Duct Tape Blues

There is a backlash on the way to Bush's Iraq war . But we can't just blame the war, he has done everything possible to isolate the United States from ANY and all international institutions as well.

Kyoto Agreement
In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was successfully created, with the vast majority of all the world's nations. They were happy to set targets in order to successfully reduce Carbon Dioxide emissions in hope of significantly reducing Global Warming, when Bush pulled the rug out from under them and pulled the U.S. from the Kyoto agreement In March 2001, even though most of the world's nations agreed to it.

Nuclear Arms agreements
In May 24 2002 "The administration argued that the responsive force is needed to address unspecified contingencies in the indefinite future, so a limited agreement was reached with Russia.
*"When the state (U.S.) with by far the most powerful conventional forces asserts that it can only protect its vital interests with an undiminished reliance on nuclear forces, it is undermining the global effort to stem nuclear proliferation. "

International Court System
"On April 11, 2002 the International Criminal Court (ICC) received the sixty ratifications that it needed to be established. While many nations celebrated this human rights milestone. On Monday May 6, 2002 Under Secretary Grossman announced that the U.S. would be removing their signature from the treaty."

How long can Bush ignore the world?
How long can we ignore the world? Quite a while, I am afraid, since Bush considers the world a "focus group", which is undeserving of his concern.

Treat the world nations as equals? Sure!
What does the administration do when they encounter problems that clearly require the cooperation of other countries, not as junior partners, but as equals? Well Right now their approach is simply to deny the existence of those problems and spin them down so they look like they are minor. My favorite spin is "We need more research to support that claim."

Now lets add American revenge on France for their anti-war stance.
On April 25, The Bush administration moved to drastically scale down a French-backed U.N. proposal to send more than 250 U.N. peacekeepers to the former French colony of Ivory Coast, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. The request to streamline the $25 million U.N. political mission comes just days after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said France would face consequences for leading opposition to war against Iraq.

This was the first major test of U.S.-French cooperation, at the United Nations, since the war. U.S. officials said their decision was motivated by concerns for costs, a quarter of which would have to be shouldered by the United States, not revenge. I am sure its not, Come on, it is obvious that the administration is prepared to penalize the Ivory Coast, which has been devastated by ethnic, religious and political conflict, to get revenge against the French. What a hypocrite! Bush is willing to let those people die, just to teach France a lesson? Wait a minute, the U.S. has no money to spend. No, that's not it, Bush has billions. Yea, I guess it's revenge. Let those people die George, that'll teach the frogs!


Well Mr Potter, a new club is being built and it is not the Baily Savings and Loan.
Given all of the above issues and many others I have not been able to catalog. Is it any surprise that this week that the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg came together in Brussels for a mini-summit. Each of the four countries involved belong to NATO. Curiously, they announced plans for the creation of a joint military planning system by next year, and a multinational headquarters for European military operations in which Nato is not involved.

The four countries, also intend to set up their own rapid reaction force and launch a European Security and Defense Union, which others would be encouraged to join.

Europe was ready to move closer to a common defense and foreign policy. That went to hell with all the disagreement over the Iraq war. It split the EU into pro- and anti-war camps. Some say that this mini-summit will make that rift worse.

"In Nato, we do not have too much America, we have too little Europe and that is what we want to change with the proposals we have made "
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

Europe's anti-war coalition has started to develop their view for the future. It wants the EU to have a stronger and more effective defense capability. And the four countries which gathered in Brussels are prepared to go it alone to begin with, if they have to. The leaders of the four nations have denied charges of organizing an anti-Nato, anti-US summit.


The club is including Russia too.
France is also working with Russia to work more closely on weapons systems. France and Russia agreed on Friday April 29 to intensify military cooperation and joint weapons production to counter regional and global threats. The Defense Ministers of both countries said. "The meetings took place in a climate of great cordiality, great confidence and a very practical spirit with a look toward the future," French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said following talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov.
have intensified political and diplomatic cooperation in recent months. They now look set to deepen military ties as well.

Both ministers said their countries want to develop weaponry that could be sold to third countries and to hold joint training exercises to improve the ability of their armed forces to work together. Ms Alliot-Marie stressed that France and Russia historically had strong military ties that could help the two countries develop better relations in the 21st century.

U.S/Britain Response. "You better not"!
Today's meeting was criticized in advance by U.S. officials. U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his monthly press conference yesterday, warned France and other European countries against trying to set up ``rival centers of power'' to the U.S.


You pissed in the well, Georgie you may now have to drink from it, Mr Potter, I mean Georgie Boy.

But, knowing Georgie like I do. He will do what he can to keep any organization from having any kind of major economic or military power, which may compete with America in the future.

Is this the start of another cold war? Could be!



Sources Cited:

(Bloomberg) By Gregory Viscusi and Rainer Buergin
BBC Europe correspondent By Chris Morris
USA for ICC.org
The Guardian Limited Michael White, political editor
Dr. Hans Bethe
Nobel Laureate; Emeritus Professor of Physics, Cornell University;
Head of the Manhattan Project's theoretical division
Dr. Richard Garwin
Senior Fellow for Science and Technology, Council on Foreign Relations; IBM Fellow Emeritus; consultant to the Sandia National Laboratory, former consultant to Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dr. Marvin Goldberger
President Emeritus, California Institute of Technology; member, Council on Foreign Relations, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Kurt Gottfried
Emeritus Professor of Physics, Cornell University; Chairman of the Board, Union of Concerned Scientists
Dr. Walter Kohn
Nobel Laureate; Emeritus Professor of Physics and Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky
Director Emeritus, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University; Recipient of National Medal of Science and Lawrence and Fermi Awards of the Department of Energy
Dr. Steven Weinberg
Nobel Laureate; Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Chair in Science, Regental Professor, and Director, Theory Research Group, University of Texas

You Can't Sue The Government Can You?
Remember the suit filed by the government against Vice President Cheney? Cheney refused to turn over the papers from the energy task force which was convened to establish the national energy policy. The General Accounting Office had requested the papers repeatedly. The GAO even sued to get them, but because of pressure from the Republican party and the administration, they gave up its courtroom fight. Do the boys have clout or what.

No, No, No,You Can't Do That!
An appeals judge told lawyers for Vice President Richard Cheney on Thursday they had no basis to ask the court to intervene in a suit seeking White House energy policy papers, saying "you have no case." "You pretend there is no law on the books. You have no case," Edwards lectured Justice Department attorney Gregory Katsas.

Turn Over The Papers!
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the administration last October to produce the documents or submit a detailed explanation of what they were withholding and why. Government lawyers then asked the appeals court to step into the lawsuit, which was filed to seek documents on the energy task force that Cheney directed in 2001.

Shhhhh It's a Secret!
The task force did however produced a policy paper calling for more oil and gas drilling and a revived nuclear power program. Who knows what else went on behind those closed doors.

What's Wrong With Enron and Haliburton Dictating Our Energy Policy?
Environmentalists say they were largely shut out of the decision-making process, while Cheney was meeting industry chieftains such as former Enron Corp . executive Ken Lay to discuss energy policy. Cheney was the chief executive of energy and construction company Halliburton Co. from 1995 to 2000.
Perhaps Cheney had asked the energy task force to recommend a new power source for his implanted cardioverter defibrillator, (ICD). He is after all, 60, years old and has suffered four mild heart attacks over the last 23 years and underwent a quadruple cardiac bypass operation. His last heart attack occurred in November 2000 near the end of the presidential campaign. At that time, doctors found his arteries to be 90 percent blocked and implanted a device called a "stent" to force the walls of the arteries to remain open. If Dick Cheney can't get Bush's budget through the Senate, his ICD may need a Sears "Die Hard" to keep him going.


Nice Try But, Turn Over The Papers Boys
After Thursday's hearing, Judicial Watch's general counsel, Larry Klayman, predicted the appeals court would rule in the group's favor, but said even then it could still be months before the White House produces any of its task force documents. I will believe this when I see it. Sadly, I will not be surprised if Cheney gets his way, no matter what the courts say.


Has anyone seen Cheney lately? The last time I saw him, he was on "Meet The Press" saying the Iraq war was a piece of cake. Maybe Cheney is saving the Energy Task Force documents for his new book. "A Life Of Working Behind Closed Doors"


Sources cited:
Reuters Susan Cornwell

U.S. Gov Info/Resources
with Robert Longley

Facts that matter
"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be bought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." Hermann Goering Hitler's Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII

Interesting quote. The power of propaganda is awesome. Just ask the average American about the job Bush has been doing.

I have been hearing about more suspected chemical weapons being discovered in Iraq. If the chemicals are deadly, who will believe it? Were the chemicals really there or were they planted?
The United States has developed so much mistrust around the world, that people will read what they want to, into this news. If you support Bush and this war, the news will be taken at face value and will feel justified of your support. If you do not support Bush or this war, you will doubt the information and believe or at least suspect that the chemicals were planted. The fact that the U.S. shunned the UN weapons inspectors from participating in the hunt, just fortifies that belief, that the information was manufactured. Whether they are ever found or not will be a mute point.

Here are the facts that do matter.
Bush administration is neo-conservative right wing who have an extreme Christian view of how people should lead their lives.
Bush is very pro-business and anti-union, ask the dock workers
Bush believes he has been destined, ordained to lead our country by God
Bush is very focused and disregards anyone who disagrees with him,
Bush uses constant repetition to lull people into believing his message.
Bush used massive force "Shock and Awe" as part of his psychological war
Bush despises international institutions
Bush has used the World Trade Center disaster to advance his agenda and anyone who disagreed was anti-american
Bush has eliminated many Individual rights since he took office,
Bush is not afraid to use the "bully pulpit to get what he wants and he wants alot.
Bush does not care what the world thinks.
Bush considers America superior to other nations.
Bush wants to duplicate his view of democracy across the world.

Sadam did use chemical weapons against Iranians and the Kurds over 12 years. ago, and the U.S. looked the other way.
These weapons were supplied to Iraq by the U.S. when Iran and Iraq were at war.
Rumsfield went to Iraq and shook Tariq Aziz hand as a steadfast ally in the 80's.
Iraq is in chaos. No one is really in charge.
American and British forces destroyed a lot of Iraq's infrastructure,
American companies are going to rebuild and get rich from the contracts.
American and British soldiers have died, and many more were wounded.
Many Iraqi soldiers were killed and wounded.
Many innocent civilians were killed and wounded.
The "coalition of the willing" scattered undetonated cluster bombs and depleted. uranium all over the land.
Saddam has been deposed.
Religious groups are vying for key leadership roles all over the country.
America is hated more than ever around the world.
Americans love wartime presidents, no matter what the war is.
The American taxpayer will be paying for this war for years to come.
More soldiers will die before this is over.

Here is what I believe is going to happen. The U.S. will:
secure Iraq oil for America
privatize the Iraqi oil business.
establish Middle East bases for future missions against other countries.
continue to state that we will install a democratic government, until Americans loose interest, or until we install a leader who will support America.
marginalize any and all international agreements.
undermine the UN of any power, so they can't interfere with American goals
use international organizations when it is in our favor, disregard them when they do not.
deter the European Union from become any kind of economic or military world power to counter American initiatives.

Some of these goals are not much of a stretch and although, they are very unilateral in scope. Given the makeup of the Bush administration, and the excellent control of Congress and the local media, they have, It is not beyond belief.

Is it me or does the Bush policy have uncanny and disturbing similarities to a refinement of National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)? Do the ends justify the means?

Candy yesterday, rocks tomorrow. One day you are a hero, then you are an oppressor, we can't win in Iraq.
Some in Iraq have adopted a Palestinian tactic which has been used during their intifada. Our troops are coming under attack by Iraq's smallest warriors, the children.

The little urchins who were being given candy by American soldiers are now throwing rocks at those same soldiers. "They were throwing them like they were pitching a baseball," said Sgt. John McLean, who was hit on the helmet, in the back and on the heel. The crowd was only dispersed when the Americans fired a warning shot over their heads. Crowds of 250-300 Iraqi teenagers hurled stones at American marines patrolling Najaf on Thursday and Friday, US officers said.
These rock attacks are not a serious threat to U.S. forces. It is however, a highly symbolic gesture as a heroic form of resistance to an illegal occupying force. It kind of makes it tough for the U.S. to adopt a friendly image in the region.

The Israeli military routinely shoot children with rubber bullets tear gas and sometimes live ammunition, when children throw rocks at them. They have killed a large number of children during the Israeli occupation of the West Bamk and the Gaza Strip.

Have you seen the poster child for injured Iraqi children? He is Ali Ismail Abbas. Ali Ismail Abbas was fast asleep when a U.S. missile obliterated his home killing most of his family.

He is presently in a Baghdad hospital, an improvised metal cage over his chest to stop his burned flesh touching the bedclothes. "It was midnight when the missile fell on us. My father, my mother and my brother died. My mother was five months pregnant." Seven other members of his family also died in the attack. Neighbors pulled him out and brought him to the hospital unconscious. "Our house was just a poor shack. Why did they want to bomb us?" "Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of hands? If I don't get a pair of hands I will commit suicide," he told correspondents I wanted to be a doctor but how can I? I don't have hands

The British clinic which makes prosthetic limbs for Heather Mills, the wife of the pop star Paul McCartney, has offered to treat Ali Ismail Abbas.
"This is a humanitarian issue," said David Hills, manager of the Dorset Orthopaedic Company. "We all feel a certain amount of guilt for what is going on in Iraq, even if some of us thought this war was necessary as a means to an end." I think Mr Hills speaks for a lot of people in America.

It was far from being a bloodless war even though it looked like a "see no evil, hear no evil, think no evil", kind of war for Americans. We didn't think about the children either, until the media picks one to put on TV.

In this case, they stuck Ali, in our face. The image conjures guilt for causing him to loose his family, his arms, his future. Well there are hundreds of children like Ali in Iraq. left behind to endure what we have brought them, despair, pain and agony.

Some of the kids, have decided to show their anger. They are also showing the resentment at being invaded and belittled by our government. They show this, by throwing rocks at us right now, when they get older, they will probably throw something a lot more harmful than rocks at us.




Sources Cited:
BBC
The Guardian

To Georgie Bush, What happened?
Hey Georgie Boy, didn't you promise us that Iraq had tons and tons of Chemical, biological and nuclear weapons? I don't see where you found any yet. Maybe all them Shi'ites are in your way. Well move them out of the way! Tell them pilgrams to move it or loose it. You say there all over the place? How can that be, you just kicked some Iraqi butt didn't you! Didn't they see the Fox broadcasts?

Speaking of Iraqis, I heard you don't know how to stop all them Muslems from getting together. I saw Rummy say that those hundreds of thousands demonstrators could now get together by the grace of you Georgie.

The boys from your right wing conservative think tanks, the "Club for Growth", the "Heritage Foundation" and the Pentagon, get an "F" on this one. They thought their hand picked ex-Iraqi man, Ahmad Chalabi would get a lot of people behind him, I don't see any body on his side except the Kurds up north, Georgie, and that's not enough.

"The longer we stay, the more Iraqi nationalism will get organized and become a unifying force, which will be expressed in increasingly opposition to the American presence," said Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. But the sooner we depart, the more of a mess we will leave behind, which could have the same result, as well as creating a power vacuum that anti-American forces could fill.

The long-standing links between the Shi'ite clerics emerging in leadership roles in southern Iraq and their fellow Shi'ites in Iran threatens to shorten your honeymoon partner, according to Joseph Braude, author of the recent book, "The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for Its People, the Middle East, and the World." Iran seems to have some influence over there and it seems the Iranian government would like to see a government of clerics take charge in Iraq. They look like they have more influence than you do Georgie boy. Rummy already said Iraq is free to form what ever government they want, except a theocracy, tell that to the mullahs Georgie. It looks like they are in charge, not your hand picked posse.

You will need to find and foster moderate Iraqi political forces to prevent it. I have no idea how you are going to do that. "There was no question of U.S. forces withdrawing from Iraq at least until it was sure it was leaving a viable state that had the ability to maintain its territorial integrity". Remember when you stated that goal. It was right after you lied to us about Iraq being involved in the WTC attacks. It could take years to build a new, ideologically revamped Iraqi army of perhaps 150,000, which would be the minimum needed to defend against a half million Iranian soldiers.

You also have to rebuild a legal framework that could help run a society based on the rule of law in which commercial life can operate, free of corruption. That means writing criminal and civil laws, recruiting police, judges, lawyers, prison administrators and eventually writing a constitution. At this point, no one knows who will do these things and when.

Many analysts, including Slaughter and Soderberg, believe that you will have no choice Georgie boy, but to swallow your reluctance to invite the United Nations to help share the task of running Iraq until sufficient physical, political and legal infrastructure is up and running. Suck it up George, even Hitler had to make compromises.

In the meantime, you and your ex-Iraqi buddies face lots of work ahead. How are you going to do this and convince the country you are working on the economy too, oh and don't forget Afganistan and Columbia and North Korea, and Syria! You've been a busy busy little boy haven't you George. You seemed to have stired up a lot of bee hives around the world. You aren't alergiic to bee stings are you.

Welcome to a new tropical hideaway! Situated among the most scenic beaches in the world. This exotic Caribbean island complex has everything for someone seeking peaceful surroundings. All you have to do is become an unlawful combatant, or an innocent bystander who may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Welcome to Camp Delta, in Guantanimo, Cuba!!!

Once our friendly travel agents meet you, they will process your travel papers and prepare you for this trip of a lifetime. The process is easy, and almost painless.

Deluxe Flying Accommodations are provided, free of charge!
You will be flown in a spacious, Air Force C 140, on a custom seat, shackled, across the fuselage for your safety on those bumpy rides, with your eyes blacked out behind no-see goggles, your ears and noses tightly muffled. All your senses are blocked. You cannot see, hear, smell, or feel anything. You will also be placed on your knees, so you will have plenty of leg room behind you. Attendants will be available, assuring maximum security for you and your fellow travelers.
The "technique" being applied is called "sensory deprivation flying". It is refined travel at its best. The 20-hour flight from Afghanistan, may seem never ending, to some, but the destination is worth it. Sensory deprivation is especially preferred, because it leaves no physical traces, so you will arrive bruise free!
Sure, there have been some minor issues with sensory deprivation experiments. They were carried out in 1971 on 14 Irish Republican Army prisoners by their British jailers. In 1974 British authorities were forced to outlaw this kind of mental and psychological torture. In addition, some $5 million has since been paid out by the British government over the years to victims of torture. Lawyers, are always mucking about, aren't they!
Luckily, the United States was quick to pick up where the Brits left off.

Once you arrive to this desert paradise you will be greeted by a contingent of American CIA. Who will ask you questions, so your stay will be more enjoyable. Nothing but the best interrogators for you. You will join about *664 fellow travelers at Camp Delta, in Guantanamo Bay Cuba!

The resort has recently been upgraded from tropical tents with more permanent structures. Each room is exquisitely decorated with metal beds stenciled with a bright yellow arrow pointing toward Mecca. Each cell has a basic through-the-floor toilet, The rooms/cells have concrete floors and are roofed with pressure-treated wood and corrugated metal and a sink. Although the climate is scorching, the temperature in the cells is made tolerable by electric ventilators on the ceilings and the ocean breezes that waft through the camp. "The detainees are served at least two hot meals a day", said Chief Warrant Officer James Kluck, the food service director, who in civilian life looks after the food needs of a dormitory at the University of Michigan.

Just like summer camp!
One official stated recently that "going to the military camps was, for many in the Islamic world, a kind of summer ritual. "It's like going camping," he said." All the detainees are now housed in a more modern center known as Camp Delta, which occupies 20 acres on the southeast corner of the base.

Bonus Point Plan is available for everyone!
The resort owners have left no stone unturned to help permanent visitors earn "Bonus points" . Privileges like exercise time and reading material are used as disciplinary tools, said Command Sgt. Maj. John Vannatta, the superintendent, a reservist who in civilian life is a superintendent of an Indiana state penitentiary. and some are rewarded with treats like ice cream and dates when they cooperate


How can you qualify for this exclusive deal?
Just visit or live in a country where the U.S. may think terrorists may reside. You may or not be a member of the "Al Qaeda" red carpet member club. Nationality is not important so, visas or passports are not required! Many have already taken advantage of this offer from Afghanistan and we are now expecting to receive many more from Iraq.
If you are not a member of Al Qaeda, don't despair, according to a spokesman for Guantanimo Bay who said "For one thing, only a small number of the detainees are members of Al Qaeda. The rest have either been determined to be nobodies, rounded up in the chaotic aftermath of the war, or presumed to be nobodies whose state has not yet been determined."
There is still more hope for many more of you to join in.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered an explanation of the thinking behind the indefinite regime at Guantánamo when he once suggested that the detainees were being held not necessarily for what they had done but for what they MIGHT do.

It is like being a Citizen of the World.
The majority of the attendees still face an uncertain future on an island chosen explicitly for its unusual features. Not only is the base lodged on sovereign territory of Cuba, a nominally hostile country, and ringed by a 17-mile-long fence with armed watchtowers on both sides. Two federal courts have also said that despite the fact that it is totally under United States control, the base is outside the reach of United States law because it is technically part of Cuba.

All expenses are paid for by United States taxpayers, so Enjoy your stay!

New Upgrades are coming for Service Personnel
The service personnel occupy the main part of the 45-square-mile base. It is screened off from Camp Delta by a small range of bluffs. Like most military bases, it is just a slice of America with a McDonald's , the only one in Cuba, and a Subway shop. Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken are coming soon!



* Sure, some of our guests are unhappy about their surroundings. There is some dispute as to the cause of some 25 suicide attempts at the camp and the fact that more than 5 percent of the detainees are being treated with antidepressants. Depression is a logical consequence of being imprisoned with no certainty about the future. US. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he is not bothered by reports from Guantánamo.
I am sure the best advise is to know as many people as you can. Friendly people are happy people.



Sources Cited:
NEIL A. LEWIS New York Times
Rwanda Media Advisory
Amnesty International

[4/23/2003 5:28:44 PM | Thomas Guzman]
Hey buddy can you spare a couple of million?
Bush administration must be hurting, because they are out panhandling their coalition of the willing and others, for money to help Iraq. They are calling for an international donors conference to raise money, so bring your wallets, boys and give until it hurts.

We bomb the hell out of the place and now we want other countries to pay for the damage we inflicted on Iraq's citizens. That's pretty fair. I guess Ari Flesher would say something like this.
"The international community is being asked to contribute to the humanitarian effort in helping the poor people that Saddam has brutally oppressed the, for 12 long years. Now that the country has been free of his oppressive regime, it is incumbent on the world to help these poor people."

Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim said a number of countries have already pledged assistance. Zakheim said he believed there will be more international interest in investing in Iraq's reconstruction than in the case of Afghanistan, which has less appealing prospects for economic revitalization. The initial donors conference on Afghanistan produced pledges of about $2 billion, but the Bush administration complained for months that donors were slow in giving the money.
"There's tremendous interest in getting the Iraqis going because, let's face it, the Afghan economy has been a subsistence economy," he said in an Associated Press interview, "whereas Iraq is one of the few Middle Eastern countries that is blessed with both oil and water -- in great amounts -- which means that it has a naturally balanced economy."

So, we can surmise from this, that countries should be beating down the doors to help Iraq, while Afganistan can learn to just get by at subsistence levels , as far as their economy is concerned. Their problem is that they don't have oil as a natural resource, so what do they expect?

So, if you oppose the U.S. make sure you are a country that has oil, so that when your infrastructure and your citizens are blown to pieces, to free your people, the survivors of your country, will have the world at your doorstep with fistfulls of money. "Money makes the world go around, the world go around. the world go around."
So, bring your hearts and your wallet boys and give until it hurts as long as the country has oil, that is.

Sources Cited
Washington Associated Press

If you are a terrorist, any kind of an "activist" or if your name is John Thomas, surprise, you are all on the same "no-fly list!"

A Milwaukee experience
Once upon a time, not too long ago, a priest the nun and the activist went to the Milwaukee airport with a group of activists. They were all going to a "Peace Action Meeting" in Boston on ATA. Well one person from the group went to the ticket counter and suddenly she was told that there was a computer problem and that "someone" had to be called, the "someone" turned out to be a sheriff's deputy, who led her away with her bags in tow to a nearby building. The Deputy took her driver's license and she sat there alone for 20 minutes. They asked her what her nationality was, what her phone number was. They asked her if she was a U.S. citizen, and if she was from around there. She was told it was routine. Others from the group were also pulled over. They were given multiple explanations. One explanation was that they were looking for Hispanics. She was then allowed to go back to the ticket terminal, where she was told the computer locked up again, and were told that the deputies would deliver their boarding passes. The passes had bold faced "S" with little asterisks on both sides circled in red, which meant that they had to be hand-searched and use a hand wand. They were held just long enough for all of them to miss their flights, all 19 members of the same group.

Did anyone notice a new agency and What List?
For months, the TSA, a federal agency, established a year ago to protect the nation’s transportation system from terrorism, denied it had a blacklist of people to be singled out by security staff for special inspection and questioning.

Ok, Yes we have a list.
Spokesman David Steigman acknowledged that the government does have “a list of about 1,000 people” who are deemed “threats to aviation” and not allowed on airplanes under any circumstances.

Did anyone know there was a law too?
The law passed by the Bush administration after September 11th empowers John W. Magaw Under Secretary of Transportation for Security to "establish policies and procedures requiring air carriers to use information from government agencies to identify individuals on passenger lists who may be a threat to civil aviation and, if such an individual is identified, to notify appropriate law enforcement agencies and prohibit the individual from boarding an aircraft."

Who establishes the guidelines for the list?
The TSA itself says it has no guidelines defining who is put on the list, but rather relies on names provided by other federal agencies, such as the FBI, Secret Service or INS. But no one at those agencies could say who is responsible for managing the list or who can remove names of people who have been cleared by authorities. The TSA also has no procedures for people to clear their names and get off the list.

Is there a second list too?
Asked if the TSA has a second list, one not of the “threats to aviation” who would never be allowed to get on a plane, but rather of political activists who are to be singled out for intense scrutiny and interrogation,

No comment on the list
TSA spokesman Nico Melendez “We’re trying to maintain the integrity of the list,” Melendez said. “We don’t make a habit of commenting on the list.”

FOIA shows you do have 2 lists, Mr. Bush
The documents obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act establish that the TSA administers two lists: a "no-fly" list and a "selectee" list, which requires the passenger to go through additional security measures. The names are provided to air carriers through Security Directives or Emergency Amendments and are stored in their computer systems so that an individual with a name that somewhat matches the list can be flagged when getting a boarding pass. A "no-fly" match requires the agent to call a law enforcement officer to detain and question the passenger. In the case of a Selectee, an "S" or special mark is printed on their boarding pass and the person receives additional screening at security. The TSA has withheld the number of names on each of the lists.


Who is on these lists?
a Freedom of Information Act request in October 2002 was submitted to learn more about the operation of the watch-list, which reportedly had been used to interfere with the travel of political activists. When the TSA failed to respond to EPIC's request, EPIC filed suit in December 2002. ( EPIC v. TSA ). The lawsuit sought, among other things, TSA's criteria for putting people on so-called "no-fly lists" that bar some passengers from flying and subject others to extensive scrutiny,

We have major threats to aviation, and they are non-violent?
Most of those who have been singled out for special interrogation and searches of their luggage and their persons, at least those who have gone public with their experiences, clearly are not “threats to aviation.” Indeed, many have been ardent advocates of nonviolence.

Here are some examples how these lists are being used.
Sarah Backus a coordinator for Schools of America Watch was stopped and held over and told by the sheriff, that she was stopped, because she was part of a peace group and she was protesting against the country.

John Dear, a 43-year-old Jesuit priest, member of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi and former executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith global peace organization. flies just about every week, and he said "Since 9/11, I’ve been taken aside at the boarding gate every single time and searched and questioned.”

Others, like the Green Party’s Nancy Oden, have reported being detained by armed soldiers, or, like Green Party leader Doug Stuber, questioned by Secret Service agents, sometimes at such length that they missed their flights. In most cases, they ultimately were permitted to fly to their destinations.

Barbara Olshansky, assistant legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, reports that she has been stopped and searched every time she has flown since 9/11. One of those times, when she demanded to know why she was being singled out, the airline agent at the gate threatened to bar her from the plane if she raised a fuss and added brusquely, “The computer spit you out. I don’t know why, and I don’t have time to talk to you about it.”

Nancy Chang, a senior litigation attorney at the CCR, who also has been singled out for searches and questioning at the airport, says the government is “leveraging legitimate air safety concerns into a program that targets law-abiding Americans for questioning and detention based on their political viewpoints.

Thomas, a 70-year-old African-American grandmother, found herself on a “No-Fly” list earlier this year when authorities mistook her for a blue-eyed, redheaded man who allegedly killed his wife and three children. The problem: the murder suspect, 28-year-old Christian Michael Longo, used the alias John Thomas Christopher when he successfully fled to Mexico.

Adams, 55, said that she and Gordon, 50, were arrested several times in the 1980s for civil disobedience but did not understand why they would be on a "no-fly" list today. Since the August 2002 incident the have flown without incident.

Sgt. Larry Krupp says he has cleared so many innocent "David Nelsons" that one of them buys him coffee, each time he is stopped at the counter.

"There are people who are being misidentified," said TSA spokesman Brian Turmail. "Airlines, because of the software they use, are saying this person might be on the no-fly list because they have three letters in their name that are similar (to names of persons the government has identified as potential security threats)."

ACLU lawyer Jayashri Srikantiah said it appeared all 339 San Francisco fliers questioned were finally allowed to fly. "If that number is any indication, it is likely that thousands of individuals at airports across the country are being routinely detained and questioned because their names appear on a secret government list," she said.

Calling the existence of such travel blacklists “an obvious and egregious violation of the First Amendment, because it permits both discrimination against a particular viewpoint and because it is a prior restraint on Americans’ right to travel,” CCR Legal Director William Goodman says, “the U.S. government appears to be targeting citizens because of their beliefs.”

"What we are trying to do is get information," she said. "Virtually all information about this list is based in secrecy. One of the things were are very concerned about is whether First Amendment activity is a reason for being on the list," she said, referring to actions protected by the Bill of Rights guarantee to freedom of expression.

One of the other main problems is that the name-matching techniques behind the processing of names on the list can be over 100 years old when it was used in the 1890 census. There is apparently several techniques used, but none of them are fail-safe, and the results get pretty strange.

Mihir Kshirsagar, a policy analyst with Electronic Privacy Information Center, a non profit watchdog group, said that until the TSA clearly defines rules for the “No-Fly” list, people’s civil liberties will continue to suffer.

Some people are very concerned that these new powers by the administration, can be extended at will, to other areas.

Some say, “You’re going to get pulled aside for reasons you just don’t know It’s not just the airports,” he said, explaining that the TSA has jurisdiction over every mode of interstate travel. They way they are talking, it will soon involve all forms of transportation, If you want to go from point A to point B, I guess you can always walk."

I don't know, how much do you trust our Government?

I wonder if my name is on there, I'll let you know if I try to fly anywhere.

As the U.S. is changing the invasion forces from U.S.Marines to U.S. Army, there is a second invasion coming to Iraq. They had to wait until the population had been "softened up" by our air force, our artillery and our Bradley tanks. It is now time for this next wave of invaders. They consist of several groups with one goal in mind. To help the "conquered heathens" believe in George W Bush's "god..

One group is called Samaritan's Purse, an aid group founded by Rev. Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son. A little background on Mr. Graham. He is the Reverend, who gave the invocation at the inauguration of George W. Bush. Rev. Franklin Graham is personally close to George Bush, who was helped by Mr. Graham's father to become a born-again Christian. Mr Graham has called Islam "a violent and wicked religion." The evangelical leader gave the Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon, spurring protests from Muslim workers who had asked for a different speaker. The Pentagon refused to withdraw the invitation. This aid group has volunteers in Jordan preparing to go into Iraq.

Jerry Vines, former president of the Southern Baptists, has denounced Muhammad, the founder of Islam, as "a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives." The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, also has missionaries ready.

There has been a growing movement among U.S. evangelicals to convert Muslims, for several years. Ever since the United States decided to invade Iraq and remove the soverign leader of that country, pre-emptively, these groups have been waiting their turn to begin the "conversion".

In Touch Ministries calls the Middle East the "10/40 Window," referring to the area between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, which "houses the majority of the world's people who have not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their language."

A group called Center for Ministry to Muslims has set up training programs at seminaries across the United States and in dozens of other countries, preparing more than 20,000 missionaries for work in Islamic countries. "God is not willing that Muslims, the descendants of Ishmael, should be without an adequate witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ," says the CMM mission statement.

Skeptics worry the evangelical groups will inflame tensions in Iraq by convincing many Muslims the United States waged war in order to convert them to Christianity.

There are also fears that the country's 750,000 Christians, most of whom belong to ancient churches dating from the days of the apostles, could be endangered if they are lumped together with the missionaries.

Let's take the perception that the United States is engaged in a war on Islam. Do you think that impression will be worsened if our troops are followed into Iraq by a horde of Missionaries, who view conversion as part of their human relief effort? "Onward christian soldiers!"

"I come here in the name of the one and only true god, bless all you Islamic sinners! Pass the ammunition Jerry, I mean the Bible."

Please select "Contact Me" on the sidebar with your comments.

Sources Cited:
Seattle Times

This is great! There are cities around the country that are not taking questionable Government rules lying down. Good for them and good for us.
Here is the story from today's Washington Post.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act

By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 21, 2003; Page A0
ARCATA, Calif. -- This North Coast city may look sweet -- old, low-to-the-ground buildings, town square with a bronze statue of William McKinley, ambling pickup trucks -- but it acts like a radical.

Arcata was one of the first cities to pass resolutions against global warming and a unilateral war in Iraq. Last month, it joined the rising chorus of municipalities to pass a resolution urging local law enforcement officials and others contacted by federal officials to refuse requests under the Patriot Act that they believe violate an individual's civil rights under the Constitution. Then, the city went a step further.

This little city (pop.: 16,000) has become the first in the nation to pass an ordinance that outlaws voluntary compliance with the Patriot Act.

"I call this a nonviolent, preemptive attack," said David Meserve, the freshman City Council member who drafted the ordinance with the help of the Arcata city attorney, city manager and police chief.

The Arcata ordinance may be the first, but it may not be the last. Across the country, citizens have been forming Bill of Rights defense committees to fight what they consider the most egregious curbs on liberties contained in the Patriot Act. The 342-page act, passed by Congress one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with little input from a public still in shock, has been most publicly criticized by librarians and bookstore owners for the provisions that force them to secretly hand over information about a patron's reading and Internet habits. But citizens groups are becoming increasingly organized and forceful in rebuking the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act for giving the federal government too much power, especially since a draft of the Justice Department's proposed sequel to the Patriot Act (dubbed Patriot II) was publicly leaked in January.

Both the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, which created the Cabinet-level department, follow the Constitution, says Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo. Federal law trumps local law in any case, which would mean Arcata would be in for a fight -- a fight it wants -- if the feds did make a Patriot Act request. LaRae Quy, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco FBI office, whose jurisdiction includes Arcata, said that the agency has no plans to use the Patriot Act in Arcata any time soon, but added that people misunderstood it. Although some people feel their privacy rights are being infringed upon, she said, the agency still has to show "probable cause for any actions we take."

But to date, 89 cities have passed resolutions condemning the Patriot Act, with at least a dozen more in the works and a statewide resolution against the act close to being passed in Hawaii.

"We want the local police to do what they were meant to do -- protect their citizens," said Nancy Talanian, co-director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Florence, Mass., which gives advice to citizens groups on how to draft their own resolution.

Although cities across the country passed antiwar resolutions before the attack on Iraq with little notice from the administration, Talanian said that the anti-Patriot Act resolutions are "not quite as symbolic" as those that passed against the war.

"Normally, the president and Congress don't pay that much attention when it comes to waging war," she said. "But in the case of the Patriot Act, the federal government can't really tell municipalities that you have to do the work that the INS or the FBI wants you to do. The city can say, 'No, I'm sorry. We hire our police to protect our citizens and we don't want our citizens pulled aside and thrown in jail without probable cause.' "

In Hawaii, home to many Japanese Americans who vividly recall the Japanese internments during World War II, Democratic state Rep. Roy Takumi introduced a resolution on the Patriot Act as a way to raise debate, he said. Although the resolution may be seen as symbolic, he said, "states have every right to consider the concerns of the federal government and voice our opinions. If a number of states begin to pass similar resolutions, then it raises the bar for Congress, making them realize our concerns. I hope to see what we've done here plays a role in mobilizing people to take action."

Lawmakers and lobbyists on both ends of the political spectrum are beginning to sound more alarms about the antiterrorism act, which gave the government unprecedented powers to spy on citizens. Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced a bill, the "Freedom to Read Protection Act" (H.R. 1157), that would restore the privacy protections for library book borrowers and bookstore purchases. The bill has 73 co-sponsors.

Earlier this month, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the ranking Democrat, asked the Justice Department for more information on the government's use of the Patriot Act to track terrorists, questioning what "tangible things" the government can subpoena in investigations of U.S. citizens.

Sensenbrenner and Conyers sent an 18-page letter to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, challenging the department's increased use of "national security letters" requiring businesses to hand over electronic records on finances, telephone calls, e-mails and other personal data.

They questioned the guidelines under which investigators can subpoena private books, records, papers, documents and other items; asked whether the investigations targeted only people identified as agents of a foreign power; and asked the attorney general to "identify the specific authority relied on for issuing these letters."

The Justice Department said it is working on the request.

Local officials begin to defy measures thought to infringe upon civil liberties." The Idaho Green Party has begun the Paul Revere Project to stop Patriot Act II before it can be passed.

The proposed addendum to the Patriot Act, which the Justice Department has insisted is only a draft of ideas, would enlarge many of the controversial provisions in the first Patriot Act. It would give the government authority to wiretap an individual and collect a person's DNA without court orders, detain people in secret and revoke citizenship, among other powers.

The proposed sequel to the act has galvanized communities in a bottom-up, grass-roots way, Talanian said. "Before a community votes on resolutions, they engage in forums and petitioning to show the town council they want this. After, communities band together and do things like visit the offices of their entire congressional delegations and say our communities have these concerns and now we are asking you to help."

In Arcata, where forums drew little debate, the new law is an unqualified hit. It passed by a vote of 4 to 1, but has what looks like near-unanimous approval from residents.

Meserve, a weather-worn builder and contractor in his fifties who wears a ponytail and flannel shirts, hasn't felt so popular since he won his council seat running on the platform, "The Federal Government Has Gone Stark, Raving Mad."

"The ordinance went through so easily that we were surprised," he said. "We started going up to people asking what they thought. They thought, 'great.' It's our citywide form of nonviolent disobedience."

The fine for breaking the new law, which goes into effect May 2, is $57. It applies only to the top nine managers of the city, telling them they have to refer any Patriot Act request to the City Council.
-------------------------------------------------------
These people are taking our Government to task, and I love it.

I rewrote my blog last night, after I published it. I was so upset with President Bush and his war, that I got overly sarcastic with the material, in my first posting. I calmed down thought about it, and re-wrote the blog. Here is what I had originally written at the beginning of my blog.

"In his eagerness to share everything American with the newly conquered country of Iraq, Bush has introduced the traditional Easter Egg Hunt to Iraqi children this year.
The eggs were specially made for the Iraqi population. These cheerful little beauties are in the form of brightly colored shaped cans. U.S. forces have been very liberal with their distribution, since the war started. The landscape is covered with them! There shouldn't be any disappointed Iraqi children. this year!
The local nickname in Iraq for these darling things is "Child Killers" , we call them cluster bombs;"

I ended my blog with more anger and sarcasm.
"I guess they don't like Bush's Easter in Iraq. It is a Christian holiday after all and George made these Easter eggs a fundamentalist right wing Christian holiday gift, which just doesn't translate well into their Muslim culture."

My anger was renewed this morning, when the news from Bagdad, stated that 4 marines and an Iraqi girl were seriously hurt when she handed over, something she had found in her neighborhood. It turned out to be a " bomblet" from a cluster bomb. It detonated when she turned it over to the marines.

These un-detonated " bomblets" are all over Iraq. Children and other innocent civilians are being hurt all the time, according to the Iraqi hospital medical staff. The only reason, we heard about it on our media, was that marines were hurt from one. It just shows how "edited" our news media is.

I read a variety of on-line and hard copy, newspapers every day, and the bias is obvious. Some are conservative right, others are decidedly left wing. Some try to be objective and those sources are the ones I favor the most. However, I have found that it pays to read multiple views of the same news article. Sometimes, something close to the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I have calmed down, but, none the less, I am leaving the original lines in, ugly sarcasm and all. Forgive my indulgence in a self surving journalistic rant. It feels good to get it out of my system.
Damn this war.

Here is another example of the terrible things that come from war, our modern high tech weapons. The weapon I am specifically writing about is cluster bombs and our military is using them in Iraq. The medical staff in Iraq call them "Child Killers"

The military has a number of different kinds of cluster bombs.
CBU-52B
The sub-munition in the CBU-52 is softball sized and effective against soft-skinned targets. The dispenser holds 220 of the sub-munitions and is best used against personnel or light-skinned vehicles.

CBU-58A/B
This cluster munition is optimized for soft skinned targets to include personnel and light skinned military vehicles. The dispenser holds 650 of the baseball sized bomblets to be dispersed over a wide target area.

CBU-71/B
The CBU-71/B is very similar to the CBU-58, carrying 650 baseball-sized bomblets. However, the CBU-71 sub-munitions have a random delay fuzing option making this cluster weapon great for area denial against soft- skinned targets (light or no armor).

CBU-87 CEM Combined Effects Munition
The CEM dispenses 202 bomblets over an area patch of 800 feet by 400 feet. It is an area denial cluster weapon. This single payload is optimized against both lightly armored vehicles and personnel, in one highly effective sub-munition. The CBU-87 was used extensively for interdiction during Desert Storm.

The delivery system for these cluster bombs are varied as well. They can be distributed via artillery rounds or in bomb casings. The above mentioned military descriptions says that each bomb can contain from 202 to 650 bomblets, the size of soft drink cans. One bomb usually scatter over an area the size of 2 soccer fields. Many of them explode on contact, but many do not, they sit there, primed and ready to explode. These unexploded ordinance is aptly called "child killers" because the unexploded canisters are brightly colored, which entices children to pick them up. Victims say they run when they hear one go off, but sometimes they run right into a batch of other unexploded bomblets. "It's terrifying"

The doctors at the newly named Central Children's Hospital have seen hundreds of patients since the air attacks started because of these cluster bombs. Doctor Geert Van Moorter, in Iraq for a Belgian medical charity, said "I've seen more than a 100 victims of these things, probably half of them children. And they are still arriving at the hospitals. The bombs are still on the ground," Moorter said. "We see many injuries to the legs and abdomen from shrapnel, lesions everywhere," he adds. "In many cases, the families have been too frightened until now to leave the house and bring them to the hospital, so we see a lot of infections and amputations."

Cluster bombs were also used by the British armed forces. A Ministry of Defense spokesman said: "We have used them elsewhere." Its director Richard Lloyd said: "As we know from Afghanistan, Kosovo and the last Gulf war, The military spokesman said. There is little the allied forces could do to prevent the occasional loss of life.

Lieutenant-Colonel B.P. McCoy of U.S. Marine Regimental Combat Team Seven, now patrolling eastern sections of Baghdad, said his forces had encountered some, unexploded bomblets from artillery rounds fired by U.S. forces outside the city.

The first Iraqi war left a lot, of unexploded bomblets By the end of last year, close to 2,000 people in Kuwait had died or been seriously maimed by bomblets and other explosive leftovers from that war, according to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which campaigns against land mines. British charity Landmine Action has also condemned their use. Human Rights Watch said in a statement this week it was appalled the U.S. military could have dropped cluster bombs in civilian areas of Baghdad, an act it described as a possible violation of international law.

These weapons are not the "smart bombs" we hear so much about. These are despicable weapons, that do not, discriminate between combatant and noncombatants. Long after this war is decided, these time bombs will sit there, in their bright, attractive colorings. They will patiently wait for, either their safe disposal or for their accidental detonation with tragic consequences.

Ali is an Iraqi teenage victim, who recently came upon one of these bombs. He sat up in his bed, grimaced from his painful injuries, and said "Before the war started the Americans said they would come to liberate the Iraqi people so we could walk in peace and joy," "Now we are all suffering."

Ali is not the first nor the last to be injured by these uncaring weapons. These are uncaring and vile weapons, used by an obviously uncaring superpower. Us.


Sources Cited:
Human Rights Watch
BBC News Online
Maxwell Air Force Base Information Web site
Rosalind Russell Reuters

What Do We Call This Hurricane?
I feel like we are dealing with a hurricane here. We survived the frontal force of it and we are now sitting in the eye. The air is alive with tension, but the direction from which we will receive the next blow is unknown. Where do we look? Let's read the signs as of today.

Kurds oust Arabs from homes in Kirkuk
KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Years after they were dispossessed under Saddam Hussein, Kurds are taking what they say is rightfully theirs, evicting Iraqi Arabs and seizing their homes in northern Iraq.
"We're homeless," complained Sadi Qader Muhammad, whose family was ordered out of their four-room house by a group of Kurds in this largely Kurdish city. "For years, we've worked hard from morning until night, and getting kicked out of our home is the fruit of our labor."
The new Kurdish occupants took over the house in the days of confusion immediately after the April 10 collapse of Baghdad's authority in Kirkuk. They claim the land was theirs before Saddam evicted them in the 1980s.
"It was our land," said Khader Rashid Rahim, a trader who plans to move his wife and seven children to this house. "Years ago, three of my brothers were killed by Saddam's government. They took all of our property and forcibly moved us away."
An estimated 400,000 Kurds were displaced from Kirkuk. Many ended up in refugee camps and dedicated their lives to retrieving their lost property.


No Oil fields for the Kurds!
On top of Turkey's economic worries, Turkey's recurring nightmare is that war would lead to the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
The outgoing prime minister, whose protracted illness led to the collapse of his governing coalition and early elections, fears that Turkey's 12 million Kurds, mainly in the south-east, would break away and fragment the country.
Reconciliation between the two Kurdish factions in northern Iraq earlier this summer sharpened Ankara's suspicions that America had secretly offered independence in return for Kurdish cooperation.
The Turkish government further reasoned that if the Kurds occupied Kirkuk and Mosul, once Ottoman cities, the oil wealth in the area would boost their political aspirations.
Threats have come from government spokesmen and retired generals, suggesting that Turkish troops would occupy cities in northern Iraq if the Kurds occupy the oil rich area.


Marines quell riot, catch bank robbers
BAGHDAD, Iraq-- A riot broke out at a Baghdad bank Thursday after thieves blew a hole in the vault and dropped children in to bring out fistfuls of cash. As ordinary Iraqis protested vehemently, U.S. troops calmed the situation by arresting the thieves and removing $4 million in U.S. dollars for safekeeping.
About 1,000 civilians surged around the 16 soldiers attempting to secure the bank building. At one point the soldiers cocked their rifles and charged at a group of men to get them to back away from their Bradley fighting vehicles.


Local Iraqis not impressed by US-selected leader
Skepticism ran deep among groups united by little more than joy at Saddam's fall and unease at getting too close to Washington. Even Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, eager not to be seen as a stooge of the Americans who back him, opted to stay away and to send a representative instead.
The main Shiite Islam opposition group decided not to come at all.


City of Kut has their own ideas on leadership
In the city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, an anti-American cleric took over City Hall. Hundreds of his followers blocked U.S. Marines from entering Tuesday with a message that ''there is more than just one leader in the region.'' The Marines departed, opting against confrontation.


US backed Iraqi fighters not warmly greeted
BAGHDAD, April 16 A Pentagon-backed Iraqi militia composed mostly of exiles rumbled into town today on the back of U.S. military trucks.
Wearing U.S. issued uniforms, the fighters waved their weapons. They pumped their arms. They chanted joyfully of their return.
And they were greeted with a cold-eyed indifference that finally silenced them.
As Baghdad showed itself revealing blackened streets littered with the debris of lawlessness, dead zones of shuttered stores and, most starkly, a suspicious populace the buoyant mood of the 120-man Baghdad Company of the Free Iraqi Forces wilted


A US marine spokesman in Baghdad has downplayed reports that an Iraqi has been elected to govern the city.
The officer was responding to news that Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi had announced his "election" by local people and was liaising with the US military. "Anyone can call themselves anything they want to, but future appointments like this will be handled through USAid," Captain Joe Plenzler told AFP news agency.
Political manoeuvring is intensifying across Iraq as exiled opposition leaders return to the country and try to stake their claims for roles in the future government.
There are a number of emerging leaders throughout Iraq and the coalition works with a number of them on a variety of levels
Mr Zubaidi, who says he is a member of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), told reporters he had been elected by religious and community leaders as "president of Baghdad's executive committee" but he gave few details.
Reuters news agency reports that most Iraqis it interviewed after Mr Zubaidi's "election" said they knew nothing about polling.


MOSUL, Iraq --U.S. Special Forces troops caught in the middle of a political power grab battled a violent mob with assault rifles and heavy machine guns from the governor's building here Tuesday.
A crowd of more than 2,000 repeatedly surged at the building for roughly an hour, hurling rocks and chunks of concrete, as U.S. soldiers drove them back with one barrage after another, including rounds from .50-caliber machine guns. There were unconfirmed reports that at least 10 people were killed.


New concerns with Hezbollah
The Damascus government has given Hezbollah weapons and political and logistical support, the officials say. The group's ties to Iran and Syria prompted the United States to put both nations on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
With thousands of well-trained, well-armed and highly disciplined soldiers, and thousands of missiles and other armaments, Hezbollah could pose a more potent threat than even Al Qaeda, several top U.S. officials have warned.
U.S. officials have accused Hezbollah, Iran and Syria of sending fighters or military equipment to Iraq for the war, charges that all three reject. Now, these officials believe that Hezbollah, Iran and Syria may try to thwart efforts to rebuild Iraq by launching attacks on U.S. and British targets there.


CAIRO, 18 April 2003 — Syria will not allow inspections of its military arsenal or its territory to refute US accusations that it possesses chemical weapons, Foreign Minister Farouk Shara said here yesterday.

North Korea
I don't even want to talk about North Korea, so I won't.

It looks like something wicked this way comes. The question is which one of the above, will evolve into something larger. Maybe it has not even shown it's face yet.
I feel so much safer now that we are at condition Yellow. The war is moving out of Bush's main focus. He now has the economy on his revised agenda. Colin Powell feels free enough to travel again. The Administration is starting to devote time to gather campaign funds for the 2004 election.

It doesn't look like anything is calming down to me. It looks like we are going to get hit with the back end of this hurricane and the winds of this war will continue to howl for a long time to come. Don't go Colin, please stay home!!!!


Sources cited: BBC News
The New York Times
The LA Times
Chris Tomilson, AP
Kevin Frayer, AP
Reuters

What happened to Johnny? and Achmed?
Has anyone seen any significant number of casualties on TV? My guess would be no. How is it that possible?
When there is a terrible gruesome murder somewhere, we find many reporters at the home of the person's parents. They ask them inane questions like "what crossed your mind when you heard they found your daughter's body in the river?"

Where were the reporters when the servicemen's families found out about their young sons and daughters were killed in this war. Did our news media suddenly discover ethical journalism?
During the Vietnam war, horrible pictures were on our TV's every day, it helped end that war. It showed the fighting, the mortally wounded bodies falling to the ground, the bloody bandages on Gi's. The dog tags hanging on body bags. They showed the brutality, the senseless violence right in our homes. It was visceral. It was an assault to all of our senses. There is nothing romantic about war, far from it, it shows the worst part of being human. Our capacity to kill another human being.

Enter the Art Of Public Relations
"We're getting the band together," said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett in September. The "band," explained News-week 's Martha Brant, refers to "the people who brought you the war in Afghanistan--or at least the accompanying public-relations campaign. ... Now they're back for a reunion tour on Iraq."

The government spent a lot of time and money with the "Band" during this war. And they were very good at getting the message out. It will be a quick war and this is a good thing for America. The Bush Message was "5 by 5" at home but very weak overseas.
Bush's PR campaign worked very well here, but it didn't play well overseas. Washington's reach was not long enough to manage the overseas' press releases.
They know the disregard Bush has for them and everyone else in the world. Bush does not worry about Europe, he knows that he can buy back some of their support with the lucrative rebuilding business they will eventually get in Iraq.

The game at home is the most important one to Bush. The Pentagon insured a compliant press by embedding reporters.
The embedded reporters were given strict guidelines which they had to agree to before going out with the troops. So they were not going to shoot and air any negative pictures. Is it any surprise at the extent that this administration went, to choreograph the war and battle progress messages? Embedded reporters were literally in-bed-with the military. The war seems so clean that it looked like a PG movie.

We saw bombs going off without any casualties. Soldiers laying down on sandy banks with their assault rifles pointed in the distance. We saw the artillery shooting great flames of fire in the dark night. There were no dead and mortally wounded to be seen anywhere. The military recently stated that they were not going to count any dead and injured. I guess, the dead are not even worthy of a tick mark on a piece of paper. They just don't exist to anyone, except to the relatives and loved ones, but hey, who cares about them anyway, they won't vote in November 2004.

So, this war has apparently ended up looking bloodless. Kudos to the "Band". They took the "War is Hell" and the "I am glad war is so terrible that we should not get to fond of it" notion and made it into "war is heck! " and "Those sandstorms got sand in my lunch!" type of war. Disney would be proud of the production effort. If you talk to the soldiers that fought the bloody battles first hand. I bet they didn't think it was a disney movie.

The Bush administration PR Team is still out there on the job, they are a hard working bunch, they were there right from the get go,and they are there today. They are now desperately looking for every little bit of information, they can glean from the rubble, to extrapolate, and justify the killing. We will see the fruits of their effort right until November 2004. So hold on to your seat for much more creative spins on the truth.

We were short changed here, people! WE want our MSNBC, WE want our CNN. We should want to see the war, to see what we are supporting. Show the armaments we paid for with our taxes. Show the damage those bullets and fragmentation grenades do to people's bodies. Show the destruction we caused. Make it graphic! Show the devestation! Maybe next time, we won't be so apathetic when a President chooses war as a first option. Sometimes war is inevitable, but we should carefully weigh the cost. How best to weigh the cost, than to first understand the cost and waste a war will bring. Pray for our soldiers folks. May they come back whole in body in spirit. May they put the horrors they saw behind them like a bad dream. never to trouble them again.

Now that the Bush administration is savoring it's victory over Iraq. Hurray!! We beat a major adversary. Or did we? Let's see Iraq was a country:

which had an antiquated army,

which lost thousands and thousands of soldiers, in the wars with Iran and in the 1991 Gulf war

that was under 12 years of sanctions.

where 2/3 rds of the country was constantly monitored by our air force.

the size of California.

whose major sin, was that it was not a democracy, which had oil and did not like us

which, oh yea, did not attack anyone first

Well big whoop for us. By the way where are the massive stores of Chemical and Biological weapons? It seems odd to me that if the feyedeen, a vicious element of Saddam's army, that used women and children to shield themselves. did not use chemical weapons on our troops. Could they have decided that they should play by gentlemen's rules of war all of a sudden? I don't think so, but hey that's me.

Now,that those poor civilians that need medical assistance, and the shootings are dying off. The US had a meeting of various selected tribes to tell them, that we are there for them. There seems to be some doubts.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered yesterday on the road leading to a hastily constructed air base outside this city, of Nassiriyay, the location of a meeting between US government representatives and members of the opposition Iraqi National Congress.

The demonstrators, numbering in their tens of thousands, railed against US occupation of Iraq and the resulting hardships its citizens are being made to suffer.
"No to Saddam, No to US"

Many Iraqis boycotted the meeting in opposition to US plans to install retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner atop an interim administration.

It seems that the demonstration by some of the most oppressed sect of arabs under Saddam's regime also hate the United States! How is that for gratitude! If they keep that up, we wouldn't give them their oil back!

NOW IT'S SYRIA? GOD GIVE ME A BREAK!

It is the same refrain
with young men ready to fight
We have already caused death and misery for enough people, here
it is time to move this sucker next door

What are a few more dead bodies that the nation won't see
The TV stations sanitize the brutality of this war
so, the nation has no compunction about following along
keep the american people in the dark
make war like an action film without any remorse
without the dead children, ruined families, or any human misery
this way we can sleep at night and join the reverie
Support our troops we all say, but do we support all the killing
that is done in the Bush name?

This week Bagdad next week Damascus, then more
tanks keep on rolling, more lives to claim
It's Ok people, don't you see, we need to kill them to free them
That's Bush's decree

One day in the future you will look back and see
we all went along like gathered sheep for the sheppard to shear
Were were we for the innocents living in fear?
We were at home watching war on our large screen TV
Living vicariously through those on the scene
Eating sand, ducking bullets and eating mre's
How shallow and empty all our lives must all be
that we don't think of others that are not just like we.

I received a number of e-mails asking to explain what Depleted Uranium is. It is the stuff nightmares are made of.
Depleted Uranium or DU as it is called in the community is still uranium. There are three types of uranium, U238, U234 and U235. Uranium 234 and 235 are fissionable material, the kind used in bombs. Depleted uranium is what is left over when the U234 and U235 are removed. The remaining U238 is still radioactive.
One of it's main uses is in tanks and in munitions. It has been in use by the United States for about 40 years. Who knew?
Why is it used in weapons?
A DU round is made from the leftover U238. The real punch comes from the solid depleted uranium metal rod in the shell. A 120-mm tank round contains about 4,000 grams or 10 pounds of solid DU. A DU rod is very dense - about 1.7 times as dense as lead. Almost as hard as somepeople's heads!

Has DU been used in combat?
It has been used in tanks and in munitions. In the 1st Gulf War, the U.S. fired as many as a million DU rounds, leaving a battlefield littered with 1,400 wrecked radioactive Iraqi tanks. No need for streetlights at night, when we leave them radioactive tanks.
DU shell holes in the vehicles along the Highway of Death are 1,000 times more radioactive than background radiation, according to Geiger counter readings done for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Dr. Khajak Vartaanian, a nuclear medicine expert.

The desert around the vehicles was 100 times more radioactive than background radiation; Basra, a city of 1 million people, some 125 miles away, registered only slightly above background radiation level, but that was before we shelled Basra.


NewWar on Iraq's Estimated use of DU
Before Gulf War II it was estimated that at least 1500 additional tons of Uranium weapons will be used to support US war plans in Iraq, greatly increasing existing Uranium contamination from the 1991 Gulf War, and jeopardising allied troops and Iraqi civilians alike.

How dangerous is depleted uranium, really?
DU can be dangerous once it has been used on a battlefield. Then DU can be considered both a chemical and toxic waste hazard, and a radiation hazard. I guess we found those weapons of Mass Destruction, WE, brought them to the party.

What happens when a shell explodes?
At high speed, DU slices through tank armor like a hot knife through butter, triggering the explosive content and creating a fire hot enough to melt aluminum. The depleted uranium also burns on impact, creating flying bits and dust that are toxic and radioactive with a half-life of 4.2 billion years. That is Billion with a "B".
When a DU round hits its target. As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain.
Ecological Problems Galore!
Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. Environmental Program. If a chemical form of DU that is soluble in water is present, then the DU can be either absorbed by breathing or by ingestion, then the hazard comes from inhaling the dust. The dust could be deposited in the lungs and could, over a long period, be a cause of lung cancer. That could cause heavy metal chemical toxic effects in the kidneys.

Studies show it can remain in human organs for years.
BIRTH DEFECTS IN IRAQ
At the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra, Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, a British-trained oncologist, displays, in four gaily colored photo albums, what he says are actual snapshots of the nightmares.
Even before the doctors heard about DU. The doctors in southern Iraq were making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.
There were photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities went on and on. There also were photos of cancer patients.
It is therefore no major surprise that Cancer has increased dramatically in southern Iraq.
On a tour of one ward of the hospital, doctors pointed out boys and girls who were suffering from leukemia. Most of the children die, the doctors said, because there are insufficient drugs available for their treatment.

What can we expect now?
Just six months before the Gulf War, the Army released a report on DU predicting that large amounts of DU dust could be inhaled by soldiers and civilians during and after combat. The Infantry were identified as potentially receiving the highest exposures, and the expected health outcomes included cancers and kidney problems.

Here is a real Life Story of DU and it's affect on Soldiers.
Dr. Doug Rokke was an Army health physicist assigned in 1991 to the command staff of the 12th Preventive Medicine Command and 3rd U.S. Army Medical Command headquarters. Rokke was recalled to active duty 20 years after serving in Vietnam, from his research job with the University of Illinois Physics Department, and sent to the Gulf to take charge of the DU cleanup operation.
Today, in poor health, he has become an outspoken opponent of the use of DU munitions.

"DU is the stuff of nightmares," said Rokke, who said he has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts and kidney problems, and receives a 40 percent disability payment from the government. He blames his health problems on exposure to DU.
Rokke and his primary team of about 100 performed their cleanup task without any specialized training or protective gear. Today, Rokke said, at least 30 members of the team are dead, and most of the others -- including Rokke -- have serious health problems.
Rokke said: "Verified adverse health effects from personal experience, physicians and from personal reports from individuals with known DU exposures include reactive airway disease, neurological abnormalities, kidney stones and chronic kidney pain, rashes, vision degradation and night vision losses, lymphoma, various forms of skin and organ cancer, neuropsychological disorders, uranium in semen, sexual dysfunction and birth defects in offspring.

He said "This whole thing is a crime against God and humanity." How can that be when God told Bush to attack Iraq? I am confused about why God would allow us to spread this poison all over Iraq, and all over our servicemen and women?
Speaking from his home in Rantoul, Ill.,, "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy, and we got trashed."
Rokke, an Army Reserve major who describes himself as "a patriot to the right of Rush Limbaugh," said hearing the latest Pentagon statements on DU is especially frustrating now that another war against Iraq appears likely.
"Since 1991, numerous U.S. Department of Defense reports have said that the consequences of DU were unknown," Rokke said. "That is a lie. We warned them in 1991 after the Gulf War, but because of liability issues, they continue to ignore the problem." Rokke worked until 1996 for the military, developing DU training and management procedures. The procedures were ignored, he said.
"Their arrogance is beyond comprehension," he said. "We have spread radioactive waste all over the place and refused medical treatment to people . . . it's all arrogance. Gee, where did I hear that word arrogance used before?

"DU is a snapshot of technology gone crazy."
By the way:
The UN is aware of the controversial use of this material but as we have all seen the US has little regard for international law in its military operations. God have mercy on our service men, women and all the innocent people in Iraq, whose only curse, was living in a land that has oil.

Look What You Did!
Now you did it Georgie ole boy. You said you didn’t need no stinking UN! They are irrelevant! Right. You ignored the international community; well you got yourself in a pickle George, a real pickle.

Who Has To Pay For All This Again?
According to international law, the occupiers are responsible for rebuilding the country.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. said it is crucial for the United States to help rebuild Iraq since it was U.S. weapons that did all of the damage. The U.S. broke it, the U.S. has to fix it.
She doesn’t buy the idea, that all the money is coming from oil revenues.

Ask the IMF to pay for Iraq rebuilding.
It seems your bud, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow is asking the 184-nation IMF, which specializes in helping crisis countries, and the World Bank, the largest source of development loans, to begin gathering the resources needed to rebuild Iraq.
Mr Snow from the US of A did not persuade his fellow ministers to outright forgive their Iraq debts. It seems like Iraq has to do the asking and there is no Iraq Finance minister anymore, oops There is no country recognized the UN. Sorry George, you went to war, without their approval.

Get The World To Forfeit Iraq’s Debt
The World’s bean counters said "it is important to address the debt issue", which will now be passed on to the informal group of official creditors known as the Paris club.
German Finance Minister Hans Eichel made it clear that Germany will be insisting on debt repayment and restructuring, not forgiveness.
"We do not only expect to get our money, we will get our money back," Mr Eichel told a press conference.
They are not the only ones that want the money that they are owed by Iraq, France and Russia as well as several other countries are owed billions of dollars too.
It will take a Security Council Resolution by the UN to get this done. That means France, Germany and Russia must support the resolution. Remember them, the “old Europe” Mr Rumsfield, the ones you called irrelevant and mis-guided.
Germany, Russia, France and other countries are owed $338 billion by Iraq, and they said they want their money.

Use Iraqi Oil To Pay For The Rebuilding Effort
So what you say, Iraq has gazzilions of barrels of oil that will pay for everything. That’s what Bush said. This might be a small problem. Iraq is sitting on foreign debts, compensation claims and unpaid contracts that total $383 billion, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Iraq Oil Math 101
First we have to fix the wells and the distribution system.
Their oil wells are in pretty bad shape and are being held together with bubble gum and duct tape. To get Iraq's oil production back to the 2.4 million barrels a day it pumped before the US-led invasion will require about $2.5 billion over at least six months
Estimated Oil Revenue
They pumped about $12.5 billion worth of oil last year, before the battle to free Iraq.

Estimated Food Cost For Iraq
Oil accounts for about 25 percent of Iraq's economy and almost all its export earnings. The revenue is needed to sustain basic economic functions and food.

Daily Oil Iraq Usage
The country uses 400 000 barrels a day. Some oil income is used to pay war reparations, which have totaled $16 billion since December 1996, according to the UN.

Iraq Oil For Humanitarian Relief
"There's going to be a lot of political pressure to put all of Iraq's money to work on humanitarian relief and reconstruction rather than reinvesting it in Iraq's oil industry," says Kenneth Katzman, an analyst for the Congressional Research Service. About 60 percent of the people in Iraq have been dependent on that aid, according to the United Nations -- a figure that's likely to increase because of millions of dollars in bombs we dropped in the country. This does not count the depleted uranium ammunition we shot all over the place, which will be a radioactive hazard cleanup for many years to come.

What’s Left Over?
Iraq's oil maths comes down to this: after domestic consumption, about 2 million barrels a day are left for export. It costs about $4 a barrel to produce Iraqi oil. With oil priced at about $25 a barrel, a new regime in Baghdad might net about $15 billion a year after the infrastructure has been rebuilt. It will take at least $2.5 billion and 6 months to begin to reach these figures. This does not take into account the time and money to find and maybe train new Iraqi workers to man the facilities and the docks. There are a couple of If’s here, so add about 3 more months to that estimate.

When Can The New Iraq Start Spending Oil Revenue?
Until a postwar government is established, the authority to manage Iraqi oil sales will be disputed. Right now there is No Iraqi government.
The US can’t manage the oil according to International law, the occupying power would be limited to overseeing day-to-day affairs and could NOT legally arrange longer- term oil contracts, according to the Associated Press. you will have to wait for the UN to recognize the country. Remember them, the mis-guided ones.


So, here are the things we want from the international community.
We want Iraq oil to pay for rebuilding Iraq. But Iraq has tons of debt to pay off first.
We want to be in charge of the reconstruction, with US companies, and shut out the UN countries in reconstruction, rebuilding efforts..
We want the IMF and the World Bank to help finance Iraq’s rebuilding effort.
We want France, Germany, and Russia to forgive $383 billions of dollars of Iraqi debts and unpaid legal claims.

Now, a lot of this is according to international law, and we know how much regard you have for that. Maybe you can come up with your own UN and your own World Bank, and ignore the money Iraq owes to other countries.
Dream on, Georgie Boy, you are in a pickle George, a real pickle! This is going to cost you! Ask them if they take American Express.

Why does it have to be about oil?
The country's border's are a nervous, dangerous place these days. There are armed irregulars and special forces integrated into the country. Oil pipelines need to be protected.
No, I am not talking about Iraq, I am talking about Columbia.
U.S. Soldiers have been embedded with the local Columbian Army. Their mission is to help secure a major oil pipeline.
Why does it have to be about oil!!! Are we hedging our bets in Iraq?
Here are the players in this boxing match.
In this corner weighing at 17,000 armed insurgents, a leftist organization, the Armed Forces of Columbia, FARC! (the crowd roars)
In this other corner, we have the second largest group of guerrillas, the Army of National Liberation, the ELN. (the crowd roars)
In this other, other, corner, we have a fast growing upcoming right wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Force of Columbia, the AUC (the crowd roars)
In this other, other, other, corner we have the Regular Columbian Army. (the crowd booos)
Behind the Army, we have the United States Special Forces, and their commander General Remo Butler, and behind him we have 400 mercenaries. (the crowd booos)
The fight has been brutal folks. We are in the 40th year of this fight. The U.S. Army has been here for a while.
The rules include random brutal murder, kidnappings, graft, drug trafficking, mis-directed government oil royalties, millions of dollars from drug proceeds, and kick back money from oil contractors. The Bush administration has recently named this operation, "Plan Columbia". The U.S. waved 2.5 billion dollars in the Columbian Government's face to get into this fight.

The fighting arena for this conflict is basically all over the country, but a lot of the action is near the Limon Oil pipeline. The nearby city Saravena has been so devastated by open warfare so much that is being called Sarjevo.
The prize is the Limon pipeline. It carries 20% of Columbia's oil and it has been attacked hundred's of times stopping the flow of oil.
President Bush again has decided to come to the rescue of yet another terrified oil pipeline from the grips of terrorists.
WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE ANOTHER FIGHT ABOUT OIL???

Sources Cited:
Jose' De Cordoba

WHY IS MY OIL UNDER THEIR SAND!!!! FREEDOM FOR IRAQI OIL!! LET MY PIPELINES GO AND FLOW!
"For decades, Iraqi oil wells have suffered untold misery under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule. "With this victory, these long-oppressed wells will soon pump their first barrels of crude as free and equal wells in the global petroleum marketplace. They will join the ranks of the world's liberated oil wells, enjoying the same rights as their democratic brethren around the globe."

We want all 1.25 million barrels per day production of Rumailah freed up oil now!
We want all 800 thousand barrels of oil per day production of Kirkuk oil freed up now!

Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that "only about 10 wells that we know of, out of possibly 1,000 in that area," had been damaged.
Iraq has the world's second-biggest proven crude reserves and typically pumps about 2.5 million barrels a day, or 3 percent of global supplies. More than half its output comes from Rumeila and other fields near Basra.
With only seven wells out of a total 1,685 known lost to sabotage, This is NOT acceptable. I don't care. I disagree with Peter Gignoux, head of the oil desk at Salomon Smith Barney in London, who said "You lose 50 oil wells? Big deal! Every oil well needs to be revived and set free NOW!

These oppressed Iraqi oil wells deserve the right to pump oil as freely as any other oil well on God's Earth—be it in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, or an Alaskan wildlife refuge. this operation is NOT being motivated by greed, profit, or the second-largest oil reserves in the Middle East. This war is motivated by one thing: democracy. Our military action is meant to provide all of Iraq's oil wells—be they big or small, staggeringly lucrative or merely very lucrative—with their God-given right to pump under a democratic system of self-governance.

In the weeks leading up to the war, the U.S. sought to make its intentions clear by air-dropping hundreds of thousands of pamphlets over Iraq assuring its people that the U.S. was not launching a war against them, but against Saddam Hussein. The pamphlets also gave Iraqi soldiers instructions on how to surrender properly, as well as a promise that they would be treated well if they did so. Most importantly, though, they included a stern admonition to all Iraqis not to burn any oil wells, warning that they would be hunted down and prosecuted as war criminals if they did. They also considered dropping signs near all the wells with the following message "Don't even smoke near those wells. or we are gonna kill you! "

U.S. officials hope that the pamphlets' message, especially the part about the oil wells, gets through.

Aiding the wells in their transition to democracy will be Texaco, Mobil, and other U.S. businesses, each of which bring years of expertise in dealing with the problems and challenges that oil wells face in a free society. These private companies will be well-equipped to help manage the oil wells as they make the difficult adjustment to producing oil in freedom. Long live Texas Tea! , I mean Iraqi Tea!

There are many happy Americans today. Bush was so giddy, he could just burst. Now that Saddam statues are littering the landscape, their hope is being vindicated. And just like monday morning quarterbacks the ranks of pound I-told-you-so's will swell as the victories continue to come our way. I seriously doubt that many of these happy people will let their joy be diminished by the number of, dead and injured civilians, or the fact that Iraq was attacked pre-maturely. All that counts is that we are winning. Our citizens are exactly as the Bush administration, wants our citizens to be, focused on. "Good is winning over Evil" no other subjects other than, imposing the new government, are available for discussion.

Follow our leaders. The President MUST know something that he has not shared with us This rationalization is wearing thin on me.

After September 11th we wanted our leaders to make us feel safe again, but I could not have dreamed we would have allowed our President to take us where we are today. I am sure this is how many German people felt back when Hitler attacked Poland. We automatically turned off our sense of decency and embraced a subservient idea that we have to fall in line because our troops deserve our support and by extension, the Commander in Chief.

The support for the President's war, has been reluctant by many, because of the unconvincing arguments our Administration made to us. We solve the internal conflict between the blood shed, the misery being carried out in our name and our view of ourselves as a generous, decent people who do not willfully injure others by not seeing. We absolve ourselves, by finding excuses, by seeking refuge in "the mindlessness of the group mind" and by bowing to authority, yet again

We are a country full of conformists by nature. We may be somewhat cynical but not skeptical about authority figures. We respected our parents as children, so my extension we respect our elected leaders. We align ourselves to the officially sanctioned position because we don't want to stand out, and seem troublesome, or in other words, be someone who could easily be labeled as anti-american.

The funny thing is all of us have at one time or another spoken out against some policy decision, Government sponsored research, Government purchases, like hammers that cost $100, or pay increases Congress often give themselves. The war must makes some of us feel guilty for harboring those thoughts and over compensate by being the loudest flag waver on the block. This may be called the opposite of "Me thinks you protest too much" It is now "Me thinks you support your President too much". Is it possible that as Americans, we absolve our guilt, over our previous criticism of the government, by being very pro-government and therefore pro-war citizens?

Our willing ignorance, our denial, our susceptibility to propaganda, our failure to properly assess or comprehend what is being done, allows our Administration to tell us whatever they want us to, knowing we will swallow it hook-line-and sinker.
Many of us have a vain hope that ignorance will imply innocence, that by denying the consequences of our complicity, our blind support for this war, it will be as as if it never happened.
It seems that many of us are in denial, again. If we don't see the deaths, and only focus on statues falling down, the misery caused, can't be real. It seems like, in some larger sense, we only see the Iraqi people, as rejoicing in the streets, and don't see the death and chaos we are causing.

That Iraqis problem is that they, are not English-speaking Christian Westerners, so we don't see Iraqi people as human beings, so we don't see their lives as precious, to be valued as we value our own. This helps us ignore their bodies being blown up.
As, the US of A, do we feel we are ordained, no, compelled, by God to deliver liberty to the Iraqis through the barrel of a gun? This kind of thinking, must absolve some of us, of any Christian guilt, so that, as one journalist said, we can "kill innocent people so we can liberate their surviving relatives" without batting an eye.

We have heard of blood being shed in the Mideast for years now in Palestine, So, don't wreck things now and look at the bodies, the misery, the dismembered children, folks, it may stir some guilty feelings, and that would not be good, you might show some humanity. Your Daddy Bush would not like that. Be a good boy and girl and cheer with the video of happy Iraqis in the streets, don't make waves.