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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (7798)	4/4/2003 8:07:39 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

Three points: 1. Those who have worked in foreign affairs positions, especially in the U.S. Foreign Service, and especially on assignments to Iraq and other Muslim nations almost universally believe that this war is a bad idea and that there are far better ways of achieving the same goals. The best example I've found so far is the statement by a retired Foreign Serivce Officer who was our second in command in Baghdad in the late 1980's (under Bush senior). 2. Last year, before the administration had implemented its plan to wreck the economy, investment firm economists were predicting a gain in earnings in the broadly based Standard & Poor's 500 index of about 12 percent for 2003. Now, with the economy going downhill faster than previously anticipated, the consensus estimate for earnings gains this year is down to 8 percent. Meanwhile, job losses increase, and the unemployment rate remains at a high 5.8 percent--higher than it's been in some 10 years. This is the result of an economic plan (or lack of one) that allows wealthy people to retain more wealth and widens the gap between the really rich and what's left of the middle class. 3. The administration has done a very good job of restricting individual rights under the guise of improved security. But there's nothing to show that security is really improved, other than the constant propaganda pronouncements of officials claiming that everything is hunky dory. Imagine what would happen if a business were run like this. Art Bechhoefer