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The story goes that Warren Buffet, rather worried about his investments early 2008, wanted to talk to God… God told him to use his phone and he’d send him the bill… He got and paid the $333 million dollar charge. His investments flourished, too… That would be the end of the story, except he was down in Sussex County recently, following up first hand on a corporate case being processed out of Georgetown… once again, he asked God for the right to call, and agreed to accept the charges… When he got his bill, he was fuming… He was only charged 25 cents… “God”, he said, “you ripped me off on that first call, big time!”… God said, “Warren, don’t you get it? In Sussex County, that’s a local call…”
Local call or not, Sussex County is weighing in on whether to say a prayer before County meetings or to not… Here are a few takes on that policy: one, two, three, four……
As someone who grew up where prayers were always said before football games and county meetings, it isn’t a big deal…… That is, as long as everyone agrees it isn’t a big deal. You don’t see prayers before meetings conducted in New York.
Not because New Yorkers are heathens, but because in New York, you have a multiplicity of religions, so praying a prayer from one of them, is a slap in the face for all others…
Why it’s even an issue in Sussex County is because the Positive Growth Alliance, has been building condo’s like ants, and lots of people who did not grow up in Sussex County, now live there. Many have different ideas of religion than those who’ve always been there all their lives…
If everyone believe in the same version of God as does David Anderson, then of course, duh, why are we even arguing about it… Of course we’re going to pray to God to guide us through this meeting.. That’s what He’s for!
Suddenly, thanks to Rich Collins and the Positive Growth Alliance, we have tons of people who do object to having David Anderson’s version of God, one who dislikes Homosexuals, and one who casts pox on Democrats, one who believes married people should have sex only when they have children, one who believes sex between animals is immoral, one who believes taxes are caused by the devil, one who believes that nature was made to bulldoze and pave with a combination of petroleum and gravel. … one who believes that oil companies have the divine right to pollute oceans, one who believes that animals were made for us to kill. … one who believes a national religious holiday should fall on the first day of deer season.. one who believes pick up trucks and baseball caps are proof that homosexuality is a sin,… on who believes killing someone with a gun is not a sin, but taking that gun away for the safety of others is…
(yes, I’m having fun and talking tongue in cheek)…
The point I’m making is that Sussex County is changing; and it is changing mostly thanks to Rich Collins and the Positive Growth Alliance.
Can you make new citizens join the current religion? If so, then by all means, just like the days of old, they will see no qualms in having a tiny prayer before the meeting.
But if they don’t want to join that religion, then, to force one group of religious people to impose their prayers on others, is not American…In fact, it’s kinda creepy…
If in an effort to show fairness, the Sussex County decided they would do prayers from all religions in alphabetical order, when they came to “B” and hit Buddahism, giving an Buddahist prayer before the session, most of those in the audience would be saying WTF! This is our nation, why do we have to listen to such crap…
Which is… exactly what those Buddahists think, who have opened a business in Millsboro, and have come before the county to ask for a variance on something or other that is in their antiqued code….
So… If it is unnatural for a Baptist to suffer a Buddahist prayer, it is equally unnatural for a Buddahist to sit through a Baptist prayer…
It’s not about one religion being right and the other wrong. It’s about who the citizens are that make up Sussex County. If you want to blame anyone over this controversy, the blame solely lies with those who built up Sussex County and brought in all these new people to begin with… Now that they are here, we have to make Sussex County as fair to them as New York, is fair to us, when we take our business up there……
Positive Growth, huh? Depends on your version of positive I guess………….
It’s clear as day.
When you have no engine in your car, you have to put one in… When banks aren’t lending, when the private sector is incapable of spending, the government has to..
It is called deficit spending. It’s been done before. Whereas we suffered a horrible Great Depression, Sweden emerged from theirs in 1934 by using just such a Keynesian approach towards deficit spending. While America suffered through dust bowls, “Grapes of Wrath”, Hoovervilles, soup kitchens, and one out of every four workers unemployed, Sweden was thriving and its citizens were living quite comfortably.
America finally… five years later, had no choice but to follow suit after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. We too spent money we didn’t have and guess what? From 1939 to 1941, U.S. manufacturing shot up a phenomenal 50 percent!
So what happens to those people who have no choice but to work, when the government gives them a job? They spend…. soon,… more people have to work… who spend… so even more people have to work,… who spend … so even more people than the more people spending money previously, have to work. … and they spend.
Republicans clamor we need more jobs… Mike Castle even hands out a giant check he voted against! LOL.. But they are all lined up against the very engine that brought us out of The Great Depression… How silly is that?
They say… we’ll owe sooooooooooooooo much money… Hello…Excuse me? Uhhh, have you ever bought a … house? Don’t you personally owe soooooooooooooooo much money? A $200,000 dollar house cost over $455,000 by the time the last payment is made. But…… how long would it take you, forced to spend more than you currently make just to live, to save $200,000 cash just to buy that house outright?
Right…. you couldn’t…
The same principal applies to economics. If you need to spend money for jobs right now…. and don’t have it… when and where will those jobs come from?
They won’t. Duh.
Therefore when Bonini says “Delaware spends more per person than any other state, excluding Alaska and Hawaii…” and that “the No. 1 employer in Delaware is the state itself, and the number of people employed by the state has doubled in the past 12 years” … right now we should be grateful… not troubled. Because we too are making some of that money those people are spending.
When he says…. “Tough economic times have prompted people to get involved in the political process,” it’s hilarious…. Especially when you look at this… on the Republican side… THEY ARE ALMOST ALL MILLIONAIRES…. (C’mon… It’s Delaware… Even if you’re Republican you gotta laugh)…
But, when he says … “The fact that people are making tough economic decisions in their personal family lives is bringing attention to the fact that the government is not,” it shows he doesn’t understand government’s role in the economy. It unfortunately shows us all that he doesn’t either read, or understand, American history.
And… that is what makes him a dangerous person to put in as our State Treasurer. He’s a great guy, and I certainly wish him well, but now is just not right time for someone who does not understand deficit spending to be running our state’s Treasury. Thirty years from now… based on my best estimates…that will be his time.
Recently Delaware’s lone congressman helped introduce, along with 44 other members, Senator Salazar’s Iraq Study Group Recommendations Implementation Act. This act attempts to make an end run around George Bush’s failed policies, by having Congress take the lead and mandate that our Iraqi policy follow the Iraqi Study Group’s recommended courses of action.
This bill has a wide range of bipartisan support. Both Democrats and Republicans have signed on as sponsors.
Several parts of this bill fly in the face of the Bush administration. For this bill follows the ISG’s recommendation that talks must include both Iran and Syria involving the region’s future stability. This makes sense since both of these two former Axis of Evil powers have considerable influence over certain parts of Iraq. Also this bill forces the President to make it clear that America does not have any intentions of maintaining permanent military bases within Iraq, and that he restates on occasion that the United States has absolutely no interest in controlling Iraqi oil revenues or resources.
It also seeks to undo the problematic DeBaathfication laws originally forced on Iraq by Brenner, as well as to ensure the sharing of all Iraqi oil revenues among all segments of an Iraqi society in an equitable manner.
Knowing me I went right to Section 8, page 13 to the section labeled: Statement of Policy of Oil Sector of Iraq.
It shall be the policy of the United States to formulate and implement with the government of Iraq, a plan, consistent with the Iraq Study Group, that–
1) provides technical assistance in drafting legislation to implement the February 27, 2007, agreement by Iraq’s Council of Ministers on principle for the equitable sharing of oil resources and revenues.
I don’t know if you took the time to click on the links above, but if you hit “February 27” you got the draft of the Iraqi Hydrocarbon Act that was leaked to the internet last week It’s long. And if you click on “What” you get the best line by line rebuttal as to why this same Cheney Oil bill will not work for Iraqis, by the person who leaked the oil bill to begin with. It’s also long.
There are huge problems with this certain piece of legislation. In fact, it is obvious that the US congressional delegation that is sponsoring Salazar’s Bill, has no idea what the February 27, 2007, agreement really is. How do we know? Because of the linkage that 1) we reiterate that the US has NO interest in Iraqi oil, with this very agreement 2) that according to loose estimates will give US corporations up to 70% of Iraqi oil for free.
This is predominately the “why”behind why the Iraqis are fighting us. They are fighting us for their own oil. This is why even though our Military daily struggles to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi citizenry, we lose ground every day because more and more Iraqis come to the conclusion that based on our oil plan, we really did invade to participate in this tragic rape of Iraq’s one natural resource.
First of all, who are these oil ministers, endorsed by Secretary Rice before the Senate appropriations committee, who approved this bill? They are all ex patriots, wined and dined like Chalabi before the invasion, then brought into the Green zone with the first troops and made the official head of Iraq’s oil ministry, answerable to the coalition government. The parliament, the actual people who represent the people of Iraq, up until this bill was leaked last week, had no clue what was inside.
So whereas to the unsuspecting, this bill appears to have the backing of the oil ministers, in other words the “experts” and is just languishing in the Congress, because they can’t get it together long enough to pass a simple piece of legislation. At least that is the spin we are given. Nothing could be further from the truth.
To understand what went wrong in Iraq and why we did not win the war after we won the war, one needs only to read the analysis of the oil bill. Had we done everything the same, but instead done just what the Iraqi Study Group recommends, had George Bush stand up and credibly say, ” America has no intentions upon your oil,” our troops would be home now. We would have a flourishing democracy in Iraq. But we sent the opposite signal. The signal we sent was this: we want to take control of Iraqi oil resources away from the Iraqi government and give it to Big Oil Companies.
And so they fought us.
Here is what needs to happen before that part of the bill passes. An amendment needs to pass, that strips that section from the bill. If they want, they could substitute the Federal Oil Law, with the Regional Oil Laws, which already have some sentiments of public support. The regional oil laws were hammered out by Iraqis, not an illegitimate cabinet of American appointed officers. Here is what the Iraqis say about the regional oil laws………
,,,,,,, though the Federal Law does not name any figures or percentages of sharing or profits, the Regional Law sets the way profits are calculated, which is based on giving reasonable percentages for the Internal Rate of Return, according to the wideness of the field, after appraisal. We think the reasonable rate could be no more than 15 percent.
This reasonable rate is higher than those in the surrounding countries, which shows it fairly takes into account the higher level of risk that Iraq provides over Kuwait, Iran, or Saudi Arabia.
This reasonable rate will allow Iraq infrastructure to begin to be rebuilt. This reasonable rate will stop the flow of insurgents into the recruiting arms of Al Qeeda.
So one could applaud Mike Castle for breaking with Bush and not following the Mitch McConnell and McCain line that we need more American dead in Baghdad to honor the American dead already there. Here in Delaware, we are glad he has broken away from Worm -Tongue’s spell. However, he needs to do more. For without a change in the Iraqi Oil Bill, his, and his other 44 co-sponsors’ bill, is doomed to fail.
PART II
A review of history is in order. Oil has lain dormant under Iraq for millennia’s. Only recent history has made it useful to man. This oil is lying just under the surface of Iraq and can be retrieved for less than $1.50 a barrel. One Iraqi citizen said “just put a pipe into the sand and oil comes out.” Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world and whoever controls Iraq, has his finger not only on America‘s lifeline, but also that of Europe, China, Russia, and the developing third world. And if one includes the unknown reserves for Iraq’s western unexplored desert, perhaps Saudi Arabia falls to a distant second.
The Middle East was ignored up until the ‘74 Oil Crises which occurred during the administration of Gerald Ford. As these countries nationalized their oil production facilities, thereby themselves able to determine the amount of their supply, they were through OPEC able to manipulate the price of oil. It was during this nationalization phase occurring during the Nixon administration, when Kissinger initially called for a plan designed to take the region by force if needed. This plan was secret, and is probably the origin of the map in question. After Nixon stepped down, Gerald Ford was left holding both reins of a Middle East in full gallop towards a cliff‘s edge. Here among several of Ford’s staff, the secret detailed plans were made to take the oil countries by force and secure the area from any Soviet influence. Those staff members from a Presidential cabinet of thirty years ago, are surprisingly quite well known today. They included both Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who are in what has become today know as the neo conservative movement. Foreign oil was then 36% of our total intake and we realized from this oil crises, that our quality of life could be seriously threatened by turning off the spigot of our Middle East oil at its source. Closely aligned with the upstart Reagan in 76, this group scuttled Ford’s chances of returning to office that year..
Jimmy Carter, in what became known as the Carter Doctrine, declared before the world, that the Middle East was an American vital interest and any foreign (Soviet) military intervention into that region would be viewed as an act of war upon this country itself. Then came the fall of Iran and the threat shifted.
Iran created the opportunity for us to befriend our new friend Iraq, which up until that time had been cozy with the Soviets simply primarily because we were heavily invested in the Shah of Iran. But as Iran flip-flopped in its opinion of us,, Saddam saw his opportunity to gain American protection and engaged Iran in a silly and stupid war. This engagement was fueled by American arms and American oil investment into the nationalized oil infrastructure of Iraq.
Then in ‘90, through our oil stained diplomats, Saddam thought we had given him the green light to attack Kuwait. For several days there was indecision on Bush Sr. about what to do. But once the conservative oil community realized the opportunity of taking the Iraq’s oil fields by force, the US on day three of the crises, issued to a surprised Saddam, our ultimatum. Saddam carefully calculated that he could survive without withdrawing and we made war plans to attack and liberate Kuwait. However within infighting of the inner circle, both the Baker contingent, and the private, personal appeals from British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, were able to convince the President that he should push the noble agenda of freeing Kuwait, instead of the neo conservatives main goal of punishing Saddam by taking control of the Iraqi oil fields. As the war evolved into a “just war” with even Syria supporting the Coalition Forces, it became politically impossible for elements of the US to seize the oil fields for themselves. This does however, explain a different reason we went through the western area of Iraq in order to attack Saddam’s supply lines. For had the war slipped into a prolonged phase, the “Holy Grail of oil men” would lie firmly under the control of the US army..
During the Clinton years, while the world’s attention was focused elsewhere, there continued to beat the steady drumbeat of the neo conservatives and oil company executives that said: “We should have taken Saddam out when we were there.” Every few months an article would appear in an oil sponsored scientific or international relations journal, decrying the weakness of Americans in bowing to the UN and stopping our campaign where and when we said we would. What was at stake was not our pride. It was their oil. For now, as we enforced on Iraq severe sanctions, and as we baited SAM missile batteries to lock on to our military aircraft, we had ourselves become the antagonist of Saddam Hussein. As things stood then we had no chance of receiving any rights to Iraqi oil. Were ever the sanctions to lift, a long line of suitors had formed way ahead of us to acquire the rights to the richest oil deposit on earth.
However, if we went to war unilaterally, we could simply take it for ourselves.
Enter the Bush administration. Now, not only are the country’s number one and number two spots held by oil men, but the entire cadre of the office, is also possessed by the clean smell of oil. It includes Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, Paul Wolfowitz,, Elliot Abrams, and Zalmay Khalilzad, all who were obsessed with the prospect of acquiring Iraq’s oil by force thirty years ago..
Just weeks after Bush was signed in, Cheney convened an informal gathering of oil executives called the Energy Task Force. From that brief gathering, our energy policy was finalized. The evidence that remains from that top secret meeting , is a map showing the oil fields of Iraq, a map showing oil fields in the Persian Gulf, and a map of northern Saudi Arabia, showing oil fields near the northern border. Also accompanying this was a document showing the Suitors for Iraqi Oil, of which the US is not one.
Since these engagements were secret, there is only a premise. But it bears scrutiny. And that premise is in one meeting, the complex Energy Policy of this wide and varied nation, was reduced to simply moving in and taking control of Iraq’s oil that cost only $1.50 a barrel to extract. Nowhere else on this planet can one get so much oil so cheaply, and no other way could the US ever be part of that windfall, except by disposing of Saddam and signing oil deals with the newly formed government.
What bothers me most is that, once one accepts this framework, (that of controlling Iraqi oil ), the individual actions taken by this administration that previously I had assumed were both inept and stupid, suddenly seem to make a great deal of sense.
You have heard them before, but listed in sequence they evoke a pattern that I will leave for you to ponder.
During the campaign against Gore, reports surfaced that Bush , had boasted within the oil industry, that he was gong to get Saddam.
Oil companies contributed record and never before seen amounts of campaign soft money to Bush’s campaign. They have been well rewarded.
Bush delegated Cheney to determine the Vice Presidential Candidates. Cheney said “Myself”. Bush then delegated Cheney to hire the White House staff. Cheney picks the neo-conservatives all who were proponents of taking Iraq’s oil in the 70’s. Bush then picks Eugene O‘Neil, Colin Powell, and Christie Todd Whitman, to give his administration some credibility, but who all eventually resign with bitterness at being railroaded. by Cheney and the neo-cons. An attorney general is chosen who believes the Executive Branch requires no checks or balances, and is free to use America’s resources as it sees fit..
Richard Clarke is marginalized as Director of Terrorism and NSA , FBI, and CIA all turn a blind eye to events leading up to 9/11.
9/11 occurs the day the American New Century is meeting in New York.
There is that weird moment in the classroom as Andy Card tells Bush we are under attack.
Bin Laden family is allowed to fly out of the country, when no one, even American citizens, are.
.
Richard Perle is heard running around the office on 9/12 saying “it’s Iraq, find the connection to Iraq.”
Anthrax occurs…….The administration immediately feeds the media that it is from Iraq. But if so, why Tom Daschle???? And whatever happened to that investigation? Oops…It was an American strain…..….hmmmm……
Bush gives Tommy Frank the order to draw up plans for an Iraqi invasion, before we even start into Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban.
The drums begin about WMD’s being in Iraq, even while we are fighting in Afghanistan.
When an article appears stating there is no Niger yellow cake in Iraq, a CIA agent is “out-ed” by top administration officials, who are so afraid their invasion plans will unravel, that they willingly risk prosecution to remove that agent’s security clearance and invoke, by law, the signed secrecy exit statements that guarantee her silence.
Intimidation created by calling a person cowardly in the face of war is levied against any elected official who opposes the direction of this administration, even if that person has lost limbs fighting our previous enemies…..…There is not much argument before the public, when the resolution to use force in Iraq, passes in the Senate.
We begin the buildup of troops in Saudi Arabia, before we finish the Afghan war, leaving that war unfinished even thought the perpetrator of 9/11 was still at large.
We begin the buildup of troops in Saudi Arabia before we go before the UN to state our case.
When we fail to get approval from the international community, for what will obviously be an invasion , unprovoked into another country, we tell those other countries that they will have no part of the oil.
We make plans, before the UN speech to the world, to have KBR, a division of Halliburton, go in after the troops and secure the oil infrastructure for the quick extraction of Iraqi oil. This deal is a no bid contract so that it’s secrecy can be hidden from anyone who might become suspicious if they learned that we were making elaborate plans to extract Iraq’s oil, long before we had the permission to invade. Through this secrecy, KBR begins deployment of equipment into the theater of operations , before either Congress, the UN, or the public weighs in on whether or not we have reason to invade.
Bush insists if the world does not back us, we will invade alone, . The world does not back us.
The argument is made that because of 9/11, we can pre-emptively invade any country we choose to defend ourselves. The argument, later proven false, is also made that Saddam was in definitely in cahoots with Bin Laden. Frequent false and disproved information is paraded as “ slam dunk” evidence. Some uninformed Americans still believe this to be true.
Chalibi and other Iraqi exiles, meet with Exxon Mobile, Chevron, BP, and Shell, and make the case that if they be chosen to run Iraq, that promise to sign over very favorable deals with those oil companies, and exclude the French, German and other oil companies from participating. This precedes the official Bush administration’s sanctioning of Chalibi to head the new puppet government of Iraq, Unfortunately the Iraqi’s themselves, don’t buy it.
The invasion of Iraq occurs with little or no damage to the oil industry. The oil ministry is the first building occupied and fortified by American troops. Meanwhile massive looting and breakdown of order occurs in the American occupied regions. We discover there no plans were made to deal with anything other than oil, once the country was in our possession.
Money designated by Congress for the rebuilding of Iraq, is used instead for first rebuilding of the oil infrastructure by KBR. KBR was given the initial sole responsibility of rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure . They are still in the process of rebuilding and as of yet very little has reached the population at large.
The staff m green college graduates, that were interviewed and sent over to run Iraq, were tested only for their loyalty to the current administration and not on the skills or resources which they could bring to Iraq.
Each time the price of oil stops climbing, someone in this administration creates controversy with either the UAE, Dubai, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, or the Iraq insurgents , anything to keep the oil speculators jittery and the prices high. Marginal attention is given to nuclear weapons in non oil states like North Korea. Every time the prices fall, some oil nation’s crises occurs directly because of something said by this administration.
This is how I see it. The individual events each have their own deniability. But when viewed over the span of thirty years, the unthinkable appears to have happened. Americans got duped into supporting a war just to make a few men rich. It would almost be funny if you didn’t know someone who died.
As we approach on Christmas day, the fifteenth anniversary of the end of the Soviet Union, we can catch the anniversary panel discussions on C-span. What is fascinating is that quite often these panels feature several old men from both sides who were “players”, and provide for us today, a unique window for those who study crises situations to learn the give and take of internal dynamics that take place on both sides.
The lessons that can be learned are insightful. Instead of the solid antigonism we were told brought down the Soviet Union, we find that the United States often passed on opportunities when it could have hastened the collapse and often inexplicapbly sat by and did nothing.
For example, had the US and the G7 countries offered hard currency in a Marshal Plan to Gorbachev which he begged for in the 1991 meeting in London, the cabal that led the coup, never would have acted. Some think that a kinder, gentlier, Soviet Union aka modern China, would have been a better option for us to face, than the poverty and collapse of not only the governmental, but the economic functions as well.
Brent Scowcraft brought up an interesting point. As these event unfolded in Europe 15 years ago, there were those emphatically arguing that this was the time to release the tanks, charge into the Soviet Union through East Germany and Poland. “Get them when they are down.” With hindsight we see this as a stupid action. However the core of that group, is now embedded in our current White House administration and for this reason, lessons learned from studying an event 15 year ago, could fortell today’s events.
As events unfolded during the (2nd) Russian Revolution, it is clear that great statemanship from the first Bush administration and the decision keep the leash tight on the military, are the principal reasons events flowed smoothly with no loss of life. As glimpsed in these panal discussions, James Baker’s voice led the way to peace and prosperity. Cheney and Rumsfield’s direction could have led to disasters of immense proportions.
Today, we gain insight into the internal discussions of today’s Administration, before we went to war. Colin Powel stands out as the voice of reason against the cacaphony of the “lockstep” boys. We see that today’s polorization of advisors solidly along one conservative philosophy of action, is the principal factor of why we decided to engaged in what now is being called the Trillion $ War.
As Americans, we need to use these examples to understand for ourselves, that discussions that put all facts on the table, are our greatest source of strength. Anytime one group dominates the arguments of action without debate, we must realise that although we can win some battles, due to the fraility of human nature, we are doomed to lose some battles as well.
Loyality is overated. Ideas that can pop back up when they get knocked down,…………………..are the ideas probably worth pursuing.
To those who urge attack, I have listened to your arguments and have sifted through massive amounts of evidence, clicked links you have mentioned to large compilations of other links of which I have explored, but I am still unconvinced that Iran is willing to have itself destroyed, nuked to death, just to get the one remote chance at striking Isreal or the United States.
You may be too young to have been scared by the Soviet Union. Having experienced it first hand, I lived through the hawkish views of pre-empting our arsenals. Not only did we live in fear the Soviets, but we equally feared some of our own hawkish generals just might go nuts and act independently of the president and the people. This fear was milked by many cinematic directors of that time.
But wait, Iran is not a homogenous society. It is roughly only 50% Persian. Currently their greatest internal fear is that an influx of refugees may tip the balance of power. Also there is a large, again almost 50 % of the population, that is rational and progressive. The balance of power is quite slim for the current head of the religously conservative Iran. “Whats his name’s” control of his country is just as shakey as our Republican administration, that is currently in charge of mismanaging our nation’s foreign affairs.
Each time Bush speaks, the world hears our entire country through his voice. Doing so, overlooks the fact more voted for Gore in 2000, and that only 60,000 Ohioans determined his second term. That means there are a large lot of Americans, who strongly oppose the military pre-emption of Iran. But that is not what the world sees. Likewise, in Iran there are a tremendous number of Iranians, who feel that to destroy their ancient culture for a token strike against Isreal, is equally pointless.
Instead, by understanding the politics, one can understand that the rantings of both “what’s their names” are not meant for the world’s stage. Instead, they are intended to placate and maintain the continued unequivocable support from a shrinking feeble base that both current administrations must maintain to control their governments. Hell, the Soviets did the same thing, and after the fall of communism we discovered that those diatribes were scripted by the Politboro for domestic consumption.
The commission’s report we received on Wednesday is a politiclly watered down version of what needs to happen. One has only to see a bristling James Baker and Lee Hamiliton condeming Bush’s stance towards Iran and Syria before Congress, to see that the vapid tone was meant to placate Administration censors. To see the best of America uncomprisingly advocate the repair of ties to Iran and Syria, only further alienates the hard line core who seem bent on war at any cost for any reason.
kavips 
