Soapbox

Printed in today’s Columbus Dispatch

I respond to Bob Stumpo’s letter (9/21) saying comparing Iraq to Vietnam is “irresponsible”. In fact, we face the real danger that the mistakes of Vietnam are being repeated before our eyes. Don’t take my word for it: consider the following statements from U.S. military experts that the Bush administration would prefer you never heard. (from an article by Sidney Blumenthal at salon.com)

“I see no exit. We’ve been down that road before. It’s called Vietnamisation. The idea that we’re going to have an Iraqi force trained to defeat an enemy we can’t defeat stretches the imagination… In fact, we had more time and money (invested) in state building in Vietnam than in Iraq.”

~Jeffrey Record, professor of strategy at the Air War College

“This is far graver than Vietnam. There wasn’t as much at stake strategically, though in both cases we mindlessly went ahead with the war that was not constructive for US aims. But now we’re in a region far more volatile, and we’re in much worse shape with our allies.”

~ Retired General William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and chillingly, that’s where we’re headed. The president is desperate to appear “consistent” but in this he is consistently wrong. Perhaps, if the leaders of this administration had actually been in Vietnam, they would see it for themselves.

They were just guessing???!

George Bush has been saying for months that things in Iraq are looking up. All this past week he has been hitting that theme hard, telling America about schools opening and people returning to jobs, and how they just can’t wait for their first free, democratic elections. Gosh, with all the looking up theyve been doing, Iraq must be pretty teriffic place by now, huh?

The trouble is, no one else thinks things are going well at all. An increasing number of his own military advisors as well as former generals and chiefs of staff have spoken up recently to say that things are, in fact, getting worse in Iraq every day. Journalists who have been in Iraq since the invasion now say they are too frightened to stay any longer. Several leading Republicans, including John McCain and Chuck Hagel have said that they believe the situation is approaching desperate over there. And of course we now know that the President’s own National Intelligence Estimate told him back in July that the best scenario they could envision for Iraq involved a “tenuous security” and at worst the country is headed for civil war.

Well, since George Bush wasn’t impressed by a PDB titled “bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside U.S.”, why should he pay any attention to official concern that his very own baby empire-building experiment was headed towards anarchy? Apparently he didn’t, and doesn’t want us to, either. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! Everything is fine! My fellow Americans, freedom is on the march!

Yesterday Bush was asked to comment on this Intelligence report and why it stands in such stark contrast to what he insists is the true situation. Well, said the president, he doesn’t worry too much about that because after all, the CIA was just making a guess about what the future will be in Iraq.

Oh my God. Does the president really think the official reports of his own CIA are just guesses? Does he imagine that they sit around in their offices collecting salaries for playing with a magic 8-ball?? (I suppose this would explain why he ignored the PDB about bin Laden- he figured it was just a guess!( Or is he really so thick that he doesn’t understand the difference between an official estimate and a guess?

Of course not: he knows the difference. Well then, if Bush really believes the CIA is “just guessing” then he needs to grab the agency and shake them til their teeth rattle and get them to do a better job! Lives depend on the work the CIA does! This is a huge failure if the CIA is guessing!

But I belive he knows exactly what that estimate represents, in which case George Bush owes the analysts at the CIA a huge apology for taking all their hard work of gathering and interpreting data and reducing it to “a guess” just to win points in the polls. And he owes the American people an even bigger apology for heaping lie upon lie and insisting that up is down, bad is actually good and danger is safety!

It’s almost phantasmagorical. Bush creates pulse-pounding, imminent threats from vague, 3 year old intelligence chatter and puts men with rifles on the streets of New york, but ignores clear analyses of threat potentials when they’re laying on his desk in bold-face, 24-point font. His policies aren’t national security- they’re election security, nothing more.

A guess?

Remember when the country, the world, even the US government got their news from CNN? Those days are long gone, folks. In case you weren’t looking, CNN is pretty much a really slick mouthpiece of the Bush administration these days, “reporting” mostly only what you could find at the official White House web site.

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer. She is a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is also, apparently, very disappointed in CNN. Read on.

Dear CNN,

I don’t want you to think I’m picking on you, but ever since 2000, when Texas Governor George W. Bush and Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney ran through the streets screaming that storm clouds were gathering on the dashboard of our republic, you’ve been furiously raining on the democracy parade.

There’s nothing wrong with rain. Truth is — where I come from, (New Mexico) rain is quite an event. When it does show up — usually at night — it comes in blinding sheets, riding the violent wind like a banshee, sometimes ripping roofs from houses with golfball-sized hail.

A brilliant kaliedoscope of wildflowers miraculously pops up out of nowhere and cacti explode in cream and ivory roses. Most will be gone by sunset. No matter. Their loss is a small price to pay for the achingly beautiful panorama that unfolds at the end of each searing, windswept day. All that is important in life — “truth” beyond the perverted reach of man — is contained in the sheer enchantment of a single New Mexico sunset.

The wonderful thing about Truth, and the thing you folks at CNN can’t seem to come to grips with, is — the Truth is out there. It’s impenetrable; indestructable, and it’s not going away. And, don’t bother pointing out that CNN’s softer-edged barking heads and cackling pundits aren’t as bad as Fox News’ mean-spirited barking heads and cackling pundits. Is to be a Fox clone really what you want? Do you think this is what Ted Turner had in mind when he built your magnificent empire, brick by ethical brick?

“Fox News manipulates the polls in favor of George Bush — so we’ll manipulate the polls in favor of George Bush! Fox News screams and spontaneously combusts at the sight and sound of President Bill Clinton — so we’ll do the same AND throw in the rat-gnawed, demon-encrusted Hillary for extra points. Fox News hangs onto George Bush’s every incoherent word. We can do that. And, because Bush is our very own charge to keep, we’ll clean up the messes he inevitably leaves in his wake. Hey — least we can do…”

I noticed that your boss, Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons is out there saying the Fox News Channel is nothing more than “crazy people exchanging views.” Lest anyone get the wrong idea, Parsons was quick to emphasize that CNN was not “liberal.” By golly, Parsons bragged modestly, CNN just has a “bias for the truth.”

But, hey — there’s nothing wrong with being liberal! Every time you make a snide reference to Senator John Kerry being “too liberal,” I mutter, “Yes!” and smack my TV screen in a high-five. If you look “liberal” up in the dictionary, you will find a picture of my wild-eyed self, proud to be “free from bigotry, broad-minded, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others.

So, if Parsons is right and you’re so truthfully biased, why don’t you just tell the truth? You can start with the reasons we were snookered into war. It will set you free.
Just think how good it will feel to say the president, vice-president, national security adviser, secretary of state, secretary of defense, and all their minions who have not fled the ship of state in revulsion — are liars. Like you, they did not mis-speak. They lied. Like you, they did not misrepresent, nor did they mislead. They lied. Like you, they are continuing to lie — and you continue to broadcast their lies as truth.

Americans”emotional ties” are to the U.S. Constitution — specifically to its first Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights — rather than to what your own Anderson Cooper breathlessly refers to as “raw politics.” Why don’t you do a little feature on needless, destructive wars of aggression, and tell the truth about how such wars violate that Constitution, as well as the U.N. Charter and the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunals?

And while you’re at it, why not ask yourself why you continue to support a willful, arrogant little man who gives the finger to laws of humanity that exist solely to prevent the maiming and slaughtering of your fellow citizens as well as those of other countries — simply because — well, because there ain’t nobody out there big enough to stop him…
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Editor: Columbus Dispatch

George W. Bush’s recent Columbus appearance (08/04) actually had the nerve to call itself “Ask President Bush”. If they were honest it would have been called “Pat the President”.

Columbus residents were required to have a ticket to get in, and needed a background check to get a ticket! One can only assume that anyone who didn’t meet their neocon standards~ unemployed, belongs to a union, dobated money to an environmental group, etc.~ was not welcome.

This is in keeping with the recent trend of Bush/Cheney appearances, where the audience must sign a loyalty/voting pledge to see the men who are supposed to be the servants of the American people. They demanded that a photographer for the Arizona Sun Times declare her race in order to be allowed to cover an appearance by Dick Cheney. Apparently this administration is afraid of the American people and the questions they have, such as:

~Mr. President, why are so many needy Ohio children being left behind as Headstart programs close for lack of funding?

~Why are you searching for WMD in Iraq when Don Rumsfeld has begun a program to develop small, portable nuclear weapons right here in the US?

~How can you say you support our troops when you threatened to veto the recent military appropriations bill unless Congress removed the money earmarked for health benefits for veterans!

~Why did you try to prevent the 9/11 Commission from being formed, block it at every turn, promise to fully implement their recommendations, and then refuse to follow many of them?

~Why did you send our soldiers to war without decent planning or supplies, resulting in needless suffering and death?

~President Bush, in your first campaign you promised to unite the country, give a tax cut to the poor, strengthen Social Security, protect the environment and not engage in “nation building” overseas. Since you broke all of those promises, and in light of your dishonesty over WMD, why should we believe a single word you say?

The American people have the right to question the way our president runs the country. With George Bush in office, we’ll never get the chance.

Contributed to the Columbus Dispatch 7/24/04. I keep plodding away, like the little engine that could.

When Marie Antoinette was told that peasants were rioting because they had no bread, she said, “Let them eat cake instead!”
The Bush administration has just announced a new initiative in their plan to strengthen America: a jobs web site for homeless people.
Do you think he understands what “homeless” means?

Yes, many libraries do offer internet connections: it is not a totally worthless plan. But it is only a token, when substantial help is needed. Mr. President, some homeless people actually have jobs, but none of them have homes! Your administration has cut funds for low-income housing.
This seems to be typical of the priorities of the Bush presidency. Head Start programs are quietly closing in some areas as funding dries up. A Bush official said that many people at food pantries are “taking the easy way out”. The Department of Education proposed a $270 mill. cut in Pell grants, which help the poor go to college. Workers upset about their jobs being outsourced were told by the administration to “stop whining”.

The number of un-insured in this country has become an election issue, so this week George Bush touted his health insurance tax shelter that requires an expensive buy-in to a catastrophic insurance policy and has a $2,000-$5000 deductible for everyday medical expenses. This does nothing to address the insurance crisis in America, since most people who can afford the hefty price tag for this scheme can already afford insurance!
Do you think he understands what “poor” means?

There are currently 7.16 million more people in American living below the federal poverty limit than when Bush took office. That’s 12.1 million kids who are “whining” and “taking the easy way out”.

Under Bush’s tax plan, a worker who earns a $50,000 salary pays 3 times more taxes on his wages than a wealthy investor pays on $50,000 of investment dividends. Sadly, the huge and growing national debt means that our children and grandchildren will probably be paying for that investor’s tax cut 20 years from now.

The president has repeatedly asked for pay and benefit cuts for American servicemen while they are at war! Congress just denied funding to improve housing for military families. Halliburton steals millions from its un-bid and practically unsupervised government contract, while children without the proper paperwork can’t get a free sandwich in America. (Dispatch, 7/23)

America, is this the candidate that shares your values?