Robert Muller: Good Morning, World-
Earth Peace Plan 2010

"....Since so many of my dreams have been fulfilled during my life, I believe that dreams are the surest ways to new realities.

My ultimate dream is to see this Earth preserved and improved as the most beautiful paradise in the universe with a humanity living in peace, well-being and utmost happiness in it.

Is that dream too big? I do not believe so. All we have to do is to dream it, to want it, to work for it and it will happen."

Paul Krugman on Iraq: We Should Be Deeply Disturbed About the History of This War


"...as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.."

__________________

Excerpt:

"......Now maybe, just maybe, Saddam's capture will start a virtuous circle in Iraq. Maybe the insurgency will evaporate; maybe the cost to America, in blood, dollars and national security, will start to decline.

But even if all that happens, we should be deeply disturbed by the history of this war. For its message seems to be that as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.

By now, we've become accustomed to the fact that the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction — the principal public rationale for the war — hasn't become a big political liability for the administration. That's bad enough. Even more startling is the news from one of this week's polls: despite the complete absence of evidence, 53 percent of Americans believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, up from 43 percent before his capture. The administration's long campaign of guilt by innuendo, it seems, is still working.

The war's more idealistic supporters do, I think, feel queasy about all this. That's why they lay so much stress on their hopes for democracy in Iraq. They're not just looking for a happy ending; they're looking for moral redemption for a war fought on false pretenses."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harold Myerson's Statement on the topic is here:

American Prospect: Muted Joy
Why Saddam Hussein's capture is a terrific result of a terrible policy.

"....The ousting of the Baathists is not just good in itself; it's great in itself. But it was never simply "in itself," of course. Ousting Hussein as Bush undertook the task also required a rewriting of the norms of international conduct in favor of wars of choice, and the norms of domestic discourse in favor of systematic presidential deception, of waging a war on false pretenses. From the vantage point of any street corner in Baghdad, these changes, I acknowledge, may seem damned inconsequential. But we are not in Baghdad, and what were imperatives there were always choices here.

We do not know what will ultimately follow Saddam Hussein, whether in five years' time we will be opposing some militant, theocratic regime that has risen in its place. What's before us now, though, with all the irony of which history is capable, is a terrific consequence of a terrible policy...."

Americans Are Not Only Angry With the Bush Administration, They Are Fed Up With
Politics-as-Usual Democrats

Democrats like Joe Lieberman are accusing Howard Dean of dividing the party, but I beg to differ.
A mirror is available just about anywhere one goes..and really, attacking the front-running candidate with the most bluntly-honest and original ideas when Saddam Hussein gets captured only makes one look petty and opportunist.
Today's Washington-Democrats seem afraid of facing our future and our common destiny..relying upon old and tired (and filthy) political tactics.

In 2000, after having a Presidential election hijacked by a partisan, Republican-coddling Judiciary, millions of intelligent Americans had a major awakening of consciousness to the fact that we needed to change the very face of politics or see our democracy die.

We have become utterly and painfully aware of many of our own cowering Democratic representatives.
In October, 2002, being faced with the Iraq Resolution, they let Bush run roughshod over them..abandoning their own courage and intuition. If they'd gone with their guts, wisdom, and instincts, their handling of the challenging situation might have had the conclusion of revealing them as brilliant leaders. Alas, in fear of how they'd be politicaly perceived if they had dared to stand up to Bush, they dismally failed us.

After 9-11, we find that the American PEOPLE are far braver, intuitive, and consciously aware than our Representatives have been.

Howard Dean matches our courage, shares our intuition, welcomes our participation, respects our awareness.
This is what makes him a winner..not his "anger".

In the poem "The Song of a Man Who Has Come Through", D.H. Lawrence wrote:

"Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!"

The winds of the hijacked election; the winds of 9-11; the winds of great job losses in America; and the winds of the lies we were fed day after day during the lead-up to the PNAC-planned Iraq war have blown through Americans and we are more than aware that there is a new direction we must take for our future.

Yesterday's 'Washington-insider' Democrats cannot convince us that they are looking forward.

The more you tell Americans they can go about business as usual as their job-foundations are sucked away under their needy feet, the more Americans will resent you when they find their jobs are gone.

The more you tell Americans their opinions aren't worth anything and proceed to give an untrustworthy President a blank check to attack another nation... even when you see hundreds of thousands of those good Americans protesting BEFORE that war is begun, the more Americans will resent and disrespect you for your ignorance and blind compliance.

The Democratic party must show itself as clear, strong, steadfast, innovative, hopeful, respectful of its diverse constituency (without becoming mired down in the any-varied issues), respectful of each and every person who feels they can make a difference and wishes to participate in the great gift the Founders of this nation created for them, and gutsy and honest enough to tell Americans they are living falsely-materialistic lives. We will have to pay the piper somewhere along the line....or it's damn certain our children will pay for our hypocrisy, greed, lies and ignorance.

My parents had more opportunity than their parents.
I had more opportunity than my own parents.
My son may not even see an opportunity-level close to my own.

We have to ask ourselves....what the hell is happening?

Wake up, Democrats.

We, the People, are awakened; aware.
The winds have come through and we are carried by them.
You've only been fighting them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!

If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!



If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;

If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.



Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them...

D.H. Lawrence

Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003

AP: A Roll Call of the Greats Who Died in 2003

These are only a few.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another Roll Call Representing the Loss of Greatness Among Us

The American Soldier is the Time Magazine "Person of the Year".

This is just one of those great souls...Spc. Brandon Tobler of Portland, Oregon.
He died in a Humvee accident during a blinding sandstorm early last Spring in Iraq.
He was 19 years old.

In a last, hurried e-mail to his aunt from somewhere in the deserts of the Middle East, Tobler wrote that if he could help make one family safe during this war in Iraq, he would've made a difference. He would've done his duty. link



If you click on his photo, you will see just one of the small acts done in his honor..it is an act of love and
respect in memory of his service to our country.
There are hundreds like this brave young person....and hundreds upon hundreds more who knew and loved them.

Please remember them all in your prayers this holiday season.

Dean Announces Foreign Policy & National Security Advisors

I read this news on Veterans for Dean blog:

Press release from the Dean campaign on Blogformerica.com:

Governor Dean today announced the team of distinguished experts who will advise his campaign on national security and foreign policy. Dean will deliver a major address on national security today in Los Angeles at 1:30 pm ET (10:30 am PT). We will post a transcript as soon as it is available. The advisors are:

Benjamin R. Barber is Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland and is the author "Strong Democracy," "Jihad Vs. McWorld," and "Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism And Democracy." He has been an informal advisor to former President Bill Clinton.

Ashton B. Carter is Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Harvard-Stanford Preventive Defense Project and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in the Clinton administration.

Ivo H. Daalder is a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and served as Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

Morton H. Halperin served as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Elisa D. Harris is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and former Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration.

General Joseph Hoar (USMC, Ret.) served as Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command.

Major General Randy Jayne (USAF, Ret.) is currently a Senior Partner with Heidrick & Struggles in McLean, VA. Prior to retiring from the Air Force and the Air National Guard, he served on the National Security Council staff, in the Office of Management and Budget. He was also the President of a major aerospace and defense operating company.

Franklin D. Kramer is Of Counsel to the law firm of Shea & Gardner and served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for President Clinton.

Anthony Lake is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He served as National Security Advisor to President Clinton.

General Merrill McPeak (USAF, Ret.) served as U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff during the first Persian Gulf War.

Clyde Prestowitz is President of the Economic Strategy Institute and served as Counsel to the Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan Administration. He is the author of "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions."

Susan E. Rice is Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy and Governance Studies at The Bookings Institution and served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

Jeffrey Sachs is Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and has served as an advisor to many developing nations.

Admiral Stansfield Turner (USN, Ret.) formerly served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

William Woodward is former Deputy Director Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State.

The new team of advisors adds to the group that has been informally advising the governor. For over a year and a half, Danny E. Sebright, Associate Vice President of the Cohen Group, has been Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Governor Dean. In addition to helping the campaign develop national security and foreign policy, he has spearheaded the process of recruiting the team of advisors.

Colonel Richard L. Klass (USAF, Ret.), a Washington area international security and business consultant, has conducted outreach to the military community for the campaign for nearly a year. A Rhodes Scholar and former White House Fellow, Colonel Klass was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for combat in Vietnam during his Air Force career. Lionel Johnson, Vice President and Director of International Government Relations of Citigroup Inc., is also assisting with the campaign's outreach efforts to the foreign policy community. Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Johnson served in the Departments of State and Treasury, and was formerly a foreign service officer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See Rodger A. Payne's blog for information and opinion about some of the people on this list.

Jim Wallis: Dangerous Religion - Bush's Theology of Empire



Is George W. Bush a blasphemer?

".....It's not a surprise to note that the global church does not generally support the foreign policy goals of the Bush administration—whether in Iraq, the Middle East, or the wider "war on terrorism." Only from inside some of our U.S. churches does one find religious voices consonant with the visions of American empire..."

"....In Christian theology, it is not nations that rid the world of evil—they are too often caught up in complicated webs of political power, economic interests, cultural clashes, and nationalist dreams. The confrontation with evil is a role reserved for God, and for the people of God when they faithfully exercise moral conscience. But God has not given the responsibility for overcoming evil to a nation-state, much less to a superpower with enormous wealth and particular national interests. To confuse the role of God with that of the American nation, as George Bush seems to do, is a serious theological error that some might say borders on idolatry or blasphemy..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duane Shank: The Project for a New American Empire
Who are these guys? And why do they think they can rule the world?


"We will crush you....mwuhaha!"

"....The plan of the Project for the New American Century must be countered with a vision that insists militarization and pre-emptive war is not the path to real security. We must advance the vision of a world where international institutions are strengthened rather than destroyed, where global poverty is seriously addressed, where all countries, including the United States, are disarming their weapons of mass destruction, and where human rights are taken seriously. People of faith and goodwill in this country and around the world stood up by the millions to oppose the war against Iraq. We must now continue that opposition—through doing justice, loving compassion, and walking with God in the struggle."

Rutland Herald-
Dean warns: 'Blather' is bad for Democrats

I love that word....blather.
I used it (and provided the Merriam Webster definition) just recently in this blog-entry.

Gov. Dean makes some great points:

"..This is not good for the Democratic Party to have this blather going on in Washington..."

"....While chastising his opponents for causing internal party strife, he joined in, saying congressional Democrats who supported the war "backed away from what was right." ...I think it's very clear that Democrats in Washington have said anything they can to change the course of what's happening here," Dean said in a state where the polls have him 25 to 29 percentage points ahead...."

"...I think the Democratic Party has to offer a clear alternative to the American people," he said. "The capture of one bad man doesn't mean the president and Washington Democrats can declare victory in the war on terrorism. The question is what is right, not what is popular."Real dangers ranging from stateless terrorists to the nuclear threat from North Korea must be confronted, he said.

"The truth is, Americans are no safer from these serious threats than they were the day before Saddam Hussein was captured," he said. "We are no safer today than the day the planes struck the World Trade Center."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This goes along with what Gov. Dean is saying:
NY Times: Terrorism Drills Showed Lack of Preparedness, Report Says

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And this...
Newhouse News:
WASHINGTON -- The capture of a powerless and virtually helpless Saddam Hussein, alleged mastermind of Iraq's bloody resistance, has exposed a major flaw in American strategy in the war on terrorism, analysts say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Washington Times: According to the National Intelligence Council, new report says the near-future for Iraq looks mighty bleak.

See National Intelligence Council Report here: The Middle East to 2020

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashcroft's terror-cases are mostly fizzling...
Boston Globe: Few jailed in terror cases, study says

"..About 6,400 people were referred by investigators for criminal charges involving terrorism in the two years after the attacks, but fewer than one-third were charged and only 879 were convicted, according to government records reviewed by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The median prison sentence was 14 days, according to a study by clearinghouse codirectors David Burnham and Susan P. Long. Only five people were sentenced to 20 years or more.
Critics seized on the numbers to question whether Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top law enforcement officials have been overstating the success of their antiterrorism efforts..."

My vote for TTLB's Showcase this week:
What's so wrong about peace, love and higher taxes?

Open Democracy: The UN in 2003- a year of living dangerously

The crisis over Iraq has brought the United Nations to a crossroads. At the end of a year when diplomacy was felled by force, the institution can regain its influence only by rethinking its core security mandate.

U.S. Army News/Soldier Stories:
Soldier improves Humvee protection

An improvising reservist has been using his engineering skills to help provide better protection to Soldiers riding around Iraq in unarmored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles.

Capt. Darryl M. Butler, a facility engineer for Task Force 1st Armored Division’s 354th Civil Affairs Brigade, an Army Reserve unit from Riverdale, Md., is the type of Soldier who is never satisfied with equipment that is simply “adequate.”
Currently, Butler is working with a growing team of Iraqi engineers, including metal workers, sprayers and welders, piecing together his new brainchild: the Modified Protection for un-Armored Humvees.
More than 900 pounds of steel in a 25-piece kit make up what has been dubbed “The Butler Mobile,” a custom, modular armor plating system designed to be an addition to soft-top Humvees.
The kit includes door pieces, floor plates and a bolt-on fortress for the rear and roof, all of which put a layer of heavy steel between Soldiers and whatever the enemy throws at them, Butler said.

Online Journalism Review: A Look Back at 2003,
and What's on the Horizon for the Online News Universe

".....This is the year when citizens' media exploded. In the U.S., the population of Webloggers grew, their audiences grew, and their influence grew..."

"....."Watch Weblogs and citizens' media bring freedom of expression and democracy to other lands next year. Whether in a small town in Iran or Iraq or America, citizens' media means that anyone can now own a printing press and has the power that goes with it. That will revolutionize news, media, politics, government, and marketing."
-- Jeff Jarvis, blogger and president of Advance.net

Ivo Daalder: Whatever We Do, We Can't Cut and Run
December 15, 2003

".....what does the capture of the Butcher of Baghdad mean for America's continued involvement in Iraq? Many people both within and outside the Bush administration are touting yesterday's news as sealing America's strategic victory. We went into Iraq to get Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, they say. We never found the weapons, but we have found Hussein. We should now be able to start reducing our involvement in Iraq."

"....U.S. military commanders in Iraq have been saying for months that Hussein was not leading the insurgency. Although his capture may deal the insurgents a temporary psychological blow, it does nothing to weaken their ability to attack U.S and foreign forces as well as Iraqis cooperating in the rebuilding of Iraq.The insurgents' goal, moreover, remains unchanged. Iraq has long been a winner-take-all society, and insurgents aim to be the winner in post-Saddam Iraq. The only way they can achieve that goal is by making the occupation so painful that the Bush administration abandons the Iraqi people and orders a precipitous departure of American troops."

"...while yesterday's good news does not represent an opportunity for the United States to withdraw, it does represent an opportunity to get Iraq right."

My Favorite New Blog Discovery: TomDispatch

I discovered Tom Engelhardt's weblog via this Mother Jones "Daily Mojo" feature. It's a great read.
I especially appreciated the section about the Pentagon's urge to put the military, which occupies much of the world via its 700-plus bases, into the private "hands" of small numbers of corporate entities. Tom mentions the recent Georgian 'Velvet Revolution' and Rumsfeld's quick arrival on the scene. These lines appeared in a NY Times article's "fourth paragraph in a Thom Shankar report tucked away inside the paper, but at least you can count three countries and a pipeline in it":
".....The United States views Georgia as a strategic partner, in part for its location, along an arc of instability in a region thought to be a crossroads for terrorists. A pipeline set to open in 2005 linking Azerbaijan, which Mr. Rumsfeld visited Thursday, and Turkey, NATO's only Islamic member, runs across Georgia, as well."



Tom's weblog is a project of the Nation Institute.
It appears that the weblog's been around since May, 2003. If you haven't seen it yet, pay a visit.

From the site:

Tomdispatch.com is researched, written and edited by Tom Engelhardt, a fellow at the Nation Institute, for anyone in despair over post-September 11th US mainstream media coverage of our world and ourselves. The service is intended to introduce you to voices from elsewhere (even when the elsewhere is here) who might offer a clearer sense of how this imperial globe of ours actually works.
An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War era. He is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow of the Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley.

Diane Sawyer/Bush Interview:
No WMDs in Iraq--"So what's the difference?" says Bush

".....In the debate over the necessity for the war in Iraq, few issues have been more contentious than whether Saddam Hussein possessed arsenals of banned weapons, as the Bush administration repeatedly said, or instead was pursuing weapons programs that might one day constitute a threat..."

Bush's response to Diane Sawyer about the topic:
"So what's the difference?"

Could the difference be that the Bush Administration lied to the American public nearly every day?

Look at the lies...many of those lies are right HERE.


The NY Times did their own unique part in spreading propaganda through this woman..Judith Miller--a disgrace to the world of journalism

What's the difference that over 400 soldiers have died in order to find a tin-pot dictator hiding in a hole in his own piss with nothing more than a can of Happy Tuna, some broken eggs, and a broken spirit?

Look at all those vibrant, on-the-move, hate-empowered terrorists who are NOT hiding, but running amok in the once tightly-yet-brutally controlled land of Iraq.

Think about how that tin-pot dictator known as Saddam was once contained like a bug in a jar by the UN before all the frenzied fundies from the varied Islamic sects inciting civil war were unleashed by Bush's pre-emptive dream-come-real!

So what's the difference?

Here's the difference.

Bush lied. Nobody likes a liar. Especially when the liar comes back later and tells you he doesn't even care that he lied to you.
His pre-emptive war caused death upon many. It was based on the premise that those he sentenced to his brand of war-death posed an IMMINENT threat to America.
It turned out not to be IMMINENT at all.
Bush doesn't think that's important.
His liar's war caused more danger than was present before..not only for innocent people throughout the Middle East, but for America. It's a natural consequence of universal law: an increase in hate will cause an increase in danger..unless we keep murdering those we've caused to hate us. What a ridiculous cycle! When will we learn?

When will an unexpected nuke appear upon our shores? Where is Homeland Security when a young man like Nathaniel Heatwole can stash box-cutters on airplanes and have to BEG the FBI by e-mail to pay him some attention and find the items? While we're shooting at Iraqi protestors at their rallies and playing into Osama Bin Laden's dream of a religious war (without the physical or moral support of most of our former allies), is there a danger we are not anticipating brewing from the most unexpected source?


art credit: A Taplet

Let's face it, intelligence was God-awful before all of this. Richard Perle and Douglas Feith picked what sounded really convincing from a pile of utter garbage-intelligence and fed it to the public through their Bushpuppet and Cheneymannequin every day as we led up to hitting Iraq last Spring.

What's the difference?

The difference is this: We aren't going to vote for a liar who is bold enough to tell us he doesn't care, in the end, whether we've swallowed the lies or not.


**See Paul Krugman's "Telling It Right" which was published in the NY Times a couple days after I wrote this entry....***

Now maybe, just maybe, Saddam's capture will start a virtuous circle in Iraq. Maybe the insurgency will evaporate; maybe the cost to America, in blood, dollars and national security, will start to decline.
But even if all that happens, we should be deeply disturbed by the history of this war. For its message seems to be that as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.

Bill O'Reilly, unable to graciously take the news that his book sales lagged behind Al Franken's, goes off on the messenger.
"....O'Reilly called the DRUDGE REPORT a "threat to democracy."


Threat to wha..??? Who..me..???

Did O'Reilly say Matt's a "threat to democracy"?!?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
The poor, loud, splotchy egotist!


More on the news at Al Franken Web

St Petersburg Times Editorial:
Cheney's contempt for the democratic process is on open-ended recipe for unaccountable government
".....The Supreme Court has agreed to answer this question: Does the Bush administration work for the American people or exist to front for the oil and gas industry?"

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Unions rip attacks on Dean- Feighan's group pulls TV ads

"..."I think they're pulling the ad because they've done more damage to Dick Gephardt than any of his opponents could ever have hoped to have done."

Rick Sloane-
Communications Director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

A Burning Lust For Armageddon-
JNW News: CBN chief [Pat Robertson]: "It's a religious war"

So he couldn't convince any of his 700-Club followers to nuke Foggy Bottom.
Maybe he can encourage some more bloodshed over in the Holy Land.


"If God's chosen people turn over to Allah control of their most sacred sites....if they believe their claim to the Holy Land comes only from Lord Balfour of England and the ever fickle United Nations rather than the promises of Almighty God -then in that event, Islam will have won the battle...Throughout the Muslim world the message will go forth, "Nah-Nah! Allah is greater than Jehovah."

".....Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Director Pat Robertson said Wednesday the world is convulsed in a religious struggle in which the central issue is whether Islam's Allah or the LORD God of the Jews and Christians is supreme..."

After the Capture of Saddam Hussein...

Robert Scheer: We Got Him...Now What?

"....The capture of Hussein, while providing the President with fantastic propaganda footage, does nothing to make us safer from international terrorism. It could, however, shine a harsh light on Washington's decade-long military and economic support of the barbaric Hussein in his war against Iran's religious fanatics, who were making inroads with their brethren in Iraq..."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Wait Until Saddam Begins To Sing- -
Republicans Not Only Tolerated Chemical Warfare in late 80s, but SOLD Chem/Bio Weapons to Iraq

".....Publicly, the United States maintained neutrality during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which began in 1980.

Privately, however, the administrations of Reagan and George H.W. Bush sold military goods to Iraq, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological agents, worked to stop the flow of weapons to Iran, and undertook discreet diplomatic initiatives, such as the two Rumsfeld trips to Baghdad, to improve relations with Hussein...."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


BBC News: Vatican slams handling of Saddam

"....A top Roman Catholic official has attacked the way Saddam Hussein was treated by his US captors, saying he had been dealt with like an animal..."

**What are these constant televised images telling our children about our own society's basic morality,
regardless of the sins this man has committed?
What do our children think when they hear our President pushing the
hopes for the penalty of death for this man when he has never even looked into the face of Saddam Hussein and had refused to speak with him when he had the chance..before this stubborn and one-sided war plan was propelled into reality, causing the deaths of so many? When Bush responded to Saddam Hussein's proposal for a debate, his
then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer wontonly dismissed it as "not serious". Not serious? According to whom, I wonder?
Even in Kindergarten, we were made to understand that communication meant everything when it came to
heading off a recess brawl.***

~~~~~~~~~~~

Derrick Z. Jackson: Still no mass weapons, no ties to 9/11, no truth


"...Bush told the world we were going to secure America and liberate Iraqis at the same time. With no weapons of mass destruction, with no nuclear weapons, and with no tie to 9/11, Saddam's capture could not possibly have been worth the lives of 455 US and 80 European soldiers. With no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear weapons, and no tie to 9/11, it could not possibly been worth the lives of 7,600 to 45,000 Iraqi soldiers. With no rationale for the invasion, you could consider this a massacre..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Boston Globe: War crimes trial ahead for Saddam but how, when, by whom?

"...Any decision to seek the death penalty, in particular, could risk key international support for the process and leave Washington [US Taxpayers] with a bill for hundreds of millions of dollars.."

~~~~~~~~~

Jane's Intelligence Digest: Saddam - the can of worms

"....Few are naïve enough to believe that international politics is anything but a dirty business that may require co-operation with repressive and sordid regimes. However, putting Saddam on trial for crimes committed throughout his long term of office is likely to invite the defence to raise a whole raft of awkward questions about the West's role - and particularly that of the USA - in bringing Saddam to power in the Iraqi coup d'etat of 1968 and in sustaining him, often covertly, during the Iran-Iraq war of 1981-1988..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James Carroll: Amid the cheers, sobering facts

"....The United States did not attack Iraq because of Hussein's wickedness (The world is rife with wicked tyrants). It did so because Hussein posed an imminent threat to his neighbors and America, and there was no other way to stop that threat. Additionally, Washington tied Hussein to 9/11 (an Al Qaeda-Iraq meeting in Prague), making the war against Iraq necessary to the war on terrorism.
It is already clear that these justifications were false. Even if Hussein now revealed a stock of chemical or biological agents, the question of "imminence" would remain, because post-invasion investigations have established that no weaponized agents were ready to use. And as for the Hussein connection with 9/11 (What meeting in Prague?), that has been exposed as fantasy.
The war in Iraq is more the result of America's agenda than Hussein's. The violence in Iraq (multiple bombings since Hussein's capture) is a result of Washington's terrible miscalculations. The threat from terrorism (Pakistan's leader nearly assassinated) has been made worse by Bush policies. The structure of American alliances has been needlessly undermined (hence James Baker's mission). America's extreme belligerence is imitated elsewhere (Sharon's faith in "overwhelming force"), making the world far more dangerous. These issues must not be blotted out in the glare of the media celebration of Saddam Hussein's capture.... "

~~~~~~~~~

Wesley Clark Voices His Plan to Bring Hussein to Justice

".....He believes that Saddam's trial should be held in Iraq.
He believes it's necessary to work with the international community in laying out procedures and charges against Saddam.
Thirdly, he wants to compile evidence and conduct hearings in Iraq on issues of concern to the international community. Finally, he believes the death penalty should be on the table as a possible punishment."