12 questions for President Bush (Chalmers Johnson)

[struggle4progress]

<snip>
2. Please tell us: If we plan to return Iraq to the Iraqis, why is the United States currently building 14 permanent bases there?
<snip>
5. You say that we will tear down Abu Ghraib prison if the Iraqis so wish. What if they wish to preserve it as a monument to our cruelty as well as Saddam Hussein’s?
6. Your administration has recently confirmed that while captured Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were not, in your eyes, covered by the Geneva Conventions, Iraqi prisoners and detainees were. The acts in Abu Ghraib prison contravened those conventions. We now know that teams of interrogation experts were sent by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commandant of our Guantánamo prison from Cuba to Abu Ghraib to teach Americans working there “better” interrogation techniques. If these contravened the Geneva Conventions, should General Miller be brought to trial for this? If General Miller acted at Guantanamo and elsewhere on the basis of guidelines and urgings from his superiors in the Pentagon and the military chain of command, should they face the same? Your views on this would be appreciated.
<snip>
8. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the war and occupation in Iraq by 130,000 US troops now costs close to $5 billion per month, or $60 billion a year. So far the war has cost American taxpayers $186 billion in direct military expenses. You’ve asked for another $425 billion in defense appropriations for the 2005 Pentagon budget, plus another $75 billion for Iraq, $25 billion for the development of new generations of nuclear weapons, and untold billion for such things as military pensions and veterans’ health care. Not included in these figures are the multibillions in secret amounts spent on the CIA and other intelligence activities, not to speak of other Department of Defense “black budget” activities kept out of the appropriations process. Where is all this money going to come from? Why is our government putting all this money on the tab for future generations to deal with?
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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=Opinion&OID=52481

[livetohike]

1. Great article!

Thanks for posting this. Dr. Johnson spoke at our Dem. club meeting in March.

[TolstoyAndy]

2. I've heard him interviewed

WBEZ-chicago ( http://www.chicagopublicradio.com/worldview/
then search, though I can't find a search box on the show's page) and he is _awesome_.

No shrinking violet, no pacifist (though I am), he skewers US policy right through the heart.

(edit spelling)