Month: November 2004

I think it’s interesting to hear the cries of anguish by the Republicans over Christine Gregoire’s probable demand for a hand recount in the Washington state Governor’s race.

To hear the Republicans tell it, the whole state will come crashing down in an apocalyptic doom if Christine Gregoire goes ahead and asks for the hand recount.
Of course, if it was Dino Rossi that was 42 votes behind, the Republicans would never ask for a recount… Certainly not! Much too divisive!

Me, I’m not real crazy about either candidate.

Rossi’s one slick Italian SOB, who maybe plays a little fast and loose with the truth (hey: anyone remember our last Italian Governor? Al Rosellini? His big success was bringing corruption right out into the open where everyone could participate. Now thatsa Italian!).

Gregoire on the other hand, is a cold, faceless, bureaucrat who tried to reinvent herself as a human being, apparently without much success.
I don’t really have a feel for the politics of either one. There probably isn’t an awful lot of difference.

I voted for Gregoire simply because she’s a D.

Either way, I think the hand recount should go forward.

We deserve to conclusively know who won the election – not who probably won it.

A Puppet Government In Iraq Equals Disaster for the US

“The will of the people… is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.” –Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waring, 1801. ME 10:236

A few weeks ago, President Bush put the interim Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, on public display. Allawi, for his part, in essence told us everything was just great in Iraq. Everything is under control; Iraq is returning to normal, he said.

Well isn’t that simply wonderful? And just in time for the US presidential election, too.

Not that the timing is more than providential, but what really amazes me is that some people are actually buying into the fiction of an independent “Iraqi Government.” Because that’s nonsense – what we have now in Iraq is a puppet government, pure and simple, completely controlled by the US. Nothing more, nothing less.

As such, it’s extremely unlikely that things are even remotely “just great” and returning to normal in Iraq. Because puppet governments don’t work. They didn’t work, for example, in Vietnam, and they won’t work in Iraq.
Why not? Let’s look at some facts:

In Iraq, Shi’a Muslims comprise over 65% of the population; Sunni Muslims about 37%. Christians constitute a much smaller minority.
Through the Ba’ath Party, Sunni Muslims have ruthlessly controlled Iraq, subjugating the Shi’a as well as all the other religious minorities since 1963. Much of that time, the Ba’ath Party worked hand in hand with the CIA, including during most of Saddam’s reign – Saddam really didn’t fall from grace with the CIA or the US generally, until after he invaded Kuwait in 1990. That, of course, precipitated the First Gulf War.

Continue reading “The War In Iraq Must End Now”