The Rational Radical's Weblog

Saturday, April 19, 2003

Instead of replying individually to all these emails I'm getting, here's a summary of my thoughts on the war's outcome so far:

Why I Still Oppose This War Having Been Fought

It is truly wonderful to see Iraqis in the streets celebrating their release from Sadaam's hell. It is also worth considering that sometimes we can do the right thing (get rid of Sadaam) for the wrong reason (oil and geostrategic positioning) with the wrong methods (full-scale war that kills nearly 2000 civilians, injures thousands more, and massacres tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers) with additional results we don't want (fueling recruitment for Al Qaeda; providing "the-U.S.-did-it-so-we-can-also" justification for other countries to wage war on those who haven't attacked them).

Also remember, the Lebanese greeted the Israelis in 1982 with smiles and flowers, but when the Israelis refused to leave, the Lebanese drove them out with violence. So let's just wait and see how long we stay in Iraq, whether the Iraqi government that eventually takes over is truly an independent democracy or really a U.S. puppet regime, and how well the average Iraqi is doing once a U.S.-type capitalist, World Bank-friendly economy starts its inevitable creation of massive income inequality.

Oh yeah, and what happens if the Iraqi people democratically decide they want a virulently anti-Israeli Islamic theocracy as their form of government?

Are We Safer?

Amidst all our self-congratulatory bluster about how well the war went, how do we know that our worst fears have not come true, and that when the invasion started, or sometime thereafter, Saddam did not indeed pass on WMD's -- anthrax, nerve gas, etc. -- to Al Qaeda or others? Saddam could well have distributed such WMD's to trusted aides around the world, with instructions to pass the poisons on to their local Al Qaeda rep in the event of an invasion or some other specified event thereafter.

Since those WMD's would likely not be used immediately, but would only be used after long and careful planning by Al Qaeda, as in their other attacks, it will be some time before we can be sure that this transfer of WMD's did not take place.

On the Right-wing's Newfound Concern for the Iraqi People

Even after it was clear that Saddam Hussein had gassed the Kurds, killing thousands in 1983, Donald Rumsfeld went immediately afterwards to Iraq to curry favor with Saddam. So now when Rumsfeld talks about his concern for the well-being of the Iraqi people, excuse me if those of us with some historical facts in our brains don't believe him (and feel like puking).

When Saddam was committing the majority of his human rights abuses, the U.S. was his ally. Indeed, we helped put his Baathist Party in power decades ago. While the right-wing was supporting Saddam all this time, the left-wing and human rights groups were condemning Saddam's human rights abuses and calling for the U.S. to end its support of his brutal dictatorship. Just like the left-wing and human rights groups called on the U.S. to end its support of numerous other brutal dictatorships around the world.

As long as a dictator does our bidding, the U.S. will support him. Look at Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the �stans even now. When the U.S. government and right-wing decided to no longer support Saddam, then all of a sudden the well-being of the Iraqi people was a big thing to them. And the imbecilic American public buys into that, supporting a war to "liberate" the Iraqi people whom the war doesn't kill.

So don't ask me why I'm not in favor of getting rid of Saddam. I was. But not the way we did so, and not by the people who did it, who don't give a damn about the Iraqi people.

The Bushians don't even give a damn about the American people, let alone the Iraqis!

On Our "Historic" Military Accomplishment

If I hear one more time from a right-wing nutjob commentator about how this is the greatest military accomplishment in the history of the universe... I have no indication that the men and women in our armed forces aren't performing excellently, according to their training. I have no beef with them. That being said, the major accomplishment cited halfway through the war was getting 250 miles to "within 50 miles of Bagdhad" so quickly. Well, they were essentially unopposed as they traveled in mechanized vehicles at top speed through a virtually uninhabited portion of the desert. That's not a military feat. That's a driving accomplishment. We controlled broad swatches of desolate terrain. How many cities did we hold? How much of a percentage of the Iraqi population was under our control? By the latter two measures, this was not the greatest military drive in the history of the universe.

Now that we do control the cities and the country after a three week war, the triumphalism has gotten even more deafening.

But let's remember: this is all against a country with less than 1/10 our population and a military that is, compared to ours, like a skinny little 5 year old against Mike Tyson. If Mike Tyson easily beats the crap out of the kid, no one would or should be surprised. And everyone would think he was pretty much a deluded asshole if Mike Tyson then bragged about what a great fight he had just undertaken.

Oh yeah, one other thing. If the 5 year didn't fight by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, and tried to kick Tyson in the balls or the like, would anyone say the 5 year old was fighting "unfairly?" Give the 5 year old another 15 years, 200 pounds of muscle and years of training, and then he might not resort to "dirty" fighting. Get the meaning?

Jack Clark 8:03 PM [+]   
Post #92914747

Report Says British Officers Helped Kill Ulster Catholics  British terrorism in Northern Ireland. Who woulda thunk it? Must make the Iraqis feel secure to know such high minded gentlemen now have such a big role in running Iraq.

Jack Clark 9:45 PM [+]   
Post #92873543

O'Reilly's hypocrisy is amazing. He bitterly complained when reporters interviewed Mel Gibson's father and O'Reilly's own mother. So what does O'Reilly then turn around and do? He interviews Susan Sarandon's mother!

Jack Clark 9:40 PM [+]   
Post #92873375

More on why we deliberately let all the cultural institutions be destroyed: because we want to remake Iraq in our own image, and they don't need (we don't want them to have) any of this historic memory.

Jack Clark 9:39 PM [+]   
Post #92873339

Thousands Protest U.S. Presence in Baghdad  Much credit to Foxnews for reporting this on their front page. I don't see it on the other 24/7 sites! The story was also on Reuters. Anti-US Protest Flares After Baghdad Prayers

Jack Clark 9:28 PM [+]   
Post #92872923

Lost in the Shuffle, a Sign of Strength for Social Security  Is Social Security really a lot more secure than the right-wing would have you believe? They really want not to save it, but to destroy it by "privatization" and other such schemes.

Jack Clark 9:21 PM [+]   
Post #92872650

Amidst all our self-congratulatory bluster about how well the war went, how do we know that our worst fears have not come true, and that when the invasion started, or sometime thereafter, Saddam did not indeed pass on WMD's -- anthrax, nerve gas, etc. -- to Al Qaeda or others? Saddam could well have distributed such WMD's to trusted aides around the world, with instructions to pass the poisons on to their local Al Qaeda rep in the event of an invasion or some other specified event thereafter.

Since those WMD's would likely not be used immediately, but would only be used after long and careful planning by Al Qaeda, as in their other attacks, it will be some time before we can be sure that this transfer of WMD's did not take place.

Jack Clark 3:13 PM [+]   
Post #92859757

Cable's War Coverage Suggests a New 'Fox Effect' on Television  A perhaps understated, but certainly level-headed description of the "fair and balanced" ones:

...Fox has brought prominence to a new sort of TV journalism that casts aside traditional notions of objectivity, holds contempt for dissent and eschews the skepticism of government at mainstream journalism's core.

Jack Clark 2:58 PM [+]   
Post #92859181

E.P.A. Backs Stricter Guidelines  Have the Bushians actually done something good? It's hard to imagine. The article says these regulations can still be changed before they're implemented. Let's wait and see if they're not changed at the last minute. Good fruit doesn't come from a rotten tree. But there could be an exception or two, I guess. I will keep an open mind.

Jack Clark 2:56 PM [+]   
Post #92859109

In 2001 Statistics, Trenton Finds Abuse High in Foster Care  They say you can judge a society by how well it treats its most vulnerable members. There are no more vulnerable members than our children, except, perhaps, those children who do not even have parents to take care of them. We can come up with $100+ billion dollars to secure our oil supply, but not even a small fraction of that to protect our children. What about their human rights!

Jack Clark 2:54 PM [+]   
Post #92859008

Cable's War Coverage Suggests a New 'Fox Effect' on Television  Why would it be a surprise that MSNBC would go pro-war? GE, owner of NBC, is a major weapons manufacturer.

Jack Clark 9:52 PM [+]   
Post #92820603

A Crusade After All? Bush's Friends Plan to Evangelize in Iraq  Now this would be a terrific idea.

Jack Clark 9:49 PM [+]   
Post #92820467

Contradicting Pentagon, Scientists Urge Depleted Uranium Clean Up to Protect Civilians  We poison the Iraqi populace with our radioactive weapons.

Jack Clark 9:48 PM [+]   
Post #92820406

Time to Inspect The Home Front   It is we who have massive quantities of chemical weapons stored all over our country.

Jack Clark 9:45 PM [+]   
Post #92820305

Transcript of Tim Robbins Speech to the National Press Club  He knows with the death threats etc., that the right-wing attack on war dissenters is deliberate, dangerous and inimical to our democracy.

Jack Clark 9:43 PM [+]   
Post #92820202

For the People on the Streets, This is not Liberation but a New Colonial Oppression  Good questions about all the things our troops are not doing in Iraq that they should be. Echoes of what I wrote the other day, that we like to totally destroy countries so they're too abject to oppose us.

Jack Clark 9:41 PM [+]   
Post #92820096

Jessica Lynch's Tentmate

Neither of these three women should ever have been exposed to combat. They should never have been put into circumstances where they would be put in harm's way. That�s not why they were there.

Jessica, nursing broken legs, a broken arm and serious head and back injuries bound to plague her for the rest of her life, and Lori, leaving two children orphans, were less victims of Saddam's army than they were of the crazed feminists who have cowed the U.S. military into sending young women and mothers into combat situations.

No, they're not victims of feminists. They're victims of Bushians and their like -- including most Democrats -- who create an economy where these young woman have to join the military to have hopes of winding up with a decent job!

Jack Clark 9:31 PM [+]   
Post #92819673

Ron Reagan Jr. Blasts 'Corrupt' Bush Administration   Wow!

Salon asked Ron Jr.: What if a group of concerned citizens approached him and helped raise money for his entry into politics? His response:

"You mean like they did with George W.? 'Hey, you've got name recognition, that's all that matters - we'll give you millions of dollars to run!' Imagine coming to a man with just two years' experience in public office, and a ceremonial one at that. Imagine installing such a blank slate in the presidency of the United States! This is a regency, not a presidency," raged the temperamental twinkle-toes.

"And they told us, 'Don't worry about W. not knowing anything, good old Dick Cheney will be his minder.' Dick Cheney? And this was going to be compassionate conservatism? Dick Cheney is to the right of Genghis Khan, he wants to drill in your backyard, he wants to deny black people their rights - it was all there in his voting record for us to see. What were we, rubes?"

Jack Clark 9:28 PM [+]   
Post #92819534

Dangerous Viruses Feared Lost In Iraq  Not to mention the fact that before he went down Saddam may well have handed off WMD's to terrorists, in Iraq and/or abroad.

Jack Clark 9:22 PM [+]   
Post #92819223

Nice letter sent by a visitor to this site to O'Reilly:

Bill,

You are the only host I know that KNOWS EVERYTHING. If a doctor comes on your show, you can out talk him about the medical field, and Lawyers can't tell you a thing about THE RULE OF LAW. Bill you have been a CAB DRIVER, SCHOOL TEACHER, probably a TRASH COLLECTOR, and the whole nine yards. Just name it and you've done it. Is there anything that you have not DONE or do not KNOW?

Sometimes, its good to just sit and listen and believe it or not, there still might be a few things left that you can learn. On the other hand, maybe you shouldn't listen because you already KNOW IT ALL.

I am just expressing my little 08 cents worth.

Jack Clark 8:50 PM [+]   
Post #92817642

Amounts of pesticides used in Vietnam war underestimated: study  U.S. chemical warfare.

Jack Clark 1:50 AM [+]   
Post #92768010

Occupying powers responsible for grave humanitarian crisis in Iraq  Doctors condemn occupying forces for failing to fulfill Geneva accords. I don't know if the situation is as grave as they make it out to be, but it does seem as if protecting the Oil Ministry and the oil fields was done quickly and efficiently, while humanitarian needs of the civilian population have been attended to in a lackadaisical fashion at best.

Jack Clark 10:17 PM [+]   
Post #92761202

Behind Our Backs  Paul Krugman seems to be reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the American public can be easily bamboozled over and over again by the same Republican tricks. I came to that conclusion in 1972 when Nixon was re-elected. And I haven't been proven wrong since!

Jack Clark 10:14 PM [+]   
Post #92761059

I finally figured out what Fox News reminds me of. While I didn't really watch the programs, I did see enough snippets of it to know that I see the real-life incarnation of Beavis & Butthead on the Fox News network. Both Fox and the cartoon friends share a snarly ignorance that they mistake for class and intelligence.

Jack Clark 8:23 PM [+]   
Post #92692225

Pentagon Was Told Of Risk to Museums  Of course they were. We always like to destroy as much of a country as we can -- with plausible deniability -- so as to increase our later stranglehold on it.

Jack Clark 8:21 PM [+]   
Post #92692123

Mark Twain Speaks to Us: "I Am an Anti-Imperialist"  Wow, he really said some strong things way back then.

Jack Clark 8:13 PM [+]   
Post #92691652

Large Protests Greet US-Backed Talks on Post-Saddam Iraq  Huh? 20,000 people protesting? Did any of you see a word of mention of this on the 24/7 propaganda machines? I didn't, and thus I'm sure it didn't happen, or else it would have been reported, right?

Jack Clark 8:11 PM [+]   
Post #92691552

Ultimate Insiders  Even after it was clear that Saddam Hussein had gassed the Kurds, killing thousands in 1983, Donald Rumsfeld went immediately afterwards to Iraq to curry favor with Saddam. So now when Rumsfeld talks about his concern for the well-being of the Iraqi people, excuse me if those of us with some historical facts in our brains don't believe him (and feel like puking).

Jack Clark 8:06 PM [+]   
Post #92691281

For Those Who Question the War, Complications Amid Loss  Interesting piece about 5 anti-war parents who lost their children in combat during this Iraq War.

Jack Clark 8:04 PM [+]   
Post #92691148

Tax Inquiries Fall as Cheating Increases  The real headline of this hard-hitting piece should be "Government Loses $280 Billion in Taxes From Known, Identified Cheats." The subheadline could be "Corporations and the Rich Allowed to Flaunt Tax Laws."

Jack Clark 8:03 PM [+]   
Post #92691092

Not All Freedom Is Made in America  Warning to right-wingers who have stumbled upon this site: the following excerpts from the article make make your vision blur:

When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830's, he was struck by Americans' conviction that "they are the only religious, enlightened, and free people," and "form a species apart from the rest of the human race."

The prevailing ideology of global free enterprise -- one element of freedom identified as timeless and universal in the National Security Strategy -- assumes that the economic life of all countries can and should be refashioned in the American image. This is the latest version of the nation's self-definition as a model for the entire world.

Nonetheless, other societies have their own historically developed definitions of freedom and ways of thinking about the social order, which may not exactly match ours.

Prevailing ideas of freedom in the United States, [one observer] noted, had become so rigid that Americans could no longer appreciate definitions of freedom, common in other countries, related to social justice and economic equality, "and hence are baffled by their use."

Jack Clark 8:00 PM [+]   
Post #92690939

Ali set to be airlifted to Kuwait  I'm glad this poor child will get the proper medical care. I wish similar care had been lavished upon Palwasha, the Afghan girl whose spinal cord was severed by U.S. shrapnel, making her a quadraplegic. I don't even know if she's still alive.

Jack Clark 7:56 PM [+]   
Post #92690659

Something just doesn't seem right. When that statue fell, there weren't hundreds of thousands, or tens of thousands, or even thousands cheering. There were about 200 guys, who looked like extras on a set. Another example: getting the power back on in Bagdhad. Since people need to work to earn money to live, I don't understand where are all the engineers and other workers who run those power plants. I would have thought they'd stream in and get the power on, and start earning some money. Another thing: why would people loot hospitals? What do they need an incubator for? Were the looters in those instances people so poor that they could never have afforded to be treated in the hospital, and now they're getting a sort of revenge?

Jack Clark 9:30 PM [+]   
Post #92629700

Censoring the Dead: We Can See Corpses in TV Dramas, But Not the Real Casualties of War

Nevertheless: this televised war, with all its access... has largely turned away at the moment of final reality. "Some of the scenes here in Basra are just too gruesome for us to show you," one correspondent confessed, unblinking. And nobody stopped to ask: why?

If you work in television, of course, you know why. Consider the relevant BBC producers' guidelines. "We should be circumspect about pictures of and accounts of injured, dying and dead combatants. Consideration must be given to the dignity of the individuals regardless of national origin. Pictures should not normally be close up and should not linger too long. Remember too that pictures may identify individuals, even at a distance, before next-of-kin know."

"We should not sanitize the awful realities of war," these guidelines say, "but especially harrowing actuality and pictures have to be justified by the context. Warnings should be given beforehand if a report will cause unusual distress. Particular care is required for reports during daytime or early evening..."

It is self-censorship of the most self-serving kind. We can cover our screens and front pages with pictures of little Ali Ismail Abbas, with his missing limbs and longing eyes, because - for all his agonies - he's alive. But we can't show other 12-year-old playmates and friends, because they're dead. What kind of sanitized reality, pray, is that?

Television coverage that the war-makers love.

Jack Clark 9:23 PM [+]   
Post #92629342

For Self-Determination in Iraq, The U.S. Must Leave  Fat chance. Short and to the point.

Jack Clark 9:19 PM [+]   
Post #92629190

Cheering Crowds Don't Make an Unjust War Right

The US regime says it wants a "democratic" Iraq but with leaders it approves of; that it wants a free-market economy and that it wants the oil to pay for all the devastation. The oil will belong to Western companies with Iraqi intermediaries ready to sell out. This is liberation? What if the Iraqis don't want the exile puppets imposed democratically? What if they decide that to rebuild they would rather have a social-democratic model with a partly managed economy, especially when it comes to the management of oil? Are they free to do this? Of course not....

Finally, those people with newly found concern for the Iraqi people, where were they for the past 13 years? When groups like Voices in the Wilderness were raging against the effects of the sanctions which were killing hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, I never saw The Sun weeping on its pages. What do pro-war people say about the effects of depleted uranium?

Don't expect to get any rational answers if you ask these questions to pro-war people.

Jack Clark 9:15 PM [+]   
Post #92628970

Mel Gibson Backs Michael Moore's Bush Basher  I can't figure this one out.

Jack Clark 9:09 PM [+]   
Post #92628667

U.S. Plans to Limit Protected Wilderness to 23 Million Acres  Bush and the right wing march on with their attempt to destroy as much of the Earth as possible.

Jack Clark 9:06 PM [+]   
Post #92628498

Murder Conviction Is Sought in Dog Case  Remember the San Francisco dog mauling case? I hope they reinstate the murder conviction. That stupid woman should spend a lot of time in jail as a warning to others who keep obviously dangerous dogs.

Jack Clark 9:05 PM [+]   
Post #92628456

Who is to Blame for the Collapse in Morality That Followed the 'Liberation'?  Good tirade against the cowardly journalists who have become immoral Pentagon propagandists. For example:

We journalists have been co-operating, too, with a further collapse of morality in this war. Take, for example, the ruthless bombing of the residential Mansur area of Baghdad last week. The Anglo-American armies � or the "coalition", as the BBC still stubbornly and mendaciously calls the invaders � claimed they believed that Saddam and his two evil sons Qusay and Uday were present there. So they bombed the civilians of Mansur and killed at least 14 decent, innocent people, almost all of them � and this would obviously be of interest to the religious feelings of Messrs Bush and Blair � Christians.

Now one might have expected the BBC World Service Radio next morning to question whether the bombing of civilians did not constitute a bit of an immoral act, a war crime perhaps, however much we wanted to kill Saddam. Forget it.

Jack Clark 9:38 PM [+]   
Post #92563330

All the Explanations for This War are Bogus  A playright says some profound stuff:

George Bush is a born-again Christian and a recovering alcoholic. I see in him the uncontrollable anger of the alcoholic, once directed at himself, sluiced away every night into his bloodstream and out into the gutter, now, tragically, directed, via his amazingly aggressive, amazingly triumphant body language, on to whatever poor soul comes into his sights.

The intention to destroy the credibility of the United Nations, and its right to help try and defuse situations of danger to life, is not a byproduct of recent American policy. It is its very purpose. Bush chose Iraq not because it would make sense, but because it wouldn't. He did it, in short, because he could. No better reason than that. "Because I can, I will." The thinness of the justification for this war is, in fact, its very point. As is the arbitrariness of the target. The proliferation of other named targets - Syria, North Korea, maybe Burma, why not China? - adds, in Bush's eyes, only to the deliciousness of the game.

Caught, significantly, chuckling and laughing before a supposedly serious press conference about enemy losses and American advances, Bush comes to represent the man flexing private muscles for no other reason than the feral pleasure of the flex. What is being asserted today is the right to assert, to go in with absolutely no gameplan for how you will get out. Did the Bush administration deliberately omit to put any aid to Afghanistan in its current budget plans? Or, worse, did it simply forget?

Tonight in Jerusalem, next to the Garden of Gethsemane, under cover of war, while the world is not looking, Jewish fundamentalists are moving into an armed apartment block on land which belongs to the Palestinians; in the White House, Christian fundamentalists dream of moving on to murder and mayhem in countries beyond count; and on the stony hillsides of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Muslim fundamentalists dream of moving on to murder and mayhem in countries beyond count. The trade union of international politicians exercises an ever more Stalinist grip, moving countries and armies to wars they do not want. Only the people say no.

Jack Clark 9:34 PM [+]   
Post #92563184

Where Now, America?

A dog and pony show in Paradise Park briefly interrupts the panorama: flanked by American tanks and soldiers, surrounded by absolutely empty streets, in a city of five million, two or three hundred Iraqis dance and cheer as Americans pull down a statue of Saddam: Baghdad is liberated! The tanks quickly move to guard the Ministry of Oil, as all other government buildings are looted and destroyed. UN buildings are looted, Red Cross headquarters looted, stores looted, schools looted, museums looted - al-Kindi hospital stripped bare...

As we privatize Iraq's former, spirit-crushing bureaucracy, will free public education through University be erased as well? Will the free, universal health care Iraqis formerly enjoyed be denied?

[A]s the corporatization of Iraq maintains the impoverishment of sanctions...

A lot of truth in this evaluation.

Jack Clark 9:29 PM [+]   
Post #92562920

Privatization in Disguise  Very good article about how the Iraqi people are going to get screwed.

Jack Clark 9:26 PM [+]   
Post #92562806

A Civilization Torn to Pieces

The reality, which the Americans and, of course, Mr Rumsfeld fail to understand is that under Saddam Hussein, the poor and deprived were always the Shia Muslims, the middle classes always the Sunnis, just as Saddam himself was a Sunni. So it is the Sunnis who are now suffering plunder at the hands of the Shia.

And so the gun-fighting that broke out yesterday between property owners and looters was, in effect, a conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims. By failing to end this violence, by stoking ethnic hatred through their inactivity, the Americans are now provoking a civil war in Baghdad.

Will this turn out to be true?

Jack Clark 9:25 PM [+]   
Post #92562731

After an Unjust War, Is It Possible to Achieve a Just Peace?  Among the questions asked:

7) Will the United States allow the civil successes of Baath socialism from its nonbelligerent period to be reinstituted if the Iraqi people want them? Will we allow (immensely popular) socialistic universal health care and free education programs (through to the Ph.D. level) to return to Iraq, even though the U.S. government will not provide them for its own citizens?

Of course we won't. We didn't go over there to let those Iraqis become Commies, did we?

Jack Clark 9:22 PM [+]   
Post #92562593

Rout Proves Anti-War Point  For something to be the greatest contest of any sort, you need two adversaries that are pretty evenly matched. If Mike Tyson knocks out a skinny 98 pound weaking in 2 seconds, and proclaims he waged the most brilliant, fastest, best boxing effort in history, we would laugh at him. How is that different than our crowing about our brilliant, fastest military campaign against Iraq?

Dick Cheney, the U.S. vice-president, also heaped praise on the new Rumsfeld doctrine last week, approvingly quoting historian Victor Davis Hanson's gushing tribute to the early phases of the Iraq campaign:

"By any standard of even the most dazzling charges in military history, the Germans in the Ardennes in the spring of 1940 or Patton's romp in July of 1944, the present race to Baghdad is unprecedented in its speed and daring and in the lightness of casualties."

That is pure bunk.

But what the U.S. forces did in Iraq against a poorly trained, poorly motivated enemy on favorable terrain does not begin to compare with the 38 days it took the Wehrmacht to bring the Low Countries and France, one of the world's great military powers, under Nazi subjugation in the spring of 1940.

Against fierce resistance in 1944, U.S. Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army swept roughly 900 kilometers across northern France in two weeks � more than twice the distance traversed by U.S. forces between Kuwait and Baghdad. By war's end, Patton had inflicted 1.4 million casualties on the enemy.

Jack Clark 9:16 PM [+]   
Post #92562272

What's in a Name? For a Turkish Youth, Maybe Jail  Ah, another of our "democratic" allies, throwing a kid in jail for a wrong word.

Jack Clark 8:59 PM [+]   
Post #92561442

American Air Attack Mistakenly Kills 11 Afghans  Perhaps you missed this story, but rest assured, we're still mistakenly bombing and killing civilians in Afghanistan.

Jack Clark 8:55 PM [+]   
Post #92561245

Government in Guatemala Is Accused of Backing Crimes  After backing a genocidal dictatorship here for many years, the U.S. is trumpeting how there now is "democracy". I hope for the sake of the Iraqi people that this is not the type of U.S.-sponsored democracy they wind up with.

Jack Clark 8:54 PM [+]   
Post #92561197