BEAU GROSSCUP
Author of the book Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment, Grosscup is professor of international relations at California State University in Chico.

He said today: “McCain was part of Operation Rolling Thunder, which was bombing ‘military targets’ in North Vietnam. Military targets by then included civilian ‘dual use’ infrastructure; thus industrial facilities, transportation facilities (roads, bridges, etc.) and electrical grids were bombed over and over in Hanoi and Haiphong. The U.S. military put civilian deaths [from Operation Rolling Thunder] at 52,000. Others estimate they were much higher. McCain was shot down over Hanoi while participating in a strategic bombing campaign intended to make civilians suffer so they would lose the will to fight.”

SAMI RASOULI
Just back from nearly two months in Iraq, Rasouli is founder of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams and is currently in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where he is based. He said today: “McCain touts the surge because it brought the violence down for the U.S. military, but the Iraqis are still being bombed and suffering, people are just not paying much attention and frequently things just don’t get reported. What the surge most succeeded in doing is dividing Iraq, including dividing Baghdad along ethnic and religious lines. This has been a major goal of Biden. I think he will play the role of a new Cheney in an Obama administration.” Rasouli was born in Iraq and is a U.S. citizen.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167