3.14.2003
Richard Perl is a jerk. Read here how he mixes the politics of death and personal profit. He threatens to sue Seymour Hersh for this expose. Hersh exposed the My Lai Massacre as well as an eye opening article concerning Barry McCaffrey and the collective psychosis of combat: Gulf War 1.
"Overriding a warning from the division operations officer, McCaffrey ordered an assault in force -- an all-out attack. His decision stunned some officers in the Allied command structure in Saudi Arabia, and provoked unease in Washington. Apache attack helicopters, Bradley fighting vehicles, and artillery units from the 24th Division pummelled the five-mile-long Iraqi column for hours, destroying some seven hundred Iraqi tanks, armored cars, and trucks, and killing not only Iraqi soldiers but civilians and children as well. Many of the dead were buried soon after the engagement, and no accurate count of the victims could be made. McCaffrey later described the carnage as "one of the most astounding scenes of destruction I have ever participated in." There were no serious American combat casualties. "
"McCaffrey's assault was one of the biggest and most one-sided-of the Gulf War, but no journalists appear to have been in the area at the time, and, unlike the "highway of death," it did not produce pictures and descriptions that immediately appeared on international television and in the world press. Under Defense Department rules that had been accepted, under protest, by the major media, reporters were not permitted on the Gulf War battlefields without military escorts. The day after the assault, a few journalists were flown by helicopter to McCaffrey's headquarters. When McCaffrey met with them, he speculated that the retreating Iraqi units that had mounted the seemingly suicidal attack were unaware of the ceasefire, then in its second day. "Some might not even know we are here," McCaffrey told a reporter for United Press International. "
Quotes from Seymour Hersh's "Overwhelming Force" added 3.15.03
Betraying the Kurdish people? Well, you remember that the "no-fly zones" that ostensibly were to protect the Kurdish people from the murderous Saddam Hussein. Then why would US and British pilots have to land and let the murderous Turkish Air Force rain bombs on them? From American made airplanes? The linked John Pilger article also touches on the 1991 rebbelion George Bush asked the people of Iraq to undertake to oust Hussein:
" In 1991, when President Bush Sr called for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, he was really inviting Saddam's generals to stage a military coup and install a more malleable dictator. The last thing he wanted was the ensuing popular uprising by the Shi'a in March of that year - which Saddam crushed with helicopter gunships that the US allowed him to fly, and while American commanders denied weapons and equipment to the rebels. An estimated 30,000 people were slaughtered. "We clearly would have preferred a coup. There's no question about that," said Bush's national security adviser Brent Scowcroft in 1997. The British commander in the Gulf war, General Sir Peter de la Billi?re, said, apparently with a straight face: "The Iraqis were responsible for establishing law and order.""
What is the administration thinking?
Business comes before the good of "We the People". The White house opposes lists that would notify us of which supermarkets were selling tainted meat.
Iraq is another excuse to drill for oil in pristine ANWR, due to national security issues- like gas prices-
High gas prices seen as a result of White House oil policies.
Go figure...
3/14/2003
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Follow the money: Would you believe that the five firms that are bidding to get lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq (but, the UN hasn't given us the the "Go ahead" to attack Iraq yet, have they...?) contributed nearly 3 million dollars dollars all togerther to politicians in the last 2 electoral cycles- 68% to Republicans? Read the links offered in that article...
O.K, to break a trend of doom and gloom and head shaking while you read this (gotta be honest, as I write it too) here is the Beastie Boys site where you can download their song "In a World Gone Mad" or just give the lyrics a quick scan. I listened to them in years past... It is nice knowing that there people promoting consciousness and peace to younger folks; I wonder if in this age of video games and Hollywood films that portray problem solving as something best done with weapons, a gun as the most effective way to vent ones frustration if their humanity gets a bit blunted. Subservance and groupthink are taught really well in the school system; the lemming-like way we want to fit in is betrayed by the fashion industry. Look how intelligent people tend to be portrayed- geeks, misfits, while the 'bad" characters are portrayed as romantic, interesting, fun. The whole power thing as expressed in popular media appeals to us at a non-thinking level, as a less experianced younger person I'm sure it is harder to see through the hype. Bush as the stereotyped "Good Guy",a good ol' boy (from a rich Connecticut family and elite Prep school... oops, wrong film- but he did get crap grades) talking all folksy about God and country and kickin' ass, not that bright but firm and sincere; Hussein as the "guy in the black hat" murderous and foreign and evil; lying, treacherous and, well, foreign and evil. A slippery character that has pulled the wool over everyones eyes but the hero... Standard B movie fare.
3/14/2003
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