Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

The current Washington drama has all the elements of a West Wing episode (or a Greek drama) except for a resolution, someone told Dr. Paranoia – the President who stretches the truth for a higher principle, the faithfuls who fall on the sword to protect the Chief, the ally who tries to bail him out, the Intelligence agent who cannot tell a lie, the opposition Furies who want it all in the open, the Olympian ex-President who warns the zealots not to push it too far.
Dr Paranoia, fascinated by the new names and stories the Presidents 16 words in his State of the Union speech of Jan. 28 have brought out, has decided to provide a list, or a cast of characters. Rank and rate them yourself.
The words, “British government has learned that Saddam Hussein has recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, “ have been dissected by. George Tenet, head of the CIA, in a closed-doors Senate Intelligence Committee meeting. Allegedly the White House wanted to speak of “uranium from Niger,” which the CIA could not substantiate, and final settled on the above less specific statement. Tenet’s Director of Weapons Proliferation Alan Foley appears to have identified Robert G. Joseph of the National Security Council as the White House negotiator. On July 22 Stephen Hadley of the NSC, Condoleeza Rice’s 2nd in command, admitted that, after having been warned by the CIA, he had removed a similar statement from the President’s speech in Cincinnati on October 7, yet had let it appear in the SOTH message. A speechwriter, Michael Garson, also acknowledges that he had ignored two CIA messages to that effect. A few days ago, on July 24, Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, Assistant Secretary of Defense, admitted that US had underestimated the resistance and had done other “stupid things” in Iraq. . This was in the face of a disclosure that the DoD had set up a special intelligence unit, the Department of Special Plans, to vet evidence of Iraqi WMD activities.
Who are all these strange new players ?. First, the CIA. The new ( March 2001) Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, assembled by Foley from three CIA structures, comprises a group of 500 analysts, scientists and support people, organized to keep the President and Congress informed on issues of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles. Impressive?
The National Security Council, set up by President Truman in 1947 to advise on national security and foreign policy, is chaired by the President, and has five regulars, the VP and the Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury, and the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, plus advisors. The staff, 13 Senior Directors of the NSC , reporting to the Special Assistant, Dr. Condoleeza Rice, are practitioners and academics. Dr. Rice was a SD of Soviet & East European Affairs in the NSC during Bush41 . Historically the Sass have been an explosive bunch – McGeorge Bundy, Walt Rostow, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell – locking horns with Presidents and Secretaries of State, and using high-power staff, such as the retired Secretary of State Dean Acheson.. Deputy NS Advisor Stephen Hadley is a former Bush41 Assistant Secretary for Defense for international security, a Start I & II negotiator, Bush –Cheney campaigner, Shea & Gardner partner and former Scowcroft Group consultant. Frances Fragos Townsend (SD to Combat Terrorism) is a former prosecutor and Coast Guard intelligence officer.. Rand Beers (also Combat Terrorism) is a former Assistant Secretary of State for narcotics & law enforcement and a NSC staffer. Franklin C. Miller (Defense Policy & Arms Control), was Acting and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for strategy & threat reduction Dr. Robert G. Joseph, Special Assistant to the President (Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation and Homeland Defense), taught at the National Defense University, Carleton College and the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts. He was a Bush41 Defense official and Ambassador to the US-USSR nuclear testing commission. Faryar Shirazd (International Economic Affairs) is a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, counsel of the Senate Finance Committee and a Skadden Arps lawyer. Dr. Shirin Tahir-Kheli (Democracy, Human Rights& International Operations) is a professor, long-time NSC staffer and a Bush41 Ambassador to the UN. Mary K. Sturtevant (Intelligence Programs) is ex-CIA and Senate intelligence staffer. Ambassador Daniel Fried (European, Eurasian Affairs) is a former State Department and NSC official. Elliot Abrams (SW Asian and North African) a Reagan Assistant Secretary of State, is often mentioned as a lead neocon. James F. Moriarity (Asian Affairs) is an old Foreign Service hand. Thomas A. Shannon (Western Hemisphere), is another Foreign Service officer and US representative to the OAS. Dr.Jendayi E Frazer (African Affairs) comes from Harvard. She served as a planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NSC. Duplication of effort?
The DoD has an Office for Special Plans (aka “The Cabale”) overriding the department’s own Defense Intelligence Agency Dr. Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, created the OSP for as information source for Secretary Rumsfeld. The OSP is managed by Dr. Abram Shulsky (studied under Leo Strauss at U Chicago), disinformation scholar, formerly with Sen. Moynihan, DoD and Rand Corporation, under the guidance of Undersecretary of Defense Dr William Lufti, an ex-Navy captain. Madness?
Dr. P. has assembled this info from public sources. Only in America, Land of Freedom. .

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

Dr Paranoia writes about some spam from the Radical Republican web site, NewsMax, offering a "Deck of Hillary," playing cards to “out” the enemy, copying the style of the Saddam Hussein cards (“Pentagon's Most Wanted Iraqis”). Looking further in the Newsman website, he found "The Deck of Weasels” for sale, labeled as “54 worst leaders,” in four groups: international leaders (Chirac, Vicente Fox, Koki Anna), US lawmakers (Sense. Robert "KKK" Byrd, Kennedy, Reps. Rangel,Kucinich, Gov. Dean), entertainers and news people (Rather, Co uric, Arnett, Cronkite). Each is decorated with a Saddam’s Republican Guard beret, and bears a quote revealing the subject’s “anti-America Saddam ranting.”He sees these examples of Republican bad taste as only a tad worse than the Liberal’s spoofs of every example of President Bush's dyslectic statements, and claims to be just surprised to see the Republican 2008 campaign initiated in 2003.
Musing about politics in a bar, Dr. P. happened to meet, once again, the tall Republican Information Technology expert from Texas, drinking Maker’s Mark bourbon on the rocks.
“Let me tell ya what’s happening with the RadicReps, partner, after all I’m one also, or what useta be one. The Rep Party is like a computer, with input and output. The three input sources are, first, the neocons, mostly global/MidEast solution oriented, Perles, Wolfowitz and company. Next, the Washington-haters, tax refunders who want to "reduce government so that it can be drowned in a bathtub," a quote fromGrover Norquist, head of the Americans For Tax Reform, who is back-pedaling, fast as he can, from the Muslims For Bush organization he set up in 1999. Rumsfelds and the Cheneys, old Ford hands, cross both ideologies, and then some.
“Now the outputs. The neocons’ result is the Iraq war, to intimidate the Muslim terrorists, reinforced by our success in Afghanistan. Whether or not Saddam was working on WMDs, he had to be offed, as the lead in defying the US and the UN, and as the paymaster for Palestinian terrorists. This threat should stop Iraq and North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, and push Sharon and the Fatah into eventual armed peace
“The tax crowd’s output is more devious. First, the newest tax refund, advertised as costing $320B, in reality bordering on $800B. Supposedly to foster investment into production facilities, the money has really pushed the market back into another bubble, with price/earnings ratio of 28 to 1, way there. Corporations ain’t spending, we have excess production capacity as is. Ford/GM are in the 20% surplus bracket, ready to go Chapter 11 because union contracts do not allow layoffs. You see any new people being hired?
“The tax refunds and the $440B annual budget excesses will force a new wave of Treasury borrowing, and the tax money will be used for a humongous debt service. This will pauperize Washington; there’ll be no more money for social service mandates, which will be pushed down to the states. Likewise broke, they will push services down further, to the local governments and property taxes. Schools will get paid for, but there will be no money for the needy, and we will have to reinstitute he poorhouses of 18th century. Social Security, Medicare? The RadicReps are forever talking about running out of funds and reforming. The reform they have in mind is cutting benefits and privatizing services. Shift the responsibilities away from the politicos, failures can be blamed on the providers! What of the poor and their kids? Well, Irish babies are very tasty, when cooked properly, as Jonathan Swift once said.
“Will there be a public outcry? Not if Michael Powell on the FCC has his way with the media, concentrating them in the hands of a few plutos. Don’t expect any public service from the EPA, now that Whitman has been driven out. How about the ACLU, protector of our First Amendment rights? Bob Barr is in the process of infiltrating it, along with Norquist, who’s looking for justice for his Arabs. We are all set for total control, provided we build up Jeb Bush to be his brother’s successor in 2008 Presidential election.
“Now do ya understand why the Hillary cards are readied, to discredit her for 2008? It’s a long-term dynastic plan. A revolution, to quote Majority Leader Tom deLay..”
Meekly, Dr. P asked: “What of the Democrats?” and the Texan sneered: “All but two of their Presidential candidates were good Americans, defanged by their sticking with Bush on Resolution 1441.” “And the President?” The Texan gave Dr. P. a long, hard look, then got up and walked to the back, cowboy boots clanging.
When he did not return, Dr. P. offered to pay. “Not to worry, Dr. Klugman took care of everything,” said the bartender. “That’s Krugman?” “No, Klugman. Krugman has a beard and writes for the Times, and is even harder on the Bushies.”

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

Washington is best seen by traveling on the heavily subsidized Metro ($1.20 one way for most trips; senior care fare cards are hard to find). From our B&B in Woodley Park, near the Zoo with the pandas, it was one stop to the embassy area, Dupont Circle, three more, with a transfer at Metro Central, to the all-important Smithsonian, and six to Union Station, our easternmost destination. From the station it is a quick walk down Delaware Ave., past the huge Russell Senate Office Building to the edge of the Capitol toward our noontime starting objective, the Folger Shakespeare Library. At the Russell I asked two middle-aged men in t-shirts for directions. The one wearing Banc One looked at our map, oriented us, and sent us, past the Supreme Court building, to the library. His approach to our problem was judicious, his solution confidence-inspiring, and the parting handshake said “trust me.” I would have voted for him for any office he aspired to.
At the SC a bunch of young people were collecting anti-death penalty signatures. Queried about SC activities, the two girls managing the floppy banner informed me that theirs was the only action in town, everybody else was on vacation (true, the government buildings looked empty). Not allowed in the SC sanctum wearing propaganda shirts, they had reversed them, gone in, changed back and taken defiant pictures of themselves. Ah, kids…
The Senator’s advice was good, though. In the Folger, world’s most important Shakespearean collection, we saw an exhibition of the era of Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Absolutely fascinating was the Queen’s 1593 letter to James VI of Scotland, warning him of treacherous Catholic nobles, with a postscript apologizing for cramping the lines. The Queen’s hand was even and beautiful, as though she spent much time writing. Regardless of the cramping, her Elisabeth R(ex) signature took major space, to have the two capital letters underlined with double curlicues. It was like shaking hands with history.
The Folger has 79 copies if the 1623 First Folio, the collection of Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) 36 (eventually 39) plays, 160 of the 1632 Second, 1643 Third and 1663 Fourth, and the world’s only copy of the 1594 Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s first published play. The duplicate copies serve study purposes, to establish the evolution of the plays’ texts.The books were printed in quires, three sheets folded within each other, of 12 pages. The text per page was estimated, and the centerfold type, for pages 6-7,was handset first, the side printed, and the type distributed , to be reused for the next sheet. Erroneous pages were not discarded. Inaccurate casting was corrected with extra lines or extra spacing. The text for 14 plays came from previously printed quartos, the rest from four “bad [incomplete or reconstructed from memory] quartos” and actors’ study manuscripts, corrected during performance. Eighteen of the plays survive only in the First Folio, justly called “the most important work in the English language.”
The Folger abuts the three buildings of the Library of Congress. A docent advised us to visit and marvel at the renovations, but there was no time . We were bound for the Freer and Arthur M. Sackler Galleries, at the far end of Independence Ave, the furthest away of the nine Smithsonian installations.Both of these museums are devoted to Oriental arts, lots of pottery and figurines, in plush premises, partly underground. Freer’s pride is the James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) collection of paintings, surrounded by the works of his fellow aesthetes, Hinman and Thayer. The “Peacock Room,” built for a Liverpool shipping magnate, is the ultimate in Japanese Victorian plush, gold and blue woodwork on the walls, to provide shelving for rare blue China. The Freer Museum is like the Frick in New York, with an interior court and garden. Both museums are celebrating Whistler’s 100th anniversary.
Continuing with the Eastern theme, Byzantine division, we drove to Dumbarton Oaks, the Robert Bliss Wood estate in Georgetown, where the idea of the United Nations was hatched in 1941. Its 10 acres contain the wildest fantasy gardens on hillside terraces, a 1920s landscapers’ dream. Driving to Georgetown from the Northeast seemed to be an easy adventure – tootle down the Rock Creek Parkway, past the meadows and hillsides of Chandra Levy memory, and turn west, but it was not to be. We ended at the FDR Monument, way down South. On the way back we tried exiting at Virginia Ave but had to settle for an exploration of the Kennedy Center, a rectangular box, and the magnificent curves of the otherwise dull Watergate Apartment buildings. Nothing daunted, we started again, this time turning West at Dupont Circle on Q Street, traversing its narrow bridge into the squeezed roadways of the tree-rich refuge of the wealthy. Cobblestoned streets, hardly a passageway, charming gardens of the wealthy and powerful – but I’d rather be in the Woodley Park/ Connecticut Ave. area rubbing shoulders with the smart young.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

The Vietnam War Veterans Memorial is a black granite retaining wall that flattens a sloped meadow in the sprawling park called Constitution Gardens, part of the Washington Mall, between the Washington and Lincoln Memorials. It consists of 74 three-and-a-half foot wide plaques set in a wide L-shaped tapered angle, engraved with the names of American fighting men and women who died in the Vietnam War. The plaques start as slivers at the ends, holding a single line of names and widening to a 10-foot height at the center crease, with 137 lines of names. The Memorial , last counted, lists 58,235 Americans killed or missing in action during the 1959-75 Vietnam War. The listings are in chronological casualty date order, alphabetically within the date, starting with the 1959 dead, at the break in the center, and carrying on to the tapered left end, then resuming at the tip of the taper on the right, to finish at the center break, with the 5/15/1975casualties of the Mayaguez rescue, resulting in the deaths of 41 Marines, a month after the American withdrawal from Saigon.
The five names on each line in the black monument are justified to the center, intensifying the wing-like feeling of the memorial. Each name is marked with a tiny cross (non-religious) or a diamond. The cross signifies “missing in action.” When the remains of a MIA soldier are found and identified, via DNA and other means, the cross is re-chiseled into a diamond. If the MIA is found alive, the cross is circled, the medical symbol for life. Every Memorial Day new names are added to the memorial, some 1,300 to date. They are placed as the sixth entry on lines that have space, nearest to the date on which the death occurred. Since inception, some 400 symbols have been changed from cross to diamond. There are no circles.
At the bottom of the wall is a shallow trough, where visitors deposit flowers, tiny American flags and messages. On the day we came, a group of school children from New Hampshire had left their pages of messages, neatly encased in plastic wraps. The theme had been to sacrifice something , expressing gratitude for the sacrifices the deceased had borne for our common good. A boy named Jake enclosed his library card, bearing the motto “World of Opportunity,” with a message thanking the deceased, whose loss of life, no matter what one thinks of the war, had expanded his opportunities for a free future. But there was also a man with a t-shirt inscribed “those who lead us into a war should first learn how to win,” a message for the ages.
At the entrance to the memorial slope there are stands of plastic-encased books of typewritten pages, containing the names of he deceased, in alphabetical order, enabling relatives to locate the inscriptions, by plaque and line. Some pages had fallen out and were trampled, beyond use. I picked them up, to be kept, alongside a few souvenir papers rescued from the rain-soaked sprawling 9/11 memorial in Union Square, similar leftovers after a bunch of us volunteers packed truckloads of them, to be warehoused and restored, for use in a future New York memorial of that fateful day.
At the Vietnam wall, in several places there were relatives of the victims, taking rubbings of the names. A graying veteran wearing his war insignia, volunteer guide at the site (since the dedication day in 1982, he told me) hauled around a ladder, so that the higher placed names could be reached. There are occasional veterans of ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) visiting the site, but no former Vietcongs, to his knowledge. Unlike the Japanese visitors at the Arizona in Pearl Harbor, who apologize for the attack, the people of that country consider the government of South Vietnam as aggressors.
This was our first sightseeing day in Washington, part of a “two weddings, two birthdays and a funeral” week that is taking us all over the Northeast. This visit was to honor the Nation’s birthday.
The tourist’s Washington is a rough rectangle from Woodley Park/Zoo/ Washington National Cathedral in the Northwest, along wealthy Connecticut Ave. to the embassy rich Dupont Circle, then proceeding via Massachusetts Ave. to Union Station and the RFK Stadium in the Southeast, looping West via Delaware Ave., around the Library of Congress and the US Capitol, then along Independence Ave, surrounded by official Washington on both sides, down to the FDR and Jefferson Memorials at the Tidal Basin, and up North again, along the Potomac.There is a laminated pictorial map you can buy at the National Parks bookstore at the FDR that helps in recognizing all the famous buildings, as you drive through. I drive with trepidation, reciting the mantra picked up at the FDR, “there is nothing to fear but fear itself,” and ignoring the horn-blowing natives. More later.