More Political Thoughts

It's always a bit dangerous to comment on US political events from Japan. Of course in this day and age it is relatively easy to stay informed and follow the main stories. I can read "The Japan Times" or find stuff on-line, but I have a hard time gauging the degree of coverage things are getting back home. I don't know what the talking heads are saying on the news networks anymore.

There was an item that struck me as a bit buried on page 5 in yesterday's Japan Times. I don't know how much coverage this has gotten back home, but I have a feeling it isn't getting enough. This is the kind of thing that, as Allen Ginsburg would say, ought to be screamed from the rooftops.

Specifically, the Pentagon has admitted using Chemical Weapons in Fallujah Offensive. After at first denying initial reports (or lying, as we those of us famaliar with the 10 commandments say), the Pentagon has now admitted that they used White Phosphorous on insurgents in Fallujah. "The form of WP used by the military ignites when exposed to oxygen, producing such heat that it bursts into flame and produces a dense white smoke. It can cause painful burn injuries to exposed flesh."

You'll recall of course that in the lead up to the Iraq war one of the things we heard over and over again was how evil Saddam was because he used Chemical weapons. I'm not sure what the difference is when we use it. Now that we know Saddam had no ties to Al-Quada, and that no WMD, it seems that yet another pre-war rational has bitten the dust here.

Even worse, the Italian state media is now claiming that the US used White Phosphorous against civilians in Fallujah, and appearently has footage of burned victims to prove it. If this last item turns out to be true, the outrage quotient has got to be through the roof.

Now the story I just referenced was off the AP wire, and on the print verion only of the Japan Times, so I can't link to it directly, but here's the CNN article on the same story. Media Mouse is also all over this.

Of course, these days its hard to know which story to get most upset at. Here is a CNN story that says: A whistleblower's claims that reconstruction in Iraq has been rife with waste, fraud and abuse -- particularly in regard to a division of Halliburton -- will be turned over to the Justice Department, a U.S. senator said Friday.

And of course there is the story of the secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, and the fact that Cheney is actively lobbying against an amendment forbidding torture. Has there ever been a worse time to be an American?

At the risk of sounding like I don't have my own mind, I thought I'd quote some editorials that struck me as particularly dead on. Again, I can't link to these directly without going through a log-in procedure, but The Japan Times on Friday ran an editorial from the Washington Post by Michael Kinsley:

"Meanwhile, the U.S.,...is running prison camps in Eastern Europe and telling nobody about them until The Post found out. Bush says that we don't and never would practice torture, but he is against outlawing it, for reasons he is unable to articulte, but that must add up to "just in case." And Vice President Dick Cheney lobbies to exempt the CIA.
It could be that all these developments are constitutional. Maybe you can't enforce the U.S. constitution in Poland. But the Constitution is not supposed to be just an obstacle course for officials who are trying to get around it. It ought to inspire policy even when it doesn't impose policy. Ditto the Geneva conventions. Why would you even want to be clever about reasons it might not apply here or there?"

Also Bierma sent this editorial to the Chimes Listserve, from November 8, NY times, which starts out:

"After President Bush's disastrous visit to Latin America, it's unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can't afford an American government this bad for that long."

Unnerving indeed.

Lastly, there was an editorial by former SDS leader Mark Rudd in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday (I came across it because it was also run in the Japan Times): Mark Rudd asks the question:

"What's hard to understand--given the relevations about the rush to war, the use of torture, and the loss of more than 2,000 soldiers--is why the antiwar movement isn't further along than it is."

Again, I couldn't agree more.

Link of the Day
I don't know this person Meg (one of Bork's friends appearently) but her blog post on sexism in the Calvin Seminary has caused a bit of ripples through my corner of the internet. Phil and Matt both wrote entire posts discussing it.

Of course by the time I get around to linking to it, it's always old news. But if you haven't checked it out yet, it is interesting reading.