The Wily Filipino

More Stuff to Get Angry About.

First of all, one of my new modern-day heroes, Stephen Eagle Funk, is being charged with desertion (desertion!) and a possible two-year sentence -- even though, as he writes, he returned to his unit after applying to be discharged from the army as a conscientious objector:

Under media attention, the military initially claimed my application for discharge would be handled quickly and fairly, and that I would likely receive only non-judicial punishment for my unauthorized absence. Now that public scrutiny has died down the military says that I deserve to be convicted. I feel I am being punished simply for practicing my First Amendment rights, and they are seeking an unfit punishment to dissuade others from becoming conscientious objectors.

BuzzFlash has a couple of excellent commentaries, one of which is on Condoleeza Rice pleading innocent about the CIA's warnings regarding the forgery of documents alleging Iraq's uranium purchases:

It's really quite impossible for the White House not to have known that the information was, at best, unreliable, and almost certainly forged. Just look at Condoleezza's public statement: "Maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, " Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press...", "but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery."

It's one thing to engage in disinformation. It's quite another thing, to lie stupidly. Are we to suppose that the only method of communication between the CIA and the National Security Director boils down to "advisories" e-mailed back and forth, which they may or may not get? Do they seriously expect us to believe that this is how the White House gets its security information? The White House bases a war on a few pieces of misinformation, and they don't even sit down with the intelligence community, and discuss how accurate, or reliable, or verifiable their information is? They don't even check it out? Think about it! This is information that the President of the United States of America is announcing to the entire world as provocation for war!

And then more outrage from that Son of a Bush, also via BuzzFlash (the title of the Reuters article is "'Bring Them On,' Bush Says to Iraq Attacks"):

President Bush on Wednesday [July 2] challenged militants who have been killing and injuring U.S. forces in Iraq, saying "bring them on" because American forces were tough enough to deal with their attacks. "There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there," Bush told reporters at the White House. "My answer is bring them on. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation."

Well, here you go, Mr. President. Enjoy your Fourth of July.

US soldier shot dead in Iraq

One United States soldier serving in Iraq has been killed and many others wounded in separate attacks, the US military says.

One serviceman from the First Armoured Division was shot dead in Baghdad on Thursday night [July 3], when his Bradley vehicle came under sniper fire.

In a second attack, at least 19 soldiers were hurt when mortar rounds were fired at a US military base north of Baghdad.

At least 26 American soldiers have died in combat since US President George W Bush declared the Iraq war over on 1 May.

Posted by the wily filipino at July 4, 2003 01:22 AM