Middle East

"It’s not as though the Bush administration couldn’t have done more. They could have sent the relief earlier as they did for Jeb Bush in Florida before the 2004 election. They could have listened to the cries and call, but they chose not to."

"...it is not too late, let's send those proud agency heads down to those facilities post-evacuation and let them spend a couple of nights in the evacuated facilities with nothing to eat or drink and forced to stay in squalor, and maybe the response moving forward will improve."

"Sharon never took the trouble to explain his motives for undertaking the Disengagement. One could only guess. The military preparations were meticulous, the public relations preparations were nil. In spite of this, the general public did support the plan, either out of loyalty to the democratic order or out of hope for peace, or both. But even this did not generate a big, rousing public movement in support of the Disengagement."

"For silencing the truth tellers, the US and its allies are willing to put democracy, human rights and civil liberties on hold and put relations with their own masses at risk to remain completely unrestrained domestically, to use any amount of force in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world, and to rig elections or discredit opponents."

"We need such honest historians to filter out impurities from history and present the facts as they are so that history become a mirror for the present day war lords and they are able to see their face in it before they arrogantly boast about their “way of life” and values to justify the worst form of tyranny they have imposed on Muslims and non-Muslims alike."

"Respect must be paid, and justice must be created. The dead cannot be brought back; the suffering of recent days can’t be undone. But it’s up to us to create maximum pressure for a truly adequate rescue effort -- and to organize effectively while demanding political accountability. That means depriving Bush, Cheney and their congressional allies of the power they ruthlessly enjoy. And that means ending their impunity, so that truth has consequences."

"The question is why were the Corps of Engineers not ordered to at least try to shore up the Levees designed for category 3 Hurricane, when it was known for at least three days that a category 5 hurricane is barreling towards New Orleans. Only the president could have ordered such an effort."

"Long after the cameras of CNN have moved away from Biloxi and Kenner the human needs will be profound on a massive scale usually seen only in wartime or severe natural disasters."