The Spin Doctors

(The British reduction in the number of their troops in Iraq is already getting a positive spin in Washington. The White House says President Bush views it as "a sign of success." Still, the British scale-back is coming at a time when the US is boosting its troop commitment in Iraq by almost 21,000).

Cheney Says British Troop Withdrawal Is Positive Sign

Feb. 21, 2007 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement that British troops will begin withdrawing from Iraq would appear to be bad news for the Bush administration.

(But in an exclusive interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney said the move was actually good news and a sign of progress in Iraq).

"Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," Cheney told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.

(Here is the real reason. Blair is pulling British troops from Iraq: Opposition to the war has hurt Blair politically, with his ruling Labor Party losing seats in Parliament and in local elections in the past two years. The prime minister announced in September that he would leave office within a year).

(I am confused when I read this. When the British reduce their forces in Iraq, it is considered a "positive sign" and a “sign of success“; but unless the United States commits to a surge of almost 21,000 troops, it will "embolden" the enemy.)

"The United States will complete our work in Iraq. Leaving Iraq prematurely would only embolden the terrorists and increase the danger to America. We are determined to stay, to fight and to win."—George W. Bush in his November 1, 2003, radio address to the nation.

“We will not set an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq, because that would embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out."—George W. Bush, State of the Union address, February 2, 2005.

(Then I remember reading some of the recommendations made by the Iraq Study Group):

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Iraq Study Group called the situation in Iraq "grave and deteriorating" Wednesday and recommended a radically different approach from President Bush's current policy, including the withdrawal of most U.S. combat troops by early 2008.

"We no longer can afford to stay the course," Baker said. "If we do what we recommend in this report, it will certainly improve our chances for success."

"The current approach is not working and the ability of the United States to influence events is diminishing," Hamilton said. "Our ship of state has hit rough waters. It must now chart a new way forward."

(Among the group's recommendations were calls for a change in the primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq that will allow the United States to move forces out responsibly).

(The size and capabilities of the Coalition forces involved in operations in Iraq has been a subject of much debate, confusion, and at times exaggeration. As of August 23, 2006, there were 21 non-U.S. military forces contributing armed forces to the Coalition in Iraq).

(Countries which have recently reduced or are planning to reduce their troop commitment: South Korea is planning to withdraw up to 1000 soldiers by the end of 2006. Poland withdrew 700 soldiers in Feb. 2005. Denmark announced that it would withdraw its 460 troops by August, 2007. Between May 2005 and May 2006, the United Kingdom reduced the size of its contingent by 1,300. The United Kingdom also is planning to reduce significantly the size of its contingent by the end of 2007, with an initial reduction of 1,600 troops followed by an additional 500 troops by end of 2007).

(Australia said it had no plans to cut the 550-strong Australian battle group providing security in neighboring areas. But Australia's handling of Iraq is a growing problem for Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government, which is struggling in the polls with national elections due in the second half of 2007. A poll published on Tuesday found 67 percent of Australians either want Howard to set a withdrawal date from Iraq or pull Australian forces out immediately).

ABC News interviewed the vice-president in Tokyo, where he told troops aboard the USS Kitty Hawk that the United States would not withdraw until the job was done. "I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat," Cheney told the soldiers.

January 2007

Bush makes a televised speech outlining his case for escalating the war in Iraq. An AP-Ipsos telephone poll in the US finds 70% opposition to escalation.

President Bush's approval rating drops to 28%, a career low, according to a new CBS poll. The same poll finds 66% opposition to escalating the war in Iraq, and 75% who think the war is going badly.

Some years ago, coal miners used to carry a canary into the mine with them. The canary's more fragile respiratory system would cause it to collapse from noxious gases long before humans were affected, thus alerting the miners to danger. The canary's distress signaled that it was time to get out of the mine because the air was becoming too poisonous to breathe.

Isn't it time to check to see how the canary is doing?

Blackwater and Bush

With Clinton it was Whitewater. Now with Bush, it is Blackwater. What is Blackwater? In his State of the Union Address, President Bush included the following statements: “Tonight, I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years. A SECOND TASK we can take on together is to DESIGN AND ESTABLISH A CIVILIAN RESERVE CORPS. Such a corps would FUNCTION MUCH LIKE OUR MILITARY RESERVE. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to HIRE CIVILIANS WITH CRITICAL SKILLS TO SERVE ON MISSIONS ABROAD when America needs them.” What was the president referring to with these statements? The answer to that question can be frightening.

Blackwater is a company that for some time in Iraq has used paramilitary forces made up of contractors to replace the US military. As the U.S. military wages the war on terrorism, it is increasingly relying on for-profit companies like Blackwater to do work normally performed by soldiers. But because Bush needs the troops for fighting the war (in the absence of a draft), he must rely upon the “civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad.” It is a mercenary army recruited from elite U.S. military forces (especially from Navy SEALS and Marine Recon), SWAT police forces, and international "soldiers of fortune.” This mercenary army provides essential support to military bases throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, from operating mess halls to furnishing security.

The Bush administration's push to privatize war is swiftly turning the military-industrial complex of old into something even more far-reaching: a complex of military industries that do everything but fire weapons. For-profit military companies now enjoy an estimated $100 billion in business worldwide each year

What are some dangers in using civilian contractors in paramilitary roles? We know that they sometimes become involved in combat, and when they do the question arises that under the Geneva Convention, should they be considered civilian contractors or soldiers? And Blackwater personnel, as employees of a private corporation, are not subject to the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Perhaps you remember viewing that disturbing television footage of one of those contractor employees shooting at the cars of Iraqi civilians just for the fun of it. What will happen to that employee? The company probably will transfer him to Afghanistan. Or, as the perpetrator of a serious crime, he might lose his job. Forces provided by Blackwater are less subject to Congressional oversight and public scrutiny than the conventional military. These contractors are not fighting for God and country but for their personal profit and the profit of the company they represent.

These contractors are well paid for their services. Perhaps you have read that some of the corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel, and Brown and Root have been paid billions of dollars for providing security in Iraq. That is not to mention the nine billion dollars that Paul Bremer lost in Iraq. No one knows that happened to it, and no one has been punished for its loss.

These corporations pay their employees well. The contractors who were hired to drive fuel trucks between Kuwait and Iraq were paid up to $150,000 a year. At the same time, an American soldier doing the same job was earning, on average, less than $24,000 a year. Not only is this a waste of taxpayer money, but it is harmful to soldier morale, too.

President Bush has a fetish for privatizing everything. Now he wants to privatize the military. You might call it outsourcing military operations to American corporations. But whatever you want to call it, it is dangerous for our nation and very much more expensive for the taxpayers. It is, however, a windfall for Bush’s corporate cronies.

ADDENDUM

Excerpted information provided by CIVIC (The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict):

USA: Contractor deaths in Iraq nearing 800

Jan 28, 2007

Laboring in a war with no discernible front line, more than 770 civilian contractors have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003.
Statistics kept by the Labor Department indicate fatalities among civilian contractors working for American firms escalated rapidly late last year, with at least 301 dying in Iraq in 2006 — including 124 in the final three months.
U.S. military deaths totaled 818 during the year, the Defense Department has reported.

Despite the danger, job seekers continue to flood contractors' offices with résumés.
Some 165,000 prospective employees contacted Houston-based Halliburton Co.'s KBR last year about job opportunities in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, company officials said. KBR now has half a million résumés on file.
And the recent troop "surge" announced by President Bush has prompted KBR to increase its hiring, company Chief Executive Officer Bill Utt said Friday.

The Pentagon estimates there are100,000 civilians working for U.S.-based contractors in Iraq.
Supplementing the 130,000 American troops serving in the country, these civilians provide a wide variety of functions, including serving up chow and interrogating prisoners.

Halliburton's KBR is the largest military contractor operating in Iraq, with more than 50,000 employees and subcontractors working there, as well as in Kuwait and Afghanistan.
Working under a multibillion-dollar contract with the Army, KBR crews drive trucks, wash clothes, deliver mail and provide a host of other support services for U.S. troops.
KBR's workers are a critical component of the Pentagon's privatization strategy, enabling the military to reduce the number of troops needed in the country by turning over noncombat functions to civilians.

The idea behind the privatization plan was to keep these noncombatants away from the fighting. But that has proved impossible in violence-riddled Iraq.
"The whole place is a front line," said Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution and author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry.
The contractor death toll rose last week when five Americans working for Blackwater USA were killed in Baghdad after their helicopter was shot down by insurgents. The contractors were rushing to help a U.S. Embassy convoy that had come under attack.

Besides those killed, another 7,761 civilian contractors had been injured in Iraq as of Dec. 31, the Labor Department said.
The Labor Department has these numbers because it tracks workers' compensation claims by injured workers or families of slain contractors under the federal Defense Base Act.

The Talking Urinal

What will they think of next? Reasoning that inebriated male patrons of a bar or restaurant will use a urinal one last time before driving home, New Mexico officials have begun placing talking urinal-deodorizer cakes in the men’s restrooms of those establishments. While a man is using the urinal, a motion-sensitive plastic device activates the flirty and then stern voice of a woman who says, “Hey, big guy. Having a few drinks? Think you had one too many? Then it’s time to call a cab or call a sober friend for a ride home.” Finally, the message concludes by saying, “Remember, your future is in your hand.” Understanding that most men standing at a urinal will stare straight ahead and avoid talking to others, a spokesman for the New Mexico Transportation Department said that moment of silence at the urinal is an opportune time to get the message across.

When using a urinal, men sometimes find that an awkward silence does permeate the atmosphere, mainly because manly men usually don’t talk while using a urinal or look around for fear of appearing too “friendly” with the other urinal occupants. That reminds me of an amusing incident that occurred in a restroom. I went into the restroom of a restaurant with a couple of buddies to use the urinals. Suddenly, two men who were obviously identical twins walked in and also began using the other available urinals. I looked around and wittily said, “Hey, have you noticed? We have a winning hand here - three of a kind and a pair. That’s a full house!” At that moment, we heard a toilet flush and a man’s voice emanating from a stall that said, “Sorry, guys. You lose! A straight flush beats a full house every time.” We started laughing so hard that I thought we all were going to have to use the stalls.

But I digress. Back to the talking urinal-deodorizer cakes. Can you see other possibilities here? Advertisers could use the two to three minutes of silence at the urinal to pitch their products. For example, an appropriate message might be addressed to men with prostate problems or an overactive bladder: “Do you have to get up several times during the night to urinate? Use Brand X for relief.” Political candidates could get out the vote with the following message: “Are you pissed off with the representation you are getting from Mayor X? Vote for Candidate Y and I will flush out the corruption in our government.”

What other possibilities can you think of for a talking urinal-deodorizer cake?

Just Friends, Not Lovers

In the movie “When Harry Met Sally,” Harry tells Sally that that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way. Of course, we know that in the movie Harry becomes very good friends with Sally before sex enters the picture.

If you are a man, have you ever met an attractive woman who is funny, smart, with a great personality, and one who laughs at your jokes. You think you might be in love with her and you ask her for a date, only to be told that she just wants to be friends. One man tells of having a fantastic friendship with a woman he has been going out with for over five years. He has dated other women and she has dated other men, but their relationship is strictly platonic. They love each other , but not in a sexual way. They are only the best of friends, enjoying each other’s companionship.

What is platonic love? Platonic love in its modern popular sense is an affectionate relationship into which the sexual element does not enter, especially in cases where one might easily assume otherwise. A simple example of platonic relationships is a deep, non-sexual friendship between two heterosexual people of the opposite sex. Another way of stating platonic friendship is that it is an intimacy between a man and a woman which has no element of sex in it, but which is nearly as warm as love.

I recall that when my sister was seventeen years old, the young man next door, the one she grew up with and played with as a child, suddenly found her very attractive, but not in a platonic sense. One day he asked her for a date and she said, “Wilbur, I can’t go out with you. You seem like a brother to me.” He locked eyes with her and replied, “Well! I certainly don’t think of you as a sister.”

How about you.? Have you had a successful long-term platonic relationship with a person of the opposite sex? How does it differ from other relationships? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a platonic relationship with a person of the opposite sex?






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The World of Music Loses Another Legend

Five summers ago my wife and I received an unusual treat. We often attended the free summer concerts in a nearby rustic mountain park, surrounded by tall trees and littered with huge boulders. On a warm summer evening, it was so relaxing just to be in the park, and the music performers on the stage merely added to the enjoyment of the evening. A local musical group performing in the genre of the Beach Boys entertained us for over an hour. Then a long, black, stretch limousine pulled up and out of it emerged Frankie Laine, who had come to the park as a featured entertainer. The then 88-year-old pop singer climbed onto the stage and proceeded to entertain us for over an hour.

Everyone, of course, expected Frankie Laine to sing. After all, that was what he was famous for. In his singing career, he had sold over 100 million records of these songs:

1. Rawhide
2. Riders in the Sky
3. Jezebel
4. Jealousy
5. High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)
6. Mule Train
7. Memories in Gold
8. Cry of the Wild Goose
9. I Believe
10. North to Alaska
11. You Gave Me a Mountain
12. Along the Navajo Trail
13. Fever
14. Moonlight Gambler
15. Your Cheatin' Heart
16. Hey, Good Lookin'
17. Wanted Man
18. Call of the Wild
19. Hanging Tree
20. Tumbling Tumbleweeds
21. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
22. That's My Desire
23. Blazing Saddles
24. Cool Water
25. Strange Lady In Town
26. There Must Be A Reason
27. Hummingbird
28. Answer Me
29. Sixteen Tons
30. Woman In Love
31. Rain, Rain, Rain
32. Granada
33. Rose, Rose I Love You
34. Don't Fence Me In
35. Wheel Of Fortune

Frankie’s greatest hits, in addition to “That’s my Desire”, were "Mule Train," "Jezebel," "I Believe" and "That Lucky Old Sun.”

But alas! Frankie Laine’s age had caught up with him , and he was able to sing only two songs: “That’s My Desire”, which he first recorded in 1947 and which launched his singing career, and “Cry of the Wild Goose.” The rest of the time he told us stories about his early days in the music business. He related how he grew up in the Depression, and how he had "paid his dues" by sleeping on park benches and in hotel lobbies for 17 years until his career took off. Finally, he was singing in a popular nightclub in Hollywood. One night he sang “That’s My Desire” and the patrons couldn’t get enough of it. So he sang it three more times. After that, Frankie was singing that song four times every night. When the recording of “That’s My Desire” came out, he was an instant hit.

In the 1960s, Frankie Laine established his home in the Point Loma area of San Diego, where he lived until his death last week. About three years ago, I saw him interviewed on a local television station. Those who knew him viewed him as a kind and gentle man who always had room in his life for other people. Not only did he leave us 21 gold records; he left a caring spirit with love for the lonely and disadvantaged.

Here are the words to “That’s my Desire”:

To spend one night with you
In our old rendezvous
And reminisce with you
That's my desire

To be where gypsies play
Down in that dim cafe
And dance til break of day
That's my desire

We’ll sip a little glass of wine
I’ll gaze into your eyes divine
I’ll feel the touch of your lips
Pressing on mine

To hear you whisper low
Just when it's time to go
Cheri, I love you so
That's my desire

When Frankie sang it, it was with a voice filled with a special energy and passion that no other singer could emulate. He was a big man with a big voice, and an even bigger heart. Bon Voyage, Frankie. We will miss you.