Here we go, the world thanks you bush (sarcasim intended).
How do you sleep at night GWB? drug induced,liquor induced or are you so devoid of feelings that it doesn't matter?

This column is a spit of truth in an ocean of propaganda. Here in Minnesota, some right-wing propaganda outfit is running ads about all the marvelous things we are doing in Iraq. What a crock! And what an incredible waste of our tax dollars and our sons and daughters lives and limbs. Thanks again Doug, for having the courage to speak truth to power!

I can not help but believe that the Mossad is responsible for this latest bombing as well as many prior. Since part of our mission in Iraq is to secure the state of Israel, it seems that a fragmented Iraq is more suitable to their needs in spite of the propoganda we hear from our government and the corporate owned media.

Thanks for putting the comments back on your rants and not letting the foolish shut down free speech for the rest of us.

I fail to understand how this administration can get it so wrong every time. I do not know much about the Iraqi people, but I do know a few things about democracy and freedom. I know that we Americans wanted our freedom enough to put our lives on the line and fight for it. We, as a people, had known oppression and made the conscious decision to leave that security behind in our fight to gain independance and democracy for our new country. We Americans made that decision, and we Americans fought for and won our freedom and created our own democracy in the image we choose. There lies the difference, in my opinion. How can a people fully appreciate the responsibilities of a democracy without fighting on every level for it themselves? Call me old-fashioned, but I've always felt that something won through your own hard work is much more appreciated than one given as a gift. You have a sense of ownership with the former and entitlement with the latter. It's a mindset, and I don't see where the people of Iraq have the ownership mentality towards democracy that they need to have for success.

As for those Minnesota propaganda ads being put out by the Progress for America Voter Fund; I feel they are horrible. I've done my civic duty and written to the TV stations airing them, assuring them of my lost viewership because of the ads, and I've written to the group telling them to take my name off their mailing list. I don't want, or need, any neo-conservative propaganda coming into my home when we get it daily on the 'liberal' news media. Doug, thank you for telling it like it is and giving us the rest of the story.

Not only has this been a monumental catastrophe, but our economy and our future have been mortgaged to do it.

Let's see, to date every single American taxpayer has spent close to $2100 financing this fiasco. But I digress, not all Americans pay their fair share of taxes, so it is not fair for me to say 'all Americans'.

This war and our economy have been financed by China, Japan, the House of Saud. Just think, when Bushie leaves office, there will be (b)millions that will await him for the plundering of our great country.

History will not be kind to this administration, but will we be around to dissect that history?

As sad as it may seem, it would appear that inciting a massive civil war in Iraq, as bloody and horrible as that will be, might very well have been the neocon's main goal all along.

As this quagmire has dragged on (and on) in Iraq, I've become more and more convinced we've actually been fighting Irsael's war there, not our own. That's because destabilizing Iraq (or Iran, or any other Moslem country in the region) keeps the "heat" off Israel. And, all the while the various factions in Iraq are fighting among themselves, Israel's ability to dominate in the region grows ever stronger.

So, far from being a sign of "failure", under this scenario, a civil war in Iraq would actually fit nicely into such an overall plan.

If the arrogant little man would have just listened to his advisors, we would have less than 200 dead in combat, be billions of dollars richer, and have a far more stable situation than we have now. The thing that we were supposed to have learned in Vietnam is that you don't want to get caught in the middle of someone elses civil war.

Good morning, Doug,
Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I'm so glad you didn't retire! I work for the DOD (I know. . .) and some days it seems you are the only rational person I hear from. Most of the military at the Naval base where I work are solidly Republican - God knows why - even though they have been much quieter lately. It's really hard when you're are the only one who thinks our current administration is not only blatently corrupt, but striving to tear down freedoms we have always taken for granted (perhaps that's the problem). So, it's very reassuring to read your column and find someone who's views are the same. As the British say, "you're spot on" all the time. I think you are a modern day hero because with the prevailing paranoid attitude of Bush and Co, you put yourself in real danger every day. Currently, only your wings have been clipped. But what's next? You are a brave person and I admire you tremendously. So Rant on!

Sincerely,
Jan Buckley

I figure this fits well into Bushco's plans for the region.

After the attack on Iran kicks off, the Shiah were bound to be a thorn in the side of US support operations out of Iraq. What better way to prevent a focused Shiah response in support of Iran than for them to be locked up in tis for tat reprisals with the Sunni? Divide and Conquer.

It doesn't make sense that the bomber was an 'Al Quaeda' attacker for several reasons. Though the fact that it wasn't a suicide bomber but was a military style operation should be clue enough. And the Sunni surely have nothing to profit by being on the short end of a civil war.

Hell, if the Sunni wanted a civil war, they would have simply launched one. No incitement of the Shiah needed.

But you know, I keep thinking about those two SAS agents that were busted several months ago.

I made the comment that all we were doing was opening up Iraq to the normal conclusion three years ago. Sadaam was the only thing that was keeping these folks from becoming what will eventually be at least two separate countries. We saw it In the communist countries and now we are seeing it in Iraq.People that have been forced into a single coutry and don't agree don't stay that way when they have "freedom".

I made the comment that all we were doing was opening up Iraq to the normal conclusion three years ago. Sadaam was the only thing that was keeping these folks from becoming what will eventually be at least two separate countries. We saw it In the communist countries and now we are seeing it in Iraq. People that have been forced into a single country and don't agree don't stay that way when they have "freedom".

American lives should not be wasted because our noses are stuck in a civil war based on a religion which most of our country's leaders know very little about. You cannot help if you do not understand, and we have a huge misunderstanding. You cannot help those who are not willing to recieve the help, or don't even consider it to be help but a hinderance; sort of like an annoying fly that distracts you from doing the task at hand. I hate pointing my fingers in any specific direction, and making statements that I cannot back up clearly so I refuse to beat down our current government. I just wish to see as many lives spared as possible by bringing our troops home so these people can fight for whatever their cause is. These guys are fearless, and they will not be stopped, no matter how much "progress" we make.

American lives should not be wasted because our noses are stuck in a civil war based on a religion which most of our country's leaders know very little about. You cannot help if you do not understand, and we have a huge misunderstanding. You cannot help those who are not willing to recieve the help, or don't even consider it to be help but a hinderance; sort of like an annoying fly that distracts you from doing the task at hand. I hate pointing my fingers in any specific direction, and making statements that I cannot back up clearly so I refuse to beat down our current government. I just wish to see as many lives spared as possible by bringing our troops home so these people can fight for whatever their cause is. These guys are fearless, and they will not be stopped, no matter how much "progress" we make.

Your Cheney shooting story is all over the news. It's being picked up by everybody. I just wanted to remind you that the story came out after you thought you were going to take some time off. I'm glad you didn't. The country's glad you didn't.

However, I can't feel positive about anything concerning this government. I see a downhill slide all the way to the bottom. Am I wrong?

Free Saddam and recall the "old" Iraqi army.

"Deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, military professionals privately admit what the Bush Administration publicly fails to recognize - the United States veers dangerously on the precipice of its worst wartime embarrassment since Vietnam as Iraq plunges into an irreversible civil war."

This will be worse than Vietnam. Recall that GHW Bush (aka "Poppy" or "B41" or "Senior") told ALL of us that his efforts in Iraq in 1990-91 would NOT be another "Vietnam." We knew all of this BEFORE the latest foray into the Iraqian desert and there should have been foreboding and forewarning and forethought about how to avoid the prospect that Iraqia would become another contentious civil action with Americans merely getting in the way.

It comes down to the old saw about the two brothers fighting with the good samaritan trying to get in the way and stopping it. The brothers, intent on not being bothered and settling their own issues, will stop fighting between themselves, taking out the interloper as a team before returning to settling their own differences. The Americans and Bush's COWs (Coalition of the Willings) have become obstacles in the path toward the inevitable showdown, confrontation, and struggle. The Americans will know Islam by its name translated, "submission to the will of God and obedience to His law."

It is becoming worse than Vietnam because before and during that conflict (again, no declared "war"), the Americans were riding high on the Second European Civil War successes as well as those in Korea. Now, with the aftertaste of Saigon and wherever remaining in the mouths of too many, Black Walls in the D of C, traveling replica walls all over the U.S., and other graphic reminders, Iraq as poorly planned and implemented HAS Vietnam as the lesson, one that has not been learned by many, especially those for whom "Vietnam" meant defer, delay, or desist.

As we have seen with many operations, going in after the cancer (i.e., Saddam Hussein) might only make things worse by allowing it to spread. Leaving it encapsulated and therefore isolated would have been the better option. But, knowing how people are vain, zits or wrinkles or essentially benign tumours are not in their mind's eyesore of themselves. Everything "ugly" has to go. And, then, what have we got? Another Michael Jackson result, one of increasingly bizarre circumstances that tend to offend rather than act as an attraction?

Has anyone else had problems with their bookmark? Mine no longer works. When I google on capitolhillblue it takes me to a blank page. If I click on the left side of the page it takes me to a New York Education website. Somehow the other day I found the rant. Did something change and I missed it?

On Feb 4 you stated you were standing down. Glad you didn't!

Bush IS NOT in his right mind. Come to think of it, I don't think he ever DID have a right mind, it's just now showing up in all its ugly glory. Do a Google search, and you will find out that he's also selling out Missouri's national forests too. Mark Twain National Forest.

Tell me, Bush cheerleaders, do you still support your commander in thief?
Don't it just make ya prouderthansh*t to be an Amerikun?

I predeicted a civil war before we invaded Iraq. If the administration would have watched two movies ("Exodus" and "Lawrence of Arabia")he would understand why the Arabs and Israelies hate each other and why our invasion would result in anarchy.

the state parks in north carolina oregon california and wash are being harvested and sold to timber companies too. what a sham, if we dont stop them now we will lose our nation, lets arrest them all , use their own inhumane patriot act against them, call them enemy combatants and market them for repartation. close to 6 billion people throughout the world all have one thing in common , a sincere desire to see these neocons get what they deserve. why not arrest them, put em on ppv humane torture series where we could sell lottery tickets for daily chances to humiliate these traitors on world ppv series. i tell you , if only 5 % of world population participated this would generate revenues of 20 trillion annually. we could fix every problem in the world with this plan

These bastards continue to plunder and rape our country. They send our sons and daughters to die in a useless war due to Bush's "vision". The R's have morphed into some kind of santanic culture. Our "president" and VP condone torture. No one speaks out. Where is the outrage? For 5 years Bush has spied on Americans illegaly. He has lied and proven himself the coward he is. Florida and the Supreme Court acted illegaly. What was once such a great nation is now headed for third world status. Bush would rather spend our money on war than global warming. He would rather kill innocent women and children with White Phosphorus in Iraq. It is a disgrace what is happening to the environment. I am a Vietnam veteran and have seen what war does. Bush is clueless and a war criminal. What will happen to the Bush "administration" next? We crucified Clinton because of a BJ. We hear nothing when Bush steals our civil liberties and rights. Could there have been a worse reaction to Katrina? Whatever he has undertaken, he has made things worse. We are making less money than 5 years ago, but the power elite continues to print all the money they need. Bush makes Nixon look like a choir boy.

By the time this is finished, we'll have wasted $2.2 TRILLION, thousands dead, thousand wounded who will have to be cared for (probably for the rest of their lives), thousands will suffer from mental illness of one kind or another, and the oil barons won't pay for any of it.

I'd like to see profit made illegal any time the U.S. or U.K. are engaged in combat operations. World Peace would then be a real possibility.

Yes it might be sas agents or neo-con efforts at keeping the Shia engaged while they try to hit Iraq or Syria but these efforts are so small compared to the Muslim belief that they could form another grand empire and if they did then their status vis-a-vis the West and now the East (China, Japan, Korea, et al)would be enhanced and their proper place in the world would be recognized. An empire would mean total control over their oil wealth, strategic position and an end to Israel. And we would have to leave the area.

the "liberal" media is so far behind on every story that it's really really sad.

today, fri, feb, 24th, 4:00pm hour, on cnn's "situation room"...

the header at the bottom of the screen is "iraq on the brink?"

ON the brink??? ON the brink??

maybe when the death squads started you could have asked "is iraq on the brink?"

but when the roof of the golden masque gets blown off by men in iraqi police gear and in front of a multitude of people right there to be hurt and killed...

when more masques are blown up in retaliation...

when there is only four hours of NON-curfew time...

hmmmmm, i wonder if'n we might possibly be on the brink soon? hmmmmmmm.... only time knows for sure, i guess.

the so called "liberal" media the repubes creak on about needs to get their asses up to pace with the reality of the world soon. or else it'll be too late for them as well.

dear liberal media, i have a new subject for you...
"IRAQ: OVER the brink?"

try that one.

"IRAQ ON THE BRINK?" yes, wolfy, yes it is.

All manner of Middle East experts were prepared to tell George W. Bush of the dire consequences of going to war with Iraq. These experts were willing to speak with the Congress and to go on television and be interviewed by the newspapers. But Bush and his claque of fanatic neocons had their own agenda, the Republican majority was too intellectually lazy and unwilling to exercise its equal rights under the Constitution, and the mainstream media was too cowardly to offer any dissenting views (it still is). Now we reap the whirlwind, a savage maelstrom of death, destruction and bankruptcy. I have no problem with the contempible and evil Bush suffering the consequences of his policies. The tragedy is that those of us who never voted for this fool will also suffer. May I also take this opportunity to apologize to the people of Iraq for the destruction we have visited upon their country.

All I can say is thank God for people like you. You're willing to tell the truth and stand up for what is right.

while it is quite obvious that nothing good will ever be said about bush on this blog,i do believe iraq is a mess right now,i would like people to remember your own country's history.every country has had to go through upheavel when trying to start or change to a new form of government.remember the civil war? who knows if a democratic form of government will work in iraq.the iraqis have to sort that out themselves.

Celebrate! Celebrate!
Dance to the Music!

Like France in Algeria, We Will Leave Iraq
But we might bomb Iran

Algeria is far from settled. Lest we forget, the people on the ground need clean water, electricity, and safety - but not justice. All sides want revenge, it is a fact of life for the vengeful. Conscription would be as bad a thing as was the 1960 military revolt that almost took down Charles De Gaulle. He was later in Algeria, 1943. A Maginot conscription of US children at this time? Our leaders would brim with confidence. The mandate from heaven, a hallucination of great proportion, would go on.

De Gaulle, granted independence to 14 French African colonies, Guinea in 1958, the rest in 1960. He chose to pursue an Algerian colonial war until 1962. Those fourteen owe their easy independence to Algeria. Algeria in turn, owes Viet Nam.

Recent Reports

Forgetting a good but overthrown election is also not a part of present-day Algeria, the Bouteflka administration after the nullified ballot decision of 1992. The old ones may die but the world will not forget.

"Inquiries by families of the missing had been ignored, while ... those responsible for murders, kidnappings and disappearances enjoy complete immunity".

"[Eric] Goldstein [senior official of Human Rights Watch] referred particularly to the disappearance of more than 6,000 people in Algeria blamed on government agents between 1992 and 1998 during a wave of violence by armed Islamist groups."

To Latin American observers, this should sound familiar: nullify elections, and "disappear" the opponents. It is not the 30,000 in Argentina. Only 1/5 of that number disappeared in Algeria, still it is not insignificant in a population of 23 million at the time.

"Three Islamic gunmen and a police officer were killed and seven security forces have been injured in separate incidents of violence in Algeria in recent days. The French-language daily Le Jeune Independent Saturday quoted a security source as saying army troops killed two gunmen during an operation Friday in the province of Boumedras, 37 miles east of Algiers, and destroyed several hideouts for the gunmen."

"The French-language daily Liberte reported army troops clashed with gunmen Thursday in the province of Boueira, 75 miles east of the capital, killing one and capturing another."

"In another incident, two bombs exploded Thursday in the eastern province of Azfoun, cutting through a convoy of security forces. One police officer was killed and seven others wounded. The incident prompted Minister of Transport Mohammed Meghlawi to cancel a visit to Azfoun."

Without being there, it is a guess halfway between resistance and crime. On the other hand, Iraqi reports or Algerian ones are not the newspaper numbers that we all like to curl up with over coffee every morning.

Introduction

Let me preface this piece by saying that I am going to explore a part of the world with which most are unfamiliar and test some assumptions. It is Algerian history, a story of resistance, Iraq, and an Iranian twist. George F. Will and Naomi Klein seem to think that Algeria is an important back drop to Iraq. So do I.

Algerian History

Three years after the French were booted out in 1962, the elected Ben Bellah, was overthrown by the military in 1965, replaced by Defense minister, Boumedienne. Thinking they had won hearts and minds, the coast clear, Algeria attempted open elections in 1990. When it was certain Islamic fundamentalists would win with 55% of the electorate's support, the results of the 1992 elections were suspended. The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), the real winner, pursued civil war. 14 years since 1992, year of our lord 2005 and prophet 1426, noticed by only a few, a bloody mess ensues.

These days, only 10-20 people a day are killed by bombs and gunshot; down from mid-1990's high of 1,200. Like Bush in Iraq, Algeria's success is measured in how few die. So when does the celebration start? Repression so high that aspirations are squashed like an insect in the house?

Since the canceled 1992 Algerian elections more than 150,000 lives have been lost. The insurgents are deadly if not so far in power. The country still ships natural gas to Europe while the rest of the world looks the other way.

Algeria has the planet's seventh largest known natural gas reserves and is the world's second largest exporter of LNG, (liquefied natural gas). Its military proxies for the entrenched rich refuse to share the wealth.

"Longstanding problems continue to face President Bouteflika in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption."

Sanitized, the public version does not begin to tell what the spooks know. The CIA gets it right, but the real assessment is not published. The first election ended with military dictatorship, the second election saw every party but Bouteflika's withdraw. The secessionist Berber movement is in the Kabyle, the northeastern portion of the country.

Not just another petroleum dictatorship, Algerian civil war is another rut in the sand. This should sound familiar to the observers of Iraq. Algeria suffers in its modernity, to the shame of its own greedy elites. Historically however freedom fighters ended colonialism and have stopped occupiers dead in their tracks.

Algeria owes the Berbers.

The French learned that lesson the hard way. Their experience, first in Viet Nam and eight years later in Algeria, contributed in no small measure to their reluctance to join the Bush war party. Some parties have bad endings with little to celebrate. The candles just don't stay lit for a foreign occupation when it is open-ended and knowingly based on lies.

"Still, a nagging question is whether, in Iraq as in Algeria, time is on the side of the insurgents. In Algeria, French counterinsurgency measures were skillful, ruthless and, by late 1958, successful. Briefly. In 1962, France retreated from Algeria." George F. Will's Washington Post editorial, April 27, 2005, was not widely considered or reprinted. He forgot to add that an estimated 100,000 French and one million Algerians died.

The Idea of Democracy, War Mongers, and Conscription

Not a problem, we have The New York Times' Thomas L. Friedman as the United Sates official, amnesiac, imperial smokescreen. I synopsize: "Not enough troops." "Post-Saddam badly planned and badly administered." "If Iraqi's just wanted democracy." "Close Guantanamo." But he pulls up short on rendition, the shipping of US war prisoners and civilian captives, some from Canada, to countries known for torture. He begs a draft for the drunk partygoers. "Not enough troops", the jack-boot's cry, as they try to pin the tail on the donkey.

Despite recent reports that the British and Americans will quit Iraq in the next year, they will not, until forced by their own domestic populations. Lack of recruits is a real issue.

There really is nothing quite like the end of conscription to put a wet blanket on an imperial celebration.

Torture

The colonial French official rhetoric was not much different. They characterized the opposition as terrorist. The yellow, brown, and black people in the colonies did not understand democracy and civilization. They did not understand the good the French were doing. They tortured in Algeria, Viet Nam, and Africa. So did the British in Kenya, their own special version of East African hell. So does the US in Iraq, Guantanmo, and Afghanistan in real time.

The world has seen more than enough of video beheadings, designed to revulse and boil the blood. The occupation coalition has killed countless 10's of thousands of innocents (a secret number), has a body count on "combatants", and has, as it has in all wars, behaved badly.

"At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling." Mr. Dilawar was tortured to death at Afghanistan's Bagram Prison. He was one of two of whom we know. (While the New York Times prefers to hide behind its archives, there are many sources available based on their report).

Torture in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram prison, beheadings, and extreme rendition, the whisking off of prisoners to countries known for extreme torture, purposefully breaking the Geneva Convention; it is all beyond anything any of us want to see.

Iran's Border

One rendition resort for tortured US captives is Uzbekistan, a friendly dictatorship that prefers to boil its opponents in hot oil; a scalding, hideous death that Bush supports - a mere snuff film in Ali Baba's cave of oil - the base on the border with Iran. [60 Minutes Video Link here.]

Including the seven permanent bases in Iraq, that makes eight bases from which the US can preemptively attack for the sake of "... a US idea of democracy?... " So much for Iranian democrats, replaced in 1953: Mossadeq for a Shah Reza Pahlavi, a brutal SAVAK-US backed dictatorship, and an uprising of the people.

The CIA Shah was overthrown in 1979. Why threaten them again? Human rights, Swiss conventions, preemptive strikes, and managed democracy: Geneva, y'all come back now, hear?

But ask the French about Algeria

"... to no people had torture been more abhorrent, morally and philosophically, especially after their experiences [German Occupation] from 1940 to 1944." (A Savage War of Peace, Algeria 1954-1962, Chapter 9, The Battle for Algiers)

Alistair Horne goes on to say that torture was a gift to anti-colonial organizers. Even those disposed to compromise among the Algerians were driven into the arms of the opposition. That opposition made French colonial Algeria ungovernable as both sides could not forget what had been done.

The French could not forget 1957, neither could the people of Algeria. There were atrocities on both sides.

The Beauty and Shame of Algeria

The Kabylie (it means tribe in Arabic) of northeastern Algeria, home of the Tamazight speakers, the Berbers, is an issue in modern Maghreb. Great contributors to the anti-colonial fight, caught up in repression since the days of the French, demanding their own language, they are the holdouts of the suppression of the 1992 election.

Greedy elites with valuable national petroleum resources and slighted minorities are a combustible candle to the light at the end of the tunnel. Especially when the ocean vistas are as beautiful as Algeria's, from Saharan shore to the Mediterranean Sea.

At some parties, the candles won't stay lit. It's only 10-20 per day down from 1200 lives lost, the mid-nineties average in Algeria.

Occupiers

Occupiers and election losers try to keep the celebrations alive with children, candles, clowns, and a sharp needle in an ass. A warm planet left behind, the world’s children shoveling behind the horses in the parade.

Iran has fewer dead per day than Algeria. Iraq has more.

For those on the party ground, the music is hard to hear, bombs block out the music. A timetable for the end of the imperious procession is more important than celebration. All occupiers know the drill.

__________________________________________________

Karl S. Shepard
7/4/2005

__________________________________________________

PS. I was forced to update some broken links. The new links add nothing more to my original account. It is not my fault that the LA Times and NY Times prefer to deny information that could easily have been kept in the loop. I was also forced to update the reference on Kenya.

10/7/2005

Updated the link on Uzbekistan on hot oil. The wikipedia link was not any longer close enough to my point. This takes nothing from wikipedia, I really love the on-line encyclopedia. The Guardian link takes its place.

10/16/2005

Added the 60 Minutes video link on Extreme Rendition.

10/20/2005

Added the link to Washington Post on Secret CIA Prisons (reposted on my web site).

11/1/2005

__________________________________________________

Karl Shepard lived in Algeria in 1976 and celebrated the 200th anniversary of the United State's Declaration of Independence there. In 1989, he received a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship to pursue field research in Kenya. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, he currently resides in Hillsboro, Oregon. He can be reached at ss.karl@gmail.com

His web page resides at http://home.comcast.net/~karlss

Please notify me of any glaring errors, grammatical problems, or broken links. I will change it. This may be reprinted and distributed only if it is done without alteration and attributed to the author.

PS. Doug could you please publish my orginal piece with the links?

Karl

I hope the Republican class think ahead a little bit. If the muslims kill out enough troops, a draft will be in place, and it will be their sons and daughters, college classes make no difference, unless Bush neocons change the law there too. But if this should happen, THERE WOULD BE A CIVIL WAR ON OUR STREETS TOO. NERVES ARE RAW, nothing is impossible!

Doug, Please consider the following scenario very carefully. The civil war in Iraq is NO failure. It was planned and executed by the Illuminati new world order to fascilitate the beginning of the 3rd world war deemed necessary to usher in the anti-Christ to lead the ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT, which is the END GOAL of all world affairs at this time. To accomplish ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT, it is necessary to control world oil and its reserves, eliminate the Muslim(Arab) people, and demonstrate nuclear superiority anywhere on the globe in order to hold sway. This means America must suffer another 9/11 disaster, only one much worse, to arouse the people to become a mob screaming for revenge thus ensuring that the hallowed Congress nods its approval to go nuclear in Iraq, thus demonstrating this power as a warning to the world. Sweet and simple, and the die has already been cast. Be as far away from Texas as you can immediately. There are those that say Texas City could be the target. email me if you are concerned. Sincerely, William Borgstrom wwb123@earthlink.net

OPEN POST TO CIA AND INTEL FOLKS:
fighting a stateless, bodyless entity with boots on the ground is getting tiring. our generals play a military game while "Osama" plays a media game. who's getting more sleep at night? the iraq thing is a monumental fiasco. and we don't get invited to parties anymore, what's up with that? well, on the radical side, we've dealt with some of these thorny issues for a long time. believe it or not, our nonviolent conflict resolution techniques are polished and battle tested. our negotiation skills aren't that bad. and we understand cellular organization that arises out of community direct action. in other words, we're better able to understand what you are dealing with. we tend to think more like them than you do. so don't count us out. in fact, you know who most of us are and we've known (and even admired) some of you through the years, let's see what we can put together along the lines of getting the hell out of this without the whole thing going up in one big furnace. email me anytime.

As to civil war in Iraq chaos is always the last option for criminal activity near exposure. All of teh Golden Dome locals are reported as believing the Brits and USA blew it up and the idea has proof. The proof lies in the western media choosing to ignore the huge mass demonstrations of disapproval of the half day of much smaller violent riots. While your writers are writing your editors should be reading far and wide so the mainstream becomes more influenced by the truth. I know you do.

When you proceed from a false premise, whatever you do will not make things right.
The ability to stablish a western style democracy in Iraq was such a premise (Unless you believe our motives were not that pure).
A civil war fomented by ethnic/religious beliefs and who would get to control Iraq's oil resources was always in the cards. As each card gets laid on the table, it becomes that more obvious.
For too long, I've heard supporters of Mr Bush's foreign policy say how the ramifications of our losing in Iraqi are too catastrophic to contemplate.
Well guess what.
When you proceed from a false premise, whatever you do will not make things right.
Ouch!

I'm not so sure the debacle in Iraq is really a failure for Bush et.al. Never mind the rhetoric, freedom, democracy blah, blah, blah, what they're after is power and control. Civil war and the resulting chaos gives them a good excuse to stay there and smash the place up, kill the people, poison the environment. Anyway, that's what it looks like they're doing. The worst thing for the neocons would be a stable and orderly government, because then they would be asked to leave pronto.
PS
Read your stuff regularly. Keep up the great work.

I agree with a simple life philosophy: It is only through action that true intent is revealed. The longer I live; the more I study people; the more I see the truth is this simple philosophy. What people do, not what they say or write, is what reveals their true intentions. And, more often than not, human actions produce a sought after result.

So put aside the sweet lies, bold visions, and best intentions. Look at what our government is actually doing - their actions reveal their true intent. The actions of the corrupt "bastards and bitches" that have hijacked American are, in fact, generating civil unrest and a police state - in Iraq as it is in America.

Our so called leaders aren't misguided patriots. Their actions clearly show their intent.

There's a word that describes their intent...

It has finally been admitted that the government has at least 10 million Americans under survellence by phone, computer, and whatever else we don't know about. Wouldn't that mean all Congress is included! That's blackmail kiddo, and that's the way it starts, blackmail.

If you want to check to see if you are on the FBI's list, go to www.FOIArequest.org.