archived: 4 - 10 Apr, 2004 Back Next
JUNKIE EDITOR MICHAEL
CARMICHAEL
(“Déjà vu”)
When the bodies of
dead Americans were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somaila the
Clinton administration endured its harshest lashings of right-wing criticism.
From that moment, Clinton began his drift to the right, which made his
administration the forerunner for the onslaught of the Bush Doctrine after the
electoral coup of 2000.
Now that Americans are once again being murdered by mobs in
foreign lands they have come to 'liberate', what is to be done? The mobs not
only murder the American 'peacekeepers', they then swiftly proceed to desecrate
their corpses by dragging them, burning them and hanging them underneath bridges
to serve as targets for jubilant stone throwing Iraqi insurgents to continue the
humiliation and mutilation in an ugly orgy of Anti-Americanism.
After this outrage, what will happen in Washington, and how will
the American media report the carnage?
Your guess is as good as mine, but here is one possible
scenario: the mobs will be described as pro-Saddam terrorists, who are being
manipulated by a remnant of the Ba'Ath party - OR, they will be defined as
sympathizers with Al-Qaida, who always revel in the death of peace-loving
builders of nationalism and democracy. The facts that they are the victims of an
unjust war and an unjust and brutal occupation will be deftly avoided. Will it
be avoided by the political opponents of the Bush regime? Once again, time will
tell.
These dead Americans were not soldiers; they were private
security contractors from Moyock, North Carolina. It seems that the US forces in
Iraq are unable to either: protect themselves or to provide the Iraqis with
security from looting, rape and murder. Neither is the coalition of the willing
capable of providing security.
Will the UN be capable of it? Time will tell, but the portents
are not favorable.
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Junkie Editor Michael Carmichael suggests reading this article in conjunction with his commentary -- Americans burned and mutilated by Iraq mob
JERRY LOBDILL
(“The Insanity Of This Nation”)
In the early days after 9/11 I supported the President's leadership in going after Osama bin Ladin and his allies. I began to have misgivings about the direction of the administration when I heard Bush begin to frame 9/11 as an act of war. My misgivings were based on the emphasis being placed on this characterization because it seemed rather out of place at a time when we should have been quietly preparing our attack on bin Ladin's forces. The taunting and the jingoism were unnecessary in my opinion, and they fueled mindless belligerent patriotic responses among our people.
Then I saw one of the neo-cons, Frank Gaffney, on TV in a discussion about what our response should be. This man was extremely angry and impatient with those who disagreed with his assessment of the situation, and he created a very unusual scene for someone who was described as an expert on foreign relations. He was derisive and angry about the UN's role in the matter and obviously considered that the US should ignore the UN. This behavior was a complete departure from normal diplomatic level behavior. It was arrogant and disdainful to the point of shutting down effective communications. This behavior is dangerous and alarming. It stuck with me in the days ahead.
I was extremely shocked to hear Bush say on TV that he "loathed Kim Jong Il". As a 65 year old man who had been a lifelong student of world affairs I had never witnessed such a gratuitous expression of hatred coming out of a President's mouth. It was a totally unnecessary remark that could have only one effect on relations with North Korea and other nations of the world who have not been particularly supportive of American values. It was belligerent when there was no reason for belligerency.
Then came the "Axis of Evil" speech in which the American people were told, out of the clear blue sky without any prelude, that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea constituted an axis of evil. Bush also put the world on notice that "you're either with us or you're against us" and thus began our nation's squandering of the overwhelming good will that had been our lot since 9-11, and many of our traditional allies started to balk as the President began his strong public campaign to declare the UN irrelevant and to unilaterally invade Iraq to topple the evil dictator--the first of many subsequent reasons to invade that country that Bush has offered since he began pursuing his clearly predetermined decision to invade Iraq.
I have followed developments closely since 9-11 and have never had any doubt that our nation has done the wrong things in response to that disaster and that Bush has put us on a course to oblivion among the nations of the world. He has polarized this nation and the world, and his lying knows no bounds. He is the worst US President in history by far and a very dangerous actor on the world stage.
The bland language the media uses to discuss the antics of the Bush administration is alarming and indicative of an axis of evil embedded in our own country. It is the hegemony of the giant corporations now in control of our government and the total usurpation of the control of government from the people. Control of the media has been wrested from diverse independent private interests and turned it into the propaganda arm of corporate America. We have a government bought and paid for by corporations.
As time goes by the lies of the Bush administration require more and more hypocrisy and twisting to maintain a fiction that Bush deserves any credibility on any subject. For example, on the issues that Richard Clarke and numerous other career public servants have raised the evidence is clear, yet the media treats it as if there is a considerable chance that it is Clarke, O'Neill, Wilson, Kwiatkowski, Shinseki, Blix, and all the rest who are lying. This is completely ludicrous. The zeal with which Bush has attacked Clarke for his book is shocking when compared to his total lack of interest in bringing to justice whoever exposed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA operative and placed the lives of US intelligence agents at risk.
I've appended the latest article by a retired intelligence professional buttressing Clarke's book. How much more of Bush's lying will the people stand before rising up to demand sanity in foreign relations?
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The article Lobdill references is The War On Clarke, by Larry C. Johnson. (Click on the title to go directly to the article.) “Larry C. Johnson is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He served with the CIA from 1985 through 1989 and worked in the State Department's office of Counter Terrorism from 1989 through 1993. He also is a registered Republican who contributed financially to the Bush Campaign in 2000.”
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LEUTISHA STILLS
(“Message For Dr. Jonas”)
Thanks for your website for political junkies like me.
Please tell Dr. Jonas that in order for Kerry to win, he must be willing to finish what Howard Dean and Ted Kennedy started. That rhetoric even got Tom Daschle to rediscover his spine (as evidenced by those speeches he gave on the Senate floor in an act of calling out the Bush Cartel on their response to truthful revelations by engaging in smear tactics and character assassination). The mistake Senator Kerry is making is that he has some DLC leftovers operating in his campaign. They've signed on with him (Kerry) but not the message he co-opted (Dean, Kucinich and Kennedy). Senator Kerry needs to correct that and fast. Once elected, he should govern on the platform he's running on, and he needs to be reminded of that.
He needs to get the DLC campaign staffers in line or tell them to hit the road because their rhetoric has a way of infecting a good thing when we can ill afford it (i. e. another four years of Bush).
Please relay this [message to] Dr. Jonas, and once again, thank you for TPJ.
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Junkie: Thank you for your kind comment about TPJ. Your message for Dr. Jonas is “right on” and is being published because it is a vital message not only for Sen. Kerry but Democrats every where.
Last Update: 03/23/2006