Gulf Coast and Iraq

I want to repeat here what I just wrote as introducion to the first article I posted to my j&p list tonight:

In the face of all the incredible suffering along the Gulf Coast, how much more help could be given by troops and equipment
deployed in the disastrous occupation of Iraq? Not to mention the billion dollars Bush spends there each week.

A budding democracy?

What an ungodly mess Bush has created. Even though 57% of Americans now believe his war has made us MORE vulnerable to terrorism, one has to wonder why the number is not 99%.

One also has to ask how many of the Bush true believers have a clue about the real situation:
* British-built Iraq is really three countries, not one.
* 80% of the oil is in the Shiite south and 20% is in the Kurdish north. If three largely autonomous sectors become a reality, the Sunni sector in the middle will only get oil profits from existing wells, not future ones. A frightening scenario.
* The Shiite majority has a theocracy in the works. What would that mean for all that Bush preaches, especially with regard to women's rights?
* The Shiite south is already linked tightly to Iran. This is bad enough right now, but what will it mean if Bush moves on Iran?

Stay tuned for burgeoning disaster. And God help all the people on the ground.

The nut-case preacher

For the umpteenth time, whacko TV preacher Pat Robertson has gone over the edge. The difference this time is that just about every media person in the country has taken notice of his lunatic preaching. Robertson's Christian (huh?) call for the assassination of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is now news all around the world. So how many budding terrorists just got refueled by the Rev?

Robertson will get some home-grown sympathy-albeit muffled- from fixated right-wingers who would blame every malaise in the Americas on Chavez and Castro. But nary a word will be heard from their fundamentalist selves about our government's fervent affection-past and/or present-for lovely people like Jonas Savimbi, Ferdinand Marcos, Augusto Pinochet, the Contras of Nicaragua, the brutal generals of Argentina and Guatemala and El Salvador and Honduras, the earlier Saddam Hussein, the Saudi funders of hate and terror-et al. ad nauseam.

Thy kingdom come...
forgive us our trespasses...
and deliver us from evil preaching.
Amen.

Bush's bubble

Here is the first paragraph of Frank Rich's excelllent article, "The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan," in today's New York Times.

"Cindy Sheehan couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001."

The whole article can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/opinion/21rich.html?ex=1125288000&en=03d9158a477a6fb6&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Cracks in Fortress Bush

The Scholars Version's translation of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 51-52:
"He has shown the strength of his arm, he has put the arrogant to rout, along with their private schemes; he has pulled the mighty down from their thrones and exalted the lowly."

In recent days, I have come to believe that the colossal, multi-faceted private scheme that is the Bush Administration is now starting to go into meltdown.

Bush, Cheney and Rice pitifully proclaim that the Iraq insurgency is losing steam. But as of today, there have been 1,858 American deaths, with the number of wounded estimated at up to 42,500. Iraqi deaths (Lancet study) are over 50 times more than US deaths. There are 65-70 insurgent attacks on US forces every day.In the meantime, there is ever-mounting evidence that Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are more likely to colonize the moon than form a single country on Earth. Top generals are restless, and new torture photo evidence is looming. While Bush goes bike riding (for five weeks?), Cindy Sheehan spotlights the mendacity and immorality of this war before the whole world.

Five years late, but meltdown is in the air.

Update on Bush's illegal war/occupation

As of 12:25 pm EDT on August 12, 1,846 Americans have been killed in Iraq since March 19, 2003. 1,709 of them were killed after Bush declared "mission accomplished" on May 1, 2003.

The "official" number of American wounded is 13,877. The estimated number is 15,000 to 42,500.

There are differing reports about the number of Iraqis killed, but that number is certainly in the tens of thousands. If the Lancet report released last October is correct, the number of Iraqi deaths must be way beyond 100,000 by now.

The financial cost according to the U.S. Dept. of Defense was reported in Harper's Magazine in June: "The monthly cost of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq is $4.1 Billion."

And all because of greed and lies.

Think about it.

Three years ago, George W. Bush said, "I'm the commander--see, I don't have to explain--I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

Now think about the last three years. Think about the last three weeks. Think about impeachment.

The other costs

An editorial in the July 27 edition of the Capital Times included these words:

"'Osama bin Laden doesn't have to win; he will just bleed us to death.'

"That was the prediction last week of Michael Scheuer, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA who was in charge of the pursuit of bin Laden before retiring last year. Scheuer's remarks were made to a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who last week added up what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the American taxpayers so far.

"The total now stands at $314 billion and if things continue, costs will amount to another $450 billion over the next 10 years. That would make what the Bush administration calls the "war on terror" the most expensive U.S. military effort in the last 60 years, according to the Chronicle's report."

The Bolton Boondoggle

The title of John Nichols' article in the current issue of The Nation pretty well sums it up: The Bolton Embarrassment.

Here are a few quotes from the article about the man foisted by Bush upon the nation and the world:

"(Former US ambassadors spoke) "in a tradition of U.S. regard for the mission of the UN, which was perhaps best expressed by an American who served for three decades as a key player in the world council, Ralph Bunche. 'The United Nations,' said Bunche, 'is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world'."

"Bolton is a hack politician, a career retainer of the Bush family who is famous for nothing so much as his disrespect for the diplomacy and international cooperation in general, and for the United Nations in particular.

"So creepy has been Bolton's partisanship -- he was a prime player in moves to shut down the recount of Florida votes following the disputed 2000 presidential election -- and so crude has been his behavior that thoughtful Republicans such as Ohio Senator George Voinovich determined that the nominee would not be an appropriate representative of the United States. But President Bush has forced Bolton on the U.S. and the UN... Bolton will serve differently than his predecessors. For one thing, he is neither the intellectual nor the emotional equal of those who came before him. For another, he will be seen as a representative only of the Bush White House -- not of the United States or its people."