Global revolution! Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus, in 333 B.C. Segment of Mosaic, House of the Faun, Pompeii, c. 80 B.C. Mosaic, approx. 8' 10" x 16' 9" MUSEO NAZIONALE, NAPLES in Paul Cartledge, Alexander The Great: The Hunt for a New Past 196-197 (2004) PERSPECTIVES ON IRAQ AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM Jonathan Schell-- Empire and the fantasy of empire are not the same. It is rather the repeatedly failed bid for imperial sway that has corrupted. It was not triumph but loss--of China, of the atomic monopoly, among other developments--that precipitated the McCarthyite assault on liberty at home. It was persistent failure in the Vietnam War, already a decade old and deeply unpopular, that led an embattled, isolated, nearly demented Richard Nixon to draw up his enemies list, illegally spy on his domestic opposition, obstruct justice when his misdeeds became known, ramble drunkenly in the Oval Office about using nuclear weapons and ultimately mount an assault on the entire constitutional system of checks and balances. And it is today an unpopular President Bush, unable either to win the Iraq War or to extricate himself from it, who has launched his absolutist assault on the Constitution. (The Nation, Aug 14, 2006 Issue). Hamdan v. Rumsfeld-- From the outset, President Bush declared that the battle against Al Qaeda would be a war like no other, fought by new rules against new enemies not entitled to the old protections afforded to either prisoners of war or criminal defendants. But the White House acknowledgment on Tuesday that a key clause of the Geneva Conventions applies to Qaeda detainees, as a recent Supreme Court ruling affirmed, is only the latest step in the gradual erosion of the administration’s aggressive legal stance. (The New York Times. Wednesday. July 11, 2006). Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr.-- Reporting on the suicide, early on Saturday June 10, 2006, of 3 prisoners, the commander of the detention camp at Guantánamo told reporters at a news conference "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." (The New York Times, Sunday, June 11, 2006) Robert Fisk-- (W)ho can be held to account when we regard ourselves as the brightest, the most honorable of creatures, doing endless battle with the killers of Sept. 11 or July 7 because we love our country and our people -- but not other people -- so much. And so we dress ourselves up as Galahads, yes as Crusaders, and we tell those whose countries we invade that we are going to bring them democracy. I can't help wondering today how many of the innocents slaughtered in Haditha took the opportunity to vote in the Iraqi elections -- before their "liberators" murdered them. (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Saturday, June 3, 2006) Andrew Bard Schmookler-- "The Worst President In History?" Why the Question? (CommonDreams.org May 17, 2006) George W. Bush-- Progress in war effort. "On the third anniversary of a war that they once expected to be over by now, President Bush and senior officials argued Sunday that their strategy was working despite escalating violence in Iraq." (The New York Times Mar 20, 2006) Howard Zinn-- A more honest estimate of ourselves as a nation would prepare us all for the next barrage of lies that will accompany the next proposal to inflict our power on some other part of the world. It might also inspire us to create a different history for ourselves, by taking our country away from the liars and killers who govern it, and by rejecting nationalist arrogance, so that we can join the rest of the human race in the common cause of peace and justice. (The Progressive, April 2006) Representative John Murtha (D - PA)-- I’m disappointed the way this war has been run, ... the biggest thing is the rhetoric. They keep saying we’re going, we’re going to have victory, we’re going to stay for the end. It’s, it’s open-ended. (MSNBC Mar 19, 2006) William F. Buckley, Jr.-- "One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed." (National Review Feb 24, 2006) Iyad Allawi, Interim Prime Minister of Iraq-- This is the start of a civil war. "The problem is that the Americans have no vision and no clear policy on how to go about in Iraq,” said Allawi, a long-time ally of Washington. (The Sunday Times of London Online Mar 20, 2006) The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Mar 2006) Fins-FWN-04-3 President Bush and Captain Ahab -- Psychological soul-mates (Dec 2005) Federal Information News Syndicate (FINS) Vigdor Schreibman, Editor & Publisher 18 - 9th Street NE Apt # 206 Washington, DC 20002-6042 USA Phone, Fax, and Voice Mail: (202) 547-8715 Email: omnicapital@verizon.net Cornelia P. Atchley, artist. Portrait of Vigdor in blue 2001.