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Friday, January 03, 2003
Extortion by Israel? "'Tough Love for United,' exclaimed the Wall Street Journal, as it congratulated Uncle Sam for stiffing United Airlines' plea for $1.8 billion in loan guarantees. Rebuffed, the beloved old airline had to declare its bankruptcy. It's all for the best, the Journal assures us, 'maybe this tough love rejection will start a new government precedent, or at least we can dream.' Fine. May we now expect the Journal to call on Mr. Bush to reject the $10 billion in loan guarantees demanded by Ariel Sharon? Don't bet on it." You know, I really don't like agreeing with Pat Buchanan, as I find some of his views repugnant. I will give him credit for speaking his mind though, and for being a high-profile figure who is willing to stand up to the Israeli lobby. In this piece, he makes some good points about America's capitulation to Israeli's desires, and our apparently inability to stand up to Ariel Sharon. Read the whole piece here.
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
Political compass My political compass: Take the test yourself here.
Not quite ourselves Check out an excellent animation about the current state of the USA here [Flash required].
Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it? "Hundreds of Muslim men and boys are being subjected to strip searches in freezing, standing room only detention centers in southern California after being arrested for routine visa irregularities, immigration lawyers said on Thursday. They estimated that between 1,000 and 2,500 males, some as young as 16, were spending their fourth day locked up in what they called inhumane conditions after voluntarily presenting themselves at immigration offices to register under new anti-terrorism rules. 'The situation in the detention centers is absolutely horrifying. In one center, they were ordered to strip down and given a strip search. They were only given a prison jumpsuit, without any underwear, T-shirts, socks or shoes. They were not given blankets. They are freezing,' Iranian-American lawyer Sohelia Jonoubi told Reuters." A few weeks ago, the U.S. government decided to reward many of the Muslim men who had complied with a new law requiring them to register with the government by arresting them. They have been kept in poor conditions, and often denied the right to a lawyer or to contact their families. Don't you feel safer now? Read the rest of the Reuters article here, and more news and commentary about the situation here, here, here,
Meanwhile, over in North Korea... "North Korea, one of the world's poorest, most isolated countries, is a difficult place to employ the containment strategy the United States is now pursuing. The world has little left to withdraw or withhold, according to diplomats and specialists. What levers exist largely have been pulled already -- most recently when the Bush administration cut fuel shipments upon learning that North Korea has a program to create enriched uranium for nuclear weapons." I haven't really talked about this developing story since it first started to take shape a few weeks ago, but it's shaping up to be yet another foreign policy fiasco for the Bush administration. To make a long story short, the North Koreans reportedly already have nuclear weapons, and have started the process for making more, causing the world to ask if the United States is too focused on Iraq (which doesn't have either nuclear weapons or the facilities to start building them any time soon) when the greater danger comes from North Korea. As this article from the Washington Post explains, dealing with North Korea will be no easy task, and everything the U.S. has tried so far has done little except make the situation even worse.
Just say no to peace "United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that he sees no basis at present for the use of force against Iraq. Mr Annan told Israeli radio that Baghdad was co-operating with UN weapons inspectors and that no military action should be considered at least until they had reported back to the Security Council." - from a BBC News article "Declaring that working for peace is one of his most serious New Year's resolutions, Mr. Bush said, 'Again, I hope this Iraq situation will be resolved peacefully.' But, he added, 'it appears that on first look that Saddam Hussein hasn't heard the message.' - from a New York Times article [registration required] On one hand we have the U.N. Secretary General saying that Iraq is cooperating with the weapons inspectors, while on the other we have the President of the United States basically saying that he doesn't think Saddam Hussein is cooperating at all. It seems to once again illustrate the fact that the U.S. has no desire to reach any sort of peaceful resolution with Iraq, no matter how much rhetoric the Bush administration has been putting out to make itself look reasonable. On a related note, I'm currently reading a very interesting book called War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq, in which the author illustrates the many ways that the U.S. has worked to sabotage the inspection process, and any attempt to lift non-military sanctions against Iraq, during the years since the Persian Gulf War. It's an eye-opening read, and lays the groundwork for understanding much of what the U.S. has said and done over the past year or two with regard to Iraq.
Monday, December 30, 2002
The true goal in Afghanistan has now been achieved From a BBC article: "An agreement has been signed in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, paving the way for construction of a gas pipeline from the Central Asian republic through Afghanistan to Pakistan." And here's some commentary from Truthout: "Since September 11th, 2001, there has been intense speculation regarding Bush administration negotiations with the Taliban regarding this very project prior to the attacks. American petroleum giant Unocal very much wanted this project for years, but it was stymied in 1998 after bin Laden blew up two American embassies in Africa, causing the Taliban to be diplomatically isolated. There are a number of reports that describe a reinvigoration of this pipeline plan after Bush took office, and further describe the Bush administration's negotiations with the Taliban including threats of war if the project was not allowed to pass through Afghanistan. Some say these threats, in the name of the pipeline, triggered the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban is gone, Afghan President Harmid Karzai is a former Unocal consultant, and the pipeline deal is finally done." I'm not about to contend that the desire to build the natural gas pipeline was the only motivation for the war launched against Afghanistan, but I do believe that the Bush administration seized upon the 9/11 attack as a convenient excuse for removing the Taliban from power (and putting a cooperative puppet in their place).
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