| To: sea_urchin who wrote (21331) | 7/5/2004 8:37:44 PM | | From: Jamey | | | | Searle, I took the liberty of posting that link on Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch.
Hope you don't mind. This is pretty damning info about the Bush admin.
James |
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| To: mcg404 who wrote (21317) | 7/6/2004 4:51:05 AM | | From: GUSTAVE JAEGER | | | | Re: You give americans too much credit....
Wrong... here's the correct phrasing:
You give americans too much credit for rational analysis. (g) But i agree with you in a way. I think this is the process: the ideological reason (ie Israel's hegemony) is always left unspoken, so we can maintain the illusion we are nothing more than greedy colonialists and oilmen. The rational explanations are presented as the true, if undeclared, justification: maintain safe oil supplies, bring democracy to the oppressed iraqi people, bring civilization to a backward country (ie, the american consumer lifestyle), etc.
The potential of the hoped-for result of cheap democracy ended many months ago but since that was always the bogus reason, we had no reason to do anything but dig in our heels, stay the course, not back away from a fight, etc, etc.[...]
Note:
Message 19988883 |
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| To: sea_urchin who wrote (21331) | 7/6/2004 5:04:41 AM | | From: GUSTAVE JAEGER | | | | Yet another crack in the dam....
Italy escapes rebuke over budget deficit
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
06 July 2004
Italy escaped without a rebuke for its big budget deficit yesterday, after the country's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, promised to implement a multibillion-euro package of spending cuts and tax rises which has provoked a domestic political crisis.
Mr Berlusconi, who has temporarily added the role of finance minister to his wide web of interests, hailed the deal as "a good result as I had predicted", after a meeting in Brussels.
So controversial is the €7.5bn (£5bn) package of measures that the man who constructed it, Giulio Tremonti, was forced to quit as Finance Minister over the weekend. His exit was the price demanded by Mr Berlusconi's fractious coalition partners for avoiding the prospect of early elections. It looked last night as if Mr Berlusconi will hang on to the post of Finance Minister for some time after suggestions that the job would go to Mario Monti, the European commissioner for competition, fell by the wayside.
In addition to being Prime Minister, Mr Berlusconi served as Foreign Minister for 11 months after the resignation of Renato Ruggiero in 2002. But his new position raises more questions of conflict of interest for Italy's richest man.
As Finance Minister he will act as the main shareholder in the state broadcaster RAI, the utility and energy giants ENEL and ENI, the national flag carrier Alitalia, the national post and the state railways.
However EU finance ministers in Brussels welcomed his statement. The measures are designed to keep Italy in line with the eurozone ceiling of a budget deficit of 3 per cent of GNP.
[...]
news.independent.co.uk
The first crack:
Message 18668174 |
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| To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (21334) | 7/6/2004 11:08:03 AM | | From: sea_urchin | | | | Gustave > Yet another crack in the dam
And another, and another .....
So then they'll have to change the rules. Meanwhile, George W Bush has become the latest EU salesman.
209.157.64.200
>>"It's an historic achievement. You are erasing the last traces of the Iron Curtain, and creating a new beginning for the continent," Bush said, adding that Turkey's addition would be the natural way forward for the EU.
Welcoming an Asian Muslim country into the European Union is the natural way forward?!<<
"Natural way forward"?! Since Iraq adjoins Turkey, Iraq can join next time. And then Saudi Arabia. And then. And then ..... until Israel joins Europe! And then the EU government can move from Belgium to Tel Aviv. And then the NWO will be complete. |
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| To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (21333) | 7/6/2004 4:46:32 PM | | From: sea_urchin | | | | Gustave, I know we have discussed this previously, but I came upon this this piece which more or less describes the way I see 9-11, the events that led up to it and the subsequent wars.
gulf-news.com
>> As the Bush administration struggled to respond to Al Qaida's devastating attacks of 9/11, members of this Zionist cabal, led by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, seized the opportunity to impose their agenda. Their number-one foreign policy goal was the overthrow of Saddam, whom they had identified as a major threat to Israel. <<
In my opinion, however, the Bush administration didn't merely "struggle to respond to Al Qaida's devastating attacks of 9/11", they were, together with their Israeli friends, directly responsible for it. Hence the smooth flow of events subsequent to 9-11 and in accord with the PNAC. But the overall picture generally coincides with my view on what has occurred over the years. In particular, I agree with this:
>>The Bush administration's alliance with the Israeli Right and its American supporters has resulted in the greatest American foreign policy disaster of modern times. It has made the world a very dangerous place indeed.<< |
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| To: sea_urchin who wrote (21335) | 7/7/2004 4:00:38 AM | | From: GUSTAVE JAEGER | | | | Re: Welcoming an Asian Muslim country into the European Union is the natural way forward?!
Branding Turkey as an "Asian country" is a revisionist viewpoint... Remember that, for the past hundred years, European scholars and historians dubbed Turkey "the Sick Man of Europe" --not the sick man of Asia!! Clue:
Decline
The breakup of the state gained impetus with the Russo-Turkish Wars in the 18th cent. Egypt was only temporarily lost to Napoleon's army, but the Greek War of Independence and its sequels, the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29 (see Adrianople, Treaty of), and the war with Muhammad Ali of Egypt resulted in the loss of Greece and Egypt, the protectorate of Russia over Moldavia and Walachia, and the semi-independence of Serbia. Drastic reforms were introduced in the late 18th and early 19th cent. by Selim III and Mahmud II, but they came too late. By the 19th cent. Turkey was known as the Sick Man of Europe.
[...]
infoplease.com
As for Prez Bush and US officials urging the EU to adjoin Turkey, I'm afraid it's all hypocritical posturing... US officials are well aware that the shortest way to kill an idea in Europe is to spin it as an "American idea". Hence the US's routine calls for Europe to grant Turkey EU-membership is actually counterproductive --and Bush knows it. As I said several years ago, the US interest is quite the opposite, that is, it's to keep Turkey isolated and surrounded by foes locally with the US (thru NATO) and Israel as its only "remote" friends....
If European policymakers were smart people, they would have yielded to Christian conservatives on the issue of Christianity: they should have inserted a rider on Europe's Christian heritage into the EU constitution AND AT THE SAME TIME granted Turkey EU-membership!!! After all, the two points are not mutually exclusive. Then it would have been much, much easier for the EU to deny Morocco, Algeria and other Muslim countries their bid to EU membership: EU officials could tell them, "Look, we just can't bring you in, you're not European... It's not that we're Islamophobic --hey, we DID welcome Turkey after all-- but we deem you unfit....
Well, luckily for US policymakers, EU officials are not that smart!!
Gus |
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| To: sea_urchin who wrote (21337) | 7/7/2004 4:24:11 AM | | From: GUSTAVE JAEGER | | | | Re: The Bush administration's alliance with the Israeli Right and its American supporters has resulted in the greatest American foreign policy disaster of modern times. It has made the world a very dangerous place indeed.
As I said(*), the US war on Iraq is but a stopgap escapism of sorts... I'm more and more convinced that the key to all this mess lies in the Bible Belt --indeed a hotbed of homegrown terrorists à la Timothy McVeigh... Hence it's not just the world outside the US that's become a "very dangerous place" --the US's domestic situation too is rife with dangers... For that matter, I'm looking forward to read Anatole Lieven's next book:
oup.com
(*) Message 18732378 |
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