Thirty years after defeat in Vietnam, while the mainstream media contorts itself with oil-free justifications for the Bush attack on Iraq, George Will speaks clearly.

An administration that does not believe in democracy is not in Iraq to impose democracy.

It is there, says Will, to maintain the empire. Yes, he's used the E word and is proud of it.

But what he doesn't say is that the empire is in the process of getting its butt kicked. Again. The mainstream debate is now about whether or not the US should have gotten into Iraq, and how to maintain its presence.

But few are facing the reality that when the US finally leaves Iraq---and it will---in defeat and disgrace, its personnel are likely to be fleeing embassy rooftops by helicopter, yanked skyward as desperately as in Saigon on this day in 1975.

The George Wills and George Bushes of the world will blame the debacle on those of us who opposed this war when it started and continue to oppose it. But the root cause of defeat will be in the same word that got us in---empire.

As you may have heard, WSYX and the other ABC stations owned by Sinclair Communications have been instructed NOT to show Nightline on Friday night.  This was going to be a special broadcast consisting only of Ted Koppel reading the names of America's war dead.  Apparently, Sinclair thinks that this television memorial is "contrary to the public interest."

Besides calling WSYX (481-6666) and Sinclair (410-568-1500), we should do something public.  I plan on standing in front of the WSYX studios (1261 Dublin Road) at 5:00 on Friday (just when their competitors local newscasts are on) and stage my own reading of the names.  Anyone interested in participating is welcome to join me.  May I suggest, though, that we bring American flags and dress in the kind of somber attire befitting a memorial service.  Then we can better ask why WSYX is so unpatriotic as to not honor this country's fallen heroes.

Questions?  Email me at the numbers below. J.B. Lawton III jbliii@columbus.rr.com

On March 21st Salvadorans went to the polls to elect their future President and Vice-President. The candidates of the ruling right wing ARENA party triumphed over three other contending parties, the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the National Conciliation Party (PCN) and the Coalition (PDC-CDU) of the Christian Democrat Party (PDC) and the United Democratic Centre (CDU). These were the third Presidential elections since the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords which marked the end of a twelve year long war in which at least 80,000 Salvadorans lost their lives and in which the Salvadoran military forces acted essentially as a surrogate of the US military.

The ARENA candidate, Elias Antonio Saca, polled 57.7 per cent of the vote, whilst his principal rival, the FMLN candidate, Schafik Handal, polled 35.6 per cent. The Coalition party polled 4 per cent and the PCN took less than 3 per cent. The voter turnout was a record 65 per cent.

On his way to confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, the current U.N. envoy John Negroponte was busily twisting language like a pretzel at a Senate hearing the other day. The new Baghdad regime, to be installed on June 30, will have sovereignty. Well, sort of. Negroponte explained: “That is why I use the term ‘exercise of sovereignty.’ I think in the case of military activity, their forces will come under the unified command of the multinational force. That is the plan.”

     In other words, the Baghdad government will be praised as the embodiment of Iraqi sovereignty while the U.S. military continues to do whatever Washington wants it to do in Iraq -- including order the Iraqi military around. Negroponte talked about “real dialogue between our military commanders, the new Iraqi government and, I think, the United States mission as well.” But ultimately, he said, the American military “is going to have the freedom to act in their self-defense, and they’re going to be free to operate in Iraq as they best see fit.”

     The disconnect between democracy rhetoric and imperial reality is

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- And a grand time was had by feminists from all over the nation Sunday, out exercising our right to peaceably assemble and to petition our government for redress of grievances. While we still can.

            The women who organized the march came up with a scheme to count our numbers and announced that there were more than a million of us there and it was the largest demo in the history of the nation. ABC had us down to "tens of thousands." Other networks admitted to "several hundred thousands." I didn't see FOX News, but I assume we were down a few thousand on that channel, and almost all the news outlets gave either some or equal time to the few hundred anti-choice groups that turned out. The National Park Service has quit trying to guess the numbers on big marches, so it was up for grabs.