FRIDAY, April 30, 2004

Considering the amount of newsprint that is beginning to be devoted to Senator John Kerry, abortion and his reported Catholicism,  Democrats seem to be starting to become a little queezy about the subject.  See: "Catholic Bishops Who Fault Kerry Cross Line", by Thomas C. Fox, USA Today Thursday, April 29, 2004, The Forum, p 13A.  Despite the note that the author is the publisher of the National Catholic Reporter, he clearly regards being a Democrat (like that great Catholic, JFK) as much more important than being an observant Catholic who heeds his conscience and who avoids giving scandal.  See: "Kerry's Catholic Issue", by Cal Thomas, The Day Wednesday, April 28, 2004, Commentary, pA9.  See also: "Threats To Politicians Wrong", Editorial, The Day Friday, April 30, 2004, Opinion, pA6.  Here, the writer confuses the abomination of abortion with the unfortunate and unnecessary blanket Church prohibition against contraception, a Papal decision that flew in the face of the findings of his own Commission in 1968, and which literally "threw the baby out with the bath water".  The writer then elevates "the right of a woman to choose..." with abortion, "by its very nature a vile act...", because it "is the law as established by the Supreme Court."   This is reminiscent of the "Recht Ist Recht" ("Law Is Law") position, established in Nazi Germany in the 1930's, that "legitimized" involuntary sterilization and murder of "undesireables" ("untermenschen") and the victims of the Holocaust.  It should also be remembered that the decision in Roe v Wade was created out of whole cloth, without scientific, moral or legal basis.  Such "laws" are not legtimate.  On the contrary, it is our obligation to counter such "laws", whether as private citizens or even more so as politicians and public office holders.  This has nothing to do with the much abused "Separation of Church and State".  It has everything to do with core values.  And what does all this have to do with the recent scandals regarding abusive priests?  It is all the  more reason for each of us to utilize for ourselves the moral compass provided by our education in the Catholic Church and elsewhere.  Ultimately, being a Catholic involves more than having been baptized into the Church; just as being a Jew involves more than having been circumcised.  And the Roman Catholic Church has every right, and a responsibility, to determine who its members are.  Even with this issue addressed, there is still enough hypocracy around to service the politicians and their surrogates.  This is the "connection to reality" that the writer seeks.

GS

THURSDAY, April 29, 2004

"Lord preserve us from our friends", at least from friends like these.  The great pacifist and equivocator, Kofi Annan, today is quoted regarding "violent military action by an occupying power against inhabitants of an occupied country..."  How about "liberating" power and "liberated" country?  And in USA Today we read the glaring headline: "Poll: Iraqis losing patience.  Many say Saddam's fall benefited them, but most want U.S. troops to leave now."  Losing patience?  Are they tired of climbing upon the burned hulks of our Humvees in triumph, or of celebrating the deaths of our soldiers?  These are a people who may not deserve freedom and democracy.  They certainly don't appear to have the stomach to fight for it, with our help, as we had to do  two hundred years ago.  And they are rapidly showing themselves to be a people who can never be friends of ours.  Too bad...for them.  There is still time; but not much.

GS

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, April 26 through 28, 2004

As sobering and disturbing images have appeared before us through news media in the last week, like flag-draped coffins of our fallen military, and Iraqis standing "triumphantly" over destroyed Humvees, it seems that here in America the penchant for self-inflicted wounds of partisanship have waned somewhat.  Of course, there are always those, like Al Hunt, the token liberal at the Wall Street Journal, who never miss an opportunity, fact-based or not, to carp at the doings of the current administration.  So, perhaps we can take the opportunity of this "truce" to suggest a few common-sensical approaches to some of the more intractible disputes facing the American electorate this year.

• Regarding Iraq, we're in.  We have to succeed by establishing security, at long last.  It makes good sense now, after we have done the heavy lifting, to see what the U.N. can do to bring a democratic Iraq to life.
• Regarding Israel, the Palestinians, and that part of the Arab world that will not accept reality, the U.S. should restore a semblance of even-handedness.  Ariel Sharon cannot be given a blank check, as is now the perception.  Start with the Gaza Strip, where Israelis represent 5% of the population and control 25% of the land and resources...with no legitimate claim to either.
• Regarding public schools and "choice": start with magnet schools and charter schools, as well as a limited number of voucher-supported alternatives as demonstration projects.  We cannot continue to allow the teachers unions to rob our children of their future.
• Regarding guns, Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms.  However, "a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State"...(Amendment II), ownership of assault rifles and other military-like ordinance should be restricted to well regulated militias that would be registered with the government for the purpose of assisting in America's defense in time of need.
• Regarding abortion, opposition except in the case of rape, incest, or if otherwise endangering the life of the mother, is not my position but could be considered a common sense approach.  Similarly, the use of stem cells obtained from the unused results of infertility procedures - now relegated to abandonment and ultimate destruction - could be a reasonable approach to stem cell research, with proper safeguards.
• Regarding commerce vs the environmentalists, there are common sense approaches here, too.  I recently adressed that issue in this section, above.

GS

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, April 24 and 25, 2004

• Core Values.  As the term suggests, these are the fundamental values that would be expected to guide all actions of a person, whether public or private.  It would appear, however, that Senator John Kerry waffles on these as well as on many other important issues.  How else to explain how this alleged "Roman Catholic" not only may have personal misgivings about Church teaching and clear scientific facts about abortion as the intentional killing of a human life, but also creates scandal by strongly espousing both abortion on demand and partial birth abortion.  And this, despite clear and recent reiteration of Catholic dogma on the subject.  A person who lacks such core values, or who fails at least to act on them consistent with his obvious break with Roman Catholicism is an opportunist and a hypocrite.  Bad choice for President of the United States, and a choice that all Roman Catholics should reject.  Meanwhile, the community of Catholics which is the Church should avoid its own hypocricy and distance itself from him an his ilk, as the Vatican has this week declared.
• This week the nation celebrated Earth Day...or didn't you notice?  Although most of us care deeply about our water, our air, our environment, the adversarial tone taken by both despoilers of the earth for profit and the "tree huggers" tends to turn many people off.  What many of the principals in this debate have forgotten is the difference between Conservation and Preservation.  Conservation embodies the concept of "adaptive re-use", the idea of an "expanding pie" achievable with imagination and good will.  Preservation too often embodies the concept of maintaining the status quo based on a "constant pie" view of the world that inevitably requires winners and losers.  They may not recognize it in themselves, but they are the Malthusians among us.  And they are thereby losing support of many of us who have a more common sense approach to the world's challenges.

1. Once again, this famous journalist and author has performed a public service.
2. With his insistence, the book was published well before the November elections, to avoid its being misused.
3. Woodward allows the players to be represented by their own words, with only limited editorialization.  The reader can come to his own conclusions.
4. However, that method makes quoting out of context easy, as we have seen this week on nearly every major network and talk show.
5. Woodward's own numerous appearances on news shows effectively re-oriented the proper context of the more dramatic revelations, to his great credit.
6. In this narrative we realize the extremely complex interplay among the nation's leaders, always working  - of necessity - with incomplete information as the basis for momentous decisions.  The Hawks; The Doves; The Magpies (France, Germany, Hans Blix...).
7. A fair reading of this material reveals President George W. Bush to be a good leader, a man for these times.  And a man who is comfortable with his decisions: "I would like to be a two-term president, but if I am a one-term president, so be it...Fully prepared to live with it."  (p443).

GS

FRIDAY, April 23, 2004

• It looks like nothing will be off limits for controversy in this contentious election year.  Flag-draped coffins of America's fallen soldiers, resting in the course of their final trip home.  At that point, all America grieves.  And it is a great deal more dignified and less traumatic than the photos of body-bags that were published constantly during the Viet Nam War.  There is no clear right or wrong here.  Don't spoil the moment...and the lesson.
• Airport security could be better...in a Fascist state.  All parties are doing their best here.  Maybe we can do better.
• True to form so far, Secretary Rumsfeld sees no need for a miltary draft.  O.K. Then let's improve the lot of our volunteer military...and get them over the poverty line and off the food stamp line.  That may induce more volunteers.  And let's re-define the role and responsibility of the National Guard and the Reserves, which have been grossly abused in the past year.  That may allow retention of more of those citizen-soldiers.  One way or another, America needs a larger military force on the ground in order to be able to meet its domestic and global responsibilities.

THURSDAY, April 22, 2004

• The Democrats and their likely candidate continue to answer the question regarding what they would do differently now in Iraq with the same lame reply: "we would expand the coalition and involve the U.N".  Sure.  Now how do we engage countries whose self-interest lies elsewhere (France, Germany, Russia)?  And how do we engage the U.N., which has always been highly risk-averse?  Meanwhile, the better Democrats do grudgingly admit that "we have to support our troops".
• What Republican strategists are still trying to address the comparative service records of Senator Kerry and of President Bush?   Not smart, and also not relevant to anything that the public should consider.  As I noted months ago in this section when this foolishness began, they and most of the rest of us have served honorably in our own way.  Give it a rest!
• Today we read that a "March for Women's Lives" will hit the National Mall Sunday.  While on hallowed ground encompassing the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and the just-completed WWII Memorial, women should really be in a March for Human Lives. The shame on them continues.
• In the "dog bites man" news category, we find in today's The Day the following: "Rowland Inquiry Could Cost $4 million...Committee co-chairman blames governor for fighting process at every turn" (pB4).  DUH!
• Meanwhile, Governor Rowland seems to have gotten some of the message, not yet received by the Connecticut Legislature, regarding medical malpractice reform: "Rowland to veto any malpractice bill that doesn't cap damages" (at $750,000.) (today's The Day, pB4).  Please see my recent article, which is offered on this web site in Categories, Health Law.
• Senator John McCain continues to make a lot of sense in his positions.  Now there's a man who "tells it like it is".   Refreshing.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, April 19 through 21, 2004

• Not even an occasional visitor to this section will be surprised to hear that I view the Wall Street Journal as a better newspaper than the New York Times: more informative on a daily basis; less biased - except in its editorial column.  In fact, readers during the last several critical weeks of international developments, with nearly daily in-depth offerings by many of the real players, may actually conclude that the WSJ has itself replaced the NYTimes as the "newspaper of record".  Check it out.
• Talk about "the perfect squelch".  How about Bob Woodward, in yet another interview this week - this one by Matt Lauer on the The Today Show - appropriately telling Matt... during one of his common and breathless two - minute "questions"...to "calm down".   And how about Condoleezza Rice's reaction to Senator John Kerry's position that Iraq would be more stable under the guidance of the U.N.: "naive".
• By the way, has anyone actually read the new Woodward book ("Plan of Attack")?  I just bought it.  Let's see what his primary sources actually said, and in what context.  Stay tuned.
• Today we read in The Day that "Arab Allies Hit Back At Bush Administration: U.S. Policies on Iraq: Israel producing a 'hatred never equaled" (by Barry Schweid, pD8).  Of course, the mainly despotic Arab leaders are protecting themselves from "the Arab street".  But will they never learn that the old ways in that part of the world are starting to crumble of their own weight and before the tide of democracy?  What else do you do with a population, over 30% of which is between the ages of 18 and 30 years, and with a 40% rate of unemployment, but CHANGE?
• Two current reports give further substance to opinions expressed for many months in this section about the errors of Secretary Rumsfeld in planning and prosecuting the war in Iraq: 1) "Early U.S. Decisions On Iraq Now Haunt American Efforts", by Farnaz Fassihi et al, WSJ Monday, April 19, 2004, pA1; and 2) "It's Time To Shelve The Rumsfeld Doctrine", by Bruce Nussbaum, Business Week, April 26, 2004, p40.  To paraphrase an older comment, with apology: "IT'S THE SECURITY, STUPID!

SUNDAY, April 18, 2004

• "On the 18th of April in '75....", 1775, that is.  On that day, Paul Revere took his famous ride to warn his countrymen of the coming attack by the Redcoats.  Who among members of the current and last administrations can claim his mantle pre-9/11.  There are many "Monday morning quarterbacks", and more than a few who waited until they were safely retired to present the truth, or at least their version of it.  A good review of the available facts is presented in today's N.Y.Times, pA1, entitled: "Pre-9/11 Files Show Warnings Were More Dire and Persistent", by David Johnston and Jim Dwyer.  What sticks in my craw is the persistence of the Democrats on Parade, and particularly Senator John Kerry, in trying to place whatever blame that exists on the shoulders of the current President.  If he would only read his previous comments and review his previous positions, the Senator occasionally comes up with a useful idea.  But no, the democrats are so infuriated with President Bush for having highlighted their deficiencies...national and international... that they are blinded to their own flashes of wisdom.  That will defeat them in November.
• Israel and Palestine.  Assassinations seem inherently immoral, if not often stupid.  But how to get the attention of people who, after all the useless bloodshed, insist on shedding more blood of innocents on both sides and on encouraging others to do so?  ENOUGH!  On each side, the common citizenry must demand an end to the violence; or else they must depose their current leaders.
• Several stories out within the last few days regarding globalization might be entitled "shovelling back the tide." The Teamsters Union and their political backers trying to block the entry of trucks as good (or bad) as theirs from Mexico on trumped-up claims, despite clear agreement for such commerce within NAFTA.  U.S. companies expecting U.S. courts to be the last word in conflicts involving international business dealings.  Our Democratic politicians, at both the state and federal levels, are offering crowd-pleasing legislation that would prohibit our companies from out-sourcing jobs (see "Jobs Headed Overseas - The Debate Over Government Intervention", by Matthew J. Malone, The Day, Sunday April 18, 2004, pA1).  One affected worker is quoted as saying: "What am I going to do', he asked, "become a nurse"?  Bingo!  That is exactly the solution to the inevitable loss of jobs through progress, as happened to most blacksmiths at the turn of the 20th century.  As I have proposed more than once in this section, what this country needs, right now, is a WPA / CCC approach to the current challenge by means of a massive retraining program for affected workers, underwritten partly by the government and partly by the businesses that are doing the out-sourcing.  Then, that affected worker quoted above will have a "fishing pole" for the rest of his life.  It should be noted that the Republicans are proposing precisely this approach.
• An excellent series of articles in The Day (theday.com) today commemorates the European Holocaust of World War II and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943 (pA1 et seq).  Further insight into that terrible period may be obtained by accessing the offerings on this web site under "The Involved Citizen - The Catholic Church", particularly the monograph by Therese Sprecace entitled: "Poland and the Catholic Church During The Nazi Domination".

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, April 16 and 17, 2004

"Revisionist History".  This term refers to a politically correct or biased re-writing of the facts of history...usually undertaken decades or even centuries after the fact.  But no longer.  In today's world of information and opinion travelling at warp speed throughout cyberspace, revisionism can be found occurring nearly simultaneously with fact.  And the fastest warp speed encountered is during a political season.  So, in the interests of balance and fairness,  here is a brief "executive summary" of facts occurring over the last 14 years that have brought us to our present state. Arrogant, you say?  No more arrogant than the spate of books, articles and commentary that actively seek to distort those facts.

• With the end of the Cold War in 1990, this country, always introspective and isolationist by desire, withdrew our committment to the outside world wherever possible, reducing our armed forces and our intelligence capabilities even in the face of irritations like the Balkans, the Middle East, Afganistan, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, terrorism, etc.  We even set up legal and bureaucratic barriers to sharing of national security information between the FBI and the CIA.
• As a direct result, and absent the belated whistle-blowing of bureaucrats like Richard Clarke, neither the last or the present administration had information necessary to properly assess the danger this country faced from world terrorism and from rogue states.
• Then came 9/11/2001.  Another Pearl Harbor.  Will we ever learn?  The Bush administration learned fast and properly decided on a policy of pre-emptive self-defense.  First, Afganistan.  At the same time, plans for a possible attack on Iraq if negotiations with the Hussein regime through the U.N. failed.  Should this sequence of events surprise anyone, as is now being alleged?  To have failed to do so would have amounted to mal-feasance in office.  And negotiations did fail, due directly to the duplicity of France, Germany and Russia, and due to the duplicity of the U.N., all these players having profited handsomely from dealings with Iraq throughout the 1990's by means of their illegal manipulation of the  "Food for Oil Program".
• But we tried to do it "on the cheap".  We knew, or should have known, how a Iraqi force far inferior to our own would have conducted the war, especially after the debacle during the first Gulf War.  After all, we had used the same methods in our own American Revolution.  Instead, our civilian leaders dismissed the projections of our military leaders regarding the likely need for 250,000 - 300,000 troops to deal with the Iraq war and its aftermath.  Again, we knew, or should have known.  For this, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld must take much responsibility. Even now, this administration is having to use our military, and especially our National Guard and Reserves, abusively without appearing to address the systemic problem: this new world order will require a fair draft to meet all our national and international responsibilities.  I hope that such planning is at least under way, however sensitive the issue in an election year.  Furthermore, the American people should be given the new price to maintain our security in the future, just as we had to pay the price for avoiding the end of the world during the 40 years of the Cold War.
• And now, as we hopefully secure Iraq and then hand political authority to the Iraqi people - who must rise to their own opportunity or lose it - it is quite appropriate to seek the involvement of the U.N.  Nothing inconsistent in that.  Let's see if that august body rises to the opportunity...and the responsibility.

THURSDAY, April 15, 2004

Tax Day.  As much as we grouse about having to shell out a lot of our hard-earned money yearly, most of us Americans take secret pride in this as our stake in the American way of life.  But we know that the success of our tax system depends ultimately upon voluntary compliance.  Massive non-compliance and resistance could not be dealt with by any or all of the government agencies.  That's why it is so important for us to see fairness in the process.  That perception of fairness is being eroded over years by the fact of corporate and ultra-rich non-payment of taxes.  Our leadership had better address that festering sore soon.

• Our local newspaper (The Day), generally excellent in coverage and tone, has of late become strident its handling of anything relating to this administration.  From the one-sided political cartoons, to the choice of the recent page 1 photo of the President, to today's editorial (and many others) addressing his recent press conference and statement, for this newspaper leadership this President has no clothes.  Well, lighten up, folks.  We all are having our say: check out my opinions on the subject since March, 2003.  They are just as valid or invalid as yours.  What will count is what the American people have to say in November.  Until then, let the process operate.  We'll all be able to live with the outcome, thanks to our freedom and democracy.
•  The CIA and FBI.  Did they fight hard enough during the last decade for what they needed, and didn't get, in order to accomplish their task?  Or did their leaders also "go along to get along"?  Well, now we have the diagnosis: As the President said, "...I can't make good decisions unless I get valid information."  Now let's wait for the 9/11 Commission to propose some treatment.
• In a personal statement published on this web site shortly arter 9/11, I referred to the Israel - Palestine conflict and to probable and fair means for resolving that conflict.  After another year of evidence that Mr. Arafat is both unwilling and unable to control his forces in the interest of peace in the region, President Bush has now accepted "real politik":  250,000 Israeli settlers on the West Bank cannot be removed, notwithstanding the original illigitimacy of their action; and the idea of "right of return" of hundreds of thousands of  Palestinians had become progressively less feasible as the years passed and the bloodshed continued.  It is finally time for the Palestinians and their Arab supporters to engage in some "real politik" of their own: peace, two independent states, and ultimately many common interests.  The status quo is no alternative.
• Surprise: Now that the President has signaled to the military commanders that it's alright to request more forces  for Iraq...today they requested more forces.  Too bad Secretary Rumsfeld and his staff had not realized and corrected this mistake much earlier.  There is no substitute for power, security and respect, especially in that part of the world.
• Democrats On Parade.  Senator John Kerry and his ilk continue to disparage the President for "going it alone": and they continue to seek involvement of the U.N. and others now.  We asked then.  We are asking now.  Where were and are all our fearless allies...and the U.N...then and now?  What they wanted and still want is veto power over America's ability to defend itself and its national interests.  Sorry.  So, you had better come up with another game plan for the future as you see it, Senator.  And on another topic, economic isolationism will not work either, notwithstanding the mileage you get from it in union towns.  That's not meant to endorse world trade and globalization as currently practised.  It must be fixed and made fair.  But there's no alternative.  See two good articles on the subject: "Have Not: A Way to Make Globalization Work for Everybody Else", by Tina Rosenberg, N.Y.Times Magazine, August 18, 2002, p28; and "The Perils of Protectionism", by George F. Will, Newsweek, March 29, 2004, p84.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, April 12 through 14, 2004

As important in the war on terrorism as is following the money trail, just as important is following the information trail.  After a week of mis-characterizing and lampooning Dr. Rice and, through her the President in expected partisan fashion, the "9/11 Commission" has finally found red meat in its probe of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A.  Information and communication were lacking, within and between the agencies.  And as Dr. Rice testified, the reasons were "systemic": legal and public sentiment prohibitions to effective cooperation; funding cuts, intentional or otherwise; and the fact that, before 9/11, "the country was not on a war footing", as President Bush explained last evening.  Thus, as any computer operator knows, "garbage in, garbage out".  Federal legislators as well as past administrations were complicit in this, as was the public.  Even now, regarding the Patriot Act, some people just don't get it.  Civil liberties and privacy, yes; but always consistent with national security.  And today we learned from CIA Director George Tenet that getting up to speed against this new world terror will take five years!  How's that for planning?  "We has seen the enemy, and they is us".  Meanwhile, As the President said: "We will finish the work of the fallen".

GS

SUNDAY, April 11, 2004

Happy Easter.  This is the eternal message of good will offered to all theistic people of good will, whatever their particular religious beliefs.  It is the message that what we see around us is not the whole story, not even the most important part of the whole story.  And there is the great basis for hope.  Part of that hopefulness is being demonstrated in the massive interest in Mel Gibson's depiction of Jesus.  Remember: it relates not only to His death; it concludes with his Resurrection, the critical element.  This week's Time magazine asks the question: "Why Did Jesus Have To Die?"  Following a useful analysis, the only answer can be..."because."  Similarly, none of the recent expositions on the origins of the Holy Bible give any attention to the fact that the Bible is Holy because it is the direct product of Divine Inspiration.  Otherwise, the messages heard by the great prophets of antiquity might just be auditory hallucinations of psychotics.  And the Gospels and Letters written decades after Jesus' time might just be polemics designed as pay-back for troubling times.  I don't think so!

• Iraq.  Perhaps the policy makers and military strategists who stumbled into the current morass could benefit for a basic lesson of infectious disease treatment.  To treat a susceptible infection, we treat with high, effective doses of antibiotic from the outset, not with initially weak doses and subsequent gradual increases in dosage.  That is a recipe for antibiotic resistance...and sepsis.  Our leaders would also do well to remember lessons of history.  A weaker military force deals with a stronger enemy with precisely the guerrilla tactics that we are meeting in Iraq, which America met in a number of "small wars" throughout the last century...and which George Washington himself used to secure our own liberty from the greatest military power of that age.  Our leaders should have known that - and now should correct their tactics to achieve America's goals, whether they admit their errors or not.
• What does the PDB of August 6, 2003 have to do with thirty second attention spans and sound bites?  With all the politicking, posturing and demagoging going on about 9/11 (sound obscene, doesn't it?),  Americans will have to force themselves to Pay Attention and to get their news from at least three sources if they want to fulfill their obligations as citizens.
• News Flash: Repeated polling of the Iraqi people reveals the following strong opinions: 1) They are happy that we liberated them; 2) They don't want to be occupied; 3) They don't want us to leave.  How's that???
• On the regional scene, the continuing saga of Governor Rowland is playing out as predicted in this section in recent months.  See two offerings in The Day today: "Why We Have Rowlands", by former state representative and former mayor William Collins (Voices and Views, pC3); and the editorial, "Keep Impeachment Public" (Opinion, pC2).  The Governor may be the symptom.  He is not the disease.  Both need to be treated.

GS

SATURDAY, April 10, 2004

Today, the opinions offered for many months in this section can be supported by good recent newspaper articles:

• "The Search for Answers", by Bob Kerry, WSJ Thursday, April 8, 2004, Opinion, pA16;
• "No Other Option", by Larry Diamond, same reference;
• "Quick U.S. Departure From Iraq Could Make Mideast Crisis Worse", by Robert H. Reid, AP, in The Day (theday.com) Saturday, April 10, 2004, pA1;
• "U.S. Losing Moderates, May Be On The Verge Of Iraqi Intifrada", by Trudy Rubin, The Day Saturday April 10, 2004, Commentary, pA7.

GS

FRIDAY, April 9, 2004

• More on Iraq.   Some of the families of persons lost on 9/11 have been making a spectacle of themselves recently, in TV interviews and cheering selectively at the 9/11 Congressional hearings.  They seem to want only "facts" that point to a scape-goat, particularly President Bush.  Their's was a great loss.  But it was no greater than the loss suffered by the families of over 500 American troops who have died defending this country in Iraq.  When the country is at war, as America is, we are all troops: whether shopping in the neighborhood mall, riding a subway. or taking a flight.  We knew or should have known that during at least the last decade.  Get the facts, by all means.  But save the judgments and diatribes until then.  Our still living and fighting troops in Iraq would appreciate that.
• It is a basic principle of American democracy that the Military is always under civilian control.  But whenever civilian leaders have tried themselves to micro-manage a war, we have lost.  It happened in a way in the first Gulf War.  It happened in Viet Nam.  It was an important factor in Korea.  It almost killed this Republic in the first months of American independence, when General George Washington lost 90% of his army to the British and to the Continental Congress; until the Congress gave Washington full authority to prosecute the rebellion in December, 1776.  And it will happen now in Iraq unless the civilians in the Pentagon and at the State Department provide the necessary resources and get out of the way.  Recommended readings in this regard include: Small Wars Manual - United States Marine Corps, 1940, Sunflower University Press; and Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer, Oxford University Press, 2004.

MONDAY through THURSDAY, April 5 through April 8, 2004

• Iraq.  What else can we begin with?  My concerns regarding our conduct of the "peace" on this subject go back at least to last summer, as expressed many times in this section.   At no time did we have a higher priority than to establish and insure security...for the Iraqi people and for our forces.  At no time did we fulfill that priority.  Now we are reaping the whirlwind.  And no double-speak by Secretary Rumsfeld, by General Meyers, or even by the "commanders in the field" who undoubtedly were ordered not to request more troops, can hide the mis-calculations involved.  We can only hope that "delaying rotations of troops back to the U.S." is code for the leadership having gotten the message and properly augmenting our forces in Iraq to a level that will enable them to secure Iraq and to destroy the opponents of democracy  in that region.  The Iraqi people must play a central role in that effort, now and not after the smoke has cleared.
• The 9/11 hearings now going on are crucial to dispelling suspicions of some Americans that, somehow, this entire nation was asleep at the switch beforehand.  Dr. Rice has made an important observation, among many, today in her testimony.  She pointed to a "structural impediment" in the legal prohibition, before 9/11, against the FBI  and the CIA sharing information...based on domestic privacy concerns.  This defect, predictably crippling in its effect on our ability to defend the homeland, has been corrected by the Bush administration through the mechanisms of the cabinet Department of Homeland Security, and by the Patriot Act.  In the process of getting the facts out, the partisan rantings of Senator Edward Kennedy and of some other Democrats are not only not helpful;  they are giving aid and comfort to our enemies while we have our troops engaged in the field.  Isn't there a word for that?
• There are a lot of other issues out there that we could talk about.   1)The tendency to consider accused people guilty until proven innocent, something that is becoming epidemic in Connecticut.  2) The recurring stories of many gigantic corporations that pay no taxes.  3) The real issue of medicine safety and of counterfeit drugs if we allow access to foreign sources without oversight.  4) The issue of "academic freedom" on our university campuses, which is becomming something of an oxymoron in our more liberal institutions of higher learning.  5) The poor track record of this administration in the area of environmental protection; that has to be fixed, as it is a key issue in the minds of Americans of all political persuasions.  6) The secret planning for continuity of federal government, in case of a catasrophic attack, called "Contingency of Government".  I would like to know more about that, since it involves potentially placing non-elected individuals in very high places of power.
• Finally, what a great finish to this college basketball season.  Historic and inspiring.  Go, Huskies!

SUNDAY, April 4, 2004

On the offering in this section for March 17-21, 2004, I expressed an opinion regarding the assassination by Israel of the Muslim cleric who had headed Hamas and its attacks on that country.  After discussing the matter with my friend and colleague, Dr. Robert Levin, he sent me his views on the subject, as noted in the following letter.

Dear George:

Having read your recent opinion as regards the elimination of Sheikh Yassin in Gaza, I would temper it with the two articles that I have included with this letter.  Yassin was hardly an enfeebled old man.  It would be worth your while to read the Hamas Charter.  It reads like it was taken verbatim from Mein Kampf.  It expresses the same fate for all Jews and absolutely states NO compromise of any sort with Israel, ever.  It clearly envisions an Islamic republic from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean under Islamic law that is judenrein.  It seems as if the Bush Doctrine on terrorism is fine so long as it is only implemented by Americans.  The overwhelming view of the Jewish community is that this double standard for Israel is unacceptable.  The rising level of anger that I see is palpable and Yassin won't be missed.  Yassin ordered the homicide bombing of Israeli civilians, Israel finally strikes back, and the victims come under international criticism.  Sharon's impending withdrawal from Gaza is welcome, so long as Hamas is not left in control.  Israel will have to step forward to identify and protect what moderate leadership remains in Gaza; this has been a gaping hole in Israeli policy for a long time.  Arab leaders should be stepping forward to endorse this withdrawl and use this as an opportunity to push for an over all settlement.  I'm not holding my breath.  Arab leaders have more to gain by leaving the situation festering so that their own pitiful leadership and lack of vision can be excused by blaming the troubles of the Arab world on Israel and the United States.  The Palestinian Arabs make a great distraction for the "Arab street".  The leaders of the Muslim world have simply become Hitler's stepchildren.  Just read what the Malaysian prime minister said before representatives of 57 nations (mostly Muslim) last autumn, and not one person stood up to shout him down, condemn him, or even leave the room in protest.

As pertains to Israel versus the Palestinian Arabs, there is and never will be "moral equivalency."  What passes for leadership amongst the Palestinian Arabs has gone out of its way to politicize, radicalize, and morally impoverish (with hate) an entire generation, while they pilfer the coffers of billions of euros donated by the E.U. and move their own families out of harms way (in Paris or London).  Imagine what ten years of non-violent civil disobedience could have accomplished, a la Gandhi, but that presupposes people eventually living peaceably with each other.  The PLO is not interested in peaceful coexistence because it means they have to accept Israel (living side by side with a Palestinian state) as a fait accompli, which is not a part of their charter.  The Palestinian Arabs desperately need a Gandhi who won't suffer Gandhi's fate.

Sincerely yours,

Robert

• Yet another documentation of the inadequate American force assigned to win the peace in Iraq is presented today in a NYTimes review of the book by Rick Atkinson entitled "In The Company Of Soldiers" (Book Review, p13).  "The coalition invasion force was less than half the size of the one that liberated Kuwait in 1991, because that was all that was needed to defeat Hussein's eviscerated services.  But professional soldiers realized a lot more boots on the ground would be need to maintain order once the dictator went down and the occupation ('the O-word') began.  The soldiers' concerns were ignored.  The wishful assumptions of the Pentagon civilians about the after-war were just as wildly off base as their intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.  'The abrupt transition to anarchy was a disaster not only for Iraq but also for the United States,'  Atkinson writes".   I still hope that that "disaster" can be averted if Secretary Rumsfeld and the President correct their error and send more forces: to establish security, to punish opposition, and finally to convince Iraqiis that coalition power is the only game in town - until they establish their own democratic form of government.  Iraq must be the show-case of the Middle East, not a burned and looted store.
• On the local scene, we hope that New London Superintendent Christopher Clouette is not just another educator engaging in "double-speak", a chronic affliction of that group.  In yet another hand-wringing meeting regarding the federal No Child Left Behind Act, as reported today in The Day, (by Robert Hamilton, Region, D1), at one point he is quoted as saying: "'No more excuses,' to me, is the spirit of No Child Left Behind...All children can learn, and no child should be viewed as too disadvantaged to matter.'"  Later in the same article we read this quote: "'The underlying spirit of No Child Left Behind is an attack on public schools--they're not meant to survive...When the law allows "school choice" for students in underperforming schools, it's code language for the dismantling of the public school system.'"  Now, which is it?  Do you lead the public schools to actually accomplish what they should have been doing during the last several decades...teaching and getting adequate demonstrable results?  Or can we just expect just some more clap-trap?  We New Londoners are waiting.

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, April 2 and April 3, 2004

More on fundamentalist Christians (and some Roman Catholics).  "Did you hear the one about" the Jewish soul who got up to the gates of Heaven and was examined by St. Peter?  The eternal gate-keeper said: you're admitted to Heaven, the Jewish Wing, #3;  but just tip-toe past Wing #1 on your way there".  Then came a Muslim soul.  After examination, St. Peter said: "you're admitted to Heaven, the Muslim Wing, #4; but just tip-toe past Wing #1 on your way there."  Then came a Hindu soul.  Same thing.  But this soul asked St. Peter: "why do we have to tip-toe past Wing #1?  Sighing, St. Peter replied: "because that's where the Christians are...and they think they're the only ones up here."

• As if most of us needed more examples of the perpetuation of mediocrity in institutions of all sorts, events of recent days provide more examples of the dis-credited maxim in action: "If you want to get along, go along."  There is Richard Clarke, by his own admission waiting until his retirement after 30 years to "tell the truth".  There is former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in his just-released apologia pro vita sua entitled "The Fog Of War", suppressing any effective expression of his personal convictions against the conduct of the Viet Nam war between 1962 and 1968.  There is even the specter of U.S. Catholic Bishops having trouble deciding what to do about "Catholic" politicians who vote against bills criminalizing partial birth abortions and attacks on fetus as well as mother ("Kerry, Candidate and Catholic, Creates Uneasiness for Church", NYTimes Friday, April 2, 2004 pA1).  Has anybody heard of "giving scandal" as a serious sin?  Such individuals should be instructed in their Religion;  failing that, they should be ostracized as far as the Church and Catholics are concerned.  And about the whole sordid practice of "going along...," what happened to Integrity?
• More on pre-and -post 9/11, Iraq, and the facts.  There are excellent factual articles on the Opinion page of the WSJ Friday, April 2 (pA8) and WSJ Monday, March 29 (pA18), as well as in USA Today Monday, March 29 (pA1).  "The Truth Will Make You Free".
• On to a medical note now.  Ever since the popular media discovered medical journals, their authors and would-be authors, and ever since the coining of the phrase "Evidence-based Medicine", the combination of a rush to the evening news by some of these researchers and their own arrogance has resulted in public confusion over such topics as post-menopausal hormone therapy, the importance of serum lipid profiles (HDl, LDL, Cholesterol, Triglycerides), the value of aspirin and anti-oxidant vitamines, the importance of "cardiac CRP", and the importance of inflamation in general in chronic disease.  Remember: clinical evidence is still evidence; and some of us physicians began prescribing daily aspirin to avoid cardiac disease 12 years before the researchers finally gave their double-blind, cross-over impramatur to the practice.  In the final analysis, keep informed, and then discuss the issues with your informed personal physician.  Regarding elevated serum lipids and elevated cardiac CRP, they should be treated aggressively with the lipid-lowering, anti-inflamatory "statin drugs", in my opinion.

MONDAY through THURSDAY, March 29 through April 1, 2004

Somewhere in the Bible there is a Divine admonition not to call another "Thou Fool".   But today the temptation is great, referring to whoever was responsible for re-printing today, in The Day, without comment, an editorial from the San Jose Mercury News.  The title, "Get Rid Of This Law", refers to the recently enacted Partial Birth Abortion Act, passed after years of testimony, none of which supported the allegation that this murderous act was ever necessary to protect the physical  health of the mother.  The gimmick here has always been reference to "the mother's health".  Is that mental health, financial health, social health, or what?  Even in the hypothetical situation where the mother was in serious physical jeopardy for her life, in balance with the life of her full-term child, anything could be done to save her life under the principle of "primary intent".  And so far as the positions of the AMA and the ACOG are concerned, "a pox on both their houses".  Remember...it has been many years since physicians have been required to take the Oath of Hippocrates.  So, even with physicians, "let the buyer beware!"

• Regarding the use of condoms, Roman Catholic Bishop Dowling of Rostenberg, of South Africa, faced with a near pandemic of HIV and AIDS in that country and in Africa, has come out in favor if their use, despite the position of the Catholic Church.  That position has always been one that, in my opinion, ran far ahead of its theological support and that, in its coupling with the vital prohibition against against abortion, literally threw  the baby out with the bath water.  Now Bishop Dowling has invoked the principle of "primary intent" to support this position: a condom is used to avoid the spread of lethal disease, not primarily as a contraceptive.  Right on!
• Reacting to the interpretation by fundamentalist Christians of the Book of Revelation, whereby only Christians would be saved, the Dean of Union Theological Seminary in New York put it this way: "I don't think God was selling cosmic fire insurance through Jesus."  Right on, again!
• Regarding the Jews and Islam, and more particularly Israel and Palestine, attendance last night at a lecture at Connecticut College given by Fred Astren, Director of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University, reinforced my earlier comments in this section on the subject; namely, that reference to "religion" in this controversy and throughout the Middle East is a gigantic distraction from the real issue...the "real politik" of power.   As has happened so often in history, "religion" is being used by all sides for political gain.  For a bit of counter-point on this subject, look shortly here for a letter written to me by my friend and colleague, Robert Levin, M.D.
• Finally, Fallujah.  As has been noted for many months in this section,  we have played "Mr. Nice Guy" for too long.  Most people, especially in the Middle East, respect nothing in the absence of power.  And given our incursion into Iraq, the Iraqi people have a right to expect the establishment of security, through raw and overwhelming power if necessary.  l predict that Secretary Rumsfeld will, in his 80's like former Secretary McNamara, admit to this failure in his policies.  It too is costing many lives.