Letter Never Sent

Experts say ‘terror’ threat overblown. From UPI:

Parachini believes that the White House’s declaration of war against the terrorists can lead to policy abuses.

“I think that as a tool, war can justify a lot of activities, but there needs to be a recognition that this isn’t a war like World War II, World War I or even Vietnam,” he said. “It is a ‘war,’ in quotes, in the same sense that we have a war on crime or drugs. You can’t ever reduce the risk to zero, that is impossible.”

Congleton believes that the declaration of war may lead the government to overstep societal boundaries with unwarranted “drastic new domestic policies,” given the potential threat.

Our own home-grown Dr. Mengele’s in the US are itching to test the newest killing machines in the planned charade which will be known as ‘Gulf War 2’, likely lauded in history books as GWII or Revenge of Bush Jr. What’s the good of wasting trillions on defense spending if you can’t blow up homes or decapitate people with cluster bombs?

If the US does a hit on Iraq and Iraq responds by launching scuds at Israel, Israel might become the second nation in human history to use atomic weapons on human beings. The first was of course the United States.

An assessment of Iraq’s capabilities says that the US is unlikely to knock out many, if any, of President Saddam Hussein’s mobile missile-launchers in a first wave of airstrikes. It raises the possibility of Baghdad hitting an Israeli city with a missile carrying biological agents, saying that Saddam is likely to use chemical and biological weapons.

Israel’s likely reaction would be nuclear ground bursts against every Iraqi city not already occupied by US-led coalition forces. Senators were told that, unlike the 1991 Gulf War, when Washington urged Israel not to retaliate against Iraqi missile strikes, Israeli leaders have decided that their credibility would be hurt if they failed to react this time.

It doesn’t seem that the possibility of thousands of civilian casualties is in any way deterring the US from its single-minded march to war. Furthermore, if this is true it doesn’t suggest that the US is in any way attempting to restrain the hand of Israel. These right-ling nutjobs in the US would love to hasten armageddon.

Pentagon plan seeks countries’ OK to attack cells:

A new Pentagon counterterrorism plan calls for making arrangements with some foreign countries to allow U.S. commandos on their soil to attack terrorist cells.

Two senior U.S. officials with knowledge about the planning say Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants such procedures in place so special operations forces can act on intelligence in hours, not days or weeks. The sources said it is too early to predict whether such agreements can be worked out with all nations where al Qaeda cells exist.

Senior defense officials also want such clandestine missions deemed acts of war so they stay outside the control of civilian law enforcement, the officials said.

Read ’em and weep. It’s almost certainly more worse now. From the Friends Committee on National Legislation (A Quaker lobby in the public interest):

Military Spending Trends And Perspectives

March 2001

In 1999, the U.S. spent more than the next seven leading military powers, combined: $283 billion versus $265 billion.* Five of the next seven leading military powers are U.S. allies.

In 1999, the U.S. spent 2.6 times more on its military than the combined military expenditures of the next nine largest potential adversaries (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Cuba): $283 billion versus $109 billion.*

In 1999, the U.S., NATO, and other U.S. allies (Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia) spent five times more on their militaries than the combined expenditures of the next nine largest potential adversaries (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Cuba): $551 billion versus $109 billion.

In Fiscal Year 2000, the U.S. spent $296 billion on the military. In FY01, the U.S. will spend an estimated $299 billion, and for FY02, the President has proposed outlays of $319 billion, to begin with. It is expected that additional funds will be requested for FY01 and FY02 following completion of the Administration’s review of U.S. military “needs.”*

In FY00, the U.S. spent total of about $547 billion for current and past military programs (includes all military spending cited above, plus mandatory payments to the military retirement system, foreign military financing, sales, aid and training, veterans benefits and services, and the interest paid on the national debt that can be attributed to past wars and military spending.)

Over the next ten years, the President’s plan calls for spending over $3.5 trillion on the military. This does not include any additional expenditures which he may call for pending completion of the military review.*

If enacted, the amount of the increase in military spending for FY02 over FY01 (i.e. $20 billion) will exceed the entire amount that the U.S. government spent on international diplomacy, cooperation, and humanitarian and development assistance in FY01 (i.e. $14 billion).

The President’s budget blueprint calls for cutting as yet unspecified programs in the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy (non-military), Interior, Justice, Labor, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency in FY02.

Friendly fire deaths linked to US pilots ‘on speed’:

American pilots in Afghanistan, blamed for a series of “friendly fire” incidents and devastating erroneous attacks on innocent civilians, were routinely provided with amphetamines to tackle fatigue and help them fly longer hours. Pilots were allowed to “self-regulate” their own doses and kept the drugs in their cockpits.

US soldier accused of assaulting Afghan prisoner:

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan: The US military has charged an American soldier in Afghanistan with assaulting an Afghan prisoner whose hands were bound, a US spokesman said on Friday. Colonel Roger King, a spokesman at US military headquarters at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, said the soldier was seen striking an Afghan detainee on the head with the butt of his M-4 carbine.

The soldier was not named while an investigation was made. “The prisoner’s hands were bound with plastic Flexi-Cuffs,” King said. “Another soldier saw it happen, and reported it.” Elements of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, were conducting operations outside Khost, in the eastern Paktia province, when the assault took place.

I’ve been in some pretty wild discussions regarding the recent murders of military wives by their husbands at Ft. Bragg. I wish I had had this story to back up some of my statements. From UPI:

WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) — As authorities continue to investigate the murders of four women at Ft. Bragg, N.C., in the space of six weeks, a recent study by Yale University suggests that in at least three of the cases combat experience in Afghanistan may have had something to do with it.

The Yale study reviewed data collected from 2,500 men between 1992 and 1994. Of those, 7 percent had been involved in combat, most of them in Vietnam. Those 7 percent were responsible for 21 percent of the cases of spousal abuse reported in the survey. …

Reports of military domestic violence have actually declined for the last several years, but the Pentagon fears that does not mean abuse is down.

“We believe this reduction may be partly attributed to fears of an adverse impact on career progression and underreporting by commanders and senior noncommissioned officers,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane wrote in a memo to Army officers in December.

The UN is keeping secret a report on the Afghan wedding massacre in which nearly 48 people were killed and 100 injured. The report is being presented to both the puppet government in Kabul and to the United States. The US has engaged in a coverup of the massacre arriving hours after the incident to clean up blood, shrapnel, and bullets. They then told the UN they needed several weeks to investigate and collect evidence no doubt paying off the poor locals and making sure everyone saw what they were supposed to.