“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN
NUMBER 25
SEPTEMBER 13, 2005
Hey sweeties,
- YES WE WENT TO ARTHURFEST BLAH BLAH BLAH
ArthurFest reviews, photos and more are now being linked from — and posted at — the website and its now extremely active Forum. Just go to
Thanks to everyone who made the festival happen: the performers, the audience, our lovely and able publicist Judy Milller at Motormouth and OF COURSE a big hug of super-appreciation to Mitchell Frank, Liz Garo, Jessica and TK and everyone else at Spaceland, all of our volunteers, Councilman Eric Garcetti and his staff, the Barnsdall folks, Lance Bangs & his film crew, many many other people who toiled behind the scenes before during and after the show, and a big hoorah to the weatherlord who made it clear blue and not-too-hot all day long for two days in a row. It was worth the work. THANK YOU!
2. OUR NUCLEAR BOMB FUTURE.
Regarding the following article excerpt from this past Sunday’s Washington Post.
Now that the Neo-Cons know that the American public won’t support never-ending wars across the planet, they are pursuing a new way of extending American power: by authorizing the president to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively against anyone anywhere in the world who the president believes is preparing an attack using weapons of mass destruction. It follows that if this had been official policy in 2002/2003, President Bush, who at the time mistakenly believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was preparing to use them (or was thinking about using them), would have been justified to authorize dropping nuclear weapons on Iraq. We know now that were no WMDs. But, if Bush had used the nuke option, we would never have found out that Iraq didn’t have WMDs. In other words, innocent Iraqis would have been nuked without even the justification that Bush provided, and further, there would be no ability to hold Bush accountable — because any evidence that Bush had been wrong in his assumptions about what Iraq was up to would likely have been vaporized.
In this way the use of nuclear weapons by a paranoid hyperpower justfiies itself; and the problem of facing eventual substantive internal political dissent over a misguided policy disappears along with it. Most of all: it’s easier — less costly in every way — to drop a nuclear bomb than it is to invade and indefinitely occupy a hostile, foreign land. A preemptive nuclear strike is the final Neo-Con solution and the most evil of all.
Is this the initial step in justifying US nuclear strikes on Iran, Syria and North Korea in 2006 and 2007?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001053_pf.html
Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan
Strategy Includes Preemptive Use Against Banned Weapons
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 11, 2005; A01
The Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to use them to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
The document, written by the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs staff but not yet finally approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, would update rules and procedures governing use of nuclear weapons to reflect a preemption strategy first announced by the Bush White House in December 2002. The strategy was outlined in more detail at the time in classified national security directives.
At a White House briefing that year, a spokesman said the United States would “respond with overwhelming force” to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, its forces or allies, and said “all options” would be available to the president.
The draft, dated March 15, would provide authoritative guidance for commanders to request presidential approval for using nuclear weapons, and represents the Pentagon’s first attempt to revise procedures to reflect the Bush preemption doctrine. A previous version, completed in 1995 during the Clinton administration, contains no mention of using nuclear weapons preemptively or specifically against threats from weapons of mass destruction.
Titled “Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations” and written under the direction of Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the draft document is unclassified and available on a Pentagon Web site. It is expected to be signed within a few weeks by Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, director of the Joint Staff, according to Navy Cmdr. Dawn Cutler, a public affairs officer in Myers’s office. Meanwhile, the draft is going through final coordination with the military services, the combatant commanders, Pentagon legal authorities and Rumsfeld’s office, Cutler said in a written statement.
A “summary of changes” included in the draft identifies differences from the 1995 doctrine, and says the new document “revises the discussion of nuclear weapons use across the range of military operations.”
The first example for potential nuclear weapon use listed in the draft is against an enemy that is using “or intending to use WMD” against U.S. or allied, multinational military forces or civilian populations…. [more]
3. A SPECIAL OFFER.
The DKT/MC5 folks are extending a special discount offer to all Arthur Mailing List members:
Saturday, September 17 – Royce Hall at UCLA – Los Angeles – 8pm – $15
DKT/MC5 (Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson) featuring Gilby Clarke (guitar), Lisa Kekaula (vocals), Dr. Charles Moore (trumpet), Buzzy Jones (sax), Phil Ranelin (trombone), Handsome Dick Manitoba (vocals) + Greg Dulli (vocals)
With special guests
SUN RA ARKESTRA directed by Marshall Allen
BARBEZ
Call 310.825.2101 or go to the link
to get your tickets for only $15…..
Enter Special Offer Code: MC515.
Auf Wiedersehen,
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