*Bush on World Tour…
Selling America…
—at Discount Prices!
On September 20th, 2007, DI Foreign Policy Editor, Dusty Schoch, wrote an article captioned:
Is a Depression and Collapse of America in our Offing?
You can bet Barbie’s Butt it is.
The “China Syndrome” Revisited on 9/11/07
The below-featured essay by NY Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, © NY Times, 1-20-07 (all rights reserved NY Times) up-dates DW’s gloomy forecast on American economy, confirming (belatedly as the media always does) the existence of recession in America as a probable precursor to Depression. Also confirmed is the complicit responsibility of Corporate America and its puppet in our oval office for the precipitous plunge we’re in. America has been not only betrayed by its dollar-driven ruling class and administration exporting war and selling off…everything else; America, in a very essential sense, (i.e., ownership and control) is being very rapidly sold piecemeal to the fat cats in other nations, chiefly Arabian sheiks and Industrial China, all totally non-democratic and totalitarian regimes. When we exported sufficient industry to Japan, enabling them to purchase substantial portions of America’s assets (and real estate), we were melding our nation with an arguably reformed and militarily-benign ally. China and the sheiks of the Middle East, on the other hand, are more like Democracy’s heart of undermining darkness. China looks at us as a future base of operations under their dominion, a subidiary nation of dependent and addicted consumers; The sheiks—as they always have– view us as “infidels” about to perish on our own swords (of greed and aggression). Dowd talks about this in unfortunately glib terms as a “Red, White and Blue Tag Sale”, where in fact it is a vividly-painted portrait of our nation’s economic and industrial surrender and foreseeable collapse.
Jan. 22 , 2008
Red, White and Blue Tag Sale
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: January 20, 2008
When President Bush finished doing his sword dances and Arabian stallion inspections, when he finished making a speech in Abu Dhabi on the importance of freedom that fell flat, when he finished lounging in his fur-lined George of Arabia robe in the Saudi king’s tent, he came home.
Or he came to what was left of home.
A Washington Post cartoon by Tom Toles summed it up best: “Great to be home,” W. enthuses on Air Force One, heading toward the East Coast. “Anything interesting happen while I was gone?” Hanging on the skyline of New York is a sign reading: “U.S.A. Now a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Foreign Investors.”
Wherever he went, W. seemed dazzled by the can-do spirit of the J. Pierrepont Finches of the new Middle East. “It’s important for the president to hear thoughts, hopes, dreams, aspirations, concerns from folks that are out making a living,” he told Saudi entrepreneurs.
In Dubai, he commended young Arab leaders, saying, “The entrepreneurial spirit is strong.”
In Abu Dhabi, he marveled at the royal family’s plans to build a city based entirely upon renewable energy. “Amazing, isn’t it?” W. said.
You know you’re in trouble when your Middle East oil pump is greener than you are.
Even as W. played cheerleader for Arab business, the Arabs were cleaning our clocks — then buying them. Our addiction to oil has allowed our pushers in the Persian Gulf to go on a shopping spree to snap us up.
Hillary Clinton was right when she said it was “pathetic” that President Bush had to beg the Saudis to drop the price of oil.
One cascading rationale he offered for invading Iraq was the benign domino theory, that bringing democracy to Iraq would sway the autocrats in the region to be less repressive.
But when W. visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt last week, he did not have the whip hand. He could not demand anything of the autocrats in the way of more rights for women and dissidents, much less get the Saudis to help on oil production. He needs their help in corralling Iran, which has been puffed up by the occupation of Iraq.
So he was a supplicant in Saudi Arabia. The American economy is a supplicant, too.
Two decades ago, we fretted that Japan was taking over America when Sony bought Columbia Pictures and Mitsubishi bought a chunk of Rockefeller Center. But they overpaid for everything.
Now, because of Wall Street’s overreaching, our economy depends on foreign oil and foreign loans to stay afloat.
China and Arab countries have a staggering amount of treasury securities. And the oil-rich countries are sitting on so many petrodollars that they are looking beyond prestige hotels and fashion labels and taking advantage of the fire sale to buy eye-popping stakes in our major financial institutions.
Like the president, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch came with tin cups to Middle Eastern, Asian and American investors last week, for a combined total of nearly $19.1 billion, after the subprime mortgage debacle blew up their books.
Citigroup, which raised $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi in November, raised another $12.5 billion, including from Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal. Merrill Lynch gave $6.6 billion in preferred stock to Kuwait, South Korea, a Japanese bank and others.
(While the great sage Bob Rubin was advising Hillary Clinton on sound fiscal policy, he seemed to be asleep at the Citigroup switch.)
As Warren Buffett has said, we are giving ourselves a party to feed our appetite for oil and imported goods and paying for it by selling off the furniture, our most precious assets.
When the president got back Thursday night from a trip that made it clear he has no clout overseas, he had to rush the ailing economy into intensive care.
Next to the cool, strong euro, the dollar is a comparative runt in the world’s currencies. The weak dollar lets foreigners snap up real estate in Manhattan.
It is striking that the Bush scion, who has tried so hard to do the opposite of his father, also ends up facing the prospect of a recession in his final year in office.
Maybe if the president had spent the trillion he squandered on his Iraq odyssey on energy research, we might have broken the oil addiction.
Now it’s a race between Iraq, stupid, or the economy, stupid, to see which one will usher out W.
The country is engaged in a fit of nativism and Lou Dobbsism, obsessing about the millions of Mexicans who might be sneaking across the border when billions in foreign money are pouring into Citigroup. You figure out what might be a bigger problem.
The national boundaries that really matter are the financial ones: Who’s going to own the American economy?
Postscript by Len Carrier
Dick Cheney famously said that deficits don’t matter. On that premise our government debt ballooned from $5.3 trillion in 2000 to more than $9.1 trillion today. Where did our government incur most of that debt? At least $500 billion so far went toward waging aggressive wars, other tens of billions went toward giving 1% of our population huge tax cuts. Why didn’t we notice? It was because China and Japan bought our paper, so we were able to continue our lifestyles as if each of us–300 million of us–didn’t already owe the government more than $30,000. And there is more to come. Defense-related spending has increased so much that for 2008 it is estimated to reach $1 trillion for the first time in history.
Deficits might not matter in the short term, as long as the funds are used to put people back to work in the way that FDR did– stimulating the economy by devoting money to improving education, health care, and our infrastructure. But that’s not where our deficits were incurred. Our deficits were largely incurred by feeding the maw of the military-industrial complex–something Eisenhower warned us about long ago.
Unfortunately, FDR’s programs have been eviscerated by 40 years of Republican administrations, along with Bill Clinton’s policies of “go along to get along.” President Bush’s irresponsible warmongering, along with his ill-begotten view that we need to enrich the wealthy in order for it to trickle down to the poor, has put us in a terrible fix. Suddenly Bush seems to get it. He has now put forward a tax rebate scheme to pump money back into the economy. And the Federal Reserve, after sitting on the sidelines, has crafted an emergency stimulus by cutting the Federal Funds rate by .75%. But it might already be too late. The wolf of recession is upon us, and Bush’s suggested rebate program would put money only in the hands of those who need it least–the very corporations whose insatiable appetite has got us into the fix we’re in.. We are no longer the richest country in the world, with the EU being first in GDP, and China a close third. In trade deficits we rank 163rd, just ahead of a country such as Australia, which depends heavily on imports. As a hangover from the Cold War, we have been operating on a war economy, expecting defense contractors to bail us out. Now our profligate ways are catching up to us, and the chickens have come home to roost. By the time we get a responsible administration in place, the chickens will probably have flown the coop.
Len Carrier
When Will We Ever Learn?
Pete Seeger asked the Question Long ago…
Peter, Paul and Mary echoed it…
Bob Dylan answered the question and
Today, DW College Contributor, Brad Clinard
Asks us again…
From Viet Nam to Iraq, how far have we come?
Have we learned anything? And … finally…
Why not?
Preface: By: Dusty Schoch, DW Foreign Policy Editor:
Before you read young Bradford Clinard’s thoughtful and provocative diatribe against the present war in Iraq and those who are sponsoring it, brought fearfully in focus by his having soon to say his goodbyes to a friend now destined to serve in that “current” theater of American-generated war, let’s all take a look at what might be the only glaring difference between our war “against the Reds” in Nam a half century ago and our present “war on terrorism” in Iraq…
…the music, and our cultural historians who asked the perennial questions with the perennially-obvious answers that, perennially, none of us ever seems to heed…
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Composer: Pete Seeger
Performers: Peter, Paul and Mary
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Bob Dylan Had Two Answers:
The First was:
THE ANSWER IS…
BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND
(Dylan’s Second Answer follows
Brad’s essay…because it Echoes
What Brad says)
Composer: Dylan
Performer: Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, n how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before theyre forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, n how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, n how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before its washed to the sea?
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before theyre allowed to be free?
Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesnt see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
Brad Clinard’s Take on America’s
Democracy and Its Wars
Make Love, Not War ! This sign held by up a hippie caught my eye and captivated my attention the other day. Thinking about the simplicity but parallel depth of this concept I began to wonder: The majority of people throughout the world have very similar dreams, desires and needs. One of the most universal desires is for Peace. Why then, in a world in which democracy has “won”, is this peace not found?
Many of our leaders would like “us” to believe it is because the jihad suicide extremists are going to be on your doorstep to punch you in the face, and thus they must be preemptively thwarted from “evil”. Let me just ask: How many of you have ever seen a terrorist or even anybody being shot for that matter? I would venture that with the exception of media coverage, war veterans, and public police servants, our society in America has very little exposure to real world-class violence. Granted there are occasional incidents such as 9/11, Virginia Tech, and gang violence, but compared to worldwide death tolls for other inhumane deaths, (i.e. starvation, dehydration, and easily curable diseases) we are very safe and I might venture, spoiled.
If we are relatively safe then why are we not a more peaceful country as the people want? I propose there are two distinguishing characteristics that have lead to our country’s current sickness: Greed and Fear.
First, a word on democracy. I understand and notice regularly that I am a very small pawn in the chess game our country plays, politically. However, there is something wrong with our Democratic system if the will of the people is not heard. The muted shout of the people is clearly a desire for universal peace. Since recently reaching voting age, I now feel responsible to hold accountable the people who represent me and subsequently run our country through policy creation or by non-action. Clearly, the people have been misrepresented and we should be mad. The major issues our country and world face should be the prime concern of our politicians. They should not waste their “talents” deciding what office wallpaper should be, what pork barrel project can be passed, whether steroids in baseball are illegal, and every other ridiculous issues they fret over to appear busy until the next election. Exactly how this occurs is a very complex question, but one that must be addressed before social change can proceed.
As a student of economics I am confronted with a dilemma. Economics teaches us to place a value on everything, even peace. The price of peace or the price of forgoing war may be very costly for some, especially if daddy owns stock in the military industry (think USA). On the other hand, peace can be equally profitable for a larger group as it creates stability that allows global business and free trade to flourish. Regardless, in a democracy, society’s desire for peace should triumph regardless of economic consequences of a few.
Ironically, it was one of the greatest five star generals our country ever had, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who tried to warn us about the danger of our military growing out of control. He coined the term, “Military Industrial Complex” to describe the dangerous state we find ourselves in today, wherein corporate special interests groups buy politicians and our country wages war after war after war.
I calculated our 2008 budget for Military and Homeland Security to be approximately 665 Billion dollars. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/budget.html) By comparison, the rest of the world combined will spend only slightly over 500 Billion. Our economy as we know it survives on the fact that we are the leading manufacturers, hence purveyors of war.
To discover why we are fighting is relatively simple in theory… Follow The Money. Who is profiting off war in our country? Halliburton and Blackwater come immediately to mind. Trouble is these firms are the most strategically positioned entities in Washington with lobbyists, congressman, labor unions, and financial investors (not to mention inside fifth-column employees like Dick Cheney) all giving an open ear to imperialistic agendas.
Fear has become a way of life in daily America. The “Fear Culture” we are enslaved to makes us more vulnerable to propaganda and thus the agenda of the greedy. The all-pervasive propaganda that we see today has accomplished its calculated goal with anesthetizing the populous into a state of confusion and, from the overuse and abuse of “9/11”, mindlessly championing “freedom and democracy”, the “war on terror” and my personal favorite–the color-coded terror warning levels.
The most dangerous thing I can think of is someone or a country afraid of everything. This has long been one of the contended bases for why we have one of the highest murder rates in the developed world. The most disturbing part is the results of the propaganda machine. With an at-best ambiguous enemy and No Possibility for “victory” in its Middle Eastern campaign, our incumbent administration has become unaccountable and can not be challenged. This is a violation of our basic civil liberties.
The anomalously-named “Patriot Act” successfully removes many of the protections we were guaranteed by our founding fathers to ensure our country would remain the land of the free. Maybe there is a reason to be afraid. It has long been said, “People should not fear their governments, governments should fear their people.” It is clear this idea has been lost and I am sure our founding fathers would be appalled—I surely am. It is also perfectly clear this is the time my generation needs an old fashion revolution, at the least a loud protest. Yet the call to action is silenced and pushed to the background by the deafening noise of reality TV and the busy non-relenting quest for an illusion known as success.
In closing, I must confess the subjective motivation of my ranting. In three weeks, a good friend of mine will be sent to Iraq—assignment: “road patrol.” (a.k.a. “insurgent target practice”) While I have the utmost of admiration for the courage he shows in fighting for good old Uncle Sam, I am sad inside for the loss he will certainly face—if not his life then surely his gentle temperament. War is Hell for all it touches, and in today’s global society it touches all.
BOB DYLAN LYRICS
“Masters Of War”
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion’
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins.
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.
And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand over your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead.
In passing..…
Echoing Brad’s sentiments, Dylan’s and our own, let’s get busy and realize that it’s never too late to start changing these times…..
The Times They Are A Changing
By: Bob Dylan
Come Gather round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
The STATE OF THE WORLD:
Today…and from the beginning of human history, politics and religion have all been based on lies, and the lies now have the capacity to kill us and end the world, and for all we know- all life in the universe.
ONLY
The Truth
The Whole Truth
And Nothing But the Truth…
Can set us Free
By DW Foreign Policy Editor, Dusty Schoch
Jan. 1, 2008.
Remember that potent scene of military tribunal cross examination in “A Few Good Men”, where Tom Cruise is just about to crack Jack Nicholson into telling the truth about a soldier’s being murdered (for the crime of non-conformity with American military tradition).
Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup): You want answers?
Tom Cruise (Kaffee): I think I’m entitled.
Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup): You want answers?
Tom Cruise (Kaffee): I want the truth!
Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup): You can’t handle the truth!
When 9/11 happened in America in 2001, what was it about us Americans that made us so vulnerable…so ready to believe the lies our C.I.A. and Commander in Chief were telling us about Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s responsibility for the terrorists’ attack on America? It was the same vulnerability that has been pervasive in human kind from the very beginning.
Forget whether Eden and the birth of man’s intelligence was 4 thousand or 4 million years ago. With the dawning of man’s intelligence came his knowledge—his certain knowledge–of his own mortality, and with that epiphany came the Achilles heel of mankind – his fear and dread of his own demise.
From the beginning of time that fear of man’s mortality has pretty much run his civilized show…from his arithmetic and linguistic beginnings (somewhere in the “fertile crescent” of “Mesopotamia” ) to our present-day struggles between the world of Islam and “the West”.
From the beginning of time, men have been wholly unwilling to face the truth that their days on earth are numbered. As Nicholson’s character angrily put it –
YOU (we, mankind) CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
So what did he (man) do to avoid having to deal with the truth of his own mortality? He invented myths (lies) to lull himself into a “rational” state of denial which we collectively refer to as “religions” and “religious BELIEFS”.
Ezra Pound chanted to us that “religions are the opium of the people”, and he, quite certainly was correct. All religions teach us ways to deal with our essential fears, foremost among which, is of course the terror of our inevitable deaths. Proof of this is man’s having chosen the “death” feature of life for one of his central labels for himself. Men, especially in the context of their religions, refer to themselves, then, as “mortals” (beings who…die).
Since man’s most primal and motivating fear is of his mortality, and since mens’ many diverse religions provide the antidote for death (e.g. American Indian “Happy Hunting Ground”, Christian “Heaven”, etc. ), his most threatening collateral fears will be of religions which deny the truth of his own religion. If Jesus was right, Islamics , per force of their “book of religious truth” must both die and …remain dead. For a long time. If the Islamics are “right”, the same fate awaits the Christian believer. And so each religious “believer” is living by a religious code that constitutes a mortal threat to all other religious believers.
Every major war in the history of man has involved disputes among humans of divergent religious beliefs. According to their own religious history, the Jews were the first genocidal people to decide and act upon the belief that anyone who didn’t worship their god was a mortal enemy that needed to be killed. This attitude ricocheted against the Jews before and during and following WWII, and genocides are now rampant throughout the world from Iraq to Darfur, but it’s all based on the same thing – fear, religious beliefs and wars to alleviate fears based on religious beliefs.
The bottom line to this timeless and ubiquitous nonsense is…quite ironically…nonsense itself. By “non-sense”, I am, for diplomatic reasons (i.e. intellectual and polemic stealth hopefully on a Machiavellian level) euphemizing the truth which I have resolved, as my brave new introduction to the year 2008, to say outright –
Religion is the cause of all our problems and all religions are based on myths, and all myths are essentially and virtually lies, and if we don’t quit telling and following these lies, we will be destroyed and likely destroy planet earth in the process.
On what authority do I assert (with such unparalleled temerity) that all religions are based on lies? The authority is abundant…and abundantly available. Islam is merely Christianity which has been plagiarized to put Mohammed forward as the real Jesus Christ. Christianity, in turn, is merely an almost verbatim copy of Egyptian sun-based religion.
Are you already mad at me for telling you this “truth” , because as Nicholson says to Tom Cruise “you can’t handle the truth”? Most of you will be. Religion is a sacred cow in most societies, and attacking that cow will win me no popularity. That’s because most of you readers still comfortably cling to religious beliefs that serve to one extent or another to ease your dread of …dying. Along with your moral struggles concerning what is “right” and what is “wrong” to do while you are alive. A book of simple rules gives us the feeling that ethics are as simple to understand as say, the “Ten Commandments” “God” purportedly gave a man named Moses. Plus, your dread of those who (like me now) would preach a sermon which undermines your belief that your religion is “right”, when it comes to the part where the diety in charge of your religion is going to spare you either the pains of life or the culmination of life in death.
WHY AM I PREACHING THIS ANTI-RELIGIOUS RANT AS RELEVANT TO “FOREIGN POLICY”? Isn’t it obvious? Bush became president by claiming to be a Christian and in effect running his election and his re-election campaigns on a fundamentalist religious platform (viz., pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-Islam). He played on the red states’ constituency which was primarily Christian Fundamentalist, and “kept his promises” to make America secure from (Islamic) terrorists. He played on our fears and utilized the oldest strategy on earth that leaders and power mongers use – make them afraid of imminent death, keep them afraid of dying, and keep telling them the oldest lies on earth. It worked for the Pharaohs; it worked for Constantine; It worked for Hitler, and it is working for Bush and the neo-cons.
And as long as it works, we are doomed to have history of war and turmoil on earth continue…but with over 7 billion humans, and 7 nations with nuclear technology, we’re not talking now of man’s individual mortality; we’re talking about the potential extinction of life on earth, and—so far as we know—all life in the universe.
Globalization and world wars are going hand-in-hand. The corporations, Federal Reserve Banks and religions are all consorting together to share the power that is now reeking havoc in terms of international warfare and environmental degradation. At the heart of all global conflict, there lies the conflicting beliefs of people of divergent religions. The irony of it all is that pretty much all religions are based not only on lies (myths and legends), but based on the same myths (lies).
Why is this such a well-kept secret? Because the revelation of that secret would LITERALLY TERMINATE THE POWER OF NOT ONLY THE VATICAN, BUT OF BUSH, BIN LADEN, AND ALL THE WARING DEMAGOGUES ON EARTH WHO HAVE FOLLOWED IN THE TRADITION OF CONSTANTINE WHO SCHOOLED US WITH HIS FATALLY-FLAWED MOTTO: “In Hoc Signo Vinces” (trans: In this sign—THE SIGN OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS!!!!) YOU WILL CONQUER (I.E. KILL NON BELIEVERS). So “Jesus-like”, wouldn’t you agree? It’s always amazed me that the ones who champion the story of Jesus the loudest seem to be the first to trounce on his central sermon (to love thy neighbor, including thine enemy, as thy self). Where in the world—or in the “word”–did Jesus instruct us , “When thy neighbor has weapons of mass destruction, destroy him by the hundreds of thousands pre-emptively with thine own weapons of mass destruction.?
Islamics call non-believers (like us) “Infidels”
Constantine called them “pagans”
Fascist Christians (e.g. Hitler) called them Jews and “non-Ayrian”
Jews call them Palestinians or simply “Arabs” (even though all Arabs and Jews are cousins).
Christians call them (all others) “sinners”.
Fascist, Imperialist Americans (like George Bush) call them ….”terrorists”.
So, decide now—this very moment, who you are. Are you among the majority of sheep who, as Nicholson put it, simply “Can’t handle the truth”? Are you by force of fear and habit, unable even to address the possibility that you have based most of your life and your view of life on earth on lies told you from birth?
If you are brave enough to consider the possibility that both your religion and your country’s foreign policy are constructed upon a house of corrupting mythological cards, then you can start your research with the well-bibliographed video entiled “Zeitgeist” now available for free on Google video, at the following link:
And, after you’ve watched this amazing revelation, I urge you to go back and, on its homepage, click on the “statement” link and the “interactive transcript” link for references you can research in case you have doubts regarding the issues of whether the Christian Bible is an original writing or merely a plagiarized compilation and amalgamation of former religious fiction.
I suggest you watch this video only if you consider yourself brave enough to face the truth about your own country, your own religion, and your own mortality.
For incentive, I’ll offer you encouragement some ascribe to Jesus: “The truth will set you free.”
And a final word of encouragement from Nietzsche – “That which does not kill you tends ultimately to make you stronger.”
The video’s title, “Zeitgeist”, literally (in German) means “The Spirit of the Times”. Today’s spirit of the times is fear and desperation, mixed with confusion and doubt. Our leaders have lied to us, and there are wars that smack of genocide on-going or brooding all over the globe, along with clear signs of Ecological armageddon. There are many religious and political (also religious) leaders in our midst coaxing us to accept *our present states of war and ecological disaster as the inevitable and intractable progress of man in accordance with religious prophesy. I personally don’t “believe” in the details and implications of the 9/11 conspiracies (i.e., U.S. Government-machinated terrorist attacks on U.S.) I do believe, however, that Zeitgeist is right on the money when it leads us to re-examine and research the religious roots of wars, human enslavement and environmental degradation.
That last sentiment of war-mongering propaganda (*above) , my friends, is the BIGGEST LIE OF ALL. But the search for and recognition of truth is finally the responsibility and test of every human as an individual. It has been my purpose in writing this article to lead you toward the saving waters of truth. Whether you choose to drink it is…
Your call.
Dusty
January 1, 2008
Let’s all have some great new year(s)!
PS (for those “literal” believers in Jesus Christ) – I am able to believe there is God in your belief without being
convinced that what you believe in is God. And, in any and all cases, I believe in you.
Patrick Morton’s Addendum
Dear Everyone,
My hat off to Dusty for being so brave as to say what is on his heart and in his mind. While he may be stepping on some Christian Toes, I for one have become enlightened enough to always wear steel-toed shoes, spiritually speaking.
I would like to add to his list of name-calling factions, where in Pagans call all others the Un-Enlightened, for good reason.
More than just your Science Contributor as called, I have a lifelong passion of religious studies as well. If one were to read through, as I have, most any comprehensive anthology of theology such as The Interpreter’s Bible (some 50 volumes texts, apologies, interpretations and such) then the prefaces would certainly warrant serious investigations; reading something like:
” … in that these collections of writings have come down to us through the ages, bearing up to the tolls of time, and that in the faithful reading and transcribing and meticulous care their messages have remained clear, and that in such passages of time the writings herein have proven themselves to be Holy, we are bound to hold these writings in the cannonical preferences to have been written by the veritable hand of God…”
Such prefaces go on and on, but you get my meaning here.
It does not escape my feelings of Holy-inspired writings being authentic. Certainly the Holy Mother of Jesus herself had some things to say (being present both at His birth and at Pentecost with scores of other women) yet was categorically denied venue in King James’ version of what our Lord meant to say. Likewise, the words of His most favored, Mary Madgelene, was rooted out from the “In Scriptures” by the Good ‘ol Boys Club.
I say it this way, because history documents that there were nearly an equal number of men and women at Pentecost, receiving the Holy Spirit, and being instructed to spread the Word and Healing to every nation. And yet, however, even so, only the mens’ version of antiquities remains widely accepted.
It is my findings that some of these women may have journeyed to the what became the British Isles, spreading Love and Healing under practices that the Good ‘Ol Boys underhandedly labeled as witchcraft. No, I’m not saying that Early Christian women became witches. But I am saying that certain deceptions were acheived to keep women’s parts out of the picture.
Beginning with St. Columba (who openly hated women) in the 5th century, it may well be that female keepers of that original faith have been persecuted ever since. (Incidentally, most of the practitioners of Love and Healing, circa 462 A.D., in and around Avalon, though unarmed were slaughtered viciously in the name of Christ. Not a new act, but a little-known bit of history).
Let us not forget that the Good ‘Ol Boys throughout history have always had an agenda. The fallen Roman Empire used the New Gospel of Jesus to heal their broken nation, giving birth to the Roman Catholic Church during the first several centuries after the apostles died out.
King James sought to keep the English Empire subjugated during an age of information explosion (its kind at that time) wherein printed books threatened to enlighten every man, woman and child; he certainly couldn’t afford for people to begin thinking for themselves. Next thing you know, people would get the idea they could keep that ten percent for their poor, starving families.
However!
In spite of it all I remain predominantly Christian, in the purest and most classical sense; the truest sense imaginable, I guess you might say. Especially in outward practice, Christianity remains the most socially expeditious lane in which to exist, in this country.
In my Spirit, there is only God. He is All-Loving and All-Knowing. Surely, an omniscient God would not make us so very different and then expect us to all fall in behind a single religious icon. NO! CERTAINLY NOT!!! He did make us all unique, some creeds and nations with similarities. He certainly would have had the good sense to bestow a deity among us that we would both understand and appreciate. Anything less would be erroneously human.
Yes, Pagans refer to all others and the Great Un-Enlightened. (Even so, some among all rank and file are close-minded).
The Pagans also claim that Christianity has Pagan DNA; vice versa in some circles.
The closest to the TRUTH here is that all religions carry a variant DNA the is most damaging to any pure concept of Godliness; that is human DNA. It is human nature to corrupt anything down towards is lowest common denominator, unfortunately.
God, whatever yours is by name, makes His rain to fall upon the just and the unjust alike; divine inspiration reaches us all. God cannot help it if His Perfect Words are lost in the translation to the human condition.
God’s Perfect Words comes to us all. It’s part of the precepts of Free Will, to know of His word, whether it comes to you through the Holy Bible, the Koran, or spelled out in your alphabet soup each day. The manner in which you make use of it is Religion. The extent to which you may or may not butcher it up is Dogma.
Overall, with wars breaking out everywhere and throughout time instead of people waging peace, I’d say the human race is doing a real lousy job at ascribing to any God.
Blessings and Peace to You All,
Patrick
Len Carrier Comments:
I cannot in all conscience believe in the God of any organized religion. More wars and killing have been done in the name of God than through any other channel. Those who believe in the teachings of Jesus–in the Golden Rule, in principles of fairness, and in doing no harm to living things–have my admiration. But once these intuitive human feelings get organized, they become perverted; and those who are the organizers sometimes cannot resist the temptation to jam their beliefs down the throats of those who do not believe as they do.
I believe in the principles of the Enlighenment, in the use of reason in the service of human sympathy. For those in organized religions who share these feelings, I have nothing but respect. But I cannot abide those pious “true believers” who think that their certainty of belief must also hold true for others.
To all those who wish for peace and friendship in the world, I offer my hand. To those who disagree, I turn that hand to its backside. Jesus said to turn the other cheek. But I haven’t yet reached the stage of showing kindness to those who would be my enemies.
Happy New Year to all.
- Len C.
BRAD CLINARD Contributes
(Student/Athlete attending UNC Charlotte)
WOW!
I am floored (by Zeitgeist) and not sure exactly where to start. I would like a copy but don’t know how to do this off the internet. I have to thank you for sharing this with me. In some ways I am scared that just for watching I might soon be taken away and thrown in jail without a lawyer. The part that bothers me the most, making me a little sick, is the microchip and its accompanying implications. After viewing this, the Nine-Eleven conspiracy doesn’t seem so bogus either. It makes me once again re-evaluate as a young person trying to create a path in life what that path should look like. Do I really want to get a “good” job and save with the unpredictable future that is predictably not going to be the world I live in today… no oil, increased technology, increased competition and ruthlessness.
On the other side this film definitely had three distinct parts. I enjoyed watching the beginning; however, from the background (Judeo-Christian) I come from and knowing how believers think, I feel it is misplaced. The second and third parts (starting at minute 37) are important enough to be viewed by every human who wishes to be informed. Unfortunately I foresee many believers being turned off and turning off this film after 6 minutes.
After just finishing this I am still almost at a loss for what to say but wanted to at least get you a gut reaction… I am horrified. The other night I was looking back on the year and thinking about the future. The downfall of society depicted in Zeitgeist is the same as our free speech–with so much being said nobody really listening. I have made changes in my life (becoming educated, being conscious about all my consumption, planning for survival) but I also know that in order to engineer substantial change it must be larger than just me. I also see that in a lot of situations although it is humble to lead a simple life, those who are in a position to make change are those with money and positions of power. I am still looking for the book that explains these things… and will buy you a copy when I find it!
Thanks and Happy New Year!
Bradford Clinard
“Is it too late to make
peace with England?”
By: Michael Kevin Murphy*
12 10 07
For years Gore Vidal has been arguing that the U.S. ought to adopt a parliamentary system of government along the lines of the United Kingdom’s, and as each year passes for me I have come closer to seeing the wisdom of having such a system in the U.S. Maybe the Queen would take us back — if we asked nicely that is.
It seems to me that some Democrat and Republican partisans have lost their practical bearings and moral compasses as each side lurches toward someone, anyone, to “save us” from the many messes in which we now find ourselves.
The Republicans held fire for awhile waiting on Fred Thompson to make his grand appearance on the campaign trail but when he finally arrived he seemed lucky to stay awake at stump speeches let alone have any positions that he was able to express or the discernible vigor to advance if he ever got around to forming a few.
Giuliani is, in my judgment, far a more dangerous neocon than Bush “The Younger” because Giuliani actually has his own brain to serve him and the stump speaking skills to make him sound competent but not appear too much the idealogue, and if he the becomes the presumptive Republican nominee I also fully expect a daily crisis to erupt until election day as he will be forced to explain and defend all of the back room deals, Mafia connections, payoff scandals, and yada, yada, yada that either propelled him into office as Mayor of New York in the first place or kept him there; and I’m sure every Democratic candidate’s strategist has a filing cabinet full of that stuff just waiting for the right moment to let fly.
Romney? Something tells me he might not make a bad President — more the chief executive office of a large corporation, the U.S., but too many people simply cannot get past the fact that he’s a Mormon.
McCain is I believe a man with the character to stand by his positions, but it’s a shame too many of us don’t happen to agree with some of his more important ones. Anyway, I think McCain’s hold on hope will be entirely dependent on World events at nomination time if he’s not effectively out of the race before then.
Huckabee? He’s a great salesman but I would not even listen to him after he expressed considered doubts about Darwin’s “theory” on evolution.
On the Dem side, Obama is just too young in my opinion to handle the job, but there is much to like and admire about the man.
Edwards, I rather like but is liable to be swallowed up whole by a Congress that’s far closer to the center than he is. Kucinich, Richardson, and those at the bottom of the statistical heep are just unelectible at this stage and show no prospect for advancing quickly like Huckabee has. And then there is Hilary. I ditto all Len has said about her in previous commentaries and would not even try to gild his lilly.
I think in the final analysis we would all be better off — as would our children —- if we had a chief executive who is as non ideological as Roosevelt was said to be, who seems determined to govern from the center, and who has considerable administrative ability and an inquisitive and open mind. I hate to say this but Mitt Romney seems to me to fit this bill better than anyone in the game.
I believe this upcoming election will turn on the state of the economy and “the war”, and while a lot of water has yet to go over those dams, people will, I think, end up by choosing between the lesser of two evils.
Mike
12 10 07
*Mr. Michael Kevin Murphy is an attorney in Virginia, and a B.E.A. correspondent of long standing. Mike served in the U.S. army and is a decorated Viet Nam veteran.
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Why NOT Hillary?
Please read and heed before It’s too late… |
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By: Leonard Carrier, DI In-house Historian and Philosopher:
Guy Saperstein recently posted an article on AlterNet in which he outlined his reasons for thinking that Hillary Clinton might not be the best choice of Democratic candidates in a general election (“Hillary Clinton Might Be the Least Electable Democrat,” Dec.7). Among the reasons Saperstein listed, in addition to those involving the baggage she carries from her husband’s tenure in office, was that people might not be ready to vote for a woman as president.
Now I would dearly love to see a woman as president, but someone like Barbara Boxer, not Hillary Clinton. Here are my reasons for saying so.
What worked for Bill Clinton will not work for Hillary. Bill veered to the right on social and economic issues, and so he outflanked Newt Gingrich and the Republican revolutionaries. Hillary’s veering to the right in voting for the war, accepting corporation money, and cozying up to the likes of Rupert Murdoch runs her into a wall. The Bush administration is so far to the right, that there’s no more room for the type of maneuvering that Bill was so adept at. Hillary’s present positions–on the war, on Iran, on globalism–do not distinguish her from moderate Republicans. Therefore, if she runs against someone like Giuliani or Romney, voters would be likely to pick the real Republican over the faux Democrat. Before meeting Bill, Hillary was a Goldwater Republican. One wonders how much a leopard can change its spots–or how much Bill taught her in the art of camouflage.
Hillary is smart, and Hillary is ambitious and crafty. She has even convinced some people that she has more experience than the other Democratic candidates, which, of course, is false, because her only real experience is in the Senate where she voted to support Bush’s wars. We should not count under “experience” her aborted attempt at health-care reform in Bill Clinton’s first term.
Hillary might just win a general election, but it would be a long shot. The best thing she could do for the Democratic Party and for the country would be to retire from the race. That would ensure a landslide victory for whomever the Democratic nominee is. Will she do that? Fat chance.
Len Carrier
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The Ron Paul Phenomenon
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By: DI In-House Historian and Philosopher, Leonard Carrier
11 30 07
Whereas, Bush piously spoke of his “compassionate conservativism,” his actions revealed him as a big-money, big-corporation, big-government imperialist who was willing to talk cynically about freedom and democracy, while at the same time squandering our military forces by invading another country to steal its oil. Paul is none of the things that Bush is, and that, in itself, should endear him to all those who have hated what Bush has wrought during the past seven years.
Unfortunately, being the anti-Bush doesn’t provide sufficient credentials to be elected president. Despite his obvious sincerity, Paul’s positive positions on the issues does not speak to what most Americans believe. For instance, do most Americans believe that a fertilized egg is a person replete with all the rights of personhood? I don’t think so. Those who do believe it do so on religious grounds alone. Do most Americans believe that we should abolish Social Security and the Department of Education? I don’t think so. Social Security is what many elderly Americans depend on simply to survive; and we have seen recently, with students from other countries performing better at reading and math, that we need more government support of education, not less.
At the end of the day, we should give Ron Paul kudos for protesting the Iraq war and denouncing our imperialist aims; and then we should support someone who is not only anti-Bush, but who also wishes to use government to benefit all Americans. Someone like Dennis Kucinich.
Kucinich lacks Charisma!
Why we should vote for him anyway.
By: Sidney Gendin, Leonard Carrier, and Dusty Schoch
(Gindin’s opening piece was featured on a DI sister blog- Watching Politics; DI’s In-House Historian and philosopher, Len Carrier contributes his comments here and there. Following Len’s addendum to Gendin’s article, Dusty adds a short endorsement. By the way—All three contributors champion Kucinich as the best Democratic candidate.
Sidney (Gendin) Says:
Always keeping in mind the frailty of human beings and the curious lust for power and glory that obsesses those who seek high political office, Watching Politics nevertheless endorses Dennis Kucinich to be the next president of the United States.
Will Kucinich live up to all his campaign promises? Certainly not. Will he remember most of them? WP thinks he will, and that is about as good a start as we can hope for. Dennis is easily the most liberal of all the Democratic candidates and we think that is a good thing. Dennis is not very charismatic, and that is an unfortunate thing but it is only a superficial failing. What he lacks in charisma he makes up for in solidity, honesty, consistency and forthrightness.
If you share the view of WP then you must support and vote for Dennis Kucinich. The worst thing any voter can do is say to himself, “He can’t win so I must vote for second best, a person who has a chance.” This approach is the heart of self-fulfilling prophecy and there comes a time when those who take it deeply regret doing so.
It is only the past record of each candidate and his potential to serve our country well that should weigh with the voter; he must never allow himself to be swayed by “He has no chance”. In truth, each candidate’s chances are dependent only on the faith his supporters place in him. At WP, we ask you to put your hopes and faith in Dennis Kucinich.
LEN AGREES AND ADDS:
I wish to add my voice to that of Sid Gendin in support of Dennis Kucinich’s candidacy for president. I had the privilege to shake Dennis’s hand when he visited Asheville recently. I told him to keep on doing what he was doing, which is to be the conscience of the Democratic Party and of the American people.
Not only will Dennis end our occupation of Iraq, but he will institute a single-payer health care system for all Americans. His detailed positions can be found on his website.
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will all benefit from a Kucinich presidency. We should all remember that the only poll that counts is the one that issues from the voting booth on election day.
DUSTY DITTO’S AND ADDS:
Dennis may be “charismatically challenged”, but so have been many of our great leaders. The thing that impresses me most about Kucinich is what I noticed in his most recent debate with Democratic running mates. It was near midway in the debates and both Clinton and Edwards had done skillful jobs of damage control on their original endorsement of Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hillary mostly avoided her initial hawkish jumping in line with the pre-emptive neo-con warriors hammering the “fact” that she would, when elected, make expeditious moves to bring the troops home “with honor”, yadayadayada. Edwards pounded the “fact” that he, along with others had been misled by false “intelligence” and touted the fact that he was the first Senator he knew to publicly admit that “I was wrong”.
Dennis finally got the talking stick on another issue and craftily steered his response (about health care) into the general area where his frontrunners (Hillary and Edwards) had done a laudable job of turning their bad mistakes into “lessons” that made them stronger through admitting their mistakes and endeavoring to undo them with confession and remedial action.
Dennis began by noting that “admitting one’s errors is commendable”, especially when one is occupying high office with his profile constantly in the firing line. But—he added—this positive feature overlooks one thing: What the American people need, especially when it comes to war, is a president who “gets it right the first time” (noting that he opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from the get-go…and stuck by his guns of peace). The audience had reacted to Clinton’s and Edwards’ slick rationalizations with warm applause. For Dennis K’s righteous (in fact—near-angry) defense of his own consistent (and non-erroneous) track record in the pursuit of peace, the audience cheered more loudly than at any point in the debates.
I shouted bravo at another point in the debates just as loudly. The moderator turned the subject to party solidarity, because the mud slinging between Hillary, Obama and Edwards as front-runners is getting the Party pretty soiled in the public view. So every candidate was asked in turn to respond to the question of whether they would back the Democratic candidate who wins the Democratic Party nomination. Dennis answered near the end. Every single one from Hillary, Edwards, Biden on down said words to the exact same effect. Most in fact used either the word “certainly” and/or “absolutely”. All except Dennis, God love him. Bringing back memories of the “buck-stops-here” individuality and integrity of Harry Truman, Dennis said—and let’s never forget it—“Yeah, I’ll endorse the Democratic nominee, IF AND ONLY IF HE’S GOT THE INTELLIGENCE AND INTEGRITY TO PUT ASIDE FOREVER OUR CLAIMED RIGHT TO WAGE UNPROVOKED, PREEMPTIVE AND INTERNATIONALLY ILLEGAL WARS AND A DETERMINATION TO KEEP PEACE AND THE EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT AHEAD OF PARTY POLITICS.” (words to that effect; not an exact quote). The crowd clapped and shouted approval. I screamed it.
Kucinich is most clearly (and in this race uniquely) his own man. So far in the race, he’s also mine.
Dusty
11 23 07
The Hole=
We’re in the Midst of
A Presidential Race
The Doughnut=
We are a nation at War
And We’re on the Wrong Side
And bin Laden was—and is– “Right”
By: Dusty Schoch, DI Foreign Policy Editor
11 30 07
Just to put things in perspective…since we are all now so concerning ourselves with important, politically-platforming issues like abortion, gay marriages and the marital and extramarital habits of our perennially-posturing politicians, there is still a war going on now my friends, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a war our President and his Neo-Conservative A.E.I. cronies in the Pentagon waged on false pretenses, and a war they are presently plotting to spread into Iran until our oil interests in the Middle East are deemed (by Exxon Mobile, Halliburton, Blackwater and other corporate puppeteers), secure.
All the debates, and all the issues being debated (other than war) are the hole, and the war in the Middle East, which began in 1948, which we escalated massively and fascistically shortly after 9/11/01, remains the doughnut that might easily become our nation’s undoing as democratic paragon and leader in the free world.
Why do I pick today to make this obvious observation? Because today, Osama bin Laden (whose act of terrorism triggered the war) was the subject of an AP article that made it abundantly clear what the war is about, why it started, and why is persists.
Before I quote from–and heartily agree with–bin Laden’s most recent VHS-video press release, I have to exonerate myself first from the appearance that I am sufficiently naïve to believe that he is alive.
No man of bin Laden’s wealth and resources would continue to speak to the world through the crude, distorted and out-dated VHS hand-held video recorders bin Laden’s present imposter is employing. You know- that black-bearded stand-in actor purporting to be, in fact, the same Islamic demagogue who in all probability was blown to smithereens (along with his dying kidneys) on the first day of mountain carpet bombing in Afghanistan. Any wealthy imbecile who wanted to establish that he is still in fact alive, would send some lackey into Circuit City and purchase a camera that would show sufficient close-up details of his face and hair to verify his present sentient being by providing current exemplars of anatomic details for comparison with previous photographic evidence.
It’s not happening. Also not happening is any intelligence whatsoever percolating up from either our military or other governmental agencies (not to mention our presently deceased investigative media) to establish the obvious facts that bin Laden is much more valuable to Bush and the war-mongering Neo-cons alive than dead. If bin Laden were as dead as Saddam, what would they use to fuel their fear-based war propaganda? Saddam was never the “ace” of terrorist spades; he was a joker that Bush and the neo-cons slipped in the game from out of their sleazy sleeves. Bin Laden (dead or alive) was and remains the ace of terrorist spades, and without him, Bush and Cheney would have to fold their hands and end this bluffing game they dubbed the “War on Terror”.
Collective Pentagon and “Coalition” intelligence forces should clearly be proclaiming that the total absence of any photographic proof of bin Laden’s …vivacity…along with the yet-unexplained failure of the strongest military and intelligence forces the world has ever known to locate him in going-on 7 years clearly confirm that this Islamic desert rat is long gone.
With that obvious disclaimer (of my naivete’) out of the way, I will now quote for you the words of “Osama bin Laden” as reported to (and aired on Al-Jazeera TV today, 11/30/ 07):
“Bin Laden Urges Europeans to Stop
Helping U.S. in War”
“CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Al-Quaida chief Osama bin Laden called on Europeans to stop helping the U.S. in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast Thursday on Al-Jazeera television.
Bin Laden said it was unjust for the U.S. to have invaded Afghanistan for sheltering him after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, saying he was the ‘only one responsible’ for the deadly assaults on New York and Washington.
‘The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israel alliance’s aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that’, the al-Quaida leader said…”(Emphasis added)
So here’s the gist of the doughnut we Americans must, if we are to survive this shameful episode in our otherwise (more) honorable history, ingest: Bush and the neo-cons with their pretensions of Afghani responsibility for bin Laden’s attack, and their pretensions of Saddam’s complicity and Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, were—and remain factually and morally wrong, as a result of which our wars being still waged in those countries are just as assuredly…wrong.
The shameful, embarrassing truth of the matter, which makes the doughnut so horrendously difficult to chew, must less swallow, is that every single thing either bin Laden or some imposter just issued to Al-Jazeera TV and the AP isONE HUNDRED PERCENT RIGHT (i.e. accurate). We allied ourselves with Israel for the oil—as opposed to any pretended Judeo-Christian brotherhood per Abraham, and we’re in Iraq, rattling sabers at Iran for the same reason.
God, deliver us from the Neo-cons… and please help us accomplish this deliverance in time to enable us thereafter to save our malignantly-warming globe, this precious earth we inherited, which the multinational corporate neo-cons are industriously contriving to destroy.
So far in the debates, I have heard many contenders on both sides speaking in favor of bringing our troops home from the Middle East. I have heard many recant their earlier endorsements of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of them, however, want to talk in terms of wanting to do the best they can to solve the problems that “inconveniently” exist because of American occupations of two Islamic countries. Thus far I have heard only one man advocate America’s assumption of moral and fiscal responsibility for having launched an immoral and invasive (euphemized “preemptive”) war. That man is Dennis Kucinich.
As a bottom line, then, let’s view all our presidential contenders on the basis of how much they are truly—and morally–concerned with the doughnut of my recent rant, as opposed to its irrelevant and unpalatable hole.
Democrats Ignore HR 333 call
To Impeach Bush
Isn’t this in itself TREASON?
DW In-House Historian and Philosopher,
Leonard Carrier says…
Yes! IT’S A FACT, but members of Congress who won’t support Dennis Kucinich’s HR 333 to impeach Dick Cheney are simply playing politics. They think they won’t get re-elected unless they just stand on the sidelines and let Bush and Cheney continue their self-destructive ways. The fact that they might also be complicit in an attack on Iran doesn’t seem to faze them.
Here were the reasons offered by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL, Dist. 20) for saying impeachment wasn’t a good idea. Ms. Wasserman-Schultz is on the House Judiciary Committee and speaks for Nancy Pelosi. First, she says that we have to concentrate on getting out of Iraq. This is sheer blather. She and other Democrats still keep funding the war. Second, she says that there are more important things to do. This is absurd. It is not more important to set up investigative committees than it is to protect our Constitution. Third, she says that the press would “have a field day” in publicizing impeachment proceedings, crowding out all other news. Well, why not? What more important things do the media have to do, besides spreading “feel good” propaganda from the White House? Last, she says that Americans don’t want to have impeachment hearings conducted. She should fire her poll-takers. Most Americans want to know the facts behind Cheney’s and Bush’s lies to the American public so they could go to war and thus curtail our Constitutional liberties. If Wasserman-Schultz can’t read our citizenry any better than this, she should resign from office immediately.
It seems clear that the Democrats in Congress who don’t support impeachment are the “money” Democrats, those who put the interests of corporations and economic globalization ahead of the interests of the people. These are the ones who secretly want to keep those military bases in Iraq, and who want U.S. corporations to profit from stealing Iraqi oil. They want to be known as being “tough on terror,” when all this really means is adopting an “imperialist lite” view of how to conduct foreign relations, speaking out against Bush and Cheney, but still wanting to do the same thing, only better.
When Bush and Cheney threatened Iran with military force, what did Congress do to blunt this irrationality? Pelosi wanted to pass a House resolution to denounce our NATO ally Turkey for genocide–something that occurred in 1915! Hillary Clinton voted to declare Iran’s Republican Guard–part of the Iranian army–as a terrorist organization! Senator Charles Schumer voted to confirm Mukasey as Attorney General, even though Mukasey doesn’t know what torture is! If progressives have to confront this sort of mentality in leading members of the Democratic Party, it’s going to be a long, uphill struggle.
NEO-CONTENTIONS VII
WAR
The Pro’s and Cons of Continuing America’s
So-Called “War on Terror” in the Middle East
Dear DI and B.E.A. staff, and friends,
In this open letter, I’m sending you the face of the “beast”. The beast with the #666 on its head. The featured essay (neo-con side) is the most persuasive argument in favor of our pursuing—and “winning”—Bush’s preemptive war on terrorism I have ever read. It is so frighteningly seductive in its references to the origins and seeming inevitabilities of wars in general, citing the causes and “solutions” to WWI and WWII that I classify it as among the finest pieces of (low-brow) neo-con-artistry (propaganda) written since 9/11/01. It’s “low-brow” propaganda that always decides wars and presidential elections, so don’t discount this forwarded sermon on the basis of its puerile intellectual prowess.
I addressed this letter to DI’s in-house historian and philosopher, Dr. Leonard Carrier, and transmitted it to the DI and B.E.A. Staff, contributors and friends for the purpose of provoking dialogue and soliciting comments in return. I will, by way of preview of Len Carrier’s essay on the war in Iraq and Iran share with you only this: (What I wrote to him after he responded with the wonderful essay that trails the initial (neocon) piece by Kraft:
Dear Len: This is—without doubt—the most beautifully concise—and comprehensively accurate–statement concerning the neo-cons’ war in the Middle East I have read to date. You should write more when you’re “ticked off”, my learned friend.
Bravo and kudos! Dusty
Back to you DI and B.E.A. readers and friends: I invite you (again) to reply to me at my e-mail address ([email protected]). I will collect and collate your replies and publish them all—without censorship– on the DI website in the order received, so that they will be added to the article here posted. Please don’t hesitate to reply just because you don’t consider yourself a history or foreign policy expert. All our opinions matter. In fact, our opinions (as Americans) are the only thing that really matter because war in the Middle East will continue…even to the end game of Armageddon unless we the people somehow develop, communicate and execute a consensus of opinion propounding peace.
The beast in this scenario has an appealing face. The writer–Raymond S. Kraft–is a neoconservative lawyer living in northern California who is one of the “30-percenters” who still believe that George W. Bush and Richard Cheney are correct in pursuing their wars in the Middle East. His pro-war sermon is seductive because he makes the notion of escalating the war in the Middle East seem attractive in comparison with the “history of our future” which he projects as forthcoming if we don’t heed his warning and his rallying call to …WAR!
If any of you want first to read my own account of how we got INTO this on-going war in the Middle East in order to read this call for its escalation in the context of its origins, please click on and review the “Free Book” on this site by clicking here.
If you’ll scan the cable TV programs now, and your own newspapers, you will find—everywhere—references to the call for escalating war from the ubiquitous pulpits of fundamentalist Christian evangelicals across our dumbed-down, neo-con-propaganda-brain-washed nation, making Bush’s “surge” in Iraq and his saber rattling towards Iran appear to be nothing short of GOD’S WILL. The American public (red state portion) is being herded , sheep-like to the brink of losing all resistance to the call for war in the Middle East, because the war against “jihad Islam” is being painted as the “End-Times War of Armageddon” as forecast in the New Testament. And the scary thing is that both Democrats and Republicans are so afraid of losing the votes of these Christian Fundies that none of them will dare take a stand and say that their call for Rapture through a call for escalated war is as Anti-Christian as any proposal since the snake’s beckonings in Eden.
Combining the Old Testament mythology about God’s promising Jews all the land between the Nile and Euphrates with the Jews’ (the theological basis for the 1948 Declaration of Statehood for Israel in the heart of Islamic darkness) and Gentiles’ John (of Patmos Isle fame) forecast of an end-time war of Satan and God, and New Testament promise of Jesus’ Rapturous return thereafter (along with infidels being “left behind”) you have a formula for disaster. International disaster because, in truth, just as Raymond Craft warns us, end-time nuclear war machines are in fact at large…and are now capable of fulfilling Biblical prophesy—quite literally.
But that possibility—I insist—and beg you to believe along with me—is not God’s plan…and it has certainly never been the plan of Jesus Christ who professed until his earthly departure that He came to save us…from each other and ourselves.
The trouble is, that most of these doomsday weapons (nukes) are in American hands, and it’s Americans who are gearing up to use them…preemptively…(e.g. limited-yield bunker nukes) in order that the same nuclear power will not be used in the hands of Satan (which would be the Wahhabee-Jihad Islamics…those alleged Satanic bugaboos of the Christian Fundamentalists’ call to preemptive war. )
Now, Len (I’m directing the following questions to Dr. Leonard Carrier, professor of History and Philosophy, of Asheville, NC), I’d like you (and the rest who receive this communication) to respond, in what ever order you choose, to both Kraft’s piece and what I will hereafter write as further predicate thereto.
Kraft contends that the only way to prevent this alleged Islamic Fascist force (albeit a tactic as opposed to either a nation state or either visible or corporeal organization) from conquering and/or simply destroying the world (I suppose with suitcase nukes well placed) is to continue to escalate and “win” the war on terror which Bush began in the Middle East. This guy is literally—and skillfully–advising us to resolve to consummate the restructuring of the Middle East by conquests of Iraq, Iran, Syria etc…just as called for in the widely-unknown Jewish Mein Kampf treatise I argued constitutes the blueprint and animus of Bush’s preemptive invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which would be the paper entitled “A Clean Break” penned by A.E.I. and PNAC members David and Mayrev Wurmser (and other Jews) which is described again in my little free book mentioned (and linked) above.
Len, what I’d like to hear from you, in addition to your response to Kraft’s proposal, is in essence this:
In fact has there been in the past century more than one war? Aren’t the martial monikers “WWI”, “WWII” , “Korean Conflict”, “Viet Nam War” , “Bay of Pigs” , “Desert Storm”, “War in Afghanistan”, “War in Iraq”, “War on Terror”….all synonyms or sub-chapter titles for the same, perennial and on-going conflict, with only a few changes of guards and rallying cries? Aren’t all these “events” simply karmic dominoes in the same stupid quest for power and dominance in a world turned from agrarian tribes to industrially-globalized and greedy conglomerates?
Isn’t there a strong historic case to be built for the argument that there has, in industrial times, been only one war…and the wager (the pre-emptive instigator) has been only nominally a leader or a leading nation, and in fact has been the group who have risen to power in order to defend themselves against the ones who had more power before them and abused them with it? Isn’t it simply a matter of the victims becoming oppressors once they have achieved the power to counter the oppression of their own predecessor bullies? Isn’t it the same circular karma that led the perpetrators of early genocide (Old Testament Jews traversing Arab territories in pursuit of god-promised real estate and en route killing “every man, woman, child, 4-legged animal and chicken” standing in the way…to wind up themselves victims of genocide in Europe—and now the Middle East–4000 years later?).
Haven’t the “victims” of WWI and WWII (the English with their American, Russian and French allies) become oppressors of the Middle Eastern (and all weaker) states…simply as a natural result of first acquiring the power to defeat the power of their “fascist” oppressors only to fall victim to the absolute power that corrupts absolutely, and becoming fascist in the process? Don’t’ forget- Russia invaded the Middle East first (their failed invasion of Afghanistan).
At the close of WWII, Americans were victims (yes, we remember Pearl Harbor) first, strengthened victors second, and finally industrial and nuclear powerhouse of the universe. Only Russia’s nuclear arsenal can (and) did subdue and temper America’s use and abuse of its nuclear power, making the recent (and still—no matter what they say– simmering “cold war”) the least destructive episode in the century of war…given the potential for destruction and international mayhem.
Len, has there been more than one war this Century? Hasn’t war been the rule and peace the periodic illusion?
Weren’t the Depression years in U.S. history simply a cease fire? Aren’t Afghanistan and Iraq simply an historically amorphous new chapter in the same old war? And isn’t the only solution to the present war the same solution that always was the only solution to the game of war…where ( in the Hollywood movie “War Games”) that wonderful computer finally instructed us with poetic profundity that …”In a game of trans-global thermo-nuclear war, the only way to win is …not to play.”
Len, is there any way to head these crazy Judeo-Christian crazies away from their belief that nuclear holocaust is inevitable because it’s God’s will? Any way to convince them that “getting the other side first before they get us” is the axiom for the institution of hell on earth? Any way to convince Christians …in fact and in deed to become “Christ Like” and do the only thing an Islamic enemy can neither anticipate nor successfully combat—that being to love him in spite of the fact he may never either accept or love us in return?
Any way to convince us all of the absolute fact that war is our only enemy, and that the power to win a war is never an excuse to begin one…because the war which has begun, according our most recent century’s history, will never end…until for the first time in history , a people with absolute power, resist the temptation, impulse and opportunity to become absolutely corrupt?
Awaiting with anticipation your (all of your) thoughtful and creative responses, and wishing you the
Best,
Dusty
11 17 07
PS – I thank our DI correspondent, Bob Sheets, Naval Air Corps, Retired, Sembach, Germany, for the article herewith forwarded.
NOW, SCROLL DOWN FOR THE “LESSON IN HISTORY”…
Lesson in History: By Raymond Kraft
SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II MOST OF YOU DON’T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2007.
This is an EXCELLENT essay– Well thought out and presented. Historical Significance
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.
At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 , and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan , and the following day on Germany , who had not yet attacked us It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe . Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia .
Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico , as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe .
America ‘s only allies then were England , Ireland , Scotland , Canada , Australia , and Russia That was about it All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.
The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn’t have guns, and cars with “tank” painted on the doors because they didn’t have real tanks A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium ) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.
Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia , in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America ‘s butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany .
Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers
Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.
All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.
There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.
The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs — they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel , and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra . (goal)
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East — for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win — the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.
If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies.
The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC — not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.
If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i. e. the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can’t do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . . . in Iraq Not in New York , not in London , or Paris or Berlin , but in Iraq , where we are doing two important things.
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam is a terrorist! Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq . We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won’t have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq , which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a “whimper” in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor . It began with the Japanese invasion of China . It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945 — a 17 year war — and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . . a 27 year war.
WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year’s GDP — adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.
The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States ) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater — a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.
This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.
If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq , then we have an ally, like England , in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East . The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.
The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless somebody prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1 . We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2 . We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran ‘s progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3 . We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America .
OR
4 . We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe . It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.
The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
Remember, perspective is every thing, and America ‘s schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.
The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany !
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq . The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944 , the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week — for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.
The stakes are at least as high . . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law) .
It’s difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
“Peace Activists” always seem to demonstrate here in America , where it’s safe.
Why don’t we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran , Syria , Iraq , Sudan , North Korea , in the places that really need peace activism the most? I’ll tell you why! They would be killed!
The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
Raymond S. Kraft is a writer living in Northern California that has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.
Esther for ESTHER’S NEWSMEMO
LEN CARRIER’S RESPONSE
Raymond S. Kraft is a neoconservative lawyer living in northern California who is one of the “30-percenters” who still believe that George W. Bush and Richard Cheney are correct in pursuing their wars in the Middle East. I say “wars” because they don’t want to stop with Iraq and Afghanistan. They want to take the attacks into Iran and Syria. According to Kraft, this is a good idea, because we are battling the forces of “Islamofascism,” a cumbersome term that was coined by warmongers who were ignorant of its meaning. Someone who believes in Islam believes in a religion. Someone who believes in fascism believes that big business and the government should, in concert, run the country. So fascism has nothing to do with religion, even though fascists employ religion to get the people in line, as Mussolini did in Italy in the 1920s..
Kraft and his idolater, Marvin Parchman, think that they can conjure up images of World War II to make it seem as if that conflict
could make our brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq seem honorable. Any rational person can see that it is not the same thing. Hitler invaded Poland and then the U.S.S.R. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. We fought back. Fast forward to 2003. In response to a criminal attack on the World Trade Center, mainly by Saudis and Egyptians, we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq — countries that had nothing to do with the hijacking of airplanes and flying them into our buildings. More than 200 Yemenis died in that attack on us, as well as hundreds of others who were not Americans. So the Bush/Cheney response to that attack was not only ill-conceived, it was ill-concealed. That means that the Bush Administration was intent on attacking Iraq, and the attack of disaffected Muslims on our territory was the perfect excuse to grab for Iraqi oil. We all now know that this was the intent. The nonsense about “weapons of mass destruction” was a lie fed to the Congress and the American public so that the Bush and his corporate cronies could gain control of the oil in the Middle East.
This is also why these same corporate warmongers want to find an excuse to attack Iran. It’s all about the oil. People like Kraft, Parchman, and Norman Podhoretz, try to make it sound as if we are in some gigantic ”clash of civilizations,” and that if we don’t fight the radical Muslims, we will be submerged. This is blatant propaganda. Radical Muslims form a minute part of Islam, although our invasion of Iraq has gained many more fighters to their cause. The reason is simple. If you demonize a religion, then there will be plenty of those pushing back against the demonization. There is also another, even more sinister reason, for people like Kraft and Podhoretz to try to convince the American public that we are in a “war on terror.” This is because they support the imperialistic policies of Israel, and its attempts, not only to be the only nuclear bully in the Middle East, but to occupy all of the West Bank and to dispossess the Palestinians of land that is rightfully theirs. To further these efforts, the effective Israeli lobbying machine, AIPAC, has cowed our Congress so much that they acquiesce to every demand made on behalf of Israel, despite the fact that Israel refuses to make peace with the Arabs, and lies about it by saying that Arab initiatives are never enough. It is curious that certain Christian fundamentalists are allied with Israel in their imperialistic ventures — not because they want the Jews to control all of Palestine, but because they think that this will lead to Armageddon and rapture. This is again, blatant nonsense, and people who fall for it are hopefully few, because if very many people were to fall prey to such a con job, there would really be no future for the human race.
No, despite all the religious mumbo-jumbo, and all the scare tactics employed by people such as Kraft, Parchman, and Podhoretz (as well as the Kagans, the Libbys, the Boltons, and all the other neoconservative vermin), the simple fact is that this smokescreen about a “clash of civilizations” is simply meant to cover up an imperialist grab for the resources of other countries. The American people need to wake up to this fact, to rip away the prattle that the lackeys of war and profit use to seduce the citizenry, and to tell these greedy, corporate drones that we can see through their deceptions. It’s time to take back our country, to stress cooperation rather than conflict, and to dismiss the purveyors of greed and war back into the shadows where they belong.
IS THIS WORLD WAR IV OR…STILL WW I?
As for Dusty’s question about war in general, and specifically whether I see the war in the Middle East from the historical standpoint as merely the current chapter in the same war story begun at the turn of the 20th Century, I’ll do my best to respond in a manageable number of words.
With so many examples to the contrary, it’s probably naïve to say that humans are rational animals. Another account seems more plausible, which is to say that humans are classifying animals. Aristotle led the way in this endeavor. We like to sort things out into neat pigeonholes, so as to try to understand them better. We do the same with wars.
Since just before the turn of the century, classifiers have sorted out wars with names like the Spanish-American war, World War I, World War II, the Korean War (which the Chinese call the Sino-American War), the Vietnam War, the Cold War, Gulf War I, the Afghan War, the Iraq War (the last two conveniently described as mere battles in the ongoing War on Terror)—and these are only the wars that the United States has fought in. There have been others, such as the 1905 war between Russia and Japan, the several wars fought between Israel and the Arab States starting in 1948, and the numerous wars fought in Africa among rival tribes.
Aside from the fact that in all these wars people killed and were killed, is there any common thread that ties all these wars together? Simply put, I think that in each case there has been an aggressor and one who has been the recipient of aggression. The reasons vary, whether it was our ridding the Caribbean of Spanish influence in 1898, Serbian unrest during the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the brutal demand for lebensraum by Hitler in the 1930s, or the lust for Iraqi oil that led to our invasion of Iraq in 2003. In each case, some countries wanted what others had, and were willing to fight and die to get it. So, if we like, we can say that from 1898 to the present time, there has been but one war with pauses between its episodes.
Norman Podhoretz has made it even simpler by classifying our World Wars for us in the pages of Commentary magazine. World Wars I and II we’ve already classified. World War III is the Cold War. World War IV, according to Podhoretz is our present “War on Terror,” which is also described as a clash of civilizations between the West and the radical followers of Islam. According to Podhoretz, this last war is one that promises to continue for a long time, and it is one that the West cannot afford to lose.
Andrew Bacevich uses Podhoretz’s classificatory scheme, but has a more realistic interpretation. According to Bacevich (“The Real World War IV,” The Wilson Quarterly,Winter 2005), Jimmy Carter started World War IV in 1980, when he declared the Middle East to be a region of our national interest. This was after the oil shortages of the late 70s, and in contrast to Carter’s earlier statements that we needed to conserve energy and live within our means. In other words, according to Bacevich, World War IV is a war for oil. The Kuwait War was a battle in that war, and so was our invasion of Iraq. What has helped to fuel this war has been an increasingly militaristic attitude adopted by our leadership, starting with Ronald Reagan. We have used more and more of our tax dollars to increase our military budget; and, what’s worse, we have borrowed funds from China and Japan to finance our war, leading to a precipitous drop in the value of our dollar. In fact, the dollar has dropped so much that OPEC countries are now thinking of pegging oil to the euro. If that happens our dollar will no longer be the world’s reserve currency. If the Chinese and Japanese decide to dump our bonds on the market, it will lead to hyperinflation, and subsequently to an economic depression.
The best way to end World War IV would be to hearken back to Jimmy Carter’s advice before he decided to initiate a war for oil. Get over our addiction to oil. Develop alternative energy sources. Cut back on military spending. Institute, as Dennis Kucinich has urged, a Department of Peace that uses diplomacy to resolve international conflicts. Above all, do not act as if the rest of the world exists only to enhance our creature comforts. In any case World War IV will not be resolved on the field of battle. To think that it will, as Podhoretz seems to think, is to be subject to delusion. To insist that military force will prevail, and to keep borrowing and spending for weapons of war, will bring World War IV to another sort of close, one in which our nation is impoverished and diminished in strength and stature.
– Len Carrier
11 17 07
Patrick Morton comments:
(Patrick is DI’s Science Contributer)_
11 18 07
As though by Biblical prophesy, once in every generation the beast is loosed in the streets of Bethlehem. Put another way by a one-liner reply in Red Dawn about the reason behind yet another world war, “I guess somebody just forgot what it was like.”
Not only do acts of war seem an integral part of the human genome, but as time spirals outward from its own history so apparently do the better parts of humanity seem to be deselected from human kind’s genetic expression.
Oh, sure, some of us tend to evolve and aspire towards a more conscientious and sentient being, but by and large we (as a race) are de-evolving into apathetic creatures more suited for waging war than waging peace upon each other, our neighbors, our kind.
It is alarming that the state of being at war no longer polarizes our nation, but rather puts us at odds with one another. But this is no more frightening than the fact that we placed, or tolerated, an ignorant cracker from Texas, a college wash-out, to attain the highest office of our once unanimously beloved nation; it persists as an error gone unchecked for nearly two terms. E.g. HR333.
No, I’m not a historian by any means, but I stand in great appreciation of what the past attempts to instill within us. It seems that both world wars erupted in the back drop of global disputes and along the lines of civil unrest about Europe and Eurasia, give or take a few hundred kilometers. What begins as a seemingly benign contest of urinating for distance, goes through the gamut of penis envy, then the really big guns come out.
Am I wrong, or is this pretty much the gist of modern, global warfare?
My take, as a scientist:
As long as mankind allows its smaller head to perform its thinking we are all in trouble.
I am a Star Trek fan, not for the weird clothes and space battles, but for the science and the fascination over what we could become.
However, until we completely STOP haggling over our differences we will be no better than the apes from which humanoids may have descended. (Actually, chimpanzees hunt and kill other monkeys with a little tree-leaf salad on the side, so the notion that primates are docile is bunk!) My pet theory is that evolution and creation are events that have co-existed since the days of Adam and Eve AND there is plenty of evidence to support this claim…. add to the plethora of ancient human archeological evidence the introduction of Cain’s wife into Judeo-Christian lore, if you please.
Pointedly, we’ve been wallowing around in the mire of human existence for thousands of years still striving to “get it right”, some more diligently than others. Although exemplified by some successful societies (successful until they were slaughtered by genocidal maniacs, like the American Indians), we still refuse to make our important decisions with the future generations in mind.
Did you know there is a vortex of pure garbage twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific ocean, grinding up mostly plastic from every Pacific Rim country and washing up in Hawaii as entire beaches of plastic pebbles? If we cannot work together and solve really important issues, together, as one race, then God help us!!!
This is not a plug for ecology, although a vital issue. It’s not the matter of whether the earth will survive what we, as humans are doing to it.
The matter at hand is whether we will survive our own evolution!.
Charlie Chimes In…
(Charles Crotts: Thomasville, NC Resident
Artist, Printer and Viet Nam Veteran)
11 19 07
I remember a few years back Iraq had a nuclear reactor. Now they don’t. Good old Israel blew the s— out of it. They didn’t talk about blowing up the reactor they just did it. Israel didn’t then and doesn’t now give a dead rat’s ass if anyone liked what they did. They just DID IT. There were those who wanted the UN to take sanctions against Israel. The UN did not take any. Now, why is that? Everyone was glad to see the reactor gone. Even France who behind closed doors said so. They also were the ones who built the reactor. Fortunately they were already handsomely paid.
