Here's 3 articles from this week that I'd ask anyone who is interested in what's going on in Iraq to read. Two are from The Nation, the third is from the Wall Street Journal.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/howl "Among the many secrets the American government cannot keep, one of its biggest (104 acres) and most expensive ($592 million) is the American Embassy being built in Baghdad. Surrounded by fifteen-foot-thick walls, almost as large as the Vatican on a scale comparable to the Mall of America, to which it seems to have a certain spiritual affinity, this is no simple object to hide." http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060626/howl "Is the badly outnumbered American expeditionary force in Iraq in trouble? Is it in danger of being trapped? With all our firepower, are we looking at the possibility of some kind of a military defeat?" http://pierretristam.com/Bobst/library/wf-209.htm "A Camp Divided. As U.S. tries to give Iraqi troops more responsibility, clash of two American colonels shows tough road ahead" -------------- The 1st article reveals the depth of the ongoing determination to establish (at least) one permanent base in Iraq. There is no mention on how this base will be defended against a population determined to oust the occupier. The 2nd article talks about being outnumbered and raises the specter of a modern day Dunkirk. This much is not disputed: there aren't enough troops to control the situation. Bringing back the draft would supply the troops, but it would also bring back the massive protests of the 60's. What does that leave? Firepower. That means jet strikes and artillery, which means large numbers of civilian casualties, which fuels hatred and opens the gates for 'volunteers' from surrounding countries. The 3rd examines the relationship between American forces and their Iraqi counterparts. Save for 'modern touches' such as the Taco Bell on the American side of the base, much of this account is hauntingly similar to the failure we called Vietnamization. Why aren't we making any real progress? Here's what I believe: that we're busy debating everything under the sun - except the real reasons for the invasion. We refuse to acknowledge even the existence of "powerful interests" behind that invasion, so much so that we're still picking the bones of the wmd turkey, as if continuing to fool ourselves will somehow solve our problems. Where I come from, you can't solve a problem you don't understand. Yet, here we are, years after the invasion was launched, still unable or unwilling to face the truth. We think we're the "home of the brave", yet we behave like cowards when it comes to a simple little thing like the truth. Are we unable to put our military machine in it's place? Why didn't our so-called representatives stand up to Big Oil years ago when everyone knew oil was a finite and dwindling resource? Why has there been zero debate on AIPAC's influence over our foreign policies? How did these forces become so powerful that nobody will even talk about them? How can most reasonable people see that we were sold on a fake list of reasons for war, yet not even consider there was a real list behind the fake list? Isn't there one soul in Congress with the guts to stand up and speak "truth to power"? Is bravery only permitted for grunts on the streets of Iraq? We were going to win this war with one hand (the truth) behind our back. We were sold on the neocon-chickenhawk belief that nobody could stand up to our giant military machine, only to discover that was just another lie. We're not winning! What we're looking at is an irresistible force being applied to an unmovable object. Who sees a winning formula there? We can't unring bells, but we can - and must - turn away from the abyss. The best - and perhaps only - way to do that is to confront our own demons, and in this case it's the interests that have become so powerful they have usurped our cherished gov't of/by/for the people. Seriously compounding our plight is that this war is in motion. It's taken a life of it's own, and we likely wouldn't be able to stop another attack here. We may stop 99, but the 100th will get through. I trust we are aware that another attack will trigger a clamp-down on the kind of free speech we exercise here, to say the least. There are 2 forces on the side of people who want to end this madness. One is the vote. If there emerges a candidate for Congress with the courage to bite the hands that feeds Congress, give him or her your vote. The other force we have is the Internet. Without it all we'd have is the "news" and more doses of programming. As such, the Internet is under attack, for reasons that don't appear related, but are. Congress is debating "net neutrality", and some of our Big Money players are actually helping China secure the net from contrarian political dialog. These seemingly unrelated activities have one thing in common: they both seek to divide and conquer the Internet. Once the Chinese model is worked out, it will be only a switch to turn it on here. Bill _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
