patrickmurfin

The folks at MoveOn.org asked blogers to share this video.  I’m more than happy to oblige.

The late, great Molly Ivins used to cite the Rule of Holes:  When you find yourself stuck in one, stop digging.  This simple bit of folk wisdom has escaped the Neo Con warlocks, the Dark Sith Lord Cheney, and the Resident.  Egged on by General Petraeus, he of the Douglas McArthur memorial hair cut and dazzling chest full of ribbons, GOP Presidential wannabe Senator John McCain continues to dig with gusto.  Not satisfied with the hole he’s in, he has announced an eagerness to dig a new one—talking up the administration dream of a preemptive war, presumably with Iran.

Some Americans are still under the delusion that McCain is some sort of maverick and a critic of the Bush war policy.  The only criticism the senator has consistently had of the war was that it wasn’t being pursued with adequate gusto and efficiency.  Pass on this MoveOn video clip to anyone you know who might be sharing that delusion.  Or to any one who tells you they will vote for McCain if their choice fails to win the Democratic Party nomination for President.

Wednesday the five year anniversary of the War in Iraq slipped by before I had an opportunity to comment.  Believe me, it was not because it does not weigh heavy on my mind and soul.  But I had work to do and I had a lot on my plate getting ready for the McHenry County Democratic Party meeting and preparing press materials (see the post below.)

About mid-afternoon I got a call from Tom Musick, a reporter for the Northwest Herald.   He was working on one of those “round-up” stories in which local folks with strong opinions share their views.  We had a nice conversation for about ten minutes or so.   This is how my portion of the story came out in the paper.  (click here for the full article.)

Patrick Murfin

McHenry County Peace Group members gather every Thursday evening near Route 14 and Main Street in Crystal Lake for a vigil.

The group’s size varies, but its mission stays the same: To call for an end to the U.S. war in Iraq and to prevent a future war with Iran from happening.

“Early on, we’d get mixed reviews,” said Patrick Murfin, a member of the group. “The longer this war has passed, the number of supportive honks and waves and peace signs has mounted. It’s really remarkable.”

Yet Murfin worries whether the Bush administration notices such changes.

“I’ve been giving this some considerable thought,” said Murfin, who watched the president’s speech Wednesday, a speech that urged patience and determination in Iraq. “It’s both astounding to me and totally wearisome that we find ourselves in this position after five years.

“To hear the Bush administration talk about no end in sight within a decade or longer ... the American public has long since made it clear that they regard the war as a mistake to begin with and want us to get out now.”

And all of that is fine, as far as it goes.  But understandably this snippet left a lot out.  Also—and I don’t mean to bite the hand the fed me—I was the only person of  those interviewed who was an outright opponent of the war.  The others were a recently returned solder; Rep. Don Manzullo whose own account shows that he gladly drank the Bush Kool-Aid about the war; the father of a soldier who was killed who now regards the war as a “mistake” but doesn’t take a position on getting out; and an Army recruiter.  That left the burden of speaking for the majority of Americans who oppose the war and want a way out sooner than later on my own inadequate shoulders.

This is what I wish I had the time and space to say.

It’s hard, very hard to match the unrelenting drum beat of war and more war propounded by a maladministration that will not allow itself to be fettered by Congress, Courts, or the People and which feels it has a divine right to do what ever it damn well pleases.  In five long years ever mounting casualties are compounded by daily atrocities (committed freely by all sides);  the very soul of the nation is stricken by a cynical embrace of torture;  our civil liberties are silently stripped from us;  our national reputation is sullied beyond repair;  unimaginable debt is saddled on our children, grandchildren, and their progeny;  we are plunged into a “war of civilization” without end;  our very democracy is threatened by an uncrowned king who brooks no limits on his power.  And we in the anti-war movement get tired, bone tired.

We have marched, vigiled, petitioned, organized, written and ranted.  Our ranks have swelled.  But year after year nothing we have done has saved one 19 year old Marine or one Iraqi child.  Small wonder that the spirit sometimes flags, that we get tired, that we are tempted to slip into simple resignation.

Worse, evidence mounts daily the Resident and the Dark Sith Lord Cheney will not rest until the launch another war, this time against Iran.  The recent resignation and retirement of Admiral William Fallon, top commander of American forces in the Mid East and the only high level commander to dare publicly warn about the danger of launching another war, may have been the clearest signal yet that the Neo-Con junta is determined to have another war.  Add the domestic political calculation that launching a war before the election will rally the public “be hind the troops” and put John McCain in the White House.

Peace activists a worn out trying to get us out of one war and now have to keep us out of another.

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that there has been a fall-off of coverage and commentary about the War and the movement to stop it in recent months.  Instead, it has been increasingly concerned with electoral politics, support for Barack Obama for President, and for Democrats in general.  Some might take this as evidence that I have given in to war weariness and like a bored two year old turned my attention to some other toy.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In point of fact my immersion in politics and my support of the Obama campaign in general now represents the most effective way I can work to end one bloodbath and prevent another.

I know there are folks in the Peace Movement who believe that this abandons the demand for immediate withdrawal, and trims sail in against the gale of adversity.  The taunts of “sell out” to others like MoveOn.org, who have advocated the same approach have been loud and raucous on the part of many in the purer-than-thou left.

But like it or not we cannot “Bring Them Home Now!” or throw our bodies in front of Naval launched cruise missiles or snatch possibly nuclear armed B-1 Bombers from the sky to stop an attack on Iran.  There are no prospects, despite our most ardent fantasies, that we can mobilize a Peoples Revolution to surround the White House with pots and pans clanking and bring down this regime as others fell in Moscow, Manila, Kiev, or Beirut.  There will be no General Strike to stop the war cold like the hands of a clock.  Richly deserved impeachment will not happen.

Our only real chance to bring the war to an end is—like it or not—to elect a Democrat President of the United State and large enough Democratic margins in the House and the Senate to prevent disciplined Republicans from ruling in the minority.  And I obviously believe that Senator Obama, a consistent opponent of the war, is our best chance to achieve such a victory.  But make no mistake about it, I will, even if it pains me, support Hillary Clinton if that is the hand we are dealt and then hold her to her promises to end the war.

The inevitable result, even with victory, will be for a phased withdrawal that insures the safety of American troops.  It’s not fast enough for many, but the war will finally end.

Even more critically, there will not be, if one has not already been launched, a war with Iran and the inevitable region-wide conflict that would ensue.

Is there any guarantee that this strategy will work?  Of course not.  Right now we see how cynically race is being used to divide the American people from their own best interests.  McCain, for the first time, is now polling better nationally than either Clinton or Obama—a direct result of the political strategy of the Clinton campaign, in my opinion.  But there is plenty of time to reverse those numbers and Obama has the persuasive skills to come back strong.

A plausible causa bellum can always be dug up like Hitler’s Polish raid on a border radio instillation post or LBJ’s phantom attack in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify an attack on Iran just before the election.

And there are the twin dangers that if faced with loss the election the Oligarchy will simply and boldly be steal it again or—more drastically—that a “national emergency” might occur that would “force the government to suspend the election.”  Feel free to conjure in you mind your most paranoid fantasies of what that emergency might be and it has probably already been gamed in some dark recess of the Pentagon or the Vice-President’s old secret bunker.

So, no, the electoral strategy is not perfect.  It’s just the last, bet hope we have.

Thanks and a tip ‘o the hat to our reader Ashley Hoffman of the  Council for A Livable World.  She e-mailed me Monday with the Drums of War link and ask to post it on the blog.  Glad to oblige.  I am only sorry that being waaaay behind in my e-mail delayed the premier of the very first imbedded video ever to appear on Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout.

There is scarcely a more important task at hand for all of us than preventing the next Bush/Cheney war.  Pass this along to folks you know.

I have been warning about the Bush Administration’s push toward a war with Iran almost as long as this blog has been in operation.  Sometimes I feel like the little boy who cried wolf.  But evidence mounts daily that despite the opposition of just about everyone The Shrub, the Dark Sith Lord Cheney and their minions are more determined than ever to launch yet another disastrous war.

The folks at the Council for a Livable World are trying to raise money to print this ad to counter a media blitz by the White House propaganda campaign to whip up support for another war.  Led,  as usual, by the ever snarling Cheney, this effort will including a front operation called, ironically Freedom Watch. The text of the ad is copied below.  A small version appears above.  If you care to contribute click here.

If You Like the War in Iraq, You’ll Love the War in Iran.

An ominous pattern of provocative words and acts from the White House points to a new war:

a “preventive” strike on Iran.

“All options are on the table,” says the Bush Administration. Does that include a nuclear

option? Yes, they have refused to rule out using nuclear weapons.

Nuclear or not, the fallout from this attack will be catastrophic. Iran is three times larger than

Iraq. It has vast resources and intense national pride. It can wreak havoc on oil markets.

It can retaliate against Israel or the Gulf States. In Iraq and Afghanistan, 175,000 U.S.

soldiers could be the victims of a surge of anger at America.

But doesn’t Iran refuse to talk? That is White House fiction. Two serious offers from the

Iranian leadership have been rejected out of hand by the White House.

No one wants a nuclear-armed Iran. The reality is that bombing Iran will likely strengthen the

hard-liners’ hand and ensure that Iran will one day become a nuclear state.

The American people want diplomacy, not another war. Four out of five Americans favor direct

talks with Iran.

Congress must make the White House listen to the people.

www.armscontrolcenter.org/iran

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

HERETIC, REBEL, A THING TO FLOUT has long been concerned with the Bush maladministration’s apparent rush to war with Iran.  See the February 8th posting URGENT ALERT--US TARGETING IRAN.  Since that article was posted, more and more evidence of determination to launch another ill advised war has piled up.  MOVEON.ORG is offering an easy way to make your voice heard.  Consider supporting their advertising appeal to Congress.

A Message from MoveOn.Org

In a news conference last weekend, Vice President Cheney inched closer to war with Iran.

Does this feel like déjà vu to you? Experts agree that escalating the war into Iran will make things worse, and Congress has the constitutional power to stop the White House. But they need to hear from all of us that Americans don't want a widening war—and we expect them to do something about it.

So, we've prepared an ad to send a simple clear message to Congress, and we need your help to make sure it gets into national newspapers. We need to act now before it's too late. Can you chip in? To see the ad and contribute, click here:

MOVEON.ORG DONATE TO SUPPORT IRAN AD.

             While the peace movement focuses on preventing the Resident’s escalation-cum-surge in Iraq and the Senate dithers over the mildest of non-binding resolutions against it, the administration is reported to be locked into an attack on Iran, perhaps as early as the end of the month.

            Such a move is George W.’s only option to “change the conversation” in America from his failed Iraq policy, his assault on constitutional rights, and the dangerous revelations that seem to be spinning out from the Scooter Libby trial.  The Dark Sith Lord Cheney has assured him that opening hostilities with Iran will rally the American people to him and stymie a timid Democratic Congress from “acting against the troops under fire.”  As an added bonus it could even open the door to sweeping new domestic restrictions on privacy, speech, and assembly.  It’s a dangerous gamble, but one which a president with messianic delusions, a maliciously ambitious power-behind-the-throne, and their devoted army on Neo-Con Orcs are willing to make.

            The game has been afoot for some time.  It was implied in the original conception of a never-ending “War on Terror” with multiple battlefields.  Iran was identified from the beginning as one of the “Axis of Evil.”  But the original Neo-Con conception envisioned an easy victory in Iraq transforming that country into a permanent forward military base from which to dominate the Middle-East and the southern tier of former Soviet republics. 

While the original simple RISK strategy of being able to pick off enemies one by one by massing armies on their boarders has long been rendered obsolete, Iran never dropped off of the eventual target list. 

For a while the possibility that a new, moderate government might take power in Iran and seek a diplomatic accommodation with the West, threatened these ambitions.  But by relentlessly impugning Iranian national pride, by refusing to enter into any meaningful negotiations directly and by interfering with European efforts, the administration was able to assure the triumph of hardliners over pro-western moderates in the last Iranian presidential election.

And what a special gift MAHMOUND AHMADINEJAD has been.  This repellent little ideologue, reputed to be one of the architects of the 1979 HOSTAGE CRISIS, is a strutting thug and vicious anti-Semite Holocaust denier who has been eager to push his confrontation with the West over the development a possible nuclear weapons to the brink.  The Vice President could not have wished for a better partner in his dance of death.

Tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been mounting for two years as the US has adroitly maneuvered the Europeans and the United Nations into supporting its demands for total Iranian surrender on the issue.  Each threat of diplomatic condemnation or economic sanctions by the West has brought back more belligerence from Ahmadinejad.  Not only has he announce repeatedly that Iran has made this or that step toward  manufacture of possible arms grade plutonium, he has publicly tested a range of sophisticated rockets and missiles—thanks to North Korean technology—capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

Despite the fact that international arms experts believe that Ahmadinejad’s bark is ten times worse than his bite—that the Iranians are years away from assembling a usable nuclear arsenal—the  American administration has been able to relentlessly hype the dangers of “weapons of mass destruction” in an eerie parallel to the charges leading to the Iraq debacle.  And the Iranian President’s bluster has only lent a credibility to the charges that Bush would have otherwise already forfeited.

Meanwhile the Iraq disaster has opened the door to Iranian ambitions in that country.  It had long supported the Shiite majority against its old Suni/Baathist enemy.  It has been a long term dream of the ruling Iranian clerics to either draw Iraq’s eastern Shiite provinces into a new Greater Iran or if the local Shiite Arabs demurred from Persian domination, at least a compliant satellite state.   The turmoil in Iraq unleashed by the American invasion ultimately led to the acsension of Iranian Shii’a allies to dominance of an American sponsored “democratic government” and the ensuing undeclared civil war.

Long complaining about Iranian meddling in Iraq, Bush has recently upped the rhetoric on that front as well.  American troops invaded an Iranian Consulate in the Kurdish north and arrested 5 diplomats.  Subsequently a policy of “arresting or killing” any Iranian agents found in Iraq “abetting the terrorists” was announced.   Some even suspect that a recent highly publicized ambush which killed five Americans GIs (including one outspoken war critic), might have been a covert operation meant to be blamed on Iran.

Those are the background conditions on which Bush and company plan to justify war.  The actual military preparations have been on going for some time and Pentagon sources, alarmed at the rush to disastrous war, have been leaking warnings that the plans are nearly complete and that execution of them can be expected at any time.          

It was long assumed that the US would let the Israelis, who greatly fear Iranian nuclear ambitions, conduct a preemptory attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.  But those facilities are super-hardened, buried under hundreds of feet of reinforced concrete and widely disbursed over the mountainous nation.  Military experts believe that Israel tested some of America’s newest and most powerful “bunker busting” bombs and technology against hardened Hezbollah sites in their summer war in southern Lebanon.  But Hezbollah troops survived that bombardment and emerged to engage Israeli troops in bloody combat (see the archives from the August 30th entry LUNDY'S LANE AND LEBANNON--"BY GOD REGULARS!" )  From that point on it was apparent that a successful Israeli strike in Iran would require nuclear weapons, American super-jumbo DAISY CUTTER (and their even larger, newer kin) bunker busters not yet transferred to Israel, or direct American participation in the attack.

Meanwhile the U.S. military has been going beyond the planning phase to pre-positioning of forces.  Naval power in the Persian Gulf has been boosted.  A second full aircraft carrier battle group is nearing the gulf as we speak.  Heavy bombers—both trusty old B-52s and newer B-1Bs and B-2s—based in the US and the Indian Ocean Island of DIEGO GARCIA have been placed on alert and have run test long distance missions.  The Defense Minister of a former Eastern block nation last week let it slip that air bases in his country have been cleared for use in action against Iran—important because bases in Germany, Turkey and other NATO states are almost surely will be unavailable for an offensive war on Iran.

The plan now seems to be to allow Israel to strike first, with American support.  This counts on the Iranians to strike back against American forces in the area.  They are known to have dug in numerous anti-ship missiles capable of striking and sinking American ships in the Gulf.  These are the decedents of the EXOCET class of missiles which sank a British cruiser during the FAULKANDS WAR.          Although that attack was launched from an Argentine jet, the Iranian missiles are hidden in caves and bunkers along the length of the Persian Gulf and are quite capable of hitting ships within it.  It is not inconceivable that US ships could purposefully be placed as inviting targets with the hope that incoming missiles could be shot down.  If one was hit and destroyed, however, it would only magnify the excuse to fire back and become a REMEMBER THE MAINE rallying cry for the war at home.  Those who think this is a far fetched scenario have forgotten the documented case of the attack of the USS  MADOXX  and the resultant GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION.

Other scenarios involve some Iranian provocation in Iraq (or an act that can be plausibly blamed on them), or, better yet some act of domestic terrorism that can be tied (however tenuously) to the Ayatollahs.

The administration seems to be under the delusion that war against Iran can be fought mainly with air and naval forces with perhaps peripheral engagement by troops in Iraq and Afganistan confronting Shii’a uprisings there in support of Iran.

Less deluded observes don’t believe it for a moment.  War against Iran would almost surely become regional, if not global.  Iran probably has the power, as it has long claimed, to close the Persian Gulf to shipping and damage petroleum instillations in Saudi Arabia the Gulf States causing an instant international energy crisis and a crippling attack on Western economies.

Syria, in a defensive alliance with Iran would surely be drawn in.  Although that might be to the liking of the Neo-Cons who always aimed to get to Syria sooner or later, the last thing the US military wants or needs is yet another war front.  In addition Hezbollah forces in Lebanon would rise against the shaky government there and launch attacks on Israel.  Shiite minorities throughout the Gulf would be inflamed against “moderate” Suni states.

If Iraqi based Kurds take advantage of the opportunity to launch a “war of liberation” for the Iranian ruled cousins—and they are already training to do so—the crisis could spread even to NATO ally Turkey, which has long battled Kurdish separatists and has vowed never to allow the establishment of a Kurdish state.  That could drive moderate (and militarily powerful) Turkey into the arms of Jihadist Islam.

In addition, other international powers could be drawn in.  China depends on Iran for a significant portion of its oil supplies.  North Korea, already a de-facto ally providing technical support to Iranian rocket forces, and feeling that it is inevitably the next target of American aggression, could launch its long feared attack on the South.  Even resurgent Russia might be tempted to enter the fray directly or indirectly if it seems possible to eliminate the United States as super power.

However it unfolds, observers inside and outside the military are becoming convinced that the Resident and company are committed to action soon.

Only the most dramatic action may now be able to avert disaster.  The Peace Movement needs to re-focus its attention to stopping the next war.  Congress must act now to explicitly deny the Resident the authority to launch operations against Iran, including a refusal to authorize any funds for the adventure.  Bush and company must not be allowed to argue that Congress has ceded its war making authority to the Administration in this instance under the broad authorization of a “War on Terror.” PEACE ACTION, among other groups has launched a petition to Congress.  UNITED FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE  has compiled articles and links with which an activist can arm herself. 

But the time for petitions grows short.  The anti-war movement and all of the allies it can muster must take to the streets NOW.

The clock is ticking.  Tomorrow may be too late.

            End of the year news was dominated by two deaths—Gerald R. Ford and Saddam Hussein.  Both could be instructive to the current occupant of the White House, if he were capable of being aware of more than the empty facts of their departures.

GERALD R. FORD

            Gerald Ford, as we were endlessly reminded by the press, was an accidental president never elected to national office in his own right at all.  In point of fact, despite the glowing obituaries printed about his “decency” and his importance as a calming, uniting force after the criminal turmoil of Nixon’s last days, most of us—including those of us that were politically aware and active in those years—barely recalled him.  Three weeks ago if most of us had suddenly been asked to reel off the names of the last six presidents, a huge majority of us would simply have forgotten Ford.

            Ford was a meat and potato Mid-Western Republican of a now vanished breed representing the values of small town bankers and insurance agents in rimless glasses swathed in acres of gabardine—a no non-sense fiscal conservatism married to the conventional morality of a safe Protestant Sunday morning bromides which was none-the-less not unwilling to use government for goals likely to elevate the community.  This included issues like education, transportation and eventually the environment.  It was a conservatism that broadly valued “fair play” and was thus willing to honor it Lincolnesque heritage with support for civil rights as long as the Negroes in question lived comfortably some where else.  It was staunchly anti-Communist yet no cheerleader for adventuring imperialism.  It loathed “Big Labor” but was capable of queasiness when faced with unchecked corporate power. 

            Nixon and the eye-out-for-the-main-chance sharpies he brought with him from California was of a different  breed.  Nixon had no real objection to a vast expansion of Federal government power no mater what his rhetoric about a “New Federalism” might infer.  He showed this in every aspect of his presidency, including those that won the approval of liberals like the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, strengthening of OSHA and by his willingness to try a wage and price freeze to combat inflation.  He was committed, as no Republican since before the Progressive Era had been, to placing government directly in the service of the most powerful corporations in exchange for minor reforms and regulation, and in the process nearly abandoned the traditional small business base of the party (although they have taken decades to realize that is what happened.)  He was willing to sacrifice traditional Republican support of Civil Rights in order to create a national political re-alignment in which the Solid South would become solidly Republican. He practically invented the idea of a “Super Power” and aimed shamelessly to elevate the US to total global domination by military superiority, diplomatic intrigue, and overwhelming economic power.  And most notoriously of all, Nixon strove to collect all of the reigns of power into an enormously enhanced “Imperial Presidency” that could easily squelch opposition of courts and Congress alike.

            It was this last hubris that finally brought Richard Nixon down.  But not before putting into play a pawn, the blandly affable House Minority Leader, Gerald R. Ford of Michigan.

            In any other administration the forced resignation of the vice president following conviction of corruption charges might have been the defining moment of a presidency.  Sprio Agnew, the administration’s alliteration prone attack dog, succumbed to remarkably petty corruption charges arising from his tenure and a Maryland County Executive and later Governor.  His disgrace became a footnote only because the President and all of the powerful men around him were already being engulfed by their own scandals.  A recent constitutional change allowed Nixon to appoint a new vice president with the advice and consent of the Senate. 

            Ford was not the first choice.  In fact he was pretty far down the initial list.  But the politically wiley Nixon realized that a hard core loyalist could not be confirmed, nor could any of the rising “movement conservatives” who might have shorn up his base on the right.  Ford, on the other hand, coming from the Congress and having no known personal presidential ambitions that might mobilize the opposition of future GOP hopefuls could be confirmed by the Senate with ease.

            Recent releases of transcripts from Nixon’s notorious secret tapes reveal that he also regarded Ford as a possible inoculation against impeachment.  He remarked to staffers that the elevation of the plodding Ford to the presidency might well give Democrats and Republicans alike pause to reflect before voting for impeachment.

            He was wrong, as it turned out.  Evidence of a mounting scandal continued to pile up day after day.  Impeachment by the House became inevitable and a long bloody trial in the Senate likely to result in conviction.  Nixon finally had no options other than resignation or eating a bullet.  If he had been physically competent enough to find and use a handgun, he might well have chosen the latter.  Instead he helicoptered off to California exile and left a shaken, dumbfounded Ford waving from the White House lawn.

            The public welcomed a relief from the hyper melodrama of the long Watergate scandal.  It warmed to Ford and to his vivacious wife Betty, who seemed a world removed from the remote and tortured Pat Nixon.  But the news of his administration, almost none of it the result of his actions, was uniformly bad.  Saigon fell and the bloodbath of Vietnam was shown to be a total waste.  Inflation soared.  The economy stagnated.  Unemployment rose.  The first “energy crisis” created long lines at gasoline pumps and shivering winters in the Northeast.  Ford’s only positive act, pardoning Nixon, only seemed to revive the bitter divisiveness of the previous years.

            Ford became to butt of easy jokes on Saturday Night Live.  Two California women took haphazard pot shots at him, which resulted in more perplexed speculation than outrage—who would even bother to try to kill such a harmless nonentity.

            Ironically Ford nurtured the careers of the men who would become the neo-con nucleolus of the administration of George W.  Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney served successively as Ford’s chief of staff and Rumsfeld got his first crack at reforming the military as Defense Secretary.   In the end both men, but especially Cheney, came to have nothing but contempt for the circumscribed presidential powers exercised by Ford.  They yearned for a return to the robust, unchallenged Imperial Presidency of Richard Nixon.  They would eventually help concoct a new governmental theory, the “Unitary Power of the Executive” restore the crown.

            George W. roused himself out of his Texas ranch retreat to say all of the proper and expected words about Ford and his service in healing America.  So supremely clueless was he that I doubt he spent a split second contemplating the irony that his own presidency lies as broken and rejected by the public as that of Richard Nixon.

            The public might well yearn for the availability of a relatively harmless place keeper like Gerald Ford to replace the bumbling Decider.  Instead the dark Sith Lord Cheney sits in the wings, surely a better insurance against impeachment  than poor Gerald Ford ever was for Dick Nixon.

SADDAM HUSSEIN

George W. probably awaited the execution of Saddam Hussein with the eagerness of a kid waiting for Santa.  Surely the Baghdad neck tie party would provide one of those save-you-ass moments which would restore public confidence in his failed Iraq policy.  Such moments have come and gone in the past and always bought just a bit a breathing room—the death of Saddam’s sons, the capture of the Ace of Spades himself,  the formation of a shaky “governing authority,” an election or two, the death of an  al-Qaeda  chieftain—and previously sagging ratting have bumped up.

This time the Resident is playing tidily winks to buy time to allow the public to forget that it voted against his policy in November and that his Daddy’s pals issued a report basically telling him that the jig is up.  He is reviewing his option in Iraq.  While just about everyone he consults with tell him that he needs to find some graceful way setting a time table toward withdrawal—including most of the military chiefs tired of seeing their forces wasted—the word is he will instead decide on a “surge” (read escalation) of twenty to fifty thousand and troops to pacify Baghdad.  Surely the execution of Saddam would be seen as “step toward victory” and make the further commitment to troops more palatable.

Unfortunately for George W., Saddam has become largely irrelevant.  The “insurgency” is no longer built around, if it ever was, embittered Baathist party loyalists and Saddam’s clan kinsman.  It long since slipped into a popular resistance, at least in Sunni areas and has been compounded by sectarian Sunni/Shi’a civil war.  The most that can be expected is a slight up-tick in revenge violence, hardly noticeable against the background of general carnage.

Saddam was convicted and executed for crimes against humanity.  The charges had to do with relatively minor instances of terror against Shi’ite rebels.  The much more wide spread atrocities he committed on behalf of the US as its surrogate in its struggle with Iran, with chemical weapons largely supplied by the US, were pointedly not the issue.  Too much embarrassing stuff might come up.

But as much as George W. might relish the image of the man who tried to kill his daddy turning purple at the end of a rope—he always was up for a good execution—some one should whisper in his ear just why most rulers make a point of not offing the enemy chieftain after he is vanquished.   Regicide is a very dangerous prospect.  After all, if Saddam Hussein can be executed for crimes against humanity, so might a deposed American president with his own hands bloodied to the armpits.

Our local paper here in McHenry County, the NORTHWEST HERALD, publishes almost any letter submitted to it as long as it is not profane or libelous.  And that’s great.  It makes for a spirited opinion page and offers folks of a broad range of views often missing from the columns of other publications. 

In their infinite wisdom, however, the editors limit submissions from any one individual to one per 30 day period.  I understand that, too.  It keeps the letters from being monopolized by a few prolific zealots.  Of course the really determined find a way around it.  Letters are submitted in the names of other family members or friends.  One fellow, a local Democrat, I’m sad to say, who had the same relationship to reality as a gold fish to jockey shorts, was once caught red-handed submitting a letter in the name of his dog.  And of course political candidates often create glowing letters of endorsement which are dutifully submitted by their supporters.  The system isn’t perfect, but it manages to keep the drain fairly clear of hair clogs.

But sometimes, that limit can be exasperating.  Earlier this month I submitted a letter about an attack on prevailing wage ordinances (I ran it here, too.)  By the rules I am verboten from submitting another missive until early August.  But yesterday, July 25, the paper ran a letter so outrageous that it begs denunciation.  Since I can’t answer in the pages of the HERALD, I will have to be satisfied by doing so here.  The audience may not be as large, but it is demonstrably brilliant, discriminating, and attractive to boot.  I am also not bound by the paper’s 200 word limit here, but I will try to restrain my rant.

Below is the offending letter followed by my would-be response.

ERADICATE ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS

To the Editor:

The world is confronted by legions of Islamic militants intent upon a death struggle with the United States, European Union, Russia, India, and allied nations. Islamic extremist militants are not interested in a peaceful compromise.

President Bush should ask Congress to formally declare war on Islamic extremist groups Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and all sister groups which participate in violence against the rest of us. The declaration of war should extend to any nations or parts of nations which support the militant Islamists.

We should declare total war now, inviting like-minded nations to join us.

Yes, this will be an all-out, no-holds-barred, nuclear war. Total destruction of Islamic militant groups and their supporters is the goal. They want to fight us? OK. Completely snuff them. Good riddance.

The whole world is going mad, with Islamic extremists leading the way. We have irreconcilable differences with them.

This really will be messy, but I believe the United States and its allies have the capability to hit the big delete key on Islamic extremist violence, and we should do it now.

Gerry Guenther

Spring Grove

DELETE AMERICAN EXTREMISTS

To the Editor—

So the charming Gerry Guenther of Spring Grove wants to “hit the big delete key on Islamic extremist violence.”  How?  By “no-holds-barred, nuclear war” against a laundry list of Islamic militant groups as well as “any nations or parts of nations” that support them.  He allows that this might be “messy.”

Lets see, by my calculation, we’ll have to nuke Iraq and Afghanistan, of course, (can we get our folks out first?), Iran and Syria.  But we can’t stop there.  Lebanon harbors, albeit largely against its will, Hezbollah so Beirut’s a cinder.  And of course the slivers of ground under the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank and in Gaza have to go.  Maybe the Israelis will take care of those for us and pray that prevailing winds don’t dust Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa with fall out.

Then of course there are our friends and allies.  Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for instance.  There is Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, all of whom have home grown insurgencies.  Egypt has the Muslim Brotherhood on its hands.

The former Soviet republics in the Caucuses and surrounding the Caspian Sea are a viper’s nest of guys with turbans and RPGs.  So out they go.  And, oops, the whole southern tier of Mother Russia itself is infected so Putkin better look out.

No one’s going to miss the hapless Somalis, after all, and the Sudanese have been getting to big or their britches, too.

There are millions of Muslims intermingled with our new found friends in India.  But we’ve already decided to share nuclear technology with them so maybe they can figure out how to sort the followers of Allah from the decent Hindus.

Some things are dicier.  The damn French have all those North African rioters.  The Germans and Italians, even the Dutch have big, undigested Muslim populations.  A whole industry has arisen wringing hands over the “destiny of demographics” which predicts they will out breed the Europeans and transform the Continent into just another province of the new Caliphate.  Better scourge them now before it gets out of hand.  No body will miss Paris, anyway.

A pity about our most loyal friend, the Brits.  The country is almost over-run with Paki’s and other undesirables.   There are mosques in London where fanatic Imams babble about Jihad.  Scratch ‘em off.

By my count we are talking about hundreds of millions, maybe billions of folks to snuff out.  And that’s just in the areas of immediate destruction.  Who knows about who’s down wind and gets to experience the long, agonizing death of radiation poisoning rather than instant incineration.  A swath of the globe from the Nile to the South Pacific rendered un-inhabitable for millennia.

But that doesn’t disturb the serenity of Gerry Guenther’s sleep.  His unspoken assumption is that Islam is by nature “extremist” and it adherents must be rooted out and “eliminated.”  He agrees with the Mullahs who declare that there are no civilians.  They are all enablers of the terrorists or the breeders of the next generation.  A Final Solution must be found.

Guenther is sure that although “messy” the war to the death will not bother him in Spring Grove.  It will be fought far away, out of sight.  Surely the awesome military might of the United States and its allies (oh, I forgot, we don’t have them any more) will prevent any retaliation.  And if the heroes of our military fall, they will not include him or his children.  The war can always be fought by someone else, folks more disposable than he.  He can stay in picturesque Spring Grove and drive his SUV undisturbed.

The temptation, of course, is to write Guenther off as just a fringe crack pot.  But I have heard too much idle tavern conversation about “turning Iraq into a sea of glass.”  I know of too many religious zealots aching for Armageddon.  Too many neo-con intellectuals haunt the highest corridors of power in the current administration who differ not in kind but merely in degree.

Decent Americans must not only condemn Guenther and his ilk for the moral leapers that they are, but must actively oppose them at every turn.  If we do not today’s lurid fantasy is destined to become tomorrows nightmare.

Patrick Murfin

Crystal Lake

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Whew! What a week since I last been able to post to this blog.  A lot has happened including:

I.

The United States announced that it would not seek a seat on the new United Nations Human Rights Council.  The U.S., with the loyal support of Israel, Marshal Islands and Palau had voted against the creation of the new body, a replacement for the discredited  old Human Rights Commission, on which often sat some of the worst human rights violators.  The new Council, with beefed up powers, would exclude states with egregious human rights records.  The Council had the support of Secretary General Kofi Annan and the overwhelming majority of member states.  It had the fervent opposition of the administration's anointed bull in the china shop, Ambassador John Bolton.  Bolton rightly feared that American violations at Abu Grab, Guantanamo, in Afghanistan and elsewhere might become the object of investigation, censure, and maybe even UN sanctions.  The administration also faced the humiliating likelihood that the US would not only be defeated if it ran for a seat, it would be obliterated.  So the State Department, making a silk purse from a cow’s ear, announced we would not seek a seat in the first year, but allow the commission to organize itself.  Organize itself without input from “The Worlds Greatest Democracy.”   This has to rank among the top diplomatic embarrassments of recent decades.

II.

Inspector Jarvet—oops, I mean Special Council Patrick Fitzgerald—let it be known in court filings that Vice President Cheney and President himself are implicated in the leaking of National Security documents in a concerted effort to discredit and destroy the reputation of  Ambassador Joe Wilson.  It turns out indicted weasel “Scooter” Libby (every time I write or say that name I picture my childhood dog, the noble dachshund Fritz, who used to get bone fragments stuck inside his anal sphincter and scooted across the living room rug on his ass to relieve the itch) is claiming that he was ordered to leak material by his boss Cheney which was “secretly” de-classified by the President.  White House designated liar Scott McClellan was thrown to the wolves by his superiors, unable to refute or deny the plain facts, only to argue lamely that the President acted within his legal rights in declassifying the documents.  The President himself shrugged it of with a virtual “so what” and claiming that he was only trying to “get the truth out” when in fact he was leaking information he knew to be false to discredit a man who was demonstrably telling the truth.  The mind reels and the President’s approval ratings sag to pick-pocket range heading south toward child molester.

III.

Up on Capital Hill a widely heralded immigration compromise was announced in the Senate.   The plan would have put undocumented workers in the country for more than 5 years onto a citizenship track (after extorting them for big fines and “back taxes”),  created a temporary guest worker track for those in the country 2-years, required all others to return to their countries and re-apply for legal admission and beef up border security.  The bi-partisan bill promptly fell apart when it could muster only 38 votes, all Democrats.  Republican Senators, feeling the wrath of the xenophobic wing of the Party were threatened and began offering dozens of “toughening” amendments, many of which would have brought the measurer closer to the draconian bill passed by the House.  Faced with multiple crippling amendments Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow votes on more than four GOP amendments—a mirror of Republican restrictions placed on Democrats in bill after bill.  On Sunday the President actually blamed Democrats—the only ones who had voted for the bill—for killing it!

Meanwhile, the astonishing mass movement of immigrants and their supporters grew geometrically and spread across the country with huge marches and demonstrations in cities small, medium and large.  It was apparent that a new movement, perhaps on a par of significance with the push for public accommodations and voting rights in the South during the Civil Rights era, was not going away.

Popular opinion remained split, with widespread resentment of immigrants, particularly Mexicans, and a demand that “the law is the law” remained high.  Yet not as high as many had expected.  Poll results began to show majorities of Americans in favor of some kind of legalization process.

House Republicans, who are much further to the right than the mainstream press acknowledges, clung to their harsh measures, which would make illegal status a felony along with similar charges for anyone who would assist them in any way.  The remained devoted to their fortified border fences and enamored of the reinforcement of the Border Patrol until it would resemble the quasi-military “border police” regiments so familiar in the old Soviet empire.  House Republicans have virtually annihilated any moderates among them, let alone those old fashion liberal Republicans from New England, the upper Midwest and Northwest.  But they remain split among those bought and paid for by industry and the hard core “social conservatives”—read fanatics.  The fanatics have the upper hand in the House and have shown an almost gleeful willingness to throw their business buddies and even the President under the bus.  They believe that immigration will be the ultimate “wedge issue” and are willing to ride it as the only way to save their asses in the tidal wave of anti-Republican sentiment about to hit them because of the war, repeated scandals, the budget deficit, and the Medicare drug fiasco.  In fact some believe that immigration is the issue that can permanently peel away blue collar workers, most threatened by perceived job loss, from their traditional Democratic allegiances.  They also note the deep strains between the immigrant movement and many blacks—witness the fighting in California high schools and the silence of many Black leaders in what is obviously a civil rights crusade—and can actually pick up real Black support, not just from window dressing opportunists.  They may be right if Democrats, labor and the real Civil Rights movement don’t recognize the opportunity before them to unite with Hispanics and Asians to create a governing coalition that could last decades.

IV.

The guilty plea by lobbyist Jack Abramoff revealed the key roll of former Majority Whip Tom Delay’s senior staff and drew him and other key GOP leaders deeper into the flushing toilet of scandal.  Delay, who recently survived a primary challenge and who had sworn to fight for his Midland, Texas Congressional seat and to eventually return to power in the House, was finally forced to withdraw his candidacy because he had become “a distraction.”  Never one to bow out gracefully, with the solicitous assistance of Fox News sycophants, Delay was able to go on TV and blame his woes on those heartless, anti-Christian Democrats.  On one hand most house Republicans were probably glad to see him go, on the other hand they missed his single minded viciousness and his ability to wield them into a united block (see the split among House Republicans on immigration.)

V.

The conviction of former Republican heavy hitter James Tobin is finally convicted in a bazaar scheme to block a Democratic turn-out-the-vote phone bank in advance of the 2002 elections.  As scandals go these days, small potatoes except that phone logs revealed how tied into the White House the operation really was.  The day of the jamming Tobin or his associates logged in a dozen calls to the White House political office.  While the content of the calls cannot be determined, even on the eve of an election, this is an astonishing number from one small state and demonstrate intense White House interest.  A crack, perhaps, in Karl Rove’s impenetrable armor.

VI.

Elections, election, elections, everywhere an election, none of them boding well for the President, his ambitions or his party.  In Italy Bush’s most loyal Western European ally, Conservative Party media billionaire Silvio Berlusconi apparently will be out of office since his ruling coalition has narrowly lost majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.  Romano Prodi’s center-left coalition will almost surely be called to form a new government, which will expedite Italy’s withdrawal (already underway) from the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq.  But the ever bellicose Berlusconi refuses to coned defeat.  He disputes some election result, especially the key six Senate seats elected by Italians abroad and is holding out for a “Grand coalition” with his opponents similar to the one struck in Germany after that country’s indecisive elections earlier this year.  A stubborn refusal to fade gracefully away may bring out crowds of demonstrators and threaten civil unrest.

In Peru Ollanta Humala, a left wing populist and former junior army officer is the leader in a three way race with 31% of the vote.  He will apparently face former President Alan Garcia (24.4%) in a May run-off.  A third candidate, Lourdes Flores has 23.3 percent vote with enough votes remaining to be counted to place the issue in doubt.  The popular Humala, who also represents a continent wide rejection of the old European elite, is another of the anti-US who have been coming to power.  If he wins he will join an increasing phalanx that already includes the presidents of Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia with moderate leftists and Bush critics leading Argentina and Chile.  Columbia, always on the verge of multi-sided civil war, Uruguay and Paraguay may follow suit.  Haiti in the Caribbean is finally settling into a left government.  That leaves the President with an alienated ally, Mexico, increasingly estranged over immigration issues, and the weak states of Central America and the less significant island republics of the Caribbean as his only southern allies.  When he came to power, a wave of democratic regimes were replacing old dictatorships and oligarchies and hopes ran high for a hemispheric free trade zone dominated by America.  That dream lays shattered and Bush may have created a united continent in opposition to the US, willing even perhaps like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to reach out the Iranians and the Muslim world for allies.  Only foreign policy geniuses of the highest order could have accomplished that.

Closer to home, Democrat Francine Busby has piled up a substantial lead in an 18 candidate open field to replace the disgraced Congressman Randal Cunningham in California’s 50th Congretional District.  The San Diego district is historically Republican.  With 43% of the vote, Busby will apparently face former Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray (15.13%) in a June 6th run-off to finish Cunningham’s term. They will also be competing in their respective parties’ primaries for the fall election. Bilbray will undoubtedly also have to face competition from millionaire Eric Roach, who nearly spent his way into the run-off with 14.44% of the vote.  It is a muddled situation with millions of dollars pouring into the district from both parties and their supporters.  Busby looks to have a fair chance of winning the runoff and then will have to immediately brace for a bruising general election

Taken together, the results of these elections must remind Bush of why “things would be easier if I were a Dictator.”

VII.

And of course, to top everything off, the REALLY BIG story of the week centers on the President’s evident march to an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, possibly employing “bunker buster” tactical nuclear weapons.  He gets to play of the deranged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who master-minded a media event/comic opera/pageant waving vials of supposed enriched uranium and declaring that Iran had joined the club of nuclear capable nation.  While these two play chicken with one another, the rest of us try to sort out if either of them means business.  This story deserves much further attention and will be the topic of my next epic entry.

____________________

All in all it has been a very bad week for the President.  One can almost hear the feet of clay crumbling.  Yet it is precisely when cornered that sociopaths like the one running the country are the most dangerous.  Hard to tell just where they will lash out or to what ends they might not go to regain the “national security” advantage by plunging this nation into yet more conflict.  Maybe the only thing saving him these days is the still timid and disjointed Democratic response to all of his problems.

What was that ancient Chinese curse?  “May you live in interesting times.”

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