- 1. Please tell us more about your notion of "full
sovereignty" for Iraq. Will this be like our returning Okinawan sovereignty
to Japan in 1972, when we retained exclusive control over the 38 military
bases on the island and the deployment and behavior of American forces
on them?
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- 2. Please tell us: If we plan to return Iraq to the Iraqis,
why is the U.S. currently building fourteen permanent bases there?
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- 3. Presumably the American troops to be stationed on
these bases will remain under the control of the Pentagon and beyond the
legal reach of any "sovereign" Iraqi state. Such arrangements
are usually covered by a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA)
that we normally impose on the government in whose territory our bases
are placed. Who will sign the SOFA on the Iraqi side? What are its terms?
Will it be binding on the new government you hope the Iraqis will elect
early next year?
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- 4. The sovereignty discussion has been focused mainly
on the question of who will control the actions of what troops -- Iraqi
or American -- in the coming months. But American advisers will be stationed
in every Iraqi "ministry"; the new government will evidently
be capable neither of passing, nor abrogating laws or regulations laid
down by the occupying power; and the economy, except for oil, will remain
open to all foreign corporate investors. Please tell us if this really
strikes you as "full sovereignty"?
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- 5. You say that we will tear down Abu Ghraib prison if
the Iraqis so wish. What if they wish to preserve it as a monument to our
cruelty as well as Saddam Hussein's?
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- 6. Your administration has recently confirmed that while
captured Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were not, in your eyes, covered
by the Geneva Conventions, Iraqi prisoners and detainees were. The acts
in Abu Ghraib prison contravened those conventions. We now know that teams
of interrogation experts were sent by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commandant
of our Guant·namo prison from Cuba to Abu Ghraib to teach Americans
working there "better" interrogation techniques. If these contravened
the Geneva Conventions, should General Miller be brought to trial for this?
If General Miller acted at Guant·namo and elsewhere on the basis
of guidelines and urgings from his superiors in the Pentagon and the military
chain of command, should they face the same? Your views on this would be
appreciated.
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- 7. If it turns out to be true that some of the acts of
torture in Abu Ghraib prison were, in fact, committed by members of the
Israeli intelligence services, who were placed in the prison via our independent
contractors, does this not further confuse American policy in the Middle
East with that of Ariel Sharon's Israel? Is this really a good idea?
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- 8. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the
war and occupation in Iraq by 130,000 U.S. troops now costs close to $5
billion per month, or $60 billion a year. So far the war has cost American
taxpayers $186 billion in direct military expenses. You've asked for another
$425 billion in defense appropriations for the 2005 Pentagon budget, plus
another $75 billion for Iraq, $25 billion for the development of new generations
of nuclear weapons, and untold billion for such things as military pensions
and veterans' health care. Not included in these figures are the multibillions
in secret amounts spent on the CIA and other intelligence activities, not
to speak of other Department of Defense "black budget" activities
kept out of the appropriations process. Where is all this money going to
come from? Why is our government putting all this money on the tab for
future generations to deal with?
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- 9. Speaking of military pensions and health care, would
you please address the fact that something like 30% of the troops who participated
in the first Gulf War are now seeking disability payments for illnesses
contracted there -- chiefly as a result of our use of depleted uranium
shells. Would you please discuss some of these long-term dangers of modern
warfare (even when our initial short-term casualties seem relatively modest)?
How will our military hospitals be able to care for all the soldiers who
are likely to develop cancer or give birth to children with birth defects
as a result of the current war?
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- 10. On June 1, 2002, in your West Point speech enunciating
your new doctrine of preventive war, you said there were 60 countries that
were potential targets for regime change. Would you please list those 60
countries for us, and are you still determined in a second term to proceed
down this list?
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- 11. If you are determined to start new wars, or if the
Iraq war drags on and not enough soldiers re-enlist, will you reinstate
the draft?
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- 12. Why do you usually give your speeches to the American
people before audiences of servicemen and women at military academies,
on bases, and the like, where they have been ordered by their superiors
to attend and to applaud? Why not give one of your speeches -- especially
if you're going to propose reinstating the draft -- at a large state college?
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- Chalmers Johnson is the author of The Sorrows of Empire:
Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic and of an earlier volume,
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, among other works.
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- Copyright C2004 Chalmers Johnson
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- http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=1468
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