More on Scary Policy Wonks (SPWs)

March 31, 2003

Jiabbot (AT) cs (DOT) com wrote:

Dear GJ List,I know these current events posts of mine are not "jyotishical,"

but I feel we are really in a state of emergency internationally -- and that

one of the ways to at least attempt to safeguard the interests of the vast

majority of people (from the schemes of basically a handful of very wealthy

people who have newfound confidence [hubris?] and are doing much to imperil the

rest of us) is to encourage all of us to use the Internet to disseminate

information in the form of "micromedia" like purposeful emails. I do not do

this randomly or capriciously, but with attention to quality of content and

reaching a meaningful number of thinking, concerned people, who might

themselves then also consider the issues and help disseminate this and other

relevant material.Think the current war is engineered to end with Iraq? I'

haven't been too sure about that -- really since I visited <www.pnac.org> some

months back and downloaded my own copy of the Project for the New American

Century (PNAC) report "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and

Resources For a New Century," which was published in 9/2000 -- and is

transparently the basis of the Bush Administration's national security policy,

released in 9/2002 (see the White House website). PNAC's roots wend back to an

earlier version of the document penned by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul

Wolfowitz, circa about 1992, a policy recommendation at which even some extreme

hawks were aghast. Now this stuff appears to be par for the course. (You can

get the PNAC right at the source, at

<http://www.newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm>I heartily recommend

reading the entire following article by Joshua Micah Marshall, which I've

excerpted here. The full text can be found at

<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/popup.html>Marshall's

piece is among one of the more sober articles on the culture of the people I

now term SPWs (see above). Wisdom is everywhere. Both Organic and Engineered

Ignorance are also everywhere. We get to pick and choose.Best,Jesse

AbbotPractice to DeceiveChaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks'

nightmare scenario--it's their plan. By Joshua Micah Marshall Imagine it's six

months from now. The Iraq war is over. After an initial burst of joy and

gratitude at being liberated from Saddam's rule, the people of Iraq are

watching, and waiting, and beginning to chafe under American occupation. Across

the border, in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, our conquering presence has

brought street protests and escalating violence. The United Nations and NATO

are in disarray, so America is pretty much on its own. Hemmed in by budget

deficits at home and limited financial assistance from allies, the Bush

administration is talking again about tapping Iraq's oil reserves to offset

some of the costs of the American presence--talk that is further inflaming the

region. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence has discovered fresh evidence that, prior

to the war, Saddam moved quantities of biological and chemical weapons to

Syria. When Syria denies having such weapons, the administration starts massing

troops on the Syrian border. But as they begin to move, there is an explosion:

Hezbollah terrorists from southern Lebanon blow themselves up in a Baghdad

restaurant, killing dozens of Western aid workers and journalists. Knowing that

Hezbollah has cells in America, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge puts the

nation back on Orange Alert. FBI agents start sweeping through mosques, with a

new round of arrests of Saudis, Pakistanis, Palestinians, and Yemenis. To most

Americans, this would sound like a frightening state of affairs, the kind that

would lead them to wonder how and why we had got ourselves into this mess in

the first place. But to the Bush administration hawks who are guiding American

foreign policy, this isn't the nightmare scenario. It's everything going as

anticipated. In their view, invasion of Iraq was not merely, or even primarily,

about getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Nor was it really about weapons of mass

destruction, though their elimination was an important benefit. Rather, the

administration sees the invasion as only the first move in a wider effort to

reorder the power structure of the entire Middle East. Prior to the war, the

president himself never quite said this openly. But hawkish neoconservatives

within his administration gave strong hints. In February, Undersecretary of

State John Bolton told Israeli officials that after defeating Iraq, the United

States would "deal with" Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Meanwhile,

neoconservative journalists have been channeling the administration's thinking.

Late last month, The Weekly Standard's Jeffrey Bell reported that the

administration has in mind a "world war between the United States and a

political wing of Islamic fundamentalism ... a war of such reach and magnitude

[that] the invasion of Iraq, or the capture of top al Qaeda commanders, should

be seen as tactical events in a series of moves and countermoves stretching

well into the future." . . . Source:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/popup.htmlOm Namo

Bhagavate Vasudevaya; Hare Krishna; Om Tat Sat:

gjlist-http://www.goravani.comYour use of

is subject to the

Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!

March 31, 2003

Sorry, Ma'am, but this "unimportant" matter could be the beginning of the end

for our precious world without intervention. Maybe you're not looking around

you. I have no regrets. I spend 4-5 hours a day studying jyotisha, and I will

still find time in tiny ways to help in this horrible mess in which gangsters

are running our nations.

Marjorie Hogan <hossesgirl2000 wrote:

>

>I am an American interested in only astrology, take your political propaganda

to another forum. We are here to learn and study astrology. In time, we will

all pass along to the other side, we will then realize how unimportant all this

sqabbling is in the universal scheme of things. Let's get back to astrology,

shall we?

> Jiabbot wrote:Dear GJ List,

>

>I know these current events posts of mine are not "jyotishical," but I feel we

are really in a state of emergency internationally -- and that one of the ways

to at least attempt to safeguard the interests of the vast majority of people

(from the schemes of basically a handful of very wealthy people who have

newfound confidence [hubris?] and are doing much to imperil the rest of us) is

to encourage all of us to use the Internet to disseminate information in the

form of "micromedia" like purposeful emails. I do not do this randomly or

capriciously, but with attention to quality of content and reaching a meaningful

number of thinking, concerned people, who might themselves then also consider

the issues and help disseminate this and other relevant material.

>

>Think the current war is engineered to end with Iraq? I' haven't been too sure

about that -- really since I visited <www.pnac.org> some months back and

downloaded my own copy of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) report

"Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New

Century," which was published in 9/2000 -- and is transparently the basis of the

Bush Administration's national security policy, released in 9/2002 (see the

White House website). PNAC's roots wend back to an earlier version of the

document penned by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, circa about 1992,

a policy recommendation at which even some extreme hawks were aghast. Now this

stuff appears to be par for the course. (You can get the PNAC right at the

source, at <http://www.newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm>

>

>I heartily recommend reading the entire following article by Joshua Micah

Marshall, which I've excerpted here. The full text can be found at

<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/popup.html>

>Marshall's piece is among one of the more sober articles on the culture of the

people I now term SPWs (see above).

>

>Wisdom is everywhere. Both Organic and Engineered Ignorance are also

everywhere. We get to pick and choose.

>

>Best,

>

>Jesse Abbot

>

>Practice to Deceive

>

>Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their

plan.

>

>By Joshua Micah Marshall

>

>Imagine it's six months from now. The Iraq war is over. After an initial burst

of joy and gratitude at being liberated from Saddam's rule, the people of Iraq

are watching, and waiting, and beginning to chafe under American occupation.

Across the border, in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, our conquering presence has

brought street protests and escalating violence. The United Nations and NATO are

in disarray, so America is pretty much on its own. Hemmed in by budget deficits

at home and limited financial assistance from allies, the Bush administration is

talking again about tapping Iraq's oil reserves to offset some of the costs of

the American presence--talk that is further inflaming the region. Meanwhile,

U.S. intelligence has discovered fresh evidence that, prior to the war, Saddam

moved quantities of biological and chemical weapons to Syria. When Syria denies

having such weapons, the administration starts massing troops on the Syrian

border. But as they begin to move, there is an explosion: Hezbollah terrorists

from southern Lebanon blow themselves up in a Baghdad restaurant, killing dozens

of Western aid workers and journalists. Knowing that Hezbollah has cells in

America, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge puts the nation back on Orange

Alert. FBI agents start sweeping through mosques, with a new round of arrests of

Saudis, Pakistanis, Palestinians, and Yemenis.

>

>To most Americans, this would sound like a frightening state of affairs, the

kind that would lead them to wonder how and why we had got ourselves into this

mess in the first place. But to the Bush administration hawks who are guiding

American foreign policy, this isn't the nightmare scenario. It's everything

going as anticipated.

>

>In their view, invasion of Iraq was not merely, or even primarily, about

getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Nor was it really about weapons of mass