Global

AUSTIN, Texas -- As we wend our weary way toward war, dragging the Turks -- whose price will be our betrayal of the Kurds (fourth time we've double-crossed Kurds, counting Henry Kissinger's triple-cross only once) -- it reminds me of the end of a bad election. Don't believe anything until it's over.

Now is the time we get Iraqi soldiers tossing Kuwaiti babies from incubators and other mind-boggling myths presented as reality. The Guardian is reporting this morning that the United States is wiretapping foreign delegations to the U.N. Security Council, and the worst thing about it is that no one is surprised.

Sign the petition (text and link below) and please ask your friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances -- anyone you know who shares this concern -- to sign on today. As the New York Times put it, "there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion." The Bush Administration's been flexing its muscles. Now let's flex ours.

www.moveon.org/emergency/

Dear Member of the U.N. Security Council,

We are citizens from countries all over the world. We are speaking together because we will all be affected by a decision in which your country has a major part -- the decision of how to disarm Iraq.

To whom it may concern,

In my entire lifetime of 35 years have I ever read such a "ragsheet" full of mindless,uninformed and ANTI AMERICAN dribble. Some day you idiots will wake up and realize what the real world is about.If this country is so evil and so unfair,why don't you move the hell out,say to Iraq,since they deserve so much of yoursupport, instead of our troops and President Bush trying to preserve the rights of assholes like you!

Jon Cain, Columbus,OH

My friends:

The "Peace is the only ANSWER" rally on Feb. 15 was in my eyes a great sucess. Even in the snow and 28 degree weather, people made the choice to be present to speak their minds. If you are one of those people, you honor yourself by being an active participant in what happens in this country. You my friends, are true Americans. I am so proud of all of you. Regardless of whether you are for or against this impending conflict in the Middle East, speaking your mind is giant step in the search for Peace.

Capital University has charged our committee $398.25 for the "security" of this event. If you were there, you already know that the Bexley Police stood 150 yards from the event underneath the Library Lobby so they wouldn't get snowed on. They spoke to no one except me, and they mocked me personally and our event. Personally, I don't usually pay $400 to get mocked by public defenders. In fact, I am personally outraged at that fact.

There you have it. Go see it.

There's more to say below. But first:

After a four day meeting, the AFL-CIO's executive council released a statement on Thursday which calls the United States to work multilaterally to resove the Iraq crisis. The AFL-CIO aruges that war should only be utilized as a last resort that is decided upon by the global community.

To see the full statement: www.afl-cio.org/aboutaflcio/ecouncil/ec02272003h.cfm

Never before in the history of the United States presidency has a think tank had such an impact on shaping U.S. foreign policy as the Project for the New American Century has on helping President George W. Bush set foreign policy goals for his Administration, particularly dictating exactly how Bush should deal with Iraq and its President, Saddam Hussein.

For the past six years, PNAC has lobbied former President Clinton and Bush heavily to initiate a war in Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, claiming the country poses a serious threat to the U.S. and its allies because of its ability to develop weapons of mass destruction. Clinton rebuffed the advice by PNAC members during the last four years of his presidency, but Bush has virtually used, word for word, the written statements by PNAC members when he speaks publicly about Iraq crisis.

You gotta hand it to America's mass media: When war hangs in the balance, they sure know how to bury a story.

After devoting thousands of network hours and oceans of ink to stories about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, major U.S. news outlets did little but yawn in the days after the latest Newsweek published an exclusive report on the subject -- a piece headlined "The Defector's Secrets."

It's hard to imagine how any journalist on the war beat could read the article's lead without doing a double take: "Hussein Kamel, the highest-ranking Iraqi official ever to defect from Saddam Hussein's inner circle, told CIA and British intelligence officers and U.N. inspectors in the summer of 1995 that after the Gulf War, Iraq destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them."

AUSTIN, Texas -- When we need a laugh in grim times, we count on our Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Whoopi Goldberg of the Bush administration. This week, Ashcroft took time off from tracking down terrorists in order to bust 55 people for selling for selling rolling papers, pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Nice to see a man who's got his priorities straight.

Onward. Let's review the bidding on North Korea. "Review the bidding" is a bridge term for "how the hell did we get into this mess?" In 1994, the Clinton administration came to something called the Agreed Framework with North Korea, under which Pyongyang agreed to put its 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods -- which can be easily converted into weapons-grade plutonium -- into storage, watched over by U.N. inspectors and cameras. In return, they were supposed to get two light-water nuclear reactors and economic and diplomatic relations.

There are some sure things in the gamble called Life. Among them the following:

Unless they're so down on their luck that the barman is playing solitaire, nightclubs are by definition unsafe. You want to play by the odds, stay home and read Tolstoy.

In the event of panic or fire your chances are going to be less than 50/50. Drunken revelers don't tend to stand at attention singing "Nearer My God to Thee," while the women proceed at an orderly pace to the exits.

There are other certainties: The club's promoters will have secured their liquor license, immunity from complaints by the neighbors, etc., by dint of bribery and political clout. Duane Kyles, owner of E2, the Chicago club where 21 died, had the Jackson family, Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jr. going to bat for him.