Translation of Bush Bomshell

La gente buena over at European Tribune have compiled a side-by-side translation of the latest incident that confirms many peoples’ bedrock belief that George Bush intended to attack Iraq with or without UN approval.

Here’s a key section

Sadam Husein no cambiará y seguirá jugando. Ha llegado el momento de deshacerse de él. Es así. Yo, por mi parte, procuraré a partir de ahora utilizar una retórica lo más sutil posible, mientras buscamos la aprobación de la resolución. Si alguien veta [Rusia, China y Francia poseen junto a EE UU y Reino Unido derecho a veto en el Consejo de Seguridad en su calidad de miembros permanentes], nosotros iremos. Sadam Hussein no se está desarmando. Le tenemos que coger ahora mismo. Hemos mostrado un grado increíble de paciencia hasta ahora. Quedan dos semanas. En dos semanas estaremos militarmente listos. Creo que conseguiremos la segunda resolución. En el Consejo de Seguridad tenemos a los tres africanos [Camerún, Angola y Guinea], a los chilenos, a los mexicanos. Hablaré con todos ellos, también con Putin, naturalmente. Estaremos en Bagdad a finales de marzo.

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In other words, we have another Downing Street Memo incident to garner a collective yawn from the U.S. media. Just in time for the same script to be used against another country!

GO TEAM!

 

Things That Will Haunt Dreams

Unspeakable horrors via Juan Cole.

McClatchy reports from Baghdad that Iraqi eyewitnesses maintain that Blackwater security guards fired at civilians without provocation on Sunday, in contrast to the company’s own story about the incident. Probably they were firing at a car that neglected to stop when told to, or neglected to stop fast enough. Since such vehicles might be driven by suicide bombers, American military and civilian security forces have often opened fire on innocent Iraqis who just did not hear or did not understand the command to halt their vehicles, or who panicked and sped up. The offending car in this instance had a family of three in it, including a toddler who ended up being melted to his mother’s body in the resulting conflagration.

(emphasis mine)

If only we would embrace rather than censor the sentiments of people like Sally Field.

… if the mothers ruled the world there would be no goddamn wars in the first place.

 

Iraqi All-Nighters

A flash of light. A violent twitch in my left leg. And I awoke.

That was how I spent most of my night yesterday. My thoughts kept floating to a dear friend of mine who is currently on his third tour in Iraq. A gentle soul with deep conflicts within him regarding this and all wars. He, like other soldiers I’ve heard say in various interviews, know not why they are there; only they feel an obligation to answer deployments because of their fellow military brothers and sisters.

“I can’t let them down. I took an oath.”

It’s very hard for me to remain calm when faced with words such as these. I disagree vehemently with the entire premise of the framing, yet what does one say to a loved one who is strapped firmly to a Battle Chess chessboard?

“Break the cycle of death altogether,” my heart says unsuccessfully to my lips.

“I’m here if you need to vent,” is about all I can muster audibly.

Realistically speaking, the conversation about warfare and militaristic foundations woven greedily into the fabric of the United States is far from reaching the point of acceptable discourse. At least, in the sense where someone like me who argues against it is not labeled a traitor or UnAmerican.

So how is this dilemna met? Time will tell. Sleepless nights will continue as I pray for some wellspring of peace within me and even but a drop for my friend who finds himself in a different desert, half a world away. Meanwhle, the elites will have to suffer* too.

Senate Democrats refused to flinch Tuesday as the chamber moved toward a rare, all-night session of debate on legislation to bring troops home this fall.

They called for sleeping cots to be rolled into a room off the Senate floor and told members to prepare for repeated votes throughout the evening. Senators even left open the possibility of dispatching the sergeant at arms to summon colleagues from their homes to the floor if lawmakers ignored the debate.

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*suffering, it is not; but hopefully it is a start to breaking the spell of war that has been cast upon these insulated powerbrokers

 

GOP Whisper Campaign Against St. McCain

Ah, rumor mills – gotta luv ’em sometimes.

At a campaign stop in South Carolina, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was asked about reports that he may be dropping out.

“There are rumors that you may be thinking about dropping out of the campaign. Exaggerated?” a reporter asked.

“I think they have been smoking something that’s not legal in the state of South Carolina,” McCain replied. “I have never contemplated such a thing. I mean it has never crossed my mind.”

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Rumors like that can’t be coming from Democratic circles. It’s obvious that the rats are starting to jump ship from the U.S.S. George, but there’s St. McCain, gripping the anchor of W’s ship tighter than the noose that’ll soon be hanging around Chemical Ali’s head.

Of course, I’m of the mindset that these verbal protestations from the likes of Lugar and Voinovich are nothing more than public tantrums. I’ll believe them to be principled after they start voting to end the bloodshed in Iraq. So far, it’s been all talk/no action from the Hill.

Then again, at least they bother to vote.

The six senators seeking the White House can talk the talk. Voting the vote is not so easy.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has skipped roughly half his Senate votes while campaigning for president.

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Dentists drill teeth. Minutemen hunt humans. Politicians are supposed to vote. We don’t elect them to be campaigners. Chalk it up to being yet another infection on the system that would be better served with an amputation rather than antibiotics.

 

A Torturer’s Tortured Conscience

Another crack in the doorway that reveals the festering monster that has been created in the laboratory known as the Global War on Terror:

“I tortured people,” said Lagouranis, 37, who was a military intelligence specialist in Iraq from January 2004 until January 2005. “You have to twist your mind up so much to justify doing that.”

Being an interrogator, Lagouranis discovered, can be torture. At first, he was eager to try coercive techniques. In training at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., instructors stressed the Geneva Conventions, he recalled, while classmates privately admired Israeli and British methods. “The British were tough,” Lagouranis said. “They seemed like real interrogators.”

But interrogators for countries that pride themselves on adhering to the rule of law, such as Britain, the United States and Israel, operate in a moral war zone. They are on the front lines in fighting terrorism, crucial for intelligence-gathering. Yet they use methods that conflict with their societies’ values.

The border between coercion and torture is often in dispute, and the U.S. government is debating it now. The Bush administration is nearing completion of a new executive order setting secret rules for CIA interrogation that may ban waterboarding, a practice that simulates drowning. Last September, President Bush endorsed an “alternative set of procedures,” which he described as “tough,” for questioning high-level detainees. And in Iraq last month, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander, warned troops that the military does not sanction “torture or other expedient methods to obtain information.”

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As you’ll read in the final excerpted paragraph, George is seeking to further legitimize in law the abhorrent practices that have already soiled the reputation of the United States and its troops. The situation is changed now, however, because he will have to get the Democratically-led Congress to go along with his evil plans.

It’s changed right?

No. Not at all.

More than any other issue than I can recall, aside from the original Shocking and Awful campaign in Iraq, the torture debate has made me feel like a crazy person. How can a society and government look the other way on a topic that causes such a deep revulsion inside my soul? Clearly there’s something wrong with me.

Only, I’m not the only one who recognizes that morality’s boundaries have been raped.

So where is the leadership on this facet of modern-day U.S. policy that should finally have its coffin nailed shut? Lukewarm responses to ‘calls to action’ from the public are unacceptable by the Democrats. And opposition to torture is certainly not going to come from the GOP. Recall this during the 2008 Campaign’s First Presidential Debate last month:

During tonight’s presidential debates, candidates were asked whether they would support the use of waterboarding — a technique, defined as torture by the Justice Department, that simulates drowning and makes the subject “believe his death is imminent while ideally not causing permanent physical damage.”

Both former mayor Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) suggested they would support using the technique. Specifically asked about waterboarding, Giuliani said he would allow “every method [interrogators] could think of and I would support them in doing it.” Tancredo later added, “I’m looking for Jack Bauer,” referencing the television character who has used torture techniques such as suffocation and electrocution on prisoners.

The audience applauded loudly after both statements.

Think Progress has the video

There is a large base of people that have sold their souls in exchange for winning against terrorists at any cost. Of course, they do so without having any clear definition whatsoever for either term – “winning” or “terrorists”. Enough propaganda and lack of critical thought processes has allowed a faceless caricature to become the enemy – muslim and/or brown-skinned. If a target meets those criteria, then any action we take against them becomes acceptable to the sheeple.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel yet? Has the United States woken from its revenge-induced coma following 9/11 (even though Iraq had nothing to do with it)?

I don’t think so

The Revs. Louie Vitale and Steve Kelly kneeled to pray at Fort Huachuca and now face a trial in federal court in Tucson that will decide whether they will go to prison.

On Nov. 19, the Catholic priests were part of a small protest against torture that activists claim the U.S. uses against war captives.

The priests asked to see the head of intelligence or the officer of the day at the fort but were denied access to the fort.

So they began praying, refused to leave and were arrested.

We have not reached the point where public outcry would fight the injustice rained down upon the Fathers, who could really be any protester exercising their right to assembly. Nor has this incident spurned additional protests that raise the volume of opposition. Instead, the military campaign goes on unabated, without the introspection that is required to regain any semblance of morality.

When’s it gonna end?

When’s it gonna end?

Crossposted at Booman Tribune

 

Cindy Sheehan’s Memorial Day Message to Dems

Dear Democratic Congress,

Hello, my name is Cindy Sheehan and my son Casey Sheehan was killed on April 04, 2004 in Sadr City , Baghdad , Iraq . He was killed when the Republicans still were in control of Congress. Naively, I set off on my tireless campaign calling on Congress to rescind George’s authority to wage his war of terror while asking him “for what noble cause” did Casey and thousands of other have to die. Now, with Democrats in control of Congress, I have lost my optimistic naiveté and have become cynically pessimistic as I see you all caving into “Mr. 28%”

There is absolutely no sane or defensible reason for you to hand Bloody King George more money to condemn more of our brave, tired, and damaged soldiers and the people of Iraq to more death and carnage. You think giving him more money is politically expedient, but it is a moral abomination and every second the occupation of Iraq endures, you all have more blood on your hands.

Go read the whole thing

 

John McCain: Shining Beacon of Integrity

As I mentioned yesterday, John McCain – Patron Saint of Pander Bears – loves to fool the public into thinking he’s a paragon of integrity. The problem is, the Committee of Investigation for Saintly Causes is lacking material to work with.

A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.

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[ruffles through file folder to see where McCain stands on this extremely important vote]

That – my friends – is what we call par for the course.

Full Role Call Vote here.

 

There is No More Patience

“Crappy Anniversary” to quote clammyc.

And right on cue, George the Terrible issues his annual edict to the lowly servants of his empire: Be Patient™

With Democrats pushing for an end to the Iraq war now entering its fifth year, President Bush pleaded for more patience Monday, saying success is possible but “will take months, not days or weeks.”

[snip]

He said his plan to send 21,500 additional U.S. troops to secure Baghdad and Iraq’s troubled Anbar Province “will need more time to take effect,” especially since fewer than half of the troop reinforcements have yet arrived in the capital. Bush added: “There will be good days and bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds.”

Now, from the archives of this blog:

[Patience] It might be a virtue, but that doesn’t mean it’s an unlimited resource

Appealing for patience, President Bush said Friday that Americans should not be discouraged by setbacks in Iraq and said the nation must realize that it is still at war.

The president said there is a “tendency of folks is to say this really isn’t a war. People kind of want to slip to the comfortable.”

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Now why do I have a rabid case of deja vu? Perhaps because of this, this, this, and this. It’s the same, tired speech that takes no responsibility for mistakes made, it’s “more of the same” as Kerry remarked during the debates last year.

With all the patience George has for Iraq, I bet Iran wishes their whole situation was based on a typo instead of oil and natural gas.

It should also be noted that the Patience Meme was trotted out during another dark bleat of incompetence on the record of this government: Hurricane Katrina

“Certainly there are some people out there that are frustrated and in need of assistance,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’ve got to continue working to get them assistance as quickly as we can.”

“There is some level of patience that obviously is going to be required during this time,” he said, “but we are urging everyone to move forward as quickly as they can to get people the help they need.”

How’s that working out?

Are we going to have to wait another year until the political will boils every Congresscritter out of the Sopa de Poder cooking on the stove? Clearly this current batch of ingredients has lost any ability to satiate my appetite for Peas Peace.

In fact, let’s fire the chef too.

 

Fragments of writing from March 2003

As we’re coming up on the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War – largely an escalation of what had already begun under Poppy Bush and Bill Clinton – I’m taking a trip down memory lane. In March 2003 I did not as of yet have a blog, but did post to message boards and usenet groups of one sort or another. I didn’t really go out of my way to archive much of what I might have written at the time, as it was largely in the form of off-the-cuff remarks. That said, here are a few fragments that capture where I was at in late March of that year. I’ll try to provide some context for these fragmentary comments wherever possible.

March 18, 2003

Note – In response to a conversation regarding the alleged accuracy of the so-called smart bombs to be used in the opening bombing raids:

Well, one way to interpret the “shock and awe” strategy is that the massive bombings will end up creating massive collateral damage. The “smart bombs” aren’t that smart.

Note – I expected that the Iraq War would escalate conflict, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia:

If I were the leader of one of the so-called “axis of evil” nations, I’d be pushing to get armed to the teeth with whatever weaponry possible, including biological, chemical, and even nuclear weapons, if for no other reason than because of the realization that the U.S. won’t stop with Iraq & that if one’s country is on the list of nations to be invaded, at least those invasions would be more costly to the U.S.

March 20, 2003

Note – Regarding a conversation on the continuing world-wide protests as the war started:

Many of us did not ask for this waste of a war. We have a voice too. Bring on the noise. Word.

March 21, 2003

Note – The last part of the following sentence captures my thoughts about the actual motivation for the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq:

Makes me wonder if Bush et al ever bothered to listen to Iraqi citizens, or if (as I suspect is way more likely) they simply made the decision to impose their vision of manifest destiny in which Iraqis are viewed strictly as sharecroppers on those Oil plantations.

Note – A bit of sarcasm aimed at some of the happy talk that permeated the opening days of the war:

The U$ has made the world safe for SUV owners everywhere. The companies will be pleased.

March 23, 2003

Note – In response to the well-worn canard that the US was “fighting terrorists in Iraq to make Americans safer at home” I wanted to point out our own home-grown right-wing Christian fundamentalist terrorists:

I’d be willing to wager all 5 cents of my life savings that the vast majority of the people being “shocked and awed” are underpaid working stiffs like me, who simply could not afford to leave.

Sometimes I find it a good idea to look close to home. How many terrorists are our major cities harboring? (i.e., people who bomb family planning clinics & target staff of these clinics for assassination; people who burn crosses in front of the homes of African-Americans, who set fire to mosques & churches, and so forth).

March 26, 2003

Note – Another response illustrating my skepticism about the US government’s motives for embarking on the war:

I suppose the best way to put this is that I don’t buy the premise that the war has anything to do with the human rights situation in Iraq. The Reagan/Bush crowd in the 1980s didn’t give a damn back then, and the current Bush crowd doesn’t give a damn now. If it suited the purposes of our government, they’d gladly place another brutal dictator in power there and politely ignore the plight of Iraqi civilians (provided of course that the dictator in question cooperates with our government).

I thought that the war was an awful idea from the get-go, having at various points prior expressed skepticism about the initial rationale for the war (i.e., the alleged WMDs that turned out to be non-existent) as well as all the b.s. about democratizing Iraq, ad nauseum. I was convinced that the people who would be hurt the most were going to be low-income Iraq civilian families, and that 21st century equivalents of Guernica and Dresden were likely to transpire before all was said and done. Indeed, if anything, the events that have transpired in the four years since the war started have been in a number of respects worse than I could have imagined.

There is no comfort to be found in being correct; only a really bad feeling at the pit of one’s stomach that the various efforts to raise awareness of the lies leading up to the war as well as the likely consequences of going to war simply failed to prevent the massive loss of lives since it all began on March 20, 2003. That day will indeed live in infamy. The potential control that a handful of Big Oil conglomerates will gain over Iraqi oil fields will not justify the war crimes that have been committed in the process.

Crossposted from my humble blog, and to more blogs than you can shake a stick at.

 

Merry Fitzmas!

Finally.

Let the dam break and the waters of accountability wash away the putrid sewage that has soiled this world under BushCo rule.

Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted Tuesday of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was accused of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to reporters.

He was acquitted of one count of lying to the FBI.

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