Fallout

  Friday, 18 April 2003

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Baghdad Residents Protest U.S. Troops
Carrying Korans, prayer mats and banners, tens of thousands marched in the city's biggest protest since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein over a week ago. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] 'The imam, Ahmed al-Kubaisi, said in his sermon that the United States invaded Iraq to defend Israel, and also denied Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

``This is not the America we know, which respects international law, respects the right of people,'' he said.

His followers poured out chanting anti-U.S. slogans and waving banners that read ``No to America. No to Secular State. Yes to Islamic State'' and ``We reject American hegemony.'''

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Behind Our Backs 'But back to the amazing spectacle of the war's opening, when the House voted to cut the benefits of the men and women it praised a few minutes earlier. What that scene demonstrated was the belief of the Republican leadership that if it wraps itself in the flag, and denounces critics as unpatriotic, it can get away with just about anything. And the scary thing is that this belief may be justified.'

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Transcript of Tim Robbins Speech to the National Press Club 'In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred. Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue state.'

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PNS: Baghdad Did Not Fall - It Was Handed Over 'Arabic media are speculating that a "safqa" -- Arabic for a secret deal -- was arranged between the United States and the Baath regime to hand over Baghdad. Although nobody can pinpoint the exact terms, there are three clear outcomes. First, the lives of many American and British forces as well as most senior Baath officials were spared. Second, Baghdad itself did not turn into the bloodbath widely anticipated by military experts. Third, the war was shortened dramatically, saving the region -- especially Saudi Arabia -- from catastrophic consequences.'

Fun conspiracy theory stuff.

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America's Chemical Weapons Problem

Geez, one little accident involving the nerve gas sarin and nobody wants to live downwind from the Army base anymore. A lawsuit filed last week in Federal District Court in Washington DC aims to stop the US Army's program of incinerating its stockpile of chemical weapons, which method the litigants claim is dangerous to workers and surrounding communities. The judge on the case is Thomas Penfield Jackson of Microsoft fame. 

This is not a simple problem. The US has destroyed about 25% of its 31,500 tons of chemical weapons, as mandated by the Chemical Weapons Convention, but we will not make the April 2007 deadline for getting rid of them all. According to Chemical and Engineering News, Russia is using neutralization instead of incineration to dispose of its chemical weapons--but so far it has gotten rid of less than 1% of its 40,000 metric ton arsenal.

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