Putin is most definitely spot on with his accusations of U.S. imperialism and its anti-American pro-Israeli policy in the Mid East. The American people need to wake up and get their eyes off CNN and FOX News before a WWIII happen which’ll not only be very sad for the people involved, but indeed all people on this planet.

When Putin now becomes the voice of reason and moral authority it lets you know how far we have fallen ubder Bush

Paiual Craig Roberts, this is a comments section, not a place to publish your own multi-part articles.  Quit spamming!

If Vladimir does not think Bush knows what he is doing in the Middle East, he couldn’t be more wrong.

President Bush is BRINGING IT ON just as he promised Pastor Ted and his flock that he would for their 30 million votes.

They hope their plan to light up Iran this spring (with underground nukes) may be enough to finally get all the separate fires that Bush has either set or fanned--Israel ‘s occupied territories, Lebanon, Iraq of course, and Afghanistan--to coalesce into that final conflagration from which all the good folk will be able to ascend into Heaven, that glorious place where a palace and a whole fleet of Hummers awaits each and every family.

Jon
The above is an excerpt from an irreverent response to criticism of the latest global warming report. For a good laugh and/or cry go to http://EcosystemCollapse.com/ellen.html

For a thoroughly not funny piece, see:
Connecting the dots: From human behaviors to Ecosystem decline
http://StudentsForTheEarth.org

Putin is a hipocryt whose strong arming of the baltic states along with his close relations and support of dictatorial regimes like Iraq and Iran looks pretty stupid making these remarks.  Perhaps he’s sore over America accomplishing in weeks what the USSR failed to do in years in Afghanistan?

Putin would do well to worry about his own support for Islamic extremism abroad and how it’ll come back to bite him than spend time criticizing the US for confronting this global issue head on.

American citizens need to be made aware what their leaders are proclaiming since the mid 90’: to prevent any other power from questioning or challenging american power in any part of the world.

Putin’s words and actions are merely a natural reaction to the american stated intent and subsequent actions in the international arena.

North Korea is seeking nuclear weapons and probably already has some.  So it’s Iran. there will be many others to follow soon, very soon.

Russia, China, India and other regional nations have or will seek nuclear weapons as a consequence of the stated american policies and will further cooperation on preempting any american hostile actions.

America has set the ground for the coming confrontation, wherever it may take place.  I reckon other world leaders are taking notice.

You’ll reap what you sow.

Putin tells the truth. Bush once looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul and it was a good soul. Therefore I am inclined to believe in Putin and I think Bush is a loon.
I appreciate the courage shown by Putin to care enough about the state of our country that he would make such a statement.
Thank you Mr. Putin.
I am so apologetic for the stupidity of this country that they could even illegitimately put such a mindless and reckless and willfully destructive person in our highest office.
He is not only bringing down his own country, but all the countries are suffering either economically or through terrorist attacks that were brought on by his “cowboy politics”.
Bush should have a little of Putin’s class.

Of course Vladimir Putin is correct, but because of there being so many knee-jerk rally-round-the-president and we’re numero uno mind-sets, many of us will take Putin’s remarks personally, distracting us thereby from giving the Russian President’s words the consideration they rightfully deserve.  And so our president gets another free ride.  Thus does nationalism do harm to us all.

So who’s the patriot in all this?  Is it the person who believes in “My country right or wrong” or the person who believes in “My country better be right because if it’s wrong I’m gonna fight to make it right?” One leads to Armageddon and the other changes the world, so best we choose wisely.

Putin was also reported to be “furious” over US payment for the recent Israel/ Lebanon war. Bush broke his promise to the Russian president not to provide US funding to the Israelis for their Lebanese war. He used a little known provision in their security agreements with Israel to fully pay for the war by doubling emergency equipment stored in Israel. A great portion of American equipment stored in Israel last year was used to for combat in the summer war on Lebanon. Russia is also responding to US-Israeli-Turkish designs to militarize the East Mediterranean coastline with plans to establish a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus. I suspect very soon Bush’s mouthpiece in the NY times will frighten you with Syria’s infringements into Iraq as well.

Nothing worse than hearing a man without a soul (Putin) speaking the truth. He’s right. I wish he weren’t.

Paul Craig Roberts, Ehren Watada, William Blum, Seymour Hersh and many others have been writing and speaking about the deterioration of the rights of citizens at home and the torture and murder of people in other countries by administrations who have long stopped listening to the citizens and have gradually gathered dictatorial powers to themselves.

But who’s listening when there’s Anna Nicole Smith, the Super Bowl, and Paris’s and Britney’s latest vulgarities to occupy the mind.

In 1997, Lewis Lapham wrote this in a piece called “Waiting for the Barbarians”:

“Always careless about keeping appointments, the barbarians tend to arrive a generation earlier than anybody expects...The historians of the early Roman empire speak of ‘an Epicurian generation,’ myopic and selfish, devoted to the cults of celebrity, preoccupied with the pleasures of the bedchamber and the banquet table, excusing itself from the tedium of public affairs on the grounds that politics, like the children and the laundry, were best left to the hired help. The description fits our own Epicurian generation...”

The title of his piece probably came from this poem by Constantine Cavafy.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/cavafy.html

An internet site for seniors has just placed a survey question on its website”:  Do you agree with Putin?  72% said yes.  Another senior site asked if they thought George Bush ordered Scooter Libby to out Valerie Plame.  82% said yes.  What’s significant about this?  Seniors VOTE!

The day *any* American, or any *human being* gives any credibility to an ex-KGB agent who rose to power murdering by bombing his own people in an apartment building and blaming it on others, is the day America and the world is made fools of.

Putin *hates* America. Remember, due to our works, the Sovjet Union went belly-up and the cold war, and the KGB’s reign of terror, ended.

Never forget that.

HILARIOUS! What a hypocrit. This is like Adolf Hitler criticizing the US human rights record for putting Japanese Americans in temporary internment camps.

Anyone on here who is congratulating Putin for his comments clearly knows nothing about him, his government, or their affairs in Chechnya and other countries.

Then again, this board is generally full of people with much to say and little knowledge to base it on.

Johnny writes....

Putin is a dictator.
He has taken over complete control of the Russian press.
He has taken control of all businesses in Russia and murdered or jailed all his opposition.
Russia has helped to build Iran’s nuclear plant and sells weapons to other dictatorships around the world including Chavez in Venezuela.
He is the one who is really dangerous.

You forgot to add that the liberal democracts here will love him and eat up everyword he’s says that is anti-american

In regards to a comment by June...’Sometimes it seems like almost everyone but Iran’s leaders are afraid to speak the truth.’
Ali Larijani; Secretary of Supreme National Security Council, Supreme National Security Council of Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran speech at the security conference in Munich is available to read online.

Mr Larijani states Irans position very succinctly.
Most of the conferences speeches are available in text and audio.

Putin, has lost any creditability as a reformer in Russia or as a leader committed democracy.

I may agree, with his statement of the dangers of Bush doctrine, but I’d like to apart company with his sort.

Putin’s actions in Russia toward the press and government secrecy, grabbing control over the old apparatus...and employing those KGB techniques trouble me.

VET240:

You are a FOOL.
USA doing what it must to preserve freedom in the world and get rid of terrorism.
Your myopic view of things is amazing.
There is a bad world out there. Most countries have dictatorial leadership.
There are 4 billion people in this world who live in poverty and are under oppression by governments who care nothing about them.
Only this great country, The United States of America, is willing to put its blood and money on the line to free these people from their oppression and poverty.
Your type sees the U.S.A. as the problem. However, it is the rest of the do nothing world of nations who are the real problem.
The U.S. is truly “A people that is a light to the nations of the world”.
God bless the United States of America.

The article by Chalmers Johnson in the following link shows that we can’t have it both ways: We can’t be an imperial power and a democracy.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0131-27.htm

I think Putin may be telling us that if we nuke Iran, we will be nuked. Certainly, our forces in Iraq will be toast (I know: as if they aren’t already).

The gig is up. American imperialism is in its last throes. The dollar will sink, we will have to leave or adjust to a “slightly altered” (ahem) lifestyle. I don’t believe we’ll get democracy back in this country. It was a nice try, this national experiment; we had a good run. Kiss good-bye to the Constitution.

Indeed the situation may be graver: We are in all probability destined to join the 99.9% of species that ever lived that are now extinct. Why should we be special?

(Personally, I blame sexual selection. If it weren’t for our mating preferences for status, resources, and aggressiveness, our species would have a better chance to survive. As it is, we probably should die out. The Lysistrata option would never work, as individual women would never agree to make choices for the good of the group as a whole. That’s not the way evolution (by sexual selection) works anyway. So we will go the way of the Irish Elk.)

I personally hope that the indigenous peoples survive; it’s likely, given that they typically live in geographic pockets distant from major population centers. I hope that they have retained the knowledge of how to live on the Earth without raping her. It would be a delicious irony in America if if all the whites died off, given that we have fucked things up the most.

It is really terrible sitting around, unable to do anything; I tried sending emails and making phone calls to my senators/representative—they don’t respond, don’t give a damn. It is disconcerting to say the least that one of my senators (Clinton) thinks that Iran is a rogue state! The mystery is that, although she gets money from AIPAC, it’s not nearly at the level (less than $100,000) you’d think would be necessary for influence. Also, I personally hate it that she won’t investigate anything without taking my social security number, so I feel like I’m the one being investigated. We already live in a police state.

How can we protest? How can we make our voice heard? Is anyone listening? Does it even matter? I feel so impotent. People are being slaughtered and soon people will be MELTED in our names! If we have war with Iran, Bush could declare martial law...no more elections, no leaving the country. Iran’s blockade of oil will likely mean that no way to get to work or find food, if there is any left.

I’m so goddamn mad. I look at my hubby and am sad that we only had a few years together - we won’t live to old age. I see my kids and feel bad for them; they will know deep deprivation and suffering before they are even adults (if they live that long). And for what? So that Halliburtan, Exxon-Mobil, BP, Bechtel, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrup-Grumman et al. were able to make obscene profits. 

Is anyone else out there feeling this way??? I want my country back.

Some one should tell Putin that his country lost the arms race 50 years ago…

(This is for the people who will flip out and write all about President Bush and how America is evil or about how their is a seceret code in the consititution that adds up to the number 666… it must be the devil)

We haven’t had another terrorist attack after 9/11 and that is saying something, the European countries have. Bush had been president for like 6 months and 9/11 happened. He did even have a chance to try and change the situation but Clinton did…

I just wonder how big the moon-base WOULD be if our country, and Russia, and China, and India, and Japan worked together on something like that instead of on novel new ways to control/burn down the planet. Matter of fact, take about 75% of that professional football revenue and plow that on in there, too. Hell, there’d be a city of a million people on the moon, by now, if we’d done that instead of what’s gone on the last 2 decades or so.

Whether they all want to admit it or not, the whole middle east business still comes back to oil. Insurgents, outsurgents, whatever, it’s all about that detergents in your 15w40. And, the fun part is, we don’t even really need the stuff.

It’s been a century, now, since the model T Ford, let’s have some automotive R&D;instead of more cruise missiles. Maybe we can all write to VW, and they’ll build the Volks e-car or something…
cars that don’t run on gas...maybe they can even ‘go retro’, and build an electric model T...then we can have E.T. again LOL

Bush and Putin are two peas in a pod.  They deserve each other.  The rest of the world deserves to be rid of both of them, and their ilk.

First of all Mr. Putin, it’s my perception that you are an honest-to-goodness man…

Whereas Georgie Porgie Puddin and Pie, is still tying to prove his masculinity by becoming the savior of the world.....

Putin comments may come off as more than a little bit disingenuous given the myriad problems of his own increasingly autocratic rule in the former Soviet Union but I think the Russians are genuinely alarmed about the behavior of our government not just with regard to Iraq, Iran and other places in the world.

The Bush Administration’s ongoing efforts to have nuclear missles placed in former Soviet satellite states that are now members of NATO is creating more than a little anxiety among Russian political and military leaders. They see such actions as provocative and threatening to Russia.

When these actions are viewed in the context of our invasion of Iraq and not so veiled threats to Iran it is no wonder that Putin is speaking out now and will probably do so more in the future.

Israel is under far greater and more sinister threats than they could ever give to any country, much less Iran. If Israel just does nothing or just does everything that Mr. Baydala, the UN, and the rest of the world wants it to, there will be a holocaust. It’s that simple. It’s time to start telling the truth: Israel is the real victim.

Mr. Baydala said: “Iran has a right to be concerned about the hostilities directed against it.”

- Iran has only itself to blame. They are solely responsible for the hostilities directed against them. Israel has the perfect right to bomb them back into the stone age, though I wouldn’t recommend that personaly.

view from a neo-con
wow !!! the comments i read here are way off base !!! thank god for the US military the backbone of democracy and the bringers of freedom!!! Putin is a tyrant who we reluctantly have to deal with !!! any body who badmouths the USA is a friend of the lib’s !!  Chavez or Castro or anyone !!!  to Paul and his statement below ??? i sent you email I’ve been sending to the governmnet!  please see ??

What a bunch of uneducated fools on this forum.
Putin is a monster.
He is a dictator.
He sells old Soviet Union weapons, to all the Third World dictators, for money to support his regime.
He built the Iran Nuclear facility for more money to support his dictatorship.
He controls the Russian press and free speech.
He controls all industry in Russia.
He has eliminated all his opposition by murder and jailing.
You people are insane!
You will do and say anything to attack this great country called the United States of America.
It is the world who sits back and allows millions of people to be murdered by genocide caused by internal civil war by dictators in Africa . It is the world who sits back and allows billions of people to live in poverty and under dictatorial rule & oppression.
Only the United States is willing to put its blood and money on the line to stop the worlds neglect and cowardly stance against the evil which goes on in this world everyday.
America is a “Light unto the nations of the world”. God help us if she was just another one of the do nothing self centered nations in this world.
Long live the United States of America !
God bless her !

who wouldn’t trade Bush for Putin?!? Heck, I’ll even throw in cheney and rummy to boost!!!

Mr. Putin is correct.

Before WWII America had a very small military.
At the end of that war the military had evolved into a very large organization with clout in the Government

Russia foolishly occupied much of Eastern Europe at the end of the war. This wan’t done by consensus of the Russian people but by the single-mindedness of one man, Stalin.

This forced the allied nations to take an opposing position to protect what was left of Western Europe. Hence the Cold War.

The Cold War allowed our military to maintain a position of importance, by giving them an enemy to oppose. The military along with the American intelligence community gathered the intelligence of the Russian threat. Some of the intell was accurate, much was exagerated such as the number of Nuclear weapons held by the Soviet Union.

When The Soviet Union imploded, the American military was threatened with a similar fate due to the lack of a viable enemy. In 1989 I was asked what would the Military do now that the Berlin Wall had been dismantled. I replied that the Military will find another enemy. Which they have now done. Terrorism is the enemy.

What has terrorism got to do with Iraq? The better question is what does Iraq have to do with terrorism? The answer is simple. Iraq is providing the military, the intelligence agencies, and other perephreal industries with job security. We know that every time we kill someone in Iraq (it doesn’t matter who), we recruit more “Terrorists” for those of us with vested interests to defeat.

With this attitude our military industrial complex has, in their eyes, achieved the perfect environment for their eternal existance. Not just existance but real growth in overall Budgets (read tax payers money) too! More stars for the Generals, More personnel for the intelligence agencies, all sixteen of them, more control of the civilian population in America through the Patriot Act and Federal security controls.

As I said, Mr. Putin is correct. I must add that the reason he didn’t say the American people are also in danger is only because he didn’t want to meddle in our internal affairs. Never-the-less, The American people had better regain control of our Government before the likes of Bush and LIEberman sacrifice all of our entitlements such as Social Security, Medicaid, medicare and the environment in the name of the Military Industrial Complex.

What nerve this Putin has.
Putin is a dictator.
He has taken over complete control of the Russian press.
He has taken control of all businesses in Russia and murdered or jailed all his opposition.
Russia has helped to build Iran’s nuclear plant and sells weapons to other dictatorships around the world including Chavez in Venezuela.
He is the one who is really dangerous.

The title on this article, “Putin attacks the US”, is needlessly inflammatory.  Putin, if he attacked anything, attacked the reckless foreign policy of the Bush admin.  I welcome such “attacks”.  Perhaps more American politicians would engage in such “attacks” if headline writers didn’t distort the truth so virulently.

Putin is right - we are a danger to others.

-------

February 5, 2007

The US and Israel

The Real Failed States

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Part I:

Growing references by the US and Israel to the Muslim Middle East as a collection of failed states are part of the propaganda campaign to strip legitimacy from Muslim states and set them up for attack. These accusations spring from the hubris of many Israelis, who see themselves as “God’s Chosen People,” a guarantee of immunity instead of a call to responsibility, and many Americans, who regard their country as “a city upon a hill” that is “the light of the world.” But do the US and Israel fit the profile of successful states, or are they failed states themselves?

A compelling case can be made that the US and Israel are failed states. Israel allegedly is a democracy, but it is controlled by a minority of Zionist zealots who commit atrocities against Palestinians in order to provoke terrorist acts that are then used to perpetuate the right-wing’s hold on political power. Israel has perfected blowback as a tool of political control. The Israeli state relies entirely on coercion and has no diplomacy. It stands isolated in the world except for the US, which sustains Israel’s existence with money, military weapons, and the US veto in the United Nations.

Israel survives on life support from the US. A state that cannot exist without outside support is a failed state.

What about the United States? The US is an even greater failure. Its existence is not dependent on life support from outside. The US has failed in another way. Not only has the state failed, but the society as well.

The past six years have seen the rise of dictatorial power in the executive and the collapse of the separation of powers mandated by the US Constitution. The president has declared himself to be “The Decider.” The power to decide includes the meaning and intent of laws passed by Congress and whether the laws apply to the executive. President Bush has openly acknowledged that he disobeyed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and unlawfully spied on Americans without warrants. Bush and his Attorney General could not make it more clear that their position is that Bush is above the law.

It is also Bush’s position that he is above the Constitution. Bush and his Attorney General maintain that as commander-in-chief in “the war on terror,” the executive has the power to decide the applicability of civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution. The US Department of Justice (sic) has taken the position that this decision is an executive decision alone beyond the authority of the judiciary and the legislature.

An enfeebled and eviscerated Congress has acquiesced in the growth of executive power, even legislating unconstitutional executive powers into law. The Decider has grabbed the power to arrest people on accusation alone and to detain them indefinitely without charges or evidence. He has obtained the right to torture those whom he arrests. The Geneva Conventions do not apply to the US president, declares the Regime. Bush has obtained the right to commit people to death in military tribunals on the basis of hearsay and secret evidence alone. The Bush Regime has succeeded in moving the American state off the basis on which the Founding Fathers set it.

The Bush Regime led the American people to war in Iraq based entirely on lies and deception. This is a known and undisputed fact. Congress has done nothing whatsoever about this monstrous crime and impeachable offense.

Under the Nuremberg standard, unprovoked aggression is a war crime. The US established this standard. Bush has violated it with impunity.

Part II

Bush and his Attorney General assert Bush’s power to attack Iran independently of a Congressional declaration of war or any form of congressional approval. Bush claims that his power to attack Iran is merely an extension of his present power to conduct war in Iraq, a power seized on the basis of lies and deception. Congress has taken no action to disabuse Bush of his presumption.

Bush’s preparations for attacking Iran are highly visible. The entire world can see the preparations and expects the attack. Congress is mute in the face of a catastrophic widening of a war to which a large majority of the American people are now opposed.

In national elections three months ago the American people used democracy in an unsuccessful attempt to restrain the Bush Regime from its warmongering ways by defeating the Republican Party and giving control of both houses of Congress to Democrats.

Instead of acting, the Democrats have postured.

Indeed, some have joined Bush in his warmongering. Hillary Clinton, regarded as the frontrunner for the Democratic Presidential nomination, recently declared at an affair hosted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a leading instigator of war with Iran, that Iran is a danger to the US and a great threat to Israel.

Hillary’s claims are preposterous. Israel has large numbers of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Iran has none. Iran has no ability to harm the US and would have no motive except for the Bush Regime’s gratuitous provocations. A state in which a leading contender for the presidential nomination can make utterly absurd claims and suffer no consequence is a failed state.

The United States is a failed state, because in the US it is not possible for leadership to emerge. Politics is controlled by powerful interest groups, such as AIPAC, the military-industrial complex, transnational corporations, and “security” agencies that are accumulating vast amounts of unaccountable power. The American people spoke in November and it means nothing whatsoever.

The people are enfeebled because the media no longer has independence. The US media serves as propagandist for the state. It cannot be otherwise in a highly concentrated media run not by journalists but by advertising executives protecting stock values that derive from federal broadcast licenses granted by the state.

Like the three monkeys, Congress sees no evil, the media speaks no evil, and the people hear no evil. In the US “news” consists of the government’s propaganda. “News” in America is exactly like the “news” in George Orwell’s 1984.

The US is a failed state, because it is not true to any of the principles upon which it was established. All over the world today, America is seen as a rogue state, a hegemonic evil, and as the greatest threat to peace and stability. In its new identify, America is the total opposite of the Founding Fathers intention. There is no greater failure than that.

Academics differentiate between failed states and rogue states. The US and Israel meet both criteria. The US and Israel lead the world in aggressive military actions and in killings of civilian populations. Both countries meet the main indicators of failed states as published in Foreign Policy’s 2005 Failed States Index.

The leading indicators of failed states are inequality (not merely poverty), “criminalization or delegitimization of the state, which occurs when state institutions are regarded as corrupt, illegal, or ineffective,” and “demographic factors, especially population pressures stemming from refugees” and “internally displaced populations.”

All economic indicators show that income and wealth inequality is rapidly increasing in the US. The growth in inequality is the result of the state’s policy that favors shareholders and corporate executives at the expense of American workers.

Part III

The income differences between Israelis and ghettoized Palestinians are huge.

Trials and investigations of leading political figures in the US and Israel are an ongoing occurrence. Currently, the former chief-of-staff of the vice president of the US is on trial for lying to the FBI in an attempt to obstruct an investigation into the Bush Regime’s illegal disclosure of an undercover CIA operative. The accused claims he is the fall guy for higher ups.

In Israel the president of the country is accused of rape and faces indictment.

Both the US and Israel routinely ignore international law and are accused of committing war crimes by human rights organizations. The US Congress stands revealed as totally ineffective and unwilling to constrain the executive. The American people have learned that they cannot change the government’s policies through elections. By fomenting the demise of the civil liberties that they are sworn to uphold, President Bush and Attorney General Gonzales have delegitimized the American state, turning it into an instrument of oppression.

Israel’s policies in the West Bank have displaced a million Palestinians, forcing them to be refugees from their own land. Jordan is filled with Palestinian refugees, and Palestinian existence in the West Bank is being increasingly confined to ghettos cut off from farm land, schools, medical care and from other Palestinians. President Jimmy Carter has described Israeli-occupied Palestine as “apartheid.”

For decades in the face of public opposition the US government has encouraged massive legal and illegal immigration of diverse peoples whose failure to assimilate is balkanizing the US population. Economic refugees from Mexico are changing the culture and allegiance of entire sections of the American southwest, and racial animosities are on the rise.

In a recent interview, Noam Chomsky defined one characteristic of a failed state as a “democratic deficit, that is, a substantial gap between public policy and public opinion.” We see this gap in Bush’s decision to escalate the war in Iraq despite the opposition of 70% of the American public. What does democracy mean if elected leaders ignore public opinion?

Another characteristic of failed states is the failure to protect their own citizens. Israel’s aggressive policies against Palestinians provoke terror attacks on Israeli citizens. These attacks are then used to justify more oppression of Palestinians, which leads to more terror. Bush’s military aggression in the MIddle East is the main cause of any terror threats that Americans now face.

Another characteristic of a failed state is the departure of citizens. Many Israelis, seeing no future for Israel in the government’s hostility to Arabs, are leaving Israel. Among Israelis themselves, the legitimacy of the Israeli state is so endangered that the Knesset has just passed a law to revoke the citizenship of “unpatriotic” Israelis.

In the US a large percentage of the population has lost confidence in the government’s veracity. Polls show that 40% of Americans do not believe the government’s story that the 9/11 attacks were the work of Arab terrorists. Many believe the attack was a “false flag” operation carried out by elements in the Bush Regime in order to create public acceptance for its planned invasions in the Middle East.

A state that cannot tolerate moral conscience in its soldiers is a failed state. The failure of the American state can be seen it its prosecution of Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada comes from a family with a military heritage. His response to the 9/11 attack was to join the military. Diagnosed with asthma, he failed his physical, but persevered and ended up with an officer’s commission.

Part IV:

Watada’s problem is that he can recognize a war crime even when it is committed by a might-makes-right state. The Abu Ghraib prison tortures and the evidence that Bush deceived Americans about weapons of mass destruction caused Watada to realize that he was on the wrong side of the Nuremberg Principles, the UN Charter, and the US military code, which says American soldiers have an obligation to disobey unlawful orders. He signed up to serve his country, not to kill people for illegal and immoral reasons.

Watada refused to deploy to Iraq. He is being tried for refusing deployment and for suggesting that President Bush deceived Americans.

By now every attentive American knows that Bush deceived them, and our greatest patriots have said so. Watada is on trial for suggesting what everyone knows to be true. He is not being tried for veracity. He is being tried for speaking the truth.

Failure to deploy is a more understandable charge. There is no army if soldiers do not follow orders. However, as the US established at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, following orders is not an excuse for participating in war crimes. At the Nazi war crimes trials, it was the US that insisted that soldiers were responsible for using judgment about the legality of their orders.

That is what Lt. Watada did. His trial will not broach the subject of whether his judgment was correct. The evidence against him will merely be that he did not deploy.

By trying Lt. Watada the US government is insisting that American troops are not responsible for judging the legality of their orders, only for following them. The standard applied to WW II Germans is too high to be applied to Americans.

In a draft army Watada’s refusal to accept illegal orders could be used by conscripted cannon fodder to derail the state’s intended aggression. However, in a voluntary army in which soldiers seek to serve, permitting Lt. Watada to have his conscience does not imperil the command structure. Others less thoughtful and less aware will carry forth the state’s enterprise.

The case against Israel and the US does not preclude some Muslim states from also meeting the criteria for failure. However, Iraq, an artificial creation of Western colonial powers, was driven into failure and civil war by American aggression. Iran, a nation with a 5,000 year history, is certainly not a failed state. The main failed states in the Middle East are those that are US puppets. They represent American hegemony, not the interests of their people.

What the US and Israel are attempting to do is to turn the entire Muslim Middle East into failed states, that is, into puppet regimes. By extending their hegemony in the Middle East, the US and Israel hope to prolong their own failed existence.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts at yahoo dot com

When Vladmir Putin is more aware of internaional mistrust than George Bush’s administration it really signals a bad state of affairs. What Putin says is basically true; you’re either in the pocket of the Bush regime or you are a potential target to be dealt with pre-emptive actions.

It’s the war of the “WORDS”. No big deal. The deal is YOU and I, we’re still selling arms for those who wanted to kill themselves.

Putin is absolutely right. But as long as other countries are buying from U.S. arms manufacturers that’s just fine with Bu$h Inc. It’s all about profit.

Putin has a point. The US is behaving like a renegade state with more weaponry than the rest of the planet combined. The placing of “anti missile systems” in proximity to Russia makes it feel more threatened and puts us all in increased danger.

A year or so of revenues from high oil prices and Putin thinks he can come off the porch and run with the big dog. He would be well advised to get back up on that porch till MAD DOG passes that nuclular [sic] football to someone with a little more sanity. (Bush has had another look into Putin’s soul and--not realizing he was looking into a mirror--didn’t like what he saw.)

In the meantime, Putin can turn his attention to dusting off his rusting old nukes and poisoning his critics.

jon
Connecting the dots: From human behaviors to Ecosystem decline
http://StudentsForTheEarth.org

Thank you Mr. Putin. Each time a leader speaks the truth it strikes another blow to the Bush military machine. Sometimes it seems like almost everyone but Iran’s leaders are afraid to speak the truth. Bush is a weak man being held up by an illusion of a powerful country behind him. But very few in America are on his side.

Go get em Vlad!

I have a couple of observations here.  First, I think Putin merely has tolerated Bush in the past and now the time has come to speak out against stark aggression.  I think he ( Putin ) is acting like a responsible world leader in criticizing Bush and his policies. Other world leaders should join the band wagon of criticism rather than denying the obvious; Bush has to be stopped before it is too late.

Secondly, I think the issue of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons is subservient to the greater issue of security. Iran, from all accounts is a peaceful nation and also somewhat pro American.  They just want to be left alone. Why do countries like Pakistan or Israel have nuclear weapons? They have then for their general protection from potential hostile nations. Iran is currently experiencing threats from hostile forces. I am thinking primarily of course of Israel and the United States and the current rhetoric and display of militarism they are using against Iran.

Iran has a right to be concerned about the hostilities directed against it. So, if the world community was acting in an honest manner it would be criticizing the U.S., Great Britain, and Israel for their current acts of aggression and display of hostility in the region.  A man like Putin is correct in his assessment of things and it is a good thing he is speaking up at this time. Russia, also a nuclear power and one that does business with Iran is protecting its interests in the area. It is time to speak up.  There is nothing wrong with a nuclear Iran if nuclear weapons will keep the world in balance. To deny Iran nuclear weapons or the refusal to protect it from aggression from hostile nations is an act of appeasement. If appeasement is allowed to continue then the world only progresses to more chaos and instability and death; the death of many innocents.

Mr. Baydala

There is no hope for this planet . Russia is all about death camps , mass graves , torture (REAL torture) lack of human rights , lack of civil rights . Unless all International government and NGO’s are not telling the truth about Russia .....
And these Russian _______ ‘s criticize ???

He is absolutely right. I think he should tell Bush that if Bush bombs Iran, he can forget about any cooperation from Russia on any matter whatsoever.