FalloutStories related to 11 Sept 2001. |
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17/10/2004; 8:39:11 |
| Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences: |
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'This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some other nation's -- hit list.' -U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, Feb. 12, 2003 |
| On the road to losing the peace : |
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'It was bad enough for the U.S. to have endured the intelligence failures that led to Sept. 11; it's another thing to know that 18 months, billions of dollars and untold numbers of bombs later that Osama bin Laden and most of his top advisers remain on the loose. This failure ought to be thrown daily in Mr. Bush's face, but he has diverted attention to Iraq, where the United States is about to make a mistake of historic proportions.' -Jeffrey Simpson in The Globe and Mail, 18 Feb 2003 |
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They only learned that this fall. Until then, many had been told they would be rotated out by the end of November. And now many of them believe that one year in Iraq may only be the beginning; they may be kept longer. But no one is saying officially. As one quite senior officer put it: "even prisoners get more information about their sentences than we do." Add to that the resentment of those soldiers and officers on the ground who say openly that their bosses in the palaces and in Washington haven't a clue about how to deal with the situation they face and it's clear that the atmosphere in the first city is, to put it mildly, unsettled. This is a report from 13 October. I watched Don Murray's report on The National this evening. The situation in Baghdad is appalling for the citizens and their police, many of whom are being killed daily by fellow citizens and jumpy American soldiers. This is W's legacy. He will be vilified for all time. . .< 6:39:58 PM  >BW Online | October 22, 2003 | Preemptive War Is the Wrong Weapon Team Bush's rationale for invading Iraq -- to thwart terrorists before they strike -- runs dangerously counter to international law
'Spinney then quotes Nazi Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering, who explained at his Nuremberg trial how easy it is for leaders to get the people to do their bidding. "All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger," Goering said. "It works the same way in any country.' A leaked memo by US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld says the US faces a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan. [BBC News | World | UK Edition] Duh. . .< 5:57:15 PM >A Double-Barreled Attack on American War Policy John Newhouse says the Bush administration has done more to imperil the United States than to enhance its security. [New York Times: Arts] . .< 5:49:44 PM >Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins (washingtonpost.com) Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases. Since the current President Bush veered away from the real war against terrorism in Afghanistan and went a'venturing in Iraq, much to his father's dismay, just about everybody close to Washington politics has known of the policy schism between father and son.' Too delicious. A fine op-ed. . .< 12:00:38 AM >ENEMY ALIENS: (ATTORNEY-)GENERAL ASHCROFT'S WAR AT HOME America has had psychotic extremists like this in power before -- McCarthy, Nixon and others -- but these were people who were bent on changing the law for their own deranged purposes, not ignoring and circumventing the law as Ashcroft is doing.
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On this day in 2003 2002 2001 |
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