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Monday, October 4, 2004 |
FEATURED ARTICLES
- NEWSWEEK POLL: First Presidential Debate
- A Strident Minority: Anti-Bush US Troops In Iraq, The Christian Science Monitor
- Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium..., Democracy Now!,
- Shocking report reveals local troops... victims of America's high-tech weapons, NY Daily News
- BOTTOM LINE: Top 10 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq, The Nation
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"When I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse? I believe that when you know something's going wrong, you make it right. That's what I learned in Vietnam."
- - Senator John Kerry (In last week's debate)
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - October 4th
1974 -- Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee publishes the names of 37 CIA spies, in an effort to undermine the CIA's terrorist policies of murder, kidnapping, torture, assassination & other crimes against humanity.
1997 -- Demonstrations in Washington, D.C. & across the U.S protesting scheduled launch of the space probe, Cassini, with a plutonium payload.
RHINO HERE:
Latest polls are showing Kerry & Edwards pulling ahead.
NEWSWEEK POLL: First Presidential Debate
Sixty-One Percent of Viewers Say Kerry Won Debate;
Kerry/Edwards Now Leads Bush/Cheney 49-46 Percent in Two-Way Matchup
MORE: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041002/nysa013_1.html
And it's not only here at home where the tide is turning. The Christian Science Monitor is reporting a growing momentum of US troops in Iraq who are backing John Kerry for President.
A Strident Minority: Anti-Bush US Troops In Iraq
Though military personnel lean conservative, some vocally support Kerry - or at least a strategy for swift withdrawal.
By Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor, 9/21/2004
Inside dusty, barricaded camps around Iraq, groups of American troops in between missions are gathering around screens to view an unlikely choice from the US box office: "Fahrenheit 9-11," Michael Moore's controversial documentary attacking the commander-in-chief. "Everyone's watching it," says a Marine corporal at an outpost in Ramadi that is mortared by insurgents daily. "It's shaping a lot of people's image of Bush." The film's prevalence is one sign of a discernible countercurrent among US troops in Iraq - those who blame President Bush for entangling them in what they see as a misguided war. Conventional wisdom holds that the troops are staunchly pro-Bush, and many are. But bitterness over long, dangerous deployments is producing, at a minimum, pockets of support for Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry, in part because he's seen as likely to withdraw American forces from Iraq more quickly.
MORE: http://csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p02s02-usmi.html
Anyone surprised that our youth in uniform should be moving away from supporting their president need only check out the next 2 excerpts & links which report on National Guardmen who have been exposed to depleted uranium while deployed as a soldiers in Iraq. One has a new daughter with deformities.
Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium in Iraq Born with Deformities
Democracy Now!, September 30th, 2004
In a major expose in the New York Daily News, Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez uncovered the story of how a new-born baby may have suffered deformities because her father was exposed to depleted uranium while deployed as a soldier in Iraq. We are joined in our studio by Guardsman Gerard Darren Matthew and Sgt. Ray Ramos, one of the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. Transcript of radio show at:
MORE: Depleted Uranium
Poisoned?
Shocking report reveals local troops
may be victims of America's high-tech weapons
By Juan Gonzalez, NY Daily News, 4/3/04
Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are contaminated with radiation likely caused by dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops, a Daily News investigation has found. They are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. "I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."
A nuclear medicine expert who examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests conducted at the request of The News revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
MORE: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html
Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE adds to the articles above in providing reasons not only for voting for Kerry & Edwards, but also for the US to get out of Iraq as soon as possible.
8:32:37 AM 
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"SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!"
Top 10 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq
By Erik Leaver, The Nation, September 29, 2004
The U.S. occupation of Iraq is the cause of, not the solution to, the violence and the mounting deaths that followed the invasion. During the recent fighting led by Muqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, as in countless other battles inside Iraq, authorities in Washington have misread the military and political situation. The Bush Administration uses the fighting as justification for the continued presence of foreign military forces. Yet it is precisely the presence of foreign military forces that is a major cause of the instability. Ending the US occupation by bringing the troops home now is a first step toward ending Iraq's nightmare.
Most Iraqis agree. In a poll this past June, 55 percent of Iraqis opposed the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. While Iraqis cheered the overthrow of the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein, they didn't sign up for a foreign military occupation as a replacement. Now it is time to let Iraqis themselves choose an alternative. Here are 10 compelling reasons the United States should get out of Iraq.
1) The Human Costs Keep Increasing
On September 7 the death toll of U.S. soldiers reached 1,000. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that the insurgency is likely to turn even more violent. While the American death toll made headlines across the United States, the mounting number of Iraqi deaths, at least ten times greater, gets scant attention. The U.S. military refuses to monitor or even estimate the number of Iraqi civilian casualties. As Gen. Tommy Franks described the Pentagon's approach earlier in Afghanistan, "We don't do body counts."
2) Iraqis Aren't Better Off
While the removal of the dictator Saddam was a welcome development for many Iraqis, the streets of Baghdad and other cities remain dangerous war zones. Clean water, electricity and even gasoline in this oil-rich country are all in even shorter supply than during the dark years of economic sanctions. Women face new restrictions and new dangers. Democracy, freedom and human rights appear out of reach. And Iraq remains occupied by 160,000 foreign troops, with all of the indignity that military occupation brings...
8 MORE AT: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20015
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7:59:19 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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