COMMENT

Comment the Progressive Leash the Dogs of War War doesn't loom. Warmaking looms. And the maker is George Bush. With every passing day, Bush pushes the United States closer to a disastrous war...

...Medicare, too, was not spared: Benefits will now cost poor and working people more and cover less...
...As recently as 1980, the top tax rate for the highest income bracket was 70 per cent...
...By provoking a war against Iraq, Bush will risk the lives of tens of thousands of American troops...
...Neither has been since the 1960s...
...But U.S...
...That's why he wants war...
...he is trying to increase the pressure on the American people to go along with his warmaking...
...Diplomatically, the war is sure to isolate the United States...
...Bush's actions and his rhetoric cry havoc...
...with this budget, it may stall...
...None of these conditions applies in the Persian Gulf...
...The crisis in El Salvador will not end until all military aid is eliminated...
...surely, there has been time to call the question...
...If they aren't already, black-market abortion pills will soon be circulating in the United States...
...Bush's much-touted international consensus against Iraq will swiftly dissolve, since the Soviet Union opposes the war and many of the Arab nations currently siding with the United States are under tremendous pressure to dissociate themselves from Washington's aggression...
...Some experts believe that RU-486 will be safer, cheaper, and much more accessible than surgical abortion, and that it may have applications in the treatment of breast cancer, brain tumors, and other disorders...
...One can, furthermore, predict with fair confidence that whatever the U.S...
...control over Third World natural resources, and shoring up his own fading popularity in the polls...
...His weapons cannot reach Pearl Harbor...
...As their spending drops, factory orders will decline, and unemployment will rise...
...now it's down to 31 per cent...
...No peace dividend here: The budget agreement kept $150 billion in Pentagon spending to protect Western Europe-even after the Soviet "threat" has evaporated...
...No support for such a ruthless military government as El Salvador's is acceptable— not $85 million, not $42.5 million, not a dime...
...It's the oldest order in world history...
...With astonishing high-handedness, Bush has dismissed every attempt at negotiations...
...Economically, the war can only thrust the United States into a deep recession...
...The cost of a vast number of oil-related products will also leap, fueling inflation at a time when the economy is already reeling...
...An all-out regional war would have consequences more grave than can be imagined...
...What if Israel brings its nuclear weapons into play...
...they would pass a Civil Rights Act of 1990 to restore matters to their pre-1989 state...
...The abortion issue, pro and con," said Dr...
...That was the U.S...
...While the superrich will face an increase of about 6 per cent in their income-tax burden and the poor may get a tiny reduction, the superrich are still making out like bandits...
...Under this law, enacted in 1973, the President is permitted to commit U.S...
...Where employees have a stake and a say in their work life and the chance to acquire and broaden skills on the job, economic justice and productivity can grow together...
...Over the past decade, while 70,000 civilians lost their lives, the U.S...
...Once the United States launches the war, the U.S...
...But there's nothing new about warmaking...
...Secretary of State James Baker flew off to Saudi Arabia to tell King Fahd of U.S...
...In France, a boycott directed at the manufacturer, Roussel Uclaf, almost succeeded in removing the pill from pharmacy shelves...
...And what we need, for a change, is someone in the White House who confronts discrimination instead of coddling it...
...the tally was sixty-six to thirty-four, with the majority including every Democrat and eleven Republicans...
...Oil prices could easily rise to $70 or even $100 a barrel as the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait become bloody battlegrounds...
...So, last year, when the Reagan-dominated Supreme Court ruled invalid the methods civil-rights lawyers had been using for nearly two decades to fight job discrimination, the Bush Administration and most members of Congress agreed that legislation was needed...
...And the President is required to terminate such troop commitment within sixty days unless Congress declares war, authorizes the commitment, or is unable to convene as a result of an armed attack upon the United States...
...position may be, the media will characterize it as a yearning for diplomacy and peaceful means.' —Noam Chomsky cisions on matters of war, and that nuclear weapons thus rendered the Constitution obsolete...
...In addition, the budgeteers have made unwise economic choices...
...American consumers may face gas prices of $2 a gallon or more...
...That consensus must be disrupted.' -Jim Willis Sojourners magazine 'The U.S...
...And when they do buy stock (the supply-siders' dream), the companies themselves often use the money not in productive ways but in leveraged buyouts, mergers, speculation, or foreign investment...
...Military spending, especially on exotic weaponry, does little to bolster the economy...
...While George Bush and the Republicans brazenly sought to fine the pockets of the rich, the Democrats lost an opportunity to present a fundamental alternative...
...The industry, one of the most profitable, fears that an organized campaign against RU-486 could significantly damage its reputation...
...And a sign reading No Blacks Need Apply is no longer a legally acceptable wall decoration in your personnel office...
...In the $289 billion Pentagon spending authorization, $4.1 billion remains for the B-2 stealth bomber, and $2.9 billion for Star Wars...
...To a large extent, Congress is still at Disneyland...
...stance while seeking to bar negotiations and political settlement in Vietnam and Central America, and has always been the public posture with regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict...
...national security...
...military power around the globe, maintaining U.S...
...Bush's actions already violate even the feeble requirement of the War Powers Act...
...He has spurned overtures from Iraq itself, as well as from France, the Soviet Union, Jordan, Yemen, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Saudi Arabia (which Bush rebuked for even considering the possibility of peace...
...Neither improved the long-term health of the economy...
...And Bush cares not a whit about their gross violations of human rights and international law...
...Though such aid is not supposed to go to any government engaged in gross human-rights violations, El Salvador seems to be exempt from the rules...
...it is surely too high, but it is not so much the size of the deficit that matters as what we get for the debt we incur...
...During the Cold War, we were told that the President needed to be able to make instantaneous de'The alleged national consensus of support for U.S...
...Every grade-school child knows—or should know—that the Constitution gives Congress the sole power to declare war...
...He awaits only the excuse, and it is likely that he will come up with one by Christmas...
...war plans and to seek his approval, but no one thought to inform the American people of the war plans or seek our approval...
...The Government could be spending our tax dollars on far more productive investments and far more urgent needs, such as health care, education, housing, transportation, and alternative energy...
...The United States will continue to funnel $42.5 million to El Salvador throughout 1991, not to feed or educate the poverty-stricken Salvadoran people but to perpetuate an eleven-year civil war against them...
...armed forces into an area of imminent hostilities abroad only "pursuant to a declaration of war, specific statutory authorization, or a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces...
...But if the pill turns out to be effective and safe, unwanted pregnancy will be only one of the problems it can help resolve...
...Certainly it has the potential for rendering moot much of the current contention over abortion...
...In the United States, not a single pharmaceutical manufacturer has applied for approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market the pill...
...It has a huge army and sophisticated weapons...
...Unfortunately, there are many thugs and torturers around the world, most of whom the United States has backed and financed—in El Salvador, Guatemala, Zaire, and Indonesia, among other places...
...As a result of the budget compromise, members of the middle class—who have traditionally fueled the economy—will have less discretionary income...
...Chamber of Commerce, spewed forth a lot of poppycock about why he vetoed the bill...
...In the latest agreement, it failed to scrap a single weapons system...
...under the hellish war plans on the boards, much of this population will be imperiled...
...And this particular thug poses no danger to U.S...
...It is not only a belated response but a wholly inadequate one...
...He vetoed it, and the Senate failed by one vote to override...
...But we also need an economy that involves—indeed, empowers—workers...
...If employers wish to avoid being sued for race or sex discrimination, they don't need quotas...
...And it doesn't get better with age...
...Racism by Another Name Wielding an ax handle is no longer a socially acceptable way to keep black people away from your place of business...
...Not even George Bush denies it...
...Baghdad itself has 3.25 million people...
...Behind the talk of progressive income taxes lurks a host of regressive sales taxes: on cigarettes, alcohol, and gasoline (which has already jumped in price by 35 per cent in recent months, thanks to the crisis in the Gulf...
...And we need to construct an economy that distributes wealth more equitably to the American people...
...His plans are set, the weapons readied, the targets chosen...
...But Bush refuses to wait for a declaration of war, dismissing the few faint Congressional voices who recall their duties...
...As is always the case in U.S...
...soldiers have now been sweltering in the desert sands for months...
...Neither Bush nor Congress seems concerned about abiding by these provisions of the law...
...Then there are the intangibles: What if Iraq attacks Israel...
...Government will always be publicly advocating diplomacy, not force...
...Our economy is already sputtering...
...And Bush no longer seems even to feign any interest in giving economic sanctions a chance to work...
...Constitution...
...policy in the Gulf is being used to lead us to war...
...Charles Sherman, an AMA official, "should not interfere with our ability to conduct all kinds of investigations for all kinds of problems...
...military aid to the ARENA military government of El Salvador by 50 per cent...
...What they need is managers who are color-blind and gender-blind and who hire and promote personnel on the basis of qualifications and performance...
...With their tax breaks, the wealthy often invest in luxuries or real estate, not exactly engines of economic growth...
...soldiers in the war, according to a recent report in the French paper L'Express...
...During the Reagan years, what we got was huge military spending and massive tax breaks for the rich...
...The other cornerstone of Republican economics-tax breaks for the rich, euphemistically called "supply-side economics"—is equally flawed...
...It is immoral to counter a thug by placing hundreds of thousands of human lives in jeopardy...
...Representative Gus Hawkins, Dean of the Black Caucus...
...Bush and the Chamber claim the bill would have forced employers to use quotas in hiring, though the bill explicitly ruled out quotas as a remedy for discrimination...
...A Pill Worth Testing Two years have passed since the government of France approved marketing of the drug mifepristone, also known as RU-486, the "French abortion pill" that causes the uterus to shed its lining (as in menstruation) and expel a fertilized egg...
...Chillingly, the Administration appears to be prepared to sacrifice the lives of 20,000 U.S...
...A pill that a woman can take in the privacy of her home is much less subject to disruption than a visit to an abortion clinic, and some will find it more acceptable on moral or religious grounds...
...Obviously, such a drug—if it proves to be safe and effective—can have enormous impact...
...With every passing day, Bush pushes the United States closer to a disastrous war against Iraq—disastrous for human life, disastrous for economic health, and disastrous for our constitutional system of government...
...Part of the problem is that Congress and the President have made a fetish of the Federal deficit...
...Congress increased the military aid it provided to the Salvadoran government...
...Civil-rights advocates "got greedy and overreached," said a spokesman for the Chamber...
...Saddam Hussein is a thug, his invasion of Kuwait indefensible, his use of torture reprehensible...
...The cost in Iraqi lives is bound to be much higher...
...wars against Third World countries, the people of the Third World suffer the greatest casualties...
...That, presumably, is why the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association voted recently to encourage testing of the pill in this country...
...It is the ultimate insult to democracy that foreign leaders receive more information and are granted greater consultation over the momentous decision to go to war than the American people themselves...
...George Bush prattles about establishing a "New Order" in world affairs...
...Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi military personnel stand to die, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians as well...
...But war is not the way...
...And his bellicose language lays the groundwork...
...But discrimination in the workplace—against blacks, other minorities, and women—is alive and well...
...This number may prove conservative...
...That helps explain why the anti-abortion movement has mounted a major effort to keep RU-486 off the market...
...Not a Dime for Salvador Almost one year after the savage slaying of six Jesuit priests in San Salvador, Congress has voted to cut U.S...
...What if Iran joins Iraq against the United States...
...But the first casualty of Bush's war will be the U.S...
...his armies cannot invade New Jersey...
...Congress did just that, and President Bush reneged on his promise of support...
...According to Amnesty International, loss of civilian lives at the hands of government death squads doubled in the first half of 1990 over the same time period in 1989...
...citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq will face almost certain death...
...French approval notwithstanding, the safety of RU-486 should be vigorously tested before the drug is made available for general use in this country...
...The new Dodd-Leahy Bill, which would temporarily withhold half of El Salvador's $85 million in aid, is merely a slap on the wrist...
...The cost in American lives is likely to be extraordinarily high...
...He does care about projecting U.S...
...And Iraq is no Panama, no Grenada, no Libya...
...Late in the day, some Democrats seemed to rediscover the virtues of progressive taxation, but there's less in the budget agreement than meets the eye...
...But it's only a matter of time...
...By dispatching an additional 100,000 U.S...
...It will be a war we must pay for dearly, and for years to come...
...Like Lyndon Johnson, the President is praying for a pretext to launch an all-out war...
...troops to the Persian Gulf to join the already bloated force of more than 200,000, Bush leaves little doubt about his intentions: He means war...
...When he calls Saddam Hussein Hitler, when he trumpets accounts of Hussein's atrocities, when he rattles the saber, he is not trying to increase the pressure on Saddam Hussein to leave Kuwait...
...We cannot expect the Democratic Party to articulate such concerns, but labor, antiwar, social-justice, and environmental constituencies now have an excellent opening to make the case...
...The Government acted like the family that went into debt to take yearly vacations to Disneyland instead of going into debt to send a child to medical school...
...And in typical fashion, the legislators have come up with the notion of appointing a small bipartisan committee of both Houses to consult with the President...
...Budget Burlesque Nothing better illustrates the failure of politics in this country than the budget burlesque that beset Congress in October...
...Cutting $40 billion out of an economy already sliding into recession does not make good sense...
...Bush, with heavy-handed prompting by the U.S...
...sorry, that's not what the Constitution requires...
...We need to move away from an economy dependent on military spending and the wishful fancy that rich individuals and huge corporations will invest in ways that help all Americans...
...By relying on the same shopworn excuses and code words that were offered against every great piece of civil-rights legislation, George Bush plays on the worst of America's fears, and the worst of America's prejudices.' —U.S...

Vol. 54 • December 1990 • No. 12


 
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