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If you didn’t
believe that civil war already existed in Iraq, a civil war we precipitated, then
the Thanksgiving Day bombing of women and children at a toy giveaway surely must
convince you. Americans stand at a
painful crossroads, confronting their culpability in a chronicle of events that
led to this chaos, to our roles as occupiers and the genocide that is
unfolding. Before the nightmare causes us to completely forget what we thought
we once were, before we completely become what we once fought against, take a
good look at this war without the rose-tinted glasses. Before
this administration launches another “preemptive” invasion against another
Middle East country, remember what a government based on checks and balances
and the rule of law means, before we forget, and before it’s too late. kwc Bomber Bloodies US Toy Giveaway: Baghdad, Nov. 24 -
A suicide attacker steered a car packed with explosives toward U.S. soldiers
giving away toys to children outside a hospital in central Iraq on Thursday,
killing at least 31 people. Almost all of the victims were women and children,
police said. In all, 53
people were killed in bombings and gunfire across the country, including two
American soldiers who died in a roadside bombing near Baghdad. The U.S.
military also reported the deaths of four American troops on Wednesday. Iraqi security
officials said they believed that Iraqi police or U.S. forces were the target
of Thursday's bombing outside the general hospital in Mahmudiyah. The town has
a mixed Shiite and Sunni Arab population and is in an area south of Baghdad
known as the Triangle of Death. "It was an
explosion at the gate of the hospital," a woman who had wounds on her face
and legs told the AP. "My children are gone. My brother is gone." With no room left
at the hospital, emergency workers rushed victims to hospitals in Baghdad,
about 15 miles to the north. And when the hospital morgue was full, the workers
were forced to place the dead in the hospital garden so family members could
find them. "They are
trying to challenge the state's authority and spread the impression that there
is no state structure or authority in Iraq, to promote a sense of despair among
citizens," said Laith Kubba, spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari. Kubba also announced the discovery of
arms caches in the northern city of Tall Afar. He said the find was "surprising,"
because U.S. and Iraqi forces had in recent months carried out a third
full-scale offensive there, leveling some neighborhoods. The discovery
"means there are some terrorist cells still operating there" despite
the all-out U.S. offensive, he noted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112400293.html Perhaps
this might be subtitled “Neoconservatives
recant their imperialism”. Replant the American Dream OpEd by David Ignatius,
Washington Post, Friday, November 25, 2005; A37 I don't think Americans realize how much we have
tarnished those ideals in the eyes of the rest of the world these past few
years. The public
opinion polls tell us that America isn't just disliked or feared overseas -- it
is reviled. We
are seen as
hypocrites who boast of
our democratic values but who behave lawlessly and with contempt for others. I hate this America-bashing, but when I
try to defend the United States and its values in my travels abroad, I find
foreigners increasingly are dismissive. How do you deny the reality of
Abu Ghraib, they ask, when the vice president of the United States is actively
lobbying against rules that would ban torture? Of all the reversals
the United States has suffered in recent years, this may be the worst. We are
slowly shredding the fabric that defines what it means to be an American. Not so long ago our
country really was seen as different. Foreigners queued up outside any
institution that called itself an "American university," hoping for a
chance at their piece of the dream. My own ancestors were educated at such a
college, and their children's and grandchildren's success in the new land was
part of a global chain of American affirmation and renewal. We are eating up this seed corn. That's what I have seen in recent
years. We inherited incredible riches of goodwill -- a world that admired our
values and wanted a seat at our table -- and we have been squandering them. The
Bush administration didn't begin this wasting of American ideals, but it has
been making the problem worse. Certainly George W. Bush has been spending our
international political capital at an astounding clip. When I began traveling
as a foreign correspondent 25 years ago, I thought I understood what the face
of evil looked like. There were governments that used torture against their
enemies; they might call it "enhanced interrogation" or some other
euphemism, but it was torture, and you just hoped, as an American, that you
were never unlucky enough to be their prisoner. There were governments that
"disappeared" people -- snatched them off the street and put them
without charges in secret prisons where nobody could find them. There were
countries that threatened journalists with physical harm. As an American in
those days, I felt that I traveled with a kind of white flag. We were different.
The world knew it. We might have allies in the Middle East or Latin America who
used such horrifying methods. But these were techniques that Americans would
never, ever use -- or even joke about. That was our seed corn -- the fact that
we were different. The United States must
begin to replenish this stock of support for America in the world. I would love
to see the Bush administration take the lead, but its officials seem not to
understand the problem. Even
if they turned course, much of the world wouldn't believe them. Sadly, when President Bush eloquently
evokes our values, the world seems to tune out. So this task falls instead to the American public. It's a job that involves traveling,
sharing, living our values, encouraging our children to learn foreign languages
and work and study abroad. In short, it means giving something back to the
world. We must stop behaving as if we are in a
permanent state of war, in which any practice is justified by the exigencies of
the moment.
That's my biggest problem with Vice President Cheney's anything-goes jeremiads
against terrorism. They suggest we will always be at war, and so it doesn't
matter what the world thinks of our behavior. That's a dangerously mistaken
view. We are in a long war but not an endless one, and we need to begin rebuilding the bridges to normal life. On the Wednesday
before Thanksgiving each year, the Wall Street Journal republishes twin
editorials that evoke America's special gifts: "The Desolate
Wilderness" and "And the Fair Land." They describe the pilgrims'
fears as they departed Europe in 1620, and the measureless bounty they and
their descendants found in the new land. The spirit we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day is our most
powerful national asset. We need to put America's riches back on the table and
share them with the world, humbly and gratefully. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112400474.html This below represents what is happening across America, as everyday
people raise their voices in alarm and frustration. The author, who earlier
this year had a very slim chance of success, may find that her challenge to one
of the Gang of 14 moderates in the Senate has a better chance now, while making
the incumbent painfully aware of her association with an administration gone berserk,
and her opportunity to reclaim the tradition of sociopolitical moderation that
insists on fairness and common sense, adherence to our historical principles of
government. I want to be proud of America again §
That our
Constitution and Bill of Rights are the gold standard for the world; §
That the writ
of habeas corpus, the right of people to challenge their arrest or detention,
is a fundamental right going back beyond our Constitution to the Magna Carta; §
That we are the
good guys and only the bad guys torture their prisoners of war; §
That government
has a whole set of responsibilities to its citizens, which our elected
representatives are expected to fulfill; §
That Social
Security was one of the great successes of American democracy - a safety net
protecting our elderly, disabled and orphans. Of course, I've learned as an adult that the America I
thought I grew up in was not always that noble. Our government more than
occasionally did nasty things that violated those American ideals and values.
But when those events have
been uncovered, there has always been an overlay of shame, disbelief that our
government would do such things. §
The Republican
"war on the poor" that cuts food stamps, home heating assistance,
Pell grants and school lunch programs; §
Republican agenda
that refuses to raise the federal minimum wage above its paltry $5.15-an-hour
level; §
And a
Republican priority that repeatedly votes in more tax breaks for the rich,
increasing the national debt to the point of bankruptcy, while fighting an expensive
and unnecessary war. What you end up with is a country severely at risk of
collapsing from within. Her campaign Web site is www.jeanhaybright.us http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=124102 |
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