Pauly's Pontifications

I heard on the BBC, and also saw in the Washington Post (May 27, 2005) how these allegations about the mistreating of the Koran was documented and something that the Bush Administration must of know about. So how is it that the Bush Administration is furious about the Newsweek article? Several people have collaborated the facts. The article was given to the Pentagon to make sure the items in the article were correct before it was published. So why are they furious at this reporter and asking for his resignation, blaming the riots and death on him, when the abuse at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have been there since the beginning. Even the courts have said that the Bush Administration needs to treat these prisoners differently. It is the Bush Administration's policies that have caused this trouble, not a reporters reporting of the facts. On the BBC I heard a guard say they several times flushed pages of the Koran down the toilet for effect. What happened at Abu Ghraib is not an isolated incident. The Red Cross or Physicians for Human Rights have documented numerous abuses in Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan as well as Abu Ghraib. The Bush Administration claims these are not "war-time" prisoners but enemy combination and so they do not fall under International Laws. They are kept in prisons run by American military personnel, and so sound like prisoners to me. I feel sick every time I think about the treatment of these people at Guantanamo. First of all people were paid to inform. This was in Afghanistan where after the bombings, people were hungry and many living in poverty. Under those circumstances I'm not sure how reliable those informants were. Then when the people were captured, some were as young as twelve, they were not allowed any communications with the outside world for years! They also were not allowed to speak to a lawyer. They were taken and flown to a foreign soil, and then were denied all rights. Bush claims to be for democracy but it appears that human rights are outside his notion of democracy. And the media is now being criticized when they do their job. This administration wants to silence humans who speak about the abuses the administration is doing.

I never could understand how Hitler rose to power in Germany and was supported by so many people. I see the same pattern now of silencing all voices in opposition. Bush is our modern day Hitler and we seem to be letting it happen, just as Germany did. No one is upset when people are taken away from their families, when an unjust war is declared, when long standing traditions such as a filibuster is taken away, or at least attempting to be silenced. Soon Bush will be promoting another war, and then saying he needs another term because we don't want to change leaders in midstream. I'm not sure where the religious right is coming from because Bush is clearly nothing like Jesus Christ. This religious fervor has probably more relationship with the Nazi party than it does with any Christian message I gained from reading the Bible.

Tell my why everyone isn't talking or upset about this memo published in the London Sunday Times (May 1, 2005) about how the war in Iraq was premeditated and there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. The memo states, "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action." It then goes on to state, " But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."
So tell me why after the death of over 1,000 Americans, and the loss of over 100,000 innocent Iraqis Congress is not calling for an investigation of this. And what about the more than 100 billion of taxpayers money for this, several billion that Halliburton does not even have accounting records for and yet took from the U.S. citizens. Most of Americanmoney is not going to Iraq but to American companies in Iraq. We destroy a nation and now over a year later they have one hour of electricity for every two hours off - and that's in temperatures over 100 degrees. Many don't have running water for much of the day. They live in constant fear. The Bush Administration wanted to get Saddam (he tried to kill Bush's dad) and we don't seem to mind that fact, or that thousands have died, or are maimed, all without cause. What is wrong with the American people? Have we lost our humanity? President Bush claims he is for life, but I don't see it. Tell me how going into an unjust war is life-affirming?
If the Republicans can spend millions of dollars of taxpayer monies to investigate Clinton and Whitewater, why aren't Americans calling for an investigation of the Bush Administration that has cost this country so much more than one real estate deal in which Clinton was never found to have committed any crime. In dollars alone, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that in 2004 the war cost 93.7 billion dollars and predicts over the next ten years 400 billion dollars (400,000,000,000) will be spent on the cost of this war. If one estimates that there are about 296,000,000 Americans, then every man, woman and child will have to earn about 1,350 dollars to support this unjust war whether we like it or not. Is this how you want your money spent? I thought Republicans were fiscally responsible, but then I forgot they elected a president that has declared bankruptcy for an oil company he ran.
Why do Americans accept this war, even after the lies are revealed?