A woman just needs love and reassurance sometimes; that’s why I read Glenn Greenwald at Salon.

That's not a commercial advertisement for Salon, just a statement of appreciation of Greenwald’s article this morning chiding Tom Friedman (and Fred Hiatt, Charles Krauthammer) and other Iraq war cheerleaders.

Chickenhawks seem incapable of realizing that American foreign policy under Bush-Cheney (including that Iraq War thing) is more serious than mere “mistakes,” deserving of a "thumbs-down," as Friedman writes this morning.

From Greenwald’s column this morning on the “befuddled” Tom Friedman:

"Iran is in the eye of the storm," he says, noting that regional neighbor Pakistan and arch-foe Israel both have nuclear weapons, though neither are signatories like Iran of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "It is the duty of every government to equip itself to defend itself. Any state in Iran's position should go after the latest military technology."

Since the NIE report, US officials have raised the bar for Iran's compliance, insisting that Tehran acknowledge that it once had a nuclear weapons program. The new US intelligence described in the IAEA report includes designs for a 400-meter shaft for remotely testing explosives from six miles away, which "would be relevant" to weapons research."   excert from article by Scott Peterson

These are the very same tactics used by the US and Britian to eventually invade Iraq.  They constantly demanded more.  When orginal requests were satisfied, they implied, lied and demanded more compliance.  Basically, there wasn't a way for Iraq to comply since at each juncture the US and Britian would "raise the bar".

Sometimes as we struggle for justice and fairness we forget how truly unjust the unending suffering those of our nation's leadership have unleashed upon a mostly unsuspecting world (although not anymore).  If we are to consider that ALL people are just that, people...... only then will we conceive the horrors of the reality that is the American Empire.  The thirteen year sanctions upon the country of Iraq have caused suffering almost incomprehensible to most of us.  Felicity Arbuthnot in an open letter to Britian's Minister of State for International Development at Global Research writes:

"To illustrate the the iniquity, an acquaintance, in desperation, sent a supply if insulin, in a jiffy bag, to his diabetic brother in Baghdad, as none was available. It was returned by the Post Office as needing an export licence.His brother died before the license arrived. I myself was threatened by DFID with prosecution, for taking a year's supply of cancer treatment to a surgeon with cancer, who had worked here at the Hammersmith Hospital, a specialist in pediatric orthopedics, who had enabled numerous British children walk again, able to use their arms, straightened small bodies. Cancer treatments too, were vetoed by the United Nations Sanctions Committee.

The White House Phone Number Is ...

202 456-1414

"It is time for the American people to be heard — I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law." — Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del, reacting to the commutation of Lewis Libby who both leaked and covered up the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name after the agent's husband had exposed one of the main lies used to sell the Iraq war.

Call 202 456-1414.

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Weird and skin-raising-yucky receiving the The New Republic Online's "This Week in Politics” e-mail June 14.

The New Republic’s e-mail includes an item entitled “Debatable” by the editors subtitled that “America doesn't need to hear from Mike Gravel.”

Mike Gravel, of-course, is the former Senator from Alaska who famously read into the congressional record the Pentagon Papers, that laid out the lies before and during the Vietnam War that ultimately cost some three million lives, and wreaks havoc even today on untold millions more, including 100,000s of Vietnam-era veterans whom the Veterans Administration is trying to shaft on VA beneits. That’s a bad thing, TNR.

Mal Contends

1999, June 5^th, then-Governor Bush on President Clinton and withdrawal of US forces, “I think it’s important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they would be withdrawn.”  

2007, May 1, now-President Bush on withdrawal of US forces, "Setting a deadline for withdrawal would demoralize the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East and send a signal that America will not keep its commitments," Bush said last night. "Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure." 

Bush's MO of fear and lies continues unabated.