General Clark speaks

The much quoted phrases by which Wesley Clark praises Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld et al, is found in the middle of this speech, given at a Republican fund-raiser in May, 1991. Okay, so I don't like the company Clark kept, and some of his phrasing is corny as hell, but on balance, I can live with what he said. Certainly, since I'm a member of AnybodyButBush, I can live with it a hell of a lot better than I can with the incumbent.

A dose of sanity, a lesson in arithmetic

No, Tribune Bremer, this ain't no Marshall Plan for Iraq. Not by a long shot. Do the math. (Scroll down to "L.A. Times readers have it nailed" post.)

And for another comparison of the Marshall Plan to Tribune Bremer's giveaway, check out the International Herald Tribune.

I ain't no conservative, but...

I couldn't said it better. (And note the date--87 billion dollars ago.)

Ah, The Game's Afoot

This from the NYT, buried at the bottom of the article: The discussion of Russia's hope that Bush will agree to let Russia have access to Iraq's oilfields, as Russia had previously agreed with Saddam Hussein, in exchange for Russian troops as peacekeepers in Iraq. Of course this was denied by all, but a Russian businessman spoke frankly: "Mr. Alekperov said that he knew of no such quid pro quo of oil for Russian military help, but did not discount the possibility of Russian troops going to Iraq at some point. Sending troops, he said, "is a political question. But if oil contracts go through quickly, we would have lots of Russian oil specialists on the ground, and every country should be able to protect its own people."

More Reserve Troops to Iraq?

Yahoo! News - U.S. May Send More Reserve Troops to Iraq

It's only been weeks since Rumsfeld was over there, boppin' around in Tikrit like a little Caesar, and we were all told that we had plenty of troops in Iraq. Ooops, watch where you step. Another load of BS.

One thing about this administration, they're keeping the country well fertilized.

Wisdom from Egypt

These quotes from Egypt's Foreign Minister ring true about Iraq. "They will not be a model [for democracy], and no model will be imposed on them." And "I don't think that countries are eager to be models."

A democracy arises from the people--as it proclaims in our Declaration of Independence. It's not a concept that flows down from higher authority.
I predict--actually, I know, as does any other sane follower of current events in the Middle East--that if the US really does "withdraw" from Iraq at some point (which by the way I doubt--our presence there in the form of bases and military authority will be felt eternally) within weeks there will be chaos, including violence, upheaval and, very likely, a reversion to the tribal battles and mad power-grabs that led to Saddam's accretion of authority in the first place.

This policy of Bush's is so sad, so tragic, so stupid. For us, for the Iraqis, for the world. As the Egyptian Foreign Minister said, "Let Iraq be itself."

Like father, like son

A Newsday article from 1991 details Bush's distortions and exaggerations of intelligence before the Gulf War. Amazingly congruent with the events of twelve years later.

Body Count

Remember, I wrote that the number of killed would surpass the number of firefighters killed at ground zero? 343. Wish I hadn't written that.


"Let's count the bodies over again.
...
If we could only make the bodies smaller
We could fit
A body into a finger-ring for a keepsake forever."
-- from Counting Small Boned Bodies by Robert Bly

Do not weep.
War is kind.

But Who's Counting?

Today we reached and exceeded 2,000 casualties in Iraq. That's not Iraqis--that's the good guys: soldiers and sailors of the UK, USA and a few other nations. Total killed since the invasion began=359. Wounded=1644.
I don't hear any brass bands, I see no flags waving. In fact, most of the soldiers have been hauled secretly to a stateside hospital to be sliced and diced and fitted with plastic limbs, then shipped home as damaged goods--or in a body bag.
Two thousand. You'd think somebody'd notice.

Colin Powell, Liar

For too long we've allowed Colin Powell to skate, but no longer. All the others have a justification (however demented) for their perfidy. Cheney, money. Rumsfeld, power. The NeoCons, fanaticism. Rice, pandering. Bush, ignorance. But Colin Powell, our above-the-fray Secretary of State, what about him? Why would he lie about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? With his stellar background, how could he lie?

So far, he's skated. But the fact is, even more persuasive during the lie-up to the invasion of Iraq than Bush's speeches was Powell's dog-and-pony show to the Security Council: Mock-ups of mobile labs, audiotapes of hushed phonecalls--a skit replete with crude props. But it turns out Powell was lying through his teeth then, and in a later UN appearance--and he knew it.

But why? Colin Powell's got a hell of an Army pension, could earn fabulous honorariums, sit on numerous Boards and Foundations? Why lie, why sell his soul?

From my lawyering days, I recall this remark by an older practitioner. "The most dangerous liar is the one who appears to have no reason to lie and gives no hint of it. No bias or prejudice to use as ammunition for cross-examination, no twitch of lip, no shifty eyes. To defeat such a liar, there is only one tool, one weapon: the facts.

Unreality TV

According to the Nielsens, Monday's interview by Brit Hume (also known as Bush Bootlicker) of President Bush on the Fox network finished dead last in the ratings for that time slot, behind some lame comedies and an NFL game that was a thirty-point blowout. Now, if it had been a reality show, maybe...

"That is a sorry state of affairs," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "I think most people, when they heard that the interview was going to happen, just assumed they weren't going to hear anything new that they hadn't already heard."

Bingo!

Ham-fisted authority

Tribune Bremer, who previously disbanded the Iraqi Army (thereby loosing hundreds of thousands of armed young men, jobless, on the Iraqi citizenry) has, as previously reported, ordered a full-scale opening of Iraq's commerce to foreign private ownership. I previously argued that this was hypocritical--hardly the considered act of a democratic authority--and now the Guardian, in an excellent analysis, points out that it will spell economic disaster for Iraq, as indeed it did for the former Soviet Union twelve years ago.
Isn't anybody thinking out there?
I gotta say, I feel sorry for the Iraqis, really do. They've got to be feeling more frustrated than I do--and that's hard to imagine.

A World Gone Mad

The enlightened West, having "won" a war that supposedly freed Afghani women from Muslim fundamentalist laws that they cover their bodies with bhurkas, a German court has ruled that school authorities in individual communities may bar Muslim women teachers from wearing head scarves during class.

Global Gag Rule

... is cruel, utterly lacking in compassion. It's not religious conservatism, it's fascist fundamentalism. Where have we heard that before?

Is there no limit?

These guys who are calling the shots in Washington must be strung up. Now we learn that Bush's anti-abortion policy--denying US funds to third-world health providers that provide prophylactic advice--is closing clinics in Africa, thereby denying health care, including AIDS care, to thousands of Africans because the clinics counsel use of condoms to fight the spread of the disease.
This is the same compassionate conservative who announced in his State of the Union address that he was committing $15 billion (none of which has been spent yet) to fight AIDs in Africa. This is so sick, so demented, I can say no more.

Iraq on eBay?

Damn, it looks like it's gonna go for more than my credit limit.
Update: The eBay police have apparently discovered this product and removed it from the bid. Too bad, too late. The successful bidder was the American taxpayer.

Rockin' In The Free World

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
...
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.

[Neil Young]

...

Check out metaphor tonight. Blogger's going to town on George W. ... Check out this great, funny column by Molly Ivins. ... Check out Poets Against the War, protest in Washington 10/25. ... And as long as you're in a surfing mood, here's Howard Dean.

Riverbend scores again

This story ("For Sale: Iraq") on the Baghdad Burning blog parallels the efforts of the Iraqis (Check out the "Fly on the Wall" post below) who arrived in Washington, D.C. just about now, seeking to bypass Bremer's bureaucracy and rebuild Iraq using Iraqis. What a concept. And how well conveyed by Riverbend.

Falling flat

One benefit of not having a television is listening to, rather than watching, speeches. I've heard Bush's last two speeches, the hastily-called address about two weeks ago when he assured us all was well in Iraq, and all he needed to rebuild it and Afghanistan was $87 billion; and today's address to the General Assembly of UN, where he said all was still going swimmingly in Iraq, and BTW, "buddies, can you lend a hand?"
The Guardian's headline for its story about the latter is "Bush Isolated as Speech to UN Falls Flat." Well, having heard his speech--as well as Kofi Annan's and Jacques Chirac's--I couldn't agree more. It was an uninspired, rambling mumble about nonproliferation of weapons, trafficking in sex-slaves, a few other things, all mixed in with a grumble or two about the needs of the Iraqis for help in becoming a free nation.
Really a boring presentation, as was Bush's truculent demand for the $87 billion two weeks ago.
Here's my observation: We know nothing about Bush's character. After all, he's never been tested, never faced adversity. He's been bailed out of every tight spot he's ever been in, and here he is again. How does he perform when there's no daddy or fellow-traveling businessmen to come to his aid?
Here's my question: Could it be Bush has lost his taste for this job? I'm not suggesting he'll decide not to run in 2004, but it's possible we could see a different, much less convincing and--frankly--attractive Bush in this campaign than when it was all new to him. Certainly when he faces the personalities of Dean or Clark, as opposed to Gore, we'll see what he's up to. I have my doubts he'll do well in such a setting. It may be too difficult for him. He may, as they say in sports, "just mail it in."

Credit where credit is due

I consider myself an original thinker about matters political, and I surely have spent much time on the subject of Iraq and Bush and cabals and the like. But this piece in Newsweek online, at the tail end, provides an insight I've missed. After all is said and done, with all the latest revelations and admissions by Bush/Rumsfeld, the only remaining reason for invading Iraq was to show the world, and the Middle East in particular, that we were not to be messed with; to display our might after the attack on our nation by lesser powers. And that proof--that we are invincible, indominable--is about to evaporate when Bush returns tomorrow to the UN, hat in hand, tail between legs, and asks our "allies" to help us with the war we cannot win alone.
So--that leaves us, after billions of dollars and thousands of lives, with a net zero. Indeed, some might say, with a net loss of those millions and thousands.
And with Saddam in hiding and Osama still on the loose, plotting.