POST-TRAUMATIC-STRESS DISORDER: One in five GIs returning from Iraq display SERIOUS mental-health problems; if you include milder troubles like anxiety, the rate is 28%...far higher than normal for civilians--OR for veterans of previous wars ! FinTimes

Imagine facing strange people in raging heat, children screaming at you in an unknown tongue. Imagine facing enemies without uniforms..facing narrow escapes...supposed to 'win over hearts and minds' while actually HATING these people who hate you. Imagine knowing that our country was misled by top govt. people into this war, and that it really can't be won.

Imagine that you saw (or joined in) atrocities by GIs. Whenever regular troops come up against faceless, non-uniformed guerillas, some of the regular troops run amok.

It's amazing that the mental-problems rate isn't higher. (Sometimes post-traumatic-stress-disorder shows up long after the crisis.)

 
LOSING GUERILLA WAR: Why can't 350,000 regular troops 'on our side' beat 10,000 guerillas? 'Because we don't have intelligence. We still don't know whether top villain Zarqawi has one leg or two!"

We don't know who, or how big, or where the 'enemy' is--or how they are organized.

New Iraqi official says U.S. forces were 'unqualified'. (Of course--they don't even speak the language!]

An Iraqi analyst: "Security is out of control. Iraq is out of control."

It seems that secular Saddamites (with knowledge of military coordination) might be cooperating now with foreign Islamist fanatics (suicide car-bombers) to drive out Yanks. Worry is that Shiite warriors (embracing martyrdom) might now provide cannon-fodder for the guerillas.

'Our' Iraqi security forces still don't usually have flak-vests--in a country where every home has AK-47 rifle. KNIGHT-RIDDER
-----------
Story is that now GIs will retreat to desert posts for safety--to cut our casualties until Nov. election. They're 'bugging in' as a way of bugging out. They might as well; they probably do more harm than good in the guerilla war.
---------
U.S. generals have been saying that guerillas are going after Iraqis because now the GIs are too well-protected. But on 29Je & 30Je, they killed 4 GIs, and injured 13. On 1 July, 2 GIs were killed. [ NYTIMES ]They'd better go soon to the desert!

[Story of 11GIs injured 30June was run on an AnnArbor website, allegedly from AP, dated 30June12:32PM. MLIVE.COM
But SEVEN hours later, neither NEWS.GOOGLE.COM nor CNN.COM had mentioned this rocket attack. Are they staying silent, or is the MLIVE story a fake?
No. TorontoStar
has also run this story--again ascribed to AssocPress. ]
Also ABC NEWS has the story. Why the delay for news.google & cnn?
NYTIMES, USATODAY, DenverPost, RockyMountainNews had NOT A WORD about these wounded GIs, a full day after the bombing happened.
ChristianScienceMonitor BURIED THE STORY in the middle of a longer story about bombings WITHOUT casualties. Why in the world would U.S. media feel they must conceal this story?]
[By the way, both TRUTHOUT and INFORMATIONCLEARINGHOUSE--also this website--ran the story. Don't count on mainline U.S. media to tell ALL the truth.]
---------------------
Can new Iraq regime use harsher methods vs. guerillas? Perhaps not, because Bremer put 'human-rights guarantees' into present constitution, which stands until revoked explicitly by new regime. But maybe a simple 'declaration of martial law' would suffice.
--------
Question is: if GIs are useless or counter-productive in present conflict, why are we sending in more, instead of withdrawing them from Iraq altogether? Obvious answer: the whole project is dominated by concern to get Bush re-elected.

By November, guerillas will likely dominate at least the Sunni areas of Iraq. With this base, they can sabotage 'elections' scheduled for next January. Will the Shiites rise up to stop them? Will this end in civil war ? (Shiites outnumber Sunni arabs 3 to 1--but Sunnis have Saddamite officers to direct their tactics.)

However, Shiite Iran, with huge regular army, is more than ready to help Iraqi Shiites. Four battalians are said to be poised already on Iraq border. But Saudis, Turks, Syrians are Sunnis ready to intervene.Present chaos may be NOTHING, compared to future!

Remember when hawks said that Saddam had to be eliminated,because he might DESTABILIZE the Middle East ?!

 
‘IRAQ WORSE OFF NOW’—says nonpartisan federal agency (GAO):
--Most Iraqis have LESS electricity available now than under Saddam—when blazing heat requires air-conditioning.

--Of $58 billion aid-money pledged and allocated, only $14 billion has been spent—most of it on bureaucracy.

--“Significant” guerilla attacks: 411 in February, ELEVEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE in May !

--Millions of dollars spent by Bremerites UNTRACEABLE .
KNIGHT-RIDDER
-----------
This report ignores one important respect in which 'Iraqis' are now worse off:

--'Majority' rule will mean Shiite rule. /Since so many men have been killed, women are in the clear majority ./ Under Saddam, women were not much less 'free' than men were. /But under Shiite rule, Iraqi women will be trampled. (Sunni & Shiite Arabs agree on this--but not the Kurds.
However, they will be de facto separate & independent.)
-------
NEVER! Bushies have nattered on about Iraq setting up a democracy to give model to rest of MiddleEast. But former top Brit in Iraq says, "There will NEVER be a WEstern-style democracy in Iraq!" TimeMag

 
HISTORIC BUT IGNOBLE: (LETTER TO ROCKY MTN.NEWS)
Your full-front-page color spread on our handover of power was amusing, considering that--unlike the panoply when Britain liberated her colonies--the Bremerites hurried to bug out, after a furtive, hole-in-the wall ceremony--from fear of the
guerillas. Bremer was on the plane before the transition was publicly announced. Here's a man who can't go DOWN in history; he's so far down already.

Otherwise, it was a routine day in Baghdad: three U.S. marines were blown up, 2 others wounded--plus a few Iraqis killed.
-------
The British pulled the same stunt in the 20s; when they saw that constant rebellions were costing too many Brit lives and too much money, they set up a puppet King, got the subservient League of Nations to recognize him as 'sovereign',but kept military control and controlled the oil for years. GUARDIAN
--------
Correction: USATODAY says the killing of 3 marines was on Tuesday, not on Monday.

Read THE DESERT QUEEN for a morbidly fascinating tale of how the Brit takeover was masterminded by Gertrude Bell...so much smarter than our Bremerites!

 
CAN'T BE WON: Another U.S.general echoed Gen.Myers' comment to the Senate, saying 'this war can't be won militarily'. InternatlHeraldTribune

How the hell ELSE can it be won? We've taken out our civilians, and only our army is left. Our intelligence about guerilla numbers or moves is poor. Does anyone believe that guerillas will accept this pseudo-state as authentically Iraqi? (Just before he bugged out, Bremer signed a new edict saying that U.S. contractors couldn't be sued for misconduct in Iraq. The new top dog--Allawi,a clear U.S. pawn-- will be protected by Americans, just as our Afghan pawn Kharzai is protected by Americans. In both cases, our native 'allies' can't be trusted to guard our top pawns.

We said we would disarm the sectarian militias--but the formidable Kurd militia remains, as does Sadr's Shiite militia.

 
RECENT IRAQI POLL: 80% have 'no confidence' in occupation forces /
72% see these forces as 'occupation' or 'exploiters' (vs. liberators)/60% say invasion was [somewhat or absolutely] wrong/
50% say Iraq needs democracy most. [An Oxford poll, reported by
GUARDIAN ]

That last poll-figure, about democracy, is surprisingly low--since 60% of Iraqis are Shiites, who would take control under democracy.
-------------
DIFFERENT RESULT REPORTED: A poll by Oxford Research showed EIGHTY PERCENT of Iraqis want a Democratic Iraq, says USATODAY29June

 
SHOTS AT U.S.PLANE: Guerillas got close enough to the Baghdad airport to hit a transport plane in the air with small-arms fire.

Already, Baghdad is sealed off from many roads by guerilla-threat.
Now the threats to the airport are made vivid.

U.S. spokesman-general tried to play down the significance of the attack, noting that the plane had not been significantly damaged.

However, one G.I. on the plane was killed. GUARDIAN

Last week, a U.S. helicopter was forced down, but with no loss of life.

 
NATO HELP: HOW? WHEN? At the NATO meeting in Turkey, it was agreed vaguely that NATO should help train Iraqi security forces--either in Iraq or outside Iraq..but no details were given about which nations would contribute which resources, or when this help would be given.
FinTimes

NATO has committed itself to pacify Afghanistan; but then the member nations have not offered the men and equipment that were promised.
--------
One thing is sure: that native security forces will NOT be very effective before November (only 4 months from now!); so right up till the election, we can expect to see guerillas scoring again and again.
(They say they have captured a U.S. marine, to be exhibited on internet and later perhaps executed.)

 
FAHRENHEIT 9/11: Michael Moore's movie-blast at Bush has had unique box-office success for a documentary. It took in nearly $22 million in its first few days--despite the fact that it ran in only 828 theatres, (vs. the usual first-run of 2500 theatres).
REUTERS
The right-wing has been stupid to try to restrict this movie (which alleges, among other things, that the Saudis have contributed over one billion dollars to the Bush family, over the years, and reminds us that just after 9/11, Bush flew over 100 Saudis--including many binLadens!--out of U.S. when everyone else was grounded--preventing them from being questioned about the attack.)

 
ABUSE OR TORTURE?
Secy.Rumsfeld said that our bad practices against prisoners constituted 'abuse, not torture.'

A nice distinction.

But then we read in USATODAY that our Justice Dept. specifically approved of making prisoners think they're being suffocated.

It's interesting that these dramatic measures have not seemed to 'pay off' in useful intelligence about the plans of the guerillas.

Truth is NOT the first casualty of war. Good sense perishes first; then truth is no longer in demand.

 
MUSGRAVE'S MATH (letter to Ft.Collins COLORADOAN)
Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (28June) must think that her constituents can't do elementary mathematics.
She brags about voting against Congressional 'pork': 1/10th of a million here, 1/5th of a million there.
She expects us to forget about her voting to shovel over ONE THOUSAND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS EACH DAY to the pork-loving Pentagon.

The Pentagon, plowing billions into fancy new planes and missiles, is pretty useless at protecting our Homeland from attacks by individual terrorists. Musgrave doesn't discuss the extra money we should be spending: for instance, to recruit and train nurses to alleviate our already-urgent shortage of medical personnel, even before we face the first germ-war attack. Nor does she discuss our failure to inspect the thousands of huge ship-containers entering our ports every day, any one of which could contain a nuclear bomb. And so on.

Our staggering government deficit is about 400-500 billion dollars per year. The wasteful Pentagon budget is over $400 billion per
year. The main source of our deficit is Pentagon splurging.

 
AIDE TO 3 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS deplores ignorance of the 'neo-cons' who pushed us into invading Iraq. They really thought they could force 'market democracy' (capitalism) down the throats of the Middle Eastern nations, starting with Iraq. m(These neocons are the darlings of Rumsfeld & Cheney & therefore of Bush.)

Stefan Halper has a new book: AMERICAN ALONE: THE NEO-CONSERVATIVES AND THE GLOBAL ORDER. These neocons provided a 'recruiting poster for radical Islamists'.

"These [neocons] are not Arabic speakers, they don't understand the MiddleEast, they're not social anthropologists..."

There was a 77-man State Dept. team who DID have these important qualities--but the Pentagon stopped them from going to Iraq after we took over.
The book refers to the 'weakest NSA staff and the weakest NSA advisor (Condoleeza Rice) probably in history."

WashingtonTimes

 
SOBERING POLLS: USATODAY/CNN polls showed Kerry ahead 54% to 40% in the 17 'swing' states (see below). But a Zogby Interactive poll (taken after 15 June) shows Bush ahead in these states, and shows Bush likely to win clearly in electoral votes. ZOGBY

2 reasons for doubt:
--This poll is taken on internet--it may be that internet users are higher-income, more Republican.
--The poll was taken right after Bush's big week, performing during 'Reagan' week and at G-8 summit. This bounce (before, he was behind in this poll) may wane.
---------------------
Zogby analyst emphasizes how close the race is right now in these states.
---------
NYTIMES/CBS POLLS (taken before handover):
51% DISAPPROVE of B's job-performance; only42% approve (still sinking). 45% disapprove of Bush himself! 57% say country is moving in wrong direction./60% say war was not worth the cost in U.S. lives/

However, voters don't much like Kerry either. 40% said 'no opinion' of him (but mild disapproval).
reported in MiamiHerald

Zogby analyst thinks the big issue in these states is not Iraq, but the economy. If people concentrate on present job-problems, this is good for Kerry; if people choose to go optimistic, based on recent trends, then Bush benefits. (When there is any excuse, Americans tend to go optimistic..so Bushies need only offer a whiff of hope...)

We need to make employed people see that their low wages (at a time when purchases from milk to gas to college tuition are up sharply)--that their low wages & benefits are largely because with the huge number of jobless wanting their jobs, the employed have to settle for what they can get.
---------
BUSH NOT TRUSTED: 80% think B. is 'hiding something' or 'mostly lying' about reasons for invasion. Only 18% think he is 'telling the entire truth.'

55% see that the war is generating more terrorists. Only 13% say the invasion has made us safer. /60% say the 'transfer of power' to Iraqis is a sign of failure. GUARDIAN

In other words, every week more Americans wake up from war-fever. Trouble is, they don't really like Kerry.

 
SUNNI INSURGENTS MAY BE UNBEATABLE: Analysts and some commanders here worry that the Sunni insurgent forces may now be impossible to defeat ( this force may be commanded by Saddamite officers, manned by ordinary Sunnis enraged one way or another at the Americans, and helped by a relatively small number of foreign Islamists who are willing to do suicide bombing).

These Sunni Arabs have nothing to gain from an election that would put the Shiites (who outnumber them 3 to 1)in power. And Americans with their allies can't buy Sunnis off by giving them much power--because that would enrage the Shiites like Ayatollah Sistani and Sadr. LosAngelesTimes

Of course Gen. Myers told the Senate some time ago that we couldn't win against the guerillas. And Wolfowitz told the Senate recently that our troops might 'be there' for years (presumably being attacked). Not bloody likely--especially when young men are not enlisting like they used to.

One would imagine that if Kerry got in, he'd pull out our troops quickly, to a great sigh of relief from Americans, who've become completely disenchanted about the war. And it's hard to imagine that things will be going much better than now in Iraq by the time of U.S. election.

It may seem cruel to think of Iraq chaos in these terms; but it is not likely that Iraqis would fare well if the mad Bush-team were left in power.

Iraqis will have to work out their destiny by themselves. I'd bet that one feature of this 'working out' will be to dump Allawi, who spent $340,000 lobbying IN WASHINGTON to get to be our top man there in the new 'sovereign' regime.

 
DISTINGUISHED JURIST NOTES THAT BUSH GOT INTO WHITE HOUSE IN WAY SIMILAR TO THE WAY HITLER,MUSSOLINI TOOK POWER:


Judge Sorry for Likening Bush, Hitler/Jun 24, 10:10 PM (ET)
By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge offered his "profound regret" Thursday for saying President Bush's rise to power was similar to that of Mussolini and Hitler.

Judge Guido Calabresi, 71, of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, drew an audible gasp from lawyers attending Saturday's convention of the American Constitution Society in Washington, according to the New York Sun, which quoted the speech in Monday's editions.

"My remarks were extemporaneous and, in hindsight, reasonably could be - and indeed have been - understood to do something which I did not intend, that is, take a partisan position," Calabresi wrote in a letter of apology to Chief Judge John Walker.

Calabresi, a former dean of Yale Law School, was quoted saying the U.S. Supreme Court "put somebody in power" when a ruling it made in December 2000 settled the dispute over whether Bush had defeated Al Gore.

"In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States ...
somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power,"
Calabresi said. "The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy.

"The King of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister," the judge continued. "That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in."

Calabresi told the lawyers: "I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual."

Calabresi went on to say the public should expel Bush from office to cleanse the democratic system. "That's got nothing to do with the politics of it. It's got to do with the structural reassertion of democracy," Calabresi was quoted saying.

In his letter of apology, Calabresi said he was "deeply sorry" for
remarks that were meant as "a rather complicated academic argument about the nature of re-elections after highly contested original elections" - but that were "too easily taken as partisan."

"That is something which judges should do their best to avoid, and
there, I clearly failed," he wrote.

In a letter to the rest of the appeals judges, Walker said Calabresi's "off-the-cuff" comments had been viewed as a call to oppose Bush's re-election. He warned them to refrain from political activity or public endorsements because partisan political comments violate the Code of Judicial Conduct.

 
BLACK HUMOR: An Iraqi photographer (with far more guts than brains) manages to talk with 'insurgents' in Kerbala, Fallujah, and SadrCity in Baghdad; he shows how decentralized and chaotic much of the guerilla-movement is. GUARDIAN

But a different part of the guerilla-movement showed surprising coordination on Thursday when 'our' police-stations were attacked in 5 different cities, killing or wounding hundreds.

The Bushie strategy is to let native security forces get killed, while GIs cower behind ramparts--UNLESS our locals can't handle the insurgents. Well, obviously they can't handle the insurgents--and it will be months--if ever--before a competent native security force can be trained. So our GIs will have to come out to fight and get killed (and keep Americans reminded of the ugly war in the next 4 months right up to November elections (!)

 
CIA ANALYST: Bush's Invasion was a 'huge gift to binLaden', helping him to FURTHER enrage world's one billion Muslims against America.
Bush says they hate us for our freedoms; but 'anonymous' says they hate us because of our policies: support for Sharon, invasion of Iraq with its holy places, stationing of our troops in sacred Arabia, and pressure on Muslim countries to hold down oil prices.

The book "IMPERIAL HUBRIS: WHY THE WEST IS LOSING THE WAR ON TERROR", (coming out in July) was strangely permitted by CIA hierarchy, even though it denounces Bushies fiercely. REUTERS

The book also denounces Clintonites.

The author says it would pay binLaden to attack U.S. before November:
U.S. yahoos would then re-elect Bush, who is unwittingly the greatest ally alQaeda has.
--------
Happily, a majority of Americans finally see that the invasion has made us MORE vulnerable to terrorist-attacks at home (see poll stories below.)

 
In Ireland, Bush declared the rift over between Europe and America.
However, 1 in 3 of Eire's security forces were needed to protect the much-loathed Bush from thousands of Irish protesters. (Every previous U.S. President has been welcomed there.)

Asked about polls showing his unpopularity in Europe, Bush said all he cared about were the polls coming up in U.S. in November. REUTERS

 
AFGHAN CHAOS: Bushies are determined to hold a quick election in Afghanistan, to have some kind of 'success' there to balance the obvious failures in Iraq. Election already had to be postponed from June to September--but a September election would also be a travesty.

3 election officials were just killed by a bomb, and 12 were wounded. Taliban took 'credit' for the bombing. VoiceOfAmericaNews
-------------
And 2 GIs were just killed,plus several wounded, in an ambush. Altogether, 12 GIs have been killed (how many wounded?) in Afgh. in this half-year--out of only 20,000 GIs stationed there. NYTIMES
92 GIs have been killed altogether in Afghanistan, over our ludicrous 2 years 'in charge'.
These troops have been mostly kept out of harm's way, to help Americans forget about Afghan fiasco.
-------------

And the UN just said that, under our regime, Afghan opium production is out of control. This opium, it's said, is a 'time-bomb' threatening Europe. InterPressServices
Elsewhere it was said that the drug income (to warlords and Taliban) was EIGHT TIMES GREATER than the income of the 'central' government.

(We've persuaded NATO to provide skimpy forces to police Afghanistan; but naturally these nations don't care to get over-involved in our fiasco.)
----------
SIXTEEN AFGHANS WERE KILLED BY TALIBAN JUST FOR CARRYING ELECTION-REGISTRATION CARDS! Reuters
-----------
NATO has promised more help in pacifying Afghanistan--but NATO members are not offering troops or even hardware ! FinTimes
--------
A grim overview is provided in a story in INDEPENDENT
One point is that, while Kharzai says there are 5 million names in the electoral register (out of over 10 million eligible voters), independent agencies say that only 1 million are registered--and of these, only 20% are women.
Laura Bush bragged that we have liberated Afghan women from the rigid Taliban; but women are still in trouble; they can be poisoned if they try to get educated.

 
GAS, OIL, NAT.GAS PRICES: Gasolene prices are a little lower (not much!) as American lemmings move out in their autos. But the side-effect of refineries making extra gasolene will be to worsen shortages of fuel oil and natural gas for heating in the Fall.
FinTimes
All that GI blood shed in Iraq, and we're not even getting cheap oil!

 
GOOD,BAD POLL NEWS: USATODAY
BAD NEWS: 49% OF Americans say they're 'better off' than 4 years ago. This must be the TOP half of Americans. GOP has always known that when it gives scrumptious goodies to the wealthy, it must 'buy off' enough of the middle-class to win elections. They must also con the Fundmentalists (Catholic & Protestant) into voting against their pocketbooks. GOP is expert at this trick.)

Bush leads nationally, among 'likely voters' by 48% to 47%, up from 43%B to 49%K 3 weeks ago. with that madman Nader taking 3%.
---------------------
GOOD NEWS: In the 17 'swing' states that could make the difference, it's K53%, B40%. wow.
[HOWEVER, SEE 'SOBERING POLLS' ABOVE FOR A LESS HAPPY CLAIM ABOUT THESE STATES.]

'War was a mistake!" 54%

and even more startling: "Iraq War has made us LESS safe!" 55%. ("War made us safer." now 37%).

Most voters have firmly made up their minds already. But twenty percent might still change their minds. That's way more than enough to determine the election.
-------
As always, we have just a REAL CHANCE to 'CURE THE MAD-COWboy DISEASE'.
It's worth the gamble of our time & money.
[We should all work to get the unmarried women to vote; they're on our side, but they often don't vote. GOP shows its worry over this group by announcing that 'W' stands for Women !)

 
CHENEY 'LOSING IT' ALSO? On Senate Floor, Cheney told off Dem.Sen.Leahy about L's intimations on improper closeness between Ch. & Haliburton. Leahy replied, whereupon Cheney responded with profanity, in front of many witnesses (on Senate floor, though not when Senate was in session). CNN

There have been hints that Bush is 'losing it', under the stress of obvious failure in Iraq, the Economy, and in the polls. It may be also that his V.P. is losing it. Will we get Powell or Hastert in charge?

 
POPULATION FALLING? GOOD!
Vincent Carroll [ in RockyMtnNews] interviewed a 'low-pop pessimist' worrying about the danger of dropping birth-rates around the world. But such pessimists have not understood the profound implications of galloping automation. (Observers say that most of the job-loss in America has been from automation, not from outsourcing.)

There is no clear upper-limit to the ability of robots & computers to produce goods and services once provided by humans. (Robots can bring meals to the aged in Homes; robots can listen sympathetically, returning relevant comments, to the
half-demented.)

It may well be that only a few young workers will be needed to serve the needs of many retirees. Employers will have to treat the few remaining qualified workers needed very well, in order to keep them. (With dropping birth-rates there will be fewer working-age people to suffer from unemployment.)

As usual, what is called bad for the 'economy' (i.e., the bosses) might benefit the workers. 'More children' means more competition for each worker; 'fewer' means less competition.
-------
The special situation of U.S.: our population will NOT shrink, because of the millions of young immigrants coming in legally or illegally. Mexico's population may shrink--but many people from other nationalities walk through Mexico to get here. And corporations here will see that millions of trained, skilled Asians will be able to come in, to manage our computer/robots.

Colorado is a good symbol of the future. The state has been able to attract enough skilled people from outside, so it hasn't had to pay to educate the natives. (We have a very low rate of natives finishing college.)This will be the situation of the whole nation in the future. We'll let other countries educate workers; then we'll import them.

So U.S. workers, feckless, childish and ill-trained, will be redundant. Their birth-rates CAN'T drop too fast ! (On this issue, the wealthy bosses might agree with humanitarians who want to relieve the plight of unemployed workers.)

 
COUNTING THE WOUNDED: Americans generally--and strangely--don't count the wounded--even though being brain-injured or blinded or maimed may be worse than being killed.

Estimates of the number of GIs wounded vary wildly. One Pentagon estimate says only 2000 were wounded. But the Orlando Sentinel quotes a Pentagon expert as saying that TEN THOUSAND GIs were killed, or evacuated as sick or wounded--and that's only up to OCTOBER23,'03.
quoted in CENTRE COLLEGE

In November 03, a UnitedPressReporter got a Pentagon source to admit that there were EIGHTEEN THOUSAND medical evacuations until then (but some people were evacuated MORE THAN ONCE (!) so, said the source, only 12,000 people were actually evacuated.) And of course that doesn't count the wounded who were treated in Iraq and not evacuated. But even 12,000 is almost ONE IN TEN..and that is only in the 9 first months of the war, not counting the SEVEN MONTHS since then.
--------------
However, in spite of all the tricks (e.g., not showing the coffins coming home) SEVENTY PERCENT of Americans now say that the level of U.S. casualties is unacceptable.

 
COULD AND DID /letter to USATODAY
From the memos released Tuesday (story, 23 June) Bush thought he was entitled to authorize torture, but he didn't authorize it
'..EXCEPT when necessary' ! In fact our soldier have tortured prisoners in Afghanistan, Cuba, and Iraq. [GUARDIAN]
[About Cuba see INDEPENDENT ]

Rumsfeld issued on-and-off authorizations for various forms of abuse.

The August memo did authorize torture by our troops, and legitimized Bush permitting it; but this memo will NOW be rejected (now that the ugly reality of abuse has been made real by photographs.)

So Bush COULD authorize abuse, and did not reject the practice 'when necessary' ; his underlings DID authorize abuse, and our soldiers DID abuse prisoners. But Bush, of course, is in no way responsible for the abuse.

We don't elect one person as President; we elect the team he brings with him. We should quit asking (about this and other scandals) "What did Bush know?"
We should ask instead "What should he have known?"

 
BUSHIES TURN UGLY: The WhiteHouse just released a pile of earlier memos that might be used vs. Bush in pol.campaign:
--from Bush: "I accept the legal conclusion that I have the authority to suspend Geneva (the Convention about correct treatment of enemies) as between U.S. and Afghanistan BUT I DECLINE TO EXERCISE THAT AUTHORITY AT THIS TIME."

Rumsfeld on Dec. 02 approved grabbing, yelling at prisoners, and stress positions (e.g., standing) for 4 hours.) He wrote in margin:"Why just 4 hours?")
He approved 20-hour interrogations, removing all clothing and religious items, using individual phobias (e.g., vs. dogs)..

Then he revoked all this on Jan.15.

Then in April, he approved 14 interrogation techniques..

In August, a memo (now to be revoked) said U.S. personnel couldn't be prosecuted for torture; CommanderInChief's powers allow him to override U.S. laws and international treaties, re torture.
GUARDIAN
---------
There are 2 general ways to counter terrorism:
--1)capture suspects and torture them for info about possible future attacks. Spy on U.S. citizens.

--2) A much more expensive set of measures: E.G., search all ship-containers entering country; recruit and train medical personnel for possible germ-attacks,etc.

The Bushies grabbed on to the first kind of measure with great glee.
THe Patriot Act lets them break into your house when you're not there, to search it. Also, they can get a list (from libraries & book-stores) of all the books you're reading..and the library/bookstore people are forbidden to tell you..

But the second, more rational, (but expensive) kind of measures have largely been neglected--because the Bushies are more concerned with tax-cuts for the wealthy, with shovelling far over one thousand MILLIONS of dollars each DAY to the irrelevant Pentagon, and another $1 billion a week to the goofy Iraq project.
-------
Jesus was shrewd when he said, "Return not evil for evil, lest you be overcome by evil." The Bushies have enthusiastically returned evil for evil (often in really stupid ways) and have turned evil.

What's impressive is the fact that with all the fun they've had torturing suspects, they still don't have any reliable intelligence about guerilla attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan; they still can't find Osama..and so on.

 
CHECHENS STRIKE AT RUSSIA AGAIN: Militants attacked a neighboring Russian region openly and successfully. 57 dead, many wounded or captured.

Doubts persist that Russia (with all its ruthlessness, for over a century) can put down Chechen rebels. REUTERS

This shows what we all should know; a foreign occupying power cannot succeed, once enough of the locals hate them.--a minority large enough to support and hide terrorists.

Similarly in Iraq.

 
GREAT POLL NEWS: A new WashPost/ABC poll shows:
over 50% say Iraq war 'not worth fighting.'
70% says U.S. casualties now at an unacceptable level.

Bush is down 13% on handling terror, is now on a level with Kerry.

51% say the war has 'made us safer'--that's a new low.
BUT: most say war has NOT made for MiddleEast peace & stability.

Kerry is ahead in general choice by 4 points. He's ahead on 'honesty, trustworthiness,understands people's problems."
Bush ahead on 'makes us safer' and being a strong leader.

On economy, Bush went up 7 points, since March (he's at 46%).

Overall, Bush's approval is 47%--but DISAPPROVAL IS AT A NEW HIGH: 51%.
-------
And this is presumably AFTER any bounce from Reagan's funeral or Bush's appearance at G-8 meeting.

VoiceOfAmericaNews

 
AUSTRALIAN DOUBTS ABOUT U.S. ALLIANCE: The Labor Party leader said if he was elected, he would pull out Aussie troops from Iraq by Christmas.

Pres. Bush criticized this remark. A majority of Aussies disapproved of Bush commenting on their domestic politics.

About as many Aussies thought the relationship with U.S. was 'too close' as thought it was OK. SMH.COM.AU

 
"CHOOSE THE SIZE OF YOUR HUMILIATION!" a top Israeli backer of the invasion told Cheney last summer..the Israelis had learned (in Lebanon) that you can't win an occupation.

The Israelis have despaired of U.S. efforts to keep Iraq unified.
So they are backing the Kurds..but that enrages Iran, Turkey and Syria (who have large Kurdish populations eager for independence--The Kurds in Turkey just suspended a cease-fire.)

For a view of the complex maneuverings going on in Iraq, see NEW YORKER 6/21/04, article by Seymour Hersh.
This article was cited by InformationClearingHouse.

 
FOUR GI'S KILLED Monday in Ramadi. ABCNEWS

The present Bush strategy is to let Iraq go to hell while he minimizes U.S. casualties until November, hoping voters will forget about Iraq as they have forgotten about hopeless Afghanistan.

But if the guerillas successfully go after GIs again, not just Iraqis--then that strategy will not work.

See also piece about pictures of these 4 dead soldiers from 'Evening Standard'(?) cited by InformationClearingHouse

Pictures also on Denver TV ! 70% of AMericans now say that the present level of U.S. casualties is too high.

One other GI was killed elsewhere on Monday--7 wounded.
---------
Wolfowitz (architect of invasion) says we are NOT in a quagmire. But he admits our troops might have to stay for 'years' ! REUTERS

 
CENTRAL AFGHAN GOVT. WON'T TRY TO REVERSE REBEL TAKEOVER:
A rebel commander took over a provincial capital. Kharzai huffed and puffed about forcing a restoration of central authority. But then Kabul announced they wouldn't intervene, since 'things are pretty peaceful there now."

The UN pulled out its election-workers from this capital.
PAKTIMES
------------
CANADA PULLING OUT: Canada has refused a U.S. request to postpone removal of its troops from Afghanistan. AfghanNewsNetwork

 
OIL FLOWING AGAIN: One of the sabotaged pipelines in Southern Iraq has been repaired, and about 55% of the usual amount of oil is reaching port for export. (Exports from Northern Iraq are now negligible.) REUTERS

Observers expect more sabotage-attacks on the 74-mile pipeline.
It was said that the last sabotage had to be based on information from 'insiders'.
----
But then it turned out that flow of oil to export has halted again.
REUTERS

 
ALLIES BREAKING AWAY: U.S. has been demanding of North Korea a 'complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement' of its nuclear program. This would not only prevent N.K. from using nuclear power for energy, but it would also make them destroy their nuke warheads, significant only as possible '2d-strike deterrents' to block an attack on N.K. by U.S.: "You can destroy all our cities--as you did 50 years ago--but this time, when we come out of our caves, we can make you wish you hadn't!"

Earlier, China and South Korea sided with U.S. in making this demand. But now they are saying while this is a final goal, it shouldn't be an immediate demand. ChristianScienceMonitor

Bushies can't back down at all before Nov. elections, but they may not be so eager to attack N.K., now that N.K. could retaliate by donating nuke-warheads (or, more likely plutonium) to terrorists to use against U.S. (You can bet N.K. nuke plants and arms are buried safely under some mountains.)
---------
BUSHIE BACKDOWN NOT ENOUGH: U.S. hints it might remove 'axis of evil' label from N.K. (Who cares?) U.S. negotiators have quit talking about 'complete, verifiable, irreversible, dismantlement'. But they're still insisting on 'dismantlement' (N.K's giving up its 2d-strike deterrent completely)--while N.K. will only go with 'freeze' of its nuclear development.

NOW (24June) N.K's Kim has said that UNLESS U.S. accepts 'freeze', N.K. will test a nuclear weapon! CNN

With election-jumpies destabilizing the Bushies, how will they react to this N.K. move?

 
PATHETIC HOMELAND DEFENSE: Precious little money is going to Homeland Defense (compared to the astronomical sums shovelled to the Pentagon, for planes and missiles that will do NO GOOD WHATSOEVER in warding off attacks by individual terrorists.)

But besides the small total, two other problems:
--Due to red-tape, a lot of that pittance is not being spent!

--Most of what is spent goes for hardware (subsidizing pet corporations)--whereas what is needed is more money for PERSONNEL, for 'First Responders'. CNN

 
ANOTHER AIRSTRIKE AT RESIDENCES: Two U.S. missiles hit a residential area of Fallujah; enraged residents said the second was intended to slaughter those trying to rescue victims of the first missile. 8 Women and children were killed; 'all that were left were body-parts."

Americans said they were aiming at a terrorist leader, but they had to admit that he wasn't at home ! INDEPENDENT

We supposedly handed over control in Fallujah to Iraqi police (perhaps including some terrorists!) because our invasion of the city enraged so many Iraqis. So now we've REALLY ENRAGED them. We never learn.
----------
Americans who think 'things are going well in Iraq' have jumped from 47% to 56% !
INDEPENDENT

If this latest U.S. atrocity motivates even more Iraqis to want to die killing GIs, (and if guerilla leaders realize that Americans don't care much about chaos in Iraq, only about minimizing U.S. casualties) then things may start 'going badly' quickly and vividly.
[Between 21June & 24 June, TEN GI's were killed, besides dozens and dozens of Iraqis.]
----------
Iraqi police said there was no evidence of 'insurgents' in the bombed houses in Fallujah--but there were women & children.
Voice of AMerica News
---
Another story said that a U.S. airstrike at Sammarah killed 6 of 'our' Iraqi soldiers !

 
EXPERT'S MISTAKE: Paul Kennedy, eminent historian, fears that our Iraq fiasco will trigger an excessively isolationist sentiment among Americans. GUARDIAN

But he neglects one factor--that our people are ALREADY super-isolationist in thought.
Typical Americans, even the ELITE YOUTH in our better colleges, care little and know less about the outside world--not even enough to study foreign languages on the scale necessary to man a competent world-intelligence service.

The head of CIA (since ousted) told the 9/11 commission that we could not develop a competent intelligence service in less than five years.
The 9/11 commission also said that our intelligence service is 'dysfunctional': "they couldn't tell a bicycle crash from a train-wreck !" said one Republican legislator.
CNN


AT LEAST until we can redesign our intelligence system, we should pull in our horns overseas and concentrate our thought AND OUR MONEY on obvious ways to minimize terrorist dangers to our homeland.

Again and again I have said that we must quit launching blind interventionist lunges based on ignorant isolationist thinking.

 
'ANONYMOUS' BOMBSHELL: A highly respected PRESENTLY SERVING U.S. intelligence officer is publishing an angry denunciation of the Bushies' claim that they have weakened alQaeda and made America safer.

The most startling (at first) claim in the piece [IMPERIAL HUBRIS: WHY THE WEST IS LOSING THE WAR ON TERROR]is the speculation that binLaden will attack the U.S. before the elctions PRECISELY TO GET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO RE-ELECT BUSH--because Bush, unwittingly, is the best ally binLaden has. GUARDIAN

Bush's brutal tactics have enraged more than ever one billion Muslims worldwide, helping the terrorists to recruit volunteers and supporters./ His stupid arrogance has alienated our former allies, making cooperation more difficult in catching terrorists./ And the 8,400 MILLIONS of dollars we're shovelling each WEEK to the Pentagon, plus the $1 billion we spend every week on the pointless Iraq fiasco--these extravagances, plus the Bush tax-cuts for the rich, mean we CAN'T AFFORD the expensive measures needed to minimize terrorist-dangers to our Homeland.

But the writer is probably right that an attack on us before November will make millions of American yahoos 'rally round the flag' and vote for Bush.

 
PUTIN'S STRANGE CLAIM: After Russia has opposed the Iraq war all this time, and after they said they would NOT endorse our new puppet regime until they saw how it would operate, suddenly they joined a unanimous Security Council to endorse the new regime.

Then Putin announced that after 9/11, Russ intelligence warned America that Saddam intended to attack "U.S. at home and their interests abroad."

Now the U.S. State Dept. says it never received such a warning. Putin says it reached Bush--it must have gone through the Pentagon, if at all. Wash.Times

We can believe that Saddam hated us, turning on him after supporting him for so many years. But WHAT RESOURCES did he have to use against us ?! No planes, no missiles, no nukes, no gas, no germs. And he'd know we'd love an excuse to nuke him. Also, the 9/11 commission says there was no evidence of any alliance between Saddam and alQaeda.

One explanation of this strange performance is the Russia needs help in squashing their Chechen rebellion ruthlessly--and so Putin is willing to lie to help Bush claim that the invasion was justified. (It wasn't--precisely because impotent Saddam had no resources with which to threaten us.)

Or maybe our puppets have promised Russia some big oil favors.

Never mind. Bushies will use this dubious claim in the political campaign.
We'll see if American voters will swallow it.
---------------------
(Bush picked up about 4 poll-points from the Reagan melodrama. We'll see if that boost lasts.)

 
9/11 HIJACKERS REASSURED PASSENGERS: They told them they'd be OK--and until then, hijackers had not harmed passengers. CNN

BUSHIES are agonizing over a possible repeat of the 9/11 hijacking. But that's the kind of trick that works only once. When passengers know they're doomed, enough of them will likely storm the hijackers to stop the plane being used as a bomb against buildings.

As far as destroying planes, the efficient way to do that is to fire shoulder-fired missiles, not to smuggle hijackers aboard.

Much of the little money Bushies DO devote to Homeland Defense is foolishly devoted to stopping the last attack from happening again!

 
TRADE DEFICIT, NEW RECORD: The shortfall of 'what we sell overseas' compared to 'what we buy'[e.g. expensive foreign oil] has set a new record, over 5% of our national income. And even the lesser amount of 'what we sell' includes much value in goods/svces that are NOT produced by U.S. workers, and do not bring in income for the workers.

We must get $1.5 billion a day from foreign investors to cover this deficit. Private foreign investors are now not very interested in buying our bonds. They're being bought by Asian governments, who don't want the dollar to sink lower (thus making our exports cheaper and easier to sell, and making our imports more expensive, so other countries would be able to export less to us.) Their continued buying is NOT necessarily because they have confidence in our economy. (If our dollar drops significantly, then the bonds they bought with expensive dollars would be repaid in cheap ones.)


If foreigners cut back on buying our bonds, we'd have to raise the long-term interest we offer, and inflation at home would rise. FinTimes

One columnist for FinancialTimes long ago said flatly that America is bankrupt.

 
TROUBLE IN AFGHANISTAN: Bush (with Kharzai) gave a very optimistic picture of progress in Aghanistan. But then another provincial capital was seized by rebels. (3 of Kharzai's governors so far have had to flee.)

The rebels have declared a 'holy war' vs. all foreign aid workers.

NATO commander pleads for more troops, but member-states don't send even the ones they've promised.

"As world forgets Afghanistan," says AMNESTY INTERNATL., " it descends into a spiral of lawlessness..risking collapse." REUTERS


Bushies have warned that 'failed states' pose the danger of harboring terrorists. We'e busy turning Afgh. into a failed state.
----------
The income (going to warlords and Taliban) from drug-sales is EIGHT TIMES as much as the budget of the central 'government'.
-------------
UN WARNS THAT ELECTION IS ENDANGERED: The election-registration posts are now being attacked NEAR KABUL and by HEAVY WEAPONS. A UN official called for more NATO troops to provide security (not likely!) and said that otherwise the September date for elections might prove impractical. He said there must be changes before the end of June.

Predictably, our puppet Kharzai said the elections WOULD take place in September. But perhaps without UN cooperation. REUTERS

Bushies are determined to hold some kind of election in September, to give them bragging rights with U.S. voters about 'success' in Afghanistan. But it's said that only 30% of the voters have registered, in only a small part of Afghanistan--and this 'registration' is basically just a list of names. THE ECONOMIST

The election will be, of course, a travesty..but will U.S. media report this accurately?

 
SADR calls off fight with U.S. troops. (As noted below, in May he was supported by 67% of Iraqis.) Bush says Sadr can have a political role (even while Bremerites are still denouncing him as--alleged--murderer. REUTERS

Sadr's fighters were foolish to try to stand up openly against U.S. (heavily armed) troops.
But they may resort to more cunning attacks like those of Sunni guerillas. These are devastating, and U.S. army seems totally unable to stop them.
-----------
KofiAnnan says Iraq is not safe enough for UN to return! FinTimes

A puzzle: how come so many (relatively) Iraqis are willing to perish in suicide bombings that wreak havoc against other Iraqis (collaborators with U.S.) ?

 
OIL-LINE ATTACKED AGAIN: The Northern oil-pipeline connecting to Turkey was bombed again Wednesday, as on Tuesday. The price of crude oil worldwide went up just a little; but some analysts said the danger to world supplies is greater than speculators realize.
A senior Iraqi oil-executive was killed.
Before the war, U.S. imported 620,000 barrels of oil daily from Iraq. Now this is down 90,000 barrels. CanadianNatlPost
As of Wed., all oil-exports from Iraq have ceased.

92% of Iraqis see Americans as occupiers,not as liberators. A majority want Americans out. USATODAY16JUNE.
MORE POLL DETAILS: poll commissioned by Bremerites in May (results leaked). Only 2% see Americans as liberators. 54% say all Americans are like the sadistic prison guards.
55% would feel safer if AMericans left. Only 10% support our troops. 41% say "Leave Now!"/45% say 'leave after permanent Iraq govt. is set up (next Jan?)/

67% support Sadr. Our attempted crackdown on him has backfired, like so many of our gallant efforts. INDEPENDENT


-------------
The 9/11 commission said there was no evidence of Saddam/alQuaeda cooperation in attacking U.S..
Apparently binLaden explored the possibility of such cooperation, but Saddam rejected these overtures. [Precious lot of good that did him!] VoiceOfAmerica
London INDEPENDENT reminded us of top Bushies saying again and again in'03 that Saddam was allied with alQaeda.

 
SEAS RISING: The seas have already rising 4"; crop-production has fallen. U.S adds 36% of new CO2 pollution. Bushies don't care; nor do U.S. SUV drivers.

By end of this century, seas could be up 9" more. If 2 big ice-sheets melted, Manhattan, Florida, and BANGLADESH (the top tragedy) could be swamped.

The CO2 level now is higher than in the past 430,000 years.
REUTERS

 
BRAZEN! Bush, with Kharzai in D.C., cited Afghanistan as a model of progress for Iraq !!!! It's true that the Afghan economy has grown--mostly by the sale of opium.

While Kharzai was in D.C., a rocket hit near to the U.S. embassy in Kabul. REUTERS

 
NORTHERN PIPELINE ON FIRE: Recently, the Southern pipeline to Basra refinery was cut by sabotage. In the North, they've give up trying to export oil to Turkey. Nevertheless, the Northern pipeline was just set afire again. REUTERS

What security would Iraq lose if we withdrew our troops altogether?
Iran would be glad to take over--see previous post.

 
IRAN DEFIES U.S.: Not only is Iran defying U.S. puppet UN on nuclear issue, but a story from Beirut says that 4 battalions of Iranians have massed on Iraq border (many intelligence people have already crossed), to enter Iraq if/when U.S. troops leave. UnitedPress

They're really asking for it..a nasty bombing, not an occupation.
Maybe the ruling Mullahs don't care if sinful Teheran is laid low; they may think their power would be more secure if they played the Taliban role in an Iran reduced to resemble Afghanistan.

Of course, the rest of the world would be a little resentful if we lowered the export of Iranian oil, during this world-crisis. Iran, I think, has 3d biggest supply, after Saudis and Iraq.

OR: the Iranians could be signalling to Bush: "You bomb Iran and we'll infiltrate into Iraq, reinforcing Sadr's Shiite guerillas."

On the other hand, the Sunni guerillas might hesitate to drive out Americans if they'd be replaced by trained Iranian troops!

 
NO HUMANS NEED APPLY ! USATODAY
celebrated the 'fastest rise in productivity in 31 years'.(And this surge shows no sign of stopping.) The writer called productivity the 'superman' who has burst out of his telephone booth to rescue the U.S. economy. A rule of thumb: whatever journalists call 'good for the economy' is bad for workers.

[For instance, a REUTERS report said that more jobs were added, but 'worrisome' pay-rises were tame!]

Let's remember what a productivity-increase is: an increase in firms' ability to produce more revenue for each worker they HAVE TO hire and pay. For instance a drug company produced $7 billion more in revenue, while needing to add only 400 workers.

Ordinary humans are now more or less redundant. The only power they have (so far) is the fact that they form the huge majority in choosing their political leaders. Only these leaders can stop rewarding by tax breaks increased automation and outsourcing; only these leaders could reverse the thrust of the tax-code to reward those firms that hire more American humans.

But many workers are so foolish that they vote, not their pocketbook, but their moralistic spleen (on abortion, gay-rights,'patriotism', etc.) So the pols selected turn out to be the darlings of the big corporations.

Those educated people who care for the welfare of the ordinary person had better help teach them how to spend less, since many will end up on the dole..if they're lucky. Especially we should make sure that all women know about the 'morning-after' pill, as an emergency measure when condoms fail, to prevent children. Children are the most expensive luxury in the world.

Now that workers are redundant, the rich may also favor cutting the number of their babies.
==========
U.S. sells abroad far, far LESS than we buy abroad: our Trade Deficit has shot up to all-time records. FinTimes

And much of the goods/svces 'we sell abroad' are NOT produced by American workers (because of automation and outsourcing).

Suppose Kerry gets elected,and he drops Free Trade dogma, and imposes tariffs on imports (Or rather on all goods--including those allegedly 'made in America'-- not made by American workers!)

Then other countries would probably put up tariffs against America. But workers here might very well lose (in jobs for exports) much LESS than they'd gain (in our jobs making goods replacing imports).

It'll never happen--Kerry is probably also a Free-Trade-Believer; but it's enlightening to speculate.
-------------
Industrial production jumped in May, so factory production jumped from 77.1% of capacity to 77.8%--REUTERS

'Good news' like this is not good news for workers, unless there is an equally dramatic jump in new jobs. Otherwise, the significance is that firms are ever more able to produce goods and revenue WITHOUT NEEDING AMERICAN WORKERS.

 
PIPELINE ATTACK BLOCKS IRAQ OIL EXPORTS: The second attack in a month on Southern pipelines has cut oil exports severely. BBC

And a convoy of foreign contractors working on reconstruction was shot up near the Baghdad airport.

The new regime will have to 'make a deal' with the leaders of the guerilla movement; if they are foreigners, then the people who shelter them will have to be convinced to stop that, one way or the other.

The 'deal' with the Fallujah guerillas (whereby the Iraq police-force would take over the town) has pretty well collapsed.

When the car in Baghdad was blown up, a large crowd of youths showed up, in front of TV cameras, to defile the bodies of 'collaborators with U.S.' further. Our policemen just stood around, helpless.
-------
Ah, but none of this matters; U.S. deaths are down to a half-dozen a week (nobody counts the wounded)..so the Bushie strategy is working: to get Americans to forget about Iraq as they have forgotten about Afghanistan.

 
MY BRUSH WITH THE BISHOPS: I decided to have some dialogue with all the Roman bishops of U.S.A. meeting this week in the 'upscale and luxury'[self-described] Inverness Hotel in Englewood,CO.

But that wasn't so easy. Of course I was notified that I could flourish my sign only on the sidewalk, half a mile from the bishops. Ok--my sign read BUSH'S WAR IS POST-BIRTH ABORTION.

Then I decided, after a few hours, that I wanted a cup of coffee. To alleviate any suspicions, I left my knapsack with two women who were requesting ORDAIN WOMEN! (out on the sidewalk also).

Still, a couple of Inverness goons tried to stop me, but reluctantly let me enter for coffee. I asked for the coffee-shop, and was looking for it when I saw a little guy in civieS labelled with a name-tag 'TAFOYA'--aha! the very reverend Bishop of Pueblo. He was with several other portly gentlemen, also in civies. I said to him , "You probably know that one who kills a child can be absolved by any priest--but if you flush out a fertilized egg, only a bishop can absolve you." He nodded, sadly. "Insane!" I said; he nodded sadly again.

Then the goons grabbed my arm and said I'd have to leave. I said loudly, on my way out, "I''m being thrown out--for talking to a bishop! I'm being thrown out." The goon said, "Now you're disturbing the Peace!" So I went peacefully.

Bishop Tafoya (or any bishop in the lobby) could have stopped this nonsense, but no.

As I was walking back to my sidewalk, a golf-car pulled up with a sheriff's deputy, who handed me a NOTICE OF TRESPASSING: "This document serves as a constructive notice of trespassing. Any peddler, solicitor, transient merchant or protestor who violates the provisions of such notice, shall be prosecuted to the full extent of the law..." and so on, blah,blah.

I had planned to meet a friend for their buffet lunch; but they informed me that if I entered the hotel again for any reason, it's the cuffs. I was tempted to defy, thinking of all my relative-lawyers..but then I reflected that some of these relatives might join the prosecution..so I obeyed; we went elsewhere to lunch.

The two 'ordain women' protesters had an interesting tale. They went to an ordination in Atlanta; they claimed they were completely silent, when the Archbishop's goons ordered them out.
One apparently refused to leave, so she was handcuffed in Church and dragged out.

The reading for that day, aimed at the new priests, was a passage from Jeremiah, saying that believers should expect to be harrassed and persecuted...but should speak up, nonetheless.

-------
I can understand the bishops' wanting privacy for their 'retreat'. But then why didn't they meet at the austere Trappist Monastery at Snowmass in the mountains? No hecklers would bother them there !

Well, for one thing, the monastery has no golf-course.
----------
"We're imitating the Apostles," said the bishops' spokesman, "who, at the Lord's urging, left their ordinary obligations aside to reflect prayerfully in His presence." REUTERS

Somehow I have a problem imagining the humble, poor apostles reflecting at the 'upscale and luxury' Inverness.

Maybe these bishops are praying that their putting will improve.
-----------
USATODAY(15June) says that only 10% of Catholics agree with the bishops that abortion is always wrong. (When asked why they obsess about abortion and not about Bush's war, the bishops typically answer that abortion is ALWAYS wrong, but war is SOMETIMES OK!) For an analysis of this kind of argument, see my previous piece
WAR AND ABORTION. (21May)

Still, 10% of Catholics constitutes millions of voters (especially added to the millions of Protestant fundamentalists who think that way). That could be enough to swing a typically-super-close election. So bad ethics turns out to 1be quite relevant in U.S.politics.

 
BUSH WANTS VATICAN HELP TO HYPNOTIZE CATHOLICS: High Vatican sources said that Bush went to Vatican to persuade Pope to push U.S. bishops to emphasize moralistic issues like gay marriage[now, before election]. "Some of these bishops are not with me on this." NYTIMES

Will poor old JPII fall for this obvious stunt, from the man who started the war that Pope called 'unjust, illegal, & disastrous'?

If every U.S. voter voted intelligently & selfishly, if they voted their pocketbook, Republicans wouldn't get 30% of the vote. Their only hope is that voters will be dumb enough to vote their 'conscience' (actually, their moralistic spleen against women & gays)instead.

And many will.
That's the only reason the election will be close.

 
EXPERTS SAY BUSH MUST GO: Twenty-six prominent former diplomats and military leaders (many appointed under Republican Presidents) are signing a statement calling for Bush's ouster, since he has had a disastrous effect on U.S. foreign policy.

This echoes a previous statement by dozens of British experts denouncing Blair's participation in our Iraq fiasco.
LATIMES

 
BRAHIMI QUITS IN DISGUST: UN Security Council was shocked to hear BRAHIMI say he was quitting as UN envoy to Iraq, [NOT, as is usually said, because of 'personal' reasons) but because of the frustration he faced in that role. HAARETZ

Brahimi was the 'golden mediator' who was supposed to pick the new rulers of Iraq (after 1 July), thus guaranteeing that the new regime would not be a U.S. puppet like the old Council. But then this new premier was forced on him by the U.S...many of the new bureaucrats are from the despised old Council.

By declaring this rump-regime 'sovereign', the UNSecCouncil just forfeited their own remaining credibility; they didn't convince the Iraqi people.

 
THIRTEEN HUNDRED POSTS ON THIS BLOG. Starting in Oct.2002 (see ARCHIVE)--I've written a little over two posts a day since then--practically all criticizing Bush & his wars.

Some of my predictions were wrong--e.g., that Saddam did have some gas & germs which he could use to punish our invasion, and that we'd lose many troops in door-to-door fighting in Baghdad. I was certainly correct in predicting that we would not be welcomed for long by Iraqis as liberators.

But remember: as a critic of the war, I was not posing as a predictive prophet..I was noting (and said so) the foolish RISKS the Bushies were taking in launching first-strikes at Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's DEFENDERS of the wars who must claim that they understand the situations overseas so well that they can predict reliably that the benefits of a war will clearly outweigh the awful evils that every war constitutes. These hawks showed that they didn't understand such matters at all; their 'net-benefit' predictions had no basis in fact. Therefore, the Pope and I were correct to denounce this war as unjust. Ahem.

 
SADR SOFTENING? The hothead militia-leader Sadr, pressured probably by mainline Shiite clerics, accepted the legitimacy of our new puppet regime--but only if they denounce our military occupation (which they won't do) and set a deadline for our troops to leave (which they won't do.)

 
NOT SO CLOSE TO ELECTION, YOU FOOLS! Bushies issued policy that would cut Food-stamp benefits for those oldies who used the (so far not popular) Medicare prescription-cards.

Then they thought again, and rescinded that policy. NYTIMES

 
WHAT NEW JOBS? People haven't noticed the big new boom in jobs that the Bushies are proclaiming. One reason is that most of the full-time new jobs are low-pay--and the high-pay jobs are mostly temp positions.

People see that the people they know are still having trouble finding work. They have NOT started to credit Bush with providing jobs.

The latest AP poll shows less than half of registered voters approve of B's job perfomance;(analysts say that low a rating 5 months before election practically guarantees defeat!); they don't think the nation is going in the right direction; and they don't back his work on domestic affairs. COLORADOAN

 
ANOTHER TOP IRAQ OFFICIAL SLAIN: The senior Iraqi diplomat was shot to death, following several other assassinations. MSNBC

The offices of the new regime will be filled--but by whom? ...by a few saints who don't mind the risk to their lives--but will they be the most competent people around? Also by many who are willing to risk their lives for the big money they can make from corruption.

After all, the top honcho in the new regime spent $330,000 lobbying for his appointment in WASHINGTON (not Baghdad, of course!) He must have thought he could get that much money back from the powerful post--(he will in fact be a one-man ruler---but for only a few months!)--certainly he won't get an adequate payback above the table!

 
PENTAGON ORGY: Congress doesn't dare tamper with Pentagon plans to spend well over $1 trillion in the next decade on planes, ships, weapons that have little direct connection with war in Iraq OR war on terror. No one dares to object; all that's needed to stop a complaint is the phrase '9/11'. MSNBC

 
DISAPPOINTED BUSHIES: Once they lowered themselves to admit we needed outside help in Iraq, they expected other countries (e.g., NATO) to send troops.

What part of YOU BROKE IT, YOU BOUGHT IT! didn't they understand?

 
SAUDIS DID FLY OUT OF U.S. 2 DAYS AFTER 9/11 (probably including a Saudi prince) thus avoiding being questioned by FBI.
(The feds have denied this flight for 3 years. Only when the 9/11 commission explicitly asked the Tampa airport was the truth revealed.)


142 people (mostly Saudis) flew out of U.S. between 9/12 & 9/24/01.


A book by Unger: HOUSE OF BUSH,HOUSE OF SAUD lays out the intimate connections between the Bush family and top Saudis, including relatives of binLaden.

Also, Michael Moore's movie FAHRENHEIT 9/11 will develop this theme.
[ ST.PetersburgTimes ]

 
BRITS ARE BRIGHTER: The British thumped Blair's Labor Party in local elections (Labor came in THIRD, after Tories & Social Democrats!)The reason was Labor's subservience to Blair on Iraq. (Of course Tory MPs voted for the war also.) REUTERS

The Brits rejected war with Iraq right up until Blair sent over the troops; then they felt they had to 'support the troops'. But soon they turned against the war again.

If only U.S. voters would thump Republicans over their blind endorsement of (what 53% now see as ) Bush's Iraq fiasco! There is some hint of such a move..let's hope...

 
WRONG DESCRIPTION OF EVIL: Thomas Friedman goofs again in describing Iraq guerillas. He says they're evil because they have no goal except causing Americans (& their allies) to fail. FRIEDMAN

The French partisans were not evil in working (in the short run) just to make the Nazi invaders fail and get out of France.

What makes the Iraq guerillas uniquely evil is their willingness to slaughter fellow-Iraqis.
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Friedman sees accurately that it's too late for us to remedy the fiasco by sending in more troops..they'd just be more sitting ducks.

He says accurately that we must train Iraqi security forces to fight the guerillas. But (a) what qualifies Americans to train Iraqis in the anti-guerilla fight we have bungled so remarkably?
(b) NATO won't get involved in this training, because France is vetoing such involvement.
(c) If we do train some Iraqis in military skills, these may be used in a coming civil war, by different militias set against each other.

We can do no good in Iraq. We should pull out, even though only 20% of Americans see this. They see disaster when we pull out; they don't realize that the disaster is just as likely later if we stay in for a year or so.

 
AMERICANS VS. IRAQ WAR: 53% (vs, 43%)say situation did NOT merit war;
44% approve of B's handling of war (down from 51% in March).
41% approve of his handling of prisoner-scandal, vs. 37% disapprove.

But only 20% want us to pull out troops within wks. 25% want us to set a deadline for pulling out troops. (LATIMES poll, Sat-Tues.this week, during Reagan ceremonies.) MSNBC
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In a 3-way contest(including Nader!) Kerry is still ahead nationally:K48%, B42%, N4%.
(Without Nader, it's K51%, B44%).

However, in the swing states that make the difference, Bush is ahead or even! And it's States that count, not people. GUARDIAN

Oh, well, even if Bush wins technically, by cheating shamelessly, as he did last time, at least we'll take comfort in learning that at least 52% of Americans are sane--and that number is growing all the time! (Even in Republican Ft.Collins, the reception we sign-wavers get from cars is friendlier every week!)
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Fifty-Eight PerCent of Americans think President can control gas prices.
Woodward's book said Saudis & Bushies were conspiring to lower gas prices just before the election. That's not happening; but that doesn't mean they weren't trying.
FinTimes

Saudis goosed up oil production--but there's a shortage of tankers to bring those goodies to U.S. And Oil Companies have arranged a shortage of gasoline refineries, so oil that does get here can't be converted quickly into gasoline.

I do my bit to help by flashing signs at drivers: BUSH IMPORTS GAS FOR IRAQIS; THEY PAY 5 CENTS A GALLON. Media try to remind people that gas is cheap (allowing for inflation) compared to earlier times, and very cheap compared to other countries--but U.S. kidults want their gas NOW in great quantities, and cheap,too!

 
KURDISH & FRENCH OPINIONS: Our puppet council (Shiites & Americans included))signed on unanimously, about a month ago,to give the Kurds a veto over any new constitution--to preserve the autonomy the Kurds have developed over a decade: with a well-functioning democratic government and a trained militia of 75,000 troops.

But now, Shiites & Americans have refused to mention this document in the final UN resolution setting up the 'interim regime' (headed by a nominal Shiite who is obviously a U.S. puppet).

A Kurdish leader commented, "It's not just that we've been misled by the Americans. It's also that they change their position day by day, without any focus on real strategy. There's a shocking level of mismanagement and incompetence." NYTIMES
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CHIRAC'S OPINION: Bush was trying to get NATO to help out in Iraq, at least by training Iraq army.But NATO needs unanimous agreement to do anything: France's Chirac said, "The Iraq war is shameful in every sense of the word.[Immoral AND incompetent?] Nato involvement would risk confrontation of Christian West with Muslim East. We cannot accept this mission for NATO."

Chirac also said it would be unfair to ask nations owed money by Iraq to forgive more than 50% of their staggering debt. (Postponing payment is one thing, but why should they forgive permanently a debt from a country that SOME DAY will be rich again? The rich G8 nations refused to forgive debts of poor countries, debts often incurred by tyrants, just as Iraq's was.) LATIMES 11jUNE

Chirac may figure that outraged Bush yahoos wouldn't drink French wines anyway! Unfortunately his frankness will help these Yahoos think that ONLY France opposes our invasion/occupation.

 
ANOTHER LIE--The State Dept. recently issued a report claiming that the number of terrorist incidents around the world had dropped, because of the clever anti-terrorist actions of the Bushies.

Now they've had to retract that report. The corrected report, they say, will show that such incidents have INCREASED SHARPLY over the last year. CNN

Of course they have. In many ways, Bushies have helped the terrorists: e.g., by enraging world Muslims ever more, they help recruit terrorists; by alienating our former allies, they hamper international cooperation; by spending $1 billion a day on the Pentagon generally, plus $1 billion a week just on Iraq, they see to it that we can't afford anti-terrorist precautions..and so on..

AMericans are only very slowly coming to realize that Bushies are NOT working to improve our Homeland Security.

 
THERE JEB GOES AGAIN: The Florida Secy.of State office used to be independent, but now it's under the direct control of Jeb Bush, the President's brother. This office has again issued a list of voters ineligible because they have been convicted of felonies.

But county officials say they have already found glaring errors in the new purge-list. INDEPENDENT

The Bushies have several tricks up their sleeve this year. Computer-voting that is fatally defective; widespread by-mail voting which destroys the secret-ballot (someone can watch you as you fill out the ballot, and watch while you seal the envelope) and of course mail-ballots from military personnel--your SERGEANT can watch how you vote! And of course the right-wing House of Reps. and the right-wing Supreme Court will decide all doubtful results.

Kerry will have to win by a landslide, to win at all.

 
GLOBAL WARMING: HUMAN-CAUSED? Even people who admit the globe is warming in an unusual way don't always admit that this phenomenon is caused by human activities: e.g., our increasing the levels of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere.

Some scientists drilled an ice core about 2 miles long, to compare different ages of climate. Their conclusion (I think, after a quick skimming) is that our age differs from similar ages (in the natural cycles) in ways that ARE caused by human activities. INDEPENDENT

Also, see NYT

 
THREAT FROM WEAK NATIONS: Our whole military apparatus is aimed at countering threats from STRONG states like Russia or China. But the new terrorist situation means that we are mainly threatened by WEAK states, who can't block terrorists from using their territories for training or equipping terrorists. FinTimes

What's called for is economic aid for these palsied governments; bombing/shelling them would make them weaker and MORE THREATENING. Our Pentagon has converted Afghanistan and Iraq into newly-failed states!

So the [far-more-than] one thousand millions of dollars shovelled EVERY DAY to the Pentagon is completely useless for improving our national security. Or worse than useless; if we bomb Jakarta to punish Indonesia for terrorist activity, we'll weaken the central government and strengthen the hand of the terrorists.


Oh, well, defending the U.S> never was the main function of the Pentagon anyway!

 
UGH!AFGAHANISTAN AGAIN! The amiable, impotent 'mayor of Kabul' (U.S. pawn "president'Kharzai--formerly a functionary in U.S. oil corporation) is in U.S., begging for more help. Small wonder. Taliban just killed a dozen Chinese aid workers. And an international medical-aid group just pulled out, after 5 of its people were killed.

He won't get more help. No one really cares about Afghanistan now. Kharzai dreams of an election this September (postponed from June); but only 3 million out of 10 million voters are registered.

Kharzai praised Reagan for helping them oust the Russians, long ago. Unfortunately, many of the dedicated fighters we trained and armed back then (e.g. with shoulder-fired anti-plane missiles)--many of these courageous anti-Russian warriors are now TALIBAN warriors, using our training and our weapons against OUR occupation! CNN

The Taliban now dares to attack in the hitherto-peaceful North. SundayHerald
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A 30-car convoy of UN officials and Central Govt. officials, protected by U.S. military, received 11 rockets from a mountain-side. USAToday

 
ATTACKS IN NAJAF & FALLUJAH: There's supposed to be a truce in the Holy City of Najaf--but insurgents just overran a 'Central govt' police-station there. It's not clear if this attack was ordered by Sadr, or if parts of his militia are disobeying him.

Also, we handed over Fallujah-region to Iraqi police (including some of the insurgents!)--but a police station there was attacked.

Our pretence may be collapsing that we can hand over power to native policemen, while withdrawing our troops from the cities--to cut U.S. casualties which harm Bush's polls at home.
NYTIMES10June

 
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE WILTS: The Index of Consumer Confidence for May sunk to its lowest point this year. The Business Pages (echoing Bush's speeches and ads) trumpet our 'economic recovery'--BUT it seems the ordinary people are not to be jollied out of their worries--and this only 5 months before the election!

IMPORT PRICES (mainly OIL) SURGE; UNEMPLOYMENT RATE UP. [ REUTERS ]

The first point means that Fed WILL raise interest rates, to curb possible inflation. All this also means that the 'MISERY INDEX' will rise: the ordinary person is caught between high gas prices, higher prices for goods, higher interest rates if he wants to buy a car or house or refrigerator, AND a greater threat of joblessness.
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Bush will get a temporary boost in polls from exploiting shamelessly the extravagant funeral proceedings for our late revered nincompoop. [Thoughtful analysts are recalling that Reagan did NOT end the Cold War; Gorbachev was the hero of that mighty change! ( Globe & Mail10June ) ] But after that temporary funeral boost, we can expect Bush's polls to sag again, over the economy and the Iraq fiasco.
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I'm not gloating over the misery of ordinary Americans; I'm glad though that, from this evil, might come a widespread realization of disastrous Bush policies, which might disenchant even the hard-core, church-going, white-male Republicans. The ordinary person will be much worse off if, due to foolish hopes of 'economic recovery', the awful Bush-team gets reelected!

 
WHY SHOULD KURDS TRUST US? Just a month or so ago, our Puppet Council worked out, with great fanfare, a compromise 'interim' constitution that would guide Iraq through the elections. Under Shiite majority rule, it guaranteed 'federal minority autonomy'(already a fact 'on the ground'!) to the Kurds (who, after all, were able to secede !) U.S. accepted this document, as (reluctantly) did Shiite guru Sistani.

But then Kurds asked that the document be inserted (as appendix) to the UN resolution setting up officially the interim regime. U.S. gave in to Sistani--forgetting that the Kurds have been the only supporters of the Occupation!--and ELIMINATED the whole document from the official resolution.

Now Sistani and our new puppet Strongman assure the Kurds unofficially that their autonomy will be respected. Unsurprisingly, this is NOT satisfactory for the Kurds, who threaten to secede; they have functioning democratic government in their area, and a trained militia of 75,000 troops.

U.S. figures Kurds wouldn't DARE secede, with Turkey huffing and puffing against their autonomy. But a Turkish invasion would not help Turkey's chance of being admitted to EU !And U.S. standing by to allow such an invasion would disgrace us even more than presently.

Possibly the Kurds won't secede openly; they'll just ignore Baghdad edicts. The crunch would come if the central govt. tried to send governors or police into Kurdistan--perhaps to deprive Kurds of fantastic oil-riches of Kirkuk.

 
DISMANTLING MILITIAS? Aw, C'MON! There's been talk lately that many of the sectarian militias have agreed to disband, with their members getting pensions or being recruited into a central Iraq army.

This kind of fantasy has often been talked about (in Lebanon, this 'happened'--then, when they slipped into sectarian civil war, the militias reformed quickly, as if by magic.)

The most incredible story was that the KURDISH militias (75,000 trained troops) were going to disband. But now we hear that the Kurds are on the edge of SECESSION, after the U.S. refused to put into the UN resolution a guarantee of the federalism they demand. (Ayatollah Sistani objected to giving the Kurds a veto over Baghdad decisions once the majority Shiites take over--and the U.S. gave in to him.) Kurdish leaders have left Baghdad! and returned to Kurdistan.
Many Kurdish leaders have been individually assassinated..by whom?
REUTERS

Would any militia disband when hothead Sadr's militia refuses to disband? He has correctly denounced the new regime as another obvious U.S. puppet--and he's reminded Iraqis of their disenchantment with the UN.

Not only that; the guerilla 'militia' is obviously not letting up on its destructive activities. They have a power-base, now that U.S. has handed over to them the Fallujah area. They've just killed 18 Iraqis. They've just bombed the main plant providing electric power to Baghdad..the citizens will be enraged at the new regime if they can't get air-conditioning as the fiery summer approaches.

The new nominal-Shiite one-man-ruler ('prime minister'), one IYAD ALLAWI, is an obvious U.S. puppet. (He spent $330,000 lobbying for the job IN D.C., not in Baghdad.."He knew that he needed a constituency in Washington, not in Baghdad !")

He will not be a 'natural unifier'--but he might be planning to be a Strong-Man (perhaps working with the Saddamite generals, his former colleagues! 'Saddam lite!')But then can he pacify the Kurds and the Shiites, who together outnumber the Sunni Arabs hugely?
Who knows how it will all work out? The only question the Bushies care about now, I'd guess, is how to lower U.S. casualties before the Nov. election.

 
WE MAY TORTURE--AND WE DID--BUT BUSHIES AREN'T TO BLAME!
Ashcroft told Senate that Pres.Bush is not bound to refrain from torture by international law..[SaltLakeTribune
]
..now in fact U.S. soldiers have tortured prisoners (not just in that Baghdad prison, but also in Afghanistan--and God knows what happens in Guantanamo!)and these soldiers claim they were acting on Orders from Above...

..but we're asked to believe that the top Bush team never authorized this torture.

 
U.S. JOB CRISIS: AUTOMATION OR OUTSOURCING OR BOTH?
in NYT,6June
, W.A. Hostein interviewed the head of a manufacturing company about the worth of outsourcing (wiring jobs, e.g., to India or China). The executive made several important points:

--Already, over 50% of their production is done overseas--but in Europe, with hi-pay labor, not in Indonesia.
[U.S. corporations are not really'American': money has no national loyalty.]
When asked if corporate leaders have a moral obligation to preserve U.S. jobs, he said that is not his concern..that would involve NATIONALISM ! (Horrors.)

--Their direct-labor costs have sunk from 15% of their costs to 5% !..so how much more could they save by outourcing?

--The main source of these labor-cost savings is TECHNOLOGY (i.e., automation).(He says that 'productivity'(i.e., increasing the value-produced for each unit of labor used--producing more value with less human input)has a far greater impact on U.S. jobs than does outsourcing.

--Nevertheless, the job-loss from outsourcing (which is considerable, whether or not it's completely rational) is ADDED TO the job-loss from automation.

The Bushies reward any firm that substitutes machine-input for human input, by their 'equipment-depreciation' tax break. Also they reward corporations like this for moving whole divisions overseas, exempting that portion of their revenue from U.S. taxes. And of course for decades the feds have taxed firms about 10% for every dollar they spend on U.S. workers (the FICA tax).

Ordinary Americans are too dumb to understand all this and demand that our tax-laws ENCOURAGE hiring AMericans--so those of us elite (our numbers are few indeed) who care about worker-welfare--we had better concentrate on teaching workers how to live on less (e.g., riding buses instead of cars, and using Morning-After pill to cut the number of their children--children are the most expensive luxuries in the world!)
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I learned from Jesus to care for the welfare of ordinary people; I learned from Plato (and from prolonged experience: working in a factory, selling door-to-door, being in the army, and teaching) not to rely on the THINKING of ordinary people.