March 30, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SAME OLD RHETORIC
Today's letters in The Fresno Bee has an example of right-wing talking points condensed all into one letter. The correspondent claims that terrorists declared war on the United States during the Clinton administration, that the Clinton administration's response was "weak," and that emboldened the terrorists to attack us. It sounds a lot like a recent book by a conservative "intellectual."
The terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 were caught, prosecuted, and sent to jail. And we didn't kill some 650,000 innocent civilians to do it. I'm getting really sick and tired of right wingers making the claim that unless you support Bush's demented "war on terror" you're a traitor. To the contrary. Sacrificing our military to Bush's obsession--much like Ahab's obsession with the great white whale--is treasonous. Undermining the Constitution is treasonous. Defiling the Geneva Conventions is treasonous. Right-wingers have no principles whatever if something makes them feel secure and safe in their self-righteousness.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH AND SADDAM
Bush I helped Saddam Hussein maintain his power in Iraq after the first Gulf War, according to a new book. Bush I initially encouraged a revolt against Saddam, but then refused to support the rebellion that ensued. This article is an excerpt from the book Web of Deceit by Barry Lando. The article is at www.alternet.org:
The following is an adapted excerpt from "Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush" (Other Press) by Barry Lando.
Though Saddam Hussein has been dispatched, the trial of his confederates continues in Baghdad. In the next few months, the Special Iraqi Tribunal will be hearing evidence against almost a hundred of Saddam's former officials, charged with the slaughter of tens of thousands of Shiites following the abortive uprising or Intifada of 1991.
Because of the way the Tribunal has been run, it's highly unlikely there'll be any mention of U.S. complicity with that slaughter. In fact, President George H. W. Bush was very much involved.
It was he who in February 1991, as American forces were driving Saddam's troops out of Kuwait, called for the people of Iraq to rise up and overthrow the dictator. That message was repeatedly broadcast across Iraq. It was also contained in millions of leaflets dropped by the U.S. Air Force. Eager to end decades of repression, the Shiites arose. Their revolt spread like wildfire; in the north, the Kurds also rose up. Key Iraqi army units joined in. It looked as if Saddam's days were over.
Showing posts with label Saddam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saddam. Show all posts
Saturday, January 06, 2007
January 06, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SADDAM NOW A MARTYR
George W. Bush's orgy of death and destruction featured Saddam Hussein as the embodiment of all evil. Bush, who appears to have had a personal grudge against Hussein, launched an evil and unprovoked war against Iraq because of his hatred for Hussein and because the neocons in his administration wanted Iraq. There is a so-called "Reverend" who writes hateful and mouth-foaming screeds to The Fresno Bee. The "Reverend" talked about what a butcher Hussein was. He conveniently ignored the complicity of the Reagan-Bush administration in supporting Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war. If Hussein was such a symbol of evil, it would have been better to keep him in prison as a reminder of the regime he led. Instead, Bush and company have made Hussein a martyr. This article by Hassan M. Fattah is linked at www.sfgate.com:
In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of an imprisoned dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.
On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.
"No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed," President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday. "They turned him into a martyr."
In Libya, which canceled celebrations of the feast of Eid al-Adha after the execution, a government statement said a statue would be erected depicting Hussein in the gallows.
In Morocco and the Palestinian territories, demonstrators held aloft photographs of Hussein and condemned the United States.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SADDAM NOW A MARTYR
George W. Bush's orgy of death and destruction featured Saddam Hussein as the embodiment of all evil. Bush, who appears to have had a personal grudge against Hussein, launched an evil and unprovoked war against Iraq because of his hatred for Hussein and because the neocons in his administration wanted Iraq. There is a so-called "Reverend" who writes hateful and mouth-foaming screeds to The Fresno Bee. The "Reverend" talked about what a butcher Hussein was. He conveniently ignored the complicity of the Reagan-Bush administration in supporting Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war. If Hussein was such a symbol of evil, it would have been better to keep him in prison as a reminder of the regime he led. Instead, Bush and company have made Hussein a martyr. This article by Hassan M. Fattah is linked at www.sfgate.com:
In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of an imprisoned dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.
On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.
"No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed," President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday. "They turned him into a martyr."
In Libya, which canceled celebrations of the feast of Eid al-Adha after the execution, a government statement said a statue would be erected depicting Hussein in the gallows.
In Morocco and the Palestinian territories, demonstrators held aloft photographs of Hussein and condemned the United States.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
December 30, 2006
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SADDAM CREATED BY U.S.
Poet John Donne famously wrote that the "death of any man diminishes me." I do not mourn the late Saddam Hussein. Like so many dictators, he was guilty of monstrous and brutal crimes. But it should have been the Iraqi people who overthrew Saddam. The trial should have been a real trial, not a kangaroo court. And the people who allowed Saddam to commit his crimes should also face justice. But presidents and prime ministers of "developed" countries don't go to trial. They don't go to the gallows. They build libraries and get eulogized when they die. This article by Robert Fisk is at news.independent.co.uk:
No, Tony Blair is not Saddam. We don't gas our enemies. George W Bush is not Saddam. He didn't invade Iran or Kuwait. He only invaded Iraq. But hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead - and thousands of Western troops are dead - because Messrs Bush and Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister went to war in 2003 on a potage of lies and mendacity and, given the weapons we used, with great brutality.
In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created.
Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.
THE D. C. SNOBOCRACY
From their perches on high the D. C. pundit class tells us about the world. We have the likes of Cokie Roberts or David Broder dictating what is right and wrong. Unfortunately, the D. C. pundits aren't much aware of the real world outside the Beltway. In fact, they consider those outside the Beltway to be beneath contempt. This article by Ernest Partridge is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Read closely both on and between the lines of Washington (so-called) "journalism," and you will find evidence of an unelected "shadow-government"of comfortable, self-appointed and self-satisfied DC elites, composed of lobbyists, pundits, publishers, diplomats, military, and, of course, politicians. This is the Washington "snobocracy." It decides, through its "establishment" media, what news, information and opinion are worthy of the public's attention. And it determines if a politician's life in the nation's Capital will be comfortable and productive or an unremitting misery, as Bill and Hillary Clinton were to discover.
The snobocrats share a bond of community that is unperturbed by such mundane concerns as partisanship. This non-partisan conviviality is typified by the ownership of a Washington steakhouse, "The Caucus Room," which opened in August, 2000:
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SADDAM CREATED BY U.S.
Poet John Donne famously wrote that the "death of any man diminishes me." I do not mourn the late Saddam Hussein. Like so many dictators, he was guilty of monstrous and brutal crimes. But it should have been the Iraqi people who overthrew Saddam. The trial should have been a real trial, not a kangaroo court. And the people who allowed Saddam to commit his crimes should also face justice. But presidents and prime ministers of "developed" countries don't go to trial. They don't go to the gallows. They build libraries and get eulogized when they die. This article by Robert Fisk is at news.independent.co.uk:
No, Tony Blair is not Saddam. We don't gas our enemies. George W Bush is not Saddam. He didn't invade Iran or Kuwait. He only invaded Iraq. But hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead - and thousands of Western troops are dead - because Messrs Bush and Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister went to war in 2003 on a potage of lies and mendacity and, given the weapons we used, with great brutality.
In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created.
Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.
THE D. C. SNOBOCRACY
From their perches on high the D. C. pundit class tells us about the world. We have the likes of Cokie Roberts or David Broder dictating what is right and wrong. Unfortunately, the D. C. pundits aren't much aware of the real world outside the Beltway. In fact, they consider those outside the Beltway to be beneath contempt. This article by Ernest Partridge is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Read closely both on and between the lines of Washington (so-called) "journalism," and you will find evidence of an unelected "shadow-government"of comfortable, self-appointed and self-satisfied DC elites, composed of lobbyists, pundits, publishers, diplomats, military, and, of course, politicians. This is the Washington "snobocracy." It decides, through its "establishment" media, what news, information and opinion are worthy of the public's attention. And it determines if a politician's life in the nation's Capital will be comfortable and productive or an unremitting misery, as Bill and Hillary Clinton were to discover.
The snobocrats share a bond of community that is unperturbed by such mundane concerns as partisanship. This non-partisan conviviality is typified by the ownership of a Washington steakhouse, "The Caucus Room," which opened in August, 2000:
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