(1) Welcome to the forum, Smoz9.

(2)


"World's Policeman"? A thankless and ultimately fruitless image for us to have, and not really in keeping with how we act in the world. OR...

Do you want to go to war against Uzbekistan?

[i](New York, August 10, 2002) Two suspicious deaths with apparent signs of torture highlight Uzbekistan's brutal ongoing crackdown against independent Muslims, Human Rights Watch said today. The bodies of Muzafar Avazov and Husnidin Alimov, both religious prisoners at Jaslyk Prison, were returned to family members for burial in Tashkent Thursday.

Individuals who had seen one of the bodies told Human Rights Watch that it showed clear signs of torture. The authorities reportedly restricted viewing of the second body. Both men had been imprisoned at Jaslyk Prison, well-known for its harsh conditions and ill-treatment and torture of religious prisoners.

Human Rights Watch has learned that the body of Muzafar Avazov, a 35-year old father of four, showed signs of burns on the legs, buttocks, lower back and arms. Sixty to seventy percent of the body was burnt, according to official sources. Doctors who saw the body reported that such burns could only have been caused by immersing Avazov in boiling water. Those who saw the body also reported that there was a large, bloody wound on the back of the head, heavy bruising on the forehead and side of the neck, and that his hands had no fingernails.

"These deaths reveal the horror of Uzbek prisons," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. "It seems the small signs of progress on torture we had seen were mere window-dressing, intended to hide Uzbekistan's persistent problem and placate international critics."

These latest incidents of serious human rights violations could complicate Uzbekistan's relations with the United States. The United States has allied itself closely with Uzbekistan in the war against terrorism, but U.S. government officials have expressed concern that Uzbekistan's harsh treatment of independent Muslims could be counterproductive to the anti-terror effort. The U.S. government recently adopted a law requiring that before delivering aid to the Uzbek government, the Bush administration must determine that Uzbekistan is making "substantial and continuing progress" in meeting the human rights commitments contained in a U.S.-Uzbekistan March 2002 joint declaration.[/i]

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www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/06_22_03/Foreign.htm#f6
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(3) Quiz time: what was the legislative history of this bill:

http://members.aol.com/apollo711/war/genocide-act.html

Who opposed it in the Senate? What forces stopped it?
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(4) In many ways even more infuriating than this pointless war: the administration's pre-war obfusication:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=6&u=/ap/20031031/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_costs

WASHINGTON - [i]Months before the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites), independent and congressional analysts made remarkably accurate predictions of the costs of a post-war occupation, even as the Pentagon (news - web sites) refused to do so, or gave very low estimates.

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But the Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites), for example, estimated in September 2002 that occupying Iraq would cost between $1 billion and $4 billion a month.

The current figure? About $4 billion a month.

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The administration's aversion to cost estimates was intertwined with Pentagon officials' reluctance to estimate how many troops would be needed to occupy Iraq.


Before the war, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials disputed a prediction by then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki that more than 200,000 troops would be needed. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called Shinseki's estimate "wildly off the mark."


The occupation now occupies some 132,000 American troops, supported by 22,000 troops from other nations and more than 90,000 Iraqi security forces more than 244,000 people under arms. The money to pay for both the U.S. troops and the Iraqi forces comes almost exclusively from the United States

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Rumsfeld defended the Pentagon's pre-war vagueness at a news conference earlier this month.


"We were criticized for not giving answers because we didn't know the answer," Rumsfeld said. "There are so many variables involved that people with good judgement don't try to say, 'I'm smart enough to take all those variables and make an appropriate estimate and come out with a single-plan answer.' So I haven't done that."


Former White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey also came under fire last year when he estimated a war with Iraq could cost between $100 billion and $200 billion. Mitch Daniels, then Bush's budget chief, discounted the estimate as "very, very high," and the issue was cited as one of the reasons why Lindsey resigned in December.


Lindsey's estimate has proven to be on the mark, with the two funding bills, mostly for Iraq, that Bush proposed this year totaling more than $160 billion. [/i]

Or... if you will:



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