:: Diary of an Aging Protester ::

:: 4.19.2003 ::

A Tale of Two Cities: Washington and London
Reading the BBC online after having graded Regents' Exams for six hours today, ('allo chuck--fellow blogger and regents' grader), I was please to find that at least British MPs have a backbone. Unlike our own elected congress who seem to be more eager to reap the benefits of an oil-rich Saddam-free Iraq than to question the intent behind this violent illegal war, the MPs are querying Mssrs. Blair and Bush where exactly these WMDs have gotten to since Saddam seemed so eager to use them, and if they're not found, there will be political hell to pay.

From today's Guardian:
MPs are also starting to ask questions about the conduct of the intelligence services. They want to see the evidence that persuaded members of the Commons intelligence committee to back government efforts to win round waverers before the war began. One MP is telling committee members: "You kept saying you wished you could tell us, so now will you tell us?"

Critics suspect that Downing Street may have hyped up the intelligence reports about Iraq's banned weapons. They point to last month's resignation speech by Robin Cook, in which the former foreign secretary said: "Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term."

Such doubts were echoed yesterday by a three-star Iraqi general who told the Guardian in Baghdad that the country had purged itself completely of weapons of mass destruction after the 1991 Gulf war.

I was disappointed to watch Colin Powell on Newshour the other night parroting his supposed nemesis Donny Rumsfeld about how the WMDs are there and will be found, even if it takes years. Years? If it takes years, then it seems logical that they are out of commission, wouldn't you say? I fear that it doesn't matter anymore to the US public at least, since the stroke of genius of this admin was to turn towards liberatory and humanitarian reasons to justify invasion.

A Pack of Cards, A Pack of Liars
What is so crafty about this admin. is the way it picks and chooses lines of argument that feed into both our fears and insecurities since 9/11, and simultaneously provide us an authoritative, patronizing, and compassionate role as a nation invested in other people's freedoms. It's quite clever really, and yet anyone with even the slightest knowledge of US foreign policy knows better than to be decieved by this pack of liars. I call for a new deck of cards to be created and distributed to the American people called Bush Administrations Most Wanted Liars--Dick Cheney: King of Clubs, Connie Rice--Queen of Hearts, Donny Rumsfield--Ace of Spades, Paul Wolferwitz--Jack of Spades. I'll add to the list as I see fit, and you can add your own.

Lastly....Wit from a Georgia College Student
Reading Regents' Exams are hell as anyone who's graded standardized writing exams can attest and yet every now and then one reads a gem from the rubbish heap (as V. Woolf would say). This morning I read an essay responding to this prompt: If you set out on a mission to outer space to colonize a planet , what features of life found on Earth would you consider never taking with you? (I admit I have problems with this question, but most Regents' Exams' questions seem to have this sinister benign aspect to them). The writer went on to respond that drugs, war, and Republicans would never be allowed on Planet X because Republicans were responsible for both dealing drugs and promoting war, particularly in the Iran-Contra Affair of the 1980s. There was also a funny picture of Oliver North on his/her prewriting sheet. I just laughed and laughed....
:: posted by Doreen on 5:24 PM [+] ::
...

Shocked and Awed at where US forces Loyalities Lie?
This from Robert Fiske today:
Iraq's scavengers have thieved and destroyed what they have been allowed to loot and burn by the Americans – and a two-hour drive around Baghdad shows clearly what the US intends to protect. After days of arson and pillage, here's a short but revealing scorecard. US troops have sat back and allowed mobs to wreck and then burn the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information. They did nothing to prevent looters from destroying priceless treasures of Iraq's history in the Baghdad Archaeological Museum and in the museum in the northern city of Mosul, or from looting three hospitals.

The Americans have, though, put hundreds of troops inside two Iraqi ministries that remain untouched – and untouchable – because tanks and armoured personnel carriers and Humvees have been placed inside and outside both institutions. And which ministries proved to be so important for the Americans? Why, the Ministry of Interior, of course – with its vast wealth of intelligence information on Iraq – and the Ministry of Oil. The archives and files of Iraq's most valuable asset – its oilfields and, even more important, its massive reserves – are safe and sound, sealed off from the mobs and looters, and safe to be shared, as Washington almost certainly intends, with American oil companies.

:: posted by Doreen on 2:46 PM [+] ::
...