French troops deploy to monitor Ivory Coast truce

BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Oct 20 (Reuters) – French troops in Ivory Coast were getting ready on Sunday to monitor a ceasefire between rebels and the government, deploying at positions on and around the front line.


but…


DALOA, Ivory Coast, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s army accused rebels of violating a ceasefire accord aimed at ending a month-old conflict as French troops were deployed on the front line to monitor the truce.


Source: moreover

The Bloodstained Path

From an article by Dennis Kucinich in The Progressive:



Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal. The Administration has failed to make the case that Iraq poses an imminent threat to the United States. There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to 9/11. There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to Al Qaeda. Nor is there any credible evidence that Iraq possesses deliverable weapons of mass destruction, or that it intends to deliver them against the United States.


We must work to bring Iraq back into the community of nations, not through destruction, but through constructive action worldwide. We can help negotiate a resolution with Iraq that encompasses unfettered inspections, the end of sanctions, and the cessation of the regime-change policy.


Source: moreover

Could the warmongers be right?

For some reason I feel compelled to blog at this unearthly hour. Thoughts of all sorts have been going through my mind, but I’ll try to keep this on topic. I’ve been watching the blogdom (blogosphere? blogiverse?) for some months now, and it definitely seems to me that pro–peace memes are outweighing the warbloggers by a quite a large factor these days. Maybe it’s just that I filter out what I don’t want to hear, but the main weblog indices, blogdex and daypop, have of late had many more links to items questioning the warmongering stance of the US/UK alliance than to those supporting it.


But perhaps the Bush/Blair tack is right? Maybe it is time for a new war of colonisation in a part of the world that sorely needs a firm, guiding hand to lead it towards democracy. A new Pax Ukusia (Usukia?) could be what is needed in the Middle East to get peace process back on to a positive track. While the Bush administration is probably the most reactionary the US has ever had, the Blairite “third way” is probably the most successful progressive movement the world has yet seen. Together they make a very odd political couple, but dare we actually surmise that they are serving our and the world’s best long-term interests by their demands for a war on Iraq?


There is no question in my mind that an Imperial war is what is being proposed. The nudge-nudge wink-wink say no more terms that the warmongers use to try to justify attacks on Saddam, who is a relatively minor threat to the security of either nation, are merely a cover to try and appease those who do not wish to see a new era of military expansion by the sole superpower axis left in the world.


This train of thought goes completely counter to my normal instinct, which is to abhor violence in any form, particularly in the cowardly fashion that Nato chooses to wage war by blanket bombing its enemies into submission. But should it be relatively easy to rid the world of its menacing tyrant, what then? An occupation to last until a reasonable form of opposition and democratic rule can be established in that backward nation would last for years. Would the global community countenance it? Do we have any choice?

The American people need to respond


Dear Senator Byrd,


I have written to my own (PA) senators but realise that this will have no effect whatever. Please do everything in your power to prevent this unelected President from launching the USA into a war of aggression from which there will be no exit. The dangers are many, the potential benefits accruing only to the Republican oil barons and to those who would usher in a new age of US imperialism.


Sincerely,
Chris Brody

Bush’s leaps of illogic don’t answer people’s questions about war

Bush’s argument reduces to this: No one can prove that Saddam Hussein is not planning to attack us. And if he had a nuclear weapon, no one can prove he wouldn’t use it. And if he used it, it is possible he could destroy us. So, to stop this unknown, unproven, unquantifiable, logic-defying “threat gathering against us,” we must go to war or risk seeing a mushroom cloud rise over the United States.


Source: www.commondreams.org

Public says Bush needs to pay heed to weak economy

A majority of Americans say that the nation’s economy is in its worst shape in nearly a decade and that President Bush and Congressional leaders are spending too much time talking about Iraq while neglecting problems at home.


Americans said they feared a long and costly war that could spread across the Middle East and encourage more terrorist attacks in the United States.


Source: New York Times [subscription required] via Daypop