SEATTLE LEADS THE NATION

Now its time to spread the effort nationwide.

THAT VIETNAM PARALLEL
ISRAEL PEACE MOVEMENT REACTS
NY TIMES LOSES LAW SUIT

Suddenly, the Vietnam parallel is all over the place and not because President Bush visited Vietnam and learned about as much there as he had when he visited Iraq. It’s bizarre. When I started writing about the link, I was scoffed at as the captains of the conventional wisdom went into a denial fest. The pundit pack was insistent and agreed that anyone who brings up Vietnam is wrong, wrong, wrong.

One of my first articles before the US invasion, forgotten now, cited a report on Asia Times that some of Saddam’s Generals had visited Hanoi and met with General Giap whose army defeated the United States. This has gone totally unreported in the US.

Suddenly the Vietnam parallel—actually with different lessons– is on the lips of right and left alike. The right says, remember what happened when we “cut and ran.” The left says the war is doomed and a Vietnam-like solution—ie a defeat of the US “mission” by Iraqi insurgents is inevitable and well underway.

The cover of The Week magazine this week features a 1975-like drawing of a helicopter flying off a building like the one that used to be in Saigon. Only the building is in Baghdad. “And so we are, three decades after the fall of Saigon caught in another foreign intervention gone sour, debating whether its more foolish to pull our troops out now or to continue fighting a war that has confounded everyone,” writes Editor William Falk. “If the nation could be psychoanalyzed, our shrink would say we’ve re-created the trauma of Vietnam in the hope it will come out differently.”

I can do without the psychobabble. Clearly there is a national liberation struggle underway in Iraq, not as organized or focused as the one in Vietnam but they had 30 years to get it right, fighting the Japanese, the French and the Americans. And to those who point to sectarian/religious strife in Iraq as a differentiating factor, they need to be reminded of the US effort to incite the Catholics against the Buddhists and the minority peoples against the Vietnamese. Divide and rule, as a letter below states, is the oldest colonial tactic in the book.

And I am not the only one saying all this:

Security expert says Iraq ‘worse than Vietnam:’

A security expert says he believes coalition forces face the prospect of defeat in Iraq with serious consequences. Former soldier and military historian Robert O’Neill says it is likely the coalition will pull its troops out early.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1798632.htm

UN’s KOFI ANNAN WARNS: Civil War in Iraq Near
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WART0276C39691484F27F3370DE140

AMERICA SHOPS WHILE IRAQ BURNS
Bob Herbert, eloquent as ever
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/world/middleeast/26insurgency.html?pagewanted=print

And oh yeh: US Military Deaths in Iraq Hit 2,875 while Iraq’s president sought out help from Iran to stabilize the situation. The Times reports that Shite troops are getting training from Hezbollah in Lebanon, a suggested Iranian link.

PRESS COVERAGE SKITZY

AP: NBC News determines it will call Iraqi conflict a ‘civil war’

NEW YORK (AP) — NBC News on Monday began referring to the Iraq conflict as a civil war, adopting a phrase that President Bush and many other news organizations have avoided.

Yesterday I took Lara Logan of 60 Minutes to task for sucking up to General Abizaid and then trying to get him to blame Iran for the violence. Now, Newsbusters, a right wing group has lit into her report too but totally distorting it. CBS can now say that their coverage must be right because it is being attacked by crazies on the right and left. That’s what they often say.

On Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan insisted the US had been defeated in Iraq. During an interview with General John Abizaid, the top US Commander in Iraq, Logan asserted, “We hear very little about victory in Iraq these days. We hear a lot about how to manage the defeat.” It appears Ms. Logan suffers from selective hearing. While many Democrats and some Republicans talk about Iraq as a lost cause, sources such as Senator John McCain and White House officials still insist victory is not only possible, it is imperative.

General Abizaid dismissed Logan’s claims, and maintained that “defeat” was her word, not his. However, Logan persisted in proclaiming that the United States had been beaten.

They must have watched another show.

http://www.newsbusters.org/

NY TIMES: “An American fighter jet crashed near Baghdad today, as the lifting of a three-day curfew in the capital was marked by scattered violence, including the kidnapping of three guards from the Municipal Building in the city’s center.

US REPORTER SAYS: Iraq Worse Than Media Shows :

“The amount of death that’s on the streets of Baghdad for U.S. forces and for the Iraqi people is at an astronomical level,” he said. “So, to some degree, what we’re seeing is sanitized.”

http://tinyurl.com/y6aom9

ALJAZEERA REPORTS: ISRAEL OFFERS PRISONER SWAP

For the first time, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, offers a ceasefire, to swap prisoners for the return of Gilad Shilat and negotiate.

STATEMENT: ISRAELI PEACE MOVEMENT RESPONDS TO ISRAELI PEACE OFFER

Yes, the ceasefire is a good thing. Let’s hope that it will be maintained and then expanded into full-fledged negotiations for peace.

The ceasefire, however, does nothing to relieve the ongoing, terrible siege of Gaza.

The siege began some six months ago in response to the election of Hamas. In an effort to cut off the financial resources of the Hamas government - to avoid funding terrorism, as it is usually termed - the
international community isolated Palestine by placing an embargo on trade and banking and by severely reducing international aid. Israel tightened the noose by further constraining travel within Palestine,
curtailing almost all entry to and exit from the Gaza Strip, and withholding the taxes that it collects for the Palestinian authority.

The result has been chaos, violence, and poverty, and these have fueled each other….

FULL STATEMENT: http://www.btselem.org/

UNDERNEWS: NEW CONG TO RUN “IN THE MIDDLE”

AP - The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is promising an array of oversight investigations that could provoke sharp disagreement with Republicans and the White House. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., pledged that Democrats, swept to power in the Nov. 7 elections, would govern “in the middle” next year. . .

Meanwhile, the incoming chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee said his committee would not take on contentious issues, such as extending expiring tax cuts or overhauling Social Security, at the beginning of the year. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Democrats do not want a fight with President Bush and want to prove they can govern. . . .

ANOTHER RECOUNT

WP: COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 27 — Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) won reelection Monday by a margin so slim that a recount will be required.

Close Adviser to Condi Rice Plans to Resign -
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WART0276C35971484F27F3370DE140

AP: BLOOMBERG “DEEPLY DISTURBED,” FINALLY SPEAKS

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg was “deeply disturbed” by the barrage of gunfire unleashed by officers in a weekend shooting that killed a groom on his wedding day, the mayor said Monday.

“I can tell you that it is to me unacceptable or inexplicable how you can have 50-odd shots fired, but that’s up to the investigation to find out what really happened,” Bloomberg said after meeting with community leaders atCity Hall.

Bloomberg was joined by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Charles Rangel and several other officials at the meeting.

Joe Dunphy writes: “I’ve done the regulation pistol shooting course done for police/military police work, and the standard practice for quick reaction shots, such as standing on the side of a car, is two rounds in quick succession, pause, reassess the situation.”

THE FIGHT FOR OTHER RIGHTS IN NYC
http://www.assembleforrightsnyc.org/

AND IN ATLANTA

CNN: “Federal authorities will investigate the police shooting of an elderly woman during a drug raid, Atlanta’s police chief announced Monday. Eight officers were suspended with pay, chief Richard Pennington said, adding the stories being told about the shooting by police and an informant differ. Police say Kathryn Johnston, 88, died in return fire after she shot at them as they tried to raid her house.

HAPPY TIMES ARE HERE AGAIN
’04 Income in U.S. Was Below 2000 Level
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/business/28tax.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

DEBT WATCH

Borrowing to Make Ends Meet Series
http://www.demos.org/pubs/house_cards.pdf

Half of Canadians a pay check or two away from poverty
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=d7294206-cd31-449a-ba8b-d37bcc8b2189&k=73115

Euphoric markets ‘ignore global risk’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/11/21/cnecon21.xml

RIGHT-WING MEDIA ATTACKS STORIES ON TEEN DEBT

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2006/20061127171456.aspx