The UN, US and Iraq IV

Another Powell quote:

'No rush to handover'

The US secretary of state stressed America's desire to hand over control of the country to the Iraqis as soon as possible.

While he ruled this out as likely to happen in a matter of months, he said it was not inconceivable that this could be achieved by the end of next year.

However, he again rebuffed French calls for a quicker handover.

"We can't just say 'You are a government, fine, go, you have full authority'," Mr Powell told reporters in Baghdad.

He also said that securing a UN Security council resolution - now under discussion - was not essential to American plans for Iraq.

Full Story

While I don't claim the US has any great history in the regard, for sake of discussion, would anyone care to detail the superior performance of the French, the Germans, or the Russians, in the matter of the establishment of a replacement government for any other nation? Or, for that matter, of the UN in that same particular?

Whew, now I feel much better - the PTA is up and running. Control of the borders can't be far behind!

I really don't know if anyone has seen this on the net, or published it here, but I agree with the title of this email I got:

Subject: Interesting

Since America is typically represented by an eagle.
Saddam should have read up on his Muslim
passages...
The following verse is from the Quran, (the Islamic
Bible)

Quran (9:11) -- For it is written that a son of
Arabia would awaken a
fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be
felt throughout the lands
of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled
in despair still more
rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the
lands of Allah; and there

was peace.

Note the verse number!

BLOWS MY MIND, MAN

Cute, Verbal Lee, but old Non-News:
9/11 Quran Hoax
The bit of disinformation you were suckerred by has been floating around the 'net since it first appeared in early February as part of a more or less sarcastic commentary posted to a number of usenet newsgroups. Lots of disinformation and misleading commentary may be found on the 'net. Some folks have a passion for finding and spreading it.

Thanks for shooting that dead Timber!

As Gomer Pyle would say 'surprise surprise surprise'. Gee W's handlers must have won one. Now the next step is to can the appointed council and elect one that doesn't reek of Gee W. A country that is not trusted by it's leader has a leader that is not trusted. That is exactly what got Raygun in trouble with his 'trust but verify' crap. Trust should be synonymous with 'truth' .... Gee W.



Date posted: 15.09.2003.

Governing Council takes first step onto world stage
By Ahmed Mukhtar

This week's decision allowing the Governing Council (GC) to occupy Iraq's seat on the Arab League, is pay-off for some intensive shuttle diplomacy. The GC has had to overcome considerable opposition from countries fearful of being seen to give recognition to the US occupation of Iraq.

The GC, which was appointed by US Administrator, Paul Bremer, has been the subject of much domestic and international criticism because of the lack of involvement of the Iraqi people in its appointment. In this context, it has lobbied hard for recognition of its legitimacy from a number of international and regional bodies, particularly the UN and the Arab League.

The foreign policy forays of the Governing Council in some respects dovetail with the interests of the US administration, while in others have a focus which seem at odds with US aims. Either way the Governing Council has been putting itself about in the international arena during the past week.

Moves to get international recognition are likely to be strongly welcomed by a US administration eager to take the spotlight off of its role as an occupying power with little international legitimacy.

But the Governing Council has also taken an interest in the stepped up efforts of the US to get more countries to commit troops and money to Iraq.

The issue of troop deployment is one which highlights some of the differences in outlook between many members of the GC and the US administration. While the US seems desperate to get more foreign troops on the ground, some members of the GC are concerned about the origin of those troops.

Of particular concern is the situation with Turkey. The Turkish government surprisingly refused to participate in the war in March, and in the process turned down a reported $30 billion in inducements. The Turkish decision at the time was particularly welcome to many Kurds who feared the presence of Turkish troops.

Now the United States is again trying to get Turkey to send as many as 10,000 soldiers. Currently there are about 130,000 US soldiers as well as 11,000 British and a smaller contingent of Polish led forces.

Turkish troops are valuable to the US both because of the numbers - it has had little success to date in getting even a handful of countries to contribute more than token numbers; and also because Turkish soldiers would overwhelmingly be Muslim.

For the Governing Council, whose members include the two main Kurdish Parties: the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party, Turkey is not much of a panacea. Additional to specific Kurdish fears in relation to Turkey, many members of the Council see the whole issue of foreign troops as one directly connected to Iraqi sovereignty.

The current President of the Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi was in Ankara during the week and held talks with Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister. In relation to Turkish forces being sent to Iraq, Chalabi said "our position in the Governing Council is we must restore sovereignty to Iraqis as soon as possible".

"This is an Iraqi issue and everybody has to consider Iraq's sovereignty" Nasir Al-Chadarchi, also a member of the Governing Council and head of the National Democratic Party pointed out. In response to US concerns that there are not enough coalition troops to stabilize the situation, Mr. Chadarchi suggests that the solution is in more "cooperation between the coalition troops".

Mr. Chadarchi also recommends that it would be more useful to increase the number of policemen who "are more acquainted and professional with Iraqi criminals and crimes". While he feels that the US is resorting to foreign troops because of an inability to stabilize Iraq, he believes that "even the foreign forces will not control Iraq". The solution could be achieved by "increasing the number of Iraqi police and providing them with suitable weapons and vehicles".

Another member of the GC was also engaged on a foreign policy mission during the week. Adnan Pachachi was in Geneva to meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, prior to Annan's scheduled meeting on Iraq with the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council states.

The US has been pursuing a new Security Council Resolution in the hope that if successful it would remove the reservations of many countries to sending forces to Iraq. Pachachi was one of a troika of GC members who had previously attended the debate at the Security Council leading to the most recent resolution on Iraq.

Pachachi commented that "the role of the UN is crucial in the restoration and helping of the political process in Iraq".

The GC has also sought to develop its links with some of the European countries who had opposed war against the former regime. Al-Chdarchi believes the diplomacy has reaped rewards "there was an active and gradual improvement with many of the European and Arab countries".

Members of the GC may hope that such contacts will provide them with potential extra leverage in promoting policies that it may diverge with the US over. Al-Chadarchi for instance outlines a clear picture of where the GC sees things going: "after establishing a constitution and its regulations, there will be an election law and population census as well as free and secret ballot" These procedures the GC expects to see happen in eighteen months. "The type of ruler whether secular or religious cannot be predicted. There will be an election and the people will decide"

For such expectations to materialize over the next eighteen months, all the international support which the GC can muster, and more, may well be needed. But given the targeted violence of recent weeks, members of the GC may well feel that 18 months in Iraq goes much slower than eighteen months of international diplomacy.

Here we go again?Woo Hooo, numbers down, lets get Syria!

Now, considering Bolton's credibility (or lack of it), aren't we all glad he and his boss are so interested in a peaceful world?

If I were Karl Rove, I'd think twice before using Syria as a numbers lifter. Something tells me more people are catching on, and not just Democrats.

Then:



Now:



I'm so sick of this goddamn ****...

I wonder how many GWBush and gang supporters know this and still think this administration is doing everything in the best interest of Americans?

HMMMM ... "CBS News has learned ... " " ... The British Government has learned ... "
Odd ... Oh well, ne'mind .. . prolly doesn't mean a thing, just a funny coincidence, I'm sure.

Now, not having been in the room with Rummy at the time, I can only conjecture here, but I would be astounded if there were not a call to begin preparing strike plans for the entire shortlist of usual suspects ... that would be only prudent. Off the top of my head, I'd figure the shortlist back then would have included Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, Lybia, and maybe even Cuba. What proof is there such a general call for preparation of suitable response was not the case, and that the CBS report, perhaps expressly to further editorial agenda, glossed over the mentions and discussion of the rest?

From Cape Cod, ayh-uh!dragged alongPublished on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 by the Cape Cod Times
Are You Feeling 'Dragged Along'?
by Sean Gonsalves


"I love war... . Peace will be hell for me," Gen. George Patton wrote his wife from the World War II front. Patton must have felt he was in good company. "Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle," he told the Third Army in July 1944.

So for all you Patton-ed "real Americans" out there, I offer you this terrifying insight: While in custody during the Nuremberg trials, Nazi war criminal Hermann Goerring was interviewed by a psychologist named Dr. Gustave Gilbert, as recounted in the new book "Weapons of Mass Deception" by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of the Center for Media and Democracy.

"Of course, the people don't want war," Goerring said. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece.

"Naturally, the common people don't want war... . That is understood. After all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a Fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship," Goerring said.

Gilbert responded: "There's one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives. And in the United States only Congress can declare wars." Spoken like a true believer.

You can almost hear the snicker in Goerring's retort. "Oh, that is all well and good. But voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Of course, on Sept. 11, 2001, we were attacked - by al-Qaida operatives; not Saddam. Yet the polls indicate that a majority of Americans believe Saddam's regime was involved in 9/11. And in his most recent speech, the "straight-talkin' " President Bush again made the thoroughly discredited Iraq-al-Qaida link.

It's also been said that 9/11 represents something new in the world, bringing forth a new kind of war. But there's nothing new about terrorism or war. On Sept. 11, 1973, a U.S.-backed coup was launched in Chile that brought down the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, ushering into power the bloody rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet whose tyranny didn't end until 1990.

Fernando Torres, who now lives in Berkeley, Calif., was abducted by Pinochet's secret police in Antofagasta, Chile, in 1975 and detained for a year at the Tres Alamos concentration camp. He sees a connection between our 9/11 and the one memorialized in Chile.

"Both Sept. 11's are connected by the many failures of U.S. foreign policy. After calling us 'irresponsible people' because we elected the socialist Salvador Allende, Henry Kissinger supported and financed the coup that killed thousands of people," Torres observes.

Yes, the same Kissinger who Bush appointed to head the 9/11 investigation commission before Kissinger resigned amid a firestorm of criticism.

Claudio Duran was also abducted by Pinochet's police in 1975. Today, he is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University.

"Let's put aside the political amnesia for awhile and read the reports from the U.S. Senate's Church Committee," Duran says. "Nixon and Kissinger are responsible for terror in our society. They plotted and gave a lot of U.S. taxpayer money to the Chilean terrorists who air-raided and bombed many buildings in September 1973."

Everybody says they're for peace but the Patton-ed "true Americans" need not fret. Apparently, it's still "easy" to "drag the people along" and bring them "to the bidding of the leaders."

Sure, we celebrate the lives of people like Martin Luther King Jr., but we don't take him seriously in his observation that "true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

Until "the common people" organize against the Goerring principle, there'll be perpetual warfare. And though the world is complicated, the choice is simple really: Nonviolence or nonexistence? - as King posed the question.

Sean Gonsalves is a Cape Cod Times staff writer and a syndicated columnist. His column runs on Tuesdays. Call him at 508-775-1200, ext. 719, or e-mail him at [email protected]

Copyright © 2003 Cape Cod Times

Professor Hobitbob:

Don't be silly!
Are you saying that George W. Bush could read and understand the writings of Goering?

Haven't you gotten the message from the Canadians?

George Bush is "under-educated.

How could he possibly assimilate and put into practice the ideas of Goering?

Now, if I may, Professor Hobibit, I have a suggestion. Begin an all out campaign to send mailings- thousands of them- to American voters.

Tell them that Bush's calls for patriotism is revealed by Goering's quote as a cynical attempt to use the common people as cannon fodder.
For what? For Oil.

Why, there will be thousands, no, millions rushing to the barracades.

You had better hurry with your education campaign.

As of last month, two thirds of American voters knew NONE of the nine Democrats running for the nomination.

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
-Douglas Adams

WHere are the WMD? In a locked file cabinet in a dusty broom closet with a sign on the door saying : "Beware of the Leopard!"

Dear Professor Hobibit:

There are no WMD's. I predict that when Dean wins the nomination, he will make this the centerpiece of his campaign.

Do you think the Million man march was impressive?

Imagine a march of ten million on DC, all carrying the sign-

Where are the WMD's? There were no WMD's
Bush lied.

That will finish Bush off.

As someone completely misses the joke......
Hmm...might he be a Vogon?

Wouldn't it be funny if after a dozen or so years, somebody does find tons WMD's in Iraq, and imbosed on the WMD's it says, "Made in China."

Gato

General Wesley Clarke