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2003-11-28 - 1:31 p.m.

Experts: Iraq War Taking Resources from Terror War

The Bush Administration continues to assert that the Iraq War is part of the "war on terror," but it is clear by now that Iraq posed no threat to the US, and was rather a diversion from the war on terror. Instead, it was an unrelated part of the PNAC agenda, which Cheney and his neocon cabal saw a chance to implement, with 9/11 as the false justification.

In addition to its being a major blunder in terms of losing the respect of most of the world, alienating our traditional allies, costing us hundreds of billions of dollars, and causing the death and injury of thousands of our soldiers, it is also seen as taking valuable and scarce resourses from the war on terror, and allowing al-Qaida to regroup and regenerate, and in fact, boosting their ability to recruit new terrorists.

In this article; Experts: Iraq war taking resources from terror war, By WARREN P. STROBEL of the Knight Ridder Newspapers, the authors make that case.

A growing number of counter-terrorism experts are challenging President Bush's assertion that Iraq is a major battle in the war against terrorism and are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global battle against al-Qaida and its affiliates.

Experts who have served in top positions in both Republican and Democratic administrations are increasingly suggesting that the Iraq war has diverted momentum, troops and intelligence resources from the worldwide campaign to destroy the remnants of al-Qaida.

They note that the presence of U.S. troops in an Arab homeland is serving as a major recruiting tool for signing up and motivating new jihadis, or Islamic holy warriors.

"Fighting Iraq had little to do with fighting the war on terrorism, until we made it (so)," said Richard Clarke, who was a senior White House counter-terrorism official under Bush and President Bill Clinton.

Go here to read the whole article.

2003-11-26 - 12:26 p.m.

Revenge Culture in Iraq Hampers Peace Making Efforts

One of the reasons things seem to be going badly in Iraq is the fact that the culture there is one that is far different than what we as Americans might expect. This AP article in yesterday's papers brought home this fact again to me. And the Riverbend blog, Baghdad Burning, also had a good discussion of the culture there.

Here are some exerpts from the AP article by Mariam Fam which illustrate the problem:

Others, however, had little sympathy for the Americans.

''They kill people and barge in on families at night,'' Abdullah al-Mulla, who works in a gas station, said of U.S. forces. ''If an American came to my house at night and took me away in front of my children, I would have to take revenge.''

Such feelings are deeply held in a culture steeped in traditions of vendetta. Revenge killing is considered a moral act, even if the victim had committed no offense and was marked for death simply because of his identity.

''This is normal. If someone is killed his family has to take revenge,'' said Abed, the truck driver. ''The Americans kill people by mistake and then apologize the next day. This doesn't work here.''

Such opinions underscore the deep-seated problems facing the U.S. occupation as it seeks to win over the Iraqi population with aid projects and promises of a better future.

River gave us an enlightening description of her culture in her blog back on September 29, in an entry entitled, "Shieks and Tribes..." And she points out how these tribes are turned against the occupiers by the humiliating treatment from our soldiers:

They are raided in the middle of the night with armored cars, troops and helicopters. The sheikh and his immediate family members are pushed to the ground with a booted foot and held there at gunpoint. The house is searched and often looted and the sheikh and his sons are dragged off with hands behind their backs and bags covering their heads. The whole family is left outraged and incredulous: the most respected member of the tribe is being imprisoned for no particular reason except that they may need him for questioning. In many cases, the sheikh is returned a few days later with an ‘apology’, only to be raided and detained once more!

Read more of this blog to see how we got off to a very bad start making peace, by very poor planning for the occupation.

2003-11-22 - 12:40 p.m.

Another Republican Bait and Switch

In the name of a "prescription drug benefit" for seniors, the Republican House has constructed a Trojan horse "poison pill" that will sell out seniors and begin the "privatization" of Medicare itself.

Republicans have long been opposed to Medicare and Social Security, and this administration is doing whatever it can, whenever it can, to dismantle these programs. Then it will claim that they've kept their promise to seniors.

Last night, after what seemed like a defeat in the House, 218 to 215, the Republican Leadership kept the 15 minute vote open for three hours while they, with threats from Tom DeLay and calls from Bush, twisted arms until enough votes were changed to give the Republicans a victory on this bad bill. Now it's up to the Senate to block it if they can.

While claiming to help some seniors (not until 2006), it also includes big giveaways to the drug and insurance industries, has no ability to hold costs down, bans importation of drugs from Canada (which is saving some seniors thousands of dollars now), and plants the seeds for the dismantling or privatization of Medicare.

A distracting issue was that while most senior advocacy organizations opposed this bill, AARP supported it. This was seen as a sellout of the seniors they claim to represent, and thousands of seniors have been canceling their memberships. It turns out that AARP has become a big seller of insurance policies and drugs, and put their own interests ahead of those of the seniors they purport to represent. It also turns out that the organization has been taken over by a Republican supporter of Newt Gingrich, who even wrote a forward for his book. So, hopefully, AARP will have hurt themselves by this betrayal, as seniors realize what they have done.

Now it's up to the Senate to filibuster this bad bill. From the New York Times article,

"We are on the verge of an historic bait and switch," said Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, who said he believed the Republican motivation behind the proposal was to begin to unravel Medicare.

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