Every once in a while, it’s fun to look back and consider what you were doing a few years ago. So this morning I poked back into Irregular Times’ old blog archives for the first week and second week of February 2003. I was astonished to see that in that two-week period, we’d only written four posts, and they were relatively short ones. After some effort, I remember now how difficult it seemed (for me, at least) to gather the wherewithal to write just one article every few days. It’s no sweat now, which is a testament to the power of practice. So there’s something that has changed over the past three years.

And yet, some things remain the same. I posted the following on February 7:

Spread The Word!
Powell’s “Intelligence” is Dated and Plagiarized

Guardian Unlimited Special Report: UK war dossier a sham, say experts

British Channel 4 News: See For Yourself — “Intelligence Dossier” is Plagiarized

The U.S. news outlets have NOT yet chosen to air this story, although it’s blowing up all over the British Press. Although Powell presented the “British intelligence findings” as up-to-date information, most of the conclusions made by the original, uncited author are based on documents that are at least twelve years old. Other elements of the “British intelligence findings” plagiarize magazine articles from Jane’s Weekly.

When the news fails to report the news, IT IS UP TO YOU TO SPREAD WORD. Send these links on to everyone you know. Don’t let the mainstream media hoodwink the American people on this one!

- James

J. Clifford followed up on February 13:

Colin Powell’s Cheap Shot

Colin Powell, driven into increasingly outrageous hawkish positions as a result of decision to join the administration of George W. Bush, this week accused France and Germany of “just delaying for the sake of delaying in order to get Saddam Hussein off the hook and no disarmament”.

In this wild accusation, we see the Bush Administration’s paranoid perspective played out through a man who was previously thought to be among the more thoughtful of W.’s men. In the minds of the people in the White House, people either are enthusiastic to support George W. Bush’s desire to start a new war or they are on the side of the Iraqi dictator, secretly trying to enable Saddam Hussein to gain more power. So great is the moral arrogance of W.’s men that they cannot perceive any other possibility. In their minds, we’re either with them or against them.

Secretary Powell, you’re supposed to be acting as this nation’s top diplomat, not this nation’s top bully. We ask you to stop, take a breath and listen before you allow the huffing and puffing of your colleagues to suck you in completely.

We who oppose your boss’s war do so because we believe that the war will make the United States less secure, not more secure.

We who oppose your boss’s war do so because we believe that preemptive wars are illegal.

We who oppose your boss’s war do so because we are frightened of his promises of a perpetual war. We see your boss using the cover of war to take away our precious freedoms, whittling the Bill of Rights away slowly into nothingness.

We who oppose your boss’s war do so because we believe that dropping bombs on a country and sending military troops to occupy its cities is not the best way to encourage it to become more democratic.

We who oppose your boss’s war do so because we believe that the American people are smart enough to figure out better ways to take care of the world’s problems that don’t require dropping landmines and carpet bombs in people’s back yards.

We’re not fond of Saddam Hussein either, Mr. Powell, and we think it would be great if he lost his power over the people of Iraq. We just don’t think that it makes much sense to kill Iraqis in order to save them.

Put this position next to your boss’s absolute moral codes and chew on it for awhile, Mr. Powell. If you have the decency to do so, we think that you just might find a better way than war.

Colin Powell left the Bush administration in shame over his actions in February 2003. But the rest of the Bush administration, having no shame, stayed on. It was helpful for me to look back and remember what was going on three years ago, because it puts this year’s scandals in perspective. These are not the isolated goofs of a wacky yet incompetent administration. What we see today is the fruit of an agenda that George W. Bush and his fellow travelers have been pursuing for a long, long time. And so it continues.

I can only hope that three years from today, on February 14 2009, I will not look back to this post and write “and so it continues” again.