[David A. Brass]

Last year there were rumours and jokes from the American far-right that
(while in US troops were in Afganistan) that "Iraq is next" and now I keep
hearing (from the media) the insinuation "Saudi Arabia is next".  Maybe
just a rumour (or cruel joke) but, it would only figure.  I also noticed
an increased association of Saudi citizens with the Taliban, etc and I
dont't think this is just simply a coincidence...
This war may go on for years as the American "bliztrieg" sweeps across the
Middle East and North Africa in it's all out quest for oil...

David A. Brass
Arcata, California

--- Timothy Towns <towns@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks Tom.  A very nice summary and statement.
> 
> As an American, I wish that our government would act with more integrity
> and international conscience.  Instead, I believe all our government's
> actions boil down to pure capitalism and it really doesn't matter what
> party is in power.  It's just that Mr. Bush has decided to be more
> "bold"
> and provide more decisive leadership as some of the super patriots here
> in
> the states believe (not my opinion however).
> 
> "Who can stand in the way when there's a dollar to be made?"  -  This
> was
> the first MO song that really caught my attention.
> 
> Take care.
> 
> Tim Towns
> towns@us.ibm.com
> 
> 
> Tom Spencer <tr_espen@yahoo.com.au>@cs.colorado.edu on 03/28/2003
> 07:51:24
> AM
> 
> Sent by:    powderworks-admin@cs.colorado.edu
> 
> 
> To:    powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
> cc:
> Subject:    [Powderworks] Lotsa' stuff
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Dan, Jacques and fellow Powderworkers,
> 
> Hello! I live in Australia, where, as in 99.9999% of
> the world, most people watch American TV shows, listen
> to American music, pick up on American ideas and
> phrases and have heard of the American Constitution
> and the wonderful values such as free speech that it
> embodies. Most non-Americans like America. After 911
> France's daily newspaper 'Le Monde' said, in sympathy,
> 'We are all American'. So the suggestion that
> America's political opponents such as France hate
> American culture and its freedoms is just nonsense.
> 
> What people overseas find nauseating is the hypocrisy
> of certain aspects of the US Government. For years the
> US Govt (and other western governments such as that of
> Australia) said NOTHING about human rights abuses in
> Iraq, just as it said NOTHING about human rights
> abuses in other countries, but in fact for years sold
> dictators such as Saddam Hussein the materials with
> they did their worst.
> 
> The West is so sure that Iraq has weapons of mass
> destruction, perhaps because its defence contractors
> kept the receipts.
> 
> Jacques points out the terrible suffering Saddam
> inflicted during the Iran-Iraq war. But the US backed
> IRAQ during that war. It feared the Iranian religious
> fundamentalism of the Ayatollah. It much preferred the
> secularist Saddam, and was happy to let him stay in
> power afterward, which was when he performed many of
> the atrocities Jacques referred to.
> 
> That secularism of Saddam's is the precisely why Osama
> Bin Laden calls Iraq 'infidel', and why, again, there
> is absolutely NO evidence connecting Iraq to 911.
> Saudis, not Iraqis, were overwhelmingly predominant
> that day. Bush is simply bullshitting the American
> people in suggesting otherwise, just as Clinton
> deceived America by bombing a Sudanese pharmaceuticals
> factory the day that Monica Lewinsky gave testimony
> against him.
> 
> Given that free speech and human rights are vital,
> isn't 'embedding' the media in Iraq a disgusting
> restriction of free speech, a reaction to the vivid
> news coverage that stopped the Vietnam War? And isn't
> the detention at Guantanamo Bay without lawyers or
> contact with the outside world a denial of the human
> rights guaranteed by the Geneva Convention, which Mr
> Rumsfeld now wants Iraq to apply (quite rightly) to US
> soldiers held by Iraq? (Not to mention the buckets of
> money that US companies are pouring into China, a
> terrible violator of human rights) The current Bush
> agenda is not really about protecting free speech and
> human rights, but a distraction from the 'war on
> terror', which should uphold these things.
> 
> Finally, for Jacques to talk about Saddam starving the
> people of Iraq is to over-simplify matters. It was the
> US Govt that repeatedly insisted that Iraq had more
> weapons of mass destruction, despite the UN's UNSCOM
> weapons inspectors clearing 90% of such Iraqi weapons,
> by 1995, according to Scott Ritter, the head of 14
> inspections, in his film 'In Shifting Sands'. Thus,
> under the agreement made after the 1991 Gulf War, the
> UN did not lift the sanctions against Iraq which were
> starving children. Despite distinguished military
> service in the US Marines and elsewhere Ritter
> resigned from UNSCOM upon concluding that the US Govt
> was using the inspections process to try to provoke
> war with Iraq, rather than to rid Iraq of its weapons
> of mass destruction.
> 
> The US was founded on the noblest traditions of free
> speech and human rights, but Bush and his posse are
> currently undermining those traditions, rather than
> applying them to the worldwide activities of the US
> Government, as the rest of the world would like to
> see.
> 
> I would also like to endorse Geordie's suggestion that
> we read widely. Robert Fisk's web site is a cracker.
> An award-winning journalist, he is uniquely qualified
> in having been in the Middle East for longer than most
> other reporters.
> 
> Tom Spencer
> 
> =====
> Put down that weapon, or we'll all be gone.
> You must be crazy, if you think you're strong.
>          - Midnight Oil
> 
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> 
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