"IRAQ MAKES US LOSE WAR ON TERROR' say foreign-policy experts. InfoClearinghouse

 
An even-handed assessment of Maliki's new 'peace proposal': [from the Cairo paper AlAhram ]
In a typical Sunni way, this writer blames Maliki for not making specific commitments to destroy the Shia militia..commitments he could not make.
The 'central govt.' of Iraq is a powerless puppet, unable to control the rival militias that are taking over the country.

More sensibly, he says Sunni insurgents will never accept the plan (a) because it doesn't recognize the legitimacy of the resistance to the infidel invaders, and (b) because it doesn't demand a definite time for US withdrawal. (Earlier versions of the plan would extend amnesty to those who killed Americans (not Iraqis) , and would demand a firm withdrawal time, and would curb indiscriminate bombing of 'insurgent territories'. But Maliki's boss, the US ambassador, lifted these teeth from the proposal.)

But the writer ends with a mild rebuke to the insurgents: Look, the US project has failed; they're dying to get out; are you helping or hindering that process?

 
WHY SIGNS OF SOFTENING AMONG INSURGENTS? They are reportedly worried about IRANIAN influence over Iraq Shia (the supermajority). Maybe they think Iranians would have less influence over a central govt. (dominated, but not completely controlled, by Shia) rather than a separate Shia ministate in the South, which might be closely allied with Iran ! (Continued Sunni attacks on Shia would likely strengthen this Shia push for deFacto secession.)

In this separate Shia ministate, all Sunnis would be expelled,so insurgents would have no power there, no more than they have power in Kurdland ministate now.

They must enjoy stories of the separate Shia militias fighting each other near Basra !

Who knows?

 
900 ROMANIANS WILL BE PULLED OUT OF IRAQ/

Shiites vs. Sunnis are fighting pitched battles. NYTIMES
--------------------
Early descriptions of the'peace plan' were vague as to whether insurgents who have killed only US GIs, not Iraqis, would get amnesty. Now the PM says definitely that these GI killers will NOT get amnesty. SeattlePI
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq_Insurgents.html

Problem: that would mean that the insurgent leaders (who have led GI killing for years) would not get amnesty. Perhaps money could be slipped to them so they can flee to other countries.
But how many insurgents have NOT killed GIs? To work, the amnesty would have to apply to every insurgent, unlesss theres is specific evidence that THIS insurgent killed THESE GIS!
That would fool nobody--but it might make an amnesty possible.

As I've said before the only solution is partition into 3 ministates; and only the insurgents could control the middle region, the Sunni/Arab region. So their leader s have to be rehabilitated.

 
ELEVEN INSURGENT GROUPS (not the ones in wild Anbar Province) offer to stop attacks--IF a two-year deadline is set to get ALL FOREIGN TROOPS out of Iraq. ABC/NEWS

Strange--they'd wait two years to see if the foreigners actually left ?

Several papers ran the AP story withOUT noting that the insurgents also demanded that US/Iraq forces also stop attacking them ! Only the RMTNNEWS carried this bit.
Insurgents would be crazy to go for a one-sided truce !
------------------
Another possibility: they foresee partition into 3 ministates--Kurdland, Shialand, and Sunni/Arab land. They may hope, by speaking up early, that they'd be granted control of sunni/Arab land. After all, who but the insurgents could control that area?

 
ALGERIA IS NO MODEL FOR IRAQ: US recommends that Maliki's regime study Algeria's 'amnesty' (after tens of thousands were slaughtered in civil war between govt. gunmen & Islamist gunmen). But this plan consists only of freeing former Islamist murderers and silencing their victims. (Nuns were ordered to remove pictures of Trappist monks the Islamists beheaded. These contemplatives were doing no Christian proselytizing.)
Govt. murderers are also pardoned. But the killing still goes on.

Govt. nullified election results favoring Islamists. These know that most Algerians are on their side, (and so is Allah ! )--and are just waiting to strike back. NYTIMES

This shows the stupidity of the Bushies, prating about 'installing democracy' in the MiddleEast. Ruthless secular dictators (like Musharref, Murbarek & Saddam !) are needed to control (at least temporarily) the wild Islamists, who have the backing of most ME inhabitants.

 
INDONESIA PROMISES TO CONTROL TERRORISTS [UnitedPress ] Jakarta can control hundreds of jungle islands inhabited by Muslims who now hate America --sure they can !
These islands are perfect sites for terrorist staging, training.

They say Americans are finally studying ARABIC. But to 'know our enemies', our youth had better also study the many languages of Indonesia & Phillipines (whose terrorists are allied with those in Indonesia.)

 
'KOSOVO WILL BE PART OF SERBIA FOREVER !" says Serbian PM [ UnitedPress ]
Sure, just like Montenigro,Bosnia,etc. ! Kosovans are mainly Albanian Muslims;
they hate Serbians. (Meddling US bombed Yugoslavia to stop Serbs from expelling Muslims from Kosovo ; now the Muslims are driving out the Serbs ! And the Muslim world has not shown much gratitude toward the Americans.)

 
AH, BUT WILL PIPES STAY OPEN? Iraq's Northern oil-pipelines opened again, after nine months of repair needed for insurgents' sabotage. (282 attacks from '03 to '05.)

This oil is the sole source of income for our puppet govt. Authorities warn that saboteurs could strike again. FinTimes

For now,insurgent attacks on pipelines have stopped--but nobody knows why, and nobody knows when these attacks might resume.

 
SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND ALLIED TROOPS FLOOD IN TO PACIFY BAGHDAD--general admits results are disappointing, so far...but he doesn't think civil war is coming on
'just yet'. [ Assoc.Press cited by NJ.COM

 
RICE PRAISES KARZAI (to bolster his sagging popularity in Afghanistan). REUTERS

Does she seriously think that praise from the infidels who've invaded Afgh., and now are bombing Afghans indiscriminately--that our praise will raise our puppet's prestige there? The Taliban is surging back; 1100 people have been killed there in the last 6 months.

US invaded with FAR TOO FEW troops (Bushies were lusting to invade Iraq ! ) So they simply handed the country over to the drug lords & the warlords. Guardian Years ago, after Russ were driven out, these thugs were so crude that Afghans turned to favor incorrupt Taliban; they may side with them again.

Now the people are blaming Karzai (who was flunky of US oil company before he became 'mayor of Kabul'.)
--------------------------
"Violence surges in Afghanistan" SeattlePI Every sentence in Western media, telling about all the Taliban killed, ends with "...government spokesmen say" or "...coalition spokesman say." (Apparently Western journalists are afraid to check for themselves.)

And Kharzai mutters, "These rebels are Afghan brothers also."

 
PROSTHETIC FOR BUSH: [ltr to USATODAY]


ABCeveningNEWS/27Je/ ran, incredibly, a short movie showing our President running proudly with an Iraq vet WHO'D LOST BOTH LEGS ! Bush was grinning happily; the vet looked down at him enigmatically. [A picture was also run in USATODAY, 28Je. ]

This exhibition was meant to show that losing a leg isn't so bad now that we have designed nifty artificial limbs.

But it's bound to remind people that the guy had his legs blown off because Bush lunged into this needless, pointless war.

It will also remind people that one reason Bush's legs are so healthy is that he dodged combat in Vietnam when he was young.

Perhaps Bush needs a prosthetic , to make up for his complete loss of any capacity for embarrassment.
-----------------
SUPPOSE one of the hundreds of BRAIN-DAMAGED GIs challenged Bush to a game of scrabble...the GI might win.

 
A VIVID SUMMARY OF THE AWFUL SITUATION IN BAGHDAD, caught between insurgent killers and Islamist-fanatics who will kill men wearing shorts, and of course anyone selling liquor. This memo from our embassy (!) shows how little hope there is now of unity among Iraqis. ChinaNews

The only solution is partition: separating Sunnis from Shias (i.e., a Shia ministate in the South, with ethnic cleansing--minorities chased out of mixed neighborhoods by the majorities.)
The Kurds have already formed their own ministate in the North.

 
ARMY EQUIPMENT COSTS TO TRIPLE. GUARDIAN

That's the good side to war. It uses up equipment, which must then be replaced by shovelling more billions to war-corporations.

 
SUPPORT FOR WITHDRAWAL-DEADLINE INCREASES IN EVERY AMERICAN GROUP. WashPost
50%of Americans want a withdrawal-deadline. [USATODAY28June ] So why are Dem pols so timid about this issue ? !
-------------------------
WITHDRAWING TROOPS IS AN OPTION, says WhiteHouse--but only one option.
aljazeera One remembers how Nixon got elected by saying he had a 'secret plan' to get out of Vietnam. It turned out that more GIs were killed/wounded after his election than before.
---------------------------------------------------
BUSH'S 'BOUNCE' ? WashPost
Approval of his general performance jumped up 5% (from 33% to 38%).
But STRONG approval stayed down at 20%. Whereas STRONG disapproval is still up at 48%.

All voters (& all registered voters): 52% say they'd vote today for Dem candidate in their district;
vs. 39% would vote for GOP candidate.

Iraq & economy are most important issues. (terrorism far behind.)
On the other hand, terrorism is the ONLY issue where GOP is trusted more!
( "After all, we haven't faced another 9/11"...yet ! )


"Dems would do best job of coping with our problems in the next few years." 48%
(vs. 38% GOP).
"Was war in Iraq worth it?" 45% say STRONGLY NO ! 25% SAY STRONGLY YES.

"Deadline for withdrawal?" yes 47%, up from 39% /No 51%, down from 60%


"US is doing all it can to avoid civilian casualties." 58%, down from 82%
"We should do more.." 39% up from 15%.
-----------------
One observer said, "Americans want to cut & run, but not to say that."
----------
One wag said, "We should withdraw, just as Bush Sr. should have done !"

 
Over 150 Iraqi casualties on Monday. [ SeattlePI ]
7 Sunni insurgent groups interested in a truce; they loathe the idea of Iran's influence on Shia govt.
Question is: how much power do these groups have, relatively?

 
EVEN THO DIVIDED, DEMS HAVE POL. ADVANTAGE IN NOV, say political experts.
SanJoseMercNews "Often, when opposition is divided, voters will stick with 'the devil they know'.
But this year they can't stand the (GOP) devil they know." /"There will be a major housecleaning."
"The people want us to 'cut & run', though they hate to say so."

So Dem workers should be energized by hope. On the other hand, antiwar Dems (the majority of Dem voters) may wonder if the Dem pols are really on their side. Those pols who favored the watered-down antiwar resolution, not the stronger Kerry/Kennedy resolution--those wimpy Dem candidates may find that their anti-war constituents will vote for them, but not work hard or contribute heavily for their campaigns. That's how I feel.

 
IRAN'S POWER TO RETALIATE:
IRAN HAS SUPER-SNIPER RIFLES (sold to them by Austrian corporation) that can penetrate body-armor or Humvees from a mile away, or shoot down a helicopter. [PARADE magazine,25June--link not available.

IMPLICATIONS:
--If we attack Iran, they can ravage our poor GIs in Iraq.

--US was enraged at this sale, imposed sanctions on Austria. Nevertheless, Austrian govt. OKd this sale. Iranian oil-money trumps US rage. "Half of Europe is selling weapons to Iran."

--Bush's US, not Iran, is 'isolated rogue state.'

see also CBS/NEWS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/world/main683285.shtml

see also WIKIPEDIAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steyr_Mannlicher
==============
"BUSH WOBBLES ON IRAN" says UnitedPress commentator.This writer says alternating 'tough-guy/nice-guy' talk by Bush is explained by his first heeding the (Cheney/Rumsfeld) hawks, then heeding the (Condoleeza) doves.

 
Final Version of Maliki 'peace plan" A DAMP SQUIB, already rejected by Sunni Insurgents. Guardian
Seven MINOR insurgent groups express interest. FinTimes
-------------------------
'PEACE PLAN' NOW ON TABLE: [ DAILY TELEGRAPH ]
--This story says that amnesty is offered now only to non-criminal 'suspected insurgents' IN US/IRAQI CUSTODY. (Many prisoners already released. These men may not have been real insurgents when they entered our prisons; but they may be real insurgents now! )

--This story does not mention curb on US operations, or call for withdrawal-timetable. Those omissions may be the price of getting approval of US ambassador--but the omissions will lessen likelihood of Sunni acceptance.

--Shia resent idea that amnesty may go to insurgents who have been slaughtering Shia.
(No amnesty for 'foreign' insurgents; but they are small percentage of insurgents.)
-----------
BBC agrees that the anti-US teeth have been pulled from this proposal, confirming that the new govt. is indeed an American puppet. BBC analyzes this as Bush domestic PR strategy for Nov. elections: no clear reference to withdrawal-timetable, but US general announces a withdrawal of a small US contingent this Sept, and hints at large contingent to be withdrawn before Presidential election in '08.

(We already have too few troops in Iraq. Pulling out only SOME troops might leave remaining GIs at MORE risk ! )
-----------------------------
USATODAY agrees that the final plan has no clear reference to withdrawal-timetable, OR to real curbs on US attacks, just a vague reference to new 'rules of engagement'.
------------------------
GUARDIAN story agrees that there's no reference to withdrawal-timetable; has no mention of curb on US attacks. Plan does call for a 'timeline' for when Iraqi central-govt. forces will completely take over 'security' functions in Iraq. The day after the Rapture.
===============================================
MORE ON THE PEACE DEAL[Saturday]
LondonTIMES (reporters claim to have seen text of peace proposal):
--Key point for Sunnis: a timetable for US withdrawal, suprvised by UN Security Council..
--A stop to US 'anti-insurgent' operations !
--Amnesty even for insurgents who have killed Americans !

And apparently US ambassador was involved in these negotiations...all the time GOP was denouncing Dems as 'cut & runs' because they asked for a withdrawal-timetable ! Perhaps the backdown would be less embarrassing for GOP than continued US casualties right up till election.

The official text of the proposal should be made public perhaps on Sunday (& it was--toothless, it will have little chance to pacify Saddamite insurgents).

 
GOOD NEWS ABOUT HUMAN POTENTIAL: BILL GATES quit his Microsoft job to give full-time attention to his multi-billion-dollar philanthropic foundation.

Fellow billionaire WARREN BUFFET just announced a THIRTY-SEVEN-BILLION-DOLLAR gift to the Gates foundation ! This didn't just demonstrate Buffet's good heart; it also counts as a hell of a vote of confidence in Bill Gates !

The news broadcasts quoted philanthopist Andrew Carnegie (who amassed his wealth by ruthless cruelty) as saying, "Any man who dies rich dies disgraced." Plenty of men have died rich and disgraced. (The Carnegie library in my home-town made my childhood almost tolerable.)

Plato put it this way: "Rich men are doubly disgraced: they have usually amassed their wealth by bad methods; also, they didn't spend it in ways they should have."
----------------------------
But let us remember that the philanthropic billionaires do not undo the damage from vicious governments and rapacious corporations.

 
STRANGE REVERSAL ! NYTIMES
A couple of years ago, Bushie hawks like Bolton were frothing ferociously at North Korea, seemingly trying to get them to strike first so we could NUKE them with a good conscience.
(We moved many B-52s to Guam--a meaningless gesture, since the B-52s easily bombed Afghanistan with planes stationed in Kansas !)

But the Kim regime showed admirable restraint, went right on quietly working on its nuclear deterrent. (It's estimated that they now have enough fuel for 6 nukes; assembling nukes when you have the fuel is supposedly easy even for college physics students.)

Now 2 DEMOCRATS are calling for us to bomb the site where NK is ready to test-launch its intercontinental missile. But GOP (even goofy Cheny & Rumsfeld) are pooh-poohing any threat from NK that would call for our attacking NK. They're aware that NK has 1100 conventional artillery-tubes aimed at South Korea (and the 30k US troops stuck there) !

Bushies are also aware that they have goofily tied up all our troops in the Iraq occupation (Saddam never had any nukes, nor any real capacity to make them!)--so we could never occupy NK, only bomb them. 50 yrs ago we bombed them flat. One US pilot told me, "There's nothing left to bomb; we're making basements." The people took to caves, then came out and rebuilt.

Bushies are also growling at Iran for developing nukes, while ignoring NK, which actually HAS THEM !

Perhaps the 2 Dems are not seriously proposing an attack, just reminding Americans of the strange reversal of GOP policy.

Truly a Dr.Strangelove black comedy.

 
WHAT WOULD PACIFY THE SADDAMITES? (the Baathists, who once ran Iraq under Saddam)?
WHAT DEAL WOULD PERSUADE THESE SECULAR INSURGENTS TO LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS AND TURN AGAINST THEIR ISLAMIST ALLIES?

--A deFacto partition into Kurdland, Shialand, and middle Sunni/Arabland. A castration of central govt., (wanted also by Kurds & Shia!) so Baathists won't have to submit in humiliation to a Shia/Kurd govt.

--Perhaps a payoff to top leaders so they could flee to another country (less embarrassing than an amnesty for those who led murderous attacks on GIs & Iraqis.)

--Allowing Baathists to take control of (geographically huge) Sunni/Arabland. Who else could do this? (They'd be fools to attack Shialand or Kurdland, purged of all Sunnis-- being outnumbered 4 to 1, and with mighty Iran backing up Shialand.)

--the biggest problem: Sunni/Arabland so far has no real oil-resources; it would be an 'empire of sand'. The Shia & Kurds could promise to give them a 'fair share' of resources from their oil-rich areas; but Baathists would be fools to accept those promises without guarantees.

The only imaginable guarantees would be ceding to them some oil-rich lands.This would be unthinkable from Shia/Kurd viewpoint--unless they see that Baathist sabotage can continue to eliminate their own oil-exports. But if they expelled all Sunnis from their regions, such sabotage might not be so effective.

--Who would get Baghdad? I'd guess the Shia would--which would render absurd the grotesque half-billion-dollar US embassy there !

--Other Sunni countries would have to guarantee to help Baathists set up a viable non-oil economy. (Till now, these countries have reneged on aid-pledges; but that's perhaps because insurgency makes reconstruction impossible. With insurgency ended, they might be willing to offer real help.But Baathists would have to trust in such aid, to get them to end the insurgency!
---------------------
The tepid promises made by Sunday's 'peace-offer' (castrated by US pressure)--this offer would be laughed away by Baathists, who have every reason to think they will end up controlling Sunni/Arab land, one way or another.

 
NO MORE RATE RISES? Fed Reserve hints that maybe this raise is the last.
REUTERS writer says a stop in raises would signify to investors that Feds fear prospect of recession more than inflation. (They'd better fear any recession starting before election in November ! )
--------------------

NO HI-INTREST 5-YR CDS? Check your local paper. Are there any hi-interest 5-yrs CDs offered? Are ANY 5-yr CDs offered at all ? ! Not in my local paper--and phone-calls reveal that -for 1st time in 40 years!--few banks are offering ANY 5-yr CDs ! (Plenty of 5% one-year CDs !)

Implication: Banks expect interest-rates to drop--they expect deflation--so they won't let us tie up our money in hi-interest long-run CDs. One hears that ten-year govt.bonds now pay low interest compared to one-yr bonds. Such unusual 'inversions' are another sign of coming deflation.
[On Google, type in "government bonds" and INVERSION . ]

(Why high one-year rates? Banks may figure that Bushies can fine-tune economy, staving off recession until after Nov. elections. But such fine-tuning may not be possible, especially by that crowd of crony-loons !)

This signifies that our long-run problem is NOT INFLATION as the Fed Reserve is claiming. True, gas-prices are high; but real wages have dropped. The extra $ people spend on gas mean that they can't buy other stuff, so prices can't be raised.

Our long-term problem is deflation: possibly recession or even depression--inevitable result when

a) worldwide productive capacity exceeds aggregate demand (people with money won't/can't buy all the goods that could be produced). [See Robt. Reich piece below. ]

b) Huge mountains of cash owned by the super-rich are not being invested. (Why would they invest in extra productive capacity now ? !) Recently Japanese money was not being borrowed/invested even when real interest rate was zero !

Why areBushie-appointees spi

 
A BEAUTIFUL FUNERAL: Today we went to a 'celebration of life' for a friend David Lauer, who died suddenly at a young age. The room was at the 'Avogadro's Number' restaurant, a family-like meeting-place.The room was packed and everyone one was earnestly cheerful--when suddenly a woman began sobbing. I admired her courage. Nobody sobs any more. I was then able to weep for my dying brother, and for the feckless human race.

David's little grandson asked his mother earlier why she was weeping. "Because my heart is broken." Several times during the day the lad asked, "Is your heart fixed yet?" /She said no./
Finally he said, "I'll grow up to be like grampa; then your heart will be fixed." She agreed it would.

 
SENATE DARES TO CUT WAR FUNDS: by a token $14 billion, leaving starving Pentagon only
$1356 MILLIONS each DAY. (Most of that does NOT go for our 2 wars !)

And even that cut will be reversed, when the bill goes to House/Senate committee, with Bush threat of veto if Congress tampers with money for his darling DOD.
UnitedPress

 
IRAQ GOVT TO CALL FOR TIMETABLE FOR WITHDRAWING GIS? (23June)
As soon as this week, our 'puppet' govt. may offer amnesty to sunni insurgents, excepting only those who have killed Iraqis (NOT EXCEPTING those who have killed Americans!)
Part of this package would be a call for a timeline for withdrawal of foreign troops,
AND AN END TO US OPERATIONS IN IRAQ ! LondonIndependent

If true, this should embarrass GOP, who have sneered at Dem calls for a timeline as calling for craven surrender. But nothing could embarrass GOP.

GUARDIAN agrees that this proposal (to be announced as early as THIS SUNDAY!) would rein in US forces, call for a withdrawal-timeline.
FinancialTimes gives a skeptical view, says details have not been settled.
----------
In fact, this Iraqi move would be a call for US surrender. Bush has always said he'd heed calls of Iraqi govt for withdrawal. Dem version would have blamed Iraqis for not doing their part;
this situation would be even more humiliating for US. Especially the call for suspending US operations NOW, which confirms that our forces have been doing MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

(80% of Iraqis have wanted us OUT for a long time..but till now the govt. had ignored them.)
============
US MEDIA REACTION: ChiTribune says amnesty is offered to those who 'carried weapons' for insurgency, but not for those who've committed major crimes against Iraqis OR AGAINST AMERICANS.Tribune doesn't mention call for withdrawal or end to US operations.
---------------------
LATIMES says approvingly that insurgents who have killed Americans WILL be amnestied.
A US functionary is quoted as saying "Such UNSAVORY moves are the way wars end !"
-----------
GOOGLE (amnesty + iraq) gives no reference to NYTIMES or WashPost on this story.
Once again, they may be waiting for WhiteHouse permission to run this story.
-----------
Of course, on 25 June, the final 'peace plan' was defanged from all restraints on Americans !

 
'IRAN UPPING HELP TO SHIA GUERILLAS', says top US Iraq general. InternatlHeraldTribune

--At least they're not pretending that Iran is helping SUNNI insurgents (who are slaughtering Shia).

--Sunni insurgents are still the main problem, even tho US spokesman are hinting that Shia militia are just as big a problem. For instance, the 65 workmen kidnapped this week were Shia (Sunnis among them were spared.) Most Baghadad bombs are in Shia areas. And even many of those Sunnis killed might have been killed by Sunni insurgents for collaborating with US !

--Open battle between Sadrite vigilantes and Sunni insurgents--right in Baghdad, a week after central govt. & US announced a big campaign to pacify Baghdad ! Sadrites were protecting Shia worshippers; Sunnis attacked and Sadrites fought back. MiddleEastOnline

--Brits are pulling out of Shia region, pretending that the areas are so secure that they can be handed over to Iraqi forces (largely Shia). Truth is, Brits are being chased out of Iraq !

--Indivdiual Sunni volunteers from other countries (e.g., Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Syria) are helping the Sunni insurgents. Our general doesn't mention them.

--Iran may be signalling Americans about the slaughter of GIs that would take place in retaliation for any US attack on Iran--if Shia opened up a real second-front against Americans.
Shia revere martyrs, so suicide-bombings would increase; and thousands of Shia volunteers from many countries would flood into Iraq, infuriated about attack on the only Shia-dominated government !

 
ONLY 13 SENATORS BACKED KERRY'S STRONG 'WITHDRAW/TIMETABLE' PROPOSAL. All dems except 6 voted for the weaker Dem proposal (no timetable).
But of course GOP & a few Dem renegades downed even the weak proposal. Boston.com

With huge majorities of Dem & INDEPENDENT voters calling for a timetable, the cowardice of so many Dem Senators is puzzling as well as enraging. (One possibility: the military-industrial complex, with its hundreds of billions of dollars, may be threatening Dem pols to fund campaigns against them if they dare to oppose this complex. It's interesting that Dean (now the spokesmen for doves) made his first announcement after starting to run in '04 that he would NOT cut the Pentagon budget !)

 
GOP ADOPTS PRO-WAR STANCE FOR NOV. ELECTIONS.

As long as you have a skunk tied around your neck,
you might as well pretend it's a mink-stole.
=============
ON THE OTHER HAND, US military equipment is being sent home from Iraq. That signals a draw-back, if not a complete bugout. Also, 2 units scheduled to be sent to Iraq have had their orders cancelled. SeattlePI

Bushies will find it hard to 'declare victory' before they bug out. 5 GIs killed today-- 29 WOUNDED EACH DAY ! Four more GIs killed in one day in Afghanistan.

 
FORMER BUSHIE NEOCON SAYS IRAQ MAY SOON ASK US TO LEAVE. theAustralian

AFGHAN PRES. KHARZAI (our puppet!) DENOUNCES US ATTACKS ON TALIBAN !
[ USATODAY ]
------------------------------

ONE IRAQI CIVILIAN KILLED BY AMERICANS EACH DAY IN '05.
That statistic was released by our spokesman just to emphasize how many FEWER civilians are being killed this year. An ex-marine observer said, "We must show that only the other side does these brutal things. That's the lesson learned in Vietnam." NYTIMES

Both the Presidents of Iraq & Afhghanistan have protested the indiscriminate killings by our forces.

Four years after the war started, NOW they're trying to kill less indiscriminately.
(Of course the most indiscriminate killing is from the air--and that won't change.)

The Pentagon is incapable of learning any lessons from Vietnam.

 
ltr to USATODAY:
Your scary story about battered dollar cited our federal deficit and trade deficit as main sources of the problem. But the federal deficit for fiscal '05 was only $319 billion; while the Pentagon budget for fiscal '05 was over $400 billion.

In other words, even if every other federal agency stayed within a budget, hysterical Pentagon spending by itself would plunge us into deficit. We should refer to a 'Pentagon deficit'.
A good part of our trade deficit is also from Pentagon spending (on imported oil, and on all our bases overseas, whose expenses count as imports.)

Most of this spending is NOT for our two current wars ! And the Pentagon hasn't won a real war in 60 years. The Pentagon is not mainly a war-machine; it's a money-machine to fatten war-corporations.

 
Paul Samuelson, in RMtnNews 21June (no link available) warns us that inflation IS a danger, and must be blocked by further rises in interest rates.
---------------------------------------
On the other hand, consider this piece by a former member of Clinton cabinet:

Published on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 by CommonDreams.org The Specter of Deflation by Robert B. Reich
Each generation responds to its own traumatic memory. Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve remember the double-digit inflation of the 1970s and are determined to mount a preemptive strike. That’s why they’re poised on raising interest rates yet again. Bernanke and company have no don’t have a direct memory of the trauma that haunted the previous generation, the depression of the 1930s.

Each generation, in its determination to avoid the nightmare it does remember, runs the danger of over-reacting, and thereby bringing on the opposite trauma. A generation ago, economic policy makers paid too little attention to inflationary forces then building in the American economy. Eventually, Paul Volcker had to break the back of inflation by raising interest rates sky high. That put the economy into a severe recession. Now Bernanke and company are paying too little attention to deflationary forces building in America and the global economy.

Bernanke fears that today’s economy resembles the one that began to overheat the 1970s. But he’s wrong. Labor unions today don’t have nearly the power they did then to get wage increases. Big companies don’t have nearly the power they did then to raise prices. Global wage competition is keeping a lid on American wages, just as global price competition is pushing down on American prices. Meanwhile, fancy computer software is allowing rivals all over the map to erode almost anyone’s market share. Who’s going to raise prices in this environment?

What’s more, there’s no reason to raise prices. Productivity has been soaring over the last five years while the median wage has been stuck in the mud. Wages, remember, constitute about 70 percent of the cost of doing business. So how can price pressures be building? Bernanke and company worry the U.S. labor market is heating up. They’re wrong here, too. Despite what look like rosy employment numbers, a smaller proportion of the American labor force is employed today than it was in 2000. Millions of people don’t show up on the unemployment rolls because they’re too discouraged even to look for work.

The price increases we’re now witnessing are NOT due to excess demand over limited productive capacity, which causes inflation. They come mainly from soaring prices for energy and raw materials. These commodities are being bid upward because of China’s rapid growth, but take a closer look and you see something else going on. Much of the increase in commodity prices is being driven by speculators who expect prices to continue to rise. In other words, part of what we’re seeing are speculative bubbles. Such bubbles can burst any time. The fact is, the global market is glutted with productive capacity, and that’s not chiefly because of the huge gains in American productivity. If you really want to see a glut, take a look at China.

If anything, there’s too much capacity relative to demand. This is a recipe for deflation. Prices can begin to drop because buyers hold off, expecting further price decreases. It happened in Japan in the 1990s. It’s already starting to happen in certain housing markets in the United States that had been red-hot but are now cooling so fast home prices are dropping. Deflation is often accompanied by stagnant or falling wages, which make it harder for consumers to afford to buy. Look what’s been happening to American wages.

The Fed and other central bankers around the world are raising interest rates because they’re fighting the last war. But they already won that war. Inflation is no longer our biggest threat. They ought to be worried about the war before the last one, and the specter of deflation. They’re in danger of losing that war even before they know they're in it.

 
ATTACKING IRAN WOULD SPIKE OIL PRICES UP FROM $69 TO $200, says A.deBorchgrave (UnitedPress ) (Iran has 2d biggest proved reserves of oil & gas in the world.
And they could block the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of world's oil moves. )

Most Europeans think US threatens world peace more than Iran does. Four Spaniards to every one want 'out' of the 'war on terror'. Most young South Koreans side with N.Korea vs. US.
If we attacked No. Korea, Seoul would go boom. Six to 3, Brits think our invasion has made the world LESS safe.

There's much evidence that Iran has plenty of friends in the world. It might even be said that Bush's America is the isolated rogue state ! GUARDIAN

US had better face its powerlessness in these matters. Let's hope the Bushies are sane enough to do this.

 
ANOTHER IRAQ BOMBSHELL ! A memo signed by US ambassador was LEAKED to Washington Post.

It gives VIVID details which show that
a) central govt. is powerless; power belongs to militias.
(b) US is so hated that nobody known to be working for us is safe.
(c) even OUR GUARDS at the sacred Green Zone are getting hostile & arrogant !
and so on....INDEPENDENT

 
JAPAN GOVT. SAYS THEY WILL SOON BUG OUT OF IRAQ.
SIGNIFICANCE: This is because their protectors, Britain & Australia, will soon bug out !
-----------
BRITS WILL PULL 'BACK' FROM A 2D, DANGEROUS PROVINCE. These troops won't leave Iraq immediately--BUT, when their 6-month tour is ended, then Britain might pull them out of Iraq altogether ! TimesOnline
----------------------------
JAPAN WILL BUG OUT ! says Jap foreign minister. [ FORBES ]Japan has noncombat troops in Iraq, over the protests of most Japanese. Japanese govt. is militaristic, wanting to reverse their constitutional ban on forming an army. Also, this govt. is toady-puppet of US govt. in alliance vs. China & N.Korea.

Till now, Brit troops have protected Japanese personnel. But now Brits are going to 'pull back, NOT pull out!' from the province where Japs are working, 'handing over security to Iraq forces'.
Japanese have shown how much faith they have in Iraqi protection by announcing a speedy bugout.

BOMBSHELL CLAIMS: "JAPAN, BRITAIN, & AUSTRALIA will SOON pull out of Southern Iraq !" [ CNN ]
(This just after Japan denied indignantly that they are bugging out !)

The official story is that they are 'turning over security' to Iraq forces. Actually, anarchic chaos rules in this formerly peaceful Shiite area. But the foreign occupiers are probably doing more harm than good. (The one thing all the Basra factions agree on is snubbing the Brits !)

Americans are surely doing more harm than good in mid-Iraq. But Bush says NO to pullout.
-----------------
Britain confirms that they are handing over 'security' to Iraqis in one peaceful province; but they insist they are not PULLING OUT, just pulling back, while keeping an oversight force there to roar back in if security is in trouble. SCOTSMAN
--------------
JAPAN issues fudgy denial. InternatlHeraldTribune
--------------------
Several reports say that Britain & Australia have notified Japan that they will soon bug out.
TheAge

 
GOP COURT MAY FINALLY UPROOT 'ROE VS. WADE': WashPost
For decades, GOP has double-crossed its loony fundamentalist backers, preaching anti-abortion but leaving Rvs.W in place. But this election-year, when even fundamentalists are turning against GOP, the pols may see they have to give way.

Pro-Choice people should not panic; the real issue is the MORNING-AFTER PILL, and the scandal is that pro-choice people have not made sure that ordinary women KNOW about this magic pill !

 
DEMS ASK FOR A 'PHASED WITHDRAWAL' OF GIs FROM IRAQ.
Problem: there aren't enough GIs now in Iraq to protect Iraqis, OR EVEN GIs THEMSELVES.
Pulling out SOME GIs might INCREASE casualties among REMAINING GIs !

The only solution is to pull out ALL GIs at once.

 
FUNDING OUR ENEMIES/by that old hawk VictorDavisHanson [his claims in BOLD/Lyons' comments NOT in bold ]
--------------------
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Marxism was discredited as an unworkable--and often murderous--alternative to consumer capitalism.
-----------------------
Marxism was NOT discredited, just State Capitalism. And Consumer capitalism is discredited by its awful effect on ordinary people and the environment.
======================================================
Eastern Europe was freed and began to prosper in a manner unimaginable just a decade earlier. China and India jettisoned statism, and found prosperity by emulating Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. South America was democratizing and began to liberalize its economies (with mixed success).
------------------
Those countries now pose great threats to our economy. They have increased the already-excessive productive capacity throughout the world. (More goods can be produced than humans with money are willing/or/able to purchase.)========================================================
Here in the U.S., Americans grew freer and richer than at any time in their history.
----------
Freer? With govt. free to destroy any privacy we might have left (after corporations have bitten into our privacy). US citizens can be clapped into Guantanamo-type dungeons with no legal recourse.
Richer? Only the top few; wages of workers have dropped (in real money). And unemployment is much higher than under Clinton. As Reich points out above, a lower % of US workers are now employed than in 2000 !
=================================
In contrast, Europe's creeping democratic socialism left much of the continent with low economic growth, high unemployment, a demographic crisis, and a growing cultural pessimism.
---------------
We'd have a 'demographic crisis' also if rt-wing govt. weren't bent on letting in millions of low-wage illegal aliens (with high birth-rates).
As for 'cultural pessimism', most Americans think we're going in 'the wrong direction', and two in 3 Americans are pessimist about our economy.
=====================================================
In short, there was global proof that the more individual freedom and capitalism, the more the good life followed.
-------------
That's Bushshit. =====================================================
Why, then, are socialists such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia now expanding an anti-capitalist bloc in Latin America--nationalizing companies, jailing dissidents, and whipping up the cult of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro from Peru to Mexico?
---------------------
Because (a) Bushies have convinced whole world (including Latin America) that US is dominated by INCOMPETENT villains.
and (b) we have tied up our troops in Iraq/Afghanistan so we can't invade Bolivia (our former response to defiance in WesternHemisphere.)====================================================
Why here at home, when the stock market is near all-time highs,
---------
Only the very rich profit much from stock highs. We were told that PENSIONS depend on stock highs--but as stocks get higher, pensions disappear. ==============================================
the unemployment rate low
----------
Again, more unemployed (after nearly 7 years of Bush-rule) than under Clinton.
====================
, and home ownership at record levels,
--------------
Just wait! Repossessions will skyrocket as the real-estate bubble bursts. ===============================================
with interest rates and inflation both in check,
--------------------------
Fed.reserve is plugging up short-run rates, which are now [crazily] higher than 10-year rates.Why? Because the smart guys expect a recession or depression.Of course inflation is in check, because ordinary people don't have money to spend; sellers CAN'T raise prices (say at Walmart).
When they spend more on gas, they have less to spend on other follies. STAGFLATION.
==============================================
[Why] do the American people express little confidence in their economy and President Bush's leadership?
-------------
Are you kidding? Americans are just now moving to same low opinion of Bush held for long by the rest of the world !
============================
And given that there are more democracies now than in the history of civilization,
-----------
True that more people are choosing the EMPTY CEREMONY of voting; their masters (e.g., in US) know that 'democracy' can be managed to benefit only the top classes.
------------------------
why is the United Nations proving more illiberal than ever--blackmailed by Saddam Hussein to waffle on sanctions, mired in a tawdry $50 billion scandal, and unable to bring a renegade theocracy in Iran to meet minimal compliance with international nuclear nonproliferation standards
-----------------
UN played fool for US in condeming Saddam, to legitimize Bushies' criminal (and STUPID!)invasion of Iraq. They will not do so again re: Iran--especially since attack on Iran would completely disrupt world oil market !=============================================
The answer to all of these diverse anomalies is oil, oil, and more oil. During the last two years, a booming global economy, uncertainty in the Middle East, and the arrival of newly capitalist but petroleum-poor India and China have created a seller's market unprecedented in the history of the oil industry. The resulting jump in the price of petroleum has distorted both politics and perceptions of what works in economics and politics, and what does not.
Take away the $300-500 billion in windfall profits piled up in the coffers of the oil-exporting nations recently, and Hugo Chavez becomes just another spluttering Castro, hardly able to pay for his bankrupt populism in Venezuela, much less export it beyond his borders. Without petroleum largesse, Iran's Mohammed Ahmadinejad could afford neither a multi-billion-dollar nuclear weapons program nor costly subsidies for terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Vladimir Putin's crackdown on capitalists, political freedom, and further Russian reforms comes only because he controls energy exports vital to the world economy.
And huge petroleum profits don't just empower dictators, subsidize nuclear proliferation, and curtail economic reform.
-----------
RIGHT ! & there's nothing Bushies can do about this new situation.
===========================
[This oil crisis also has] pernicious psychological effects. Americans hit with gasoline price hikes of nearly a dollar a gallon have fallen to despairing over our economy. Try telling furious motorists that the extra cost for most drivers amounts only to about $500-700 per year--a pittance compared to sky-high housing prices that leap tens of thousands of dollars annually. No matter: people see the numbers on the gas pump, and less cash in their wallets, and figure the U.S. is teetering on the brink.
------------------------------
US is definitely teetering on the brink (because of our 2 staggering deficits).But he's right that dumb Americans woke up only when gas prices jumped up.
Housing prices are no longer leaping up...and many of the new home-owners will shortly be facing repossession. And they foresee this from all the 'forSale'/'forRent' signs on their street.
=====================================
Foreign policy is warped as well. Because of its dependency on Middle East gas and oil, Europe's high talk about human rights doesn't apply much to Arab extremists with energy-rich patrons in the Gulf. America is in a war against Islamic fascism, yet treads carefully around Saudi Arabia, despite the kingdomÍs subsidies to America-hating madrasahs.
------------------
Yes, even the Israel Lobby and the neocons want to go after SaudiArabia; but the Bush family has been in bed with Saudi Royals for years. And if we unseated the (irreligious) Royals, S.A. would be taken over by US-hating Islamists..oil prices, it's predicted, would skyrocket to over $300 a barrel.
=============================
When poor oil-importing countries in Africa and Latin America make sacrifices to enact tough market reforms
-----------------------------
the only sacrifices were by the poor in these counties!
=================
their hard work only helps to enrich failed states like Iran, Libya, and Venezuela lucky enough to have an accidental resource beneath their feet that was found, exploited, and mostly purchased by the Westerners they demonize.
-----------
Venezuela is hardly a failed state ! No complaint from right-wingers when TEXAS got rich from 'accidental resources'.Life is so unfair!
Oil-exporters no longer need 'western' $ & expertise. The Chinese are supplying these now!
=======================
Next time we whine that we cannot drill in the Arctic or off our coasts
-----------------------
That would not noticeably help our dependence on foreign oil.
====================================
that nuclear power is too dangerous,
----------------------
It is--and after Chernobyl and 3-mile-island, Americans are determined that these monsters will not be built 'inMY back yard' ! Also, small planes loaded with explosives could be crashed into UNPROTECTED waste-ponds of our present 105 nuke-power plants, distributing radioactivity all over the place.
===========================
that government-encouraged conservation violates free enterprise,
-----------------
Right-wing finally sees this obvious point.
============================o
Or that gasification from coal and shale is too costly,
----------
If oil-prices stay above $50 a barrel (to enable gasification, shale) then Chavez's Venezuela will have more oil than Saud Arabia ! Also, Canada's oil-sands are now profitable.So price might drop; so investment in gasification, shale would not be economically safe.That's why these are not being pushed. Oil-shale bankrupted many entrepeneurs before.
------------------
we should remember: There are insidious--and dangerous--costs in today's oil trade too.
-------------
Liberals have been saying this for years. It's a sign of our desperation that right-wingers now admit this.

 
WIN /WIN FOR BUSHIES:
VP Cheney brags that US hasn't been attacked by terrorists since 9/11.

Nobody knows why this is; but there's absolutely no reason to give Bushies the credit. They have shamelessly underfunded Homeland Security needs, and have allocated irrationally the small amounts available.

However, they're in a win/win situation. When the inevitable next terrrorist attack happens, many dumb Americans will cuddle even closer (for warmth, not safety) to Big Daddy. Small wonder the Bushies feel safe in neglecting Home Defense !

One reads of primitive countries that are not yet ready for Democracy. One fears that US is no longer ready for Democracy.

 
EXPERTS NOTE THAT PENTAGON STILL DOESN'T UNDERSTAND COUNTER-INSURGENCY TACTICS. ChicTribune

They still rely mainly on bombing, thus antagonizing relatives of slain innocent bystanders. (Also, this enrages Muslims all over the world who see photos of scattered body-parts of children.)

(Insurgent-sympathizers can EXAGGERATE our atrocities, because many of these atrocities are real.)

It's just like Vietnam: public US slogan was 'win over the hearts and minds of the people.'
Actual policy was: Grab 'em by the balls; their hearts and minds will follow.
We did grab them by the balls; they threw us out on our ass.

Americans still chatter the slogan : "The only thing those people understand is Force !" (i.e., our bombs will intimidate them into surrender.)

But humans often DON'T UNDERSTAND FORCE! (i.e., in their rage, they don't respond 'rationally' to brutality, by yielding. They fight to the death.) This is especially true of Muslim Arabs, for whom the Next World is as real as this one.

However, bombing /shelling is the only activity Pentagon is good at. So we'll continue to act this way, until Afghanistand and Iraq boot our asses out.
-----------
THREE HUNDRED & SIXTY-FOUR AIRSTRIKES IN AFGHANISTAN IN LAST 3 MONTHS, PLUS 160 IN IRAQ. Even our puppet Kharzai in Kabul has protested the killing of innocent civilians. WashPost

 
WHAT'S HOLDING UP PRICE OF OIL ? Typical vague US headline says: "traders worry that the uranium enrichment issue in Iran did not look close to a resolution."

In plain English, traders are worried that US & allies will punish Iran (economically and/or militarily) severely enough that Iran will cut out its oil exports, thus spiking oil from $69 a barrel up to $134 a barrel.

 
80% of Dems think war was a mistake; 60% want out 'as soon as possible'. 70% of Independents say the war was not worth it AND 30% OF GOPs agree! 72% of OUR TROOPS want us out in '06 !

A new coalition "Voters for Peace' is circulating a petition that says I will not support any candidate who doesn't make quick end to war his public position.
NATION

Cowardice of Dem pols is surprising. I myself will quit supporting this party,and start giving money to MOVEON, which does oppose the war strongly.

 
KILLING ZARQAWI MIGHT INCREASE GI CASUALTIES! [ UnitedPress ]
Z. was an anti-Shia fanatic, wasted resources slaughtering Shia & provoking them to slaughter Sunnis in retaliation. Insurgents might now return to their main project, driving US out of Iraq and undermining our puppet govt. by assassinations, sabotage, etc.--and also by killing more GIs. (Number of US casualties is up.)
[Lyons: On the other hand, insurgents seem to have enough resources to slaughter Shia AND kill GIs ! ]
-----------------
A.Cordesman is a respected Iraq expert [UnitedPress] He describes the difficulties facing US & its Iraqi allies in 'pacifying' Baghdad. Dramatic raids, followed by pullouts, won't work. Indiscriminate attacks, enraging Sunnis, won't work. We must block Sunni insurgents, & also the Shia militita (esp. in Sadr City, home base of Sadr's Mahdi militia.)

Cordesman notes that one obvious insurgent tactic is to publicize and exaggerate occupiers' atrocities. (Lyons: This exaggeration works so well because of the previous reality of US atrocities.)

Also, 'pacifying' Baghdad by driving insurgents to attack other Iraqi cities won't work. (Lyons: US will be tempted to try this, because US journalists stay mainly in protected Green Zone of Baghdad, sending out Iraqi 'assistants' to get the news. And US TV shows mainly what happens in Baghdad.)

LYONS: Reading his description of requirements for our success reinforces pessimism about our chance of success !

 
There was a profound cartoon out a few years ago: the big fish ready to swallow the middle fish, who's ready to swallow the small fish. The small fish says sensibly, "Life is unfair!"/ The middle fish says, "Life is sort of fair!"/ The big fish says, "Life is completely fair!"

When I see expensive cars with bumper-stickers featuring fish (for fundamentalist Christianity) or GOP or war-supporting bumper-stickers, I see them as the big fish who understandably approve of the way Life goes.

But when I see cheap old cars with similar GOP or pro-war bumper-stickers, I think of small fish who are dumb enough to admire the big fish and agree that life is completely fair. They're counting on pie in the sky when they die.

 
"We don't KNOW Iran is far from atomic bombs--we'd better attack them."
This has been said more than once by US hawks. Here is an article from a Yale magazine, cited by Pakistan TIMES, admitting that US intelligence agencies now agree that Iran is YEARS from nukes--but then, we know how unreliable is US Intelligence ! (Israeli intelligence says they're close to nukes.)

This writer suggests that Iran may have bought finished nukes already from Russia or Pakistan. Of course he doesn't follow out the implications: if they have completed nukes, they can hide them very easily from any US/Israel bombings. And then they can retaliate with nukes.
This possibility should be a strong argument AGAINST our attacking Iran !

 
AMERICANS WANT WITHDRAWAL-TIMETABLE: but not in 6 months.
Bush's handling of Iraq got a little more support (after killing of Zarqawi)--but his overall job-rating stayed as low as ever./And 47% said they would not vote for a candidate Bush supported (only 27% would. It will be fun to see GOP candidates avoiding Bush's presence at their rallies.)

Fewer than before said they'd support Congress Dems..small wonder; these have proved untrustworthy on war issue.

54% of Americans still oppose the war. CNN

 
OVER NINETY CASUALTIES TODAY IN BAGHDAD, (7 explosions in 5 hours) even after US & our puppet govt. said they were moving 57,000 troops into the city to prevent insurgent attacks. SeattlePI

Seventy Casualties in Kirkuk on Thursday. NYTIMES

 
KEN 'NIGHTHORSE' SALAZAR: Both of the Salazar boys voted to continue this goofy, bloody war, to be mismanaged by the same ruthless fools who entangled us in these 2 wars.

Kerry & others propose a resolution to give a timetable for withdrawal. Salazar, predictably, proposes a distraction-proposal: we'd 'begin' phased pull-out in '06--but with no timetable for complete withdrawal !

Considering how often Sen.Salazar has betrayed progressive, peace-loving Democrats, we should rename him as Ken 'Nighthorse' Salazar--after the infamous party-traitor Sen.Campbell.

 
MCCARTNEY IS NOW SIXTY-FOUR.

Big deal. My new version of Beatles' song:

DID SHE STILL NEED ME? DID SHE STILL FEED ME?
WHEN I WAS SIXTY-FOUR ? (I can't remember !)

 
GOP in Senate set up a phony resolution demanding quick withdrawal from Iraq.
Phony or not, it's quite upsetting that only SIX DEMOCRATS voted for this withdrawal !
--------
House passed absurd Hawk resolution by 265 vs. 153. NYTIMES
Most Democrats in population oppose war, but Dem pols can't be counted on.
We should push for throwing out ALL INCUMBENTS this Fall !

 
IRAN CAN'T COUNT ON CHINESE MILITARY RESCUE! [Lebanon STAR ]

Well, no--but Iran can count on huge Chinese investment in their oil industry!
US attempts to isolate Iran economically are doomed to failure.

Also: Chinese, desperately needing oil for their spiking economy, must resent bitterly the Bushie threats that raise world price of oil ! They might pressure US privately that they could start selling US bonds--which would trigger a panic, raising interest rates in US, and triggering an already-probable US recession. So China could bolster Iran WITHOUT military help !

 
CRAZY INTEREST MEDDLING ![ltr to USATDOAY]
Bush's Fed.Reserve Chair Bernanke [15Je] warns us to worry about energy costs. Presumably that statement is to justify his faction's plans to raise interest rates some more.

Real wages have dropped ! price rises will be difficult without more money in the system (the very wealthy have plenty of money, but they won't consume much more.) Long-run interest rates have fallen lower than the short-run rates artificially caused by the feds--a strange 'inversion' situation, strongly predicting a coming recession. (Smart people are rushing to buy long-term bonds, trying to lock-in high interest rates before the recession hits--whence the drop in long-term yields.)
People are spending more for gas, but less for other goods. It's mysterious, in this situation of stagflation, why this Bush appointee thinks artificial raises in interest are helpful.

Of course high interest rates benefit individuals and corporations with a lot of cash. And we read that American corporations are sitting on mountains of cash. (Perceiving world-wide excessive productive capacity, they are not investing in more productive capacity.)

Keynesian theory (Nixon said,"We're all Keynesians now !") says that montains of money saved but not invested causes recession/depression.

For the first time in 40 years (to my knowledge) banks are offering 5% for 1-yr CDs, but are NOT offering FIVE-YEAR CDs at all ! That signifies an oncoming recession/depression; banks expect interest rates to drop in a few years.
Well, then, why are mortgage rates still up? A moneyed person can't count on locking in high mortgage rates for 30 years, because mortgages always allow prepayment (i.e., refinancing at lower rates.)
-------------------------
My own modest retirement savings are in cash, so I'll do well in Bernanke's world. But relatives who need jobs will suffer.

 
SAYYID QUTBA is the 'Karl Marx' of Muslim jihadism, says A.deBorchgrave. [ UnitedPress ]Strangely, he turned against American hedonism after witnessing a church dance in GREELEY COLORADO !
binLaden read him carefully, and Qutba's brother edited bin Laden's writings. Egypt's Nasser first favored him, then hanged him. A Muslim friend of mine says he was a great thinker and writer.

Qutba wanted a destruction of nation-states, and a restoration (& expansion) of the caliphate, ruling the whole world according to Sharia. He didn't advocate violence, but he predicted the 'war of civilizations' that is now unfolding.

(It should actually be called a war between competing fundamentalist fanatics: Islamists, Israelis who cite the Old Testament as their deed to the Holy Land, and Bush who gets his direction from God.)

 
letter to RMtnNews:
Nat Hentoff (14June) blames the 'Roe vs. Wade' decision for the present devaluation of life in America. [Link not available.]

But that decision was in 1973. The Vietnam war had already caused a quarter-of-a-million US casualties, not to mention millions of Viet casualties. And the 'silent majority' of Americans didn't mind that enough to force Johnson or Nixon to end this needless, pointless, heartless, brainless war for ten years. Human Life was already devalued by Americans, with our government aggravating the devaluation.

Hawks always point out correctly that our war casualties are nothing compared to our yearly highway casualties. (And that's just counting the killings and injurings, not the casualties of auto pollution!)
War is horrible--but our highway culture is even worse. (Trains have a minuscule rate of casualties, by comparison.)
When Americans decided that the dubious benefits of highway culture were more important than the awful rate of highway casualties, they signified--far earlier than Roe vs. Wade--that they didn't count human life as important.

And of course Americans have for long had the highest rate of murder-plus-suicide in the world. Our people have never valued human life properly. Don't blame this on one court decision !
-------------
About Hentoff's scornful dismissal of the idea that some lives are not worth living: In my family, many old women have lived on for years, brainless from dementia; they didn't have long lives, just long deaths. Ms. Sciavo was kept on tubes for 15 years when she had mainly mush in her skull.

 
'REDEPLOYMENT' TACTIC': When Rep.Murtha proposed this, we all thought it was a peace-move. But in fact it means: pulling back GIs into, say, Kuwait--then keeping a bomber-force in the air over Iraq 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week to bomb any suspicious activity.

This tactic will lower GI casualties, which is all many Americans care about; but it will increase greatly the number of Iraq casualties from our indiscriminate bombing. InfoClearinghouse

One wonders if this won't speed up Iraqi use of anti-plane missiles. A US copter was just shot down. A brit copter was shot down in May. MSNBC

High-level bombers might be safer--[ especially drone planes, as a friend notes] but these will enrage world Muslims by the REALLY indiscriminate slaughter they inflict. And these drones will give good target-practice for jihadists learning how to aim shoulder-fired missiles, developing skills that can be used later, say against US airliners.

 
COLORADOAN has printed my critique of the vague hawk. I wanted to call attention to a rhetorical trick of right-wing propagandists; they mention two words together again and again, till many ordinary readers come to believe the two real items are closely linked !

In this case, 'Iran' and 'terrorists' are linked together with no real evidence--not even with any strong claims!

 
WORLD COMMODITY PRICES PLUMMET from fear of US economic slowdown, caused perhaps by Fed.Reserve overdoing the interest-rate raises. GUARDIAN

 
BUSHIES GROWL AT VENEZUELA: but if we lost the oil coming from that country, the price of gas would jump over 11 CENTS. And if that gas-cutoff lasted 6 months, the price jump would be double that, acc. to a Congressional investigation. GUARDIAN

 
US CASUALTIES: So far (by Pentagon's count), 2250 Iraq GIs have suffered either brain damage, loss of limbs, or were crippled for life.

US media would like to think that the heavy attacks on fellow-Iraqis mean fewer attacks on GIs.
But 2.5 GIs each day have been recently killed (an increase), and 29.5 each day injured (an increase). 14 per day recently have been injured so seriously they couldn't be returned to duty.
United Press

Nearly 2500 GIs have been killed. And nearly two hundred and fifty GIs have died in Afghanistan.

And that's just SO FAR... ! War will continue, mismanaged by the same team of ruthless fools who entangled us in our 2 goofy wars.

Bush says that a quick withdrawal from Iraq would endanger Americans. NYTIMES
That's just more Bushshit.

Bush spent a few hours in Iraq, even fewer talking (thru interpreters) with our latest puppet PM--who has not yet succeeded in getting his team accepted by the new 'parliament' !--but B. expressed new confidence in this man. . Thus B. matched his previous congratulations during Katrina fiasco: "You're doing a great job, Brownie !"

 
MUSLIM TAKEOVER--THEN WHAT? [from Joe Stern]
President Bush has frequently stated that it is necessary to fight them over there so that we don’t have to fight them over here.What would happen if the Moslem terrorists were to take over our country?

The following activities would probably be eliminated completely:gambling, lotteries and bingo; tattoo parlors; piercings and bizarre hair-dos; bars andliquor stores; sale of all alcoholic beverages in convenience stores and supermarkets; artial and total nudity in magazines and newspapers; rock and rap music and all offensive lyrics; all advertising on TV and movies containing sexual language,photos and innuendos.

In fact, many of the practices that apparently give meaning to our American existence would probably disappear. Is it any wonder that many Americans still support President Bush’s efforts to prevent the Muslim terrorists from winning?

 
US IN IRAQ IS BIGGEST THREAT to Mideast stability--greater than any threat posed by Iran.
Thus say majorities in BRITAIN (heretofore our closest ally); also in Germany, France, Spain and Russia. Opinion about US in Iraq was even more negative in Muslim countries.
GUARDIAN

Opinions about America have got more negative than ever in many countries.
---------------------------------------
Another poll of Brits showed they now think US does more harm in the world than good.

 
GOP Congressmen offer vague resolution supporting 'war on terror' generally, not mentioning IRAQ until 8th paragraph.

John Kerry will offer amendment calling for GI pullout in '06. WashPost

 
BASRA SADRITES FAVOR SECESSION: In the past, Moqtadr Sadr (fiercely anti-US Shia leader) has opposed secession (perhaps dreaming that he would control all of Iraq). But now his followers in Basra favor secession: "We have an airport, 2 million people, a seaport, and all that oil; we have every qualification as an independent state." NYTIMES

Murders and oil-smuggling show the anarchy in Basra area. Brits didn't vet correctly the recruits into the police-force, which promptly was taken over by various militias.6000 barrels of oil each day are siphoned off the oil produced, to fund political parties and gangsters.

Minority Sunnis in the area are fleeing; they complain that they're being persecuted by so-called policemen. The only thing the parties agree on is to snub the Brit occupiers.The constitution protects local authorities from intervention by the central govt.

The parties accuse each other of being Iranian stooges. Dozens of Iranians cross the border every day, allegedly as pilgrims.
---------------
Kosovo is still nominally part of Serbia; the Montenegrins have declared independence.Albanians in Kosovo hate the Serbs (understandably); they will soon declare independence.When a country is split into hostile factions, the only solution is partition (with accompanying ethnic cleansing: minorities in each region fleeing from majority persecution).

 
GREAT IDEA ! Use Iraqi oil to prop up our puppet govt !, says Bush. NYTIMES
Problems: continuing sabotage of pipelines by insurgents; top Oil exec was just kidnapped; info from him should help saboteurs. Thought of use to prop up central govt. will motivate insurgents to work harder at sabotage.

Also, the constitution theoretically puts oil in ownership of central govt. However, oil would be first controlled by Shia regional officials, and of course Kurdland. How much of that money will percolate down to central govt.?
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A trickle of oil is now flowing thru northern pipelines, to be exported thru Turkey. Till now, every time the pipelines have been repaired, they've been sabotaged again. SeattlePI
OOPS! That trickle has now been stopped; authorities won't say when it will resume. SeattlePI
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Big oil companies are so far unwilling to invest in Iraq oil industry. And when they do, a large part of oil money will have to be plowed back into the industry to upgrade worn-out facilities.
United Press
(And of course rampant corruption must first be ended !)
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HUNDREDS OF IRAQI SOLDIERS DESERT EACH MONTH, because of lack of pay and even food ![United Press, cited by PoliticalGateway] These trained deserters will likely join the gangsters.

 
FOETUSES MAY FEEL PAIN: even before late pregnancy. UnitedPress
However, nobody thinks that the MORULA (embryo--4 to 6 cells, less than 4 days old, before it nests in uterus,) feels pain. And this is the creature that MIGHT be 'killed' by morning-after-pill.

The obvious remedy for late abortions is contraception backed up by morning-after-pill--but the foolish fundamentalists (Catholic & Protestant) will never accept this..and so they remain fair prey for the political vultures who use these 'social' issues to rake in their money & votes.

 
'INVERSION' PREDICTS RECESSION: [ USATODAY ]Rarely do long-term interest rates drop below short-term rates.(Long-term loans risk unpredictable conditions more than do short-term loans.)
But now such an inversion has happened, with federal interest rates. Such inversions usually show that 'wise investors' expect a sharp recession.

Bush-appointee Bernanke's Fed still sounds like they'll keep raising short-term insterest rates, pretending to worry about inflation (core inflation, excluding volatile food and energy prices, is only at 3%.)

As one observer says, "with all the new producers in the game (i.e., world overproduction), world inflation is not in the cards.' And indeed, corporations are piling up cash, not investing in more productive capacity.

Big cash-holders are trying to lock-in high interest rates for the long-term--fearing a recession or depression. So they're rushing to buy long-term bonds. That's why ten-year rates have dropped.

Locally in Ft.Collins,CO, it turns out that most banks are not even offering 5-yearCDs, only 3-year CDs--and one bank is offering highest rate for one-year CD. That's more evidence that sophisticated money-experts expect recession (perhaps stagflation, where prices keep rising even though employment,etc, is dropping.) One exception is Norlarco, which offers 5-year CDs at 5% or more. People with cash should run to Norlarco.

BROADEST STOCK INDEX DROPS 7% SINCE MAY ! Reuters

But 'many experts doubt that we are on verge of 1st recession in 5 years' Wow--that's good news!

Main worry is that Fed.Reserve will raise interest rates too high. But look at who benefits (in short run) from high interest rates: people with lots of cash. Corporations are now sitting on mountains of cash ! (They obviously don't see great opportunities for investments.)

Of course a recession now will put last nail in coffin of GOP control of Congress--but Big Wealth may have written off GOP as doomed anyway in short run. Indeed, they may want a Dem Congress to bear the blame for coming econ. disaster.

Thank God I have all my modest savings in cash !

 
Nearly one million Iraqis have fled to Syria or Jordan--about 3% of the population.
NYTIMES (A disproportionate number of these refugees are middle-class--badly needed if Iraq is every to be reconstructed.)
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"BAGHDAD MORE INSECURE THAN A MONTH AGO," admits US ambassador.
This after triumphant election of new puppet govt ! NYTIMES

Bushies scheduled an emergency meeting Monday between DC & Baghdad (by TV link)--in what some call our 'last, best chance'. Emphasis is on restoring electricity to Baghdad (which we've been promising since '03 !) and controlling the militias. (bloody likely.)

Congress won't pay any more for illusory, corrupt 'reconstruction' efforts. So now Bushies dream of getting the money from rich Arab neighbors--which so far have refused help. (Neighbor govts are Sunni, hostile to the Shiites who will control Iraq--or else Shia will secede, as Kurds have done already, and control most oil and the only seaport--counting on Shia neighbor Iran for support.)

 
REMEMBER THAT OTHER WAR? Bushies bombed, invaded Afghanistan to drive out the awful Taliban (who did cut down on the amount of opium poppies produced). Now poppy-production is the main crop, and the heroin produced there is 90% of that consumed in Britain.
(What fools they were to join in the Afgan crusade !)

The Taliban warriors just retreated to Pakistan (who backed them openly until US threats converted their govt.--but ONLY their govt.-- into US 'allies'.)
More than 4 years after our invasion, the Taliban are roaring back into Afghanistan, recruiting more warriors than US bombing can destroy..(of course the indiscriminate bombing is the main reason for their ability to recruit new warriors!) Another reason is the open corruption of our puppet govt. in Kabul; (Taliban were noticeably incorrupt!) 'Coalition' spokesmen say they're weakening the TAliban;
the citizens say otherwise. NYTIMES

There are far fewer Americans fighting in Afghanistan than in Iraq--but a given GI in Afghanistan has about the same chance to be killed or wounded as in Iraq.

 
Right-wing writers ridicule critics of staggering profits for US oil corporations. These writers say this is a simple matter of the sacred laws of supply and demand.

But ever since Adam Smith, economists have noted that when producers can CUT total supply, then they can reap windfall profits--and our oil corporations are able easily to COLLUDE in this way.

 
BUSHIE BLUSTERING ENRICHES IRAN: UPI writer reminds us that each Bushie threat raises world price of oil, and enriches Iran even more. Such price-rises also help anti-American Russia and Venezuela.--and enrage oil-consuming China and Japan, who together hold enough US dollars to buy every US corporation (they could start a selling panic which would wreck US economy even more decisively.)

On the other hand, Iran's instability discourages foreign investors from helping to improve Iran's obsolete oil facilities.

 
TRADING INFO: Pentagon brags that after bombing Zarqawi's HQ, they got a lot of info that will help them roundup Z's followers.

Meanwhile, insurgents kidnapped DIRECTOR of a big Iraq/govt. oil agency. They'll get plenty of info from him about how best to sabotage the oil industry. Price of crude oil jumped back up.
TheStreet.com

 
ROBOT WARFARE: NewStatesman says what I've been saying for several years.
US wants world empire; but its youth and their mothers don't want soldier deaths.
Obvious solution: recruit robots to spy out and kill anyone resisting our empire.

Once this solution is implemented, US will be able to intimidate and control large areas of the world--except those countries who have robots of their own, and nukes. (Japan is far ahead of us in robot technology ! China & Russia have enough nukes to deter us from attacking them.)

And of course the Pentagon can then take over US openly, not having to hide behind its elected pawns. We've always taken comfort in the thought that American GIs wouldn't fire at Americans--but American robots won't hesitate.

Several sidelights:
--War will no longer seem especially manly. Woody Allen nerds will be the heroes..and clever women, as well as those muscled men who are knowledgeable about technology. However, Hollywood will be able to push contradictory images: sweaty Sylvester Stallone firing nuclear, robot-aimed missiles at enemy.

--Gun nuts will be completely discredited when they say they are defenders of our freedom against tyrants. Wait till they face a line of tyrant's impassive, disposable robots!

--Educational reform will quit emphasizing bringing up the bottom students: they could never rise high enough to staff the technical tasks we need. Instead, reform will emphasize enabling the brilliant & industrious students to get all the training they will absorb.

--Right wing might quit opposing abortion, might want 'morning-after-pill' made available for the bottom class, now useless in our economy AND our military! (Once pretence of democracy is gone, Pentagon & the wealthy won't have to appease the fundamentalist loonies.)

--Our Congressmen will be reduced to openly-impotent agents, like Senators under Roman emperors. After all, Caligula named his horse as a Senator.

 
STRATEGY CONTRADICTS TACTICS: Our troops have been 'taking' various insurgent nests, then pulling out and letting insurgents take over again. But now some Marine units are taking a city, and staying there, trying to win hearts & minds, etc. This is sensible tactic.

But meanwhile our overall STRATEGY is to pull back our troops into a few big fortresses--why? because Bushies are desperate to cut back US casualties, at least until October election.

This writer in UnitedPress predicts that this 'strategy' will NOT cut US casualties, even for next few months.
Indeed, such a 'strategy' makes sense only as a prelude to a bugout.

 
MORE AMERICANS THAN EVER THINK WAR WAS MISTAKE; THEY DISAPPROVE OF BUSH (ESPECIALLY HIS H ANDLING OF THE WAR!)

GOOD NEWS: 62% OF CATHOLICS FINALLY DISAPPROVE OF WAR.
GUARDIAN

But so what? Unless this translates into determination to destroy GOP control of Congress, the war will sail on.

 
HOUSING BUBBLE BURSTS: For-Sale Dwellings are flooding the market. Prices so far haven't dropped--but they have to. Repossessions are up (they are usually resold cheaply) and also bankruptcies.

This is good for prospective home-buyers, who can now perhaps afford to buy a home--however, as mortgage-rates rise, they'll find buying more difficult. Increased mortgage-rates will hurt sellers more than buyers: buyers typically buy all the home they can afford, and then some. But as high mortgage-rates cut down the number of buyers of expensive homes, sellers will have to lower their prices to adjust.

This collapse is bad for the GOP. Middle-class home-owners have not realized how close to poverty ('one-paycheck away') they are. They felt rich, thinking of the inflated value of their homes. Now that gas-prices have skyrocketed (and other prices are going up also) and they see all the for-sale signs in their neighborhood, they will feel poor--and they'll blame all this pain (correctly) on the GOP. And they've often already cashed in their home-values by taking out equity-loans.

The recent House-race in California illustrated this GOP danger. The GOP candidate won by only 4 percentage-points, in a district where registered Republicans far outnumber Democrats.

One hopes the Dems will take this news as hopefully energizing, not getting complacent.
GOP are never down for sure,not with their rhetorical skills, their propaganda outlets (e.g., FOX TV !) and the incurable stupidity of their guaranteed 30% core-supporters.

 
ZARQAWI KILLED; INTERIOR MINISTER NAMED: 2 optimistic-sounding news-bits from Iraq. HOWEVER, what counts is results, not these developments.

AlQaeda is a typically decentralized terror-agency, able to flourish even when its leaders are eliminated.

And the new Shiite Interior Minister has disheartening tasks ahead:

--to control the Shiite militias (some fighting each other near Basra);

--to cut down Sunni attacks in Baghdad and other places, WITHOUT enraging ordinary Sunnis enough to destroy the myth of the new 'unified' government. (One bomb recently caused 100 Iraqi casualties in the Shia South.)

--to recruit more Sunnis into his security forces WITHOUT allowing insurgent-sympathizers to infiltrate his forces.

--to control the gangsters (a '3d-force' not noted much in US media) who are kidnapping people for money, and who are smuggling precious petrol out of the country.

--to lessen the successful attacks on the oil-pipelines, especially around Kirkuk in the North.

 
HAWK VAGUENESS: For a self-described expert, Andy Mair is surprisingly vague in his column in COLORADOAN: WHAT IS IRAN'S ROLE IN TERRORISM?

First, he expresses doubt about binLaden's role in terrorism (even though this influential Saudi has appeared on TV again and again urging terrorists on). Then he tells us that a letter from Iran's President is 'an important element' in our war vs. terrorism. Pretty vague!

Mair finds 'shocking' the Iran leader's description of the relation between the world's religions, though any search of the textbooks used in Saudi Arabia would find the same semi-medieval attitude. Mair expresses no shock over SaudiArabia's bigotry, as firmly entrenched as is Iran's bigotry.

The Bushies constantly warn that Syria and Iran are helping the Iraqi insurgents. They don't tell us why Shiite Iran would want to help the Sunni insurgents who have been slaughtering Shiites wholesale! But many of the captured foreign insurgents have been Saudis; Saudi Arabia has a longer border with Iraq than the Syrian border. And the fanatic Wahabi sect has always been the official religion of SaudiArabia. Mair makes no mention of the threat of Saudis volunteering to help terrorism. In fact, one major haven for terrorists is Saudi Arabia.

Why this Bushie tolerance? The Bush family has long been in bed with the Saudi royals.We sent troops into S.A. to protect the royals--a typical Bushie blunder. Stationing American 'infidels' on 'sacred Saudi soil' mobilized Muslim terrorists all over the world. In fact, binLaden gave this sacrilege as one main reason for his turning on the U.S.

This Iranian letter, says Mair, 'may or may not' be important. Wow. However, "we all agree that Iran is an important part of the war on terrorists." No evidence supports this latter point.

Finally, says Mair, again vaguely: "Five years is enough. The time has come to stop '[terrorist attacks]." No evidence is offered that attacking Iran would accomplish this; most experts say that such an attack will INCREASE the chances of terrorist attacks, just as our Iraq invasion has done.

Observers have pointed out that Iran has a network of agents around the world stronger than the AlQaeda network. So far they have not attacked us; in fact, Iran has never attacked any outside nation (Saddam, backed by US, attacked Iran !) If we attack Iran, they will use their network inside Iraq to slaughter our GIs.

Shiites (millions around the world) have a special admiration for martyrs. Also, they admire Iran as the only nation where Shiites rule. If we think the suicide bombers are now a problem, wait until these Shiites turn on us!

Mair never mentions one main reason that even the Bushies have hesitated to attack Iran: that the world oil supply would be disrupted. Crude oil just jumped up to over $70 a barrel.One expert said that if Iran held back its oil, the price would be $134 a barrel, and Americans would pay much higher prices for gas. (Bushies say they have A PLAN to meet that contingency!) Also, many US industries (e.g., manufacturing plastics) would be crippled by higher oil prices. (When Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's petroleum is shipped, the disaster will be magnified.)

This means that the Bushies won't dare attack until after the election; but forward-looking oil speculators will spike up the oil-price even before they attack. So Bushie bluster against Iran might put the final nail in the coffin of GOP hopes in this coming election.
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Mair's piece is typical hawk propaganda; without any evidence whatsoever he ties in the word "Iran' repeatedly to references to terrorists and 9/11.

Propagandists have discovered a human foible: if ordinary people hear "Gore is dull" or "Gore isn't dull" often enough, the verb doesn't matter; they associate Gore with 'dull'. Similarly, if people often hear or read 'Iran' linked in any way with 'terrorists', they associate the country Iran with real terrorists, in real life. Proof is not needed.

 
PARTITIONING IRAQ: Finally, respectable U.S. opinion-shapers (Sen.Biden & Leslie Gelb) have suggested that we reluctantly accept impossibility of a peaceful, united Iraq, and accept inevitable partition (into Kurdland, Shialand, and Sunni/Arab land).

Their plan faces one huge problem. S/A-land would have almost no oil. They blandly say that a fair share of the oil-money should be 'guaranteed' for the Sunni/Arabs. They don't say how such a share would be 'guaranteed', once the central government is exposed as a legal fiction. Indeed, even under the present constitution, there is no real guarantee of such sharing. We must face the fact that the S/A region will be mainly an 'empire of sand'.

Who would rule S/A-land? The present Saddamite insurgents. There is no other option. They are secularists, not Islamist fanatics. There will be a ferocious struggle between them and the fanatic Zarqawists. Americans should help the Saddamites destroy the Zarqawists. Then there will be no danger of the S/A region becoming a haven for Islamist fanatics.

Will the Saddamites attack Kurdland & Shialand? They would be outnumbered 4 to 1, and Shialand would have the help (and military advice) of next-door Iran.And the present insurgents (Saddamites plus Zarqawists) haven't dared to attack the formidable Kurds--incredibly, US forces haven't been needed to defend Kurdland !

As miserable as will be the lot of the SunniArabs, they'll have to accept it.(Actually, with only 1 in 5 Iraqis inhabiting the huge S/A area, their lot shouldn't be too awful. We can only hope that their Sunni/Arab neighbors will help them establish a viable economy.)
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Critics note that there will be struggles for control of the oil-soaked Kirkuk region; of course the Kurds will grab that area and expel everyone else.Similarly, I'd guess that the ethnic cleansing now going on in Baghdad will proceed, leaving the Shiites alone controlling the city. (Our monstrous embassy being built there [TELEGRAPH] will look pretty silly then.)

Critics worry about the fate of women and minorities in Shialand. But their fate was settled the minute the Bushies announced that majorities would rule 'democratically' in the new Iraq. (There's a rumor that they didn't even know that Shiites comprise a super-majority of 60% !) Under secular Saddam, Iraqi women were in a way protected--as much as the men were. Now, with a central government controlled by Shiites & Kurds--OR with autonomous ministates--Iraqi women will no doubt suffer from our invasion.

One critic (writing for UPI ) says that not a single Iraqi has endorsed partition.This is absurd. The Kurds already have succeeded irrevocably in deFacto secession; and the new constitution [designed by Americans, and impossible to amend without consent of Shia ] allows Shiites the same right of deFacto secession. Indeed the NYTIMES recently ran an article describing the strong movement among the Shiites for an independent ministate. Why wouldn't they want this? Shialand will have most of the population, most of the oil, Iraq's only seaport at Basra, and the friendly help of Shiite Iran next-door!

The UPI writer says we can't just shuck off our responsibility,can't just let Iraq split up. In fact, this is saying that we should keep pretending Iraq is one united country, riven by a barbaric civil war we can't prevent or even mitigate.Shucking off responsibility is an American talent !