Loose Cannons

Just like the 'evidence' for WMD

"I think we are going to succeed in Iraq, I think the evidence is overwhelming." — Lord Darth Cheney, March 19.

Lord Darth Cheney every morning

"The situation on the ground remains tense. In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken. Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens, and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't." — Emperor George Bush II, March 20.

Taking the long view

"BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — The concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 US helicopters, a 'heli-park' as good as any back in the States. At another giant base, al Asad in Iraq's western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads... From the start, in 2003, the first Army engineers rolling into Balad took the long view, laying out a 10-year plan envisioning a move from tents to today's living quarters in air-conditioned trailers, to concrete-and-brick barracks by 2008." — Associated Press, March 21.

From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.

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From GLW issue 662