Tread lightly on the things of earth : Fri, Oct 11, 2002

Friday, October 11, 2002

Big picture time: Pakistan, WMD, Saddam. Ken points out photographs that appeared consecutively in his Google newsflow that "[cast] long shadows on the remarkably selective thinking Washington is capable of."

Pakistan steps up nuclear tests

Bush cites Saddam's 'arsenal of terror'

(As I'm helping get the word out, I don't think Ken will mind me copying the above chunk from his weblog entry. Thanks, Ken.)
1:43:43 PM | See also pakistan nuclear iraq

Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize. Standing in stark, happy contrast to President Bush's behavior, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has earned the Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." [via Dan Gillmor]

You go, sir.

Marc: "How ironical: A great American is publicly rewarded at last for his never ending efforts to promote peaceful coexistence between people and nations, while at the same time, another American is leading the country on the war path."

Rob: "One man striving for peace, another striving for war at all costs..."

Gunnar Berge, Nobel committee chairman: "Honoring Mr. Carter 'can also be interpreted as a criticism of the position' of the current US administration." [ABC News, Australia via jenett]
12:40:47 PM | See also carter nobel bush diplomacy

Bravo, Rep. Pete Stark: "I don't trust this president and his advisors". Bravo, bravo, bravo to California Rep. Pete Stark who courageously spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday: "The bottom line is I don't trust this president and his advisors":

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution (authorizing military force against Iraq). I am deeply troubled that lives may be lost without a meaningful attempt to bring Iraq into compliance with U.N. resolutions through careful and cautious diplomacy.
"The bottom line is I don't trust this president and his advisors.
"Make no mistake, we are voting on a resolution that grants total authority to the president, who wants to invade a sovereign nation without any specific act of provocation. This would authorize the United States to act as the aggressor for the first time in our history. It sets a precedent for our nation -- or any nation -- to exercise brute force anywhere in the world without regard to international law or international consensus.
"Congress must not walk in lockstep behind a president who has been so callous to proceed without reservation, as if war was of no real consequence . . .
"The questions before the members of this House and to all Americans are immense, but there are clear answers. America is not currently confronted by a genuine, proven, imminent threat from Iraq. The call for war is wrong.

Indeed, IMO U.S. president George W. Bush--and the powers that back him--is more clearly a global threat than Hussein is. Bush assuredly has weapons of mass destruction. And he is chomping at the bit to use them. With the same justification that Bush is using against Hussein, any other world leader could declare the U.S. in need of a regime change and begin an invasion.

I therefore believe that unless you're willing for your hometown to be bombed, your home destroyed, and many of your family, friends, and neighbors to be wounded and killed--you cannot with integrity support this war effort. Because bombing/destroying/killing--without justification or provocation--is exactly what we'll be doing to Iraqi hometowns, homes, families, friends, and neighbors.

(See also President Bush's distorted case for war.)
12:24:21 PM | See also congress bush iraq war