Monday, March 3, 2003

Books Not Bombs QUOTE OF THE DAY "In this time of war against Osama bin Laden and the oppressive Taliban regime, we are thankful that OUR leader isn't the spoiled son of a powerful politician from a wealthy oil family who is supported by religious fundamentalists, operates through clandestine organizations, has no respect for the democratic electoral process, bombs innocents, and uses war to deny people their civil liberties. Amen." - - Aaron Magruder (From his cartoon, "Boondocks") RHINO HERE: I was a paramedic & Emergency Medical Technician Instructor through the 1970's. In my relations with law enforcement officials, I was often chagrined by the irony of a certain elite group of tactical squad operatives who besides being well trained to gas, club & if necessary, permanently maim their targets, they were also experienced in the arts of first aid & resuscitation. So they could lay ya down & get ya back up again. In that spirit, shrub has recently named Jay Garner, the new head of the Office of Reconstruction & Humanitarian Assistance whose job it will be to to oversee the rebuilding of post-war Iraq. Humanitarian? Yeah right! Besides the fact that Garner, 64, is a former three-star Army general & buddy of shrub gang leader Donnie Rumsfeld, the fact is that just a few weeks ago, he served as president of SY Coleman, a division of defense contractor L-3 Communications specializing in the building of the missile- defense systems that will be used to bomb Baghdad. Just recently, Garner faced allegations from another retired military officer that the company had received $100 million in defense contracts without undergoing competitive bidding. Unethical business dealings at the Pentagon? Surprise! Surprise! General reverses his role Why Did Bush Block All Investigations into Saudi-Osama Ties? Speaking of the slimy connections between bombs, money & oil, Greg Palast, author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", writes in an excerpt from his book now posted at TomPaine.com, "According to a top-level CIA operative... after Bush took office, he said, 'there was a major policy shift' at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to 'back off' from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off-limits for investigation. Osama was the exception; he remained a wanted man, but agents could not look too closely at how he filled his piggy bank. The key rule of any investigation, 'follow the money,' was now violated, and investigations - at least before 9/11 - began to die... What made Bush take particular care to protect the Saudis, even to the point of stymying his own intelligence agencies? The answers kept coming back: 'Carlyle' and 'Arbusto.' While some people have guardian angels, Bush seems to have guardian sheiks." http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7310 BOOKS NOT BOMBS - Weapons of Mass Instruction Students at hundreds of high schools & colleges across the U.S. are planning a walkout Wednesday to protest shrub's war plans. The strike is being coordinated by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, an organization of 15 student groups that came together after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The coalition, which calls the action 'Books not Bombs', has linked student protests against war in Iraq with a call for better-financed schools. 'We're getting about 10 schools a day contacting us to participate, and it's probably about 35-40 percent high schools,' said Andy Burns, an organizer who is signing up schools from his office in Little Rock, Ark. Mr. Burns said he expected about 300 colleges and high schools to participate in the walkout. Many of the students organizing next week's action have portrayed the latest round of tuition increases at state colleges and universities as a 'war tax' on the poor." NY TIMES ARTICLE http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/national/01STUD.html TWO LINKS TO THE BOOKS NOT BOMBS ORGANIZERS http://www.yclusa.org/organize/bnb.html http://www.nd.edu/~peace/strike.htm THE BOTTOM LINE is a commondreams.org editorial by historian Howard Zinn. If you're not aware of Zinn's classic, "A People's History of The United States" or just haven't read it, I recommend either doing so or at least picking up the audio version for listening in your car. The following essay concedes that war will probably be perpetrated on the people of Iraq but that the support that Rummie and the boyz expect with exude from the people of the U.S. toward their president, as has been the case in so many wars before, will not occur here. 9:59:27 AM    comment

War by Howard Zinn, CommonDreams.org, 2/27/03 As I write this, it looks like war. This, in spite of the obvious lack of enthusiasm in the country for war. The polls that register "approve" or "disapprove" can only count numbers, they cannot test the depth of feeling. And there are many signs that the support for war is shallow and shaky and ambivalent.. That's why the numbers showing approval for war have been steadily going down. This administration will not likely be stopped, though it knows its support is thin., In fact, that is undoubtedly why it is in such a hurry; it wants to go to war before the support declines even further. The assumption is that once the soldiers are in combat, the American people will unite behind the war. The television screens will be dominated by images showing "smart bombs" exploding, and the Secretary of Defense will assure the American people that civilian casualties are being kept to a minimum. (We're in the age of megadeaths, and any number of casualties less than a million is no cause for concern). This is the way it has been. Unity behind the president in time of war. But it may not be that way again. The anti-war movement will not likely surrender to the martial atmosphere. The hundreds of thousands who marched in Washington and San Francisco and New York and Boston - and in villages, towns, cities all over the country from Georgia to Montana - will not meekly withdraw. Unlike the shallow support for the war, the opposition to the war is deep, cannot be easily dislodged or frightened into silence. Indeed, the anti-war feelings are bound to become more intense. To the demand "Support Our GIs", the movement will be able to reply: "Yes, we support our GIs, we want them to live, we want them to be brought home. The government is not supporting them. It is sending them to die, or to be wounded, or to be poisoned by our own depleted uranium shells". No, our casualties will not be numerous, but every single one will be a waste of an important human life. We will insist that this government be held responsible for every death, every dismemberment, every case of sickness, every case of psychic trauma caused by the shock of war.. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0227-12.htm "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 7:53:31 AM    comment

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