Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Was Kerry Wrong to Criticize Allawi?

In the vice-presidential debate, Cheney jumped on Edwards for Kerry's criticism of Allawi after his address to Congress. Kerry criticized him because Allawi was campaigning for the Republicans. The Repubicans, not Kerry, started the debasement of the Iraqi government by using it as a Republican campaign tool. A number of comparisons on TV showed the similarity between Allawi's speech and his subsequent remarks, and Bush's stump speeches on Iraq. The Washington Post reported that the Bush administration and the Bush campaign had been involved in writing Allawi's speech. Since Allawi was campaigning for Bush, it was abolutely appropriate for Kerry to criticize him. The Republicans bought and paid for Allawi, and thus they can make him jump whenever they pull his strings. The Americans are still running Iraq (at least the parts not in open rebellion). It's not like he is the head of a real government.
Iran Claims More Powerful Missile

While the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is meeting in Seoul on how to control missile proliferation, Iran has announced that it has a missile with a range of 2,000 km, or about 1,250 miles. CNN does not say how heavy a payload it can carry to this range, which could be important in deciding whether it could carry a nuclear warhead that far. In any case, the report indicates that the new missile is almost twice as powerful as Iran's previously most powerful missile, the Shahab-3. The new missile would be capable of reaching Israel and parts of southeastern Europe.
US Vetoes UN Resolution Criticizing Israel

Reuters reported that the United States on Tuesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Israel stop its major offensive in the Gaza Strip that has cost at least 68 Palestinian lives. Eleven nations voted in favor. Britain, Germany and Romania abstained on the measure, which was drafted by Arab nations.

Blindly supporting Israel's offensive against the Palestinians is not going to help us in Iraq, or anywhere else, except in Israel and with some constituencies in the US. Bush had it backwards; the road to peace in Baghdad runs through Jerusalem. We are only asking for more Arab and Muslim hatred.
Bush Is a Liar, Or Something Is Rotten in the White House, Say Dean and the NYT

Howard Dean pulled a few punches on Letterman last night, but he still spoke more clearly and honestly than anybody else, including Kerry. He spoke at length about the Sunday New York Times article on the aluminum tubes that Bush and his subordinates (Cheney, Rice, Powell) said were for centrifuges for nuclear purposes, but that the intelligence community knew were for conventional weapons uses.

Today the NYT followed up its article with an editorial saying that the administration had plenty of evidence that the tubes-for-bombs theory was baseless. The editorial says that Colin Powell "gravely damaged his reputation" by using the faulty information in his UN briefing, and that either Condi Rice fell down badly in keeping the President informed about this issue and should resign, or the President "terribly misled the public."