March 31, 2003

GULF WAR 2

By Bill Costley (billcostley@newsguy.com)

It has only to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets? I mean all the things we really venerate in our country and are patriotic about. It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending.

-- Robert Wilson, physicist (1969) during hearings on whether to fund Fermilab (www.fnal.gov/)

from: The Rumsfeldi@d I

Sole Source: CBS News: "Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11"

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2002. CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq -- even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks. That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 -- notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

RUMSFELD: "Go massive: Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

{in 3 contemporary-epical newstanzas}

At 9:53 a.m., 15 min. after the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon,

Rumsfeld was outside helping with the injured when the NSA

intercepted a call from 1 Osama bin Laden op to another; he'd

"heard good news"& another target was to come; another airliner

was zeroing in on Washington. It soon crashed in Pennsylvania.

At 12:05 p.m. the CIA director told Rumsfeld about the conversation.

Rumsfeld felt it was "vague," & "might not mean something" & there was

"no good basis for hanging hat." (for holding it against bin Laden); CIA

reported 3 of the hijackers were al Qaeda ops. "One guy is assoc. of

Cole bomber" (The USS Cole's bombing, also the work of bin Laden).

Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. At 2:40 p.m.,

Rumsfeld wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H."

[Saddam Hussein] "at same time. Not only UBL" [Usama bin Laden.]

One year later: still no evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

No matter to Rumsfeld. "Go massive: Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

Sole source: US to punish German 'treachery'

Peter Beaumont, David Rose, and Paul Beaver

Sunday February 16, 2003

The Observer

HARM TREACHEROUS GERMANY!

{Drylypoetic Narrative for 5 Voices}

Narrator:

The US wants to punish Germany's

leading opposition to a war against Iraq

& will withdraw all its troops and bases

& end military & industrial co-operation

between both countries that could

soon cost Germany billions of euros.

On Rumsfeld's orders, Pentagon officials

& military chiefs discussed the plan de-

signed 'to harm' the German economy,

to make an example of it in return

for Chancellor Schrö der's 'treachery'.

Its example will force other countries

dependent on US trade to think twice

about ever standing up to the US again.

During weeks of increasingly angry ex-

changes between Rumsfeld & Germany,

Rumsfeld taunted Germany & France

for being an irrelevant part of 'old Europe'.

Rumsfeld decided to go further, unilaterally

imposing Pentagon sanctions on Germany,

already in the throes of economic problems.

1st US diplomatic source:

'We are doing this for one reason only:

to harm the German economy. Our troops

contribute many millions of dollars. Why

should we support a country that has

treated Nato & the protection we provided

for decades with such incredible contempt?'

2nd US diplomatic source:

'The aim is to hit German trade & commerce.

It's not just about taking out the troops &

equipment; it's about cancelling commercial

contracts & defence-related arrangements.'

Narrator:

The plan & language of officials close to Rumsfeld

horrified the US State Department by its bullying

other countries, exacerbating anti-Americanism &

alienating other European countries that might

support a UN resolution authorising a war.

German industry earns billions of euros annually

supporting the US Army's 42,000 troops & 785 tanks

(almost three times as many as the British Army.)

German industry heavily supports the US. Defence

companies losing out will be missile-maker Diehl,

EADS Deutschland, armaments maker Rheinmetall

& military vehicle maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

Rumsfeld & his staff didn't hide their fury at

Schröder's 'treachery and ineptitude' when

Schröder leaked to reporters a Franco-German

plan for avoiding war, increasing the number of

UN weapons inspectors w/out informing the US.

3rd US diplomatic source:

'After this, Germany is finished as a serious power.

This is simply not the way to conduct diplomacy

...at this moment of international crisis.'

4th US diplomatic source:

"Rumsfeld's furious at Germany.

He's a bruiser & it looks as tho

...he...means..to...do...it.'

from: The Rumsfeldi@d II

“Shock & Awe are Air Force bullshit”
(anonymous U.S. general)

Early in the phase of Shock & Awe,
millions were almost enthralled by

this superannuated fighter pilot’s
apostrophe of aerial-war doctrine:

shock & awe, his supernal vision of
lighting the hollows of burning minds,

enthralling millions, inflaming their fate.
Far below, eyes blinked, envisioning

an illuminated end to everything.

(28 MAR 03 ~2PM, Wellesley MA )

GULF WAR 2 - DAY 1: 0 -> 1

On the morning after the war had officially begun

many poets awoke, ready to do their daily dozens:

some clicked-on coffee-makers, tilting rockers from 0->1,

some popped in2a Starbuck's for their day's 1st-latte',

some peeled their bright yellow banana B4 slicing it,

some prayed on their creaky knees, some stood praying,

some picked up the daily paper that had already arrived

& read the headline that said: W@R (& damn little else)

some clicked-on their home computers, from 0->1, &

some started typing on their keyboards & are typing still;

some warned 'chickenhawks' that "That ship has sailed."

some delighted in the war-action they'd been waiting for,

saying "Let's make Iraq the 51st American State!" &

some automatically clicked-on their TVs, their minds

brightening from 0->1 as they saw [{{W@R}}] bloom;

some held their breath & wrote about it in words.

(20-21 MAR 03 Wellesley MA)

GULF WAR 2 : DAY 2: "None of them said."

On the night of the day after the war officially began

5 women gathered to speak from different traditions:

Muslim, Christian, ex-R.C, Jewish, Wampanoag.

What they didn't say about the war spoke volumes:

None of them said it was necessary, none said

it would free the Iraqi people into democracy.

None said that it would free the whole Middle-East

to become democratic. None of them said it would

silence a world of millions who loudly opposed it.

None of them said they were glad it had now begun.

None of them said their tradition favored its method.

One of them said "some of us have taken the task

Of going back to those times to know them" about

the religiously inspired genocide of her tribe. Her

archaelogical & spiritual time-travel re-experiences

her people's suffering under religious fanatics. She

is her clan's healer, returning to the scene of crimes.

[They met at Brandeis University in Waltham MA]

(22 MAR 03 06:53 Wellesley MA)

GULF WAR 2: DAY 3 : "@ an ATM"

On the 3rd day of the official war, around noon
I stood alone in the queue @ an ATM, until a

woman spoke behind me. "I hate that!" She said
pointing to a newspaper-box on the sidewalk:

the Page One banner-headline of Saturday's
METRO WEST DAILY NEWS shouted:
"Bombs Bursting In Air" (over Baghdad)

"I hate that," she repeated, "It's too triumphant."
I agree, I said; I once wrote for that same paper

when it was called The MIDDLESEX NEWS.
You have to realize that headline's written by

someone other than whoever wrote the story;
sometimes the headline misrepresents the story.

"Thank you; it helps to know that" she said, glad
to know that media objects are not all of a piece,

nor all papers all they shout in a box in wartime.

(22 MAR 03 12:13 Wellesley MA)

from: The Rumsfeldi@d II

GULF WAR 2

from: The Rumsfeldi@d I

GULF WAR 2 - DAY 1: 0 -> 1

GULF WAR 2 : DAY 2: "None of them said."

GULF WAR 2: DAY 3 : "@ an ATM"

GULF WAR 2 : DAY 6: "Nobody's smiling"

Gulf War 2: Day 8: “A lanky blond boy”

Gulf War 2: Day 12: Arabic contradictions

Gulf War 2: Day 15 : "Absofreakinlutely!"

Gulf War 2: Day 16 : Woman with 2 poodles

Gulf War 2: Day 17: Opposing poets on Gulf War 2

Gulf War 2 : Day 18 : “Sunday morning…”

VAE VICTIS

GULF WAR 2 Day 33: Norman Meyer, pacifist