Subject to change (LEFTY COLUMNIST DAVID JOHNSON'S FOUL-MOUTHED ATTACK ON GEN. PETRAEUS)

On Thursday night President Bush and Republican presidential candidates Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain asked the American people to set aside their sense of history and common sense. The three Republicans asked the American people to buy into their spin of the facts surrounding the invasion and the current status of the occupation of Iraq.

Americans were asked to forget the president's claim that Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attack on this country, that he said he had a plan for Iraq and that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. None of those assertions were true.

Prior to the president's Thursday night speech, the Republican spin machine was busy trying to create a diversionary issue around an ad sponsored by MoveOn, a progressive grassroots organization that challenged the credibility of Gen. David George Petraeus with the slogan, "Petraeus or betray us."

Gen. Petraeus' superior, Adm. William Fallon, chief of the Central Command, is cited in the Asian Times as having derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad in March. Fallon reportedly told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chicken s--t" and added, "I hate people like that." Comments like this indicate a split within the ranks of the military on the effectiveness of the occupation.

When one considers the editing of reports on global warming by this administration, the politicization of the U.S. attorneys in several states and the reason given for going to war, the MoveOn ad raises a valid question. This administration has been one of the most secretive and misleading in modern history.

In addition, the president implied that the United States should prepare for a long-term commitment to Iraq similar to that made in Korea and Berlin. This part of Mr. Bush's speech is bound to further stir up the hornet's nest that is the Middle East.

Keep in mind this administration destroyed any pretense of being an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by refusing pull in the reins on Israel since the start of the Bush presidency. Bush's apparent uncritical support of Israel rankled Saudi Arabia, the administration's biggest ally in the region, an indication that Team Bush had gone too far in its failure to be critical of Israel.

Stating that American troops may reside in the region for the next 50 years won't win more friends in that region of the world. Russia may even have a few things to stay about that.

Such a policy agenda for the region could very well lead to increased regional tensions with the possibility of tensions spreading into Asia.

The Democrats find themselves in an awkward position, as they don't have the votes to unilaterally end the American occupation.

Democratic strategists ought to be putting pressure on moderate Republicans and those in the Republican Party who are up for re-election next year.

Democrats ought to be able to stake out a position that takes into consideration the failed policies of the Bush administration and where they will take the country over the remainder of Bush's term. This will enable the Democrats to win enough seats to emerge from the elections with control of Congress.

With more power and influence in Congress and control of the White House, Democrats can begin to craft a foreign policy that represents a balanced approach to the Middle East. Such a policy would begin to end the isolation of the United States from the international community and go a long way to ending tensions in the region.

In order to accomplish such a feat, American public opinion will have to dramatically shift away from the Republican Party. This will not be easy given the poor performance of the media in monitoring this administration and its ties to the military-industrial-oil complex.

Nonetheless, this is what must be done. There is no quick fix to Iraq. The current ethnic infighting was fueled by British colonialism and exacerbated by a short-sighted and hegemonic American agenda going back to the end of World War II.

For those Americans looking for a meaningful solution in the Middle East, there must be recognition that the American public must be free from the ideological control of a corporate-dominated media. Otherwise Americans will not be able to see how U.S. foreign policy has contributed to a loss of respect in the world.

The president's Thursday night speech is a perfect example of a government unwilling to tell its people the truth, let alone listen to them.

David Johnson's "Subject to Change" appears every other week in The Star. Johnson is a professor at South Suburban College in South Holland and a former mayor of Harvey. He may be reached at djohnson@southsuburbancollege.edu.

'Fallon reportedly told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chicken s--t" and added, "I hate people like that."'

This is kind of interesting; about a year ago, I wrote a letter to the Star describing our Mr. Johnson in much the same way but without the vulgarity. I was rewarded with a letter FROM the editor saying that there is no need to insult his columnist. But now Johnson feels the need to insult General Petraeus in vulgar terms; I guess he can safety do that since the general is 1,000 (and possibly 10,000 miles away.)

And in typical fashion, Johnson begins his column by parroting the usual lies of the left:

"Americans were asked to forget the president's claim that Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attack on this country, that he said he had a plan for Iraq and that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. None of those assertions were true."

Johnson forgets the Clinton admin claim that Iraq was involved in the February 26th WTC attack 8 years earlier.

Sen. Cornyn was just attacked by his senatorial opponent, Rick Noriega, the left-wing open border nut who passed a law to require Texas to subsidize illegal aliens seeking to apply to Texas colleges Noriega says "we knew that the Petraeus Report was going to show that the surge operations had not been successful." This just shows what a tool Noriega is on national security. Noriega is flat wrong. Obviously, he didn't read the Report before he blabbered about it. "General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker said in their testimony today that they believe the surge has been successful so far." This should come as no surprise to anyone who reads the newspapers. Noriega tried to score political points with his left-wing by picking a fight with Homeland Security: Gov. Rick Perry's Office of Homeland Security is planning an intensified, nonstop border enforcement program that will tap the $110 million that state lawmakers approved in the spring for border security. The operation calls for two years of continuous patrols involving law enforcement agencies along the Texas border with Mexico, according to planning documents reviewed by the San Antonio Express-News. ... The governor and McCraw have claimed success from past operations by pointing to double-digit reductions in criminal activity and apprehensions of undocumented entrants in border counties. But those measures have been challenged as unscientific. McCraw said the office is working on the means to collect data such as crime reports, apprehension numbers and fluctuations in the street cost of drugs. A panel to be appointed in the coming weeks by the governor will oversee progress and recommend any changes in how the state tax money is being spent. "We need to be judged, quite frankly, and we will be," McCraw said. Republican state Sen. John Carona, who sits on the transportation and homeland security committee, counts himself among those who question whether past short-term enforcement programs have yielded any lasting impact. ... Since 9-11, more than 5,700 undocumented immigrants from more than 40 countries deemed national security threats have been caught trying to cross U.S. borders, many using smuggling organizations, an Express-News series published in May found. "The same thing that generates crime also generates the national security threat," McCraw said. "It's the organized smuggling activities related to human trafficking that presents the national security threat." ... One frequent challenger of the provision, Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, who ultimately voted for the governor's homeland security bill and commanded a National Guard unit on the border, said he is frustrated that Texas taxpayers are being billed twice for border security programs. Noriega wants to turn over all border security to the National Guard in Laredo, but in his campaign announcement, ""Noriega opted not to play up was his experience on the border as part of his National Guard duty." Can anyone guess why Noriega didges this issue? Could it be that the human trafficking border insecurity scandal in the Laredo Texas National Guard Noriega was boasting about?: Two Texas National Guard soldiers today admitted helping smuggle illegal immigrants through a Border Patrol checkpoint. Sergeant Julio Pacheco of Laredo and Sergeant Clarence Hodge Junior of Houston pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants. Both soldiers face up to ten years in prison."

On Thursday night President Bush and Republican presidential candidates Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain asked the American people to set aside their sense of history and common sense.

Democrats are afraid to face up to history's lessons.

In 1945, we first freed S. Korea, from decades of Japanese occupation.

Unfortunately, a calamitous mistake in judgment led Truman to withdraw too many of our troops from the young, militarily weak and politically unstable S. Korea

By 1949, most of our troops were out of S. Korea.

The ill-begotten troop-withdrawal in 1949 led to the deaths of 30,000 Americans in the last 30 months of Truman's presidency (from July 1950 to January 1953).

They fought in a war which would not have occurred if Truman had made the right decision and kept our troops in S. Korea for more than 4 years.

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