Thursday, May 22, 2003

Half Lives & Half Wits QUOTE OF THE DAY "The decision to start and end the war quickly with a minimal commitment of U.S. forces may have been a brilliant war plan but is proving, predictably, to be a bankrupt postwar plan. We simply did not have sufficient forces on the ground to secure WMD facilities -- much less Iraqi national museums and ministries -- from looters and organized criminals." - - Susan E. Rice (From today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE) MAY 22nd IN HISTORY: 1957 - - A 10 megaton hydrogen bomb accidentally fell from a U.S. bomber in an uninhabited area near Albuquerque owned by the University of New Mexico. Non-nuclear explosives detonated, blasting a crater 12 feet deep & 25 feet across. Its 10-megaton nuclear charge miraculously does not detonate, narrowly averting horror for New Mexico. The bomb is hundreds of times more powerful than the one that had leveled Hiroshima. No one was injured, but radiation was detected in the crater. RHINO HERE: Anyone who believes that shrub's puppeteers are interested in making the world a safer place, it seems to me, must have no idea what the concept of half-life is all about. And don't even get me going about the corporate sponsored legislators who this week decided it was a good idea to spend U.S. taxpayers' money on developing little nuke bombs. "But Rhino!" my right leaning readers may say, "They're only LITTLE nukes. That's better than big nukes. Right?" Yeah, tell that to the North Koreans. Let's remember that before the pentagon can issue a purchase order for any new piece of military equipment, that gizmo must have already been successfully tested in a real combat situation. So where are they going to be testing these Mini-nukes? Dread the thought. Has anyone noticed that we haven't heard much from Connie Rice lately? I wonder if she's gearing up for a run for California governor. That might even make me partial to Dray Gravis. Today's BOTTOM LINE is written by a different dark skinned, female Dr. Rice. But this one doesn't have an oil tanker named after her. Senate OKs research on small N-weapons THE NEW YORK TIMES, 5/21/03 WASHINGTON - The Senate agreed Tuesday night to lift a ban on research and development of smaller nuclear weapons, rejecting Democratic arguments that any step toward such arms could spur other nations to build tactical nuclear weapons of their own. On a 51-43 vote, the Senate turned down a Democratic amendment that would have preserved a 10-year-old prohibition on moving toward producing nuclear weapons of less than five kilotons. http://www.azstarnet.com/star/wed/30521NCONGRESS-PENTAGON-NY.html A nuclear road of no return Bush's bid for new kinds of weapons could put the world on a suicidal course by Robert Scheer, Creators Syndicate, 5/13/03 ...The deadly weapons of mass destruction have proved phantom in Iraq, but the Bush administration is now doing its best to ensure that the world becomes increasingly unstable and armed to the teeth. Although the nuclear threat from Iraq proved to be nonexistent, the United States' threat to use nuclear weapons and make a shambles of nuclear arms control is alarmingly vibrant... http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14980 Thanks to Bush's Antagonism, North Korea Threatens 'Disaster' BBC reports: "North Korea has threatened the South with 'unspeakable disaster' if Seoul backs Washington's hardline approach to the nuclear crisis. The comments were made by the chief North Korean delegate at inter-Korean economic talks which opened in Pyongyang on Tuesday, and were publicized by the North's KCNA news agency. They are the first official response to last week's summit between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and US President [sic] George W Bush in Washington last week, which saw an apparent hardening of South Korean policy towards the North. Seoul and Washington threatened at the Washington meeting to take 'further steps' against Pyongyang, if it continued to escalate tensions on the peninsula." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3042953.stm RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE today deals with the question of are we safer since invading Iraq with the intent of ridding it of WOMD's. It's written by the other dark skinned female Dr. Rice, Susan E. Rice, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution jointly affiliated with the Foreign Policy and Governance Studies programs. Her projects at Brookings involve transnational security threats, the security implications of globalization, and corporate social responsibility investments. A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Rice was awarded the Chatham House-British International Studies Association Prize for the most distinguished doctoral dissertation in the United Kingdom in the field of International Relations. Under President Clinton, Dr. Rice served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. THE OTHER DR. RICE'S BIO http://www.internews.org/dirs/rice.htm 7:14:29 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The Looting of Iraq's Nuclear Facilities The Looting of Iraq's Nuclear Facilities: What Do We Do Now? by Susan E. Rice, Toronto Globe and Mail, 5/21/03 President George W. Bush's chief justification for war against Iraq was to disarm Saddam Hussein and prevent his use or transfer of weapons of mass destruction. Virtually all Americans, whether they supported or opposed the war, agreed on the importance of disarming Iraq and preventing the proliferation of its WMD. This objective was so compelling that many who doubted the necessity or the timing of the war went along with it, despite misgivings. Their expectation was that America would be more secure after war with Iraq. So are we more secure? Are Saddam Hussein's weapons now safely out of the hands of potential "evildoers"? Frighteningly, and possibly tragically, the answer may well be no. The primary problem is not that the weapons we were so certain existed have not yet been found, however unsettling or embarrassing that may be. The most pressing problem is that Iraqi nuclear facilities containing valuable documents, partially enriched uranium and other radiological materials ideal for "dirty bombs" have been looted and ransacked under the noses of U.S. forces. As a consequence, the U.S. government has no idea how much radioactive material may have been stolen and could now be available to the highest bidder. The richest treasure trove of dangerous WMD material since the collapse of the Soviet Union is on the loose and perhaps far easier for al-Qaeda and other terrorists to acquire than it was under the control of their ideological adversary, Saddam Hussein. What went wrong?... THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IS POSTED AT COMMONDREAMS: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0521-03.htm IT ORIGINATED AT THE TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL: Iraq's nuclear facilities looted "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. 6:29:54 AM    comment

© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.