They're doing it. They're actually doing it. It looks like the US is planning on declaring Victory in Iraq and leaving. The Financial Times reports "A top US general on Wednesday said the Pentagon could begin large withdrawals of troops from Iraq as long as the level of violence in the country remained low until national elections, scheduled for the end of the year . . . "[If] the elections go OK, violence stays down, then we ought to be able to make some recommendations for us to be able to bring our forces home," Lt Gen Smith said at the Pentagon."
I guess the 50 to 60 attacks a day reported by General Casey less than a week ago, is now an 'inoperative' figure.
And note how the goal posts are moving again. Though the article notes that Bush himself has said US forces will remain until Iraq can provide for its own security, the generals quoted in this article aren't saying that at all. Rather, the new measurement of success appears to be only whether attacks on American soldiers are declining.
And I'll bet the daily attacks will decline pretty quickly once the US commanders in Iraq find out about the goalpost move. They'll make sure their troops just stop going on patrols. As soon as those elections are over, then whoosh, they're outta there.
After all, as somebody-or-other once said, no one wants to be the last man to die for a mistake.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The Frightened Man
William Pitt writes at Truthout about George W. Bush, the Frightened Man: "It is not terrorism that motivates George, or patriotism, or even profiteering. It is fear, pure and simple: Fear of the truth, fear of the world, fear of any data that collides with his faith-based bubble-encapsuled worldview, and fear most of all of the people he would represent. You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Now we know, and the knowledge is deeply and profoundly disturbing."
I believe this to be true.
As I sat watching the press conference Bush held just before he went to war in Iraq, it gradually dawned on me that I was watching a terrified man -- so scared, he could hardly speak. How horrifying to realize that the President of the United States was a coward who wanted every American to be as afraid as he was -- ". . . we live in a dangerous world. We live in new circumstances in our country. . . . I know [people] remember the tragedy of September the 11th, but I hope they understand the lesson of September the 11th. The lesson is, is that we're vulnerable to attack, wherever it may occur, and we must take threats which gather overseas very seriously . . . "
And that was BEFORE anyone had seen the seven minutes when Bush, confronted with an unprecedented demand for courage, could do nothing but sit frozen with fear.
I believe this to be true.
As I sat watching the press conference Bush held just before he went to war in Iraq, it gradually dawned on me that I was watching a terrified man -- so scared, he could hardly speak. How horrifying to realize that the President of the United States was a coward who wanted every American to be as afraid as he was -- ". . . we live in a dangerous world. We live in new circumstances in our country. . . . I know [people] remember the tragedy of September the 11th, but I hope they understand the lesson of September the 11th. The lesson is, is that we're vulnerable to attack, wherever it may occur, and we must take threats which gather overseas very seriously . . . "
And that was BEFORE anyone had seen the seven minutes when Bush, confronted with an unprecedented demand for courage, could do nothing but sit frozen with fear.
Gone,
Steve Gilliard's News Blog gets it. Wouldn't it be nice if the Shindler supporters could shut the f**k up for a minute or two, and maybe spare a prayer for Terri Schiavo herself instead of spending every moment consumed with bile and anger?
"One of the wacko priests supporting the Schindlers said the brother and sister were asked to leave so Michael Schaivo could spend the last minutes alone with his dying wife. He said 'his heartless cruelty continued'. What? Heartless what? The Schindlers slandered this man, allowed protesters to haunt his small children, tormented him for eight years and they want to talk about heartless cruelty? They tore into him for years, slandered him and placed his life in danger. There's been plenty of heartless cruelty and it lays at the feet of the Schindler's."
"One of the wacko priests supporting the Schindlers said the brother and sister were asked to leave so Michael Schaivo could spend the last minutes alone with his dying wife. He said 'his heartless cruelty continued'. What? Heartless what? The Schindlers slandered this man, allowed protesters to haunt his small children, tormented him for eight years and they want to talk about heartless cruelty? They tore into him for years, slandered him and placed his life in danger. There's been plenty of heartless cruelty and it lays at the feet of the Schindler's."
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Snarfffrfffrrrrrzzzz
My Blahg points to this priceless Paul Wells column at Macleans.ca Inkless Wells - Deflationary spiral -- I had been meaning to blog something about all the election speculation but it didn't seem to be going anywhere, really, and now Wells explains why to anyone who can stay awake long enough to read it:
Ah, the Canadian parliamentary press gallery -- can't live with 'em, could live without 'em.
I wonder whether anyone, at any of several papers, who ordered the latest snap-election wild-goose-chase baloney story splashed across the top of the front page for most of a week feels at all sheepish.
What is so stunning about the debate over the clause that was inserted into a budget enabling bill that would have enabled the Liberals to enact their bottomless Kyoto vengeance against.......znnnnnssssnszzzzz....
Oops. Nodded off. What I was trying to say is, the amazing thing about the week's game of feint and counter-feint over some Kyoto budget thingie....snarfffrfffrrrrrzzzz....
Dammit.
What I was trying to say was that it was all so stunningly pointless. I mean, jaw-droppingly pointless. Organ-bustingly pointless.
For yet another week, the political and chattering classes colluded in an utterly made-up fantasy narrative. Turns out the Liberals didn't mean to force a showdown. Turns out the Cons didn't mean to threaten one. Turns out this minority government's fifth high-stakes, edge-of-your-seat, ooooooooh-golly-what'll-they-do game of brinksmanship was actually about less than the first four.
And yet we cleared the nation's front pages for an endless, breathless account of every meaningless comma. To save our lives, we won't cover what the government is doing. With a gun to our heads, we wouldn't cover what the government could be doing but isn't. We are too busy spinning ourselves into a pathetic tizzy at every spurious hint of another election - an election that would be as thoroughly about nothing as are the weeks when we don't have an election.
Here's how far the gallery's obsession with fantasy goes: on the weekend, Jean Lapierre, who after all is the actual minister of transport in the federal government of the second-largest nation on the face of God's earth, spent several minutes on TV actually discussing transport policy. Airport tax levels, international competition for air routes, carrier bankruptcies, what have you. For a few minutes, it was as though Canada had a government or something.
But at least one big paper ignored all of that, preferring to latch onto Lapierre's momentary burst of angst over the effect of Gomery on the Liberals' electoral fortunes. Out came the banner hed: Minister Fears Snap Election.....snarrrffffffffflllzzzzzzz......
...Sorry. Where was I? Oh yeah. Over at the Toronto Star, Graham Fraser took it into his head to cover what the government minister was saying about the government's plans for his ministry. Silly Graham. At least one commentator spanked him for "burying the lede."
Because you see, the lede is never what the government is actually doing. It's what the government might conceivably do, or have done to it. The conspiracy of inanity, englobing government, opposition and gallery, continues. No rogue reporter, with his mulish insistence on writing about the government as though Canada had one, will be permitted to spoil the parade.
Sorry, that's a bit of a rant. Oh well. It was a profoundly depressing week.
Ah, the Canadian parliamentary press gallery -- can't live with 'em, could live without 'em.
POGGE asks the question
The US economy is Canada's very own 600 pound gorilla, living right next door, too.
POGGE writes a post about the growing protectionist panic in the US - which will get worse, I would think, as their gas prices triple and their housing bubble bursts because their interest rates rise. In Playing chicken with China POGGE asks: "So where does that leave Canada? If the real goal of those who are pulling the strings in the U.S. is to see the American dollar slide more quickly, pushing our own dollar up in relation to it, we lose a big advantage in our trade with the U.S. If there's serious discussion of using protectionist measures to protect American jobs we could see even more disputes like softwood lumber. And if the Americans gamble and lose or fail to act soon enough -- if financial meltdown occurs -- it only gets worse. This is the economy which John Manley and Tom d'Aquino -- not to mention Paul Martin -- want us to depend on even more than we already do. Is there a Plan B?"
POGGE writes a post about the growing protectionist panic in the US - which will get worse, I would think, as their gas prices triple and their housing bubble bursts because their interest rates rise. In Playing chicken with China POGGE asks: "So where does that leave Canada? If the real goal of those who are pulling the strings in the U.S. is to see the American dollar slide more quickly, pushing our own dollar up in relation to it, we lose a big advantage in our trade with the U.S. If there's serious discussion of using protectionist measures to protect American jobs we could see even more disputes like softwood lumber. And if the Americans gamble and lose or fail to act soon enough -- if financial meltdown occurs -- it only gets worse. This is the economy which John Manley and Tom d'Aquino -- not to mention Paul Martin -- want us to depend on even more than we already do. Is there a Plan B?"
Security OK
Canada is not a superhighway for terrorists, says Interpol boss
I am so glad somebody said this.
Not that any nation can boast these days about how secure its borders are, but I felt many of those anti-Canada news stories after Sept 11 talking about our lousy security were suspect -- usually, they seemed to be quoting just one or two ex-CSIS agents who had either set up their own security firms and were "available" for contracts, or had just published a book and wanted publicity for it.
I am so glad somebody said this.
Not that any nation can boast these days about how secure its borders are, but I felt many of those anti-Canada news stories after Sept 11 talking about our lousy security were suspect -- usually, they seemed to be quoting just one or two ex-CSIS agents who had either set up their own security firms and were "available" for contracts, or had just published a book and wanted publicity for it.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Our Beavis Within
A blog I was reading earlier tonight (can't remember whose) linked to this Poorman post from February -- I just had to share it. Enjoy.
I've got the Things-are-getting-better-in-Iraq-but-the-media-aren't-reporting-it Blues
Once again, things are getting better in Iraq, but the darned media just aren't reporting it.
Really.
Yes, I know -- the first batch of things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-isn't-reporting-it stories were back in July 2003, when Uday and whosis were killed. At that time, there were 10 to 12 attacks a day.
And the next batch came in December, 2003, after Saddam was captured. By then, there were 25 to 30 attacks a day.
And then, last July, once again, after the big turnover and before the Republican convention, we were hearing once again about how things were getting better but the media just wasn't reporting it. I think by that time there were 50 attacks a day.
So now the elections have been held two months ago, and there's STILL no new government. But once again its time for another batch of Things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-aren't-reporting-it stories.
Well, here's the latest from someone actually in the country -- and this is supposed to be good news: "George Casey, the commanding US general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, told [CNN] that current insurgent assaults were running at between 50 and 60 attacks a day. "They (insurgents) are able to maintain the level of violence between 50 and 60 attacks a day," General Casey said. "The four provinces where the insurgency is still capable is out west, near Fallujah in Anbar province, in the Baghdad area and Saladdin, which is in the centre of the country, around Saddam's home town, and up north, in the Mosul area," he said. " Those four provinces, by the way, contain almost half of Iraq's population and about a third of its land area.
And here's the LA Times story on Sunday describing life as it is lived by soldiers in Iraq: "This is a war without a front but with plenty of rear. Many soldiers spend a year in Iraq without ever leaving their fortified bases. Others may never meet an Iraqi, much less kill one. A soldier may patrol for months without ever seeing the enemy, yet risk death or disfigurement at any moment. Each day in Iraq will end, almost without exception, with an American on patrol losing an arm, a leg, an eye or a life to an earth-shattering detonation of high explosives. That these bombs are embedded in the most prosaic emblems of Iraqi life — a car, a donkey cart, a trash pile, a pothole — only intensifies the dread that attends every journey outside the wire."
But things are better, I tell you. BETTER!
Really.
Yes, I know -- the first batch of things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-isn't-reporting-it stories were back in July 2003, when Uday and whosis were killed. At that time, there were 10 to 12 attacks a day.
And the next batch came in December, 2003, after Saddam was captured. By then, there were 25 to 30 attacks a day.
And then, last July, once again, after the big turnover and before the Republican convention, we were hearing once again about how things were getting better but the media just wasn't reporting it. I think by that time there were 50 attacks a day.
So now the elections have been held two months ago, and there's STILL no new government. But once again its time for another batch of Things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-aren't-reporting-it stories.
Well, here's the latest from someone actually in the country -- and this is supposed to be good news: "George Casey, the commanding US general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, told [CNN] that current insurgent assaults were running at between 50 and 60 attacks a day. "They (insurgents) are able to maintain the level of violence between 50 and 60 attacks a day," General Casey said. "The four provinces where the insurgency is still capable is out west, near Fallujah in Anbar province, in the Baghdad area and Saladdin, which is in the centre of the country, around Saddam's home town, and up north, in the Mosul area," he said. " Those four provinces, by the way, contain almost half of Iraq's population and about a third of its land area.
And here's the LA Times story on Sunday describing life as it is lived by soldiers in Iraq: "This is a war without a front but with plenty of rear. Many soldiers spend a year in Iraq without ever leaving their fortified bases. Others may never meet an Iraqi, much less kill one. A soldier may patrol for months without ever seeing the enemy, yet risk death or disfigurement at any moment. Each day in Iraq will end, almost without exception, with an American on patrol losing an arm, a leg, an eye or a life to an earth-shattering detonation of high explosives. That these bombs are embedded in the most prosaic emblems of Iraqi life — a car, a donkey cart, a trash pile, a pothole — only intensifies the dread that attends every journey outside the wire."
But things are better, I tell you. BETTER!
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Finally, an invention I could really use
Like Something Out of a Cartoon...
"Can't get out of bed in the morning? Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed. After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room. "When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," New Scientist magazine said Tuesday."
"Can't get out of bed in the morning? Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed. After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room. "When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," New Scientist magazine said Tuesday."
The Anglicans have turned into wingnuts
The Anglican Church has gone mad, batshit, looney, crackers, around the bend, crazy as a loon, mad as a hatter, not all there, nutty as a fruitcake, a few eggs short of a basket, bunny-hopping nuts . . . oh, you get it.
I think it began when, or perhaps even because, they kicked out the Canadian and American branches just because they accept gay people, an act of stunningly unChristian meanness and ignorance and lack of charity.
Now, the inmates are in charge of the asylum, and they're starting in on divorced people -- Bishop: Prince Charles must atone Prince Charles is supposed to apologize to Camilla Parker Bowles' husband for breaking up his marriage? Oh yeah, like Camilla herself had nothing to do with it, I suppose, and her husband himself was perfect in every way? It was all Charles fault?
And the bishop announces this unsolicited opinion to the media, on Easter Sunday no less. It saddens me to see a venerable and once-respected institution like the Anglican church descend into a kind of tabloid journalism grandstanding, making instant and ignorant judgment calls, showing off its own supposed moral purity by pointing fingures, starting these kind of stupid public battles . . . by turning away from gay people, I think the Anglican Church lost its soul. What we are now seeing are the empty masks hanging from trees, twisting in the wind.
I think it began when, or perhaps even because, they kicked out the Canadian and American branches just because they accept gay people, an act of stunningly unChristian meanness and ignorance and lack of charity.
Now, the inmates are in charge of the asylum, and they're starting in on divorced people -- Bishop: Prince Charles must atone Prince Charles is supposed to apologize to Camilla Parker Bowles' husband for breaking up his marriage? Oh yeah, like Camilla herself had nothing to do with it, I suppose, and her husband himself was perfect in every way? It was all Charles fault?
And the bishop announces this unsolicited opinion to the media, on Easter Sunday no less. It saddens me to see a venerable and once-respected institution like the Anglican church descend into a kind of tabloid journalism grandstanding, making instant and ignorant judgment calls, showing off its own supposed moral purity by pointing fingures, starting these kind of stupid public battles . . . by turning away from gay people, I think the Anglican Church lost its soul. What we are now seeing are the empty masks hanging from trees, twisting in the wind.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
"Calling Franz Kafka, white courtesy phone"
This is incredible but, unfortunately, not unbelievable.MSNBC - Panel ignored evidence on Gitmo detainee
There will come a time when America will have to apologize to the world for Guantanamo and for what it is doing there, as well as at its other secret prisons. 'I was just following orders' was not an acceptable excuse in 1945 and it won't be in 2005 either.
A military tribunal determined last fall that Murat Kurnaz, a German national seized in Pakistan in 2001, was a member of al Qaeda and an enemy combatant whom the government could detain indefinitely at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The three military officers on the panel, whose identities are kept secret, said in papers filed in federal court that they reached their conclusion based largely on classified evidence that was too sensitive to release to the public. In fact, that evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities. [emphasis mine]
In recently declassified portions of a January ruling, a federal judge criticized the military panel for ignoring the exculpatory information that dominates Kurnaz's file and for relying instead on a brief, unsupported memo filed shortly before Kurnaz's hearing by an unidentified government official. Kurnaz has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since at least January 2002. "The U.S. government has known for almost two years that he's innocent of these charges," said Baher Azmy, Kurnaz's attorney. "That begs a lot of questions about what the purpose of Guantanamo really is. He can't be useful to them. He has no intelligence for them. Why in the world is he still there?" . . . Justice Department lawyers told Azmy last week that the information may have been improperly declassified and should be treated in the foreseeable future as classified.
There will come a time when America will have to apologize to the world for Guantanamo and for what it is doing there, as well as at its other secret prisons. 'I was just following orders' was not an acceptable excuse in 1945 and it won't be in 2005 either.
Dawn of the Undead
James Wolcott: Terri's Law, Sponsored by Kraft Cheese
So now there's talk of Terri's Law - what I would call "The Dawn of the Undead" --which would prevent the withdrawal of life support from anyone without a Living Will, or even for someone with a Living Will if a relative disagreed.
This is, I guess, supposed to satisfy the hysterical anti-abortionists who are picketing the hospice and trying to hire hit-men.
Well, the hospitals and the HMOs will soon put a stop to THAT -- they know how much a law like that would cost them, and for what? So that an hysterical or cruel relative could force the family to continue to worship the empty body?
Once again, its an anti-abortionist attempt to try to deny the right to choose to the person himself or to his closest family.
So now there's talk of Terri's Law - what I would call "The Dawn of the Undead" --which would prevent the withdrawal of life support from anyone without a Living Will, or even for someone with a Living Will if a relative disagreed.
This is, I guess, supposed to satisfy the hysterical anti-abortionists who are picketing the hospice and trying to hire hit-men.
Well, the hospitals and the HMOs will soon put a stop to THAT -- they know how much a law like that would cost them, and for what? So that an hysterical or cruel relative could force the family to continue to worship the empty body?
Once again, its an anti-abortionist attempt to try to deny the right to choose to the person himself or to his closest family.
The latest on the torture papers
Taking a short break from the All Terri, All The Time news obsession, here's a quick update on the latest prisoner torture news -- first, the latest ACLU press release American Civil Liberties Union : Army's Own Documents Acknowledge Evidence that Soldiers Used Torture. Another Friday document dump. on Good Friday no less, reveals more evidence of systematic and strategic torture of Iraqis: a teenage boy's jaw was broken during a beating; a detainee died by being exercised to death; soldiers were told to "beat the fuck out of detainees" and the units who had lost the most soldiers during insurgency actionw were encouraged to "payback" detainees.
Here is the ACLU page listing the other government documents on torture that have been released following the ACLU lawsuit.
And here's the latest news about prisoner homicides -- 27 detainee deaths linked to foul play
And here's the latest about children being held as prisoners -- this CNN story from a couple of weeks ago.
There, isn't it great to be up to date?
Now, back to the latest breaking Terri Schiavo news. . .
UPDATE: Another torture story from yesterday that I should also include in this roundup: Blows that led to detainee's death were common practice, reservist says Here's what they did to a part-time cab driver: ". . . the pathologist who examined Dilawar, 35, testified . . . the tissue in Dilawar's legs had been so damaged by repeated blows that 'it was essentially crumbling and falling apart.'. . . Army investigators have said that Brand wasn't alone in brutalizing Dilawar. Four interrogators are accused in the documents of kicking Dilawar in the groin and leg during the course of his interrogation, slamming him into walls and a table, forcing him to maintain painful contorted body positions during the interview and forcing water into his mouth until he couldn't breathe . . ." And here's what was done to the brother of a Taliban commander: ". . . According to an Army investigation, Habibullah was so badly hurt by repeated knee strikes that 'even if he survived, both legs would have had to be amputated.'. . . another soldier in the platoon bragged that he had kneed Habibullah at least 50 times "and he deserved every one."
Here is the ACLU page listing the other government documents on torture that have been released following the ACLU lawsuit.
And here's the latest news about prisoner homicides -- 27 detainee deaths linked to foul play
And here's the latest about children being held as prisoners -- this CNN story from a couple of weeks ago.
There, isn't it great to be up to date?
Now, back to the latest breaking Terri Schiavo news. . .
UPDATE: Another torture story from yesterday that I should also include in this roundup: Blows that led to detainee's death were common practice, reservist says Here's what they did to a part-time cab driver: ". . . the pathologist who examined Dilawar, 35, testified . . . the tissue in Dilawar's legs had been so damaged by repeated blows that 'it was essentially crumbling and falling apart.'. . . Army investigators have said that Brand wasn't alone in brutalizing Dilawar. Four interrogators are accused in the documents of kicking Dilawar in the groin and leg during the course of his interrogation, slamming him into walls and a table, forcing him to maintain painful contorted body positions during the interview and forcing water into his mouth until he couldn't breathe . . ." And here's what was done to the brother of a Taliban commander: ". . . According to an Army investigation, Habibullah was so badly hurt by repeated knee strikes that 'even if he survived, both legs would have had to be amputated.'. . . another soldier in the platoon bragged that he had kneed Habibullah at least 50 times "and he deserved every one."
Friday, March 25, 2005
Dueling banjos
I hear the twang of dueling banjos as Jeb Bush tries to establish the "culture of life" at gunpoint -- the Bush Banzai Brigade vs the Pinellas Park Police. Police 'showdown' averted Film at 11.
Well, I was right -- I said earlier that doctors would not want to reinstall the feeding tube without legal authority, and it looks like this was one of the factors that stopped the Bush Banzai Brigade from carrying Terri Schiavro out of the hospice by force -- that, and the prospect of a pitched battle with the police, with the protestors and media caught in the middle.
The media, of course, would have loved it -- new people to interview and new video to show over and over and over. Hey, it would be even better than Jessica Lynch, because it could show American law enforcement getting beaten and shot by other American law enforcement, all in the cause of the "culture of life".
You know, if you wrote all this up as a novel, no publisher would accept it -- the story is just too incredible for fiction.
Well, I was right -- I said earlier that doctors would not want to reinstall the feeding tube without legal authority, and it looks like this was one of the factors that stopped the Bush Banzai Brigade from carrying Terri Schiavro out of the hospice by force -- that, and the prospect of a pitched battle with the police, with the protestors and media caught in the middle.
The media, of course, would have loved it -- new people to interview and new video to show over and over and over. Hey, it would be even better than Jessica Lynch, because it could show American law enforcement getting beaten and shot by other American law enforcement, all in the cause of the "culture of life".
You know, if you wrote all this up as a novel, no publisher would accept it -- the story is just too incredible for fiction.
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