Wednesday, January 30, 2008

NAME-DROPPING AND A FEW BRUSHES WITH GREATNESS




It (and All) is Vanity I suppose.
Here are a few pieces of Vanity.
They are my brushes with greatness and some name-dropping.
First, a short preamble of ramble.

I've had the good fortune to meet some interesting non-great (i.e. non-famous) persons in my life.
I have also been quite fortunate not to have died in the many scenes of my life where I have played a part and encountered:
Danger.
Adventure.
Romance.
Amazement.
A few peak experiences.

After I had gone to college for four years, I finally picked my major (I had been a distributed studies major...well, really just a lost liberal arts major).
If my philosophy professor Dr. Weir had not been walking down the steps of the university's library just as I was coming up them, I might not have become a teacher.
With his pure white beard, Dr. Weir glided down the stone steps with his usual nonchalant manner and inquired:
"What are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?", I asked.
Professor Weir replied,
"What are you going to do when you graduate?"
"I don't know", I said.
"Why don't you get paid to read books?"
And so in my fifth year I loaded up on Education and English courses.

Now to some name-dropping and brushes with greatness.

I met Anais Nin.
She was an aging but still beautiful woman when I met her.
She was dressed completely in white.
Either way she seemed a goddess in my eyes.
I had read her Diaries.
I told her that I had had a dream with her in it.
I think she said something like "I hope it was a good dream."

I went on a date with a girl named Joan Bliss to listen to Allen Ginsberg read his poems (and play his little harmonium).
When he was finished I walked with Joan Bliss to say hello to him.
I extended my hand to shake Mr. Ginsberg's hand, but he kissed it instead.
That was an embarrassing brush with greatness.

I got hit on my right knee with John Prine's guitar when he walked by me on his way to the stage.
That brush didn't hurt my knee.
That same year I went to hear Leonard Cohen in the same small nightclub.
He didn't hit my knee, but I still felt that I had been brushed by some greatness.

At a concert in Denver I bought one red rose for Bob Dylan.
I gave it (in its vase) to the person who accepted such things to forward to Mr. Dylan.
When I handed this person the rose (with a card) I asked,
"Will he be sure to get this?"
And I was assured that he would.
Years later Dylan's Shot Of Love album came out.
On the back cover is a photograph of Dylan smelling a rose.
My rose?
Not quite a brush;
not quite a bouquet;
just one red rose.ALL IS VANITY.

Postcript:
I actually met Allen Ginsberg three times.
Once while walking down Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado.
I wrote about this encounter and a publication called The Straight Creek Journal published it.
I have tried to locate my letter in archives without success. Maybe when I'm famous others will do it. In the letter I wrote how I was treated by this (in my humble opinion) not so great poet.
He accused me of having scrambled brains and of being just one more hungry fish who wanted his poetry to be recognized (and famous I guess) like Mr. Ginsberg's.
The other enounter was more mundane.
I had him sign a couple of his paperbacks. 


 IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES






Tuesday, January 29, 2008

LINES AND LINES OF LIES



The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort - all other justifications having failed to justify themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.
We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.
Harold Pinter





It's getting harder and harder for me to read (and write) between the lines.
I am referring to the latest (and last) STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS by George W. Bush.

The catch phrases and buzz words were coming fast and furious.
More of the same propaganda got catapulted.
And the scariest part is that it sounded good.
Quite good.
Who wrote this speech?

Americans in their chronic state of amnesia must also have felt that Bush's last stand was a good one.
A big lie is sounding better and better.

A big lie is forgotten when the propaganda continues to get catapulted; when the cliches and catch phrases are repeated...
when the lies are dismissed and forgotten.

Bringing enemies to justice.
Spreading democracy and freedom.

I am writing this before I again read and write between Bush's lines (or lies).
But it is getting harder and harder.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

SYMBOLS & SIGNS


The happy face.

A cross.

The Golden Arches.

The heart.

The peace sign (the geometric and digital kind).

Astrological signs.

Pronunciation symbols.

Highway signs.

Proofreader's marks.

At a meeting last week I saw two women wearing circle pins.

I almost opened my big mouth to tell them that when I was in junior high school a circle pen was a symbol for virginity.

This world is full of signs and symbols.

The age of computers has increased the quantity of them.

Emoticons are not my own cup of tea.

I prefer words.

What effects does this plethora of signs and symbols have?

Do we communicate less?

Is what we communicate less meaningful?

Are we humans becoming just symbols of ourselves?

Maybe I am taking this too seriously.

I still want a ♥ on Valentine’s Day.


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!



Friday, January 25, 2008

THE RAGE AND RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE


Some Presidential Choices:

1. Handsome-intelligent young black man

2. Intelligent-cranky older woman

3. Honest-intelligent young white man

SUMMARY:

1. *BLACK MAN

2. *CRANKY WOMAN

3. *WHITE MAN

*INTELLIGENT

I will now describe the Republican presidential candidates by giving a general summary.

What follows applies to all of the Republican candidates except Ron Paul:

George W. Bush **c*ed up in Iraq, but we will continue to *uc* up some more.

George W. Bush was (and is a liar), but he did the right thing when he lied and invaded Iraq.

We will stay in Iraq until the job is done;

We will stay in Iraq until the war is won;

We will not leave Iraq until there is

VICTORY!

In short, we will continue to be

LYING F***-UPS!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

MEAT HEADS CARROT TOPS AND GLOBAL WARMING


Paul McCartney is recommending that we become vegetarians.

Don’t tell McDonalds or Burger King this.

I suppose we will still eat our Whoppers and Big Macs until Global Warming has melted all of the glaciers and ice caps; until the deserts have become seas once again; until our eyeballs are popping out of our dumb heads from the sizzling temperatures.

We died while having fun; we died while eating our burgers.

I tried to be a semi-vegetarian one year.

I was actually a lacto-vegetarian.

I ate cheese (without any enzymes), usually on whole wheat bread that I sometimes baked, but otherwise bought at the health-foods stores.

I occasionally drank low-fat dry milk.

I ATE TONS OF BAKED POTATOES (showered with a lot of sea salt!).

I lost my urge to eat hamburgers.

I didn’t eat any fish or chicken.

Paul McCartney claims that global warming can be slowed down if cows produce less methane gas; and so, by becoming vegetarians, we can reduce the number of cows belching and breaking wind.

I don’t know if all of this is scientifically accurate, but I will look into it.

I had a cheeseburger for lunch today.

It was cold outside.

No sign of global warming yet.

Moo.



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

A TAX REBATE TO REBAIT AND STIMULATE AMERICANS TO CONTINUE SWALLOWING HOOK AND SINKER THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

“War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.



“Can’t buy me love...no, no, no.”

Beatles

End George W. Bush’s gratuitous imperial occupation of Iraq if you want to stimulate the American economy.

Right now that occupation chiefly stimulates its corporate investors and the Pentagon.

Stop the death machines from destroying more and more life.

End the occupation of Iraq.

The occupation has killed and injured too many Iraqi civilians and American soldiers.

The invasion and occupation have caused millions of Iraqi citizens to lose their homes.

The occupation has destroyed far more than Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship ever did.

The pre-emptive war was a lie.

The pre-emptive war and occupation have bred more terrorism.

George W. Bush was a cheerleader at Yale.

Now he’s a cheerleader for Osama bin Laden.

George W. Bush has propagated millions of Muslims to become "terrorists".

But the military-industrial complex is a big business.

It needs its perpetual customers.

Terrorists are good for its business.

The people of Iraq who resist are called radicals, insurgents and terrorists.

But they die from the bombs of both Al-Qaeda and America.

The occupation is wrong.

Do you want to stimulate the economy?

GET

OUT

OF

IRAQ!


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!



Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Iraq is Still a Bad Bargain

Andrew Bacevich eviscerates the Iraq War party with this passionate and clear-sighted essay on 'the Surge to Nowhere' in WaPo. He points out that the real motivation behind last year's troop escalation was to avoid popular outrage building in the US electorate to the point where the troops were pulled out. He observes that the argument for the 'success' of the 'surge' is purely a tactical one. When viewed from the vantage point of grand strategy, the Iraq War is as much a failure as it has always been.

If someone came to you six years ago and said that for only $2 trillion, you could have for your colony a burned out country, a failed state, and a semi-permanent incubator of terrorism and hatred against the US, would you have ponied up the money? That's what you've got, and that is what it cost you. Detroit could have used some of that money. New Orleans could have used some of that money. Appalachia has lots of schools that need to be painted.

The argument could be made that Israel is safer with Saddam Hussein out of power. But that argument does not hold water. Current Iraqi leaders such as Muqtada al-Sadr and Adnan Dulaimi are not less anti-Israel than Saddam, and it turns out he did not have WMD with which to attack Israel anyway. The Shiites of Iraq will certainly side with Hizbullah against Israel, which may actually mean that Israel is less secure now than before. Moreover, to have substantial turmoil on their doorstep just cannot be good for the Israelis.

You could argue that US petroleum corporations are now well placed to bid on Iraqi oil development. But what with doomsday cults planning a takeover of the petroleum facilities, it will be some time before it is safe for US corporations to operate in Iraq. China and Holland (Shell) are being looked upon favorably by the Iraqi government as investors.

And anyway, if the US government had thrown the $2 trillion and more that Iraq will end up costing at green energy development, both we and the earth would have been far better off. At a time when the US military is paying 60,000 Sunni Arab Iraqis $300 a month each not to fight us, it is pretty hard to justify letting the US working class sink, without any government help, into penury and homelessness in the face of the mortgage crisis and the recession. The Iraq War may or may not be good for Houston. It is certainly bad for Iraq and for everyone else.

The current round of optimism about Iraq in the Washington press corps will eventually falter against the country's hard realities, just as have previous such rounds. Or maybe worrying about Iraq and continued US troop deaths there is so yesterday for the punditocracy in DC.

The optimism is a planted story, a sleight of hand produced by looking at tactics rather than at strategy, or by making comparative statements (Iraq has less violence today than it did in the volcanic period a year ago) which obscure absolute reality (Iraq is very unstable and dangerous).

What the snake oil merchants like Fred Kagan and Bill Kristol (both of them hard right Zionists) are really saying is that if you just give them $2 trillion more, boy do they have a deal on a neo-colony for you.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice-- can't get fooled again.


Saturday, January 19, 2008

BRAVE NEW WORLD REDUX

I could swear that I was reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World when I read this:

"British scientists will try to create human-animal embryos for the first time after receiving the go-ahead from the government's fertility regulator yesterday. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said it had offered year-long licences to two teams of scientists."

[Human-animal embryos get the go-ahead

The Guardian

January 18, 2008]

In the above I have put in Italics the jargon that made me think that I was reading Mr. Huxley's novel.

Clean and antiseptic words.

Words that can be trusted.

Fertility Regulator.

Someone who regulates fertility.

This is the bad news.

The good news is that nothing will go to waste!

The microscopic embryonic humans and their microscopic (potential) minds and bodies will not be wasted:

"Under existing laws, the embryos must be destroyed after 14 days when they are no bigger than a pinhead, and cannot be implanted into the womb. In a statement, the authority said its licensing committee had "determined that the applications satisfied all the requirements of the law"

Ah. Good. Now we can be confident all will be well. All is good. "...the applications satisfied all the requirements of the law."


You can't stop Progress.

You can't slow down the march of Time or stem the footprints of Science.

But will WHAT Science comes up with next be for the best?

We are doing what we're doing with good intentions.

We want to improve the human race and ease its suffering.

(And make billions while doing it!)




IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

WAR IS NOT MONKEY BUSINESS

"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation."
George W. Bush





Robust Nuclear Penetrator
By M. L. Squier

The lilies of the field
And the meek shall inherit the
Earth
But no robust nuclear earth penetrator
Can plant flowers or grow the
Grass green
The lilies of the field
And the meek shall inherit the
Earth
But no robust nuclear earth penetrator
Will leave the air bright or the
Earth clean

“I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes.”

Pentagon officials now say they do not know the source of the radio transmission, backing off a previous claim that it came from one of the boats.

A renegade radio talker known as the Filipino Monkey might have been the voice that American warships heard when they were in the Strait of Hormuz as those Iranian speed boats were zipping by.
One would hope that the Pentagon, with its brilliant staff and its trillions of dollars, would be a lot more careful about what it says and how.
Likewise with presidential candidates and the current tenant occupying the White House.

It could be the difference between war and peace, or in today's world---
Between World War III and Peace.

Certainly the speed boat denizens from Iran were stupid (suicidal) to do what they did.

But Dick Cheney's fingers appear to still be throbbing to push buttons that will launch another pre-emptive war.
With Iran.
Got to keep the oil flowing and the profits growing.
But, in fact, war would only do the latter.
Any military actions against Iran will be perilous.
Oil would not flow as much or as fast; but the oil owners would do just dandy.

The Decider will continue to do as he damn pleases and what he's told to do by Dick Cheney and the Neo Con “crowd” (or is it cabal?).

And it appears that some portions of the Pentagon are in Dick's and the Decider's corner.

Bush ignores laws and then SIGNS THEM AWAY!
His unitary executive pen…is
In the form of signing statements.

Forget what dozens of U.S. Intel agencies found out about Iran not having nukes or actively working on them.

Bush's Intel comes from Hell and his own private deity.

The delusions of the Devil are not easily deterred.

Bush's current promises of peace between Israel and Palestine are as thin and laughable as his horrible actions and hauteur are immense and tragic:
Unleashing his unnecessary war and genocidal occupation.

War--not peace---has been the blueprint of Bush.
Bush's wars have stained the pages of History with bloody and radioactive ink.
His Legacy is going to be that of an arrogant president and brutal war maker, not as a compassionate peacemaker and diplomatic leader.

He is giving the world much too little way too late.
Impeach Cheney and Bush for their
LIES
CRIMES
and
MISDEMEANORS.
IT'S THE OIL STUPID!
"This is total war. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now."
Richard Perle

Monday, January 14, 2008

SHEIK RATTLE AND OIL


"I'll get you some more oil if you knock off Iran."



&

Bush raps back:



Oil
Is
Royal!
I'm ready to Sheik, Rattle and Roll---
Put some steak and rice into my bowl;
Turn up the heat
On Iran
It's another terror fish
In my pan!
I'm the Decider!
Smoke 'em out!
Bring 'em on!
I'm the Decider!
Smoke 'em out!
Bring 'em on!
"When we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."
George W. Bush




IT'S THE OIL STUPID!



Saturday, January 12, 2008

THE HOWL OF WAR


We want war!
We want war!
We taste warm blood coming
Through our teeth
And taste of blood makes us
Sigh and seethe.
We want war!
We want war!
To have more of blood's
Red rivers run
Through our brain
We plan to make
More and more war
Without refrain.
We want war!
We want war!
Before we walk
Out through the door!
We possess our
Absolute power!
We order Death to
Drink & devour!
We want war!
We want war!
We want war!



Thu, 01/10/2008 - 16:08 - Wire Services - US President George W. Bush promised Israel's opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu that the United States will join the Jewish state in a nuclear strike against Iran, Israel Radio reported today.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

GRAVITY BRINGS ME DOWN AND MY TOOTH ACHES

Yesterday I told my students that when I walk I look down at my feet to make sure that there is nothing on my path that might cause me to fall.

Then after school I went to the grocery store.

I got out of my truck.

I was feeling good.

No big pains.

Well, except for the pain that I still had from a tooth that was extracted the previous weekend.

I was here at the store to stock up on Ibuprofen.

As I was walking to the store's entrance my left foot "caught" the edge of the sidewalk’s concrete curb.

I wasn't looking down at my feet.

Kaboom!

(Or whatever noises my fat body made that some sensitive instruments would have recorded had they been around to record the sounds that my plunge produced.)

I fell like a big refrigerator.

[Note: Each time that I fall flat on my face I picture my demise.

The fall feels like an instantaneity and an eternity.]

This time (like all of the other times) I caught my dumb and careless fall with my wrists, but this time my left arm was bent so that when my body impacted it punched me hard on the chest... right on my heart…

A wretched soul bruised with adversity.

But the pain of embarrassment was the first pain that I felt, and then the natural painkillers of my body kicked in.

A few concerned citizens asked
"Are you O.K.?"

I said something like "Harrumph".

I was asked again if I was O.K. and I replied,

"Yes. I fell on my heart and it hurts."

I was FISHING for sympathy when I had given this hyperbolic reply.

I stepped behind a shopping basket and slowly pushed it, taking baby steps, feeling the pain in my wrists and chest, and moaning quietly to myself.

(Don't you just love reading about my woes?)

Sorry.

I'm almost done.

So now I'm swallowing all of these NSAIDs for my extracted tooth and dumb descent.

One of these days I'm going to fall flat on my face and not be so fortunate.

Gravity is an amazing and humbling thing.

I'm going to remember to start looking down at my feet again.




IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

WAR OR PEACE?




IT'S THE OIL STUPID!






January 8, 2008

An Ominous Non-Event

The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz

By ROBERT FANTINA

As the U.S. government continues to demonstrate its inability to learn from history, an alarming report from the Strait of Hormuz was broadcast to the world on January 7. The Associated Press reported the following: "In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels." These Iranian ships are believed to part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy, the organization that the U.S. Congress officially decreed a 'terrorist' organization.

Those either old enough to remember, or cognizant enough to understand history, will immediately be reminded of the infamous 'Gulf of Tonkin' incident, reported on August 2, 1964. On that day, the U.S. destroyer Maddox, on an espionage mission in the Gulf of Tonkin off the Vietnam coast, reported being fired on by North Vietnamese torpedo patrol boats. In response the Maddox fired back, sinking one boat. Tensions in the area were already growing, and now the world watched and waited.

On August 4 of that same year, the Maddox and the C. Turner Joy, another destroyer, were again patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin. Instruments on the Maddox indicated that it was either attacked or was under attack, and both the Maddox and the C. Turner Joy began firing back, with assistance from U.S. air power.

It was less than 24 hours later when the captain concluded that there might not have been an attack; why the instruments indicated otherwise was not clearly explained. The pilot of a Crusader jet, James B. Stockdale, undertook a reconnaissance flight over the gulf that evening. He was asked if he saw any North Vietnamese attack vessels. Mr. Stockdale did not equivocate in his response. Said he: "Not a one. No boats, no wakes, no ricochets off boats, no boat impacts, no torpedo wakes--nothing but black sea and American firepower."

Yet this non-event, either misinterpreted or fabricated altogether, was seen by an hysterical U.S. Congress, ever willing to protect America from its enemies, real or imagined, as aggression against the U.S. It also provided members of that august body with some additional 'I'm-strong- on-Communism' credentials, which were ever in demand from the end of World War II until the dawn of the world's newest bugaboo, 'terrorism.' Congress quickly passed the so-called 'Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,' which empowered President Lyndon Johnson to take all measures he deemed necessary to repel aggression. While this was not the start of the Vietnam War, it represented the first major escalation that did not end for over a decade, and cost the lives of over 50,000 U.S. soldiers, and between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Vietnamese citizens. It caused havoc with the U.S. economy, brought near-revolution to American streets and campuses and drew hostility towards the U.S. from most of the world.

Today, an unidentified Pentagon official called this 'incident' in the Strait of Hormuz "a serious provocation." Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman referred to it as a "serious incident." Mr. Gordon Johndore, National Security Council spokesman said the United States urges the Iranians "to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."

It must be remembered that it was just a month ago that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) determined that Iran ceased its nuclear weapons program four years ago. As President Bush was busy rattling his saber, and apparently itching to start yet another war, the NIE took the wind out of his bloody sails. He huffed and puffed and said, inexplicably, that the NIE report proved that Iran was still a great threat to the U.S., but it seemed that no one took him too seriously. Now, however, we have an 'incident.' Obviously, we are told, like in the Gulf of Tonkin 44 years ago, the U.S. has been the victim of 'aggression.'

It is, of course, unimportant to consider that Iran might understandably be a little trigger-happy when it sees U.S. naval vessels approaching. Just because Iran's next-door neighbor was invaded by the U.S. without provocation, and now is in the midst of a deadly occupation, should not in any way justify Iran's wariness. The fact that it was only a year ago that Mr. Bush sent a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf for no other reason than to intimidate Iran, and to participate in 'war games' (an oxymoron if ever there was one) in clear sight of one of the members of Mr. Bush's 'axis of evil,' should simply be ignored by Iran. The fact that the U.S. has a long and violent history of invading countries that displease it in some way (perhaps they have a democratically elected government that does not bow and scrape to the occupant of the White House throne) should not alarm Iran. Mr. Bush and his spokesman have not said that they plan to invade Iran; they simply said no options are off the table.

One waits in anxious impatience to see how Congress will react. Surely the slowly-dwindling multitudes seeking the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations will race each other to the microphone to denounce Iranian aggression, thus shining their patriotic credentials. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), who last fall voted to name Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, can gloat and glow with jingoistic satisfaction that that organization has now proven her right and her critics wrong, at least in her own mind. Perhaps former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, stumbling along on the path if not towards the Republican nomination, at least in its general direction, will endorse whatever Mr. Bush proclaims; after all, Mr. Romney has stated that it is Mr. Bush who has kept America safe (save for one or two unfortunate incidents in September of 2001). Will former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who never tires of reminding the voters that he and he alone was mayor of New York on September 11 2001 (whatever that may be worth), now raise the specter of Iranian terrorism in the U.S?

One could sit back and laugh at the nonsense proclaimed by the men and women who seek to lead the United States if their actions were not so dangerous. In 1964 an incident not unlike the one that allegedly took place in the Strait of Hormuz on January 8 of this year caused Congress to officially embark on America's most deadly imperial disaster. 'Flawed intelligence,' at best, and outright lies at worst paved the way for the current imperial mess which has the potential to dwarf America's Vietnam catastrophe. And now, with a lame duck president seeking to salvage his disgraced reputation, one wonders if this reported incident from Iran will have the same effect as the non-incident in the Gulf of Tonkin 44 years ago.

Mr. Bush & Co. have never been particularly interested in facts. They have not had any desire to listen to opposing opinions. They have happily ignored the wishes of the U.S. citizens. They apparently have been very interested in enriching themselves and their cronies, and have focused their desire for riches on oil, at the expense of the blood of their own, and Iraq's, citizens. They have used fear to get Congress to support their crimes. There is nothing to cause one to think things will be different now. Congress has proved its spinelessness over and over, and we all know that there is no reason for statesmanship when interesting, pander-to-the-fear-of-the-moment sound bytes are so much easier.

Whether or not this current situation leads Congress to justify an invasion of Iran, or other actions that will lead to an invasion, remains to be seen. But the U.S. has not learned from its own history, and another repeat of an unneeded and catastrophic war is not, unfortunately, unthinkable. That the president will not stop it is not surprising; that Congress will be complicit once again is unspeakable.

Robert Fantina is author of 'Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776--2006.'






Monday, January 07, 2008

DANGEROUS THOUGHTS

NOTE: I forgot that I had written this.
I wrote it before the NIE report was released.
It’s still a little bottle of truth sitting on the table.

WARNING:
George W. Bush might eliminate your government if he believes that your government’s knowledge is dangerous.
If your government has knowledge of something dangerous, then it might be eliminated.
Your nation’s knowledge is enough to get it removed.
Terror?
This thought process (or terror tactic) might or might not be an effective deterrent to adversaries, or to those regimes that are unsavory to the current Bush regime.
If you have knowledge of WMD, then your regime might be bombed.
If you have knowledge of how to make WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, then your regime might be destroyed.
This should make Iran think twice about going any farther with plans or thoughts to make nukes.
On the other foot it might piss them off even more.
Iran---not just mad Ahmadjihad---but other leaders (and mullahs) might dig deeper and deeper into the silent and secret dirt to develop WMD.
Forget about any sincere or hard-working diplomacy coming from this current administration and its cabal of corrupt liars, with their trigger-button-happy-fingers ready to fire Pre-Emptively (or create a Casus belli for doing so).
Dick-the-Shooter and Bush-the-Decider aren’t diplomats.
Decide and shoot first---then ask questions—is their doctrine.
TERROR:
The strategy that keeps on giving…
I’m just not sure
WHAT.


IT’S THE OIL STUPID!


At his press conference Bush reverted to his old ploy of declaring people and things dangerous even when there is no objective measure of such things. He used to say that Saddam Hussein had been "dangerous" even when it was discovered that Saddam had no chemical, biological or nuclear research facilities. Now Iran is intrinsically dangerous, regardless of whether it has a weapons program or not. Does anyone still believe this sort of essentializing and fear-mongering? Bush's circle is like a medieval court with scheming courtiers. His subordinates apparently routinely do things that he doesn't (and the other courtiers don't) know about until later. Take for instance when then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Iraqi army dissolved, with Bush only discovering it afterwards.

December 5, 2007
http://www.juancole.com/





This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I'm going to be patient. But I can assure the American people I am determined, I'm not going to be distracted, I will keep my focus to make sure that not only are these brought to justice, but anybody who's been associated will be brought to justice. Those who harbor terrorists will be brought to justice. It is time for us to win the first war of the 21st century decisively, so that our children and our grandchildren can live peacefully into the 21st century.
George W. Bush

I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them.
George W. Bush

They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don't seek revenge, we seek justice out of love.
George W. Bush

When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive.
George W. Bush

They have miscalculated me as a leader.

George W. Bush



January 7, 2008

Bush's Trip to Israel

The Hostile President

By GIDEON LEVY

George Bush is coming to Israel this week. He will take pleasure in his visit. One can assume that there are few prime ministers with a giant photo of themselves with the U.S. president hanging on the wall in their home, as our Ehud Olmert boasted last week that he does, to his exalted guest, the comic Eli Yatzpan. There are also few other countries where the lame duck from Washington would not be greeted with mass demonstrations; instead, Israel is making great efforts to welcome him graciously. The man who has wreaked such ruin upon the world, upon his country, and upon us is such a welcome guest only in Israel.

A man is coming to Israel this week who has left a trail of killing, destruction and global hatred. Never has the U.S. been so despised as during Bush's seven years in office, which abruptly brought his county back to the not-so-merry days of Vietnam.

He led the U.S., and the free world in its wake, into two brutal and completely futile wars of conquest, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. He sowed mass killing in these two wretched countries under the false pretext of a battle against global terror.

But the world after these two wars is not a better world or a safer one. And these two wounded countries feel no gratitude toward the superpower that ostensibly came to emancipate them from their regimes of terror.

There was no connection between the attack on the Twin Towers and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, where most of the terrorists came from, could have been a more appropriate target but it remained an ally of the U.S. despite its despotic regime. The war in Iraq, the rationale for which - the presence of weapons of mass destruction - was revealed to be false, was an atrocious, futile war that is far from being over, even if its daily toll of killing has declined from 100 to 50.

In Western Europe, in South America, in Asia, in all parts of the Arab and Muslim world and in parts of Africa, the sole global superpower has come to be viewed as a hostile, arrogant and ostracized entity. This is not good for America and it is not good for the world.

Closer to home, it is worth remembering the damage Bush has caused to the Middle East. His seven years in power have been wasted years, barren and dangerous. Never has there been a president who gave Israel such an automatic carte blanche and even encouraged it to take violent action, to deepen and entrench the occupation.

This is not friendship with Israel. This is not concern for its future. A president who did not even try to pressure Israel to end the occupation is a president who is hostile to it, indifferent to its future and fate.

A president who endorsed every abomination - from the expansion of settlements to the failure to honor commitments and signed agreements, including those with U.S. such as the passages agreement and the freeze on settlement construction - is not a president who seeks the best for Israel or aspires to peace.

What happened to the days when Israel hesitated before planting another trailer home in the territories or before every liquidation operation out of fear for America's reaction? What happened to the days when there was a president in Washington who sowed trepidation in Jerusalem before each human rights violation or war crime?

This is all we got from Bush: a more entrenched and brutal occupation with the open, or tacit, encouragement of the U.S.; a green light for another superfluous war in Lebanon; a Hamas government in Gaza, which the U.S., and consequently the rest of the world, is boycotting - a measure that has only led to the starvation of Gaza, while failing to weaken Hamas; and U.S. authorization for "the settlement blocs."

The Middle East has only moved further away from peace during Bush's tenure.

His belated and feeble attempts to change this fact have not produced anything. Until a determined president is inaugurated in Washington who will engage in a serious effort to bring an end to the occupation, no peace will prevail here. Bush could have done this, but he abused his office.

This is the man who is coming to us this week. History will yet judge him for his actions and his failures. The world feels enmity toward him and even the U.S. is already sick and tired of him. Only here is he accorded honor and glory.

Gideon Levy writes for Ha'aretz.