OpEdNews - Diary: Lang and McGovern: "SURGE" SPELLS STALINGRAD

Ray McGovern and W. Patrick Lang write: "Virtually everyone concedes that the war cannot be won militarily. And yet the so-called 'neoconservatives' whom Bush has listened to in the past are arguing strongly for a surge in troop strength.

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DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> IF LINK DOESN'T WORK, THEN PASTE ARTICLE LINK(S) INTO YOUR BROWSER -- OR GO DIRECTLY TO >> http://www.truthout.org Lang and McGovern: "Surge" Spells Stalingrad http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122506Y.shtml Ray McGovern and W. Patrick Lang write: "Virtually everyone concedes that the war cannot be won militarily. And yet the so-called 'neoconservatives' whom Bush has listened to in the past are arguing strongly for a surge in troop strength. A generation from now, our grandchildren will have difficulty writing history papers on the oxymoronic debate now raging on how to surge/withdraw our troops into/from the quagmire in Iraq." --- Sonni Efron | Wolfowitz Owes Us an Explanation http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122506G.shtml Sonni Efron writes: "Accountability is one of those ideals, like justice or the triumph of right over might, that are wonderful in principle but usually disappointing in practice. This is nowhere more true than in Washington, where one of the most powerful men in President Bush's inner circle, a man who helped conceive, plan and execute the Iraq war, has managed to escape scrutiny for steering his country into one of the greatest strategic catastrophes of his generation." --- Senator Christopher Dodd | Begin Withdrawing, Redeploying Troops Now http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122506B.shtml "The time has come for the United States to begin the process of getting our troops out of Iraq. The war in Iraq has lasted longer than our involvement in World War II and left nearly 3,000 Americans dead. If continuing this sacrifice held the promise of achieving American goals, I would support it. But our presence there has become a barrier to our goals," says Senator Christopher Dodd. --- "Godfather of Soul" Dies on Christmas Morning http://snipurl.com/15rbz --- In Gaza, Christmas Is a Casualty of Factional Fighting http://snipurl.com/15rbx _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://onlinejournal.com Counterproductive U.S. advice to Palestinians By Nicola Nasser | Online Journal Contributing Writer Regardless of good will or bad faith, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to go without national consensus to early presidential and parliamentary elections was divisive, counterproductive and conforms to U.S.-Israeli plans to remove the Islamic Resistance Movement, "Hamas," from power or pressure it into accepting what its rival Fatah had accepted: A peace process on their dictated terms and conditions. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1550.shtml --- No money to treat 9/11 workers, $3 billion a week to fight Iraq? By Jerry Mazza | Online Journal Associate Editor Is this a new 9/11 conspiracy The New York Times is reporting? That "roughly $40 million that was set aside by the federal government to treat rescue workers, volunteers and firefighters who became ill after helping with the 9/11 cleanup and recovery will run out in months, physicians and federal officials said yesterday." And the fund goes broke while the war meter ticks in Iraq at nearly $3 billion a week? http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1551.shtml --- Class war weapon of choice -- for the holidays and every day By Joel S. Hirschhorn | Online Journal Contributing Writer The motto of the United States of Consumption is "In More We Trust." The contribution of American culture to humanity is consumption obsession. Our epidemic of obesity, our land gluttonous suburban sprawl, our monster-size environmental footprint, our ravenous automobile addiction, and our heartless greed are symptoms of a deep-seated, sick mental state that keeps the economy humming. And it keeps increasing economic inequality and apartheid. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1553.shtml --- Apartheid has more than one definition By Dan Lieberman | Online Journal Guest Writer The 'Israel above all' defenders, such as Harvard University Professor Alan Dershowitz and New Republic magazine Editor-in-Chief, Martin Peretz, have opened a "bag of worms" that defeats their cause. Their criticism of former President Jimmy Carter's use of the word apartheid in the title of his new book," Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," falls flat and raises a question: Does Israel practice apartheid? http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1562.shtml --- The unconquered son ... By Jeff Zervas | Online Journal Guest Writer In keeping with the Yuletide spirits of generosity, peace on Earth, and joy to the world, Uncle Sam O'Claws and the compassionate conservatives keep piling gifts under the corporate Christmas tree. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1561.shtml --- Designer monsters ... By William Blum | Online Journal Guest Writer Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man seemingly custom-made for the White House in its endless quest for enemies with whom to scare Congress, the American people, and the world, in order to justify the unseemly behavior of the empire. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1559.shtml _________________________________ .ron corvuswire@verizon.net Stephen Hadley ... "I forgot." Stephen Hadley is the Bush administration Zionist who put those infamous lies about Saddam seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger into Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech. Reporters asked Hadley: "Why did you insert that false information into Bush's speech, since the CIA had already warned you that particular information was false?" Hadley replied with a "legal answer" -- "I forgot." So guess who is President Bush's national security advisor right this second? That's right, criminal Stephen Hadley. It is STEPHEN HADLEY who is pushing our government to bomb Iran right now. Read more >> http://www.corvuswire.com/hadley.htm http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec03/rice_7-30.html _________________________________ [NEWSDISSECTOR] Mediachannel Seeks Help For 2007 http://snipurl.com/15rk2 _________________________________ http://jablankfort@earthlink.net WINEP PREPARES FOR WAR WITH IRAN Washington Institute for Near East Policy ... PolicyWatch #1179 Iran's Doctrine of Asymmetric Naval Warfare By Fariborz Haghshenass ... 12.21.06 Fariborz Haghshenass is an expert on the Iranian military. EXCERPT: Current Iranian naval deployments are aimed at deterring an American attack and -- in the event of hostilities -- entrapping and destroying U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf, at which time U.S. regional bases would be targeted with rocket and missile strikes as well. Iranian naval forces would conduct simultaneous close-in and stand-off attacks, relying on swarming tactics developed and refined during the Iran-Iraq War and highlighted in recent naval exercises in the Persian Gulf. The performance of Lebanese Hizballah guerrillas, who used similar tactics against much larger and more powerful Israeli ground forces in southern Lebanon last summer, provides some insight into what the U.S. Navy should expect in the event of a confrontation with Iran in the Persian Gulf. View this PolicyWatch on our website at: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2548 --- December 22 2006 Petras: Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby is so Important "It's no great secret why the Jewish agencies continue to trumpet support for the discredited policies of this failed administration. They see defense of Israel as their number-one goal, trumping all other items on the agenda. That single-mindedness binds them ever closer to a White House that has made combating Islamic terrorism its signature campaign. The campaign's effects on the world have been catastrophic. But that is no concern of the Jewish agencies." December 8, 2006 statement by JJ Goldberg, editor of Forward (the leading Jewish weekly in the United States). More http://snipurl.com/15rpu --- Re: Baker versus The Lobby Since 1967 and the beginning of the occupation, several American Secretaries of State have submitted plans to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All these plans met the same fate: they were torn up and thrown in the trash. The same sequence of events has been repeated time after time: In Jerusalem, hysteria sets in. The Foreign Office stands up on its hind legs and swears to defeat the evil design. The media unanimously condemns the wicked plot. The Secretary of State of the day is pilloried as an anti-Semite. The Israeli lobby in Washington mobilizes for total war.... For example: the Rogers Plan of Richard Nixon's first Secretary of State, William Rogers. In the early 70s he submitted a detailed peace plan, the principal point of which was the withdrawal of Israel to the 1967 borders, with, at most, "insubstantial alterations." What happened to the plan? In face of the onslaught of "the Friends of Israel" in Washington, Nixon buckled under, as have all presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man of principle who did not need the Jewish votes. No president will quarrel with the government of Israel if he wants to be re-elected, or - like Bush now - to end his term in office with dignity and pass the presidency to another member of his party. Any senator or congressman who takes a stand that the Israeli embassy does not like, is committing Harakiri, Washington-style. JB _________________________________ .ron corvuswire@verizon.net "Crisis" and the North American Union Here's my position on immigration - let's follow our laws and constitution - just like anything else. http://www.corvuswire.com/immigration.htm First of all, I am NOT a racist of any kind, shape or form, so before anyone gets going here, let me make this perfectly clear -- I've seen many Mexicans say it's a civil rights issue and Americans who want to build a fence are racist towards Mexicans, blah, blah, blah, well, bull. As an American citizen, I don't give a damn what the Mexicans want. They are not superior to, or hold higher status than, anyone else trying to gain legal access to America to become an American citizen. Mexicans can apply for citizenship and wait in line like every other foreigner who seeks U.S. citizenship - nothing wrong or illegal about that! Re: controlling U.S. borders If a government cannot seal and control one's own borders, then that government has failed the citizens of that government. I am FOR building TWO FENCES, actual, not virtual fences, all along U.S. borders. The American people have every right to expect and demand our government to control our borders. I know I do. Again, when it comes to securing the borders of the USA, it's NOT about what Mexicans want, it's about our government fulfilling their obligation to American citizens to seal and control our borders. It sickens me when I hear anyone trying to couch this in terms of "what Mexicans want and deserve." No, it's not -- not on the U.S. side of the border. In my opinion our government should immediately grant citizenship to all the illegal Mexicans who are already inside U.S. borders and begin building a real, viable fence immediately. I have a special disaffection for the morons who try to equate our government building a fence to protect our own borders, with the European Iron Curtain or Israel's ILLEGAL fence built INSIDE AND ON Palestinian land. There's no equivalency here, because again, American citizens have every right to expect and demand our government control our own borders. Any American with half a brain knows that if our government continues to allow foreigners to enter this country, legal OR illegal, this influx of workers will LOWER WAGES FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS! We need representatives in Congress who will stand up and fight for AMERICAN CITIZENS! I believe our government should put a moratorium on more immigration, period, until U.S. wages improve for the American citizen. How do you like those apples? Let's arm Lou Dobbs and build a real fence on our borders. Americans should realize that Corporate America and their whorea*s lobbyist politicians DO NOT WANT TO SECURE OUR BORDERS, because that will END their cheap corporate labor bases and drive U.S. wages higher. And another thing, every time I hear Bush say we need Mexican workers because they do jobs Americans won't do, I want to hurl. This is ABSOLUTE, TOTAL BULL! I am an American male born and raised here in America and I've worked extremely, extremely menial jobs at one time to make a living, so I'm not trying to hear that Corporate Propaganda! Here, I'll help you out; repeat after me: AMERICANS WILL DO EVERYTHING MEXICANS DO FOR AMERICAN WAGES, NOT MEXICAN WAGES! Bush needs his butt KICKED for disrespecting all American workers. The problem is U.S. employers do not want to pay a real living wage to American citizens when they can get away with hiring illegal Mexicans for less than they would pay an American worker; let's take a look: Do you realize that a pint of strawberries sells for about $3.00 at your grocery store? Guess how much of that three bucks goes to the illegal Mexican worker? Only about 12 cents, that's right, only about twelve cents. And you tell me those producers cannot afford to pay a higher wage? Well, they're not going to pay a higher wage to legal American citizens when they have George W. Bush and Congress protecting illegal Mexican workers. Enough already. North American Union? Get the h*ll outta here! http://www.corvuswire.com/nau.htm _________________________________ Restaurant industry at producers' mercy ... Scranton Times-Tribune - PA, USA ... issue arises, whether it's contaminated lettuce at Taco Bell or tainted spinach in grocery stores, it sends ripples through the food industry, said Patrick ... click here _________________________________ http://www.coasttocoastam.com | http://direland.typepad.com _________________________________ ............Give intelligently It's easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of Christmas. We're so busy thinking about decorating, cooking and shopping for our loved ones. But let's not forget about those who could use a little extra help. Now is the perfect time to make your year-end charitable donations. Of course, it can be difficult to find a reputable charity that meets your needs. That's where Charity Navigator steps in. You can search for a charity by category or by name. Then, you can read up on the charity's financial stability and how it spends donations. If you need a little more help, there are plenty of tips and resources. Give generously, but wisely! TO VISIT TODAY'S COOL SITE, GO HERE: http://www.charitynavigator.org | Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use my map to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS The Cancer-Fighting Power of Veggies Work With Your Genes - Eating your broccoli and cauliflower can dramatically lower your risk for certain types of cancer. http://snipurl.com/15rqv --- Surgeons Should Play Video Games - Amazing new application of this fun technology may help your surgeon in the future. http://snipurl.com/15rqx _________________________________ VIDEO: A Family Xmas [WARNING: Mature language] 13:56 It's not often that a heartwarming holiday tale involves Santa getting pistol whipped. Director: Warren Eig > http://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp Related: Holiday Hijinx, Action-Packed Laughs _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ Never be the first to arrive at a party or the last to go home, and never, ever be both. ~ David Brown, quoted in Reader's Digest "Quotable Quotes," April 2004