"Never again?"

How did we get into an unwinnable occupation of Iraq? What parallels are there?

In February of 2002, more than a year before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, members of Congress urged Americans to consider the rationale of the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and warned that it threatened our rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments and put our nation on the road to a permanent war economy. In May of 2002, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei claimed they could certify Iraqi weapons compliance within one year with inspections. In July of 2002, Scott Ritter, former chief inspector of the UN Special Commission in Iraq, reinterated that Iraq was 90% to 95% in compliance with its Security Council proscription on weapons of mass destruction capability. In October of 2002, 23 Senators and 133 Representatives, not fooled by Bush Administration dissembling rhetoric conflating Iraq with 9/11, voted against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, the Iraq War Resolution.

In February of 2003, tens of millions of people protested against the expected invasion of Iraq in more than 800 cities around the world in the largest protests in all of human history. Protests occurred among others in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Syria, India, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Two million protesters gathered in London's Hyde Park alone and three million more in Rome.

Pope John Paul II made more than fifty public addresses in which he condemned the war in Iraq prior to its inception and he sent a special emissary, Pio Laghi, to the White House to convey his disapproval. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan proclaimed that the invasion of Iraq was “not in conformity with the UN charter… from the charter point of view, it was illegal.”

We are now mired in the permanent war economy we were warned about. Massive budget deficits loom forever. The occupation of Iraq has already cost over $500 Billion and the lives of 4,065 brave U.S. soldiers. "Progress" in Iraq is measured by how fast the Iraqis can amend their Constitution to sanction the pirating away of their oil revenues by foreign corporations. There was no "Al Qaeda" in Iraq before the invasion and now there is. The occupation has proven a fertile ground for recruitment of future terrorists and suicide bombers. Iraq has become our "West Bank." Iraqis have less electricity and dirtier drinking water than before the invasion.

Looking for parallels?

When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of close to 30%. Germans felt humiliated by the reparations and loss of land imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazis promised strong government, cessation of civil unrest, radical changes to economic policy, cultural renewal based on traditionalism, military rearmament in opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, and restored national pride that the Nazis claimed was lost in the Treaty of Versailles and in the liberal democracy of the Weimar Republic. In this atmosphere, Hitler's government used massive budget deficits to achieve full employment through imposing a war economy.

On the night of February 27, 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire and Dutch council communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found inside the building. He was arrested and charged with starting the blaze. The event had an immediate effect on thousands of anarchists, socialists and communists throughout the Reich, many of whom were sent to the Dachau concentration camp. The unnerved public worried that the fire had been a signal meant to initiate the communist revolution, and the Nazis found the event to be of immeasurable value in getting rid of potential insurgents. The event was quickly followed by the Reichstag Fire Decree, rescinding habeas corpus and other civil liberties. Hitler used the Reichstag fire to consolidate power and achieve passage of The Enabling Act. The act gave the government (and thus effectively the Nazi Party) legislative powers and also authorized it to deviate from the provisions of the constitution for four years. With these powers, Hitler removed the remaining opposition and turned the Weimar Republic into the "Third Reich". He then set about prosecuting unjust and illegal invasions of other countries. Nazi Germany

In January of 2001, the Defense Department-chartered U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (Hart-Rudman Commission) issued its report to the incoming administration stating that terrorism was such an imminent threat that "Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers." So the Bush Administration gave $43 million to the Taliban, making the United States the world's largest supporter of the Taliban in 2001. On August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush got a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US." He didn't read it. On the morning of September 11, 2001, three hijacked jet airplanes slammed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and two of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Bush and the Republican Congress quickly forced through passage of the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, curtailing civil rights and ushering in illegal spying on American citizens. Secret CIA prisons, inter-country "rendition" and torture followed. In this über-nationalistic environment, the whitewashed criminals of Iran-Contra brought back into governmental power by Bush set about prosecuting an unjust and illegal invasion of Iraq, a country that posed no threat and which had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks.

What we should have learned from WWII is the threat that unchecked nationalism poses to a fearful or economically disadvantaged citizenry.

The world gains nothing by substituting "Muslims" for "Jews" when fervent nationalists use religious subterfuge to foment hatred and distrust. This should be the lesson we learn from the "Project for a New American Century" nuts running the world into the ditch in a Crusade against Islam.

The world gains nothing by ignoring the lessons in the far larger genocide of the Americas, which killed off perhaps 10 times the number of people killed in WWII. Even today, there are more native Mayan people speaking their own language and living their culture than there are Jews in the whole world. Where's their country?

But most of all, as the fathers and grandfathers of The Greatest Generation fade into history, we are the people of whom the future will ask, "How could they let that happen again?"

As now made clear through the recent revelations into the Cole bombing and plans for retaliation by the Clinton administration, Clinton put together the plan to attack Afghanistan in retaliation for the Cole and passed those plans on to Bush, who then became the world's biggest monetary benefactor of the Taliban instead.

The Bush administration gave the Taliban, arguably the most repressive regime in the world, and the government harboring the most dangerous terrorist in the world, $43 million for declaring that growing opium is "against the will of god." This made the United States, in 2001, the world's greatest monetary supporter of the Taliban.

This is after Bush was advised that al qaeda was responsible for the Cole bombing and with Clinton's plan to attack Afghanistan in his hand!

This is waaaaaaay more than negligence, people.

Edited to add link:

Robert Sheer's Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban, published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times.

Letter to Progressives: Why Keith Ellison Must Win

Tuesday, September 12, is the big day. On Tuesday, Democrats from CD 5 will pick the replacement for 28-year incumbent Martin Sabo. At this point, the race is too close to call between frontrunners Keith Ellison, Ember Reichgott Junge, and Mike Erlandson.

On this election eve, I want to express why I feel why this primary is so important, why it represents far more than the political futures of just these candidates.

First, Keith is a grassroots candidate. The others are not.

You have seen Keith for years at community meetings and events. He speaks at large peace rallies, has fun at Minneapolis Gay Pride, marches for immigrant rights, and quietly attends vigils for victims of violence. If you have been on the streets or at community meetings, you have seen Keith.

Keith's rivals have their own positive experiences, of course. Reichgott Junge spent a number of years in the Minnesota Senate and had some legislative success. Erlandson has spent much of his adult life working for Martin Sabo and has certainly picked up some knowledge of D.C. shenanigans. These experiences have very little to do with grassroots organizing work, or actually with any lengthy experience in actually listening to people.

How will you feel if you see grassroots candidate Keith Ellison lose the primary to someone with better insider connections or just more money? What could you say about the power of the people in electoral politics?

Second, Keith is the endorsed candidate. The others are not.

This race has been going on for over six months. Citizens participate in the very inclusive endorsing system by going to caucuses and sending representatives on to endorsing conventions. Thirteen candidates participated in speeches, debates, and Q & A sessions in the hope of winning the DFL endorsement. At the CD5 convention, the delegates found a candidate that we could all support and agree on: Keith.

What will the endorsement process mean if a well-financed rival can buy the primary a few months later? Who will then be willing to mobilize at the precinct causes? What sort of persuasion will get citizens to spend their Saturdays at the various district conventions? Why bother, if expensive television ads can replace the role of the citizen-activist in the party?

Third, we must beat back the power of racism and religious sectarianism.

This campaign has been a dirty, Rovian experience. Attacks on Keith's race (African-American) and religion (Muslim) have passed from Keith's rivals to Republican blogs to the pages of the Star Tribune. Keith has endured references to being in the company of "looming but silent black men in dark suits." He has been attacked for not paying parking tickets and for a garage that needed paint.

By lightly coding the racism, it has been possible for some voters to act on racist assumptions without examining them. Two race myths have been used. The false association with the Nation of Islam has allowed some to believe that he might be a Dangerous Black Man. The parking tickets and missed deadlines references allow some to believe that he might merely be an Irresponsible Negro.

The reality, of course, is that Keith is one of the warmest and most personable people you will ever meet, neither dangerous nor lazy. Those who know him best and longest speak with admiration about how he stood up to anti-Semitism and gay-bashing, even at the height of his work with the Million Man March or during him most passionate U of M law school days.

The question for me, however, is whether or not race and religion should be a legitimate factor in Minnesota campaigns in 2006. Aren't we beyond that? Shouldn't we be having at least a few discussions about policy issues concerning war, healthcare, civil liberties, and the environment?

Fourth, we must undermine the power of money.

Reichgott Junge has received large contributions from Republicans and insurance industry executives (while claiming she will reform health care). Erlandson accepts money from defense contractors and Iraq war profiteers (while claiming to be a peace candidate). Keith gets his money from unions, the DFL, and friends. They all get money from law firms and lawyers. You can check the documents at www.fecinfo.com

Who do you want your next U.S. Representative to be answering to?

Fifth, Keith Ellison will broaden the base. The others will not.

Keith's win will give encouragement to Northside residents, who have been beaten down by decades of racism, violence and neglect. Keith's win will encourage electoral participation by his supporters, including Somalis and other immigrants, the peace community, the environment community, and progressive religious community.

Now try to imagine how Mike Erlandson and Ember Reichgott Junge could possibly reach out to underrepresented communities. I can't. Can you?

Last, Keith Ellison is the very best candidate for all progressive issues.

Many of you have seen Keith at your meetings, or heard him talk at your rallies. You know where he stands. Clearly, he will be one of the very strongest advocates in Congress for ending the disastrous war against Iraq, as well as standing up against any new wars that the imperialistic neocons might be planning. Clearly, he will advocate intelligently for education, the environment, GLBT rights and civil liberties. He brings to that work inspiring words, intelligence and thoughtfulness, accurate information, and his own charismatic charm.

Did you know that only two legislators, both Republican, passed more legislation than Keith in the Minnesota House? Many people would consider that body as a hostile work environment for Democrats, but Keith worked very well there. He has an extremely rare combination of passionate convictions and personal warmth, so he is able to take strong moral stands while working with those across the aisle. He has the strength to stand up to the Bush agenda, yet do so with humanity, warmth, and class.

During all the smears against Keith, have you ever heard stories about any angry outbursts or even defensiveness? Keith doesn't storm out of meetings or call his opponents names. He takes passionate positions for justice, yet he doesn't make enemies. Consider the contrast with his rivals in the primary. All the pretty slogans in the world won't get us better policy. All the best insider connections in Washington won't compensate for thin- skinned peevishness and a wounded sense of entitlement.

What we must do.

Vote on Tuesday. If you don't know your polling place, go to http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us / or cal 311 for Minneapolis info. If you've moved and you're not registered, prove your current address by either bringing a state ID with your new address, an old-address state ID with a current utility bill or cell phone bill, or go to the poll with a registered neighbor. (Other methods are found at www.sos.state.mn.us )

Call your friends in the Fifth Congressional District. Remind them that polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm, and that lines are usually short for primaries. Talk to them about how crucial this particular vote is. Call them right away, before you forget.

On Tuesday, greet friends with, "Hi! Did you vote yet?" Suggest to the coffee server or receptionist or clerk to do the same.

This is history. Let's make it.

Outrage
by Dan Brown

What if:

The Iranians were practicing terrorism, and
The Contra rebels were practicing terrorism, and
The U.S. Congress made it illegal to conspiratorially or otherwise assist either, and
The Reagan/Bush administration did it anyway, and
They got caught, and
The President of the United States pardoned these terrorist helpers.

Should we be outraged?

How about if those terrorist assisters somehow managed to get back into the U.S. government, and
They developed a plan to get revenge on their old friend Saddam Hussein and get his oil, and
They wrote about it back in the 1990s, and
They called their plan the Project for the New American Century, and
They used a terrorist attack on America to falsely justify their plan, and
They did it without international support, and
They tried to cover it up by saying it was for the U.N., but
The U.N. said "we have a better idea," and
They said "tough we're the last SuperPower, ha ha ha ha ha," and
They launched an unprovoked invasion anyway.

Should we be outraged?

How about if those creepy Iranian/Contra terrorist aiders invaded Afghanistan, and
They told everybody the Geneva Convention no longer applied to them, and
They displayed prisoners bound, blindfolded and naked on stretchers, and
They displayed prisoners with hoods on their heads, and
They displayed prisoners in chain-link cages, and
They held U.S. citizens without recourse to lawyers, and
They coined a term that they said got them off the hook, and
They refused to abide by the Convention on Torture even though they were signatories, and
Prisoners died in their custody from blunt trauma, and
Amnesty International said they were "alarmed", and
Then some of their own soldiers were captured and displayed, and
They said "that's against the Geneva Convention", and
People shook their heads at their arrogance, so
They blew up civilians and TV stations and radio in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Should we be outraged?

How about if they kept Iraq controlled for 12 years, and
They depleted Iraq's conventional military capability by 60%, and
They found and destroyed 90% of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and
Wars, sanctions, and disease brought the median age of Iraqis to 15 years old, and
The U.N. reinstated a weapons inspection program, and
It began to look like the program was working, and
The Contra/Iranian terrorist-funding plotters began to fear they wouldn't get their war, and
Hans Blix said he was a few months from complete disarmament, and
Twelve years is lots shorter than how long Israel's been in violation of resolutions, and
Hans Blix published twelve steps to complete disarmament, and
The IAEA guy said "No way does Iraq have nuclear weapon capability," and
The guy who helped sell the My Lai story said "Hey read this paper evidence," and
Everyone laughed because it was such a poor forgery, and
All the greatest nations on Earth said "War is not the Answer," and
The Iran/Contra terrorist assistants said we're going alone, and
Poor Eritrea said "we'll say it's okay too for a bit of money," and
They said "Sure" and pulled the money out of the mouths of starving babies at home, and
They used it to buy support, but
Still all the greatest nations on Earth said "War is not the Answer," and
They stole some more money from schools and the sick and pregnant moms, and
They tried to give it to Turkey, and
They winked at Turkey about their little "Kurdish problem," and
Turkey remembered that they were a Democracy and said like other great nations "No," and
They said "Tough we'll do it with just our Anglo-Saxon buddies," and
They got less than 10% of their invading military from Britain, and
A paltry one percent from Australia, and
Morocco said "We'll let you blow up monkeys", and
The world rose up to resist their hegemony, and

They invaded Iraq anyway.

Should we be outraged?

I am.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota

Who is our enemy?

In the fall of 1999, the Defense Department-chartered Hart-Rudman Commission determined that terrorism was such an imminent threat that "Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers."

Bush administration officials told former Sens. Gary Hart, D-Colo., and Warren Rudman, R-N.H., that they preferred instead to put aside the recommendations issued in the January report by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century. Instead, the White House announced in May that it would have Vice President Dick Cheney study the potential problem of domestic terrorism -- which the bipartisan group had already spent two and a half years studying -- while assigning responsibility for dealing with the issue to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, headed by former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh.

The Hart-Rudman Commission had specifically recommended that the issue of terrorism was such a threat it needed far more than FEMA's attention.

But declaring a "national emergency" and invoking FEMA allows the suspension of civil liberties.

On August 6, 2001, Bush got a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US." He didn't read it.

Reagan Created bin Laden

Osama bin Laden was trained by the CIA, as part of a policy of arming a multi-national coalition of Islamic extremists in Afghanistan during the 1980s - well after the destruction of the Marine barracks in Beirut or the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, by a jolly actor who played the role of President and was good for TV ratings. So bin Laden, along with a small group of Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian refugee camps all over the Middle East, became the "reliable" partners of the CIA in its war against Moscow.

But that war ended in 1989, and since then bin Laden has been the very picture of a reckless CIA project gone wrong. He has used his Saudi construction fortune and any other money he's gotten to attack U.S. interests anywhere he could from his Taliban-sponsored haven in Afghanistan.

George "W" Bush - World's Largest Supporter of the Taliban

Bin Laden launched two devastating attacks on American embassies in Africa from Afghanistan in 1998. Despite that, this administration gave the Taliban, arguably the most repressive regime in the world, and the government harboring the most dangerous terrorist in the world, $43 million for declaring that growing opium is "against the will of god." This made the United States, in 2001, the world's greatest monetary supporter of the Taliban.

So this administration was specifically warned, officially, by a Defense Department Commission, yet purposefully turned its back on those recommendations. It blindly pursued the "drug war" mentality of Bush I and the "star wars" mentality of Reagan. It declared itself oblivious to the current state of the world in its thrall with isolationism.

While this administration was killing innocent Japanese schoolchildren on corporate submarine joyrides, gutting our domestic regulations, planning on ruining our drinking water, plowing up our last wild lands, spoiling our last Alaskan wilderness, and looting the treasury of the United States for its rich friends, the world was moving on. Dangerously so.

Reagan Created the Threat - Bush Let it Happen on His Watch

This administration had specific, credible evidence that something was going to happen. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

This administration was busy spending all its time, though, bending America over for its corporate donors instead of making our country and the world a safer place.

This administration was spending all its honeymoon capital on pissing off the world by rejecting everything cooperative that the civilized countries of the world had worked for for years, for generations, for centuries - NO anti-nuclear, NO anti-poisonous gas, NO anti-child slavery, NO anti-global warming, making the United States a rogue state in its unilateral pursuit of some glorious corporate utopia.

This administration was "uniting" by polarizing this country between the haves and the have-nots, just like Reagan did. This administration was demonstrating how committed it was to creating a national religion-fueled corporate aristocracy and a permanent lower working class to exploit.

The attack in 2001 should not have happened. This administration was clearly and strongly warned. The Clinton administration and the Defense Department invested two and a half years in exploring how to keep our country safe from EXACTLY that kind of terrorist attack. It caught and prosecuted and imprisoned the people who attacked the WTC earlier. The commission charted by the Defense Department presented its stark and frightening findings and highly specific recommendations to this administration.

This administration threw the Hart-Rudman report out the window and said, "No thanks. Well let Dick take care of it."

Thanks, Dick.

I think it's funny. In 2000 I was busy protesting the stolen election and organizing other people to protest. I found the DU regional Yahoo group for the Midwest and posted protest information to it. I also got published at websites that don't exist anymore. I found the forums when I needed to ask why the Yahoo groups had been shut down. As far as I can tell, I've been a member here for about as long as Will. Heck, I remember when TO started sending me newsletters without asking my permission and I asked them to stop.

I've been kicked off of other Yahoo groups and such and such. I was a founding member of the Minnesota Progressive Caucus, now the DFL Progressive Caucus. I got myself elected to Boston as a Kucinich delegate. I posted to every single IndyMedia site instructions on how to write to the UN to get them to stop Bush's invasion plan for Iraq. Blah, blah, blah...

The mainstream media gets a lot of stories wrong. Some stories that it gets right get screwed up anyway. Does anyone not believe that Rather shared the actual words or thoughts of the guy who kept Bush out of Vietnam? But they were recently typed, since Bush got himself elected Governor to scrub the record so he could seek higher office.

Will's just another guy making a living on writing for the side of hope and light and goodness and peace. Personally, I don't care if he's got an ego the size of Ohio.

JH Hatfield was, as far as I know, the only guy making the claim that Bush had criminal penalties from his cocaine habit. That doesn't mean the claim isn't true, and it doesn't mean that it is.

Maybe the TO story is true and they have a source that they can't disclose. To me, anyway, that's not such a stretch. Didn't Bush's New York Times pawn who sat on a story about pre-9/11 specific warnings recently spend some time in jail protecting her source? Media people do it all the time.

I hope Rove and the rest go to jail. I also know that nothing happens until the mainstream media pick things up. That's when the drip, drip, drip turns into a trickle.

I didn't take too seriously the TO fallout, and I missed Will's meltdown (this one, anyway). The only important thing is that people continue to resist, continue to speak up, continue to get in the streets, and continue to get progressive people elected who have a backbone. All these personalities will sort themselves out in the long run.

I'll probably miss Will's next meltdown, too. I think it's funny that people take so seriously their apparent need to try to make him feel badly.

Oh, well. At least now I know that I was not part of an elite class here at DU back in 2001.