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A FEW WORDS FROM BILL CLINTON

“We can’t run,” Clinton pointed out. “If you got an interdependent world, and you cannot kill, jail or occupy all your adversaries, sooner or later you have to make a deal.”

Like with North Korea in 1994 perhaps ? How about when an unfriendly regime, seeking to curry favor with the U.S., offers to hand over a master terrorist ? That might have been a good time for Clintonian deal-making…at least from the perspective of a few thousand who died as a result.

THE NATION – A MAGAZINE IMPERVIOUS TO REALITY

From the editorial page of the Nation online. Suggestions for a UN role in Iraq comprising duties the UN has repeatedly proven incompetent at administering:

“Also, the UN would be a more legitimate governing power in Iraq than either a US proconsul or a handpicked government; a UN security force could better deal with the growing breakdown of law and order than a military government, which is likely to ignite smoldering anger in the Arab world. A US-occupied Iraq could become a target for attacks and guerrilla actions by Arab fighters; resentment against Washington could eclipse democracy on the Middle Eastern agenda, and anti-US fury could recruit hundreds of terrorists determined to avenge the Arab world’s humiliation in Iraq. Furthermore, a unilateral occupation will cost untold billions, becoming a drag on the US economy. Finally, only UN inspectors, who should be returned to Iraq immediately, will be able to credibly identify hidden stocks of chemical or biological weapons, the ostensible reason for the US invasion. “

No thanks guys, all you really care about is putting into place a method by which to obstruct a Bush administration-led reconstruction of Iraq. Let the UN hand out wheat and free innoculations. We’ll handle the rest just fine on our own.

HYUNDAI FIRES MARINE UNDER FIRE IN IRAQ

This is against federal law. Nor is this the first instance of corporations firing employees on active-duty in Iraq. The Department of Justice needs to begin enforcing the law that protects reservists and their families.

From NewsMax.com

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Marine Fired While Serving in Iraq

Mrs. Moffitt, also employed at Hyundai, is talking with publicity-loving attorney Gloria Allred about legal action.

AVOIDING THE MISTAKES OF SCAP

The first meeting to rebuild the Iraqi civil polity has begun under Coalition auspices. Hopefully, with Iraq there will more care exercised in the selection of personnel and a through dismantling of the fascist Baath than there was during the Occupation of Japan.

Hastiness, confusion and the lack of familiarity with Japanese language and culture of American officers allowed not only politically unacceptable Japanese bureaucrats to retain their posts under SCAP but Class-A war criminals like Colonel Manasobu Tsuji – the architect of the Death March to Bataan- were able to worm their way back into the government. Large numbers of fascist ex-Naimusho ( Home Ministry)and Kempetai ( Military Police) officials found places in Japan’s postwar Ministries of Education, Finance and International trade and Industry and ultranationalist gangsters like Yoshio Kodama who had looted Manchuria for the Japanese Imperial Army were left free to build billion dollar Yakuza empires.

In an effort to restore order to Baghdad, the wholesale recall of Iraqi police is worrisome without some kind of vetting procedure to screen out the rank and file uniformed traffic cop from the agents of Saddam’s Amn, Mukhabarat and other security agencies. If Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are any guide, midlevel security officials often wear the hats of several organizations and they will be presenting themselves to Coalition officers in their least sinister roles.

Backgrounds need to be checked.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

” Man is the measure of all things “

– Protogoras