The Daily Grasshopper

"CASE FOR WAR" screams the monosyllabic headline on the front of today's Boston Herald. The Boston Globe was more characteristically subdued, telling us that "Powell tells UN Iraq hid arms, deceived weapons inspectors." The New York Times has a book of a headline: "POWELL, IN U.N. SPEECH, PRESENTS CASE TO SHOW IRAQ HAS NOT DISARMED." Despite the underwhelming amount of new evidence of a need to immediately go to war, the writing appears to be on the wall. The Bush administration is going to round up whatever allies it can, but it is obvious that they feel they have all the justification they need to bomb Iraq off the map. I guess we'll see.

That being the case, I'm tempted to write about anything but Powell's speech before the U.N. yesterday. It's already been done. And done better than I could, by some of the usual suspects, including the guy who shredded the foreign policy section of Bush's State of the Union speech last week. If you want to get the dissenting viewpoint on Powell's speech before the U.N., check out these items:

http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2003/0302powell3.html (this is from Prof. Zunes)
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2003/0302powell.html (Phyllis Bennis)
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=375941 (Robert Fisk)

So, not only have I been beat to the punch on rebutting Powell, there's also some wild stuff appearing in the news in the past few days that I've sort of had to pass on, what with my extracurricular activities and all. Like this one, from page 5 of yesterday's New York Times: "Gypsies' Suit Against I.B.M. Is Given Green Light by Swiss Court." Here's a sample:

"The Gypsies are basing their case largely on accusations in a controversial book by Edwin Black, "I.B.M. and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation," published in 2001. Mr. Black argues that before and during World War II, I.B.M. provided the punch-cards and early computers that allowed Nazi Germany to organize the attempted extermination of the Jews and Gypsies of Europe."

And here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/international/europe/05GYPS.html

I haven't read the book that the case is based on, so I can't vouch for the quality of the research. But it's pretty interesting to read that "I.B.M.'s founder, Thomas J. Watson, received a medal from Hitler in 1937." Of course, TIME Magazine was about to bestow "Man of the Year" honors on Hitler at about the same time, so maybe that's not such a big deal. But the other charges, like "the company helped the Nazis automate the Holocaust," had to have a few people choking on their corn flakes yesterday.

There's another story in the Times yesterday that I wish I could spend more time on. It ran on page A6 - "U.S. Delays Suing Europe Over Ban on Modified Food." Basically, the U.S. government is preparing to take the EU to court at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to get them to lift their ban on genetically-modified food. Many Europeans oppose the idea of allowing genetically-engineered foods into their food supply. According to the story, "European consumers have for years questioned the safety of genetically modified food out of fear that those modifications may have unknown, and unintended, consequences for human health." The U.S., led by Trade Representative Bob Zoellick, has called the European opposition "immoral" (because it's contributing to starvation in poor countries, apparently) and has accused the EU nations of "having a Luddite attitude against biotechnology." The story is about how the U.S. is delaying the kickoff of a trade war so that it can get more countries on board for its shooting war. Once shooting war ends, and the trade war gets underway, I'm sure I'll get a chance to revisit this one.

Moving on to today's war news, I've got another contender for "Most Obvious Headline of All Time." How about this one, from page 6 of today's Herald: "German pol worried war will inflame terrorists." Gee, Otto, do you really think so? And don't forget our old friend in Pyongyang. He's taking the opportunity to really ramp things up, what with all the bluster on Iraq these days. How about this headline, again in today's Herald, while we're on the subject of unintended consequences: "N. Korea reactivates nuke while U.S. trains focus on Iraq." Things are about to get very interesting, indeed.

I've been called cynical before. But, really, I've got nothing on the guys down on Wall Street. Check out this headline from today's Globe Business page: "Stocks rise, fall on Iraq speech." The subhead spells it out for you, just in case you were wondering when the rise happened and when the fall happened: "Rally sags on fear allies aren't sold on military action." Get it? The notion that we might not have a war was BAD NEWS on Wall Street. Here's the relevant quote:

"By midafternoon, the air went out of the stock market rally as investors appear to be deflated by the unenthusiastic response to Powell's speech from skeptical members of the UN Security Council. China, France, and Russia, for example, all said they would review the evidence presented by Powell, but that for now UN weapons inspectors should continue to look for more conclusive evidence."

You can read the whole article here:

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/037/business/Stocks_rise_fall_on_Iraq_speech+.shtml

There's also a great quote from a guy named Jack Caffrey, an "equities strategist" at JPMorgan Private Bank, who said that Powell's speech had helped "investors gain a little more clarity about what's going on in the world, even if the clarity is toward an event that you'd rather not experience." Hmm. I didn't know that many equities strategists were planning to be in Iraq for the bombing. That's what he means, right, by "an event that you'd rather not experience"? It's enough to make you sick, because as soon as the "clarity" had been gained, the market shot up 140 points. Don't let anyone tell that this war is about liberating the Iraqi people, OK? This war is about what's good for business - and war is always good for business. I'm assuming you're familiar with the saying "Oil is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy"? If not, I'm sure you recognize the sentiment.

Unfortunately, for those people who have to experience war (and I don't mean experiencing it from the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange, Jack), it's typically not a pleasant experience. We learn that from today's Obituaries. Richard Nelson, the radio man for the bombing of Hiroshima, died last weekend in California at the age of 77. Here's how the Globe describes Nelson's most famous mission:

"At 8:15 a.m., in clear skies high above Hiroshima, the Enola Gay's bombardier released ''Little Boy'': a 9,700-pound uranium bomb that had the destructive force of 20,000 pounds of TNT.

With its engines running at maximum power after dropping the bomb, the Enola Gay was about 8 miles away at 8:16 a.m. when ''Little Boy'' detonated about 1,900 feet above the port city.

"Results excellent," Mr. Nelson said in his two-word coded message that was forwarded to President Harry S. Truman.

Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, another B-29 Superfortress dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, forcing the Japanese to surrender.

The bomb from the Enola Gay destroyed about 5 square miles of Hiroshima and instantly killed about 68,000 people. Some 10,000 missing people were never found, 37,000 were injured, and an untold number later developed disease from exposure to the deadly radiation."

"Results excellent"? It seems the guys in Washington, and their partners on Wall Street, have a pretty strange way of measuring what's good and what isn't. I don't know, maybe it's just me.