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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector-From the "evil" John Murphy":
A Campaign Coasting Toward Disaster
Where is John Kerry?
By DAVID LINDORFF
Three decades ago, it was John Kerry, the decorated Vietnam Vet, who dramatically asked a timid Congress who should be the last young soldier to die for a war that was already lost?
It was an excellent question, then.
It is an excellent question now, too, and Kerry should be asking it again. But this is healthcare issues week on the Kerry campaign schedule.
If Kerry loses this election to George Bush, we'll be able to trace the loss back to this week, when he missed a unique chance to turn an uncertain and troubled public around on the war.
Instead of taking a leadership position and declaring the war a lost cause, as he did in younger days, Kerry has simply called for the firing of our Secretary of War (let's do away with that Secretary of Defense nonsense) Donald Rumsfeld�a move that even many Republicans probably would endorse. Note that in calling for Rumsfeld's head, Kerry is in effect exonerating the president of guilt in the torture scandal, by implying that Rumsfeld is guilty of poorly serving his boss.
He should be calling for the president's resignation or impeachment, for authorizing the establishment of a torture center in Saddam Hussein's old house of horrors in the first place�probably one of the dumber things that the Bush administration and its foolish viceroy L. Paul Bremer III did in the course of their one year rule of terror in
. Iraq Kerry has been stumbling over the Iraq War issue now for over a year. Unable to explain his cowardly and stupid vote in favor of an invasion of
back in the fall of 2002, the presumptive Democratic nominee has instead called for yet more troops to be sent there. Unable to call for an end of the war for fear of being called soft on defense, he has been reduced to claiming he could do a better job of fighting it. Iraq The torture scandal, which has scuttled any chance the
had of winning that war (if there ever was one), or even of emerging from it with a relatively pro-U.S. government in place in U.S. , gives Kerry one brief window of opportunity to correct his mistakes. He could now plausibly say that while the war might once have been won, and democracy brought to Baghdad , the ideologues and fanatics in the Bush White House had sabatoged that chance. He could say that by acting like a conquering empire, by taking shortcuts, by deliberately encouraging soldiers and intelligence agents to ignore and violate international rule of law on the handling of prisoners, and by needlessly alienating average Iraqis, Bush and his national security team had blown it. Iraq He could now say that the war has been lost through hubris and incompetence, and that it's time to call it quits, cut our losses, and bring the troops home.
If Kerry were to do this, he would be a hero again. Even people who might disagree with him would have to respect his courage and conviction. And people who already planned on voting for him would be energized to go out and get others to vote for him too.
Then he could go back to talking about health care or the environment, and people might even pay attention, might think he actually had something bold and new to offer.
As it is, the Kerry campaign is coasting to disaster. The torture scandal has become the main event. The war is at a turning point, and Kerry is AWOL.
He isn't even able to get on page one.
And rightly so. What news value is there to yet another cobbled together plan to "reform" the American medical system? Everyone knows that these plans are just campaign blather, forgotten the moment the ballots have been counted.
If he wants to get back on page one, Kerry should take a page from the Spanish left and say that his first act on taking office next January would be to order the troops home, and that his second act would be to take the money budgeted for the war and, after setting aside half of it for Iraq aid and reparations, spend the rest on all the badly needed social programs he earlier had said he wouldn't have enough money to fund.
Sadly, it's not going to happen though. The script calls for Kerry to be talking about education next week, or was it transportation? http://counterpunch.org/lindorff05132004.html
"Further, it has now become evident that the reasons you gave for the invasion and occupation of were fabrications and deceptions." Iraq
- Mr. Nader
May 13, 2004 An Open Letter to George Bush
Inhumane Treatment of Prisoners Produces Blowbacks and Backlashes
By RALPH NADER
Dear Mr. President:
The reported widespread abuse of prisoners by your Administration adds another condition that reflects on your failure of leadership. Anticipation and prevention of such tragedies should have been routine by the top officials whom you command. How can you imagine winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people? You are expanding what the intelligence agencies call "blowbacks" - expanding the networking of stateless terrorists against the
. In addition, your Administration's actions put US soldiers and civilians in United States at increased risk from the backlash to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, most of whom the press reports were charged with no wrongdoing when imprisoned. Iraq With the publication of photos from Abu Ghraib prison the truth is beginning to come out. In recent years newspaper articles, human rights reports and expressions of concern from the International Red Cross, Red Crescent and other human services agencies have claimed that torture, degradation and inhuman treatment had become the mode of operation under your Administration in
, Afghanistan Guantanamo , and Bay . This has included repeated reports in the media of deaths and suicides of people being held in US military custody. Iraq General Antonio Taguba, who wrote the Pentagon's report looking into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, testified on May 11 before the Senate Armed Services Committee describing systemic problems with the prison. He testified that what happened was the result of a rampant failure of leadership "from the brigade commander on down, lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision."
The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a report concerning prisoner abuse based on private interviews with prisoners of war and civilian internees during the 29 visits ICRC staff conducted in 14 places of detention across
between March 31 and Iraq . The report said that as far back as last May, the Red Cross reported to the military about 200 allegations of abuse, and that in July it complained about 50 allegations of abuse at a detention site called Camp Cropper -- including one case of treatment that included being deprived of sleep, kicked repeatedly and injured and having a baseball tied into the prisoner's mouth. On May 10 the Red Cross stated that the organization's president, Jakob Kellenberger, complained about the prison abuses directly to top administration officials during a two-day visit to Washington in mid-January when he met with Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. October 2, 2003 You cannot claim that you were unaware of these allegations. You are briefed daily. In addition to these allegations being reported in the media, human rights groups have specifically written to your Administration about them. In July 2003, Amnesty International sent your administration a Memorandum on Concerns Relating to Law and Order in
. The Memorandum included allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees by US and Coalition forces. Iraq A
letter signed by nine leading human rights organizations states: "For over a year, the undersigned organizations and others have repeatedly asked you and senior officials in your Administration to act promptly and forcefully to publicly repudiate the statements of intelligence officials and to assure that the treatment of detainees is consistent with international humanitarian law." Amnesty International also alleged torture and degradation in the treatment of prisoners and detainees resulting from the war in May 7, 2004 held in that country as well as Afghanistan , Guantanamo Bay . And, The Washington Post has reported that your State Department and Department of Defense had conflicts over the treatment of prisoners. As commander-in-chief, certainly you were or should have been aware of these assertions - often repeated in the media, by various organizations - and of the conflicts within your own Administration. Cuba Now that the photographs are beginning to make their way into the media, the public is seeing that
treatment of detainees, prisoners and people held in enemy combatant status includes acts abhorred by the American people. Sadly, there will be more - more photos, videos, testimony - where more of the facts will come out. US Human rights groups wrote you on May 7 saying: "Extraordinary action on your part is now required to begin to repair this damage and, at long last, bring an end to this pattern of torture and cruel treatment."
You and your aides have a disquieting habit of not responding at all to such letters going back to the pre-invasion of
early last year, when 13 groups representing millions of Americans (e.g., religious, veterans, business, labor, retired intelligence) wrote you requesting a meeting. They did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. Iraq In order to restore public confidence around the world an independent international investigation is needed. The Department of Defense investigating itself, or investigation by Republican controlled congressional committees in a presidential election year, will not be sufficient to restore the confidence of the world.
The following steps are needed:
1. Get the truth out through an impartial, international commission. This should include people of unquestioned integrity from within the
and around the world. You should state that you or anyone in your Administration will testify in public before this fact-finding Commission. This should include involvement of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission provided for by Article 90 of Additional Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions to look into the allegations of abuse and related United States investigations. The US should agree to pay restitutions to all individuals whose rights were violated. US 2. Renounce interrogation techniques that destroy basic human dignity and the very purpose of eliciting valuable information. Remove those in the chain of command who in anyway countenanced or ordered such activity. Direct the Department of Defense and
intelligence agencies not to engage in any practices that are inconsistent with the US Constitution forbidding cruel and unusual punishment, the Geneva Convention, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This includes banning "stress and duress" techniques, incommunicado detentions and transfer of prisoners to countries that use torture techniques. Strong and clear penalties should be announced for anyone who uses such interrogation techniques. Adequate funding should be provided to allow for investigation of allegations of abuse. US 3. Ban the use of private civilian corporate contractors in interrogation and any direct contacts with prisoners or detainees held by the
. These are essential governmental functions under established rules of military, domestic and international law. You would do well to examine the corporate contracts in United States for waste, corruption, non-performance and favoritism - before the media gets there. Iraq 4. Allow access to all prisons, prisoners, detainees and people held in non-combatant status to the Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. This should include private interviews of prisoners as well as visits by medical personnel.
The photos showing abusive treatment are serious. They come on top of reports of US military actions that took the lives of hundreds civilians - including women and children - in Fallujah, as well as reports of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians being killed in the US war and occupation of Iraq. It comes at a time when it is evident that under your leadership as commander-in-chief there has been inadequate planning for post-war
and moving that country to independence from Iraq military and corporate occupation. Further, it has now become evident that the reasons you gave for the invasion and occupation of US were fabrications and deceptions. In truth the Iraq and the stronger countries surrounding United States were never threatened by a tottering dictator with a dilapidated military having no command and control over his troops. Richard Clarke, former White House Terrorism Advisor has argued that the Iraq War and occupation diverted us from preventing stateless terrorism and has been counterproductive to making the Iraq safer. Gen. William Odom who served as director of the National Security Agency under President Reagan, has called for withdrawal from United States saying: "I don't think that the war serves Iraq interests. I think Osama bin Laden's interests and the Iranian interests are very much served by it, and it's becoming a huge drain on our resources both material and political." U.S. The combination of these actions under your leadership as commander-in-chief amounts to an accumulating failure. You are clearly not able to win the hearts and minds of mainstream Iraqis. You are making the
less safe by producing more stateless terrorist recruiting, as leading security specialists have pointed out in the media. Your attempt to restore our relations with the international community and involve them in winning the peace in United States is too little and too late. Polls report that the majority of Iraqis now want the Iraq to leave immediately - a sharp turnaround by desperate people who wanted Saddam Hussein out. US You need to make major adjustments by giving the Iraqi people truthful expectations - no puppet government (See Yochi Dreazen and Christopher Cooper, "Behind the Scenes, US Tightens Grip on Iraq's Future," Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2004, page 1, 8) a responsible withdrawal of both US military and corporate occupations - to protect our troops by bringing them home - and internationally supervised elections with international peacekeepers from neutral countries. This withdrawal from
is consistent with the recommendations of General Odom who explained in an interview on Nightline: "[T]o say you can't fail at that now, is to fail to realize that you've already failed. Now, when I say get out, I don't mean just pull out and walk out today. I would go through the procedures of going to the United Nations and encouraging a United Nations resolution to approve some U.N. force there. And I would be quite prepared to participate in that for a while, if we could get allies and others to come in. But then I would make it clear that I am slowly moving that responsibility to this force and withdrawing the Iraq over six months or so." U.S. Perhaps you now see the wisdom of meeting with some of the thirteen groups of Americans - including those composed of retired military officers and intelligence officials, business, church and labor - who asked to meet with you before you declared your unconstitutional war. They could have cautioned you about the Iraqi quagmire.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
JOHN A. MURPHY: EVILDOER
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.
� Gandhi
www.votenader.org
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