Month: February 2005

Ballot-counting in Iraq isn’t going very well:

Iraqi officials said Wednesday they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes because of various discrepancies, delaying final results from the landmark national elections. Hundreds perhaps thousands of other ballots were declared invalid because of alleged tampering.
[…]
Officials had promised final results from the elections by Thursday, the end of the Iraqi work week. On Wednesday, however, election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said the deadline would not be met because of the recount.

”We don’t know when this will finish,” he said. ”This will lead to a little postponement in announcing the results.”
[…]
Commission official Adel al-Lami said the ballots in 40 boxes and 250 bags would not be counted because they appeared to have been stuffed inside them or, in some cases, improperly folded. Some of the boxes were not those approved by the commission, and others were improperly sealed, he said.

Already some factions have dismissed the election as illegitimate based on the fact that it was held under occupation. Thousands of Iraqis have protested the election because they weren’t allowed to vote due to shortages of ballots and in some cases, polling centers that were never opened. Now there appear to be some substantial issues with a large number of ballots.

I’d like to thank the Pentagon for providing yet another in a seemingly endless string of great material on which to comment. The Nazis had Leni Riefenstahl to make their propaganda, and now the US has … The Pentagon Channel (I didn’t make that name up; that’s what they’re calling it). That’s right, the symbol of US Empire is now going to be broadcasting to millions of US homes free of charge!
The channel is marketed thusly; “Dish viewers will be kept up to date with current military news and information including Department of Defense news briefings, military news, interviews with top defense officials, and short stories about the work of military people.”
Yes, I can see how that might be necessary. The Fox/CNN cretins don’t do much of that, do they? We need BALANCE against those anti-war forces!
This opens up a number of intriguing possibilities, does it not? How about a new reality show – Rummy’s World – in which the camera follows the Defense Secretary around as he berates and fires subordinates, eats breakfast, argues with the President about whether Mr. Bush should be reading the memos coming from DoD, and disseminates intelligence to try to find something positive to tell the press.
And since Rumsfeld is apparently a sex symbol, how about a contest – Win a date with Rummy. That’ll attract the soccer moms, I’ll tell you.
How about a nightly news broadcast hosted by Robert McNamara?
Or an infomercial – How to shred sensitive documents before the press or congress get their grubby hands on them. The Pentagon could start marketing its own brand of shredder, only $19.95.
Then there are the shows I’m sure we will not be seeing on this channel; Great US War criminals from Wilson to Bush, Why the Defense Department isn’t called the War Department anymore, A history of disastrously failed US Military Vehicles, and how much they cost, and even Lying us into war: How the Feds have dummied up a reason for every war the US has fought.
Those shows will be reserved someday for the Antiwar.com channel.

R.J. Rummel calls for an end to free speech in America. Why? Cos’ he’s a freedomist, silly.

Back in November, we ran this eminently unobjectionable piece in which Rummel wrote,

The more power those who rule have, the less libertarian the government, the more likely the rulers will commit genocide and mass murder. …

Therefore, how do we try to assure “never again”? Foster freedom – reduce power at the center.

Now, at the time Rummel submitted that, I was only aware of his Death by Government, not his fanatical liberventionism (mea culpa, mea culpa). His follow-up piece, however, revealed the bait-and-switch: no longer was he talking about freedom and decentralization, but about his pet “democratic peace” theory. I kept earnestly asking what he could possibly mean, given the incredible bellicosity of the U.S. and other democracies over the last century and a half.

Finally, I just gave up on him.

Well, now he’s given up on us. I don’t know how libertarianism will ever recover from losing another authoritarian loon. Fly, fly away, Professor, to the ranks of the “freedomists.” Maybe if you suggest boiling opponents of the war, you can get a cushy position at a D.C.-area “libertarian” institute.

[Hat tip: Anthony Gregory]

Whoops! The IDF “accidentally” attacks an Israeli town with fake Katyusha rockets.

via xymphora

As you may have noticed on the main page, our fund drive is pretty darn sluggish. We’re less than halfway to where we should be by this point.

Which must be good news.

I mean, if Antiwar.com can’t scrape up a few bucks each from a fraction of its daily readers, it must mean that the past few months were all a bad dream. George W. Bush obviously wasn’t reelected. The current president doesn’t think he has a mandate to conquer the world. The neocons must be on the run. The threat to our civil liberties and basic human dignity has subsided. We withdrew from Iraq, where everything’s going A-OK. And there’s no way in hell we’re going to attack Iran. Right?

Nope. I just pinched myself and realized that this is no nightmare: this is Bush 2.0. Here’s what I wrote the weekend before the U.S. election:

The notion that Bush will ditch the imperial project, while comforting, does not jibe with what we know of human nature, particularly as it plays out in politics. Success is affirmation, and the only real measure of success politicians have is reelection. Even from a market perspective, the Great Bush Conversion to noninterventionism makes little sense: why switch to New Coke when the old stuff is selling so well?

We’re talking about a man who interpreted his purely technical (though nonetheless valid) win in 2000 – without even a plurality, much less a majority, of the popular vote – as a blank check to pursue policies far different from what he had promised. (Remember that “humble” foreign policy?) With Iraq growing less sexy every day, who believes he isn’t tempted by the hussy next door? Four years of Michael Ledeen purring “faster, please” in his ear must be having some effect.

Wishful thinking aside, Bush isn’t going to dump the neoconservatives or the fundamentalists. They’re the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Bush coalition: without both, the group is nothing. The neocons need the fundies for grassroots support, and the fundies need the neocons to provide a secular cover for holy war. And though everyone knows Bush is a fundie, it’s time to concede that he wasn’t hijacked by the neocons – he is one.

And it’s all coming true. For Pete’s sake, Bush’s inaugural address gave even full-time GOP shill Peggy Noonan the creeps! But don’t expect Peggy and the rest of the MSM to keep you informed as the neocons and the fundies march us toward another precipice – one that promises to bring about that Clash of Civilizations the warmongers have been dreaming about, and with it, the death blow to our Republic.

Look, I know these quarterly fundraisers are a nuisance. We would rather not bother with them ourselves. But until the Richard Mellon Scaifes and Rupert Murdochs experience a 180-degree change of heart, we’ll be forced to ask our readers for the money to go on. And if you read this site regularly, you can’t say we haven’t earned it. Our news collection alone is second to none. Again, if you’re a regular around here, I’m willing to venture that Antiwar.com’s news section saves you at least an hour per day – how long would it take you to comb through, oh, THE ENTIRE WORLD WIDE WEB???

Now, at current U.S. federal minimum-wage rates, an hour is worth $5.15. If time is money, then it’s fair to say that Antiwar.com saves you at least $36/week, $144/month, $1,800/year!

Of course, we would never ask for that much (on the other hand, we won’t reject it if you send it, either!). But if a meager 10% of our daily readers put themselves down for just $5 – one minimum-wage hour! – per month, we’d have more than enough to continue. Instead of dreading the quarterly fund drive, enduring our guilt trips, having to decide how much is appropriate to give, etc., why not just become a monthly contributor? That way, when the next drive comes around, you can just click past all the pleading with no guilt whatsoever – and you’ll be keeping the best source for antiwar news and views alive.

Become part of the heroic 10% today!

You’ll never believe who said this:

I am — just bite down hard and say it, man — with Senator Edward Kennedy on this. I want U.S. forces to leave Iraq ASAP. If the place then descends into chaos, I’m fine with it. What’s that you say? It would be awful hard on the Iraqis? Probably so. It would certainly be hard on those brave, civic-minded Iraqis — there are plenty of them — who would like to see constitutional government in their nation. However, there are people like that all over the world — there are scads of them in China, including some personal friends of mine. (To be a bit more precise, there are scads of them who are Chinese, though many now live in the West.) We can only do so much. God knows, we have done enough for Iraq, with blood and treasure. The rest is up to the Iraqis. If they make a pig’s ear of it, that’s a shame, but I can’t see why it’s our problem. There are lots of messed-up countries in the world. Iraq will be another one.

Answer here.