[Peace] News notes 2005-09-04

[Carl Estabrook]

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        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
        for the Sunday, 4 September 2005, meeting of AWARE,
        "Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort" of Champaign-Urbana.
        (Sources provided on request; some are indicated.)
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[1] The making of a revolutionary: "...Huge crowds, hoping to finally
escape the stifling confines of the stadium, jammed the main concourse
outside the [Superdome, where some 25,000 people were being evacuated by
bus to the Houston Astrodome], spilling out over the ramp to the Hyatt
hotel next door ... At the front of the line, heavily armed policemen and
guardsmen stood watch and handed out water as tense and exhausted crowds
struggled onto buses. At the back end of the line, people jammed against
police barricades in the rain. Luggage, bags of clothes, pillows, blankets
were strewn in the puddles.  Many people had dogs and they cannot take
them on the bus. A police officer took one from a little boy, who cried
until he vomited.  'Snowball, snowball,' he cried. The policeman told a
reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog." [AP, Guardian/UK]

[2] In Iraq the week began with a stampede at a religious festival, which
occurred as a result of the communal tensions caused by the US liberation.
Nearly a thousand people, mostly women and children, were liberated from
this life, many by drowning in the Tigris.
	This is from a website called alkadar.net: "Reports are emanating
from Iraqis who are working with the Americans, (both at the Baghdad
International airport and in the Green Zone), of a mutiny that had
occurred among the American soldiers against their officers. Three days
ago, one American soldier went into hysterics upon hearing of the death of
the three members of his family in New Orleans. Corporal Nick Lancer
shouted: 'This is the curse of Iraq. My family paid for my crimes in Iraq.
Send us back to help our families. God damn you Bush and Rumsfeld.'
Matters escalated when an officer tried, by force, to calm Lancer down.
Lancer was then joined by other soldiers who started to beat the officer.
The fighting escalated when other officers tried to intervene in the melee
and the soldiers began attacking and hitting them with their rifle butts.
This included the beating of Iraqi senior army officers who attempted to
help the American officers ... At one point, one of the soldiers radioed
other fellow soldiers, who were out on patrols, to stop their mission and
to return quickly to join them ... The specific location of the
disturbance was not specified."
	"A Reuters cameraman remained in U.S. military custody in Baghdad
on Tuesday, two days after surviving an incident in which his soundman was
shot dead, apparently by U.S. troops. U.S. officers said they were
continuing to question Haider Kadhem, 24, about 'inconsistencies' in his
statements after he was taken from the car in which soundman Waleed Khaled
was killed by multiple shots while on a news assignment." [Reuters]

[3] "Despite the relatively small number of American armed forces in Iraq
and Afghanistan (140,000), the war effort is rapidly shaping up to be the
third-most expensive war in United States history ... If the war lasts
another five years, it will cost nearly $1.4 trillion, calculates Linda
Bilmes, who teaches budgeting at the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University. That's nearly $4,745 per capita ... even in
stripped-down terms, looking only at military costs and using current
dollars, the war's cost for the US already exceeds that of World War I.
That's in money, not in blood and tears. Fatalities from the combined
Afghanistan-Iraq conflict now exceed 2,000. American participation in
1917-18 in World War I, a war infamous for its trench-warfare slaughter,
resulted in 53,513 US deaths. In constant inflation-adjusted dollars, the
current conflict is the fourth most costly US war, behind World War II,
Vietnam, and Korea. By the end of September, its projected military cost
will be $252 billion. The amount spent on the war in Iraq ($186 billion)
and Afghanistan ($66 billion) is inching up on the cost of the Korean War
... Given the Iraq-Afghanistan war is costing from $80 billion to $100
billion a year, its price is likely to exceed that of the Korean War by
late 2006 or 2007 ... Before the war is over, military costs may reach
$500 billion, reckons Gordon Adams, an expert at George Washington
University in Washington. He wonders if President Bush will make an
'electoral calculation' next spring by pulling 30,000 or so troops out of
Iraq before the midterm congressional elections. That would lower costs
... From one standpoint, the US economy should find it easier to absorb
the present war. Today's defense budget is about 4 percent of gross
domestic product, the nation's output of goods and services. That compares
with 6.2 percent in the 1980s, 9.4 percent in 1960 (Vietnam), 14.2 percent
in 1953 (Korea), and 38 percent in 1944 (World War II)." [csmonitor.com]

[4] Stan Goff writes, "It is time, it seems, to debunk the notion that the
American occupation of Iraq is somehow required to prevent a civil war.
This bullshit keeps resurfacing, and not just on the Right. At the very
point when public opinion is decisively turning against the war, for a
variety of reasons, center-left spokespersons mesmerized by the direct and
indirect repetition of this assumption are presenting all sorts of sly
political strategies designed NOT to refute this assumption, but pandering
to it."
	He also notes, "On July 29th, Sergeant Kevin Benderman was sent to
prison for 15 months for filing a conscientious objector application with
the Army. This did not come out in his court martial because the court
ruled early on that not one word was to be spoken in his defense that
relied on his moral objection to the war in Iraq and -- for Benderman --
all wars of aggression."

[5] [Frank Newport, Gallup editor-in-chief, writing in this week's
commentary: "We asked Americans last week: 'If you could talk with
President Bush for 15 minutes about the situation in Iraq, what would you,
personally, advise him to do?' Consistent with other polling, a majority
of Americans support extricating America from Iraq. This broad category of
responses includes those who would tell the president to pull the troops
out and come home (by far the dominant response to the question), those
who would urge the president to come up with and execute a
well-thought-out exit strategy, and those who would tell Bush to get the
Iraqis trained and allow them to run their own country. Others would
advise the president to keep the public better informed, join in and with
work with the United Nations, admit to past mistakes and apologize, and
work with and improve his advisers. The idea of waiting for democracy to
take hold in Iraq seems moot to Americans. A majority does not believe it
will ever be possible to build a stable, democratic government in that
country. A 'stay-the-course' strategy is clearly becoming less acceptable
to many Americans."

[6] "Families of Israeli Arabs shot dead on a bus in Galilee are not
considered terrorism victims because their killer was Jewish, the defence
ministry says. Under Israeli law, only attacks by 'enemies of Israel' are
considered terrorism, the ministry said.  The ruling means families of the
four victims will not be entitled to the lifelong monthly payments given
to Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks." [BBC]

[7] In America, this was the week that the Iraq war came home --
literally:  troops from Iraq were sent into New Orleans as a combat
situation to control the poorest 20% of the city's population, who had
been left to drown -- and figuratively: the administration purposely
failed to prevent the predictable catastrophe by transferring funds to the
war and then criminally neglected the hurricane's victims.  Thousands
apparently died.
	("Last September, a Category 5 hurricane [bigger than Katrina]
battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than
1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm.
Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died." [truthout])
	It was generally known how a storm would destroy New Orleans. As
the New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote (8 June 2004), "It appears that the
money has been moved in the presidents budget to handle homeland security
and the war in Iraq ... Nobody locally is happy that the levees cant be
finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is
a security issue for us."  (Of course the money was not used for homeland
security, even in the sense of making airlines safe, but to kill Arabs.)
	Even the NYT made the connection explicit: "Crack Troops
Transferred to New Orleans: Pacification Campaign Finds New Home ... Four
days after Hurricane Katrina tore through the northern Gulf Coast, the
army's battle-tested pacification units are finding a new home here in the
quaint streets of the old Jazz District conducting seek-and-destroy
missions against rioters, vandals and other protesters [sic] against the
Federal occupation of this city. After marching through Basra and Baghdad,
these troops felt quite accustomed to encountering hostile stares. 'We
have learned a lot about how to control crowds and keep locals at bay,'
remarked one soldier ... His comments reflected the general attitude of
acceptance of the use of force against local populations. In fact, several
commanders admitted that they think about New Orleans in essentially the
same way they think of Baghdad ... Many hope that greater exchanges
between the military in Baghdad can be mutually beneficial. Sergeant Earl
Mackley has gone as far as to set up a shared webpage on which patrols
from the two cities can share ideas and strategies.  'We call it
Baghdorleans around the camp,' he revealed..."
	The new liberal Democratic governor of Louisiana made the matter
clear: "These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced,
battle tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets. They
have M-16s and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot
and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect
they will." [AFP]
	The following is from the Army Times: "Troops begin combat
operations in New Orleans ... Combat operations are underway on the
streets to take this city back in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
'This place is going to look like Little Somalia,' Brig. Gen. Gary Jones,
commander of the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force told Army
Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to
launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the
Louisiana Superdome.  'We're going to go out and take this city back. This
will be a combat operation to get this city under control'..."  [Few
Americans recall that the 1992-93 US intervention in Somalia -- of
"Blackhawk Down!" fame -- may have caused as many as 10,000 casualties
among the Somalians; but Gen. Jones does.]
	A Reuters reporter tells how he was to be shown the bodies of
those who had died while waiting assistance at the Superdome, but "A
National Guardsman refused entry. 'It doesn't need to be seen, it's a
make-shift morgue in there," he told a Reuters photographer. "We're not
letting anyone in there anymore. If you want to take pictures of dead
bodies, go to Iraq.'"
	They were urged on by the highest authority: "The president urged
a crackdown on the lawlessness. 'I think there ought to be zero tolerance
of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this -- whether it
be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of
charitable giving or insurance fraud,' Bush said." [AP] Few oil company
executives or insurance fraudsters were shot.

[8] The news media in general, in their most remarkable display of racism
since Willie Horton, engaged in "scaremongering about the looting to
reinforce the ideology among their white middle-class audience that the
poor black people in New Orleans are animals who get what they deserve,"
as a correspondent wrote. In the WSJ, Peggy Noonan, the Reagan/Bush-1
speech writer, observed amazingly, "As for the tragic piggism that is
taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it
is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot ... I wonder if the cruel
and stupid young people who are doing the looting know the power they have
to damage their country. I wonder, if they knew, if they'd stop it?"
	Juxtaposed photographs with captions describing a white couple
"finding food" and a black guy "looting" were widely noted.
	MSM, which swallowed Clinton's and Bush lies about war without
demur, actually choked a bit on what was happening in this country.  I've
not seen so much revision of published materials by the AP in some time.
Even the story I started with exists now only in a milder version on the
AP website, and another AP story of how 700 well-to-do people, mostly
white, were rushed to the head of the bus line at the Superdome,
displacing the poor people, mostly black, has mysteriously lost in middle
paragraphs on the website.  Jack Shafer notes "A rebellion of the talking
heads" in Slate, which he says "reached its culmination today as CNN.com
contrasted 'the official version' of events in New Orleans with its
'in-the-trenches' account by its reporters and authoritative sources."
	CNN also came up with the following: "Nine stockpiles of
fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be
used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into
service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina, CNN has
learned. Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security
spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none
of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it."
	Even Louisiana's conservative Democratic senator, Mary Landrieu,
finally couldn't take much more of the administration's grandstanding:
"Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of
the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new
understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject
failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. 24 hours
later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level
official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once
was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand. I understand that
the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse
the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid.
When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims --
far more efficiently than buses FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of
medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items
continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.  But perhaps the
greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring
this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to
be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this
catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than
24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily
prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the
desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single,
lonely piece of equipment..."

[9] Meanwhile, "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in New York
shopping for shoes at Ferragamo's ... A shopper confronted Rice shouting
at her about shopping for shoes while thousands were dead and homeless on
the Gulf Coast. Rice ... had store security remove the woman." (The State
Department typically didn't deign to notice offers of aid from Venezuela
and Cuba, as well as from other countries -- but then suddenly on Sunday
requested help from the EU and NATO.)
	The Republicans were not without suggestions for solutions to the
difficulties caused by the destruction of people and property on the Gulf
coast, however: "Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican
whip, said it would be a mistake to abandon efforts to reduce the estate
tax, arguing that was precisely what the economy needed to grow." [NYT]
	FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "... has released
to the media and on its Web site a list of suggested charities to help the
storms hundreds of thousands of victims. The Red Cross is first on the
list. The Rev. Pat Robertsons Operation Blessing is next on the list..."
[sploid]
	But the Red Cross reported that they were prevented form
functioning by government policy: "Access to New Orleans is controlled by
the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant
contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their
orders. The state Homeland Security Department had requested -- and
continues to request -- that the American Red Cross not come back into New
Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from
evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."
	The administration's malfeasance in New Orleans cannot be ascribed
to simple incompetence, however. Billmon.org has the story (although I
haven't seen the point made elsewhere): "It's instructive ...  to compare
the current response to Hurricane Katrina ... with the administration's
efforts on behalf of the voters of Florida following last year's triple
storms -- Charley, Frances and Ivan.  True, the 2004 disasters didn't
completely take down a major metropolitan area by turning its urban center
into a bowl of [toxic] soup. But the difference in the federal
government's performance before, during and after those storms had passed
is still rather striking. It appears there's something special about years
divisible by two -- and particularly every other year divisible by two --
that can inspire amazing feats of bureaucratic energy and competence, at
least in large, populous swing states ... As I'm sure you can imagine,
this display of the good old American can-do spirit didn't go unnoticed by
the people of Florida -- nor did the millions of dollars in disaster
relief and damage insurance checks that were cut by various federal
agencies with record speed. FEMA officials must have been deeply gratified
to see the effect their heroic efforts had in the place where they were
most desperately needed -- Bush's poll numbers..."
	Bush carried Louisiana easily in the last election -- despite a
massive vote against him in Orleans parish: New Orleans.

[10] "It is mighty suspicious the New Orleans 'refugees' ... are being
relocated far and wide. Most of them will probably never return and will
end up in ghettoes in Baton Rouge, Houston, and elsewhere. (It appears
Baton Rouge is being groomed as an expansive slum, since the rebuilt New
Orleans will be a casino and tourist destination with time-share condos
and luxury housing) ... 'The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton
Co.,' the Houston Chronicle reported on September 1 ... 'Halliburton
subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval
installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so' ... 'FEMA
privatized hurricane disaster recovery planning for New Orleans and
Southeastern Louisiana. The firms that received the contract are big GOP
contributors,' writes Wayne Madesn ... As for the hardy who have stayed
behind, determined to rebuild their lives and city, expect the swamp of
New Orleans to be declared a health hazard and the remaining residents (or
poor and middle class residents with no stake in the new corporate Las
Vegas on the Mississippi) to be removed by the National Guard and Army at
gunpoint." [nimmo.com]

[11] Median earnings for men who worked full time, all year, declined by
2.3 percent in real terms in 2004.  The earnings of year-round, full-time
women decreased 1.0 percent in 2004 from the year before, only the second
consecutive annual decline for women.  Prior to 2003, women had not
experienced an annual decline in real median earnings since 1995 ... the
ratio of female-to-male earnings for full-time year-round workers was 77
percent in 2004, which is up from 76 percent in 2003.

[12] Finally, the death of the supreme court's comical chief justice
(remember his costume from Iolanthe for Clinton's impeachment?) leaves the
Bush administration hoping desperately that crying up two court vacancies
can distract attention from the war, and the administration's crimes, at
home and abroad.  They may be right, but people are not fools.

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  C. G. Estabrook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
  ### <www.carlforcongress.org> <www.newsfromneptune.com> ###
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