Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

I wrote earlier about Micheal Moore's latest documentary SiCKO. The story Below comes from The Washington Post and shows how the US Governement (i.e. Bush) treats its own people, in this case veterans from the Iraq/Afghanistan war. Did I hear anyone say "Vietnam?" It is really another example of how the "richest country in the world" just seems to give up on their own citizens. The sad thing is that I see the same trend in my own country.

SOLDIER WHO CAPTURED SADDAM IS SICK, BUT LEFT TO ROT BY VA

Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents’ home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.

But a “black shadow” had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.

In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.

Continue reading "Bush' politics of war: just ... »

On March 15, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was stabbed by an angry group of senators, including Marcus Junius Brutus, Caesar's great friend and senator. Caesar initially resisted his attackers, but when he saw Brutus, he supposedly spoke the words "Et tu, Brute?" ("You too, Brutus?" or: "Even you, Brutus?") and resigned himself to his fate. People often cite this quotation when they feel they have been betrayed. It is also the quote that comes to my mind when I see what is happening in the Dutch political party called VVD. The VVD (the "Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy") lost a lot of voters during last weeks election. A lot of the people voted for other right-wing parties. One of the main reasons for this is the fact there is an internal power struggle within the VVD between the leader of the party, Mark Rutte, and the number two, Rita Verdonk.

On May 31, 2006, Verdonk lost out to Mark Rutte in the 2006 VVD leadership election with 46% of the vote. So Rutte became leader of the VVD with Verdonk sort of as a 'running mate'. But clearly both can't stand each other. Verdonk developed a reputation for toughness and outspokenness, with her uncompromising immigration policies earning her the nickname IJzeren Rita (Iron Rita). But in my opinion she is just a populist politician with an impulsive style of governing and a peanut where her brains should be.

However, in last weeks elections Verdonk received a greater number of preference votes (620,555) than Mark Rutte (553,200) did. A first in Dutch politics: never before did someone that was second on the voters list receive more votes than the number 1. So clearly people seem to prefer her over Mark Rutte (who, I admit, has as much charisma as a beached whale). Probably the same kind of people that otherwise would for right-wing enfant terrible Geert Wilders (the man whose hair looks like a beaver exploded while sitting on his head)

And now a new crisis unfolds in the VVD party; Verdonk effectively drove a dagger in Rutte's back by announcing she still wants to lead the party (although she says this is not an issue at the moment because the party said Rutte is the current and only leader of the party) and thinks there should be a committee that "investigates" the unique situation that occured (meaning that she got more votes than Rutte).

Verdonk - in my opinion - stands for all that I hate in a politician. Populistic, riding on negative sentiments about foreigners (anti-Islam) and only thinking about her own benifit and not that of the party. If you look at her track-record in politics she is just one big disaster. And now it looks like she is going to succeed in tearing apart the VVD as well. The party has assembled for a crisis meeting at 19:30 tonight and I have a sneeky feeling that either Rutte or Verdonk is going to leave the party. In essence: "this town is too small for both us".

Et tu, Brute?

Finally the US supreme court wakes up and stands up against Bush: the US Supreme Court has ruled that the Bush administration does not have the authority to try terrorism suspects by military tribunal. The bad news is that the ruling does not address detention of terror suspects in general. Currently about 460 inmates, mostly without charge, whom the US suspects of links to al-Qaeda or the Taleban are held at Guantanamo Bay. The ruling is seen as a major blow to President George W Bush. Bush said on Wednesday he was "considering shutting the facility", and would decide after the court ruled. "I'd like to end Gitmo, like it to be over with," he said at a European Union summit in Vienna. Most Human Rights watch organizations have said they think the whole way the US is handling the prison camp is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. This has now been confirmed by the court that said explicitly that the tribunal does violate these treaties. Just take a look at this trailer for an upcoming documentary about three Brittish men who spend months at the Gitmo facility without knowing why they were there. It is an disgrace of monstrous proportions. I can't wait till Bush is out of the White House.