Dan Lyons

ARE WE WINNING HEARTS & MINDS? U.S.hawks always say that "Iraq guerillas are just a few trouble-makers: most Iraqis are friendly & grateful."
HOWEVER:
IRAQ POLL BY CNN/USATODAY: Most Iraqis say that toppling Saddam was 'worth their hardships since.'
But 46% say war has done more harm than good, vs. 33% 'We're better off now.'
71% see our troops as Occupiers, vs. 19% who see us as liberators.

"ARE ATTACKS ON GIs JUSTIFIABLE?" YES, say 33% PLUS 22% MORE WHO SAY 'SOMETIMES'. (Only 1 in 4 say 'NEVER.')
[This is what counts; guerillas need only about 20% of the people supporting/hiding them to be successful.]

THE UNGRATEFUL JERKS; AFTER ALL WE'VE DONE TO THEM...!

WE CAN'T WIN THIS GUERILLA WAR !
TEN GIs KILLED ON THURSDAY, 29TH. CNN
And another GI died on Thursday from wounds suffered on Wednesday.
Only last summer, 64% in Baghdad said attacks were always or sometimes UNJUSTIFIED !

WHY the Hate? "GIs use force indiscriminately."
67%: "They don't try at all to spare civilians." vs. 10%: 'They try hard..'
[and now we're bringing in more tanks; we're attacking Fallujah from the air.]

[It doesn't really matter how true this accusation is of 'indiscriminate killing'--what counts is that 2 in 3 Iraqis believe it !]
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FIFTY-SEVEN PERCENT say we should leave within a few months;
but 51% say:"Recent attacks show Yanks should stay on."/
53%"We'd feel less safe if Yanks leave today."

[Why the disparity? Because we've destroyed the Saddamite police-force--so if we leave, there will be NO force for law'n'order!] USATODAY
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( Poll was taken before the bloodbath in the last 2 weeks.)
FULLER COVERAGE OF THIS POLL ON CNN

SHRINKING SHRUB (U.S. slowly awakens): REUTERS

"Did Threat from Saddam require war?" yes: only 32%
"B.should have worked harder for diplomatic solution." 61%

"Did we do right thing in invading?" yes:47% (last yr, 70%)
"Bush is doing well.."--in handling Iraq, 41%/ on Foreign Policy, 40%/

'B.is doing well overall': 46% (down 5 points since March, down from 70% last year)/

Most say the economy/jobs is most important issue:
"Bush OK on Economy!" only 39%

Strangely, 60% still think Bush does OK on terrorist threat!(presumably, just because 2d attack hasn't yet happened !)
[How can we wake people up to his shameless underfunding of Homeland Security?]

Three out of four have decided whom to vote for:
right now (WITHOUT NADER!) Kerry gets 46%, Bush 44%..
but WITH NADER IN, Bush wins!

[Obviously, extreme liberals don't like Kerry..but are they such fools that they'll put Bush back in ? ! ]

A Prayer for our times:
BUSH GETS DIRECTIONS RIGHT FROM GOD;
BIN LADEN HEARS ALLAH;
ZIONISTS TAKE ORDERS FROM JAHWEH.
IF THERE'S SOMEONE UP THERE WHO'S SANE,
LET'S HEAR FROM YOU!

HOW MUCH WILL BE SHIFTED on 1 July? France demands a full transfer of power away from America; Brahimi, who will appoint the interim regime, talks about a full transfer of power--but America plans only a 'partial' transfer, leaving all crucial decisions up to our 'embassy' (the new label for Bremer-type regime) and of course to our military.
Italy, after boasting that it would never be driven out--the govt. is allied with U.S., vs. the wishes of practically all Italians,plus the Pope!--now says they'll pull out unless the UN validates the new regime. GUARDIAN

Leaving U.S. generals in command of all military forces (in theory) not only renders absurd any claim to sovereignty--it also leaves the same fools in charge [in the field and in Pentagon] who have screwed up the Occupation till now!

KERRY'S MEDALS: Did he throw them away, in his antiwar mood after returning from Vietnam? (He was foolish to distinguish between throwing away the medals and throwing away the ribbons! He gave his foes a handle.)

The basic problem: part of the U.S. DEFINITION OF 'VETERAN' is being prowar. An antiwar veteran (though you'd think that is understandable enough) doesn't count as a REAL veteran--even if he performed heroically in combat, as Kerry did.

Meanwhile John Wayne, who never came near to combat, got the highest Congressional Medal of Freedom.

What counts here is the IMAGE, not the reality.

DIPLOMATS CONDEMN BUSH/BLAIR POLICIES: FIFTY-TWO former Brit diplomats have condemned Blair for supporting Bush's 'DOOMED MIDDLE-EAST POLICIES', saying that if Blair can't influence these policies for the better, then he'd better dissociate himself altogether from Bush. ISRAEL NEWS

(This bombshell item also found on NEWS.GOOGLE.COM [search for 'former diplomats"] in many other foreign media--but in almost NO U.S. media!--R.Mtn.News gave it 2 inches, under a misleading headline, on p. 25a)

Of course those stupid Americans mentioned below who still think Saddam helped AlQaeda--these hardy nincompoops, ignorant of plain facts, won't mind saying they're right and all the experts are wrong.

THE IGNORANT SUPPORT BUSH: A Univ. of Maryland poll says:
U.S. SPLIT between those who have bothered to get informed, who realize that no WMDs have been found in Iraq (74% of these are anti-Bush), and those who have managed to stay totally ignorant of this fact (72% pro-Bush).

82% of AMericans still think Saddam helped AlQaeda, even though Bush finally denied this. 60% don't know that the whole world is against this war (21% think world is on our side; 38% think foreigners are evenly divided on this issue.) INDEPENDENT
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Philosophers have said the best arguments for democracy are (a) that, faced with the responsibility of sharing in decisions, ordinary people would see to it that they get informed--[above data show this is absurd in U.S. today]--
and (b) that ordinary person understands his own best interests and will best promote them in his voting. [But almost half of unwealthy Americans vote regularly for GOP, which obviously works almost solely to benefit the wealthy!]
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This is the tragedy of politics: elite people may understand what the ordinary person needs, but they don't much care to arrange it. Almost nobody really understands AND cares for the real, long-run interests of the ordinary person--INCLUDING THE (childish, ignorant) ORDINARY PERSON! [See my book DEMOCRACY,RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS: WHAT ARE THEY? WHAT GOOD ARE THEY?]

All this means, NOT that democracy is necessarily worse than other forms of government--but just that here and now we can't expect it will prove very effective.

It may be that, like Iraq, U.S. is NOT READY FOR DEMOCRACY.
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Of course, in times like ours, if world were run by one set of prudent, selfish VILLAINS, they would at least see to it that THEIR WORLD wasn't destroyed.

Without one intelligent world government, there's no such guarantee.

TRYING TO GET GENIE BACK INTO BOTTLE: A former FBI translator told London INDEPENDENT that Bushies were told months before 9/11 that AlQaeda intended to strike at U.S. with airplanes. She also testified in closed session before the 9/11 Commission.

Now the families of 9/11 victims have subpoenaed her; but the Bushies have invoked 'state secrets' to try to silence her. A little late!

TWO ECONOMIES & THE COMING ELECTION: from USATODAY: All the experts agree that economic issues most likely determine Presidential elections..but WHICH issues?

The 'Economy' is 'doing well' on these issues: stock prices/ low interest rates/ low tax-rates--though strapped cities & states are raising fees etc /rising home values (though owners now 'own' only 55% of their homes' value--the lowest proportion since 1945..still, the housing bubble won't likely burst before November..)/ (misleadingly) low 'unemployment rate'..(not counting 'discouraged' workers who have quit looking!)
--One in 3 of the bottom 25% of incomes moved to a higher level between '94 & '99. [However: that was then, not now. Moreover--one critic suggested that much of this 'mobility' was an illusion: well-to-do young people temporarily reported low income while they worked their way through school.]

Notice: of these indicators, only the rising home values--
& PERHAPS 'econ.mobility'--are really (and temporarily)helping ordinary Americans--typical voters.
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The 'Economy' is doing poorlyby these indices:
--The percentage of Americans actually employed has dropped to a ten-year low: 62%.

--Average income of workers down each of last 3 years. (This hasn't happened since 1991.) "Middle-class families are having more trouble making ends meet."

--Sky-high home prices are good for home-owners--but they often mean that young people CAN'T BUY HOMES !

---Three million have been unemployed for 15 wks. or more.
That's 40% of unemployed; highest proportion in 40 years.
That suggests these people are not going to find alternative jobs!

--Surging costs of many services (along with dropping price of goods.) College tuition is skyrocketing, as are health costs..'basket' of things ordinary people want have risen 10% in the last 3 years. (with no increase in incomes).

--Outsourcing: for the first time, well-to-do workers (e.g., in computers) are afraid that THEIR jobs--not just jobs of ignorant, non-voting textile-workers--are being wired overseas. Support for 'free trade' dropped in all groups in last 5 years--but this support dropped MOST--it EVAPORATED--among workers earning $70k or more, who used to be greatest fans of 'Free trade'.
(Optimists say this fear is exaggerated..but the fear is real..and that's what counts in predicting vote-patterns.)

Economists agree that 'economy' is getting better...but only 47% of populace says so, vs. 45% who say it's getting worse.

61% of the 'affluent' 3 months ago were optimistic about short-run prospects of 'economy'. Now only 51% are optimistic. USATODAY26APR
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Which 'misery index'? Bushies cite traditional one: comparing technical unemployment rate with current inflation-rate: low misery.

But Kerry cites household income, private-sector job growth, bankruptcies, home ownership, costs of health-care, tuition, and gasoline. By this index, 'misery' is highest since Carter (who WASN'T reelected).

Never mind what Kerry-backers WANT: it's not likely that the realistic misery-index will improve in the next 6 months, before November. So Kerry has a real chance.

Also, the situation in Afghanistan & Iraq is not likely to improve soon; indeed, Iraq may collapse into civil war or complete anarchy..U.S. casualties may stay as high as in April ! And a small majority of Americans (increasing each month) already see that Bushies are bungling Iraq project..

However, Bushies have infinite money, and backing of most media. They have awesome powers to distract and manipulate ordinary people, [e.g., on abortion or gay marriage] so people DON'T 'vote their pocketbooks' in a sensible way.

Another attack of magnitude of 9/11 would shove Americans, illogically, further to the right. And Bushies might FINALLY nab Osama, just before the election. Saudis might lower gas prices just before November, to help Bush.

So we have ONLY a real chance to oust Bush. But the stakes are so high that this 'real chance' makes it worth the gamble to invest much of our time & treasure in the effort.

MORE HATED THAN EVER: Mubarek of Egypt, a U.S. ally, warns that U.S. is now hated by Arabs more than ever before--since Bush's endorsement of Sharon's 'Gaza' plan. Jordanian king, another ally, cancels meeting with Bush. GUARDIAN

Many Americans would say, "Who cares?" But this new degree of hatred probably extends throughout the whole world among ONE BILLION Muslims !
It's probably too late for us to get popular among Muslims--but increasing the hatred 'they' feel for us means helping terrorists recruit new members and new supporters (who will hide and support the actual terrorists.) And that was before the awful pictures of U.S./Brit soldiers defiling Iraqi prisoners spread over the world!
And that increases the terrorist-danger to our Homeland.

Most AMericans now understand that the Iraq caper has INCREASED our danger from terrorism. Yet a small majority still favors Bush over Kerry as more apt to defend America--in spite of Bush's gross underfunding of Homeland Defense. Go figure.

FRIEDMAN AWAKES! Thomas F. has seemingly come awake about Iraq.
He asks, "Has Amer.become so radioactive among Muslims that we glow in the dark, so no one will walk with us? ..Recently the formerly-friendly
Shiites attacked Brits who were rescuing schoolgirls!

"They now see us not as liberators, but worse than occupiers--we cannot provide the control & security that even tyrants offer!

"Bush's Pentagon has been criminally negligent. That's the real 'intelligence failure': a lack of common-sense!

"Our 'limited sovereignty' gimmick will NOT prevent guerilla attacks!" nytimes

SOVEREIGNTY, SHIT! A StateDept. flunkie told Congress that U.S. would still control Iraq after 1 July--for instance, if the new regime attempted an alliance with Iran, that would be blocked. INDEPENDENT

That means, of course, that the international community will NOT count the new regime as sovereign, so any contracts signed by the new puppets (e.g., exploitative contracts with Western countries) will not bind future Iraq regimes.

It must be that the Bushies consider continued control of Iraq more important than these contracts.

Why would they think that the guerillas won't attack the new puppets (and the GIs remaining) just as they attack now? How do they think they can convince Americans before Nov. election--which is all that counts!--that the project is a success?
Only 44% of Americans now think it's a success...and that percentage is steadily shrinking!

I'd guess the average American doesn't much care about the death & sufferings of the GIs--'they're not MY kids!" But the daily TV stories about U.S. casualties--7 GIs killed on SAt.24thApr!-- constantly remind Americans of our humiliating HELPLESSNESS in Iraq..that's what grinds.

BAATHISTS ARE BACK IN: Desperate Americans have given up raising a 'new' Iraq security force--how can they weed out guerilla sympathizers when they can't even speak the language?

Months ago, Bremer (probably directed by the Pentagon fools) committed his most awful error, by declaring all Baathists (including most of them who joined the Baathists under Saddam just to get jobs) ineligible fpr any role in postwar Iraq. That meant dissolving the police-force and unleashing a nightmare of anarchy on the nation. It also meant driving underground the now-destitute Baathist elite to lead the guerillas.

It doesn't follow that this first error will be corrected by NOW accepting Baathist military & police leaders back into leadership roles. It's true that they can weed out guerilla supporters--IF THEY THEMSELVES DON'T SUPPORT THE GUERILLAS ! But they have gone months in impoverished resentment--who's to say how many of them by now ARE guerillas or guerilla-supporters?

There will be a lot of 'turning in' of alleged bad guys--but we'll have no way of knowing when the real bad guys are turning in the good guys!

These Baathist police might be ruthless enough and informed enough at least to squash the gangsters who now reign supreme. But the gangsters allied with the guerillas might still flourish under guerilla-sympathizing Baathists.

Another problem: these Baathists seem to have nothing to gain by an honestly-elected government which will be a Shiite govt. Sunnis have ruled Mesopotamia for centuries, as agents of some foreign conqueror (Ottoman Empire or British Empire). Can they (composing only 20% of Iraqi population) be sensible enough make a deal with the Shiites and Kurds they likely despise, peoples who have recent reason to hate them?

Or will these Baathists sabotage any election-process, hoping--however unrealistically--that in the ensuing chaos they can take power again themselves?

The UN honcho Brahimi (he's not even IN Iraq right now!) is supposed to announce in mid-May who will be the new dictator ('prime minister') after 1 July.When the factions figure out who will be winners and who will be losers under this new regime, the fun will start.
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Saudi Ambassador told Woodward he had advised Bush to 'buy off' the laid-off Baathists for $200 million. (The continuing fight is now costing us over $1 billion per week!) He now won't say what he told Bush, but he says again he thinks that payoff would have worked. DUH! YAHOO
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A Kurdish observer said (a) that half of 'our' Iraqi forces refused to fight.
The only battallion that fought was associated with a political party that stood to gain from a peaceful election.

b) he also said that our accepting the Baathists after months of rejection will be interpreted in Baghdad as admission of defeat. INDEPENDENT
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Six Saddamite GENERALS have already been reinstated! INDEPENDENT

Well, obviously such a 180-degree turn IS an admission of Bushie desperation.

WAGES FLAT WHILE PROFITS JUMP: Value-Output per worker-hour jumped more than 7% during '02,'03--but wages & non-manager salaries rose only 1.2%. "The natives are getting restless', said one analyst. (This 'productivity' index is misleading, since it just means 'value added to GDP/ divided by total U.S. worker hours.' This index could rise because firms are using more machines or more foreign workers, NOT because each U.S. worker is producing more.)

Profits have gone up, but employers raise wages only when they have to, not when they can--only when they're short of workers. And now there's a huge surplus of available workers. REUTERS

Two possible implications: 90% of Americans have jobs; and they don't give a damn about the suffering of the other 10%

However: as gas-prices & other prices rise--but not wages--'misery index' of THOSE WITH JOBS should rise, and workers MIGHT turn against Bush & Republicans in November. (But their ability to distract & deceive workers is awesome, so maybe not.)

2D implication: as 'misery index' rises, consumer confidence and consumer spending might drop, which would depress the whole economy in ways that our leaders pay attention to..e.g., drop in stock-market prices and corporate profits.

(However, increases in total U.S. consumer-spending might not have the beneficial effect on workers that it used to have--when our collective spending goes up NOW , much of that extra money goes to foreign workers.

However, when total collective U.S. spending drops (unless our sales to other countries rise..which is not likely) then the prospects for U.S. workers go down even further, along with damage to profits and stock prices.

In other words, the owners get practically all the benefit when our spending rises--but the workers share the grief when our spending falls.

DECLARE SUCCESS? C'MON! Bushies, faced with Iraq disaster, would like at least to declare success in Afghanistan and then bug out. But their puppet Kharzai (who still must depend on U.S. bodyguards; Afghanis can't be trusted near him!)--Kharzai just put a pin in THAT balloon..he says foreign troops will have to stay in Afghanistan for at least TEN YEARS! (9 of our Aghani troops were killed at a checkpoint in one day by Taliban;
600 have been killed in the last 8 months, mostly by Taliban. HiPakistan

Most Americans have forgotten about the Afghan fiasco. Few Americans get killed there, so we don't much care about the place.

CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS FLEE: Over 1500 civilian engineers and contractors, helping with U.S. reconstruction efforts, have fled from Iraq in the last WEEK !

The Spanish prime-minister gave this reason for bugging out RIGHT AWAY:
he doesn't think the UN can (or will) take over in Iraq. NEWSDAY

Condoleeza Rice made one sensible point against John Kerry, who emphasizes handing over Iraq to UN: "Do you think those thugs won't shoot peacekeepers under UN flag ? !"

The guerilla campaign (on many fronts, in different parts of the country) may not chase out U.S. troops right away--but they are wrecking reconstruction efforts-- (Baghdad itself is pretty isolated, with its airport and most highways sealed off)--and when the country does not get rebuilt, more and more Iraqis turn to support the guerillas.

Osama must be delighted that we're 'soldiering on'. The longer we stay in Iraq, the more clearly our incompetence is revealed, emboldening guerilla recruits all over the world.

ROBOT ARMY
A revealing story told of the renaissance of robotic studies funded mainly by the Pentagon. Another told of a successful bombing-test of a robot-plane. People don't realize how complete are Pentagon plans for robotizing the military. R.MtnNews

The big weakness of our Iraq campaign is the outrage Americans feel when their sons and daughters are captured or killed by militants. In our next imperial campaign, militants will face a hopeless conflict with dispensable robots.

Of course, these same robots could be used by a few Pentagon traitors to take over the U.S. and install an open dictatorship. (In the next imperial campaign, the Pentagon won't want to worry about public-opinion polls.)

We have always felt confident that American soldiers would never fire on Americans. But American robots won't hesitate.

WHO'S LYING? Bob Woodward (who exposed Watergate) has definitely had personal access to Bush. He says BUSH TOLD HIM this:
on NOv.11, '01--when he should have been concentrating on eliminating TALIBAN/Al Qaeda from Afghanistan--Bush told Rumsfeld secretly (not telling Powell or Rice ! ) to develop plans to invade Iraq.

Now Bush denies this. But actually he says he 'can't remember' what plans were being made back in Nov.'01. FinTimes
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Powell seems to have foreseen the disastrous nature of our invasion/occupation project; since then the Bushies have kept him 'out of the loop', using him only as 'official liar'.

Why the hell hasn't Powell resigned and blown the whistle? Have they some blackmail on him?

MUSLIMS IN MANY COUNTRIES BLAME U.S. for assassination of the new Hamas leader by Israel. Either they say that Bush backing of Sharon in D.C. emboldened Sharon to commit this new atrocity--or they say that Bush and Sharon plotted the assassination during their meeting. REUTERS

Such a reaction, rational or not, was certainly predictable. Americans should ask, WHAT DO WE GAIN by backing Sharon in his atrocious deeds, FURTHER enraging one billion Muslims worldwide ?
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ELEVEN MORE GIs DIED OVER WEEKEND in Iraq--5 in a hitherto-peaceful area near the Syrian border--bringing the total number of dead to over 700. More GIs were killed so far in April than all during the actual war !
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Guerillas have forced U.S. to close highways NORTH, SOUTH AND WEST of Baghdad! Precious little reconstruction is now possible.
REUTERS

Poor Brahimi, who's supposed to determine Iraq's fate in 75 days, was not allowed to leave the 'Green Compound' in Baghdad, from fear for his safety. INDEPENDENT

There have been 18,000 medical evacuations to America during this conflict. [Pentagon says some were evacuated more than once! They say 'only' 11,000 patients were involved.] WashTimes175 daysApr. For more, click on HOW MANY WOUNDED?
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FINALLY, BUGOUT PROPOSED: C.Krauthamer, a usually-tiresome-hawk, has finally seen the light. InDenvPost18Apr he proposes that we hand over power to the Shiites (who ought to get it, being a 60% majority--a 75% majority after the Kurds secede!). Then, says K., we should let these Shiites defend their power against the surly Sunni minority. In other words (though he'd never say this explicitly) pull out our troops from this rats-nest and let them duke it out.

(The Sunnis are far more sophisticated militarily, and probably more knowledgeable about the hidden weapons-caches--but the Shiites will likely get weapons and help from shiite Iran.) Of course the strife will be horrible but (a) the situation is horrible now, and (b) this clash will happen eventually anyhow.

That's what will happen eventually--so the sooner the better.

Of course, if we make war on the Shiites now (over silly Sadr)--73 days before we hand over political power to some Shiite 'prime minister' (dictator) ! --we will have the new Iraq, with its huge oil supplies--allied with hostile, oil-rich Iran-- set against us for decades.
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A German paper pointed out that the best parallel with the Iraq fiasco is not Vietnam (where it took our people about 10 years to wake up to the war's folly), but LEBANON.
The Israeli govt. invaded Lebanon and took it over easily. But they quickly realized that the whole people were going to back Hamas against them--moreover, more and more Israeli troops REFUSED TO FIGHT in this silly, unjust war. So the Israelis bugged out.

It's too bad that so few U.S. troops have refused to fight and die pointlessly..I'd guess that of the troops who have been rotated home, and NOW HEAR THAT THEY WILL BE RETURNED TO IRAQ, a good number will head for Canada.
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Breaking up Iraq into 3 nations (the final likely outcome of the coming civil war) will please Israel, faced then with 3 weak enemies instead of one strong one--and will also please Western oil companies, bargaining now with 3 weak oil-sources instead of one united strong one. Russia will like a civil war postponing the day when cheap Iraq oil floods onto the market, underselling expensive Russian oil. All of these agencies have reason to undermine secretly any dream Bushies have of setting up a united, peaceful Iraq.

One puzzle: will the $300 billion now owed to various nations by Iraq be collectible from the 3 new nations?

SOME JIHAD! Kharzai proclaimed a sort of Holy War in Afghanistan against Opium.
But thanks to corruption, the greatest crop in history is being harvested--95% of the heroin going to Britain is from Afghanistan.

Only the Taliban, when in power, were able to significantly cut back on opium-production. Weren't the Brits fools to help us overthrow the Talibans? INDEPENDENT

ANNENBERG POLL released yesterday: FIFTY-SEVEN percent say Iraq invasion has INCREASED OUR DANGER FROM TERRORISTS (despite Bush saying it has made us safer.)

ONLY 43% SAY THE WAR IS 'WORTH IT'; 51% say No.

FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of Americans say Bush has no clear plan to solve Iraq crisis [vs. 34% who say he does.]

However, 57% (vs. 36%) say we should stay in. INDEP.RECORD
One wonders if military families would agree that we should 'soldier on'.
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The SLOW, gradual awakening continues, even (or especially) after Bush's sham 'press-conference'.
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REP.GOV.WORRIES ABOUT BUSH/IRAQ:
Minn.gov.Pawlenty says his people are getting 'unnerved' by the Iraq crisis.
He thinks Bush will get re-elected IF economy gets stabilized [with or without relief of joblessness?] and if Iraq gets stabilized. AZCENTRAL

Yeah,IF...
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UNHAPPILY, a poll released on 19Apr. shows Americans split evenly on war/peace,
Bush/Kerry....ABC

BRIT NERVOUSNESS: Until now, the Southern, Shiite part of Iraq has been relatively peaceful, the area under Brit 'control'. But now Sistani and senior clerics warn that
GIs invading the holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf would trigger an uprising of rank-and-file Shiites. into Sadr's arms,which these cautious clerics couldn't control.

Still, U.S. generals have surrounded Najaf, and say they are out to kill/capture Sadr AND TO DISBAND HIS MILITIA. When Brits brought in an Iranian Shiite to mediate, Yank leaders promptly said they wouldn't negotiate with him.

Several Brits were wounded in an ambush by SHIITES./NBCNEWS,18Apr.

A slaughter of Brit soldiers wouldn't deter stupid Blair--but it probably would cripple the Labor Party's chances in next year's elections. Labor seems to be dumb enough to go down with Blair.

BUSH SECRETLY ASKED FOR INVASION PLAN: In Nov.'01, just after invasion of Afghanistan, Bush secretly asked Rumsfeld for plan to invade Iraq. REUTERS

Just as Iraq-obsession interfered with warding off 9/11, so also this obsession interfered with competent handling of Afghanistan--so two years later, our regime there is a monumental failure.

U.S. ASKS OTHER NATIONS TO PROTECT UN IN IRAQ:
Negroponte (to be Bremer's replacement in Iraq, with name changed from 'Commissioner' to 'Ambassador') asked UN nations to give troops to protect UN task-force. As things are now, UN won't come back because Americans can't protect them..and UN has to come back to give some legitimacy to 'interim' regime coming in after 1 July. KGBTV

PAPAL NUNCIO in Iraq, Archb.Filoni, says U.S. has 'lost control' of the situation, and he doesn't know if they can recover it. He snickered at our 'king' Bremer, who doesn't dare walk out and meet Iraqis.
Filoni stayed in Baghdad all through the war, when other diplomats fled.
CathNews
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BAGHDAD HIGHWAYS CLOSED: highways from North & South to Baghdad have been closed by Americans, because guerilla attacks made them too dangerous. RadioFreeEurope

In other words, guerillas have closed 2 more lifelines to Baghdad; the airport can't be opened to civilian traffic because of fear of shoulder-fired missiles.

SOME TRUCE: Americans say they are observing a 'one-sided' truce in Fallujah.even while being sniped at. But it turns out they dropped another bomb (1 ton this time) on the city, and have mounted several other air-raids.

Meanwhile, Sadr says he will NOT disband his militia, that he's ready to die. Ayatollah Sistani says that GIs invading Najaf (the shiite 'Vatican') would be a 'red line that must not be crossed.' A Grand Ayatollah in Lebanon warned that the Yanks risked enraging Shiites in many countries. INDEPENDENT

BRAHIMI'S PLAN now seems inevitable: the tainted council disbanded, contemptible Chalabi (Rummy's boy) 'marginalized', a new Prime Minister for interim till election, appointed by UN [after consulting with U.S. & Iraqi factions].
FinTimes/NYtimes

Do enough Iraqis trust UN, or do they see it as U.S. pawn? The senior clerics refused even to meet with Brahimi. In 75 days can UN come up with a name that all the factions will accept--or at least enough to cut down on the guerilla war? One doubts it.
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In return for handing over political control of Iraq to UN (they have no choice), U.S. demands a new resolution from Security Council legitimizing continued military control by U.S. (Bushies hope for more foreign troops in Iraq; one wonders....)

France, Russia, Germany are not automatically signing on; it's said it will be one month before a resolution can be proposed. UN members say they first want to see exactly how the interim regime will be constituted; the devil is in the details.
INDEPENDENT

EPIDEMIC OF CHILDISHNESS: Half of Employers complain that (even though competition for the few remaining manufacturing jobs must be terrific) the workers who do get hired lack basic skills and habits needed to do the job well. They can't solve problems; they can't spell or write competently; they're late for work; they lack basic math/English skills, and so on.
USATODAY

These defects can be seen as an indirect result of excess productive capacity. If people were sensible enough to buy only what they need, the economy would sink into depression, with the plethora of junk which can be produced unconsumed.

So for decades, Americans have been trained NOT to be sensible, but to be childish. (The young people today were raised by childish parents and teachers.)

This childishness, though, doesn't just extend to hysterical consuming. Children don't study, and parents/teachers don't make them study. [The most recent UCLA study of college freshmen showed that, during their 12th grade, these ELITE youths (college freshmen) studied less than ever, but got more As than ever before.]

Many are allowed at a young age to have uncontrolled access to cable-TV and computers (porn & violence) in their bedrooms. The middle-class children get large allowances, permitting them to buy cigarettes, liquor, savage computer-games and often drugs. They don't stay married; they don't stay out of debt; they're not ashamed to declare bankruptcy.

Unless they go out for sports, they don't face challenges, where they may fail and fail and then succeed--so they tend to make one lunge and then give up. (I overheard a CSU student say that his
computer-science course started with 200 students; by midterm it was down to 20 students--90% dropout!)

Young people need to hear that they will be competing with disciplined, literate, numerate workers in Russia, India, China,etc. They had better,ON THEIR OWN, develop habits of hard work and self-discipline.

The minority who do this will have their pick of what jobs remain in America.

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT? Gen.Myers, just arrived for a quick visit to Iraq, said that the awful insurgencies (killing GIs at a rate higher than during the actual war!)---that these insurgencies (Sunni AND Shiite) were A SIGN OF OUR SUCCESS !
WashPost

Reminds one of the pimply high-school boy who insisted, "They all hate me because I'm so popular!"

'UNTHINKABLE' GETS THOUGHT OF: When Bush said that our failure in Iraq was 'unthinkable', that just meant that HE couldn't bear to think of it.

Others in D.C. ARE thinking of it. "If A fails, we need a Plan B--and we don't have one."
"He'll need far more extra troops than the 20,000 they're talking of now; and they'll need SEVENTY BILLION DOLLARS MORE in money."

"If 1 July comes, [just 75 days from now !]and we have to hand over power to some agency that lacks legitimacy in the eyes of Iraqis..then..." Nobody can even imagine what such a trusted agency would look like!

Since we can't guarantee their minimal security, Iraqis are turning to the many militias (including the guerillas) who can protect them, at least for now... SFGATE
-------------
JAPANESE will not back out of Iraq as Spaniards are doing; but privately their experts think U.S. policies in Iraq are DUMB ! Ft.Wayne

'WAR-PRESIDENT': Some say we must support Bush as a War-President. But he STARTED this unnecessary war by his lies!

This is like the kid who killed his parents, then demanded special consideration as an orphan.

[Thanks to brother Dave Lyons for this insight.]

'MORE CAPABILITY': the top Iraq commander has told Pentagon he wants 'more capability in regard to security'. FinTimes

In plain English, Abizaid can't down the guerillas with the forces he has. But it doesn't follow that he CAN down them once he gets reinforcements--not with 20,000 GIs enraged or depressed that their combat times will be treacherously extended/ not with GIs returned from Iraq being told they might be returned/ not with new replacements being 50% natl.guard/reserves, trained only on weekends--not with conventional troops AGAIN & AGAIN, in various wars, proved inept at countering guerillas.

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS JUMP: StockMkt fell because of unexpected rise (of 30,000) in number of new unemployment claims. (This bad news was said to be balanced by fall in number of ongoing claims--but why is it good news that more jobless people used up their claims, and are now destititute?) FinTimes
------------------
Core inflation rates jumped inU.S., implying that U.S. interest rates will have to be raised. But that means our dollar will rise in value; but our cheap dollar is what has raised our exports, trimming our trade deficit. (If the dollar doesn't rise, then other countries will devalue their currencies to help THEIR exports, and our export-boost will be neutralized.)

CHAPUT IRRELEVANT: The archbishop [DenvPost15Apr] exposes 'pseudo-Catholics' like Kerry and Salazar who oppose laws punishing abortion. But I'd worry more about pols who were REAL Catholics.

They equate fertilized eggs with nine-month foetuses, even with babies--in fact,they count flushing such eggs as worse than murdering children!

People may not realize how weird are the views of REAL Catholics: someone who murders a baby has committed a mortal sin, absolvable by a priest. But someone who deliberately cooperates in flushing a fertilized egg--life is to be protected 'from the moment of conception'--is automatically excommunicated, needing absolution from a bishop! [Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 2272/ In #2268, murder(of a human already born) is called 'a sin calling out to heaven for vengeance'--but there is no mention here of excommunication!]

I know Chaput expressed some reservations about the Iraq invasion--he had to,after the Vatican denounced the coming invasion as 'unjust, illegal, and disastrous'. But I've heard only one priest speak against the invasion, or lead prayers for the tens of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered in our campaign--including Iraqi Catholics! The priests wouldn't want to offend thousands of 'Mass-every-Sunday', prowar Catholics.

It's too bad someone can't convince U.S. Catholics that war is postnatal abortion.
-------------
You couldn't kill a baby just because it came from rape or incest. So, also, for real Catholics, you can't flush out a fertilized egg after rape or incest. Of course, Gov. Bill Owens (who has often been invited to write for the Catholic Register) has said he wouldn't condemn abortions after rape/incest..and it would be interesting to ask Senate Candidates Coors and Shafer (who are said to be Catholics) if THEY would punish administering the morning-after pill to victims of rape/incest.

We know that at least one druggist refused to fill such a prescription for such a victim.
Now HE was acting as a REAL CATHOLIC !
---------------
Pope JohnPaulII has decent, sensible views on the folly of war, on the rights of workers, on the defects of capitalism (hysterical consuming), on concern for the poor, on opposing anti-semitism....

But he has weird views on sex, babies and women--(one-half of the human race!)

U.S. IS BLIND--SO NOW WHAT? Geo.Tenet, CIA director, admitted Wednesday that, even with reforms, we won't have a competent foreign intelligence agency for five years. USAToday
So what can we do about the real terrorist threats? We can give up hope of 'stopping terrorists overseas'. (We must, of course, stop foolish, blind overseas lunges like the Iraq Invasion ! )We can tighten our borders,to minimize terrorists entering.

But mainly, we can put up protective barriers around our key targets. We must inspect ALL the thousands of ship-containers entering our country each day. We must ENFORCE no-fly zones over the vulnerable waste-ponds of our 104 nuclear plants. We must install anti-shoulder-missile protections on our airliners, and inspect all air-cargoes. And so on.

We must expect some attacks to get through--especially germ-war attacks. We must reverse Bush's money-cuts hampering our firemen & police. WE MUST LAUNCH AN EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION TO RECRUIT & TRAIN MEDICAL PERSONNEL to diagnose quickly any strange infectious disease showing up (probably) among our poor--so we can institute quick quarantines. (Bush has allotted only $6 billion this year for his much-ballyhooed 'Bioshield'--equal to the Pentagon money every few days!)

All these precautions will cost tens or hundreds of billions. To get this money,a) we'll have to pull out of Iraq (costing $1 billion each week!), and (b) we'll have to cut severely the far-more-than ONE BILLION DOLLARS EACH day that we shovel to the Pentagon, whose bombs and missiles are completely USELESS against small cells of stateless terrorists. And we'll have to abolish Bush's tax-breaks for the wealthy.

We won't do any of these things, so disaster awaits us. But at least we should know there are measures we COULD HAVE TAKEN to mitigate the disaster.

UN MAN BACKS US--WHO CARES? Brahimi has backed the position of U.S. on the transitional government--but he is widely regarded in Iraq as a U.S. stooge. Top Shiite & Sunni clerics have refused even to meet with him; he is afraid to leave Baghdad (except for a trip to Mosul). FinTimes

Even if Iraqis won't heed him, we can hope that U.S. will. He proposes eliminating our tainted Council, setting up an obviously-temporary 'caretaker govt.'--with a 'prime minister' in control, and 3 figureheads to represent the 'HEAD OF STATE' with other countries. This prime minister could call a 'consultative council' which wouldn't pretend to legislate, just to set up rules for a quick election--which, he notes, is absolutely essential for any pretence of legitimacy! CBSNEWS

Brahimi notes that a real election is not possible until the 'security situation' improves.
Now the Sunni guerillas realize that a 'real election' will put the despised Shiites (a 60% majority) in charge of the nation, leaving them powerless. Are they likely to cut back their guerilla attacks,just to make such an election possible? !

'FALLUJAH' UNITES SHIITES/SUNNIS VS. YANKS: The poor Shiites in Baghdad are angry because U.S. has failed to restore electricity,etc. Then they're furious at U.S. moves against Sadr. But the real trigger for their rage is what they see as our bloody attack on (Sunni) Fallujah.

A Fallujah M.D. said that about half the injured were elderly, women or children. GUARDIAN
(Pictures of dead,wounded women & children are being flashed all over the Muslim world.)

While saying they're respecting a Fallujah truce, Yank generals just launched TWO AIR-STRIKES at the city (their rain of death, of course, falling equally on the just and the unjust.) CBSNEWS
These Shiites say they are just waiting for Sistani to give the signal; then they'll go into 'jihad' attack mode.
ChrSciMonitor

(If Sistani doesn't give the word soon, he may lose control of these hotheads anyway.)

Of course if they go face-to-face in combat with Yanks, they're doomed. But if they join the clever Sunni guerillas, then we're in big trouble.
===========
Various countries are advising their nationals to get out of Iraq. Russia, indeed, will FLY OUT 800 civilians in the country. CNN

Even OUR ALLY BRITAIN is advising Brit civilians to get out of Iraq ! INDEPENDENT

Thus these countries are showing that they don't think U.S. can control guerillas in the short run...nor,for that matter, in the long run.

SOVEREIGNTY TRANSFERRED? NONSENSE. The Bush team is talking about the new regime after 1 July 'taking control' of their own country. But (a) they admit that our army will still be running security--AND THEREFORE THE COUNTRY. and (b) we're setting up an 'EMBASSY' OF 3000 PEOPLE--0bviously to govern the country. REUTERS

The violence will probably get worse. Nobody mentions this problem: who's going to protect the 3000 Americans in the 'embassy'? Will any of them be able to leave HQ without guards? (The Bremerites don't dare.) How many of them will speak Arabic?

(No other countries will recognize the puppet Council as a sovereign regime..so any contracts it signs will not bind future regimes.)

WHAT'S THE POINT ? !

WHAT'S THIS 'WE' SHIT? The R.MtnNews(14Apr) ran a full-page editorial supporting Bush on the war. The nonsense in that editorial began with its headline: PRES.REMINDS US WHY WE WENT TO WAR: Who's this 'we'?
--The typical American (including Congressmen) approved of the war for two reasons:
----Sheer humilated rage over 9/11: The world's sole superpower was damaged severely by 19 Arabs armed only with box-cutters. Our animal instinct was to strike back at SOMEONE.

Our main military talent is bombing--so we bombed Afghanistan, then used the warlords' militias to take over--leaving the country in their control.

Then we bombed Iraq, and invaded. To everyone's surprise, Saddam's army went into cover (they didn't surrender), so we were able, seemingly,to 'take over' Iraq--though not to occupy the country effectively.

--Secondly,we were lied to by our leaders, hinting that Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attack, and claiming openly that Saddam was allied with alQuaeda and that he had nukes, gas, and germs enough to threaten the world and us. (But why did Americans believe these lies? Our real motivation was the one mentioned above: humilated rage, needing to strike back blindly at SOMEONE.)
---------------------------
--Why did our leaders want to go to war? 9/11 was their excuse, not their reason,for invading Iraq--indeed they may have welcomed the attack, as putting their dumb populace into a stupid war-mood.

We know the Bushies set out to invade the minute they got into power in January '01. We also know that their obsession with this invasion made them ignore the clear warnings of the danger of alQuaeda striking at our homeland. (Then and now they show no great concern to protect our homeland!)

Their first obvious motive was to control Iraq's huge deposits of oil. Secondly, they dreamed of starting an American Empire ('the new American century') by setting up a permanent military base in Iraq. (Like every empire, it would promote an ideology--in this case, globalist capitalism.)

Our leaders were NOT out to make Iraq democratic. Majority rule there would mean the rule of a 60% Shiite majority--Rumsfeld announced early on that he wouldn't allow THAT!

We have never cared to export democracy; we backed Saddam earlier, even after we knew he was a monster-tyrant. Indeed, in these campaigns we immediately allied ourselves with the drug-lords in Afghanistan, the dictator of Pakistan--and worse, with the monster tyrant in Uzbekistan.

So, once again, what's this 'WE' shit?

STAY OUT OF NAJAF ! On JimLehreNewsHour, 2 experts on Shia in U.S. were asked what we could do about Sadr. One expert was 'left-wing'(Juan Cole, who has opposed most of our moves in Iraq); the other was more right-wing, working for the Amer.Enterprise Foundation. But both agreed on one thing--under NO conditions should our troops invade Najaf, the Shiite 'Vatican'. If they do, they will enrage NOT JUST IRAQI SHIITES, but tens of millions of Shiites in several other countries.

A U.S. colonel in the forces surrounding Najaf showed good sense: "If we get this wrong, we'll piss off Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia!" INDEPENDENT
Yet our generals have encircled Najaf with several thousand U.S. troops. They have announced that they are out to 'capture or kill' Sadr, who's stationed in Najaf...he says he's willing to die (as his father and brothers have already done) , and he hopes after his death others will take up his cause. (He needn't worry--they will!) Will the crucial U.S. decisions be made by people like the sensible colonel above? or by the yahoos in the Pentagon?

Sistani and other Senior Shiites are trying to negotiate--one of Lehrer's experts suggested that Sadr might consent to exile. But what about his numerous 'Mahdi' militia?
It turns out that there are SEVERAL shia militias...how can we force them to disband--especially when nobody thinks we can disband the huge KURD militia in the North?
--------------------
Our desperate generals, facing the fact that they cannot 'vet' recruits for the security force they hope to recruit, are now going to install Sunni Baathist Officers! It's true that these Baathist officers can probably screen out guerilla-sympathizers IF THEY THEMSELVES ARE NOT SYMPATHIZERS!

What will be the reaction of Shiites if their hated enemies, the Baathists--who recently slaughtered Shiites--are in charge of the American-sponsored new Security Force? Will the ordinary Shiite then continue to heed prudent, cautious Ayatollah Sistani? Or will they then accept the leadership of some firebrand (Sadr or someone like him)?
---------------
Meanwhile, Sunni guerillas have killed around 80 GIs in 13 days, wounding over 400; they have burned a tank and downed two helicopters.
---------------
ABCNEWS(14Apr) said that EIGHTY-NINE GIs have been killed in the 1st 2 weeks of April..that's the worst month in the whole campaign--worse than the 1ST 2 wks. of the actual WAR !

WHO'S TO BLAME FOR NOT PREVENTING 9/11? FBI VS. ASHCROFT:
--In May '01, Ashcroft denied extra funds for counterterrorism. FBI appealed; appeal was denied on 9/12.
--In May'01, Ashcroft issued a statement of FBI priorities: gun-control, drug-control, BUT NO MENTION OF COUNTER-TERRORISM. (The counterterrorism director nearly fell out of his chair.)
--In his last 3 years (ending in '01, Freeh asked for 1900 new linguists & terror-analysts--he got only 76.
--In June,July'01, temp.director Pickard briefed Ashcroft twice on terrorist-danger.
Ashcroft told him he didn't want to hear any more of that.
--the famous July briefing for Bush said there were 70 separate FBI investigations then running. Pickard said that number was inaccurate--but the correct number IS STILL CLASSIFIED!
--Ashcroft said he assumed the FBI had all the threats covered. Pickard said he never told A. that.
--The FBI counterrorism budget tripled during the mid-90s; but it DIDN'T RISE from '98 to '01.
--on 9/11, only six percent of FBI personnel were working on counterterrorism REUTERS
--ON 9/11, after years of alQaeda strikes on U.S., only 6 FBI people spoke Arabic ! (from Congressional counterterror report.
---------------------
Ashcroft came alive on terror only after 9/11, when he saw the chance to snoop on people's library records (with librarians forbidden to tell that to the readers) and break into citizens' homes secretly.

SADR IS NOT OUR ONLY PROBLEM: U.S. says they're out to 'kill or capture' the junior Shiite cleric Sadr, a firebrand. But a committee of SENIOR shiite clerics said that the recent upsurge in violence is the fault of U.S., and U.S. MUST PAY for it. [U.S. has already paid with 76 GIs killed in 12 days--Americans don't care how many wounded or maimed!--one tank burned and two helicopters downed. ]

These top clerics warned that U.S. must not atttack Najaf (the Shiiite 'Vatican') and must not move against Sadr.

One trigger of recent violence was U.S. detaining a senior aide of Sadr. But we just released him, saying he was innocent, indeed an advocate of discussion, not violence.
OOPS! CNN

A favorite Bushie trick is to try to personalize our many enemies and demonize one leader, then go after him (to have some success stories to match our many failures).

We finally did nab Saddam (after months of disgraceful failure). We have not yet nabbed Osama (not even with $50 million on his head! not even with his having to hide out with foreigners in Pakistan, not his own tribesmen.)

The Senior Shiite clerics (including the son & representative of Top Ayatollah Sistani!) are warning that our 'killing/capturing' Sadr will trigger an all-out Shiite uprising. That doesn't mean we won't try it.

NEW U.S. JOBS (as well as existing jobs) will get shipped overseas. An upbeat economic article praised world econ.growth..then this bit is buried: "UNISYS[an 'American' company] will hire 6000 new workers, [only] 2500 of them in America."

The article also says that jobs in 'advanced' countries are not increasing, and in Japan there is a slight sag in jobs. [R.mtn.news13Apr]

See below: JOBS LEAVE? TAXES ALSO.

OIL, GAS PRICES CONTINUE HIGH: You might think that SUV owners would drive less or move to smaller cars..thus putting pressure on oil companies to mitigate price rises.
However: "GAS FUTURES SOAR TO RECORD, MAY GO HIGHER. CONSUMER DEMAND STRONG DESPITE RISING PRICES AT THE PUMP."[r.mtn.news13apr]

These companies feel sure that SUV owners will cut their families' grocery money to pay higher gas prices--or sell their virgin daughters.

BREAKDOWN: A U.S.colonel has had good relations with tribal leaders in Baghdad--until the Fallujah fiasco. At his goodbye meeting, the Americans had to don armored vests and flee.

Both sides had differing (both sides inaccurate) versions of what started the new level of conflict. WashPost

It doesn't matter what really happened; what counts is the inflammatory version that most Iraqis will believe.
----------
U.S. generals say they're still out to 'kill or capture' Sadr, the militant Shiite leader.
REUTERS
Thus the new level of rage will continue that enlists Shiites to join with Sunni guerillas.

COMMANDERS FINALLY ADMIT a) that their 'Iraq security forces' are completely unreliable, and (b) that they need up to 10,000 more GIs. WashPost
(Until now, Rummy has said, 'They can have more troops if they ask for them.' Then he obviously signalled them that their career would depend on their NOT asking for extra troops. Now the commanders are so desperate they HAVE TO demand new troops, Rummy or not.)
Even before this demand,
(a) they were detaining 20,000 of present exhausted troops beyond their promised rotation day, and
(b) they're replacing present troops with 50% natlguard/reservist men who've TRAINED ONLY ON WEEKENDS!

What good would 10,000 more troops do? They'll just be more sitting ducks for the guerillas!
(The reason Americans have forgotten about Afghanistan is because we have few troops there, most of them holed up in Kabul..so there are few U.S. casualties, which is all Americans care about--not about the collapse into anarchy of both countries under our 'control'.
----------
Bush said that how long the violence would last is not predictable. Sure it is; it will last for the foreseeable future, until we get out. (Violence will then continue, but Americans won't care.)

If we pull out only the Bremerite civilians in June and install the laughable Council as the 'replacement regime', our troops will continue to be slaughtered and maimed (70 dead since 1 April!)

What in the world are the Bushies thinking of? Do they think Americans will give them credit for 'transfer of limited power' (the Council can't order our troops out)--even though U.S. casualties continue ? !

DIFFERENT VIEWS OF IRAQ CRISIS: In R.MTN.NEWS12APR:
The silliest of course was rt-wing Mona Charen, who said "When there's no alternative, there's no problem." But of course there's always the alternative of pulling out our troops and our goofy Bremerites as soon as possible--we might pull troops back into Kuwait, leaving the Iraqis to
duke it out for themselves.

The nastiest was a letter-to-editor that said we should just 'wipe 'em out'..presumably we're back to the 'nuke 'em into a parking-lot' proposal familiar from Viet-war days. This at least recognizes that our ONLY real military talent is bombing people.

Then poor baffled Thomas Friedman admits that we can't 'rescue' Iraq--the nation can be saved only if there are enough real Iraqis (who care about the whole nation).
This is really odd--to preach sermons to Iraqis in U.S. papers! Of course there aren't many 'real Iraqis', since Iraq is an artificial nation patched together by the British, to provide them with
oil. So what Friedman is really saying is that, since clumsy America can't help Iraq, and since there are obviously not enough Iraq nationalists willing and able to put down the guerillas, Iraq can't be helped, and we should get out. Tom hasn't got the guts to say this, but that's what he's implying.

Tom's other implication was this: "If you Iraqis are not what we imagined you to be, then the catastrophe we brought on you is your fault!"
-----------------------
Two members of our puppet Governing Council have the most sensible input. One called our Fallujah attack "unacceptable and illegal". The other said, "The Americans cannot solve the
problems of Iraq because of their IGNORANCE of the language, customs and culture."

This is what I've been saying for 2 years: Gertrude Bell, who managed the Brit occupation, was an anthropologist fluent in Arabic. All the Brits in charge there spoke Arabic--she complained because their wives didn't ! (However, even the intelligent Brits were driven out--Iraqis don't like infidel 'liberators'.)

But even the U.S. 'elite' have never been much interested in the Middle East, not interested enough to learn Arabic and study MiddleEastern anthropology. Given that cheerful
pig-ignorance, we were wicked and stupid to meddle in MiddleEastern affairs.

The longer we keep meddling, the more chaos we're causing. We should get the hell out, no matter how grisly will be the temporary result. Either the 3 groups will split into
3 nations --or a dictator will rise up, which is the only way this pseudo-nation can be 'united'.

KERRY CITES 'MISERY INDEX': Not just unemployment: typical wages sank a little under Bush, while college tuition and health costs (and prices for gasoline!) have rocketed upwards. GUARDIAN
Kerry says 'W' has presided over the biggest rise in 'Misery Index' of the last 5 Presidents--even of Reagan & Daddy Bush!
Those who want to help the Kerry campaign can plug into WWW.JOHNKERRY.COM
-----------------
NYT reporter guesses that 10,000 Iraqis are ready to fight U.S. (e.g., to plant explosives inside dead dogs by roadside); they are organized in small, independent cells; they keep their day-job. NYTIMES

NOT ON A WAR-FOOTING? MY ASS! Condoleeza explained the Bushies' failure to anticipate 9/11 by saying ruefully that the U.S. was 'not on a war footing' before 9/11.
But that's just not so--the Bushies were in full mobilization for war in IRAQ! They just neglected homeland defense--as they have ever since.

HUMILIATING DARTH VADER:
OSAMA SHOULD WANT US TO 'SOLDIER ON' IN IRAQ:
Two components for motivating terrrorists:
OUTRAGE: Our slaughter of Fallujians, our attacks on the mosques--these pictures will be circulated all over the Muslim world, stoking rage against us. Our bloody measures are denounced by 2 members of our own puppet council.

TERRORIST HOPE: A mighty U.S. tank is set on fire by a ten-year-old boy; another super-expensive helicopter is shot down by cheap weapons. [NetscapeNews]

The guerillas near Fallujah have become skilled in firing shoulder-fired missiles INDEPENDENT (They may later use these skills against our airliners.)

These missiles brought down another U.S.helicopter on 12April. CNN

About one in ten of our troops must be airlifted home, seriously sick, wounded or maimed.

Our 'superpower' weakness is shown up again and again, as is the power of peasants vs. this 'Darth Vader' TITAN.

The longer our troops stay in Iraq, the more our muscle-bound incompetence is displayed.
-----------------
When the next big attack on our Homeland happens, the vulnerability of our Homeland will be displayed again (aggravated by Bushies' shameless underfunding of HomeDefense, and by the awesome incompetence of our FBI & CIA) --encouraging terrorists now in training all over the world to attack us.
----------
In what sense are we a superpower? We can deliver tons of explosives on fairly precise targets (unheroically, from a safe distance). We can stage a Blitzkrieg against a defenseless foe,as we did on Iraq.

Unlike the Nazis, we cannot manage an occupation of conquered countries. (They managed to get a significant number of 'Vichy' French leaders to run the country for them. Whereas the native 'police/army' we have tried to set up fade away before any guerilla attack--or even cooperate with the guerillas.) FinTimes

Of course, the German officers at least spoke French--while almost none of our people speak or understand Arabic ! How could we screen out guerilla sympathizers from 'our' security forces? !
---------------------
Most importantly, we CAN'T DEFEND OUR HOMELAND FROM SMALL CELLS OF TERRORISTS !
--------------------
Bushies keep saying we will 'stay the course'. But each week fewer Americans back the whole Iraq project, as it becomes clear to them that this war (sold to us by lies) is just humiliating us--and that we have no stake in this war--it is making the world and America LESS safe from terrorism--WE'RE NOT EVEN GETTING CHEAP GASOLINE !

Saving the Iraqis? Rebuilding the Iraq we destroyed? Every week it gets clearer that large numbers of Iraqis DON'T WANT US THERE. (We're not even confident that our puppet Council, to be installed in 'power' in July, won't tell us to pull out!--so we're announcing that they won't have the power to expel us.)
And the lawless chaos we have allowed means that very few foreigners will invest in Iraq, or come in to help rebuild it.

The occupation is as pointless as the invasion was needless.
=============
CRITICS OF OUR AFGHAN OPERATION say that U.S. troops there are used mainly to hunt for Osama (to nab him before Nov. elections)--NOT to pacify and stabilize the country. (U.S.voters have forgotten about Afghanistan; so Bushies don't give a damn what happens there.)

A recent statement by U.S. spokesman confirms our obsession with Osama:

On the one hand, we've quit bragging that we will nab Osama this year. This back-down is covered by statements like "It's not just about one or two men; it's about stabilizing a whole country."
But then: "[Hunting for Osama] is just about everything we do here." [Assoc.Press11Apr]
-------------
POOR SUCKER BRITS (to back our invasion of Afghanistan): Most of the heroin made from Afghan poppies is sold in Britain.

The Taliban actually cut production drastically, so the price of opium WENT WAY UP.

But now our druglord allies [ & even the guerilla Taliban now!] have the stuff in full production again, so British junkies can get their fixes nice & cheap.

NO U.S. ALLIES IN IRAQ: We talk of the thousands of Iraqis we're recruiting for the security forces; but when the Sadr 'Mahdi' army surfaced, our police disappeared, handing over their weapons & vehicles to the Mahdi.

Two of the members of our puppet Council have denounced our collective punishment of Fallujah. Citizens of Baghdad, Sunni & Shiite, are rallying to support the suffering citizens of Fallujah.

Most observers think Bremer outdid himself in stupidity when he closed Sadr's newspaper, arrested an aide, and announced that Sadr himself would be arrested.
Thus he made silly Sadr the poster-boy for all the different groups of anti-Americans.
Poor Sistani has been calling for peace, but he is more and more ignored.

The Ukrainians deserted the city of Kut; our marines took it back; then they confiscated the weapons of the local police, then pulled out and left the city with no force for law'n'order! INDEPENDENT

BRITS ARE SMART ENOUGH TO BE HONEST./
While our honchos are saying they will prevail (yes, but for how long, and at what cost?) and that the insurgents are just a few 'democracy-haters' and foreigners--contrary to what our Intelligence agencies say--DenverPost

--while our leaders keep talking optimism, Jack Straw (Blair's mouthpiece) said this is the most serious crisis we've faced, and that the insurgents are mainly indigenous Iraqis, not foreigners. CNN

'JOBS GONE? TAXES TOO !' DUH !
Nobody in our govt. gets excited over jobs lost to outsourcing. But suddenly they realize that elite U.S. jobs bring in lots of taxes, which will be also lost to outsourcing. [R.MtnNews/WallStreetWest/10Apr]

Of course the infotech nerds used to pay high income taxes on their big salaries.No longer. But that's not the only problem.

For a century the feds have laid a tax of around 10% on employers, on EVERY DOLLAR FIRMS PAID TO AMERICAN WORKERS (the employers' share of FICA, SocialSecurity tax.) Before, that just gave firms an incentive to automate, to produce goods with less money paid to human workers. (Another incentive was the fact that employers have to pay pensions and health-benefits for workers, but not for robots.)

But now outsourcing jumps this problem to a new level. After all, when a firm 'farms out' work to India, it pays no U.S. FICA tax on those (meager) salaries.

But wait--it gets better. Under the Bushies, two new twists have been added:

1) Companies pay less tax on a given income if they invest in computers/robots instead of human workers--this is the 'depreciation deduction'.

2) If a U.S. firm has enough work 'farmed out' (either by moving a 'division' overseas, or by outsourcing individual jobs), then it need pay NO U.S. TAXES on the share done overseas.

(And indeed, 60% of U.S. corporations pay no U.S. taxes. Foreign firms operating in U.S.? 70% pay no taxes.)

It seems as though the U.S. honchos don't just neglect the average American (even the elite U.S. workers)--they act as though they have an unselfish spite against our ordinary citizens !

But now it turns out they may lose up to $34 billion in taxes from outsourcing. Oh, well, that's peanuts.

JIU-JITSU: A mighty U.S. tank was set on fire near Baghdad; locals said it was hit by a rocket-grenade fired by a ten-year-old boy. REUTERS

Stories like this, no matter how rare such incidents are (like expensive helicopters downed by cheap weapons) will circulate all over the Muslim world to raise guerillas' morale at how a muscle-bound giant military can be humiliated by nimble guerillas.
After all, centuries later, Americans still gloat over the American irregulars bringing down the awesome Brit troops at Lexington.

A government is really stupid to get their conventional army involved in a guerilla war!

BUSH WAS WARNED on 6 Aug. '03 that binLaden wanted to attack within our borders, and wanted to hijack planes and wanted to use explosives. NYTIMES

Bush finally released the document. Condoleeza said the warning was 'historical' in nature, not calling for urgent, immediate action. Just the title: "binLaden Determined to Attack Inside U.S." shows that it was NOT just historical; it cited previous binLaden behavior to show how cool and cunning he is, but it warned of present threats. REUTERS

In fact, that alarmist title seems aimed at waking up a sleepy President!

One black-humor aspect: acc. to MikeLittwin, (RMtnNews9Apr), on 7 Aug., the day after he got that warning, Bush spoke publicly NOT about terrorism danger but ABOUT THE NEED TO GET SADDAM ! That's a dead giveaway about which issue he cared most about.

Condoleeza said that FBI was instructed to watch carefully for terrorists. They didn't, obviously; for instance they ignored warning from Minn. flight instructor about the MiddleEast type who wanted flying lessons, but wasn't interested in learning how to land! ...yet Mueller, the chief, was not fired after 9/11. Why not?
===========
But never mind the past; Bushies show TODAY that they don't care much for Homeland Defense; they're spending each year on Home Defense what they spend each MONTH on the Pentagon--whose missiles and bombs are completely useless against small, Stateless cells of terrorists.

letter to NYTIMES: So Rumsfeld sees present Iraq emergency as a 'test of will'.
This might serve as Rummy's epitaph: "The weakness of his intellect was matched only by the firmness of his will."
=================
GENERALS NEED MORE TROOPS: A right-wing columnist, Robt.Novak, says that U.S. generals in Iraq are 'outraged' that they don't have enough troops to handle the spreading violence. Over a year ago, an army chief-of-staff was ridiculed by Rummie's 'chicken-hawk' experts for saying that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed. The Army Secy. backed him up and was promptly fired.
These 'experts' predicted that we'd need only 30,000 GIs in Iraq by summer '03 !
LONDON TELEGRAPH

CNN/TIME POLL tHURSDAY 8APR [ CNN ]
'APPROVE OF BUSH ON JOB?" yes 49%, no 47%
'Approve of B. on Iraq?" yes: 26Mar 51%, today 44%
"Approve of B. on Economy?" (after great new-job report) yes 41%, no 54%
"How are things going?" "Well!" in Feb.60%, now 51%
'Poorly!" in Feb 39%, now 48%
---------------------------------
SHRINKING SHRUB: After Bush has spent $40 million on TV ads (Kerry $20 million):
49% (up from 38%) now say Iraq war has INCREASED world danger from terror; only 28% (down from 38%) say it has DECREASED danger.

Only 41% now approve B's foreign policy; only 51% approve his handling of terror-danger. (Both figures have dropped since Jan.)

53% disapprove of his handling of the Economy.

Job-approval? yes 48% / no 50%.

Only 32% now think B. has a clear plan for handling Iraq[DenvPost9Apr]
---------------
Maybe they should quit having 'W' appear in his TV ads!
--------------
One expert says this is a clear parallel with Vietnam, when govt's optimistic utterances didn't match what people heard elsewhere. For instance, Rummie keeps saying that Sunni uprising is just a few die-hard Baathists, and that Shiite rising is just a few following Sadr. Our intelligence agencies say the anti-American hostility is much deeper and broader.[DenvPost9pr]]
--------------
Nevertheless, people's vote is split evenly so far. GUARDIAN
-----------
In March, the number of new jobs jumped up from previous dismal levels. Will this save Bush (especially if it continues for a couple of months) ?
For my guesses, click on JOB UPTURN

COALITION OF THE UNWILLING: U.S. assembled in Iraq a rag-tag assembly of a few troops from various nations, just to conceal the fact that we were GOING IT ALONE (or with sucker-Brits). These rag-tag troops were stationed in Shiite (peaceful) area of Iraq..but now that area is not peaceful.

Spain is pulling out right away; some 'allies' will be pulling out; Japan and Korea are pulling their men back into fortresses; the Ukrainians just handed over their city to rebels; Italians back home are marching to remind arrogant Berlusconi that they ALWAYS, PRACTICALLY ALL OF THEM, disapproved of the invasion.

NO nation will be sending new forces--except sucker Brits. GUARDIAN
OOPS! On JimLehrer'sNewsHour9Apr it was said that So.Korea would be sending in 3600 more personnel.

MEANWHILE, IN AFGHANISTAN where Bushies hope to hold an election this summer, declare victory, and bug out--a local warlord just took over a PROVINCIAL CAPITAL, evicting the governor named by Kharzai's puny central govt. in Kabul.

U.S. hopes to replace 100,000 local militiamen with 70,000 men commanded by Kharzai; but so far recruiting efforts for the central army have been very slow. FinTimes

Even if recruiting picked up, Kharzai's army would have to fight and defeat the warlords' militias before it could replace them. Bloody likely.
--------------
ON THE OTHER HAND: The naughty warlord let the central govt. take back the captured capital, and said it was all a 'misunderstanding'. [JimLehrereNewsHour9April]
----------
ON THE 3D HAND: The governor was ordered by Kharzai to come back and take command--but he is staying in hiding, says his life is in danger. Globe&Mail

US DEAD: 42 this week, 50 last week (Never mind the wounded; they don't count.).
A top U.S. ally on our puppet Council has denounced the grisly collective punishment we have inflicted on FALLUJAH.
Britain's Jack Straw (tame spokesman for Blair) just admitted that a year ago, he had NO IDEA things would get this bad in Iraq. OOPS ! NETSCAPE

INVADING ON INTELLIGENCE KNOWN DEFECTIVE
Dr. Condoleeza Rice said they learned after 9/11 that our intelligence system was systemically defective. Yet immediately the Bush-team began planning to invade a sovereign country, basing their decision on inaccurate data about WMDs coming from that same intelligence system!

Obviously the info on WMDs was NOT their reason for invading, any more than was the story of collaboration between Saddam & Osama. These were excuses for public consumption.
-----------------------
The most fatal mistake was the belief that the Iraqis would WELCOME us as liberators, so Bushies made no real provisions for handling the guerilla war that ensued.

Lovable nincompoop Sen.McCain predicted that the Iraqi welcome would be SO WARM that the rest of the Muslim world would get over their resentment of us.

They should have remembered that, after WWI, after Britain 'liberated' Iraqis from centuries of Ottoman oppression, they faced a bloody uprising..the Brits won that battle, but their severe casualties persuaded them to pull out. IRAQIS DON'T WELCOME INFIDEL 'LIBERATORS' ! But the Bushies are very slow learners.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller admitted later: "We know nothing about the outside world. We thought they'd welcome us!" Yet the Bushies felt free to meddle, with now-catastrophic results.

The Vatican said much earlier, "This invasion will be unjust, illegal, AND DISASTROUS." The Vatican has the best world-intelligence system going--but we just ignored their warning.

HOW MANY WOUNDED? The Pentagon keeps saying (and U.S. media keep repeating) that fewer than 4000 GIs have been 'wounded' in Iraq. But Lyons says that at least 11,000 GIs have been AIRLIFTED to U.S. as SERIOUSLY sick, wounded or MAIMED.

Where does Lyons get his heretical estimates? To find out, click on EVACUATIONS .
--------------
It was predictable that Fallujah would suffer bad collective punishments for the defiling of the 4 bodies of U.S. mercenaries. On JIMLEHRER WORLD REPORT, 8Apr, a NYT reporter in Baghdad was interviewed. Not only did he say that a U.S. fuel truck was attacked right near the center of Baghdad, and the Fallujah mosque was bombed--but he was also told that the Marines have cut off WATER to the city, and that unburied bodies filled the streets. Scenes right out of a medieval siege.

In the burning of the fuel truck (right near central Baghdad!) at least 9 people (including a GI) were killed.
HoustonChronicle
--------------
Militants claimed (& some GIs confirmed) that 2 Americans have been taken hostage in Baghdad. HOSTAGES
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Why should hostages bother us more than GIs killed? Because having these 'rag-heads' holding our people HOSTAGE is more HUMILIATING for people back home than mere deaths are.

If our people were sensible, they'd care more about the 11,000 GIs sick, wounded or MAIMED than about the mere 650 killed..many of these evacuated men will have long, ruined lives ahead of them, in grossly-inadequate Vet Hospitals--not just neat burials.

REPLACING BREMERITES: Powell now says that an 'expanded' version of the present
Council (despised as U.S. puppets by most iraqiis) will be the most likely agency Bremer will hand over control to. But they won't really be sovereign--because U.S. is worried that a really sovereign group would tell U.S. to pull out its troops!

Powell says that would be really foolish (because such a jerry-built regime could survive only if backed by our troops.) But he's not sure they WON'T be that foolish, so he wants prior agreements, admittedly limiting their sovereignty, to preserve U.S. military control of Iraq. REUTERS

So any attempt to pretend that the new regime is a legitimate sovereign authority has been abandoned. That means that any contracts they sign (handing over Iraq assets to transnational corporations) will NOT count as validly binding future Iraq regimes.

This sounds like the Bushies still intend to have some kind of handover in June, come what may. So that discredits the rumor just below that they deliberately stirred up the Shiite revolt just to give an excuse NOT to have a 'handover'.

That reassures me that my general presumption is correct: when you suspect that the Bremer regime is doing something with Machiavellian cleverness, decide instead that their move is just plain stupid.
---------------------------
Gen.Sanchez admits that our worst nightmare (Sunnis and Shiites united vs. Americans) is now taking place, at least at a low level. With the Saddamite officers directing guerilla strategy, and the Shiites providing enthusiastic, martyrdom-coveting cannon-fodder, we are in an awful situation.
------------------
The fact that the Pentagon's first instinct is to extend arbitrarily the tours of exhausted troops already in Iraq (vs. pulling in troops from other silly outposts throughout the world--e.g., in Germany!)--this short-sighted ruthlessness makes it even more unlikely that they will get more suckers to enlist.

COULD THE BUSHIES BE THAT CLEVER? A GUARDIAN writer has suggested a clever reason why the Bushies may WANT Shia chaos in Iraq.
She thinks they've given up on the 30June withdrawal (since they have no plausible agency to hand power over to!), so they want the chaos to justify their flip-flop.

The flip-flop might harm Bush's campaign--but not as much as a handover followed by complete chaos.

However, the Bushies may be releasing a force greater than they imagine. If the Shiites are dumb enough to fight regular battles with U.S.troops, they'll go down in flames. But if the Sunni guerillas convince them to join with them in their clever sneak attacks, then our troops (and Bushies) will be in really awful trouble.

Bremer's banning the newspaper and announcing the cleric's planned arrest might have been a Machiavellian move--we know they're that ruthless, and they are desperate.

But it's just as likely that these moves were just stupid.

THIS PIECE IS IN 2 PARTS: Here is 1st part; 2d part is below.
PART ONE:
THE CLASS-WAR IS OVER: THE WEALTHY HAVE WON !
All we ordinary people can do is to try to force them to give us decent terms of surrender (they won't even do that without being forced!)

Why have the tiny minority of the wealthy won, politically? mainly because the elite workers have sided with the owners against the lower classes--in self-flattery, they identify with 'WE PRODUCTIVES',not with 'THOSE LOSERS' ! (If 'elite' salaried workers sided with ordinary wage-earning workers politically against the Wealthy, Republicans wouldn't get many votes.)

But to show the absurdity of this fantasy, imagine a wealth-line ranging from zero to infinity.
The older middle-class worker has a home which may be worth $200,000, which is almost his only form of wealth. (Forget his debts & mortgages for now; that consideration would lower his wealth considerably!)

Now set points on the line this way: each inch counts for $100,000 of net worth.
The destitute (who don't even own a home--that includes most young college grads!) are at zero;
...the home-owner is 2 inches to the right of the destitute--until the 'housing bubble' bursts; then he may be only one inch to the right of the destitute.

The fellow who owns companies or lots of stocks, with only $1 billion in wealth (there are dozens or hundreds of these in America) is 10,000 INCHES (roughly 833 feet) to the right of zero.

Bill Gates has about $50,000,000,000--he's nearly EIGHT MILES to the right.

Now which makes more sense: having the middle-class [$100,000 to $500,00 networth] think of
"THOSE LOSERS"vs. 'US PRODUCTIVES' ['ME & GATES']
[Republican Majority]
OR:

US UNRICH WORKERS vs.THOSEWEALTHY OWNERS
[a HugeDemocratic Majority]

-------------------------
NOW: suppose the middle class workers woke from their fantasy dreams, what could we do?
=======================
PART TWO:
SUPPOSE WE COULD WAKE UP THE MIDDLE CLASS WORKERS, TO STOP IDENTIFYING WITH THEIR MASTERS, THE OWNERS, and SHOW SOME SOLIDARITY FOR OTHER WORKERS--WHAT CAN BE DONE?

--The only power the average man has is through his government, if it is controlled by majority vote. That's why corporation flacks have trained us to hate government.

--No government today has much power--Today MONEY is instantly mobile around the world. Any government which tries seriously to regulate money will find all the money flowing away.

--The only power governments have over corporations is controlling who can SELL to their people. That's why transnational corporations are so shrill in defending globalism, 'FREE TRADE'. This is a game they will surely win.

--Conclusion: The only hope for the average American worker is some form of PROTECTIONISM, some restrictions on which companies can SELL to the insatiable U.S. consumer.

--Objection: "If we set up import restrictions, other countries will do that also." (They already do; Europe has strict agricultural barriers; China has barriers against foreign computer chips, and so on.)

Answer: Since America SELLS to outsiders far less (in goods & services) than she BUYS [..has done so for years, and will continue to do so,under the present system]-- a big restriction equally on both our imports and our exports would likely help U.S. workers. Workers here might well gain more by restrictions on imports than they would lose by the lowering of exports.

--Without Protectionism, our workers are threatened in 3 ways:
1) Foreign companies (or 'American' companies with foreign divisions--no company is really American; money has no national loyalty)...can export goods into America far cheaper than those made by U.S. workers.

2) Even U.S. corporations 'staying in America' can 'outsource' work (even work done by 'elite' college grads!) so the domestic demand for their products doesn't increase jobs offered to U.S. workers;

3) Even without 'outsourcing', U.S. workers can often be replaced by automated computers/robots. (Protectionism as such won't help here.)
-------------------
WHO WILL INSTITUTE THIS NECESSARY PROTECTIONISM?
Certainly not the Republicans--nor will many Democrats. (Many of them BELIEVE in FreeTrade as a religon.) We must get rid of the Bush-team (not just to help our workers, but to end their insane war-mongering foreign policies, and to undo the revulsion they have made most peoples now feel for America.)

That means we must back Kerry; but we can't expect him to get much done, with Republican Senate, House, and Supreme Court. The only real power he'll have is to VETO legislation (also, a Democrat vice-president could break Senate ties.)

The only way a Democratic President could get any anti-worker legislation reversed would be to threaten to veto EVERY Republican bill until they pass bills he wants. A bloody impasse.
--------------------------
What bills would we want passed?

--Cut the Pentagon budget by at least one-third. Put plenty of that money into HomelandSecurity; use the rest to help our workers.

--Eliminate the Bush tax-cuts for the wealthy.Offer retraining and unemployment benefits for displaced U.S. workers

--Eliminate tax-provisions that discourage firms from hiring U.S. workers: e.g.,
----quit taxing firms extra for every dollar they pay to U.S. workers ! (thru FICA employmer-taxes);

----quit subsidizing firms for substituting machines for human workers (the 'depreciation deduction')
----quit allowing 'American' firms that hire overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes!
--Steer tax-breaks and subsidies to firms IN PROPORTION to the number of U.S. workers they hire. If WTO objects, drop out of WTO.
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Not much could really be done in first two years of Kerry's administration. But if Democratic Party came out firmly for pro-worker positions--and if all workers showed solidarity--we might change composition of the House in 2 years, and maybe prevent a Republican majority in the Senate, so Democratic VP can break ties.
-------
If Americans continue to vote blindly for the candidates that have the most clever and most numerous,and most EXPENSIVE 30-second TV commercials,nothing can be done--because even pro-worker candidates will HAVE TO SELL OUT to the wealthy, to get elected. So SERIOUS campaign-reform must be instituted. But we can't restrict fat-cats from contributing to Republicans--not as long as Supreme Court says that giving money is a form of free speech!
Perhaps we could restrict the TIME of campaigns; perhaps we could demand that network TV offer a certain amount of time for real political speeches from the 3 or 4 main parties...
Perhaps we could raise money thru groups like MOVEON.ORG for pro-worker policies.
======
There are things we can IMAGINE getting done that would help American workers.
But in the long run--no matter who's in office-- U.S. workers will end up making significantly less money than they do now--or facing unemployment, which is worse. Sadly--given the millions of foreign, low-pay workers now available to corporations-- American workers are--from a cold-blooded economic viewpoint--no longer worth their 'keep' (the living-standards they are used to.)

The best we can hope for is to SLOW DOWN the income-loss, so our young workers have time to adjust gradually, can learn how to live happily but frugally.
-------------
I know a woman who once turned down $100-per-hour infotech jobs, and is now glad to have a $20-an-hour job. She can live comfortably on the smaller salary, because she was raised frugally. Raising children without implanting in them the sting of greed is like giving them an endowment--they needn't be frantic to find super-high-pay jobs.