Bush is NUTS

We need to honor the victims of terrorism by turning loss into a victory over fear-mongering and hatred. America was not defeated on September 11, 2001. But war-profiteers use the hatred of the perpetrators as well as the pain of the victims of terror as a pretext for inflicting more suffering upon the world. Their profits represent the defeat of America. Their deceptions are destroying what did not get crushed under the weight of the rubble: the hope for dignity and the will to seek justice of a confident people.

Peace

Power to the People
The "light bulb buccaneers" strike again - oops New York City, Detroit, Toronto have no power! (CNN map) I just read Greg Palast's book "The Best Democracy Money can Buy" in which he lays out the whole utilities deregulation scam, and how the greedy "light bulb buccaneers" of Enron, Reliant (aka Houston Industries), TXU (aka Texas Utilities) had California "by the bulbs," causing the rolling blackouts there in 2000. (BTW - guess what happens to a governor who tries to fight the deregulator!)

Just like the California power crisis, this blackout can be traced back to the "dim bulb in the Whitehouse", Greg Palast argues. Bush and Cheney sit at the epicenter of a deregulation mafia that is increasingly successful at squeezing huge profits out of the power grid. Power company executives get multi-million-dollar "compensation packages" that depend on next quarter's bottom-line, not on whether lights are on or off in NYC or Lansing, MI, or whether planes can land safely at JFK. For these guys the cost-benefit analysis is clear: fix prices, fire maintenance workers, and cook the books. And that's the recipe for blackouts.

And I'd be willing to bet that these guys also own stock in every company that makes backup-power generators!

So where's Tom "Code Red" Ridge when you need him? You can bet that Ossama and his thugs are taking notes! Just blow up a few well selected power lines across the country and America goes dark. THEN hijack a couple of airliners ...

Critical infrastructure like transportation (roads, tracks, water and airways), water and sewer systems, the power grid, communications, and computer operating systems need to be tightly controlled by the citizens (e.g. the government). Private ownership, especially by the multi-national corporations, is focused on next-quarter reports and stock prices, and has no particular interest in the long-term consequences of their actions, or non-actions. FDR knew this and gave America the the Federal Power Commission and the Public Utilities Holding Company Act. Since then, Americans had gotten used to dependable, cheap power. I guess those days are over, thanks to Bush and his cabal.

So what's the deal with the story about a division of US troops killing Uday and Qusay Hussein, and two other, apparently lightly armed, guys? To me, the most interesting part of this story is that it illustrates the incredible credibility problem the US has in Iraq. The Bush administration is so desperate to convince the world that they are right that they resort to publishing horrifying images of bloodied corpses! This move is just slightly more subtle than dragging the corpses through the streets, or stringing them up in a public square!

They say the point is to convince those pesky critics. Well, is that so! Could that be because the administration has lost all credibility over the Iraq issue? And what about US credibility if they did indeed, all of a sudden, stumble across a cache of anthrax or mustard gas. Wouldn't there be immediate questions regarding the credibility of such a find? Wouldn't there be immediate allegations that the US planted these "WMDs"? You bet there would!

And then there is the question of why they decided to kill them in the first place. The Husseins probably just knew too much about past US pampering of their regime in the '80s, when Iran was the enemy. And displaying their bloodied corpses also sends a clear, well-understood signal to any Hussein sympathizers, or any militant enemies of USA, Inc.: we can do this to you, too!

BTW: I think I made my point about Bush being a liar. And I don't want to distract too much from the more fundamental problem that Bush is NUTS!

Last weekend the press finally turned up the heat on WMD-Gate. Ari Fleischer is probably really glad to be outta there. At his last Whitehouse press gaggle reporters were just pestering him questions about those "dodgy" 16 words in the State of the Union. Apparently the press just did not get his message that he and the prez had "moved on."

Au contraire - as the Bush's approval ratings spiral downward, more and more reporters are finally beginning to do their job and are beginning to expose the arrogance of the Bush administration.

Most poignant, though, is the latest open memo to President Bush from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. This group of retired intelligence analysts has three recommendations for the president to begin restoring confidence in his administration:

1. Fire Cheney
2. Have an independent commission investigate the intelligence used to justify the attack on Iraq
3. Allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq

Nice try, guys!

See also Ray McGovern's assessment of vice-presidential meddling in the CIA's analysis process.

Happy July 14, France!

Weapons of Mass-Deception
Time to change the title of this page. CIA officials and a U.S. Ambassador are on the record with information that shows that President Bush mislead Americans and the entire world justifying the invasion of Iraq. And not just in off-the-cuff remarks, but in two major speeches: the Jan. 28 State of the Union address, and in a March 17 televised speech.

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. President George W. Bush, March 17, 2003.

The [Iraqi] regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle East. It has a deep hatred of America and our friends and it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of Al Qaeda. President George W. Bush, March 17, 2003.

Richard Kerr, a former CIA deputy director who is leading a review of the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq's unconventional weapons, revealed on July 3 that

• The CIA had only circumstantial evidence of ongoing WMD programs - let alone "intelligence" of actual, deployable weapons
• The CIA had not found any proof of operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime.
• The Bush administration exerted pressure on the CIA to produce evidence for Bush's claims

Read more in David Corn's 7/9 column and in Mother Jones.

Niger Uranium Nonsense

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. President George W. Bush, State of the Union 2003

My judgment on this is that if they were referring to Niger when they were referring to uranium sales from Africa to Iraq, that information was erroneous and that they knew about it well ahead of both the publication of the British White Paper and the president’s State of the Union address. U.S. Amb. Joseph Wilson, on NBC's Meet the Press

Amb. Joseph Wilson, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic went to Niger in Feb. 2002, on a CIA mission to investigate the Iraq-Niger Uranium connection - and reported to the Bush administration that he found no connection.

The official White House position on this issue is that the information on the uranium purchase is bogus, but that that they did not know that before the Jan 28 speech.

Tubes of Mass-Destruction

Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. President George W. Bush, State of the Union 2003

The New Republic quotes an intelligence analyst who was involved in the tubes debate:

You had senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice saying the only use of this aluminum really is uranium centrifuges. She said that on television. And that's just a lie.

More on Bush's lies: "Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq" by Christopher Scheer, AlterNet
June 27, 2003

White House 'lied about Saddam threat' , The Guardian, July 10, 2003

So who is winning the war in Iraq? The imperialist instigators of the war, or the militant islamists? As Iraq is spinning out of control in violence and chaos, take a quick look a history. The British colonialists never had much success controlling the place. Churchill referred to "the burden and odium of the Mesopotamia entanglement" of the British empire. The inability of the current occupiers to "wage peace" on Iraq has some striking historic parallels. My guess is that the US/British occupation of Iraq may turn out as a messy repeat of history, played out on the backs of the Iraqi people (and the US/British troops as well).

DoD June press releases document US military casualties in Iraq - as of today, 9 of 17 releases document soldiers killed in incidents where they were attacked by (presumably) Iraqis. The Iraqi resistance uses guerrilla tactics like drive-by shootings, sniper attacks and rocket-propelled grenades to keep the GIs nervous. The nervous GIs are more likely to shoot innocent Iraqis, which fuels the resentment among the population against the foreign occupiers. Reuters reports that some Iraqis already see parallels in some of the tactics of the American occupiers and the old regime. Pax Salaam explains in his blog how the Iraqi resistance systematically draws US troops into messy firefights inside neighborhoods in order to fuel anti-American sentiments.

Meanwhile, what do the neocons at the Pentagon do? They blame Clinton! At a June 4 briefing "on policy and intelligence matters," Douglas J. Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, pointed out that "these judgments [about attacking Iraq] were based on intelligence that -- intelligence reports and intelligence analysis that not only went back years but predated this administration." He goes on quoting President Clinton and Clinton's Secretary of Defense Cohen voicing concern about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass-destruction.

Anyway - still wondering who is really winning the war? Could it be Halliburton, Bechtel, or maybe WorldCom? I hope it's not Bin Laden and his cohorts!

The Empire of Nothing But Lies
Worse than "Regime Change" - the US military replaced tyranny with anarchy. So far neither Afghanistan nor Iraq have seen any serious re-construction and re-constitution initiative. Gangs of thugs run rampant in both countries. The only thing in great shape in Afghanistan is the current poppy crop. The American Empire is shaping up as the Empire of Nothing - or maybe the Empire of Lies?

Define Victory
The US are loosing the war in Iraq. Iraq is a mess. US soldiers die almost every day in Iraq. In May, 31 US soldiers died in Iraq. 6 in combat, 5 in explosions. The others in accidents - at least that's what the Pentagon tells us. The frequency of attack on US troops has increased in the last four weeks and many parts of Iraq are still not considered "safe," and as the Independent's Robert Fisk reports, US troops don't dare go out at night in Nasiriyah because "it's not safe." Something is not going right there.

Support your troops - get them outta there!

On the other front of the war in Iraq, the PR front, the pretext for invading Iraq is coming apart. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. The US troops did very little to prevent looting at the only Iraqi nuclear facility and now 2 tons of uranium are missing. And, even worse, the US mass media are starting to latch on to the story of the "AWOL" WMD.

Who gives a damn?

• No WMD found
• No Saddam found
• No Osama Bin Laden found
• $1M of taxpayer money for Bush's "Top Gun" campaign stunt
• Still no WMD found
• $350B tax cut while the states cut programs and services
• NYFD closes fire stations; NYPD lays off 2000 cops in the last 2 years
• Ridiculous "alert" levels
• STILL no WMD!
• Child tax credit only for the rich
• 15-year-olds and 90-year-olds held at Guantanamo Bay
• PATRIOT II - Big Brother and secret arrests
• Warmonger Pipes appointed to United States Institute of Peace
• And still no WMD found!

OK - this is really depressing. Here's a more humorous take on this mess:

The War Profiteers Card Deck

Mark Fiore's cartoons (my personal favorite: Rummy Co.)

Get your fucking next war on
Adopt a fucking mine field in Afghanistan (NOT humorous - dead-fucking-serious!).

Here's a historical perspective. Congressman Abraham Lincoln about his Commander-in-Chief, President James Polk during the US-Mexican war:

"Trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood – that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy, he plunged into war."

Kurt Vonnegut says it all in a Clemens Lecture presented in April for the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut.

What are the conservatives doing with all the money and power that used to belong to all of us? They are telling us to be absolutely terrified, and to run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off. But they will save us. They are making us take off our shoes at airports. Can anybody here think of a more hilarious practical joke than that one?

Have a Nice Day!

Guess who has watched "Independence Day" a few times too many? This latest photo-op makes those imperialists all tingly inside! The commander-in-chief, the glorious wartime leader, strutting across the flight deck with his helmet, every possible little survival gadget dangling from his silly jumpsuit. Yeah, he was prepared for every eventuality on that perilous 30-Minute crossing onto the USS Abraham Lincoln from the California coast.

Define Freedom
At home, American soldiers are used as a backdrop for the nationalist posturing of an AWOL guardsman. In the conquered provinces abroad, American soldiers are ordered to shoot stone-throwing protesters. The US/British troops have unleashed just enough freedom in Iraq to create a mess that is bound to play into the hands of the radical islamic elite and ex-Ba'ath organized crime. Osama must be just lovin' it!

Shia clerics are establishing islamic law, sharia, in the areas they control. Shia gunmen are guarding hospitals and patrolling the streets the US military doesn't control. They are filling the power vacuum the US-lead occupation has created in Iraq.

"The west calls for freedom and liberty. Islam is not calling for this. Islam rejects such liberty. True liberty is obedience to God and to be liberated from desires. The dangers we should anticipate in coming days is the danger to our religion from the west trying to spread pornographic magazines and channels." Sheikh Mohammed al-Tabatabi, preaching in Baghdad, quoted in the Guardian.

So, Mr. Rumsfeld, "stuff happens," right?

At home, the Bush cabal has put America solidly on the path to a totalitarian rule of the military-industrial complex. The fear mongers are using a constant, unspecified-but-colorcoded threat to the "homeland" to keeps the public edgy and ready for "sacrifice." All the while the administration is doing everything to stir rage against America across the world through it's reckless, unilateral world-domination strategy.

For most Americans this strategy will translate into less security, less prosperity, less freedom. Most of the Bush cabal are heavily invested in the defense and security industry. They have no interest in peace and prosperity for the average American. They make money on fear and conflict. They only care about average Americans to the extent they can sell them surveillance cameras, metal detectors, barbed wire and backyard bunkers.

If you want to know how the Bush cabal really feels about the average American, listen carefully to them. Listen to the condescending way Rumsfeld and Bush are addressing not only the Iraqi people, but their own soldiers. Look carefully, not so much at the scripted "great job" drivel, but look at the Q+A stuff with the soldiers. They are talking down to the very soldiers they are using to bolster the profit of their buddies in the military-industrial complex. Just like Bush once used a Alabama National Guard jet to transport plants for his employer in Spring 1971.

Never Again!

Honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Open your eyes and your heart. Be alert and speak out against terror, fear mongering and imperialism.

Peace

Bush and his "cabal" have a way with words. It's hard to follow them when they talk about security, terrorism or intelligence. One day the say one thing and the next day they do or say something else. They managed to confuse the heck out of the American public, to a point where many Americans think Saddam Hussein was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden is French, and Mullah Mohammed Omar runs an Irish pub in Kabul. And you cannot blame them for being confused. Consider the following examples.

Two weeks after the US troops entered Baghdad they have yet to find any Weapons of Mass Destruction. Anywhere. Donald "Stuff Happens" Rumsfeld has no real problem with that. Never mind his boss' intelligence from March:

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. George W. Bush, March 17, 2003.

"We are not going to find them [the WMD] in my view -- just as I never believed the inspectors would -- by running around seeing if they can open a door and surprise somebody and find something," Rumsfeld said, adding that the focus was on "finding the people" who could help in that effort. CNN, Press Conference, Saturday, April 12, 2003.

Yeah, and I have gathered credible intelligence that there is a bridge for sale in Baghdad.

In March, President George Bush denounced alleged Iraqi support for terrorist organizations:

"The [Iraqi] regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle East. It has a deep hatred of America and our friends and it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of Al Qaeda." George W. Bush, speech March 17, 2003.

April 16, on Larry King Live, Robin Wright of "The Los Angeles Times," mentions that an militant Shi'ite group called al-Da' wa is poised to become a player in a new Iraqi government.

WRIGHT: [...] Remember, one of the groups, interestingly enough, that met with the United States yesterday in Nasiriyah was a group called al-Dawa (ph), which means "the call" in Arabic. And it was a group that 20 years ago, exactly, bombed the American embassy in Kuwait. And so there are...

WOODWARD: What was considered one of the most serious terrorist organizations...

KING: And now they're in meetings to form...

WRIGHT: That's right, and are going to be a player in the next government. It will -- it has strong support, believed to be very popular among Shi'ite Iraqis.

Aired April 16, 2003 - 21:00 ET - Transcript on CNN.com
Bob Woodward is the assisting managing editor of "The Washington Post."

Confused yet? Terrorists? Schmerrorists!

Feeling safer yet? Kicking SH out of Baghdad was supposed to improve US national security.

The United States of America has the sovereign authority to use force in assuring its own national security. That duty falls to me as commander of chief by the oath I have sworn, by the oath I will keep. George W. Bush, speech March 17, 2003.

Bush also promised increased security through defensive measures:

Among other measures, I have directed additional security at our airports and increased Coast Guard patrols of major seaports. The Department of Homeland Security is working closely with the nation's governors to increase armed security at critical facilities across America. George W. Bush, speech March 17, 2003.

In the meantime, New York City has 4000 fewer police than two years ago, and they are closing 40 fire stations across the city, because neither the state nor the feds are willing to help, Eric Alterman writes in "The Nation". See also a NY Times story on Gotham's financial woes.

The Bush administration has only provided a fraction of the promised financial support for homeland security," the Brookings Institution reports in Feb. 2003:

... no more than $500 million of the $3.5 billion designated by President Bush's initial homeland security plan for supporting "first responders"—local police, fire, and emergency medical crews—has yet materialized. States and localities have also incurred huge costs in their efforts to coordinate responses to terrorist threats and provide law enforcement personnel to the nation's 429 commercial airports.
The Brookings Institution, Public Policy Brief 115, Feb. 2003.

So now they are pouring gasoline on the fires of anti-American rage across the world and refuse to help communities in America bear the burden of increasing "homeland security?"

Confused yet!? And I did not even mention economic policy here ...

Just wait and see what the Bush cabal is going to do to words like Liberation, Democracy and Freedom because, as you can see, they do have a way with words.

Who's next? Syria? The hawks have tasted blood - literally - and they are circling their next prey. Remember, they are going for world-domination, not for world peace. World domination begins in the Middle East. A U.S. hegemony in the oil-rich Gulf nations through a forceful military presence is aimed at crushing OPEC. More importantly, though, when China becomes a serious contender for super-power status in the next years, the U.S. has its hand on the oil spigot.

The victorious invader's condescending attitude toward the Iraqi population, and their apparent unwillingness to enforce basic security, also belies their chalk-eating talk of "freeing Iraq." Completely unprepared to take responsibility for the conquered nation, the new masters of Baghdad are now actively recruiting the hated former police force to restore law and order.

Believe it or not, I am not a much of a conspiracy theorist. I think most of the "the-feds-are-out-to-get-you" conspiracy theories give the feds way too much credit. But this is different. With the master plan behind this course of action published and the 'cabal' pretty much sticking to it, there is very little "theory" in the conspiracy. Yet, here is a theory I have, about why they have not caught Saddam Hussein. I think they let him go. I cannot prove that, but it is the only explanation that makes any sense. They let him go, so he'd flee to Syria. At some point, they'll announce to the world that they have "evidence" that SH is hiding in Syria. Oh, and Syria also has weapons of mass-destruction. And they hate America. Let's go bomb them.

The so called "Battle for Baghdad" appears to have turned into the "Bloodbath of Baghdad." Continuous bombardment and "incursions" on the ground produce incredible suffering among the people of this battered city. Hospitals are being inundated with casualties, some are receiving up to 100 patients an hour, AlJazeera reports.

The ICRC confirms the reports of the dramatic humanitarian situation in Baghdad in its news bulletin. The WarWatch at MotherJones.com also pulled together several compelling reports of the horrific effects of this "liberation" on the "liberated."

A bad day also for the folks trying to bring us the latest news from the war-zone, prompting international outrage, especially from journalism organizations. This war is quickly becoming a nightmare for Iraqis as well as the foreign observers.

Clearly, life under the yoke of the bloody Ba'athists and Saddam must have been miserable. But this is some "liberation!" So what are we bombing Baghdad into smithereens for again? Here's Robert Dreifuss again, in an interview with Mother Jones, reminding us what the neo-imperialist cabal in Washington is up to. Haven't read his "Thirty Year Itch" story yet? Go on, it's an eye-opener. This is not just about Oil!

Two weeks into this war, the insanity of this undertaking is becoming more and more obvious. Water has become a weapon. Civilians have become pawns in the war, caught between suicide bombers and increasingly scared US soldiers. Iraqi ex-pats are returning to Iraq - not to join the "liberators" as they sweep Saddam out of power, but to fight the "infidels," the "crusaders."

Both Iraqi civilians and the US and British soldiers, I think, are pawns in a dirty geo-political power game. It is now out in the open that senior Pentagon strategists wanted a much larger invasion force. They were overruled, and derided, it seems, by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Seymour Hersh reports in a New Yorker article. The question that comes to my mind is why Rumsfeld's insisted on a 'small footprint' of military force in Iraq? Was he just merely convinced by Iraqi exiles that Iraq would just go belly-up for the invaders? It could hardly be lost even on him that they had a vested interest in saying so. Or is it part of his (and the cabal's) master plan for the Middle East to have this war go sour? Was this strategy rooted in stupidity or cynical calculation?

Is this war designed to encourage mayhem in the Midle East and suicide attacks on US military? I mean, this war makes the US look like they are just begging for more Bin Ladens, Mohammed Attas and Sheik Mohammeds. And guess who is heavily invested in some of the biggest military supply, homeland defense and anti-terror corporations? Some of the biggest hawks in the administration: VP Cheney and Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle. So what if Iraq turns into a huge West-Bank-like mess. These guys are properly positioned to reap the benefits of prolonged strife in Iraq and of the fear of anti-American terror.

This war has now officially reared its ugly face. We see pictures of POWs on both sides. We hear of families learning that their sons and daughtes have died. There are news of large numbers of civilian casualties in Basra, overwhelmed hospitals, destroyed water treatment plants and empty warehouses. This is a humanitarian catastrophe in the making. Millions of Iraqi lifes are in imminent danger, if not from American bombs and missiles, then from disease and starvation. And what about the people who survive? Who will help the survivors of this ordeal with the trauma of what they have lived through? The US has a lousy record of supporting even its own veterans. In Iraq the US is creating the the bloody breeding ground for a thousand Mohammed Attas.

All the while many people here are flying American flags from their SUVs and expressing pride in their country and support for the president and others warn about the insanity of this war. We carry on with our lifes, one ear tuned to the distant rumble of war. It gets to some more than to others. A few express their frustration in the street. Others are just disgusted with this war and with the the media not doing their job. Some of the TV networks, like Fox and CNN, are spreading outright war propaganda, others are scared to tell the truth about this war. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon folks have the media by the balls - "if you say stuff we don't like, we won't talk to you any more."

And once again Rumsfeld takes the cake for "best, straight-faced reality-bending comment" when he complains about Iraq not respecting international law (e.g. the third Genva Convention). You have to admire the guy. Being able to say that with a straight face at this point just really shows his talent at making it up as he goes along - reality, that is.

Voices from the 'other side': I started following PAX SALAAM's blog on Blogspot and some of the surrounding discussion about whether he's for real.

The Arabic news network AlJazeera launched its English language website recently and was hit by hackers.

As the war has been launched, my thoughts now have turned mostly away from the messy politics and toward the millions of Iraqi civilians huddled around their TVs and radios, hiding in shelters, should they be so privileged, and also toward the soldiers on both sides of this war putting everything on the line for their countries, on orders of their so-called leaders.

The issue of whatever the motivations are of the "cabal" in the Whitehouse, or the "waxis of wabbits," or Saddam "Dr Evil" Hussein, pales in light of the suffering Iraq may see in the near future. As much as this sucks, I now just really hope the Pentagon guys know what the hell they are doing and can pull this off swiftly. And I hope that the Iraqi soldiers do not try to be heroes.

Every day of open war deepens the misery of the people on the ground - soldiers and civilians. Some of those warmongers in the Whitehouse and in the media should have to spend a week or two waiting and waiting and waiting, hanging on to every bit of news from a little transistor radio, fearing for your and your familie's lifes, waiting for the sound of tanks and helicopters, or rockets and bombs. They should have to spend a week or two in a house, with the food running low, while tanks rumble up and down the street, people yell and gunshots pop through the night. For far too many people this is the cruel reality. And this is supposed to be the 21st century!

The following is a growing list of my favorite articles and publications with background information on the war against Iraq. The more I learn about this complicated issue, the more I see several fundamental statements confirmed:

1 - Attacking Iraq is one step in a strategy for US world domination

The Bush administration brought into control a group of influential imperialists around VP Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. Many of these gentlemen have been closely associated with a public policy thinktank called The Project for a New American Century, which published a paper in 2000 that outlined that the conflict with Iraq is only a cover for expanding US hegemony in the Middle East:

"While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein." Page 14 - Rebuilding America’s Defense, PNAC, 9/2000.

The Project for a New American Century
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
pay close attension to the names at the bottom of this page - they include 10 members of the Bush administration.

This is a great read: 90 pages of unadulterated US global imperialism:
Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, PNAC, Sept. 2000.

• http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/10/ma_273_01.html
  The Thirty-Year Itch
  By Robert Dreyfuss
• http://www.motherjones.com/news/warwatch/2003/11/we_326_05.html
  It's not about Iraq, anyway
• http://www.iht.com/articles/89614.html
  William Pfaff: The real issue is U.S. power
• http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/5378192.htm
  Burst the bubble of U.S. supremacy
  George Soros compares the Bush administration's pursuit of American supremacy to the boom-bust process or bubble in the stock market.

2 - Some members of the Bush administration are poised to profit financially from attacking Iraq

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,912187,00.html
  the Guardian published a list of five companies poised to profit sustantially from a war in Iraq. One of them, Kellogg, Brown and Root, a construction subsidiary of VP Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton, may win Defense Dept. contracts to build necessary infrastructure in the Persian Gulf and Middle East to support the attack on Iraq.
• http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030317fa_fact
  Seymour Hersh reports that Defense Policy Board chair, and key hawk, Richard Perle was wooeing Saudi arms trader Adnan Kashoggi (of Iran-Contra notoriety) to invest in his VC firm Trireme Partners, L.P. That company was founded two week after 9/11/01 with the idea of investing in companies that produce security and anti-terrorism-related products and services. Such services are in high demand in the Middle East and a war would increase that demand.

3 - Bush is completely nuts if he thinks this war against Iraq can be "won"

• http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=387234
  Retired Colonel Mike Turner, who also served as military planner with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns that a US-led war against Iraq could turn into a disaster that echoes the bloody debacle of Somalia.
• http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-2-1041.jsp
  "The myth of a clean war – and its real motive"
  Paul Rogers outlines why he thinks the cost of the Iraq war will likely be very high, morally and in terms of casualties.
  

Sources

• The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk
• The International Herald Tribune: www.iht.com
• The Independent: news.independent.co.uk
• The Miami Herald: www.miami.com
• Mother Jones Magazine: www.motherjones.com
• The New Yorker: www.newyorker.com
• OpenDemocracy: www.opendemocracy.net

Jürgen Henn, March 2003

comments? bushisnuts@yovo.info