Saturday, December 30, 2006
The Reagan Administration removed Iraq from the State terrorism sponsorship list in 1982, making Iraq eligible for U.S. dual-use and military technology.
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death & executed specifically for killing 148 people in the town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on July 8, 1982. He was not hanged for ordering the gassing of Iraqi Kurds, for the atrocities generally committed by his secret police & his sons, for possessing "weapons of mass destruction," for his attacks on Iran & Kuwait, or for any connection to the events of 9/11.
The United States re-established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on November 26, 1984.
U.S. Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq, 1980 - 2 August 1990
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I enjoy state funerals. In the early 80s I stayed up all night twice to watch the Soviet Union file away Leonid Brezhnev & Yuri Andropov. But I have to wonder about people who line up to walk past Jerry Ford's flag-draped box & claim afterward they were moved to be a "part of history" they can tell their grandchildren. Which grandparent's stories would you want to hear? The one who traveled all the way to Rancho Mirage or Washington for President Ford, or the one who went to the Apollo Theater & saw James Brown give his final perfomance there wearing a diamond-studded blue suit and silver shoes & lying perfectly still in a gold casket?
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Maybe what bothers me about press coverage of Rutgers football is that every nostalgic reference to the long history of the program, to the ancient alumni, the Rutgers-Princeton rivalry, the Homecoming Saturdays, Paul Robeson, reminds me of what Rutgers in its tranformation to mega-university & mega-money sports has lost in tradition, identity, & prestige. Rather than continuity, the contrast between past & present reveals a disconnection that even the gray-haired, red sweatered pennant wavers can't bridge.
***
Big East Upset? What's so shocking about Connecticut yawning through 10 home wins against creampuffs, traveling to West Virginia & getting their asses whupped by another Big East team?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death & executed specifically for killing 148 people in the town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on July 8, 1982. He was not hanged for ordering the gassing of Iraqi Kurds, for the atrocities generally committed by his secret police & his sons, for possessing "weapons of mass destruction," for his attacks on Iran & Kuwait, or for any connection to the events of 9/11.
The United States re-established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on November 26, 1984.
U.S. Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq, 1980 - 2 August 1990
***
I enjoy state funerals. In the early 80s I stayed up all night twice to watch the Soviet Union file away Leonid Brezhnev & Yuri Andropov. But I have to wonder about people who line up to walk past Jerry Ford's flag-draped box & claim afterward they were moved to be a "part of history" they can tell their grandchildren. Which grandparent's stories would you want to hear? The one who traveled all the way to Rancho Mirage or Washington for President Ford, or the one who went to the Apollo Theater & saw James Brown give his final perfomance there wearing a diamond-studded blue suit and silver shoes & lying perfectly still in a gold casket?
***
Maybe what bothers me about press coverage of Rutgers football is that every nostalgic reference to the long history of the program, to the ancient alumni, the Rutgers-Princeton rivalry, the Homecoming Saturdays, Paul Robeson, reminds me of what Rutgers in its tranformation to mega-university & mega-money sports has lost in tradition, identity, & prestige. Rather than continuity, the contrast between past & present reveals a disconnection that even the gray-haired, red sweatered pennant wavers can't bridge.
***
Big East Upset? What's so shocking about Connecticut yawning through 10 home wins against creampuffs, traveling to West Virginia & getting their asses whupped by another Big East team?
