Washington Report

DUers who are interested in the effort to end the war in Iraq, in the Plame scandal, and issues such as the neocon spy/AIPAC scandal should consider reading "Washington Report (on Middle East Affairs)." It is published 9 times a year by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit group of retired U.S. foreign service officers who are attempting to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information on U.S.-Middle Eastern affairs. It does not take partison domestic political positions, and material from the magazine can bereprinted without charge, when properly attributed to WA and the article's author.

I was particularly interested in an article in the newest edition: " 'Scooter' Libby Emerges from the Shadows - However Unwillingly." There is another article: "Why the U.S. Can't Win in Iraq." Past articles of interest included: "The High Cost of Occupation"; "How to Exit Iraq Within a Year"; and "Will Indictment of AIPAC Honchos Affect Spy-for-Israel Trial?".

The focus on the Plame scandal and on realistic avenues that the grass-roots should be demanding our elected representatives take to end the war in Iraq make this magazine of far wider interest than the narrower "Middle East affairs" might seem to imply. I am convinced that 2006 is going to be the most crucial year in American politics since 1968, and likely for the hundred years before that strange year. We are either going to force the House and Senate to withdraw support for the neocon-based madness of the Bush administration, or the hostilities in Iraq are going to spill even farther over the border of Syria, and may well include open conflict in Iran.

We are also going to decide if the executive branch in Washington needs to recognize the Constitution, and if the law applies to everyone -- including those people who betrayed our nation by outing Valerie Plame, or by spying for other countries.

The current issue contains postcards to be sent to members of the House and Senate, and even to the White House, regarding the war and the Plame case. DUers interested can download the postcards from the website and send them. www.wrmea.com

Thank you for your consideration and support. Let's make 2006 a year of positive struggle, and make this country live up to its promise and potential.

The latest in a long series of educational, informational, and inspirational posts. Have a Happy New Year and may it be one filled with political successes!

In solidarity,
allen

I look forward to working with you and the DU community in the coming year.

when you are trying to steal a country.

has been so discredited, even in the corporate media, that anyone who takes a ration look at the situation recognizes that the administration was "trying to steal a country." There is a tragic sadness in the proof of this stance: when debating it with some of my republican friends, I point out that in the initial invasion, the efforts were focused upon protecting the oil supply, not the weapons depots. American soldiers are dying every single day because of that.

Will Pitt has a post on DU:GD which I think is titled "Silent Night." It has to do with a victim of the Bush aggression, a young soldier killed on Christmas Eve. The first response was a person who gave Will shit about not listing the kid's name. A number of DUers answered that foolishness, thankfully. A local newspaper (from Binghamton, NY) lists the US military victims of the Bush-Cheney aggression, and I read them. There is a power in reading their names, but there is an equal power in not knowing individual's names .... we surely do not know the names of the innocent Iraqis that die as a result of the Bush-Cheney attempt to steal a country. And I am sure that to their families, it is absolutely clear that this is the administration's goal in their country.

country<< Hence the insurgency, or terrorists if you live in gwb's fantasyland.

Hugely powerful, but I also think we should respect privacy and the feelings of those in mourning.

has photos, names, and short stories about a handful of innocent Iraqis, wounded in the war. Some were hurt by Americans, others by Iraqis, and still others possibly by other outside forces. Anyone who could read the two pages and look and those photos without feeling horrified lacks an essential part of the human make-up. I say that realizing that many people are de-sensitized by the huge amount of suffering and pain reported in the media. Perhaps it is helpful to others to have a name to place with the death; I should be more precise in saying that it is not necessary for me.

those who don't pay the attention that those here at DU do. Ted Koppel's first reading of the names was very important as a beginning poke through the oblivion. They respond to a name as perhaps some family member has the same name and they can relate, a step to understanding how those families might feel. I remember being struck by how long they all were. As for the Iraqis, that is truly a tale full of woe.

Happy holidays to you and your family, sir!

And thanks for your always illuminating discourse! I always truly enjoy our conversations and look forward to another years worth! Indeed, this year should interesting, to say the least.

"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I was struck immediately by three lines on page xix of the introduction: "As a young man, Lincoln worried that the 'field of glory' had been harvested by the founding fathers, that nothing had been left for his generation but modest ambitions. In the 1850s, however, the wheel of history turned. The rising intensity of the slavery issue and the threatening dissolution of the nation provided Lincoln and his colleagues with an opportunity to save and improve the democracy established by Washington, Jefferson, and Adams, creating what Lincoln later called 'a new birth of freedom.'"

Now it's our turn. I remember in 1968, Robert Kennedy quoting Tennyson: "Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world." We have some unfinished business.

Happy holidays to you and yours, Beetwasher. I look forward to working with you here in 2006.

I think it's going to be a wild ride. Thanks for the link. Raising our voice now is as crucial, if not more so, than 2004

Even if you're not posting on this thread, to send the postcards. Seize the day, there is a crack in the pug dam and we need to make it wider.

washes the other. When there are retired foreign service officers working the right hand, so to speak, then it is important for the grass-roots to work the left hand. It is worth mentioning that their magazine has an ad for Wilson's book.

Thanks for all the work that you do in supplying us with the necessary info to go out and educate anyone who will listen! Happy New Year to you and yours!:hi:

Peace.

to you and yours! I look forward to working with the DU team in 2006!

This is excellent!

:)

the confidence of the American people. The investigation into the 'outing' of CIA agent Valerie Plame has demonstrated what the world already knew: intelligence was fixed around ideologically based policy and there was no justification for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.This administration's reckless abandonment of the rule of law has needlessly destabilized the world and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

"The United States has a responsibility to rectify these serious mistakes. It's time to end the occupation of Iraq so the Iraqis can rebuild their country.

"Bring our troops home. Get them off the streets of Baghdad and onto the streets of New Orleans to help residents rebuild. We need our soldiers here at home."

It sounds a heck of a lot like something one would read on DU!

Just go to the neo-con corner and pick the oldest article from 1991. Wow. The neocon primer.

What's good for Israel is good for America... How it all started. Back in the 60's.

Thanks for turning us on to this.

a good match for DU. Glad to know that you and others find it of interest.

:kick:

"As the 'Plamegate' scandal unfolds, it is more apparent than ever that the White House has lied to Americans and the world about the reasons for invading Iraq. This lie has cost the lives of not only more than 2000 U.S. soldiers, but of aid workers, diplomats, journalists, and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. We urge you to support the investigation into the web of lies spun by the White House, to set a clear and proximate date to end the occupation of Iraq, and to devise a just plan to help the Iraqi people rebuild their shattered country.

"Please join your colleague Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), who is calling for an end to all funding for the deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq. His bill will allow Defense Department funds to be used only to provide for the safe and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops or to help Iraqi security forces or international forces."

Please download this message from the www.wrmea.com site and send it to your elected representatives.

So I said (to paraphrase, I don't remember exactly), "No. Liberals want to killing and the dying to end. We want the war to end. We don't want the US to lose. We'd just like to see Bush try to clean up his mess"

difficult for those who take that stance to provide a clear definition of "winning" or "losing" in Iraq. Few things are as sad as a person allowing Sean Hannity to do their thinking for them -- a true definition of "losing" in my book. No coincidence that these same people are often the ones who rant that the USA could have "won" in Vietnam.

but were of age?

if we killed everyone in Vietnam and then laid claim to the barren land. We are at a crossroads in this country...who and what do we want to be? Do the 30% who remain loyal to a lunatic nation continue to wield the power or do we all finally wrest it from them, saving what vestiges remain of this country and its ideals?

In the next few days, considerably more information is going to be made public on the extent of the administration's spying on Hans Blix, Mohamed El Baradei, Richard Butler, and others. Some of you may recall that I have urged people to examine Bolton's hatred for specific people tied to the UN; there was a reason for this. I strongly urge interested DUers to read James Bamford's "A Pretext for War," specifically pages 354-365, for detailed information on this. Many loose threads are beginning to be tied together .....

That everyone involved makes an enormous fuss about being spied on.