Dan Lyons
~ Monday, October 31, 2005
 
HOMELAND INSECURITY: NYTIMES ran an informative series on Bushies' criminal negligence in funding & implementing precautions against terrorist attack.
 
"SUNNIS WILL PLAY A BIGGER ROLE" after Dec.election.
Outvoted 4 to 1, they will not play an important role.
But a few more Sunni pols will get elected and get a regular salary for 4 years.

The story says that few expect this 'greater role' to dent the insurgency.
Small wonder. FinTimes
 
BUSHIES MADE NO COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION says watchdog in report to Congress. FinTimes

Such criminal negligence was typical of the TEAM THAT NOW WANTS TO MANAGE A CONTINUATION OF THIS WAR !
 
SIX GIs KILLED TODAY (31Oct). How many wounded?

US air-attacked village. From 3 to 12 children's corpses found--more terrorists recruited.

Brits still say the new sophisticated terrorist road-bombs come from Iran, despite report that the guerillas could have got these designs from IrishRepublicanArmy.
GUARDIAN

If Iranians do have these, it will count as even dumber for us to try to take over Iranian oil-fields.
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NINETY-THREE GIs KILLED IN OCT. (How many wounded?)

US pooh-poohed local doctors' report that our air-strike killed 40 civilians. Boston.com
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80% of insurgent attacks are aimed at US troops, says US--but 80% of casualties are Iraqis. CNN That shows that they've not gone completely mad, out mainly to kill their own people. They still try mainly to kill foreign occupiers.
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A Bushie press-release bragged about how many enemies we killed or captured, how many weapons we confiscated. Mt.VernonNews

What counts is not how many terrorists or weapons we've eliminated, but HOW MANY ARE LEFT. They seem to have enough left.
-----
It may seem inconsistent of me to neglect stories of the insurgents we have killed, but then to emphasize the GIs they have killed.

--'Insurgents killed' figure does not come from insurgents, but from US sources, which are not famous for accuracy (especially in distinguishing insurgent victims from civilian victims of our airstrikes.) But 'GIs killed' figure does come from admissions of leaders of the side suffering these casualties--and are therefore unlikely to be exaggerated.

--Insurgents seem likely to fight to the last volunteer; but nobody thinks that even Bush would go on fighting if most of the 150,000 GIs were killed.
The main difference is this: they think they have everything at stake, with their country occupied by a hostile power. We all know that Americans have little or nothing at stake (except Bush's vanity) in continuing the war.
 
[Note: I try to address the main pro-war arguments. This deserves answer only because it was printed in WashingtonPost. ]

REALISM VS. 'DECENCY':
Chas.Krauthammer [ rMtnNews, 31Oct]addresses expert Brent Scowcroft's disapproval of the Iraq war in NEW YORKER.[See 'FANATICS..' below, 27Oct.]

Since Scowcroft calls himself a realist, Krauthammer the sloganizer portrays him as indecent; then it follows that our unprovoked invasion is a 'decent' move resulting in Iraqi 'decency'. (Scowcroft's 'realism' just means that he judges an intervention by its likely results, not just by its high-minded motives.)

The invasion stemmed from blatant Bushie lies; it has resulted in thousands of GI and Iraqi casualties, all for nothing. The main result is the death of Iraq as one country, and the springing up of 3 ministates hostile to each other, on the verge of civil-war carnage. Some decency!

Krauthammer says that 80% of Iraqis show they value their newfound 'freedom'.It' s true that like people all over the world, they--rather foolishly--value the ceremony of voting. With the Shiites counting as 60% of the population, and the Kurds with 20%, the voting just confirmed these groups' dominance--it was an empty ceremony.

Any election pretending that Iraq is still one country is a farce. These two groups are both engaged in defacto Secession from Iraq. Bush has killed Iraq as one nation. The wretched Sunnis, with almost no oil left in their desert region, will continue to fight to the death. Sooner or later the Shiites will turn on them in a big way; the 'decent' civil war has probably begun already.

Krauthammer doesn't mention the recent British poll that showed that only 1% of Iraqis feel safer because of our occupation. 82% object to this occupation. What's worse, over 10 million (not just Sunnis) approve of killing our GIs. Some decency.
~ Sunday, October 30, 2005
 
CONGRESS SETS DEADLINES FOR HOME DEFENSE PRECAUTIONS: (some are unrealistic; many are not).

Bushies just ignore these deadlines. Boston.com

Why? Bushies obviously don't give much of a damn about HomelandDefense--except as an excuse to spy on Americans.

Pentagon bombers, ships, and missiles are pretty useless vs. individual terrorists. Yet Bushies (AND GOP CONGRESS!) give $12 to Pentagon for every $1 to HomelandSecurityDept.

Why don't Bushies care about these precautions? They may figure that when the terrorists attack again here, dumb Americans will cuddle even closer to the Right Wing. They may be right.
 
NEW ABC POLL:

7 in 10: "Libby's crime was serious."

46%: "Ethics in govt. have fallen under Bush."

39% approve of Bush's performance generally; 58% disapprove.

45% STRONGLY disapprove of Bush; only 22% strongly approve.
 
REMEMBER OUR OTHER WAR? All the talk about 'passing the 2000 GI dead' mark in Iraq may have made us forget about the TWO HUNDRED GI DEAD in our Afghanistan fiasco. NYTIMES

They just had a 'successful' election--but unsurprisingly, Taliban attacks have accelerated steadily. GIs in Afghanistan number only 1/10th the number in Iraq; so the chance of a given GI dieing in Afgh is about the same as the chance he'd have in Iraq.

Our Afghan puppets want us to stay on forever. So the GI slaughter will continue.
 
SUNNI COOPERATION? BLOODY LIKELY! John Burns warns us in NYTIMES against optimistic dreams of the insurgency being weakened just because so many Sunnis voted this month.

90% of them voted AGAINST the constitution. Its passage anyway shows them vividly that they have nothing to gain from majoritarian democracy.

Many still support Saddam ! Just as many Russ still admire Stalin, and many Serbs still admire Milosovec (even after he lost 4 wars for them.)

Our native militia is composed of practically all Shiites and Kurds; Sunnis claim they are acting as sectarian militias, persecuting Sunnis. We say we're trying to recruit Sunnis--but it's admitted that in this process, many sympathizers with the insurgents will be infiltrated.

Optimists should remember that for decades, the IRA in Ulster voted, campaigned, and won seats in Brit Parliament--all the while they were bombing enthusiastically in Ulster and in Britain. (The reason for their present peacefulness is probably that the Catholics are moving into a majority position in Ulster. The Sunnis will never get near that position in Iraq ! )

So there's no reason at all to think the guerilla attacks will diminish.
Our GIS will continue to be killed, maimed and wounded--as long as pig-headed Bush dreams of 'total victory'.
 
SADDAM WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED EXILE ! say the rulers of UnitedArabRepublic--BUT THE ARAB LEAGUE SCUTTLED THE DEAL. MercuryNews.Com

Why not? They knew the price they could get for their oil would leap up when Iraq's oil went off the market, during bungled US occupation.
 
A LIST OF 'SECURITY INCIDENTS' IN IRAQ ON SUNDAY
[ USATODAY ] Insurgents carefully target for ambushes. US sloppily relies on gunships AND FIVE-HUNDRED-POUND BOMBS (likely recruiting more enraged survivors as guerillas.)

One unusual report: roadside bomb blows up an OIL TANKER. This probably upsets Iraq govt. more than a few civilians being slaughtered.
-----------
US guesses that insurgents kill 60 Iraqis each day. But a respected independent source, IRAQIBODYCOUNT, says US kills THREE TIMES as many as insurgents do.

This probably accounts for hostility of polled Iraqis to our occupation.
 
"HOW DANGEROUS IS IRAN?" a thoughtful analysis in London INDEPENDENT

More to the point, How dangerous are Blairites-&-Bushies ? How likely are they to attack Iran? (by bombing--they certainly don't have enough spare troops to invade ! )

Realizing Iran's new wealth and power (e.g., to disrupt world oil supplies), sensible Brits & Yanks would just ignore the ravings of this fool president and his wish that Israel would be wiped off the map. The issue we're all worrying about is this: how much good-sense these 2 groups of bellicose leaders have?
 
A letter in DenvPost on 30 Oct, by one P.Bonnifield, seemed at first to make sense on Iraq. "Either by democracy OR BY TREATY the war must be over before we pull out."

--The sensible part: he realizes that we can't count on establishing a peaceful, stable, majority-ruled all-Iraq government. The Kurds are already in deFacto secession, and the Shia are getting ready to secede. Iraq as one country is dead.

--The goofy part: we must then wait for a 'peace-treaty signed by all important factions' before we pull out. Sunni guerillas are now blowing up Shiite villages; and Sunnis are demanding the GIs removal, and guarantees of a 'fair share' of the oil money (they have almost no oil in their future 'ministate'.) Shia are quite unlikely to sign any treaty that would be acceptable to the Sunnis.

A civil war is far more likely. (Though far outnumbered, many Sunnis think their superior military talent wil result in victory.)

For that matter, we face no central Sunni authority who could sign such a treaty! Whoever 'signed' for the Sunnis, the guerilla war will go right on.

Bonnifield sensibly admits we can't wait until a plausible 'all-Iraq' government is installed. We don't have to wait till pigs fly. But it turns out we must stay in the war until either (a) pigs fly or (b) birds of every species learn to swim. In other words, Bonnifield thinks our troops should go on being killed, maimed or wounded until (perhaps) the Rapture.

Luckily over half of Americans now (including Nixon's Secy.of Defense, Melvin Laird) think we should pull out in the near future--and the Shiites' 'Pope' Sistani is getting ready also to demand we pull out. The 'bugout' pressure on the GOP by election-time will be tremendous.

A recent poll of Iraqis showed that only 1% think we're making them safer; 82% want us out; and, most horrifying, 45% (including millions of non-Sunnis ! ) approve of killing GIs.

Another relevant point: any extension of the war will continue to be mismanaged by the same ruthless, reckless team of Bushie incompetents who lied us into the war.
 
SUICIDE BOMBINGS WORSE THAN EVER: TorontoGlobe&Mail

We all hoped that eventually the guerillas would run out of goofy volunteers to blow themselves up. But whatever the motivation (drugs, money for family, religious fanaticism, or rage at the 'American Empire'), they're not running short.

In fact, now suicide bombers are showing up in Afghanistan also.

Studies show that these people are not typically poor or uneducated.
Obviously they are a great asset to any guerilla movement. They don't need to plan a getaway. And they can't be tortured into betraying their handlers.

Strangely, they seem mainly to go after Iraqis (especially after Shiites ! ) --whom they see as 'collaborators' with the tyrannous occupation--not after Americans. Perhaps Americans are not as vulnerable (e.g., in village markets.)

Their main political effect is this: they make dominant Shiites ever-less-likely to grant concessions to Sunnis so that fewer Sunnis will support the guerillas. Though the actual 'martyrs' are irrational, their handlers are quite cunning.
~ Saturday, October 29, 2005
 
PENTAGON WANTS MORE STATE DEPT. POWERS! UnitedPress

They took over State powers in occupying Iraq, with catastrophic consequences. But they're not deterred, nor even embarrassed, to demand more powers now.

When I was a youth, it was called, accurately, DEPT.OF WAR. Then, after WWII it was renamed DEPT. OF DEFENSE.

Soon Pentagon may be relabelled DEPT. OF PEACE, SECURITY, AND PROSPERITY and will proceed to take over the entire government.
 
LIBBY CASE & LIES THAT MISLED US INTO WAR:
Cheney camp wanted to punish Wilson for blowing the whistle about Bushie lies re: Saddam's alleged WMDs. They probably figured that would discourage other whistle-blowers. It didn't.

This case displays Bushies' stupidity as much as their ruthlessness. They are not competent to continue this war in any beneficial way.
 
EIGHT GIs KILLED IN 3 DAYS: USATODAY /
(Actually, 5 yesterday and 3 today--Saturday).How many wounded?

Spokesmen talk of guerillas attacking Iraqis as 'easier targets' than GIs.
But it turns out they can also attack GIs.

If our troops can barely protect themselves, how are they able to protect Iraqis? Only ONE IN ONE HUNDRED Iraqis think they're safer because of our troops !
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50 Shiite casualties from 1 bomb in one town. SanFranChronicle
The question is, how long until the Shiites start to strike back in a large scale at random Sunnnis. Then the civil war will be on.
~ Friday, October 28, 2005
 
Still, as of 29Oct, almost no notice of this stunning poll in self-censoring US media! TELEGRAPH first published the story on 23 Sept.
A full story was printed in Edinburgh SCOTSMAN
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HISTORY-MAKING BOMBSHELL POLL: taken in Aug. by Iraq Univ. research team; poll commissioned by Brit Min. of Defense.
A secret poll, leaked to London TELEGRAPH (a right-wing paper).
Do Iraqis want us there?
Results: 45% all over Iraq OK suicide bombs vs. Brit soldiers [& GIs, of course/(65% in one province controlled by Brits!)
(Note that only 20% of Iraqis are Sunnis. That means that millions of Shiites or Kurds also OK killing foreign troops! )

Only 1% think 'coalition forces' (Brit/Yank) are improving Iraq security!
82% are strongly opposed to presence there of coalition forces !

67%: "The foreign troops make us feel LESS secure."

43% "Things have got worse."
72% "no confidence in coalition forces."

71% say clean water is rare.
47% 'never have enough electricity'
70%: 'Sewers rarely work.'
40% unemployed.

Of course our puppet pols want us to stay. For one thing, they get their pay from us.
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This is a bombshell poll that could make history. It's hard to imagine what justification Blairites/Bushies could have now for keeping troops in Iraq, when huge majorities of natives say their presence is harmful, and want them out--and millions (including non-Sunnis) approve of killing them!

This news must have devastating effect on morale of Brit & US troops, if they have kidded themselves that they're helping Iraq, not occupying a hostile country. (What justification for occupying hostile Iraq?)

Sensible people in London/D.C. governments will welcome this news as a reason/excuse to 'bug out' soon.

God help Iraq if we bug out; God help Iraq if we don't.

God help us, our budgets and our GIs--if we don't bug out.
---------------
How long will it take for US media to acknowledge this story? alJazeera of course noted it--but by Sunday afternoon, among over a dozen media stories about Iraq, hardly any US sources mentioned this terrific scoop.

Boston.com did devote one short paragraph to this poll, almost unnoticed in the middle of its daily record of the Iraq carnage. It was also noted that the Northern oil-pipeline was sabotaged again, cutting off oil-exports thru Turkey. Repairs will take a month.
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Also ABC/NEWS,23oct, noted the poll in a short paragraph in the middle of a long Iraq story.

Also, LATIMES gave the poll-story a couple of sentences at the end of its daily Iraq story.

On MONDAY, a GOOGLE search [ "Iraq poll" ] showed only alJazeera mentioning this amazing poll.
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Do the media giants think this is not an important story? Or do they think it is too important to let Americans know about it right away?
===================
A combat Vietvet commented on my statement above about effect on GI morale of hearing that Iraqis don't think the GIs are helping:

"About the troops in Iraq deluding themselves about bringing 'Democracy' to Iraq:. I felt that same thing when I was first in Vietnam. Trust me, such news as the Poll, or any news, deemed good or bad by either the Pro-war camp or the No-war camp, has no effect on the grunt in the field.
They eventually learn they are fighting, not for some Norman Rockwell-thing, or out of a Fascist Dog-thing (though the Dear Leader "SantoDubya" probably wants them to), not even for any political goals.
NO, they are fighting for each other. They know that the Prom Queen back home would be just as safe from 'Terrorists' if they were back there with her, and most likely, safer. The only way they can get back home is to survive and the only way to survive is for everybody to pull on the rope. Like the Chinese barge coolies say, "Gung Ho".....pull together."

Lyons comment: True: but GI morale there will likely be dented by hearing that 150,000 of them (uniformed and vulnerable) are facing 11 million Iraqis (out of 27 million) who support (actively or passively) the faceless insurgents.
 
SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGN: Few Americans have heard of this group; but if you type in the name on Google, you get over 100 references.

India and Russia are now observers. If they joined completely, the group would include HALF THE HUMAN RACE--and it's anti-American.

They just called for US to pull out of Central Asia. UnitedPress
 
CONSUMER OPTIMISM DOWN AGAIN: down to 74 index, the lowest in 13 years. The 3-month continuous drop is the 2d-biggest decline in history.

DON'T RAISE INTEREST RATES. Right-wing calls for this as 'inflation preventer.' But the rise in price-index is not from excess consumer-cash; it's from leaping energy prices. People who have to pay more for energy HAVE LESS TO SPEND ELSEWHERE!
They don't need to have their spending dampened by high interest-rates. They can't afford to spend.

Why this nonsense? Because the wealthy LEND MORE THAN THEY BORROW--so naturally they want high interest-rates.
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HONCHO WORRIES ABOUT DROP IN US CONSUMPTION:
Honcho at Internat.Mon.Fund says he's not so worried about our consumption dropping (slowing world growth, because our consumption is 'holding up' world economy, sopping up excessive productive capacity).
He says it has to drop (though it hasn't yet); he's worried that it may drop too suddenly.

He thinks our Fed will make things worse by raising interest rates.
REUTERS
 
VAGINAL ANTI-AIDS GEL TESTED: Because many African men refuse to use condoms, AIDS rate among their women is high.
Now a gel is being tested that would help the women protect themselves.
ABC

One question: will the Catholic hierarchy object? This gel might also put a barrier between sperm and ovum, which is forbidden.

Another question: if a couple performing anal intercourse (perhaps heterosexual) uses a condom, is this an extra sin?

It is problems like this that make observers wonder if the Roman Church today is not doing more harm than good in the world.
 
"WE'LL NEVER ACCEPT ANYTHING BUT COMPLETE VICTORY", Bush says again and again. GUARDIAN

More Bush-shit, repeated to reassure the one in three Americans who would follow Bush to hell. (BonVoyage!) [Actually, one poll showed that only 22% now STRONGLY support Bush; another poll set that number as only Nine PerCent!]

Bushies will have to accept 'impasse' with guerillas.
But guerillas win all ties. This impasse means that guerillas can recruit more outraged Muslims (mainly Iraqis) as terrorists. They can also use Iraq conflict to train new terrorists in guerilla techniquest.

GIs will continue to be killed, maimed and wounded. US military will be greatly degraded (skilled non-coms refusing to re-enlist). And US world-reputation will be further damaged, adding perceived incompetence to ruthlessness.

The GOP will likely lose control of Congress in Nov.'06. And the next President WILL bug out, leaving Bush's reputation intact as the worst President in our long history.
 
US LOSING FAITH IN SCIENCE? REUTERS
--Bushies (backed by 35% to 55% of Americans) regularly, with no embarrassment, defy or distort scientific consensus.

--Ordinary Americans rarely believe in 'no-design' evolution, accepted by most scientists.

--Our children don't pick up skills in reading & analysis, so even if later they want to become scientists, they can't. (Our technical grad schools would have to close if they couldn't recruit apt students from overseas.) So they tend to see real scientists as alien nerds.

Why is this happening?

--Awful things are happening in the world--e.g., terrorists, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Instead of these catastrophes making people doubt the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, benevolent God, people cuddle up even more to the idea of a super-father who cares for me, individually. If science is seen as hostile to religion, so much the worse for science.

--Ordinary Americans get dumber every decade (mainly because of TV?)
Megtechnology has resulted in terrific excess productive capacity (e.g., computers and internet making 'outsourcing' threaten US jobs.)
Corporations need dumb people who will consume hysterically to sop up the excess. So, by advertising, they generate dumb people.

--When a culture fully absorbs a 'democratic' culture (e.g., in US vs. Confucionist tradition in Asia) it says that all opinions are equal (TV preacher vs. scientist), except that mine are better.
Everyone's ideas are equally superior.

--A key point: When the media makes people think that that most people share my--ignorant--opinions, that validates them even further. So elected legislators get to vote on what will be taught in science classes.

--Few now are ashamed to believe whatever makes them feel good, whatever the evidence. (When a logic teacher says that an idea is never disproved by showing that a bad person advances this idea, the look of annoyance from students tells him that they feel free to reject any idea they don't like--e.g. one advanced by someone they don't like.)

--So-called evangelical Christians ('evangel' means the Gospel) don't feel any need to really study the Scriptures--so they feel free to say that it is now the End of Times, to look forward to the Rapture (as they used to choose to believe in UFOs)--and so on. Environmental concerns--which scientists warn about-- are pointless if we're in the Last Days.
--------------------
But also, there is GOOD REASON to lose faith in the scientific Establishment:

--Megatech generates unemployment (by 'productivity' increases); it puts incredible, abusable power in the hands of unreliable governments, even terrorists.

--Megatech takes away from (generally foolish) humans their main virtue: their weakness.

--For a general theory trying to explain why megatech can generally be expected to do more harm than good, click on LUDDISM (text of ch.2).
-----------------
Some may think it shameless of me to use megatech advances (internet) to preach against megatech advances in general. However, I think megatech can do an enormous amount of GOOD, but even more harm. That's no reason for me not to use Megatech for what I thoughtfully see as beneficial uses; (I have reason to think I have a well-trained, informed mind.)

An example: advanced sound systems help to destroy many young peoples' hearing, and train them to love stupid music and 'rap', and to fear silence. But good sound systems can also bring, to intelligent people, wonderful classical music and folk music which centuries ago was not regularly available even to kings. One would be a fool not to use these sound systems well, just because they have a generally harmful effect.

Similarly with the internet. Most probably use it to access porn or stupid ideologues. But it also makes possible dialogue and communication among thoughtful people all over the world, without interference from media giants or censoring governments.
~ Thursday, October 27, 2005
 
OIL PROFITS WERE ALWAYS HIGH--but during the recent hurricane crises, they jumped up 75%,...68%...
One poor Dem legislator was dumb enough to suggest a 'windfall tax' to take away their exploitative gains..but no chance with a GOP Congress.
UPI
Never mind--the absurdity of this proposal will help to show that the GOP Congress shares the blame with the Bush regime for the high gasoline prices.
 
'NEXT PRES.MUST DEAL WITH IRAQ WAR' says prestigious Brit. think-tank--because
--Bush strategy of trying to get native militia ready to take over so we could leave--this 'strategy' is failing.

and --this administration will never admit failure and pull out.
[ LondonINDEPENDENT,27Oct ]
 
A GUARDIAN REPORTER TALKS WITH NON-ZARQAWI GUERILLAS: At least he says he did. The leader told of disagreements with the 'religious' part of the insurgency. In the first place, the fanatics are killing Shiites, and triggering retaliations. "We lose more men to the Shiites than to the Americans." Secondly, they talk of setting up a new caliphate (a united Muslim theocracy across the Middle East), which alienates allies from other countries.

Also, the Zs forbade Sunnis to vote (against the Constitution, of course). This leader protected a village so they could vote.
---------------------------
(He may have 2d thoughts now that he realizes that Sunnis who voted were swamped by Shiites/Kurds, outnumbering them 4 to 1, just as if they hadn't voted at all.)
 
"TWO THOUSAND GIs DEAD? THAT'S NOTHING !"
HAWK HISTORIAN V.H.DAVIS [ NYTIMES] predictably comforts us about the GI death-toll in Iraq by reminding us of much worse death-counts in some of our previous wars. (The war run by Bush's Daddy featured few GIs killed ,but thousands ultimately impaired.)

That's like the people who remind us that our combat death tolls are nothing compared to our annual death-rate on highways.

But my understanding is that these new deaths are ADDED to the previous tolls, not substituted for them.
--------------
I've always thought: "If we Americans are killing,maiming,wounding each other on the road in far greater numbers than our enemies can harm us--then it's time for us to ABANDON THE HIGHWAY CULTURE and go for public transportation!"
 
SUNNIS ATTACK SADRITE SHIITES: AP/WIRE

THE GOOD NEWS: This should sink any alliance between Sunni guerillas and Sadrite Shiites, who have often sided with Sunnis (e.g., opposing the constitution).

THE BAD NEWS: This will confirms Sadr's opinion that the Civil War between Sunnis and Shiites HAS ALREADY BEGUN.

GIs, helpless to prevent guerilla attacks on enemy sects, may well be caught between the warring forces.
---------------
NUMEROUS GUERILLA ATTACKS ON WED,27Oct..with 8 US casualties. REUTERS
----------------------
IRAQ CIVIL WAR WILL CAUSE TURMOIL ELSEWHERE.
PakistanTimes
REFLECTIONS:
--Bushies had every reason to expect that deposing Saddam would bring on such a civil war in Iraq (just as Tito's death brought on civil war in former Yugoslavia!)

--Remember when Bushies said they had to depose Saddam, lest he 'destabilize' the whole Middle East ? !
 
FANATICS, NOT JUST OIL-HUNGRY: Brent Scowcroft was successor to Henry Kissinger, was NSA chair for Daddy Bush. He is widely respected expert on Internatl. Relations. He is quoted in current NEW YORKER [Link not possible] as saying surprisingly that a main motivation of the current Bushies was NOT SO MUCH greed, but religious fanaticism!

They are commonly (including 'intellectual' Condy Rice) evangelical believers. They want to spread 'Democracy' (by which they may mean Free Market) as a religious duty--democracy spread by the sword.

Interestingly, they are very similar to early Muslims, who succeeded in spreading Islam across a huge swath of earth, by the sword--except that these new fanatics will not succeed.

Fanatics are more dangerous than greedy conspirators. They may not mind sacrificing 2000 GI corpses--SO FAR--in this new crusade--after all, God will make it up to these poor suckers in the next world.

Let me repeat: Allah tells Zarqawi that He wants even heretical Shiite Muslims slaughtered; Jahweh tells Zionists that He gave them the whole Holy Land (3000 years ago) and they should fight the natives who have inhabited it for the last 1500 years, and kill to keep this bequest. God tells Bush & company that He wants them to spread Democracy by the sword, and that the Jews taking over the Holy Land will hurry Jesus'Return.

Is there Anyone Else UP THERE we can talk to Who's a little more sensible?
~ Wednesday, October 26, 2005
 
WHY DO SOME SUNNI LEADERS ADVOCATE VOTING?
Sunnis have nothing to gain from majoritarian democracy; even if they all voted, their representatives would be outvoted in the next assembly FOUR TO ONE (by hostile Kurds & Shiites).

Ah, but those few Sunnis who get hope to get elected to the assembly may be counting on four years in a cushy, relatively high-paid job ! (Of course they'll be in danger of assassination, but the steady income may be worth the risk.)
 
POLLYANNA NYTIMES: editorial describes the 'road to Iraq peace' : conceivable moves BUT INCREDIBLY UNLIKELY moves!

Kurds and Sunnis, says NYT, must offer amendments to this wretched constitution which would better protect Sunni interests AND REVOKE THE PROVISIONS THAT PUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS AT THE MERCY OF SHIITE CLERICS !

Remember, any 3 provinces can veto any amendment by a 2/3ds vote.
If any real changes are proposed redistributing wealth to Sunnis, or interfering with Shiite determination to put women in their place--
if such amendments are proposed, they would be vetoed (the 'women' amendment possibly in Shiite AND Sunni provinces!)

Impertinent NYT demands will be heeded here just as they would have been heeded in the civil war in Rwanda.
 
WHO DOES MOST KILLING?
IRAQI BODYWATCH is cited as a respectable source guessing how many Iraqi civilians have been killed. [NYT26Oct]But your story neglects to add another estimate from this group: three Iraqis have been killed by Americans for every one killed by guerillas.

This may explain why 8 in 10 Iraqis object to our 'presence' there--and here's the bombshell: 45% of Iraqis (over ten million, including many Shiites) approve of killing GIs. [story of poll, in TELEGRAPH]

(It's interesting that few US media--including NYT--have even mentioned this bombshell poll.)
 
MOST AMERICANS,as usual, SUPPORT THEIR INDIVIDUAL CONGRESSMEN--but in general they don't think incumbents deserve re-election. Especially, by 55% to 39%, they say they'd vote for a legislator who OPPOSES Bush, not one who supports him. USATODAY
 
IRAN HONCHO: "WIPE ISRAEL OFF MAP ! " Reuters
It's more likely that IRAN will be 'wiped out', what with Israel having hundreds of nukes!

This stupidity will embolden those Sharonistas in Telaviv and D.C. who want to attack Iran. Presumably this nincompoop thinks that, with Iran exporting 5% of world's oil, Sharonistas wouldn't dare--but, after all, they seem to be as crazy as he is. (Iran could also block the Strait of Hormuz so that non-Iranian oil can't get through.)

The problem will be dealing with Iran's retaliations after the attack.
Some observers say they already have 10,000 trained Iranians in IRAQ.
In any case, they could easily infiltrate, to open up a second Shiite front against US. (They have the longest (porous) border with Iraq of any of the surrounding states.) After all, millions of Shiites told pollsters in Aug. that they approved of killing GIs.

A large number of Afghans speak Farsi (Iranian language) and Iran has a lot of influence there. A second front vs. America could also be set up there.

With nothing to lose, Iranians may use poison gas against our GIs; this gas kills by touching any part of skin. Gas-masks are useless. GIs simply won't wear all the time the 'space-suits' that might protect them.

Even if we nuked Iran (wrecking world's oil supply) we'd have to deal with their combat-hardened troops in Iraq. The sensible thing would be to ignore this guy's ravings. But good-sense is not exactly plentiful in D.C. & Telaviv.
~ Tuesday, October 25, 2005
 
IF ELECTION WERE TODAY, 55% WOULD VOTE FOR ANY DEMOCRAT VS. BUSH; ONLY 39% SAY THEY'D VOTE FOR BUSH.
CNN

Unfortunately, presidential election is NOT being held today. Bush has dictatorial power until Jan.'09. (No chance that the GOP congress would impeach him.)

However, we should keep up the pressure to pull out. Perhaps the powers in GOP (worried about virtual certainty of losing Congress next Nov.) can persuade him to GO AGAINST GOD'S ADVICE and pull out.
 
"MORE CASUALTIES !" says Bush. Boston.com That's no news.
He says that the best way to honor those dead/wounded already is to stay in, under the same incompetent leadership, and lose far more.

One hawk notes optimistically that it would take 200 years, at the present rate of US casualties, to match the casualties in WWII. Is matching that impressive figure our goal?

"We've come a long way from St.Louis/ but, Baby, we still have a long way to go."

So far, Americans haven't heard that 82% of Iraqis object to our presence there, only 1% says we've made them safer--and 45% (including millions of non-Suniis) approve of killing GIs.

When this finally soaks in for Americans, opposition to continuing will likely surge.
 
SYRIA INVASION WOULD ENDANGER ISRAEL, says an Israeli editorial. NYTIMES,25oCT. (editorials & opinions)

Bushie Sharonista are dying to strike at Syria, to revenge Syria's help to Israel's Palestinian foes. But revenging Israel might not be helping Israel.
 
"CONVENTIONAL, HI-TECH ARMIES PRETTY HELPLESS, IRAQ SHOWS" says prestigious military think-tank.

Humans are now key. But Pentagon won't change its basic stance:
--a) because they're gearing up to fight China;

--b) because the war-corporations which control the Pentagon won't adjust quickly to the new style of war. FinTimes
 
SECRET FBI SPYING: They spied on Americans without getting permission from supervising Justice Dept. USATODAY

Of course they did--did they think the top Bushies would disapprove?

This 'surveillance' would be understandable if it came from hyper-concern about Homeland Defense. But Bushies give H.D.Dept. only $1 for every $12 to the Pentagon (useless against terrorists).

Truth is, Bushies don't give much of a damn about HomeDefense, except as providing excuses to spy on Americans.
 
CONSTITUTION PASSES: 78% of the Iraqi voters said 'yes'. But 82% said 'NO' in one Sunni province, and 97% said no in another. Since only 55% said no in the 3d Sunni province, they weren't able to veto the document. CNN

This result will make very vivid to the Sunnis their absolute impotence in any majoritarian 'democracy', outnumbered as they are 4 to 1 by hostile Shiites & Kurds. They might as well have boycotted the voting again.

Anyone who thinks the Sunnis will now back guerillas less fervently is dreaming.
--------------------
FIFTY-ONE CASUALTIES ON TUES,25oCT--so far. (11 DEAD) ABC
 
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DROPS:
The fall was the sharpest in 15 years. (The 'analysts', ever-optimistic, thought it would RISE ! )

Worry is that consumer spending is 2/3ds of 'the Economy'. ABC,25OCT

The only concern these 'analysts' have is how the corporations will fare in selling goods (mainly crap) to the people; they don't care about the financial pain felt by ordinary Americans, as shown by this result.
 
"IRAN NUKES WOULD TRIGGER ARMS-RACE" in MiddleEast, say UN honchos. REUTERS

If Turks, Saudis, etc. are not worried about the thousands of H-bombs owned by US, the only country that has actually USED nukes on people, then they're not going to be worried about the few nukes Iran might develop.

These countries will likely develop nukes & GERM-ARSENALS--mainly to use as 2d-strike deterrents vs. U.S.: "You can destroy our cities; but we can make you regret it."
 
Piece by Pat Buchanan (an anti-Bush right-winger) submitted by Joe Stern:

Media, Democrats Complicit in Rush to War !
The indispensable enablers of war are the New Democrats and potential presidential nominees, Sens. Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, Biden, and Bayh. Fearful that Bush and Rove would use their refusal to authorize war in October 2002 to impeach Democrats' patriotism, they voted to give him a blank check for war. Six months later, Bush cashed it.

The Democratic Senate could have slowed the stampede. And if it could not have stopped it, it might at least have gotten answers to crucial questions. How many troops would be needed? What was the probability of guerrilla war? What was our exit strategy? Instead, the Senate surrendered to Bush the war powers which the Founding Fathers reserved for Congress, abdicating its constitutional duty…

In the run-up to war, from left, center and right, voices were asking exactly what threat Saddam posed toAmerica? His nation had been crushed in six weeks and his army routed in 100 hours in Desert Storm. His weapons factories had been demolished. Terrified of U.S. retaliation, he had not used one WMD. The United Nations had rummaged through Iraq and destroyed other WMD and their factories. He had not imported a tank, plane, or gun in 12 years. Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency had scoured Iraq and found nothing. Saddam had invited the CIA in to have a look.Though 40,000 U.S.-British sorties had been flown over Iraq since 1991, he had been unable to shoot down a single plane. There was no evidence he or his regime had any role in 9/11, any connection to the anthrax attack, any tie to al-Qaeda, or committed any act of terror against us.Why, then, was it necessary to go to war?

Whatever the sins of the [Bushies] in savaging critics, however, at least most of them believed in this war. But what is to be said for those who transmitted to a trusting public what they had to know or at least suspect were propaganda fabrications to dupe the people into sending their sons and daughters to fight and die in an unnecessary war? This is the greater scandal. This is the real scandal.

Distributed by Joe Stern, 421 S. Howes, Fort Collins, CO 80521; 970-493-7030
-------------------
Comment by Lyons: A strange moral view: the Bushies who lied us into war are less guilty (because they BELIEVED IN THE WAR!) than the cynical Dems who let them get away with it ! (Dem.'enabling' is 'the real scandal'.)

Dems are still the lesser evil, because GOPs are so very evil!
~ Monday, October 24, 2005
 
The 'chattering class' is noting the 2000th GI corpse today.
They interview survivors or generals who say, "The death of even one soldier is terrible, BUT.."
-------------
More awful than death may be the condition of some of those GIs 'too badly wounded to return to combat.' Pentagon says this number is over 7000, some with 3 limbs amputated! MaconDaily.com

--but the German hospital said it was receiving 23 seriously wounded each DAY.

Again, the dead will be forgotten by everyone except their friends, relatives--the rest of us will just note the extra Holiday shopping sales on Memorial Day. But the legless, armless, paralyzed, blinded, brain-damaged or shell-shocked GIs will haunt us for years.

It's said that one in four GIs are returning somehow impaired. For nothing!
 
IRAQ ALIENATION IS NOT NEW! A US poll taken in Iraq in March,04, showed these inauspicious results:

GIs are "uncaring, dangerous (2 in 3: "GIs make no attempt to spare civilians in gunfights"), and they lack respect for Iraq culture."

60%: "GIs conduct themselves badly (or very badly)."

result? 81% of nonKurds see GIs as 'occupying force'.

60% wanted GIs to leave, even if that meant they had less security!

50% said it's OK to attack GIs, at least sometimes. [Remember: this must include many Shiites ! ] Only 1 in 4 said that such killing was 'never OK'.

British commanders in Iraq noted US 'heavy-handed tactics'.
ChristSciMonitor
 
AFGHAN JOURNALIST SENTENCED TO 2 YEARS for an article questioning whether anyone who abandons Islam should be stoned to death.
LATimes

What the hell are ignorant Americans doing messing with the Islamic world, a culture we will never understand?
 
FRANCE WON'T BACK SANCTIONS VS. SYRIA:
[Reuters,24Oct]
Goddamn Frogs!
We'd better go back to 'freedom-fries'--also 'freedom kisses' !
 
THE GOOD NEWS: According to US spokesmen, we have cut down the number of suicide bombers in big cities, and interrupted the free flow of car-bombs in Baghdad. NYTIMES,24Oct.

THE BAD NEWS:
One suicide car-bomb attack caused fifty-five casualties in Baghdad (at fortified hotel housing foreign correpsondents), on 24Oct. [PBS NEWS HOUR]

ROADSIDE bombs are the main weapons used vs. GIs. (They are now much more effective: easier to trigger, and able to penetrate. armor.)They have increased from 600 in Sept.'04 to 1000 in Oct.'05. USATODAY,24Oct.
-----------
A Swedish defense expert says:
"a) It's obvious that US is in Iraq to stay;
b)If so, Shiites will join Sunnis in insurgency."
Assoc.Press, cited in rMtnNews,24Oct.
--------
(Remember, 45% of Iraqis overall think it's OK to kill foreign 'occupiers' (GIs). And only 20% of Iraqis are Sunni. Also, probably few who say this are Kurds---so millions of Shiites must already agree with Sunnis on this.)
~ Sunday, October 23, 2005
 
TWENTY-ONE GIs KILLED JUST IN RAMADI in the last 6 weeks.
Road-bombs go off , many each day. Our Officials get assassinated.

'Civilian' Ramadis are often in league with the guerillas. US troops have not abandoned Ramadi as they did other places--but they are in constant danger.
NYTIMES

US has tried 'collective punishment' in Ramadi; unsurprisingly it recruited more allies for the guerillas.
 
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN
[by Jerry Baker, of CedarFalls,Ia]:
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't! want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest i! n the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout ! his day.
Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

-- PS: No trees were killed in sending this message; however, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
-----------------
Lyons reflection: GOP now controls all 3 branches of federal govt. They now threaten all these protections and benefits--thanks partly to votes of ordinary Americans anxious to stop gays from saying they're married.

Wealthy Republicans are the smartest Americans; the dumbest are the other Republicans.
 
OBJECTIONS TO BUGOUT: J.AloysiusFarrell, Washington repr. of DenverPost, reported on Sunday that US officials have basically given up on a real 'all/Iraq government', and will settle for 3 ministates policed by Kurdish militia in the North and Shiite militia in the South (with a no-man's land in Sunni/Arab region), with our troops removed--exactly what I've been advocating and predicting for months.

Farrell cites two main objections to withdrawing our troops:
--"Turkey could move in and conquer the Northern Kurds." But we could station some remnant of our troops in the very safe Kurdish areas, to deter Turkey. (Not many would be needed; they'd serve as a 'trip-wire', to warn Turks that invading Kurdland would mean killing GIs; Turkish military sites are eminently bombable.)

--"We'd have to invade again. The oil would go to Islamist fanatics."Which ones? Sunnis or Shiites? Most of the oil is in the Shiite region, and we have already approved of the constitution that allows them deFacto secession.

Could the Sunni guerillas conquer this oil-rich region? The Shiites outnumber the Sunnis 3 to 1, --with their Kurdish allies, 4 to 1 !--and would be backed by their powerful Iranian allies. (Some say there are already 10,000 trained Iranian troops inside Iraq.)We would not have to re-invade, as some claim, in order to rescue the oil-lands from alQuaeda.

"Civil war would happen?" It's already started, even with our troops there. If we leave them there, they could be caught between two warring camps.

Objections to our bugging out are not really serious.
 
DENVERPOST today printed my letter citing MelvinLaird (GOPstalwart) saying we should start pulling out troops in the NEXT FEW WEEKS!
~ Saturday, October 22, 2005
 
MEALY-MOUTHED DEMS: Carl Levin, senior Dem Senator on 'war-issues',says that our continued military presence in Iraq should be 'contingent' on the Shia/Kurds/SunniArabs getting along with each other.
LaTimes

In other words, our staying on should be contingent on pigs flying.
In other words, we should bug out.

But he doesn't dare say that outright--even though 52-60% of Americans (depending on the poll) says we should bug out.

Dems are the lesser evil only because GOPs are SO VERY EVIL!
 
SHIITE 'POPE' SISTANI ENDORSES UPCOMING'RECONCILIATION' MEETING in Cairo. That's the good news, because Iraqi Shiites don't trust the Sunni members of the Arab League which is calling the conference.

Bad news: Sunni 'Muslim Clerics' Conference' says it won't attend until US gives timetable for withdrawal, and Baathist officials are restored to office.
ABC/NEWS
Bloody likely.
 
ZARQAWI GOES GLOBAL: He's developing a terrorist network that rivals binLaden's. Just think: it was the Bushies who, by their bungled invasion, gave him the great stage to strut on and attract followers.
Boston.com
 
BISHOPS REAFFIRM 'CELIBACY': [ ABC/NEWS]
Of course they would; they were appointed by the Vatican bureaucrats who controlled appointments under perhaps-negligent JPII.

People have noted that the 'pederasty' scandals would disappear if priests were WOMEN--but that would be, for these elaborately-robed bachelors, clearly a worse evil than pederasty scandals.

Many observers have decided that the Roman Church is now doing more harm than good in the world, with its current obsessions over early abortion, gays, and mercy-killings--and the ignoring by the US clergy of poor JPII's unheeded denunciations of Bush's invasion.

Those disenchanted observers will rejoice that the hierarchy is discrediting itself more thoroughly every year.
 
AMERICANS WORRY ABOUT IRAQ COSTS:
--80% somewhat or very worried about Iraq costs of $5 billion per month.
--90% say, "Don't cut domestic spending to pay for Iraq!"

Reflections:
--One wonders how many realize how SMALL Iraq expenses are ($17 millions each day) compared to TOTAL OF $1200 MILLIONS shovelled to Pentagon each DAY!

--One wonders if Americans are as concerned about pointless death/wounds inflicted on our GIs each week as they are about the money spent! (One in four returning vets are somehow impaired.)

OTHER POLL RESULTS:
Only 44% still think Bushies made the right decision to invade.

FIFTY-TWO % WANT US TO PULL OUT NOW ! (Only 42% say 'Stay in as long as needed.")

Sixty% disapprove of Bush's handling of the war.

But what do Americans EXPECT? Only 26% say we'll pull out in less than 2 years. NYTIMES
 
RUMMY SAYS 'NEIGHBORS' WORRIED ABOUT CHINA'S MILITARY: In fact, of course, it is Pentagon that's upset..because China is developing a deadly '2d-strike' capacity vs. US (so they can tell us: "Your h-bombs can destroy our cities--but we can make you regret it !"

Rummy also complained about China and Russia joining together to persuade countries in Central Asia to evict US bases there. NYTIMES

In Sept. '02 Bushies announced as official policy that they'd feel free to launch pre-emptive 1st strikes at any 'hostile' country that TRIED TO CATCH UP WITH US IN WEAPONS !

It's understandable that such a Hitlerian announcement, reinforced by our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, would trigger counter-alliances around the world.
~ Friday, October 21, 2005
 
FIVE GI's KILLED ON FRI.21ST: [Pakistan TIMES] Many more likely wounded--but we don't count the wounded.

'SECURITY INCIDENTS' so far on 22d: REUTERS
--------------
IraqGovt. says that over 4000 Iraqis were killed by insurgents this year.
(Neither they nor the Americans even count those killed by Americans.)

However 'IRAQ BODY-COUNT' says that 37% of deaths are people killed by Americans / 36% by gangsters (let loose by Bushies firing police-force, not replacing it) /only 9.5% killed by insurgents. REUTERS
===============
WHEN CAN IRAQI MILITIA TAKE OVER? Baghdad general says, "a year-and-a-half, or two years, MAYBE." Boston.com

Reflections:
--Generals' assessments generally err on the side of optimism. No independent observers have issued such optimistic assessments.

--That would keep our troops in Iraq right through the '06 elections.
There's every chance that GOP will lose control of Congress in that election; will Bushies want to increase that chance, by defying 5 or 6 in every 10 Americans who want GIs out sooner? ( This percentage will continue to rise right up to election-time--especially after Americans hear about the hostile Iraq polls mentioned above!)
 
RORY CALHOUN, a GUARDIAN reporter, was kidnapped--by Sadrite
Shiites in Baghdad--then was released. Read his tale, revealing the Irish talent for story-telling.
 
US GENERALS SAY THAT, OF FOREIGN GUERILLAS CAPTURED IN IRAQ, most are from EGYPT, then SYRIA, then SUDAN, then SAUDI ARABIA--some Europeans and one American! Egypt and SaudiArabia are supposed to be our allies!

(Only about 5% of guerillas are foreigners, and they, as suicide bombers, target mostly civilians--they're not the ones killing GIs with roadside bombs.) NYTIMES

Knowing that Bushies want to attack puny Syria so badly they can taste it, one might suspect they have exaggerated the number of Syrians involved.
 
KarenHughes, a Bush crony from Texas, WITH NO DIPLOMATIC EXPERIENCE, was sent around the world by zany Bushies to make Muslims friendly to us. Instead, she has had to listen to denunciations of Bushies by Muslims in various regions: this last time, by students at a moderate Indonesian university subsidized by Americans! NYTIMES
 
HIGH-LEVEL BRIT CONFERENCE ON IRAQ: very gloomy: e.g., worry that we're recruiting guerilla-infiltrators into our new police-forces!

The only chance ,the 'least-worst option': that USmilitary would stay on, and US would continue to bear financial burden--but the actual decisions would be made by some high-level internatl. agency (vague as to WHAT AGENCY WOULD VOLUNTEER for such a thankless, dangerous task, and what agency would the Iraqis submit to ! Also, reporter admits that pig-headed Bush/Rumsfeld are not likely to have us bear all the blood/money costs of the campaign while--smarter--others determine all the policies!)

Nobody thought that 3 Iraqi ministates (Kurdland, Sunni/Arabland, and Shialand) would result in a 'safe or stable place'.FinTimes
-------------------
However, the 3-ministate result is what surely will happen, with or without the international intervention they dreamed of. And it will result either now or in several years, after we then pull out with thousands more of US casualties. (Nobody at this conference was mentioned as showing special concern about US casualties!)

So we'd better prepare for this unsafe, unstable, but inevitable result.
 
MORE LAME HAWK ARGUMENTS: Clifford May (longtime pundit of right-wing 'DefendAmerica' ) offers familiar silly arguments for continuing the war:

--WHAT ARE WE DOING IN IRAQ? "killing terrorists, eliminating Islamo-fascists": there are thousands of would-be terrorists all over the world,not just in Iraq! One might as well say we're in Iraq to swat hornets.

--"Baathists learned the wrong lesson when we spared them in '03". We didn't just spare them; then we fired them all (not just the war-criminals), leaving skilled fighters unemployed, penniless, and ready to launch effective guerilla war against us. Bushies fired all the policemen without replacing them--thus letting gangsters plunge Iraq into anarchy. "Before, Saddam's sons raped a few women; now every woman is subject to rape!"

--May refers to the 'chattering classes'--that's those journalists not as right-wing as he. He himself is a prime example of chattering.

These chattering classes, he admits, say that the war is not going well. (Understatement! The journalists cite experts like GOP stalwart Melvin Laird to say our crusade is hopeless, that we should pull out IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS!)

But, says May, 'those Americans fighting over there disagree [with these gloomy assessments]'. To support this claim, he quotes the top GENERAL there, who takes his info from his commanders !

Generals and commanders are not famous for truth-telling. And some generals have admitted that they can't put down the guerillas militarily: "We kill one insurgent and thus generate 3 more."

--Military people and their allies are a self-selected group of people who believe in solving problems by force. Families of Iraq soldiers don't want to admit their children's sacrifices are in vain.

--"Americans have not lost a single battle." But guerillas refuse to fight battles! That's what renders our army helpless against their sneak attacks.

--What do Americans do better than anyone else? "identify problems and devise creative solutions." Bullshit. The Pentagon is using the same 'solutions' (e.g., collective punishments) that failed in Vietnam!

--"Our military machine..(admittedly designed for old-fashioned wars) is learning how to win post-modern conflicts." On the contrary, we're showing the world that we cannot handle such conflicts. (One counter-terrorism expert contrasts the guerillas' agility with the clumsy response of the Pentagon. Our military is a muscle-bound weakling. )

--"It will take 200 years for our war vs. Islamism to kill as many Americans as died in WWII." WOW!!! Bushies may be willing to keep losing in Iraq for 200 years, until we fill our quota of war-dead--but 6 in 10 Americans want us to pull out now.

--and so on.

--May finishes with an elegy for Iraqis, who braved terrorist threats to vote.
But nobody doubts their willingness to die--the suicide bombers are especially courageous in this line. What is quite clear is that too few Iraqis have the good sense to live together in peace.

It is long past time for us to give up on Iraqis, and BRING'EMHOME !
----------
May's silly arguments wouldn't be worth refuting if they weren't syndicated by powerful SCRIPPS-HOWARD, including RockyMtnNews.
 
OUR TROOPS DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD !
A few GIs desecrated Taliban corpses, and used bullhorns to taunt other Taliban about the corpses--trying to get other Taliban mad enough to come out and fight (and be killed. It didn't work!)

Such desecration is a horrible sin for Muslims. Afghan clerics were furious!

And of course it was all recorded on TV. The pictures are circulating all over the Muslim world. If only 1 in 10,000 Muslims around the world are moved to support or become terrorists, that means 100,000 new enemies for US.[ NYTIMES20Oct. ] (And not all the terrorists will look like Arabs. There are thousands of Caucasian Muslims.]

Bushie spokesmen said that our embassies all over the world are instructed to tell locals that such conduct 'does not reflect our values'. Bushies worry that this incident will undo whatever goodwill we've amassed by our help to victims of Tsunami & Pakistan earthquake. Indeed it will.

Our Army is investigating this atrocity. Because it's shown on TV, they said the investigation will take 'only a few weeks'. (Muslims will want those troops hanged immediately.) By that time, the damage worldwide will be done.

Even our puppet President Karzai had to condemn this outrage, but in a mealy-mouthed way, talking about 'inevitable MISTAKES in a war'.
NYTIMES
Muslims would not see this as a mistake, but as a deliberate SACRILEGE.
Some say this and other atrocities by our troops show that we have declared war on ISLAM !
--------------
Enemy guerillas (Taliban & alQuaeda) have ginned up their attacks in Afghanistan, attacking every day, now using roadside-bombs and, for the first time, SUICIDE BOMBERS.

Americans are bracing themselves for more attacks after Afghans realize the horror of the corpse-desecration. (Afghans haven't seen the awful TV pictures yet.)NYTIMES
---------------
The corpses were burnt. Muslims are forbidden to cremate EVEN ANIMALS! An Afghan cleric said that in 24 years of war, he had never heard of such a thing.
It was described as a public-relations catastrrophe.
Boston.com
======
An American woman lawyer representing prisoners in Guantanamo has released her notes talking to her clients about US force-feeding hunger-strikers there. The notes are pretty graphic and awful.
CommonDreams
Whether or not they are completely true, these stories are plausible--and will be circulated all over the Muslim world, recruiting new terrorists.

The situation is a typical revelation of the stupidity of the Bushies.
If the hunger-strikers just died, they'd disappear from public view.
But as long as they are kept alive in such atrocious ways, they will stay in the world's headlines (tho not in US media!)
-----------------
You can see why Iraq GIs might feel bitter about Muslim indignation over the burning of corpses. A US contractor was deliberately burned ALIVE--with children throwing straw on the screaming American,to keep the fire burning. SanFranChronicle
 
INSENSITIVE GIs (ltr.toRMtnNews)
The touching story of the female soldier in Iraq (SPOTLIGHT,15Oct) illustrates one important point: her fellow male enlisted soldiers (some of whom who threw rocks at her breasts)are usually not the most sensitive people around. They are trained to kill,not to serve as good-will ambassadors.

In the Korean war, the SouthKorean natives were practically all friendly; there were no old ladies throwing hand grenades.Yet the US enlisted soldiers (and even some draftees) treated them with haughty contempt. A typical bit of wit was this: "What do you get if you mate an ape with a gook? A retarded ape."

I tried, with little effect, to get them to notice that the street-orphans in Inchon--unlike the GIs--often spoke two or three languages. And today Korean youths far surpass our own youth in academic proficiency. After 50 years of our soldiers' presence in Korea, many natives hate them cordially.

It was really stupid of the Bush regime to expect such soldiers--who don't understand the native language or customs--to win over volatile Iraqis.
=============
One Iraq GI's 'blog' was published as a book. (reviewed inDenvPost,23O)He joined the army because he wanted to be a 'trigger puller'. But he found that many of the other soldiers were uneducated, insensitive to other cultures. "Every fucking person there looked like a fucking terrorist to me."

An officer told his men, "This is not a peacekeeping mission. We'll be handing out lead, not bread. We'll cut our their living guts and use them to grease the gears of our Strykers."

This guy confesses that at times he 'was more nervous about our own guys than I was about any terrorist."
~ Thursday, October 20, 2005
 
IRAQ IS DEAD.
A distinguished Israeli intellectual has just said (in Pakistan TIMES) what I've said all along: as a single, unified nation, Iraq is dead--just as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia are dead. And of course the 'all-Iraq constitution' is a farce.

What remains is 3 regions occupied by separate ethnic groups: Kurdland in the North, Shialand in the South, and SunniArab land in the middle.

This intellectual says sensibly that no outside power can make hostile groups live together as one nation if they don't want to. He cites the peaceful separation of the Czechs from the Slovaks as an ideal solution--and the forced union of Bosnia-Herzevogina as a horrible example of a pseudo-state held together by outside power, doomed to a bad end.

He might have cited the pseudo-state of Serbia-Montenegro as a fictitious entity (maintained to please foreign powers) pretending to control 3 deFacto independent states: Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo.
--------------------
But he doesn't discuss the awful problem facing the Iraq mini-nations:
hardly any of Iraq's bounteous oil-territories are inside the 'Sunni-Arab' region. The Sunni/Arabs are being asked not just to give up domination of Mesopotamia (which they controlled for centuries)--but also to settle for an economically non-viable desert.

The only card the Sunni/Arabs have to play is their talent for guerilla warfare. They can see to it that the Kurds, at least, won't be able to export much oil; they just blew up a pipeline one day after it had been repaired ! They're able to assassinate regularly the leaders of the puppet governments set up by Bushies--and to increase regularly the number of US casualties (5 killed today!)

If the Kurds and Shiites were sensible, they'd cede some small oil-rich territories to the Sunni/Arabs, so they'd have a guarantee of some income after they disbanded their guerillas. (We should let the Baathist guerilla leaders take over the middle region openly, and help them put down their rivals for control in the middle region, the mad fanatic alQuaeda Zarqawistas.)

That's asking perhaps too much of the Kurds & Shiites, to give up precious oil-territory to the Sunnis who have bullied them for centuries and who now murder them regularly.

The other alternative is for us to strengthen the already-formidable militias of Kurds and Shiites (many of our officers think we're training these forces for civil war anyway, not to police a united country).

Then we should get our troops the hell out of there, and let them settle the final arrangements, however grimly, on their own. (The Kurds and Shiites outnumber the Sunni/Arabs 4 to 1, and the Shiites are backed by their huge ally,Iran. The question is whether the Sunnis will survive this struggle.)
 
TOP AIDE TO COLIN POWELL BLOWS WHISTLE:
A Col. Wilkerson says that a 'Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal' secretly hijacked our foreign policy (unknown to the experienced diplomats) and caused disastrous results in Iraq, North Korea, and Iran.

Condy Rice was 'part of the problem', refusing to give bad news to Bush in her effort to get 'intimate' with him. FinTimes

Those who say we have to continue our war in Iraq should reflect that these incompetent, scheming liars will still be in charge, guaranteeing more disasters.
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Support for Bush's handling of the war has sunk sharply among suburban men and women, once his greatest fans. GUARDIAN
 
IRAQ DEBILITATES NATIONAL GUARD: The N.G.'s classic function is to guard the nation (e.g. after natural disasters like Katrina--or after expected terrorist attacks on our homeland). But Pentagon has stolen 80 thousand Guard troopers (mostly from the flood-states!) and over $1 billion worth of equipment for their Iraq fiasco.

They say they plan to replace the equipment--but so far they have not budgeted any money for this purpose. REUTERS

That's OK--there'll be damn few youths enlisting now in the Guard to use such equipment.
 
"IRAQ IS NOW A POST-GRADUATE SCHOOL FOR TERRRORISTS", says Canadian spy-chief. Trained and hardened in that guerilla war, they may then return to their own countries--including Canada--to wreak havoc. REUTERS

One more bit of testimony refuting Bushies' absurd claim that their Iraq fiasco is protecting US from terrorist attacks !
 
MORE VIOLENCE: After a lull, 26 Iraqis, 5 GIs and a Brit soldier were killed on Tues,Wed., and a reporter was abducted. (The Iraqis included a Baghdad official). NYTIMES Some thought the violence was timed to match the start of Saddam's trial.
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The Northern pipeline was blown up Thursday(20th), ONE DAY AFTER IT WAS REPAIRED. REUTERS

The only way the Kurds could 'buy off' the super-effective Sunni saboteurs would be to GUARANTEE them some of the oil-money (even after the Sunnis disband their guerillas) by ceding to them some of the oil-rich territory. Not bloody likely.

SaudiArabia has the richest oil-reserves; then Iran; then Iraq (most in the Shiite area). When the Shiites secede and ally themselves with Iran, together their oil reserves will probably exceed S.A's !
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There were so many guerilla attacks on Thurs(20Oct) that REUTERS chose to just list them, not describe them.

19 GIs were killed this week in Iraq. [JimLehrer's NEWSHOUR,21Oct]
~ Wednesday, October 19, 2005
 
UNUSUAL FIGURES OF SPEECH:
These came from the annual "Dark and Stormy Night"competition. Actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays: (from Gary Walhovd, of Milton,Wisc :
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making andbreaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxeswith a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of lookingat at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with apinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coliand he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling-ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topekaat 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhoodwith picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob-informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mindlike a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20.. The plan was simple, like a Cape Breton coalminer. But unlike the Caper, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was a Canadian tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

27. She walked into my office like a centipede with98 missing legs.

28. From a love-poem by a Ft.Collins swain: "Mine, Mine--whom could never become a swine !" (Comment by Mary Lyons, his teacher: "All the world loves a lover--but should he be allowed to breed?")
 
ASTOUNDING ! Superbombs have been used in So.Iraq vs. Brits: roadside bombs involving jam-proof triggering and shaped charges that can penetrate armor. Blairites & Bushies have tried to say the bombs were donated to insurgents by IRAN!

But now it turns out that such bombs were used earlier by IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY ! And the IRA and the Arabs have long shared resources and info in the fight against their common enemy, Perfidious Albion.

But wait--there's more.
It's been claimed that IRA got the designs for these superbombs from devious BRITISH agents, who figured they'd come out ahead if they knew what bomb-technology the IRA would be using ! London INDEPENDENT
Too clever by half, Cecil.
---------------
Blairites & Bushies go right on claiming that IRAN provided the superbombs for Iraqi insurgents. GUARDIAN

Why would Shiite Iran want to help the Sunni insurgents who are slaughtering Shiites? Even though the superbomb was used in South Iraq, there are plenty of Sunnis there.

If the Iraqi Shiites are now bombing 'coalition' vehicles, that means that Brits/Yanks now face a TWO-FRONT WAR !
----------------
US engineers say the resources for these superbombs have been available for a long time to Iraq insurgents; they did not need to be imported.
(The real question is why they haven't been used before.)
======
An analysis in GUARDIAN says that for many reasons, a devastating sneak bombing of Iran (hitting up to 5000 targets at once) may be a real possibility.
Would such a blitzkrieg further enrage world Muslims? 9 in 10 of them are Sunnis, often despising Shiites, as are found in Iran. But if US gets away with such an unprovoked, Nazi-style attack, no Muslim country would be safe. In fact no nation on earth would be safe.

Neutron bombs could kill all the humans in Iranian oil-fields while leaving the fields unharmed. But, with 39 million Iranians backing up the oil-workers, it's hard to imagine such an attack NOT cutting world oil supplies even further. (Iran might already have oil-fields mined with radioactive materials, so 'dirty bombs' could be triggered there, putting the oilfields--vital for world oil-use--out of commission for months or years.)
Bush-supporting SUV owners would be impoverished further.

This Guardian reporter claims there are already up to 10,000 Iranian soldiers in Iraq. Obviously the Iranians' first target for retaliation would be our wretched GIs in Iraq, perhaps attacked with poison gas.
=======================================
Every nation would likely double their speed in developing 'second-strike' deterrents vs. US--probably germ-war !--so they could say, "You can wipe out our cities; but we can make you regret it."

The ideal second-strike weapon would be a new germ used by a nation that had developed secretly a vaccine or medicine against that germ.
(Iranian and other Shiites are famous for revering martyrs and valuing martrydom.Their rulers might not bother with a vaccine against their germ-war weapons. They might warn world rulers that if they are wiped out, they will release, say 1918 flu on the whole world. That would be their 'doomsday' weapon.)
A letter to NYTIMES says 3d-world terrorists would never start a pandemic that would work most devastation on 3d-world. That's not so obvious.
In fact, the developed countries have no effective vaccine vs. 1918 flu nor vs. avian flu, and pitifully small stores of medicines. We're counting on the same remedy as used by every primitive country: quarantine.

Hobbes said all men are equal because all are equally killable. That seems true today. You'd think all countries would unite against war and plague.
But no---if the nuclear threats didn't wake up humanity, then plague threats won't either.

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BIRD-FLU THREAT UNPRECEDENTED: says expert in INDEPENDENT. This is hardly the time to threaten Iran, tempting the mullahs to help the flu !
A scientist's letter to NYTIMES excuses the US scientists who published the formula for 1918 flu by saying that a pandemic is going to happen anyway. However: we're all going to die anyway; that doesn't excuse people who make it easier to kill people.
=============
Another Brit killed near Basra by roadside bomb. Story notes continuing Blair/Bush claims about Iran donating the superbombs. REUTERS
 
AS EXPECTED, FED RESERVE SAYS IT MUST RAISE INTEREST RATES TO COUNTER 'INFLATION'. ChinaView

It's true that the consumer price index is rising fast, almost solely because of higher energy prices.

But of course people who have to pay more than ever for gas, house-heating, and other goods needing high-energy--such people have LESS money to spend on everything else! They don't need high interest rates to stop them from spending; they'll stop anyway. They have to.

We face, not inflation, but STAGFLATION: (a rise in some prices NOT accompanied by any rise in income.)

Higher interest rates will lead our country toward recession. So why would the FedReserve want to raise rates? Because wealthy people LEND more than they BORROW; high interest rates do them more good than harm.

Give Greenspan credit; he didn't grab every chance to raise interest-rates; thus he kept us from plunging into recession.
 
Condy Rice told the Senate, astoundingly, that the Bushies right after 9/11 decided they had to redesign the Middle East.--with their redesigned Iraq as the centepiece. WashingtonTimes

--What gall! They knew almost nothing about the Middle East. It's all very well to say they HAD to try this, after 9/11. Maybe they had to try abolishing original sin also--but that would still be an insolent thing to try, showing conceit perhaps to the point of madness.

What's more they never shared that plan with Congress, which means they were acting unconstitutionally, without Congressional OK. (They acted unconstitutionally also because they began bombing Iraq before Congress dumbly gave them a blank check.)

---Anyway, it's all a lie. We've been told by people at the meetings that the Bushies starting planning this invasion right after 'W' was elected, months BEFORE 9/11 !
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"CLEAR, HOLD, AND BUILD": Condy Rice told the Senate that our Iraq strategy is to "clear areas of insurgents, hold the areas cleared, and build up durable, national institutions. Theirs is to infect, terrorize, and pull down." SanFranciscoChronicle

Nice strategy--but it isn't working ! (Theirs IS working.)We can't keep clear the areas we attack, because we have to pull out our scarce troops, and then the insurgents surge back into control.

We're not building up durable, national institutions. Insurgents can cut off power to Baghdad at will, can sabotage oil pipelines, and terrorize the people.(Our puppet leaders are regularly assassinated--a Bulgarian source said that today (19Oct) the MAYOR OF BAGHDAD WAS KILLED ! (NYTIMES described this man as a 'municipality official.")
We can't even 'clear' the nation's capital of guerillas! Veteran reporter Robt.Fisk says guerillas control an area 1/2 mile from the Green Zone!

The Bush-vaunted constitution will lead to splitting Iraq into 3 mini-states, not building national institutions. Word has just come that we're running out of 'reconstruction' money. [ FinTimes ]

Rice declined to guess when we can pull out our GIs. She wouldn't even deny that they might be there for five or ten years.

Senators objected strongly when she insisted that we had to remake the Middle East--else we would be subject to attack. Boston.com

Of course we will face attack-danger for years, come what may in Iraq--and we have no chance to 'remake' the Middle East ! The only relevance of this goofy war to Homeland Security is that
(a) the money wasted there can't be spent on necessary precautions here;

and (b) outrage among 1500 millions of world Muslims over our crude tactics in Iraq (e.g., bombing cities) helps to recruit new terrorists of many races and colors.

and (c) the Iraq turmoil is providing new terrorists with excellent guerilla-war TRAINING so they can stir up turmoil back in their own countries.
 
BUSH'S S.COURT NOMINEE CALLED BACK TO SENATE; both a GOP & a Dem Senator said Meiers' answers were 'insufficient', indeed 'insulting.' NYTIMES
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Ms.Meiers,running once for office in Texas, said she favored a US Constitutional Amendment banning abortion except where the mother's life was threatened.

What's bad here is not her fanaticism, but her cynicism. Such an amendment would have to pass both houses of Congress by a 2/3ds vote, then be ratified by 2 out of 3 states. In other words, in a country where over half the people don't want abortion punished--never happen!

But the yokels in Texas might expect a miracle from on High to help them ban abortion. Meiers played on their ignorance.

(By the way, the Catholic hierarchy would not have approved of an amendment allowing abortion to save the mother's life. They would let both mother and baby die rather than deliberately kill the--unborn--child--unless, say, uterus were cancerous: then she could remove her own organ, after all--too bad for the foetus!

War-killing, for many Catholics theologians, is a more puzzling case.
Even if it's practically certain that US bombing will kill hundreds of babies (and foetuses), not a single one of them was DELIBERATELY killed--and that's what counts. )
 
ABUSE OF INADEQUATE 'HOMELAND' FUNDS: Homeland Security gets only $32 billion, while useless Pentagon gets $400+ billions--even though bombers, tanks and missiles are useless against individual terrorists.

But besides this, the miserable $32 billion is being misspent. Instead of the most money going to the heavy-population states which are most in danger from terrorists, the GOP Senators (2 from every half-deserted state, including Wyoming!) are steering the money to pork-projects in the less-populated, low-risk states.NYTIMES

GOP seems too dense to realize the real danger to our cities from terrorists.
Or perhaps they figure that another attack will make dumb Americans cuddle up closer to the Right Wing. They may be right.
 
TOM FRIEDMAN IN NYTIMES tells a fictitious story to explain why Iraqis might be horrified at the antics of the Bushies:

--telling people to back a nominee for Supreme Court because she has the right religion! ("Suppose you read that Iraq's President supported a Judge-nominee not for his qualifcations but because he worshipped at a Wahabist-fundamentalist mosque!")

--threatening to veto a Senate bill forbidding torture. (Torture was Saddam's preferred method of persuasion).

--staging a phony dialogue with troops who approve Bush's strategy.
(Another favorite Saddam trick.)

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