Subject : 20030504 Proud to be an American, by Frida Berrigan : Common Dreams,
with a few Star Lightning News Flashes from, Good Works On Earth -
Copyright 2003

Date : Sun, 4 May 2003 15:34:30 -0700
From : Good Works On Earth
To : Our emailing list and web site visitors.

Sweet Greetings from Good Works On Earth

Proud to be American? Not While it Chooses Bombs Over Bread
by : Frida Berrigan
CommonDreams.org | Opinion

Friday 2 May 2003

Jay Garner wants us to be proud. The man in charge of rebuilding Iraq was quoted in the New York Times on Thursday saying, 'We ought to look in the mirror and get proud, and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say, 'Damn, we're Americans.''

Well Jay, I am sorry to say that I am not feeling it. American soldiers shooting unarmed Iraqi demonstrators and killing at least 17 in two separate incidents. American police officers firing rubber and wooden bullets at unarmed American demonstrators outside of Oakland. Thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in a so-called precision war for their liberation. A multibillion dollar empire building effort underway in Iraq that is masked as a humanitarian reconstruction effort, while children are hungry, seniors are without medication, and education is less and less accessible right here in USA.

There are people profiting from war- and Jay Garner the proud American is one of them. And there are those who are not.

General Jay Garner the head of the Pentagon's new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. In that capacity he is overseeing and coordinating the relief and rebuilding efforts in Iraq. He is also a personal friend of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

He is also the president of SY Coleman, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, a high tech defense contractor that specializes in missile-defense systems and makes the targeting systems for conventional weapons. He is not retired from that position, he is on 'leave' or on 'loan.' And he is profiting from war.

In February Garner's company announced that its revenue in the most recent quarter had soared to $1.3 billion-up from $705 million a year ago. They attribute the windfall to a doubling of military communications and electronics sales. Overall, the company expects a 20% increase in sales and earnings this year.

This is good news for the company and its stockholders, but how can the people of Iraq trust a man who has garnered millions making the targeting systems for missiles that destroyed their country?

If the Bush administration were to consciously set out to pick a person most likely to raise questions about the legitimacy of the post-war rebuilding process, they could not have selected a better man for the job than Jay Garner. As one observer noted, 'If it's not a conflict of interest, it's certainly being tone deaf.'

The weapons industry companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and Northrop-Grumman are also pretty tone deaf. With the country on a permanent war footing, the sky is literally the limit for America's second most heavily subsidized industry.

A new report from United for a Fair Economy, 'More Bucks for the Bang: CEO Pay at Top Defense Contractors,' found that the boys with the big guns making the big bucks.

Median CEO pay at the 37 largest defense contractors rose 79 percent from 2001 to 2002, while overall CEO pay climbed only 6 percent. The typical U.S. CEO made $3.7 million in 2002, while the typical defense industry CEO got $5.4 million.

The average Army private risking his or her life in Iraq is paid just $19,585- just about the national poverty rate. The average defense CEO made 577 times as much in 2002, or $11,297,548.

So, we know who is benefiting from war- but who is on the losing side? We are. We are more insecure and more threatened than ever before.

There is plenty of cash to pay for war and empire building in Iraq, but when it comes to meeting the American public's need for housing, health care, food, education and other necessities, the cash drawer is empty.

The Bush administration asked Congress to provide the Pentagon with $399.1 billion for 2004. That is a huge amount of money. That is more than a billion dollars a day. That is more than $12,000 a second - a year of college tuition.

To put it in relationship to what other countries spend, the U.S. military budget is almost seven times larger than what the second largest spender- Russia budgets for defense. It is more than 26 times the combined spending of the seven countries the Pentagon identifies as enemies. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that military spending will continue to increase at an average of 8% a year through the end of the decade. Meaning that by 2010, the military budget will top out at almost $700 billion.

The military budget does NOT include the costs of war in Iraq. The administration has put those costs in a separate $75 billion 'emergency supplemental.'

The United States is spending more than a billion dollars a day on the military, while a whole spectrum of domestic needs are severely under-funded. As the Congress prepares to figure pay top dollar for war, they are planning cuts in just about everything else, including veterans benefits and education.

House Republicans are suggesting $14.6 billion in cuts to veterans programs, including money for disabilities caused by war wounds, rehabilitation and health care, pensions for low income veterans, education and housing benefits, and even burial benefits.

They are also proposing to cut the education budget by 10.2 percent below the already reduced level proposed by President Bush.

We see the effects of budget cuts and neglect already. According to the Children's Defense Fund, nearly one million black children live in dire and extreme poverty. In an alarming increase over 2000, the economic circumstances of black children further deteriorated so that more families were living on just over $7,000 a year-- that is half the national poverty line of $14,100 for a family of three.

I developed a factsheet for the War Resisters League that compares what the United States spends on war to the costs of educating and caring for children.

President Bush has asked Congress for $75 billion to pay the initial costs of the war in Iraq. For that same amount, we could hire 1,155,715 Elementary School Teachers to educate America's children.

Five days of war in Iraq = Eliminate illiteracy world wide ($1.1 billion)
($5 billion, World Game Institute)

2.8 hours of war in Iraq = Nutrition supplements for 200,000 families
($45.8 million per hour) ($130 million, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

1 minute of war in Iraq = Headstart Education for 115 children
($763,000 a minute) ($6,633 per child, National Priorities Project)

1 second of war in Iraq = Twice what U.S. spends per year, per child
($12,730 per second) in primary education ($6,043, Digest of Ed. Stats)

We have a lot of work to undo the damage, repair the hurt and rectify the imbalances of the 'bombs over bread' policies of the Bush administration. Until we do that it will be hard for me to take Jay Garner's pep talk seriously.

Frida Berrigan is a Senior Research Associate at the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center.

Source Page :
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0502-10.htm

We invite you to visit their Home Page ... it is a treasure trove of media resources and eyes wide open articles on what is happening on our globe with the corporate greed and pentagonisms and such.

http://www.commondreams.org/

We invite you to read the writing of Harvey Wasserman

Bush's Military Defeat: The SuperPower of Peace is our only hope
by : Harvey Wasserman : Editor FreePress.org
May 2, 2003

http://www.goodworksonearth.org/HarveyWassermanBushsMilitaryDefeat20030502.html

Muslims rescued Baghdad's Jewish Community Center
by : Agence France Presse

April 13th, 2003

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Muslims came to the aid of Baghdad's tiny Jewish community on Saturday, chasing out looters trying to sack its cultural center in the heart of the capital.

'At 3:00 a.m., I saw two men, one with a beard, on the roof of the Jewish community house and I cried out to my friend, 'Hossam, bring the Kalashnikovs!'' said Hassam Kassam, 21.

Neither Hassan nor Hossam, who is the guard at the center, was armed at the time but the threat worked in scaring off the intruders. Two hours later, the looters returned again and Hassan Kassem used the trick once more.

The center is located in a freshly painted white house on a lane off Rashid Street in Baghdad's old town. Two days ago, amid rampant looting in the capital, neighbors removed the sign reading 'Special Committee for the Religious Affairs of Ezra Menahem Daniel' to make the premises less conspicuous.

On Friday at about 10:30 a.m., two men seized an opportunity created by the guard's mid-morning break to try to force open the door in a first attempt to burgle the center. 'We came over right way and asked them what they wanted,' said Abdallah Nurredin, 50.

They tried to explain that they wanted to talk to the guard, Nurredin said, 'but when they saw the look we were giving them, they left without saying another word.'

Hossam the guard left to look for a real gun in case the persistent thieves returned.

'The Jews have always lived here, in this house, and it is only normal that we should protect them,' said Ibrahim Mohamad, 36, who works in a small undergarments factory near the center of town.
...
Currently, about 50 Jews live in Iraq.

Source Page :
No longer available
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=283536&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the manuscript, Letters Let Seer See ... by Will I Am

'Linda Goodman's DEMOCRATIC and REPUBLICAN still exist as I write this sentence in 1997, and still now, in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Linda revealed a little bit from each to show they ARE RATED A COMIC in the DEMOCRATIC case, and ARE AN INCURABLE CLAN in the REPUBLICAN.

'To this I add the serious note that it is no wonder we had a nuclear arms race with the likes of the A DEMOCRAT ... A COMRADE TO AN ATOMIC RACE and, IN A REPUBLICAN, A NUCLEAR CLAN RACE AN ALIEN RACE IN A NUCLEAR CLUB.

'To show you how serious a Lexigram can be, the DEMOCRATIC and the REPUBLICAN are revealed for what they truly are within these pages.
http://www.goodworksonearth.org/democratic.html

'The word REPUBLICAN even told us that we would have AN EPIC NUCLEAR CLEANUP IN AN UNCLEAR REPUBLICAN ERA That era is now upon us and still now there is new REPUBLICAN talk of new NUCLEAR weapons and power facilities, and this despite the fact that our NUCLEAR CLAN has yet to LEARN how to safely store the mountains of nuclear waste. AN EPIC NUCLEAR CLEANUP IN A REPUBLICAN NUCLEAR RACE.
http://www.goodworksonearth.org/democratic.html

Both the DEMOCRATIC & REPUBLICAN Star Arts are very revealing. Brace yoursElf if you still identify yoursElf as either.

'Democracy is a sacred word ... the republican parties and democratic parties are not the highest awarenesses in name. Statesmen and Statesweomen are infinitely more capable than that in creating healings in the ways of things upon Mother Earth with our nation's peoples in peace.'
Copyright WFS 2003

To see the image we are calling the EASTER'S TERRESA please visit : http://www.goodworksonearth.org/easter.html
The image comes up after the 2003 rendition of EASTER'S STAR ARTS TERRESA is defined on that page.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On February 21st, 2003, the United States Total National Debt was:
$ 6,400,000,000,000. This many $1 federal reserve notes will make a stack 4,343,434.43434 miles high.
Do you know our national debt total is now?
Do you care?
We don't have enough gold to cover our ass on this ...
And we no longer use gold as our standard of value.
We don't have enough trees to print the money!

The definition of DOLLAR is 1/20th of an ounce of gold.
Our national debt is in terms of Federal Reserve Notes.

Fact is, it isn't money. It is a debt, a federal reserve NOTE.
Federal Reserve? It ain't Federal. It is not our government's issue of value. It is a private corporations issue of debt upon us, upon our government, our collective us.
http://www.goodworksonearth.org/taxpayers.html
Mostly, America spends this money for death and destruction.

We are the caretakers of Mother Earth's Gardens All

Peace Be,

Will I AM
Executive Director
Good Works On Earth
a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation performing our namesake
http://www.goodworksonearth.org/toptenlistatgoodworksonearth.html

To subscribe to the Good Works On Earth mailing list :
Say the word : lexigram@goodworksonearth.org
Include a note letting us know how you found us.

To be removed from these mailings, simply reply using the words remove or unsubscribe in your reply. Swifter than an omega pison, you will be hestory re our mailings while we wish you peace upon the paths of your friendships.
Say the word : lexigram@goodworksonearth.org
Include a note letting us know why, if you will.
We are not perfect and your feedback may change things for the better here.

And remember to dance a bit now and then, even a little jig.
You might say we are the Dancing Fools at :
http://www.goodworksonearth.org/dancers.html

Good Works On Earth
Copyright Two Thousand Three
All Rights ReServed World Wise
All Wrongs ReVersed World Wiser
Posting date : 20030504
Web page address of this message:
http://www.goodworksonearth.org/commondreamsfridaberriganproudtobeanamerican.html
20030612 : Broken links were repaired.
20060104 : Burnished page, html wise. Added our declarations below and our statistics link.