Thanks Buzz, color, au, blatham, and Frank expecially for adding in your thoughts today. This writer is taking a break from TV and all the common broadcast sources of the horror taking place. I got out of bed, saw the local headline and accompanying large photo of young 'US warriors' raising pistols in the air and thought, well that is all I need to see of the local paper today. Then, I saw CNN long enough to realize that it is one of the profiting companies and corporations. It seemed the news anchors (news creampuffs, rather) could get no more excited than they are now. There were waaaay too many smiles and I'd swear that several looked pleased to be on the air..."What a career boost!"
So, I took to bed and then got up late to do some online searching for my studies in Web Design. Was nicely able to ignore the _______ going on. So, tired still and still "ignoring", and glad to know that online friends will keep in touch as we reel and spin through another never-forgotten day of 'history'.
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml
Total Disinformation Awareness, a project of PR Watch.org
Total Disinformation Awareness
And one more:
War Marks End of America We Knew An editorial in the Miami Herald today, by Leonard Pitts Jr.
war
Has anyone read Arianna Huffington's article on how Bush's crony companies will probably clean up (1.5 billion as a starts) in getting contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq? Halliburton, is of course, going to be one of the companies enjoying the lion's share of the contracts. Huffington states that normally the UN takes charge of the rebuilding of destroyed nations (I'm not familiar with this detail) but that this time the U.S. will take the entire (profitable) "reponsibility" upon itself, not even allowing contracts to British firms.
Justice does seem to mean "just us."
The article can be read at:
www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/031903.html
Read it and became so angry and now I have understand that Bush administration is seizing the money that the father had frozen in the Gulf war, Iranian money attached to the Saddam regime, apparently the home land security act gives him that power. He, Bush, said he was going to use it to re-build Iraq.
This is getting to be very scary - not the war but the government we are supposed to be protected from by our constitution is acting against our best interests.
bush
As they say, "Be afraid, very afraid." (both of the terrorists and rapacious military industrial complex, especially as the latter is operating in the Bush regime).
i heard on NBC news that Bush is trying to seize all Iraq assets, i am not sure what that means but it sounds tacky.
dys: All non-diplomatic assets (the diplomatic ones are legally off limits) are being siezed to help finance the reconstruction of Iraq.
They are Iraq's funds, and they will be used for Iraq.
Really, max how can you be so sure?
like i said Max, "i'm not sure what it means" i drew no assumption.
I'll start a new thread on a topic brought up by a conversation my brother and I had last night. I commented "Have you noticed how much the price of gasoline is dropping ever since Monday?" He replied "It's Big Oil's way of saying "Thank you!" for the war...."
On Monday afternoon the price of the economy gasoline here in the Midwest was $1.73 per gallon where I live. That evening it went to $1.64 and by morning $1.59. Now four days later it is $1.53. Hmmmmm, this "war" is NOT about oil? Yeah, right!
economy gasoline here in the Eastern WA is $1.79 per gallon
cobalt
The price is dropping because the price of a barrel of crude went from about $40 to somewhere in the neighborhood of $26. They have determined that the supply would be plentiful. Saudi Arabia has committed to make up the shortfall if there is any. Not unusual under the circumstances.
It's not a war. It's a massacre!
So far from all accounts it is far from a massacre. Are you disappointed??
war
John, yes that's clearly what it is. We could stop everything (except logistics) now and give the Iraqi leadership another chance to surrender, now that they've seen what we can do. But no, I suspect we want to destroy as much of the urban centers as possible so that American construction companies, those in favor with the administration, can make fortunes in construction contracts.
guessing the war won't stop til that statue of Saddam is blown off the pedestal.
Not a war, but an invasion, and it won't stop until Saddam is gone. That is clear. But give me a break as to motivation. Anti-Americanism is rampant nowadays.
war
Sumac, is it possible that you really believe that the motive for this war is the liberation of the Iraqi people? And by "anti-americanism" are you referring to loyal Americans who do not want a bunch of thugs in Washington to drag their beloved country down in total international disrepute? I hope I misunderstand you.
Yes, you misunderstand what it behind my statements. I am not naive, and I didn't meant to project such assumptions. Just that I don't assume one thing over another - but look for evidence. And there is a great deal of misinformation, and disinformation, out there.
sumac
You used the term 'anti-Americanism' above, and said there is lots of it kicking around. That is so.
What one has to try and tease apart is where such disagreements are reasonable and where not. That's not terribly easy, and certainly does require some depth and breadth of study.
One element to this which I've observed is that the more educated people become (in history, in political theory, in geography and other cultures) the more willing they are to question their own cultural mythologies.
We understand, for example, that an young Iranian or Saudi would understand the US much better were he to live here and to study a Western curriculum. I spoke several years ago with a man who had grown up in Libya. He'd just been reading about the mechanics of how the human eye works. He was utterly flabbergasted as he'd never learned the slightest bit of this in his years of school in Libya. He had no idea, for another example, that native north american indians had been in fairly regular war with each other. Of course, previously, he didn't know that he didn't know.
It is not at all surprising to me that fewer university graduates believe the world was created in 4004 BC than do less well educated Americans. Nor is it a surprise to me that university graduates are more willing to consider that anti-American sentiments are commonly borne of America's own behavior in the world.
My degree is in education. I truly believe education makes the world a better place, and that it has a function well beyond providing high-tech grads for the industrial machine. One invaluable function of education is to instill a skepticism for broadly held cultural notions. And one such notion, presently escaping from mouths, is that 'they hate us because we are free'. It's a simple idea, but it doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of study.
