Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
Harold A. Schaitberger, the General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters does not pull any punches in his smackdown of GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani (see video). Discussing a video released by the Fire Fighters PAC today, Schaitberger says that fire fighters are dead today because of Rudy and that the former Mayor was far more concerned about recovering gold at Ground Zero than he was missing fire fighters.
Also see the Rudy Giuliani Urban Legend Site
Is it just me, or does this interviewer seem especially dense? Is he trying to obscure the fire-chief’s point to defend Guliani, or does he just not get it (for a painfully long time)?… Maybe he figures the listeners need a long time to get it?… Go figure…
Mac #1
I think that it is the interviewer. He makes too much effort to appease his right wing relatives.
These types face an incredible psychological problem in considering, admitting, then dealing with the fact that they let down the american people. Those to whom they owe the truth about all these matters.
And it is even worse, in the sense that they were or still are
embeddedin bed with this fascist regime and its spawn.They corrupted the american concept of a free press and did a full press on hiding the facts that militate against the official story on so many issues.
And then call it superior professionalism.
So, the Giuliani “infomercial” is being exposed…by real NYC firefighters!
Today on Democracy NOW!
Thursday, July 12th, 2007
The Other War: Iraq Veterans Speak Out on Shocking Accounts of Attacks on Iraqi Civilians
The Nation magazine has published a startling new expose of fifty American combat veterans of the Iraq War who give vivid on-the-record accounts of the US military occupation in Iraq and describe a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts. The investigation marks the first time so many on-the-record, named eyewitnesses from within the US military have been assembled in one place to openly corroborate assertions of indiscriminate killings and other atrocities by the US military in Iraq. We speak with the article’s co-author, journalist Laila Al-Arian, and four Iraq veterans who came forward with their stories of war.
The Nation investigation marks the first time so many on-the-record, named eyewitnesses from within the US military have been assembled in one place to openly corroborate assertions of indiscriminate killings and other atrocities by the US military in Iraq.
The cover story is titled “The Other War: Military Veterans Speak on the Record about Attacks on Iraqi Civilians.†In it, journalists Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian write: “The war the vets described is a dark and even depraved enterprise, one that bears a powerful resemblance to other misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations, from the French occupation of Algeria to the American war on Vietnam and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.â€
AMY GOODMAN: What was that first day like?
SGT. JOHN BRUHNS: It was very confusing. You know, we were — in my unit, along with 150,000 other soldiers, were massed on the border of Kuwait and Iraq. And finally, our commander said, “OK, go,†and we went into Iraq. And we went into the southern Iraqi desert, and it took days to find civilization.
And at that point in time I had a lot of reservations, because I was looking around, and I saw 150,000 troops making their way to Baghdad in the open desert, and here’s President Bush, and he’s accusing Saddam Hussein of having a massive stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, possibly a nuclear weapon, saying that he’s a homicidal dictator addicted to these weapons and we have to stop him now. And I was thinking to myself, I said, you know, what would be a better time for Saddam Hussein to use these weapons? He has 150,000 troops in the southern Iraqi desert, and he could launch these weapons on us directly and kill nobody but us.
So it was very frightening, especially because our military commanders were telling us that he has these weapons, this is his last stand, we’re coming to kill him, to take over his government, and he will use these weapons. And we were anticipating at least 50,000 casualties that day. That’s what we were being told. So it was very frightening.
But once I started to make it into populated areas and the weapons were not used at a time that was ripe for Saddam Hussein to use them, I just — I totally came to the — I was completely convinced that President Bush either made a complete and total incompetent decision to go to war or he deliberately misled us into war.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/12/1335208
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/july/video/dnB20070712a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=10:18
That’s a powerful argument: that within the first few days it was entirely obvious Saddam had no nukes and we had been lied into war.
But, we stayed.