Anti-War

The so-called “War On Terror” is a dangerous myth that is undermining American national security. This myth is a deliberate creation of the Bush Administration and their political allies. It has been very useful in promoting the Corporate Agenda of the Bush Republicans. Their fellow travelers in the Corporate Media have helped promote this intellectually dishonest way of looking at the threat posed to America by the Bin Laden terrorist organization.

First of all, “terror” is an emotion and should not be confused with an actual organization of terrorists. This “terror” theme is useful if you want to promote unrelated goals but ineffective in actually responding to the real threat posed by the Bin Laden organization. The term first used by Bush operatives was the “War on Terrorism.” This was equally dishonest because terrorism is a tactic used by terrorist. It is as absurd to have a war against a “tactic” as it is to have a war against an “emotion”.

In the aftermath of the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the plight of women is no longer on our radar screen, despite it's use as a justification for the ouster of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. In both countries there were some initially positive (and well-publicized) changes. However, as time goes on, it is becoming clear that the situation for women has not significantly improved, and in some ways worsened since they were overthrown. While many similarities exist for women in countries where conflict has taken place, the specifics vary substantially and thus the detailed conditions for women in Afghanistan and Iraq are reported separately below.

Afghanistan

While staying the course in Iraq is an effective campaign slogan for the Bush Republicans, it is unwise and ineffective as a foreign policy. The current approach in Iraq runs counter to history and American interests. Staying the course would make sense if we were on the right course to begin with but not under the current policy of the Bush Administration.

Critics before the invasion of Iraq predicted exactly the current situation. The nation was launched on the current course without a unified nation or world opinion behind the invasion. The Bush Administration lied repeatedly to the American people to get us into this unwise War. The Iraq War was sold to the America people based on several untruths.

President Bush told us how he wasn't going to allow the world's most destructive weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists and along with freeing the Iraqi people these were justifications for us to remove Saddam Hussein from power by any means necessary.  Over the past few weeks the world has witnessed a steady increase in clashes reported in Iraq.  The decision to close a Baghdad weekly affiliated with Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr sparked a new round of protests from thousands of Shiite Iraqis.  We were told we'd be welcomed with open arms.

Lee Gough won’t be paying her federal income taxes this year.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the artist and part-time temp worker won’t be setting money aside for April 15th – just that the federal government won’t be getting any of it. The 37-year old Brooklynite has decided to make 2004 the year that she takes a stand, a move she’s been working towards for some time now. “I’ve asked the temp agency to increase the number of allowances on my W-4 form, and when I had unemployment I told them not to take any taxes out,” she says. “I’ve also stopped paying the federal excise tax on my phone bill, and when tax time comes along, I’ll take the $13 I’ve collected and redirect it to a more worthy cause.”

Richard Clarke was right. So was Paul O'Neill. During the six months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks the Bush administration paid little attention to the threat from al-Qaeda and instead set the stage for a war with Iraq.  

Two weeks before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, national security wasn't even a top priority for the Bush administration. Security-job security, health security and national security-was last on a list of major issues Bush planned to deal with in the fall of 2001, according to a transcript http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010831-3.html of a speech Bush gave on Aug. 31, 2001 to celebrate the launch of the White House's new website.

  National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, who is scheduled to testify Thursday before the commission investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks, says Clarke, President Bush's counterterrorism specialist, is a liar after Clarke told the commission two weeks ago that the Bush administration failed to deal with al-Qaeda seriously before 9/11.  

March 1 st , 2004 marks the 50 th anniversary of the 1954 US "Bravo" hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands that unexpectedly turned out to be the largest US nuclear test ever exploded. "Bravo" gouged a crater about a mile wide in the reef of Bikini Atoll. Within seconds of the blast, the fireball was nearly three miles in diameter. On Rongerik, an island 135 miles east of the blast, the illumination from "Bravo" was visible for almost one minute. Physicist Marshall Rosenbluth, located on a ship about 30 miles away, stated that the fireball "just kept rising and rising, and spreading.it looked to me like what you might imagine a diseased brain, or a brain of some mad man would look like on the surface.and the air started getting filled with this gray stuff, which I guess was somewhat radioactive coral."

      Human Fallibility

CIA Director George Tenet testified before Congress in February 2001 that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States or to other countries in the Middle East.

But immediately after the terrorist attacks on 9-11, which the Bush administration has said Iraq is partially responsible for, the President and his advisers were already making a case for war against Iraq without so much as providing a shred of evidence to back up their allegations that Iraq and its former President, Saddam Hussein, helped al-Qaida hijackers plan the catastrophe.

It was then, after the 9-11 attacks, that intelligence reports from the CIA radically changed from previous months, which said Iraq posed no immediate threat to the U.S., to now show Iraq had a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and was in hot pursuit of a nuclear bomb. The Bush administration seized upon the reports to build public support for the war and used the information to eventually justify a preemptive strike against the country last March.

"As Americans, we are led by the power of our conscience and the history of our country to defend and promote the dignity and rights of all people. Each person, however frail or defenseless, has a place and a purpose in this world. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we celebrate the gift of life and our commitment to building a society of compassion and humanity..."

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 18, 2004, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places of worship and to reaffirm our commitment to respecting the life and dignity of every human being."

Dear Secretary General Annan,

U.S. President George W. Bush again confirmed his intention to continue waging wars of aggression in his State of the Union message on January 20, 2004.

He began his address: " As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands of American service men and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure."

He proclaimed: " Our greatest responsibility is the active defense of the American people... America is on the offensive against the terrorists..."

Continuing, he said: " ...our coalition is leading aggressive raids against the surviving members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.... Men who ran away from our troops in battle are now dispersed and attack from the shadows."

In Iraq, he reported: " Of the top 55 officials of the former regime, we have captured or killed 45. Our forces are on the offensive, leading over 1,600 patrols a day, and conducting an average of 180 raids a week...."