20051125
JUST WATCH ME BURN
Who doesn't like a good imperial ruin? Millions flock to Pompeii, so why not Sunny Fallujah, once the "city of mosques" with a quarter-million inhabitants, but massively destroyed in November 2004 by American planes, artillery, tanks, and mortars and now being picturesquely rebuilt as a giant Orwellian prison-camp city. Don't miss the retinal ID scans on your way in, but be careful to stay in your Humvee. Despite the best efforts of the American military, dangers abound. Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses,That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished. Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend. The night the seas rushed in,The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves. Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army?Phillip of Spain wept as his fleetwas sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who triumphed with him? Each page a victoryAt whose expense the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper? So many particulars. So many questions. Bertolt Brecht
If US Forces in Iraq are fighting for our freedom, why have protests been banned outside of the President's farm?
If the Pentagon says that White Phosphorous isn't a chemical WMD, why did they say White Phosphorous was a Chemical WMD when Saddam used it?
If the White House says that allegations that George Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera are absurd and outlandish, why has the British Government warned news organizations against publishing details of yet another top secret Downing Street Memo?
Iraq says troop pullout will lead to violence
More deadly blasts shatter Iraqi cities
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, The New Iraq - A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a hospital south of Baghdad on Thursday while U.S. troops handed out candy and food to children, killing 30 people and wounding about 40, including four Americans.
The controversy over the American use of white phosphorus as a weapon of war in Fallujah deepened yesterday when it was revealed that a US intelligence assessment had characterised WP as a "chemical weapon".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10356665
"When Saddam used WP it was a chemical weapon but when the Americans use it, it's a conventional weapon. The injuries it inflicts, however, are just as terrible, however you describe it".
A torrent of bad news — rising soldier death tolls, suicide bombers, torture allegations — is riling America right now with the hard realities of Iraq.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-11-23-iraq-reality_x.htm
It's not that the situation in Iraq has necessarily gotten worse — it may be just that America's understanding of Iraq has gotten better.
1) Your nation is attacked on lies. 2) Your family and friends are murdered, imprisoned, raped, robbed, tortured. 3) Your nation is contaminated with depleted uranium munitions, which will cause death and suffering for years to come. 4) Your government is replaced with a puppet regime doing the bidding of the occupiers. 5) Death squads roam the country rounding up and torturing and murdering innocent civilians who want nothing more than to be left alone. 6) Your infrastructure is destroyed, your museums looted, your intellectuals assassinated, your culture mercilessly degraded. 7) You are not allowed to write anything critical of the occupation. 8) The so-called "free" elections are nothing more than a repeat of the US electoral farce. 9) Your military is disbanded, unemployment hovers at tragic numbers. 10) The occupying nation builds military bases on your soil so that they can better steal your natural resources. I can go on and on with reasons why Iraqis are fighting back.
Bush: Congress Shouldn't Have Trusted Rice?
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,176308,00.html
The Bush administration is in the process of establishing a dangerous new precedent in relations between the president and Congress on issues of national security and intelligence -- one that could seriously hamper future presidents of either party. It’s called caveat emptor (buyer beware). It goes something like this: If I (the executive branch) provide you (the Congress) with intelligence that proves to be completely wrong and I (the executive branch) exaggerate and hype the meaning of this intelligence and you (the Congress) are gullible enough to vote with me on the basis of this false intelligence and my spin, you are as guilty as sin for your vote and shouldn’t complain to anyone.
Bush faces dual challenges on Iraq
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10198172/page/2/
Most worrisome to the administration, given overall disapproval of the war, is that a slight majority of Americans now say they believe Bush deliberately misled the country in making the case for war in 2002 and 2003!
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/lies.mp3
Does President Bush believe that by his announcing that critics of the Iraq war dampen our troops' morale he will prevent such criticism? Does he believe his words will silence critics and raise troop morale?
This is America, and if Americans share a common trait, it's rebellion at those who wield power. Well, they used to, anyway - most of them. Remember, this country was born in revolution.
The fallen soldier's mother whose August vigil near President Bush's ranch reinvigorated the anti-war movement returned to Texas to resume her protest Thursday as the president celebrated Thanksgiving a few miles away.
A few miles away, a Bush supporter set up camp with a tent and signs saying "A Noble Cause" showing pictures of smiling Iraqi children.
U.S. troops mistakenly open fire on civilians
U.S. forces mistakenly fired on a civilian vehicle outside an American base in a city north of Baghdad on Monday, killing three people, including a child.
75 US Soldiers Killed in Iraq Since Nov. 1
A total of 2,104 US troops have died in Iraq since the invasion.
Qaeda (NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK) posts video of Baghdad hotel blasts
"See the flames which have engulfed Iraq ... and with God's will, the fire will also burn the crusader army," a voice which sounded like al Zarqawi's said, who also urged more resistance until the "crusaders" left Iraq."
Thanksgiving in the CIA's Secret Prisons
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Thanksgiving/story?id=1342154
A can of Ensure is the highlight of Thanksgiving for the dozen or so top al Qaeda terrorists in the CIA's secret overseas prisons. Besides the repetitive playing of rap music, they have been made to talk by harsh treatment that includes water boarding, in which water is poured over the face to make them think they are drowning. "The person believes they are being killed, and as such it really amounts to a mock execution," said John Sifton, the Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. The inmates rarely see daylight, and the CIA gives them the bare minimum to make sure they do not die in U.S. custody. That includes the cans of Ensure and shots of vitamin B12. Yet, U.S. officials have little sympathy for the prisoners. Collectively, they have admitted responsibility for the deaths of several thousand innocent civilians.
¶ 25.11.05
