By: Chris White  

I am a Veteran for Peace, and just like every other veteran with a peace agenda, the hypocrisy pervading my military experience largely informs my decision to resist the injustices perpetrated by my own government on the world. Just as it is hypocritical to train millions of men and women to mindlessly kill on command in order to defend the world from evil, the Bush administration's case for war on Iraq is also hypocritical in every aspect.

According a Reuters article from December 26, our own CIA has recently been using tactics bordering on torture to extract information from Afghani prisoners of our bombing campaign that may have cost up to 5,000 civilian lives in and of itself. Who are we to call anyone else the bad guy when not only is our foreign policy history morally bankrupt, but we support some of the worst human rights violators on the planet, and still we claim to have a case against Saddam Hussein, a pebble in a shining sea of oppression that we otherwise hold quite dear to our hearts.

To sum up, the case for invasion of Iraq lacks proof, and is based on plagiarism, false assertions, and lies. In addition, the reasons we use for wanting to invade Iraq could apply to a number of our closest allies in the world...

The Economic Report of the President contradicts President Bush and other top officials.

By: Brendan Nyhan  

Last week, President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) released the 2003 Economic Report of the President (ERP) to little notice from the press or public. Yet the report, which is produced by the professional economists and staff of the CEA, directly contradicts a number of public statements by the President and other administration officials on two key economic issues: the effects of tax cuts on revenue and the relationship between budget deficits and interest rates.

Bush administration officials have also aggressively denied a link between federal budget deficits and increased interest rates in response to criticism from former Clinton administration officials and others, a view that is also contradicted by the ERP. For example, Vice President Cheney said during a January 10 speech that: "They argue that increased deficits necessarily lead to increased interest rates, which, in turn, slows economic growth. But the argument has one slight flaw. The evidence of recent years simply doesn't support it." He then cited the low interest rates seen today despite federal budget deficits.

Editorial from:  

As a nervous nation adjusts to a second week of heightened terror warnings, the Bush administration is searching for ways to exude the proper balance of calm and caution. Though Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Sunday that his department might soon lower its "code orange" warning to yellow, he pledged that the government won't lower its guard.

Such assurances mask a serious disconnect between promises and action. Congress has talked of increased funding for homeland defense, yet several initiatives critical to bolstering the nation's security were shortchanged in a new budget approved last week.

Addressing these shortcomings won't be cheap. Cities say they need at least another $3.5 billion. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-CT, says the $40 billion homeland-security budget requires an additional $16 billion.

Increases that large require clear priorities and tough choices, particularly when the deficit is spiraling toward record territory. Developing a clear plan of action - and a responsible way to pay for it - would do more to calm jittery nerves than making soothing pledges.

By: Douglas Mattern  

Jonathan Shell reminds us that the U.S. has led in all matters nuclear, from inventing and using the atomic bomb, inventing the hydrogen bomb, developing the strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction, developing the delivery vehicles, and now finding new uses of nuclear weapons.

And here we go again! The Bush administration is in the process is escalating the nuclear arms race, including potential plans to resume nuclear testing at the Nevada underground test site, and to develop a new class of small nuclear weapons for possible use in future Iraqi-type wars.

Bush's requested military budget for fiscal 2004 is $399.1 billion. This includes funds for the nuclear weapons program that is funded in the budget of the Department of Energy (DOE). Over $6 billion is requested for nuclear weapons related funding. CDI reports the U.S. annually spends $27 billion to prepare to fight a nuclear war.

By: Bruce Ackerman  

Of course, political protesters never can control the timing of national crises - and yet their right to march has been a central part of the First Amendment tradition. The city offered no evidence of any clear and present danger to public safety, and the Saturday demonstration occurred without significant incident. If the bare risk of disorder suffices for suppression, we have come to the end of the road.

Hoping to narrow the sweeping force of her opinion last week, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jones pointed to the fact that "the nation and the city are currently at the second highest security alert". This makes the decision worse, not better. We are only at the beginning of an endless war against terrorism. Are fundamental political rights to be contingent on FBI decisions to change the alert from yellow to orange? Such a power can be blatantly abused for partisan ends...

By: Pamela Troy  

In his most recent State of the Union George W. Bush, leader of the world's one remaining super power stated: "As our nation moves troops and builds alliances to make our world safer, we must also remember our calling, as a blessed country, is to make the world better." The nature of these "alliances" and why "moving troops" might be a part of making the world better became obvious when he went on to say: "the course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people." And later, "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met a different fate." Then he leaned over the podium to peer significantly at his audience. "Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies."

So the Bush administration's concept of American "blessedness", our President's boasting hint about extra-judicial executions, and his contempt for the sovereignty of other nations couldn't possibly have anything to do with our current unpopularity in Europe now, could it? No, it must be all those AY-rabs who've moved into London and Paris. As I watched CNN coverage of the issue, I wondered if anyone there (aside from the British reporter who was plainly struggling to keep from chortling over the size of the London demonstration) is aware of the current administration's recent public pronouncements on our role in the international community. If not, I don't see how they managed to miss it. I mean, it's been in all the papers and everything.

"In only the space of two short years this reckless and arrogant Administration has initiated policies which may reap disastrous consequences for years."

- Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-WV, on the floor of the U.S. Senate

By: Molly Ivins  

As our coaches used to say: "OK, people, settle down and listen up." We have been enjoying a lovely little spate of French-bashing here lately. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review, who admits that French-bashing is "shtick" - as it is to many American comedians - has popularized the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" to describe the French. It gets a lot less attractive than that.

George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried." That was certainly amusing. One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Hitler.

"The situation between [America and France] reminds me of the ads, 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk'. We are a nation gone mad and we are about to start an unprovoked war. Old Europe is trying to stop us because they are our friends and the leaders of France care more about the American People than our own government does."

- Marc Perkel

"Troops in the field are so frustrated by the lack of preparedness that they have twisted the acronym NBC, for Nuclear, Biological, [and] Chemical warfare. Truth to tell: the troopers call it: 'NoBody Cares'... What they've been saying to me is that they don't trust their gear. They don't think it will work in a desert environment where it's burning hot. A soldier without confidence is in trouble."

- David Hackworth, an advocate of soldiers' rights, on 60 Minutes, Feb. 16, 2003

By: Ben Tripp  

Hey, gang! We won, if you don't mind Pyrrhic victories. I feel like the guy at Hiroshima who was in a fart-lighting contest just as the A-bomb went off. His last words were "beat that". In a topsy-turvy way that would baffle the Cheshire Cat, we who desire peace will triumph in the event of war. You see, if there's a clear loser in the pending savagery, it's George W. Bush and his administration of barking scrotum monsters.

Right now it doesn't look like they've lost. They'll have their war on Iraq; they will rain bombs down on that godforsaken patch of petroleum-soaked dirt and before you know it instead of the Iraqi population being 50% children, it will be 20% children, because kids can't run as fast as adults. After a few days of hand-to-hand combat through the streets of once-legendary Baghdad it will all be over. But George never read the Arabian Nights - too long and too dirty. So he doesn't know that Baghdad is infested with genies, and we're not talking about the cute blue ones with ADD who talk like Robin Williams. The ones in Baghdad are the djinn, ancient magical spirits that inevitably trick their masters into self-destruction...

"I have gotten somewhat nervous at some of the pronouncements Rumsfeld has made... It's scary."

- Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

By: Glenn Kessler  

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the administration has pursued an especially muscular foreign policy, but foreign officials say anger at the administration's style set in almost from the moment President Bush took office. The administration's rejection of the Kyoto treaty to stem global warming and Bush's abrupt dismissal of South Korea's "sunshine" policy toward North Korea set the impression that the administration was not interested in listening too closely to the concerns of its allies, diplomats said. The administration exacerbated tensions by refusing to join the International Criminal Court, withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and announcing a doctrine of fighting preventive wars that surprised and concerned allies.

"The administration seems to believe that if you push hard enough, everyone will give in", said a senior European diplomat. "This hardball presentation is part of the reason this Iraq thing has been hard to sell in a number of European countries. Many policymakers felt their concerns were not adequately taken into account. You're not going to be successful when you threaten and bully them into coming closer to your position."

Editorial from:  

...The Bush administration - which is in the midst of trying to sell the war to the public - filed a brief urging the judges to uphold denial of the permit. And the Bloomberg administration has no intention of forcing a St. Patrick's Day standstill instead of a parade - even though it's bigger and likely more raucous.

"The court bought, hook, line and sinker, the undifferentiated-fear factor", said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which argued marches are a vital form of free speech.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a speaker at the rally said: "I really cannot believe that a major city in the leading democracy in the world can refuse people this particular right."

By: Edward Said  

These are questions I won't even try to answer. But I do know that if anything like this is going to be visited on any population on earth it would be a criminal act, and its perpetrators and planners war criminals according to the Nuremberg Laws that the U.S. itself was crucial in formulating. Not for nothing do General Sharon and Shaul Mofaz welcome the war and praise George Bush. Who knows what more evil will be done in the name of Good? Every one of us must raise our voices, and march in protest, now and again and again. We need creative thinking and bold action to stave off the nightmares planned by a docile, professionalised staff in places like Washington and Tel Aviv and Baghdad. For if what they have in mind is what they call "greater security" then words have no meaning at all in the ordinary sense. That Bush and Sharon have contempt for the non-white people of this world is clear. The question is, how long can they keep getting away with it?

By: Martin O'Malley  

Well-equipped and well-trained fire, police, and health workers are our best protection against terrorism; but we cannot expect to fund a robust and effective homeland defense with local property tax revenue and the proceeds of fire hall bingos. In Baltimore we have tried to make homeland defense a priority, regardless. But of the $11 million we have spent on homeland defense since 9/11, only $1 million has come from the federal government. So much for its constitutional duty "to provide for the common defense".

America wins wars with service and sacrifice, not with tax cuts on top of tax cuts. If the federal government were to support our homeland troops with even a fraction of the funding we have rightly invested to support our troops abroad, we could implement a much higher and more effective level of homeland security quickly. But time is not on our side; and neither, apparently, is our federal government.

"Are we prepared for what I believe are inevitable retaliatory attacks? The answer, I think, is no."

- former Sen. Gary Hart

By: Molly Ivins  

The news is not good. Osama bin Laden wants us to invade Iraq. We're at orange on the alert code. The economy is tanking. We're spending $1.08 billion a day on the military.

The President wants a $674 billion tax cut. In the first year, 50% of that tax cut would go the richest 1% of Americans and three-quarters of it would go to the richest 5%. In the years beyond that, the concentration at the top actually gets worse, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. To pay for that, he wants to raise the rent on subsidized housing for the poorest people in the country and break up Head Start, sending it down to the states, where governments are frantically cutting everything they can. Money to pay for everything from cleaning up Superfund sites to leaving no child behind is being slashed to pay for this obscene tax cut.

We're about to go to war with a country that hasn't fired a shot at us or anyone else. Our war plan calls for us to "shock and awe" Iraq by smashing 800 cruise missiles into Baghdad in the first 48 hours. That's one every four minutes night and day.

By: Christian Livemore  

With Bush in charge, that includes a whole new world of possibilities. But Bush can't see it. Or he doesn't care. I'm not sure which is more frightening. So it looks like the right wing's much-loved Trickle Down theory does work. Not with economics, of course, but it seems that Bush's lack of curiosity, intellectual laziness, and greed, at least, are all trickling down through his administration.

So while we're wringing our hands over the imminent war in Iraq and Bush looting the Treasury, we'd better also keep an eye on what he's doing to the environment.

By: Jackson Thoreau  

But on Saturday, Feb. 15, I emerged from the largest demonstration I've ever attended in Dallas with more hope than ever before that our situation will improve. It wasn't just that 5,000 or so people from one of the most right-wing regions of the world, the former home of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and the fictional J.R. Ewing and many others who represent cold-hearted, selfish economic and political policies, had braved the wind and cold and threats and everything else to make a statement to Bush Inc. that a blood-for-oil-personal-revenge-world-domination-military-boost war against economic-sanctions-wracked Iraq was unacceptable.

It was the wide array of people from all walks of life - high school students showing they cared about more than their own problems, soccer moms protesting for the first time, retired school teachers, professionals in suits, war veterans, parents who also brought their young children - that gave me the most hope.

By: Liza Featherstone  

Protestors in New York City on Saturday were angry, not only because President Bush was making plans to wage a brutal war on Iraq, but because, five days earlier, a federal judge had upheld the city's right to deny organizers a permit for a march. The city had permitted a rally at the United Nations, but most people never got there because of the police blockades.

As a result, in an exhilarating expression of the anti-war movement's profound decentralization and spontaneity, peaceful demonstrators filled the streets, marching in whatever direction they could. It was the best anti-war protest yet, everyone agreed. Who needed to stand still in the cold and listen to the (at least 30) boring speeches, when so much of the city was one enormous, intoxicating, unpredictable protest march?

"In state after state, Republican governors are being forced to raise taxes to balance budgets that are deep - caused by the Bush recession and stupid tax cuts. Well, now I have a better idea. Why don't they follow their own philosophy in the central tenet of modern conservatism? If they want to raise revenue, cut taxes. That's supply side economic gospel being preached by Bush and the whole right wing freak show. Hallelujah. I'm a convert."

- James Carville, on CNN's Crossfire

From:  

Helen Thomas, railing against George Bush's "imperial presidency", views war against Iraq as unstoppable.

"If you don't think there's going to be a war," the veteran journalist said in a speech Thursday night at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, "you're out of your mind."

Thomas, who has covered the White House for decades and is currently a columnist for Hearst newspapers, described Bush as a secretive warmonger who has "chipped away at civil rights like no other President in recent memory".

"I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive, unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is 'in the highest moral traditions of our country'."

- Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-WV, on the floor of the U.S. Senate

From:  

Read it and weep: This is the 99^th installment of The Top Ten Conservative Idiots - the last double-digit idiot list, forever. And what a great list it is. The Bush Administration appears in the top three slots, thanks to a cassette tape, some duct tape, and their reaction to the Blix report. Next we've got a pair of racists, Bill O'Reilly (4) and Howard Coble (5). Meanwhile, Tom Delay (6) is showing his hate for the working man. And we've got a pair of conservative idiot companies, Enron (7) and Viacom (8).

By: Dennis Rahkonen  

Beginning with Australia's largest antiwar protest since Vietnam, a wave of massive peace demonstrations moved through planetary time zones during the following day, bringing huge crowds into the streets everywhere. Almost a million marched in London, and nearly as many in Rome. Others weren't far behind.

Nation after nation showed - in the mightiest, most unified such expression ever - the universal consensus for "No blood for oil!"

When it was all said and done, the global balance of power had flip-flopped... from America having been in the driver's seat one moment, to getting thrown into roadside weeds the next, as people power commandeered a vehicle now suddenly bound in an altogether different direction. Away from looming Armageddon, toward peaceful resolution of contested issues.

"I don't need the approval of powerful people to define my success. I proudly wear the badge of class warrior and stand up to the greatest class warrior of them all, George W. Bush."

- James Carville, on CNN's Crossfire

Editorial from:  

Large deficits matter. Those three words sum up Alan Greenspan's testimony before Congress last week, testimony that will make it more difficult for the White House to get its proposed tax cuts enacted. That such an incontrovertible statement of basic economic thought could roil Washington and create problems for the Bush administration is an indication of how surreal, and cynical, budgetary politics have become.

But the White House line is that they don't matter. To worry about the impact of deficits on the economy, administration officials are fond of saying, is to engage in "Rubinomics". It's a mystery why they would think it disparages a view to associate it with Robert Rubin, President Clinton's widely admired Treasury Secretary, whose policies were rooted in mainstream economics. It's equally bizarre to see conservatives in Congress embrace large deficits as an antidote for government spending. It's a theory that goes back to Reagan days, and it surfaces only when there are Republican deficits that need explaining away. To the unenlightened, it sounds like telling a compulsive shopper to solve his problem by maxing out on his credit cards.

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