The UN, US and Iraq IV

Hey, hob - cast it. Be careful with Tony Soprano, though He's a more sympathetic character than any of those in the WH.

Family values? What we're talking about here is the lack of values. The army is acting like any army - nothing new, nothing unexpected. They are mostly kids with some basic training; not a clue as to what this is all about, and stuck in a hot, God-forsaken place among people who don't speak their language, cast in the role of bad soldier. And they don't know what's supposed to happen.

That's a major problem. I don't either. Are we supposed to produce a country full of smiling, grateful Iraqis, who will be helping to subsidize two or three major US companies for years to come? Because we sure haven't offered anything that resembles a free nation.

I heard - again - Martin Luther King deliver his speech last night. And every time I am more impressed than ever. Although everybody remembers teh "I have a dream" part, he said so much more that was meaningful, and ended it "Free at last."

Oh, to be free of the yoke around our necks that is the Bush administration.

Tart - so start one. When my grandsons go six feet and over, a lot of people are short to me. I really am.

Yes, I heard the speech again yesterday...and it still gives me goosebumps. A great deal heavier than "I have a dream". A polite indictment. No ducking or denial allowed.

Now we have the spector of religious infighting of major proportions in Iraq. And I can not think of anyone, or any entity, capable of defusing that miserable situation.

And I like Clark too, much to my surprise (why?).

I'm still not sure on Clark. He's a big question mark at this point in time; maybe we'll learn more about him in the near future. I hope so. c.i.

With ex military, gotta see a lot of the person to tell how much of the bad is built in - of course, anything is still better than what we have

Don't know wnough about Dean to comment...but have heard Clark on TV. Like what I hear.

See the current issue of the Middle East Review for some very good analysis of the situation in Iraq. Especially poignant is an article by Faleh Jabar on the conflict between rival Shi'a groups. Also enlightening is a piece by Kaveh Esani on the growing dissent in Iran,and the Bush administration's efforts to foment dissent and, instead of a democratic government, install another Pahlavi on the throne. Some people never learn.

hobit's quote: "Some people never learn." This was determined very early in this administration. They made it clear that they do not listen to polls or outsiders. c.i.

hobit, Do you remember the "No War" demostrations by millions around the world? Most of us do, but this administration can't be bothered. c.i.

Remember, Bushy-Poo II pooh poohed "public interest" in his Air Force One 60 Minutes interview. He's the "prezz'dint," and does what he believes is "raht" for the "free wuhrold."

hobitbob, I have pulled up middleeastreview. Do you read the editorial stuff?

Oops, meant Middle East Report, published by the Middle East Research and Information Project. They are part of the Centre for Contamprary Arab Studies at Georgetown.
Now I'm curious and will look up the Middle East Review.

Neat, its an e-journal (peer reviewed and everything.).
There is one in my field, that deals with post Roman Britain, called Saxon Shores. E-journals are just starting to be accepted.I think they are a grand idea.

Hobit -- I worked with a professor at Harvard back in the early '60's. He was a sharer of ideas and monographs and other written materials. Endless ditto'ing (you're too young to remember ditto machines) and mailing stuff out to about 50 people a day. And the mail which came back in from UChi and Berkeley and all kinds of places. Boy oh boy, e-journals really ring bells for me! Peer review online! Instant sharing of ideas! Wow!

We should maybe have a thread about fantasy e-journals -- which philosophers and others from the past would we create an e-journal for...

I remember dittos...they were purple and smelled good.
We had them in elementary school and Junior High.

Just to let you know the center-right is not asleep yet


THE TRUTH, TONY BLAIR & THE BBC




August 28, 2003 -- Things may be looking up for British Prime Minister - and top U.S. ally - Tony Blair, whose surge of popularity in the United States has been matched only by the drop in his poll numbers at home.

His government has for months been under fire for allegedly "sexing up" a September 2002 intelligence dossier used by both the Blair and Bush administrations to build support for the Iraq war.

It was a journalist from the state-funded British Broadcasting Corp., Andrew Gilligan, who charged in late May that the British government had inserted a false claim into this dossier against the wishes of Britain's intelligence services - namely that the Iraqi army had the ability to deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

The BBC, of course, scarcely bothered to hide its institutional anti-war bias before and during the war.

Much of its reporting from Iraq was characterized by desperate efforts to make the coalition look bad. This was especially true of its Baghdad team, which included Gilligan. (A virtual mouthpiece for "comical Ali," Saddam's minister of information, Gilligan notoriously claimed that there were no U.S. forces at the Baghdad airport even as Army tanks rolled down its runways.)

Meanwhile, Gilligan's post-war claims that the government had falsified evidence in order to justify the war have been backed by the BBC, even though it soon emerged that he lied about his source.

This was not an intelligence officer as the BBC claimed, but a government scientist named David Kelly. Kelly committed suicide in early July after testifying to Parliament, prompting an independent inquiry into the whole affair.

It has since been established that Kelly could not have known how the dossier was put together.

Moreover, on Tuesday Britain's top spymaster said publicly that his staff did indeed have intelligence that suggested that the Iraqi army could deploy WMDs in as little as 20 minutes.

It is now becoming clear that Blair and his staff did nothing wrong when making the case for the overthrow of one of the world's most brutal and dangerous dictatorships.

And it is becoming even more clear the BBC's anti-war bias is so extreme and so deep-rooted that the institution - once world-renowned for its honesty - can no longer be trusted to report fairly.

Not on the conflict in Iraq.

Not on anything.

And messy - remember first xerox, messy also, smelled bad, and had to wait for them to dry out. My father had a chance to buy original stock and take a position in the company. He said it would never go anywhere. Gotta love him anyway

has anyone seen Shanghai Knights, the Jackie Chan movie? Owan Wilson's charachter has put all the gold from teh first movie into Zeppelins. He says the other choice was Ford. "yeah, horseless carriages...like that idea's gonna take off."

BTW, percy, just so you won't feel ignored, care to tell us the source of your little blurby-poo?

And Alistair resigned!!! That says a whole lot about the whole shootin match. Somehow, I was not surprised to learn that good old Alistair's background was in the British tabloids.

Ditto machines. Purple ink stayed on my hands. But I have a brother-in-law who was tipped to IBM early and stayed with it.

E-journals might just possibly be an idea whose time has come. Maybe the blogs are leading up to this. It would be nice to know that maybe we can begin to rise again a little, after all this dumbing down. What will history make of a would-be president who actually bragged of no work and lousy grades? And, did anybody actually miss him this past month? He could have stayed for two - which doesn't say much for him being an important presence, does it?