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These quotes are in reverse order – the first posting is at the bottom, with the most recent quotes at the top.
By all accounts, we are entering a month of great national deliberation. In the main arena, the most serious foreign-policy debate since Vietnam is unfolding, with senior members of the president's own party among those articulating the most serious qualms...In the other ring of the circus, the corporate one, we also have the odd spectacle of the most powerful of elites in the role of dissenters...But something is very wrong with this picture. It is entirely an elite debate and a narrow one. What's missing are real dissent and real reform. Anybody who expects dissent and reform to emerge from the very citadels of the system misunderstands the nature of power... Both wings of the Republican foreign-policy elite have in common a dangerous view of the United States as a go-it-alone superpower, a contempt for international institutions, a disdain for global public opinion and a willingness to overlook human-rights abuses when they are committed by military allies...
One can easily imagine congressional hearings leading to a patched-together consensus that Bush should give the Iraqi dictator one last brief chance -- this time for real -- to admit weapons inspectors. In return, Congress grants Bush authority to make war if the Iraqis refuse. So Bush gets an overwhelming and bipartisan grant of congressional support, right on the eve of the midterm elections. He then makes Saddam an offer he can't accept. And voilą! Bush has tamed both the Democrats in Congress and the menace in Iraq.
...in the case of corporate reform, the issue begs for a broader challenge. The Greenspan-Volcker version of reform, though an improvement on the worst of Enron capitalism, is a pitifully narrow sort of amelioration. At issue is not just honest corporate bookkeeping or how to make corporate CEOs slightly more accountable to shareholders. The broader issue, far beyond the ken of Greenspan and Volcker, is the governance not just of corporate boards but of capitalism. The economy isn't just one of shareholders but of stakeholders including workers and communities.
Revolting Elites Robert Kuttner
http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/18/kuttner-r.html
The president has repeatedly claimed, 'We have no quarrel with the Iraqi people.' In his speech to the nation on Oct. 7, he said, 'America is a friend of the people of Iraq.' Try telling that to a friend of mine in Baghdad who walked out of his house following a U.S.bomb attack to find his neighbor's head rolling down the street; or to a taxi driver I met whose four year old child shook uncontrollably for three days following Clinton's 1998 'Monicagate' bombing diversion. Try telling it to the mother of Omran ibn Jwair, whom I met in the village of Toq al-Ghazzalat after a U.S.missile killed her 13 year old son while he was tending sheep in the field. Try telling it to the hundreds of mothers I have seen crying over their dying babies in Iraqi hospitals, and to the hundreds of thousands of parents who have actually lost their infant children due to the cruel U.S.blockade, euphemistically called 'sanctions.' Are the Iraqi people supposed to rejoice now that a new war is being forced upon them by their so-called 'friends?' It is understandable that people are frightened following the disastrous attacks of September 11. But fear is not a good reason to stop thinking. In fact, when we are in danger is when clear thinking is needed most of all.
Detailed Analysis of Bush Speech on Iraq
James Jennings
President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization that has worked in Iraq since 1991
http://www.accuracy.org/bush
The stance is significant because up to this point, Rome and London have been President George W. Bush's strongest allies in Europe.
1.5 Million Take to the Streets in Italy to Protest Bush War Plans
Eric J. Lyman
UPI International
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.08F.peace.demos.htm
"Should Allah bless their endeavors with significant success, the outcome would indeed be the holy war they are seeking, but most likely in the form of nuclear retaliation that would reduce their civilization to scattered remnants of desert nomads."
"One sure way of finding out if someone is hiding dangerous weapons is to attack them and see if they use them."
"Although we see ourselves as a peaceful nation we have never known a generation without war and the rest of the world sees us as rather bellicose."
"The obvious fact is it cannot be prevented by force. Israel has endured decades of it despite having excellent military and intelligence capabilities, a compact well policed area to protect and a small source area that is under their direct military control. The U.S., on the other hand, has a vast area to protect, a multitude of vulnerable targets that are impossible to police, a global source for terrorism with which to deal and very poor intelligence access to much of it.
"While the situation is already bad, it is growing worse in term of the means to and targets for terrorism being ever increasing with the advance of technology. Already cross country oil, gas, electricity, water and communication lines are vulnerable, as are bridges, tunnels, and dams. Food distribution and the health care system are open to chaos. Various crop and livestock pests and diseases can easily be unleashed to play havoc with food production. Forest fires are trivial to start. All this doesn't even have to involve taking human life but can have even more detrimental effect on society as a whole. As time goes on knowledge of such things as genetic engineering becomes more advanced and widespread. Even an individual with modest funds will soon be capable of unleashing havoc.
"It is clear we will not be able to prevent massive disruptions with force alone. We are going to have to discover and address the root causes of terrorism. We may even have to do the unthinkable and actually communicate with the terrorists and try to reach some degree of mutual understanding. Or, we can stand on principle with both sides claiming God and righteousness while continuing to slaughter one another."
Conversation with Walter Stark
http://theconversation.org/archive/c-walterstarck.html
"A former White House chief of staff and an international investigative journalist want to know what the Pentagon knows, calling on it to release classified files...not setting out to prove the existence of aliens. Rather the group wants to legitimize the scientific investigation of unexplained aerial phenomena."
"[John] Podesta was one of numerous political and media heavyweights on hand in Washington, D.C., to announce a new group to gain access to secret government records about UFOs. Specifically, the Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI) is pressing the Air Force...The CFI director Ed Rothschild also works for Podesta's public relations firm, PodestaMattoon, which is coordinating the new group at the behest of the Sci-Fi channel. He said the initiative was a call for serious investigation, not a publicity stunt for the cable network."
THE FURTHEST OUT: CLINTON AIDE SLAMS PENTAGON'S UFO SECRECY
Richard Stenger
cnn.com - 10/22
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/10/22/ufo.records/index.html
"Norm Coleman won Minnesota because he was well-financed and well-packaged. Norm is a slick retail campaigner the grabbiest and touchingest and feelingest politician in Minnesota history, a hugger and baby-kisser, and he's a genuine boomer candidate who reinvents himself at will. The guy is a Brooklyn boy who became a left-wing student radical at Hofstra University with hair down to his shoulders, organized antiwar marches, said vile things about Richard Nixon, etc. Then he came west, went to law school, changed his look, went to work in the attorney general's office in Minnesota. Was elected mayor of St. Paul as a moderate Democrat, then swung comfortably over to the Republican side. There was no dazzling light on the road to Damascus, no soul-searching: Norm switched parties as you'd change sport coats."
Empty Victory for a hollow man: How Norm Coleman sold his soul for a Senate seat
Garrison Keillor
ttp://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/11/07/minnesota/index_np.html
JULY/AUGUST, 2002 QUOTES
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