Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. says "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."  

American Quotes...~

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. – James Madison

(Jefferson expressed the views of Madison's admirers.  Madison, he said in 1790 (at a time when Jefferson was serving under Washington himself) was simply "the greatest man in the world. "I have known him [intimately] from 1779," Jefferson repeated in 1812, "and from three and thirty years' trial, I can say conscientiously that I do not know in the world a man of purer integrity, more dispassionate, disinterested, and devoted to republicanism; nor could I, in the whole scope of America and Europe, point out an abler head.

'I can't remember why we disbanded the Iraqi army'
By DAVID GARDNER - More by this author » Last updated at 17:08pm on 4th September 2007

But Bush and Rove do share fun time.....

Comments: "Please just leave the building now Bush-and let the rest of the planet start trying to sort out the devastation you and your poodle started."
- Dawn, England

"I bet you don't cry as much as the dead soldiers mothers."
- Peter Reddington, Leeds, England

"Whose God would that be Mr Bush?
Christianity aside - would God or indeed anybody be happy with you bombing Iraq for no apparent reason?"
- Mj Dean, South Africa

"In sharp contrast to the lionization of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the US Congress Petraeus' superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant.....Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickens**t".  Middle East and Southwest Asia is the area for which Fallon's CENTCOM is responsible.  "Fallon had a "visceral distaste" for what he regarded as Petraeus' sycophantic behavior in general." (Fallon also privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy.)  read...Gareth Porter September 13, 2007

P.S. Fallon is a Villanova Graduate.  As an admiral, Fallon is an unusual choice to lead the US Central Command, which oversees the ground wars under way in Iraq and Afghanistan that has traditionally has been led by army or marine corps generals.

Fallon with a reputation as a gifted strategist who in his current assignment has pushed for greater military contacts with China and a steady approach to dealing with an unpredictable, nuclear armed North Korea.

________

"...Behind ramparts guarded by a coalition of liars extending from Rupert Murdoch to the New York Times, from Bill O'Reilly to PBS, America is totally shielded from truth.
Here we have a Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who gazes at the rubble of Lebanon, at 600,000 refugees being strafed with cluster bombs, and squeaks happily that we are witnessing "the birth pangs of a new Middle East." Beat the devil | posted July 27, 2006 (August 14, 2006 issue) The Nation
The Triumph of Crackpot Realism Alexander Cockburn

___________

“One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”

(The boastful, brazen taunter who once bellowed at the Iraqis to "Bring’em on," will exit, stage left, in 2008)

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Gr

vs.

Donald Rumsfeld former Secretary of Defense (In a Feb. 26 address, ) called suggestions that the US is really after Iraq's oil "utter nonsense."  Even though Iraq has the 2nd largest oil reserve.

"The right to do things while not being watched is very fundamental to humanity, whether we sing in the shower or have private conversations with friends. If we are constantly under gaze, we can't experiment as human beings. When we know we're being watched, our lives are altered, even if we're doing nothing wrong."

- Bruce Schneier, Security expert and author of Crypto-Gram
Dig. Boston's Weekly, Issue 8.24, June 14, 2006

Published: 9/6/2005, 06:25 (UAE)   'Good and honest' Iraqis fighting US forces   By Phil Sands, Staff Reporter Tikrit:   A senior US military chief has admitted "good, honest" Iraqis are fighting American forces. Major General Joseph Taluto said he"...could understand why some ordinary people would take up arms against the US military because "they're offended by our presence".

Note: The United States' chicken hawk Commander-In -Chief, President Bush – began his post-9/11 duties hiding out in a bunker outside Omaha.

(Cheney Bush's chicken hawk vice-president asked and received  five deferments from the Vietnam War.)

"Cheney seems to have always been ready for the worst. Maybe he learned not to count on good fortune after he lost his scholarship to Yale. Kicked out a second time, Cheney drifted back to Wyoming and was twice arrested for drunken driving. "By Evan Thomas
Newsweek
July 30, 2007 issue
 

Note: The War Crimes Act of 1996, passed by a Republican Congress, makes it a felony to violate the Geneva Conventions. But the Bush administration authorized techniques to handle and interrogate prisoners that clearly break the rules — like prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures, long periods in stress positions, strapping prisoners to metal contraptions and force-feeding them.

Donald Rumsfield, Secretary of Defense  "...terrorists are actively manipulating the media in this country by falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. All that "collateral damage" we hear about, the tens of thousands of dead and maimed civilians, is just terrorist propaganda. The enemy lies constantly … and with impunity…. The enemy is so much better at communicating." (Told to 200 Navy aviators ... Fallon Naval Air Station on Aug. 28.)

Note: Picture of some Americans  riding down the road in Iraq courtesy of DJG1.com . >>>

1996 then-UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright was asked by 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, in reference to years of U.S.-led economic sanctions against Iraq, “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”

To which Ambassador Albright responded, “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

That remark regarding the deaths of predominantly Muslim children caused no Judeo-Christian outcry.  In. fact, in January the following year Albright was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as President Clinton’s secretary of state. In her opening statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering her appointment, she said, “We will insist on maintaining tough UN sanctions against Iraq unless and until that regime complies with relevant Security Council resolutions.”  NOTE: Only the winners decide what were war crimes– Gary Wills.  

(CONSIDER Alexander Pushkin: "Dearer to us the falsehoods that exalts; Than hosts of baser truths.") 

 “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about, if we can’t use it?” More...Madeline Albright.

(An other gal Hillary Clinton also has not been exactly moved by the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by the war - which has killed, conservatively, more than 1.5 million Iraqis and internally displaced or exiled more than 5 million. Not to mention that according to Oxfam now 70% of the overall population lives under the poverty line. The Hillary Clinton even performed a Madeleine Albright: asked about the horrendous cost in human lives, she told YouTube, "It's worth it," as the most important thing was to "protect the lives of the American people from Iraqi-based terrorists".)

Diary July 15, 2006: I scalded two fingers this morning from the steam of a boiling tea kettle...The pain was excruciating.....Dennis .... DJG1.com

White Phosphorus

Picture by Selwa Calderbank 

.....(two children similar deformities of the face. 

"Unborn children of the region [are] being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA."

- Ross B. Mirkarimi, The Arms Control Research Centre, from his report: ‘The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf Region with Special Reference to Iraq.’ May 1992 HOMEPAGE
 If you dare........
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/du-afghanistan2.html

CNN video correspondent, Karl Penhaul, follows a family that had been mistakenly caught in an Israeli air strike. The doctor treating the family says that there is phosphorus in the weapons that cause extremely painful burns on it's victims.

Last update - 06:42 22/10/2006   Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon  By Meron Rappaport, Haaretz Correspondent  ... Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory..  The announcement that the Israel Defense Forces had used phosphorus bombs in the war in Lebanon was made by Minister Jacob Edery, in charge of government-Knesset relations. He had been queried on the matter by MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz-Yahad). "The IDF holds phosphorus munitions in different forms," Edery said. "The IDF made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground."