On a happier note, there is an exhibit at the NYPL on New York City wildlife — yes there actually is some here other than the kind of people Mr. Swill meets on the subway.
I recommend going to see it. It’s free!
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NYPL exhibit
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Categories: Culture -
Weapons inspectors were not expelled in 1998
In These Times has an interview with Scott Ritter, who served as Chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq until 1998. In case you haven’t heard, he is opposed to our attacking Iraq, warning “If the United States unilaterally invades Iraq, we will go to war as a rogue nation ourselves and join the short list that includes North Korea, which invaded South Korea, and Saddam Hussein, who invaded Kuwait.”
I want to start screaming everytime I read or hear someone talk about the weapons inspectors being expelled. Here is Ritter’s account:
Saddam Hussein didn’t kick out the U.N. inspectors. They were ordered out by the U.S. government, which then used information they provided to bomb 100 locations that had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. So the weapons inspectors were used by the United States. This is the reality: When Madeleine Albright called up Richard Butler and said, “Jump!” Richard Butler always said, “How high?” It was obvious from day one.
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Money for war, but not for the veterans
Apparently Bush and his masters think there’s enough money to spend $9+ billion per month on Iraq, but there’s not enough money to provide pension benefits for disabled veterans. Rumsfeld and Bush think it’s “double dipping” for a veteran to get any extra money if they’re retired AND disabled.
The Republicans seem to feel the same way about soldiers that they do about babies. They’re OK at the beginning, but we don’t care what happens to them later.
Statistic: Nearly one quarter of all homeless people are veterans.
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Categories: Politics -
Smart column on our Wilsonian problem
Walter LaFeber, distinguished historian, has a good column in the Washington Post on our country’s Wilsonian split personality when it comes to engaging the outside world.
Wilsonianism, more than any other -ism, has shaped the foreign policy thinking of Americans in the early 21st century. Articulated in Wilson’s 1917 speech asking Congress to declare war, it rejects neutrality in an age where the conduct of “civilized states” was at issue.
Wilsonianism has been glorified, especially since the American triumph in the Cold War. But it is less a policy than a disorder. That is because at its core, Wilsonianism has a split personality. One Wilson preached the ideal of worldwide democracy and free enterprise under the aegis of the League of Nations. The other Wilson was the greatest unilateral military interventionist in U.S. history.
He sent troops into Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, and it took generations of diplomacy to clean up the results. This was the Wilson who pledged to teach Mexico “to elect good men,” even if he ended up sending in U.S. troops to do rather intense, if irrelevant, teaching. This was also the Wilson who, when asked whether he was going into World War I in concert with “allies,” replied that the United States would maintain its freedom of action and thus enter the conflict only as an “associated” power.
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Categories: Politics -
Georgie Anne Geyer Rocks!
I just found this column, courtesy of TBOGG.
Some readers may have gotten the impression that I am unequivocally against a war with Iraq. As a matter of fact, that is not true. But one reason that I am against an attack upon Baghdad is because I do not think our military leaders are the best ones to lead it.
To the contrary, I think that our many superzealous civilian officials who are impassionedly leading the fight should be right up there in the front lines. Wars always need the most aggressive and “warlike” at the front. Instead, we find ourselves today in a virtually unheard-of situation where most of the men planning this abstruse war are hawkish and agenda-prone intellectuals who seem to think that war is the ultimate metaphysical experience — for someone else, of course.
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Richard Perle revealed his own deep concern for American soldiers when he was asked on a recent “Wide Angle” TV show about the threat of chemical and biological weapons to troops landing in Iraq. All he could do was announce, without any emotion, “These are not effective weapons in terms of the outcome of the engagement.”
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Categories: Politics -
Go, Maine!
“Gephardt, Gephardt has no spine! He just follows Bush’s line,” the crowd loudly repeated, holding signs and banging drums, standing a few feet away from the high-ranking Democrat. The age of protesters ranged from college students to middle-aged parents to white-haired seniors.
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Categories: Politics -
Rally media follow-up
The New York Times article is horrible. My feeble post was as journalistic as their report, which mostly quotes people with the most tangential messages to show that it was “just a bunch of kooks — nothing to worry about”. A lot of people at the rally itself spoke very well on the use of 9/11 as an excuse for the Bush administration to do what it likes anyway in terms of stifling dissent and shredding the Bill of Rights. They also talked about how talk of war is being used to distract the country from the problems of corporate crime, the bad economy, and people’s worries about their retirement. Here’a a good Alternet column on this topic, whose thesis is that we may not even go to war. War talk is being used to win the election.
The Daily News’s coverage is better. They and the other media outlets, such as the BBC, also use higher numbers than the Times.
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Categories: Politics -
Anti-war rally
I’m getting a cold, so this is going to be a stream-of-consciousness post about the rally. There are some photos here.
We got there a little after 1pm, and stayed until it ended around 5 or 5:30. As we walked from the subway station (the 6) to the park, a couple of people yelled at us that this was a “good war”, or that we must be Saddam Hussein lovers. All of these people were driving SUVs. In the station itself, things got started early, even before we were out on the street, with a group of college students chanting.
One of the most moving people I saw was a rescue worked from Ground Zero — I think his organization was Ground Zero for Peace, but I’m not sure. He said that rescue workers rescue anyone, regardless of their politics or race or religion, and they didn’t want more casualties.
Signs and t-shirts spotted that I liked:
* Fighting for Peace is like Fucking for Virginity
* All Bully No Pulpit
* Silence = Consent
* Madness of King George
* The Emperor has no Brain
* Regime change starts at home
* Bombing Iraq is so 10 years ago
* AutogeddonOne interesting tidbit — out of the 20,000 or so people there, I only saw a single smoker.
The main announcer sounded a lot like a South Asian Eleanor Roosevelt.
There were a number of celebrities. Susan Sarandon was very good, telling Bush and those that saw questioning the government as treasonous, “This is what democracy looks like. This is what an intelligent citizenry does.” She also said that a pre-emptive strike “as defense” was what Pearl Harbor was. She mentioned that Robert Byrd is talking about doing a filibuster to prevent a vote on war with Iraq. It was probably the first time a crowd like that ever cheered Byrd. Go read James’s account of Byrd’s speech last week.
Susan’s significant other, Tim Robbins, was great. He talked about how this is all basically a ruse to distract us from the scandals of Halliburton and Enron, and the bad economy. He said that fundamentalism of any kind was abhorrent to him, because it was opposed to the things that mattered to him: art, music, film, books, and independent women.
Tom Duane was the only currently-elected official I saw there. He said he wished he had more politicians to stand with him at the rally.
A young woman from Stuyvesant H.S. said that it was the duty of youth to dissent, since they would have to live with the world that is being created now, and much longer than Bush will.
Martin Sheen reminded us that 40 years ago next week, the Cuban Missile Crisis was worked out without going to war. He also read part of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.
A woman from Global Exchange, the group that interrupted Rumsfeld at his Armed Services Committee appearance a few weeks ago, said they were called “rude and unreasonable women”. She also used the great phrase “Weapons of Mass Distraction”.
Two young girls — nine and ten — read a great statement they had written. My favorite part: “We have more than enough money to buy the oil we need, so why do we need to steal it?”
Cynthia McKinney spoke, and I can see why the Republicans hate her so much. She said that Bush, et al, are so gung ho for war, but none of them had actually fought in any wars.
There was a lot more, including appearances by Reno and David Byrne, but I think you get the picture.
Resources:
* Common Cause
* Not In Our NameFinal note: I can’t find coverage of today’s event in any U.S. media right now, but there’s an article on the BBC web site. They estimate the crowd at 20,000.
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Back from the anti-war rally
I’ll post more in a little while — just got home. We were there until it ended. I would estimate there were at least 10,000 there, it might have been closer to 15-20,000. I just went to look at the NY1 and 1010 WINS web sites. The former’s top story is about a fake ticker-tape parade and other fake “Olympic” activities to promote NYC’s attempts to bring the games here. 1010 WINS’s web site has these as the top stories:
* Cop Shot in Brooklyn
* Survey: NY Congressman Support War
* Report: Mentally Ill Locked Down in Nursing Homes
* Firetrucks and Car Collide in Bronx – 12 Hurt
* Claims Adjuster Found Guilty of Damaging Home
* Campbells Recalls Mislabeled Soup
* Police in CT Arrest 3 ‘Jackass’ Wannabes
* Supreme Court Considers Taking NJ Senate Case
* Report: Derailed Air Train was Near Top Speed
* Bloomberg to Crack Down on Sidewalk Cafes
* Jogger Rape Suspect Says He Raped Another
* Mayor Heads to Colorado to Push Olympic Bid
* Record Spending in NY Governor’s Race
* Brooklyn Brothers Plead Guilty to $50M Fraud
* U.N. Shooter Denied Bail Over Flight Risk
* Parents Plead Innocent in Son’s Heroin Death
* Families Want Steel Cross to Stay at Ground Zero
* NYC, Nurses Union, Reach Deal
* Parties Lobby Supreme Court on NJ Ballot IssueIf 10,000+ people oppose a war, it’s not news. Of course, London had at least 150,000 for theirs.
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All guns, no butter
I’m about to head up to Central Park for this. I hope to see some of you there. Actually, maybe I hope it’s so big that it’s hard to find anyone I know.
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Categories: Politics