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* * *Election winners for soil, water district
From Frederick Mittleman
Cave JunctionThe winner of the director-at-large position 2 of our I.V. Soil and Water Conservation District was announced in our two local newspapers. The vote count was not covered.
William Reid won with 1,491 votes (55 percent) and I received 1,175 votes (43 percent).
CYA: Otherwise known as Cover Your Anterior
From Wally Hardie
SelmaA very large part of human nature is dedicated to the art of shifting the fault or the responsibility. There are many who wish for the power and prestige of public office, and will gladly accept the accolades that come when victory is a certainty.
However, when failure appears, that old adage, “the buck stops here,” are the very last words spoken. The policy is and always has been that “our primary goal was good and righteous,” what went wrong was their fault, not mine. We were bringing freedom to... those people.
“We were overthrowing the axis of evil government, in the name of God and country.”
When in reality, we don’t give a damn of evil governments. In fact my government has (and still does) arrange for the overthrow of governments. Chile, as an example, to get rid of a democratic-elected president, because he was a pinko left-winger. We replaced him with a despot dictator, of unbelievable brutality. A man on the scale of Hussein.
But because we put him there we turned a blind eye, to the murders of thousands of his own people. After all, he was Christian. What we care about is, can we make money, and do business with them.
We ship businesses by the thousands to communist and left-wing leaning countries. Countries that will make the product for pennies compared to American labor. We do business with fascist countries as well.
Why? Because government and big business are going to make money, this is our capitalistic way. We went to war in Iraq to get the oil. We pretended it was to overthrow a tyrant, and he was.
But that wasn’t the reason for the war. We now make the excuse that we want to bring our type of government, and free the people. We are losing this damn war in Iraq, and President Bush is in the process of finger-pointing, blame-seeking and looking for any way to shift responsibility.
He will accept any way out, and when we finally withdraw, in something less than total victory, he will accuse the failure, “because we didn't stay and finish the job, as I wanted.”
Commentary on DU Disputed
From Catherine Austin
Cave JunctionI must take issue with William Reid’s letter (Dec. 13) written in response to Kristine Strohl’s letter (Dec. 6) regarding the United States using depleted uranium in the war on Iraq.
While Reid attempted to shock and awe us with his Pentagon military-speak of weapon capabilities he did little to address any of the points made in her letter. He did, although probably unintentionally, confirm her point that many tons of depleted uranium has been widely used in both Gulf Wars and that exposure and contamination in U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians has occurred.
This is of grave concern given the high numbers of Gulf War Syndrome victims.
While Reid’s letter writing tone attempted to humiliate Strohl and cast her as a “fiction” writer, she did quote her source, scientist Lueren Moret, whom Reid decidedly took issue with. There were still many vital and valid points uncontested in Strohl’s letter.
Reid stated, “Fact: Depleted Uranium (DU) is approximately 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium.” As if this point renders Strohl’s letter “fictional.” Depleted uranium has a radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years and can be carried long distances by prevailing winds. Most gas masks are ineffective at filtering out the fine particles.
Reid also failed to address the issue that many in the international community see the use of depleted uranium as a War Crime as categorized by articles of the Geneva, Nuremberg, and Hague conventions, which the United States has agreed to, coupled with the fact that the Pentagon’s Lt. Col. Barry Venable has publicly confirmed the use of white phosphorus on the Iraqi people in the attack on the city of Falluja, plus the use of cluster bombs, indiscriminate devices that have 15 to 20 percent failure rate upon initial impact.
When unexploded bomblets are left on the ground, they result in potential land mines looking like yellow beverage cans, which can explode when children, animals or any other living thing comes into contact with them.
From an article by James Patton of GreenLeft Online, “United States: Expert: ‘Depleted Uranium use is a war crime’,” I have summarized highlights covering a lecture given in Australia after the invasion of Iraq:
“Major Dr. Douglas Rokke is a U.S. Army health physicist, who joined the Army in 1967 and served in Vietnam. In 1986 he worked as an instructor in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. In the 1990s Rokke became one of the Pentagon's foremost experts in the field of depleted uranium weapons and in 1991 he received a U.S. Army Commendation Medal Citation for outstanding work as a health physicist in the area of uranium contamination, clean-up and medical care to Gulf War Veterans.
“In 1995 the U.S Army highly praised Rokke’s work as director of the Depleted Uranium Project, commending him as the army's ‘expert on the effects of depleted uranium on the battlefield.’ Rokke is now one of the world's most outspoken critics of the dangers of DU munitions.
“Internal documents show that the Dept. of Defense (DoD) has known about the harmful environmental and health consequences of radioactive weapons since 1943. Despite this, DoD denied medical care to the people exposed to DU, refused to clean up the environmental mess left behind by the weapons, and has continued to lie about the adverse health effects for people exposed to DU.
“The purpose of this cover-up is to ensure the continued use of uranium munitions in combat, training, and testing, and to escape legal liability for the damage caused.
“Dr. Rokke emphasized that the purpose of war is to kill and destroy enemies, with little regard for long-term environmental or health consequences.
“Of the 700,000 U.S. troops who were in the 1991 Gulf War, more than 200,000 are disabled from the effects of Gulf War Syndrome, a condition believed caused by exposure to DU radiation, as well as factors including exposure to chemical and biological agents, pesticides, immunizations against anthrax and other diseases, and exposure to pollutants from oil-well fires.
“Rokke states that the U.S. does not want to lose DU munitions from their arsenal. A 1991 internal U.S. Army memorandum recognized the effective use of these weapons but warned that if the health and environmental impact of these weapons became widely known, their use may become politically unacceptable and they could be removed from the arsenal.”
Therefore the memo concluded that this “sensitive issue should be kept in mind when after acton reports (on DU) are written.” Rokke’s interpretation of this is that the Pentagon is directing its staff to lie.
For a documentary on depleted uranium, see “Beyond Treason,” at www.beyondtreason.com.
Kim Family tragedy brings questions
From Josephine Couron
Cave JunctionI see in the news that the tragedy that befell the Kim family belongs to whomever left the gate open on the logging road where the wife and kids were found and/or the search-and-rescue teams, or the undersheriff, or somebody other than where the fault actually lies.
Before I would get excited about finding someone to blame for that tragedy there are a number of questions begging for answers, such as; Apparently Mr. Kim was following a map, where did he get it? Did he follow the map to Galice or did someone direct him there?
Did Mr. Kim’s map have notations regarding road closures in winter or bad weather? Did he actually know how to read and understand a road map? None of us who know the dangers of winter travel in the mountains would direct a novice through Merlin to the coast at this time of year.
Why did Mr. Kim turn off at Merlin, when just down the road was Redwood Hwy. and a paved road at ground level all the way to the coast? Why did he not stop at any of the places of business along the Merlin Road and ask directions? Finding his way to Galice and up the Bear Camp paved road why would he then turn off through an open gate onto a gravel logging road?
Why did he wait nine days to go for help? When he did go why didn’t he go back the way he came in, instead of going over the bank and down a watershed?
And the bottom line question is, when assessing blame, why does someone else have to be responsible for the problems we create for ourselves?
The whole incident has been very sad, but it should serve as a warning, especially in the winter, to the uninitiated who would venture unprepared into the backcountry.
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