Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Bulldozing in Iraq:
I sat on this. The Independent (and Common Dreams, t. you, M) had a report (Patrick Cockburn) about the American military using the Israeli tactic of bulldozing plots of civilians who have not been fully allied with the American effort. This is not good.
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=452375&host=3&dir=75
Lieberman wages class warfare!
Trailing badly, Lieberman looks for additional issues to distinguish him from the pack. Well, mazel! Urging us to "restore integrity and fairness" to the tax code by shifting more of the burden to wealthy individuals and companies is meritorious, and hopefully will push other candidates in this direction. The specifics:
The plan calls for lower income tax rates for individuals earning less than about $70,000 a year and families earning less than about $115,000 a year. In addition, Mr. Lieberman's plan would restore the tax on dividends and re-establish certain estate taxes, negating two changes central to the Bush administration's economic plan.
The plan announced on Monday by Mr. Lieberman went further. He would raise the top tax bracket to 39.6 percent from 33 percent for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $143,500. A family with adjusted gross income of more than $150,000 could see its rate rise to 39.6 percent from 28 percent.
But many others would see their taxes fall, Mr. Lieberman said. The tax rate for a married couple earning $50,000 would fall to 12.5 percent from 15 percent currently, saving the family up to $1,000. Couples earning $75,000 could see their taxes decline by $1,500, he said, and couples earning $100,000 could expect to save up to $2,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/politics/campaigns/14LIEB.html
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Non-combat casualties
The New York Times and USA TODAY carried articles on the military looking into the number of suicides (14) by the army’s soldiers in Iraq. Monday’s USA Today:
Alarmed by the number of suicides among soldiers in Iraq, the Army has asked a team of doctors to determine whether the stress of combat and long deployments is contributing to the deaths. "The number of suicides has caused the Army to be concerned," said Lt. Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a psychiatrist at the Army's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Ritchie is helping to investigate the suicides in Iraq. "Is there something different going on in Iraq that we really need to pay attention to..?
Tuesday’s NY Times: Pentagon officials are trying to determine whether the reported suicides can be attributed to combat stress or the growing length of tours of Iraq, or whether the numbers of deaths attributed to self-inflicted wounds are in keeping with suicide rates in the military when not deployed.
Troubling news re Wilson/Plame: According to Wilson, analyst Sam Gardiner has an account (he does) that contends that the White House / Pentagon made up over 50 ‘tall tales’ about the war, ranging from Jessica Lynch to purported surrenders of Iraqi troops.
"It was not bad intelligence. It was much more. It was an orchestrated effort. It began before the war, was a major effort during the war and continues as post-conflict distortions."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031020/whispers/20whisplead.htm
Those Second Tier Enemies:
We’ve been hearing about "them" for the past week or more- Syria, Cuba, Iran, even Libya. The hardened stance- most pathetic in targeting Cuba, despite many Miami Cubans’ oppostion- seeks to expand our enemies list, to provide other opportunities for ‘being tough’. The Christian Science Monitor’s account (Howard LaFranchi) notes that although termed "the ladies’ auxiliary of the axis of evil" by one "former US official", all of these countries are alleged to be seeking WMD.
So, we have, for example, the Syria Accountability Act, imposing new sanctions against them, which stands a good chance of passage. Perhaps that will appease some influential "Israel lobby" folk who might be less than enthused with the Bush Middle East policy. Similarly, the old game of buying Cuban-American votes in Greater Miami is undoubtedly a factor in this push on Syria.
But we’ve long heard other stories of Syrian cooperation in the "war on terror", and none of these countries obviously present any threat that’s comparable to Pakistan and its wmd / missile trading, long documented by Seymour Hersh…and noted in this space! http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1014/p02s01-usfp.htm
Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon has chimed in that Libya is deserving of this status, as he contends that Libya is trying to develop nuclear weapons with help from countries such as North Korea and Pakistan. A Sharon aide quoted Sharon as saying, "One would not be surprised if Libya would be the first Arab country (to) have nuclear weapons," Sharon purportedly said to a group of foreign ambassadors.
Those Form Letters from Iraq:
Ongoing problem! Identical letters showing up in multiple newspapers. Perhaps you’ve heard of or noticed this before, as similar letters lionizing the accomplished Bush Administration appear in papers across the country with suspiciously similar, or identical wording. Now, such letters have come from Iraq, allegedly authored by our boys in the military. There may be a small chance this is an innocently orchestrated campaign of sorts coming from isolated army public affairs officials, or "command staff", as NPR now notes. Maybe this time…maybe not.
Organized PR drive:
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post had a leading article on the Administration policy of seeking to bypass the usual media coverage. No longer pleased with the formerly compliant media, "exclusive interviews" is the new method for reaching voters. The Bush effort seeks to target five regional broadcasting companies which they hope have an audience of 10 million. Bush aides make no apologies for targeting local media -- which, they say, tend to be less cynical. "We believe local media and regional broadcasters are more interested in letting viewers or readers see or hear what the president has to say," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director. "It's less analytical and more reporting." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21714-2003Oct13.html
Disorganized PR Drive:
Cheney and Bush are putting out competing versions of reality. As noted in past blogs, Cheney continues to pair Saddam and bin Laden (who?) while the Bush and the rest of his handlers have now stated that there is no connection. Why does this continue? A nice take comes from Peter Canellos in the Boston Globe-
Cheney's assertions can be explained by two possible scenarios. Some Democrats have said the administration deliberately intends to mislead people. While Bush's comments about Iraq include various hedges to maintain deniability, Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld make much broader assertions that, if ever called upon to justify, the administration could write off as Cheney's or Rumsfeld's personal interpretations, not shared by the president or the CIA.
But the sheer disorganization of the administration's response to postwar crises argues against this interpretation. What seems clear is that this administration, once admired for its discipline, is split into warring factions over Iraq. And the seasoned veteran put on the ticket to help Bush resolve these kinds of disputes is not a helper but a participant.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/14/cheney_on_iraq_puts_white_house_to_work_on_unmuddling_message?mode=PF
-R
I sat on this. The Independent (and Common Dreams, t. you, M) had a report (Patrick Cockburn) about the American military using the Israeli tactic of bulldozing plots of civilians who have not been fully allied with the American effort. This is not good.
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=452375&host=3&dir=75
Lieberman wages class warfare!
Trailing badly, Lieberman looks for additional issues to distinguish him from the pack. Well, mazel! Urging us to "restore integrity and fairness" to the tax code by shifting more of the burden to wealthy individuals and companies is meritorious, and hopefully will push other candidates in this direction. The specifics:
The plan calls for lower income tax rates for individuals earning less than about $70,000 a year and families earning less than about $115,000 a year. In addition, Mr. Lieberman's plan would restore the tax on dividends and re-establish certain estate taxes, negating two changes central to the Bush administration's economic plan.
The plan announced on Monday by Mr. Lieberman went further. He would raise the top tax bracket to 39.6 percent from 33 percent for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $143,500. A family with adjusted gross income of more than $150,000 could see its rate rise to 39.6 percent from 28 percent.
But many others would see their taxes fall, Mr. Lieberman said. The tax rate for a married couple earning $50,000 would fall to 12.5 percent from 15 percent currently, saving the family up to $1,000. Couples earning $75,000 could see their taxes decline by $1,500, he said, and couples earning $100,000 could expect to save up to $2,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/politics/campaigns/14LIEB.html
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Non-combat casualties
The New York Times and USA TODAY carried articles on the military looking into the number of suicides (14) by the army’s soldiers in Iraq. Monday’s USA Today:
Alarmed by the number of suicides among soldiers in Iraq, the Army has asked a team of doctors to determine whether the stress of combat and long deployments is contributing to the deaths. "The number of suicides has caused the Army to be concerned," said Lt. Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a psychiatrist at the Army's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Ritchie is helping to investigate the suicides in Iraq. "Is there something different going on in Iraq that we really need to pay attention to..?
Tuesday’s NY Times: Pentagon officials are trying to determine whether the reported suicides can be attributed to combat stress or the growing length of tours of Iraq, or whether the numbers of deaths attributed to self-inflicted wounds are in keeping with suicide rates in the military when not deployed.
Troubling news re Wilson/Plame: According to Wilson, analyst Sam Gardiner has an account (he does) that contends that the White House / Pentagon made up over 50 ‘tall tales’ about the war, ranging from Jessica Lynch to purported surrenders of Iraqi troops.
"It was not bad intelligence. It was much more. It was an orchestrated effort. It began before the war, was a major effort during the war and continues as post-conflict distortions."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031020/whispers/20whisplead.htm
Those Second Tier Enemies:
We’ve been hearing about "them" for the past week or more- Syria, Cuba, Iran, even Libya. The hardened stance- most pathetic in targeting Cuba, despite many Miami Cubans’ oppostion- seeks to expand our enemies list, to provide other opportunities for ‘being tough’. The Christian Science Monitor’s account (Howard LaFranchi) notes that although termed "the ladies’ auxiliary of the axis of evil" by one "former US official", all of these countries are alleged to be seeking WMD.
So, we have, for example, the Syria Accountability Act, imposing new sanctions against them, which stands a good chance of passage. Perhaps that will appease some influential "Israel lobby" folk who might be less than enthused with the Bush Middle East policy. Similarly, the old game of buying Cuban-American votes in Greater Miami is undoubtedly a factor in this push on Syria.
But we’ve long heard other stories of Syrian cooperation in the "war on terror", and none of these countries obviously present any threat that’s comparable to Pakistan and its wmd / missile trading, long documented by Seymour Hersh…and noted in this space! http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1014/p02s01-usfp.htm
Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon has chimed in that Libya is deserving of this status, as he contends that Libya is trying to develop nuclear weapons with help from countries such as North Korea and Pakistan. A Sharon aide quoted Sharon as saying, "One would not be surprised if Libya would be the first Arab country (to) have nuclear weapons," Sharon purportedly said to a group of foreign ambassadors.
Those Form Letters from Iraq:
Ongoing problem! Identical letters showing up in multiple newspapers. Perhaps you’ve heard of or noticed this before, as similar letters lionizing the accomplished Bush Administration appear in papers across the country with suspiciously similar, or identical wording. Now, such letters have come from Iraq, allegedly authored by our boys in the military. There may be a small chance this is an innocently orchestrated campaign of sorts coming from isolated army public affairs officials, or "command staff", as NPR now notes. Maybe this time…maybe not.
Organized PR drive:
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post had a leading article on the Administration policy of seeking to bypass the usual media coverage. No longer pleased with the formerly compliant media, "exclusive interviews" is the new method for reaching voters. The Bush effort seeks to target five regional broadcasting companies which they hope have an audience of 10 million. Bush aides make no apologies for targeting local media -- which, they say, tend to be less cynical. "We believe local media and regional broadcasters are more interested in letting viewers or readers see or hear what the president has to say," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director. "It's less analytical and more reporting." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21714-2003Oct13.html
Disorganized PR Drive:
Cheney and Bush are putting out competing versions of reality. As noted in past blogs, Cheney continues to pair Saddam and bin Laden (who?) while the Bush and the rest of his handlers have now stated that there is no connection. Why does this continue? A nice take comes from Peter Canellos in the Boston Globe-
Cheney's assertions can be explained by two possible scenarios. Some Democrats have said the administration deliberately intends to mislead people. While Bush's comments about Iraq include various hedges to maintain deniability, Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld make much broader assertions that, if ever called upon to justify, the administration could write off as Cheney's or Rumsfeld's personal interpretations, not shared by the president or the CIA.
But the sheer disorganization of the administration's response to postwar crises argues against this interpretation. What seems clear is that this administration, once admired for its discipline, is split into warring factions over Iraq. And the seasoned veteran put on the ticket to help Bush resolve these kinds of disputes is not a helper but a participant.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/14/cheney_on_iraq_puts_white_house_to_work_on_unmuddling_message?mode=PF
-R
