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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS
Peter Kwong
gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the
"millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes
to one
of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on
the planet. How China's
leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn
on What's wrong with the U.S. left.
They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies
about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with
a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq.
John Ross
takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers
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Now!
Tuesday, July 4, is Independence Day
in the United States. Of the "original" four federal
holidays that were observed on specific dates during my boyhood--Washington's
birthday, Memorial (Decoration) Day, Independence Day, and Veterans
(Armistice) Day, only July 4 remained completely outside the
1968 consolidation of federal holidays into three-day weekends
(Veterans Day was observed as a three day weekend from 1971-1978).
It seems fitting--even significant--that
these two holidays are not artificially tied to weekends. Perhaps
this sense arises from the realization that they represent a
beginning and an ending, an alpha and omega. One celebrates the
declaration (still incompletely translated into practice) that
"all men" possess rights bestowed by a transcendent
power while the other honors those who died defending these rights
for themselves and their descendents from usurpation by a terrestrial
authority.
As you watch the "rockets'
red glare" of the fireworks Tuesday, remember that Francis
Scott Key drew his inspiration for the U.S. national anthem from
an event during a very real war: the British bombardment of Fort
McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. That war,
which lasted 919 days (934 counting the interlude between the
signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, and the
Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815), has some parallels
to Iraq.
* Most notably, militias raised
by the states made three efforts to liberate Canada from Britain--despite
the fact that many Canadians were former Colonials who had fled
there to get away from the rebellion in 1776 in what became the
United States.
* In 1812, Key observed "bombs
bursting in air." Today in Iraq, bombs in the form of improvised
explosive devices burst under vehicles or as foot patrols pass
the sites where they are buried.
* In 1812, U.S combat deaths
were 4,435, the wounded numbered 6,188 (non-combat deaths are
unknown), and monetary costs came to $.09 billion--$90 million.
This July 4 is day 1,203 in the Iraq War. U.S. deaths are now
2,538, and the wounded number 18,696.
The Congressional Research
Service (CRS) on June 27 issued its latest update on the monetary
costs of the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other operations
that can be shoe-horned under the "global war on terror."
CRS expects this measurement of U.S. "anti-terror activities"
worldwide since September 11, 2001, will exceed $500 billion
in 2007 at the current monthly expenditure rate of $9.7 billion
(up from $4.6 billion in 2004).
Less than 100 days remain in
fiscal year 2006 (FY06). When September 30 rolls around, CRS
projects that the Bush administration will have spent $437 billion
on war fighting and on military and foreign aid. This figure
includes the $69 billion for the Defense Department in the Emergency
Supplemental passed by Congress and signed by the president this
month; $50 billion in "bridge appropriations" for Defense;
and $1.5 billion in State Department Foreign Operations funding
in the FY07 Defense and State Department appropriations bills.
(not including any supplemental funding provided by Congress).
By comparison, only about $37
billion will have gone to the State Department and the Agency
for International Development--a mere 8 per cent of the money
sent to the Pentagon. The CRS study also projected that continued
occupation costs between FY07 and FY16 (based on the average
length of insurgencies) for 74,000 soldiers would add another
$371 billion for a total war and reconstruction bill of $808
billion.
And then there will be the
equipment costs. The body armor and the armor for Humvees are
being paid from current operating funds or supplemental appropriations.
But the costs of replacing or repairing major combat systems
that have been used far above their estimated usage rates still
lie ahead.
For example, the Army has told
Congress it needs $13.5 billion in each of the next five years
for what is known as "reset" costs. This amount, which
assumes that the pace of operations remains essentially as it
is today, will go toward rehabilitating or procuring 30,000 wheeled
vehicles, 6,000 combat vehicles, 615 aircraft, and 85,000 other
pieces of equipment. Another $4.8 billion will be needed to "reset"
the Army National Guard and Army Reserves. The Marine Corps projects
reset costs of $5.2 billion for FY08 through FY12--which comes
on $11.7 billion already spent.
This July 4 is another opportunity
to reflect on events in Iraq, events that regrettably have more
to do with endings than with beginnings, although some of the
latter (e.g., reconciliation) were attempted by the Iraqi government
In 1812, Key might well have
wondered whether first light would reveal an ending or a beginning.
As morning dawned after the all-night bombardment, Key was rewarded
by the sight of the flag still waving at the top of the flagpole
on the ramparts of Fort McHenry. Today, the comparable reward
would be the end of seeing that Star Spangled Banner flying at
half-staff in memory of military personnel killed in a war that
should never have happened.
Col. Daniel Smith, a retired colonel and Vietnam veteran,
is a West Point graduate and a grad against the war. He can be
reached at: dan@fcnl.org
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