Why is the President “serene”? Perhaps because he and his cohort truly believe that Iraq is the global Gordian knot. Pick up the terrible, swift sword and in a single Alexandrian gesture slash it (slash and awe?) through that desperate land and all problems will fall away. In a single geopolitical gesture, the United States will have grasped the world’s lifeline; the Middle East will reorganize itself under the threat of further such wars; global demonstrators will turn into cheering crowds; the Democrats will yet again be muted; and in 2004 those red states on the map will only multiply. It’s a beautiful vision — from their point of view. Instead of drawing the expectable conclusions from all the unexpected obstacles — France, Russia, Germany, a mobilized globe, the Turkish parliament, antiwar demonstrators at home, and so on — that have arisen on the path to their “little war,” and then assuming that a war of conquest in the Middle East will bring chaos of every unexpected sort in its wake, they are convinced that it will answer every problem.
Nicholas Kristof in his column in the New York Times today, Losses, Before Bullets Fly, offers quite a different scenario:
“The worry is that we’re already taking such losses, in terms of our alliances, that one wonders what will happen when the hard part begins — the day after Saddam has toppled, when we may see Shiites slaughtering Sunnis in southern Iraq; thousands of armed Iraqi exiles pouring in from Iran; Turks and Kurds fighting over the Kirkuk oil wells in northern Iraq; Iraqi military officers trying to peddle anthrax and VX gas; and radical Islamists trying to take control of nuclear-armed Pakistan.”
But the President and his men (and woman) are not listening. Serene or medicated (or serene and medicated), the President does not doubt. That I do not doubt.
Below are some angrier voices that do doubt: Paul Krugman in his column in today’s Times uses that rarest of words, “shame,” to describe his reaction to Bush attitudes toward the world. He quotes from the letter of the State Department official who resigned very publicly this week and then discusses Bush’s remarkable threats against Mexico, and Mexicans in the United States, if that country refuses to vote our way in the UN. (You read it all here in previous dispatches, by the way.) The Mexican story — major there — has largely been missing in action in our press. Krugman’s column isn’t just “opinion,” given what the Times, like other major papers, hasn’t done in its “news” pages, it’s basic reporting. That’s shameful in itself.
I’ve included as well novelist Kurt Vonnegut, playing Dear Abby to the world in In These Times magazine, and an outraged Jonathan Turley in the Los Angeles Times on how the United States has become a nation that contracts out for torture services. Shame isn’t a bad word today. Tom
Let Them Hate as Long as They Fear
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
March 7, 2003
But the President and his men (and woman) are not listening. Serene or medicated (or serene and medicated), the President does not doubt. That I do not doubt.
Below are some angrier voices that do doubt: Paul Krugman in his column in today’s Times uses that rarest of words, “shame,” to describe his reaction to Bush attitudes toward the world. He quotes from the letter of the State Department official who resigned very publicly this week and then discusses Bush’s remarkable threats against Mexico, and Mexicans in the United States, if that country refuses to vote our way in the UN. (You read it all here in previous dispatches, by the way.) The Mexican story — major there — has largely been missing in action in our press. Krugman’s column isn’t just “opinion,” given what the Times, like other major papers, hasn’t done in its “news” pages, it’s basic reporting. That’s shameful in itself.
I’ve included as well novelist Kurt Vonnegut, playing Dear Abby to the world in In These Times magazine, and an outraged Jonathan Turley in the Los Angeles Times on how the United States has become a nation that contracts out for torture services. Shame isn’t a bad word today. Tom
Let Them Hate as Long as They Fear
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
March 7, 2003Why does our president condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials?
Has ‘oderint dum metuant’ really become our motto?” So reads the resignation letter of John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat who recently left the Foreign Service in protest against Bush administration policy.”Oderint dum metuant” translates, roughly, as “let them hate as long as they fear.” It was a favorite saying of the emperor Caligula, and may seem over the top as a description of current U.S. policy. But this week’s crisis in U.S.-Mexican relations — a crisis that has been almost ignored north of the border — suggests that it is a perfect description of George Bush’s attitude toward the world.
To read more Krugman click here
Dear Mr. Vonnegut
By Kurt Vonnegut
In These Times
March 6, 2003
The recent Kurt Vonnegut interview (Kurt Vonnegut vs. !*@) has become the most popular story at inthesetimes.com, where the article originally appeared, with hundreds of readers expressing their opinions in the Comments section. The interview has also been translated and reprinted in Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest daily newspaper, and La Jornada, Mexico’s most respected daily newspaper. In light of this response, Vonnegut has agreed, on an occasional basis, to entertain readers’ questions. If you would like to submit a question, write to [email protected], and the editors will pass along your question to him.
What genuinely motivates al-Qaeda to kill and self-destruct? The president says, “They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other,” which surely is not what has been learned from the captives being held in Guantanamo, or what he is told in his briefings…
To read more Vonnegut click here
Rights on the Rack
Alleged torture in terror war imperils U.S. standards of humanity
By Jonathan Turley
Los Angeles Times
March 6, 2003In Afghanistan, it is hardly surprising to find two dead bodies with signs of torture. This week, however, a shocking U.S. military coroner’s report also suggested that the most likely suspect in the homicides was the U.S. government. Even more disturbing is emerging evidence that the United States may be operating something that would have seemed unimaginable only two years ago: an American torture facility.
Credible reports now indicate that the government, with the approval of high-ranking officials, is engaging in systematic techniques considered by many to be torture.
U.S. officials have admitted using techniques that this nation previously denounced as violations of international law. One official involved in the “interrogation center” in Afghanistan said, “if you don’t violate someone’s human rights, you probably aren’t doing your job.”
Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington University.
To read more Turley click here
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