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Meanwhile, Back at the War...
One of the wonderful outcomes of last week's production of FEAR UP in London was connecting with the antiwar and peace and justice communities there. I will share that these entities are no more on the same pages than organizations here are--there are alliances and coalitions and disagreements about strategies and tactics there as well. One interesting point of discussion that came up in the post-performance talk-back was a concern on the part of Houzan Mahmoud, the UK Head of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq and co-founder of the Iraq Freedom Congress, that the antiwar forces are supporting a government in Iraq that is bound to be anti-women, just to get troops out of there. It was a moment in which the full complexities of what has been created were apparent. (Read more here)
However, the Stop the War Coalition is attempting to hear all the voices. Here is their latest newsletter, in the interest of continuing discussion and understanding of all the complexities. And, of course, seeing what is happening that our own msm is NOT covering.
STOP THE WAR COALITION NEWSLETTER
No 2006/9: April 22
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
Telephone 020 7278 6694
Web www.stopwar.org.uk
*************************************************
IN THIS NEWSLETTER
1) WORSE THAN UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN
2) SUPPORT MALCOLM KENDALL-SMITH
3) MILITARY FAMILIES UNPRECEDENTED PROTEST
4) BUNKER BUSTERS: THE MOVIE
5) US MARCH FOR PEACE, JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY
6) STOP THE WAR ANNUAL CONFERENCE
1) WORSE THAN UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN
This week, Daniel Pipes, adviser to George Bush and a leading proponent of the Iraq invasion complained about "the ingratitude of the Iraqis for the extraordinary favour we gave them: to release them from the bondage of Saddam Hussein's tyranny." The reasons for that "ingratitude" are given below in the shocking statistics which show that, three years after the US/UK invasion, Iraqis are far worse off now than they were under Saddam Hussein's brutal regime.
There can be no clearer indictment of those who took us into this illegal war – not least our prime minister Tony Blair and the Labour MPs who supported him -- nor can there be any clearer vindication of the anti-war movement, which predicted the horrors that continue to be inflicted on the Iraqi people. We always opposed Saddam Hussein's tyranny, and wished for his overthrow as much as anyone, but it was obvious that getting rid of a tyranny was the last motive in the minds of George Bush and Tony Blair, as is shown from US/British support for tyrants around the world, not least in earlier years for Saddam Hussein himself .
LEVEL OF VIOLENT DEATHS
The level of violent deaths is far higher than in the last years of Saddam Hussein's rule. At least 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died, most of them at the hands of U.S. forces but increasingly from terrorist groups and Iraqi government death squads. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police have also been killed.
CRIME AT RECORD LEVELS: Violent crime, including kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery, is at record levels. There is a proliferation of small arms, and private militias are growing rapidly. A Lebanon-type multifaceted civil war, only on a much wider and deadlier scale, grows more likely with time.
MORE IRAQIS IMPRISONED: Over 50,000 Iraqis have been imprisoned by U.S. forces since the invasion, but only 1.5% of them have been convicted of any crime. Currently, U.S. forces hold 15,000 to 18,000 Iraqi prisoners, more than were imprisoned under Saddam Hussein.
WIDESPREAD USE OF TORTURE AND OTHER ABUSES: Amnesty International and other human rights groups have cited U.S. forces with widespread violations of international humanitarian law, including torture and other abuses of prisoners.Fear of arrest and torture that have worsened since the U.S. conquest of Iraq.
INCREASED DEATHS FROM MALNUTRITION AND PREVENTABLE DISEASES: Deaths from malnutrition and preventable diseases, particularly among children, are again on the increase. The supply of drinking water, reliability of electricity, and effectiveness of sewage disposal are all worse than before the invasion.
FIFTY PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT AND INCOMES CUT BY HALF: As much as half of the labour force is unemployed, and the cost of living has skyrocketed. The median income of Iraqis has declined by more than half. The UN's World Food Program (WFP) reports that the Iraqi people suffer from “significant countrywide shortages of rice, sugar, milk, and infant formula,” and the WFP documents approximately 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from “dangerous deficiencies of protein.”
OIL PRODUCTION HALVED, RECONSTRUCTION HALTED: Oil production, the country's chief source of revenue, is less than half of what it was before the invasion. And despite Bush administration promises to infuse billions of dollars worth of foreign aid to rebuild the country's civilian infrastructure, only a small fraction of these ventures have been completed, and most projects have been cancelled.
ONE MILLION IRAQIS HAVE LEFT THE COUNTRY: Close to one million Iraqis, most of them from the vital, educated middle class, have left the country to avoid the violence and hardship brought on as a result of the U.S. invasion.
The above statistics are taken from IRAQ THREE YEARS AFTER "LIBERATION" by Stephen Zunes. A link to the full article can be found on the new STATISTICS page on the Stop the War website.
*************************************************
2) SUPPORT MALCOLM KENDALL-SMITH
Following Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith's sentence to eight months imprisonment by a military kangaroo court for refusing to serve in Iraq, messages of support have been flooding in. The email address given originally for messages of support can no longer cope with the volume. Full details of how to support Malcolm and how to donate to the fund to help pay his court costs of 20 thousand pounds are available on the Stop the War website.
*************************************************
3) MILITARY FAMILIES UNPRECEDENTED PROTEST
Lieutenant Richard Palmer, 27, of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards died in Iraq on Saturday 15 April, the 104th fatality since the invasion in 2003. Tony Blair has never met one of the families of soldiers sent by him to die in an illegal war. On 26 April dozens of the bereaved families will go to parliament and to Downing Street to insist that Blair meets face to face those who have suffered most from his warmongering. They will be joined by the parents of British troops on active service in Iraq in what The Independent newspaper calls an "unprecedented protest, signaling growing discontent over the conflict in military circles".
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND HOW TO SUPPORT THE MILITARY FAMILIES GO HERE.
*************************************************
4) BUNKER BUSTERS: THE MOVIE
Saturday 6 May has been designated an international day of protest against George Bush's plans to attack Iran, revealed by Seymour Hersch's article in the New Yorker. For details of protests planned in Britain go to: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/StoptheWar-Iran.htm
If the rumours of the Pentagon planning to use nuclear bunker busting weapons in an attack prove to be true, an animation by the US Union of Concerned Scientists shows just what horrific consequences would follow.
*************************************************
5) US MARCH FOR PEACE, JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY
In New York on Saturday 29 April the US anti-war movement will unite in a national demonstration calling for the end to the Iraq war and for all troops to come home immediately. With two thirds of the US people now opposed to the war and George Bush's poll rating down to an almost unprecedented 33 percent, this demonstration will be representative of the vast majority of Americans. For details of the New York protest and news about the US antiwar movement, go to: http://www.april29.org/
*************************************************
6) STOP THE WAR ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Booking for delegates and observers to Stop the War's fifth annual national conference is now underway. The added feature this year of workshops lead by an impressive range of speakers has generated a lot of early interest.
Online registration will be available very shortly. Anyone wishing to attend the conference as an observer should reserve their place now by telephone or email to the national office, as observer places will be strictly limited and allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Groups and organisations wishing to send delegates must have re-affiliated for 2006. This can be done online at the Stop the War website.
FOR FULL DETAILS OF THE CONFERENCE AND TO AFFILIATE ONLINE GO TO:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/StoptheWar-Conference.htm
"War is harmful to children and other living things."
where are the posters of yesteryear,
Otter
Meanwhile, back in US, arbiter of morality, freedom & liberty:
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/041906WC.shtml
Snip:
We all know the religious Right wants to tell us what we can't do in the bedroom, but no one asks what they want us to do instead.
Among the trendier gripes about why liberals lack power in American politics is that there isn't enough tolerance for America's faithful. A big problem, Rabbi Michael Lerner recently sighed , is that "the Left's hostility to religion and spirituality has become such a major stumbling block to the chances that progressive forces will ever win enough power" to make a difference.
So the new advice, from Hillary Clinton to the New Republic's Gregg Easterbrook, is: Stop making snickering remarks at Jerry Falwell's expense. Cheer the innovation of $2 billion in federal tax money carted off to religious groups http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101723_pf.html last year. Drag the "Left Behind" series into your Amazon shopping cart.
And listen, I should add, to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, owner of the conservative mouthpiece the Washington Times and self-proclaimed Messiah http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=131 . Moon's warning to America is that we must have sex the way he entreats us, in the positions he has designated, or else forfeit our "love organs," as he dubs them, to the dark lord Satan.
We all know the Right wants to decide what we can't do in the bedroom. But no one ever seems to ask what the Right wants us to do instead.
"After the act of love," read the instructions from the Rev. Moon's conservative Family Federation, "both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief. Hang the handkerchief[s] to dry naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up."
Recipe for Love
There is, as Moon sees it, a profound sex crisis in America. "Satan," the Times publisher said in 2004, "is clinging to our sexual organs." Women are a "line of prostitutes," who should be punished for selfishness. "The concave organ [vagina] should be sealed with concrete."
"The women are the problem in history," he said in 2004 (http://tinyurl.com/kqby8) . "Women who don't want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children. If they don't fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed."
"Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison," he said in 1996. Men don't get off any easier. Keep pliers in your pocket, he says, "and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning."
kidnapping & selling of Iraqi women
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/23/133221/019
Posted by: DiAnne at April 23, 2006 02:30 PM
Oh, Good Night!
Reverend Sun Myung Moon is NOT a Christian, IMO, but rather the very wealthy leader of a cult.
Dick Bell and Matthew Carnicelli,
My reply to your interesting discussion is posted at the end of the last thread:
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at April 23, 2006 02:44 PM
This comes from Oklahoma by way of Minnesota:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/011706.html
Is Bush Stupid? Or Is America?
(Excerpts, mostly analyzing recent Bush speech in Kentucky:)
Many Americans believe George W. Bush is uninformed, simpleminded and, in a single word, stupid. But there is a different way to look at the evidence and conclude that while Bush may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, it is he who thinks the American people are the real dullards. After all, Bush is the one who explains the “facts” about current events as if he’s speaking to people with the mental capacity of a five-year-old.
(snip)
Bush served up the old canard about how before Sept. 11, 2001, Americans felt they were protected by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but afterwards they realized they faced a unique danger that required sacrifice of civil liberties at home and “preemptive” wars against potential enemies abroad.
“You know, when I was growing up, or other Baby Boomers here were growing up, we felt safe because we had these vast oceans that could protect us from harm’s way,” Bush told the “town hall” participants in Louisville. “September the 11th changed all that. And so I vowed that we would take threats seriously. If we saw a threat, we would take threats seriously before they fully materialized. And I saw a threat in Saddam Hussein.”
The premise to this argument, however, is completely false. No Baby Boomer, who grew up with drills for hiding under desks in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack, felt safe because of the two oceans. Americans of all ages knew that intercontinental ballistic missiles could snuff out their lives in minutes.
(snip)
Then, there’s Bush’s argument equating democracy and peace, a claim that is the rhetorical underpinning of his entire Middle East strategy, which holds that democracy in Iraq will spread across the region and spell doom for Islamic extremism.
“It’s hard for some in our country to connect the rise of democracy with peace,” Bush said in Louisville. “History has proven that democracies yield the peace.”
But again – while it may be nice to think of democracies as inherently peaceful – the historical reality is often quite different.
(this long section gives excellent arguments from US & world history - in the interests of space & time I won't post it all here, but please read. This is a good reference to save).
(then follows a section relating history to current events in Iraq)
The Iraqi constitution, shepherded by the Bush administration, creates sectarian-dominated regions that leave the minority Sunnis in central Iraq largely without access to the nation’s chief resource, oil, a practical issue that is fueling the Sunni-led insurgency. Since the last round of elections, leaders of the majority Shiites have made clear that they have no intention of revising the constitution substantially to give the rival Sunnis a bigger share of Iraq’s oil, which rests mostly in the Shiite south and the Kurdish north.
(snip)
Though the spread of democracy may be desirable for many reasons, Bush’s thesis that elections necessarily solve difficult political problems is simply not supported by history. In the Middle East, resolution of the Palestine-Israeli conflict and fairer distribution of the region’s oil wealth could be equally or more important in achieving peace and reconciliation.
Rule of the majority can become tyranny of the majority, a concern of America’s Founding Fathers who created a complex system of constitutional checks and balances for protecting liberty.
(please read that last sentence several times!!!)
Bush’s critics also question his sincerity about democracy, given the fact that he seized power in 2001 after losing the popular vote and then getting his partisan allies on the U.S. Supreme Court to stop a state recount in Florida. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com “So Bush Did Steal the White House.”]
Many Americans are worried, too, about Bush’s consolidation of government power through what his supporters -- including Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito -- call the “unitary executive,” a radical concept that gives Bush many of the powers traditionally held by the Legislature and the Judiciary.
Bush now asserts the right to interpret laws as he sees fits, as he did in announcing that he is not bound by the McCain anti-torture amendment, and can ignore other statutes and even constitutional protections when he so wishes, as he did in ordering warrantless wiretaps of American citizens.
“The President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and insistently,” former Vice President Al Gore commented in a Jan. 16 speech in Washington. “A President who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.”
Yet, Bush’s comforting language about the blessings of democracy tends to soothe his listeners, like children hearing a bedtime story.
Wiretapping
Bush also dished up to the Louisville audience a pleasant confection about his wiretapping operation, calling it a “limited” program that targets only people who are talking to al-Qaeda operatives.
“It seems like to me that if somebody is talking to al-Qaeda, we want to know why,” Bush said in his folksy style that had heads nodding. Bush said the program consisted of “taking known al-Qaeda numbers – numbers from known al-Qaeda people – and just trying to find out why the phone calls are being made.”
The reality, however, appears to be quite different. First, the program that Bush describes could easily have been accomplished under the existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which even lets the government start wiretapping before going to a secret court to get a warrant.
(snip - much more on domestic spying - the reality)
What Bush left out, however, was the fact that he was the one authorizing and reauthorizing the program, with the only significant legal advice coming from his appointed lawyers in the White House and the Justice Department. When nonpartisan lawyers were brought in, they raised objections.
(snip - then the story of how they went around Ashcroft)
As for Bush’s claims about congressional knowledge and consent, some of the few in Congress who were briefed have complained that they were given only sketchy information and were not allowed to discuss the program even with their own staff experts.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, ended up sending a hand-written letter about his concerns to Vice President Dick Cheney, but got no reply.
Hussein’s War
Bush’s Louisville listeners also heard one of Bush’s golden oldies, his bogus account of how he reluctantly went to war in Iraq only after Saddam Hussein had refused to let United Nations weapons inspectors in to search for weapons of mass destruction.
“I went to the United Nations,” Bush told his Louisville audience. “Some of you were probably concerned here in Kentucky that it seemed like the President was spending a little too much time in the United Nations.
“But I felt it was important to say to the world that this international body, that we want to be effective, spoke loud and clear not once, but 15 odd times to Saddam Hussein – said, ‘disarm, get rid of your weapons, don’t be the threat that you are, or face serious consequences.’
“That’s what the international body said. And my view is, is that in order for the world to be effective, when it says something, it must mean it. We gave the opportunity to Saddam Hussein to open his country up. It was his choice. He chose war, and he got war.”
Bush’s listeners applauded this fictional account of the run-up to war in Iraq, which is dishonest both in its assertion that Hussein’s defiance on weapons inspection forced Bush to go to war and in its suggestion that the invasion was done at the behest of the U.N.
But Bush has been presenting this bogus pre-war history since July 2003 when the absence of WMD was becoming obvious and an Iraqi insurgency was beginning to kill scores of American soldiers.
In his first version of this revisionist history two-and-a-half years ago, Bush said about Hussein, “we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power.”
In reality, Hussein opened up his country to U.N. inspections in November 2002 and allowed them to search wherever they wanted for the WMD that even Bush’s own inspectors later concluded wasn’t there. Bush forced the U.N. inspectors to leave in March 2003 so the invasion could proceed.
When the mainstream U.S. news media failed to object to Bush’s rewritten history, he continued to spin out this lie in various forms, including at the Republican National Convention and during the presidential debates. [For more on this longstanding falsehood, see Consortiumnews.com’s “President Bush, With the Candlestick…”]
Debate Limits
Bush finished off his presentation to the Louisville “town hall” by saying he doesn’t mind that some Americans disagree with his policies, so long as they don’t question his motivations and his honesty.
“What I don’t like is when somebody said, he lied,” Bush complained. “Or, they’re in there for oil. Or they’re doing it because of Israel. That’s the kind of debate that basically says the mission and the sacrifice were based on false premise.”
So, the question for the American people remains – is Bush so ill-informed that his war policy is guided by a false historical analysis and so forgetful that he can’t remember important events in which he played a leading role?
Or does Bush think that the American people are so gullible that they will buy whatever he sells them – as long as he does it with a folksy charm?
------------------------------------------------------Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
Linda Enterkin
Yes the Moonies are a cult, like Scientology.
A time for dissent, a time for heresy
Bill Moyers | A Time for Heresy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042306X.shtml
Bill Moyers argues that American democracy is threatened by perversions of money, power, and religion. Money has bought our elections right out from under us. Power has turned government "of, by, and for the people" into the patron of privilege. And Christianity and Islam have been hijacked by fundamentalists who have made religion the language of power, the excuse for violence, and the alibi for empire.
Boosh is a doink.
hah bumbug,
Otter
DiAnne- actually my evil twin, Truth said that, but I'd have said it if I'd been online at the time :-) Moon is not a Christian, never has been.
And you're absolutely right about us boomers never feeling safe during our childhood. We certainly knew what an ICBM was back then. GWB was not typical in any way of his generation. His dad knew where the fallout shelters were, so he never had any reason to live in fear. He never had to protest any war, because his dad got him into the air national guard and into the cockpit of an airplane that was never going to be sent to Vietnam. And he became an alcoholic instead of a pot smoking hippy, because that's what the frat boys were. And the coke that he's rumored to have used wasn't really in vogue back then, was it? There are no pictures of GWB with long hair and bell bottoms anywhere that I've seen- just that totally disgusting one of him drunk as a skunk on the sofa in a rec room somewhere.
Bush doesn't know a thing about being a boomer. He's the right age, but he was part of the "establishment" even back then - a drunken part, mind you, but still a part. Not that I'm speaking as an aging hippie either- I just liked the music, not the politics back then. But the average American baby boomer certainly remembers what it was to be frightened nearly to death in 1962- Bush's claim that Americans believed we were protected by an ocean is pretty demeaning even to the low IQ's of a lot of people in this country. And his claim that 911 was the worst event in our nation's history is demeaning to those who remember WWI and WWII. He's just full of it- always has been.
Linda - Sorry! I saw Truth wrote that & you 2 = best evil twins!
I was just out for my discount treat at the bakery where my son works. I saw on the bulletin board that some restaurants here are trying to figure out how to use their waste to make biodiesel. I thought that was a great idea!
I started to think about the "Noble Cause" question that Cindy Sheehan keeps trying to ask Bush. i think I have the answer. Troops are risking their lives so we can continue to be the biggest polluter on the planet. We are ahead of China, Russia & the rest of the world only we have maybe 3% of the population.
To some, it's our divine right. If life is important from conception, life should be important for future conceptions, such as the children of our children & grandchildren. Is it right to set them up a toxic environment?
I also came home to a giant flood from a malfunctioning toilet - covered 3 rooms & the basement. I looked like a witch madly sweeping water out with a broom. My floors needed cleaning but not this way!
Linda
You're right about Bush & the whole "protected by an ocean" bit. I seem to remember something from my childhood about evil Communists who were going to push a button & launch nukes & hit all our cities from way ACROSS the ocean.
Here's an excerpt from an interview of Senator John Kerry by William Rivers Pitt:
PITT: 60 Minutes is going to report Sunday night that the CIA informed both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that Iraq was not in possession of weapons of mass destruction a full six months before the invasion took place, and that both Bush and Cheney dismissed their analysis because the decision for regime change had already been made. What is your response to this revelation?
KERRY: If it is true, it confirms more and more of what we've heard from the British memos, from the Downing Street memo, from different statements by people in the administration and out, that they had made up their mind to go to war, and that they misled the Congress and the American people.
Read More:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042306A.shtml
Must be nice out, huh?
Is America Being Transformed Into a Radical Republic?
Op-Ed by Lawrence Wilkerson, served under Colin Powell
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.radical23apr23,0,7907127.story?coll=bal-home-headlines&track=mostemailedlink
Incredibly good exposure of Richard Perle & the Neocons - calls the NeoJacobians, descendants of those who led the brutal Reign of Terror after the French Revolution.
Let's make sure they are WRONG.
sted by: DiAnne at April 23, 2006 07:14 PM
If it's true, they should be frogmarched out to the Hague in handcuffs and chains. Is it true that they can not serve time for anything related to their public duties?
Posted by: sparrow at April 23, 2006 07:58 PM
Ribbit good.
Sorry, wartmongering.
Glenn Beck premieres on his new television program on CNN Headline News on May 8, 2006, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.
He says in his ad that he's after the truth, and isn't coming from a left or right viewpoint. I remember reading something here a few months ago about him being hired by CNN.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck
Posted by: monkey at April 23, 2006 08:35 PM
Thanks for the chuckles, Monkey. It's been a really bad month for me!
I'm sorry to be so off topic, but did anyone hear the new Air America show called, "Working it"?
I heard it yesterday during my short break and actually enjoyed it. I think the emphasis on labor is a great addition to the progressive arsenal.
And unlike previous messages, bin Laden blamed U.S. citizens for the actions of the U.S. government.
Posted by: monkey at April 23, 2006 09:18 PM
And surprise surprise...a day after Kerry rocks the nation, guess who emerges from Bush's video bin.
Posted by: monkey at April 23, 2006 09:18 PM
Could it be that Bin Laden understands the principles of democracy better than the American people?
I'm not sure Bin Laden exists.
The timing with which he gets trotted out is just too perfect.
Super Tuesday.
Before US General Election.
After major Kerry speeches.
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,900,000 for bin laden is fake. (0.33 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 13,900,000 for bin laden is dead. (0.34 seconds
I know not all 13 million plus relate to that, but it's an amazing parlor game.
I'm watching "Path to War" tonight on HBO. I think that I've seen this film at least five different times. It never fails to move me.
Lyndon Johnson stumbled into war, but George Bush lusted after it, embraced it. I can only imagine the movie that will be made about the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq.
May God have mercy on his soul.
US Senator John Kerry on Sunday called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign following the airing of a new recording attributed to fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden slipped past US troops from his hideout in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan in late 2001 because Rumsfeld had not committed enough troops to finding him, Kerry, the Democratic Party candidate in the 2004 presidential election, told ABC television.
The failure to catch the al-Qaeda head on that occasion was one of the biggest catastrophes in the war against terrorism, Kerry added.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Right on, Senator Kerry!!!
Rumsfeld won't resign, and methinks there is more at stake than his reputation.
Just my 1 1/2 cents. (Inflation, you know.)
Truth Shall Prevail
Kerry needs to slam back at them for whatever they dish out, but using logic & persuasion, calling them on their hypocrisies.
People who support the status quo are then accountable for the consequences.
People need to take responsibility. Kerry never did talk down to people. He shouldn't. People need to wake up and listen.
Yes, DiAnne, you are correct. Kerry is emotionally mature, and doesn't talk down to people. He doesn't swagger either. He is gentile.
I think he has great experience in foreign relations, and alot of wisdom and finesse.
Would be really nice to send someone out there that doesn't come across as an arrogant oaf trying to be like the guy next door but doesn't know anything about the guy next door because he's led a sheltered and privileged life.
We shall see what the future holds in store.
Too bad about Osama showing up again. So close to Kerry's speech, and after 6 generals advised he should resign. Darn that Osama, he seems to know when the American people need to be scared.
DiAnne,
That last post was my 1 cent. I just got back from the gas station and that's all I have left.
Yes, DiAnne, you are correct. Kerry is emotionally mature, and doesn't talk down to people. He doesn't swagger either. He is gentile.
********
:) Hmm. While he may indeed be a Gentile (=non-Jew), perhaps you were aiming at "genteel"?
That is one of the things that keeps me awake scoring these kids' standardized test papers late into the evening - they keep trying to use ten-dollar words and end up with, well, ten-euro words let's say. Like the time they were trying to talk about grammatical conventions and ended up talking about "political conventions" instead. Unfortunately I can't give them bonus points for unintended humor.
...trying to talk about grammatical conventions and ended up talking about "political conventions"...
Posted by: Veritas at April 24, 2006 06:37 AM
Dubya cheated at both.
Veritas,
One of my all-time favorites on a test was "Miriam danced before Noah's Ark." (Wrong ark). Another was when a student from another country called the Minstrel Show the Menstrual Show.
But what always is disconcerting is when I ask them what was going on the late 18th century that might have influenced the rise of the romantic ballet, and they cannot for the life of themselves think about the year 1776. It's outside the category.
Posted by: Veritas at April 24, 2006 06:37 AM
Curious to know which company you score for. The only one I know of that scores from home starts with a P. Is that yours?
haha
Kerry may be Gentile but Cam is a Jew.
Truth
Re Bin Laden, if he really exists, it would take about 25 couriers to get the tape to Al-Jazeera, to avoid detection. Timing couldn't happen so carefully. It might just be easier for CIA to pay audio experts & then a cut to Al-J for strategic airing.
DiAnne,
Posted by: DiAnne at April 24, 2006 11:07 AM
You so funny...
Ha ha HA! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
That is very funny, you guys!!!!
Good thing I have a good sense of humour, huh, or I would be very embarrassed right now.
Yes, John Kerry is a gentile. He is also gentle. He is a gentleman. He is also genteel.
Which was what I meant to spell in the first place. I (in my own defense here, ya know) ALMOST ALWAYS look up the spelling of a word if I'm not sure of it.....but, this week......is my work week from HELL. We have to redo everyone on our payroll's paperwork, refigure their income, because we are required to do this once every year. So, I was up working late on paperwork upthread when I told you all that John Kerry is a gentile. What I meant and thought I was spelling was genteel. And, since I was in a time crunch I fell back on my phonics ~ and - hey! it looked good!
Kerry is a gentleman, and a genteel gentile.
HA HA ha ha...
Git hukd on foneks, it wurkd 4 me.