Bush’s Speech 9-17-2005

17, September 2005               Bush’s Speech           

Bush’s speech to the nation last Thursday was a disappointing spectacle aimed at saving his beleaguered presidency and buttressing his declining approval ratings. The speed and efficiently of Karl Rove’s ‘makeover ‘image team, that offered the president a backdrop for his speech, was a sharp contrast to the glacial speed of the FEMA bureaucrats responsible for the Katrina relief efforts.

Bush’s tardy and disorganized performance to Katrina was eerily similar to his September 11 response exposing his complete lack of leadership qualities. There is little doubt that ‘no bid’ contracts will be offered to the well-connected Republican corporate benefactors who will return the favor by opening up their purse strings at election time to ensure the process of mutual enrichment continues.  Lucrative contracts have already been awarded to Halliburton, Bechtel and Flour Daniels, totally oblivious of the massive accounting fraud already perpetrated against US taxpayers in their virtual rebuilding efforts in Iraq. Billions of dollars will be squandered, with little oversight and when the dust settles, the poor and impoverished will be forgotten and invisible, the corporate robber barons will become richer and an enormous debt will be bequeathed to our children and the yet unborn.

Gaza Evacuation 8-17-2005

17, August 2005                                 Gaza Evacuation

We Americans must share the blame for the fiasco masquerading as US Middle East policy. We have funded Israel's occupation, colonization of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and must therefore share the responsibility of aiding and abetting the enormous repression and suffering of the Palestinians. American Jews and the former settlers of Gaza should vent their anger and outrage against the Israeli government and Ariel Sharon, the undisputed architect of these illegal settlements. Since the inception of Israel in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their land and thousands of acres expropriated for the exclusive use of Israel's Jewish citizens.

Israeli historians, Israeli Human rights organizations and leading Israeli journalist, Amira Mass, have been highly critical of Israel's apartheid policy of ethnic cleansing. Consider one example of such a disparity. A majority of the Jewish settlers have accepted a compensation package - between $150,000 to $400,000 - from the Israeli government in return for leaving Gaza. In addition, they are reimbursed removal expenses and receive 2 years free rent! By contrast the thousands of Palestinians working for the settlers will receive nothing. Israel is seeking an additional $2 billion dollars in more aid to help defray operating costs to vacate the Gaza Strip which was seized illegally! While much of the world focuses on the evacuation of the Gaza Strip, Israel continues to build more settlements in the West Bank and is expropriating more Palestinian land to construct the apartheid wall. Such actions tarnish the image of the Jewish faith which is supposedly  based on truth, peace and justice for all.

Israel 8-3-2005

3, August 2005                        Response to local letter RE: Israel

It is a pity that Shree Roth (Daily Tuesday August 2) failed to digest the premise of my letter regarding reparations for actions violating basic human rights. Roth's blinkered vision of the Middle East betrays her obvious bias. Roth fails to condemn the polices of the Bush administration which has caused so much suffering to the Iraqi people. The 'shock and awe' campaign based on 'cooked intelligence' has resulted in tens of thousands of Iraqi fatalities and over 1800 US soldiers. We attacked a sovereign state who posed no threat to us and we are therefore morally responsible to compensate the Iraqis for loss of life and property. Has Roth ignored our own history? Our ancestors were the enemy combatants or insurgents repelling the imperial armies of the British.

My original letter asked the Muslim community to unequivocally condemn the actions of the suicide bombers and offer to pay reparations to the families of the victims. Roth may not be aware that a disproportionate number of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army. International and Israeli human rights groups have condemned such killings. Should not the families of all victims be compensated? Killing innocent civilians can never be justified and must be universally condemned. These are crimes against humanity and violate the basic tenets all religious faiths.

Israel undermining the PA 8-1-2005

1, August 2005                       Israel undermining the PA

It has patently evident to the most doubting Thomas that Ariel Sharon is hoping that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and President Mahmoud Abbas will implode following the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Sharon has made every effort to undermine Abbas’s PA and prevent it becoming a potent force to maintain law and order and thus serve as a reason to continue to maintain check points, and persecution of the Palestinians. Consider the facts. The PA was destroyed by the Israeli military three years ago and ceased to function as a stabilizing force to maintain law and order. Currently it is ill-equipped and under-armed and is in desperate need to have its security equipment upgraded. The US government has finally acknowledged this dire need and appointed Lt. General William Ward to coordinate the overhaul of PA’s arms and equipment. Predictably, the Israeli government has prevented the importation of new armed vehicles and a fresh supply of arms. This is yet another shameful example of the ‘the tail wagging the dog’ to ensure the PA fails in its mission thereby allowing Israel to continue its oppression of the Palestinian people and theft of its land and resources.

Isreal 7-11-2005

11, July 2005                          Israel

Once again Israel has demonstrated its callous disregard for the legitimate rights of the Palestinians. Israel has now admitted that its separation barrier in Jerusalem will cut off a staggering 55,000 Palestinians - about a quarter of the city's Arab

population from the rest of the city. More illegal settlements are planned in the West Bank The Israeli announcement came a year and a day after the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the separation barrier inside the West Bank violated international law. It is tragic that US taxpayers continue to support Israel's land theft and ethnic cleansing by funding illegal settlements, construction of the separation wall and arms shipments which have been used to subjugate the Palestinians. Israel continues to be the largest recipient of US aid. Last year, it received $2.3 billion in military aid and $500 million in economic assistance. According to the Israeli embassy, Israel has received $100 billion since its founding in 1948. The Israeli government has now made an additional request for the costs incurred for resettling the illegal squatters in the Gaza Strip.

The new Israeli request is in addition to the regular annual assistance provided by Washington. It is time for US taxpayers to be heard. This continuous largesse cannot be tolerated. The blatant US partiality towards Israel is fueling much of the rage and frustration of the Palestinians and exposes the  hypocrisy of the US Middle East policy. Peace will never reign until the legitimate rights of the Palestinians has been realized.

Israel’s Apartheid Wall 7-7-2005

7 July, 2005                  Israel’s Apartheid Wall

Once again Israel has demonstrated its callous disregard for the legitimate rights of the Palestinians. Israel has now admitted that its apartheid wall will cut off a staggering 55,000 Palestinians - about a quarter of the city's Arab population . from the rest of the city. More illegal settlements are planned in the West Bank The Israeli announcement came a year and a day after the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the separation barrier inside the West Bank violated international law.

It is tragic that US taxpayers continue to support Israel’s land theft by funding illegal settlements, construction of the separation wall and arms shipments which have been used to subjugate the Palestinians. Israel continues to be the largest recipient of US aid. Last year, it received $2.3 billion in military aid and $500 million in economic assistance. According to the Israeli embassy, Israel has received $100 billion since its founding in 1948. The Israeli government has now made an additional request for the costs incurred for resettling the illegal squatters in the Gaza Strip.

The new Israeli request is in addition to the regular annual assistance provided by Washington.

It is time for US taxpayers to be heard. This continuous largesse cannot be tolerated. The blatant US partiality towards Israel is fueling much of the rage and frustration of the Palestinians and exposes the   hypocrisy of the US Middle East policy. Peace will never reign until the legitimate rights of the Palestinians have been granted. 

Sale of F16’s to Pakistan 6-11-2005

11 June, 2005                         Sale of F16’s to Pakistan

I am pleased to make an exception to my usual diatribe against Indian politicians. Jaswant Singh deserves credit for his harsh criticism of the U.S. decision to supply arms to Pakistan, a country that can hardly lay claim to being a pillar of democracy and freedom. What is surprising is the deafening silence of the vast population of Indo- Americans in opposing the planned sale to Pakistan of F-16 fighter jets capable of delivering nuclear war heads. How many of your readers are more interested in the obscene profits of Halliburton, Bechtel and Lockheed Martin than creating a world order based on peace and justice? Surely, the message of our religious masters is to revere and protect all of his people - especially the voiceless and powerless. The grand duchess of the imperial empire, Condi Rice clarified the core of American foreign policy in stark terms -"to promote American interests (code language for corporate interests)".

The timing of such a sale could not have come at a worse time. Just as India and Pakistan are tip toeing to a period of rapprochement and lowering tensions, the decision is certain to escalate tensions and reignite the arms race. Consider the facts: the U.S. invades Iraq, a country that didn't possess WMD's and had no alliance to Al Qaeda and rewards Pakistan, after Islamabad admitted that Pakistani nuclear weapons trafficker Abdul Wader Khan — the father of his nation's nuclear bomb — provided Iran and Libya with the centrifuges essential to such a program. This make a mockery of U.S. claims that it opposes nuclear proliferation. Now, Lockheed Martin has been saved from certain closure of its F-16 production line by the White House decision to lift the arms embargo on Pakistan. The decision, overrides a 1990 embargo put in place by Bush senior, to punish Pakistan's development of a nuclear arsenal. This decision seems particularly hypocritical at a time when the U.S. scolded European nations for considering lifting their arms embargo on China. Such is the morality of nations driven by corporate profits rather than the sanctity of human life.

The misdeeds of this administration has had a predictable impact on Bush's approval rating. In the latest AP-Imposes poll Bush's approval rating plummeted to a low 43%.   The noose seems to be tightening. We don't need a 'deep throat' to provide a 'smoking gun' to expose the pre-meditative illegal war on Iraq. The recently published Downing Street memo offers conclusive proof that this administration 'cooked' the evidence to justify this anti-Christ crusade against Iraq. I urge concerned readers to contact their senators and demand a full investigation into high crimes and misdemeanors committed by this administration. Finally, I urge Indo-American Republicans to burn your 'draft cards'. The choice is simple. Either you are with God or against him!