"Friends" Abandoning George Bush

"It's Twilight at the White House" says Der Spiegel, Germany's most influential news magazine. (Please click on the title for the full story).

George may be presiding over the White House for another 14 months, but, judging by the mood of his friends, including the many corporate fat cats who slobbered at the Republican trough, you would think it was the last 14 hours. Sixty corporate CEO's, who had previously donated primarily to the Bush campaigns are now giving more money to the Democrats.

Four months ago the speechwriter who invented the "axis of evil" phrase jumped ship, soon followed by the White House press secretary, the budget director, the director of "strategic initiatives", and chief political adviser Karl Rove. They were followed by two cabinet secretaries and the secretary of agriculture.

Looks like it's crying time again for the Republicans, while a newly enlightened public prepares to leave them!

Terrorism Experts Say Bin Laden Getting Stronger

According to the a top British Newspaper (please click title for link), President Bush's homeland security adviser (see cartoon at left) is dead wrong when she alleges that the fugitive Al-Qaida is now "virtually impotent".

The consensus of the nation's top intelligence analysts is that it is regrouping and growing in strength, intensifying efforts to put operatives in the United States and plotting against U.S. targets that will cause massive casualties. The U.S. is in a "heightened threat environment" and al-Qaida is the most serious threat, according to these analysts. "While he may be physically contained , his influence is not bounded by any physical barriers," says Thomas Sanderson, an authority on terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, the chairmen of the independent Sept. 11 commission said that though our defenses are better "we have become distracted and complacent". Senator John McCain also described bin Laden as a "great danger". "He continues to communicate, he continues to lead, and he continues to be a symbol for them of leadership in his radical hatred" commented McCain.

Second British General Bashes US Iraq Strategy!

Major General Tim Cross (left, in civilian attire) the top British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq, said Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the serious concerns he had raised about the possibility of the country descending into chaos.

On Saturday, General Mike Jackson (far left - in uniform), had branded US post-invasion policy "intellectually bankrupt", and blamed Rumsfeld for the current situation in Iraq.

Major General Cross, who is now retired, was deputy head of the coalition's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. "Right from the very beginning we were all concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the post-war plan - and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process. Rumsfeld apparently did not want to hear about Cross's concerns.

America: No longer feared, but the nut you walk away from!

Nicolas Sarkozy, now President of France for three months: The (American) catastrophe in Iraq has had an unlooked-for effect: Not to stoke anti-Americanism in a new generation but to make America seem almost marginal....when people in Paris talk about manufacturing might, they talk about China; when they talk about tall buildings, they talk about Dubai; when they talk about foreign takeovers, they talk about Gazprom, the giant Russian oil and gas company. (After acquisition of Sibneft, with 119 billion barrels of reserves, it ranks only behind Saudi Arabia as the world's largest owner of oil and natural gas.)

America is no longer very important in the world. What Brown (Britain), Merkel (Germany), and Sarkozy have in common is that they do not want to be defined by their response to America. Its military weakness has been exposed in Iraq, its economic weakness by the rise in the Euro, and its once-great cultural magnetism has been diminished by post-9/11 paranoia and insularity.

To a new European leadership class it is no longer the human bomb you have to diffuse, but the nut you walk away from. (Thank you, President Bush!)

Vote for Edwards, and please read the entire New Yorker story by clicking on the title of this posting.

Republicans believe Struggling Americans are Lazy

On Tuesday, April 4, 2006, Senator John McCain responded to calls from his audience for employers to "Pay a decent wage!" by implying that the men in his assembly would be unwilling to pick lettuce in Arizona even for $50/hour.
To his surprise, the assembly of union workers immediately shouted their willingness to accept his offer.
The senator's comments are very much in line with the views of his Republican Party, whose members seem to enjoy the undisputed fact that, according to a New York Times article of August 23, 2007, Americans earned a smaller income in 2005, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make eds meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion. As workers struggle to make mortgage and other payments with their rapidly declining income, the folks in the top two tenth of one percent of income earners are doing quite well. According to Tony Fratto in the White House's official statement, the fact of the serious problems faced by those in the lower income brackets "is not a very interesting story".

A few centuries ago, during the French Revolution, when told that French citizens were starving, because they had no bread, Marie Antoinette (see picture, above) supposedly blurted out: "Then let them eat cake!" Actually, she did NOT say that, but it makes for a good story. Despite her innocence, she was marched to the guillotine, where she lost her head! Unfortunately, Mr. Fratto cannot claim innocent ignorance, since we still have various live witnesses to his comments.

For the original McCain story, please click on the title of this posting!

Bush to Attack Iran: Apocalypse Now?

According to the next issue of "TIME" (please click on the title of this report), the same incoherent president who got us into the Iraq disaster, intends to widen the war, to include Iran. Having never served in combat, he seems oblivious to the consequences for our already thinly stretched and demoralized armed forces in Iraq:
Is the Iranian army going to join the war against us on Iraqi territory?
Is the Iranian air force going to be involved?
To what extent are the Russians going to be involved?

Do You want to be responsible for the imminent disaster?
E-mail your senators and congressmen NOW!

President Bush Floats Military Draft Proposal

Hey there! Yes, I mean YOU, the guy who supports the illegal war to plunder Iraqi oil, but is too chicken to sign up for the fight! Lt. General Douglas Lute says it "makes sense to consider a return to the draft to meet our US military's needs".

So, you have other things to do: Money to make, souls to save? Better get used to saving your own ass! If you are now of draft age, and are unable to buy your way out of military service by bribing a congressman, GET READY TO PUT YOUR ASS ON THE LINE FOR THE WAR YOU CLAIM TO BELIEVE IN!!

It's really not as bad as Vietnam, and I survived that, even after many VERY, VERY, close calls: Like being ambushed at a distance of 15 feet, two bullets barely missing my head by less than an inch, and, after I felt their air pressure, passing harmlessly by. Perhaps you will enjoy the same good fortune, with a lot of help from our God.

That is, if you are on very good terms with Him. Are YOU sure HE supports the mess we have made in Iraq? Does HE want you to kill women and children? Better check with HIM NOW!!

Despite all of the mealy-mouthed double-talk from our subservient "free" press, you may have heard that our war in Iraq is not going well at all. So, sign up now instead of waiting for YOUR turn, and put your life on the line, instead of sending the less fortunate of our our country to do YOUR bidding.

If you should come back in one piece, or if you come back at all, after your revelation on the road from Damascus to Baghdad, I invite you to find a peace group and do YOUR part for the glory of our Creator!

Progress in Iraq: The Real Story

Anne Nivat, the courageous French journalist, who has covered many of our world's most dangerous trouble spots, recently decided to investigate the American administration's claim, that "we" are making progress in Iraq. Dressed in a loose black tunic with long sleeves, she was able to blend in with the Iraqis and live in a Shiite neighborhood.

Comments from her new friends: "I am Shiite. My uncles and cousins were murdered by Saddam's regime. I wanted desperately to get rid of him. But today, if Saddam's feet appeared in front of me, I would fall on my knees and kiss them:

Right now, with a temperature of 130 degrees, electricity is available only from 6 to 7AM. In a former oil producing country, 40 gallons of gasoline used to cost half a dollar, now Iraqis have to pay as much as $75 on the black market.

More than 200 doctors have fled the country, leaving the remainder to cope with the constantly escalating violence.

The "government" declares sudden curfews after ever-increasing suicide attacks, which ties up traffic so badly, that drivers are forced to abandon their vehicles on the streets, in order to comply. One of these "curfews" lasted four days.

PLEASE READ THE COMPLETE STORY, BY CLICKING ON THE TITLE OF THIS POSTING!

Our Generals Comment on Failed Bush "Strategy"

"With this veto, the president has doomed us to repeating a terrible history. President Bush's current position is hauntingly reminiscent of March 1968 in Vietnam. At that time both the Secretery of Defense and the President had recognized that the war could not be won militarily - just as our commanders in Iraq have acknowledged. But not wanting to be tainted with losing a war, President Johnson authorized a surge of 25,000 troops. Five years later, when the withdrawal of US troops was complete, we had suffered 34,000 additional combat deaths."

My (Wolfgang P. May) comment: To what extent do our presidents ("the Deciders") consider the precious lives of our fighting men in forming their courses of action? In the few staff meetings I attended in Vietnam, our Lt. Colonels and Generals spoke of "Air", as well as other "Assets". One little skinny one star general of the 25th Infantry Division was upset that I did not use his "air assets" to level a nearby village during my night combat action. Are we, like the civilian villages in our areas of operation, just disposable "war assets" to our leaders? Does this moral disease exist in especially concentrated form at the very highest command level?

Please click on the headline "Our Generals Comment..." at the top of this posting to read the courageous comments of our best and brightest generals on the blog of our Speaker of the House, proof that we still have good men near the top of our command structure. It is our job, if we value the future of this great country, to support them. Write letters to your local newspaper, send me your ideas for any additional actions.

BBC Report: Bush Made War Plans BEFORE 911!!

The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil long before the 9/11 attacks, and within weeks of Bush's first taking office, according to a BBC report. The planning to pirate Iraq's oil was the foundation on which the current uncontrollable insurgency has been founded, and the main reason why it will continue, and why so many of our men and women are being killed in Iraq.

Our Saudi Ally: US Occupation of Iraq is Illegal

Speaking to the Arab summit in Riyadh, the king warned that unless Arab governments settle their differences, the United States would continue to dictate the region's politics. The king, one of our very, very, very few allies in the region, described the US troop presence in Iraq as an ILLEGITIMATE OCCUPATION.

King Abdullah certainly appears to assume that Bush's "strategy" in Iraq is certain to fail, and he is seeking a new policy for Iraq, a policy that must be coordinated with Syria.

Abdullah is also very angry that Bush is letting the Palestine issue fester, and that he pushed for open elections in Palestine, but then cut off the freely elected Hamas government.

Prior Knowledge of 9/11: Don't Ask, Don't Tell!

Seems that William Bergman, an economist who worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago from July 1990 to early 2004 got a little too close to the truth: "Insiders" made billions of dollars on "put" options , in fact, betting that a stock which would certainly be affected by the Trade Center bombing and the resulting shutdown of all air traffic, would lose an enormous portion of it's value.

When I was studying for my MBA, our teacher, a man with a delightful sense of humor, described "put" options as a device to "put it to" someone who was not privy to insider information.

During 911, these insiders were taking "put" options, in essence betting that the stocks in which they took a position would plummet, and "PUTTING" it to the uninformed small investor. These small, insignificant investors would then further help these thieves by sending their sons and daughters to fight a war against an innocent nation under fraudulent pretenses. Where are these weapons of "mass" destruction.

US will Attack Iran at 4 AM, April 6, 2007

Expect the long awaited US attack on Iran at 4 AM on April 6. According to a deliberate leak by Russian intelligence services, the US attack is slated to last for 12 hours, from 4Am til 4PM local (Iran) time. Most probably, there will be no ground attack, but rather massive air attacks on key economic assets, and quite possibly the Iranian political leadership.

General Ivashov (see photo), believes that the US expects to degrade the Iranian air defense system, sink a substantial number of Iranian warships, and wipe our the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces. It is quite possible that the Pentagon will use tactical NUCLEAR WEAPONS to create panic among the population and create chaos inside that country.

At this time, it is uncertain to what extent the Russian military forces will intervene, which would create a severe worldwide security crisis.

Similarities Between Adolf Hitler and G.W. Bush

The "bloodforoil.org" website lists 25 similarities between Adolf Hitler and G. W. Bush:
Both were at one time popular with their nation's majority
Both were poor students and failed businessmen, but with ties to big business
Both curtailed civil liberties in response to questionable terrorist attacks
Both glorified patriotism, controlled the media, and used propaganda to stir public support
Both claimed to be fervent Christians, their nation's destiny favored by God
Both pursued recklessly belligerent nationalist foreign policies
Both used war preparations to boost their defense industries

etc, etc, etc....

It isn't quite as bad as it was in Nazi Germany - YET.
Let's work together so that we don't slide down that slippery slope!

Please check out the "Blood for Oil" .org website, from which these timely comments were borrowed, by clicking the link in the title: "Similarities Between Adolf Hitler and G.W. Bush"

"We Can't Make It Here, But We'll Fight for Oil"

As you can see here, our President, who spent the Vietnam war flying National Guard planes within the safe environment our United States, is doing very well. Given his background, how can he possibly identify with our male and female soldiers, whom he has sent into harm's way in Iraq for so many years.
It seems that it takes a gifted singer and talented songwriter like James McMurtry, to set the record straight. (Please click on the title of this posting, or these words, to visit his web site). His haunting ballad: "We Can't Make it Here", should stir the conscience of our citizens who are paying for this ill-conceived war.

A recent "documentary" television program alleged that our CIA had reported Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction", before our ill-conceived war, based on the interview of ONE flaky Iraqi dissident. Having served as Intelligence Operations Officer of the US 4th Armored Division in Goeppingen during 1967/68, I can guarantee that OUR shop would never have dared to advise our commander to commit troops to an attack based on one flaky source. All of us who served in any area of our fine intelligence community have a sincere and well-deserved respect for the professionals in our CIA. Any allegation that this superb group of highly-trained professionals would come to such a bizarre conclusion, based on such flimsy "evidence" represents a gross insult to the many fine professionals in our intelligence community.

Prince Harry: Leading by EXAMPLE !

Prince Harry, age 22, has demanded that if his unit goes into battle in Iraq, he would be leading them. Having trained to become troop commander of an armored recon unit, the courageous prince had threatened to quit the army, if not allowed to serve on the frontline.

What a difference moral courage between him, and the man who is currently serving as President of the United States: When I served in Vietnam, George W. Bush found it convenient to fly National Guard planes around the United States. As a man who has never dared to place himself into harm's way, though he won't hesitate to expose others to danger, his words ring hollow, when he congratulates our wounded for their courage, and, with crocodile tears, thanks the traumatized dependents of our dead for their sacrifice - one which HE was NEVER willing to make.

My father, Gerhard May, was drafted into the German Army in World War II, though he detested the Nazi regime with all of his heart and soul. During my last visit with him, after I had completed the Jungle Operations Course in Panama, and just before I shipped out for Vietnam, he insisted that we have a serious talk: "When I served in the German Army, first in Yugoslavia, and then in Italy, all of my officers had one thing in common: They led by example, and always shared the risks with those of us under their command. If you can't do that, don't come back. Of course, I was shocked that my father would even think that I would not measure up to that standard, and, as S-5 of the 1/10 Cavalry Squadron, as Advisor to the 748 Regional Forces Montagnard Company, as well as during my posting as Advisor to the 25th ARVN Battalion at Trung Lap, at the edge of the "Iron Triangle", I kept faith with the promise to my father. More important, I kept that promise to myself, and to the men with whom I had the honor of serving.

Beside the obvious matter of rank and privilege, there is one more important difference between the prince and myself: He is obviously a lot better looking than I ever was, and, born into a privileged environment, he has a great deal more to lose. His willingness to expose himself to severe danger, together with the less fortunate of his countrymen, is the sign of a truly noble nature, which far transcends the accidents of birth into a privileged class. In our United States of America, we should earnestly pray, that we might, one day, be led by a man as great as Prince Harry of England, a man who is TRULY noble!

Repeating Soviet Mistakes in Afghanistan

Eighteen years after the defeated Soviet Army pulled out of Afghanistan, which helped to speed the collapse of their empire, many of their soldiers believe the United States is heading for a similar disaster. Retired Captain Vladimir Vshivtev (photo) was blinded by an improvised roadside bomb 20 years ago in Afghanistan, and he feels the pain of our troops , which are now suffering from the same nightmare. In fact, the Russian Soldiers who fought there can point to many similarities: Their arrival was greeted with flowers and smiles, but the climate changed very quickly: Though their army arrived with 120,000 men, they lost about 1,300 each year, about the size of our combined losses in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My personal experiences in Vietnam point to the same conclusion of this Russian officer. Captain Quoc, my friend and commander of the 25th ARVN battalion at Trung Lap, at the edge of the "Iron Triangle", confided in me that we would eventually lose this war: Every night, after we had finished our patrols, the "Vietcong" would visit the farmers who lived near their rice paddies, and asked them for a contribution to the Vietcong cause. They were fighting for their freedom, they said, against the Americans, who had brought death and destruction to their country. Then they asked for a contribution of rice to their army. Instead of money, they gave the farmers a receipt, payable when they would win the war.

Toward the end of that conflict, many farmers had a huge stack of these receipts under their matresses, which would be worthless if we had won that war, but could, in theory, be redeemed by a Vietcong government. Based on this financial interest, many "neutral" farmers now had bought shares in our enemies' victory, and they gave important intelligence information to our elusive enemy.

February 13, 1945: A Day That Will Live in Infamy

According to Professor Dr. Fetscher, in charge of Civil Air Defense 180,000, mostly civilians, were killed by British and American air attacks in February 1945. The photo shows one pile of burning bodies, and toward the back and in the front of this photo, are the many corpses which had alreeady been burned to avoid an outbreak of disease among the few remaining survivors.

There would be more attacks, for Winston Churchill had ordered his, and the American Air Force units to wipe out all of the refugees fleeing the raping, torturing, and mutilating Russian hordes invading Germany with the phrase: "BASTE THEM ! ! !"

As a young child, I had passed through the doomed city just a few hours before the attack, and I witnessed the destruction from a hill overlooking Dresden. When the British Lancaster bombers flew low over the farmhouse where we had sought refuge, the vibrations were so intense that a 20" x 35" framed painting pounded against the interior wall, almost drowning out the roar of the enemy machines. It had snowed for several days, and then the British dropped aluminum foil over the farm house where my mother and grandmother had sought refuge, to confuse any German radar systems. The foil, which landed on the nearby spruce trees, reminded me of the Christmas celebration we had enjoyed just a few days earlier, I began to sing Christmas carols, while my mother and grandmother cried.

May Churchill forever roast in hell for this atrocity, even if I have to be there personally to stoke the flames!!!

The Grapes of Wrath

If you really want to know what is going on in Iraq, what our "free" press cannot, or does not want to tell us, please click on the pretty lady's photo. Most Americans do not really want to hear the truth, nor can they handle the implications of our current demented foreign "policy".

You will never read her commentary in our newspapers, for if they lose their most lucrative advertisers, they cannot continue to exist. In their constant fear of the continuing decline of their advertising revenue, they have become little more than prostitutes for the irresponsible politicians which now hold this nation hostage. Tied to an ill-fated foreign policy, which enriches a very, very few power brokers, we contiue to make bitter enemies among those who were once our closest friends.

The desperate sadness which you see in this Iraqi woman's portrait reflects her insight, on the occasion of this new year. Though the future is full of hope for some of us, her nation continues to descend rapidly into that hell, in which the residents of her country will soon surpass the horrors of "ethnic cleansing" and perhaps, just perhaps, even the nightmares of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At the end of this turbulent year, she provides a candid evaluation of the state of her ever deepening nightmare. She writes: "You know you are in trouble, when
1. The UN has to open a special branch (UNAMI) just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed.
2. This branch (UNAMI) cannot be safely administered from Iraq.
3. The politicians who put your country into this sorry state have hastily fled to safety in other nations.
4. Though now openly hostile to each other, the US and Iran can agree on one thing: The continuously deteriorating situation in Iraq.
5. Iraqis now look at an earlier 8-year war and a 13-year blockade as the country's "Golden Years".
6. Though Iraq is supposedly selling (That would erroneously imply that the nation's citizens derive some benefit from such sale) TWO million barrels of oil a day, Iraqi citizens are standing in line for four hours to obtain black market gasoline for their generators.
7. For every HOUR of public electricity, Iraqis suffer at least FIVE hours abandoned by their nation's public utilities.
8. Iraqi citizens are grateful, and consider themselves "lucky", if they can actually find and identify the corpse of a relative, who has been missing for two weeks.

My fellow citizens: In Iraq, you see OUR tax money at work. Is that what "WE, THE PEOPLE" as our Constitution reads, REALLY want? Why are these atrocities then being perpetratated against against the innocents of our planet. Must their agony continue to torture and burden our souls in the JUDGMENT which will expose all of us to the wrath of GOD?