Downing Street Revisited...
I began this blog with commentary on the Downing Street Memo (May 01, 2005 London Times) that stated that the Bush administration had decided in the summer of 2002 that Saddam was on the short list for removal...this while Bush was telling America that he had no plans for military action. The memo also stated that "facts were being fixed around policy". The memo added validity to statements made by ex Bush administration officials that intelligence was "cooked" or fabricated to justify the invasion of Iraq.
On May 29, 2005, The Sunday Times of Briton printed more information that is, at the least distressing if not wholly obscene. British and US officials, using air raids, were attempting to goad Saddam into giving them a reason to go to war.
The article states...
Tommy Franks, the allied commander, has since admitted this operation was designed to “degrade” Iraqi air defences in the same way as the air attacks that began the 1991 Gulf war.
It was not until November 8 that the UN security council passed resolution 1441, which threatened Iraq with “serious consequences” for failing to co-operate with the weapons inspectors.
"The briefing paper prepared for the July meeting - the same document that revealed the prime minister's agreement during a summit with President George W Bush in April 2002 to back military action to bring about regime change laid out the American war plans.
They opted on August 5 for a hybrid plan in which a continuous air offensive and special forces operations would begin while the main ground force built up in Kuwait ready for a full-scale invasion.
The Ministry of Defence figures, provided in response to a question from Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, show that despite the lack of an Iraqi reaction, the air war began anyway in September with a 100-plane raid.
The systematic targeting of Iraqi defenses appears to contradict Foreign Office legal guidance appended to the leaked briefing paper which said that the allied aircraft were only entitled to use force indefenseefence where such a use of force is a necessary and proportionate response to actual or imminent attack from Iraqi ground systems."
Now we can see that George Bush has his war plans made as early as April 2002 AND he was actually pushing military force in Iraq before the UN came up with Resolution 1441. America has sat on their laurels for 31 days after the Downing Street Memo was printed. Now, there is more damning evidence of High Crimes and Misdemeanors on the part of George Bush. What is wrong with this country? Do you enjoy the killing so much that you are willing to sacrifice your sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and your entire country with everything it was built on and USED to stand for? Why would we let this go? Is it religious or moral piety? Arrogance that we are the greatest nation in the world...or the one with the biggest guns? What is it?
A church along the Eastern side of the US had a marquee that read "The Koran should be flushed." Next time I see a Bible maybe I should give it the same treatment. I do not subscribe to Christianity and I have not for a long count of years simply because in Sunday School we were taught to treat others as we would want to be treated...looking at my country over the past few decades I had to face the bitter truth that that lesson only applies when convenient for most. I guess the Muslums have a right to bomb the innocent, torture and abuse anyone they see fit to detain and flush the Christian Bible as well. Religious piety is worthless and proves nothing more than stupidity.
Moral piety does not wash here as well...death, torture, abuse, indiscriminate killing, greed, polluting Iraq and Afghanistan with DU weapons that, dropped in sufficient amounts, poison the soil, water, air and people...including US personnel...permanently.
Arrogance in thinking we are better than others is a sin according to the Christian Bible so that doesn't wash at all.
The machismo that we are the toughest and have the biggest guns should be beneath everyone over 12 years old...period.
The GOP would go to extremes to impeach a Democrat for being a bad husband and lying about it.
I'm sorry but scheming to go to an unneccessary war and lying about that seems a bit more extreme.
Iraq has been devastated, oceans of blood spilt and America is on a fast track to going bankrupt financially
Morally we already have...
Absurd Absurdities...
Considering all the recent publicity about abuses in US detention centers all over the globe that we have been hearing about for the last two years plus like Abu Graib, renditions, etc., not to mention the recent report from Afghanistan over two deaths perpetrated by US personnel on two Afghan detainees, it seems even more ridiculous for George Bush to passionately defend the detention practices of the US.
In an article from the New York Times today, Bush seemed a bit flustered with the most recent report from Amnesty International which stated that the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had become "the gulag of our times."
Regarding the treatment at Guantanamo Bay of men detained during the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Bush said, "I'm aware of the Amnesty International report and it's absurd - it's an absurd allegation."
The group had also spoken of "atrocious" violations in the United States' handling of prisoners.
President Bush took strong exception to Amnesty's charges. "The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world," he said, and then repeated, "It's an absurd allegation."
The language was insistent and unusually sharp for the president, but it echoed an earlier comment by Vice President Dick Cheney, who had said he was "offended" by Amnesty International's description. Both men suggested that freed detainees were spreading mistruths to harm the United States.
Let me get this straight...everyone who ever claimed abuse and/or torture at the hands of American captors (or jailers, as it were) is lying and every one of them has made it up? The photos that hit us from Abu Graib were not evidence of abuse? If not, why were a handful of soldiers (excluding all superiors, of course) tried and convicted? Was the most recent Army report a fabrication with it's stories of how two detainees died? Are all the reports just made up? According to George Bush and Dick Cheney they are. What is wrong with this picture...correction...severely wrong with this picture?
The executive director of Amnesty International USA, William F. Schulz, minced no words today in his reply to Bush..."What is 'absurd' is President Bush's attempt to deny the deliberate policies of his administration, which has detained individuals without charge or trial in prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Base and other locations," he said in a statement. "What is 'absurd' and indeed outrageous is the Bush administration's failure to undertake a full independent investigation...This administration never finds it 'absurd' when we criticize Cuba or China, or when we condemned the violations in Iraq under Saddam Hussein."
Well...yeah. Bush and Cheney really need to take a cold, hard look in the mirror. The world does not work on the premise of "do as I say, not as I do" You can not lead and be a good example for others if you see no need to refrain from doing what you preach at others not to do. The US has not been a good leader or role model under this administration and the record speaks volumes.
Bolton
According to Bush, Democrats are "just stalling" on the Bolton nomination (they have asked the White House for documentation that has been denied and refused repeatedly). Appears that they should be a bit concerned why Bolton would be seeking classified information on other officials...we all should be.
Polls have even shown Bolton as the UN pick for representing the US is not favorable to most Americans, but it appears that Bush's agenda is more important than the rest of the country's.
If you look at the press clipping, articles and official tow line for the Bush administration over the past several years, there seems to be a vivid pattern of the Neocon and GOP attempting to tear down any and every part of the UN that they do not agree with...it's there, all you need do is look. Is that why it is so important for Bush to install Bolton, to help dismantle it from within? Makes sense.
If Bolton was installed at the UN, how much pressure would he be able to exert on other representatives to do things the US way...things he has apparently done to his subordinates? He would be in a better seat in which to subvert intelligence to coincide with what the White House wants to do...same as he has already done in his current capacity (although it did not turn out the way it was intended from the way it looks). It is not difficult to see why most Americans would not want this man to represent them but it boggles the mind why the president would...unless, of course, his motives were not as "moral" as he would want us to believe.
The Empire is already starting to crumble...even with the top ten floors of the UN building still in tact against Bolton's wishes.
Catapulting Propaganda...
Apparently Mr. Bush is admitting that if he repeats something enough times, it becomes the truth. Note paragraph #38.
"Now, a personal savings account would be a part of a Social Security retirement system. It would be a part of what you would have to retire when you reach retirement age. As you -- as I mentioned to you earlier, we're going to redesign the current system. If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." (Applause)
As of now, May 29, 2005 3:30 PM this is still pasted on the official White House website.
He has already publically stated that personal accounts will not help to fix the situation.
I'm sorry but repeating rhetoric, or "catapulting it" as Bush calls it, will not make it fact.
Joseph Goebbels, Hiter's Nazi Propaganda Minister, found that out the hard way after he said "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York
Rewarding those who created the Iraq fiasco...
Any doubt behind the infamous "Downing Street Memo" should be gauged with the individuals who caused the most damage and have been praised and/or rewarded since the invasion of Iraq. In doing so, any semi intelligent person can see a pattern of honoring those who have led the US down the devastating path we are on.
Remember those "Medals of Freedom" that Bush passed out earlier to three of his favorite aides of the war...Tenet, Franks and Bremer? Let's look at why they may have deserved such prestigious recognition.
George Tenet was convinced that the removal of Saddam would be a "slam dunk". He supplied bad intel to the fiasco in making.
Tommy Franks is such an honorable and faithful trooper that he attempted to bomb Iraq back to the stone age and then told the world that we do not count Iraqi casualties, which is one of the duties of our US military when they are engaged in combat.
Paul Bremer, this piece of work was responsible for putting the US government's interest ahead of the Iraqi's once we took over and is responsible for billions of dollars in Iraqi funds and US taxpayer funds evaporating under his watch. He also was in charge of the new law written for Iraq that exemts any US personnel from facing criminal charges in Iraq, for say...anything. If a foreign fighter raped your daughter or shot your children, for the simple reason that they could, I do not believe American citizens would be complacent with the offending soldiers or their government.
Note to all those who would attempt to degrade my honor for saying this. To love your country does not mean to look away, cover your eyes or bury your head in the sand to the realities of war. These things happen and have happened in Iraq. Not all of our soldiers do reprehensible things but many do and the US media does not print or show you because the realities of war would turn most against it. The people who have led us into this war do not want sentiment to turn against their action as it did in Vietnam because of the reporting of it. When you wave that "America is righteous" banner and think of others as "Un-American" because they are opposed to the invasion of Iraq, you are mistaking Nationalism with being a Patriot...and in turn proving yourself to be on the fringe of fascism. Look the words "nationalism" and "fascism" up in the dictionary and then look in the mirror. That is not loving your country.
Back to the issue at hand...
In a Washington Post article yesterday, it was revealed that yet two more of our "fiasco architects" were rewarded.
"Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.
The civilian analysts, former military men considered experts on foreign and U.S. weaponry, work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), one of three U.S. agencies singled out for particular criticism by President Bush's commission that investigated U.S. intelligence."
Now, of course the Pentagon has not held them accountable and their bosses say that the awards were for their overall performance but is it not a bit odd that all these people that have been rewarded have helped push and cause devastation not only in Iraq but the financial devastation of the US? That does not even begin to account for blood spilt, people crippled and lives lost.
Do not forget that those in charge of the places where abuse and torture have come to light have been promoted while the bottom of the chain of command is held accountable...nothing more than stepping stones and cannon fodder.
A good parent teaches their children that all action has consequences...good for good and not so good for negative.
I ask America this...have we become so complacent in our arrogance that we have become stupid and are willing to be led by the nose without accountability?
So Much For The War On Terrorism...
Reuters article
You can not stand against terrorists/terrorism while embracing it and attempting to get yourself and your terrorist of choice off the hook.
"The United States rejected on Friday Venezuela's first move to extradite a Cuban exile wanted for an airliner bombing, in a case that could challenge the U.S. commitment to fight all forms of terrorism."
The excuse, of course, is that Venezuela did not supply enough "evidence" for their request of extradition but the statement below kind of renders that a bit...idiotic, don't you think?
"CIA and FBI files show U.S. investigators believed Posada was involved in the airliner plot, and Posada himself told The New York Times he was behind bombings of Havana hotels in 1997 that killed an Italian and wounded others."
If our CIA and FBI have files on this man linking him to terrorism, not to mention his own admission to a US media source, it appears that it is clear that he is a terrorist.
In the article, a US official states that there is not enough evidence and perhaps Venezuela did not supply what was needed in order to "embarass" the United States. Did we just get out of Kindergarten here?
The possibility was also mentioned that if the US could find a third country to send Carriles to, the US could send him to a place other than Venezuela and get us off the hook.
EXCUSE ME? What happened to decent foriegn affairs? A formal request for extradition was made by the legit government of another country. If the US refuses to extradite a self proclaimed terrorist, how in the hell can we expect other countries to expedite people back to the US? Columbia, for instance, has recently arrested several of our soldiers on charges ranging from running guns to drugs. What would they think of our next request for extradition if we do not play by the same rules that we expect others to abide by? Columbian jails will see their population grow with American criminals... and we will deserve it.
Makes one wonder if there was any validity to the idea that bin Laden has not been caught by design...
Downing Street Memo
Years ago, at least two Americxans blew the proverbial whistle concerning the Bush administrations plans in the summer of 2002 of invading Iraq...plans which George Bush stated to the public that he did not have. The Downing Street Memo has given validity to their attempts at telling the truth. They also tried to tell the US that the intelligence was being "cooked" for the issue, which also has gained validity though the DS memo. Those who attempted to label the whistleblowers as "disgruntled" have been smacked in the face, and those who still carry the conspiracy theme make themselves appear desperate. If the link does not work you can find a copy of the memo at http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=426&row=1The Brits have declared the memo as "nothing new" and Scott McClellen, spokeman for the White House, has stated to the NYT that there is "no need" to reply to House Democrats (89 of them) who wrote a letter to the White House inquiring about the memo's validity. Neither government has denied the contents of the memo.My question is how McClellen can stand with a straight face and claim there is "no need"?No need? No matter what your politics are, if you are an American citizen, there should be great need in this situation. If, in fact, this memorandum from the British government is accurate, it means that the Bush administration is guilty of offenses that are more worthy of impeachment than getting caught with your fly open. The American people spend close to $5 billion a month for Iraq, yet domestic programs have been slashed when we need them the most. The whole country is scrounging for funds to make ends meet. Our national deficit will still be astronomical for at least two more generations according to recent independent projections. Having to watch our society deteriorate from within, knowing that the respect once held for the U.S. has evaporated and knowing that tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, including our soldiers. That does not even scratch the over 22,000 Americans who have suffered injury and were shipped back home.My question is, why is there no need to be honest with the American public? If this memo is indeed accurate, it means that George Bush1. Willfully lied in his capacity as president of the United States in order to manipulate us in what would be undeniably an illegal war, a war in which the "facts were fixed around policy". 2. It means that everyone in this country who has put on the Patriot Hat was duped. 3. It means that we have been paying out of the nose for two years for a group of men to profit from assets of another country. 4. It mean that the Bush administration knowingly fabricated a threat that was non existent.5. It means that the Bush administration has willfully used fear as a way to control not only the US but everyone else as well.
6. If the memo is accurate, it means that all the blood spilt was for no other reason than the personal gain of a few.I beg to differ, Mr McClellan, the ones that have been lost deserved to know and the ones they left behind do, too.
