Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 22:01:17 -0400 From: All the News That Doesn't Fit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[An interesting analysis by Simon McGuinness that responds to Robert Parry's Consortium News piece on the New York Times's war propaganda, and expands on some of Frank Rich's insights about Petraeus as the new Commander in Chief in Sunday's New York Times. We hope he's right, that there's been a silent coup, at least as far as foreign policy, by the US military. Time will tell. We'll see what happens in September and beyond. -NY Transfer] See: The NY Times' New Pro-War Propaganda by Robert Parry 7/31/2007: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070730/066142.html and: Who Was Really in Charge During Bush's Colonoscopy by Frank Rich 7/30/07 https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070723/066113.html The decider-in-chief is anything but. Simon McGuinness, Dublin. My gut tells me that Gen. David Petraeus is working, not for the President, but for the US military. This is why Bush is deferring to him for his entire Iraqi policy - the military are now in charge of Iraq, not the President. They are, in effect, the adult he has handed it to, broken, to fix. Petraeus will decide, not because GW has asked him to, but because the entire leadership of the US military - the generals - have nominated him as their commander in the field. Bush is just the lame duck that follows whatever they decide. The decider-in-chief is anything but. An aerial attack against Iran which was planned by Bush & Cheney (and Olmert) to take place over 14 months ago was vetoed by the US military. In most other countries this would classify as a coup, but the US generals are too clever to go public. Their man is better left in place, his wings clipped. He can say all he wants - no one is listening anymore. The only thing he can't do is launch an attack on anyone or anything that the US generals do not authorise. And that powerlessness may actually suit GW right now. He can be absolved of blame whilst he whiles away the time like some AWOL national guard airman. The generals hit the panic button when they realised that the first casualty of an attack on Iran would be the sitting ducks of the US army in Iraq. They were right. Maybe they simply told the Whitehouse that if orders to attack Iran were given they would resign en-block. Or they could have produced a report that showed that to repulse an Iranian attack on Baghdad they'd need a force of 500,000 soldiers in addition to what they have on the ground and to get those in position would require an immediate military draft and a 12 month training and deployment program. Even Cheney would realise this was undeliverable. Having made their point, they then directed Petraeus to give the President his surge to see if it would stabilise Iraq, or enough of Iraq for the President to claim victory, withdraw and hand the problem over to the Iraqi government. Surge was plan B - plan A was to bomb Iran's nuclear installations. The surge was invented to distract Bush. It is interesting to see how the military on the ground in Iraq have been pointing the finger at Iran for the accuracy of IEDs and for more accurate missile and mortar attacks on US and British bases. The raid on the Iranian embassy in northern Iraq and the capture of alleged spies fits into the picture here with the US military seeking to take out Iranian assets regardless of the political cost. Also, the "range finding" exercises that have been carried out on the green zone in Baghdad over the past few weeks, which were described by the US military as significantly more accurate than anything the insurgency had been able to deliver previously, are likely to have been undertaken with Iranian technology and by Iranian personnel acting under the protection of the insurgency. The US military, not wishing to escalate the potential for an attack against Iran, suggested that Iraqi insurgents trained in Iran were likely to be responsible. My guess is that they know it was Iranian special forces working undercover and seeking to test the defences of the US bases in order to plan for how they would launch an all-out assault on the bases in the event of an attack by the USA. And operating inside Iraq will get them valuable intelligence on the nature of the insurgency and what elements of it that can trust as allies in the event that Iran retaliates against the USA. Petraeus has realised that the failure of the surge makes an attack on Iran more likely simply because withdrawal in defeat is unacceptable, Bush would rather launch another war, this time against Iran. Thus Petraeus is intent on spinning out the surge for as long as he can hoping to exceed the President's term in office. He will then hand the problem back to Bush's successor and suggest an immediate withdrawal. Petraeus desperately needs a success, however small, to dangle as a carrot to get more time. The NY Times may merely be picking up on the propaganda from the military sources, rather than from the usual discredited White House sources. Given his control on the reportage out of Iraq, Petraeus stands a fair chance of spinning a "just a little bit longer" story based on fictitious successes. Reuters quotes Petraeus today as saying "... I will ... determine at what point we can in fact begin to send forces home without replacements." Not Congress, not the President, "I". Coup Erat Demonstrandum. * ================================================================= .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org . List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ . Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= *** ----- Original Message ----- From: Marilyn Clement To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] August 1, 2007 Dear Healthcare-NOW Organizers and Friends: I was surprised last Thursday when Michael Moore's office called to say, "Michael is writing a letter and he wants to ask people to form a Healthcare-NOW coalition." He wrote the letter, and since that time, thousands of you have hit our website, called and emailed our little office and found out how to create Healthcare-NOW coalitions in your communities. The healthcare revolution that we need so badly is on its way. Let's work together as we create the guaranteed national healthcare system we all want so much. What Michael has done with his film "SiCKO" is to help us see a national vision, a vision of what it would feel like to not worry about medical debt any more and to provide ourselves with the guarantee that none of us will ever be denied healthcare again in this land. SO If you haven't seen "SiCKO." go see it right away. Don't miss this moment in the history of our country. I believe it is a turning point. Do like the Bethany Baptist Church in Newark - take two busloads of parishioners. Follow the leadership of one international union president urging all of his members nationwide to take their families and friends. Invite the skeptics and the believers. Download the Sickocure flyers from our website, put an invitation on the back and pass them out at the theatre calling people together to work for guaranteed healthcare. When you do that, you are creating a Healthcare-NOW Coalition - a community of American people working together for the common good. We'll help you. Just give us a call if you are ready to roll! Marilyn Clement, National Coordinator, Healthcare-NOW P.S. In case you didn't see it, here is Michael Moore's letter. "See the Movie, Start the Revolution" ...a letter from Michael Moore Thursday, July 26th, 2007 Friends, I am overwhelmed by the response to "Sicko." And I'm not just talking about all the wonderful, heart-felt letters you've sent me and the stories you've shared with me about the abuse you've suffered from our health care system. No, I'm talking about how thousands of you are taking matters into your own hands and using the movie to do something. From Seattle to New England, each day I learn of numerous groups holding meetings or dinners after the movie to discuss it and to plot a course for action. A church in Plano, TX took its weekly bible study group to see "SiCKO." 70 people crammed into a Wisconsin coffee shop's back room. Groups are plotting over pancakes in Illinois and microbrew in Missouri. E-mail addresses are being exchanged in theater lobbies. A Connecticut group is inviting legislators to see "Sicko" and keeping a tally on their website. Local groups have been buying out theaters to have special screenings for their members. Information tables are set up, literature is distributed, action groups are formed. It's all an amazing sight. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see the impact a movie can have. For all of you who have written me to ask, "What can I do," well, read more about what others have done, and then try these simple steps: 1. Call or write you member of Congress right now (I'll wait) and tell him or her that you insist they become a co-sponsor of H.R. 676 -- "The United States National Health Insurance Act." It's sponsored currently by Rep. John Conyers and 76 other members of Congress. Insist that your congressperson be one of those co-sponsors. I want to see 100 co-sponsors by Thanksgiving. Will you help make that happen? 2. Call and write to each of the candidates running for President. Tell them you expect them to back H.R. 676, and to take the Senator Brown pledge. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio refuses to accept his free, government-run health insurance until EVERY American is covered. 3. Organize your own local HealthCare-Now! coalition. You can do it in your own neighborhood. It has to start somewhere. Everyday people have to make this happen. Don't wait for someone else to do this. Ask yourself, "if not me, who?" 4. Call your local media and tell them about your health care horror story. Many papers and TV stations have been running these since "Sicko" arrived in theaters. They like the local angle. Tell them you saw the movie and that there's a "Sicko" story happening right here in (fill in the blank). Tell them you are passing it on to me. Well, that's a start. Here's what I'm going to do. Because last weekend's "Win a Trip to a Universal Healthcare Country" was so successful (the winner will be announced next week), this weekend we're going to try something different: it's "Take a Republican to 'Sicko!'" C'mon, we all have a conservative in the family! They mean well. It's just that they believe what they've been told about that scary "socialized medicine." Treat them to the movie this weekend and tell them to send me their ticket stub and entry form. I will hold a drawing and the lucky winner will get to have me come to their home and do their laundry -- just like in France! Now, what would make a Republican happier than to see me working away in their laundry room?! I truly believe that the health care issue is one where we can find some common ground with those who may hold different opinions than us. After all, they're getting the shaft by the same insurance and pharmaceutical companies we are. And sooner or later, they're not going to take it any more, either. Yours, Michael Moore [EMAIL PROTECTED] MichaelMoore.com Marilyn Clement, National Coordinator Healthcare-NOW [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 800-453-1305 www.healthcare-now.org _______________________________________________ Healthcare-now mailing list List info: http://lists.healthcare-now.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/healthcare-now You are subscribed as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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