While the war continues there is a new discussion about an all-new European Army. Everyone from Spanish socialists like Javier Solana to the conservative right in Germany seems to agree that a united army makes more sense than a dozen small armies who can't do shit.

An independent Euro-Army and maybe even a European seat in the security council is something the Bush-administration desperately wanted to avoid with all that "you're with us or against us"-bribery. The US estimated that everyone would follow the wounded superpower after 9-11 without asking questions. They expected to lead an alliance of countries too scared to refuse to "help out" the strongest one there is.

Having a lot of weapons doesn't automatically make you king of the world. Killing an Arab doesn't make you "a real man". And going to church on sunday doesn't help either.

The Junta in Washington is too obsessed with violence and the fundamentalism of some sect to realize that nobody agrees with them (except for a bunch of para-military hillibillies who don't understand that Wrestling is fixed either maybe...)

The strangest part of the current propaganda-campaign is that the US-military suggests that the people of Iraq will be glad that all these G.I.s come to their country to kill their children. The US expected a quick and clean takeover without any dead bodies on TV. In his declaration of war, Bush sounded like the people of Iraq would even drop their weapons right away to help them out. It has been said over and over that Bush and his friends expected their victims to give them a warm welcome with American flags.
How far away from reality is that?

George W.Bush has damaged the image of the US so bad that people have even started to boycott Hollywood-movies, dvds and other US-products already. I can't remember this has ever happened before and it's not just a reaction to "french fries" being called "freedom fries" in the US now.

The Bush-administration has done a good job of revamping "the ugly American" by any means necessary and they don't even realize it. I was at the comic-shop to pick up some stuff today and I listened to the nerds hanging out there for a while. Everyone paid tribute to Michael Moore for the nasty things he said after winning an oscar. Not even the nerdiest of the nerds gave a shit whether fucking "Attack of the Clones" or "The Two Towers" won in the F/X-category. And the American nerds don't seem to care either if you look at the flame-wars over at Aint-it-cool-News, the international nerd-hangout no.1. A lot of change going on.

The protests continue and the anti-war-movement has merged with the anti-globalisation-movement already. 20000 kids who have never been at a demonstration before faced water-throwers in Hamburg today. Protesting against US-politics is the hippest thing to do right now. You can hear all these kids talking about their future and they're serious about it.

Well, Mr.Bush, think about that. European kids prefer Muslim Cola or Afri Cola over Coca Cola now and they think the US are ruled by some obnoxious fundamentalist dictator threatening "the rest of the world". Shame on you! Your people deserve something better.

Did you see that dumbfuck with the American flag? Fuck! Who do you think you are? The Middle-East doesn't want to be liberated by a bunch of war criminals throwing bombs and taking over their country afterwards.

People of the United States, would you please stand up!? Would you please wake up and stop this nightmare!?

Millions of people are out in the streets to tell you we're on your side. but in the end it will be up to the people living in the US to end this new sort of Imperialism. We're all busy marshing around and posting all these news-clips in our pointless weblogs to support you over there. We know that the Bush-administration doesn't represent the mayority in your country.

We don't hate you. We're on your side. Don't let them make you believe the world is "against America". That's just propaganda. It's just that the world is not interested in going back to the Middle Ages and have a handful of "pious" churchladies start a crusade against the Muslims.

You wanna introduce democracy down there, Mr.Bush? What a pathetic joke. How about introducing democracy in the US first, eh? Hell, you weren't even elected! Go back to church and pray or play with your stupid dogs. Just don't get on our nerves

Americans, you're about to give up all your civil rights because of that constant paranoia forced on you.
You don't have to take this shit any longer. Do you really think that having three more departments of ultra security is gonna stop a single terrorist? Well, maybe there will be a Peaceful Regime Change in 2004, but I also wouldn't be surprised if elections in general will be outlawed soon.

Learn from Eastern Europe and how the people over there ended the cold war in a peaceful way. (No, the cold war has not been won by the US. America didn't have anything to do with it. That's just another one of those lies.The CIA didn't even have a clue what was going on when the Berlin wall came down.) Face reality! You are being lied to. Look at these "embedded" daredevils working for the 20th Century Fox-war. Is that what you call free press?

Join the rest of the planet to make this a better world. Stop living in a dreamworld made up of propaganda-lies. We're all human beings. It doesn't matter whether you were born in Lybia or in Ohio. This is the year 2003. Nationalism is something we dealt with in the 20th century. We're done with that.

You have learned nothing, Mr.Rumsfeld. You're just some mercyless, ignorant bully. Go on and keep calling us "the old Europe". We consider it an honor.

You're the one who has trouble dealing with a world that has no more need for corporate superpowers, dumb machismo and heroic gunslingers. You're the one who is not able to adapt to the new sense of working together instead of fighting each other. You're the one who refuses to grow up.

You represent the old America and we're fed up with your lies and all the violence.

"The Bush administration is currently in the process of doling out over $1.5 billion in government contracts to American companies lining up to cash in on the rebuilding of postwar Iraq. So bombs away! The more destruction the better – at least for the lucky few in the rebuilding business."

CORPORATE AMERICA DIVVIES UP THE POST-SADDAM SPOILS by Arianna Huffington, AlterNet

A letter to The Observer by Monty Python Terry Jones:

"I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for bombing Iraq: he's running out of patience. And so am I!

For some time now I've been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't been able to discover what. I've been round to his place a few times to see what he's up to, but he's got everything well hidden. That's how devious he is.

As for Mr Patel, don't ask me how I know, I just know - from very good sources - that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have leafleted the street telling them that if we don't act first, he'll pick us off one by one.

Some of my neighbours say, if I've got proof, why don't I go to the police? But that's simply ridiculous. The police will say that they need evidence of a crime with which to charge my neighbours.

They'll come up with endless red tape and quibbling about the rights and wrongs of a pre-emptive strike and all the while Mr Johnson will be finalising his plans to do terrible things to me, while Mr Patel will be secretly murdering people. Since I'm the only one in the street with a decent range of automatic firearms, I reckon it's up to me to keep the peace. But until recently that's been a little difficult. Now, however, George W. Bush has made it clear that all I need to do is run out of patience, and then I can wade in and do whatever I want!

And let's face it, Mr Bush's carefully thought-out policy towards Iraq is the only way to bring about international peace and security. The one certain way to stop Muslim fundamentalist suicide bombers targeting the US or the UK is to bomb a few Muslim countries that have never threatened us.

That's why I want to blow up Mr Johnson's garage and kill his wife and children. Strike first! That'll teach him a lesson. Then he'll leave us in peace and stop peering at me in that totally unacceptable way.

Mr Bush makes it clear that all he needs to know before bombing Iraq is that Saddam is a really nasty man and that he has weapons of mass destruction - even if no one can find them. I'm certain I've just as much justification for killing Mr Johnson's wife and children as Mr Bush has for bombing Iraq.

Mr Bush's long-term aim is to make the world a safer place by eliminating 'rogue states' and 'terrorism'. It's such a clever long-term aim because how can you ever know when you've achieved it? How will Mr Bush know when he's wiped out all terrorists? When every single terrorist is dead? But then a terrorist is only a terrorist once he's committed an act of terror. What about would-be terrorists? These are the ones you really want to eliminate, since most of the known terrorists, being suicide bombers, have already eliminated themselves.

Perhaps Mr Bush needs to wipe out everyone who could possibly be a future terrorist? Maybe he can't be sure he's achieved his objective until every Muslim fundamentalist is dead? But then some moderate Muslims might convert to fundamentalism. Maybe the only really safe thing to do would be for Mr Bush to eliminate all Muslims?

It's the same in my street. Mr Johnson and Mr Patel are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of other people in the street who I don't like and who - quite frankly - look at me in odd ways. No one will be really safe until I've wiped them all out.

My wife says I might be going too far but I tell her I'm simply using the same logic as the President of the United States. That shuts her up.

Like Mr Bush, I've run out of patience, and if that's a good enough reason for the President, it's good enough for me. I'm going to give the whole street two weeks - no, 10 days - to come out in the open and hand over all aliens and interplanetary hijackers, galactic outlaws and interstellar terrorist masterminds, and if they don't hand them over nicely and say 'Thank you', I'm going to bomb the entire street to kingdom come.

It's just as sane as what George W. Bush is proposing - and, in contrast to what he's intending, my policy will destroy only one street.

-Sunday January 26, 2003

"The Nation As Person metaphor is pervasive, powerful, and part of an elaborate metaphor system. It is part of an International Community metaphor, in which there are friendly nations, hostile nations, rogue states, and so on. This metaphor comes with a notion of the national interest: Just as it is in the interest of a person to be healthy and strong, so it is in the interest of a Nation-Person to be economically healthy and militarily strong. That is what is meant by the "national interest."

In the International Community, peopled by Nation-Persons, there are Nation-adults and Nation-children, with Maturity metaphorically understood as Industrialization. The children are the "developing" nations of the Third World, in the process of industrializing, who need to be taught how to develop properly and to be disciplined (say, by the International Monetary Fund) when they fail to follow instructions. "Backward" nations are those that are "underdeveloped." Iraq, despite being the cradle of civilization, is seen via this metaphor as a kind of defiant armed teenage hoodlum who refuses to abide by the rules and must be "taught a lesson."

->full story: Metaphor and War, Again by George Lakoff on AlterNet

Very good interview in the book-section at salon.com:

Ordinary people, extraordinary evil - What kind of person can attack, mutilate and kill a total stranger or even a neighbor? A scholar talks about the dark potential in all of us.

By Suzy Hansen

"My own pessimism comes more from understanding human nature and the relative ease with which ordinary people can come to commit extraordinary evil. Until we fully understand and appreciate that, we're kind of at a loss to try and stop it. It seems to me that some of our discussion still revolves around the idea that perpetrators of genocide are very much on the fringe, and that there aren't a lot of these people. But when we recognize how relatively easy it is for ordinary people to become involved in this, that just takes the discussion to a different place.

(...)

In the book, you say that we don't really use the word "evil" that much anymore, but in the last year, President Bush has used it quite a bit and, in many ways, to his advantage. Has the meaning of it changed?

I had pretty much argued up to that point that we never use this word "evil." It's an archaic word that brings with it a ton of baggage. And then obviously after Sept. 11 you see it used all the time. In some ways, it was an attempt to capitalize on something extraordinary. As a descriptor, that's fine and helpful, but in other ways, the word "evil" tends to carry with it a mystifying, supernatural quality that takes it away from humanity. That's what I've tried not to do."

full interview

The war has started already and it's about time to get involved.

United for Peace will lead you into the right direction if you don't know what to do to stop the imperialistic takeover of some liar who wasn't even elected by his own people.

Read the speech by Robin Cook, former leader of the house of Commons, who has resigned yesterday.

I just turned on CNN. All channels all over the world broadcast political talkshows, documentaries on the past wars in Iraque etc. Guess what they show on American TV? Right, "Biz today" (going well!) and Sports of course, things that really seem to matter in the US while they're going back in time to worship King George II and his gnostic friends.

Whoops, someone's starting an all-new Big Brother-state. "Dr. David Cole, Georgetown University Law professor and author of Terrorism and the Constitution, reviewed the draft legislation at the request of the Center, and said at publicintegrity.com that the legislation

“raises a lot of serious concerns. It’s troubling that they have gotten this far along and they’ve been telling people there is nothing in the works.” This proposed law, he added, “would radically expand law enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce or eliminate judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA database based on unchecked executive ‘suspicion,’ create new death penalties, and even seek to take American citizenship away from persons who belong to or support disfavored political groups.”

The "Domestic Security Enhancement 2003" means getting rid of a citizen's rights on a scale unknown yet in the history of democracy.

It looks like the US are getting rid of most reforms of the past thirty years. The new set of laws even includes eviction and deportation. If you're accused of supporting or helping terrorists they're gonna take away your US-passport and send you to Guantanomo bay or some other gulag. You will be stateless and nobody will be in charge to help you. The gouvernment of the United States presents it while everyone is watching the heroes of the Desertstorm-remake on TV.

The story was leaked to publicintegrity.com and they also offer a pdf as a download. The line might be busy. Also try the dailyrotten-link up there or bespacific.com!)

more on this :
reclaimdemocracy.org warblogging.com talkleft.com

Heise (Deutsch)

Also look at The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace the US have come up with. Weblogs are not reliable anymore and all that. Guys, we're all villains out in antville!

I guess we have to join the lightwave.... Friends have to click together in times like these....

"Newsday has a story, Paperless Voting Machines Under Fire

"Even my ATM has the courtesy of asking if I want a receipt," said Kim Alexander, president of the Sacramento-based non-profit California Voter Foundation. "My pay-at-the-pump Visa transaction is more secure than my voting ballot if my county goes to paperless voting." Terrifying Update - In the story they quote a spokesperson from Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the companies manufacturing the machines:

Even if the records are never handed to voters and are instead kept with the county registrar, they represent another layer of complexity for administrators. "You'll have printer jams, you'll run out of paper, you'll have voters say, 'That's not how I voted,' and you'll have to have procedures for letting them re-vote and to determine which of the receipts you printed was the valid one, and which of those constitute the official recount in case of a contested vote," Sequoia spokeswoman Kathryn Ferguson said. You got that? The Sequoia spokesperson complains that there shouldn't be a paper trail because voters will say "That's not how I voted"!!! This company is making it clear that they are trying to stop voters from being able to verify that the machine correctly records their vote!"

-quoted from See the forest

Collection of Voting Machine Articles.

No, it's not just wasted irony!

Around 1998 I hung out at the Sevastopol, a legendary Russian bar in Bremen. Unfortunately it's not around anymore. I drank with Herr Kappen of the GfG and he asked me what the trend of the new Millennium what be. "Western", I said. "We're gonna have a new type of Western based on the old idea of the american frontier which has gotten more and more mobile over the years."

He didn't know what I was talking about, but then again his job was creating good design and not studying the subtext of popular trash-culture, I guess. So, I told him about Buffalo Bill and how the Western-myth is the ultimate sort of revisionism.

"Ours is a moving frontier," James Hall wrote in his "Tales of the Border" in 1835 and that's all you need to know about the foreign politics of the US.

It's sad since the ethics of the Western hero obviously do not work in the real world. What about Afghanistan? Who's dealing with the nuclear nightmare?

"Cards on the tale", "dead or alive" and all that shit Bush says when he should be practicing diplomacy....
He's too childish to realize that the UN is a new experiment for mankind. People decided we were done with the middle-ages after WWII. We wanted to talk about things first now. But that might be hard to understand if you believe that buying a gun means independence.

It's interesting how the US-gouvernment relates to the Western-myth all the time. All these caricatures like Ashcroft, Cheney and Rumsfeld trying to appear like tough gunmen who know better what's right or wrong than all the Eastern aka. European Greenhorns.

Kurt Vonnegut called them "the C-students" in an interview over at In These Times. But it would be foolish to underestimate these master of illusion though. All that forged material which is supposed to prove that Iraq has something to do with the events of 9-11 reinforces what John Ford once said about his Western-movies: "It not the way it was, it's the way it ought to be."

"This is the West. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." -the publisher of a newspaper in "The man who shot Liberty Valance"

Now, the image of the Gunslinger of the Wild West has been replaced by what Richard Goldstein calls the Neo-Macho Man who comes straight out of action-movies starring Bruce Willis, Steven Seagul and all their neoconservative friends. But it's still the same old bullshit.

-Uncle Sam's Other War: Biotech vs. the European Union by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero at alternet.org

The US refuse to label their genetically altered food since they're afraid it would make the goods look like they are some sort of soylent green. Yes, that's why the EU wants you guys to label your damned Butterfingers! We don't wanna eat plastic!

-Some nice old Model Rocketry Ads from the age of the new frontier over here.

"Since the end of the cold war, the United States has been trying to come up with an operating theory of the world—and a military strategy to accompany it.  Now there’s a leading contender.  It involves identifying the problem parts of the world and aggressively shrinking them.  Since September 11, 2001, the author, a professor of warfare analysis, has been advising the Office of the Secretary of Defense and giving this briefing continually at the Pentagon and in the intelligence community.  Now he gives it to you."

Interesting story in Esquire by Thomas P.M. Barnett, U.S. Naval War College

Germany stinks and France stinks, ok, but do we need some desperate cowboy with Big Boots and a tiny little wiener tell us what to do?

Those sites are scary! Is anyone out there really that ignorant and stupid or is it just a joke? Check out the "Bad Guy"-section within Big Boots. Looks like Alec Baldwin and Sean Penn have to move to Europe too before some mindless redneck blows their brains out....

AlterNet calls it a bloodless trance . I would call it censorship.

The only chance of protest in the US seems to be buying airtime. Now the big bosses decided that's too dangerous (due to the explicit content, I guess...) TV networks have banned the ads produced by True Majority while the Village Voice reports that Desertstorm part II action figures and bubblegum-cards are on their way to Walmart, Toy R'us and Amazon. I love the "battle-worn" playset. Too bad it's sold out already!

Here's a nice list by concerned parents calling themselves lionlamb: The Dirty Dozen-12 Toys To Avoid. For some reason it also includes the "Nerf Blastin’ Zurg from Toy Story".....

"The United States is considering direct military intervention in Colombia for the first time following the murder of an American and the kidnapping of three others, all suspected CIA agents.

The US embassy in Colombia has recommended Washington make a 'major response' to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels responsible, and American officials have confirmed that military action is being considered to recover the men from the dense jungles of the southern province of Caqueta.

They were captured after their plane crashed into the jungle suffering engine trouble. Despite the swift arrival of the Colombian army, the rebels spirited three survivors away after executing one American and the Colombian pilot who are thought to have put up a struggle.

Washington has refused to release any information about the men, entrenching the belief that they were CIA agents on a surveillance mission."

Story by Martin McNamara from Caqueta, Colombia in The Observer

"There was only one problem with President George W. Bush's claim Thursday that the nation's top economists forecast substantial economic growth if Congress passed the president's tax cut: The forecast with that conclusion doesn't exist. Bush and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer went out of their way Thursday to cite a new survey by "Blue-Chip economists" that the economy would grow 3.3 percent this year if the president's tax cut proposal becomes law. That was news to the editor who assembles the economic forecast. "I don't know what he was citing," said Randell E. Moore, editor of the monthly Blue Chip Economic Forecast, a newsletter that surveys 53 of the nation's top economists each month."

US-Präsident George W Bush hat sich am Donnerstag vergangener Woche auf die Vorhersagen führender US-Ökonomen gestützt. Diese prognostizieren seinen Angaben zufolge ein Wirtschaftswachstum von 3,3 Prozent, wenn der Kongress die von Bush geplanten Steuerkürzungen genehmigt. Das Problem: Die Studie, auf die der Präsident sich höchst wahrscheinlich beruft, gibt es nicht. Ein Editor des monatlich erscheinenden "Blue Chip Economic Forecast", auf die Bush sich augenscheinlich bezieht, weiß nicht, wovon der Präsident redet.

Popmoderne Behauptungssgesllschaft. Lüge und Realität gehen Hand in Hand wenn es um die schönste Geschichte geht bzw. die, die am schönsten klingt und von einer Test-Audience in Iowa für prima befunden wurde.

full story at newsday.com

"Nice fantasy. If only Laura Bush could be more like the eponymous heroine of Aristophanes' antiwar comedy "Lysistrata," who uses the sex-for-peace strategy with great success. Lysistrata encourages women from opposing sides of a civil war to withhold sex from their husbands until the men, conquered by unrequited lust, agree to ratify a peace treaty. The play captured the imagination of two New York actors, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, who in early January kicked off the Lysistrata Project, a series of readings of the play that will take place throughout the world (in all 50 states, and 49 countries so far) on Monday, March 3. "

By Tai Moses at AlterNet

"LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico -- There are no armed guards to knock out. No sensors to deactivate. No surveillance cameras to cripple. To sneak into Los Alamos National Laboratory, the world's most important nuclear research facility, all you do is step over a few strands of rusted, calf-high barbed wire. I should know. On Saturday morning, I slipped into and out of a top-secret area of the lab while guards sat, unaware, less than a hundred yards away."

->full story over at wired.com

Today's the day of the big virtual marsh. If you have nothing else to do, join the fun!

Americans, don't panic, reread some Doug Adams, be informed about chemical threats, nuclear threats and all that stuff that evil terrorists might throw at you. "Seal all windows, doors and air vents with plastic sheeting and duct tape. Consider measuring and cutting the sheeting in advance to save time."

Come on, this is such childish propaganda. They're even still using the same slogans from the fifties: you know, if someone throws nuclear missiles at you, what are you gonna do? "Duck and Cover!"

Remember The Atomic Cafe? Check out the links over there and try this if you have nothing better to do

Does anyone remember Ollie North? Probably not. He was probably just a product of some odd conspiracy theory made up by drunken lefties in some shitty bar in a former communist country, right?

But, surprise, surprise, look at what AP reported:

"PHILADELPHIA - A federal jury awarded $1.5 million to two narcotics agents who claimed the Pennsylvania attorney general retaliated against them because they uncovered a drug-trafficking ring they said diverted profits to a CIA-backed Dominican presidential candidate. (...) McLaughlin and Micewski said they uncovered a drug-trafficking ring operating in Philadelphia, New York and other Eastern cities that funneled drug profits to the left-wing Dominican Revolutionary Party, which they claimed was supported by the CIA and State Department.

They said the U.S. government allowed the party's presidential candidate, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, to return to the Dominican Republic after a 1995 fund-raising swing through New York with $500,000 in alleged drug profits.

CIA spokesman Tom Crispell on Tuesday dismissed the agents' allegations as "absurd."

full story

Ha, ha, don't forget to drop by whitehouse.org. Hilarious!

The everyday experiences as an American in Iraq and the Mideast.

Here is an interesting and important post by Tom Tomorrow over in his log:

"This is from <a href="www.antiwar.com"target="_blank">antiwar.com:

MSNBC television report this afternoon that their translation of the latest Osama bin Laden tape being read on Al-Jazeera television contains an appeal to the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

The online story now claims that this was a mistake, that Osama only denounced Saddam as an 'infidel." The original story contained this sentence in the second paragraph:

At the same time, the message also called on Iraqis to rise up and oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who is a secular leader.

This AP story mentions that "he denounced Saddam's secular, socialist al-Baath party as 'infidels.'"

This Reuters story says that bin Laden tells Muslims not to support "the ignorant governments that rule all Arab states, including Iraq," and that he urges support for the Iraqi people rather than the Iraqi goverment.

It appears that, for some reason, the media has made a decision to bury this part of the message.

No English news outlet has yet made a translation available.

I recorded the translation as it was being broadcast, and here's the beginning of Osama's message to the Iraqi people, courtesy of the Tom Tomorrow transcription service:

We would like to confirm at this time the lies of America and her allies. And what they are trying to do. We want you to be faithful in your fight. We want you to believe in God, the one and only God. We want you to get rid of the government that you have, they are (indecipherable). We want you to fight for the cause of God. Fight the tyrant and fight the agents of the devil because the devil is going to be overcome and defeated.

And here's how MSNBC is explaining away the apparent contradiction:

MSNBC.com initially cited an extemporaneous translation that mistakenly quoted the speaker as calling on Iraqis to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Uh huh."

TAMED STREETS - THE MYTH OF THE HIP HOP PROTEST by Adisa Banjoko, Pacific News Service on on WireTap, Alternet's teenage sidekick:

"What happened to the fiery war protests of old? Have today's protests -- even those originating from the hip-hop community -- been tamed by the state? (...) Today, if people decide they want to protest, they go get a permit from the city. Then all the vendors set up shop to sell T-shirts, and the hotdog guy gets his permit, too. (...) A year or two ago, I went to a hip-hop rally to free a Black political prisoner. Due to a great lack of organization, the event was running out of time on its permit. The head organizer was in a panic. "We've got to finish this fast," he said. "If we don't, we'll be fined!"

If "the revolution" is fined, to whom do we write the check when we win? These days, we're being told when we can protest, how long, and what the penalties will be for our misbehavior. Sounds like we're being pimped by the state on all the rules of engagement."

Support electroniciraq.net and stay informed

Germany voted conservative again. Hessia and lower-saxonry are ruled by the CDU again and the decline of Red-Green is close at hand. The Green party even won a few more voters due to the Iraque-crisis, but the Socialdemocrats have never lost more ever since WWII. It's a shame. Schröder is a dick. All he ever wanted was being king of some stupid European country. A bunch of pentagon-suits run around some fair for some new deadly gadgets. They weren't displaying anything, but they were all these booths where people were looking into thick piles of paper. These people were not talking guns. They were looking into things on a bigger scale. You can't display that shit. But I'd like to see some commercials for chemical warfare. "You can't see it, you can't smell it...." I'd like to go to a secret service-fair too. All the supersleuths meet with their business-partners. They sell secrets to each other and they laugh at the world. Old KGB-guys drink themselves to death and rookie-agents look for a job.

TV warns us that criminal arms-dealer run around to cheat people. They promise to sell you weapons. Then they take the money and run.

Which country really poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003? TIME asked for readers' views:

story over at time.com

"I came across another scene on an obscure road further north and to the east where, in the middle of the desert, I found a convoy of lorries transporting Iraqi soldiers back to Baghdad, where clearly massive fire power had been dropped and everyone in sight had been carbonized.
Most of the photographs I made of this scene have never been published anywhere and this has always troubled me."
(Peter Turnley, Digital Journalist)

see the pictures of The Unseen Gulf War