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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Saturday, June 28, 2003
A solution that could have been, and perhaps still could be Remember the suspected bioweapons lab trailers that were found in Iraq about a month ago? You know the ones that went from being a weapon of mass destruction to not being a weapon of mass destruction in a period of no more than seven days and which reportedly are believed by British intelligence to have been used for artillery balloons. The latest word, as reported by the AP, is that the Central Intelligence Agency is sticking by its finding that the trailers were likely part of a bioweapons lab, despite a State Department claim to the contrary. The CIA's view seems to be the most popular in the White House. "The President believes that they [the CIA], in this instance, have the best judgment because they were in the most authoritative position to have accurate information," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said on Thursday. "It's not only the President who thinks that, but so, too, does the Secretary of State." This may be true and, for the sake of making a cheap semi-humorous political point, I will assume it is. I now plan to doubt just about everything that comes out of the State Department. *** Speaking of the State Department, I was surfing their webpage for things to not believe when I came across this interview that Secretary of State Colin Powell gave for All Things Considered yesterday. In it we find out that those under Powell call him "Boss" as if he were Alan Lomax or something. Also in the interview, Powell says, "The imminent threat is that suddenly, this biological warfare lab, for example, could have been put into use. And the possibility that anything that came out of that lab or any of the chemical capability he had could have been given to terrorist organizations. And the point well, should we wait until we see a chemical device exploded or turned loose or some toxin released in London or Paris or Frankfurt or New York or Los Angeles and then decide we have an imminent threat?" This nothing but outright poppycock as 1) Powell is connected with the State Department, who we all know can't be trusted; 2) A long trail of info suggests that other members of the Bush Administration were saying that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; 3) Powell has said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. For instance on March 24, he said that Operation Iraqi Freedom " is part of this great effort to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and provide a better life for the Iraqi people by getting rid of this regime." *** CNN has not one but two interesting stories about WMD programs that may have existed in Iraq. This AP story on the same topic is also worth reading. *** "The U.S. military is investigating the deaths of two soldiers whose bodies were found Saturday 20 miles northwest of Baghdad," FOX News writes today. "63 [U.S.] troops have died since the war ended May 1. The military has confirmed 138 deaths prior to that date, while the names of several other casualties have not yet been made available." Despite these deaths, yesterday Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reportedly denied that the U.S. was facing a guerrilla war in Iraq and instead blamed criminal elements in Iraq. While this might not be completely inaccurate, it does seem a bit much considering that few, if any, of the attacks on coalition troops have involved any other criminal activities such as robberies. The Iraqi criminal element almost certainly wouldn't be satisfied with just attacking the forces of occupation for the sake of such attacks, and so it seems safe to conclude that some other forces are involved. Yesterday a CNN story about another attack that happened in Baghdad had this info: "There is no doubt this was an organized attack, an ambush, and it represents an increasing level of organization and sophistication. What we're seeing is an urban guerilla force taking the initiative against the forces that are there," said a U.S. military official familiar with the latest briefings on the security situation in Iraq.*** "Syria says it has protested to the US Government over an American military strike thought to have been aimed at Saddam Hussein," the BBC reported three days ago. "The comment, made in the official Syrian Arab News Agency on Wednesday - nearly a week after the event occurred - was the first from Damascus. The Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador to Damascus, Theodore Kattouf, to protest and demand the return of five Syrian soldiers wounded in the incident." *** *** The U.S. wouldn't be having any of these problems if around March 19 President George W. Bush had said, "Fuck Iraq! Let's show them a little American Know How and show the Japs they got off easy" before launching attacks designed to kill every person in Iraq. |