meta-roj

i’ve been beaten over the head by my president for months about how america… and the world… are safer¹ since we’ve invaded iraq.

100, 000 excess civilian Iraqi deaths since war – study [reuters, october 28, 2004]

“The risk of death from violence in the period after the invasion was 58 times higher than in the period before the war,” Les Roberts and his colleagues said in the report which compared Iraqi deaths during 14.6 months before the invasion and the 17.8 months after it.

the study suggests that “safer” in iraq is definitely an open question.

iraq body count has between 14160 and 16289 at the moment.

maybe iraq isn’t part of the world as defined by the bush administration?

¹ President’s Remarks at the 2004 Republican National Convention [september 2, 2004], President’s Remarks at Victory 2004 Rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota [september 16, 2004], U.S., World Safer Since September 11th, 2001, Bush Says [july 12, 2004], and so many, many more.

bush had good prep in 2000, but i guess we’re slacking on the prep since then….

The Second Gore-Bush Presidential Debate, October 11, 2000 [commission on presidential debates]

… I think one way for us to end up being viewed as the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying, we do it this way, so should you. Now, we trust freedom. We know freedom is a powerful, powerful, powerful force, much bigger than the United States of America, as we saw recently in the Balkans. But maybe I misunderstand where you’re coming from, Mr. Vice President, but I think the United States must be humble and must be proud and confident of our values, but humble in how we treat nations that are figuring out how to chart their own course.

so, tell me again how we should treat nations?

ah, sweet irony. the most secretive, restrictive us administration in memory calls on the russians to be open and transparent in their war on terror….

i guess this is another example of “do as we say, not as we do” and the burdens of being a world leader which other countries look to for examples…

U.S. Demands Transparency in Russia Terror Fight [reuters, september 15, 2004]

“We will try to support the Russian Federation where we understand their policies and (where) we understand their strategies,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said while on a visit to Prague.

“We are a little disappointed that recently it seems that the Russian Federation has got a little bit more secretive about their strategies, has restricted the media somewhat so we don’t have full access to this information,” he told reporters after meeting the Czech foreign minister.

i am a little disappointed that recently it seems that the bush administration has restricted the media so i don’t have full access to this information…

seems to me, on the surface anyway, that the russians are just emulating the great democracy of the united states. and what better example to follow?

Bush Dismisses Idea That Kerry Lied on Vietnam [ny times, august 27, 2004]

Mr. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that he made a “miscalculation of what the conditions would be” in postwar Iraq. But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency that has upended the administration’s plans for the country was the unintended by-product of a “swift victory” against Saddam Hussein’s military, which fled and then disappeared into the cities, enabling them to mount a rebellion against the American forces far faster than Mr. Bush and his aides had anticipated.

there seems to be a pattern of miscalculation and counting trouble with the american executive branch. it’s affecting our ability to plan things.

which is good news, i suppose.

during this whole episode, i’ve been reminded of an obscure, cult film with a standoff at a temple – wizards.

ark
ok, babe. they ain’t gonna talk. gimme plan b

dumbo
hey ark, what’s plan b?

ark
hey hey. watch.

i imagine that’s going to be lost on most people, but it’s good for a chuckle.

it’s a little late to participate much, but today is still, technically, the save darfur day of conscience.

i’ve mentioned sudan a few times here. do something.

this is worth reading.

as the acknowledged sole superpower, the united states is left with a curious burden when it comes to international relations. we get emulated.

Iran May Pre-Empt Any Attack on Nuke Program -TV [reuters, august 20, 2004]

Iran might launch pre-emptive strikes to protect its nuclear facilities if they are threatened, Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said in remarks broadcast on Friday.

“We won’t sit with our hands tied and wait until someone does something to us,” Shamkhani told Arabic channel Al Jazeera when asked what Iran would do if the United States or Israel attacked its atomic facilities.

“Some military leaders in Iran are convinced that the pre-emptive measures that America is talking about are not their right alone,” he added in Persian. His comments were dubbed into Arabic.

well, there you have it, the first official statement from an “axis of evil” country that proves that they do pay attention to what the united states does (and not just what it says). so the bush doctrine has come to the islamic world, and now we all live under the threat of pre-emptive attack for any perceived threat.

don’t make any suddent moves. don’t look them in the eye. don’t make any loud noises.

no, i do not feel safer now.

with elections coming in october, the afghan population has, it would seem, embraced a major tenent of democracy:

90 Percent of Afghans Registered to Vote [ap via abc, august 2, 2004]

First tallies since the eight-month registration drive began winding down on Saturday show that 8.7 million of an estimated 9.8 million eligible voters have collected ID cards for the Oct. 9 election. Forty-one percent of those registered were women.

i think it’s something like 75% of americans that are registered to vote.

i wish them well.

in june, i talked vaguely about the coming surprises. even earlier, in may, others were talking about july surprises. it seems that while the chain of command in iraq is questionable, afghanistan knows how to deliver on a request.

but that’s just random bloggers talking about wild “left wing conspiracy theories.” is there substance? let’s turn to some “real” journalists (john b. judis, spencer ackerman & massoud ansari)….

July Surprise? [new republic, july 19, 2004 / updated july 29, 2004]

But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT [high value targets] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

well, afghanistan almost delivered – instead of the 26-28th of july window, they missed by a day, putting it on kerry nomination acceptance day. but you can’t control the timing of these things. the war on terror is an ongoing effort, operations are continuous, and the capture of crafty terrorist leaders is always a priority.

how you interpret this, of course is going to depend a lot on your personal political leanings. some call it a straw man and even rush had to poke at it – any success in the war on terror is a political move. but then they’ll have to face the question about this person being captured on the 25th, but the capture not announced until the 29th. and that announcement did make interesting news.

in contrast, the saddam capture (that’s another hvt), was reported by fox and announced by the president himself within hours of the capture.

is pakistan supporting the bush administration by delivering a high-value target on schedule, or is pakistan supporting the opposition by playing into a pre-sold conspiracy theory? or is it really just all a coincidence?

sadly, there’s a long trail of breadcrumbs… so i’m pretty sure i didn’t make this whole thing up as some strange dystopian movie script… you couldn’t sell that sort of conspiracy theory to hollywood.