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A Billion Here, A Billion There
Every Memorial Day weekend, the Rolling Thunder motorcyclists arrive in Washington DC to remind us about POWs, MIAs, and veterans of war. But as I listen to the roar of the motorcycles across the city, I can't help but think about what our country has spent on this most recent war in Iraq.
There's a wonderful web site where you can watch the ever-escalating budgetary cost of the war: Cost of War, a project of the National Priorities Project.
What else might we have purchased for so royal a sum? Could we have made a dent in some of the other terrible problems that haunt our world, like hunger, disease, and crushing poverty?
Most people roll their eyes when you start talking about alleviating global hunger, or immunizing every child on the planet. How could we ever afford to pay for such idealistic projects?
But the actual costs of such "idealistic" projects is surprisingly small, smaller by far than the sums we are spending in one small country where our military forces have been unable to even supply reliable electricity.
Just how small came home to me soon after 9/11. In October, 2001, I wrote an article for the Worldwatch Institute with Michael Renner in which we called for a global "Marshall Plan." Here is an excerpt that shows what we could have gotten, and more, for the money we have poured into the Iraq war:
The United States and the other industrial nations should launch a global "Marshall Plan" to provide everyone on earth with a decent standard of living. We can already hear the cries of people claiming that such a global plan would "cost too much." But let's look at the numbers. The cost of our initial response has soared into the tens of billions of dollars, on top of an already large proposed defense budget of $342.7 billion.
For the sake of comparison, let's assume that the United States will spend an additional $100 billion on military actions in the next 12 months. What could we buy if we matched this $100 billion military expenditure dollar-for-dollar with spending on programs to alleviate human suffering?
A 1998 report by the United Nations Development Programme estimated the annual cost to achieve universal access to a number of basic social services in all developing countries: $9 billion would provide water and sanitation for all; $12 billion would cover reproductive health for all women; $13 billion would give every person on Earth basic health and nutrition; and $6 billion would provide basic education for all. These sums are substantial, but they are still only a fraction of the tens of billions of dollars we are already spending. And these social and health expenditures pale in comparison with what is being spent on the military by all nations-some $780 billion each year.
There is a sad irony in watching the Bush Administration's strenuous efforts to build an international coalition. There is no such muscular effort underway in the United States, or in any of the other rich nations, to build a coalition to eradicate hunger, to immunize all children, to provide clean water, to eradicate infectious disease, to provide adequate jobs, to combat illiteracy, or to build decent housing.
The cost of failing to advance human security and to eliminate the fertile ground upon which terrorism thrives is already escalating. Since September 11, we know that sophisticated weapons offer little protection against those who are out to seek vengeance, at any cost, for real and perceived wrongs. Unless our priorities change, the threat is certain to keep rising in coming years.
By choosing to mobilize adequate resources to address human suffering around the world, President Bush has a unique opportunity to seize the terrible moment of September 11 and earn a truly exalted place in human history. But first, we must all understand that in the end, weapons alone cannot buy us a lasting peace in a world of extreme inequality, injustice, and deprivation for billions of our fellow human beings.
Senator Everett Dirksen allegedly once quipped, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
Real money is what we are talking about in Iraq. Real money. And real priorities.
We have more than enough money to change the world.
We just have to change our priorities.
We have more than enough money to change the world.
We just have to change our priorities.
Dick Bell
I completely believe this.
Memoriam
We congregate on this solemn day of remembrance to honor the Fallen...those humble citizens and soldiers who have given the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom...for all those whose lives have been transformed by tragedy, driven by courage and whose enduring strength and selflessness through their valiant actions of true heroism are an inspiration to us all.
We gather together to honor our living warriors…the men and women who so magnanimously offer them selves as the protectors and defenders of this great Nation and all that we as a people stand for across our diverse civilization...let us each take a moment to personally reflect upon the magnitude of that which they have been burdened.
As we contemplate in awe and humility before the legacy of our heroes, may WE THE PEOPLE derive the inner strength to face and overcome our shared doubts and sorrows, our insecurities and pain, our anger and fear so that we may, in their memory and for the future memory of generations to come, endure to bring those who have committed these atrocities against humanity to meet justice.
We may ask ourselves how we, humble citizens of this world, can influence the chance necessary to overcome such overwhelming deceit and malice and avarice within our government?
When we live our lives as the world should be, not how it is, we effect the people around us...our families...our friends...our neighbors...we become the voice of reason when we live by our principles and convictions...we become the Truth.
We become the Truth through our sincerity in action, character and utterance. We espouse the Truth when we present the body of real things, events and facts. We are the Truth when we live a transcendent fundamental reality based upon the principles of this great Nation...meaning we take action based upon our duty and responsibility as Americans to ensure the rights of all of humanity are secured, protected and preserved within our natural rights as human beings.
May we be blessed with the foresight and wisdom to remember them always...the dignity to preserve their memory and the courage to protect their heroism, for they have divinely honored us by their selfless acts to secure our Freedom, even when unjustly sent to do battle with those who are not our enemies.
Finally...let us focus our efforts so that we may all vow to proudly stand united as Americans...with infinite passion and undying hope so one day soon We the People will once again regain control of our Heritage and restore our Nation as the Light of Liberty, Freedom and Justice…to set out henceforth to create a brighter future for all of mankind with the respect and honor so deserving of their memory.
Dare to create a better world.
Dare to create a better world.
Posted by: Irreverent Reverend Indy at May 30, 2005 11:10 AM
I double-dog dare ya!
Excellent piece, dickbell!
I am forwarding it to many red-chugging, churchgoing friends of mine. It goes right to the core of one's humanity and doing unto others, etc., with NO bias towards the republican party at all.
It IS, I think, how we appeal to their sense of Godly, Christ-like living through kindness to others.
After 9/11, we COULD have changed the world forever!!!! Instead, we changed the world... forever.
Congressman John Conyers of Michigan has drafted a letter to George Bush demanding answers concerning the Downing Street Memo, which represents proof that Bush lied to the American people to involve us in the Iraq disaster.
Please click the link to sign the letter to show your support, and then read more below:
http://tinyurl.com/a5xzn
Some major groups who were involved with the post-election voting issues have come together to request that Congressman John Conyers open an
investigation into the Downing Street memo. the new coalition has a website:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/index.php
Million Veteran March
Opened to the Public ˆ All American Citizens Welcome to Attend
THE PURPOSE OF THIS MARCH IS TO DEMONSTRATE OUR ANGER AT THE LACK OF ADEQUATE VA FUNDING, VA PERFORMANCE AND VETERAN BENEFITS IN GENERAL.
Million Veteran March Link:
http://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/mvm.htm
http://www.oldamericancentury.org
Pause To Remember the Death of Iraqis Too
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/226309_robert30.html
http://www.iraqbodycount.org
It's really amazing to look at the cost of war compared with public education, or healthcare, or AIDS...
Reminds me of JFK's words, "Those who make peaceful revoultion impossible make violent revolution inevitable." Had we chosen to give any of that money to foreign aid, we would have done more to prevent growing terrorism than we are with the war that money is going to now.
And thanks to the Irreverent Reverend for the beautiful words! I dare to create a better world!
San Francisco Chronicle
Why I'm Joining the GOP
Leaving the left for fun and profit
After a lifetime voting for and working for Democratic candidates and independents, I'm finally going to make the switch and become a Republican.
The reasons are many, not the least of which is age. I turned 55 recently and, having lived more than half my life, I can't afford to worry anymore about the other guy. It's time for me.
As a Republican, I can now proudly -- indeed, defiantly -- pledge to never again vote for anyone who raises taxes for any reason. To hell with roads, bridges, schools, police and fire protection, Medicare, Social Security and regulation of the airwaves.
President Bush has promised to give me more tax cuts even though our federal government owes trillions of dollars to its creditors. But that's someone else's problem, not mine. Republicans are about the here and now, and I'm here now.
As a Republican, I can favor exploiting the environment for everything she's got. No need to worry about quaint notions like posterity and natural legacy. There are plenty of resources left for everyone, and if we don't use them, someone else will.
I want a party that doesn't worry about things before we have to. Republicans refuse to get hog-tied by theories such as global warming, ozone depletion, fished-out oceans and disappearing wetlands. The real problems -- if there are any -- aren't forecast to take hold for at least 50 years. So what do I care? I'll be dead.
As a Republican, I can swagger and clamor for war -- in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, wherever -- even though I've never fought in one or even been in the military. I can claim that we're fighting for Democracy, ignoring reports of torture at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay, and a spreading gulag of secret detention centers around the world.
Freedom, as every American should know after spending $300 billion for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, isn't free.
As a Republican, I can insist on strict moral values when it comes to sex and ignore the growing moral chasms in business, politics, sports, journalism and the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.
A society that loses control of its sexual urges faces unwanted pregnancies, socially transmitted disease, broken families. Those overzealous about wealth, however, produce only a higher GDP, lifelong security for their family and more minimum wage jobs for the lower classes. What's wrong with that?
As a Republican, I can favor strict punishment of criminals, except for those who happen to be my friends or neighbors. Isn't that the very definition of community -- looking out for friends and family?
I will be pro-death penalty and anti-abortion, pro-child but anti-child care, for education but against funding of public schools. As a Republican, I'll have a better chance of getting to spout my opinions in the media, which for some reason seems convinced that since Bush was re-elected with the smallest electoral margin of any sitting president in history, liberals are passe.
As a Republican, I'll say goodbye to "old Jesus" and hello to "new Jesus. " Sure Christ started out as a liberal Jew, and look where that got him. Compassion, love and diatribes against the rich only encourage the weak and punish the most successful among us. The Jesus that Republicans worship is a muscular, decisive, pro-war crusader hard at work cleansing the world of evildoers, not, God forbid, turning the other cheek.
My decision to become a Republican didn't come easily. For years I clung to the idea that the foundation of a democratic society was our implied social contract, each of us committing some level of personal sacrifice to the common good of all.
I regarded taxes as dues we pay for better roads and schools, safe inspection of meat and dairy products, maintenance of parks and protection of wilderness areas. I see now that looking out for the common good resulted in shortchanging the most important element in this formula -- me.
Let Democrats continue promising the "greatest good for the greatest number." Republicans clearly have my number -- No. 1.
I'm sure a lot of my friends reading this will ask me, "How can you sleep?" My answer will be, "Who's got time? I'm busy earning money." While they're bellyaching about rising deficits, the outsourcing of jobs and casualties in Iraq, I'll be marveling at the march of freedom in the Middle East, upticks in the GDP and the president's plan to link Social Security to the magic of the marketplace.
As a Republican, I simply won't listen to bad news anymore. Bad news doesn't get me or my family anywhere. If you don't have anything good to say about somebody, don't say anything at all -- unless it happens to be about a Democrat, of course.
Jeff Gillenkirk was a speechwriter for former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. He lives in San Francisco.
PLEASE take a moment to read my tribute of thanks to you all. If I missed anyone, it is only because this group is getting so BIG that I accidentally let someone's valuable contribution slip through the cracks. I thank you all. I do not want to highjack this thread, so please, as you have time, please read my thanks to each and every one, at the bottom of the previous thread.
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at May 30, 2005 01:44 PM
Dick, that is an AWESOME article. I wonder if I could send it intact with the dollar amount rising each second. I will give it a try.
DiAnne,
Thank your neighbor Alice for sharing that article with us. It is great.
Truth Shall Prevail
Just send the message from Dick & make sure to tell them to open the link to http://www.costofwar.com
Thank you DiAnne.
General Loses Career because of Criticizing Iraq War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/053005Y.shtml
From today's ceremony...
“... And when the sun came up this morning,” said President Bush, “the flag flew at half staff in solemn gratitude and in deep respect. We receive the fallen in sorrow and we take them to an honored place to rest. Looking across this field, we see the scale of heroism and sacrifice.”
Bush said America “has always been a reluctant warrior,” but then noted the more than 400,000 who perished in World War II alone.
“All who are buried here understood their duty,” he said, “and all carried with them memories of a family they hoped to keep safe by their sacrifice.”
Bushit... Part Deaux
Iraq, Afghan wars
Turning to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he noted that the nation is “fighting a new war.”
“Across the globe, the military is standing directly between our people and the worst dangers in the world,” Bush declared. “And America is grateful to have such brave defenders.”
“The war on terror brought great causes,” he said, noting conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Because of the brave sacrifice,” Bush added, “two terrorist regimes are gone forever. Freedom is on the march and America is more secure.”
George Bush Mosaic Made From Dead Soldier Photos
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/23/content_325839.htm
(note source - winning hearts and minds as always)
Patriotism is defined as standing by your Nation, not the president, or any individual or office. There are overwhelming issues when a leader uses War and Patriotism to further an Agenda.
Julius Ceasar Said is best ; Beware the leader that beats the drums of war, for it boils the blood and narrows the mind. The leader will not need to sieze the rights of the citizen, rather th citizen will gladly offer up their rights.
(short version). How do i know this, because this is what i have done and i am Ceasar.
Let no more be said of the confidence in men, but bind them down from mishief by the chains of the Constitution. (Thomas Jefferson)
Government is not reason, it is not elequence, it is Force! It is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.(George Washington)
It is the Duty of a Citizen not only to observe the Law, but let it be known he is opposed to its violation. (Calvin Coolidge)
One of the Main purposes for control and power of the Established Media is to keep the masses decieved and ignorant about their rights and the oppression of their rights. ( Charles Weisman)
Think what you do when you run into Debt, you have given another power over your Liberty.
( Benjamin Franklin)
You only need reflect the best way to get yourself into trouble these days is to repeat the phrases our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence. (C. A. Beard)
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground, thunder without lightning, ocean without the roar of its waters.
This struggle is a Moral one, a physical one, or it may be both. But it is a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and never will. Find out just how far a people can be pushed to submit, and you have found the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.
The limits of a tyrant are prescribed by the endurance of those they oppress. (Frederick Douglas)
Fear can prevail only when its victims are ignorant of the facts. (Thomas Jefferson)
If ever Time should come, when Vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest office in government, our country will stand in need of patriots to prevent its ruin. ( Samuel Adams)
We fight the Good fight because so many before us did the same, for the same reasons. We need only follow their path and the blueprint they left us, the Constitution of the United States.
America is not mortages and wall marts dotting the landscape, or bombing another Nation and people into submission. This Nation is not founded upon principles of oppression and commercialism, but freedoms, liberties and pursuits.
In keeping with those founding principles we must find the energy to continue this never ending battle, and bring back those principles we have lost.
“Because of the brave sacrifice,” Bush added, “two terrorist regimes are gone forever. Freedom is on the march and America is more secure.”
Posted by: monKey at May 30, 2005 03:02 PM
Hmmm...
At latest reports the Taliban are alive and well and gaining in number...
And...
Where is Osama bin Laden?
And...
Saddam was not a terrorist...a tyrant yes, but not a terrorist...
So why have we sacrificed so many human lives Mr. President?
...oh, yeah...
Oil and Power and Greed.
Thanks for reminding us...
Got Hubris?
US Forces Mistakenly Detain Sunni Chief
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5041525,00.html
This story is growing long, hopping legs!!
From the Homefront:
May 30th, 2005 3:58 am
Happy Birthday
Dear Friends,
26 years ago today, Casey was 6 hours and 49 minutes old. What a joyful day that day was. The birth of our firstborn. He was so wanted and his birth was so highly anticipated. A true bundle of joy.
One year, one month, and 25 days ago (almost to the minute) George Bush and his Crime Cabal killed Casey in Sadr City. One of them, perhaps Condi, Rummy, Bremer, or Cheney, might as well have pulled the trigger that blew off the back of Casey's sweet head.
When one embarks on the path of mourning a child, new experiences and feelings pop up constantly to suprise you. One of the feelings that I find amazing on this 2nd birthday since Casey has been in his premature grave is this: Birthdays are infinitely harder than death days. You are supposed to be sad on death days, but birthdays are supposed to be times of joy. We should be talking to Casey on the phone today, wishing him Happy Birthday. He should be thanking me for the present I sent him. Instead, we are heading to the cemetary for a Memorial Service. Then I think of the 24 Happy Birthdays we did have with him. Balloons, games, presents, cake, laughter, bar-be-ques (he was born on Memorial Day, so his parties were always bar-be-ques), pinatas, fun and love.
Bush and the Crime Cabal in power sent 26 more soldiers to their graves this week and 26 more families to lives of living hell. 26 more lives and families devastated and destroyed for absolutely nothing. We will see the hypocritical mobsters of the state at their events today and tomorrow spewing filth from their mouths, such as: "Freedom isn't Free," and "We must stay the course in Iraq to honor the sacrifices of the fallen." What was the great deceiver's course? Civil War? Because that's what it looks like our children were slaughtered for. Then the morons who killed our children will happily go back to their homes and have a nice Memorial Day dinner secure in the fact that their children will never die in a war and their children will have nice, wealthy, long lives because of the incredible riches this misadventure in Iraq has brought their fathers and mothers.
I mourn the thousands of innocent Iraqis dead for zilch and their families. Today and tomorrow, I will honor Casey and the 1656 others killed to pad some bank accounts. Not because they died to keep America safe, free, or democratized (on the contrary, quite the opposite), nor did their murders bring freedom and democracy to Iraq (on the contrary, quite the opposite); but because they were wrongfully murdered and someone needs to be held accountable. We as people of peace need to make sure that their lives and deaths were for peace, not deception and war.
Happy Birthday, Dear Son.
Love to you all,
Cindy
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2825
Great piece, Dick... depressing, but great. Will we never wake up?
Indy,
That peice says it all.
Dick,
Those numbers reflect the inhumanity of war vs life enriching values. That too says it all.
And to everyone sharing thank you's, I also thank everyone here. I've learned a lot and have grown a lot. I feel reassured daily by knowing such caring people exist and therefore, I'm sure we will bring hope and democracy back.
And today, I saw the flags and saw the veterans at the cemetaries placing flags and honoring the American soldiers and I wished I could thank each family personally. And it made me think about this war, how the profiteering is sending those young men to early graves. I saw the oldere men who survived their wars and I wondered what they think, especially when they hear about Bush's abuse of power which brought this war and killed so many.
Facing Chaos, Iraqi Doctors Are Quitting
The New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 29 - The letter came to this city's main cardiac hospital late last month. It was unsigned and handwritten, but its message was clear: It threatened the hospital's top doctors and warned them to leave their jobs immediately.
No one knows who sent the letter, but the relentless violence here is often baffling. Four of the hospital's top surgeons stopped going to work. So did six senior cardiologists. Some left the country.
It was far from an isolated incident.
The director of another hospital, Dr. Abdula Sahab Eunice, was gunned down May 17 on his way to work, officials at the hospital said.
In the past year, about 10 percent of Baghdad's total force of 32,000 registered doctors - Sunnis, Shiites and Christians - have left or been driven from work, according to the Iraqi Medical Association, which licenses practitioners. The exodus has accelerated in recent months, said Akif Khalil al-Alousi, a pathologist at Kindi Teaching Hospital and a senior member of the association. A vast majority of those fleeing, he said, are the most senior doctors.
"It represents a very good chunk of the doctors," Dr. Alousi said. "These are the crème of the crème. They are the people who make the doctors, heads of departments."
But insurgent threats are not the only stress facing doctors in this once stellar system, one of the best in the Middle East. Iraq's lawlessness has reached inside the wards, turning doctor-patient frictions into armed conflicts. And doctors are easy targets for violent gangs that specialize in kidnapping because they move around the city to see patients and often cannot afford large numbers of guards.
They also must handle new hardships of their patients, who, if stricken at night, must choose between suffering at home or perhaps dying in the curfew-emptied streets. They also must deal with the continuing power failures that plague operating and emergency rooms, flooded with endless patients by the insurgency.
"It's the worst health care system Iraq has ever known," said Dr. Waleed George, chief surgeon at Al Sadoon Hospital in Baghdad.
"Imagine yourself trying to operate on a patient in a two-hour surgery and the power goes out," he said. "You pray to God, and you sweat."
In the early years of Saddam Hussein, the health care system in Iraq was a showcase, with most Iraqis receiving excellent, inexpensive care. Iraqi doctors often studied in England, and Iraq's medical schools, based at hospitals, had high standards. But Mr. Hussein let the economic penalties of the 1990's bite deeply into medical care and used the damage to the increasingly worn system to try to persuade the world to ease economic pressure on Iraq.
In the chaotic Iraq of today, rules have fallen away, and doctors say that after difficult or unsuccessful operations, they sometimes find themselves confronted by armed, angry relatives. Recently, a surgeon in Mahmudiya, a restive area south of Baghdad, faced with threats from a man who said his wife's abdominal tumor had grown back, closed her clinic.
One 32-year-old doctor at a medium-size Baghdad hospital said doctors now routinely exaggerated the risk of complications, hoping patients would opt against surgery.
"We try to avoid complicated operations," said the doctor, afraid enough for his own safety to insist on being identified only by his first name, Omar. "What if the patient dies? You're face to face with relatives with guns."
The Ministry of the Interior has already responded to the threats: it simplified gun license procedures for doctors, allowing them to get licensed weapons faster than other Iraqis.
Omar al-Kubaisy, one of the doctors who stopped going to work at the cardiac hospital, Ibn al-Betar, after he was threatened, kept working at his own clinic - watched over by his 23-year-old son, Ali, who stood guard with a large and always visible semi-automatic gun. But two weeks ago, Dr. Kubaisy, one of Iraq's top cardiologists, left for France.
The simple quest for money, which fuels the country's widespread kidnapping industry, appears to be the biggest motivation. Dr. Alousi estimated that 250 Iraqi doctors had been kidnapped in the past two years.
One 60-year-old gynecologist, who was kidnapped last December, said three cars, one of them a police cruiser, pulled her car over. Men banged on her window with guns, forced their way into her car and pushed her head to the floor. They took her and her driver to a house.
The men asked for $1 million, handed her a gun and told her to kill the driver. They said they would cut off her hand and send it, with the driver's body, to her son.
"I said, 'I cannot kill him,' " she said. "I can't even kill a bird. They started to beat me on the face."
The men released her after her family paid $250,000, most of it borrowed. Oddly, an American patrol stopped the car as the men were driving her and her driver home. Seeing her bruised face, they asked if she was all right. Terrified, she replied that she was on her way to the hospital. She made it home; a day later, she left for Jordan. Still terrorized by the incident, she asked that her name be withheld.
"I'm healed from outside, but I never heal on the inside," she said. A rarity, she has returned to Iraq - to work at repaying the friends who lent the ransom money.
The exodus of senior doctors has resulted in very unpredictable medical service, doctors and hospital officials said. Patients are not sure whether they will find their doctors. Junior doctors fresh out of medical school are performing complicated surgical operations that ordinarily would be done by more experienced doctors. At Ibn al-Betar, surgeries are still being performed and patients are still being treated. An official there declined to say how the losses had affected care. But the exodus of virtually every senior doctor and surgeon cannot bode well. "The sophisticated surgery, it will be in trouble," Dr. Kubaisy said.
At Omar's hospital, about half the doctors on the staff have left, the hospital director said in an interview. Junior doctors have taken their places, but some of the more complicated surgeries are no longer done.
"As junior doctors, we need to learn as much as possible," the doctor said. "Some cases, especially elective cases, cannot be managed sometime," Omar said.
The more prosaic problems are no less serious. The decade of deficits under the economic embargo left equipment in poor shape. The state no longer picks up the tab for medicine. And Iraqis in several clinics visited this month complained of not having access to basic heart and diabetes medications.
Dr. George, the surgeon at AlSadoon, said shortages of power and medicine had forced the hospital to reduce the number of operations by about half. It briefly solved its power problem by hooking up to the system of the Ministry of Agriculture nearby, but even that has chronic failures now, he said.
Emergencies are nonstop. Civilian deaths, the Ministry of Defense says, have more than quadrupled since the new government took power late last month. Omar, the young doctor, said he cut his teeth on emergency bullet-wound operations in the past year.
The workload increases for the doctors who remain. Dr. Hashem Zainy, a psychiatrist and the director of a psychiatric hospital, Ibn Rushud, said the doctors who have stayed must see almost double the daily caseload.
"It's ridiculous," he said. "They listen to the patient for a few minutes and write out a prescription and that's it."
Dr. Kubaisy saw his final patients at his clinic across town from the hospital this month. One patient, Halima Obeidi, a 75-year-old woman with kidney failure, lay on a hospital bed surrounded by worried relatives. They spoke in hushed tones, avoiding the topic of who would care for her once Dr. Kubaisy left. But for him, staying was simply not an option.
Perhaps Dr. Alousi, of the Iraqi Medical Association, put it best. "If you get a doctor and you need to be examined," he said, "and there's an AK-47 under the table, things are very bad."
Here is post by Rick Jacobs on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/featuredposts.html#a001769 that I found interesting...
05.28.2005 Rick Jacobs
Conference call With Gavin Newsom about the Governor's Power Grab
As we commemorate Memorial Day, it's a good time to remember that the Governor of California is planning a summer we will all want to forget. He has until 13 June to call a special election for 8 November. Such an election will cost at least $80 million PLUS the ads and effort both sides will go to to contest it. The Governor really has one goal: to defund the Democratic Party. If he can get his cynical, union-stripping initiative passed, he will have succeeded in doing what George Bush and Karl Rove could only dream of, namely making it legal for corporations to contribute to the political process, but prevent unions (read: workers) from so doing.
Los Angelenos in particular are exhausted from elections. We have had three in the past six months. We do not need a special election for our special interest Governor.
If you want to learn more and express your opposition to the Governor's power grab, please join us for a conference call on Thursday, 2 June from 7-8PM, with Gavin Newsom, Robert Greenwald, Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assembly Majority Whip Karen Bass. Just send an e-mail to cj@ccf.cadem.org for more information.
Dick,
I copied your piece and e-mailed to everybody in my address book.
Thank-you. As soon as more Americans begin to understand the realities of their government's decisions, we may be able to develop more intgelligent and humane domestic and foreign policies.
the real cost of bu$hcheney's war:
Looking War In The Face
Paul Waldman May 30, 2005
Needless to say, the Bush administration would be happy if Americans did not consider the human cost of the war. In this, they are continuing to operate on the twin lessons of Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm, each supposedly proving that if the public sees too many images of dead Americans, support for a war will quickly dissipate, while a clean war seen only from a distance will be greeted with grateful parades.
snip~
As the Bush administration desperately tries to convince us that though the Iraq War has been “hard work” in the end everything will turn out splendidly, we should remember that in the rest of the world, this war’s iconic images do not symbolize liberation and hope. The rest of the world will remember the Iraq War through the photo of 12-year-old Ali Ismail Abbas, who lost both of his parents and both of his arms when an American missile destroyed his house, lying in a dingy Baghdad hospital room. They will remember that hooded figure attached to wires and standing on a box. The images they remember tell of arrogant power and innocent victims.
Here in America, our memory of the Iraq War will not be so uncomplicated. But on Memorial Day, we should take the time to note that the Iraq deaths are not merely a number (though that number now exceeds 1,650). Each one was a human being, sent thousands of miles from their homes and lives and loved ones to fight and die. More than half were under the age of 25.
Although its design was controversial at first, when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington was unveiled Americans were overwhelmed by its emotional power. Instead of depicting an act of heroism, the Memorial shows the names of all those who served and died. It transformed the genre; memorials to war and tragedy now almost inevitably include the names of those who were killed. We now acknowledge that wars are not abstract, that when our leaders send the armed forces into battle—for reasons noble or nefarious—real Americans will die. If we want to honor their service, we need the courage to look them in the face and hear their names.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050530/looking_war_in_the_face.php
Sunflower
Arnold wants to make California blue, so it's impossible to have any kind of President but Republican.
Many "red" states are right-to-work states, where churches can organize but unions can't. It's no coincidence.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Editorial: Memorial Day/Praise bravery, seek forgiveness
In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don't expect untruths from those in power. But that works better as an explanation than as an excuse.
snip~
As this bloody month of car bombs and American deaths -- the most since January -- comes to a close, as we gather in groups small and large to honor our war dead, let us all sing of their bravery and sacrifice. But let us also ask their forgiveness for sending them to a war that should never have happened. In the 1960s it was Vietnam. Today it is Iraq. Let us resolve to never, ever make this mistake again. Our young people are simply too precious.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5427823.html
Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at May 30, 2005 09:51 PM
I read that editorial earlier today and was struck by their willingness to discuss the Downing Street Memo and its implications:
In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don't expect untruths from those in power. But that works better as an explanation than as an excuse.
The "smoking gun," as some call it, surfaced on May 1 in the London Times. It is a highly classified document containing the minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting at 10 Downing Street in which Sir Richard Dearlove, head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair on talks he'd just held in Washington. His mission was to determine the Bush administration's intentions toward Iraq.
At a time when the White House was saying it had "no plans" for an invasion, the British document says Dearlove reported that there had been "a perceptible shift in attitude" in Washington. "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The (National Security Council) had no patience with the U.N. route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."
It turns out that former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were right. Both have been pilloried for writing that by summer 2002 Bush had already decided to invade.
Dick, thanks for the great read. Every time I see the war's monetary cost, and compare that to bin-Laden's goal of bringing us to our knees economically the less sense this war makes. If there was any sense to it in the first place, that is.
Cheney Offended by Amnesty International Report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5041828,00.html
Give me a break. I'm offended that Halliburton made a killing on both Gulf Wars.
Here is one gift he accepted while in office:
From the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, Cheney received a $350 hatchet -- with a pewter blade and carved wooden handle.
the irony
Off Topic:
HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY KAREN AND DICK!!!!
Love you guys and hope you have many more.
Thanks April!
Everyone--new front page info--new week
Watchword: BE RILED
Cheney ‘offended’ by human rights report
VP says he doesn’t take group seriously
The Associated Press
May 30, 2005
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney says he’s offended by a human rights group’s report criticizing conditions at the prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
The report Amnesty International released last week said prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba had been mistreated and called for the prison to be shut down. Cheney derided the London-based group in an interview set to be broadcast Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
“Frankly, I was offended by it,” Cheney said in the videotaped interview. “For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don’t take them seriously.”
“Occasionally there are allegations of mistreatment,” Cheney said. “But if you trace those back, in nearly every case, it turns out to come from somebody who had been inside and released to their home country and now are peddling lies about how they were treated.”
Read more from the Dick... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8039518/
Hey Dick Cheney... I'm offended by YOU!
Tales of abuse in Guantanamo testimony
Tribunal transcripts offer glimpse into prison
The Associated Press
May 31, 2005
One Guantanamo prisoner told a military panel that American troops beat him so badly he wets his pants now. Another detainee claimed U.S. troops stripped prisoners in Afghanistan and intimidated them with dogs so they would admit to militant activity.
Tales of alleged abuse and forced confessions are among some 1,000 pages of tribunal transcripts the U.S. government released to The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — the second batch of documents the AP has received in 10 days.
The testimonies offer a glimpse into the secretive world of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where about 520 men from 40 countries remain held, accused of having links to Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime or Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. Many have been held for three years.
Whether the stories are true may never be known. And it wasn’t immediately clear how many abuse allegations had been logged from the tribunals or how many of them had been investigated. Dozens of complaints have surfaced from detention missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, but the government couldn’t offer a breakdown Monday.
One detainee, whose name and nationality were blacked out like most others in the transcripts, said his medical problems from alleged abuse have not been taken seriously.
Read more on the offenses that DICK is offended by... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8040551/
monkey,
The play GUANTANAMO is one we are looking at doing for a DCP staged readings series--something we could perhaps do in amny locations.
I first heard horror stories about GITMO back in 2001 or 2 from a lawyer who had done some investigating of conditions there--not from AI either.
The stories were horrifying back THEN.
They were part of why I wanted to work on a political campaign in 2004.
I also wrote something around that time (2002) about the nonverbal issues that the US faced. While it is impossible to distinguish who is a terrorist and who is just a frightened person in a prison situation, what DOES happen is that the prisoners, when mistreated, WILL band together and evolve their own system of signals and language, despite differences in cultural background.
In fact an entire sub-culture will spring up--and it is both powerful and un-readable.
All the more reason why the prisoners at Guantanamo, when released, and no matter how innocent they might have been, will emerge fully inside the culture of insurgency.
The Americas School for Terrorism.
The Americas School for Terrorism.
Posted by: Karen at May 31, 2005 08:39 AM
Bingo, Karen.
Pompous Circumstance
Karen
Good analysis! That will happen!
Dick
Enjoyed the photo on the front page
Enjoy the conference - wish I was there (too many places for the $$ right now)
More from the mouth of the Dick...
The insurgency in Iraq is in its last throes, Vice President Dick Cheney says, and he predicts the war will end during President Bush's second term, which ends in 2009. "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline," Cheney told CNN's "Larry King Live. "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."
Nevertheless, Cheney said he was "absolutely convinced we did the right thing in Iraq." He said the United States was making "major progress" in Iraq, where a transitional government took power in April and was working on drafting a new constitution.
"America will be safer in the long run when Iraq, and Afghanistan as well, are no longer safe havens for terrorists or places where people can gather and plan and organize attacks against the United States," he said.
P.S. Iraq’s raging insurgency, which has killed more than 760 people since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28, is believed to be strongly backed by radical Sunni extremists. - Associated Press 5/31/05
Intimidating the Media
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002293315_dionne31.html
Today's Op-Ed talks about how the administration diverted the issue of prisoner treatment at Guantanamo to an attack on the "liberal media."
Posted by: sunflower at May 30, 2005 08:50 PM
This special election will be a right wing wet dream. California is already turning red because the "moral values" card has worked so well on the various immigrant communities of the southern half of the state.
This special election will not only make California the next "right to work" state - as if being an "at will employment" state isn't bad enough already - but screw over teachers, nurses, and other public servants Ahnuld has repeatedly called "special interests."
Moreover, those immigrant groups will probably get a constitutional ban on gay marriage passed once and for all. I won't stand for this.
Nevertheless, Cheney said he was "absolutely convinced we did the right thing in Iraq." He said the United States was making "major progress" in Iraq, where a transitional government took power in April and was working on drafting a new constitution.
"America will be safer in the long run when Iraq, and Afghanistan as well, are no longer safe havens for terrorists or places where people can gather and plan and organize attacks against the United States," he said.
Posted by: monKey at May 31, 2005 09:06 AM
HOW can the Dick even say such things? No words can convey the anger felt when I hear these caculated, overt mis-statements. Yes, I believe in peaceful activism, but I am boiling angry inside.