Wednesday, April 07, 2004

KIMMITT and SENOR (Fox) not quoted

Kimmitt: In Falluja, approximately 30 shooters were behind mosque wall. Troops sent 2 (500lb.) munitions at the wall, damaged wall but not mosque.

Kimmitt: Good plan to respond to Mahdi army, and will execute it.

Senor: Zarqawi wants to split country apart. Once turned over to Iraqis, makes it more difficult for Zarqawi.

Kimmitt: Some marriage of convenience between some of the groups.
May be working together in some small cases, not going to succeed.

Senor: Sistani a supporter. Sadr represents mob violence.
AL KUT (Senor/Kimmitt Interview)

Fox: questioned that troops backed off Al Kut.

Senior: Did not respond directly to the question.

Possibly, troops relocated to another area for strategic reasons; but, the question was not sufficiently answered.

Monday, April 05, 2004

SH

Saddam Hussein aided, supported, sheltered, protected. . .terrorists.
and:

Saddam Hussein is a Terrorist

Check out the link.
YOU HEAR THIS ALL THE TIME (poster at AM)

Not only does the Bush administration face enemies everywhere else but also within the United States as well. Millions, including people who voted for GW in 2000, virulently oppose this regime. As people, Iraqis and occupiers, die on a daily basis Americans are finally starting to see the reality of this horror, despite those who constantly tell us that the media only focuses on the negative and that Iraqis generally view the Americans as "liberators". A good portion of Americans believed that Saddam had something to do with 9/11 and this falsehood was encouraged by Bush and his people. Now, as the 9/11 investigation gets more and more uncomfortable for Bush, those Americans are beginning to understand that the administration had an agenda, from the beginning, to invade Iraq no matter what.
I suppose anyone who reads this already knows about the 9/11 investigation, Condoleeza Rice's reluctance to testify,etc. This is only one of the thorns in the side of the Bush administration, but most of the problems revolve around Iraq...the daily body count, the money spent abroad while we in the states strruggle for decent health care, quality schools and just about every public service.
Why am I sharing American woes with you who should not, by all rights, give a damn? Because I am assuming that you want the Bush regime to fall as badly as I do, as badly as millions of Americans do and I hope you will count us among your friends and allies. Things are bad for George Bush here because people are slowly wising up, after all of the hideous decisions he has made here and abroad, and it is here in the United States that I believe he will be defeated, if only by a margin. I wish peace and love to you all,

RESPONSE TO POSTERS (like the one above)

No one has declared this war over. America faces enemies without and within. The enemy does not want the election of a President willing to fight against them. Osama Bin Laden *would like* anyone else to be elected; Saddam Hussein *would have liked* anyone else who was elected. Al Qaeda reaped the benefits of the Spanish election. The bad want a liberal view, so they can continue with fewer obstacles.

It does not seem wise to give them what they want.

A “good portion of Americans” believe Saddam Hussein was a disgusting piece of garbage. In the early days after 9/11, the administration did suspect Saddam Hussein, and then stated clearly that they were backing off this contention, that they were no longer stating that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with it—-they had no concrete proof. It could not be legally proven; therefore, it was no longer stated. They said it several ways, several times. Did you listen; did you take the time to get it right?

As more evidence is revealed, the direction is toward Saddam and his connections with terrorism, Saddam and his connections with influence peddling, and Saddam and his underlings’ meetings with AQ underlings and OBL. There is testimony of a terrorist training camp which included foreigners and a plane—-at Salman Pak. Saddam was harboring terrorists—-not one, but several. Did you take the time to read? And there is more evidence now than there was at the start of the war.

The Executive Branch of government has no legal obligation to require the NSA to testify. Doing it would comprise the ability to freely discuss situations and solutions and would leave a President (any President) without the ability to openly discuss all opinions. Yet, Condoleeza Rice will be testifying before the Committee; and will be under oath, because the administration is willing to contribute to the information concerning the 9/11 with the proviso that this will not set a precedent. The President and Vice-President will be before the Committee, also. They have agreed to it under similar terms in an effort to provide as much information as possible. It’s important, and should be helpful, unless those on the Committee and watching choose to make political fodder out of it—and they will try.

The Constitution of the United States supports the separation of the three branches of government. Do you wish to subvert the Constitution in favor of political views? The choice belongs to the Executive Branch, not the political opposition.

You, for your own purposes, seek to undermine America. For Politics? For Peace? Because you are feeling seditious? We are at war, and you are not supporting the purpose of fighting Al Qaeda or the War in Iraq. It is war; it is fact; you do not support either.

There are people who realize that a President, less than 8 months in office, became the receiver of a mountain of problems. If a President could not head if off during 8 years, are you saying a President of 8 months could?

Why are you sharing American woes? Because you hope to influence against a sitting President; Because you wish to undermine what America is doing; Because you wish to moan and groan about the situation at home—when the situation in Iraq was devastating to the people. You compare smaller problems (which we can handle) to a people who were murdered systematically, tortured, shredded, and the attempt was made to rip their souls out. Do you wish their fate to be your fate? No, you just wish them to side with you for your own gain.

You wish “peace and love to”. ..”all.” Did you love Iraqis while they were oppressed, suppressed, murdered, and tortured? You loved yourself more (you seem to be saying.) Did you wave your sign “No Blood for Oil” giving Saddam a good phrase to use, a group to point to--an assist with his propaganda? Did you see that your country went to war to change a selfish, murderous regime and chant “Regime change in America?”

Did you wish the Spanish train-ravelers “peace?” The people of Halabja? Those of An Najaf, Al Hillah, and Basrah? Those in the mass graves? Many of those people now have the peace you offer. You can have ***selfish love***, and ***expensive peace.***

Bad will overpower good, because bad has no restrictions—-and all it takes is for good people to stand silently. The bad have no decision to make; they take the easy road, fall in with the brutes because it’s easier not to fight it. The good have many decisions and a huge fight.

I voted for GORE in 2000. I apologize for the error. I realize my mistake. I have “WISED-UP!”

Sunday, April 04, 2004

YES, RAED,

WAR IS EXPENSIVE. Are you worth it? YES, you are.

You're scared by 100,000. Well, $1,000 means much to me. I don't talk in millions, billions are unimaginable, and tril...tril... Well, I can hardly talk about it.

Many of us are nickel-squeezing, penny-pinchers. This war was very important. Bush(41) didn't tell me, Clinton(42) didn't tell me, Bush(43) tried, but didn't get the message across very well (for whatever reason.)

Watching this develop told me; activities in the UN told me; 9/11 yelled it; terrorists bomb it into our brains. The next two decades are going to be very important to civilization--yours, mine, ours!
HELLO PAX

Hello Pax is the name of the blog. There are many days when it seems more like HELL (we aren't going to get) PAX.
KAY--

GRESHAM's Law: the BAD DRIVES OUT the GOOD.

It seems a variation of--all that's necessary for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing.

Why? Because the bad will stop at nothing, while the good will try to decide what to do based on moral and legal issues. The bad have few, to no, restrictions.
DR. DAVID KAY (C-SPAN)

This is paraphrasing as quickly as possible to get the general idea of the talk:

DK: Behavior remains same. Rationale changes. Domestic political control was a concern. Saddam was deathly afraid of his own citizens. He was concerned that Kurds and Shi’ia, would rise up and destroy his family. He feared the guys with guns, even if own guys. If he opened doors and unmasked society, it would be saying he was weak--giving in.

Interview military officers: all know we have them, but hadn’t seen them. Behavior appeared the same; rationale changed. Underlying intentions are the secrets to be discovered.
KAY ON C-SPAN

Finally, a replay of Dr. David Kay's lecture plus Q&A is on again. I hope C-SPAN provides a transcript.

Kay is very informative and easy listening. He's even funny. Even better, he has ideas for improvement.
PERSUASSION OR WAR

Make your choice. Sometimes, the only choice we have is between two options--neither of which we like.

We tried diplomacy with Iraq. We tried persuading Iraq. We listened to those who escaped Iraq. We tried U.N. sanctions on Iraq. We tried inspections in Iraq. We tried covert operations. We tried threatening Iraq.

Advocating the repeated failures would not produce success. It didn?t work for more than a decade. Inspections did not work. ISG is 3 to 4 times the size of U.N. inspection force and we still don?t know exactly what was going on while the light was off.

The longer it continued, the more dangerous it appeared to be. We don't know exactly how dangerous it was.....yet. We will know more; we may know enough (eventually) to make a decision about what had happened. We don't know whether or not we were really in time--even after one year.

If you don't believe the government was concerned about WMD, you must have missed the troops in chem gear--in the scorching sun, in the heat. If you don't believe we believed it, we have 1,000 Iraq Survey team members still trying to piece it together.

If nothing else, the world knows that Saddam can't control any WMD. . .now! The regime has been disarmed and dispersed. We would not have found out much in Saddam's Iraq; and while Saddam was in charge, the threat was there. We must have as many of the answers as possible.
9/11 INV

This is hogwash. Political trappings are becoming obvious--each trying to trap the other. Wake up!

Where are the representatives of America who care about America more than they care about their own political party or personal gain? I'm looking for you and I don't see you. I'm hoping you are there; but, I'm losing hope.

You, the representatives of the people, have failed US (we the people and America.) No excuses are necessary, or will be enough. Clarke said it and you know it, but many don't say it. If you were a member of the administration, Congress, or in a position of responsibility for any of this, you didn't do enough. This includes the years from 1990 through 2004. You didn't do enough because it was NOT PREVENTED. This means each one--no excuses and no blame will erase it.

We always have to assign blame. Get on with it! Stop wasting your time and get to the meat of the issues. No one did enough, what do we do now?
IT DOESN"T MATTER?? (cmar-b)

The other countries might have thought Iraq maybe had some WMD, but they didn't invade Iraq. We might have thought they had some and we did invade. But all that doesn't matter. You don't really believe we invaded Iraq because of WMD, do you? And I hope you don't believe we invaded them to help out the Iraqi people... it's clear helping out oppressed peoples is not on the administrations to-do list (i.e. Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Haiti...).

Your hope is unrealistic; it is hopeless. Many did believe this. Did you watch the U.N. sessions? Almost all indicated they believed Iraq had WMD. The question was what action. Inspections were favored, first. At the time of UNSCR 1441, the decision was inspections, with severe consequences upon failure. Did anyone doubt what the consequences were? France didn’t; they were in favor of inspections; and, indicated a willingness to disarm Iraq. The problem came to full view as the muttering began about REGIME REMOVAL. Now, we know why.

Is it clear we don’t help oppressed peoples? Kosovo—troops still there? Liberia—we went there when we were in the MIDDLE OF A WAR because the U.N. requested? WWII—we declared war on Germany when we went to war with Japan?

We had many reasons to do this. Most of those reasons were stated UP FRONT. At the moment, the only thing which can be proven is that there are not huge stockpiles of WMD. The very important questions are. . .what happened, where did they go, and what was the overall plan?

From 1999 to 2002, Saddam was operating in the dark. Read the happenings throughout the first half of 1990, and tell me that Saddam was honorable, trustworthy, and open while he conducted his activities. Tell me that you would trust him.

JUST OR UNJUST

“I don't think a war designed to strengthen American Empire is just.” (cmar-ben)

What do you think of a war designed to disarm Iraq (it did), to strengthen democracy in the ME (it can), and to work toward *real* peace and fight against terrorism in the ME (it’s tough, but possible), and designed to change attitudes in the ME (it may happen) ??