Monday, March 29, 2004

Hostility Hardening FEATURED ARTICLES - Poll Finds Hostility Hardening Toward U.S. Policies, NY Times - Rice Threatens Jamaican Government Over Aristide, Democracy Now!, - Haiti's neighbors agree they need to be involved, Miami Herald, - CARICOM Rejects Interim Haitian Government, VOA News - Bush's Comedy Skit Tasteless, Washington Post, - Flawed intelligence and the justification for war, Rebecca L. Adamson, Indian Country Today QUOTE OF THE DAY "And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign." - - Donald Rumsfeld (defenselink.mil, 04-09-03) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - MARCH 29th 1971 -- Lt. William Calley is convicted of the premeditated murder of at least 22 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. Calley is the fall guy for the Army's effort to downplay the My Lai Massacre as an aberration rather than a result of US policy & attitudes in Vietnam. Colin Powell was in charge of the "investigation". Twenty-five years later Powell gave an interview in which he not only failed to condemn the massacre but seemed to excuse it.  Calley was sentenced to 3 years confinement in his apartment. http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mylai1.html 1982 -- In Guatemala Genera'l Efrain Rios Montt seizes power. Under his rule the army burned countless Mayan Indian villages killing thousands of community leaders, labor leaders & students. The U.S. Government provided training at The School of The Americas for the dictator & his officers. Uncle Sam also provided the necessary choppers guns & ammo to do the killing. 1991 -- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf publicly apologized to President Bush, the elder, for questioning his judgment about calling a cease-fire in the Gulf War. RHINO HERE: A recent poll by Pew Research finds international antagonism toward American foreign policy has hardened.  Rhino wonders if & when the U.S. will ever see fit to wage peace round the world as enthusiastically as it wages war.  Once again I urge Senator Kerry to make a campaign promise that if elected President, he will create a cabinet level U.S. Department of Peace & appoint the visionary Congressman Dennis Kucinich as the first Secretary. Rhino believes that besides a new beginning of good will in the world, this move by Kerry would garner him a large chunk of otherwise uncommitted left leaning voters. For more on The Department of Peace Proposal, GO TO: http://www.house.gov/kucinich/action/peace_legis_summary.htm Poll Finds Hostility Hardening Toward U.S. Policies By SUSAN SACHS, NY Times, March 17, 2004 During the first year of the United States occupation of Iraq, antagonism toward American foreign policy in some European and Muslim countries has hardened, with public opinion overseas swinging sharply in favor of charting a course independent of Washington, a new poll has found. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted the survey before the terrorist attack last week in Madrid and the subsequent revolt by Spanish voters against the political party that had embraced American policy toward Iraq. But the survey found that a majority of people interviewed in France and Germany, two other traditional American allies, already believed that the Iraq war had undermined the struggle against terrorists and doubted the Bush administration's sincerity in trying to combat terror. MORE: Poll So why the hostility hardening? Late last week, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's ears were ringing as her name was mentioned in ironic, even sardonic tones over & over at the 9/11 Commission hearings.  But that didn't stop her from performing her duties as she sees them, to promote the security of the American people. How 's that? By threatening the government of Jamaica to force democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to leave their island or suffer the consequences.  It seems Condy & the rest of the gang are believe President Aristide being anywhere in the Western Hemisphere might cause social unrest. Rhino thinks, "SOCIAL UNREST?! This is the gang that, in tandem with Jesse Helms, manipulated a years long embargo on Haiti, specifically to foster social unrest , to set up conditions to import weapons through the Dominican Republic to the killer thugs of the former Haitian dictators Papa & Baby Doc  and support their coup." Meanwhile, CARICOM, the leaders of the 15-nation Caribbean Community, issued statements that: 1)  there cannot be a lasting solution to Haiti's political crisis without the involvement of its neighbors. 2)  they reject Haiti's interim government & want no actions taken to legitimize the rebel forces. 3) they demand a U.N. probe into allegations the US forced Aristide from Haiti's presidency. Rice Threatens Jamaican Government Over Aristide From Democracy Now!, 3/25/04 RANDALL ROBINSON: I have learned from a White House source that Condoleezza Rice has pointedly threatened the Jamaican Government, telling it to expel President Aristide or face the consequences. The administration wants President Aristide out of the region. As this is a clear measure of how much broad support the president still enjoys as the democratically elected leader of Haiti inside the country, because the U.S. apparently views his mere presence in Jamaica as a threat to their control along with the thugs and the installed government in Haiti. Jamaica has not buckled... He remains, and will for the indefinite future in Jamaica, in spite of these clear threats from Rice made to the government of Jamaica... MORE: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/25/1537236 Haiti's neighbors agree they need to be involved BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, Miami Herald, Fri, Mar. 26, 2004 BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - The chairman of the Caribbean Community opened a summit Thursday by warning that there cannot be a lasting solution to Haiti's political crisis without the involvement of its neighbors. Leaders are expected to decide today what that involvement will be. ''Nothing can be achieved without our collective support,'' Jamaican Prime Minister and CARICOM Chairman P.J. Patterson said during the opening session of the 15-member organization. Late Thursday, the Caribbean leaders demanded a U.N. probe into allegations that the United States forced Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti's presidency... MORE: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8280983.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp CARICOM Rejects Interim Haitian Government VOA News, Mar 28, 2004 Leaders of the 15-nation Caribbean Community have rejected Haiti's interim government.  CARICOM made the move Saturday in response to interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue's reference last week to Haitian rebels as "freedom fighters." The organization said "no action should be taken to legitimize the rebel forces."  Caricom also repeated calls for a U.N. investigation into the departure of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide... MORE: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-3-28/20659.html Go figure! I mean who'd wanna be antagonistic toward the shrub; such a down home, funny guy. Like his stand-up performance at last week's Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner in which he joked self -effacingly about not finding the WMD's, overlooking the hundreds of Americans & thousands of Iraqi's now dead due to his lies . Democrats Call Bush's Comedy Skit Tasteless By Paul Farhi, Washington Post, March 26, 2004 President Bush's joking references to a search for weapons of mass destruction in the White House drew criticism yesterday from Democrats, who said the after-dinner remarks were tasteless and insensitive... MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24883-2004Mar25.html Transcript of shrubs at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner AT: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id?5-03242004 And finally, a clear evaluation of the flawed president, gee walker shrub, & his flawed intelligence, from the largest weekly periodical serving American Indians & those interested in Indian issues; Indian Country Today (ICT). The piece is by Rebecca Adamson, president of First Nations Development Institute & a columnist for ICT. 8:13:10 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Flawed intelligence and the justification for war Flawed intelligence and the justification for war by: Rebecca L. Adamson, Indian Country Today, March 08, 2004 President George W. Bush. Flawed intelligence.   There is a powerful poetic justice in the linkage of these words through all future American history. But for Americans who love this country - count me as one of those, hands down - a much rougher justice must still be meted out. Flawed intelligence is simply not the reason America started a war. America made unprovoked war on Iraq because a handful of men within a magic circle of power decided we must after 9/11. In the aftermath of those atrocities, many Americans gave our leaders a golden loyalty. They betrayed it with atrocities of their own. For as it has proved out since, no amount of unflawed intelligence could have dissuaded them. They would have their war. Long before the first rocket flew, unflawed intelligence from outside the circle of power told us the threat from Iraq was limited to the brutal power of a murderous dictator over his own people...  They would have their war. The immense sums, the sumptuous technology, the trained personnel committed to intelligence weren't about to dissuade them... MORE: http://www.indiancountry.com/?1078765226 "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 6:43:52 AM    comment

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