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November 8, 2005
WB: War Plan
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Arkin’s “Early Warning” column is on my toolbar!:
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/
Learned from Arkin there is a war plan for Venezuela, too.
Go Billmon!
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 8 2005 22:22 utc | 1
Yay! billmon’s back!
Just picked up, The Origins of Nazi Violence,
by ENZO TRAVERSO. I’m about a quarter into it, I highly reconmend it so far…
The Origins of Nazi Violence,
by ENZO TRAVERSO
[The New Press, £14.95]
Five sections, 20 odd essay-ish meditations-on-a-theme, and the firt time in years that I genuinely felt someone had opened my intellectual eyes to NEW ways of thinking about Nazism/the Holocaust. And while it’s not an ‘easy’ read [whatever that is], Traverso’s cool, cutting prose seemed to me purest Gift after what I have to admit have been often frustrating years slogging through the obtuse likes of Blanchot and others. Like Foucault/Benjamin, Traverso considers the social constellation[s] underlying a historical shift:he repeatedly shows that things lazy commentators/historians have often labelled ‘unprecedented’ about the Nazi project, were anything but. And this was a double bevelled cop-out: it was often a way of forgetting precedents – especially in the area of racism and genocide – that the likes of England, Belgium, France and Russia had themselves exhibited and pursued. (And – oh god – you just KNOW that I’m itching to say something here about a dubiously UN “elected” oil gangster GD Bush lecturing the world on democracy, and condemning terrorism while condoning cluster bombs (and not even having the guts to be straight about it) … don’t you? Well, I’m not going to. That would be unforGIVably cheap.)
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 8 2005 22:26 utc | 2
Or perhaps put another way by another writer who’s best work, not to mention guts, also never let us down:
“We are the Nazis in this game and I don’t like it. I am embarrassed and I am pissed off.”
Hunter Thompson, 2003.
.
Pseudo Libby Bushgeois: “Let them eat peace.”
US are way, way past the Nuremburg Tribunals.
The Senate will approve torture in case of war,
in re Cheney off the hook for Abu Ghraib et al.
Torture, in time of war? US don’t “do” torture.
Nodding bobble heads in the MSM. Yup, yup, yup!
John McCain will make this his (red herring) campaign platform, now that he’s pol de jour:
“We must increase our forces in Iraq to bring about a just peace and put an end to torture.”
Put an end to our torture. It’s July 2001 all
over again, only now we’re paying double what
we paid just five years ago for housing, and
double in property taxes, and double utilities.
Interest rates ratcheting shut the lock-down
gates, credit card rates hitting 30%.
Neo-historians will create a fog of semination
around the yellow cake. “*Everyone* thought that
Saddam had active nuclear weapons, you know.”
Cheney’ll step down in time for McCain to win.
It’s only a short leap from there to Cambodia.
Is there any doubt in your mind the Red’s won?
US are now Soviet. “Good … morning … Iran!”
Posted by: ‘potjs93 | Nov 8 2005 22:31 utc | 4
So “planning” and “preparation” for wars of agression are, in themselves, war crimes.
________________________________
@’potjs93
“[N]ow we’re paying double what we paid just five years ago for housing, and double in property taxes, and double utilities.”
Speaking of doubled:
Since US war dead in Iraq have doubled from 1000 now to over 2000, Halliburtion’s stock price doubled in the same period. It has more than tripled since the war’s inception.
Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 8 2005 22:50 utc | 5
Excellent point.
All these ‘war preparation’ things roll off their tongue so glibly.
Now, who is gonna indict the Pentagon under Article 6 of the Charter of Nuremberg ?
Posted by: DM | Nov 8 2005 22:59 utc | 6
Speaking of war crimes, there’s also the allegation that white phosphorus was used against. civilians at Fallujah last November. The allegation has been around for awhile–Democracy Now says Dahr Jamail made it right after the final assault and we also have the famous Lancet paper which said nothing about WP, but did report that the neighborhood they sampled in Fallujah had suffered massive civilian casualties in the summer from US bombs. Too bad we don’t have a free press devoted to uncovering the truth, because something like that could come in handy in trying to determine just what we’ve been doing to Iraqi civilians.
Yeah, this was slightly off-topic, but we are talking about war crimes, so I brought it up.
Posted by: Donald Johnson | Nov 8 2005 23:01 utc | 7
Thanks Uncle its been a long while since I’ve read any Neville. He’s much more pithy in writing than on a talk show.
Its neat to imagine that mob up in front of a tribunal and hear them try and claim it has no jurisdiction and that it is a biased forum set up by the ‘winners’ unfortunately I just can’t drop my credulity to the point where I seriously imagine that’s gonna occur.
However it will be a different matter for Dubya’s children or grandchildren. If I was descendent of that mob I would be seriously worried even though I know that Dubya and co wouldn’t pause for a minute even if they knew that those worries are well founded. After all its in the future. We don’t know what will happen but we do know it won’t happen to us. Well the odds are good. Better than good; ‘bleedin excellent’ that we’ll sail through this. As for the offspring? They’ll work something out. After all none of us get our lives handed to us on a silver platter. (irony alert)
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 9 2005 0:09 utc | 9
@Uncle $cam
Hey – Richard Neville! Haven’t heard of him for a while.
Posted by: DM | Nov 9 2005 0:11 utc | 10
DM wrote: “Now, who is gonna indict the Pentagon under Article 6 of the Charter of Nuremberg ?”
Nobody with the authority to do so has had the stones to pursue it to date. Belgium had the authority and the grounds in 2003, but they pissed themselves and backed off after Rumsfeld threatened to take US dollars elsewhere. So much for taking a principled stand.
Posted by: Monolycus | Nov 9 2005 0:30 utc | 11
@ Donald Johnson:
The Fallujah story–on the anniversary of Operation Phantom Fury–broke my heart once again. There’s an extensive entry on Fallujah in Wikipedia, of all places, with timelines, and a list of references showing that the phosphorus-as-napalm (not the “old napalm”, mind you) has not exactly been a secret, except to the American sheeple.
Posted by: catlady | Nov 9 2005 1:13 utc | 12
“As for the offspring? They’ll work something out. After all none of us get our lives handed to us on a silver platter.” You’re missing something that Tante has been pointing out. We have a future like Argentina’s recent past to look forward to. We’re going to be digging ourselves out of debt to the foreigners. If we do it quickly, we have about 10 to 20 years of financial panics then a massive collapse. the slow method is what looks like a gradual catch-up by the developing nations to our standard of living while we moan about our poor prospects at home.
Posted by: christofay | Nov 9 2005 1:32 utc | 13
I think it will happen, a war crimes trial, and in my lifetime — which is max 30 years from today. I wish, I wish, I wish. I hope Bob Herbert or Paul Krugman picks this up and runs with it. These guys will not be able to travel abroad for the rest of their lives, and if we have an honest government two or three elections down the line, they won’t have safe haven here either. We live in hope.
Posted by: Knut Wicksell | Nov 9 2005 1:52 utc | 14
Why do clowns who pass lofty judgments on Billmon turn right around and drink his liquor so they can get high and spout off to one another? Derelicts? Certainly, dereliction of duty.
Posted by: razor | Nov 9 2005 2:27 utc | 15
I, too, fervently wish that the chief members of the Cheney Administration get a fair trial. I would like it to be in the U.S., for treason.
After the verdict, I would like to see the sentence carried out in a Rose Garden ceremony, televised worldwide – or maybe on a special platform constructed on the Mall, so hundreds of thousands could gather to witness it in person.
As I recall, the Nuremberg trials used hanging. I would prefer a firing squad of Marines, in their dress uniforms. Appropriate music could be supplied by the Army Band. It would be a solemn occasion.
May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any, and may they stand beside us, and guide us, through the Night with the Light from Above (metaphorically speaking, with respect to “the Night” and “the Light” – the “squad of Marines in their dress uniforms” is meant literally.)
Posted by: mistah charley | Nov 9 2005 2:42 utc | 16
“We are the Nazis in this game and I don’t like it. I am embarrassed and I am pissed off.”
I wouldn’t agree with Gonzo that we’re Nazis–Terre Haute isn’t en route to become the new Buchenwald–but I shall add this: Poland was more of a threat to Germany in 1939 than Iraq was to America in 2003.
Posted by: Diamond LeGrande | Nov 9 2005 2:51 utc | 17
Diamond, in that case Mars was a threat to Germany too. One of the more bizaar statements.
Posted by: christofay | Nov 9 2005 2:56 utc | 18
i have so much hope. the post gives me great encouragement
May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any, and may they stand beside us, and guide us, through the Night with the Light from Above
“So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”
…martin, of course
i too have a dream
Posted by: annie | Nov 9 2005 3:16 utc | 19
“The offspring?” asked Bush. “Who cares about the offspring? What have future generations ever done for us?”
Posted by: lonesomeG | Nov 9 2005 4:34 utc | 20
@christofay
That was my point ’empire’ is gonna last long enough for the active BushCo participants. But that’s about it. Their children in fact all whiteys in another generation or so are not only gonna be the most reviled people on the planet (cause they’re pretty much that already) but by then they’ll be powerless as well. Hmm won’t that be something for my grandkids to look forward to.
Dubya/Cheney and Co like all corporatists only worry their stupid undertaxed brains about the next couple of quarters. Even if they did realise they are dropping their kids or grandkids in it they are so sociopathic they wouldn’t pay any heed.
The only chance for whitefellas is if the other mobs aren’t as greedy nasty or vindictive as they were.
One of the most dangerous things about the concentration of power is that when it occurs societies pretty much stop progressing on other fronts.
That is the elite spends all it’s energies on staying elite so any innovation is regarded as threatening.
Imperial China is the classic example of this but equally that was the Soviets achilles’ heel.
‘western’ society could easily fall into a repressive stasis where the powerful worry less about whether they live in an ocean or a rockpool than they do about whose the largest piscean in the environment.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 9 2005 4:39 utc | 21
U.S. unmanned planes said to crash in Iran
Iran sent letters protesting illegal overflights by two unmanned American aircraft that crashed in Iran in recent months, documents circulated at the United Nations on Monday showed. The two letters warned that “the government of the United States of America will be responsible for the consequences of any recurrence of its unlawful acts.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 9 2005 4:47 utc | 22
let’s back up didn’t bush say “History, we don’t know. We’ll all be dead ?’ doesn’t sound like anyone considering his offspring
Posted by: annie | Nov 9 2005 4:50 utc | 23
Ah, but all they good Xtians and they’s offspring will get raptured up first.
Us’ns left behind’ll all be daid, daid, daid and burnin’ fer all eternity.
Posted by: catlady | Nov 9 2005 6:01 utc | 25
“The planning process, according to the internal documents, includes courses of action for cross border operations to seal the Syrian-Iraqi border and destroy safe havens supporting the Iraqi insurgency…”
Has anyone indicated that these things aren’t already being undertaken? Has anyone indicated that the Iraqi government, such as it is, has not given MNF-I its express permission to undertake these and other actions in defense of its SOVEREIGN territory and the rights of its citizens to SAFETY and SECURITY?
Posted by: Pat | Nov 9 2005 6:07 utc | 26
Submitted for your consideration, as Rod Serling used to say.
Posted by: Lupin | Nov 9 2005 7:36 utc | 29
Overheard today from an NPR reporter on the torture bill – “….the so-called War on Terror…”
so-called? Holy crap, when did NPR grow cojones?
Posted by: Rowan | Nov 9 2005 8:41 utc | 30
From Steve Clemmons, http://www.thewashingtonnote.com , is trying to organize a citizens arrest — at the American Enterprise Institute — in DC tomorrow — of Ahmad Chalabi, where he is a speaker:
Chalabi is back in Washington attempting to rehabilitate himself and position his candidacy for the Iraq premiership. He doesn’t deserve anything but disdain and contempt until he engages in an honest accounting of his role in hyping intelligence about Iraq nuclear WMD programs, comes clean about his ongoing connections to senior Iran authorities (this alone should drive Michael Ledeen at AEI crazy — but one wonders why not), and should divulge all he knows about the intelligence leaks to Iran and Israel in which he played a role, along with Larry Franklin who has been charged. He has also hovered close to former Under Secretay of Defense Douglas Feith, who helped create Chalabi’s machine — as well as former CIA Director James Woolsey who was the first on 9/11 to allege the direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda on national TV without disclosing for television viewers the fact that Woolsey was the LAWYER for Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress.
Chalabi is a nefarious player in the Iraq WMD intel mess in which the White House is now mired.
There are a great number of organizations — bloggers in the middle of the road, center left, and left — who are not able to get into the AEI meeting. But they are going to meet Ahmed Chalabi and share their views with him about his role in America’s screwed up foreign policy.
While the Citizen’s Arrest Law in D.C. seems to require the actual real-time witnessing of a felony, I’m not so sure that Chalabi’s violations of American law in the past don’t already constitute grounds for Citizen’s Arrest. Others may have more to say on this.
Watch for his burly and probably armed body guards — but American citizens have my support issuing a citizen’s arrest against Ahmed Chalabi.
……………………
Oh, to be in DC tommorow.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 9 2005 9:25 utc | 31
One more crime should be added to the list of potential charges: starting a war with no clear idea of how to end it.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 9 2005 9:49 utc | 32
Digby has the goods on the emerging swiftboat smear against Joe Wilson, and man, are they desperate. X-Generals (think x-presidents, SNL’s Smiegal) Mcinerney and Paul Vallely(&now Fox military analyst) — who are both players in neo-con circles — are claiming to have heard Wilson bragging about his covert wifes cia status in, of all places, the FOX green room. I guess it never occured to them to tell Fitz about this, but givin their history, especially Vallely, who co-authored From PSYOPS to Mind War: the Psychology of Victory, they could be the ghost writers of the whole “we’re inventing history” nutcase thing so popular in the Cheny chain of command. Mcinerney was part of the Iran Policy Group( along with Ledeen) so these guys have been serious players, but to drag them out in defense of the administration — which flys in the face of THE investigation, by not going directly to him (to testify) in favor of going to the MSM, not only undermines their credibility, but also throws into the feeding frenzy engulfing the administration a whole juke-box full of the totaly crazy, demented thinking that has all along been what they have been dancing to — late into the night.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 9 2005 10:25 utc | 33
Never heard of Richard Neville before. Went to the website. Some of his writing is great, prescient and incisive, some a little overblown and pompous. Nevertheless, his Howl update is fantastic. I wish we had posted it on the Ginsburg thread.
I’ve seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by capitalism,
no longer starving, hysterical, naked,
but portly, Prozac fed, Armani clad,
dragging themselves through neon shopping malls at dawn looking for a cashflow fix,
angelheaded hype-stars burning for a brand name connection – Victoria’s Secret, maybe, or Starbucks – to open up another outlet, to milk the sacred cow of commerce and make things predictable, tedious, subject to a national marketing strategy;
WHO once in poverty and tatters, hollow-eyed and high, sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness…
WHO were expelled from the academies for craziness & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull, and
WHO are now engaged in the most mammoth dumbing down of culture the world has ever seen,
WHO wringing their hands in car retrieval lobbies of Intercontinentals, after six hour feasts, impatient for the stretch Rolls, sing madrigals to global consumerism, sternly reminding me of Soviet horrors, Tianamen Square, famines, secret police …
and anyway, the entire population of China deserves to be shod in Nike,
with their distinctive polyurethane airbag cushions,
containing sulphur hexafluoride,
the world’s most lethal greenhouse gas,
with a global warming hit 22,000 times greater than
carbon dioxide,
and which hangs in the atmosphere for 500 years;
yes, produced by girls in Indonesia for five bucks,
strikes outlawed, overtime compulsory, 20 cents an hour,
Nike’s inflate on-the-shelf to $200.
Asked about onerous conditions,
the area manager shrugs:
“I don’t know that I need to know”.
Bliss.
Shimmering on Fortune’s list of fabulous
rates of return to investors, (46.9%),
Nike is a Shareholder Superstar,
to the best minds of my generation,
not a Sweatshop Slavelord…..
As far as Fallujah and the use of napalm and white phosphorus, see my post on a previous thread.
My husband and I were in Germany on vacation last month. We spent an afternoon at the Nazi Documentation Center in Nuremburg. I know we’ve talked about this around the blogosphere for years, but the similarities between Germany in the 1930s and our country under Bushco were scary. There is no doubt that Rove used the Nazis as a model for the present day (mis)administration. Especially striking to us was the Myth of the Fuhrer. From Google:
The creation of what is known as the “Führer Myth” was a clever way of ensuring the population’s support. Created first within the Nazi Party and later transmitted to the general community, this myth depicted Hitler as the man of the people who would bring about national unity and harmony. In fact, strong opposition to the ways of the leaders in the earlier days of the Weimar Republic made it appear that Germany had already attained a near-Utopian level. Promoted by Goebbel’s Ministry of Propaganda, the Führer Myth played off the people’s deep humiliation and insult of the Treaty of Versailles. Goebbels also presented the successful Nazi foreign policy and the military triumphs of 1936-42 as proof of Germany’s godlike leader. Hitler’s appeal was largely due to his seemingly straightforward ways: unlike earlier politicians he did not care for pleasantries and political correctness. (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=938368)
Thank God the Bush myth is finally blowing apart. I would like nothing better than to see Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rove on trial at the Hague.
Posted by: Susan S | Nov 9 2005 14:15 utc | 36
I don’t like takes on Howl. It is too easy to put a gloss on. I was reading a fashion magazine in the early nineties and whoever the subject of the article was was claiming some title for his version. So better to stay off it as too much of this will degrade the original.
I think Howl and America are great and the rest of the short poems in Howl are good. A lot of the other work is only fair or repetitious.
But the best stuff is great.
that’s my opinion. I have a similar attitude to On the Road.
Posted by: christofay | Nov 9 2005 14:16 utc | 37
“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.”
— Aristotle
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 14:32 utc | 38
Today’s “Der Spiegal” looks back to November 8 … 1939:
A GERMAN HERO
The Carpenter Elser Versus the Führer Hitler
By Claus Christian Malzahn
Posted by: erichwwk | Nov 9 2005 15:11 utc | 39
The annual ‘publicly’ acknowledged budget of our military ‘defense’ expenditure is more than the entire military budgets of the next 42 largest nations militaries of the world, combined.
That’s more money annually than the combined military expenditures of the defense forces of Japan, China, UK, Israel, France, Russia, Germany, North Korea, South Korea, India, Pakistan, and 31 more nations combined.
The recently acknowledged annual budget of our Intelligence services ~$44,000,000,000 (billion).
IIRC, a single B2 ‘stealth’ bomber costs ~$2,200,000,000 (billion). We have ~21 of ’em.
A modern nuclear attack carrier ~$3,600,000,000 (billion). We currently have 13 CVA’s and the Navy intends to progressively replace each of them in turn, possibly increase the total number to 15, let alone their supporting fleets …
We are the sole remaining superpower. We militarily dominate the globe and soon space . Yet we face no real foe.
IIRC, the total cost of the terrorist bombing of the London subway is estimated at ~$20,000 total. The cost of the Indonesian Bali bombings ~$10,000 total. The cost of the 9/11 attacks $500,00o total. The annual operating cost of Al-Qaeda ~$2,000,000 (million)(excluding franchisees).
If we weren’t a militarized nation, whose economy and form of government appears to be dependant on, effectively, taxpayer funded continuous war, for corporate and shareholder profit … how many schools could we build and staff … how many hospitals and clinics could we fund, staff and support … how many of our ~37,000,000 (million) citizens could we lift out of abject poverty ?
Who, exactly, is it that our ‘one party’ government serves ?
‘Cause it sure as hell don’t seem to be it’s citizens …
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 15:34 utc | 40
A step back in time (2002) … a paper from the American Society of International Law.
(pdf, numerous footnotes and reference’s re precedents …)
Myth of preemptive self-defense
Conclusion
The international law of self-defense supports the American use of force in Afghanistan. After the devastating attacks of September 11, the United States had the right to defend itself against continuing terrorist attacks mounted from Afghan territory. The United States has no right, however, to invade another state because of speculative concerns about that state’s possible future actions. The current international order does not support a special status for the United States or a singular right to exempt itself from the law. To maintain a legal order that restrains other states and to uphold the rule of law, the United States should continue its conservative commitment to limits on the unilateral use of force, and reject a reckless doctrine of preemptive self-defense.
Yeah, right, tell it to Cheney and his front-man, the Preznit.
They don’t comply with laws, they are, da Law.
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 16:06 utc | 41
The cycles of violence must end.
Address legitimate grievances of race, social, economic, political and religious freedom through peaceful means.
From the nyt 3/16/03
As bad as the situation inside Iraq may be, the effect that the war has had on terrorist recruitment around the globe may be even more worrisome. Even before the coalition troops invaded, a senior United States counter-terrorism official told reporters that “an American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups.” Intelligence officials in the United States, Europe and Africa say that the recruits they are seeing now are younger than in the past. Television images of American soldiers and tanks in Baghdad are deeply humiliating to Muslims, even those who didn’t like Saddam Hussein, explained Saad al-Faqih, head of Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, a Saudi dissident group in London. He told me that some 3,000 young Saudis have entered Iraq in recent months, and called the war “a gift to Osama bin Laden.”
Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, told a crowd of 150,000 in a March religious observance that the United States was trying to create a “tragedy for humanity and to spread chaos in the world” and predicted that the people of Iraq and the region would “welcome American troops with rifles, blood, arms, martyrdom.”
Perpetuating war in the Middle East, makes us less safe, not more.
Address legitimate grievances of oppressed people from whom terrorists usually arise …
In South Africa … Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the CIA in the mid-1980s.
What ended the terrorism of the African National Congress was not violent suppression of the country’s black majority but the negotiated settlement to end apartheid and create an inclusive representative democracy.
Those opposing apartheid were tried in ‘tribunals’.
“I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
– Nelson Mandela courtroom quote.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
– John F. Kennedy
“I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version.”
– Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony.
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 16:47 utc | 42
They don’t comply with laws, they are, da Law.
“When the law breaks the law there is no law”.
“Speak according to the madness that has seduced you.” –Andre Breton
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 9 2005 16:53 utc | 43
Senate asks Pentagon to probe Feith role on Iraq
The Pentagon’s inspector general has been asked to investigate the prewar intelligence role of a planning office headed by former U.S. defense policy chief Douglas Feith, a main architect of the Iraq war, officials said on Tuesday.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 9 2005 17:28 utc | 44
“money shot” from a Laura Rozen piece:
[emphasis added]
“If Cheney and his office mates haven’t had the experience [of standing inside a torture chamber], perhaps they should. And I really don’t think it’s inconceivable that the remote possibility of the Hague may lie in some of their futures.”
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 9 2005 18:53 utc | 46
…the CIA will presumably be free to bolster democracy by torturing anyone who does not embrace it with sufficient enthusiasm. Some democracy.
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 19:00 utc | 47
@Susan S:
Goebbels also presented the successful Nazi foreign policy and the military triumphs of 1936-42 as proof of Germany’s godlike leader. Hitler’s appeal was largely due to his seemingly straightforward ways: unlike earlier politicians he did not care for pleasantries and political correctness.
and @Outraged:
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. . .
From There Are No Neo-Cons In Foxholes:
Like the neoconservatives of today, Strauss was not himself a religious man, yet espoused religion as a means of ensuring order for the people who would, without religion, be uncontrollable. Irving Kristol, describing the Straussian contribution to neoconservative thought, remarked that neoconservatives are “pro-religion even though they themselves may not be believers.” They are pro-religion only because they believe religion is a useful tool for maintaining order and control over a society.
The Rovian — “Mayberry Machiavellis”– enlistment of the religious right and the hagiography of Bush is precisely this sort of cynical manipulation.
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 9 2005 19:46 utc | 48
The argument would be made that, legally speaking, a war of aggression is generally considered to be any war for which the purpose is not to repel an invasion, or respond to an attack on the territory of a sovereign nation. (source: Wikipedia)
“Hey, we’re not invading Syria, we’re just going after the terrorists.”
Which, of course, brings us back to Billmon’s “A Visit from Juan Cole” post from Nov. 3 regarding the way everyone wants to perpetuate the Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq straw man.
I feel like I just gave myself a swirlie…
@Sakitume
Deja vu …
Address to the Nation on the Situation in the Middle East
President George W. Bush
December 26, 2005
Good evening my fellow Americans:
Ten days ago, in my report to the Nation on Iraq, I announced a decision to withdraw 15,000 Americans from Iraq over the next year. I said then that I was making that decision despite our concern over increased terrorist activity in Syria, in Iran, and in Iraq.
At that time, I warned that if I concluded that increased enemy activity in any of these areas endangered the lives of Americans remaining in Iraq, I would not hesitate to take strong and effective measures to deal with that situation.
Despite that warning, Iraqi terrorists have increased their military aggression in all these areas, and particularly in Syria.
After full consultation with the National Security Council, Ambassador Kahlizaid, General Pace, and my other advisers, I have concluded that the actions of the enemy in the last 10 days clearly endanger the lives of Americans who are in Iraq now and would constitute an unacceptable risk to those who will be there after withdrawal of another 15,000.
To protect our men who are in Iraq and to guarantee the continued success of post election partial draw-down and Iraqization programs, I have concluded that the time has come for action…
This is not an invasion of Syria. The areas in which these attacks will be launched are completely occupied and controlled by terrorist forces. Our purpose is not to occupy the areas. Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries and once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw…
Original unedited source here.
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 20:19 utc | 51
New York Times, December 27, 2005
On December 26 President George W. Bush announced to a national television audience that US troops were invading Syria, the country west of Iraq through which the Syrian regime and its military was supplying terrorists in Iraq. In fact, the US had been conducting bombing raids and cross-border Special Forces raids in Syria for over a year.
The image of the President’s hand resting over an abstract map of Syria circulated widely. It appeared not only in the New York Times but on the cover of Time. Millions also saw it on live television as Bush disclosed the invasion. Several journalistic accounts commented on the sense of disbelief and helplessness felt by many viewers. Time’s cover story began,
“At one point during his television address to the nation last week, George Bush lost his place in the typescript. For four or five seconds he shuffled pages, eyes darting through paragraphs to pick up the trail again. For the nation watching, it was an instant of complex psychology. There was the acute embarrassment and sympathy for the speaker who has fluffed his lines. There was also, for some, an eccentric half hope that if he could not continue, an absurdest, McLuhan logic would apply: ‘The U.S. was about to move into Syria, but the President lost his place in the script.’ The instant passed. George W. Bush went on.”
For the past year Bush had been promoting the “Iraqization” of the war, promising to replace US troops with newly-trained Iraqi soldiers. Citizens had expressed relief at the thought of American fighters coming home.
On the heels of Presidential promises of eventual de-escalation, the December 26, announcement caused many in the United States to respond with shock and anger. Protests erupted across the country, including one at Kent State that ended in the fatal shooting of four students by National Guardsmen.
Original unedited source Here
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 9 2005 20:36 utc | 52