Despite the terrible mistakes made after the removal of Saddam, the case for liberal interventionism is still compelling.

…You can have ‘ad-hoc coalitions for action that stir massive controversy about legitimacy’. In other words, as Mr Blair didn’t say explicitly, the Iraq war. You can have ‘paralysis in the face of crisis’, which means tolerating genocide and allowing threats from terrorist groups and rogue states to grow unchecked. Or you can try to renew the idea of interventionism through reinvigorating global institutions.

That is a high ideal and a noble cause. The reforms advocated by Mr Blair sound admirable. He paints a wonderful portrait of a future in which the powerful nations work in concert and within agreed international rules to tackle terrorism, poverty, genocide, humanitarian catastrophe, climate change, disease and conflict. Great theory; shame about the reality. The trouble is getting America to sign up to this vision of liberal global governance, never mind China or Russia. The nightmare of Iraq appears to have made Tony Blair even more of a dreamer.

And yet his optimism, as open to ridicule as it is, must be more attractive than the pessimists who argue that nothing can be done nor should be done when the poor and the persecuted cry out for help. If the cause of humanitarian interventionism is lost in Iraq, it won’t just be Tony Blair who has tragic cause to be sorry.
guardian.co.uk

These are the last who should be called ‘when the poor and persecuted cry out for help.’ They themselves create the poor and are the persecutors. ‘Liberal’ IS a dirty word.

Iraqi Charities Plant Seed of Civil Society
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 22 Ñ In the wave of lawlessness and frantic self-interest that has washed over this war-weary nation, small acts of pure altruism often go unnoticed.

Like the tiny track suits and dresses that Najat al-Saiedi takes to children of displaced families in the dusty, desperate Shiite slum of Shoala. Or the shelter that Suad al-Khafaji gives to, among others, the five children she found living in a garage in northern Baghdad last year.

But the Iraqi government has been taking note of such good works, and now, more than three years after the American invasion, the outlines of a nascent civil society are taking shape.

Since 2003 the government has registered 5,000 private organizations, including charities, human rights groups, medical assistance agencies and literacy projects. Officials estimate that an additional 7,000 groups are working unofficially. The efforts show that even as violence and sectarian hatred tear Iraq’s mixed cities apart, a growing number of Iraqis are trying to bring them together. “Iraqis were thirsty for such experiences,” said Khadija Tuma, director of the office in the Ministry of Civil Society Affairs that now works with the private aid groups. “It was as if they already had it inside themselves.”

The new charity groups offer bits of relief in the sea of poverty that swept Iraq during the economic embargo of the 1990’s and has worsened with the pervasive lawlessness that followed the American invasion.

Sick. No matter how well-intentioned. Dead babies don’t need tiny track suits.

BAGHDAD (AP) Ñ The U.S. military is bracing for a major scandal over the alleged slaying of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha Ñ charges so serious they could threaten President Bush’s effort to rally support at home for an increasingly unpopular war.

And while the case has attracted little attention so far in Iraq, it still could enflame hostility to the U.S. presence just as Iraq’s new government is getting established, and complicate efforts by moderate Sunni Arab leaders to reach out to their community Ñ the bedrock of the insurgency.
usatoday.com

Iraqis numb to killings probe that shocks US
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Word that U.S. Marines may have killed two dozen Iraqi civilians in “cold-blooded” revenge after an insurgent attack has shocked Americans but many Iraqis shrug it off as an every day fact of life under occupation.

Despite U.S. military denials, many Iraqis believe killing of men, women and children at the hands of careless or angry American soldiers is common. No reliable statistics are available.

Is the Bush Regime a state sponsor of terrorism?

A powerful case can be made that it is.

In the past three years, the Bush Regime has murdered tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and an unknown number of Afghan ones.

U.S. Marines, our finest and proudest military force, are under criminal investigation for breaking into Iraqi homes and murdering entire families. In an unprecedented event, Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant, has found it necessary to fly to Iraq to tell our best-trained troops to stop murdering civilians.

Gen. Hagee found it necessary to tell the U.S. Marines: “We do not employ force just for the sake of employing force. We use lethal force only when justified, proportional, and most importantly, lawful.”

The war criminals in the Bush Regime have dismissed the murders as “collateral damage,” but they are in fact murders. Otherwise, there would be no criminal investigations, and the Marine commandant would not be burdened with the embarrassment of having to fly to Iraq to lecture U.S. Marines on the lawful use of force.

The criminal Bush Regime has now murdered more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein. The Bush Regime is also responsible for 20,000 U.S. casualties (dead, maimed for life, and wounded).

Bush damns the “axis of evil.” But who has the “axis of evil” attacked? Iran has attacked no one. North Korea has attacked no country for more than a half century. Iraq attacked Kuwait a decade and a half ago, apparently after securing permission from the U.S. ambassador.

Isn’t the real axis of evil Bush-Blair-Olmert? Bush and Blair have attacked two countries, slaughtering their citizens. Olmert is urging them on to attack a third country Ð Iran.

Where does the danger to the world reside? In Iran, a small, religious country where the family is intact and the government is constrained by religious authority and ancient traditions, or in the U.S. where propaganda rules and the powerful executive branch has removed itself from accountability by breaking the constitutional restraints on its power?

Why is the U.S. superpower orchestrating fear of puny Iran?

The U.S. government has spent the past half century interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, overthrowing or assassinating their chosen leaders and imposing its puppets on foreign peoples. To what country has Iran done this, or Iraq, or North Korea?

Americans think that they are the salt of the earth. The hubris that comes from this self-righteous belief makes Americans blind to the evil of their leaders. How can American leaders be evil when Americans are so good and so wonderful?

How many Serbs were slaughtered by American bombs released from high above the clouds, and for what reason? Who even remembers the propagandistic lies that the Clinton administration told us about why we absolutely had to drop bombs on the Serbs?

Wasn’t it evil for the U.S. to bomb Iraq for a decade and to embargo medicines for children? When U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked if she thought an embargo that resulted in the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children was justified, she replied, “yes.”

The former terrible tyrant ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is on trial for killing 150 people. The U.S. government murdered 500,000 Iraqi children prior to Bush’s invasion. When the U.S. government murders people, whether Serbs, Branch Davidians at Waco, or Iraqi women and children, it is “collateral damage.” But we put Saddam Hussein on trial for putting down rebellions.

Gentle reader, do you believe that the Bush Regime will not shoot you down in the streets if you have a rebellion?
antiwar.com

With 06/06/06 looming (June 6, 2006), authorities in some cities are worrying prophecy theorists or hate groups might read something ominous into the date and use it as an excuse to stir tension. Some expectant mothers are making birthing appointments to ensure they avoid the date, according to the Sunday Times in London.

And for others, it is a marketing opportunity. 20th Century Fox’s remake of “The Omen” and Ann Coulter’s book, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” will both come out June 6.

The Beast

The number 666 is used to refer to the beast in the Bible’s Book of Revelations:

“He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.”

Among many coincidences that occur with numbers, life itself is based partly on these three: Carbon atoms, key to life as we know it, have six protons, six neutrons, and six electrons in their most common form.

That there is concern over the date at all is a reflection of how popular it’s become to search for the hidden meanings in numbers, experts say.

“People have a tendency to latch onto things, like numbers, that help them make sense of the world,” said Mario Livio, an astrophysicist and author of “The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved” (Simon & Schuster, 2005).

Troubled times

The perceived importance of numbers becomes especially true during troubled times, when finding wisdom in numbers can be a comfort, says professional numerologist Sonia Ducie. “Humanity and individuals are attracted to numbers during times of great transformation,” Ducie said. The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are an overwhelming example. Conspiracy theorists in the years since the tragedy have tried hard to thread together “eerie” numerological coincidences, especially those tied to the number eleven. A few of the best known:

9 + 1 + 1 = 11
The first plane to hit the World Trade Center was American Airlines Flight 11; AA can also be “translated” as the alphabet’s version of 11.
The State of New York was the eleventh state added to the union.
The names George W. Bush, New York City, Air Force One, Afghanistan and The Pentagon all contain eleven letters.
Despite its modern manifestations, searching for deeper meanings in numbers is a practice that goes back to ancient times, Livio said.

“Numerology has a long history,” he told LiveScience. “You can trace it all the way from the followers of Pythagoras, whose maxim to describe the universe was Ôall is number.'” Thinkers who studied under the famous Greek mathematician combined numbers in different ways to explain everything around them, he said.

Para-science

Modern numerology has since morphed into a kind of para-science in the same vein as astrology, according to skeptics. Still, many numerologists claim to rely on Pythagoras’ ancient system to divine the hidden connections between numbersÑoften a birth dateÑand an individual’s life.

Our attraction to certain numbers has to do with the cycles of birth and death those numbers have seen through many millions of years in existence, said Ducie, who trained at the Connaissance School of Numerology in Hertfordshire, England.

“People are subconsciously drawn towards specific numbers because they know that they need the experiences, attributes or lessons, associated with them, that are contained within their potential,” she said. “Numerology can Ômake sense’ of an individual’s life (health, career, relationships, situations and issues) by recognizing which number cycle they are in, and by giving them clarity.”
Mathematicians are quick to dismiss numerology as having any scientific merit, however.

“I don’t endorse this at all,” said Livio, when asked to comment on the popularity of commercial numerology today. Seemingly coincidental connections between numbers will always appear if you look hard enough, he said.

Lucky numbers

When it comes to lucky numbers, at least, Ducie agreed.”People can also Ômake’ numbers lucky simply by believing they will be lucky when they have those numbers around them; these preconditioned thoughts strongly contribute towards their manifestation of luck,” she said.
The obsession with particular numbers also tend to wax and wane according to the trends of popular culture, Livio noted.

Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” (Doubleday, 2003) has played a part with its showcase of the golden ratio, or divine proportion, which Livio explores in his book “The Golden Ratio” (Broadway, 2003). The very precise number is said to exist mysteriously in various places in nature and be extremely attractive to the human eye. Spin-offs in the worlds of architecture, art and even diet books are a result of the “Code” phenomenon.

Ronald Reagan’s 666

The supposed number of the devil falls in and out of favor with the public, too. It is unclear just how influential the number was in the centuries after the Bible became widespread as literature, but it was certainly ingrained in popular culture after the 1976 release of the movie “The Omen”, in which the neck of a demon-child is stamped with the digits 666.

When former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy retired to their last home in California thirteen years later, they forced officials to change their address from 666 to 668 St. Cloud Road, Livio said.
news.yahoo.com

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies’ products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

…Many of the corporate reports, produced by drugs manufacturers such as Pfizer, focus on health issues and promote the manufacturer’s product. One example cited by the report was a Hallowe’en segment produced by the confectionery giant Mars, which featured Snickers, M&Ms and other company brands. While the original VNR disclosed that it was produced by Mars, such information was removed when it was broadcast by the television channel – in this case a Fox-owned station in St Louis, Missouri.

Bloomberg news service said that other companies that sponsored the promotions included General Motors, the world’s largest car maker, and Intel, the biggest maker of semi-conductors.
independent.co.uk

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm signed into law “what’s called one of the nation’s strictest public school curriculums” on April 20, 2006, claiming it would “help Michigan’s economic revival”. While it should obviously be patently absurd to link high school curriculum to the economic recovery of a thoroughly depressed state like Michigan, this action serves Governor Granholm quite well as she seeks re-election this year. It creates the illusion that poor high-school education is a key part of Michigan’s economic problems, as well as the illusion that her action will correct the problem. The reality is that she is running for re-election on the backs of a demonized minority, youth, just as her political role model Bill Clinton did in 1996, with his welfare reforms that screwed the country’s poor.
counterpunch.org

CALGARY – In an emotional eulogy for his daughter, the father of the first Canadian woman to die in combat issued a stern rebuke to Prime Minister Stephen Harper Friday, criticizing him for barring the media from his child’s homecoming.
Tim Goddard, father of Capt. Nichola Goddard, said he could ”see no reason” why media should be kept away from the ramp ceremonies at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.

”I find it troubling that the privacy decision means that we are keeping the press outside the wire, where the bad guys are,” he said during her funeral in the same church where he gave the 26-year-old away as a bride just four years ago.

”I would like to think that Nichola died to protect our freedoms, not to restrict them.”
canada.com

No matter what parents would understandably like to think, the deaths of their children are meaningless, and this is the ultimate betrayal.

NEARLY 3,000 British soldiers have gone absent without leave every year since the start of the Iraq war, with more than 1,000 of them still missing, according to Ministry of Defence figures.

The numbers evading capture by the Royal Military Police have risen sharply since the invasion of Iraq, giving rise to allegations that an increasing number of soldiers might be trying to avoid further tours to the conflict zone.

The MoD denied there was any evidence that soldiers were deserting because of the war.
timesonline.co.uk

BOGOTç, Colombia, May 27 Ñ His handlers portray President çlvaro Uribe as a wonkish technocrat too busy solving Colombia’s problems to become mired in its tumultuous politics. But as he finished campaigning for re-election ahead of Sunday’s voting, Mr. Uribe transformed himself into a master salesman whose message was simple and effective: it’s me or catastrophe.

On a recent night, his staccato voice filling the Plaza de Bol’var here, Mr. Uribe rattled off his accomplishments Ñ military victories against Marxist guerrillas, expanded nutritional programs for the elderly, a free-trade pact with Washington.

“All of it appears like a lot, but it is not very much in the face of what the Colombian people need,” Mr. Uribe said in a long speech, emphasizing that more work needed to be done and that he was the man to do it. “The victory will be the Colombian people’s, the victory will be yours.”

Mr. Uribe’s projection as a determined and steady caretaker of a troubled country, coupled with his talents for imagery and populism, have made him the man to beat, and perhaps one of the most popular presidents in Colombia’s history.

Polls show Mr. Uribe, a 53-year-old lawyer, at least 30 points ahead of his nearest rival Ñ Carlos Gaviria, a former Constitutional Court justice Ñ and well on his way to capturing the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

The Bush White House, which has given Colombia more than $3 billion in the Uribe years, mostly as military and antidrug aid, has a lot riding on the election as well, in a region filled with political tumult and rising leftist populism. President Bush himself has not held back on heaping praise, calling Mr. Uribe “a strong and principled leader.”

But as Mr. Uribe prepares for what will most likely be another four-year term, political analysts, opposition politicians and human rights groups have raised concern about the concentrated power he will amass and his often heavy-handed style of governing.
nytimes.com

‘Heavy handed?’ ‘Strong and principled’? Funny with the rhetorical firestorm re: ‘spreading democracy’ and such, how the most natural allies for the United States (and the whorish New York Times) are the vicious dictatorships in Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Controversial British MP George Galloway has made a surprise appearance on live Cuban television.

He defended Cuban President Fidel Castro against allegations made by a US magazine that he has amassed a personal fortune of $900m (£477m).

Mr Galloway said the article was part of a “Yankee imperialist” conspiracy.

Mr Castro has said the claim in Forbes magazine is “rubbish” and that he would resign if anyone proved he had a single dollar in a foreign bank account.

Few knew that Mr Galloway was in Cuba until, in the middle of a live television discussion programme, he emerged to offer his impassioned support for Fidel Castro.

The Cuban president, in his customary military fatigues, looked on approvingly as the British MP said Mr Castro was a symbol of dignity.

“The Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn’t possess one dollar to his name,” said Mr Galloway.

‘Commandante’

Mr Galloway, who admits a weakness for Cuban cigars, has long taken an interest in the only Communist state in the western hemisphere.

He describes Fidel Castro as the living person he most admires.

During his remarks on Cuban TV he drew a parallel between himself and President Castro, whom he referred to as “commandante”.

The MP said he too had been slandered as a thief, when unproved claims were made that he had profited from the Iraq oil-for-food programme.

Mr Galloway said the problem was that those who believe money is the only god, fail to realise that some people see the world in a different way.

In a separate interview with the BBC, a spokesperson for Forbes said the magazine stood by its original article.
bbc.co.uk

Link to Galloway interview re: ‘Terrorist attack on Blair (and Bush)’

Galloway explains that though such an attack would be morally justified, he wants to see these two on trial in the Hague and put in jail for the rest of their lives, which, he rightly points out, much of the world would like to see as well.