United States News Digest
Hackworth Blasts Chickenhawks for Raw Deals to Vets
Vietnam veteran Col. David Hackworth (ret.) took uncompromising aim at the Chickenhawks in a Washington Times column Feb. 1, for being so willing to send Americans to fight in a foreign war, and not caring about what happens to them afterwards. He reported that on Feb. 12, "an army of scarred and ornery warriors will once again be ... invading the nation's capital," but they won't be Iraqis or North Koreans, "but true grit American heroes protesting the raw deal they've gotten from dishonest politicians with short and shifty memories."
This army will be made up of World War II and Korean War vets, averaging over 70 years of age, who were screwed out of the lifetime medical care they were promised for the service they gave. They have been fighting the government in the courts to get their promised benefits and, Hackworth notes, the Justice Department has been stonewalling and otherwise delaying the case "knowing full well that these senior citizens are dying daily," thus saving the government big bucks if and when it loses the case.
It's not only the older vets who are subject to such poor treatment, however. Hackworth reports that more than 161,000 veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have been disabled, and almost 10,000 have died, from Gulf War-related illnesses, and yet for a decade they were told, "It's all in your heads." Now, he notes that Bush and his warhawks, hardly any of whom themselves have any military service, are rushing to send our troops off to war at even greater risk, since they admit that the chemical warfare suits the troops are going to war with aren't good for anything but bunker duty.
"It seems that 'Lest We Forget' is no longer the American way. Now it's 'use 'em, abuse 'em, and lose 'em,'" charges Hackworth.
In the same column, Gen. (ret) Norman Schwarzkopf is quoted as saying, "On the question of going all the way to Baghdadif you remember the Vietnam War, we had no international legitimacy for what we did. As a result, we, first of all, lost the battle in world opinion. Eventually we lost the battle at home. In the Gulf War, we had great international legitimacy in the form of eight UN resolutions, every one of which said: 'Kick Iraq out of Kuwait.' Did not say one word about going into Iraq, taking Baghdad, conquering the whole country and hanging Saddam Hussein.... Point number twohad we gone on to Baghdad, I don't believe the French would have gone, and I'm quite sure that the Arab coalition would not have gone. The coalition would have ruptured, and the only people that would have gone would have been the UK and the USA. And oh, by the way, I think we'd still be there. We'd be like a dinosaur in a tar pit. We could not have gotten out, and we'd still be the occupying power, and we'd be paying 100% of all the costs to administer all of Iraq."
Georgie Anne Geyer: Bush Bullying Feeds European Resentment
Syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer, in a column appearing in the Jan. 31 Washington Times, took note of the profound resentment against the United States which dominated the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, which she attributed to the American obsession with Iraq, and the Bush Administration's "bullying behavior, its unmannerly dismissal of the Old Europe as nothing more than a rundown theme park"referring to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's remarks on the Franco-German anti-war combine"and the President's repeated announcements that the United States will go it alone, and the world can go to hell."
What could possible justify the ferocity of the European attacks on the United States? Geyer answered with four elements:
*Bush's personality and psychology. As Texas Governor, he was known for his spirit of compromise and conciliation, but today, he is the judgmental father figure to the world. "Picture of the President these days are strange, his facial features contorted in almost Mussolini-like expressions. Europeans know what those kinds of expressions can lead to."
*Bush does not feel comfortable with European leaders; "it's a 'Texas thing.'" He finds them stuffy and supercilious. "Instead, he clings to Israel's Ariel Sharon, a tough guy not exactly laden with conciliatory manners and a man he feels comfortable with.... And Sharon also hates the Europeans...."
*The increasingly secular Europeans "are seasoned and reluctant to experiment with violence related to 'true' religion or absolutist ideology; they've seen dictators and tyrants and faith-healers, spouting religion-linked ideologies beforeand they got the bill afterward." The Americans are bring a "pretentious religiosity into foreign policy"whether they be Christian conservative, or Jewish neo-conservative allies of the Likud.
*And, "the Europeans see dangerous changes in the American outlook toward the world, with the doctrine of preemption ('Get your enemy before he gets you')."
Geyer concluded by wondering "how any Americans made it out of Davos alive."
For more on the rift between the U.S. and Europe, see the report on the Wehrkunde meeting in EUROPE NEWS DIGEST.
Powell in WSJ: We Will Not Shrink From War
Secretary of State Colin Powell published a Feb. 3 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled "We Will Not Shrink From War," in which the Secretary said that the U.S. would "bridge our differences" with Allies. Reflecting President Bush's State of the Union address, and foreshadowing his own Feb. 5 presentation at the UN, Powell wrote that "The U.S. will begin a new round of full and open consultation with our allies about next steps. Much has been made of the friction between the U.S. and some of its traditional partners over how to proceed with Iraq. We will work to bridge our differences, building on the bedrock of our shared values and long history of acting together to meet common challenges." He ends with: "We will not shrink from war, if that is the only way to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction." (For analysis of Powell's UN speech, see INDEPTH.)
A day later, Feb. 4, the hawkish Journal featured guests columns from two previous (Republican) Secretaries of State: James A. Baker III and Gen. (ret) Alexander M. Haig.
In "The Case for Military Action," James Baker wrote,"The argument for disarming Iraq by force has become conclusive." Baker was Secretary of State for the first George Bush, serving in that capacity at the time of the first Gulf War.
General (ret) Alexander Haig, who served under President Reagan, wrote in his column, "Friends and Enemies," that the "end game" has begun for Saddam Hussein. Practitioners of terrorism must be defeated. He wrote, "That's what war is about." What about those opposing war? "The Europeans, for their part, got caught up in an orgy of exaggeration about American unilateralism."
Round-Ups of Iraqis in U.S. and Abroad Planned, in Event of War
According to the Washington Post and Washington Times Feb. 4, round-ups of Iraqis in the U.S. and abroad are planned, in the event of war with Iraq. The CIA and security services from several other countries are planning a massive round-up of Iraqi agents, their associates and "known anti-American terrorists." This would occur worldwide, not in response to any specific threat, but supposedly as part of a general effort to prevent terrorist attacks. Foreign intelligence services are already said to be tracking individuals known to be in touch with Iraqi agents.
In the U.S., the FBI has been searching for several thousand illegal Iraqi immigrants who are said to be missing.
Meanwhile, intelligence leak-catcher Bill Gertz wrote in the Washington Times that intelligence sources say that al-Qaeda is planning a mass-casualty attack similar to 9/11, but that their plans have been disrupted by arrests. Sources supposedly say that a large-scale attack will be preceded by assassinations of prominent people in the U.S., and that reports to this effect were sent to senior Bush Administration officials at the end of January.
At the end of last week, the Homeland Security Department and the Justice Department raised the domestic threat level from "elevated" (yellow) to "high" (orange), an action announced at a press conference by Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Chickenhawks Stage Propaganda Extravaganza, Few Show Up
Benador Associates, the public relations firm of choice for the entire Chickenhawk apparatus in and around the Bush Administration, staged a propaganda rally for an Iraq war at the Willard Hotel in Washington Feb. 4, which was sparsely attended, despite the star-studded lineup of lunatics, headed by Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, Michael Ledeen, Laurie Mylroie, Khidir Hamza, and Richard Spertzel.
The event opened with a 15-minute propaganda film, done by British TV Channel 4, produced by Amir Taheri, an Iranian exile who is among Benador Associates' clients. The film was an effort at damage control and double speak, charging that Western governments, led by the U.S.A. and Great Britain, had armed and unleashed Saddam with weapons of mass destruction, and, therefore, it was now up to Washington and London to clean up the mess by invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam.
The speakers were each one crazier than the one before, with Laurie Mylroie charging that Saddam was behind not only the 1993 World Trade Center attack, but also the Oklahoma City bombing. Perle and Ledeen dominated the show, ranting against German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.
Retired Air Force General Tom McInerney, one of the few former military officers who promotes the war, claimed that the war would be over in two weeks, with fewer casualties than in 1991because in the first 48 hours, the U.S. would drop 3-4,000 precision-guided bombs, with few civilian casualties. The General assailed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while singling out Donald Rumsfeld as the man who "understands blitz warfare." He then added one major caveat: All bets are off if Saddam launches a surprise attack against American forces while they are still in their base camps.
Perle ranted that the "smoking gun" of Iraq's WMD program was already provided on Dec. 7, when Iraq submitted its 12,000-page document to the UN.
But the real show-stopper was Michael Ledeen. He went into a cynical tirade to the effect that, once the U.S. invades Iraq, we had better be prepared for an all-out terrorist onslaught from all the other "axis of evil" nationsIran, Syria, North Korea, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. He said that what the U.S. is about to launch is not an Iraq war, but a full-scale regional war against all of the Arab states, led by the "terrorist" states he listed above. When asked to elaborate by a reporter from U.S. News & World Report who was astounded at the "regional war" idea, Ledeen snapped that it didn't matter, since the war is about to start and the only issue is whether we win or lose.
Afterwards, in a private discussion, Perle confirmed that he still fully stands by his "Clean Break" policy vis-à-vis Israel/Palestine, and is arguing inside the Administration that the road-map document of the Quartet (U.S., UN, Russia, and European Union) is a disaster, "a typical State Department product."
L.A. Times: Utopians Have Launched 'Usable Nukes' Project
According to a piece in the Los Angeles Times Feb. 3, the utopians have launched a $1.26-billion "usable nukes" project. Two documents from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at the Pentagon, both dated Jan. 29, report that other countries' use of hardened, underground facilities to store infrastructure and weapons, require that the U.S. have the "option of using nuclear weapons against its most difficult targets." The Times reports that the program "seeks to design an array of high-speed computers that could take in structural and other data on a prospective underground target, calculate the amount of force needed to destroy it, then determine whether a nuclear 'bunker buster' would be required."
The White House and the Defense Department had no comment. The L.A. Times report follows earlier coverage of U.S. studies of the use of nukes in Iraq.
Loss of the Columbia, Future of the Space Shuttle
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe announced the morning after the Feb. 1 loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, that NASA would name an external investigation board. Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Harold W. Gehman, who chaired the investigation of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, will lead the Space Shuttle Mishap Interagency Investigation Board. The Board includes Rear Admiral Stephen Turcotte; Maj. Gen. John L. Barry; Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hess; Dr. James Hallock, Department of Transportation Aviation Safety Division Chief; Steven Wallace, FAA; and Brig. Gen. Duane Deal. On the panel will also be former astronaut Bryan O'Connor, who is NASA Associate Administrator, NASA's Chief Engineer, and others.
The Board started meeting Feb. 3 at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
The White House has wisely decided not to name a Presidential Commission to investigate, but to defer to the results of the investigations by NASA and the independent teams. Back in 1986, the Presidential Commission to Investigate the Challenger Accident quickly turned into a three-ring circus and delayed finding the problem.
Meanwhile, President Bush has reaffirmed several times that America's manned space program will continue, beginning with his remarks the day of the Columbia tragedy.
Again on Feb. 3, the President asserted that "America's journey into space will go on." He made his remarks at the National Institutes of Health, and continued, "The seven brave men and women from the Columbia will be remembered for their achievements, their heroism, and their sense of wonder."
"The President understands the scientific breakthroughs that improve the lives of people on Earth as a result of the space program," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. "The President believes that we are a nation that constantly pushes forward."
On Feb. 3 former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush visited NASA's Johnson Space Center and were briefed on the progress of the ongoing investigations into the loss of Columbia, speaking to the Expedition 6 crew aboard the space station and assured them that President George W. Bush has "full confidence in the space program," and believes the men and women of NASA are "showing great courage."
Again on Feb. 4, at the memorial for the astronauts at Johnson Space Center in Houston, current President Bush emphasized the importance of manned space flight, saying that the human thirst for discovery is not an option, but an imperative written on the human heart.
The NASA budget request for fiscal 2004, developed months ago and just released, asks for a $469 million total increase over the current fiscal year 2003 budget, or 3.1%. The request for the Space Shuttle is an increase of over $600 million over the request made one year ago, but in response to the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel's warnings last spring about budget shortfalls for Shuttle safety, an amendment to the FY03 budget was formulated, and signed by President Bush on Nov. 13, which transferred $470 million to the Shuttle program, as well as $706 million to the Space Station. In the request for FY04, $379 million of the Shuttle funding is to go toward a $1.7-billion program over five years to "improve safety and infrastructure."
U.S. Bombers May Be Sent to Guam as 'Message' to Pyongyang
The Pentagon press office confirmed to EIR last week a Feb. 4 leak to the New York Times by the Chickenhawks, that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has put 24 long-range bombers on alert for deployment within range of North Korea. "Secretary Rumsfeld has not yet issued an order to physically move the bombers to Guam, but he has acted affirmatively on the request for additional forces from Adm. Thomas Fargo," the U.S. Pacific commander, the official said. "The Admiral requested enhanced military capacity in the area, should North Korea pose, or threaten to pose, a threat to the United States or any of its allies. The alert means that the aircraft can be in Guam in a matter of hours, rather than days. I think this sends a pretty clear message to the North Koreans."
"This puts them on a short string," the New York Times quoted a senior Pentagon official as saying. The official said that "aircraft and crews were now ready to move out within a set number of hours," both to deter "opportunism" by North Korean while Washington is focussed on Iraq "and to give President Bush military options if diplomacy fails to halt North Korea's effort to produce nuclear weapons." The decision to bolster the American military presence near North Korea was referred to by Ari Fleischer, the President's spokesman, as making "certain our contingencies are viable."
While Bush has repeatedly said the United States "has no intention of invading North Korea," one "senior official" told the Times that this "is a carefully formulated statement, leaving open the possibility that a North Korean move to produce weapons" could be used as justification by Bush to bomb the Yongbyon plutonium facility from the air which, as an idiot's technicality, would not constitute an "invasion."
"Administration officials, in private briefings to Congress, confirmed that North Korea appears to be moving spent nuclear spent-fuel rods," the Feb. 4 Times reported, "to provide the raw material for upwards of a half dozen weaponsabout one a month, once the plant is in full operation. That gives Mr. Bush a window of what one senior official said today was 'a few weeks to a few months, to decide if he wants to do something about Yongbyon.'"
White House Rejects Neo-Con View That All Muslims Are Terrorists
A brawl has broken out between Grover Norquist and other conservative activists such as the Center for Security Policy's Frank Gaffney and American Conservative Union (ACU) head David Keene, over attempts to influence the White House's views of American Muslims.
Gaffney et al. are accusing Norquist (who has been trying to bring American Muslims into the Republican Party) of suppressing criticism of radical Islam in the White House, and of being a spokesman for Wahhabism and Wahhabite penetration of the U.S. political system.
Norquist reports that President Bush and top adviser Karl Rove are angry with Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, and Steven Emerson, for painting all American Muslims with the brush of radical Islamic terrorism. Norquist is also accusing Gaffney et al. of impugning Muslim aides in the Bush White House.
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