The Pakistan Connection

That might give meaning to the reaction on 9/11 of Richard Clarke, the White House counter-terrorism chief, when he saw the passenger lists later on the day itself: "I was stunned ... that there were al-Qaida operatives on board using names that the FBI knew were al-Qaida." It was just that, as Dale Watson, head of counter-terrorism at the FBI told him, the "CIA forgot to tell us about them".
(c) 2004 Michael Meacher is Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton. He was environment minister 1997-2003

The Skin Of The Bear

It is reasonable to expect that the prisoner in the Mukata'ah, who has already led his people out from so many existential crises, will do so again. I sincerely hope so, because Arafat is the only person who can make peace with us. We will know no peace, as long as our neighbors do not.
(c) 2004 Uri Avnery Gush Shalom

An Excuse-Spouting Bush Is Busted By 9/11 Report

So, before 9/11, incompetence and sloth. And after? Much worse: a war without end on the wrong battlefield.
(c) 2004 Robert Scheer writes a weekly column for The Times and is co-author of "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq" (Seven Stories Press/Akashic Books, 2003.

Macho Politics And Major Consequences
By Norman Solomon

With two words, the governor of California has managed to highlight the confluence of anti-gay bias and misogyny. Open contempt for "girlie men" would have raised fewer eyebrows in the past. Reactions to Arnold Schwarzenegger's put-down of Democrats in the state legislature -- "if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men" -- tell us a lot about how far we've come. The good news is the media outcry; the bad news is that the outcry hasn't been stronger.

As a rough gauge of media progress on gender-related issues, consider two editorials that appeared -- 88 years apart -- in the same newspaper.

About 10 months before the United States entered World War I, the writer Upton Sinclair aimed some barbs at flag-waving militarism when he spoke to the elite Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles. "I promised my wife I would get a haircut before I came here," he said, "but I almost missed it, because there were so many red and white decorations on the streets that I couldn't find a barbershop."

The Los Angeles Times quickly published an editorial (headlined "Upton Sinclair's Ravings") charging that his sense of humor "demanded that he belittle the flag of the United States, and, after pretending to confuse it with a barber's pole scoff at the great national wave of emotion for the country's righteous defense and honor."

According to the editorial, Sinclair's words came "from the lips of an effeminate young man with a fatuous smile, a weak chin and a sloping forehead, talking in a false treble" -- and the only reason Sinclair got away with it was that he was speaking to a bunch of women. The newspaper contended: "Never before an audience of red-blooded men could Upton Sinclair have voiced his weak, pernicious, vicious doctrines. His naive, fatuous smile alone would have aroused their ire before he opened his vainglorious mouth. Let the fact remain that this slim, beflanneled example of perverted masculinity could and did get several hundred women to listen to him."

Fast forward from 1916 to 2004. Days after Gov. Schwarzenegger's slam at "girlie men" lawmakers, the Los Angeles Times editorialized: "Relative manliness is certainly a ridiculous way to evaluate political leaders. It would be ridiculous even if it weren't insulting to all women, especially women in politics."

It's not quite a coincidence that Schwarzenegger is a habitual war enthusiast. Soon after the invasion of Iraq, as part of his media posturing in the months before he ran for governor, the actor flew to Iraq with the help of the Bush administration so he could speak to assembled U.S. troops. Clueless to the galaxies separating his Hollywood phoniness from real war, Schwarzenegger recited lines from movie scripts.

Disdain toward females and gay people is often found in the same psychological bundle as enthusiasm for war. And epithets along the lines of "girlie men" have long been part of pro-war verbiage, whether in private conversations or in media.

When many Americans were vocally opposing the Vietnam War, journalists and pundits often accused them of failing to adhere to the straight-and-narrow. During the 1968 Democratic National Convention, while police beat up anti-war protesters in the streets of Chicago, the conservative icon William F. Buckley could not contain his rage. Buckley was not angry at the police (whose violence he fully supported) but at fellow ABC television commentator Gore Vidal, who had responded to Buckley's defense of the cops by calling him a "pro crypto Nazi."

Buckley, the great right-wing intellectual, replied on the air: "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a 'pro crypto Nazi' or I'll sock you in the goddamn face."

In 1970 a U.S. attorney, who was prosecuting the Chicago Seven activists in connection with the convention protests, let slip a great fear when he spoke at a parochial high school: "We've lost our kids to the freaking fag revolution."

Soon after the Gulf War ended, the media hero Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf offered this analysis in May 1991: "After Vietnam we had a cottage industry developed in Washington, D.C., consisting of a bunch of military fairies that had never been shot at in anger [and] who felt fully qualified to comment on the leadership abilities of all the leaders of the U.S. Army."

Denunciation of "fairies" was part of the general's pitch that encouraged unwavering public support for war. "Finally, and most importantly," Schwarzkopf said, "to the great American people: The prophets of doom, the naysayers, the protesters, and the flag burners all said that you would never stick by us. But we knew better. We knew you would never let us down. By golly, you didn't."

Of course plenty of gay men are inclined to be reliably pro-war, and the same goes for lots of "feminists." But in general, white-knuckle commitment to rigid gender roles and (overt or furtive) contempt for women are outlooks apt to be notably compatible with the warfare state.

There's no shortage of government officials who think they're being laudably tough while they smother human empathy. When officeholders cut social services, build more prisons, approve sky-high military budgets or provide a green light for a murderous war, maybe no one will call them "girlie men."
(c) 2004 Norman Solomon is co-author, with Reese Erlich, of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You." His columns and other writings can be found at Norman Solomon.Com

The Nuttiness Of King George The W

After years of studious analysis and sober reflection, I've come to this measured conclusion about the Bushites: These people are nuts!

When I presented this blunt conclusion in my latest book, Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush, several peers of establishment punditry said, Oh, Hightower, surely you don't mean "nuts." Robust corporatists, yes. Even exuberant empire builders for their conservative worldview--but surely BushCheneyAshcroftRumsfeld&Company are not, you know, EXTREMISTS who would try to superimpose their own Orwellian, Strangelovian, AynRandian, Jerry Fallwellian ideology over America's democratic ideals and institutions...right?

Wrong. They're insane--loopy zealots fueled by their own extremist fumes to implement their plutocratic, autocratic, imperialistic vision of America--and it's time we stopped beating around the bush about it.

From a stolen election in Florida to elitist tax giveaways for the rich, from a war of lies in Iraq to a culture of repression in "The Homeland," the Bushites are willing to break all the rules, laws, and notions of public trust to have their way and remake America in their corporatist image. The latest example of this is their legal maneuvering to--get this--give them the executive power to postpone this fall's presidential elections.

I know, you're thinking, come on Hightower, even they're not that nutty or arrogant. But, yes, they are! Homeland Czar Tom Ridge has asked John "Mad Dog" Ashcroft's legal schemers to produce a "doomsday scenario" under which the national election could be put off in the event of, say, a "Code Red" terrorist alert issued by--who else?--Ridge's own department. "We are [considering] what steps need to be taken to secure the election," said a Homeland spokesman, spookily.

Not even in the Civil War or in the madness of the McCarthyism scare was it even suggested by top officials that elections be suspended. That's how nutty The Bushites are.
(c) 2004 Jim Hightower's latest book, "If The Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates," is available in a fully revised and updated paperback edition.

"The Pain Of My Son's Death Does Not Get Any Better, It Just Gets Worse As Time Goes On."
Interview with Celeste Zappala, Mother of Army Sgt. Sherwood R. Baker
By Jay Shaft

Army Specialist Sherwood R. Baker, 30, of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to have died in the war in Iraq. He was the 720th soldier killed in Iraq, and the first Pennsylvania Guardsman to die since 1945.

Sherwood was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 26th, 2004 by a large explosion while performing site security at a suspected munitions plant. He was assigned to do security for the teams that were still looking for weapons of mass destruction. His mother still does not have all the details, but she knows Sherman lived for two hours after being evacuated to a field hospital.

The Army posthumously promoted him the rank of Sergeant after his death. He left behind a loving but grieving wife Debra, and a nine-year-old son J.D.

Dressed in desert fatigues like his father had worn, J.D. helped the honor guard as they carried his dad's coffin. As a piper played in the background his family mourned and asked how this could have happened to their loving and compassionate son. Seeing the image of young J.D. walking behind his father's coffin hits you right in the heart and really tells the whole story in one picture.

His family is very active in the peace movement, which makes his loss all the more painful to his mother, who has dedicated herself to promoting peace for the majority of her life. The Zappala's have two other sons, Dante and Raphael.

Dante and his wife Selma were arrested last year in San Francisco at an anti-war protest, and he has been quite vocal in his opposition to the war.

Dante has written an essay "The Price of Death" that was published in the L.A. Times. It is a poignant and heart felt cry against his brother's death. I have included the link here. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-essay.story

Here are Dante's ending comments in the essay: 'Just before he died, Sherwood plainly illustrated where a life of hard work and dedication gets you--hungry and thirsty in the desert. In his last e-mail, he asked that we send him and his fellow soldiers food and water. As it turns out, the most powerful military machine in the world has its soldiers on rations.'

How does this happen? I went to Halliburton's web-site to look for clues. After a dispute with the government over a few million dollars in overcharges, Halliburton stubbornly stated, "We may withhold all or a portion of the payments to our subcontractors" who provide food services. Which basically means that U.S. soldiers in Iraq don't eat. Despite its newfound billions in revenue, Halliburton has failed to fulfill its most basic responsibility--feed our troops. Our soldiers, on the other hand, have to do their job, no matter how hungry they are, or face courts-martial and time in Leavenworth. Just ask Camil o Mejia, the conscientious objector who was sentenced to a year in jail.

I've come to believe that Sherwood died for everybody else. I've had countless people tell me my brother is a hero and died defending our freedom. They may be right. In a country that promotes the virtues of the Free Market, he died for the benefit of the war profiteers and for very little benefit to himself.'

Dante wrote a letter to President Bush- 'Mr. Bush, you'd have liked my brother' http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/5302/1/217- and there is a letter from Celeste Zappala at this link as well. Both letters are very powerful and full of pain and loss. So far George W. Bush has not responded back to Dante's letter, although Bush has defended the war in Iraq recently and praised the soldiers who have died to bring freedom to Iraq.

The Saturday before Sherwood's death, his brother Raphael sent off a huge care package of tuna fish, peanut butter, and coffee in response to the desperate plea for food and water. Sadly Sherwood never lived long enough to get the care package. His wife Debra waited all day on Monday for his regular phone call. At around midnight, she got a visit from an Army Major that changed the family's life forever.

Sherwood's father also made several pain filled comments in the days following his son's death. He said he was not sure how Sherman felt about the war before he died. "My son went over there based on a bunch of lies," Al Zappala sobbed. "I'm not going to be like the parents who think there was some meaning to his death - there wasn't," he said. "It was a waste."

The interview that follows is in Celeste Zappala's own words. Her pain has not diminished in any way, and in fact she said it seems to grow as time goes on. Her pain is still very raw and it doesn't seem to have begun to heal yet.

Her words should be a wakeup call to everyone who thinks that the loss of a soldier's life brings a feeling of pride and honor to the families. Like so many mothers I have spoken to, she is proud of her son's service to country but cannot see a real reason why he died. The mixture of pride and pain at losing loved one is often conflicting and confusing. You hear it when you speak to any mother who has questioned the war and tragedy it has brought to them.

JS- Your son was one of the soldiers that died in Iraq. Since his death you have come out strongly against Bush and the Iraq War.

CZ- I was opposed to the war before it happened. I am a person who has tried to live consciously, in a non-violent manner, and also raise my sons that way, based upon my religious beliefs. So I have always been opposed to war in any form. I protested the Vietnam war, worked in the Century Movement to help refugees from Central America who were affected by American policy and involvement in Central America. I have also worked to promote human and civil rights here at home. It's my life's work, fighting for a humane and just world.

JS- So you were opposed to the Iraq War from the very beginning?

CZ- Well you know, when 9/11 happened I had this overwhelming fear that this would mean that war would follow. I had hope that the people of the leadership would be able to take that terrible event and turn it towards unity and peacefully seeking justice, but that isn't what happened. It always seemed inevitable with the position the administration took that the unilateral attitude of 'Us against them, never mind the rights of anybody else, we're the superpower, no one else matters, we're the only ones that matter!'

It was inevitable, absolutely inevitable, that this is what we were going to end up with.

JS- I notice this didn't seem to be covered very well by the mainstream media on a national basis. Did you have any difficulty getting the media to respond to your voice?

CZ- For us personally our local media, well if that's your question about it, our local media responded because I am a somewhat public figure up here, and because I know at lot of reporters, and I have friends who were reporters. So people have been actually following what was happening to us, so that when Sherwood was killed there was kind of an outpouring of response from the local media.

What was heartbreaking for me was that I couldn't get a letter published before that happened. If you look at the general media and their overall confrontability for not just failing to have truth in reporting, but to their own complicity, that's the issue. I think they were complicit in hiding the lies and discrepancies.

So my criticism is there, I mean I'm glad that the New York Times decided to repent. So now a lot of reporters are looking into things and people are passing information, so it's like everyday there's some new revelation. That's a good thing, because you have to have the truth. You know it's not about who said what, it's really how do we deal in the truth? And how do we make the world a better place, and work, and be safe? How could that happen unless you're being truthful?

JS- Well, it's finally it gotten to a level in the mainstream press where they are somewhat exposing stories like this, but it's still has a long way to go. You might see it in a local paper if one of the families has a negative opinion, but it is rarely in any national media.

I hardly ever see any news outlet show any parent questioning their loss on more than a casual basis. There is a severe lack of coverage in my opinion of how overlooked it has become when any parent cries out in agony.

CZ- You know, maybe the parents will be the ones who finally bring enough attention to the loss, that we are the ones who will open up the issue for other people to talk about. When we share our feelings as truth, then it can be passed on to other people, maybe they will begin to ask what the truth really is. I don't think this will go away any time soon, and we must face all the truths and pain of the war.

Our pain is very real and not going away. I do think that is a newsworthy issue that must be reported truthfully, if the press is really about getting to the facts and being truthful in their reporting. There are parents who want to say how they really feel but they don't know where to express it. If there are more of us being heard it could bring a change in it.

Just the fact that they don't want the numbers to be known is so sad. I find it so incredibly appalling! When people are killed I look in the paper to see how many pages back I have to go before to find it.

JS- I can't find it in the paper so I have used the Lunaville (Iraq Coalition Casualties) web-site every day to find out who has died and how many were killed. http://icasualties.org/oif

CZ- Yes, that's the one I use. I'm looking there all there all time; I'm there too much of the time in fact. I look at the people's names and I think about who they are. I think about their mothers and what they must be going through.

Damn it! People should know about this! (Crying) They should be aware of it every day, every day, just like I am. It is so unfair to have to have to force it into someone's mind. They should be told every day when it happens.

You think the war is being fought in the name of American democracy? Well then look at it! So take responsibility for it. This is your war; it's everybody's war. It's not just mine because my son is dead, it's everybody's war.

To pretend that there is something wrong with showing the funerals and the coffins is sickening. There is this charade that you can't take pictures of the coffins, it might hurt us. That's because they don't want the numbers to be known. That is a shame, that's just a scam, it is just a scam.

Show us, we need to know damn it! Stop hiding it from us, we are the families that want it to be seen!

JS- I did run a picture of your son's funeral on my front page. I try to run as many pictures of the funerals and coffins as I can find. I think it needs to be seen by everyone.

CZ- Right, it does. It really does.

JS- I mean is it wrong for me to run the pictures of the funerals? I know most of the newspapers do not choose to show the pictures of the coffins at the funerals. I haven't ever asked a mother before. Is it okay?

CZ- I think it is extremely important that it happens. It needs to be done.

JS- As shocking as the pictures are, it is reality, as you've said. This is a mother crying over her son's coffin, this is a son holding his father's flag in his hands, and this is a wife and a mother holding each other up. It has become an almost every day occurrence in some part of America that there is a soldier's funeral going on.

CZ- That is what I am trying to say. It's every day now. Every day another family has to go through that. Where is the coverage? Where?

When Sherwood was killed he was number 720, now there are 895(today it was up to 897). Have you seen the "Eye's Wide Open" memorial with the Fallen Soldier's Boots going around the country?

JS- Yes, I saw it in Washington D.C. when it was at 801pairs, now it's up to 895.

NOTE: The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international peace and social justice organization, is touring the country with a pair of boots with the nametag attached from every soldier who has died in Iraq. They started with 503 pairs on January 23rd, in Chicago Illinois.

Here is an article about the July 4th Philadelphia exhibit that Celeste talks about.

Sherwood Baker's nametag hangs from the 720th pair of boots. The 30-year-old Philadelphia native was killed in Baghdad on April 26. He'd been in Iraq for just more than a month when he died. http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/article.asp?ArtID=7497

CZ- Well it was here over the 4th of July weekend and there were 857 at the beginning. We were part of a press release for the memorial. You know by the end of the weekend there were 866 pairs of boots!

Who's the next death? Who's the next pair of empty boots? Who's not coming back home? They're gone, that's it, they're dead. For what? Why?

At the exhibit they had the names of over 10,000 Iraqi people who had been killed on a ten-foot wall. I read the names of the soldiers out from the list and I thought it over. And you know the true amount of Iraqi civilian casualties is untold. The effect that the killing is having on our troops has to be devastating. The true price of this war is completely untold.

JS- In all the experiences you have had since your son died, how many parents have you come across who are actually afraid to express their feelings?

CZ- Most of the parents I have met have been with MFSO. I know Sue Niederer from New Jersey; she's really outspoken, very vocal. I've met Lila Lipscomb, who was in the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11. Mostly I've met other parents who were speaking out.

I talked to most of the parents in my son's unit. I said, "Maybe we should think about bringing our kids home. Stop this from taking any more of them." There was just no use. Maybe they were thinking the same thing, but you could see that in their eyes, they were afraid to say it.

JS- Are they scared to speak out or is it not an issue with them?

CZ- Maybe they wouldn't say it, but they had to at least think it. It was there, you could tell it was.

I'll speak out! I have nothing to lose. I have absolutely nothing to lose. I'll speak and I'll think of those people. I will be the one to say it if they can't. I'll speak for the ones who won't or don't know they can.

JS- I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe there will be other parents that see this. Maybe a wife or mother is crying to speak out. Do you know there are families who think it's wrong to say anything against the war or question the death of their loved one?

CZ- I know there are people thinking the same thing I am, they are just afraid. It's not wrong; it's the only thing that's right. It's okay to say that you are mad and angry, it's okay to say that.

JS- I had a mother tell me that if she opposed the war it dishonored her son's death. She said that even though it hurt she could not say anything against the war because it made her son's death meaningless. How can you answer something like that?

CZ- It is not wrong to say that. It does not make my son's death meaningless to say what I do. It is the right thing to do.

JS- Anything else you want to say?

CZ- You really have to think about it really hard. The future of our children is gone; it's dead. Part of a generation is gone forever, and they won't ever do what they had been destined for. The future of those who loved them is dead; it's altered forever. Nothing can fix it; nothing can bring them back. Their future is dead forever. How do you live with something like that? What might they do if they all lived? What did we sacrifice? We'll never know because it's gone forever, no more, it just over.

JS- I can tell the pain hasn't diminished for you at all.

CZ- It gets worse! Now I look at my daughter-in-law and my grandson, knowing how hard it is for them now that everyone is kind of backing away from them and getting back to their lives. So much pain! It isn't getting any better! (Crying)

JS- You have a nine year old grandson left without a father, right?

CZ- Yeah, my son was a wonderful father, such a caring father. He was so devoted to him. He did everything for his wife and child. He worked all the time; he was so hard working. Now he's not here, such a loving person, he's gone. How is that fair to my grandson?

I think there is nothing we should forget. You know I said this, that time will dim all, but it doesn't.

JS- So you see no end to your pain and grief in the future? Can you see it getting better?

CZ- The pain of my son's death does not get any better, it just gets worse as time goes on. Each day I feel it, and it's like every day brings a new agony.

The rest of our friends and relatives are trying to move on, and I just can't get to that point. I don't know how I could get over it right now. Maybe as time passes I will start to forget, but not now. Not as long as I still have to live with the ongoing death and all the suffering that the families are going through.

I have to be as outspoken as I am because it is going on for all the other parents to. Even if they can't say it, they feel it, I know they do. I want to say it is okay if they can't say what I have. It's okay, because I can say it for you. I can be the one expressing everyone's hidden grief if I have to. Maybe that is what will help me start to get a little better.

JS- How do you feel when you see George Bush talking about how the Iraq war was justified even though the US Senate is now saying the intelligence was flawed and it was based on lies?

CZ- I heard James Woolsey talking on NPR last weekend. That Bastard! I heard him and it made me so mad. He was talking about the fact that this was just a flap! He said it was a temporary flap over the fact that the war was not justified.

I tried to call him and just scream! Oh, he was so smug, so smug. Oh God, it was just sickening, my son is dead and he calls it a flap. How dare he say that this is just going to blow over and go away! He justified my son's death with such arrogance, such arrogance.

JS- I heard a comment by George W. Bush that the latest revelations are just a temporary setback to the troops. He stated that this entire public outcry damaged the morale of the troops and was a setback to their mission. He just went on television today and defended the Iraq war and said it was justified.

CZ- It's a setback unless you're not coming back, or you've lost your limbs because the Humvees weren't properly plated.

JS- When I spoke to you earlier you mentioned how little training your son actually had before he left to go to Iraq. How much training did he get? Do you think they really prepared him to go to Iraq?

CZ- Well I was saying how he was in training at Fort Dix for only two months. You know they trained him in a little bit of Iraqi culture and Arabic language. Was he prepared to go into a combat area? Was he doing what he was trained to do? No!

JS- He was a mental health worker?

CZ- Yeah, he was a caseworker for children with mental retardation. But even when he was in the National Guard he was a forward observer, so he was trained in that kind of technology and stuff. That was what he studied. He was not a military policeman! That was not his job.

That assumes it takes some form of special training and knowledge. I don't actually think the government considered that aspect of training, and I don't think they did one bit of it. You know it's so clear how casually, HOW CASUALLY, they have put people's lives on the line.

JS- When your son was over in Iraq they used him in the capacity of a military police officer?

CZ- Yep that's what they all are. That's what everybody does who goes over as far as we know. Unless your you have a really special skill, which he didn't have, you would be assigned as military police. In Lieu Of! That's what they called it. So whatever they wanted to use you for was what you were going to be.

So there for how could you be trained for anything? You know? What's your training if you're going to be there in lieu of anybody else?

JS- I have heard this from so many soldiers and their families. They say that "We are not police officers, we're not peacekeepers, we were not trained to do this kind of thing."

CZ- That's what I'm saying, that's it exactly. How can you just give them a few weeks training and then send them off on their way?

JS- From everything I have heard from the men and the families, most of the Reservists and Guardsman got just a few weeks training. They were taught a few simple Arabic phrases and that was about it. Is that true?

CZ- Yep! Exactly! That's exactly right! You got the truth from whoever told you that.

JS- So what was Sherwood's main duty? Where was he assigned?

CZ- Well he was a security detail for the Iraq Survey Group. They were the people who are still looking for the Weapons of Mass Destruction.

He was killed in an explosion at a munitions factory. We don't know exactly what happened. We know he was on the outside, he was in his Humvee. His head was above the turret of the Humvee. An explosion went off and five soldiers ran out of the factory. They were injured but not killed. Then there was a secondary explosion. Sherwood was either hit by debris or knocked down, I don't know. He was burned really badly, in the news picture you could see him lying by the Humvee. I only saw it once; it was all I could take, that was enough.

He was not moved right away, he lay there for a while. I know he lived for two hours, but I don't know if he was conscious or not.

JS- Was he in an unarmored Humvee? I have heard from many troops that the worst injuries came from older vehicles.

CZ- I don't know if he was or not. I guess if you're in one you just hope for the best. 3 BILLION dollars a month, and they are putting sandbags in their own Humvees.

JS- Now here's the big question. Did he have the proper body armor when he went?

CZ- He had a flak jacket. There was one thing he was missing when he went over. He was told he needed a Global Positioning Device, and we bought it for him. It was our Christmas present to him, the GPS device. They weren't going to give him one so we made sure he had it.

He didn't know for sure if he was going to get a flak jacket until he got to Fort Dix. When he left he got one. Good thing, because I was prepared to buy that for him as well.

JS- So he would not have had a GPS if you hadn't bought it for him.

CZ- Yes, right. One really important thing happened the week before he got killed.

He told us they were rationing food and water. They were only getting two bottles of water a day.

JS- That was the last week of March of this year?

CZ- Yes, the last week of March. I went crazy about it. I wrote letters to the Armed Services Committee, I called Congressman, I called the Senator here in Pennsylvania, everyone I could think of. I actually talked to a reporter about covering the rationing and he said he had to decline the story.

JS- He refused to cover it? Did he give a reason?

CZ- No, he just dropped it.

JS- Okay, now this something I really want to discuss with you. You know first hand as a mother who heard it from her son.

The Pentagon and Kellogg Brown and Root have said that there is plenty of food, water, and they have never had a shortage. This was something that didn't see the front pages of the many of the papers. I did see it reported by the families, but not much in the mainstream press.

I have heard it from many parents, and most had not lost a son, they were just angry and frustrated. I have recently spoken to parents who said the rationing was constant for the forward units. I have heard that units in battle torn areas had difficulty obtaining supplies, sometimes for days or weeks.

Why do you think the question of rationing and shortages is still not being properly reported?

CZ- It may be that they've improved their system, but you know, for sure you know, that in November there were not enough flak jackets. That's a fact, right? It's reported everywhere. It's not acknowledged, but it's reported everywhere. Maybe over time they got more stuff sent in. Maybe they did, I hope so.

What happened to Sherwood at the end of March was that the area around the Baghdad Airport was attacked. The major supply lines that were run by KBR's subcontractor, the ones that brought the big supplies in, were coming under contract default. They were under an investigation and a scandal about overcharging the Army. So the response was they went to rationing. They refused to drive to the troops that needed them, so they suspended the convoys.

Does that seem to make sense in any way? Not to me it doesn't. Not when the troops still needed water and they didn't get it.

But it would really strike you as curious, wouldn't it, if you had the Green Zone stocked with adequate supplies? I mean there's all types of water storage there for just this type of emergency situation, isn't there? It's curious that they wouldn't trade with the Iraqis, especially when the Iraqis could have supplied the water right away. But NO! They had a contract with KBR for water! The fact that they didn't get any water to the soldiers didn't come up or even seem to matter. Rations in the desert, in 120-degree heat!

You could get a hamburger in the Green Zone, but not even a glass of water at the airport.

JS- I have heard from soldiers all the way back in February about the trading of socks and underwear for water and food. Some were telling me they traded packages from home for enough water to survive on for the day.

CZ- Right, yes, it's true. You have to see it's the corruption behind it all. It's like they want you to ignore it. They want you to cringe and turn away from the harsh reality.

Ignore the man behind the curtain, because that's not really happening here. Just believe this flag-waving story we're telling you. It's about how gloriously our troops are serving for the people.

Doesn't that sound like the old Soviet Union?

JS- You've said they are hiding the numbers on the true amount of casualties. I have seen many reports of casualties on the battlefield and not seen any more information for weeks. Sometimes the details on the wounded are never released. I had talked to people who were trying to expose how many people were getting wounded and killed in the unarmored Humvees. Nothing really was said officially for months, even thought the parents demanded to know. Do you know the reason they refused to answer the legitimate questions of grieving parents?

CZ- That didn't happen, it's not on the news so it didn't happen. Well that's the thing that happens all the time. Now the outrage happens, and then by the time it sort of works itself through to the acceptable level of press, it's old and not noticed.

Three months back is only a bad memory, so they can do things like burying numbers on unit casualties. The wounded can just be wheeled behind the curtain, out of sight and mind. They already hide the coffins behind the curtains, and now they do it with the wounded. When it's exposed it's coming from so far back that nobody really absorbs it. So this way you can do things like spinning it. It didn't actually happen that way in Iraq, it was a false report or something, we were wrong again, sorry for that folks.

That's how they twist it to mean the exact opposite of what we, as families know.

WE KNOW! WE KNOW! WE WILL NOT FORGET!

JS- If you'll forgive me for saying it this way, I try to pick the wound in America's conscience on a daily basis. I do it's because it's so easy for or culture to just push on from that or never deal with it in the first place. I see a willingness to forget or refuse to process the fact that hundreds of families are in very serious mourning. There is a funeral all the time now, but most people do not ever let it sink in.

CZ- Right, the ability to ignore even the worst pain and grieving is a shield I see all the time. I see people turn away from me now. I still get angry and upset and people want to know why I am still pushing it so hard.

JS- I had several people question why I was bothering to talk to you and the rest of the families after you were so public in your grief. Some journalists asked me why I would choose to cover such old and overplayed news. I am repeating that exactly from their own mouths. It was a serious question as to why I would try to cover "old news".

CZ- Yeah we're old news, we have all heard it before. Someone that died last week is old news because ten more have died in the paper since then. A one day flash and then before the body is buried it's off the back page and gone. That is why I get so frustrated. Oh, they covered that already, why do they keep telling us about it.

JS- I hope you don't believe that this is old news. There was a funeral yesterday and two the day before. I saw the picture of a son standing over his daddy's coffin crying. That is another son who had to see his father buried and will live with it forever.

CZ- I just want to know someone is hearing us. We hurt, that can't be old news. I wish we could go on and pretend it didn't happen. I wish we could just forget about it like everyone else.

Everyone who hasn't lost a son seems to find it so easy to move on or just not even notice it at all. You can't move on or recover from grief you never felt. You can't forget pain you never felt in the fist place. That's how some people forget, because they never really know in the first place.

JS- I know that they are busy at Dover. I talked to one soldier who does ceremony detail at the funerals. He said he hasn't put his honor guard uniform back in the closet for weeks. I have heard from several pilots who fly the coffins back to Dover, and they say they have been bringing the troops home in the same plane on many flights. That has to really make you not want to reenlist or go back. They travel back with the ultimate price haunting them the whole time.

CZ- When Sherwood came through Dover they told us we had to wait and but not for how long. You know they weren't quite sure how long it would take to process him and put him through there. We were wondering why can't they tell us, and then we realized why.

They were so busy; they were just so busy in April. They had so many bodies they didn't know what to do with all of them. They were so busy because they hadn't had that many in over 30 years. They didn't know how long it would take because the guys they had working had never had to go through that volume ever before. How could they get through everything?

April was the worst, the very worst. I think 135 came through. 135 in one month! Imagine that! All the families and grief that piled up.

Imagine all the families in grieving, even the ones that won't say a word. Almost 900 and we are sending more every day, some units are going to have to go back and see their friends die. Some of the ones that made it back the first time won't make it this time around. Some of them will come home but not really make it. One more time could kill someone who just left and didn't want to go back.

Our National Guard is being depleted, like my son was. Those are the heroes the ones who just go, even though they went already. They are going to pay the ultimate price and we will have to keep living with it. America are you really ready to take on that kind of grief?

Are you willing to let your child be the sacrifice? A sacrifice for what? Who wants to be a sacrifice? I know my son didn't want to be a sacrifice, even though I am proud of his duty to his country, I can't be proud of the facts of his death. He wasn't ready to make the "Ultimate Sacrifice" like Bush said our troops should be proud of doing. I don't think any one wants that for their child.

Just think about that. Think about what a real sacrifice is. A real sacrifice is the fact that we lost all those innocent, bright young men and women.

That's the real sacrifice. It's not worth it, for this war. It's never worth it but this is the saddest example.

Just think about it? Please? That's all, just think.

Please see related article: For Families of Some Killed in Iraq: Grief, Outrage and Protest by Jay Shaft
(c) 2004 Jay Shaft is the editor of, Coalition For Free Thought In Media. Contact him at: Jay Shaft. All of the parents interviewed for this story are active with Military Families Speak Out. Many statements, letters, photographs and other materials can be found at that website.

The Bush Resume

PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004.
(c) 2004 Avalon Bruce

New Assault On Wilson Serves As A Distraction

Those were the reasons that the President offered to support his claim that Iraq posed a grave threat to the United States, and a majority of Americans believed him. Had he and his cabinet honestly and carefully explained the available intelligence, they would not have been able to drive the Congress and the nation into war. Attacking Joe Wilson cannot change that dismal truth.
(c) 2004 You may reach Joe via email at: Joe Conason

Quotable Quote ...

Another Lie. Will More Die?

Odds are that others will see through the current attempt to blame tie Iran to 9/11. That's why they've already got a new argument in reserve: the "yet unknown role" Iran allegedly played in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment complex in Saudi Arabia. It's the same tactic we saw during the run-up to war against Iraq: lie, retreat, repeat. The question is, will we fall for it again?
(c) 2004 Ted Rall is the author of "Wake Up, You're Liberal: How We Can Take America Back From the Right." Ordering information is available at amazon.com.

Dead Letter Office ...

Heil Bush,

Dear Unter Gruppenfuhrer Papageorge,

Congratulations you have just been awarded the 'Vidkun Quisling Award' for 2004! Your name will now live throughout history with such past award winners as Marcus Junius Brutus, Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, George Stephanopoulos, Ralph Nader, Vidkun Quisling and last year's winner Volksjudge Sandra (Hot Lips) Day O'Connor.

Without your lock-step calling for the repeal of the Constitution, your cover up of our coup d'etat, your call for the supression of black voters, the Afghanistan pipeline, Iraq and these many profitable oil wars to come would have been impossible! With the help of our mutual friends, the other "Congrssional Whores," you have made it possible for all of us to goose-step off to a brave new bank account.

Along with this award there will be an Iron Cross 2nd class presented by our glorious Fuhrer Herr Bush at a gala celebration at the "Wolf's Lair" formally 'Rancho de Bimbo' on 9-05-2004. We salute you Herr Papageorge, Sieg Heil!

Signed,
Vice Fuhrer Cheney

Heil Bush

Eye-openers To Read This Political Season
By Molly Ivins

BOSTON - OK, here's my brilliant Insider Insight du jour: The D's aren't going to get much of a bounce out of this convention because this race is already so tight there just ain't enough swing votes to bounce anywhere.

The popular selection of John Edwards for veep didn't provide much of a bounce, and neither will the Beantown Bash. Aside from that, everyone is having a wonderful time.

Marty Nolan, a scholar of Boston, quotes T.S. Eliot on "Boston doubt," defined as a readiness to yield "to all suggestions which dampen enthusiasm or dispel conviction." That could account for a lot about John Kerry.

President Bush's slightly alarming claim to the Amish on July 9 that God speaks through him - that's what he said, God speaks through him - raises some troubling prospects. First of all, I think God has a better grasp of subject-verb agreement than George W. Bush do. Also, when Bush changes his mind, as he frequently does, do we think God has had to rethink things after the polls have come out?

Nice to see President W. employing the tactic Texans got so familiar with under Governor W.: the "Gee, I'm really for it, but I can't be bothered to expend one iota of political energy trying to help it pass." (He also frequently uses the reverse ploy by announcing he opposes something he can't be bothered to spend an iota of energy on.)

This is the game Bush is playing on the assault weapons ban, which he officially favors renewing (soccer mom vote there), but - surprise! - since he won't do anything to get it renewed it will be allowed to lapse (NRA vote there). Just what we need in this country, more automatic assault rifles.

A more subtle play is the White House decision to oppose a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts on the grounds that it's not a five-year extension. This dubious ploy, from the right's point of view, sacrifices a tax cut in the hand for a political issue in the bush, as it were. I'm not sure they can run that one: "Those nasty Democrats would only vote for a two-year tax cut instead of a five-year tax cut," he pouted. "See, they just hate tax cuts."

Kind of hard, even in the funhouse mirrors of the campaign, to argue that Democrats in Congress have spent a lot of time successfully thwarting Bush on anything. But R's are much in the habit of seeing themselves as victims, so it will make them happy.

Meantime, those faithful political junkies following the festivities here on C-SPAN may need some reading material to tide them over during the boring speeches, and I have two pips to recommend. Hendrik Hertzberg (his friends call him Rick) has put out a collection called simply, "Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004," that is pure pleasure to read. The New Yorker editor and former editor of The New Republic has such a good mind, such a strong sense of ethics and honor. There is an almost physical pleasure, like having an itch scratched, in watching him come to grips with some of the thorniest, nastiest, most divisive issues of the past 40 years, and slice them cleanly into comprehensible form. Besides, he writes like a dream.

A book that is both more dense and more important is David Cay Johnston's "Perfectly Legal." The obligatory, explanatory subtitle is "The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else." This, too, is like having an itch scratched, in that one keeps saying, "Aha, so that's how they do it." And it is fascinating. And horrifying. The ease with which corporations evade taxes is well known, but finding out just how much money their cute little tricks are worth will curl your hair.

I suppose if one were as rich as Bill Gates, one would be tempted to save a billion or two in taxes, but it seems kind of pointless when one is sitting on that many billions. Seriously, the super rich have been allowed to accumulate so much money that one finally has to ask what they think the point is. Those far more detestable are the congressmen who sneak special tax advantages and exemptions into the law in exchange for campaign contributions and then lecture the rest of us on patriotism.

Government really is about who benefits and who pays. Who gets screwed and who's doing the screwing. And there is no point at which that can be seen more clearly than in our tax system. Johnston, a superb reporter for The New York Times, has broken one story after another about how the system really works, and it's all here.

That so much of what passes for debate about our tax system is gross misinformation is not, unfortunately, the result of accident or ignorance. There are a lot of people blowing smoke in your ear who know much better. They get paid to lie. Happily, Johnston gets paid to find the truth, and he does so in this book with admirable tenacity. This is the real story of what is happening in America.

Too bad we're watching a political campaign in which reality is considered irrelevant. Happy warm and fuzzies.
(c) 2004 Molly Ivins

Anger Management:
Kerry's Put The Kibosh On Bashing Bush, But Can He Do Anything About The Outbreak Of Hotel Envy?
By Arianna Huffington

BOSTON -- Forget Disneyland, for the next few days, Beantown is the happiest place on earth. Or at least the most civil.

The Kerry campaign has put the kibosh on Bush-bashing, preferring to make their candidate's positive vision for the country the overriding theme of the convention.

It's the Anger Management Platform -- and a very sensible strategy.

Unfettered rage at Bush, his corporate cronyism and his lies about Iraq (oops, I think that's one of the proscribed phrases; my bad) has fueled the Democrats since a movement of outraged activists gave the party a much needed spine transplant during the primary season. Kerry picked up the baton in Iowa and has run with it to great effect. At the moment, fifty-four percent of Americans feel that the country is moving in the wrong direction -- and nearly three-fifths say we need to change course.

Now it's time for Kerry to convince voters that he's the one to chart the new direction, and to define just what that direction will be.

So everywhere you go here -- or, at least, everywhere the police allow you to go -- everyone is reading from the same positive playbook.

At a star-studded and jam-packed pre-convention event honoring Bill and Hillary Clinton -- the A-list affair was so overbooked that many VIPs had to hover outside the door, waiting for someone to leave before the fire marshals would let them in -- the former first couple was humble and on message, with Bill describing himself and Hillary as "foot soldiers for Kerry/Edwards". They had clearly gotten the anger management memo, and the former president, in particular, avoided the more critical stance he has recently adopted toward Bush. The only whiff of a dig at W. was Clinton's assurance that the one thing Democrats could count on was that, this time, "every vote will be counted" (this must be on the list of pre-approved phrases; I've heard it a number of times since arriving in Boston -- and it never fails to draw a cheer).

As Tad Devine, Kerry's senior campaign strategist, described it to me: "I tell everyone, 'It's okay to throw the occasional elbow, just avoid the flagrant fouls'."

The harmonious vibe at the Clinton party was so strong that William Safire, the New York Times op-ed page's conservative grise, turned to me after scanning the room and said, "There's so much discipline and unity here, it feels like a Republican Convention".

If there were one place where you would have expected the kid gloves approach to fall by the wayside, it would have been at the tribute honoring the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, held at the Old West Church, on Cambridge Street. The event was standing room only, and was attended by some of the most progressive members of the Democratic Party, including panelists Jim Hightower, Al Franken, and Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America. Four years ago, Wellstone had spoken at the Shadow Convention in Los Angeles, delivering a fiery call to action to progressive Democrats: "I'm tired of waiting... It's time for us to find our own voice, to do our own organizing, to push forward on reform, to push forward on issues of economic justice, and to make the United States of America, this good country, even better."

But even among this most passionately anti-Bush crowd, the wellspring of rage bubbling just beneath the surface remained almost entirely bottled up.

You know that the Positivity Party is in full swing when Al Gore, who the L.A. Times' Ron Brownstein says has been "channeling the Democratic id in podium-pounding speeches that seem designed to end with the distribution of pitchforks", takes to the Convention stage and delivers an unfailingly upbeat message. One of his few discordant notes Monday night was, like Clinton, a dig at 2000: "Let's make sure," he said, "that the Supreme Court does not pick the next president -- and that this president is not the one who picks the next Supreme Court." The former VP was quick to point out, however, that he's made peace with the contentious past: "I don't want you to think that I lay awake at night counting and recounting sheep." He didn't say anything about lying in bed counting and recounting dangling chads, however.

Anger, and the wisdom of keeping it in check, were the subject of a pair of competing briefings I attended on Monday afternoon at the Four Seasons hotel, which is the hub of behind-the-scenes campaign activity away from the Fleet Center. One featured Harold Ickes of America Coming Together, which has now raised $80 million, a substantial chunk of which will be spent in August taking the whip to Bush's hide. The other featured pollster Stan Greenberg discussing the mindset of potential Nader voters. "Anger," he said, "is the defining characteristic of the Nader voter. They loathe Bush but they don't want to cast their vote for the lesser-of-two-evils. They want to vote on principle." In other words, if Kerry is going to convince them to pass on Nader and vote for him, he's going to have to show them that he stands for more than just not being Bush.

I had my own Close Encounter of the Newly Unified Kind when I shared a stage with Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe at a raucous rally of over a thousand College Democrats. It was less than two years ago, after the Democrats' November 2002 debacle, that I wrote a column entitled "Bring Me the Head of Terry McAuliffe!" Now here we were hugging, him saying some nice things about me, and me giving him my ancient Greek secrets for helping his battle-ravaged voice to heal ("Don't forget the cayenne pepper!").

It just goes to show you what four years of George Bush in the White House can do to bring people together. I suppose he really is a uniter, not a divider.

With trashing Bush all-but-verboten, the Dems' natural feistiness has been routed into other directions. The most conspicuous of these is the outbreak of Hotel Envy that has swept across Fortress Boston. At this convention, you are where you stay.

Here's the local pecking order: staying at the Four Seasons means you are a serious power player. Chad Griffin, the Los Angeles-based political strategist is staying there, as is Rob Reiner, as is real-estate developer and early Kerry fundraiser Richard Ziman, as is Jonathan Lewis, a major Democratic donor and fundraiser for America Coming Together, as are multiple big-time New York Kerry donors.

"We got numerous calls," Chad Griffin told me, "offering any price for us to vacate our rooms." And someone inside the Kerry campaign informed me with mounting irritation that they had received a tidal wave of calls from big donors complaining that they were given rooms at the new Ritz, and not at the Four Seasons -- even though "You can throw a sandwich from one to the other", as the exasperated Kerry staffer put it.

The distinction between the old Ritz on Newbury and the new Ritz on Avery Street, across the park, is a whole other story, worthy of a PhD thesis. For the moment, suffice it to say that the old Ritz is considered much hotter than the new Ritz, and that Larry King is staying there.

As bad as Hotel Envy is, Skybox Envy is even worse. There are so few of them at the Fleet Center that even super-high-end contributors Ron Burkle and Steve Bing have been asked to share one.

Job One of this convention is moving the party faithful from Anybody But Bush backers to out-and-out Kerry enthusiasts. On the surface at least, that task seems to be Mission Accomplished (although such a reference would probably be vetoed by the powers that be for having too much of an anti-Bush subtext).

The vital next step is winning over the majority of Americans who have turned away from Bush but who are not yet comfortable turning control of the ship of state over to Kerry. Thursday night's acceptance speech will go a long way toward determining his ability to sway those undecided voters.

David Thorne is convinced he will succeed with flying colors. Thorne is one of Kerry's closest friends and the twin brother of Kerry's first wife -- they were together at Yale and joined the Navy at the same time. He's also the mastermind behind Kerry's highly successful Internet operation. I ran into Thorne, who has seen The Speech, at the New York Times party at the Gamble Mansion, and he gave me a preview not of its content but of its character.

"Have you seen the letters that John wrote to me when we were in the service?" he asked. "They show what a passionate, thoughtful, committed person he was -- and that's the guy you'll be seeing on Thursday night."

The flip side to the Democrats' Anger Management strategy is the widespread anxiety over whether Kerry will deliver in his big moment. Absent the anger, will he be able to convey his passion and his vision for the country?

And no strategy has yet been invented to manage this anxiety. Only a kick-ass speech on Thursday will put an end to it.
(c) 2004 Arianna Huffington

The Cartoon Corner