Free Frank Warner

Cindy Sheehan: Clinton killed more Iraqis than Bush

Counterpunch reports on Cindy Sheehan in Dublin, Ireland. Here’s what she said Jan. 10 about President Clinton:

“And about Bill Clinton . . . . You know, I really think he should have been impeached, but not for a blow job. His policies are responsible for killing more Iraqis than George Bush.”

Sheehan obviously was referring to more than Clinton’s December 1998 bombing of Iraq. She was talking about the U.N. trade sanctions that Saddam Hussein brought on Iraq because Saddam failed to meet U.N. demands that he end his repression, stop supporting terrorists, return 600 Kuwaiti POWs and cooperate fully with U.N. arms inspectors.

When sanctions don’t work. Because Saddam used the U.N. sanctions as an excuse to cut off food and medicine to Iraqis, some international groups estimated, perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 Iraqis died each month during the sanctions. That’s about 1 million dead. At the same time, Saddam continued feeding his army and building palaces.

Even when the U.N. in 1997 allowed Iraq to sell oil to pay for food and medicine under the Oil-for-Food program, Saddam siphoned so much of the oil money that the benefits were hard to notice. Iraqis ate better and new medicine stopped a cholera epidemic, but former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark reported, in July 2002, “The sanctions continue to this time to cause hundreds of deaths each day.”

So what Sheehan is saying is, the sanctions didn’t work, and worse, Saddam used the sanctions from 1991 to 2003 to let hundreds of thousands of Iraqis die.

Problem solved. In other words, it was a good thing the U.S.-led coalition removed Saddam and ended that suffering.

Frank Warner

Unknown columnist doesn’t support the troops

Some American columnist no one has heard of says he doesn’t’ support the U.S. troops or their mission of democratizing Iraq.

Apparently, he opposes the liberation of Iraq because President Bush, a Republican, led it. This GI hater didn’t want 25 million Iraqis freed from fascism because freeing the oppressed wasn’t popular among his friends. He would rather have let Saddam Hussein and sons continue torturing and murdering Iraqis forever.

He says he doesn’t support the American troops? That’s obvious.

The appeaser. He clearly didn’t mind Saddam’s invasions of Iran or Kuwait. He clearly didn’t mind Saddam’s murder of 300,000 to 400,000 of his "own people." He clearly didn’t mind that Saddam harbored terrorists Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas and Abdul Yasin, and that Saddam paid the families of suicide bombers who murdered Israelis. He clearly didn’t mind that Saddam refused to allow free elections or free speech, and cut out the tongues of Iraqis suspected of speaking against him.

The newspaper columnist -- what’s his name? Stein? -- didn’t care. Or at least he didn’t care enough to think America’s armed forces should oust Saddam and replace Iraq’s police state with democracy.

No one should be surprised that he didn’t care. Selfish racists who are free themselves don’t mind repression in foreign lands. Fascist sympathizers oppose heroic liberators. They pretend to be anti-war, when they oppose only freedom’s side of any war. They pretend to be liberals when they appease liberalism’s enemies.

The shame. They don’t fight fascism. They feed it. Of course Stein doesn’t support Americans troops.

He says:

"The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they’re following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying."

In Stein’s army, morality is a callous disregard for the murder of hundreds of thousands and the imprisonment of millions. The armies opposing him must truly be horrifying.

History has a way of sorting the fascists from the freedom-fighters. Stein will have to live with that shame.

Frank Warner

I (half) apologize to Kuwait

Last week, I ridiculed Kuwait for letting a new emir replace the dead emir on Jan. 15 without an election.

Well, as fast as Sheikh Sa'ad al-Abdullah al-Sabah came in, he appears to be going out. Kuwait’s parliament today unanimously declared him unfit for office. I apologize for assuming the parliament had no power, or at least much less than this.

A democratically elected parliament unseating a dictator is unheard of in the Arab world, so this event is encouraging. But don’t book a flight to witness Kuwait’s first election of a chief executive. This emir wasn’t exactly removed against his will. He was removed because he had Alzheimer’s disease.

A new emir. Already, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah has been nominated to take Sheikh Sa’ad’s place. I’m not sure how democratic this process is, but it is a hopeful sign to note the parliament also has to approve of the next emir.

Soon, the Kuwaitis will write their own Magna Carta. This is good.

Frank Warner

Canada has one truly conservative government; Stephen Harper even opposes the liberation of Iraq

If you’re looking for elected conservative governments, now you have two prominent examples.

French President Jacques Chirac has been the world’s most notoriously conservative leader. Today, you can add the government-elect of Canada’s Stephen Harper.

The Canadians just picked a government that not only loves big business and cares much less for the little guy, it also opposes the liberation of Iraq.

Part liberal. In the United States, President Bush is conservative on most domestic policies, with the notable exception of the new Medicare drug benefit for the poor, but at least he is liberal on Iraq.

Bush might have missed the boat on weapons of mass destruction, but that was a conservative justification for the invasion, the reason linked to fear. Where Bush followed liberal instincts was in recognizing that the strong have an obligation to help the helpless and to free the oppressed. Before toppling Saddam Hussein, Bush cited Saddam’s repression as illegal and immoral.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are too selfish or bigoted to see any point in freeing anyone, especially anyone in another country. Canada, unfortunately, is one-third Conservative (with the capital "C") but two-thirds conservative. Sad to say, Canadians are more than willing to let Americans do the hard and heroic work while Canada rides freedom’s free ride.

Pure conservative. At least our president has a liberal streak. Canada can’t say that about Stephen Harper.

Frank Warner

Can a priest prove Jesus existed?

Luigi Cascioli, an atheist in largely atheist Italy, has sued the Rev. Enrico Righi, a Catholic priest with whom Cascioli grew up. Cascioli’s complaint? Father Righi of Bagnoregio, Italy, claims that Jesus Christ existed.

Apparently in Italy, you can sue for “abuse of popular credulity” and “impersonation.” Abuse of credulity is lying to the public for profit. The alleged impersonation refers to the Catholic Church’s 2000 years of teachings about Jesus when, according to Cascioli, Jesus really was someone named John of Gamala, son of Judas of Gamala.

The court hearing will be Friday, Jan. 27. So I guess now Father Righi, of Bagnoregio, Italy, is pulling together the birth certificate, fingerprints and DNA evidence.

Convincing evidence? I doubt Cascioli expects Father Righi to come up with a body.

Frank Warner

Ralph Nader's mother dies at 99

Ralph Nader's mother died Jan. 20, we found out today. She would have been 100 years old on Feb. 7.

British spied on Moscow from a fake rock, Russians say

Four British diplomats probably will be thrown out of Russia on the grounds they spied on Russians using electronic equipment hidden in a fake rock in a Moscow park.

Russian officials also said they had caught the British “red-handed” giving money to the Moscow Helsinki Group, a non-governmental human rights group. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s weak dictator, has been battling non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since they helped introduce democracy to Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, former Soviet republics.

This is Putin’s opportunity to crush the democratic opposition.

Frank Warner

Richie Havens’ Freedom Count: 18

Re-live Richie Havens’ celebration of freedom. This is the first half of "Freedom," his adaptation of "Motherless Child" performed Aug. 15, 1969, at Woodstock.

Havens was the opening act at the rock festival.

Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child

Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child

Sometimes I feel
Like a motherless child

A long
Way
From my home, yeah
Yeah

Sing
Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Freedom
Freedom

Sometimes I feel
Like I'm almost gone

Sometimes I feel
Like I’m almost gone

Sometimes I feel
Like I’m almost gone, yeah

A long, long, long
Way
Way from my home, yeah
Yeah

Freedom Count: 18.

Frank Warner

Monkeys can’t type Shakespeare

You know the old theory that “If you put a million monkeys in front of typewriters, eventually one will write one of Shakespeare’s plays”?

(Apparently the line was first attributed to French mathematician Emile Borel in 1913.)

Well, whoever said it, it’s not true. Monkeys can’t write Shakespeare, not a play, not even a stanza. I just saw proof with a higher species.

Fools these mortals be. A contest in Pennsylvania asked 10-year-old schoolchildren to write poems. The poems could rhyme, but they didn’t have to. The winners won the right to be published in high-priced anthologies the proud parents could buy.

Last week, I saw the results. Awful.

Being the nice guy I am, I won’t name the children, but these poems were terrible, and they were written by fairly bright young humans. The verses were empty of feeling, humor or even an eye for delicious detail. There were lots of poems, yet not one student even accidentally wrote an interesting phrase.

Which tells me the monkeys can’t do it either.

Consider Shakespeare. The Bard’s tiniest recognizable line might be Hamlet’s, as he contemplates suicide:

“To be or not to be -- that is the question.”

Could a monkey type that? Could a monkey type even the “To be or not to be” part? Methinks not. One million monkeys? Not in a million years.

If fifth-grade children can’t come up with something sensible or charming on purpose, how are these monkeys supposed to do it by accident? I don’t think they can.

Nothing can come of nothing. It turns out the “Million Monkey Theorem” (or the alternative known as the “Infinite Monkey Theorem,” which really is infinitely different) has been put to the test. Four years ago at Plymouth University in England, researchers set six crested macaques (they’re monkeys of some kind) in a cage with a typewriting computer keyboard.

The monkeys banged at the keyboard, peed on it, threw rocks at it, and for reasons the short-tailed creatures could not express, they typed the letter "S" a lot. They moved on to a few other letters, but none came close to an "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio."

“To be” didn’t come up either.

OK, this wasn’t 1 million monkeys, but let’s extrapolate. With 1 million monkeys, it won’t happen.

To the end of reckoning. Statisticians will tell you that with an infinite number of monkeys, the probability that one successfully will write one of the works of Shakespeare on his first try is 100 percent.

That only means there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. With an infinite number of monkeys, infinite combinations of keystrokes will happen. A keyboard pounded at random an infinite number of ways simply can’t avoid producing a volume of Shakespeare.

But no one human can read through an infinite number of monkey manuscripts. And if you had an infinite number of boys and girls, at least one would have a tail.

Frank Warner

Did Jacques Chirac just surrender?

Jacques Chirac’s nuclear threat against nuclear powers that would attack France sounds an awful lot like surrender.

He apparently has given up on nuclear non-proliferation in Iran. He isn’t willing to do what it takes to prevent Iran from building atom bombs. To stop Iran might require a ground invasion, coupled with bombing from the air. So Chirac is saying, in effect, "We failed. We quit. We prepare to live with a nuclear Iran."

Instead of nipping the nuclear problem in the bud, risking thousands of lives, Chirac is willing to let the problem go to full bloom, with the potential that Iranians will kill millions and then die by the millions.

The usual. The talks are done. Chirac has decided he might support trade sanctions against Iran, but he knows sanctions seldom work. And he has ruled out anything he knows would work.

There’s a white flag flying over the Arc de Triomphe. It’s history repeating itself. Europe again hands off the problem.

Frank Warner