NEW IRAQI POLL: 43% overall approve of attacking GIs ! [23% approve strongly!](Not just Sunnis! 41% of Shiites approve of attacks, (9% strongly approve).
Most Iraqis think their lives would be better if US pulled out. (Perhaps they're thinking of the 5 indiscriminate airstrikes US launches every DAY!)
UnitedPress

Of 27 million Iraqis; over 6 million approve STRONGLY of attacking GIs! Many of these, presumably, are willing to hide and fund guerillas!

Last June, Brit military HQ ran a similar poll, with similar results--which were of course leaked. This bombshell news was discussed all over the world, but there was almost NO mention of it in US media.
It was mentioned in this blog several times, with scorn heaped on self-censorship of US media.

Media moguls knew that this news would render absurd the now-fashionable 'moderate hawk'arguments:"We were wrong to invade; but NOW we owe it to Iraqis to stay there and, say, prevent civil war." (Civil war has already begun, with our troops helpless to stop the covert ethnic cleansing now going on.)

The Iraqis themselves say, "You're doing more harm than good. Get out !"

 
DEM HONCHOS CAN'T EVEN COUNT THE VOTE: Kerry and Kennedy call loudly for filibuster vs. Alito. They'd need 40 votes (of 49 Dems) to stop debate cutoff. They got only 25 votes. (Colorado's Salazer, unsurprisingly, voted for the cutoff, against the filibuster.)

One must almost despair. But one doesn't dare quite despair.
We do know that Senate Dems need different leadership besides Kerry & Kennedy !

 
INADEQUATE RECONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ: US has spent nearly 20 billion dollars 'rebuilding' Iraq. Only $15 billion can be accounted for.

Oil production and electricity-provision are still below the levels that Saddam managed, even under sanction.

Most Iraqis approve of US 'reconstruction' but think we're doing a poor job.
Well, shortly we won't be doing any such job. Bushies this year asked for NO new money for reconstruction. From now on, they're not even going to pretend.

 
BRIT TOLL IN IRAQ/AFGHAN. : [ REUTERS ]
100 killed just in Iraq. Total deployed in both countries is less than 14,000. That's more than one killed for every 140 presently deployed (kill-rate is just for those killed in Iraq !)

Blair's popularity is down to 34%. He's now going to send into Afgh. thousands more Brit troops. Hoping to stop opium trade? Even Kharzai now admits that would take ten years. (Taliban cut this trade quickly; but when we threw them out, the drug-lords now running the country jacked trade up quickly and enormously. 90% of heroin used in Britain--now cheap--is from Afgh.)

Blair could be 'fired' any day by Labor-dominated Parliament ..unlike our bozo who is basically 'king' until '08. These wars cost labor many seats in last election.

If Blair doesn't get 'fired', it will show that Brit laborites are even dumber than our GOP pols (most of whom back our bozo uncritically). Or maybe GOP pols are shrewdly appeasing half our voters, who are really dumb war-fans.
==========
If Brits/Yanks bugged out of Afgh, resurgent Taliban might or might not welcome back alQaeda. (They might prefer to settle in without getting bombed.)
AQ doesn't NEED safe-harbor in Afgh. There are 'failed states' they could move into--like Somalia which has NO central govt. at all.

For that matter, it's not clear that Taliban COULD take over again. We've armed the drug lords. It's very likely that the criminal chaos we've imposed on Afgh. will last.
So our bugging out of Afgh. would not have an important effect on
'war on terror'.

 
Brit 'pentagon' ADMITS LIES ABOUT BRIT WOUNDED.
The real figure was almost FOUR TIMES the number they tried to present.
Scotsman

You can bet that wounded figures from our Pentagon are also distorted--and also--especially--the numbers they advance for 'enemies killed' (the infamous 'body-count'.)

Generals and bureaucrats willing to kill are usually more than happy to lie.

 
ONE IN THREE VETS returning from our TWO wars (Afgh.& Iraq) is suffering from some mental disorder: now usually called 'post-traumatic-stress-disorder'. We used to call it SHELL-SHOCK. UnitedPress

The Doonesbury comic strip has been trying to use humor to get Americans to realize the permanent toll on our troops--the guy has one 'electric' leg, and he's paranoid as hell, and drinking heavily. But the strip is not going to show him turning violent on his family. That wouldn't be very funny.

Besides shell-shock, 800 GIS have returned with PERMANENT physical brain-injuries. ABC celebrity Woodruff may be permanently impaired.

We're told to 'stay the course'--a euphemism for letting GIs pay the price for continuing these 2 needless, pointless, heartless, brainless wars .

 
SUNNI INSURGENTS TURNING ON ZARQAWISTAS? ABC
Such are reports, and high time too...the Zs have been slaughtering Shia, who outnumber Sunni 3 to 1 ! You can see why Zs want Sunni/Shia tensions, even war: so Baathist wing of insurgency doesn't get incentives from Shia to turn on Zs.

One US general says there are only 100 foreigners fighting with the insurgents. But they may constitute most of the suicide bombers.
So, the test of these rumors will be if suicide bombings vs. Shia civilians ebb away.

If they do, insurgent attacks on GIs might well continue; especially the diabolically effective roadbombs.

The question is, have Shias been so enraged by these bombings already that compromise with Sunnis is not possible ?

 
SUNNI HONCHO CALLS FOR END TO SECTARIAN HOSTILITY:
He says that Sunni houses stand empty in Baghdad because families have been chased out by Shiite militia. He demands that 'security' and 'defense' ministries NOT be given to Shia; but high Shiite honcho says they WILL be. "We are being slaughtered every day; we will not give up these ministries." AlJazeera

From Shiite viewpoint: "After months of slaughter of Shia women & children, some Sunnis finally realize a) that we outnumber them 3 to 1; (b) that our militia are being trained as soldiers by foolish U.S.; (c) that we will control 'all/Iraq' govt. for next 4 years.

"True, they are captained by trained Baathist generals. But we can call on trained Iranian generals for tactical advice. Basically the nasty Sunnis are now at our mercy. NOW they SAY they want peace!"

 
ROAD-BOMBS:
The serious wounding of ABC celebrity Woodruff reminds us of the lethal potency of insurgent road-bombs. Half of US casualties are from these bombs--including a high number of brain-injuries, some of which might be seen as worse-than-death.

The one tactic that works (proved by Brits vs. IRA) is flooding the area with reliable troops, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. But US doesn't HAVE enough troops for this (thanks to Rummy!) , and our native militia is not competent enough..indeed they can't protect their own vehicles !

Indeed, the militia is infiltrated by insurgents, who thus steal our intelligence (e.g. to learn which vehicles carry 'high-value' passengers.)

Pentagon honchos have been conferring with scientists for several years now--but have not found a 'high-tech' answer to this low-tech tactic.
UnitedPress

They never seem to run short of explosives.
221 road bombs exploded LAST WEEK ! [ABC TV news ]

 
LATEST POLLS: [ ABC ]

TOP ISSUES: IRAQ, TERRORISM, then Healthcare:
-------------------
Bad news :64% approve of their incumbent legislator !
52% approve of Bush on terror (but that's way down).
2 in 3 think we're safer now from terrorists than on 9/11 !
53%: "Iraq war has improved our long-run security." !
==============
Good news:Only 37% think B.is trustworthy.
On these questions, 55% -->60% vs. Bush:War worth fighting?/B.handles war well? /B.handles deficit well?/ Health? /immigration? / economy? /ethics issues?
----------
[All/ & Independents] Trust Dems? Follow Dem.ideas? 16% Dem.advantage.]
--------------------
Obviously Dems have not convinced voters that GOP Congress, as well as Bush, have refused to fund obviously necessary precautions vs. Homeland Terror.

For every $1 to HomelandSecurityDept., GOP shovels $20 to useless Pentagon--their snazzy bombers are useless vs. terrorist INDIVIDUALS.

Why this blind spot? Because of poorly-evolved emotional slant (grievously outdated) that says, "When hurt, strike back at SOMEONE available !"
(Caged rat given electric shock bites next rat.)

In our 'VictoryThruAirpower' obsession, we're like the dumb, doomed leopard, vain about his awesome teeth and claws--he counted on them to ward off a huge horde of angry hornets.

 
PRESENT GIs DIDN'T ENLIST TO PROTECT OUR HOMELAND
from invasion by Canada or Mexico! I said earlier that I felt sorry for the present GIs but I wasn't grateful to them.

When we hear of an abused wife & mother who stays with the brute (perhaps she thinks it her duty!) we sympathize with her sufferings, but criticize her for ENABLING him to harm her children. (Sometimes she is held criminally responsible for such enabling.)

Likewise we sympathize with GIs' suffering. But we should remember that they are ENABLING awful Bushies to inflict awful harm on Iraqis.

This guy (in LATIMES) says the same:

:http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-stein24jan24,1,9515.column

 
KURDS BALK: WON'T FORM EXCLUSIVE COALITION WITH SHIA:They insist on inclusion of Sunnis.

US asks Arab states to intervene in shaping Iraq govt. FinTimesBut why would dominant Iraq Shia, edging toward civil war, listen to hostile Arab Sunnis?

They may
(a) pick up enough small parties that they won't need Kurds to make their 2/3ds to elect President (whose only function is to pick among Shiite candidates for real honcho--Prime Minister).

Or, (b) Shia may just concentrate on shaping up their 'autonomous region' (in deFacto secession). They might let 'all/Iraq' govt. just vegetate--until Kurds yield.

 
BRIT SOLDIERS UNHAPPY ABOUT AFGH.CAMPAIGN:
Thousands more of Brit soldiers will be sent to Afgh. It's not a peace-keeping mission, but intervention in a civil war.
binLaden pointed out years ago that first-world soldiers don't WANT to be involved in guerilla wars, where they're targeted by un-uniformed enemies (including women), where they end up killing women & children, thus enraging victims' relatives into siding with the guerillas. Brits are worried and angry about this assignment.
BBC

Israeli soldiers actually refused to join the occupation of Lebanon, so Israel had to pull out. Many US youth are refusing to enlist, in spite of huge bonuses.

Imperialists--to occupy lands with angry natives--will need something like FrenchForeignLegion (using impoverished soldiers from many countries--China & India each have millions of surplus males! )--although the FFL lost the battle against angry Algerians !

But the final solution may lie with infantry robots (developed but not yet put into mass production--I think !) These robots can also be used to subdue the people in the imperial HQ country--e.g. our Homeland.

However, the Soviets found out that you can't enslave 'brain-workers': "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."

So plutocracy posing as democracy will likely be maintained--people all over the world seem to love the empty ceremony of voting).

 
NUTTY BLAIRITES trying to match the nuttiness of Bushies--sending in thousands more of Brit troops into the meat-grinder of Afghanistan.
And for what? There's no dictator to overthrow. There is the poppy crop which is all that keeps Afghan peasants from starving, which is what makes heroin so destructively cheap for Europeans, especially Britons.

Here's the joke; the puritanical Taliban, when in power, actually and ruthlessly drove down poppy production by 90%. Now that we've driven them out, production is skyrocketing again. (They say the resurgent Taliban themselves are using poppy profits to fund their revival.) SCOTSMAN

If there is any rationale for this strange turn of events, it's this: the druglords of Britain may have pushed Blair into Afghanistan, to restore their profits.
But that's too sensible. The Blairites are just crazy; and the Labor party is equally crazy, for leaving them in power.

 
ETHNIC CLEANSING now happening in Iraq. [ ABC ]
Many areas were 'mixed', where Sunnis & Shia lived in peace. Now there are fewer mixed marriages, and minorities are moving out of 'mixed' areas--often driven out by threatening notes left on the door.

When Yugoslavia lost its dictator (a similarly artificial country composed of rather hostile ethnic groups) it degenerated into awful anarchy and civil war.
(Years after we bombed Serbia and then occupied Kosovo, to stop Serbs from chasing out Albanians--now Albanians are chasing Serbs out of Kosovo!)
When India lost its dictator (the British 'raj'), ethnic cleansing happened (Muslims vs. Hindus) in horrible ways.

Bushies should have known that toppling Saddam would result in nightmare civil war in Iraq. And they should have cared.Very likely they neither knew nor cared.

 
OIL UP TO $262 A BARREL? One much-respected expert offer 6 scenarios:
--Royals of SaudiArabia are toppled: oil=$262 a barrel.
--Iran cuts off its oil: $131 a barrel.
--Insurgents manage real damage to Iraq infrastructure: $88 a barrel
..and so on.
See CNN/MONEY

 
ARMY RECRUITS DOWN: [UnitedPress] The # of enlisted men (below sgt) is down 19k. (# incl.sgts is down 5000) since '01 (before our 2 wars started). Not enough new GIs are being recruited.

# of active-svc troops dropped just since '04 by 6000.

Many soldiers are kept on unwillingly, after enlistment term expires, in 'stop-loss' policy. When first wave ended, 10k left. When 'stop-loss' stops working, another 10k to 16k will peel off.

Interestingly, each 10k of troops costs.$1.26 billion. Whole army consists of about 500,000. So total cost of troops is less than $60 billion.
Compared to $600 billion (total annual Pent. Budget), that's nothing !

These wars ARE stretching army thin. Never mind what they've done to Natl.Guard & Army Reserves !
------------
50,000 'volunteer recruits' have been screwed by 'stop-loss' policies; 12,500 are NOW being forced to stay on in this 'back-door draft'. REUTERS

 
FAITH-BASED ECONOMICS: David Brooks, a long-time right-wing columnist, again offers advice to Democrats (rMtnNews27Jan)on how to win elections. C'mon!

He claims that the really poor are a relatively small minority, so the Democrats should forget about them, and go after the middle-class people who care about 'values' (e.g., forbidding gays to say they're married).

He notes correctly that these people don't put values ahead of economics; they think that pols who talk about values will also handle well the economy.

Well, these GOP voters may now realize they were wrong. 'Values-talking' GOP has been for years in control of all 3 branches of government. Yet two in three Americans think our country is going in the wrong direction. Most are pessimistic about our economy and military policy. [USATODAY]

And outsourcing (increasing rapidly) may render even college grads jobless. Let's hope these suburbanites don't get conned again next November with talk about GOP handling terror--in spite of their refusal to give adequate funds for Homeland Security !

 
CLEVER BUSHIES ! Bushies gave nearly $2 million to feckless, corrupt, Fatah party. [WashPost, cited by alJazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ED428660-01C9-43DC-B6ED-924CE279B4BE.htm
Enraged Palestinians voted in dangerous rival HAMAS party by a big majority.
Bushies also bribed Iraqi journalists and financed Allawi's expensive TV spots. He did worse than before; and Chalabi didn't even get a seat himself!

With Bushies as friends, puppet regimes need no enemies !

 
POLICE CARS RENTED TO INSURGENTS ? ! So claimed one (anonymous) policeman in Baghdad--rental is $3000 an hour. REUTERS Expensive? Not if rented to a suicide bomber...'sold' might be a better description.

Militias loyal to Shialand & Kurdland have infiltrated the so-called 'national' militia.

Americans are so worried about Shiites being allied with Iran--ready to help Iran retaliate against GIs if Bushies attack Iran--that Yanks are beginning to ally themselves with Sunnis (the insurgents!)
"Their focus on Sunnis goes beyond desire for Natl. Unity!" says one suspicious Shiite pol.

That makes more plausible the idea that Cheney's visit to Iraq's Sunni neighbors may be to recruit them to ally with Saddamite generals to conquer the Shia region (containing most Iraqis and MOST OIL!)

Iran would then come in, with its huge standing army, on the side of the Shiites.That would surely 'destabilize' the MiddleEast. Remember when one reason to dethrone Saddam was 'worry' that he might do this destabilizing !
------------------
On reflection, one wonders why Bushies ranted about introducing 'democracy' in Iraq when majoritarian control meant Shia control.
One rumor said that the Bushies didn't realize that 60% of Iraqis were Shiites !
--------------
Bushies may be hoping that Iran invasion would justify nuking Iran.
Never mind what that would do to world oil prices! (Oil-sellers Russia and anti-American Venezuela would get even richer than now. China, US, & Europe would plunge into Depression. Also Israel?)

Anyway, Iranians would INFILTRATE, not invade.
----------------------------
On one theory, Bushies have to find some excuse to bomb Iran, fearing the 'economic warfare' Iran is going to wage when it opens its new Oil Burse next month, depriving US of its lucrative dollar-monopoly on the oil market. If Iran accepts Russ offer to enrich uranium on its soil, not on Iran's, then US would lose its main excuse for bombing.
--------
It's interesting that REUTERS is still peddling story that Iranians provided the super car-bombs used vs. Brits near Basra. The Brit govt. has now denied that story completely.

 
SECURITY BOOSTED AT CHEM.WEAPONS DEPOT--after 3 unauthorized people got in. This is more than FOUR YEARS after 9/11.
Guardian

More evidence that Bushies don't give much of a damn for protecting US homeland from terrorists..just as Hitler didn't let destruction of German cities deter him from aggression.

 
SO.KOREA PRES. ATTACKS BUSHIE HAWKS who are trying to bring down No.Korean regime. GUARDIAN

So.Korea may seem ungrateful to US, who have 'defended' them vs. North by stationing GIs there FOR MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS! We also pumped billions into S.K. economy by using them as supply depot during Viet fiasco.

But they know the Bushies have recently been trying to goad N.K. honchos into attacking (and destroying) So.Korea plus slaughtering GIs stationed there, to give Bushies an excuse to nuke N.K.

Luckily N.K. didn't bite on the hook. Now US huffing/puffing has the backing of neither China nor S.K. Japan is now Bushies' only ally--Japan, still hated all over Asia.

 
WILL BRITAIN RENEGE? Bushies had plans to pull out some US troops from doomed Afghanistan--troops to be replaced by Brits, Canadians, and Dutch. But Dutch parliament seems likely to veto their troops; now Brit honcho says there's no guarantee that Brits will make up the troop-deficit if Netherlands reneges. (Taliban has come roaring back.) FinTimes

Only 34% of Brits approve of 'Bush's lapdog' Blair. But never mind--Bushies have a new lapdog in Harper, new Canadian premier. We'll see how long that lasts; he does NOT control his parliament.

 
CHURCH 'LEADERS' ON WAR: [ REUTERS ] Southern Baptists, of course, obey idolatrous jingoists (pagan war-lovers). Worthy Methodist leaders finally condemn the war, and repent that they didn't say more earlier.
Catholic bishops, as usual, talk out of both sides of their mouth.

Some people talk about this 'war between civilizations'. It's actually a war between different groups of fundamentalists: Muslim vs. Jewish/Christian.

 
WHAT'S THIS 'WORLD' SHIT, WHITE MAN?

A Reuters story says that Britain,France, Germany, and US want to haul Iran before UN Security Council. (They want to repeat the farce about Iraq: using USNC 'condemnation' as an excuse for military attack.)
Russia and China (who could and likely would VETO such a 'condemnation'--especially China!) will also attend the meeting.

The Reuters headline read "Iran defiant as WORLD weighs action in atomic row." Shameless.

 
BUSH BACKS ISRAEL (of course!) against fictitious Iran threat.
He might as well; whether attack on Iran comes from US or Israel, Iran will retaliate against both.


"We will not let the world be blackmailed.." GUARDIAN
This is standard Bushie objection to 2d-strike deterrent, which would 'blackmail' US from attacking a country. Such huffing/puffing makes other countries all the more determined to develop such deterrents vs. US attacks--usually germ-war capacity.

It's interesting that Iran doesn't mention the real (alleged) reason behind US threats: the prospect of Iran opening up their new bourse NEXT MONTH to end US monopoly of pricing oil always in dollars.

One would think that China ,needing lots of Iranian oil, would block US attack by pressuring US through the billions in US bonds it owns.

 
REAL PENTAGON BUDGET IS $620 BILLION FOR '06. UnitedPress
More than war-costs of all other nations combined.

For each $1 to Homeland Security, over $15 to Pentagon (useless for defending Homeland vs. individual terrorists.)

Only $60 billion of this is for Iraq war in '06. They'll add another $40 billion later. That will make Iraq war cost only $100 billion, out of $660 billion for Pentagon. (USATODAY figure is $677,000,000,000.)

For each DAY in '06, that's about $1800 MILLIONS.

That's far larger than our federal deficit. It's as if other govt. departments are living 'within their means', with only the Pentagon running amok.


Amt. spent overseas (for over 100 bases and cost of imported oil) is not easily determined. But Pentagon clearly accounts for a large portion of our staggering TRADE deficit.

 
IRAN'S BIGGEST WEAPON is NOT her puny potential nukes, but her plan NEXT MONTH to open up a new 'bourse' (a trading post) for oil. (says respected UnitedPress editor, cited in SPACEWAR.)

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Walkers_World_Irans_Really_Big_Weapon.html

Some experts say that dollar will be falling 40% soon.

But as things are now, with dollar as the sole 'reserve currency', US can just print more dollars to pay for expensive oil.

This new Iranian move would make possible oil-payments in Euros, or in Chinese yuan.

This could wreck US economy. Many say the real reason to invade Iraq was to reverse Saddam's similar move--indeed, our puppet govt. immediately did reverse this.

Will merely bombing Iran work to reverse this new move? One would not expect so; a few computer-servers buried beneath a mountain would be safe. Nor will mere THREATS persuade Iranian mullahs. to forget their bourse.

China could set up such a bourse; we wouldn't dare bomb China--their survivors could wreck US with nukes launched from ocean freighters.

 
CHINA CUTS US BONDS THEY OWN: from $249 billion to $223 billion. Last year this amount INCREASED. UnitedPress

If the value of our bonds sank, all holders would lose--but the first to dump them would suffer least.., a prescription for panic-selling.

Strangely, the abs.number of bond$ islower, but the % of their holdings is higher. ???
The total reserves must have gone down even faster....???

 
RARE APPROVAL OF US SYSTEM: As bad as our economic system is (low, chancy safety net/ with relatively low unemployment) I think it's better than European system (many less working hours, high unemployment, and generous dole). REUTERS

That's because I think unemployment is psychologically very bad for males, even if it doesn't leave them destitute.(Look at the French/Muslim riots.) / Also, unemployment increases the number of drug-dealers.

Now EMPLOYMENT is very bad for single mothers.So there the European system is better. But remedy for this is more use of 'morning-after' pill, so fewer working women have babies to care for.

Our health-system is of course, corrupt and awful. EVERY FIRST-WORLD COUNTRY does far better than we in that respect.

 
SABOTAGE OF RUSS PIPELINES? Finally, it's being said that the pipe-explosions are sabotage by Russ criminals OR BY CHECHEN REBELS![AustralianHeraldSun,23 Jan, cited in GoogleNews. ]

Nigerian Islamists are attacking their oil industry (a main supplier for US).It looks as if binLaden's suggestion is catching on: Jihadists should aim at world oil/gas supply--thus weakening the anti-Islam FirstWorld, and also the atheist-oil-sultans like the Royals in SaudiArabia.

Of course all this means that IRANIAN oil will be more essential than ever to the West, and attacks on Iran will count as nuttier than ever. (That doesn't mean they won't happen ! )

Also, Iran will get ever richer...[the longer their oil stays in the ground, the more it will be worth!]--also anti-American Venezuela.

 
EUROPEAN COWARDS: [ltr to rMtnNews]
Chas.Krauthammer [RMN23Jan]sneers at the cowardice of Europeans for disapproving of Israel's threat to bomb Iran. They worry about what Iranian retaliation could do to the world oil supply: not just cutting off their own oil (2d largest supply in OPEC), but perhaps they could also block the Strait of Hormuz, through which half of exported oil must pass.

Such sissys! Of course Iranians could also open up a second front against our Iraq GIs. Shiite leader Sadr says his militia would back Iran. This probably means that they're even now helping well-trained Iranian troops infiltrate into Iraq, ready to help the present insurgents attack GIs. But Americans are brave enough to bear even more thousands of GIs killed, maimed, wounded or shell-shocked.
------------------------
I personally would welcome high gasoline prices; they might move off the roads some of the behemoth SUVs that threaten my vulnerable little Nissan Sentra (which sips gas by the teaspoon.) We all welcome high prices on drugs and cigarettes; why shouldn't we welcome high prices that discourage US addiction to huge, wasteful vehicles?

Also, I hope the SUV owners (often Republicans) realize that their suffering results from Israel's attacking Iran (with heavy Bush backing) over a few possible nukes (Israel herself has about 200 nukes.)

 
WILL SADR'S ARMY SUPPORT IRAN? He now says they will, if Israel or US attack Iran. REUTERS/ALERT/NET

Sadr controls one of the 2 big Shia militias, the Mehdi army.

How would they support Iran? The best way would be to help well-trained Iranian troops infiltrate now into Iraq, so US would know that if Iran is attacked, a second front will be opened against GIs.

That might not deter crazy Bushies..they once tried to aggravate N.Korea into attacking our thousands of GIs in So. Korea (by having our Head of State Bush hurl personal insults at their honcho)--this would give them an excuse to nuke N.Korea. Luckily N.K. didn't bite at this hook.

Remember, Hitler was not deterred from attacking Russia by knowing that his cities were being pounded into dust by allied bombers.

 
"I DIDN'T COME BACK !" says a returned veteran. "We were to marry when I came back. But I didn't."
He's blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, face rebuilt with many titanium screws; he can hardly read; his thinking is delayed. [NYTIMES]

Twelve Thousand GIs injured by Iraq bombs; over 6 thousand head-injured; 1700 brain-injured; 800 permanently impaired--'an epidemic of brain-injured'.
----------------------
Americans tend to ignore the wounded,on our highways (several million each year!) and in our wars.

This is foolish. Dead GIs will soon be forgotten, except by friends and relatives. (The rest of us might think briefly of them while shopping at Memorial Day Sales.) But the thousands of veterans having lost arms, legs, eyes, faces, with brain damage or shell-shock--these victimswill haunt us for decades.

Or rather, we'll learn to ignore them as we have ignored the many GIs disabled in Gulf War I. We may not think of these permanent costs the next time our government sets out to lure us into war.

 
our OTHER war: in Afgh. /1600 dead in '05. /20 suicide attacks since Sept./Taliban has secret govt. info (attacked when honcho was 'secretly' visiting remote town.)

US is pulling GIs out, expecting NATO troops to fill in. But Dutch Parliament is raising hell. ABC/NEWS
----------------------
LOCALS: 'TALIBAN TAKING OVER!'
Pak.leaders say Taliban/Quaeda are being suppressed, but anonymous locals tell journalists that they're taking over openly the border region of Pak., next to Afgh. And that hundreds of foreign jihadists are sneaking in, even marrying with the locals. NYTIMES

US is in lose/lose situation. They know most Pakistanis are anti-American, perhaps even Musharref. But he's at least pretending to help us vs. Taliban.
If he were assassinated (2 attempts already), and if Islamists took over, they'd have control of a very big and flourishing nuke program--with many completed nukes easy to hide from bombers.

Bushies would like to solve problem by bombing border regions. But that enrages Pakistanis, helps Taliban. We can't invade Pakistan; indeed we're pulling out some troops from Afganistan, double-crossing our allies in that fiasco.
------------------
IRAN/AFGHAN TRADE SWELLS. That means that Afghan/Pakistan trade dwindles. (Kharzai doesn't trust Pak., the original sponsors of Taliban.) JamestownFoundation (Many Afghans speak Farsi, Iran's language.)

If US or Israel attack Iran, they could set up attack on NATO forces, and GIs, in Afgh. (It's already true that a given GI in Afgh. has about the same chance of being killed/wounded as a given GI in Iraq !)

Taliban & Iranian Shiites hate each other, but may cooperate in attacking Westerners in Afgh.

 
PRETENCE OF NATL. UNITY: US ambassador 'Zal' (who acts like the King of Iraq) warns that US patience is growing thin, because Americans think 'we don't know what we're doing'. But, he says, if it seems our puppet govt. is making progress, than folks at home will be patient. InternatlHeraldTribune

So some gestures will be made to include Sunni pols in the new govt. But the important posts (security, oil, prime minister) will remain in Shia or Kurd hands. Sunni insurgents will not be fooled for a minute; the carnage will continue. And Americans won't be fooled for long, when GI casualties continue or increase.

(IRA terrorists went right on bombing, even while they were running for office, even sitting in Brit parliament!)

 
ISRAEL SAYS IRAN/SYRIA FUNDED, MANAGED SUICIDE ATTACK IN TEL AVIV. LondonIndependent

Maybe they did; it seems likely after they issued a public call for attacks on Israel to continue.

But who would believe Israel's WORD about this matter? Everyone knows they want to bomb Iran so bad they can taste it.

If they want to bomb, they will; nobody can stop them (except America, their financial supporter--but also their pawn). But few will believe their propaganda excuse (even if it happens to be true).

The only consideration for hesitating is contemplating Iran's retaliation.
If Israel bombs Iran, and Iran starts slaughtering GIs in Iraq (besides spiking the price of gas for our SUVs) the average American's tolerance for our pawn-ship might be strained.

 
LABOR SHORTAGE? C'mon ! Inflation hawks worry that a 'coming' labor shortage will cause inflation--so 'Feds should raise interest rates again.'

Of course labor-participation (potential workers actually working) is quite low--because of low-pay (increases lower than price-inflation rate).REUTERS

Also, main cause of price-rises is of course spike in energy prices. And people whose income is not rising, but who have to pay more for heating oil & gasoline--let alone health-care and college costs--these people have LESS to spend on other things--so retail sales are sluggish.

Also, there has been 'inversion': contrary to economic theory, long-range interest rates (up to 10 years) are LOWER than the artificially-goosed short-run rates..this is almost a sure-fire predictor of coming Recession, not inflation !

It's fascinating how 'experts' worry about rising LABOR-costs as causing price-inflation--but NOT about sky-high PROFITS !

It's good news (for job-seekers) that huge numbers of baby-boomers each year, beginning in 2010, will WANT to retire as they hit 65. But will they be ABLE to retire? Or will retirees compete with youth for Walmart jobs?Also, earliest boomers are now 60, not 65--so why the rush NOW to raise interest rates further?

Also, # of babies born (to non-Hispanic Americans) have been dropping as percentage of population; BUT immigrants still flood in, competing for low-wage jobs. And outsourcing (so far not much) is increasing exponentially each year, threatening the jobs of college grads.

Until job-competition forces firms to increase wages markedly--there's no reason to fear labor-caused-inflation. So why the move to keep raising interest-rates? To pay more interest to the well-to-do (and to frugal savers like my wife and myself--as usual, I'm a traitor to my class.)

 
CLARENCE DARROW ONCE GAVE A SPEECH TO THOSE IN THE CHICAGO JAIL !

My friend Richard Donaldson sent me this link to the speech:

http://www.bopsecrets.org/CF/darrow.htm

 
BASELESS CHATTER ABOUT QAEDAs KILLED IN US BOMBING in Pakistan. Prime Minister said on Friday that so far, there was no evidence of any Qaeda figures killed in the bombing. Boston.com

What is sure is that women & children were blown to bits (with their pictures, you bet, circulated all over Islamic world, provoking Muslims further). Also sure: US just forfeited whatever good will they earned in helping Pak.earthquake victims.

US is PLAYING WITH FIRE in Pak. Only the leader is pro-US; the people hate us. Musharref has survived 2 assassination attempts.

If Islamists take over Pak., they will control an ongoing nuke program..the danger will be far greater than from Iran !
-------------
Paks still protesting US bombing on Sunday,22 Jan.,shouting praise of Osama and denouncing US. Once again, it doesn't matter what really happened; what counts is what most Paks BELIEVE happened, and that's pretty obvious. Musharref ordered US not to repeat bombing--but that was called 'too late'. ABCNEWS

 
ROVE, the diabolic brains behind brainless Bush, recommends GOP to run on 'TERROR' issue, because 'voters trust us to promote our military might and THEREBY guard US.' GUARDIAN

Rove may be right that voters are so dumb they still think 'military might' (Pentagon bombers etc.) guards US homeland from terrorists.

Such military toys were useless vs. the 19 hijackers with box-cutters on 9/11. They were useless in preventing Spanish train attacks...useless vs. the 4 guys with backpacks who wrought havoc on London Transport.

When a caged rat gets an electric shock from outside, it immediately bites the rat nearest to him. That's an animal instinct--to attack SOMEONE when attacked-- but not a rational choice. Similarly, Americans reacted to Saudi hijackers by attacking Iraq !
------------------
Dems can perhaps turn the TERROR issue against the GOP, by reminding voters of the shameless negligence Bushies have displayed in funding Homeland Security vs. terrorists. (See NYT series: AN INSECURE NATION]

But given the dumbness of our voters, GOP may be in a win/win situation.
As long as a second big attack hasn't happened, voters may think GOP should get credit for that. When the next big attack does happen, dumb voters may cuddle up even closer to Daddy Bush.

All Dems can do is constantly remind voters of Bush refusal to fund obvious precautions on Homeland defense ( e.g., not funding nurse-recruitment & training, even tho we already face an urgent nurse shortage, even before a likely pandemic happens--a natural pandemic of avian flu or a terrorist war-germ pandemic.)

 
IRAN MOVING $33,000,000,000 OUT OF EUROPEAN BANKS.
REUTERS
(In earlier confrontation, U.S. 'froze' Iran money in American banks.
Interestingly, several millions of that money ended up paid to Tom Sutherland and his family in Ft.Collins,CO--for Tom's barbaric kidnapping and treatment in Lebanon. U.S. decided that Iran was responsible, so paid Sutherlands out of Iran money.)

Not this time.
Oill spiked to $68 a barrel today. (look out, Bushie SUV owners !)
U.S. Dow Jones and Nasdaq stock indexes SANK TWO PERCENT IN ONE DAY. REUTERS

Freedom isn't free, & neither is Bushie huffing/puffing.

 
MAYBE THAT'S WHAT BUSHIES ARE AFTER:
to stop by bombs a threatened move of oil funds from dollars to euros !When oil-value is measured by dollars, then all nations must hold dollars to buy oil, so they must buy U.S. bonds. Over the years, these dollars sink in purchasing power, so when the bonds are cashed in, cheaper dollars are paid out than dollars paid in earlier--with enormous profit to U.S.

This has been suggested before, but it's so complex that I've ignored the suggestions. But now this PHD has expained it in fairly intelligible words.[ in TheGoldEagle. ]

The point is that Saddam was getting ready to move from $ to euros--maybe that's why we had to attack Iraq. (Our new puppet regime quickly switched back to dollars.) Now Iran is getting ready, this March, to make the move--and sure enough, we're huffing and puffing against Iran.

The solution? to have a country be the center of this move whom U.S. doesn't dare attack--e.g., China (whose survivors could wreck our Homeland with THEIR nukes!)

How would this move from dollars to Euros hurt Americans? Dollar would no longer be the Reserve Currency of the world; dollar would plummet, our interest rates would spike up; beleagured U.S.consumers would stop buying; another U.S. Great Depression would result.

Of course this might plunge the whole First World into Depression--only insane US spending keeps the system afloat. That may be why France & Germany are also huffing/puffing against Iran. But England now is backing off from military threats; Russ & China now would block even UN econ.sanctions vs. Iran.

World could be in for more excitement than anyone would want.

 
SHIITES + KURDS ONLY 3 SEATS SHORT OF A WORKING MAJORITY (i.e, 2/3ds of seats). NYTIMES

Shiite honcho says Sunnis are welcome to join--but only those close to Shiites on important issues.

And earlier he said that deFacto secession for Shiites (privilege Kurds have already) was 'sacred'. But this is the issue that enrages Sunnis the most (they would have an empire of sand,between 2 oil-rich, hostile ministates).
So there is little chance of this 'openness' pacifying the insurgents--as he cheerfully admits.
---------------------------
SIXTY KILLED on 19,20 Jan. Boston.com (Many more maimed,wounded.)
Rockets fired on 20Jan at 2 US bases in Ramadi. US wouldn't say how many casualties. REUTERS
==================
SO it's quite clear that Bushie invasion has KILLED unified Iraq, put most oil & people under control of Shia leaders, allied with IRAN, our most formidable foe. Clever Bushies !

 
CENSORED? I've tried again & again to post this on NYT message board on Iraq. Every time I get a msg that they're 'too busy' to print it.
SO perhaps they see it as too upsetting for their readers' pretty little heads.
Here it is:
---------------------
TO HEARST,#46237/You speculate that Bush may be cunningly using GIs as bait to lure into Iraq all the terrorists, killing them so they can't attack America.

You display a common American refusal to see how awful is our present emergency.Polls show that we have angered a large portion of 1,200,000,000 Muslims around the world, of every race and color. If only 1 in 1000 of them get angry enough to go terrorist--and more do so every week of our atrocity-bombings--that makes 1 million anonymous terrorists actively or passively out to kill Americans.

(Our bombers are useless against these individuals--anonymous till they strike. Bombing the nations that 'harbor' them would be silly--they're usually attacking their own host nation ! Britain 'harbored' the 4 terrorists who bombed London transport--so we should bomb London ? ! )

Terrorists couldn't all get into Iraq--not enough room! You gloat that we've killed more of them than they have killed GIs. We don't know that. We've killed a lot of people, but we have no idea how many of them were terrorists, and how many were innocent 'collateral damage'.

One poll showed that over 6 milion Iraqis approve of attacking GIs. If only half of these support terrorists beyond words, then our 140,000 GIs face 3 million enemies.

Win or lose in Iraq--and we're NOT winning!--there will be plenty of terrorists left to attack our Homeland. Bushies are shamelessly negligent about defending our Homeland (see NYT series OUR INSECURE NATION).

The dumbest thing you can say is that we must attack 'THEM' there so 'THEY' don't attack us here. Different 'THEM's !

 
MEALY-MOUTHED HAWKS: We're regularly subjected to tired hawk euphemisms to conceal the awfulness of war: 'intervention', 'action', etc.

Now the right-wing ECONOMIST titles a new article "Why We Must Stay !'It should read, "Why We must Go On slaughtering innocent Iraqis with at least five air-strikes a day." (Actually, 58 strikes on one day !)

 
"Including Sunni pols alone won't pacify insurgents" says top Shiite honcho.
SanDiegoUnion / PERCEPTIVE !

DIVIDING THE OIL-MONEY: (ltr to USATODAY):
J.Morrow(19Jan) says rightly that the ultimate Iraq problem is how to divide the oil money. He thinks that the present constitution is OK, saying that the Sunni Arabs (with little oil in their district) will still 'own' 20% of the revenue.

Imagine you're a Sunni insurgent leader (not a fanatic Zarqawist). You hear that the future Iraq will involve a deFacto independent ministate for the Kurds (already up and running, with its independent army) and a similar ministate for the Shia.

The semi-mythical central government will 'own' all the oil, but the 2 new ministates will 'manage' it. (I do NOT foresee a SunniMuslim oil minister !) You foresee that IF you lay down your arms, your economy will be at the mercy of those 'managers', people who have good reason to hate your people.

Sensible insurgents would NOT be pacified by this arrangement. How could they be GUARANTEED a fair share of oil? Only by securing some OIL-LANDS, taken from Shialand or Kurdland. Bloody likely !

 
FIFTY CASUALTIES ON 19jan USATODAY
FIFTY KILLED 18JAN AROUND IRAQ. WashPost
----------
Hundreds or thousands of shoulder-fired anti-plane missiles went missing in Iraq during the chaotic invasion. Now the first case has been confirmed of a US copter being downed by such a missile.

There are also 'airborne improvised bombs' that shoot up to the height of a copter, then explode like a road bomb.

If our troops are pulled out, it will be hard for Bushies to 'declare victory' first ! We can mourn the carnage and still approve of the Bushies being discredited (and hopefully discouraged from bombing Iran !)

 
WHO DECIDES how much body armor our troops need--the GIs themselves, or desk-warriors in Pentagon?

--the desk-warriors excuse their slowness in providing complete body armor--(Of marines dieing from upper-body wounds, 8 in 10 could have been saved with complete armour)--by saying piously that they were just trying to protect the MOBILITY of the GIs,not weighing them down with heavy armor.

--But the armor was requested by the GIs and their commanders. On foot patrol, GIs must be mobile and agile; but while riding in vehicles--as they OFTEN ARE !--mobility is less important than protection. There are versions of body armor that can be converted back and forth, depending on the situation. These were NOT provided.

This obvious point was made by a letter in NYTIMES from--would you believe it?--Pentagon-loving Hilary Clinton !
------------------
A veteran back from Iraq, in a letter to USATODAY, points out that Pentagon should have known, from previous conflicts, the importance of ADEQUATE body armor for GIs. But as always they chose to spend instead on jazzy planes,etc...which are more profitable for war corporations than mere body armor !

 
HIGH COMEDY ! Aged, celibate Pope issues new encyclical on erotic love, and how it relates to spritual love. REUTERS
You can bet he'll emphasize fruitful, BABY-MAKING erotic love.

 
EDUCATION,FOOD,SHELTER PRICES ROSE MORE THAN INCOMES/RETAIL SALES DROPPED/ but guess is that Feds. will raise short-term interests rates again, even though 30-yr-mortgage rates are lower (which might show that investors do NOT expect long-run inflation, rather recession.) REUTERS

 
NorthKorea says China backs them on nuclear issue.
RussNewsAgency

Why would China back U.S.? It's widely believed that Pentagon is preparing for a war with China. Also, U.S. missiles can't intimidate China; they could, in retaliation, wipe out many U.S. cities with their nukes.

(U.S. might threaten tariffs on Chinese exports. But China could plunge us into depression simply by not buying any more U.S. bonds--or worse, selling them. All holders of our bonds would suffer if their value dropped--but those who sold first would suffer less. That's a prescription for a selling-panic.)

So China is defying Bushies both on Iran issue and N.K. issue.

 
BRITAIN, EUROPE BACK DOWN on threatening UN econ.sanctions vs. Iran. [ Australian ]They know that Russ & China would veto such sanctions. So nations will say, "Naughty,naughty!" and settle for that.

U.S. & Israel stand alone in the 'tough-guy' stance. Who cares? There's no hope that UN condemnation would 'legitimize' bombing Iran (as UN condemnation, for many, 'legitimized' criminal invasion of Iraq).

If they're going to bomb, they're going to bomb. The problem is Iranian retaliation: expensive oil, world recession, horrible GI casualties in Iraq.
-------------
Bitter cold Russ winter, plus Nigerian militants' threats to attack all oil companies in the country (sounds like they're following alQuaeda's recent directive!)--these forces will make world even more dependent on IRANIAN oil, will make attack on Iran even more ruinously expensive.

 
OIL LEAPS UP 4% JUST TODAY/ partly because of trouble in Nigeria, but partly also because of the bellicose mutterings of D.C. hawks like McCain, who bravely said we would bear higher gas prices if we had to, just to stop Iran's nuke program. [ ABC/NEWS, 17Jan. ]

We'll see if ordinary Americans are willing to 'bear higher gas prices.'
We'll see if they don't blame Bushies (as they should), just a few months before elections.

 
SUPREME CT. UPHOLDS OREGON'S PERMISSION OF ASSISTED SUICIDE:[ NYTIMES ] The only 3 votes against this decision were 3 fanatic Catholics: Scalia, Thomas and Roberts. Thank God this was decided before Alito came aboard--another fanatic Catholic.

Once the Catholic Church stood for relieving pain and hardship among real humans. Now the bishops stand mostly for protecting fertilized eggs, making sure that gays can't say they're married, and blocking escape from hopeless suffering for dying humans.

Who will lose economically by permitting assisted suicide? the huge and wealthy 'Old-Folks'Home' industry, which you can bet will be lobbying against such permission in every state.

But they will be countered by the health-insurance companies. Most of health expenses are spent in the last 6 months of life, stretching out one's miserable existence at enormous cost to relatives, (emotional and financial).

If many oldies use this permission to escape on dignified terms, then our social security/medicare crisis will be alleviated. But very likely, few will use it; humans have a tremendous instinct to postpone death for just a little longer. Many of our people today--especially old ladies--don't have longer lives--just longer deaths.

Actually, suicides might be postponed by such permission. If one has to shoot himself to escape, he might worry that he might not do so in time--so he must do so at the first sign of terminal illness. But if he can be helped later to exit with dignity, then he might be able to wait a while, until he is certain.

As things are now, a person in his 70s looks forward (from remembering how his relatives fared) to horror in his 80s. But in states offering this new permission, he can enjoy good health while he has it.

 
TALIBAN ATTACKS RISE: "No winter lull!" says Canadian general.
Worry is that Canadians will ask, "What the hell are we doing there?"(especially if they hear that Bushies are pulling out many GIs!)

But Kharzai has the answer: "If you don't fight 'THEM' here, you'll have to fight THEM at home." (Taliban Afghans are going to stage attacks in Canada?!)
And Canada's corrupt, soon-to-be-ousted premier echoes him: "We're defending our own democracy in Afghanistan."
He plans to send in 2000 more troops, who will go 'on the attack' against the terrorists in Afghanistan--costing more Canadian casualties.
CBC
Such obvious bullshit. If anything, Canadian troops killing Islamists will trigger MORE risk of Islamist (not Taliban!) attacks in Canada.

 
THIRD COPTER DOWNED today,16Jan. NYTIMES

Before, it wasn't certain copters were downed by lethal shoulder-fired missiles. But this time insurgents offered picture of missile hurtling toward copter, then copter exploding.

Once again, when guerillas learn to aim these plentiful missiles, (shooters trained in the Bushies' war) none of our planes around the world will be safe; especially not our clumsy airliners--"Those hot jobs would suck the missiles off the assembly-line !"

Planes could be protected by expensive decoy-devices ($1 million per plane). Israel is mounting these on some of their planes, but Bushies can't afford this extravagance, what with lush tax-breaks for wealthy, and $1200 millions each DAY for useless Pentagon.

Console yourself: even with a few airliners being downed by terrorists, air-travellers will still be safer in the air than driving to the airport !

 
LEGAL BUT STUPID !
The U.S. bombing of those Pakistan houses (thinking they MIGHT contain a top Qaeda leader) may have been moral and legal (using the 'hot-pursuit' justification). But it was incredibly stupid !

What really happened doesn't matter; what counts is what Pakistanis BELIEVE happened. And the demonstrations all over the country show that they BELIEVE that once again we recklessly bombed innocent civilians.

Killing this Qaeda fellow would not really affect the 'war on terror'.So the possible gains from this raid were far outweighed by the risks it involved.

Musharref (perhaps our only ally there) has narrowly escaped several assassination-attempts. If the Islamists take over in Pakistan, they will control a full-grown nuclear program. The danger then will dwarf any danger from Iran !

 
WHENCE THE FIRST CELLS? [ltr to USATODAY]
E.O. Wilson rightly points out the evidence for purely naturalistic evolution of dogs from the first live cells, via natural selection. But he doesn't mention a much more puzzling problem: the appearance of those first live cells.

Natural selection presupposes very complex creatures featuring survival by nutrition, and reproduction with 2 properties:
--genes must be 99% reproduced, not 100%; there must be mutation-variations, among which the 'less-fit' can be deselected;

--also, there must be excess reproduction, so there is pressure on the less-fit to promote deselection. (A dozen mice in a meadow have all they want to eat; but in a very short time, without natural enemies, there would be thousands of starving mice in that meadow--the stage set for natural deselection.)

Natural selection cannot explain the 'irreducible complexity' of the very 'first cells' which the process presupposes ! All 3 hyper-complex properties mentioned above must be present together in that first cell.
-------
Srangely, the Vatican just denounced as 'confusing' the teaching of intelligent design as science.
-----------
People who push for automatic, non-intelligent development of the first cell often cite an experiment where amino acids, the building-blocks of life, developed 'automatically' in a 'soup' like one that once existed on earth.

Now comes a biochemist (in a letter to rMtnNews )who says that, in that same experiment, other chemicals developed that are biological poisons. So, he says,life couldn't have started that way.

 
IRAN'S SHIELD (ltr to NYTIMES/no link)
Thomas Friedman advocates military attack on Iran as a 'last resort' to prevent their developing a nuclear weapon. Senators have agreed, even if this results in a huge increase in oil prices.

Friedman admits that the likely use for Iran of a few nukes would be as a 'shield' to deter attacks by Israel or U.S. If they can't have nukes, they will probably develop war-germs, so they can tell us, "Your nukes can destroy our cities; but our survivors can make you regret it, by devastating your oh-so-vulnerable Homeland."

Such 2d-strike deterrents are already had by Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Other countries are probably working on war-germs or 'dirty bombs' as a deterrent against our zany government. Japan could develop nukes very quickly.

Voters correctly blamed Pres. Bush for the last spike in gas prices. They'd likely see that he's even more clearly responsible for this next spike--and they'd see it before the Nov. elections. (Bloody GI casualties would also result from Iran's retaliation against our army next-door in Iraq.)

One would guess that we won't bomb Iran before November.
[Friedman's column also printed in RMtnNews/again, no link.]
-------------
This subject is more fully explored in HamiltonSpectator.
-------------
PUTIN says Russ will 'help Europe & US' intimidate Iran into scrapping their nuke-weapon program. Bloomberg

Let us not forget that, if such sword-waving spiked oil-prices up to $100 a barrel, then Russia would get incredibly rich, as a major oil-seller. China, Israel, and the U.S., though, would be crippled. That may be the main reason Russians have helped Iran's nuke program till now, just to set up this confrontation.

 
DEATH-WISH:
Colo. Gov. Bill Owens hopes publicly that Fidel Castro dies 'rapidly' (RMN14Jan,16C). That sounds like Pat Robertson saying that Sharon's stroke is God's punishment for a political move.

Owens, like Robertson, may wish for the death also of other left-wing leaders in Latin America. (Under the provoking arrogance of Owens' buddy, Pres. Bush, more and more such leaders are getting elected.) Luckily Owens doesn't speak for God, who should decide these things.
----------
Chile, the most conservative and Catholic nation in SouthAmerica, just elected a WOMAN socialist, mother of an illegitimate child, a former political prisoner. She beat her billionaire rival by 53% to 48%.
The poor Bushies would be kept busy attacking all the leftists being chosen in 'our' SouthAmerica. ABCNEWS

 
'EVEN IF GAS PRICES LEAP UP'
Sen. Lott (GOP) & Bayh(Dem) call for sicking UNSC onto Iran, even if this raises energy prices. Boston.com

They agreed that diplomatic measures should be tried BEFORE military measures. That 'before' might well mean (as it did with Iraq) that we first pretend to diplomacy, THEN bomb the hell out of them. But nobody this time will be fooled by 'diplomacy-trick'--they might just as well proceed with the bombing right away.

Awful carnage and world-recession loom ahead. One good point: we know Americans blamed Bush (rightly) for previous jump in oil prices. We can hope that they'll blame GOP Congress (before Nov.) for next leap. (Gas is already creeping up.)
-----------
Dems should use Alito farce to make clear to Americans that GOP controls ALL 3 BRANCHES of fed.govt. So whatever goes wrong (e.g., collapse of dollar) it's their fault.

 
CHENEY WANTS MUSLIM TROOPS AS PEACEKEEPERS (so US can bug out). UnitedPress

Of course he does. But he neglects the fact that all these countries are SUNNI, and that Iraqi Shia have good reason to hate the surrounding Sunni populations. (When they lost 1000 worshippers in one day on that bridge, they got sympathy from other countries--but none from their Sunni neighbors.)

Well, what about sending Sunni troops just into middle (Sunni/Arab) region, where the insurgents are concentrated ? That would make Shia & Kurds suspect that Sunnis would turn out to be invaders,out after the oil.
And that may be what Bushies want--for the Sunni foreigners, ALLIED WITH INSURGENTS, to stop 16 million Shiites (allied with Iran) from taking over most of the oil, and the only seaport.

Let's think this out: Bushies have trained several hundred thousands of Shia & Kurds militarily; Shia militia would move quickly to help defend the new Shialand. We haven't trusted them enough to give them top-grade weapons;
but Iran has developed a great weapons industry.

Also, it's said there are about one million Iraqi Shiites who've fled to Iran from Saddam, and it's said they're trained militarily. (One observer says there are already 10,000 Iranian troops infiltrated into Iraq. Once they've heard of Cheney move, they'd be smart to infiltrate thousands more--and Iraqi Shiites would be smart to help and hide them.)

Moreover, there are two million discontented Shia living in SaudiArabia. [ InternatlCrisisGroup ] In the past, they've rebelled, but right now they're pacified by the Royals. If next-door Iraqi Shiites were attacked, and their shrines threatened--the most sacred Shia shrines in the world !, these Shia would undoubtedly show up as allies. There are also large Shia minorities in all the 'Sunni' nations. Adherents.com

Would Sunni (but secular) Kurds help the Sunni foreigners against the Shia? Not likely. They'd know what to expect if the Sunni Arabs controlled all of Iraq outside Kurdland, with unfriendly Turkey next door.

Sunni insurgents might also go right on trying to drive out GIs, who would then face a second front against the Shias.
-------------
The good news is that this desperate attempt shows that the Bushies have given up the hope of grabbing the oil themselves. The bad news is that Iran has probably sent word that they'd attack the Sunni invaders.

One thing: insurgents couldn't hate, say Egyptian troops as intensely as they hate Americans. But could Americans be pulled out fast enough to avoid being caught in the middle?

It would be a stupid risk for the Bushies to take. But they love stupid risks!

 
U.S. MISSILES SAID TO CAUSE 23 CASUALTIES IN PAKISTAN, including women & children. Second accusation. REUTERS

Our generals may dream this will deter Pakistani cooperation with Taliban;
instead, it will likely increase such cooperation.
--------------
PAK.GOVT.PROTESTS BOMBING TO US AMBASSADOR. CIA thought that alQaeda's #2 leader ('the brains' and spokesman), with $25 million bounty on his head, was in those houses. He wasn't. But 18 innocent civilians were killed, including women and children. BBC

'Precision strikes' indeed.
------------------
THOUSANDS PROTEST US BOMBING: Govt. & opposition parties, in a rare show of solidarity, denounced Musharref's alliance with US, in spite of govt.'s rare condemnation of the bombing. FinTimes

Once again, it is only the autocrats on top who support US.
Muslim peoples hate us. Yet the Bushies prattle on about pushing 'democracy' in the MiddleEast. Who knows if they're now lieing; at one time they were sincerely stupid on this issue.

 
[fromReggieRivers,DenverPost]…. Two years ago, I wrote a column in which I referred to U.S. soldiers as “slaves.”The column was not well received. Most people believed that I was denigrating the troops.

My point was that our perception of the average soldier is off the mark.We think of those men and women as volunteers who signed up for military service and are therefore willing to fight.As long as we believe that, we won’t worry much about the impact the war is having on them and their families.

As long as we think of them as volunteers, we won’t demand answers about the necessity of the war, we won’t agitate for an exit strategy, we won’t push for a reduction in troops and we won’t marshal more help for their struggling families.When you believe that a person volunteered for a difficult job, then you’ll respect him and express your amazement at his commitment, but you won’t necessarily feel the urge to rescue him.

But if you actually see our soldiers for what they are – mostly young people who signed up because they wanted to travel and/or get an education – then we’ll realize that most of them are being held in Iraq against their will. They can’t escape until we pay attention, recognize their plight, and do whatever it takes to bring them home. [sent to me byJoe Stern].

 
U.S. FORBIDS SPAIN TO SELL PLANES TO NAUGHTY LEFTIST, CHAVEZ. Spain will go ahead with plane sale. LondonTimes

 
CATHOLIC BISHOPS CALL FOR PULL OUT "SOONER RATHER THAN LATER" (after nearly 4 years of needless,pointless , heartless, brainless war).

The story notes that the bishops, as well as JPII,opposed the invasion.
LATimes
Did anyone around here know that about the bishops? It was what you'd call 'silent opposition.'

They helped the war-criminal Bush get re-elected by ranting on about gay marriages. Now that a majority of Americans call for a bugout, they suddenly speak up. (It's far enough from Nov. that they can hope it doesn't hurt their favorite GOP candidates.)

Contemptible.
----------
Methodist bishops said they now repent of their earlier complicity (by silence) in the invasion. Will Catholic bishops? Bloodly likely.

 
CATHOLIC FURY BOOSTS CONDOM SALES: a PlannedParenthoodOrgn put out key-fobs showing a variation of Michelangelo's 'God/Adam' painting. Here God's handing Adam a condom.

Catholics frothed. Sales leaped up. Al Jazeera

It's simply astounding that bishops oppose abortion, but also oppose contraception which would render many abortions unnecessary !
(It's also astounding that while any priest can absolve killing a live baby, only a bishop can absolve flushing out a fertilized egg !)

In primitive societies, I've always imagined Catholic missionaries fulminating, "There is a way of preventing unwanted births, but it's forbidden." I imagine the listening women saying, "Say that first part again: 'There is a way of preventing unwanted births...Wow!' " It would be interesting to find out whether 'Catholic' primitive societies have lower birth-rates than pagan primitive societies.

 
'RECENT VIOLENCE NOT FROM ALQAEDA !' says US general pointedly.
(Since election, at least 500 Iraqis dead, 50 GIs and one or two copters.)
DetroitFreePress
Usually US blames all attacks on Zarqawi wing of insurgents.Why this pointed denial now? It looks as if US is giving up hope of courting Saddamites, splitting then off from Zarqawistas, hoping that the former would slaughter the latter.

Saddamites might realize that with Sunnis' puny 50-seat representation, they're as much at the (scant) mercy of Shia/Kurds as when they boycotted earlier election. (Shia/Kurd coalition needs only one more rep. to make 2/3ds rep. needed.) So Saddamites may decide to stay allied with Zs in fight to the death.

 
ONE HUNDRED MILLION FEMALE FOETUSES KILLED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, thanks to sonograms that reveal sex to allow selective abortion.In India, ten million girls are 'missing'. Likewise in China. [ INDEPENDENT ]
Reflections:
--This is a perfect example of the danger of uncontrolled technical innovation. Super-modern techniques are put in the hands of primitive-minded people.(Most humans are 'primitive-minded' in relation to fantastic recent innovations. For an analysis of this danger, click on LUDDITE (ch.2 of DEMOCRACY, RIGHTS & FREEDOMS).

--Eventually the shortage of brides for the young males will become obvious (it already has, in China). One can have little sympathy for the couples who prevent daughters--if their sons can then find no brides, and the couples themselves can't have grandchildren.

Since the practice is esp.prevalent among educated Indians, there will be a worse-than-ever shortage of elite young. The govt. tries to forbid such actions, but sonogram-machines can be carried from village to village on donkeys.
------------------
Brit journal LANCET says that half a million Indian girls are culled out each year. (Indians deny this indignantly.)

Chinese admit that 120 boys are born for every 100 girls. The surplus of males is now ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN MILLIONS.
The main worry is that countries with so many 'bare branches' (poor, unemployed) are tempted to get rid of them by a war.
This is worst-case scenario; but they might turn to violent crime.
GUARDIAN

 
ANOTHER COPTER SHOT DOWN / 2 GIs killed. [PBS/News]
A Pakistani authority just told how the Taliban has been buying shoulder-based missiles (financed partly by opium money)--and sharing them with Iraq insurgents. He said that when they learn to aim them, they'll have significant effect..after all, it was these missiles (donated by America) that helped to chase the Soviets out of Afghanistan.

One observer noted that in Iraq, the sky is full of American copters.
And when guerillas learn to aim these missiles--in this training camp provided by Bushies' occupation--they can then start shooting down clumsy airliners, without having to sneak aboard.
-----------------
TWENTY-THREE COPTERS DOWNED IN THE WAR. Some downed by crashes with our pilotless drones. SeattlePI

 
HUNDREDS OF 'TERRORISTS' FLOODING INTO AFGHANISTAN, just as US is pulling troops out (leaving Brits & others to face the music) . 500 attacks a month, with more sophisticated use of roadside bombs.
Other European countries seem to be welshing on their commitment to provide troops. SCOTSMAN

 
SUPPOSE U.S.(AND/OR ISRAEL) DECIDE TO BOMB IRAN ? (to block their nuke-development)? [An analysis in UnitedPress ]

--There are 200 to 300 plants that would need to be bombed, many near population centers.

--We'd better move fast, lest the plants have radioactivity that ,dispersed by our bombs, would cause awful casualties among Iranian civilians.

--all the blown-up children would be shown, e.g., by AlJazeera, to 1200 million Muslims around the world. If only 1 in 10,000 of them are enraged enough to turn terrorist, that's 100,000 NEW TERRORISTS, of every race and color, eager to die killing Amercans.

--and of course, the Iranians already infiltrated into Iraq, plus thousands more added, would open up a Second Front vs. our GIs in Iraq.

--Iran has better air-defences than pathetic Saddam had, including ground to air missiles.
-------
--Finally, Iran can cut off its own oil, triggering a world recession; it could also mine the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off from world markets the oil from other places.

On the other hand, there are nations like Russia which would PROFIT from high oil prices--Russia has signalled it won't oppose hauling Iran before UN Security Council. Also U.S. oil companies (allies of Bush) that profited enormously from high oil prices aftrer Katrina.

On the third hand : if gas prices jumped up again before the Nov'06 elections, that would be the end of the GOP legislative majorities.

SO, IF the Bushies are anywhere near sane, they wouldn't bomb Iran in '06.
But who knows what Israel might do, in post-Sharon chaos.

Who knows?
And if either country attacks, Iran will likely retaliate against both.
------------------
OIL JUMPS TO $64 A BARREL because U.S. & Britain are huffing and puffing at Iran over nuke potential. (Cheney is strongly hinting that we will attack.)

Economic sanctions might not faze Iran, holding up to $44,000 millions in cash reserves. (One main weakness is that they lack adequate refineries, so they must import 40% of their gasoline. Another is that they need parts,etc., for the European machinery they rely on.) However, they have shown they can bear much suffering; during the Iran/Iraq war, they incurred their share of ONE MILLION DEAD--but they did not yield, and in the end Saddam backed down.

China and Japan have not consented to economic sanctions vs. Iran. Both need oil desperately. India also needs Iranian natural gas.

In a conflict with Iran, Oil could easily go up near $100 a barrel again.USATODAY,13Jan,p.4b (Link unavailable).

Question is, does First World need Iran more than Iran needs them?
==============
On the one hand, 90% of world Muslims are Sunnis; many are quite hostile to Shiites (Iran is the only nation so far controlled by Shiites). So they might not be so angry over our attacking Iran. On the other hand, Iran must be a hero to all Islamists for defying U.S. successfully: they KIDNAPPED U.S. EMBASSY STAFF and kept them captive for months !

 
NATIONALIST INSURGENTS VS. AL QUAEDA? There are stories that local clans of insurgents now resent the 'foreign' A.Q. (though most A.Q. are Iraqi), mainly for killing so many Iraqis--instead of killing just Americans. NYTIMES

Of course the Americans are trying to encourage and widen this split.

But now it seems clear that the Shiites dominating the new govt. for 4 years will not give up the chance to form one super-region--actually a deFacto independent ministate, with most Iraqis and most of the oil.

The Sunni nationalists might come to realize that they are just as much at the mercy of hostile Shia & Kurds with their puny 50-seat (out of 275) representation as they were when they simply boycotted the political process.

Then they might decide to fight to the death, along with alQaeda.

 
BRIT GEN. BLISTERS U.S. IRAQ COMMANDERS: Reuters, cited by FinTimes
He served in Iraq for nearly a year. (Brits are more sophisticated about insurgencies, having faced IRA for decades.)

He says our generals' cultural ignorance amounts to institutional racism. *
They are too quick to attack (enraging natives).Generals are too optimistic, because junior officers have got the signal not to worry their bosses' pretty little heads with bad news. (You can bet generals are equally unwilling to share bad news with Rummies at Pentagon. And we know that Rice once told a visitor not to bother Bush with bad news.)

[ This is just what happened in Vietnam. Pentagon announced we had practically wiped out the Cong, just as Cong launched a major attack, the 'Tet offensive'. After that, Americans discounted Pentagon 'HappyTalk'--even if it happened to be true! ]

Also, generals' (self-judged) 'moral righteousness' means that they expect Iraqis to approve their brutal tactics simply because
"Conquer we must/ for our cause it is just !/ and this be our motto:
'In God is our trust ! ' "
---------
* About U.S. racism: Favorite GI humor during Korean war:
"What do you get when you cross a gook with an ape? A retarded ape."
(But we know now that typical Korean youths are far smarter than typical Americans.)

 
OIL JUMPS TO $65 A BARREL just because U.S. & Britain are huffing and puffing at Iran over nuke potential.

Iran might cut its oil exports now; or, investment in Iran oil might sink, with long-run shrinking of oil supplies. If we (or Israel, more likely) bomb Iran, they could block other oil from Strait of Hormuz. Not to mention what they could do to our GIs in Iraq.

When Iran/Iraq war started (with U.S. backing Saddam !), oil shot to $100 a barrel, triggering a world recession. FinTimes,12Jan
-------------
Who could then foresee that dumb Bushies would hand most Iraqis and most oil over to Shiite leaders, allied with our arch-foe Iran ?

 
CHICAGO IRISH: This 10-year-old lad was on his way to serve 7AM Mass, when he saw, at the front door, 4 fingers sticking into the mail-slot.Cold fingers. Opening the door a little, he saw his heavy-drinking older brother prone outside, with his hand up to the mail-slot.

He galloped upstairs yelling "Kevin is dead on the front porch!" The policeman-father ran silently down the stairs; the mother followed, screaming "My Kevin! My poor boy!"

Feeling the guy's neck, the father announced, "He's dead-DRUNK !" Whereupon the relieved mother started swearing and kicking her still-prone son.

The younger lad went on to Mass, and returned to find the three of them chatting calmly over breakfast.

 
DEFECTIVE TROOP EQUIPMENT: We have long heard of defective ARMOR on vehicles--also body Armor on troops.

But it turns out there are many other kinds of defective equipment going to our troops--who often buy their own equipment [ ! ] (Congress is being asked to reimburse such expenditures.)

This writer thinks the worst defects are in rifles issued to infantry troops, which often jam, and don't kill 'insurgents' unless they hit heart or head !
Insurgents have far better weapons than those issued to our GIs. UnitedPress

 
FINALLY, 'NURSE-ISSUE' SURFACES: Over 4 years after 9/11, someone finally suggested publicly that Congress do something about the already-urgent-and-worsening shortage of nurses. The head of a nursing orgn. urged Congress to approve a bill just to allow nurses to speak out safely about hospitals skimping on nurse-care. (She says better nurse-staffing could have saved thousands of lives and billions of dollars.) UnitedPress

Even now, there is no call for Congress to appropriate money to fund nurse-faculty to train new nurses--even when we face a possible avian-flu pandemic AND a possible pandemic caused by terrorists.

(Nurses won't volunteer as training-teachers, because they'd have to take pay-cuts ! )

 
TOP SHIITE SAYS 'NO AMENDING CONSTITUTION':Main Sunni complaint: Const. allows Shiites to form one super-region, which would be a deFacto independent ministate,like the Kurdish one in the North.
But this would be a ministate with most of the population and most of the oil, a Shia ministate allied with Sunni-hated Iran.
Earlier it was suggested that the constitution could be amended (though that would take 2 in 3 of the Assembly votes--and could be vetoed by a very few regions).

Now a leader of the largest Shiite party says the constitution is 'sacred' in permitting the formation of the huge Shia region.

 
BUSH PROPOSED BOMBING AL JAZEERA: Someone leaked to Brit paper Bush's suggestion to Blair that he should bomb offices of Arab medium Al Jazeera (offices located in a U.S. ally, Qatar!)

Now Brit govt.is trying to prosecute someone for 'leaking' that classified document. NYTIMES

Result of prosecution, of course, is to FURTHER PUBLICIZE this bizarre story,
--to confirm observers' belief in Bush's nuttiness;

--to discredit U.S. explanations of previous actual attacks on the alJazeeera's offices as 'accidental';

--and of course to make thousands more people want to read AL JAZEERA English web-site !

 
HEALTH SYSTEMS FLUNK Fed.agency rates State health-systems at C- for facing pandemic threats. WashPost,10Jan

--SIGNIFICANCE: We face real, increasing threat of natural Avian Flupandemic. (Also there is a chance, of unknown probability of a germ-war attack, perhaps using a lethal flu germ.) We must add together a guesstimate of these 2 probabilities, making a total probability considerable. Prudence multiplies PROBABILITY X STAKES: stakes here are horrific, so even a small probability must be faced.

--EXPLANATION: Feds won't fund our puny Public Health system--nor will cash-poor states. Why won't fed?--GOP (controlling all branches of Fed.Govt.) prefers to dole out lush tax-breaks for wealthy.
--Also, GOP shovels $12 to useless Pentagon for every $1 total for HomelandSecurityDept. (They recently bragged they're allocating $750 million for this year--as total for 35 regions most at risk of terrorist attack.This is much less than money allocated EACH DAY to Pentagon.)

 
$2 MILLIONS OF MILLIONS--WHO CARES?
A Nobel Laureate economist predicts that the TOTAL long-run costs of the Iraq war will range from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. [ChristSciMonitor ]
But who cares? Americans voted GOP back in controlling the whole govt., when they should have known that these pols have been the most irresponsible in history for running up deficits that our grandchildren will have to pay.

Thinkers used to defend Democracy by saying that each person best UNDERSTANDS his own interests, and each person best CARES FOR his own interests..so majoritarian rule should promote the best outcomes for most people.

But in America, about half the people think absurdly that validating gay marriage will undermine regular marriage. 54% think God made the world (with stars & dinosaurs & people) in 6 days of 24 hours each. And most Americans don't care about the future at all; that's why they don't save enough for retirement, or care about staggering increases in the national debt. So they don't care much about their own future, or the future for their grandchildren.

The defense of Democracy should say that FOR THOSE PEOPLES WHO DO UNDERSTAND AND CARE FOR THEIR OWN INTERESTS, PRESENT AND FUTURE, Democracy is the best form of govt. Under this formulation, many primitive societies are NOT YET ready for Democracy--and U.S. is NO LONGER ready for Democracy.

 
QUARANTINE: Talk of a possible Avian Flu Pandemic, requiring extended stays in home, reminded me:

In 1946, my youngest brother contracted Scarlet Fever.The doctor ordered our house into quarantine--with a warning-sign on the door. Dad & 3 oldest siblings had to stay somewhere else, so they could go to work.
I was in college, so I had to be quarantined with my mother and 4 younger brothers--for ONE MONTH. Nightmare.

Our mother was a gentle, self-controlled woman, who never raised her voice. The most vivid moment: Leonard & George were supposed to be doing the dishes. Instead, they were on the kitchen-floor, fighting.

Suddenly Mother appeared, in nightgown, looking like Lady MacBeth on a bad-hair day. Without a word, she grabbed a dishpan full of dirty water and threw half of it on L & G. They lay there, silent and astonished, while she threw the rest of the dirty water over all the clean dishes in the cupboard, saying 'Wash all these dishes!' and disappeared up the stairs.

It was several minutes before L & G got recollected enough to get up, and indeed, wash all the cupboad dishes.
--------------
Later, it was discovered that you could catch Scarlet Fever from anyone who had a strep throat; so ours was the last S.F. quarantine !
=========
A worse family legend: Just after WWI during the diptheria epidemic, my mother's family (11 children) were quarantined in Cresco, Iowa. Our grandfather stayed elsewhere, and brought them food & supplies. The front door was NAILED SHUT, so exchanges had to be made through a window.
In spite of all precautions, one brother died. His body had to be passed out the window for burial. Gramma was sick also; my poor mother, as the oldest child, had to wash the corpse. She might not have done a very thorough job.

Fifty years later, she still had dreams (half-awake) when she saw this child begging to be washed.
-------------
An offered revision of this latter story: A heroic nun volunteered to live with them during the quarantine. She washed the corpse, with Regina's help.
But that's not how Regina remembered it; she personally told me of the awful half-dreams, decades later.

 
FASCINATING ARTICLE ON BRAIN-PHYSIOLOGY OF EMPATHY:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10mirr.html?pagewanted=1

 
GUERILLAS WIN ALL TIES. A.Cordesman, an expert respected by all sides, concedes some weaknesses of the insurgents. But then he says their central strategy is
a) to deny success to the new govt. (by showing their security helplessness, and by enraging Shiites so they won't make necessary compromises with Sunnis);
and (b) to drive out U.S. troops.

There's every reason to think they're being successful. UnitedPress

 
MORE GUTS THAN BRAINS: Our native militia held a crowded ceremony today, which was of course bombed, with 45 casualties (mostly policemen). Other casualties from the guerillas were announced yesterday and today. ABC/NEWS

One hears of compliments about 'more guts than brains'. But in this case, there seems to have been a severe shortage of brains.

One also hears of moves to form a 'natl. unity govt.', and the journalists of course say that Sunni inclusion 'could' weaken the insurgency.Naturally the elected pols (Sunni & Shia, with a secure income for 4 years) would like peace. But do the insurgents? Do the ordinary Shia, enraged by the Sunni attacks on them? We'll see.
=============
CROSSES DRAWN ON MUSLIM SHOES? Yanks attacked a Sunni mosque in Baghdad. Afterward, Muslim shoes had little crosses drawn on them ! FinTimes

U.S. general said it was absurd to think Yanks did that. And it probably was; one can imagine clever Sunnis drawing the crosses to implicate the blasphemous infidel invaders.

However, when we adopted the role of 'blasphemous infidel invaders', we guaranteed that Iraqis would believe any slander about us--especially once they've heard that Iraqi media--indeed, some Sunni clerics ( ! )--have been bribed by us to deliver our propaganda.

 
FAMED EXPERT WARNS OF COMING RECESSION: G.Soros, brilliant (& benevolent) financier, fears that the Fed.Reserve (trying to ward off feared inflation) will raise short-run interest rates too high. This, plus the collapsing housing bubble, may well trigger U.S. recession in 2007. All this, plus the cheapening dollar, may well slow world economic growth. FinTimes

I've been warning of a similar problem. After all,the price-rises the Fed worries about are solely from rising energy prices; people with no income-rise, who must spend more on energy, must spend less on other things. (The retail stores for ordinary people noted sluggish Christmas spending, even with tremendous discounts offered.) So the long-run danger is of recession, not inflation.
----------
Of course an '07 recession might suit the GOP. A recession in '06 would wreck their chances of retaining Congressional majorities. But a recession in '07, followed by a recovery just before Nov.'08, just might con dumb U.S. voters into supporting GOP.

Of course, recovery might not come before Nov. '08.

 
EUROPEAN SUICIDE? [ ltr to USATODAY ]Europeans don't care much for religion, while Americans go big for church-going. Catholic James Gannon worries that we might follow Europe.

He thinks the different attitudes toward religion might explain 'policy-differences' with Europe. Well, Europe was sensible enough to follow the worldly-wise Vatican's warning that invading Iraq would be 'unjust, illegal, and disastrous'--whereas the strongest backers of the bellicose Bushies are the every-Sunday-church-goers in America.

Our church-going does NOT reduce our enthusiasm for pornography, casual sex, child-abuse, and especially wholesale murder. In fact, the 'red' regions of America, heavy with church-goers, seem to be the most murderous places in the country (allowing for rural/city differences).

Gannon notes the lower birth-rates in Europe than here, and says Europe is committing social suicide. Nonsense; modern technology has made human workers pretty redundant; Europe, like Japan, will prosper with a lower ratio of young people. He doesn't mention the birth-rates of non-Hispanic Americans.

Gannon doesn't mention that Taliban, binLaden, and followers of Zarqawi are intensely religious, but not all that civilized.

Religion makes some people generous and prudent; but it seems to make many people irresponsible, childish, and even murderous.

Or perhaps it is irresponsible, childish, and murderous people who are most enthusiastic for religion.