FRONT Page at ATimes: "Cindy, Don and George"! Must Read!

[leftchick]

This is a great article.... :)

<snip>

Who is in that ditch?
Casey Sheehan had one of those small "critical roles" in the "current global commitment" in Iraq that, in Rumsfeld's words, "has to have a deterrent effect on people". As it happens, Sheehan was one of the unexpectedly deterred and now, along with 1,846 other American soldiers, is interred, leaving his take-no-prisoners mother Cindy - a one-person antiwar movement - with a critical role to play in awakening Americans to the horrors and dangers of the Bush administration's "current global commitments".

Over the past two years, administration officials, civilian and military, have never ceased to talk about "turning corners" or reaching "tipping points" and achieving "milestones" in the Iraq-war-that-won't-end. Now it seems possible that Cindy Sheehan in a spontaneous act of opposition - her decision to head for Crawford, Texas, to face down a vacationing president and demand an explanation for her son's death - may produce the first real American tipping point of the Iraq war.

As a million news articles and TV reports have informed us, she was stopped about five miles short of her target, the presidential "ranch" in Crawford, and found herself unceremoniously consigned to a ditch at the side of a Texas road, camping out. And yet somehow, powerless except for her story, she has managed to take hostage the president of the US and turned his Crawford refuge into the American equivalent of Baghdad's Green Zone. She has mysteriously transformed August's news into a question of whether, on his way to meet Republican donors, the president will helicopter over her encampment or drive past (as he, in fact, did) in a tinted-windowed black Chevrolet SUV.

Faced with the power of the Bush political and media machine, Cindy Sheehan has engaged in an extreme version of asymmetrical warfare and, in her person, in her story, in her version of "the costs of war", she has also managed to catch many of the tensions of our present moment. What she has exposed in the process is the growing weakness and confusion of the Bush administration. At this moment, it remains an open question who, in the end, will be found in that ditch at the side of a Texas road, her - or the president of the United States.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GH16Aa01.html

[henslee]

1. Rumsfield is a disaster. Biden was roasting him today on CNN.

Iran is having a chuckle. How the heck is the U.S. going to invade us with forces so depleted and being so ally-less.

[Richard D]

2. Be afraid . . .

. . . very. 1. Israel. 2. Nukes.

[henslee]

5. I am more scared of our country than the enemy. How the heck can

we get past this grubby bully bully we're gonna blow you up war-stuff and get down to the real challenge of becoming stewards of our planet before it is beyond repair..... ON EDIT -- Though it is probl. beyond repair already.

[shaniqua6392]

4. Especially since bush said this:

THERE WILL BE NO DRAFT!! Unless there is a nuclear(or as he says it"NUCULAR") attack somewhere in the U.S. Then he could easily say that we have been attacked by Iran and must reinstate the draft to fight them. Hmmmm. Food for thought.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Another trifecta in the making.

Trifectas are made, not born.

[Eloriel]

18. OMG - YOU GOT A LINK TO THAT OR did you hear him?

That was his exact set-up for raiding Social Security, wasn't it? "We will NEVER do that, UNLESS..."

I guess we'd better plan for something nuclear on our soil.

I would LOVE more info about this. I missed it. A link would be great.

[Al-CIAda]

20. BUSH'S TRIFECTA OF LIES

BUSH TRIFECTA QUOTE CAVEATS FOUND...

"'Barring an economic reversal, a national emergency, or a foreign crisis, we should balance the budget this year, next year, and every year.' said that to the Economic Club of Detroit in May 1998, then repeated it at least twice more, in speeches in June and November of that year."

BUT BUSH LIED ABOUT WHO SAID THEM

"In this space last week, it was noted that President Bush often tells audiences that he promised during the 2000 presidential campaign that he would allow the federal budget to go into deficit in times of war, recession or national emergency, but he never imagined he would "have a trifecta." Nobody inside or outside the White House, however, had been able to produce evidence that Bush actually said this during the campaign.... Now comes information that the three caveats were uttered before the 2000 campaign -- by Bush's Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore." --Wash. Post, 7/2/02

lielielielielie

BUSH'S TRIFECTA OF LIES: "It takes a brazen politician to make up a story that can be proven false and then to keep lying about it after being busted repeatedly. A case in point is President Bush's repetition last week of a story about a fictitious Chicago campaign statement, just days after his budget director was called on it by "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert....Bush's claim that he listed three exceptions under which he would run deficits during a 2000 Chicago campaign stop -- war, national emergency or recession -- is blatantly false" --Brendan Nyhan, 06.18.02

lielielielielie

http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm

[guruoo]

16. Easy

<>

[G_j]

3. more excellence from Tom Engelhardt

recommended reading, thanks for posting!

[rodeodance]

6. he contrasted quotes between Don (Rummy). bush and Cindy (below)

Cindy, Don and George
By Tom Engelhardt

Retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey said to Time Magazine: "The army's wheels are going to come off in the next 24 months. We are now in a period of considerable strategic peril. It's because Rumsfeld has dug in his heels and said, 'I cannot retreat from my position.'"

Cindy Sheehan testifying at Representative John Conyers' public hearings on the Downing Street Memo:

My son, Spc Casey Austin Sheehan, was KIA in Sadr City Baghdad on 04/04/04. He was in Iraq for only two weeks before L Paul Bremer inflamed the Shi'ite militia into a rebellion which resulted in the deaths of Casey and six other brave soldiers who were tragically killed in an ambush. Bill Mitchell, the father of Sergeant Mike Mitchell, who was one of the other soldiers killed that awful day, is with us here. This is a picture of Casey when he was seven months old. It's an enlargement of a picture he carried in his wallet until the day he was killed. He loved this picture of himself. It was returned to us with his personal effects from Iraq. He always sucked on those two fingers. When he was born, he had a flat face from passing through the birth canal and we called him "Edward G", short for Edward G Robinson. How many of you have seen your child in his/her premature coffin? It is a shocking and very painful sight. The most heartbreaking aspect of seeing Casey lying in his casket for me was that his face was flat again because he had no muscle tone. He looked like he did when he was a baby laying in his bassinet. The most tragic irony is that if the Downing Street Memo proves to be true, Casey and thousands of people should still be alive.

Rumsfeld testifying before the House Armed Services Committee in March: "The world has seen, in the last three-and-a-half years, the capability of the United States of America to go into Afghanistan ... and with 20,000, 15,000 troops working with the Afghans do what 200,000 Soviets couldn't do in a decade. They've seen the United States and the coalition forces go into Iraq ... That has to have a deterrent effect on people." (Ann Scott Tyson, "US Gaining World's Respect From Wars, Rumsfeld Asserts", the Washington Post, March 11.)

Bush on arriving for a meeting with families of the bereaved, including Cindy Sheehan and her husband on June 17, 2004: "So, who are we honoring here?" .....

[shaniqua6392]

8. I think anyone who voted these evil people

back into office in 2004 should be required to attend the funeral of a fallen soldier. Maybe that will bring this into a different light for them. Too bad they are too busy to do this because they are at the mall shopping after they had the valet park their car (which has a support our troops magnet on the back, of course)!!! God help us.

[leftchick]

12. I hadn't read an Engelhardt article in a while....

This one is fantastic. What a way with words he has.

[Benhurst]

7. Thanks. Recommended. NT

[leftchick]

9. The "never-never land president"

I LOVE it when a journalist calls the idiot on his total lack of reality....


<snip>


But in a week in which the American general in command of transportation in Iraq announced that roadside bomb attacks against his convoys had doubled over the past year, such words sounded empty - especially as news flowed in suggesting that, while the insurgents continued to fight fiercely, the new Iraqi military seemed in no rush whatsoever to "stand up" and that our own commanders believed it might never do so in significant numbers. At his news conference, our never-never-land president nonetheless spoke several times of being pleased to announce "progress" in Iraq. ("And we're making progress training the Iraqis. Oh, I know it's hard for some Americans to see that progress, but we are making progress.")

He spoke as well of attempts to ease the burden on the no-longer-weekend warriors of the National Guard and the Reserves (who are taking unprecedented casualties in August). He said: "We've also taken steps to improve the call-up process for our Guard and for our Reserves. We've provided them with earlier notifications. We've given them greater certainty about the length of their tours. We minimized the number of extensions and repeat mobilizations." Unfortunately, at just this moment, Joint Chiefs head Myers was speaking of the possibility of calling soldiers back for their third tours of duty in Iraq: "There's the possibility of people going back for a third term, sure. That's always out there. We are at war."

[JNelson6563]

10. Bravo! Recommended!

Thanks for posting. I read the entire article, great stuff!

Julie

[leftchick]

13. the neo-freaks don't know how to handle her...

<snip>

However the media deals with her, she embodies every bind the administration is in. As with Iraq (as well as Iran), the administration can't either make its will felt or sweep her off the landscape. Bush and his officials blinked at a moment when they would certainly have liked to whack her, fearing the power of the mother of a dead son from their war. And then, completely uncharacteristically, they vacillated and flip-flopped. They ignored her, then negotiated. They sent out their attack dogs to flail at her, then expressed sympathy. Officials, who have always known what to do before, had no idea what to do with Cindy Sheehan. The most powerful people in the world, they surely feel trapped and helpless. Somehow, she's taken that magical presidential something out of Bush and cut him down to size. It's been a remarkable performance so far.

[trekbiker]

14. very good article... thanks for posting..

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. kick n/t

[marions ghost]

17. thanks for posting--excellent

:kick:

[Beam Me Up]

19. I just got a page not found on the OP link.

:shrug:

[leftchick]

22. well that sucks...

here is a re-posted link. If this does not work it is worth the time to google ATimes.com. They are the best! :)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GH16Aa01.html

[Beam Me Up]

23. Still a no go

Will google. Thanks.

Edit to add: I see the link to the story on the front page of AsiaTimes but I still get a page not found when I click the link there. How weird!

ISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Cindy, Don and George
Talk about asymmetric warfare: one woman against the massed and proven might of the George W Bush political machine. But the president, who prides himself on not flinching, giving ground or ever saying he's sorry, has met a match in Cindy Sheehan, a lady who may help turn a set of unhappy public opinion polls into a full-scale antiwar movement. - Tom Engelhardt

The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
Please try the following:

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Open the www.atimes.com home page, and then look for links to the information you want.
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HTTP 404 - File not found
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[leftchick]

24. Here is the Tomdispatch site

http://www.tomdispatch.com/

It is Tom Engelhardt's site and where the article originated. I hope it works.

[Beam Me Up]

25. Got it. THANKS!

:hi:

[G_j]

21. kick