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Wars and conflicts

  • Why the coalition forces must withdraw from Iraq
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Peter Dale Scott
    In 1991, after the Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush proclaimed, "The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian Peninsula." But the specter he and the Pentagon had feared for over a decade, of a devastating shrinkage of U.S. influence following a military withdrawal, had always been a phantom.
    That "specter," of defeat in Vietnam, proved in time to be as harmless as a Halloween ghost. Asia did not tip as predicted toward the (…)

  • Why Bush will restart the draft if re-elected
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
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    A major terrorist attack could easily serve as the pretext for setting the draft in motion.
    By Sen. Tom Harkin
    President George W. Bush may or may not have a secret plan to reinstate the draft. But this is besides the point. The deteriorating facts on the ground in Iraq, plus the Bush doctrine of acting pre-emptively and unilaterally against hostile regimes, will soon leave him no choice. If Bush is re-elected, he will have to restart the draft.
    Indeed, Bush has already imposed stage (…)

  • Mideast Experts Hope for, but Don’t Expect, Easy Transition
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Laura King Seeing any potential heir as a threat, Arafat never groomed a successor. Now observers fear a violent power struggle.
    Jerusalem - Whenever someone close to Yasser Arafat has dared to try to persuade him to do something he didn’t want to do, the famously temperamental Palestinian leader has had a favorite reply.
    "Mish waatu," he would say in Arabic. "It is not the time."
    Sometimes he would utter it lightly and dismissively; other times he would scream it in (…)

  • Halliburton Contracts Bypassed Objections
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
    WASHINGTON - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commanders awarded a lucrative contract extension to Halliburton Co. this month by circumventing the organization’s top contracting officer, who had objected to the proposal, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
    Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers’ chief contracting officer, questioned a decision by commanders to award a contract extension to Halliburton, the oil services (…)

  • Iraq : journalist says insurgency has and will use missiles
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    Seymour Hersh gives an inside view of Iraq and foreign policy Journalist says insurgency has and will use missiles
    By Daniela Perdomo
    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who most recently broke the story of the abuses at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib with the CBS news program "60 Minutes," gave a scathing portrait of U.S. policy in Iraq in the Terrace Room on Friday.
    "Let’s begin by questioning the word ’democracy,’" Hersh said by way of introduction, hinting at what would (…)

  • News Video Is at Center of Storm over Iraq Explosives
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Mark Mazzetti
    Reporters taped troops apparently finding munitions. A Pentagon photo implies otherwise.
    Washington - On April 18, 2003, a television news crew from Minnesota videotaped U.S. troops in Iraq using bolt cutters to break through chains and wire seals on the door of a dusty bunker and finding explosives stored inside.
    The video did not appear significant at the time, particularly because it did not reveal weapons of mass destruction.
    But now, days before a (…)

  • A Soldier Speaks PART 5: Robert Sarra
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    This Marine was a true believer in the reasons for the Iraq war. He talks to AlterNet about his loss of moral certainty, the gift of wisdom and "regime change" at home.
    By Lakshmi Chaudhry
    Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series of profiles of some of the tens of thousands of Iraq War veterans who have come home bearing the scars of battle - emotional and physical wounds that may never heal unless the nation pays them the attention and care that they deserve. We at AlterNet believe (…)

  • A Soldier Speaks PART 4: Robert Sarra
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    A death in Iraq transforms a nine-year Marine veteran from a soldier into an anti-war activist.
    By Lakshmi Chaudhry
    Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of profiles of some of the tens of thousands of Iraq War veterans who have come home bearing the scars of battle - emotional and physical wounds that may never heal unless the nation pays them the attention and care that they deserve. We at AlterNet believe that in an election defined by a deep and bitter partisan divide, it is (…)

  • A Soldier Speaks PART 3: David Grimm
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    A Florida National Guardsman learns how to survive and protect his men in a war zone - without body armor.
    By Lakshmi Chaudhry
    David Grimm signed up to join the Florida National Guard in 1999. The former Marine, who’d entered the military straight out of high school, was glad to answer the call of duty when he was called up for combat duty in Iraq in December, 2002. But the veteran of U.S. operations in Somalia was in for a rude shock when he went into a war zone, this time as a member (…)

  • A Soldier Speaks PART 2: Denver Jones
    1 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    The 35-year-old Army reservist suffered a spine-shattering injury that left him permanently disabled. But he reserves his compassion for those who need it most: Iraqi children.
    By Lakshmi Chaudhry
    Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of profiles of some of the tens of thousands of Iraq War veterans who have come home bearing the scars of battle - emotional and physical wounds that may never heal unless the nation pays them the attention and care that they deserve. We at AlterNet (…)