Last night I attended a candlelight vigil to remember the 1000+ soldiers killed in Iraq. With less than 24 hours notice approximately 60 people joined together in this silent vigil. For 45 minutes, the group sat around the fountain outside the Rockville Courthouse silently reflecting on the war and the current state of the country. Or at least that's what I reflected on.
One woman had come 40 minutes from Jefferson, MD to attend. I believe she has family fighting in Iraq. There was a reporter from a local paper who took some photos to go with an article he was preparing about the vigil.
As the organizer of the vigil said, "Let's hope we don't need to do another of these."
A Must-read: the transcript of a talk by Scott Ritter, the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq for the United Nations.
It's very long, but important for every American voter to read. Do it now!
Holy freaking shit! Do they have no shame? They abused kids at Abu Ghraib???? Christ.
The Bush Administration is bringing so much shame to this country that I believe they should step down. Or at least Rumsfeld should.
This must be why Ridge went out and talked up the possibility of terrorist attacks again yesterday. Invoke fear so that the the more gullible part of the electorate will buy the crap that we need to torture kids to get intel to prevent a terrorist attack on the US. Give me a freaking break......
I haven't been blogging much for a variety of reasons. Part of the problem is I'm so frustrated with the redneck mentality in this country. The mentality that what happened in Abu Ghraib was somehow okay because we're fighting terrorism. My anger and disgust is so great I doubt I could do the subject justice it deserves.....so instead I'm going to rant and get it out of my system.
How the fuck are we fighting terrorism by torturing people? How the fuck is humiliating and raping innocent people fighting terrorism? 70-90% of the detainees are freaking innocent of any wrongdoing. Ah...but they are Muslim (read into that: different from us), therefore thay hate this country and therefore they deserve what they get.
Isn't it lovely....hatred and bigotry still exists. The ole "My God is better than your God" meme.
Can't we all get along? People are people after all.
Now I hear Depeche Mode "People are People" playing in my head..... *sigh*
The recent events in the Iraq have hit a new low with prisoners being tortured and abused by US soldiers. The whole thing makes me sick. This prison holds people who have committed crmes ranging from petty theft to acts of terrorism. Using some extreme measures on known terrorists is one thing, but on children and women or petty criminals who have no info to give??? Using them on old women...grandmothers even? Are these guys a bunch of sick fucks????
As someone said to me in conversation last nights, these types of tactics are used to break wills and put fear into a population. What happened to winning over the hearts and minds of the Iraqis?
What a disgrace!
This from today's NY Times:
WASHINGTON -- Hoping to curb fallout over the abuse of Iraqi
prisoners, President Bush will conduct interviews with two Arab
networks Wednesday to tell the Arab world that the abuses are
"shameless and unacceptable,'' a White House official said.
Is he really going to call the abuses "shameless"? Shouldn't he call
them "shameful"? Or "disgraceful"? As opposed to referring to them
as "without shame"? Imagine Al Jazeera translating that quote, LOL.
It's takes a whole year to come up with an explanation why news networks failed to ask the right questions--and I'm not completely buying the explanation. While this article may explain why individual reporters did not question Bush&Co's motives, I still feel the guys up at the top were more interested in their bottom lines. War is profitable for the news business. That's all that mattered to the top brass.
At least this sort of dialog is happening. It's just a year too late, unfortunately.
God knows, I was questioning all the stuff Bush&Co was using as justification. Didn't take a rocket scientist to suspect the intel they were pushing forward was weak. It was how they were pushing it and their unwillingness to let the weapons inspectors complete their task that really made me question their intention. And I certainly wasn't the only one out there questioning it. Yet the press dropped the ball on it, instead pushing the whole idea that it was unpatriotic to be against the war. To me, they are just as responsible as Bush&Co in pushing this unjust war.
I got such a giggle over Molly Ivins quoting Bill O'Reilly about Iraq. Hehehehe.... Molly recounts the number of times we were told that Saddam had nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons...how many times our Administration lied about how much of an imminent threat Saddam was.
And a separate article in the Washington Monthly details how Bush tells lies that work to his advantage in getting his agenda pushed forward. I found this statement particularly correct in it's assessment of Dubya:
The president and his aides don't speak untruths because they are necessarily people of bad character. They do so because their politics and policies demand it. As astute observers such as National Journal's Jonathan Rauch have recently noted, George W. Bush campaigned as a moderate, but has governed with the most radical agenda of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Indeed, the aim of most of Bush's policies has been to overturn what FDR created three generations ago.
Is this country finally waking up yet, or are they still hitting the snooze button? I'm just not sure. The truth is out there, if you're persistent enough to find it.
It's these stories that concern me the most. Bush & Co. are screwing things up so badly that people resign rather than stick around to watch the trainwreck.
And Iraq is surely one hell of a trainwreck. It's one of those cases where I'm not thrilled to have been right. As was Molly Ivins almost a year ago. It's scary just how many similarities there are to what he's doing now as to what he did in Texas as she points out.
Found at Alternet: The Other Bush Lie. This story details to what lengths the administration pushed the idea that Sadam Hussein was involved in backing 9/11, despite the lack of any credible evidence.
Forget impeachment, Bush et. al should be tried in the World Court for starting an illegal and unjustified war.
According to a story on Yahoo, "Iran has made a major new oil find containing estimated reserves of more than 38 billion barrels, making it one of the world's biggest undeveloped fields, a senior oil official was quoted as saying Monday."
Who wants to bet Bush & Co. are eyeing Iran even more closely now? I mean, why deal with a real nuclear threat like North Korea when you can go after oil bearing countries in the Middle East? Seems to be how these boys think. Smoke and Mirrors, those WMD, it's all about oil.
The Wizard of Oz comes to mind these days, especially since I saw a special about it on cable the other week. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Just listen to the all-powerful Wizard of Oz. Uh, yeah, sure.
A few weeks back I had read an article in Newsweek about depleted uranium being used as a munition in Iraq. Today I read an even more critical article online here. It enrages me that we even use this shit. It clearly played a part in the Gulf War Syndrome--there's no doubt in my mind. And in the dramatic rise in cancer and birth defect rates in the Iraqis and US troops that had been in Iraq for the Gulf War. And its still being used, this time more heavily in the civillian areas. Why would our government authorize the use of something that poses danger to both our troops and to the Iraqi people and their children? Because its cheap and it provides a use for all that nuclear reactor waste that is piling up.
Makes me want to just scream! How can these guys sleep at night? I'd like to know that. I really would.
Not sure if the news media is up for digging a little deeper, but the boys involved in collecting intel from the CIA sure are starting to scream a little louder as the administration has shown a tendency to pass the buck when it comes to Iraq. More evidence that Bush & Co. 'twisted the truth' appears in the Op-Ed section of the NY Times and on Yahoo News.
This gentleman claims he informed the Vice President that the information that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from Niger was incorrect/unsubstantiated. He informed Cheney prior to the President's speech laying forth his 'proof' of the imminent danger Iraq posed. Sounds like the president lied to me. Twisted the truth is just a gentler way of saying it.
Keep screaming guys. Don't let Bush pass the buck on this one. He lied his way into Iraq. The blame should fall squarely on him. He should have to accept the consequences of his actions instead of trying to wiggle out of it. And he appears to be squirning a bit. Trying to figure out which country would be the easiest target to hit next. The list has now grown to include Liberia, it would seem. Unbelievable.
Salam Pax explains the concept of blood money in the July 2nd Guardian. I'm always learning something new from this guy. Might be part of why I enjoy reading his blog so much.
Looks like Bob Harris has found the way to find those pesky missing WMD...Do a Google search!
1) Pay a visit to Google.
2) Type in (without using any quotes): weapons of mass destruction
3) Click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" icon.
Tehehehehe.....
Forget Jessica, this is an even bigger manipulation of the American people propogated by the Bush Administration and the Pentagon using the American Media. It's like a real life Wag the Dog. The whole story about bombing the bunker with Saddam in it in an effort to end the war before it started was completely fabricated! I think the American Public deserves the truth and clearly Bush & Co. are unwilling and unable to comply.
I was reading Salam Pax's blog and something dawned on me. I've not heard a peep anywhere in the US about collecting clothes, money, or any donations to help the Iraqi people. These folks need help--they need supplies. Where's Bush's faith based charities? Oh yeah, they want to spread Christianity, not give food, water and medicine to the people that need it. And after 9/11, I'm not sure I'd trust the Red Cross with monetary donations.
Imagine being forced to deal with hot temperatures, while having no AC and no water. Imagine being in Iraq right now. And understand their frustration and anger as no one knows why the electric is still out.
What happened to the so-called plan for Iraq? If the situation there is not stabilized quickly, the whole region could erupt in civil war. Arabs versus Kurds. Shia versus Sunni. Take your pick.
Unfortunately it would appear that the Bush administration is more interested in alleging that Syria is hiding the Iraqi WMD, then really creating peace and democracy in Iraq. Not surprising to those who were not keen on going to war in the first place. Many of us figured that this was a case of smoke and mirrors and the Bush & Co. never had any intention of stopping at Iraq. They have their sights on bigger things...like taking down their so-called Axis of Evil.
This article portrays the reasons that France and Germany are against a war in Iraq. And I can't blame them for feeling the way they do.