VeeJay says, "Wesley Clark?"
Could a four star general have won the presidential election in 2000? What are the chances Bush could be unseated? Bookmakers now rate that possibility at greater than 20%. Can four months make a difference? Would there be a significant difference between a war hawk and a chicken hawk in the Whitehouse? Would Clark be willing or able to undo anything the NeoCons have done? Could Clark represent a step toward or a step away from self-fulfillment of biblical prophesy?

Clark Set to Enter 2004 Presidential Race
September 11, 2003, by Ron Fournier, AP,
"Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark has told friends he is likely to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, a move that could shake up the crowded field just four months before the first ballots are cast."
Stroy ...

Report: Dean Asks Wesley Clark to Join Campaign
September 11, 2003, Reuters
"Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has asked former NATO commander Wesley Clark to join his campaign if Clark does not run himself and the two have discussed the vice presidency, The Washington Post reported on Thursday."
Story ...

Supreme Allied Commander Europe,
General Wesley K. Clark, US Army, 1997-2000

General Wesley K. Clark became the Supreme Allied Commander Europe on 11 July 1997. He was also the Commander-in-Chief, United States European Command. General Clark's last assignment was as Commander-in-Chief, United States Southern Command, Panama, from June 1996 to July 1997, where he commanded all U.S. forces and was responsible for the direction of most U.S. military activities and interests in Latin America and the Caribbean. His previous assignment was as the Director, Strategic Plans and Policy, J5, the Joint Staff (April 1994-June 1996) where he was the staff officer responsible for world-wide politico-military affairs and U.S. military strategic planning. He also led the military negotiations for the Bosnian Peace Accords at Dayton.

General Clark is an Armor Officer who has commanded at every level from Company to Division. As the Commander 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas (August 1992-April 1994), he transitioned the Division into a rapidly deployable force and conducted three emergency deployments to Kuwait. During the Cold War, he commanded the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (April 1986-March 1988), and the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor, 4th Infantry Division (February 1980-June 1982) at Fort Carson, Colorado. General Clark has also commanded three companies, to include a mechanized infantry company in combat in Vietnam.

General Clark spent 5 years training leaders and soldiers at the National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California, and with the Battle Command Training Program (BCTP). As the Commander of National Training Center (October 1989-October 1991), General Clark helped train many of the forces that subsequently saw combat operations in Desert Storm. During this time period, he developed new training methodologies for Division and Corps level training, helping to train 13 Divisions, and he conducted the first ever Corps level BCTP training exercise. In his first assignment at the National Training Center, as Commander Operations Group (August 1984-January 1986), he revised the overall training program by improving scenarios, enhancing After Action Reports, and developing the first Brigade-level training exercise and the first heavy-light rotations.

In addition to his work on the Joint Staff, his other major staff assignments have included service as Deputy Chief of Staff for Concepts, Doctrine and Developments, US Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia (October 1991-August 1992), Chief of the Army's Study Group, Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army, Washington, DC (October 1983-July 1984); Chief, Plans Integration Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, United States Army, Washington, DC (July 1983-September 1983).

General Clark is a 1966 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he graduated first in his class. He holds a master's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar (August 1966-August 1968). He is a graduate of the National War College, Command and General Staff College, Armor Officer Advanced and Basic Courses, and Ranger and Airborne schools. General Clark was a White House Fellow in 1975-1976 and served as a Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He has also served as an instructor and later Assistant Professor of Social Science at the United States Military Academy.

Among his military decorations are the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (three awards), Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit (four awards), Bronze Star Medal (two awards), Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal (two awards), and the Army Commendation Medal (two awards).

General Clark was born on 23 December 1944 and grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is married to the former Gertrude Kingston of Brooklyn, New York. He and his wife have one son, Wesley, who lives in California.
nato.int/cv/saceur/clark.htm

Keep America on the War Path!

Why does America need to keep on the War Path?
Check the graph, jelly bean.
Americans want/need to maintain a stranglehold on humanity.
If humanity doen't like it ...?
"Is it better to be loved than feared, or the converse?"
Niccolo Machiavelli

Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire by Wesley K. Clark

"And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on 'til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons ... And the forehorse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."
-- Thomas Jefferson
George Bush is no Thomas Jefferson.
George Bush is no Abraham Lincoln either.
George Bush has been a busy little rodent in three years. Let's say, for the sake of argument at least, that Americans could be liberated from the obvious and far reaching tentacles of the tyranny which George Bush has established. After he has destructed so many principles, a successor would be left with much more than a first precedent in so many areas. In so many cases one instance has become a precedent for a second, that second for a third, that third for a fourth, that fourth for a fifth, and so on. Would a successor be inclined to try to right the wrongs? How far back in each of the successions of malfeasances could it be possible to undo the damages?

Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data
by Eric Lichtblau, September 13, 2003, New York Times
"For months, President Bush's advisers have assured a skittish public that law-abiding Americans have no reason to fear the long reach of the antiterrorism law known as the Patriot Act because its most intrusive measures would require a judge's sign-off. But in a plan announced this week to expand counterterrorism powers, President Bush adopted a very different tack. In a three-point presidential plan that critics are already dubbing Patriot Act II, Mr. Bush is seeking broad new authority to allow federal agents without the approval of a judge or even a federal prosecutor to demand private records and compel testimony."
Story ...
The flimsy excuse? That same old song, "We need more national security." But nobody believes that the chain of precedents are intended to stop there. Those who hope it would stop there must not be reading the newspapers. Those who hope this hopeless sort of hope understand neither the NeoCons, nor the circumstances of these times.

"Any society that would give up a little freedom for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-- Thomas Jefferson
The altar of God? A god created in the image of men by NeoCons for the purposes of self-serving tyrannical governments? That's not how we read Thomas Jefferson. Tyranny? Jefferson is referring specifically to the tyranny with which NeoCons excel. Tyranny over the mind of man.

Relevant observation from a favorite good guy of humanity.
Scientists are good guys.

VeeJay has been reading ...
The Creaky Job Machine
by Robert J. Samuelson, September 18, 2003
"If you're wondering what happened to the 'great American job machine,' so is everyone else."
Washington Post email Article ...
Good article. In what way? There are so many hot air balloons. One could have a party popping them with a pin and pop, pop, pop. What fun! Undershaft's left handed journalists are also busy at work. Creating the illusions. It's truly fascinating.

Iraq's Oil Industry
by Lowell Manning, September 24, 2003
scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00250.htm
"The United States of America, having invaded Iraq, is faced with a political quagmire and a commercial opportunity. Recent efforts to enroll the United Nations to help pay the costs of the occupation and 'reconstruction' are disingenuous. Everything except for the oil industry is already up for grabs at fire sale prices. It's the proposed WTO GATS revision and NAFTA all rolled into one except that US pro-consul Bremer and his unelected Council have a veto over every sale. The veto ensures Iraq will be sold mainly to US firms, giving US permanent economic control of the country whatever the UN or EU want, think or say. Money raised from the sales will go to offset US occupation costs, ostensibly to pay for 'reconstruction' for which the US and UK are fully liable under international conventions. Iraq's main industry, OIL, which used to account for the bulk of the country's foreign income, is not being sold. This has little if anything to do with the security of the oil infrastructure as news reports have claimed."

"Energy is critical to maintaining US power."
"So one US strategy is to control the Iraq oil supply indefinitely. A pliant Iraq council/government is easier to manage than private profit seeking multinational oil companies. Indirect US control of Iraqi oil is also a foil for Saudi Arabia and OPEC. Enough oil will be pumped from Iraq in the coming years to keep oil prices within the US comfort zone. That way, the US will be able to manage world oil prices in its own interest rather than those of the Iraqi people. There is, however, a second more sinister financial strategy. Much of Iraq's reconstruction will be financed from 'AID', in the form of loans rather than from grants. Since the 'AID' will be coming from outside Iraq, the country will be put into long term debt. JP Morgan has already been appointed to 'manage' Iraq's banking system. There will be no truly independent national banks or banking, and no Islamic banking system. Western foreign bankers will run Iraq's banking system for western foreign interests. Oil is the security for the loans, interest and reparations the US is planning to extract from Iraq, completing the economic rape begun by selling off its assets. Iraqis will be paying many times over for the privilege of being invaded and occupied by the US and UK. They will eventually pay for all the reconstruction, and perhaps even for the costs of the war itself. On top of that they will pay interest on the "AID" debt forever.
The sales and AID therefore represent reparations far more severe than those applied to Germany at the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. Versailles led inexorably to World War II. The German reparations were so draconian as to be utterly urepayable. If the US succeeds in its plan (as is likely) Iraq will remain impoverished for as long as the US remains the dominant power in the region. On past experience, this is a recipe for instability and war, not peace.
Most frightening of all is the thought that that might just be the way the Bush administration wants it to be."
scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00250.htm
More at:
groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/message/42404

'At the End of the Day' Tops Cliche List
LONDON, AP, March 24, 2004
"At the end of the day, it's the most irritating cliche in the English language. So says the Plain English Campaign which said the abused and overused phrase was first in a poll of most annoying cliches. Second place went to 'at this moment in time,' and third to the constant use of 'like,' as if it were a form of punctuation. 'With all due respect' came fourth.
plainenglishcampaign.com/pressrelease.html