DUBYA's DANGEROUS WAR Edition March STM Newsletter
CONTENTS: WAR PROGRESS, SHELL GAME- who is SADDAM?, REBUILDING
EYERAK, RENO IS NOT JUST NV, HART's WAR,
RI NIGHTCLUB HORROR
As we plunge into the most
reckless, unjustified, and immoral war since the Philippines and commit a
blunder that may echo down through the decades; let's say it clearly,
without shading or pretense, without genuflection or fig leaf: our President
is a liar. A serial, repetitive, egregious liar. A man who lies not only in
the service of his single minded crass policies, but who does so automatically-
as a reflex. Mr. Bush isn’t just the most dishonest President I’ve seen in 4
decades of watching them, he’s the most consistently dishonest politician I’ve
ever seen.
These
lies have been aided
and abetted by the press and the woeful ignorance of the public. For a
year, they painted squeaky clean boy scout Al Gore as a liar, trumpeting minor
transgressions into major perfidy, manufacturing “evidence”, while George the
Second’s blatant hypocrisies, contradictions,
and stupidity were whitewashed. He was congenial; he had nicknames; he was available.
Al Gore’s reluctance to cozy up to the press wasn’t seen in light of his
exposure to the 6 year Clinton witchhunt and the radioactive right-wing hatreds
that fueled it. No, mild-mannered dryly witty Al was cold. Despite wall to wall
coverage of the 2000 election, the fact that Gore won by 540,000 votes was
never presented as a moral claim to victory (never presented at all- the number
never went above 330,000) and 3 incredible outrages of Florida vote theft
simply weren’t reported- the public was tired of the story. After the
flaying experience of losing when he won, Gore tossed it in- I don’t blame him-
the game was fixed. And now, in a stunning violation of broadcasting ethics and
flex of propaganda muscle, Clear Channel, the huge radio network that owns over
1200 stations in 50 states (many right wing talk), is holding 20,000
person rallies to support Bush's war in many cities.
Bush pledged to bring us together- he appointed the
dregs of the right-wing barrel: Ted Olson, John Poindexter, Elliot Abrams, Otto
Reich. He pledged to rule from the middle, but he’s appointed a chain of
unqualified extremists to the federal bench who might well overturn abortion
rights and crush constitutional rights. Even after the debacle of Trent Lott’s
racist pandering, Bush showed his true feelings by trying to abolish
affirmative action. After another proposed tax giveaway to the rich: $165
billion, 45% to the top 1 %, Ari Fleischer suggested that hospital emergency
rooms didn’t really have to treat the poor. This was rescinded 2 weeks
later when even Repubs went ballistic. Bush claimed he would protect the
environment; he’s abolished auto mileage and smokestack emission standards that
were 32 years in the making- through 6 Presidents. Under cover of the
horrendous deficits that Bush has created, he plans to shred the social safety
net: partially privatizing Social Security, starving Medicare, and winnowing
welfare.
Again
and again GB2 has tried to tie Saddam with Osama: Saddam supports him, he gives
Al Qaida refuge, he’s about to finish a nuclear bomb. All lies. OBL hates
Saddam, he is an unbeliever who’s annihilated Moslem leaders along with any
others who could lift a finger in opposition. Worse, he’s done it in the heart
of the Islamic world, at the very cradle of civilization. OBL would boil him in
oil, if given his druthers. Trumped up evidence, repackaged long past its
freshness date, till it stinks with the corruption of this regime. Saddam had
aluminum tubes for nuclear fabrication: not really; Iraq was buying
uranium from Niger: the papers were forged. ("Fine," said
Colin.); prohibited missiles: not if loaded with a warhead (they destroyed the
short range missiles anyway); dangerous drones: actually ramshackle junk
(though this might be an Iraqi scam). The truth is- Bush planned to invade
Iraq, to outdo and avenge his father, to kill a persistent irritant, to
guarantee a stable source of oil, to cow the world… before he became
President. All rationales, all reasons, all explanations, are window
dressing on a clumsy thuggish foreign policy, one opposed by 98% of the world
(not all their leaders, who can be bought and bullied). If Saddam was stripped
naked and staked to the ground in the western Iraq desert, it wouldn’t be
enough to stop Bush’s Wanton War. Two life long state department officials, and 2
British MP's have resigned in protest over Iraq policy.
The
result of all this untruth is that 42% of our people think Saddam was involved
in planning 9-11, 55% think he’s in league with Al Qaida,(and 55% think
an Iraq invasion won't increase terrorism-uh huh). They believe this because
the President told them so. Of course, only 13% of 18-24 year olds could
identify Iraq on a map. Of some 1000 satellite phone calls that OBL made, not
one went to Iraq, but our media has let this gem sink in the sands of
Mr. Bush’s propaganda. Is there any doubt that our troops will find (concocted
or not-we will never know) evidence of WMD's, and is there any doubt
that our fully militarized "embedded" press corp will dutifully
report what it is fed? The truth is 30-40% of our nation has been soaking up
raw propaganda in the right-wing exhortations of Rush, Reagan, Ollie, O'Reilly,
Fox News, and other hate radio schlockmeisters for over a decade- they believe anything-
as long as it has a clear villain. To rally support for his policies, Mr. Bush
has twice gone to military bases: Fort Hood and Mayport Naval Air Station. The
contemptibility of this can’t be overstated: these are kids-18,19,20 years old;
these are the cream of American youth whose job it is the President’s to
protect! This is like a pimp
gleaning support and approval from the runaway girls at the bus station. And
even on an aircraft carrier, where troops might be expected to be more worldly,
only 30% could name the Secretary of State, according to the captain. Their job
is to fight, and kill, and maybe die for their country- many want to trade
their practice video games of death for the real ones, till they see the
result. Being wounded or killed isn’t the only threat; one can be wounded by
killing. The President does his best Clint Eastwood squinty-eyed rasp and
dumbass macho clichés and gets great prime-time images. But the act is getting
tired. At a delayed Gary Hart lecture at liberal Brown U. March 18, people were
allowed to just speak their mind for 40 minutes: surprisingly more than half
were pro-war or "be considerate of Bush", but they had a sad
plaintive tone. They'd been fed poison for some time, and some part of them
realized it- but they pleaded to be convinced otherwise.
To
service his Oedipal obsession, Bush has corrupted the overrated but
cinematically perfect Colin Powell, to sally forth and dispense the imperial
truths to the heathens of the Security Council. When they balked at the massive
arrogance, phantom evidence, and enormous risks of his plans, he tried again to
bribe them (don’t forget, the first vote in Oct probably cost $50
billion in aid, loan guarantees, military booty). Then we bugged them. This
time around, Turkey alone would get $26 billion and the right to
annihilate Kurds (though even they aren’t getting rolled)- add it all up
and it’s probably $100 bil in bribes, + $50 bil from last Oct. + $80 bil for a
new war + $150 bil for a 3-5 year occupation and reconstruction: that’s $380
bil on top of the $320 bil deficit- now we’re talking $700 billion deficit and
a massive military boot on the neck of the sputtering economy. But, our
peerless reformed drunk CIC wants more tax cuts; “quiero más y más” like the
promo song says for the NBC show (drug) Kingpin. To feed the maw of the
corporate mavens who funded, nurtured, and created this tinpot turkey, till he
was the de facto winner a year before any primary. This is the type of thing
that Presidents should be impeached over.
But the monetary costs can be bourn; the
other costs are far more crushing- shattering
the Atlantic Pact and 
NATO, the most successful military-moral
alliance in history; ignoring and deriding
the recalcitrant UN (set up to prevent
rash unjustified military actions); denigrating and disparagingFrance and
Germany- the heart of Europe to scavenge for allies among the poor ex-Soviet
satellites. Our new bulwark of freedom is Bulgaria? Everything Bush says he
will prevent by invasion, he will actually cause. Stop use of WMD’s? Saddam
is a fan of Hitler, who gladly sacrificed 300,000 Berliners against the furious
tide of the Red Army, which lost 1 million in the Battle of Berlin. Saddam will
use everything he has. End terrorism? An invasion will so inflame the
1.2 billion Muslims, that 1-2 million new terrorists will be generated, who
will plague us for another decade or two. And they won't be the homeless losers
of Al Qaida (Richard Reed could have brought down a $150 million plane, but he
forgot a 40 cent Bic lighter); they'll be middle class, doctors, professionals,
some $50-100 million Saudi sheik- all off the radar. Eventually they will get
their hands on a nuke and woe is us. Idiot Osama was fueled by outrage over the
mere basing of US troops in Saudi Arabia, what rage will a conquest and 5 year
occupation of Iraq create? Cooperation
by Islamic states against Al Qaida, against whom such strides were being taken,
will evaporate. Even snubbed, ignored, and humiliated European states
may cool the hunt. Create democracy in Iraq? Really? That’s got a long
successful history in Arabia and N. Africa- and how fawning must it be- Bush
hasn’t appreciated the democratic world’s opinion on his nation-building
notions. Create peace in the Middle East? When Israel has momma bear right next
door, think they will be more inclined to negotiate fairly with the
Palestinians? Security Council in danger of irrelevance? That’s exactly what
Bush would cause by an unauthorized invasion.
Saddam
is a monster, and I have no problem with his assassination. I do have a problem
with killing 100,000 already devastated people and trashing the Iraqi
infrastructure yet again. I have a problem with blithe assurance of the
armchair warriors of the Bush administration that we can subdue and colonize a
harsh Moslem country and sit astride its oil throat without consequence. I
have a problem with the world’s most powerful military crushing a country whose
people now make $3 a month (before the Gulf War it was $22,000/yr) and who
haven't killed a single American for a decade. I have a problem with the
amazing lie that we have to do this now, while looney-tune Kim
Jong Il punches out nukes like doughnuts, nukes he has to sell to feed his
starving country. Gee, I wonder who'll pay the most? I’ve supported almost
every overt intervention my country has done (except Grenada)- I think we have
a historic opportunity to overthrow the murderous mullahs of Iran who sent
hundreds of thousands of children into machine guns, executed hundreds of
thousands more, and killed 400-800 Americans- by applying slow military
pressure and inviting the long-oppressed Iranian populace to rise up. I used to
think Rumsfeld and Cheney were military geniuses: now I think they’re vicious
pit-bulls. Great to maul a mugger, but they must be kept on a short strong
chain and yanked back constantly. Bush has set them loose to ravage the
neighborhood. And soon they might kill a child.
But the yahoo nation in America is rising up
it’s beer-soaked Rush-addled yell. Alterman and another liberal columnist have
had to write I oppose the war and all it stands for, but when the troops
land, I will support them “because I am a patriot.” This comes from hate mail and death threats,
not conviction. And MSNBC canceling its most popular program: Donahue,
and replacing him with conservative clowns because ‘we all must speak with one
voice’. I love the French, who are doing the job that our craven Congress
failed to- they may be squirrelly and self-serving (and they financially
benefit from Iraqi oil), but they’re the most freedom-loving people in the
world. They eat well, sleep well, and ___ well. Every year or so they get
furious about something and come to Paris to riot for a day- they burn some
cars and go home… and the government lets them. C’est la vie. Contrast
this to America, where the largest protest rallies in human history must be
kept out of view of the White House or the UN, participants must
negotiate Christo-length barricades, and NYC cops beat and bully peaceful
protesters, as if the right of assembly was a joke. Contrary to popular
opinion, Americans are mostly liked or loved around the world- not just because
of our wealth and cultural dominance, but because of our moral principles, an
asset that Mr. Bush is about to squander. From Russian mobsters to Bedouin
tribesmen, people would usually rather hang out with us, than prey on us. The
loss of our moral capital, the righteousness of our beliefs, in the
eyes of the world, could be the most costly
and long-lasting result of our President’s
wanton war.
But let’s run this out- an invasion will
create so much hatred that American tourists,
the softest targets, will be attacked and
killed around the world. We won’t leave home
much any more. Sooner or later the pool of
new (or old) terrorists, forming new cells
independent of Al Qaida (whom we were beating!)
will succeed with a nuke or bioweapon and
kill 30 or 50 or 200 thousand Americans.
Then what???? I’ll tell you, with this President: Martial
law. Suspension of the Bill of Rights. Round-ups of Muslims + enemies of the
state. Detention camps. Silencing of administration critics. Oh, we won’t stand
for that, you say? No, we will demand it. Such totalitarian steps worry Stephen Flynn,
the author of the Hart-Rudman Report on America’s
continuing vulnerability, and perhaps America’s
foremost expert on homeland security. (After
a major attack,) “If you think John Ashcroft’s
going to sit down with the American Civil
Liberties Association, you’re living in La
La land.” To somewhat quote FDR, The
only thing we have to (really) fear.... is ourselves. And crazy Kim, will, as the war starts,
commit provocative acts- by the time it ends,
he will be frantic with paranoia that he
is next on the Bush hit parade. This freak
is not somebody we want to make frantic with
fear.
The Communists' favorite tactic was to provoke a
massive overreaction in their foe and use the resulting popular outrage and
uprising for their own twisted purposes. Somewhere in a cave or dingy basement,
a gaunt yellow tall sickly man is softly chuckling to himself: “I don’t have
to do anything… they will do it to themselves.”
NOTE:
In an incredible story, the NY Times claims
America helped set up the Baath Party by orchestrating a 1963 coup.
WAR PROGRESS:
3-23 The ambush in Nasiriyah will make all
troops more suspicious and hostile towards
surrendering Iraqis- which might make them
less likely to surrender. I was shocked,
which shows how much we expect war to be
painless- how dare you attack us?, is the
sentiment from Americanos who forget we are
invading, blasting, and killing people who
haven't attacked us. And the capture and
imprisonment of our troops makes our flouting
of the Geneva Convention by endless and appealless
imprisonment of alleged terrorists in Guantanamo
very relevant. As always said by wiser voices
than exist in the Bush regime; these International
laws of warfare protect us, since we are involved in alot of wars.
I find it creepy that our TV won't show us
our soldiers. The grenade attack by Asan
Akbar (glory?), a black converted Muslim,
will make it very fun for Arab or Muslim
US troops- of which there are many, like
intelligence officers & translators.
It also shows that, at 1/5th of the world,
the world of Islam is pervasive, and its
rage will cost us in numerous unforeseen
ways. The poor Brits in a Tornado shot down
by a Patriot missile probably suffered from
dopes setting the missile battery to full
auto; that is shoot down anything its radar
decides is a threat- of course the Patriot
was originally an anti-aircraft missile. Pilots on aircraft carriers were
terrified of the Phalanx anti-cruise-missile
chain guns for the same reason- they sometimes
couldn't distinguish between friend and foe
and engaged in 1 second- so much that they
were very rarely turned on. Cruise missiles
present such a low profile (so usually unseen)
that unless the Phalanx was on full auto-
it was usually worthless. If anything would
enrage the anti-war Brits, it's America shooting
down their pilots. Helicopters have been
crashing at an alarming rate- because of
the tremendous blinding sandstorms and the
damage they cause all components, and the
alarming tendency of choppers to fly way
too close to each other. Choppers are very
complicated compared to a plane, the blades
themselves flutter fast enough to change
their pitch in 1/4 of a revolution to tilt
the craft one direction or another, then
flip back another 1/2 turn later. When the
engines fail, there isn't a wing to support
the craft- the blades can be autorotated
in neutral and used as a wing- but it's an
incredibly difficult operation that isn't
practiced - if one does it perfectly one
can land it without damage, but mostly it's
a controlled crash (I've flown one at an
airshow). With low-level flight, there are
only a few seconds to react to any engine
problems before the ground says hello. Reports
of discovery of a "chemical weapons
factory" are premature, say American
commanders, which is what they say when the
political weasels are trying to foist a fast
one. I have no doubt they can and will find
evidence of something- the problem is that
we can't trust anything this administration
says- unless immediately backed up by UN inspectors:
the Bushmen will lie to justify this war.
Notice how dissent was ruthlessly squelched
at the Oscars- I think Moore's booing was
prearanged by organizers. Dennis Miller has
tried to resusitate his flagging career by
becoming a Bush-licking pro-war simp; and
Bruce Willis has simply done too many combat
action movies- after a while these idiots
really believe that they are supperheros.
3-20 I think these battles will go fast-
they’ve so demoralized the Iraqis with psychological
manipulation that there may be very little
real fighting. If the Turks had allowed a
northern front, the inevitability of defeat
would have been psychologically crushing
to the Iraqis. If they repeat “Saddam is
dead” enough, he will have to show himself,
and ah, be killed. Then again people who
are so poor that they have to sell some of
their $3/month food for other things are likely to be so exhausted that anything else will be a relief, and these poor slobs have
been fighting one war or another for 23 years (except for 1988-90). The Ukrainians and
Lithuanians welcomed the Nazis: what could
be worse than Uncle Joe, so instead of being
killed for owning a cow, they were killed
for being Jewish or Slavic. Not that I mean
to make any such comparison with our troops.
Their strategy is to liberate anti-Saddam
Shiite areas, where the people will party
in the streets, and beam that around- the
propaganda campaign is now to redeem America
in the world's eyes. If it is over in a week
with negligible casualties (which I think
likely- as little as under 5000 Iraq casualties),
Bush’s popularity will go up to 80’s and
90’s, but the damage to the world order;
the hatred, resentment, and fear of America
will remain across much of the world. As
we delight at the fireworks of bombs spewing
death and destruction, we must remember-
America has never been bombed- never. We
are a young and often shallow people. No,
these bloody wogs just won’t appreciate what
we did for them. And when the retaliation comes in a year
or so… people won’t even blame Bush. Be afraid.
SHELL GAME: If Saddam were killed, it would be a brilliant
accomplishment that would end this invasion
in a few days. They are relying on statements
of a mistress, but they lie for a living,
and if Saddam has ten doubles, why wouldn't
he have them sleeping with mistresses to
muddy the water?
REBUILDING EYERAK: In a symbolic but ignorant act, we are blasting
every gov. bldg. and palace of Saddam's regime-
these would be instrumental in reconstituting
and restoring Iraqis sense of identity. Apparently
only American companies are going to be let
in on the vast rebuilding of Iraq, shutting
out international aid agencies, UN, and Europeans,
because it’s important that America be seen
as the liberator and Big Daddy builder. Cheney’s
Haliburton + Repub Bechtel are due to get
fat contracts- though if they’re really serious
about rebuilding, that’s a good sign. Well,
we've got to punish those wimpy Germans and
Frenchies somehow.
JANET RENO: The great androgyn lectured
on Monday night about her worries over Ashcroft/Bush's
threats to the Constitution- imprisoning
people in secret without legal recourse,
ignoring the Geneva convention in an attempt
to wring every drop of info from them, indefinate
detentions- though she hedged when assigning
blaim. After a half hour, a screen dropped
to show Bush's war day speech. I finally
asked her about why she allowed Ken Starr
to investigate Cinton's sex life. "I had no choice." What do you mean? "It seemed laws had been broken." Oh, come on. It had nothing
to do with them threatening you with impeachment?
"No, I had no choice." By this time her Parkinsons
was acting up so much she was seriously twitching
(yeah, I know, we shouldn't be cruel). I
just walked away and completely forgot my
other questions on the war. I can't forgive
that she allowed the disgraceful trash impeachment
investigation by a sworn partisan hack of
the other party who committed so many crimes
(releasing grand jury testimony, imprisoning
Monica without lawyer, suborning perjury
by dirtbag criminal liars: David Hale and
Jim McDougal) that he should have been jailed. Read Joe Conason's
The Hunting of the President, about how everyone ignored that the hate
Clinton movement was based on fervent vicious
racists in Arkansas, who fed lies and trash
to major paper reporters for years without
a speck of illumination on their sleazy past.
It is such an indictment of NYT, WashPost
and Newsweek (a huge Repub law firm wrote
a 1000 page investigation of Whitewater in
'96, concluding that the Clintons had done nothing, but no reporter ever even mentioned it
in the 10,000 more references to the Whitewater
"scandal"). For exposing the massive
shabbiness of the fourth estate, Conason
has been in exile- not printed nationally,
not seen on talk shows.
HART's WAR: Gary Hart also spoke as Bush's War kicked
off- 16 years after the Donna Rice scandal
drove him out of politics. That was likely
a Repub setup from the beginning- Donna baby
is now a right wing anti-porn activist and
her roommate, who sold the pictures of the
"illicit" couple to the Nat. Inquirer
for $100,000, worked for the Repub. Nat. Committee. He was a movie-star handsome Senator who'd
been separated from his wife for a year periods
and roomed with Woodward in a DC bachelor
pad- of course he was going to be sleeping
with somebody. But he was a dumbbell who
denied it and dared the press to follow him
when he was accused. He would have beat Bush
I in 1988, but they destroyed him; 4-13 years
later they tried to do the same to Clinton
with alot more ammunition. He still is brilliant-
I've never seen anyone answer questions as
clearly, honestly, and concisely- it's a
tragedy that this talented guy was sentenced
to the political gulag for 15 years for something
that would have won him millions more votes
in most of Europe.
Now he just finished the second installment
of the HART RUDMAN report on national security,
the prescient report that predicted a major
terrorist attack on the US, in Jan 2001.
Bush ignored it. A year after 9-11, an enormously
blue-ribbon panel said we'd done very little
to protect America. 19 million shipping containers
come into US a year; and they only search
about 200,000. Be very afraid, especially
if you live in a major port city.
VISION OF HELL: The RI nightclub fire was an Edgar Allen
Poe story come to life: a horror almost too
extreme to even deal with. Hammerschlag was
on scene from early hours and does an extensive
report. http://hammernews.com/nightclub.htm
PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER:
NOV-OCT 2002 WIPEOUT
Edition and BUSH’s WANTON WAR