Saturday, August 28, 2004

Devil in the details

Here's a quote from Islam Online, detailing the points of agreement under which al-Sadr's militia moved out of the shrine of Najav:

Late Thursday, Sadr signed a five-point plan put forward by Sistani that insisted on the departure of all armed elements from Najaf and its twin city of Kufa.

Sadr ceded control of the Imam Ali shrine to representatives of the religious leadership Friday, August 27.

But fighters of his Mehdi Army refused to surrender their weapons to Iraqi authorities, defying one of three conditions laid down by the caretaker government for halting its US-backed assault on the militia.

Reports said fighters hid their Kalashnikov rifles at home, while mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were stashed in safe houses in the Old City.


That's why I read Islam Online. For the details.

Okay, here goes

High-ups in the Pentagon, an inch away from the highest-ups, are handing Israel our state secrets. Let's see. What can that mean?

To me, it proves that the neocons--the men who've taken over the Defense Department--are, and have always been, bent on establishing a system in the Middle East by which the US, with Israel as its local nuclear-armed ally, dominates the oil-rich region. To resident Muslims, it confirms precisely that, and that both Israel and the US are the mortal enemies of Islam.

I'm an American citizen. I have no designs on the Middle East, I want energy independence from the region and want our government to stop supporting regimes that allow our corporations to exploit their oil, at the expense of the citizens of the nations that own the resources.

I certainly don't side with Israel in its constant war with the arabs who are trying to regain lands long ago inhabitated by them and promised them by the United Nations sixty years ago.

This latest Bush administation scandal--Feith-gate--tells me this: Our nation is so egregiously off course in its dealings with the rest of the world, and in its treatment of the world, that revolution is inevitable.

Photo Finish

OK folks, the race is on and Bush is way ahead. We need to give our blogger Erik some encouragement. See, this is the 950th post on All That Arises. There are currently 971 US casualties of the Iraq war. The question is, will George W. Bush bring home the 1000th dead American before Erik can post his 1000th entry?

Here are the rules: no dividing essays into multiple posts, no multi-bagging of remains. It's gonna be a photo finish, folks, possibly in time for W's acceptance speech. Well, no photos involved, exactly; I doubt Erik will let us in his comfy crib with a digital camera, and no photos are allowed at Andrews AFB. ...

Sorry Erik, but personally, my money's on Bush. Somebody get Vegas on the line.

I mean no disrespect for our troops or their families. I know this post is in terrible taste, but so is this damn war. If this made you uncomfortable, good.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Cute

In an interview with the NYT, Bush has apparently admitted "miscalculations" in his assessment of postwar Iraq. Miscalculations. Sounds alot like "mistakes," doesn't it? As in Vietnam?


Sounds even more like Goebbels explaining the retreat from Stalingrad. Miscalculations. Tell that to the dead GI's, the dead Iraqis, the dead allies. Tell that to the American taxpayers, whose payments have been wasted, whose goodwill has been wasted over the world.

A miscalculation of enormous proportions. Certainly big enough to warrant Bush's replacement as president.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

The moderate force arrives

The Shia cleric, al-Sistani, is about to lead a march into Najav. He's being styled as the the "moderate influence" in Iraq, whose presence will quiet the conflict.

What? Does that mean that we, the US, who're supporting the Interim PM, Alawi, are on one extreme, and that al-Sadr is on the other, so that a moderate influence is needed? Yes? Well, whaddya know. I thought we were supposed to be the moderating influence in Iraq. Silly me.

Isn't this refreshing?

An actual mass-media source, USA Today, taking the higher-ups in the Pentagon to task for the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib prison.

Counterbalanced, however, with the report I saw this evening by Tom Brokaw on NBC (I rarely watch network news, but it was on, so what the hell): Brokaw reported the Iraqi soccer team's rejection of Bush's political ads with a soft-spoken, denigrating attitude, like the soccer players were stooges or something.

NBC, and Brokaw, are owned, are stooges themselves. I must tell you, I've lost respect for our media, all of it, except, occasionally C-Span and of course the truly good radio stations, like KPFK locally and AirAmerica nationally.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

If I were an ally of the United States

I'd be pissed off bigtime. While Bush is claiming he's made America safer from terrorism by his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the nations that supported us--Saudi Arabia,Spain, Australia, Italy, many others--have each suffered devastating attacks. So maybe during the last couple of years we haven't been attacked, but if you line up the series of nations, it pretty much looks like we're next. Let's just hope it doesn't come in a form, or at a time, that does other than show Bush to be what a cheap imposter he is as a chief executive.

Could it be, could it possibly be

that the story about the Iraqi soccer team's refutation of Bush's campaign ads that tout their success as Bush's success will finally make it to the major media? Finally, the LA Times has picked up the story. Can it now be ignored? Let's see.

The latest scam in Iraq

After all the trumpeting of the "handover of sovereignty" two months ago, one would think that Iraq's "election" of the interim governing body would be met with trombones and tubas ablaring. But no. Hardly a word's been heard about the event, even though the body is supposed to have veto power of the interim PM's decisions, and to have legislative power until the nationwide elections, supposedly to occur in early 2005. Reason for the silence? The "interim national council," as it's called was chosen without fair ballot, over the protest of numerous of those assembled to vote on it, and consists largely of the same hand-picked US puppets, mostly foreign-dwelling Iraqis, who the US installed initially. And the vote to select these 100 council members? Forget about it. A four-person tribunal made the selection.

Sound familiar?

Monday, August 23, 2004

My brother's email to the Kerry campaign

Right on, John.

"Mr. Kerry should shout to the world that it doesn't really matter who did what as to their military service over 30 years ago, but that what's important is that he had the guts, along with our [Arizona's] great Mo Udall, to be one of the first to protest the wasteful and fruitless war in Vietnam and that he initiated a protest movement that successfully brought our troops home after the country realized the truth of his message. He should be prouder of his heroism in delivering this message than he is about his military decorations."

Somebody set me straight on this

but wasn't Hitler the host of the 1936 Olympic games at which, for the first timne, the national anthem of the nation of the gold medalist was played during the medal-presentation ceremonies? Indeed, didn't Hitler start this mad national medal-counting that the US has since found so compelling, so overwhelmingly important?
I'm so tired of NBC's continual playing of the US national anthem that I'm about to puke. I love this country--its magnificent geography, the verbiage of its founding documents, a few other things--but for God's sake, enough of this media-hammered xenocraziness.

I'm pissing in the wind, I know it. But in a few centuries, my voice will be heard. Just think about it. Do we imagine that in an advanced society, such as we might find on a planet ten thousand years from now, they have boundaries, nations, national anthems?

What the hell are we doing?

We're bombing the Sunnis in Fallujah, we're assaulting the Shias in Najav. If anybody out there in cyberspace--anybody reading this blog, if there's anybody reading this blog--can tell me why the US is doing this, please feel free to share.

Iraq Coalition Casualties

I haven't been posting much to All That Arises lately. My longtime hobby, ontological bungie jumping, has been keeping me busy this summer. But I'll continue occasionally, as a contributor to Erik's estimable blog. And of course, I wouldn't miss the opportunity to leave semi-literate, smartass comments on Erik's posts.

To prove my intentions are honorable, I'd like to call your attention to the fact that coalition casualties now number well over one thousand. 1094 to be exact.

Please keep this in mind as we endure the RNC convention and the continuing breaking news coverage of vapid insinuations about Kerry's military service. Thanks.

Iraq Coalition Casualties

Sunday, August 22, 2004

If Bush wins this election,

it's because Kerry failed to contest him on the dominant issue in the campaign, the war in Iraq. This Time magazine essay calls Kerry's position on the war as a straitjacket, and rightly so. Kerry has been wholly complicit in Bush's mishandling of the war, silent about the ab-graib prison scandal, silent about the ongoing killing, about Halliburton's defalcations, about even the on-again, off-again conduct of military operations.

I'm miserable, watching Kerry give away all these points while being hammered for his war record. I'm actually angry at Kerry for misguaging the issues so grossly.

Ouch, this hurts

When ninety-plus Muslim leaders from middle-eastern countries condemn the US occupation of Iraq. And in not too generous terms, either.

So, Can we finally put this matter to rest?

Here's the story of the commander of a swift boat adjacent to Kerry's. The man had for decades wanted to avoid talking about it, but couldn't stay silent any longer. Read it and resolve this: As between AWOL flyboy Bush and Lt. Kerry, guess who wins the "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?" award.

A must read: Raimondo on Buchanan

Libertarian Justin Raimondo reviews Pat Buchanan's recent book, to terrific effect. If you need to be motivated to keep Bush from gaining a second term, read/buy Buchanan's book, Where the Right Went Wrong.