What's going on in Iraq?

I just read the strangest story: U.S. Unloading WMD in Iraq reports an Iranian News Agency

A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that U.S. forces, with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had made extensive efforts to conceal their actions.

I would hope we would not plant phony evidence.

Liberty and Justice for all

THIS IS LIBERTY??
--Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost

~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS IS JUSTICE??--
--Prosecutor sues Justice, Ashcroft
--A Real Case Of Snakebite
How a trophy terrorism prosecution morphed into a big mud fight

What you see may shock you


This is a very moving story that should be told and allow you to judge for yourself. Our President is claiming 9-11 as some sort of political leadership-victory for his campaign. You may or may not see it that way after viewing some of these facts.

Syracuse Post Standard columnist Hart Seeley's Existential Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld set to music>

A Confession
Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I doing here?"
It's a big surprise.

—D.H. Rumsfeld, May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times

On NPR.org, you can see an article (and hear audio interview) about Syracuse columnist Hart Seeley's Existential Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, which has now been set to music by San Francisco-based pianist Bryant Kong. (Songs sung by soprano Elender Wall).

RELATED ARTICLES:

-Slate/Volume One 1- The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld

-Slate/Volume 2- That's LIfe! The poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld

Breakup of Onondaga County, N.Y. SWAT:
The Cheney Connection
WSTM.com

The real story behind the break up of the County SWAT team is raising such a storm of controversy, some feel it could actually reach the White House.

The bus which carries the 47 member Sheriff's Department SWAT team to dangerous crime scenes may be sitting idle for quite some time. This elite unit of Deputies who volunteer for the SWAT team is disbanded. The Sheriff's Office blamed an equipment problem, but we've learned the real story involves the demotion of a Sergeant for an incident when Vice President Cheney came to town last November.

While Cheney spoke to a crowd inside the Holiday Inn, outside a noisy group of protesters staged a demonstration. Sources say at one point Sergeant Kevin Murphy who was in charge of a 10 person SWAT team was ordered to conduct crowd control, but he allegedly balked at the order. When Sheriff Kevin Walsh brought disciplinary charges against Sergeant Murphy, the entire SWAT team resigned.

"We were cooperative with the Sheriff's Department, the Sheriff's Department was great to us." Mark Spadafore and the Labor Federation organized the anti-Cheny demonstration. He supports Sergeant Murphy's decision not to move on their protest. "He saw that we were no problem. We were just there to exercise our first amendment rights."

Spadafore says they were told to move to different areas four times. He suspects the Vice President's team was behind the order which fell on Sergeant Murphy's shoulders. "It had to come from higher up."

For now the equipment for the Sheriff's Department SWAT team is in storage and the County has received assurances from the Police Departments of Syracuse, Manlius, Camillus and the State Police that should the need arise, their SWAT teams are ready to step in.

County Legislator Bob Warner heads the Public Safety Committee. He's concerned that the Cheney incident could have escalated to the point of a mass resignation by the SWAT team, but for now he'll monitor the situation. "It will be our job later on if something arises that we have to step in."

The Sheriff's Union intends to go to court to block Sergeant Murphy's demotion. They may have an unlikely ally in Mark Spadafore. "This situation needs to be resolved for the sake of public safety I give a lot of credit to those people of the SWAT team. They showed incredible solidarity to a fellow officer."

Sheriff Kevin Walsh has been on vacation and out of town. Legislator Warner says he spoke to the Sheriff after we broke this story and has been assured the SWAT team situation will be resolved.

--Jim Kenyon Action News WSTM

Related WSTM article HERE

News 10 Now article HERE

SYRACUSE.COM: Peaceful Protestors greet Vice President

General Tommy Franks confident: If Bush loses, President Kerry would help our soldiers to prevail in Iraq

Disclaimer: The title I used was based on the Drudge-report-style of creating large, misleading headlines

Retired General Tommy Franks says he's confident the U.S. will work "tirelessly" on a long-term solution in Iraq, regardless of which party wins the White House in November. He said: "To back away would be to invite the kind of problems we see now in Israel" [with suicide bombers on American soil]. Earlier this year in another interview, Franks said he thought if the U.S. was hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicted large casualties, the Constitution would likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government. Deaths of innocent civilians notwthstanding, a solid reason for any American to want to keep terrorism at bay is to protect freedoms from our own government's stifling grip.

There was never a proven connection between Iraq (Saddam Hussein's failure to comply with U.N.) and 9-11 (the war on terror). I always like to state that up-front so we can be clearer in our many rationalizations about the war on terror. One of the best descriptions of the U.S. attack on Iraq is William Rivers Pitt's categorization of it as a "toothless red herring" in the war on terror.

The Bush administration got us into the mess in Iraq. I'll never understand why they couldn't have taken a mere three or fours months more to let the UN inspectors do their work in Iraq. [See/listen to today's Hans Blix interview on NPR].They were making headway. Another few months would likely have revealed the great faults in the intelligence offered by Colin Powell to the U.N. in February, 2003.

Nearly 600 American lives and thousands of Iraqi lives later, it's water under the bridge now. The Bush administration wanted this war to take place and by God George, it took place.

I suppose General Franks is right, just as Ivo Daalder is right. How could we pick up and say "So long" to the people whose land we've ravaged? In all fairness, terrorists have entered the country and done a fair amount of ravaging poor Iraq, too... as our President begged those terrorists to "bring it on" into Iraq. Rather than to see terror in the streets of sleepy American towns, I guess it was more acceptable to kill two birds with one stone...to change Iraq's regime and keep America safe by exposing the innocent Iraqis instead...all the while lying to Americans about exactly why we were going to go to war there. Does anyone other than me see this as morally hypocritical? Getting back to my point, we can't just pick up and leave now.

We do need another plan to help the Iraqi people find a real and meaningful peace. It will never happen with George W. Bush in office. He has nearly destroyed the world's faith in him.

Many people will read this and say I hate Bush. To them, I'd say please don't shoot the messenger. I don't hate our President. I've longed to see him do the right thing and he's disappointed me nearly every time. So it's fair to say I'm disappointed in our President.

How the capture of Osama Bin Laden may turn out to be a meaningless symbol

I hate to say this, yet I must. In a world where the rule of law has been scorned and squandered, the capture of Osama Bin Laden will be a meaningless symbol.

I heard G. Gordon Liddy on a CSPAN interview this morning. He said something I've lately thought (and written about) myself: Terrorism is a disease that will continue to occur throughout the 21st century. It is a disease in which children who attend fundamentalist-Islamic (Saudi-financed) madrassas have been educated to theologically abhor the decadence of western societies.

Capturing Bin Laden (which we surely will accomplish unless he dies of natural causes first) will be like snaring the one who had set the fire while the forest continues to burn fiercely for thousands of square miles ahead.

When the World Trade Center towers fell, the disease metastasized like a near-unstoppable cancer. It was the day the word "civil" was taken out of the idea of war in a new way only before imagined in our nightmares. Like cancer cells, thousands of self-named warriors learned that a new tactic could be employed successfully to beat away at the governments of the western world they had learned to so disdain.

Overall, war has been all-too glorified a word as we look back at history. We tend to forget that war is not always fought on gentleman's terms. Mass-killing savagery in war is nothing new. Bombs are perfect examples of mass-killing mechanisms. What is different..what is new about terrorism is that the would-be killers are making civilians of Western societies the targets of their aggression. This isn't going to end with Bin Laden's capture. Make no mistake, we will celebrate the capture if and when it happens, but it will only be because we will somehow feel avenged for 9-11.

It won't be because the world is saved from terrorism.

What is the answer, then, you may ask of me?
Like you, I have no easy answers. The good and civil people of Spain are sending us a message with the ouster of Prime Minister Aznar. What is the message? Simply, I think it's that people have had enough. They see that we are on the wrong path if we believe we're succeeding at minimizing the ugly force of terrorism. It is horrendously ironic that our warring tactics have inspired those who would employ tactics of delivering the angel of death to the innocents.

What is the answer, then, you continue to ask me?
The only thing that is clear to me is that we need a change in the policy on both Iraq and the war on terror. (Which really have always been two separate issues). If the Bush administration cannot see the error in these policies, perhaps it's time to give another leader a chance to get it right. John Kerry has recently intimated that certain foreign leaders have vocally expressed the hope he will be elected in November. Yesterday on the FOX Sunday show, Colin Powell stated: "He [Kerry] ought to list some names. If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about." Shortly after that statement, the Bush White House ordered both Powell and Donald Rumsfeld to stay out of the U.S. presidential campaign. We need not wonder why. It's obvious..they are two of the most vulnerable "players" exposed to the public's questions about the failed policies of the Bush administration to date.

The old adage "Two wrongs don't make a right" come to mind. War, in and of itself, has the evil component of factionally delivering one man's death at the hands of fellow men. War is ungodly, no matter how necessary or glorious they like to tell us it is. War is never to be taken lightly and should always be the very last of the last resorts. I feel, in my heart, that the dullard-king G.W. Bush has been dabbling at, tinkering with war.....playing God with the people of his nation. The civil world is repelled by his method of curing terror. I think it's high time we turn it all around for the sake of what is best for all of humanity. When our President plays American War-God with those who've been theologically trained to defend their own beliefs against the western world, it is easy to see a war for which there will be no winner...no cure. Where, I ask, is the force of the brightest angels of our human nature? Where have we allowed our leaders to stray?

President Bush and his administration had shown a clear disdain for cooperation with the world community throughout the pre-Iraq war days. Look at everything that has happened since the international rule of law (the "permission slip", as Bush called it) was thrown aside for what appeared nothing less than unnecessary macho-unilateral aspirations on the part of the U.S. in its march to war. Respect for the U.S. was lost, thus whether we want to admit it or not, we've lost a hell of a lot of "credibility-clout" in the world-at-large.

The capture of Bin Laden will surely happen, but the songs of joy will ring hollow as we see the disease which he caused to spread..the fires he lit...spread thousands and thousands of miles out ahead of him... coming closer to us by the moment.

If we love our own children and the children of this world, it's time to find a real and meaningful way to cooperate with the nations of the world and give the utmost respect to the rule of law.It is the only thing that separates us from the terrorists, you see. For God's sake, let's put an end to this madness....together. Like Dorothy's ruby slippers, Bush has held the awesome power of the rule of law all the time..and I don't think he ever realized it. I pray this nation finds its way.

Comments about Spain and the War on Terror from various places

At the Kos site, Jonathan wrote:

The Bush administration's disastrous assumption that they could take a vacation from fighting al Qaeda after a few early victories is coming home to roost in bigger and bigger ways. They segued at the earliest opportunity to fighting a war of choice, a war that was dreamed up long before 9/11 and sold on an immense heap of lies, a war that was carried out at the cost of an increased, not decreased, danger of terrorism. No matter what you may think about the Spaniards' decision at the ballot box, get this part right: part of the responsibility for the deaths of 200 Spanish people on March 11, 2004 very likely lies with the Bush administration and its allies and their wholly incompetent handling of this War on Terror.

The Spanish people have a right to say they're not happy about it, and demand better. We do, too.

Also at Kos, HoustonDem wrote:

The failure of this president in getting other like-minded nations in one camp against the Islamic terrorists is the greatest failure of his presidency.

..to which this salient point was made by another reader:

Spain is certainly not withdrawing from the war on terror. They are withdrawing from the war in Iraq, which they feel has not been an effective effort in the war on terror.

Kos himself had this to say:

So, did the terrorists "win"?
No more so than Osama Bin Laden "won" when the US pulled out of Saudi Arabia -- a key demand of Al Qaeda.

Fact is, Spain was taking casualties -- in Iraq and at home -- for a war in which it had no reason to be involved. Bush lied to get his war, and Spain's Aznar was a willing and eager accomplice. The Spanish people opposed the war and their nation's involvement in it, and spoke the way true Democracies speak -- via the ballot box.

The system worked. Democracy won. Spain won.

Josh Marshall methodically and successfully tears apart the question posed by Andrew Sullivan: "If the war to depose Saddam is and was utterly unconnected with the war against al Qaeda, then why on earth would al Qaeda respond by targeting Spain? If the two issues are completely unrelated, why has al Qaeda made the connection?"

"... just because al Qaida has adopted the Iraq cause as their own doesn’t mean we’ve damaged al Qaida by taking down the Baathist regime --- especially by doing it so incompetently. Just as likely --- in fact far more likely --- is that we’ve just handed them a useful recruiting tool while distracting ourselves from pursuing more effective means of extirpating them.

--Josh Marshall

AP: Spain's ruling party ousted from power
*Last Updated 7:31 p.m. EST Sunday, March 14, 2004

MADRID, Spain (AP) - The opposition Socialists scored a dramatic upset win in Spain's general election Sunday, unseating conservatives stung by charges they provoked the Madrid terror bombings by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq and making Spain a target for al-Qaida.

The people of Spain spoke clearly tonight. Turnout was high at 77 per cent. It is said the voters are frustrated with the government led by Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar over the way it has handled their policy on Iraq. Many Spanish citizens are said to believe the government of Aznar had known an Islamic group was behind the explosions that killed 200 people on Thursday but preferred to blame Basque separatists ahead of today's general elections. The results of this election are a decided blow to President Bush's war on terror because The Socialists have promised to withdraw 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq...and that would break the unity of the U.S.-led coalition.

All eyes will now turn to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

"It is not raining.
Madrid is crying."

--Jorge Mendez, a 20-year-old telecommunications student


photo credit www.kansascity.com

I was reading a blog called Resurrection Song and found this post about Madrid; about a new terrorist warning to the people in our own country; fears about future leadership of America. The (literal) bottom line was an expression of general fear about John Kerry winning the Presidency, thus taking the reins of leadership on the war on terror. I was left to wonder what the blogger's point was, in a most critical sense. The post generated a comment by a reader named Rae who said: "Just last night, while skimming Time, I had a sudden and terrible fear that Kerry might just win and I became momentarily horrified and afraid."

Fear should not keep a person from critically and rationally studying all aspects of the issue of National Securty and matters of State. I found this discussion to be fear-based and politically-tainted. I would hope we Americans could cross political lines and start talking about the issues. All we seem to be doing is spitting at one another. The people of Spain are a great example of unification which rises above the slimy realm of politics.

The Resurrection blog pointed the way to another blog called Colorado Conservative, where the blogger Darren talked about Madrid.
*I found it a meaningful coincidence that Darren offered a kind word about the safety of Syracuse University students. (Syracuse is my home--I offer a word of thanks to Darren).*
Darren's blog included an article about the Muslim fundamentalist group Abu Hafs' warning to the people of the United States. It said a widespread attack called "Winds of Death" was 90% "ready".

My thought was this: The war on terror is going to take longer than 4 more years. This is going to be a long haul, I'm afraid. 9-11 notwithstanding, terror has exacerbated--no, exploded- under the leadership of G.W. Bush. What happens in the next four years will guide the entire world to either a more beneficial solution or a fiery and explosive continuation of death of the innocent.

Stepping out of my political cloak, I am a human above all. I am angry in the feeling that I and my family are used as pawns. I want leadership that ties us together as an intelligently patriotic people. It takes more than waving the flag and cheering on unilateral "tough-guy" decisions about dropping bombs over nation-states. I honestly believe we need a better direction.

If not Kerry, then who in another four years? Because Bush won't be there, people. And what will you say then? There will be no one leader who presides over the war on terror when the smoke clears and all is said and done.
You'd best get used to that fact now and begin to study the actual issues instead of shivering and shaking and fretting about who's boss. Any American President is going to have to deal with terror. It's there.

Why are bloggers and political pundits using the United States' 9-11 and Spain's 3-11 for politics? In my opinion, our lives don't come at such a cheapened price.

The people of Spain spoke loudly in Madrid yesterday. My God, there were over a million of them all standing in that dark, rainy street melting away the dull of the afternoon with their array of colorful umbrellas. I have never seen the likes of that spirit here in the United States. What was the million-umbrella message the people of Spain were attempting to convey yesterday? I doubt these were people of any particular political stripe. No..I think this was a humanist cry to the powers-that-be, whether those powers are in the capitol cities and government seats of all nations or the power inside the widespread terror organizations.

Innocent people are tired of being used as the pawns in the power struggle.

~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: EJ Dionne agrees--Socialist victory is statement against political manipulation

Madrid's 3/11


What, if any, signification or implication does it have for the United States?

As a nation, are we too egocentric in thinking yesterday's act of terror in Madrid was all about us? Do we think the attack occured because Spain was our ally in the Iraq strike? Do we see it as more of a local act of terror? One thing we know is that none of us can be sure at this time. Here's what Juan Cole at Informed Comment has to say: "The possibility that the bombings were reprisals against Spain for supporting the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq this time last year has led some Spaniards in the Opposition to come out to protest against rightwing Prime Minister Aznar."

We are not safer now than we were then

Yesterday's attack on that Spanish commuter train proved to me we are no safer today than on 9-11. Homeland Security will not be able to stop a terrorist network if they truly want to kill us. No Patriot Act will stop them. The NYT weighed in on the subject today, claiming "We are all Madrileños now." They say they believe comparisons to the attacks of September 11, 2001, are inevitable and appropriate. In their words, "terrorism cannot be eradicated simply by driving the Taliban out of Kabul or capturing Saddam Hussein". That statement calls to mind Howard Dean's words in the aftermath (or shall I say afterglow) of the capture of Saddam last December. "The capture of Saddam has not made America safer." Dean, a realist, spoke unappreciated words of truth. He knew, as many of us still understand, that our hardest work is ahead of us.

Copy-Cat Terrorists are emboldened by our lack of unity/lack of unifying leadership

I believe we're seeing a lot of copy-cat terrorists.Potential terrorists witnessed what they saw as a great "success" on September 11, 2001. Perhaps they are now thinking, 'The great America was caught off-guard, leaders asleep-at-the-wheel..just look at how the U.S. has gone off attacking an unrelated nation-state...and how they've dismantled their citizens' liberties... perhaps we can succeed at dismantling Western-style governments anywhere...by getting them to destroy themselves from within when they cannot agree on how to stop us.' I'm beginning to understand the terrorist aims are not to have a political negotiating tool. The terrorists want to see the blood of their targeted enemy without regard to some imagined hoped-for-diplomacy. If diplomacy was what they craved, they'd make themselves known. Instead, they hide and kill the innocent.


"Our people remain politically polarized..something I never would have believed if you'd asked me to predict the future on September 12, 2001."


America's shining moment after the 9-11 attack was the fact that we could unite in a common desire to end terrorism. If you ask me, our leadership has failed to keep us united. This, in my opinion, greatly weakens our resolve and allows the world-at-large to toss us about in a diplomatic sense. Remember, the world watches CNN and FOX news. They read the internet (to the extent their respective governments will allow). When turmoil within this powerful nation is obvious, those who would employ terror against the innocent believe they may have further success in continuing their heinous campaigns of murder. Our people remain politically polarized..something I never would have believed if you'd asked me to predict the future on September 12, 2001. It seems we were headed on the right course after 9-11 until the Bush administration insisted on attacking Iraq. It was a terrible blunder. The great American orator Mario Cuomo appeared on Hardball last night and called it the worst blunder in America's history. That's a very serious charge coming from someone like New York's highly respectable former Governor. [Transcript here].

It's time for politically-educated Americans to understand that we need wise leadership whose primary focus is a reasonably united people. Safety is paramount, but equally important is seeing ourselves as brothers and sisters in the cause against the murder that terrorists perpetrate. From my perspective, President Bush has dreadfully failed at making citizens of these United States feel as if they wish to come together in any common cause. If he was the great leader he claims to be, 50% of the nation wouldn't be thinking about how November seems so darn far away.

Let's remember the words of President Abraham Lincoln as we look to the future of leadership in this country, our America:

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature...."

- President Abraham Lincoln's 1st inauguration March 4, 1861
Washington, D.C.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMPARE:


The solidarity of the people of Spain in public resolve against terror..

...to any show of unity you've seen this year in the United States.

"...Two days. That was all it took for the people of Spain to become impatient, to pressure their government for the truth. When they did not get it, they threw that government out on it's ear. For America, a nation approaching the 1,000th day in which their government has not provided the truth of September 11th, this is a lesson to be taken deeply to heart."

--William Rivers Pitt


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: I added this to my diary at Daily Kos today.
I included a poll. Here are the results thus far (35 responses):

After yesterday's attacks in Spain, do you feel safer from acts of terror in the U.S. today than you would have been on 9-11-2001?

· Yes...0%
· No....94%
· Undecided ...5%

Military Families Speak Out

The war in Iraq is continuing. American soldiers are dying daily, weapons of mass destruction are nowhere to be found, conditions are deteriorating for our troops on the ground, the lies of the administration that took us into war are being exposed and the president, from the safety of the white house, is taunting those who are shooting at our troops.

Read on to see what MFSO members and others are saying about the situation in Iraq and what we should be doing to change it.

SoJonet.com/Ira Rifkin on The Morality of Global Trade

The Sermon on the Mount did not say, "Blessed are the greedy."

All politics is local, but so does all politics involve moral choice.

Senator John Edwards was correct when he called U.S. trade policy "a moral issue." What needs to be further stated is that globalization, the force generating the outsourcing wave, is itself a moral issue; that the economic and cultural changes implicit in globalization are by no means values-less.

Welcome to Bushworld
*"Bushworld" was originally coined and is often used by none other than Anonymoses*

All presidents, all administrations, all politicians, all columnists and, indeed, all people selectively pick and chose facts and figures to win arguments.

What's different is that the Bush administration stands accused of politicizing and bullying processes of the government that are designed to be above the fray of partisanship and ideology, such as intelligence gathering and science policy-making. Put bluntly: they don't much care about facts, science and truth.

From the Syracuse Post Standard
A Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

A lost opportunity! My initial curiosity and interest in your "On the Issues" series quickly soured as I read the Iraq section Feb. 24. The series fell far short of truly informing voters about the candidates' positions, providing only summary sound bites. Instead, the pundits again take center stage. I would like to suggest some additional points to be added to George W. Bush's position on Iraq:

--Repeatedly lied to the American people that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat and justified war.

--Misled the public into believing there was a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida, despite no reasonable evidence to justify such claims.

--Failed to plan for the period after the fall of the ruthless Baathist regime, leading to great fear and misery on the part of Iraqis and increased danger for U.S. soldiers.

--Exploited the conquest of Iraq to reward his corporate supporters at Halliburton and elsewhere through no-bid contracts and other shady deals.

--Added to our economic woes by piling up unprecedented national debt, in part because of spending more than $100 billion on an unnecessary war.

--Set dangerous international precedents by seeking to justify so-called "pre-emptive" war.

I would also suggest some additional "Vital Signs":

--549 US soldiers killed in Iraq thus far.

--Thousands of U.S. soldiers injured in Iraq thus far. While the Pentagon reports a figure of just over 2,700 (the numbers regularly printed in The Post-Standard), National Public Radio and UPI investigative reports in recent months have found numbers near and above 10,000.

--100 soldiers from other participating nations killed in Iraq thus far.

--An estimated 20,000 Iraqis killed as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation. This number is particularly vague since the U.S. military has refused to investigate. "We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of the US Central Command.

Lastly, Walter Russell Mead's assertion that Bush has an advantage on foreign policy and the Democratic candidate needs to become more like Bush in order to win rings hollow. A Democratic candidate who can motivate even a small portion of the nearly half of the electorate that doesn't bother to vote will easily win the presidency. Those people are unlikely to be convinced by Bush's deception on the war or other issues.

--Andy Mager
Syracuse NY

One year ago on IDDYBUD

My opinion before the pre-emptive strike on Iraq:

"The Bush administration seems single-mindedly bent on this invasion. It almost seems that they are bitterly disappointed whenever there's a hint that the weapons inspections are actually working.
A UN resolution with absolutely no ambiguity is what we need. It is not America's place to preemptively strike Iraq. I firmly believe it is not in the best interest of the American people at this point in time."

From SojoNet:

An Alternative to War



"..We gather as our nation moves closer to a decision about whether to go to war with Iraq. It will be a momentous choice, with great consequences for the life of the world....Virtually every church body which has spoken, internationally and in the United States, has concluded that a war on Iraq would not be a just war. Never before have the churches in America been so united on the issue of peace..."



March 9, 2003- Gary Hart- A Detour From the War on Terrorism

What is our strategic objective in Iraq—disarmament, regime change, to mount a massive democratic revolution throughout the Arab world or all of the above? Once again, the target changes, and presidential candor is missing. It is cynical in the extreme to assume the American people should not be told that we intend to conduct a political revolution among 1.1 billion people spread from Gibraltar to eastern Indonesia.

The extravagance, not to say arrogance, of this epic undertaking is sufficiently breathtaking in its hubris to make Woodrow Wilson blush. And as a visionary, George W. Bush is no Woodrow Wilson. I find nothing in the writings of America's founders, including those of the expansive Alexander Hamilton, that suggests our national purpose should be the remaking of the world in our own image. In fact, most founders, and the prudent leaders since, have believed we should focus on perfecting our own democracy as an example to the world.

But if you are up for preemptive war against nations that do not meet the historic standard of representing an imminent and unavoidable threat, then you are pretty much up for anything.

Iraq is a detour from the war on terrorism. Hussein mysteriously morphed into Osama bin Laden, or vice-versa.

--Gary Hart

North Korea--then and now

Failing on North Korea a year ago

Failing on North Korea still today...as lately as 13 hours ago.

Is it any wonder the North Koreans hope for a different administration this November? While the GOP would love you to believe Kerry looks like a North-Korea sympathizer, perhaps the North Koreans agree with many Americans that anyone's better than Bush.

As Professor Edward Reed, associate director of the Center for East Asian Studies at UW-Madison, has said: "Talking is not a reward for bad behavior; it is the fundamental requirement for diplomacy."

Here come the inane Bush attacks on Kerry

The negative ads are coming. President Bush, on fresh commercials soon to come your way, is accusing Senator Kerry of seeking to raise taxes by $900 billion. This coming from the guy who has driven us dread-deep into the hell-canyon of deficits to pay for astronomical war costs without asking Americans to see the reality and sacrifice now for the nation's future?

On National security, Bush says in the ads: "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope. Or we can turn back to the dangerous illusions that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat..."
How absolutely brain-dead does the GOP think voters are? While we don't appreciate Bush disgustingly dragging out flag-draped 9-11 corpses on his ads, we certainly understand that 9-11 changed the face of the 21st century. If anyone's turning their back, it's the Bushites themselves. They've turned their backs on the international community by thumbing their arrogant noses at the rule of law. They've also turned their backs by sinking the economy with ridiculous tax cuts while the nation's embroiled in an expensive war on terror to which there's no foreseeable end. Does the GOP honestly think we would believe John Kerry would live in 'La-La-Land" when it comes to our security and economic need? He'd have to be insane!

I have proof Kerry's NOT insane. He got millions of dollars worth of ads FREE yesterday when every cable network "caught" him calling his GOP critics "the most crooked ... lying group" he'd ever seen...and played it again and again and again...every half-hour on the half-hour.

"John Kerry's plan: To pay for new government spending, raise taxes by at least $900 billion."

Bush's plan: To greatly increase the size of his Neo-Big Government, destroy Social Security, increase the already-monstrously deep deficits, and make furture slaves of OUR CHILDREN.

The dreadfully shallow bore strikes again.

Today in history..

1818- Frankenstein published

1862- Civil War, Lincoln shuffles the Union command


MACARTHUR LEAVES CORREGIDOR:
March 11, 1942



"I lay on my stomach, for I didn't want to see the bombs released this time. It took ages for them to arrive when one knew they were coming. Once again, we knew men would be blown to bits in just a few seconds. The picture of my mother came to my mind. I wanted to be able to say a last goodbye to her, for I never dreamed of coming out of this battle alive. Yes, men lay in tears, for their thoughts turned to home."

--Mel Sheya, Fourth Marines, USMC, author of "The Battling Bastards of Bataan", describing his battle experience in Corregidor, December 1941. Held prisoner for 42 months as an ill-treated slave-laborer in Manchuria and Japan, he was happy to see the return of MacArthur.

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