Musafir's Musings

A New Year beginning, on to 2006
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"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past."
T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton, Four Quartets,1

A very wet New Year's eve for us in the San Francisco Bay area. As the saying goes,it is raining cats and dogs. Reports of flooding and mudslides up north in Napa and Sonoma counties. The south is not dry either. Read that rain could fall at Pasadena during the Rose Bowl parade for the first time in 51 years.

To all visitors to this site--regulars, occasional, and accidental--good health. I no longer make New Year's resolutions but many people do. I wish them success. While globally there has not been much to rejoice about, individually many of you have had joyful experiences. Births, marriages, new friendships, travels, career achievements. Small things matter. I hope that those who needed support found it.

Back in September 2004 when I hesitantly took my first step in the blogosphere I had no clue about where the venture would take me. Began writing about the '04 presidential race and segued on to post-election events. Nowadays I meander all over the map but the main thrust is about conservatives, their policies and practices. It has been a rewarding experience. Not financially--my blog does not carry ads. Neither does it have a vast readership. Rewarding, nevertheless, because it has brought me in touch with people who are kindred spirits. They are from places far and near---USA, UK and Canada, Iraq and India, Singapore, France and Pakistan. I am not likely to meet them in person but feel as though I know them. I find pleasure in what they say, in the photographs they publish, their e-mail messages, and comments.

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Hope-New Year-Musafir's Musings

Stormy Weather
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O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind ?"
---P.B. Shelley, Ode to West Wind




December, and the year, coming to an end. For us here in the San Francisco Peninsula, the rains came late but we are getting enough of it not to worry about drought in the summer.

The gingko trees on the street lost all their leaves. The blankets of golden leaves no longer cover the ground; the storms blew them away. The bulbs that I planted in October are looking strong and healthy. Not too long before the blooms appear. The sweet peas are beginning to emerge. This is when they are most vulnerable to snails.

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Winter haikus
"The bottoms of my shoes
are clean
from walking in the rain."
---Jack Kerouac, 1964

"The desolation of winter
Passing through a small hamlet,
a dog barks."
---Shiki (translated by R.H. Blyth)

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"Bigotry is the sacred disease" -- Heraclitus 6th Century BCE
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Article VI, Sec.3 of the Constitution reads:



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S.D. Legislature takes lead in antiabortion measures

Spying on U.S. Citizens
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Excerpts:

• Since the Times disclosed the domestic spying program last week, President Bush has stressed that his executive order allowing the eavesdropping was limited to people with known links to al-Qaeda.
  

• But the Times said that NSA technicians have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might lead to terrorists.
  

• The volume of information harvested from telecommunications data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the paper said, quoting an unnamed official.

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"Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
---Benjamin Franklin

The Face of Peace, Pablo Picasso (1881-1974)

Cottage in Snow (Source: unknown)

"This is the field where the battle did not happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound,
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed – or were killed – on this ground
hallowed by the neglect of an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.
---William Stafford, USA (1914-1993)

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Abe Lincoln's Vision and How the System Really Works
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"......that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

From the Los Angeles Times:

• A sixth defection — by Sen. Norm Coleman of the sugar-beet-producing state of Minnesota — was headed off when Republican leaders restored $30 million in subsidies for sugar producers. "Sugar farmers will not face any cuts in this important agreement," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), "and Sen. Coleman will support the … package."
  

• "........the whole package would trim about $3 for every $1,000 the government would otherwise spend.
  

• In tandem with the spending-cut bill, Congress has prepared legislation to extend some of the temporary tax cuts that it enacted in 2001 and 2003. The spending bill would save $40 billion over the next five years. The tax bill, which Republican congressional leaders hope to bring to a vote early next year, would cost $70 billion.
  

• "Put the two together," said Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the top Budget Committee Democrat, "and guess what: You have increased the deficit, not reduced it."
  

• Much of the criticism of the measure came from groups speaking for the poor, the elderly and college students.
  

• "The provisions … would cause considerable hardship among low-income families and people who are elderly or have disabilities," said the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
  

• Medicaid recipients, particularly those just above the poverty line, would have to pay more for their healthcare or accept fewer medical services. Some could be forced to pay as much as $100 for services that now cost $3, the center said.
  

• For elderly and disabled Medicare recipients, the premium that covers visits to the doctor would be increased.
  

• A previously enacted reduction of 4.4% in the fees received by doctors for treating Medicare patients would be erased.

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Judge James Robertson Quits Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
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"A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources." The Washington Post report by Carole D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer includes:

• Robertson indicated privately to colleagues in recent conversations that he was concerned that information gained from warrantless NSA surveillance could have then been used to obtain FISA warrants. FISA court Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who had been briefed on the spying program by the administration, raised the same concern in 2004 and insisted that the Justice Department certify in writing that it was not occurring.

• "They just don't know if the product of wiretaps were used for FISA warrants -- to kind of cleanse the information," said one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the FISA warrants. "What I've heard some of the judges say is they feel they've participated in a Potemkin court."
  

The late Arthur Koestler's novel Darkness at Noon (1940) described the trial of a man named Rubashov in Stalin's Russia. Michael Schaub wrote an excellent article about the book. No, we are not anywhere near the conditions in Soviet Russia under Stalin. But there are times when I get the feeling that we are inexorably heading that way. Efforts to politicize our judicial system are indisputable facts.
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Musafir's Musings

They are looking after welfare of the usual suspects
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The Washington Post reported: "House passage early yesterday of major budget-cutting legislation and authority to drill for oil in the Alaskan wilderness touched off fierce resistance in the Senate, where Democrats and moderate Republicans threaten to derail the legislation over concerns about the impact on the poor and the environment." Not only the ANWR is in danger but Medicaid recipients and students in need of financial assistance are also targets of proposed cuts in the budget while the Bush tax cuts remain inviolate !

Excerpt:

• In an unusual pre-dawn vote yesterday, the House narrowly passed a broad five-year budget plan to cut spending on Medicaid, student loans and other entitlement programs by $39.7 billion. That 212 to 206 vote, concluded at 6:07 a.m., came one hour and three minutes after the House voted 308 to 106 on a 2006 defense spending bill that included a provision opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, a move long sought by President Bush, energy companies and Republican leaders.
  

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Belfast, Northern Ireland * Scotland * Wales * England
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Like it or not, there is a wave of such unions to follow--almost 700 of them in England and Wales on Wednesday, 21st December. Yes, there were some protesters; the usual sin and damnation crowd. "The protesters, who gathered outside the city hall, demonstrated against the "sin" of homosexuality and the new legislation. They heckled Ms Close as she arrived for the ceremony. She told one protester: "God bless you ... I'll see you at the gates of heaven."

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Secular Europe's Humane Approach
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"Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or "broken heart," is excuse for cutting off one's life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one."
--Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American author (1860-1935)

While our government is determined to do all it can to trample over state's rights and override Oregon's Death With Dignity Act of 1997, according to a report in the BBC a hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, has announced that "......it will allow assisted suicide on its premises for terminally ill patients." Earlier, doctors and church leaders in Britain dropped their opposition to voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill patients who clearly express their wish for assistance in dying.

Now, before the religious right and others who oppose such measures throw a fit they should read the details of what the Swiss plan means. No one is going to be forced to die. There are enough safeguards to satisfy all but those who feel that end of life is an issue left in the hands of higher powers. The disturbing part is that the zealots want to impose their will on the rest of us. The Bush administration's challenge to Oregon's law is based on use of drugs covered by the federal Controlled Substances Act for the purpose of suicide. Ruling on the case Gonzalez v. Oregon and the Right to Die, heard by the Supreme Court in October 2005, is expected to be issued in the summer of 2006.

• A spokesman for the university hospital in Lausanne said the decision was taken after a long reflection.
  

• He added that the conditions for permitted an assisted suicide remained very strict.
  

• From the start of next year terminally ill patients in Lausanne's main hospital will be allowed to take their own lives on hospital premises, as long as they are of sound mind, are already too ill to return home, and have expressed a persistent wish to die.
  

• Senior doctors at Lausanne's hospital say the decision was taken after almost three years of consideration and reflects the position of the Swiss Medical Association and the National Committee on Ethics.
  

• Both bodies say that in order to respect the wishes and independence of patients assisted suicide should be permitted in exceptional cases, but that it should never become a routine procedure.

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Musafir's Musings

Saturday Morning Charivari

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Reading "A Scoop Deferred" by Paul Farhi in the Post one gets the impression that it is not what he described that is important but what he left unsaid.


Excerpts:

• Huey Long, known as "the Kingfish," dominated the state of Louisiana from 1928 until his assassination in 1935, at the age of 42. Simultaneously governor and a United States senator, the canny Kingfish uttered a prophecy that haunts me in this late summer of 2005, 70 years after his violent end: "Of course we will have fascism in America but we will call it democracy!"
  

• In 2005, what is self-reliance? I can recognise three prime stigmata of the American religion: spiritual freedom is solitude, while the soul's encounter with the divine (Jesus, the Paraclete, the Father) is direct and personal, and, most crucially, what is best and oldest in the American religionist goes back to a time-before-time, and so is part or particle of God. Every second year, the Gallup pollsters survey religion in the United States, and report that 93% of us believe in God, while 89% are certain that God loves him or her on a personal basis. And 45% of us insist that Earth was created precisely as described in Genesis and is only about 9,000 or fewer years old. The actual figure is 4.5 billion years, and some dinosaur fossils are dated as 190 million years back. Perhaps the intelligent designers, led by George W Bush, will yet give us a dinosaur Gospel, though I doubt it, as they, and he, dwell within a bubble that education cannot invade.
  

• Some of my friends and students suggest that Iraq is President Bush's white whale, but our leader is absurdly far from Captain Ahab's aesthetic dignity. The valid analogue is the Pequod; as Lawrence says: "America! Then such a crew. Renegades, castaways, cannibals, Ishmael, Quakers," and South Sea Islanders, Native Americans, Africans, Parsees, Manxmen, what you will. One thinks of our tens of thousands of mercenaries in Iraq, called "security employees" or "contractors". They mix former American Special Forces, Gurkhas, Boers, Croatians, whoever is qualified and available. What they lack is Captain Ahab, who could give them a metaphysical dimension.

• What Whitman meant (as Lawrence knew) was that the United States itself was to be the greatest of poems. But with that grand assertion, I find myself so overwhelmed by an uncomfortable sense of irony, that I cease these reflections. Shelley wore a ring, on which was inscribed the motto: "The good time will come." In September, the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying at Zion Church in Whistler, Alabama: "The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come on time if we just wait."

For G.W. Bush and his cohorts the good time has already come. *****

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Author of "The Arrogance of Power"
The death of former senator William Proxmire from Wisconsin on December 15th has been widely reported. Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post covered it well. As is the norm on such occasions, there was a rush by politicians to offer eulogies. The event triggered a few of my friends to comment about another senator--the late William Fulbright of Arkansas. This what they said.

SG:
"Back in 1987, Senator Fulbright gave the commencement address at my graduation from U of Miami. It was an excellent speech that revealed a level of understanding of world affairs that is rare among the corridors of power in this country. After a 30-year Senate career, he died in 1995 at the age of 89.

"Excerpts from the Arrogance of Power are given below, which has striking relevance in the context of the current Iraq misadventure.

"On American foreign policy:


"Fulbright also related his opposition to any American tendencies to intervene in the affairs of other nations:

• Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations — to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence. Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work.

"He was a strong believer in international law:

• Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations. As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations. Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations. When we violate the law ourselves, whatever short-term advantage may be gained, we are obviously encouraging others to violate the law; we thus encourage disorder and instability and thereby do incalculable damage to our own long-term interests."

Sources: Wikipedia.org CommonDreams.org
K.C.R responded:

"It is a good thing the good senator is no more. Today's powers-that-be would have branded his words above as irresponsible, unpatriotic, unchristian, UN-loving, terrorist-supporting, michael moore-like claptrap. His tax records would have been audited by the IRS and his phones tapped by the FBI. O'Reilly would have called him 'Frenchie', Cheney would have called him 'dangerous', Rice ' a friend of Saddam', Limbaugh 'deliriously left-wing' and Gary Bauer 'gay'.
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Still paying for the decision to back Bush's War
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It is not too late; there is hope.
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Who can rightfully be the judge ?
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Once known as Taprobane, then Ceylon, the island was renamed Sri Lanka after it became free of British rule in 1948.



I have fond memories of the island and the people I came to know during a visit in 1984. I wrote about it in November 2004, A Man named Gunasekhara and a troubled island.
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A Monster Faces Justice * And Michelle Bachelet could be the Next Presidente
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The wheels of justice moved slowly but they moved. General Augusto Pinochet, the former military ruler, is facing human rights charges. He was one of our favorite dictators in Latin America. He was aided and abetted by us, under the guidance of Henry Kissinger, in torturing and killing dissidents. Good news indeed for the Chileans. They can also expect their next elected head of state to be a woman who is refreshingly different. This is from a report in the Washington Post by Monte Reel. "

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Everyone in the audience was dressed in dark blue or black. Some wore clerical collars, and most had heavy silver crosses dangling around their necks. But Michelle Bachelet wore an electric pink jacket that sent a clear message: She was a candidate for president, not sainthood.

"I'm agnostic. . . . I believe in the state," Bachelet told several groups of evangelical ministers last week. "I believe the state has an important role in guaranteeing the diversity of men and women in Chile -- their different spiritualities, philosophies and ways of life."

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Excerpts:

• 'God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it.'
  

• I have referred to death quite a few times this evening. I shall now quote a poem of my own called 'Death'.
  

Where was the dead body found?
Who found the dead body?
Was the dead body dead when found?
How was the dead body found?

Who was the dead body?

Who was the father or daughter or brother
Or uncle or sister or mother or son
Of the dead and abandoned body?

Was the body dead when abandoned?
Was the body abandoned?
By whom had it been abandoned?

Was the dead body naked or dressed for a journey?

What made you declare the dead body dead?
Did you declare the dead body dead?
How well did you know the dead body?
How did you know the dead body was dead?

Did you wash the dead body
Did you close both its eyes
Did you bury the body
Did you leave it abandoned
Did you kiss the dead body

• When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror - for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.
  

• I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.
  

• If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man.
  

© The Nobel Foundation 2005

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Ang Lee's new film, Brokeback Mountain will soon be released in local theaters. This isn't a review of the movie (reviews are available on the web). JHL and I have watched the preview clips screened before other films that we went to see, and it is on our list of "must see". We have read the short story by Annie Proulx which was adapted by Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana for the screenplay. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play the roles of Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar. The story is in the volume titled "Close Range, Wyoming Stories", published in 1999.
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The Singapore Cowboys

Back in the 80's during a business trip to Singapore, my friends took me out one evening to listen to the Singapore Cowboys. Not sure but I think it was in the Mandarin Hotel where the group appeared on a regular basis. I was not a country western fan then and not one now but I like Willie Nelson's music. The Singapore Cowboys were taking requests. I sent a note and very soon they launched into "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys".

And Elisa Caravaglio's Penne With Tuna & Tomatoes
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Here are two great photographs taken inside Foothills Park. Thanks to Scott Haefner and Harold Poskanzer who graciously gave permission to reproduce them.
This what we had for lunch.

Penne With Tuna & Tomatoes

1/3 cup olive oil
2 lge garlic cloves, minced
Sml pinch of hot red pepper flakes
1.5 lb Roma tomatoes, peeled, halved, seeded, diced (canned OK)
About 1 tspn fennel seed, ground fine in a mortar or spice grinder (I lightly toast the seeds)
2 tblspoon chopped fennel fronds
Salt
1 can (200 gms) olive oil packed tuna, drained and flaked
2 doz green or black olives, pitted, quartered
1 lb penne

Heat the olive oil, garlic and pepper flakes in a large skillet until the the garlic just starts to color. Add the tomatoes, fennel seed, fennel fronds and
salt to taste.

Cook gently until the tomatoes soften but don't allow them to collapse into a sauce. Remove from heat and add the tuna and olives. Keep warm.

Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. Set aside 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce. Toss, add some of the reserved water if needed.

Notes:
1. Serves 4-6
2. The fennel is important, substitution will not create the right flavor
3. Good quality water-packed tuna can be used but first it will have to be drained, doused liberally with extra virgin olive oil and kept overnight to allow the oil to soak in.

We had sweet baguette, home made avocado dip, and a California merlot. Sitting in a small meadow on a cold but sunny day it felt good. All was right with the world.
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Reading "Rice Defends Tactics Used Against Suspects" by Glen Kessler in the Washington Post reminded me of former President Clinton's statement during his appearance before the grand jury about the Monica Lewinsky affair. "It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is." Then there is always the admirable Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson): "Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice in Wonderland.

See"The defining of torture in a new world war
Analysis
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent", BBC News website

• But as she set off a European visit during which the rendition flights and the ultimate aim of such flights will be a key issue, the Secretary of State stressed several times that the United States did not engage in torture.
  

• And it is really the torture issue which is the key. If the flights were simply for the purpose of moving prisoners between open court systems, nobody would complain.
  

• It is the idea that they are tortured in secret detention camps that has concerned critics and has forced Ms Rice to issue her statement.

Britain's role in war on Terror - The Guardian, UK

Ms Rice in her furious best; don't miss the cartoon by Martin Rowson (The Guardian).

*****

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More of them in the closet ?

• For Graham, the issue is the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other (still secret) overseas facilities. Like 89 other senators, he supported McCain's legislation barring the use of torture orthe extreme measures publicized at Abu Ghraib.
  

Would other Republicans come out of the closet to follow them ? Possible, unless they decide to remain with those who believe the president whenever he ratchets up the terror threat.
On another issue, corruption--the give and take that exists between special interest groups and our elected representative--Michael Kinsley has a good column "Corrupt Intentions" in Slate about Randy Cunningham and his colleagues. Truly a den of thieves and Democrats are part of it.
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Thoughts of a Runner on a Sunday Morning

"Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by the British author Alan Sillitoe was published in 1959. A book of short stories that included the title piece. The story was made into a great B&W film (1962) in which the actor Tom Courtney made his mark. One of the "angry young men" in post World War II England, Sillitoe's books reflected the angst of the British working class. I remember the powerful effect of his first book, "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1958). That, too, was made into a film.

The War Was Sold on Lies
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"Older men declare war. But its the youth who must fight and die!" - Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States

The list below shows that 66 out of 81 were in their 20's. Source: Iraq Casualties.org As of today, names of three soldiers remain to be confirmed by the DOD. Their bravery and sacrifice is admirable, the mission for which they gave their lives is open to questions. While grieving for our own we must not forget the Iraqi civilians--not insurgents--ordinary men, women and children no different than us. Some day history will judge the people who were responsible for the war against Iraq. I wonder how it would treat President Bush and his minions. Would they be portrayed as honorable and just who sacrificed lives of thousands of American and others for a worthy cause or as callous megalomaniacs with narrow visions and a warped sense of their infallibility ?

Daniel A. Tsue, 27, Marine Sergeant, Nov 01, 2005
Allan M. Espiritu, 28, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class, Nov 01, 2005
Dennis J. Ferderer Jr., 20, Army Specialist, Nov 02, 2005
Tyler R. MacKenzie, 20, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 02, 2005
Joshua J. Munger, 22, Army Specialist, Nov 02, 2005
Benjamin A. Smith, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 02, 2005
Mark J. Procopio, 28, Army National Guard 2nd Lieutenant, Nov 02, 2005
Gerald M. Bloomfield II, 38, Marine Major, Nov 02, 2005
Michael D. Martino, 32, Marine Captain, Nov 02, 2005
Darren D. Howe, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 03, 2005
Jeffrey P. Toczylowski, 30, Army Captain, Nov 03, 2005
Daniel J. Pratt, 48, Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 03, 2005
Kyle B. Wehrly, 28, Army National Guard Staff Sergeant, Nov 03, 2005
Jason A. Fegler, 24, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 04, 2005
James M. Gurbisz, 25, Army Captain, Nov 04, 2005
Dustin A. Yancey, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 04, 2005
Timothy D. Brown, 23, Army National Guard Specialist, Nov 04, 2005
Darrell W. Boatman, 38, Marine Gunnery Sergeant, Nov 04, 2005
Thomas A. Wren, 44, Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, Nov 05, 2005
Joel E. Cahill, 34, Army Captain, Nov 06, 2005
James F. Hayes, 48, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 06, 2005
Ryan J. Sorensen, 26, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 06, 2005
Brian L. Freeman, 27, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 07, 2005
Robert C. Pope II, 22, Army Specialist, Nov 07, 2005
Mario A. Reyes, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 07, 2005
Justin S. Smith, 28, Army 1st Lieutenant, Nov 07, 2005
Alwyn C. "Al" Cashe, 35, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 08, 2005
Jeremy P. Tamburello, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 08, 2005
Michael C. Parrott, 49, Army National Guard Staff Sergeant, Nov 10, 2005
Joshua A. Terando, 27, Army National Guard Sergeant, Nov 10, 2005
Daniel Freeman Swaim, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 10, 2005
Tyrone L. Chisholm, 27, Army Sergeant, Nov 11, 2005
Donald E. Fisher II, 21, Army Corporal, Nov 11, 2005
Antonio "Tony" Mendez Sanchez, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 11, 2005
Stephen J. Sutherland, 33, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 12, 2005
David A. Mendez Ruiz, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 12, 2005
Scott A. Zubowski, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 12, 2005
John M. Longoria, 21, Marine Corporal, Nov 14, 2005
Christopher M. McCrackin, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 14, 2005
Ramon J. Mendoza Jr., 37, Marine Major, Nov 14, 2005
James E. Estep, 26, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 15, 2005
Travis J. Grigg, 24, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 15, 2005
Matthew J. Holley, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 15, 2005
Nickolas David Schiavoni, 26, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 15, 2005
Dylan R. Paytas, 20, Army Private, Nov 16, 2005
Alexis Roman-Cruz, 33, Army Specialist, Nov 16, 2005
Roger W. Deeds, 24, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 16, 2005
John A. "JT" Lucente, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 16, 2005
Donald R. McGlothin, 26, Marine 2nd Lieutenant, Nov 16, 2005
Jeremy E. Murray, 27, Marine Sergeant, Nov 16, 2005
Jeffry A. Rogers, 21, Marine Corporal, Nov 16, 2005
Joshua J. Ware, 20, Marine Corporal, Nov 16, 2005
Ivan Vargas Alarcon, 23, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 17, 2005
Vernon R. Widner, 34, Army Specialist, Nov 17, 2005
Anthony Alexander "Alex" Gaunky, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 18, 2005
Luis R. Reyes, 26, Army National Guard Sergeant, Nov 18, 2005
Christopher M. Alcozer, 21, Army Private, Nov 19, 2005
Jonathan F. Blair, 21, Army Corporal, Nov 19, 2005
Dominic Joseph Hinton, 24, Army Specialist, Nov 19, 2005
Michael J. Idanan, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 19, 2005
Edward Karolasz, 25, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 19, 2005
Anthony R. C. Yost, 39, Army Master Sergeant, Nov 19, 2005
Dennis W. Zilinski, 23, Army 1st Lieutenant, Nov 19, 2005
Miguel Terrazas, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 19, 2005
Tyler J. Troyer, 21, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 19, 2005
Dominic J. Sacco, 32, Army Sergeant, Nov 20, 2005
John Wilson "J.W." Dearing, 21, Army National Guard Private 1st Class, Nov 21, 2005
Denis J. Gallardo, 22, Army Sergeant, Nov 22, 2005
Aram J. Bass, 25, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 23, 2005
Allen J. Knop, 22, Army Specialist, Nov 23, 2005
William B. Meeuwsen, 24, Army Sergeant, Nov 23, 2005
Ryan D. Christensen, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 24, 2005
Marc A. Delgado, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 24, 2005
Eric P. Pearrow, 40, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 24, 2005
Steven C. Reynolds, 32, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 24, 2005
Javier A. Villanueva, 25, Army Specialist, Nov 24, 2005
Gregory L. Tull, 20, Army National Guard Specialist, Nov 25, 2005
Brett E. Angus, 40, Marine Master Sergeant, Nov 26, 2005
Donald J. Hasse, 28, Army Sergeant, Nov 29, 2005
Jerry W. Mills Jr., 23, Army Sergeant, Nov 29, 2005
Joshua D. Snyder, 20, Marine Corporal, Nov 30, 2005 .
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Reading the column by Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey in Newsweek made me think that the question that we must ask is "Can we believe what he says?" There is a wide chasm between reading a speech at Annapolis and past actions, or lack thereof, by President Bush. By now majority of Americans know of the lies and deceptions that went into the misadventure in Iraq. We are paying for it and shall go on paying for it long after the president's second term ends. The rosy picture he drew about conditions in Iraq was far from the truth. And where is VP "....the insurgents are in their last throes" Cheney ? Just this morning we read about concerted mortar attacks by insurgents in Ramadi. Then, of course, there is 9/11. That cow has been milked so often and so hard that it must be screaming. The president isn't about to give up tactics that served him so well in the past. But even that is beginning to lose its impact. What is he to do!
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"The Most Foolish War"

So commented Professor Martin Van Creveld of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in the American Jewish Weekly "Forward". Also see Brian Whitaker's article "Nowhere to run" in the Guardian. "There is a remarkable article in the latest issue of the American Jewish weekly, Forward. It calls for President Bush to be impeached and put on trial "for misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them".
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