, or otherwise get out as fast as we can. "
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Jessica Lynch Criticizes U.S. Accounts of Her Ordeal: "Jessica Lynch criticized the military for exaggerating accounts of her rescue and re-casting her ordeal as a patriotic fable.
Asked by the ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer if the military's portrayal of the rescue bothered her, Ms. Lynch said: 'Yeah, it does. It does that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. Yeah, it's wrong,' according to a partial transcript of the interview to be broadcast on Tuesday."
Death Toll in Iraq Copter Attack Now 16: "the chief British representative here, Jeremy Greenstock, said coalition forces face a 'rough winter' of attacks, The Times of London newspaper reported in Wednesday's edition.
Greenstock also said it would be difficult to defeat the insurgents without the sort of heavy-handed measures that would further alienate the Iraqi people, the newspaper said. "
Idealism in the Face Of a Troubled Reality (washingtonpost.com): "The United States has adopted a new policy: a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. This strategy requires the same persistence and energy and idealism we have shown before. And it will yield the same results"
This is a very important speech. It tells us that Bush has run out of excuses for the Iraq debacle, and is trying to change the subject. It tells us that the neo-conservative agenda is now his policy. And it tells us that we have lost our democracy--the man who ran on a platform against nation building, now demands that every nation obey his orders.
What we have here is a man out of control. A man who is pursuing a radical agenda for which he has no democractic mandate. A man who claimed to invade a sovereign nation because it was a threat to us, who now can no longer claim that. So he has to try to justify his actions some other way. And he has done so in a speech that says he will take pre-emptive action to create democracy in any country that he feels doesn't have democracy.
Given the results of his "pre-emption" in Iraq, i can only say god help us all.
Don't mention the dead: "this is the most extensive effort at spinning a war that the department of defence has ever undertaken in this country", says Christopher Simpson, a communications professor at Washington's American University.
Flags Versus Dollars: "Mr. Dean wasn't suggesting that his party adopt the G.O.P. strategy of coded racial signals, and by and large African-Americans — my wife included — understand that. What he meant by his flag remark was that Democrats must make the case to working Americans of all colors that the right's elitist agenda isn't in their interest. And he's right."
Embedded reporters 'sanitised' Iraq war: "Television reports produced by 'embedded' correspondents in the Iraq conflict gave a sanitised picture of war, according to an academic study published by the BBC today.
Researchers found that although reporters who accompanied the British and US military were able to be objective, they avoided images that would be too graphic or violent for British television. Some of the coverage resembled a 'war film'.
Today, a senior BBC news executive will make a controversial case for desanitising the presentation of war on British television. In a speech to a conference of broadcasters in Budapest, Mark Damazer, deputy director of BBC News, will say the current position is a 'disservice to democracy'. "
Iraq Said to Have Tried to Reach Last-Minute Deal to Avert War: "Hassan al-Obeidi, chief of foreign operations of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, arrived in Mr. Hage's Beirut office.
But within minutes, Mr. Hage said, Mr. Obeidi collapsed, and a doctor was called to treat him. 'He came to my office, sat down, and in five minutes fell ill,' recalled Mr. Hage. 'He looked like a man under enormous stress.'
After being treated, Mr. Obeidi explained that the Iraqis wanted to cooperate with the Americans and could not understand why the Americans were focused on Iraq rather than on countries, like Iran, that have long supported terrorists, Mr. Hage said.
... "He said, if this is about oil, we will talk about U.S. oil concessions," Mr. Hage recalled. "If it is about the peace process, then we can talk. If this is about weapons of mass destruction, let the Americans send over their people. There are no weapons of mass destruction."
Mr. Obeidi said the "Americans could send 2,000 F.B.I. agents to look wherever they wanted," Mr. Hage recalled.
He said that when he told Mr. Obeidi that the United States seemed adamant that Saddam Hussein give up power, Mr. Obeidi bristled, saying that would be capitulation. But later, Mr. Hage recounted, Mr. Obeidi said Iraq could agree to hold elections within the next two years."
This shows that Bush could have removed Saddam without war. As I wrote before the war, he should have accepted the concessions of Iraq as a victory and allowed the process to unfold without war. Sadly, for all those who have been killed and injured and for those who will have to pay in other ways for this unneccesary war, Bush chose war."
Lawyers at E.P.A. Say It Will Drop Pollution Cases: "A change in enforcement policy will lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week said.
... Congressional critics, environmental groups and officials in some Northeast states described the change as a major victory for the utility industry and a defeat for environmentalists, who had viewed the cases as the best way to require the companies to install billions of dollars of new pollution controls.
Representatives of the utility industry have been among President Bush's biggest campaign donors, and a change in the enforcement policies has been a top priority of the industry's lobbyists."
This story doesn't say who made this corrupt decision... who was it--Cheney?
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Syria Blames U.S. 'Terrorism' in Iraq: "The Syrian foreign ministry called on the United States to pull its troops out of Iraq, saying their presence has led to chaos and terrorism, according to remarks published Wednesday.
There was no terrorism problem in Iraq when the United States entered the country, a spokeswoman for Syria's foreign ministry said in an interview with the London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. "
Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?: "What the department of Defense is doing is creating the infrastructure to make the draft a viable option."
Misleading and Causing Death: "Mr. Cheney has cited a Zogby International poll to back his claim that there is 'very positive news' in Iraq. But the pollster, John Zogby, told me, 'I was floored to see the spin that was put on it; some of the numbers were not my numbers at all.'
Mr. Cheney claimed that Iraqis chose the U.S. as their model for democracy 'hands down,' and he and other officials say that a majority want American troops to stay at least another year. In fact, Mr. Zogby said, only 23 percent favor the U.S. democratic model, and 65 percent want the U.S. to leave in a year or less.
'I am not willing to say they lied,' Mr. Zogby said. 'But they used a very tight process of selective screening, and when they didn't get what they wanted they were willing to manufacture some results. . . . There was almost nothing in that poll to give them comfort.'"
Insurgents Strike U.S. Compound in Mosul: "The continuing attacks by shadowy groups of Iraqi resistance fighters have cast doubt on the ability of the U.S.-led coalition to contain the growing insurgency, and have sparked an exodus from Baghdad of international organizations and diplomats from several Western countries. "
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
U.S. to Privatize Iraqi Army: "The chief security adviser in the U.S.-led occupation flatly rejected on Tuesday proposals by Iraqi leaders that the old Iraqi army be recalled to duty to help stem the anti-American guerrilla war.
It would be 'a mistake even if it had been feasible,' said Walter Slocombe of the Coalition Provisional Authority. He said he foresees undisciplined 'mobs of people' responding to such a remobilization, simply to collect pay in job-hungry Iraq.
The CPA, in fact, is even cutting back on plans to train a new Iraqi army — plans that were already small-scale — by reducing its projected strength by late next year to 35,000, down from 40,000, Slocombe told The Associated Press.
The money saved will be shifted to more quickly trained security forces, to produce thousands more members of the Iraq Civil Defense Corps, for example, a paramilitary force whose members patrol with U.S. troops, monitor highways and perform similar functions.
'It's relatively cheap and relatively quick, and we obviously need additional Iraqi capability in the security area,' he told AP in the interview in his modest office at the huge, opulent Republican Palace, the CPA headquarters in central Baghdad. "
Will this private army be controlled by a US company, such as Kellogg, Brown and Root? And how much is this going to cost us?
A High Price for a Hollow Victory: "Every Senator, upon taking office, swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution. It is the Constitution - not the President, not a political party, but the Constitution - to which Senators swear an oath of loyalty. And I am here to tell you that neither the Constitution nor the American people are well served by a process and a product that are based on blind adherence to the will of the President at the expense of congressional checks and balances. It is as if, in a rush to support the President's policy, this White House is prepared to put blinders on the Congress. "
A High Price for a Hollow Victory: "The fact of the matter is, when it comes to policy, the Iraq [$87 Billion]supplemental is a monument to failure. "
Hiding the Bad News (washingtonpost.com): "When the Bushies say they want the bad news put in perspective, do they really mean they don't want it reported at all?
I ask this because of a piece out of Baghdad by veteran New York Times foreign correspondent Raymond Bonner. He reflects the anger that some U.S. officials are feeling toward the Fourth Estate, but also cites instances in which they try to suppress, downplay or minimize bad news.
In other words, even as the president complains about the 'filter' of the national media, his team in Iraq seems to be doing some filtering of its own. "
Occupation: In Die-Hard City, G.I.'s Are Enemy: "Even a group of American-trained Iraqi police officers, who American officials hope will help crack down on the insurgents, could not bring themselves to say anything positive about the occupation.
'We want them out of here,' said an Iraqi officer who gave only one name, Ahmed."
Turkey Accuses U.S. of 'Favoritism' in Iraq: "The Turkish ambassador in Washington said on Tuesday the United States was giving excessive favors to Kurdish groups in Iraq, at the risk of encouraging civil war and Kurdish secession in the future. "
You have to wonder, what is it about the Bush administration that they can't even get the people they bribe to support their foreign policy?
Monday, November 03, 2003
Bush Info-phobia Harms Democracy, Causes Blunders and Death in Iraq: "Democratic theory holds that open, well-informed discussion by citizens -- competition in the marketplace of ideas -- will in time produce the best policy. The Bush administration, however, believes that it has already decided upon the best policy, and that open, well-informed debate within its offices or in the country at large could only mislead people.
So it attempts to deny people information that they would need to reach competing points of view. It attempts to silence others through intimidation or attacks on patriotism. It attempts to mislead if necessary. And any debate it fails to squelch through those means it simply chooses to ignore. "
Bush has some questions to answer over Iraq: "Little sense of a plan, or even hope, was evident yesterday from Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary. All he could manage was the bleak refrain: 'In a long hard war, we are going to have tragic days as this.' It is perhaps little wonder that Americans are finding a word forming ever more forcefully on their lips. That word is not Victory; it is Vietnam. "
Bush's Scorekeeping System for Iraq: more deaths mean we are doing better: "President Bush explained last week how he was keeping score on the Iraqi conflict. Speaking on a day when at least 35 people died in a coordinated wave of suicide attacks in and around Baghdad, the president said, "The more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers will react."
By this terrifyingly blithe logic, we should soon be celebrating yet higher body counts. "
How can Bush really claim to care about the soldiers he is commanding? I mean, he's saying that the more of them who die, the better we are doing. This is insane. He supposedly went in there so Americans wouldn't die. But now the more that die, the better?
Well Mr. Bush, you must have celebrated the downing of that Chinook yesterday. By your logic, I guess that shows you are doing even better than you thought, with all those US soldiers dying and all?
Even if you think Iraq was a threat to the US before we invaded, which I don't, you have to agree with this writer, who says... "our discovery that the regime of weapons inspections that lasted from 1991 to 1998 had been far more effective than we thought means that we might have purchased our security at a far lighter cost."
The truth is that we didn't need to spend any money to get protection from Iraq, because there wasn't any threat. The UN inspections were working. US planes were attacking Iraqi air defences almost every day from the air in the north and south of the country. And the country was crippled from 10 years of stringent economic sanctions. All the people who have died as a result of this invasion have been killed unnecessarily. They are blood on this administration's hands.
As for the other justifications for the war, the main one being that Saddam was dreadful and a danger to his own people, within his own borders, let's take a look at that.
Saddam was a violent, ruthless, appallingly cruel murderer. There is no question about that. He was also a US ally when he gassed the Kurds. And our government issued a mild "tut tut" rebuke. He was our proxy, fighting the Iranians. We didn't care about the Kurds then. We didn't care about them after Pres Bush 1 encouraged them and the Si'ite arabs in the south to rebel against Saddam in 91 / 92. We only claimed to care about them more than a decade later. And then it was a shameful and hollow pretext for an unjustified war.
The question comes down to this for me. Do the Iraqi's have more rights, especially the basic right to safety and security now than they did under Saddam? I take my answer from ordinary Iraqi's. They are frequently quoted in news reports saying that they preferred to be as safe as they were under Saddam to the economic freedoms that the occupation is offering. In other words, they feel they are worse off now. We have given them Economic hopes, and actual death.
That is the greatest failure of all of the US invasion. After all the loss of life and the costs, Iraqi's are worse off. And the losses are increasing without any prospect of end, without anything more than bluster from Bush and Rumsfeld.
By the way, how come Rumsfeld is still in office? Just wondering.
Helicopter Down: "What is increasingly clear is that neither the present-day Pentagon whiz kids nor their patron, Vice President Dick Cheney, have learned much from history. They encourage President Bush to insist, 'We are not leaving;' and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to protest that this war is 'winnable.' But most of those with a modicum of experience in guerrilla warfare and the Middle East are persuaded that the war is not winnable and that the only thing in doubt is the timing of the U.S. departure. "
The Wounded Who Never Die: "If the wounds are minor, Sgt. Mike says, the troops are patched up in Iraq and sent back to their units. Troops with major injuries are flown to Germany for treatment, and from there to the United States.
But, judging from press reports, none of these wounded ever dies. Maybe I don't know where to look, but I haven't been able to find one single report of a soldier who died later of his or her injuries.
Not one. Isn't that curious? "
News Analysis: As Casualties in Iraq Mount, Will Resolve Falter?: "administration officials and military commanders have also been dismissive of the insurgency in a way that may now be questioned. On Saturday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq, said the attacks were 'strategically and operationally insignificant.'
... However, Kenneth Allard, a former Army colonel who teaches international security at Georgetown University, suggested that the Iraqi attacks would test American determination.
"Every single one of these attacks challenges American will, and American will is the center of gravity in this campaign," he said.
... Similarly, he said, Mr. Bush and his team have yet to convince the Iraqi people that the United States will prevail. "If you're an Iraqi, the biggest fear in your mind is that Saddam or his cohorts might be back," Mr. Allard said. "Everything they see now could convince them that the Americans may be faint-hearted. So at the least, they hedge their bets.""
Yahoo! News - Iranian journalists freed in Iraq accuse US captors of torture: "'The detention was unimaginable. The first 10 days were like a nightmare. We were subjected to severe torture,' Saeed Abou Taleb told state television as he and his freed colleague Sohail Karimi crossed back into Iran.
'The other four months were terrifying. I would rather not remember it. It was very bad, very bad,' he said as the pair were greeted at the southern Iranian border post of Shalamcheh, near the Iraqi city of Basra.
He did not elaborate on the allegation of torture, which the coalition spokesman in Iraq rejected out of hand saying: 'The coalition does not mistreat anyone in its custody -- full stop.' "
7,701 US casualties treated at Ramstein since launch of hostilities against Iraq: "7,701 -- the number of patients the hospital has seen since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "
Sunday, November 02, 2003
16 G.I.'S Are Killed, 20 Hurt as Missile Downs U.S. Copter: "In the last 10 days, at least 31 American soldiers have been killed, a toll whose full impact on the nation is not yet clear. "
News: "The UN Security Council sent a high-ranking delegation to Afghanistan yesterday to bolster the country's leader, Hamid Karzai, amid signs that his authority is steadily slipping to powerful warlords and warnings that an opium boom could turn Afghanistan into a failed state run by drug cartels."
Another failure of the Bush "War on Terror" policy of attack with shocking power, then fail to follow up and win the peace. Less than 2 years after the fall of the Taliban, the new regime is failing. Why? Because the warlords, whom Bush financed, are now running the country. What do they want? Money and power. How do they get it? By cultivating and selling opium. And after just 2 years, they are now the biggest exporters of opium in the world. Congratulations on creating peace and prosperity, George.
Sadly, those drugs are going to kill US kids. Sadly, those warlords are not going to obey your man Karzai. Sadly, the Taliban are coming back, and killing Americans in Afghanistan. Your failures also include the fact that you haven't captured Bin Ladin or the Taliban leader. You have made an ally of a dictator in Pakistan. You have made an ally of the most depraved dictators in the former Soviet republics to the north of Afghanistan. Just a catalog of errors which will create more problems than they will solve.
al-Qa'ida wasn't operating in Iraq under Saddam, but it is now: "Critics believe, however, that Washington's failure to plan for the occupation is creating a vacuum into which foreign elements are being drawn: the very situation the invasion was meant to prevent. One US source told Jane's Intelligence Digest: 'If al-Qa'ida wasn't operating in Iraq under Saddam, it surely is now.'"
The hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq winds down: "Intelligence officers and other military personnel are being pulled off the increasingly futile hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and assigned instead to deal with the worsening security situation - one that claimed another two American lives yesterday."
This is a de facto admission that Bush accepts there are no WMD in Iraq. I doubt he will ever admit it. But here we have the evidence that they are giving up looking any more.
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Remember these arrogant--and completely erroneous--forecasts from Cheney, Perle and the other war-mongering "compassionate conservatives"?: "'I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.'
... the Iraqi opposition would 'collapse after the first whiff of gunpowder'
..."Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad. Moderates throughout the region would take heart."
Compare that lot of hot air with a more sober, and accurate appraisal from "the late General Vo Nguyen Giap, the victor of Indochina. "The enemy will pass slowly from the offensive to the defensive," he said in a landmark speech to his troops. "The blitzkrieg will transform itself into a war of long duration. Thus, the enemy will be caught in a dilemma: he has to drag out the war in order to win it but he does not possess, on the other hand, the psychological and political means to fight a long, drawn-out war."
Giap was assessing the French in Vietnam in 1950, and he got it right again with the Nixon administration in 1970, predicting that American public opinion would eventually want out."
The US public does not have the heart this time for a long drawn out conflict, and despite the Bushies attempts to control the news coming out of Iraq, the disaster there is becoming clear back home. The military and reserve families who are protesting are the beginning of the end for Bush. The center will not hold for him. He has lost Iraq. And created a disaster for the middle east and the world. Whether he will lose the election in 04 is another matter. That depends on whether or not we still have a democracy next November. And that to me is a real question, with this administration in power.
U.S. Moves to Counter Iraq Insurgency With Iraqi's: "More Iraqi security forces will be trained and deployed more quickly to deal with the anti-U.S. resistance, said U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer.
'It will take time to root them out,' Bremer told reporters. But his U.S. commander said it was still not known who 'they' are -- who is financing and masterminding increasingly coordinated strikes.
Those attacks spiked upward recently to an average of 33 a day. Most occur in central Iraq, but Saturday's deadliest blow came in the north, in the city of Mosul, where the U.S. military said a makeshift roadside bomb exploded and killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded two others as they drove by in two civilian vehicles. "
The US is admitting it doesn't have the ability to establish security in Iraq. It's policy of dismantling the Iraqi military was a mistake. And with the increasing frequency of attacks, they are panicking. Having Iraqi's police Iraqi's, and Iraqi's manning the army in Iraq is a step forward. But if it doesn't come with Iraqi control of political institutions, this will blow up in our faces too.
Nation Again Split on Bush (washingtonpost.com): "Democrats, however, are virtually invisible as an effective opposition to a president who commands center stage. Even many loyal Democrats complain that their party has no strong leaders and no alternative vision to Bush on either foreign or economic policy. The nine Democratic presidential candidates have made almost no impression on voters outside the few states with early caucuses or primaries next year. Most voters cannot name more than one or two of the candidates.
Bush begins the campaign year with an overall approval rating of 56 percent, according to the new Post-ABC News poll. That number is good by historical standards and masks sharp differences between Republicans and Democrats. Eighty-seven percent of Republicans approve of how Bush is handling the presidency, while 24 percent of Democrats approve -- a 63-point gap in perceptions. Independents narrowly approve of his performance, splitting 52 to 47 percent. "
US says no to CO 2 cut for industry: "Larry Craig, the Idaho senator, said there was no need for a 'massive new regulatory process' for industrial carbon dioxide. 'It is not a pollutant. It does not represent a direct threat to public health.' "
Right!
US puts right to protest at risk: "'The government's action is unprecedented - prosecuting an entire organisation for the expressive activities of its supporters,' he said. If it succeeded, he said: 'Non-violent civil protest - an essential tradition from colonial times to the modern civil rights movement - may become yet another casualty of [the attorney general] John Ashcroft's attack on civil liberties.
'Two hundred and thirty years ago American protesters boarded ships over objectionable cargo,' he said. 'It was called the Boston Tea Party, and it was critical to focusing colonists' objections to British rule... If such limited protests against commercial ships are banned, then acts of protest in malls, universities and public plazas will be next.' "
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Cloned meat a step nearer US menus: "America moved a step closer to serving meat and milk from cloned animals or their progeny yesterday when the government's food regulation agency said they would be as safe to eat as conventional foods.
"The finding means that food products derived from animal clones are likely to be as safe as corresponding products from non-clones, or as safe as foods that we eat everyday," the study says. It does not address animal welfare, environmental safety, or ethical questions. "
Likely. That's the key word here. Cloned meat is likely to be as safe as non-cloned meat. That's a pretty low standard, and yet it opens to door for wholesale contamination of livestock DNA with cloned genes.
Bush banner banter embarrasses White House - www.theage.com.au: "White House communications staff go to great lengths to stage the sites where Bush speaks around the country, often constructing Hollywood-like sets to strengthen the theme of a speech.
Some months ago, when Bush was to deliver a speech on the US economy, they set out behind him shipping crates bearing the false inscription, 'Made in America,' replacing crates that were hidden behind a curtain and bore the inscription, 'Made in China'. "
Bush's strategy: let the Iraqi's do the fighting: "Mr Bush flagged his strategy on Tuesday. It calls for rapidly increasing the 'Iraqification' of the conflict. By Thursday Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were spelling out what this meant. The idea is to push many more Iraqi police and security officials into the front lines against the insurgency while at the same time declaring political victory on the ground. "
