Obviously not addressing GIs in Iraq
"All over the world, all across this globe, everywhere you go, people long for ... the ability to get up in the morning, walk out your door and not have to look in every direction to make sure that someone won't shoot you." — US war secretary Donald Rumsfeld, addressing a town hall meeting at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, August 25.
Success continues to mount
"As success during this period of transition continues to mount, the opponents of success and of a free Iraq may continue their desperate acts." — From a statement of condolences by Rumsfeld "to the family and followers of Ayatollah Sayid Muhammed Baqir al-Hakim", the Shiite cleric and member of Washington's puppet Iraqi Governing Council who was killed in the August 29 Najaf car bombing.
Second opinion
"There is no strategy or mechanism for putting the pieces together. We're in danger of failing." — Retired US Marine General Anthony Zinni, commenting on the US occupation of Iraq in a September 4 speech to Marine Corps and US Navy officers. From 1997 to 2000, Zinni was commander-in-chief of US armed forces in the Middle East.
Rhetorical question
"My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?" — Zinni again.
Job-loss recovery
"Despite signs the US economy is gathering a strong head of steam, the number of payroll jobs fell by another 93,000 last month, bringing the total job loss since January to almost 600,000, the Labor Department reported today." — Washington Post, September 5.
From Green Left Weekly, September 10, 2003.
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