Month: April 2004

The Price of Stability What you failed to comment on is why the Guangzhou provincial authorities are so determined to bring down the editors of the Southern Metropolitan Daily. Could it be the harsh penalties, like the routine use of public executions for bribery, embezzlement and stealing gasoline, that await local officials who are exposed … Continue reading “”

A U.S. military helicopter flies over the municipal building in the predominantly Shia Baghdad neighborhood Kadamiya. A U.S. trained Iraqi soldier stands guard. The guard says he signed up in the new Iraqi Army to keep Baghdad safe from looters and thieves, but that if the Mehdi Army of the Shia leader Muqtada al- Sadr … Continue reading “US Facing Resistance Made Up of Very People It Trained”

Ernest Hemingway once defined “sin” as “something you feel bad about, afterwards.” On the evidence presented in Richard Clarke’s “Against All Enemies,” and in Bob Woodward’s “Plan of Attack,” Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet ought to have a terminal case of the feel-bads. There are sins of omission. If DCI Tenet knew in the … Continue reading “Tenet’s ‘Slam-Dunk’”

Alright, listen up, warmongers. I’ve decided to help you. No, really. You can thank me later. I’m not doing this out of any sympathy, or because you shamed me into it. As a friend put it several months ago, Iraq is “your goddamn mess – you be constructive.” He was a bit generous, though, to … Continue reading “Don’t Panic, Warmongers”

Consider two bits of news for April 23, 2004: First, we learn that the White House has issued on this Friday a stern warning to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he must abide by a past promise not to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat after Sharon said he was no longer bound by the … Continue reading “Kosovo European West Bank? Hardly!”

Will President Bush share with the American people the reason he is planning a long term American military occupation of Iraq? You ask, "Isn’t the occupation scheduled to end on June 30 when we hand rule over to a provisional government?" Not on your life! On April 23 General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint … Continue reading “Colonizing Iraq?”

A new poll shows that as of mid-March, 57% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein had given substantial support to al-Qaeda. Worse, 45% actually say that “clear evidence” has been found in Iraq to support this allegation! As for weapons of mass destruction 45 percent say they believe Saddam had them before the recent war, … Continue reading “Sticking to Falsehoods Means Sticking to Failure”

Americans, instead of acting like sheep, ought to start thinking of a peaceful world and how we might attain it. It is possible. The benefits of peace would be enormous. The conflict currently being used to sustain America’s vast empire (more than 700 foreign military bases and intelligence installations) and its attendant military-industrial complex is … Continue reading “Peace Is Possible”

Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a speech given at the Libertarian Party of New York state convention, on April 24. The second part will appear on Friday. The neoconservative propagandists who tirelessly called for the invasion of Iraq, who agitated for it over a period of some 10 years, and echoed every … Continue reading “Who’s Sorry Now?”

Three families of refugees from the besieged city of Fallujah who are seeking refuge in the Al-Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad, described the conditions in the embattled city of Fallujah as "a horrible disaster." A man called Khaled Abu Mujahed, speaking from Fallujah on behalf of the Islamic Party, stated that while some relief supplies are … Continue reading “Fallujah Residents Report US Forces Engaged in Collective Punishment”