Friday, April 16, 2004

Costs of the Quagmire FEATURED ARTICLES - Iraqi 'Beaten To Death' by US Troops, News Interactive Australia - Bush Contradicts Self At His Own Press Conference, Daily Mislead Archive - Decoding the PDB, TomPaine.com - Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America!, By Dr. Robert Bowman, USAF Ret. QUOTE OF THE DAY "There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice,         but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - - Elie Wiesel KNOW YOUR HISTORY - APRIL 15th & 16th April 15th, 1967 -- First mass burning of draft cards as 400,000 march in New York City & 80,000 in San Francisco opposing the Vietnam War.  Culmination of April 10-15th Vietnam Week featuring draft card burnings & turn-ins & anti-draft recruiter demonstrations all over the country. In NY speakers include Martin Luther King, Jr., Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael, Benjamin Spock. April 16th, 1971 -- Vietnam Veterans Against the War throw their medals & canes on White House Lawn at demonstration in Washington DC.  On the same day, the US Internal Revenue Service estimates over two thousand people openly refused to pay part or all of their income tax in protest over the war in Vietnam. April 15-28, 1972 -- the U.S.A. experiences a new wave of antiwar protests on campuses & near military & defense-industry installations with hundreds of arrests across the country.  This month has seen heavy US bombing of North Vietnamese. RHINO HERE: As the donald, no not Trump, I mean rumsfeld, announces that thousands of US troops who've been counting the days till they'd be going home, won't be leaving for another few months, Rhino thinks it important that all Americans take a realistic inventory of the costs to America of the shrub gang's war for dominance & oil. In addition to the American lives being lost (this month saw the largest number of American deaths since the war began), & in addition to the thousands of soldiers who will return home with physical injuries that will plague them for the rest of their lives (my Dad was one who suffered from war wounds all his adult life) & besides the billions of dollars of debt being mounted that those same American youth & their generation & their kids' generation will have to pay back, there is another great cost which neither the donald nor the shrub ever speak about; that is, the psychological wounding of tens of thousands of American youth. Sure there are those who when tossed into war can thrive & seemingly not be psychologically damaged by their experiences. But a huge number of "normal" American 18 & 19 year olds, when confronted with guns, blood, hate & the day to day insanity of war, turn into something that their loved ones would not recognize nor could they be proud of. Case in point? A story you haven't heard here in the U.S. & a story that unfortunately is likely not that unusual as the GW. Bush Memorial Iraqi Quagmire worsens. Iraqi 'Beaten To Death' by US Troops News Interactive Australia, April 14, 2004 AN Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today... A spokesman for the US-led coalition could not confirm the incident... MORE: http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9282015%255E1702,00.html And the lies that justify the war in Iraq continue to pile up faster than even the thousands of dead Iraqi civilians who the American people never hear about from the tri-letter mealy mouthed major media. Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is by Dr. Robert Bowman, former Col. in the USAF & Chief of Technology Assessment under President Jimmy Carter. A Catholic Bishop of The Apostolic Society of Franciscan Communities, he's been President of the Institute for Space & Security Studies since '82. Previously VP of Space Communications Company; Manager, Advanced Space Programs for General Dynamics; & Director, Advanced Space Programs Development for DoD, directing the "Star Wars" programs. No tree hugging pacifist this guy. He's shouting a unique message to America, appropriately entitled, "Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America!" BUT FIRST, a couple perspectives on the gang's 9-11 shell game. Bush Contradicts Self At His Own Press Conference Daily Mislead Archive, April 14, 2004 During last night's prime time press conference, President Bush once again claimed that "there was nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government that could envision flying airplanes into buildings"1. But just minutes later at the same press conference the president proved he was not telling the truth.  Specifically, Bush said the reason he supposedly requested intelligence briefings before 9/11 "had to do with the Genoa G-8 conference I was going to attend" in 2001. Bush was referring to the fact that, prior to that conference, he was warned that "Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill him and other leaders by crashing an airliner into the summit" meetings2... MORE: http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df04142004.html Larry C. Johnson is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He served with the CIA from 1985 through 1989 and worked in the State Department's office of Counter Terrorism from 1989 through 1993. He also is a registered Republican who contributed financially to the Bush Campaign in 2000. "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" Decoding the PDB By Larry C. Johnson, TomPaine.com, April 12, 2004 Are George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice really as clueless as they are claiming to be? Bush and Rice are both on the record misstating what was in the 6 August 2001 PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing). They both insist the information was only "historical" and "not actionable." They apparently are not alone in their faux ignorance. Republican partisans and even some members of the media are busy bolstering the spin that this was "an historical memo." Absolute nonsense!  I wrote about 40 PDB's during my four-year tenure at the CIA. This particular PDB article was written in response to a presidential request. I am told that Bush's request was a reaction to the intelligence warnings he was hearing during the daily CIA morning briefings. Something caught his attention and awakened his curiosity. He reportedly asked the CIA to come back with its assessment of Bin Laden's intentions. The CIA answered the question - Bin Laden was targeting the United States... MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18393 9:07:09 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America! "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America! By Dr. Robert Bowman, USAF Ret. I am a member of Veterans For Peace, an organization of thousands of combat veterans. All of us have put our life on the line for this country. Most of us opposed the recent invasion of Iraq. We also opposed the first Gulf War, and the sanctions that followed. We opposed the slaughter of fleeing Iraqis on the Road to Basra. We opposed the use of Depleted Uranium munitions. And we opposed the lies upon which the first Gulf War was based. But there was one good thing about that first Gulf War. It ended. And without a wholesale invasion of Iraq. Why? Here's what the first President Bush wrote about that in his memoirs: "Trying to eliminate Saddam would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. There was no viable exit strategy we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." My brothers and sisters, it is just too darn bad his son can't read! I've been severely criticized for speaking out in opposition to this war. So have you, probably. We're told that we're aiding and abetting the enemy. We're told that we should support the president no matter what. We're told that patriotism demands that we support the war. They say that we're abusing the freedoms that our troops are in the Middle East defending. They say we should be ashamed to be protesting while the troops are in the desert protecting our right to do so. Well I say, Hogwash! I feel an affinity for the troops over there in Iraq. They are my comrades in arms. I admire their sense of honor and sacrifice. I understand why some of them believe they should be there. They have neither the experience nor the wisdom to see past the lies they have been told. The truth is, they are not over there protecting our freedoms. Our freedoms are not under attack from Saddam Hussein or the remnants of his Baathist party. Our freedoms are under attack by John Ashcroft. They are threatened by John Poindexter. They are trampled by Donald Rumsfeld. They are disdained by Dick Cheney. And they are not even understood by George W. Bush... MORE: http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/28/bowman.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 6:41:07 AM    comment

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