Monday, September 29, 2003

Anti-War General? QUOTE OF THE DAY "Common sense is not an issue in politics; it's an affliction." - - Will Rogers KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 29th 1979 -- 200,000 participate in anti-nuke demonstrations in lower Manhattan, California & 11 other locations around the U.S. 2001 -- Some 7,000 people marched for peace in Washington DC while an estimated 7-10 thousand marched in San Francisco. They marched to mourn terrorist victims, and to urge the nation to heal poverty and injustice that fuels global violence instead of focusing on military revenge. This was the beginning of a wave of demonstrations against the shrub administration's response to the 9/11 attacks culminating in a million people in the streets of cities round the world. RHINO HERE: A few of you who receive Rhino's Blog via email have said you can't access the links by double clicking. I'm looking into the problem. Meanwhile, remember you can always view the blog at the website where with the help of my webmaster, Jim Woolum, many additional links are provided for names, places, etc. http://www.rhinosblog.info On Monday, September 15, my blog was titled, "Will The Gneral Run?" It featured the letter from Michael Moore encouraging Gen. Wesley Clark to run for President. The BOTTOM LINE that day was a piece by The Nation editor, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, who told of an incident in the aftermath of NATO's air war against Yugoslavia when a small contingent of Russian troops occupied the Pristina airfield in Kosovo & the General advocated bombing them. Critics thought he could have started WW3 had the British not refused to cooperate. Insight into his decision-making under pressure? Since that blog & his declaration of candidacy, I've received many emails from you, my readers, as well as articles from a variety of sources, questioning the General's record, the claim of his being an "anti-war general", and even his motives for running. There's also an extensive investigation of the General's participation in the siege of WACO which killed 82 Americans with a combination of toxic gas and fire. So today I offer a variety of these pieces Even if the criticism of General Clark is correct, Rhino thinks his current "no-punches-pulled" criticisms of the shrub gang are helpful in loosening up the mass media's reluctance to speak the truth, not to mention the Shrub squirm factor as I've previously mentioned. Novice for President By Suzi Parker, AlterNet , September 23, 2003 Little Rock, Ark. - All candidates should know the first rule of politics: Find your message and stay on it. Wesley Clark apparently didn't get the memo. Less than twenty-four hours after declaring a run for the White House, Clark flipped his opinion on the Iraq war while traveling to his first campaign stop in Florida. There, on a plane with a handful of reporters, Clark said he would have voted for the war if he had been a member of Congress. Of all issues to waver on as a newly christened politician, this was the one he should have nailed to committed memory. After all, Clark had preached against the war for months, announcing to the world while a CNN military analyst that the United States needed an international coalition before entering Iraq. He said more imminent threats brewed, North Korea, for example, than Saddam Hussein. Somewhere between announcing his run for president and traveling to Florida, Clark's official opinion flipped... MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16818 General Wesley Clark  -  From Waco to Yugoslavia: The US military was at Waco American Patriot Friends Network, 9/24/03 General Wesley Clark was involved in the siege and final assault near Waco, Texas that killed, by a combination of toxic gas and fire, at least 82 people including some three dozen women, children and infants. As outlandish as this claim may seem, it's a reasonable conclusion that can be drawn by any fair minded person who takes the time to examine the evidence. Further, there is substantial circumstantial evidence that, Clark, in addition to acting as a tactical consultant, may, in fact, have been the prime architect and commander of the entire operation... MORE: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/clark.htm The Awful Truth About General Wesley Clark A Dissident Voice News Service Compilation September 18, 2003, Updated: September 27, 2003 Editor's Note : I've long admired Michael Moore's film work and many of his writings, overlooking his often annoying tendency for self-puffery. Outside of his films, books and articles, Moore has spent a great deal of time and money working on issues kindred to progressives. That said, his recent article/letter imploring General Wesley Clark to run for the presidency on the Democratic ticket reveals that Moore has (temporarily I hope) gone plumb stupid... MORE: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/DVNS_Wesley-Clark.htm 7:12:34 AM    comment

'Wesley & Me': A Real-Life Docudrama 'Wesley & Me': A Real-Life Docudrama by Norman Solomon, CommonDreams.org , 9/25/03 Here's the real-life plot: A famous documentary filmmaker puts out a letter to a retired four-star general urging him to run for president. The essay quickly zooms through cyberspace and causes a big stir.  For Michael Moore, the reaction is gratifying. Three days later, he thanks readers "for the astounding response to the Wesley Clark letter" and "for your kind comments to me." But some of the reactions are more apoplectic than kind. Quite a few progressive activists are stunned, even infuriated, perhaps most of all by four words in Moore's open letter to Gen. Clark: "And you oppose war."  The next sentence tries to back up the assertion: "You have said that war should always be the 'last resort' and that it is military men such as yourself who are the most for peace because it is YOU and your soldiers who have to do the dying."  But for some people who've greatly appreciated the insightful director of "Bowling for Columbine," the claim is a real jaw-dropper. It could easily be refuted by mentioning a long list of names such as Colin Powell, Alexander Haig and William Westmoreland, along with John McCain and other militarists who won high elective office after ballyhooed service in the armed forces. Other flashbacks make Moore's statement seem not only simplistic but also gullible: After all, many presidents have touted war as a "last resort" -- even while the Pentagon killed people in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq ... and, oh yes, Yugoslavia.  Moore's Sept. 12 open letter doesn't mention the 1999 war on Yugoslavia -- which included more than two months of relentless bombing under the supervision of Wesley Clark, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe at the time... MORE: http://www.fair.org/media-beat/030925.html "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. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:28:43 AM    comment

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