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[Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Tuesday, March 25, 2003, at 05:14  PM, Joey Carr wrote:

> These images of the dead are the single most damaging thing to the
> continuation of this war that the Iraqi state is capable of.  Pictures  
> of
> the American dead will serve to scare and demoralize the American
> population, no matter if you see it as Iraqi propaganda or as brutal  
> facts
> of reality (they're dead people who died very violently, unless you're
> used to it it is going to freak you out, it certainly did me).

Given what we believe we know about the regime, the fact that they  
would take a group of captured prisoners, shoot a couple in the head,  
and beat the torture the rest shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Now what does make me scared is that the Bush Administration feels the  
need to use fake documents to win UN support:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2080238/
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-nuclear-un.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17888- 
2003Mar12?language=printer
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-03-14-iraq-forged- 
docs_x.htm

"A few hours and a simple internet search was all it took for U.N.  
inspectors to realize documents backing U.S. and British claims that  
Iraq had revived its nuclear program were crude fakes, a U.N. official  
said."

What also scares me is both the CIA Director and ex-President George  
Bush Sr. both believe the threat from Iraq is a lot less of a threat  
than any number of others. The current action that will cost hundreds  
of billions of dollars and kill unknown numbers of people seems so out  
of sync with the relative threat that there has to be some other  
explanation.

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-cia11oct11,0,2360915.story

"Evidence of the differences between the agency and the White House  
surfaced publicly this week when CIA Director George J. Tenet sent a  
letter to lawmakers saying the Iraqi president is unlikely to strike  
the United States unless provoked."

When you have a situation where the CIA Director, who presumably has  
access to the same information as the White House, believes there is no  
danger of being attacked by Iraq, something is seriously wrong. Its not  
that Iraq isn't a threat, but the job of securing the country involves  
assessing the relative threats and assigning resources accordingly. For  
example, Earth COULD be obliterated by a giant asteroid, but the  
chances are so low its not worth spending billions on a giant space  
laser to protect the world.

___________________________________________________________________
No place better demonstrates the worst aspects of both the American
character and public policy than the nation's highways.
        -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC