IRAQ & VIETNAM 8-25-2007

25, August 2007 IRAQ & VIETNAM
Once again, President Bush, in an act extreme of folly and desperation has offered yet another reason to ‘stay the course’ in Iraq   He claims that a hasty exit from our illegal and ill-fated occupation of Iraq will condemn the Iraqis to a similar fate suffered by the Vietnamese and Cambodians after our hasty departure from their respective counties. Conveniently omitted from Bush’s speech is the inconvenient truth that we attacked Vietnam to install a puppet South Vietnamese government to forestall the democratic will of the people who would have elected a Communist government by popular mandate.
The killing fields of Cambodia were a direct consequence of our intervention and bore no connection to our withdrawal. The boat people had little choice but to flee after they were abandoned by their protectors. Contrary to predictions by Kissinger and Nixon, dominoes did not fall and Communism in modern day Vietnam has assumed a distinctive capitalist flavor. However, our legacy of Vietnam lives on effecting the health and wellbeing of the people. Our massive bombing using napalm, land mines and chemical defoliate, Agent Orange, continues to abort the lives of innocent people. The high cancer rate and abnormal births are a tragic commentary to our ill-fated foreign policy blunder. Tragically, Iraqis are suffering similar health problems from our indiscriminate use of depleted uranium. The puppet Iraqi government will no doubt beat a hasty retreat at the first sign of a US withdrawal from Iraq.      

US Between ‘Iraq and a hard place’ 8-24-2007

24, August 2007                     US Between ‘Iraq and a hard place’

Pity the new president, caught between Iraq and a hard place.

Sadly, many Americans are under the illusion that Democrats will ride into town like ‘Wild West’ gang busters to drive out the bad guys (read big, bad Republicans) and usher in an  era of honesty, integrity and a new, enlightened foreign policy. It is true that there may be a few minor gains in domestic policy but foreign policy will remain essentially the same. There has always been bi-partisan consensus that the U.S must control major foreign resources to continue feeding the US corporate juggernaut regardless of the human consequences. Under the smokescreen of ‘ushering in democracy’ and ridding Iraq of our former ally Saddam Hussein, we planned to relieve Iraq of its oil and establish permanent military bases from which to launch future military adventures and offer protection to Israel so that it could continue its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland. The leading Democratic president contenders agree that we cannot forego our imperial designs and must therefore remain in Iraq indefinitely.

No politician, Democrat or Republican, barring the courageous Dennis Kucinich, has categorically stated that he would withdraw US forces from Iraq unconditionally. Instead, the candidates continue to support a policy of “order” and “stability” which are merely code words for continued American hegemony. Furthermore, instead of initiating impeachment proceedings to hold the president accountable for a host of high crimes, the weak and unprincipled Democrats granted the thoroughly disgraced Alberto Gonzalez and his boss unchecked powers. This was accomplished by voting to grant legality to an illegal activity by rewriting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, euphemistically called the Protect America Act. Largely ignored is the inherent danger of granting the Bush administration such powers which he has so consistently abused to stifle dissent and intensify the propaganda war which has drawn us into disastrous conflicts. As Anthony Romero of the ACLU ruefully reflected – “this congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the PATRIOT Act or the Military Commissions Act.” It is time for readers to break their long silence and demand accountability from their elected officials.

IRAQ 8-23-2007

August 23, 2007 IRAQ
An extremely disturbing article appeared in the London Guardian, describing exhaustion and combat stress reducing the effectiveness of US troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Guardian reports US troops harboring seething resentment against the US media and Washington politicians who offer misleading sunny reports of successful combat missions to justify ‘the surge.’ Many soldiers have become addicted to drinking ‘Rip it and ‘Red Bull’ to stay alert. The war has caused havoc in soldier’s lives - the prolonged absences generating large numbers of divorces, increasing numbers of suicides and emotional and physical trauma. 
Anecdotal reports confirm what General Powell has been insisting for months, namely that the US army is ‘about broken’. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have destroyed a staggering 40 per cent of the US army’s equipment totaling $212 billion. Officers are leaving in alarming numbers and only one-third of the regular army is designated as combat ready. These statistics fly in the face of misstatements by White House and Pentagon officials. More and more combat missions are being launched from the air causing a significant increase in Iraqi civilian fatalities fueling more resentment against the occupation forces. It is time for citizens across the country to break their silence and demand an immediate withdrawal of all foreign occupation forces from Iraq. This is the only way we can collectively demonstrate support for our troops and stop the mayhem we helped to create.    

Karl Rove 8-14-2007

                                                                                    
14, August 2007                     Karl Rove
It certainly seems like the rats are deserting the sinking White House ship in growing numbers. Now comes the startling news that Karl Rove, the deputy chief of staff, “Bush’s brain’’ , is resigning, effective August 31. Rove’s imminent departure is no doubt precipitated by his shadowy role in the politicization of the Justice Department’s firing of nine US attorneys and the looming “sub-prime” mortgage loan debacle. It will certainly be interesting to see how Rove plans to continue to defy subpoenas issued by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a layman unprotected by current claims of executive privilege.


Rove barely escaped indictment for revealing Valerie Plame’s identity as a undercover CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak and Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper. Let us hope the Democrats will find the moral courage to investigate Rove and his ilk, who have been playing fast and loose with the law. It will be increasingly difficult for the “decider” to deflect growing disenchantment with his leadership and now founds himself trapped between “Iraq and a hard place”. It is entirely possible that Bush will manufacture a “new crisis” to deflect attention from the ‘sub-crime’ scandal where two million Americans face foreclosure of their homes.  

Warrantless Surrender 8-8-2007

8, August 2007                                   Warrantless Surrender

Once again, the Democrats buckled under pressure and collectively drove a giant stake through our vanishing democracy. Instead of holding Bush and company accountable for illegally spying on millions of Americans (arguably an impeachment offence), they granted the thoroughly disgraced Alberto Gonzalez and his boss unchecked powers. Once again, Bush’s use of the fear factor so paralyzed the Democrats that they succumbed and voted to grant legality to an illegal activity by rewriting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, euphemistically called the Protect America Act. Largely ignored is the inherent danger of granting the Bush administration such powers which he has so consistently abused to stifle dissent and intensify the propaganda war which has drawn us into disastrous conflicts. As Anthony Romero of the ACLU ruefully reflected” This congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the PATRIOT Act or the Military Commissions Act.”