Left I on the News

Staying on message

The amazing thing about this is that it comes on a day when one of the largest battles of the entire war was fought, involving two simultaneous attacks on U.S. military convoys and the subsequent deaths of 46 Iraqis and the wounding of five American soldiers, and comes one day after six Spanish intelligence officers were killed, which might seem to prove the Administration thesis, except for one detail:

People at the site said they believed that the Spanish soldiers, who were dressed in civilian clothes, were CIA agents or members of the Israeli intelligence service.

On the subject of media dutifully reporting what they're told, CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, on the "White House beat" reported tonight (in a piece entitled "Clueless in Crawford") on being "fooled" by being handed, and then reading on the air, false reports that George Bush was making holiday phone calls to U.S. troops overseas, when in fact he was in Iraq at the time. Knoller closed his piece with this observation: "From now on, when I report that the President is at his ranch, neither you nor I will be sure of it." Now one might ask this: if Knoller isn't sure of it, why is he reporting it as fact? If he is just going to read White House press releases, why exactly do we need him anyway? Can't the White House just email its press releases in to CBS Evening News?

Followup: In another bizarre "message," Master Sgt. Robert Cargie of the Army's 4th Infantry Division is quoted as saying "This is a true indication that we are bringing the fight to the enemy." Really? Wasn't it the enemy who launched three ambushes on U.S. convoys (the third was launched a few minutes after the two where Iraqis were killed, but didn't involve fatalities and received less publicity) within a short period of time, and who just a short time later launched yet another ambush elsewhere in the country and killed two South Korean contractors? Is being ambushed a new way of "bringing the fight to the enemy?"

Reagan and AIDS

"The one thing that has been changed was the film's most controversial bit of dialogue, in which Reagan reacts to the AIDS crisis by saying, 'They who live in sin, will die in sin.' While still defending the line as reflective of Reagan's response to the AIDS epidemic, the creators acknowledged Reagan never actually said that line."

Compassionate babysitters

Army Lt. Col. Pam Hart confirmed that the three boys undergo interrogation. She would not say how long the sessions last, although prison commanders say no captive's session can go longer than 16 hours.

Support the troops - Bring them home now!

Flying shrapnel from the explosion had breached the soldier's skull and spattered blood on the right side of his face. Hilliard checked the extent of the injury. The soldier's helmet lay a few inches from his head, covered in blood on the right side. The crisp, hurried movements of the trauma team slowed. Boardman, the general surgeon, ripped off his white latex gloves and walked away, muttering expletives. Drops of dark red blood pooled on the white marble floor. The remaining staff peeled away from the soldier's bedside. Pvt. Kurt R. Frosheiser, 22, of Des Moines, was dead.

"My buddy Frosh, he was fresh out of basic," VanBuren said. "He got to the unit about a week ago, from Des Moines." He started to cry.

By 1 a.m., the ER was quiet. VanBuren was upstairs having orthopedic surgery to remove a shrapnel fragment embedded in his right leg. A corporal who had arrived with Williams and who had lost two inches of bone in his arm from the roadside blast was sleeping off his surgery. A soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division was in the ER operating room, while his commander sat outside, blank-faced and nervous. The ER staff settled back into the nurses' station and began to play cards.

"This is an average night; this is not even a busy night," said Simmons, the ER nurse.

And yesterday, within "hours after the top U.S. military official in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, gave reporters an upbeat assessment," seven Spanish intelligence officers , two Japanese diplomats, and two U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq. By the way, despite claims by Sanchez that the killing of the Spaniards was "part of an effort to drive a wedge between the Iraqi people and the coalition", news reports say that people at the site thought the Spanish soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes, were "CIA agents or members of the Israeli intelligence service."

John Lennon said "War is over if you want it." Left I only wishes it were so, but doing something as a result of wanting it to be over (like demonstrating against it, writing letters and speaking out) is certainly a part of ending this carnage and demonstrating real support for the troops (and not support for the troops' mission, which is what people like George Bush really means when he tells us to "support the troops."

Followup: An article in the Orlando Sentinel notes that the number of U.S. casualties in the war on Iraq was nearing 10,000 through the end of October, before the start of the "worst" month since the invasion. The article also calls into question the figures released by the military, noting, along the lines of what Left I wrote just above:

For example, critics said, the figures released by the Army do not include men and women whose injuries or illnesses were treated in Iraq, but only those who required transfer to medical facilities outside Iraq.

Those caring capitalists

A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her.

Bush in Baghdad?

Bush was in Iraq on the 27th. He made a fleeting visit to Baghdad International Airport. Don't let the name fool you- Baghdad Airport is about 20 minutes outside of Baghdad. It's in this empty, desert-like area that no one is allowed to go near.

Bush must be proud today- two more 'insurgents' were shot dead in Ba'aquba: two terrorist sisters, one 12 years old and the other 15. They were shot by troops while gathering wood from a field… but nobody bothers to cover that. They are only two Iraqi girls in their teens who were brutally killed by occupation troops- so what? Bush's covert two-hour visit to Baghdad International Airport is infinitely more important…

Intelligent Iraqis

Many Iraqis on Friday angrily dismissed President Bush's brief cloak-and-dagger Thanksgiving Day visit as a political stunt to boost his ratings at home, and others said he squandered an opportunity to meet with Iraqis and see first hand the problems they face.

"He came for only two hours. He didn't see how the Iraqis are living and suffering," said Fatima Star, 38, a housewife. "He doesn't care about the Iraqi people. He only cares about his troops."

"He wants to gain political favor from people in the United States before the elections," said Mathil Aziz, 26, a teacher. "He cares more about his own personal interest than the Iraqi people."

When he heard the news, Khatam Sadun, 35, was reminded of all his problems since U.S. troops occupied Baghdad. The former Iraqi army sergeant lost his job when the U.S.-led coalition disbanded Iraq's army. Today he's unemployed. He hasn't had electricity in his home for two days.

"Bush's visit to Iraq was a big illusion," he said, sitting at an outdoor cafe with his wife. "No Iraqi should welcome him because there's no improvement in our society. Whether he came or not, we're still in a bad situation."

Innumeracy - Left I's favorite topic

A few days ago, the 50th casualty of the U.S. First Airborne Division, which is based at Fort Campbell, Ky., arrived home and was honoured with a funeral procession estimated to be 80 kilometres long.

Sick of Bush

Quote of the Day - Ralph Nader

"If Sam's Club can negotiate for lower pharmaceutical prices, why can't Uncle Sam?"

Democracy in the Middle East

After denouncing Cuba, which has had elections since 1959 (and before), as an enemy of freedom, Bush has nothing but gentle words for his friends: "The Saudi government is taking first steps toward reform, including a plan for gradual introduction of elections." Well, we wouldn't want to rush these things.

Saudi Arabia is a U.S.-created theocratic family dictatorship. Even the mildest dissent is punishable by torture and execution. There has never been an election in Saudi Arabia. Women are deprived of even the right to drive a car. It is also the number-one oil producer in the world. Bush's praise for the Saudi government's "first steps toward reform" referred to a recent announcement that the regime is considering holding restricted municipal elections. (emphasis added)

Another "investigation" under way

A former Iraqi general died while under American interrogation, the U.S. military said Thursday...The cause of death and interrogation techniques are under investigation. (Source)

Some don't come home from Iraq on Air Force One

Mortuary workers recall only one day since the Iraqi campaign began in March that no war casualties were in the funeral parlor or the morgue.

Mortuary services started at Dover in 1955, in a chilly warehouse on the edge of the base. It was temporarily expanded for emergencies over the years, most recently for the 188 people killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon.

Now the work is done in a gleaming 70,000-square-foot building that opened Oct. 27. The new building was funded by a $30 million item in a special budget to fund the war on terrorism.

Followup: Robert Jensen and Sam Husseini raise the question - "Was that really Bush visiting the troops in Iraq?"

More followup: Commenter morph on the Kos website suggests that this episode merits Bush the nickname "Fly by Night President," which I love. Although one might question the "President" part.

Capitalist spending priorities

An arson fire destroyed the $4.5 million renovation at Gardner Academy in San Jose on Saturday. An additional $166,000 invested in a sprinkler system might have saved the building.

State legislators and fire officials have tried since 1997 to require sprinklers, along with automatic smoke detectors and fire alarms in schools, only to be defeated by installation costs.

"The Department of Finance said it was too expensive," said former San Carlos Assemblyman Ted Lempert, who authored four school fire safety bills before term limits ended his tenure. Three were vetoed -- two by Gov. Pete Wilson, one by Gov. Gray Davis -- and one died in committee. "The arguments that led to the vetoes were unbelievable," Lempert said. "Wilson pointed out that no child had died in a school fire. Davis said it's too expensive but we'll do a report."

Meanwhile last week, 37 students died in a fire in a Russian university. "It was the third deadly fire at an educational institution in Russia this year. A blaze in April killed 28 children at a boarding school for the deaf." News reports have it that not a penny had been spent on safety measures at the school since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the "flowering" of "capitalism" in that country.

Propaganda - appearing soon in a theater near you

Really? Well, for starters, there's this: "the military camera operators, directed by American Rogue personnel, could go places where the civilian media could not. 'We were under no restraints. We could go anywhere and shoot anything. The result is that there are scenes of real war here that no one has ever seen.'" But then we read this: "No dead bodies -- Iraqi or American -- are seen." Apparently the filmmakers have a different idea about what "real war" consists of than I do.

Then this:

President Bush is not seen in the film, but he is heard announcing to the world on March 19 that an offensive has been launched "to defend the world against grave danger." No mention is made of weapons of mass destruction.

The Times reviewer recognizes the contentious nature of the "non-political" claim, but still misses the central point:

As much as the filmmakers might want it to be non-political, a point of view is inevitable. A Marine officer says that what the Marines have done in Iraq is noble, and the final scene displays the motto, "the global war on terrorism continues." The open-ended ending was intentional.

One may wonder about the entire framework of this project. How exactly does the military expect to get this film shown in theaters before feature films? Do you suppose if your local peace group made your own 6-minute film on the subject, that your local theater operator would show it? Give it a try. "Freedom of the press (or the movie screen) belongs to those who own the press"...or to those who share the same class interests as those who do.

Another lesson in questioning authority

On BBC Radio 4, defending Bush and Washington's doctrine of "preventive war", Straw told the interviewer: "Article 51 [of the United Nations Charter], to which you referred earlier - you said it only allows for self-defence. It actually goes more widely than that because it talks about the right of states to take what is called 'preventive action'."

Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

Tariq Aziz watch

Nazem Baji watch

Remember this the next time the Government accuses someone of something

An Army Islamic chaplain [James Yee], who counseled al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base, has been charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying.

The military said on Tuesday that it was releasing Capt. James J. Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after confining him for nearly three months on suspicion of espionage activities.

At the same time, though, the United States Southern Command, based in Miami, which administers the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, said it was investigating other possible violations of military code by Captain Yee, including contentions that he had kept pornography on his government computer and had an affair.

Needless to say, the first story was front-page news, and all over the TV news and talk shows, for days. So far, at least, the followup story has been buried on the inside pages of the newspaper, and not mentioned at all on TV news shows I've heard.

Moral: never, ever, believe what the U.S. government has to say. Unless corroborated by an independent source of information, their words are quite literally worthless. Or worse. Because there is almost always an ulterior motive behind them.

The war that keeps on giving

"Some 696,778 individuals served in the Persian Gulf as elements of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Of these 148 were killed in battle, 467 were wounded in action, and 145 were killed in accidents, producing a total of 760 casualties, quite a low number given the scale of the operations.

"However, as of May 2002, the Veterans Administration (VA) reported that an additional 8,306 soldiers had died and 159,705 were injured or ill as a result of service-connected "exposures" suffered during the war. Even more alarmingly, the VA revealed that 206,861 veterans, almost a third of General Schwarzkopf's entire army, had filed claims for medical care, compensation, and pension benefits based on injuries and illnesses caused by combat in 1991. After reviewing the cases, the agency has classified 168,011 applicants as "disabled veterans." In light of these deaths and disabilities, the casualty rate for the first Gulf War is actually a staggering 29.3%." (emphasis added)

Bourgeois democracy

By contrast, the new Medicare/prescription drug bill may well have a profound effect on health care in this country for decades to come and affect the lives of tens of millions of people. According to radio reports (can't find reference to this in print), this 681-page bill was written by a small group of people and given to the Congress to "read" just 24-48 hours before it was to be voted on. There was no time either for public feedback nor for even serious Congressional debate on this important issue, and any public feedback wouldn't be meaningful anyway, since it couldn't be based on real knowledge of the contents of the bill, only on how the P.R. people spun the bill to the public.

Democracy in America.

War crimes and media crimes

Followup: This subsequent article finally raises the issues that should have been raised in the initial article, quite possibly because the media director of Amnesty International USA, who is quoted in the article, contacted AP and called them on their omission.

Remember Elian Gonzalez?

In the present, the denial of human rights of these five men continues unabated. Yet again, the United States has denied visas to the wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez to visit their husbands in prison. These women have not been able to see their husbands in five years, a completely intolerable situation, but, as with the detentions without rights of foreign citizens in Guantanamo and elsewhere, and even U.S. citizens (Jose Padilla) right here in the U.S., you'll have to turn your hearing aid up awfully high to be able to hear any politicians speaking out on their behalf, and take out a microscope to find any coverage of this outrageous situation in the U.S. press.

Frontier justice followup

Headline inoperative

• The Scotsman: Iraqi Insurgents Aim for Soft Targets
• Washington Post: U.S. Says Attacks on Soldiers Decreasing; Bremer Says Insugents Now Are Targeting Iraqis
• Reuters: Blasts hit Baghdad - Loud blasts have echoed across Baghdad after dark and loudspeakers at the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration ordered personnel to take cover as an attack was under way.

Frontier "justice"

The government has freed 20 prisoners from its high-security prison for foreign terror suspects in Cuba, bringing the total released to more than 80.

The prisoners have been held without charges and without access to lawyers, some for nearly two years.

In Iraq, meanwhile, thousands more languish under similar circumstances - imprisoned with no charges, no rights, and in most cases, no evidence either. Well, maybe "languish" isn't the right word:

Also Monday, American military police officers trying to quell a prison riot in Baghdad killed three Iraqis and wounded eight. The riot broke out at the Baghdad Correctional Center when a group of Iraqis began throwing rocks at the guards. A military official said that when the riot began to spread, the American military police were given permission to use lethal force.

Followup: I wrote above that no prominent U.S. politician has spoken out against the outrageous denial of human rights to the prisoners at Guantanamo (and, I should note, elsewhere, like Afghanistan and Iraq). Nor has any prominent U.S. jurist to my knowledge. But as of today, at least one prominent British jurist has broken ranks, reported by BBC:

One of Britain's top judges - Lord Justice Steyn - has condemned the detentions at Guantanamo Bay as "a monstrous failure of justice".

The judge said in a speech in London that al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects were being deliberately held beyond the rule of law and the protection of any courts.

Lord Steyn - in a speech released to Channel 4 News - said that prisoners were being held without rights and quoted officials as saying: "It's not quite torture but at close as you can get".

"The purpose of holding the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay was and is to put them beyond the rule of law, beyond the protection of any courts and at the mercy of victors," he said.

"The procedural rules do not prohibit the use of force to coerce the prisoners to confess."

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me."

When Time magazine used the quotation, they moved the Jews to the first place and dropped both the communists and the social democrats. American Vice-President Al Gore likes the to quote the lines, but drops the trade unionists for good measure. Gore and Time also added Roman Catholics, who weren't on Niemoller's list at all. In the heavily Catholic city of Boston, Catholics were added to the quotation inscribed on its Holocaust memorial. The US Holocaust Museum drops the Communists but not the Social Democrats; other versions have added homosexuals.

Reading between the lines

"This is the birth of a new Georgia,'' said fiery politician Mikhail Shaakashvili as he tossed roses to demonstrators in downtown Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. "Your children and grandchildren will be forever proud of this day. The revolution we promised you has been accomplished without bloodshed."

The 36-year-old lawyer once served as justice minister under Shevardnadze, but he resigned, he said, when the president stymied his attempts to battle official corruption. He has since run for municipal office in Tbilisi, campaigning under the slogan, "A Georgia Without Shevardnadze."

Shaakashvili attended Columbia University. He is a frequent visitor to Washington and boasts of numerous contacts in Congress, the White House and the National Security Agency.

For more insight on what's happening, there's this from The Globe and Mail:

It looked like a popular, bloodless revolution on the streets. Behind the scenes, it smells more like another victory for the United States over Russia in the post-Cold War international chess game.

Delicate sensibilities

Attacks erode progress in Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq - After months of being celebrated as the model city of postwar Iraq, this ancient citadel on the Tigris is enduring a wave of attacks targeting U.S. forces and their allies -- an alarming trend that intensified Sunday with the brazen slaying of two U.S. soldiers as they drove through town in daylight.

Asked at a Baghdad news briefing about reports that the soldiers' throats had been slit, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military deputy director for operations, replied, "We're not going to get ghoulish about this."

Followup: The Boston Globe evidently shares Left I's feelings; here's their headline on the events in Mosul: "Brutal deaths of U.S. soldiers reveal simmering resentment among some in northern city."

Lies and the lying liars who get elected Governor

"...an immigrant like me, who, as a boy, saw Soviet tanks rolling through the streets of Austria"

"Growing up, I saw Communism with my own eyes. When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied Austria, I saw their tanks in the streets."

"Schwarzenegger's hometown of Thal, as a suburb of Graz, was at the heart of the British zone.

"'It is very, very unlikely he saw Soviet tanks rolling in the British zone where he lived,' said historian James Jay Carafano, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., and author of the recent book 'Waltzing into the Cold War: The Struggle for Occupied Austria.'"

"'In all likelihood, he saw British or American tanks.'"

Big (ugly) brother is watching

F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

"The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities like recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities like using fake documentation to get into a secured site.

"F.B.I. officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters.

If the F.B.I. is not concerned with "monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protestors," then why does its memorandum describe lawful activities like "recruiting demonstrators" and "raising money on the Internet"? Are they investigating that suspicious Howard Dean character? I hear he's raising a lot of money on the Internet.

Followup: A very interesting column today on this subject by Justin Raimondo on Antiwar.com with a title I should have beat him to, darn it: FBI Eye on the Antiwar Guy.

Now tell us something we don't know

U.S. Seeks Advice From Israel on Iraq
"Facing a bloody insurgency by guerrillas who label it an 'occupier,' the U.S. military has quietly turned to an ally experienced with occupation and uprisings: Israel.

"In the last six months, U.S. Army commanders, Pentagon officials and military trainers have sought advice from Israeli intelligence and security officials on everything from how to set up roadblocks to the best way to bomb suspected guerrilla hide-outs in an urban area.

"Many of the tactics recently adopted by the U.S. in Iraq — increased use of airpower, aerial surveillance by unmanned aircraft of suspected sites, increased use of pinpoint search and seizure operations, the leveling of buildings used by suspected insurgents — bear striking similarities to those regularly employed by Israel.

"Two Israeli officials — one from the Jerusalem police force and a second from the Israel Defense Forces — confirmed on condition of anonymity that U.S. officials had visited Israel to gain insight into police and military tactics. They also said Israeli officials have visited Washington to discuss the issues."

"U.S. officials were particularly interested in the 'balancing act' that Israeli officials say they have tried to pursue between fighting armed groups and trying to spare civilians during decades of patrolling the occupied territories."

Quote of the Day

"I am only going to make cuts to a certain point. I'm not going to cut dog food for blind people." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger (Source)

Press briefing inoperative

Does the "R" in AARP stand for "Republican"?

Terrorist livestock

"The man, who introduced himself as Hamza, headed off with long and purposeful strides toward the middle of his furrowed cabbage patch. He talked over his shoulder, gesturing with one arm and holding his gun against his side with the other. Amjad and I struggled to keep up. 'He is saying the Americans killed three of his cows last night with their helicopters,' Amjad said. 'And they injured another. He's saying, 'Did they think they were terrorist cows?''"

By the way, since no one in their right mind actually thought these attacks were "militarily significant," the fact that the U.S. military chose to emphasize that fact strongly suggests that they realize that these attacks were politically significant, coming as they did on some of the most well-protected locations in Baghdad.

The other thick-as-a-brick Bush

"Speaking after the shows by children from the Shakespeare Schools Festival, [Laura Bush] said: 'We haven't seen that many protests. But we have seen many American flags and people welcoming us.'

"'I don't think the protests have been as large as predicted.'"

You ought to get out of the "bubble" some time, Laura, instead of getting your information about the world from George who gets it from Condi instead of from the newspapers. You might actually learn something.

Left I in the News

"Cutting and running", part II

Tony Blair then chimed in: "We stand absolutely firm until this job is done - done in Iraq, done elsewhere in the world." Well, maybe not absolutely firm. British troop strength in Iraq has declined from 45,000 at the start of the war, to something like 11,000 now. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but what is "absolutely firm" is the fact that the British have already pulled a large majority of their troops out of Iraq.

Come again?

CIA will examine raw data on Iraq

"Cutting and running"?

"We're not going to stay any longer than we have to in charge of the country."

"We are not going to cut and run. We are going to stay there with military forces, as well as the new Iraqi forces that are being built up right now. So, the end of the authority of the coalition provisional authority doesn t mean the coalition military forces are going to leave the country."

U.S. troops were sent to Korea in 1950, more than 50 years ago. There are currently 37,000 U.S. military personnel in South Korea.

George Bush - War Criminal

"International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

"Mr. Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that 'international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone', and this would have been morally unacceptable.

The unspoken words

Still more Bushit

"I've been here only a short time, but I've noticed that the tradition of free speech -- exercised with enthusiasm -- is alive and well here in London."

No doubt Bush's comments on Iraq and terror and so on will be well analyzed elsewhere. But it's important that this paragraph doesn't go unnoticed:

"Achieving peace in the Holy Land is not just a matter of the shape of a border. As we work on the details of peace, we must look to the heart of the matter, which is the need for a viable Palestinian democracy. Peace will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who intimidate opposition, who tolerate and profit from corruption and maintain their ties to terrorist groups. These are the methods of the old elites, who time and again had put their own self-interest above the interest of the people they claim to serve. The long-suffering Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve true leaders, capable of creating and governing a Palestinian state."

Pundits claim that the "concession" that Tony Blair extracted from George Bush in exchange for support for the invasion of Iraq was Bush's active support for the "road map." Nothing in Bush's speech today gives the slightest credence to that theory.

Followup: To my surprise (since nothing like this was shown on American TV, nor would it be permitted here in the "land of the free") Bush did actually get to hear some free speech today:

"Anti-war protesters did manage to make their voices heard. As Mr. Bush was introduced to dignitaries, demonstrator Joe Gittings produced a loudhailer and heckled him until he was drowned out by the band playing the US national anthem.

"Mr. Gittings, 32, a physics PhD student, said: 'This is a completely immoral and unjustified war that is already having disastrous consequences.'"

More Bushit

"Americans have, on occasion, been called moralists who often speak in terms of right and wrong. That zeal has been inspired by examples on this island, by the tireless compassion of Lord Shaftesbury, the righteous courage of Wilberforce, and the firm determination of the Royal Navy over the decades to fight and end the trade in slaves.

"It's rightly said that Americans are a religious people. That's, in part, because the 'Good News' was translated by Tyndale, preached by Wesley, lived out in the example of William Booth."

The "special relationship"

Washington, twice, asked for British soldiers, paratroopers to be sent to Baghdad, and twice has been refused.

One young British soldier said yesterday: "Look, we are not here to fight a war now, I thought that was finished. The Yanks are fighting a war again, but we should not go down that path. I am very, very sorry for the kids getting killed, but we don't have to get involved." (Source)

Quote of the Day

"We're going to use a sledgehammer to crush a walnut." -- Maj. Gen Charles Swannack Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division (Source)

Close second for Quote of the Day:

"Never, never, in no way, would we treat Mexico like our back yard or a second-class nation." -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. (Source)

Or maybe this should be Quote of the Day:

"Duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men." -- George Bush, giving new meaning every day to the word "irony" (Source)

Bad timing

One of the people interviewed on the BBC report was a jeweler who made gold jewelry, and who talked about how thankful he was to the coalition to bringing "security" to Mosul so he could make his jewelry without fear of being robbed. Was this a big problem before the invasion? Somehow I seriously doubt it, but the reporter didn't ask that obvious question.

Capitalism kills

So what's the problem? Well, it's two-fold. First, only "one in five hospitals has the necessary cath lab." Of course, the money can't be found in the richest country in the world, since that country (that's us, the U.S.) spends trillions on war and militarism, and even of the billions spent on health care, a significant portion goes to profit rather than to actual health care (like building cath labs or staffing 24-hour stroke teams). But the second problem is the focus of the new legislation. Why aren't patients taken straight to the hospitals which do have the available treatment? Because smaller hospitals are "hurting financially" and "might have to shut down" if they were deprived of these patients. Never mind that the health of the patient will suffer by being taken to the smaller hospital, the problem is the financial health of the hospitals.

How many situations like this does it take to open people's eyes to that time-honored socialist slogan - "People before profits"?

When the going gets tough...

"White House aides were still locked in dispute over which relatives of dead British troops will meet the president amid fears he may be met with hostility.

"Downing Street admitted the president would meet relatives, and soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, on Thursday. But asked if that included relatives of troops killed in this year's Iraq conflict, Mr Blair's spokesman replied: 'The precise composition is still being worked on.' It implied Mr Bush will not meet those bereaved families who believe the public was misled into conflict."

Followup: BBC World tonight showed Bush's schedule for the visit, which included a visit with families of the September 11 victims (naturally!), and a visit with soldiers who have served in Iraq. No visit at all with families of dead soldiers. Looks like Bush's handlers may have decided they couldn't be absolutely certain of their ability to select only non-confrontational families, and chucked the whole thing.

The evil empire

Mass graves in Iraq

"Saddam Hussein's government is believed to have buried as many as 300,000 opponents in 263 mass graves that dot the Iraqi landscape, the top human rights official in the U.S.-led occupation administration said Saturday."

Back in May, there were reports in the press about a mass grave in the town of Mahaweel containing approximately 3000 bodies, and another in the village of Muhammad Sakran containing 1000 bodies. Six months have now passed, and during that period I cannot find a single mention in the press of any further significant discoveries. Since the U.S. chose to make this a story again earlier this month, it is certain that if there had been any, they would have been reported, and even if the U.S. had some kind of count of bodies which have actually been found, you would have heard about that too. Those facts were curiously absent from the stories earlier this month, which almost certainly means there are no such "facts." Note that even if the alleged 263 "mass grave sites" contained 100 bodies each (which is doubtful, based on the known facts), that would amount to 26,000 people (plus another 4000 or so already uncovered), an order of magnitude below the claims of 300,000 (or 350,000) dead bodies in mass graves.

For further reading, an analysis of the source of the bodies (in short, the U.S.-encouraged uprisings against the Hussein regime) which have been discovered can be found here. An earlier analysis of this subject on Left I on the News can be found here; as noted there: "Time after time, as in Kosovo, claims of genocide or hundreds of thousands killed have turned out to be wildly exxagerated." With the passage of more and more time, just as with the claims of Iraqi WMD it would appear that the claims of 300,000 dead in mass graves are less and less credible.

Knight-Ridder states the obvious - Iraq has become Palestine

Expect to see the Americans bulldozing the homes of the families of "suspected insurgents" next. It's the least the Israeli military has taught them.

"In a tactic reminiscent of Israeli crackdowns in the West Bank and Gaza, the U.S. military has begun destroying the homes of suspected guerrilla fighters in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, evacuating women and children, then leveling their houses with heavy weaponry.

"At least 15 homes have been destroyed in Tikrit as part of what has been dubbed Operation Ivy Cyclone II, including four leveled on Sunday by tanks and Apache helicopters that allegedly belonged to suspects in the Nov. 7 downing of a Black Hawk helicopter that killed six Americans.

"Family members at one of the houses, in the village of al Haweda, said they were given five minutes to evacuate before soldiers opened fire.

"Hickey said the four homes were destroyed on Sunday because enemy fighters lived and met there. Leveling the homes will force the fighters to find other meeting places, he said.

"'We're going to turn the heat up and complicate their battlefield,' driving them into the desert, he said. 'There they will be exposed and we will have them.'"

Note also the illogical nature of the claims of the American military. If they really knew that "enemy fighters lived and met" in these houses, why didn't they just surround the houses with troops and arrest these "enemy fighters," instead of destroying the house and forcing them to "find other meeting places." A rather strange way to win a war, I'd say. And "drive them into the desert"? Are they planning on knocking down every house in the country?

But if that was strange, another incident reported in the story is even stranger:

"For example, Sunday night's action included the launching of a missile from Baghdad, 55 miles away, at the abandoned home of former Saddam henchman Izzat Ibrahim al Duri, who is No. 6 on the coalition's most-wanted list. A reporter and photographer from Knight Ridder were allowed to witness the destruction, which was completed by laser-guided artillery fire.

"[Col. James Hickey, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division.] said al Duri's house was destroyed to deny guerrillas a meeting place, though it was unclear that such high-tech weaponry was needed to destroy the structure, which appeared completely looted.

"Hickey said soldiers had been instructed to make sure to evacuate innocent civilians nearby. Near al Duri's house, two men, four children and two babies were shivering in near-freezing temperatures in the back of a truck, given just a few minutes to flee their neighboring farm."

The milestones are coming more quickly

Howard Dean, Imperialist

"Dean would impose a 'hybrid' constitution, 'American with Iraqi, Arab characteristics. Iraqis have to play a major role in drafting this, but the Americans have to have the final say.'" [Emphasis added]

"To permit our troops to remain in Iraq now is to reward these militarists and war profiteers. To reward them is to encourage them to lie to us again and to invade again. They hijacked the American presidency and American foreign policy and now they want the American People to ratify their theft and their lies by agreeing to keep US troops in Iraq. Don't do it. Don't let them have a single drop of Iraqi oil. Don't let them keep a single military base in Iraq. They should not gain from their duplicity.

"Don't buy their cynical argument that 'We' have a responsibility because 'We' started this, or as Senator John McCain says, 'We broke the dishes, now we have to fix them.' Their 'We' is not the American people. Their 'We' is the Neo-conservative clique who lied to the American people every which way so that WE, the American People, didn’t know forwards from backwards and so that WE would support THEIR war."

Face the British people? Bush can't even face the British Parliament!

"George Bush was last night branded chicken for scrapping his speech to Parliament because he feared being heckled by anti-war MPs.

"The decision to abandon the speech came as extraordinary security measures costing £19million placed London under a state of virtual siege ahead of Mr Bush's arrival tomorrow.

"Roads in Whitehall were closed with concrete blockades. Overhead, a no-fly zone has been established with the RAF on standby to shoot down unidentified planes. All police leave is cancelled.

"The only speech Mr Bush, who will stay with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, is now due to give will be to an 'invited audience' at the Banqueting House in Whitehall."

"Well, freedom is a beautiful thing, I would first say, and it's, aren't you lucky to be in a country that encourages people to speak their mind? And I value going to a country where people are free to say anything they want to say."

Quote of the Day - George Bush

"I believed a lot of things." -- responding to a question from David Frost on whether he believed the claim that Iraq could unleash weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.

I could spend an entire page deconstructing the interview, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader. However, I will close with Bush's vision for a Palestinian state, which is telling:

"However, to achieve a peaceful Palestinian state, the emergence of a peaceful Palestinian state, a state where people are willing to risk capital, a place where people are willing to develop an economy, there must be a focused effort to defeat terror." [Emphasis added]

Inauguration Day

Sung to the tune of "When I Was a Lad" from HMS Pinafore:

When I was a lad in Austria
I saw Johnny Weismuller the movie star.
I swore one day I would reach that peak,
And the key to my success would be a great physique.
I was so dedicated to the oath I swore,
That now I am the California Gov-er-nor!

I worked so hard on my muscled frame
That a Mister Universe I soon became.
I packed up my trophies and my belts and weights
For a one-way trip to the United States.
And the U.S.A. offered so much more
That now I am the California Gov-er-nor!

My first movie role I obtained with ease
In a low-budget picture playing Hercules.
I flexed my muscles and I mouthed each word
But they overdubbed my lines and so I wasn't heard.
I got such practice being spoken for
That now I am the California Gov-er-nor!

I made "Stay Hungry" and "Pumping Iron"
And a Golden Globe award was shortly mine.
I proved a great disciplinarian
When I hit the screen as Conan the Barbarian.
I gave those bad guys such what-for
That now I am the California Gov-er-nor!

My next big role on the silver screen
Was a big strong psycho-killer man-machine.
I died a nasty death, that's true,
But it didn't stop me coming back to make T2!
I was such a tenacious ter-min-a-tor,
That now I am the California Gov-er-nor!

By then I was such a famous man
That they took me into the Kennedy clan.
I wore clean collars and a brand-new suit
'Cept for Terminator 3, when I was in the nude.
So low I'll sink and so high I'll soar,
That now I am the California Gov-er-nor!

Now actors all, whoever you may be,
If you want to take advantage of democracy,
If you rooted for Ronald, if you cheered for Clint,
If your money was on Sonny in the Government.
It's three thousand dollars - and a little bit more -
And you all may run for California Gov-er-nor!

Unintended humor

"US President George W. Bush on Sunday mourned American troops killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq and vowed the US troops would leave Iraq until the country's security situation is stabilized."

What the U.S. is doing in Iraq

Again, I'm not denying there is "rebuilding" of a sort going on in Iraq. But 15,000 projects? With only 130,000 soldiers, most of whom are doing other things? Not really credible. Needless to say, Fox interviewers Brit Hume and Tony Snow didn't ask any kind of followup question to ask Bremer what he was including in the 15,000 figure.

What are the U.S. soldiers doing in Iraq? Well, here's how the latest incident which ended in the downing of two Blackhawk helicopters and the death of 17 American soldiers started:

"Someone in a sedan had fired at the Industrial Bank in the Sinjar Gate neighborhood of Mosul early Saturday evening. U.S. troops were guarding the bank and one soldier was wounded in the leg. Troops called in a roving, rapid reaction UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to pursue the attackers."

130,000 Iraqis under arms?

"Five weeks ago, civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III estimated that about 60,000 Iraqis were enrolled in the police and other security forces. This month, various Bush administration officials continually raised their estimate of recruits until it reached the 130,000 figure, a surprisingly rapid intake.

"But that total suggests a far more formidable force than the one that exists. In fact, only about 1,500 men have been inducted into the new Iraqi army and are receiving a full boot-camp training — eight weeks under the tutelage of coalition troops and private contractors.

"The rest are police officers — who get three weeks of training that emphasizes courtesy and respect of human rights. The other services — the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the Fixed-Site Protection Service and the Border Guards — receive training that ranges from a day to a week."

"Many of the recruits say they have joined up primarily out of economic need and acknowledge that many among their comrades sympathize with the insurgents fighting to rid Iraq of U.S. troops."

Followup: Brian Cloughley at CounterPunch examines the 130,000 claim in detail.

Does the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs read Left I on the News?

The Senate passed a bill ending restrictions on travel to Cuba. The House passed a bill ending restrictions on travel to Cuba. The conference committee? They're going to "reconcile the differences" (of which there are none) by dropping the provision entirely.

Democracy, U.S.-style.

MINREX STATEMENT
A lesson in "democracy" from the United States
In the evening of November 12 it was announced that the House-Senate conference committee studying the Treasury-Transportation Appropriations bill had decided to eliminate from that legal draft the amendment advocating a relaxation of the existing ban on U.S. citizens visiting Cuba, despite the fact that both the U.S. House and Senate had approved the amendment by a substantial majority.

Bush in the U.K.

'Shoot-to-kill' demand by US
"Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.

"In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.

"The issue of immunity is one of a series of extraordinary US demands turned down by Ministers and Downing Street during preparations for the Bush visit.

"These included the closure of the Tube network, the use of US air force planes and helicopters and the shipping in of battlefield weaponry to use against rioters.

"In return, the British authorities agreed numerous concessions, including the creation of a 'sterile zone' around the President with a series of road closures in central London and a security cordon keeping the public away from his cavalcade.

"The White House initially demanded the closure of all Tube lines under parts of London to be visited during the trip. But British officials dismissed the idea that a suicide bomber could kill the President by blowing up a Tube train. Ministers are also believed to have dismissed suggestions that a 'sterile zone' around the President should be policed entirely by American special agents and military.

"Demands for the US air force to patrol above London with fighter aircraft and Black Hawk helicopters have also been turned down.

"The Americans had also wanted to travel with a piece of military hardware called a 'mini-gun', which usually forms part of the mobile armoury in the presidential cavalcade. It is fired from a tank and can kill dozens of people. One manufacturer's description reads: 'Due to the small calibre of the round, the mini-gun can be used practically anywhere. This is especially helpful during peacekeeping deployments.'

Ministers have made clear to Washington that the firepower of the mini-gun will not be available during the state visit to Britain. In return, the Government has agreed to close off much of Whitehall during the visit - the usual practice in Britain is to use police outriders to close roads as the cavalcade passes to cause minimal disruption to traffic."

Followup: Well, I may have spoken too soon on that last point. This from the The Independent:

"President George Bush will be accused this week of lying about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in a face-to-face meeting with the families of British soldiers killed in the war, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

"Mr Bush announced last week he was prepared to meet a small group of families of the British war dead. The names have not been officially revealed but two of the invited families have come forward to talk exclusively to the IoS, saying they will challenge the US President to explain why he went to war without a United Nations mandate and why no chemical and biological weapons have been found.

"Lianne Seymour, whose husband, Commando Ian Seymour, was killed in a helicopter crash at the outbreak of the war, welcomed the chance to meet Mr Bush. But she dismissed his claim that the 53 Britons killed so far in Iraq had died in a good cause. She said: 'Bush has been suggesting that he's going to put our minds at rest. He suggests our husbands' lives weren't lost in vain. However, I'm going to challenge him on it.'"