Monday, January 26, 2004

Democracy Now: Exclusive Interview with Gen. Wesley Clark

General Wesley Clark responds for the first time to in-depth questions about his targeting of civilian infrastructure in Yugoslavia, his bombing of Radio Television Serbia, the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium, the speeding-up of the cockpit video of a bombing of a passenger train to make it appear as though it was an accident and other decisions he made and orders he gave as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander. These are possibly the toughest questions the good General could face, but I am certain he will be facing them from the Bush administration sooner or later....it's best that these questions be put on the table here and now.
Iraq War Not "Humanitarian", Human Rights Watch Group Says
This will be debated for years to come by revisionist historians. Saddam Hussein had a heinous human rights record. The United States played a role in Hussein's access to power during the end of the Cold War era. The U.S. will never be able to totally separate themselves from the fact that they supported Hussein at the time he allegedly gassed the Kurds..his own people. Life may eventually improve for Iraqis because of his removal, but in reality, his worst actions occurred long before the war. The report from Human Rights Watch has said there was no ongoing or imminent mass killing in Iraq when the conflict began. Just as the incessant pre-war claims of an "imminent threat" of WMDS has failed to be truthful, Bush and Blair's claims that a presence of a humanitarian "imminent threat" in 2002-Iraq has also fallen flatly false. We've been had, my fellow Americans. When you realize the truth, you will cry bitter tears.

David Kay's Post-Iraq-Assignment Words Should be Scrutinized
David Kay has said the fundamental errors in the prewar intelligence assessments about Iraq were "so grave that he would recommend that the CIA and other organizations overhaul their intelligence collection and analytical efforts."
Let's remember who David Kay is...who David Kay was...and has been.
After all, he was a part of pre-war Iraq inspections himself.
We should compare each of his statements to fellow-weapons-Inspector Scott Ritter's prewar assessments. It seems David Kay wishes to fault intelligence and lead us to believe we should hold the Bush Administration harmless for their part in cherry-picking the worst parts of intelligence to fit their war plans. The fact that, as David Kay avers, Saddam Hussein was (for all intents and purposes) reduced to a sad, delusional fellow with a weak grip on reality only drives home the fact that before the premptive folly we had him surrounded...contained like a late-June lightning bug in a see-through jar.

The 'War on Terror'--What Are We Doing, In Reality?
I found some of the comments in the above-linked article by Abid Ullah Jan to be incredibly astute.
It relates to a recent report by Jeffrey Record, a professor in the Department of Strategy and International Security at the US Air Force’s Air War College.
I have read another article recently which stated that there has been a recent growth of terror in Iraq (as opposed to a diminishing). Iraqi insurgents are joining with al Qaeda increasingly since Hussein was taken out of the picture. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize the reason: Saddam Hussein was never the threat to begin with. This is why the war on terror will never succeed...and will never end. We aren't going about it the right way. We shall never win hearts and minds by attacking a faith and, by any weakest inferring, propose it be replaced with Western faith (cloaked in the phrase "way of life").
In the article titled "The US war on a way of life", Abid Ullah Jan claims:
Mr. Record supports the concept of “irregular enemy” with the argument that even though “the Taliban and Saddam Hussein regimes were militarily smashed, combat continues, even escalates, in Afghanistan and Iraq.” The reality, however, is that the combat continues simply because the Taliban and Saddam were not the problem.
The “problem” is Islam for being the only ideologically viable alternative to the repressive despots sitting in the Muslim world and some megalomaniacs ruling the West and initiating wars just because God tells their flag bearer to do so.
In America, the Religious Right can be fingered as the cause of so much civil division today with all of their insistence upon their God becoming part and parcel of the government. Are the right-wing Bush and his band of Necons delivering the same message..the same divisive and arrogantly smothering "my God will be your God and governor- or else!"-message with our "war on terror"?
We just can't allow our government to "go there". Going there means entering a world where religion is allowed to arouse hatred, scorn, suspicion, and endless violence between respective "believers". It goes against love and compassion, which is the most basic and common component of most every major religion. Mankind must not allow men to pervert faith to serve a government's purpose. Look at Israel and Palestine...because this is where the United States is headed if we do not change our terror-war philosophy soon.