Fallout

  Tuesday, 8 April 2003

. .< 12:49:12 PM>

The Reason Why 'War profits are booming, as is the case in all wars. While young Americans die, profits go up. But our economy is not booming, and our stock market is not booming. Our wages and incomes are not booming. While waging a war against Iraq, the Bush Administration is waging another war against the well-being of America. Following the 9/11 tragedy at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the entire world was united in sympathy and support for America. But thanks to the arrogant unilateralism, the bullying and the clumsy, unimaginative diplomacy of Washington, Bush converted a world of support into a world united against us, with the exception of Tony Blair and one or two others.'

A righteous rant from former US Senator and WWII vet George McGovern.

< 11:54:09 AM>

One of the world's leading financiers of overseas developmet says it has not been asked to help in the reconstruction of Iraq. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

< 11:53:51 AM>

The West is forgetting 40 million Africans, while helping post-war Iraq, says the head of the World Food Programme. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

No oil in Africa?

< 11:51:12 AM>

Iraq diary: When Jo Wilding went to RAF/USAF Fairford to protest against the use of British bases to bomb Iraq she found our much-talked about freedom in short supply. [Guardian Unlimited] 'The troops are destroying the Saddam statues as they go along. Surely that is the right of the Iraqi people. Surely the power and emotion of the moment when those symbols are torn down belongs to them in the way that the hammering and chipping away of the Berlin wall belonged to the separated people of that city.'

The quote is off topic from the thrust of the story but I thought it was worth noting. A missed opportunity. Some idiot also raised a US flag again though he was quickly told to take it down.

< 11:40:49 AM>

The War on Journalists

< 11:37:28 AM>

World: A new cassette tape purporting to be from Osama bin Laden urges suicide attacks calls on Muslims to rise up against Arab governments that support the attack on Iraq. [Guardian Unlimited]

Our Osama's really out to make friends. Another reminder of the failure of the US to get the people actually responsible for 11 Sept.

< 11:35:45 AM>

It was only when I was about to tell him that French troops were already making their way south from Quebec and that Napoleon was confident they would be in Long Beach by Easter that I realised he was serious.

There has certainly been a lot of silliness about the French in the media here of late, but I had not realised some people thought the US was at war with them as well as the Iraqis.'

Well, if people believe Iraq was behind 11 Sept, why not? Apparently they'll believe anything.

< 1:46:47 AM>

< 1:34:53 AM>

GEORGE W. BUSH stands before a WINNEBAGO and addresses the gathered CROWD.

BUSH: Hey everybody! You remember that old woman who's been stranded on the ice these past 6 months, who we've been ignoring up until now? Today, I'm sending this Winnebago fulla Boy Scouts out there to RESCUE HER!

THE CROWD roars and cheers: WOO! LET'S GO! WE'RE GONNA BE HEROES! LET'S SAVE THAT OLD LADY!

One guy, a PROTESTER, speaks up:

PROTESTER: Umm.. Mr. President... It's the middle of April... You think it might be unwise to drive a Winnebago onto the ice? '

. .< 1:31:16 AM>

Workers Who Feel Discarded ' Among the many things overshadowed by the war is the substantial human toll that is quietly being taken by the faltering U.S. economy. Putting Americans to work is not part of the agenda of the Bush administration, and the fallout from this lack of interest is spreading big time.'

It's the economy, stupid.

< 1:04:10 AM>

Nine members of a family - including at least one child - were said to have been killed in the attack, which occurred at 1500 local time (1100 GMT).'

. .< 1:01:29 AM>

Intellectual Speaks of the Arab World's Despair ' "People in Egypt and many parts of the Arab world used to love America, and now they have a sense of being betrayed, misunderstood, taken lightly," he said. "And when it comes to the central problem of the Middle East - the Arab-Israeli conflict - we feel that even a minimum of American even-handedness is missing."

Mr. Aboulmagd is one of Egypt's best-known intellectuals, a senior aide to former President Anwar el Sadat, consultant to the United Nations and ever-curious polymath whose interests range across the fields of Islamic jurisprudence, comparative religions, literature, history and commercial law.

Like many educated Egyptians of his generation, he is a man whose views on democracy and political values were shaped by reading the United States Constitution, the Federalist papers and the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson. [...]

When speaking of President Bush and his administration, Mr. Aboulmagd uses words like narrow-minded, pathological, obstinate and simplistic. The war on Iraq, he said bluntly, is the act of a "weak person who wants to show toughness" and, quite frankly, seems "deranged."

. .< 12:55:49 AM>
Blair tells Bush: take rest of world into account

Politics: Tony Blair last night appealed to George Bush to combine America's quest for its own security with the wider needs of international justice. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 12:55:03 AM>

A US bomber struck a building in Baghdad where the Americans believe Saddam Hussein and his sons were meeting. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 12:36:24 AM>

U.S. tanks and armored personnel carriers roamed into Baghdad, seizing three presidential palaces in or around the Iraqi capital. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]