http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-brooks16feb16,1,2503233.column?coll=la-news-columns
The Memory of All That LA Times Op-Ed: February 16, 2007 By Rosa Brooks A lot of forgetting has gotten us where we are in Iraq. ACCORDING TO the defense lawyers at his trial, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby didn't lie to investigators about his role in outing covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. He was just so darn busy with pressing national security matters that he kept forgetting the chummy chats about Plame he'd had with NBC's Tim Russert and Time magazine's Matt Cooper - not to mention his two-hour lunch on the same subject with Judith Miller (late of the New York Times). The ladies and gentlemen of the press appear skeptical about Libby's "bad memory" defense. But, personally, I find his claim entirely credible. After all, in the run-up to the Iraq war, President Bush was so busy with pressing national security matters that he completely forgot to ask any questions about the gaping holes in the intelligence presented to him. Condoleezza Rice was so busy with pressing national security matters that she forgot to take false information about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction out of Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, even though the CIA told her that it was false. Dick Cheney was so busy with pressing national security matters (water-boarding prisoners; shooting small animals) that he totally forgot you're not supposed to pressure people to come up with bogus intelligence in the first place. And the easily forgettable journalists mentioned above were so busy enjoying their access to administration national security officials that they forgot that journalists are supposed to actually investigate stuff, instead of just breathlessly repeating what an "anonymous source" told them over lunch. Given all the forgetting that was going on back in 2003, why shouldn't we believe that Scooter had a faulty memory too? Astute observers will have noticed that there's still an awful lot of national security-related forgetting going on today. The Bush administration, for instance, has already forgotten that relying on questionable intelligence can lead to disaster and has taken to announcing direct Iranian involvement in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq as if it were incontrovertible fact. According to some anonymous U.S. officials at a very secret, no-recording-or-photography-allowed session in Baghdad on Sunday, U.S. forces have discovered Iranian-made components in some of the bombs used by Iraqi insurgents. Naturally (having forgotten that there might be no war in Iraq at all if it hadn't been for excessive media respect for anonymous sources), every U.S. media outlet dutifully played along and reported the claims. Of course, those claims are hard to verify because both the evidence and the identity of the officials are secret. Meanwhile, Bush, who keeps forgetting that our intelligence has at times been dangerously wrong, insists that he "can say with certainty that the Quds force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs that have harmed our troops.. When we find the networks that are enabling these weapons to end up in Iraq, we will deal with them." Reinforce your bomb shelter, President Ahmadinejad. Oh, wait; I forgot something too! (Just so you know, I'm also really busy thinking about pressing national security matters.) My fellow Americans, it is my duty to reveal to you that Iran is not the only powerful state that's arming the Iraqi insurgents. On the contrary. There's equally solid evidence that another major world power has been providing the Iraqi insurgents with thousands of new RPGs, machine guns, sniper rifles and other weapons. Just who is behind this act of hostility? The United States - or anyway, the U.S. Department of Defense. You heard me. According to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, about 14,000 of the weapons bought (with your tax dollars!) for distribution to Iraqi security forces got, um, misplaced somewhere between getting to Iraq and being transferred to the Iraqi army and police. Instead, analysts say, many of those weapons ended up in the hands of You Know Who. And that's not even counting the weapons that do get delivered to the Iraqi forces but are "lost," and then reappear shortly thereafter in black market weapons bazaars, where they can be bought by the bad guys and used against our troops. Is Bush aware that an agency of the U.S. government is providing weapons to the Iraqi insurgents? Or is he so busy with other pressing national security matters that he forgot to read the inspector general's report? As with Iran, I suppose it doesn't really matter whether Bush knows that U.S. weapons are ending up with insurgents. He said it best himself, when discussing the Iranian government's responsibility for supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents: "Either [top Iranian officials] knew or didn't know" that Iranian weapons were going to end up with insurgents, but "what matters . is that they're there. What's worse, that the government knew or that the government didn't know?" Indeed. But do me a favor, OK? If you pass this along, just say you forgot where you read it. [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022207L.shtml Party Over Country: 25 Members of Congress Who Criticized Escalation but Voted for It Anyway Think Progress Wednesday 21 February 2007 Last week, Iraq war veteran and VoteVets founder Jon Soltz appealed for members of Congress to "put country above party" and vote against escalation in Iraq. Majorities in both the House and Senate answered Soltz's call. But at least 25 members of Congress caved to partisan pressure and voted in favor of escalation, despite having publicly criticized President Bush's strategy in the weeks prior to the vote. Here are four examples: Rep. Virginia Brown-Waite (R-FL): "It's too little, too late, and should have been done a year ago. ... I just get a feeling our country is being used." Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM): "I am not a supporter of a surge to do for the Iraqis what the Iraqis will not do for themselves." Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ): "I have little confidence that a surge in troop levels will change the situation in Iraq in any substantive fashion. It seems clear that the violence in Iraq is increasingly sectarian, and inserting more troops in this atmosphere is unlikely to improve the situation. Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH): "I am skeptical that a surge of troops will bring an end to the escalation of violence and the insurgency in Iraq... I'm absolutely against the surge." When it came time to vote, these four members - and 21 of their colleagues - couldn't muster the courage to buck their own party and vote against escalation. These members appear to understand the danger of sending tens of thousands of U.S. troops into Iraq's bloody civil war. They just don't care enough to do something about it. The full list of the "Party-Over-Country" 25: House Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) Virginia Brown-Waite (R-FL) Vern Buchanan (R-FL) Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) Charles W. Dent (R-PA) Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) David Hobson (R-OH) Kenny Hulshof (R-MO) John McHugh (R-NY) Candice Miller (R-MI) Jerry Moran (R-KS) Deborah Pryce (R-OH) Mike Rogers (R-MI) Edward Royce (R-CA) Mark Souder (R-IN) Tom Tancredo (R-CO) Mac Thornberry (R-TX) Greg Walden (R-OR) Heather Wilson (R-NM) Senate Gordon Smith (R-OR) Sam Brownback (R-KS) Click HERE to see these members' statements on escalation, and HERE for a full tally of all members of Congress. *** ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat & Jeff Warner To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 10:52 AM Subject: An opportunity to write a letter to the editor Folks An article on the front page of today's LA Times describes how Israeli Arabs are standing up for their rights. This article presents an opportunity to write a letter to the editor to express our vision of peace in the Middle East. A model letter follows that you may modify to fit your view, or to inspire you to write your own letter. E-mail your letter to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and please send a BCC to me. If you don't want to continue to receive these letter-to-the-editor prompts, please e-mail me and I will take your name off the list. best jeff Pat & Jeff Warner La Habra Heights, CA 90631 562-694-1637 http://users.keyway.net/~patnjeff ############## START OF MODEL LETTER RE: "Arabs say Israel is not just for Jews," Feb. 22 I want to thank the LA Times for publishing Richard Boudreaux's article that explained the systematic discrimination against Israeli Arabs by the Israeli government. The United States supports Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East - but Israeli's claim to be a democracy is undermined by its discrimination against 20% of its population. I believe that Israel will be a stronger nation, and will be a more secure homeland for the Jewish people, if it is a true democracy and assures opportunity for all its people. Your Name Your city and zip Your phone number (so the Times can call you to say your letter will be published) ############### END OF MODEL LETTER ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. 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