Saving face, with ones head where the sun don’t shine, does seem a problem!

Despite formal combat end, US joins Baghdad battle

Sep 5, 4:52 PM (ET)
By BARBARA SURK

BAGHDAD (AP) - Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.

The attack also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left Iraqis wary of the U.S. drawdown and distrustful of the ability of Iraqi forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.

Wars are money-makers. 

Article to Fareed Zakaria’s article at http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/04/zakaria-why-america-overreacted-to-9-11.html, entitled “What America Has Lost
It’s clear we overreacted to 9/11”, we have badly overestimated the seriousness of various conflicts.  To me, perhaps the biggest reason for that is that so many people capitalize on the fear that such conflicts arouse in the public to sell the government on a costly program that, indeed, may add to our security, but which end up as debit generating overkill.

Zakaria says:

“Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch a single major attack on high-value targets in the United States and Europe. While it has inspired a few much smaller attacks by local jihadis, it has been unable to execute a single one itself. Today, Al Qaeda’s best hope is to find a troubled young man who has been radicalized over the Internet, and teach him to stuff his underwear with explosives.

“I do not minimize Al Qaeda’s intentions, which are barbaric. I question its capabilities. In every recent conflict, the United States has been right about the evil intentions of its adversaries but massively exaggerated their strength. In the 1980s, we thought the Soviet Union was expanding its power and influence when it was on the verge of economic and political bankruptcy. In the 1990s, we were certain that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear arsenal. In fact, his factories could barely make soap.

“Here are some of the highlights. Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has created or reconfigured at least 263 organizations to tackle some aspect of the war on terror. The amount of money spent on intelligence has risen by 250 percent, to $75 billion (and that’s the public number, which is a gross underestimate). That’s more than the rest of the world spends put together. Thirty-three new building complexes have been built for intelligence bureaucracies alone, occupying 17 million square feet—the equivalent of 22 U.S. Capitols or three Pentagons. Five miles southeast of the White House, the largest government site in 50 years is being built—at a cost of $3.4 billion—to house the largest bureaucracy after the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs: the Department of Homeland Security, which has a workforce of 230,000 people.

“This new system produces 50,000 reports a year—136 a day!—which of course means few ever get read. Those senior officials who have read them describe most as banal; one tells me, “Many could be produced in an hour using Google.” Fifty-one separate bureaucracies operating in 15 states track the flow of money to and from terrorist organizations, with little information-sharing.”

The point I wish to make is that the overkill is the product of insufficiently regulated capitalism, including insufficiently regulated capitalism at the government level.  Too often, the decisions are made on the basis of how profitable a program is rather than how necessary it is.

One way to hopefully reduce the corruption involved may be to do more to separate the business establishment from its power to form the government it wants, such as through political contributions and lobbying.

On May 20, 2003, at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-lynch,0,1638660.story Robert Scheer wrote about the falsehoods perpetrated by the Bush administration in connection with the episode about Private Lynch. 

Robert Scheer wrote this in November of 2003 (http://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/04/opinion/oe-scheer4):

“Having led the country by the nose into a clumsy, ill-advised Middle East power grab, President Bush is faced with a terrible quandary: What do we do now?

The first thing is to resist the logic of the self-fulfilling prophecy: Bush claimed Iraq was a center of international terrorism—it wasn’t—and now says that because terrorists are coming over Iraqi borders to take potshots at Americans, we need to stay and fight them.

“We won’t run,” Bush said, cavalierly dismissing the lives of the young soldiers mired in his folly. This amounts to using our young men and women as bait and assumes there are a finite number of fanatics who can be dispensed with once and for all.

In fact, the U.S. occupation of the historic center of the Arab world has provided Al Qaeda and other like-minded groups with their most effective recruiting poster yet, and we are fighting them on their terms and on their turf.

Meanwhile, attacks also are coming from various Iraqi quarters: those who enjoyed favors under Hussein and those who may have been glad to see the U.S. overthrow the tyrant but have since become alienated by an occupation that inevitably inspires nationalist as well as religious opposition.

Why can’t we learn from our history in Vietnam and the experiences of the French in Algeria and the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza that no occupation by an army of “the other” is ever welcome?

Only last week, Israel’s army chief of staff issued a warning on the limits of an occupying power to achieve its goals through the exercise of military force. “It increases hatred for Israel and strengthens the terror organizations,” Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told Israeli reporters, adding: “In our tactical interests, we are operating contrary to our strategic interests.”“

On November 10, 2005, in a very controversial move, the L.A. Times let Scheer go, purportedly to provide readers with greater diversity.  http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2722

Scheer subsequently co-founded this website, TruthDig; thanks. Robert.

Unlike a number of posters, Scheer relies on facts, not bluster. 

He was

Re: By MarthaA, September 4 at 11:43 pm

MarthaA,

I thought with the Democrats are in control of Congress since 2006, and your beloved Obama is in the White House for almost 2 years without any REAL change, and nothing but bullshitting speeches and make-belief measures that don’t have any REAL substances to it, that eventually you will “see the light” and see that both the Democratic and Republican parties are nothing but two different masks for the same Corporatacrcy party and both of them are implementing the same agenda dictated by the Corporate elites.
Unfortunately I was wrong, and to you the Democratic party is like a religion or a cult and it is futile and waste of time and effort for anyone to try to convince you about the REAL Democratic party. That will be the job of cult de-programmers.

Here is Publisher’s Clearinghouse summary of Stephen Kinzer’s “Overthrow”:

“The recent ouster of Saddam Hussein may have turned “regime change” into a contemporary buzzword, but it’s been a tactic of American foreign policy for more than 110 years. Beginning with the ouster of Hawaii’s monarchy in 1893, Kinzer runs through the foreign governments the U.S. has had a hand in toppling, some of which he has written about at length before (in All the Shah’s Men, etc.). Recent invasions of countries such as Grenada and Panama may be more familiar to readers than earlier interventions in Iran and Nicaragua, but Kinzer, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, brings a rich narrative immediacy to all of his stories. Although some of his assertions overreach themselves—as when he proposes that better conduct by the American government in the Spanish-American War might have prevented the rise of Castro a half-century later—he makes a persuasive case that U.S. intervention destabilizes world politics and often leaves countries worse off than they were before. Kinzer’s argument isn’t new, but it’s delivered in unusually moderate tones, which may earn him an audience larger than the usual crew of die-hard leftists.”

The ostriches that stick their heads in the sand and their flag in the air do America no good.  The only way to improve is to consider your history with a critical eye and be willing to identify your mistakes and the areas where you can improve.  There were many who objected when others looked at our history and decided that our treatment of blacks was wrong.  The same was true when Theodore Roosevelt undertook to correct some of the evils begot by the industrial revolution.  These were major changes.  The civil rights movement was challenged by many who wanted to cling to what they claimed was the real America.  These were major changes; just as important are the less publicized ones that happen on a regular basis, such as the introduction of social security and heath care.  Again, many saw those as an attack on what they saw as the real America. 

Those who want to put roadblocks in the road to progress are not unlike in principle the hard core Muslims who resist the modernization and reform of Islam.

Re: Arraya,August 3 at 3:58 am.

Quote
=====

Over the last 50 years the U.S.has tried to or has overthrown over 50 countries.

Unquote
=======

The credibility/truthfulness of the comment quoted above has compelled me to suggest to anyone who is interested in exploring it further to read the following book:

OVERTHROW
By
Stephen Kinzer of Northwestern University.

Before started teaching at Northwestern University about 8-9 years ago,Stephen Kinzer was the Chief of The New York Times bureau in so many different countries. It looks like The New York Times used his time effeciently.

I’m with you Arraya. The fall of the nation/state/corporatocracy will be a glorious thing. It’s already in motion and it cannot be stopped. We will never progress as a species as long as we are oppressed by these obscene institutions of control - mental, physical and spiritual.

My gosh nemesis, you’re listening to Michio Kaku? Never has such a statist, empty-headed, mouthpiece for the establishment been so embraced by folks who think he’s on the cutting edge. It’s got to be some kind of hypnosis!

And, finally, well said Peetawonkus! (all of them)

The more Egalitarian society I guess is based

on our prison population or
our rating in education or
our health care system or
our gettos or
our Citizens United decision or
our response to disasters or
our glutonous consumption of resourses or
our mountain top removal or
our fracking or
our lobbyists running the country or
our rapid transit systems or
our cell phone in every ear or
our recycling techniques
and a host of other domestic culture that makes us
unique.

truedigger3, September 4 at 6:33 pm,

President Obama is not perfect, he did not start either the War on Iraq, the War on Afghanistan or the War against Moslems.  These wars are a part of the Conservative Agenda and were initiated by the Republicans of the Bush II administration and continued by conservatives and moderates in President Obama’s administration as well as Republicans.

President Obama never said he would be perfect in everything he does, but he said he would do his best to do what is in the best interest of the nation as a whole.  He is doing what he said.

Just because 50,000 troops are in Iraq finishing up what is necessary, doesn’t mean they are in combat.  And they will be home soon.

Here is one of President Obama’s Weekly Addresses to the Nation, which is about Labor Day, Sept. 6th:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/04/weekly-address-honoring-american-worker  I hope it plays for you, because billionaires, like Rupert Murdoch and the Koch’s, are doing all they can to shut President Obama’s ability to speak to the public down and using all their computer tech geniuses to try to get the job done, to keep President Obama’s Weekly Messages from being heard on the President’s website at http://www.whitehouse.gov.

By grandpaw, September 4 at 7:05 pm

”It is unfortunate the we have posters making such absurd accusations as this, to Arraya:  “Since you appear to despise the U.S.”

You don’t have to do that old man. It’s not “posters” it’s me, nemesis2010. There’s even a name/time/date stamp.

Perhaps in your zeal to appear politically correct and one of the “Anointed” you overlooked the following:

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

”I look forward to the fall America, the world will be a better place without
nation states.”

Have you any idea the bloodshed and suffering and horror that could result from the fall of the U.S.? Take a look at the African continent and you’ll get an idea of what it could be like. The Balkan states are another example.

If Arraya’s statement doesn’t indicate “depising” just what the hell would you call it? Self-loathing is a nasty sickness and Arraya obviously suffers from it.

4.

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

” Do you think the Greeks, Romans or Mayans knew they were collapsing or was
their hubris too busy berating the other for being so backwards”

I can’t speak on behalf of all those people. But I would have to say that human nature being what it is that some believed they were collapsing and others didn’t. Can you give me the date of the Roman Empire’s collapse?

Speaking the truth about the other is not the same as berating. And some things need to be berated. Religious ignorance and oppression need to be berated. I berate the religious ignorance here in the U.S. too. I’m an equal opportunity berater.

Do you rebuke or praise the slicing off of body parts of wives, women, children, enemies, etc. by religious fruitcakes?

3.

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

” They had a program of transferring and preserving all knowledge while europeans
where condemning knowledge.”

Europeans were condemning knowledge? Wow! Where is Greece located and how did we find out about their knowledge? Where is Rome located? Have you a clue to the engineering marvels of the Romans?

It wasn’t Europeans that were condemning knowledge is was the Church—religion—that was condemning certain kinds of knowledge. The Church loved increased knowledge on torture techniques and devices. Oh… also increased knowledge in political intrigue.

Europeans advanced knowledge DESPITE the Church. Actually we under-appreciate what those Europeans endured and risked for enlightenment. 

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

” They had a program of transferring and preserving all knowledge while europeans
where condemning knowledge.  The greeks did not have a scientific method,
they theorized, but, the minute method of science, detailed and observation
and experimental inquiry were altogether alien to the Greek temperament.”

Geezeus! Language (arguably) was our first system of transferring knowledge. It was stored in the brain and verbally passed on from one generation to the other. Writing was a tremendous advance in knowledge storage technology. Both were around long before Mohamed’s daddy even had a nasty thought in his head about mounting Mrs. Mohamed and making Mohamed jr. 

Please notice the dates:

  * Thales (650 - 580 BC) regarded water as the cause, beginning, and end of all things. His ideas were probably the beginning of the controversy among the Greek philosophers regarding the importance of water vs. air vs. fire as the “primordial substance.”
  * Anaximander (611 - 546 BC) is credited with the first written work on natural science, a classical poem entitled On Nature. In this poem, he presented what may be the first written theory of evolution. He wrote that animals arose from slime which had been evaporated by the sun. He thought that the first animals lived in the sea and had prickly, scaly coverings. As these fish-like creatures evolved, they moved onto land, shed their scaly coverings, and became humans.
  * Heraclitus (around the same time) felt that the universe is continually changing, thus it is senseless to ask for its origins in the manner of a myth. He taught that there is no beginning or end, only existence.
  * Xenophanes (b. 570 BC) was one of the first people to observe fossils in rock layers. Interestingly, he recognized that the rock in which the fossils were found had at one time been submerged mud. He explained the existence of fossils by saying that that the world evolved from a mixture of earth and water, and that the Earth will gradually be re-dissolved. He believed that the Earth has gone through this cycle several times leading up to the visible fossils.
  * Empedocles (~490 - ~440 BC) tried to solve the water-earth-fire debate by saying that there were not one nor two, but four original elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. He thought that everything else came about through their combination and/or separation by the two opposite principles of Love and Strife.
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio106/earlymod.htm

2.

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

”I suggest you turn your critical eye to the current
  trajectories of our own cultures contribution to the ongoing global
  conflagration and stop dehumanizing the other.  Because we are all falling
  together.  We don’t need another dark age.  A little hint, bombing people and
  killing nuclear scientists doesn’t help enlighten people.  Just take a look at
  pictures of Afghanistan from the 50s.  Quite a contrast.”.

Why would you make the erroneous assumption that I haven’t and do not maintain a critical eye to our own culture? Name me a culture you feel superior to ours.

Global conflagration? I see one war (or two if you prefer) that the U.S. is involved in at the moment. Now cast that critical eye of your to the African continent and tell me what you see. Then cast it to the Balkan states and tell me what is the stabilizing force that is preventing 3 groups of people—two Catholic and one Islamic—from brutalizing each other in the name of their religious nationalism.

Did I dehumanize the other or dare to speak the truth about them and thus broke the rules of acceptable politically correct opinion?

Who says’ we’re headed for another Dark Ages? The only way we’re headed for another Dark Ages is if the religious of the world take control and set us back a few hundred years. You’re as bad as the Crister with his EOW bullshit alarmism.

If bombing people doesn’t enlighten them how do you explain Germany and Japan? We leveled those two nations in WWII and look at how enlightened they are today. Japan has the #1 economy in the world at the moment.

Whether right or wrong we bombed Iraq and now those people at least have an opportunity to throw off the religious and autocratic yokes of iron and form a social democracy. That’s one hell of a lot better opportunity than the North Koreans have. But don’t worry… their religious faith guarantees a major fail. Some people just don’t want to be helped. 

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

”Actually, no I’m not stretching the facts at all.”

Sure you did. Before I shook the spider webs out to read your comments the Islamic world is/was our saving grace. That’s bullshit. You changed the tune that you’re dancing to… after I responded and pointed out your egregious discrepancies.

1.

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

”Oh good grief.  Not this childish “love it or leave it” nonsense.  Truth be known,
  I look forward to the fall America, the world will be a better place without
  nation states.”

No there’s no childish “love it or leave it.” What there is another instance of your misquoting in order to avoid having to answer a legitimate question. Not knowing who you are or from what part of the world you hail I could hardly tell you to love it or leave it.

Now… will you please name for us an Islamic nation, state, or shithole that you believe to be more egalitarian than the U.S.

How do you know that the world will be a better place without nation states? Have you any evidence, a hypothesis, a theory, and a mathematical model that we might subject to independent analysis and critique?

By Arraya, September 4 at 6:35 pm

”Well at least you are paying attention.  Empires rise and fall.  See Jared
  Diamond’s “Collapse”, Ricard Tainter’s “Collapse of complex civilizations” and
  Arnold J. Toynbee’s “A Study of History”..  The falls of civilizations are usually
  coupled with a “dark ages”.

Not only empires rise and fall; so do tribes, cultures, societies, etc. It’s an evolving universe.

I have Diamond’s “Collapse” as well as “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” I also have “Nonzero” by Robert Wright and more than 500 other books in my personal collection including “Alice in Wonderland!”

Homo sapiens have always evolved from lesser to higher complexities; that doesn’t mean that some groups do not suffer set backs or extinction, but humankind is always advancing toward higher complexities. And if I have to bet I’ll put my money on the more scientific community rather than a theocratic/autocratic one. 

Have you considered that we are advancing from a Type 0 civilization to a Type 1? That means a planetary government and it is a very dangerous transition. Supposedly it requires about 200 years to complete. According to Michio Kaku we’ve about 150 more years to go.

I don’t think that serious historians downplay the achievements during the golden age of Islam (mid-8th to mid-13th centuries).  Not that there were not a lot of injustices during the period, but rather that there were some very important achievements which benefit us today.

I think that the attempts to downplay those achievements are primarily politically rather than historically motivated. 

I base my comments on articles such as the one in the Journal of The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology at http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/short/20/10/1581, entitled “Arab science in the golden age (750–1258 C.E.) and today”.  I’ll quote as much as remaining space allows:

(I’m not optimistic that anyone will read it.)

““The biomedical sciences of the Arabic-Islamic world underwent remarkable development during the 8th to 13th centuries C.E., a flowering of knowledge and intellect that later spread throughout Europe and greatly influenced both medical practice and education.”

“Arguably, many of the achievements of the Islamic-Arabic Golden Age were based on previous initiatives taken by the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks, and Romans (1 , 2 , 4) . Hence, translators were invited to Baghdad, where scientists and researchers studied the past and created the future. The result of their work was impressive progress in all sectors of science. The rulers of Islamic Spain, in an attempt to surpass Baghdad, recruited scholars who made contributions of paramount importance to science, medicine, technology, philosophy, and art.”

“During that period, Islamic medicine went through impressive developments, which later influenced medical education and practice in Europe.”

““The Golden Age” was based on several factors (5) . Muslims following the guidelines of the Prophet studied and searched for knowledge (1 , 5 , 6) . The Quran is clear: “The scholar’s ink is more sacred than the blood of martyrs”, while the Prophet promoted medical research preaching that “For every disease, Allah has given a cure.” (5)  Communication became easier because the Muslim Empire united extensive geographic areas. Scholars travelled to teach or share ideas. Furthermore, the Arabic language became a unifying factor (4 , 5) . Translations from Greek, Latin, and Chinese into Arabic were innumerable, thus removing language barriers for scholars. During the same period, Arabs learned from the Chinese how to produce paper and books became more available (5) . Libraries were established in Cairo, Aleppo, Baghdad, and urban centers in Iran, central Asia, and Spain, while bookshops with thousands of titles opened in several cities (4 , 5) . Finally, The House of Wisdom, an academic institution serving as a university, was established in Baghdad in 1004 C.E.:

“In that era, a thorough system of medical education was created in the Arab-Muslim world (1 , 4) . Arabic medical studies consisted of initial training in such basic sciences as alchemy, pharmacognosy, anatomy, and physiology, which was followed by clinical training in hospitals, where students performed physical examinations, attended ward rounds, and clinical lectures (1 , 2) . Upon completion of training, future physicians were required to pass oral and practical exams in order to be licensed. Medicine was not only a profession or science, but also a philosophical attitude based upon religion and culture, obeying codes of ethics characterizing the physician’s behavior and obligations to patients, colleagues, and the community.”

“Additionally, the Golden Age was characterized by technological, architectural, and artistic achievements (Figs. 1 and 2) . Methods for irrigation including underground channels, windmills, and waterwheels were some of the Arabic inventions (6 , 9) , while even today Arab architectural miracles and unique objects of art can be admired in many countries, with many of the best examples in southern Spain.”

It is unfortunate the we have posters making such absurd accusations as this, to Arraya:  “Since you appear to despise the U.S.”

No facts, just the juvenile emotional tantrum.  I haven’t seen anything that Arraya has posted that would come anywhere close to justifying such slander.  It’s the kind of garbage people spew when they are out of rational claims.

Ok I screwed that last post up.  Is there an edit button or am I blind.

Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims
http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-already-knows-everything-he-needs-
to-know-abou,17990/

Gotta love the onion!

There are degrees of egalitarianism. Since you appear to despise
the U.S. perhaps you can name for us a single Muslim nation, state, or shithole,
that you believe is more egalitarian than the U.S.?<blockquote>

Oh good grief.  Not this childish “love it or leave it” nonsense.  Truth be known,
I look forward to the fall America, the world will be a better place without
nation states. 

<blockquote>Once the Greeks ruled the known world as did the Romans.
There was a time when the Maya ruled supreme then along came the Aztecs
followed by the Spanish<blockquote>

Well at least you are paying attention.  Empires rise and fall.  See Jared
Diamond’s “Collapse”, Ricard Tainter’s “Collapse of complex civilizations” and
Arnold J. Toynbee’s “A Study of History”..  The falls of civilizations are usually
coupled with a “dark ages”.  I suggest you turn your critical eye to the current
trajectories of our own cultures contribution to the ongoing global
conflagration and stop dehumanizing the other.  Because we are all falling
together.  We don’t need another dark age.  A little hint, bombing people and
killing nuclear scientists doesn’t help enlighten people.  Just take a look at
pictures of Afghanistan from the 50s.  Quite a contrast.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afgh
anistan?page=0,2

<blockquote>You like stretching the facts a bit, don’t you? I believe I read
somewhere that it was actually the Greeks who had the first ideas about
evolution. And how much Greek influence did those people of whom you are
talking have? The Muslim world is quite a misnomer since what comprises the
Muslim world today isn’t hardly what it was then. Is there any way you might be
a bit more specific so that we can expose the errors?

Actually, no I’m not stretching the facts at all.  Of course, knowledge is
cumulative and the Muslims drew on greek, Indian and Chinese works.  They
had a program of transferring and preserving all knowledge while europeans
where condemning knowledge.  The greeks did not have a scientific method, 
they theorized, but, the minute method of science, detailed and observation
and experimental inquiry were altogether alien to the Greek temperament. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Golden_Age

Early scientific methods were developed in the Islamic world,
where significant progress in methodology was made, especially in the works of
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) in the 11th century, who is considered the pioneer of
experimental physics.[89] The most important development of the scientific
method was the use of experimentation and quantification to distinguish
between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical
orientation. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) wrote the Book of Optics, in which he
significantly reformed the field of optics, empirically proved that vision
occurred because of light rays entering the eye, and invented the camera
obscura to demonstrate the physical nature of light rays.[98][99]
Ibn al-Haytham has also been described as the “first scientist” for his
introduction of the scientific method,

So you’re betting a do-nut?

Do you think the Greeks, Romans or Mayans knew they were collapsing or was
their hubris too busy berating the other for being so backwards

MarthaA wrote:
“so that there will not be more vagrancy and food lines of starving people.  I will gladly turn the page with President Obama.
__________________________________________________

But the page has not been turned. There is still are 50 thousand US troops in Iraq with more than that number in conrtactors. Who is kidding who??!. Besides, there is still the war in Afghanistan and the VERY probable attack on Iran in the very near future.!
Your Obama is very busy serving the interests of his benefactors from Wall St. and the corporatacracy to care about the vagrants and lines of starving people.
All what you will get from your Obama is good talking but no walking.
The unemployment picture will not improve until NAFTA and offshoring of jobs is halted or drastically curtailed and that will never happen!!

“The carnage is not yet complete, and President Barack Obama’s attempt to put the best face on the ignominious U.S. occupation of Iraq will not hide what he and the rest of the world well know.”

Who cares what President Obama and the rest of the world well know.  President Obama has to turn the page so that he can be of benefit to the economy, so that there will not be more vagrancy and food lines of starving people.  I will gladly turn the page with President Obama.

“The carnage is not yet complete, and President Barack Obama’s attempt to put the best face on the ignominious U.S. occupation of Iraq will not hide what he and the rest of the world well know.”

Who cares what President Obama and the rest of the world well know about Iraq, President Obama is trying to turn the page to be able to devote his time to jobs and continuing restoration of the American Economy, where there can be jobs for the American Common Populace and not so many vagrants in food lines.

By Arraya, September 4 at 3:31 pm

”An egalitarian society like the US… lol!

How ‘bout we take a look at what you’ve done here, okay?

Here’s what I wrote:” Like it or not the Iraqis have been given an opportunity to develop a much more egalitarian government and society.”

Now reread what you misquoted… notice the missing “much more” and no “like the US.”

There are degrees of egalitarianism. Since you appear to despise the U.S. perhaps you can name for us a single Muslim nation, state, or shithole, that you believe is more egalitarian than the U.S.?

By Arraya, September 4 at 3:31 pm

”During the middle ages, when Europeans were burning scientists at the stake,
the Muslim world was the center of science, wealth, welcomed multiculturalism
and even had the earliest forms of capitalism.”

Once the Greeks ruled the known world as did the Romans. There was a time when the Maya ruled supreme then along came the Aztecs followed by the Spanish. There was even a time when the Dallas Cowboys were considered America’s team. Shit happens!

By Arraya, September 4 at 3:31 pm

”Actually, most historians and philosophers of science consider them the first
scientists.  Of course this was hidden and ignored until the beginning of the
20th century for ethnocentric purposes.  They had advanced peer review
methods and actually developed the scientific method.  They even had a guy
that wrote a few books on evolution in the 1200s and other literature that
inspired some enlightenment thought. ”

You like stretching the facts a bit, don’t you? I believe I read somewhere that it was actually the Greeks who had the first ideas about evolution. And how much Greek influence did those people of whom you are talking have? The Muslim world is quite a misnomer since what comprises the Muslim world today isn’t hardly what it was then. Is there any way you might be a bit more specific so that we can expose the errors? 

By Arraya, September 4 at 3:31 pm

” The point is, pointing to the “Others” religion as a cause of “archaicness” is a
simplistic copout on understanding the complexities of the rise and fall of
cultures.”

No, the point is that trying to bullshit me into believing that what they once may have been is what they currently are… is… well… bullshit! I’m judging them by what they are today because I prefer to deal with reality instead of what might have been. Religion—especially the 3 monotheistic brands—keeps people ignorant and the most progressive and advanced societies of the past were pagan.

The Great Satan is not why the masses in Islamic nations are oppressed, impoverished, and ignorant. As a matter of fact the stats show that the more contact those peoples have with Western enlightenment the better off they are. That the Muslim world can even boast of having had an astronaut in space is due to the courtesy and enlightenment of the Great Satan. If memory serves after his flight into space, Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, had to pay a little visit to the head imam in Saudi and enlighten him to the fact that the earth was indeed NOT flat; nothing like religion to keep one on the edge of scientific discoveries. That was in 1982!

Homo sapiens sapiens is one race with many ethnicities. There is no difference in our brains but there is a lot of difference in how different cultures, societies, etc. use—or are allowed to use—their human brain.

So you’re betting a do-nut?

Nemesis…......I would take your bet but we will

never know since the U.S. and their mercenaries will be

there for the rest of our lifetime.  And the world

starvation prediction is coming true as we speak and

then,  the Europeans couldn’t count past their fingers

and toes until the Middle East taught them how to count,

and world was flat.

You won’t find out what is going on in Irap listening
to Rachael and Keith or Beck or CNN
Put a good article to read is over on TruthOut.
You will find how the Iraqi govt and the U.S. is
destroying and organization by Iraqi workers, then calling
sectarian violence.

An egalitarian society like the US… lol

During the middle ages, when Europeans were burning scientists at the stake,
the Muslim world was the center of science, wealth, welcomed multiculturalism
and even had the earliest forms of capitalism.

Actually, most historians and philosophers of science consider them the first
scientists.  Of course this was hidden and ignored until the beginning of the
20th century for ethnocentric purposes.  They had advanced peer review
methods and actually developed the scientific method.  They even had a guy
that wrote a few books on evolution in the 1200s and other literature that
inspired some enlightenment thought. 

They attributed their success to their religion.  Of course, when Europeans took
the scientific torch, early historians attributed it to Christianity—Which was
equally bullshit.

The point is, pointing to the “Others” religion as a cause of “archaicness” is a
simplistic copout on understanding the complexities of the rise and fall of
cultures.

Personally, I’m not a fan of an of the desert death cults or their genocidal
skywizard, but that is just me.

By Peetawonkus, September 3 at 1:34 pm

”You can show them their hypocrisy, lies and distortion all day long and it’s like talking to a machine stuck in a loop.”

Peetawonkus when you’re right you’re right! There isn’t any arguing with the truth. A fine example of those lies and distortion is a comment like that one below where some troll claimed 300 years of continuous warfare on a nation that’s only 234 years old! Damn trolls!

By Peetawonkus, September 2 at 3:41

”The US has been continuously “at war” for 300 years.”

——————————

I love doomsayers and their EOW predictions. And don’t think for a minute that only the religious have a lock on the Stupid and the Crazy… here’s one of my favorite’s from times past by a greenie butterfly chaser:

” The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” -Paul Ehrlich, (The Population Bomb, 1968)

Like it or not Bush War II is a fact of life. Like it or not the Iraqis have been given an opportunity to develop a much more egalitarian government and society. I bet a dollar to a do-nut that their Islamic beliefs will cause them to blow the opportunity and make an even deeper shithole of their nation that what it is now if the U.S. totally pulls out and there is nothing left to keep the crazies from killing each other off.

I’ve changed my mind… I’ll bet two dollars to a do-nut.

Peetawonkus,

I can’t recall you once attempting to engage me in an honest debate or open dialog.

Leefeller,

GOOD POINT.

Is it okay to call myself an “Independent Centrist”,leaning slightly to the left,with Dwight Eisenhower as one of my four dead heros?

I do not believe in labeling people either,but I do use them to make my points less difficult to understand by those who believe in labeling people as labeling JARS full of medicines in a pharmacy!!

Arraya,
Good posts.

But, if I may—a word of advice. Don’t bother engaging people like GRYM in a debate. I used to and gave it up. There are many others here who have as well. You’ve argued your points well. But GRYM isn’t interested in anything beyond promoting right-wing propaganda. The odds are that individuals like that are simply trolls paid to come to sites like this and hijack the conversation. You can show them their hypocrisy, lies and distortion all day long and it’s like talking to a machine stuck in a loop.

Thanks again for your posts.

Not sure what my politic leanings are, they differ depending on the subjects. So when someone lumps all Progressives or Liberals or Right Wing Republicans as core groups, I find it very hard to swallow.  Since I may be conservative on some issues and liberal on others, we must find a label for myself, so then centrist fits just right, well for people who must categorize other people for personal convenience? 

Labels are so important to those who have a need to segregate others for various reasons but mostly to pose for attack.

Political, religious, economic and any other differences as the divisive need arises. So it is to be; Me and you, us and them, divisiveness requires, such a simplistic approach to life, one could say even historically verified.

Arraya, - “First, I don’t really think you know what my theories are.’

-

Perhaps I understand what it is to listen.

I have read several of your posts describing and outlining several common “progressive” theories.  As I wrote prior; if I were to ask you about Syria you would cite everything you know about U.S. foreign policy toward Syria. 

Everything you write, including your last post in this thread, including your posts on other threads, displays an eager, laser-like, focus on the United States.

-

Individuals who believe in your same theories love to quote General Butler and President Eisenhower.  The two men appear to have believed in a few of your theories, however, if I were to quote ten U.S. Presidents and thirty U.S. top military brass who disagree with Butler and Eisenhower your reply would not change.  You will reply how all others are lying or delusional.

-

You’re not “predicting” the death of capitalism in the U.S..  You’re hoping for it.

Progressives like to talk of American recession and an emerging China, yet 1 billion Chinese in booming times account for an annual gross product of under $5 trillion, while 300 million Americans in a deep recession created nearly $15 trillion last year. - In other words, a third as many people produce three times as many goods and services.  That’s capitalism. 

Capitalism feeds more people on the globe than any socio-economic system on the planet.  And you’re hoping that comes to an end.

Your theories presuppose no other nation on earth is as proud,
emotional, greedy, nationalistic, militaristic, imperialistic, or generally human
by its nature.  The United States is, in your theories, what’s wrong with the
world.

First, I don’t really think you know what my theories are. 

I don’t presuppose that at all. 

America is not really a country anymore.  It’s more the center of a global
financial system and web of multi national corporations that surround it.  The
intelligence agencies and military are at the service of the financial system to
seek new markets, control trade routes, resources and political systems.  It’s
predatory by its very nature.  Christian and Muslim empires would conquer and
convert the conquered to their religion.  Todays empire has converted people to
neo-liberal capitalism or at least tried, all over the globe.

Over the past 50 years the US has tried to or has overthrown over 50 countries. 
This was all done for business reasons.  Of course, we were sold something else
as a pretext.  As general Smedly Butler said.

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and
during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big
Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster
for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American
oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the
National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a
dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify
Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912.
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in
1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.
In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way
unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The
best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three
continent

This structure and past empires are grounded in pyramid dynamics, which is
why they have a limited lifespan. They grow by assuming control, either
politically or economically, of new territories, positioning themselves to cream
off surpluses from an ever-expanding geographical area in a form of
involuntary buy-in. In the past political control through invasion or physical
colonization was more common, but latterly globalization has enabled the
development of a sophisticated system of economic control based on
international debt slavery, supplemented with economic colonization for the
purpose of resource extraction. Both resources and financial surpluses, in the
form of perpetual interest payments, could be efficiently extracted from the
periphery and accumulated at the centre

Now the empire has spanned the globe and there is nowhere else to conquer. 
Once this happens then its game over.  The system will start to cannibalize
itself.  Which, is the phase we are entering.  Whether it is a stair-step decline
over decades or the whole financial system just seizes up as the global debt
bomb goes off over the next few years, it’s going down.

In the past, empires would go into over reach and collapse in an isolated area
with little effect on the rest of the world.  Today, ever thing is connected—so we
are all going down together. 

Einstein called this the predatory phase of humanity that, we need to get
through to progress or socially evolve.  I’d say we are approaching a do-or-die
period, a terminal stage were we could do too much damage to come back
from.  Or we can change our ways and create a rational and celebratory world.  I’m voting for the latter

Senator Patrick Leahy is trying to start

A truth Commission… he has over 100,000 signatures.

he needs more ...please visit

Bushtruthcommission.com   or the Senators website

and sign this…..everyone has been crying for this
now is your chance to do something…
He needs your support to do it…..........
put your name where your mouth is…..........
It is a start…............

The true culprit here is the Israeli lobby as former Senator Fritz Hollins put it “Congress is Israeli occupied teritory”, the millions of dollars that poured into our corrupt Democrat and Republican representatives was repaid with 3 trillion in US treasures and thousands of dead and wounded soldiers, for one reason only to remove a threat to the Israel.
Until the power of Jewish interests is relinquished from our Congress, from our media and from our financial system, this country will continue its precipitous decline. Obama, Bush they are all just sweet talking salesmen for those who undertook and have completed a silent coup d’etat. Their interest is not the USA but Israel, they are traitors.

That man of 35 years ago was a bright man

his prophecy has come true.

Arraya,

I wanted this to be in a separate post.

I knew a man once that held all your same theories.  Almost verbatim.  The U.S. was coming to and end.  It’s fall almost upon us.  Capitalism is collapsing as we speak.  Be ready.

That was 35 years ago.

Arraya,

It’s an interesting set of theories, however, fortunately not really how history has played out.

Blaming America First presupposes no other nation on the globe effects their near and far regions.  No other nation practices its own national security, trading practices or cultural exchanges apart from the United States.  They presuppose the United States runs the world.  And in a vacuum, no less.

Your theories presuppose no other nation on earth is as proud, emotional, greedy, nationalistic, militaristic, imperialistic, or generally human by its nature.  The United States is, in your theories, what’s wrong with the world.

In short your theories are rooted in the most common complaint heard around the globe regarding Americans as a whole.  Americans, it’s said, rarely see beyond their own borders.  It’s embarrassing. - I blame the media but, that’s getting old.

-

I certainly do not have all the answers. In my opinion, however, you don’t appear to know a good deal about the Middle East beyond your perceived U.S. policy disagreements with the U.S. itself. - If I ask you about Iran or Iraq you’ll give me all you know about U.S. history in those nations.  BUT, you’ll not understand that that was not my question.  You can’t conceive Saudi Arabia.  You see oil, the United States and the hapless victims of U.S. foreign policy. 

You believe you’re being kind, humane, thoughtful and intellectual.  I see that.  But Blaming America First gives no nation the respect, dignity, or even condemnation they deserve.

-

In my world, the world I see as events unfold, there are five equally powerful countries within the United Nations.  Each have their spheres of influences.  Friends and foe alike. 

Germany, for example, is a proud and independent people and nation which does not operate in a vacuum.  No other nation dictates its actions.  Germany has its own human strengths and weaknesses.  It’s own safely guarded national security.  Its own global trade.  Its own farmers, politicians and corporations working in their own best interest. Germany has it’s own enemies.  Its own friends.  Germany has its own relationship, good and bad, with China and Sudan. 

All very much apart from, often enough at odds with, the United States.

Blaming America First is not a true picture of the world.

Mission Accomplished

http://www.americablog.com/2010/09/forbes-as-us-troops-move-out-of-
iraq.html
Forbes: ‘As U.S. Troops Move Out Of Iraq, Oil Companies Move In’

LOL..  But the conservatives love blaming “big government” policies.  Isn’t that
blaming america first.  So you should understand our “big government” policies
are making things worse in the ME—at least for our publicly stated goals

So that is a way to frame, so our friends on the right can understand.  Our “big
government” polices are creating “nanny states” in the ME and they don’t like it. 
Comprende

By lastdaywatchers, September 2 at 3:00 pm

” nemesis2010 disbelief will not stop the wrath
from coming, it will however put you in it’s dust pile!”.

Take your ridiculous warnings of wrath, your bible, your gods and your mythological beliefs and stuff them all where the sun doesn’t shine.

Cristers voted in droves for a village idiot and the neo-con cabal that pulled his strings because he was a born-again. They then backed him and the neo-cons in their plan to invade a sovereign nation—albeit their own bible says that all governments are ordained of god—to depose the leader and who the hell knows what else. They backed up all the crazy because of their death-cult desire to see mankind destroyed and their Jewish undead zombie return.

The religious don’t enjoy life. They want to be in that big boring church, synagogue, or mosque in the sky. I believe that all of you fools should be accommodated and allowed to meet in a big valley and kill each other off. The sane of the earth can use the space.

Try finding a copy of “The Late Great Planet Earth” and/or “The Jupiter Effect” and/or “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in 1988” and/or “The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989” and/or “Y2K Family Survival Guide” or my favorite… “Opps! How I Screwed the Pooch in My Failed EOW Predictions and Still Made Millions off the Flock”

I’ve been hearing the same Crister end of the world bullshit all my life. I even believed all that crap as a younger man. Try studying ABOUT your bible instead of studying the bible. The truth shall set you free from all the lying, fear-mongering religious bullshit.

2000 years of Fail… End of the World Prophesies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=3reUjm_e9_g&gl=US

By Peetawonkus, September 2 at 3:41 pm

”It isn’t two wars. It’s all one war. The US has been continuously “at war” for 300 years. We currently spend more on our military than the next 30 most powerful countries on earth put together. Let’s take a break. Why don’t we try going five years without a war…or without funding some third world dictator to murder labor organizers? Funny how the Fiscal Conservatives and Tea Party tax screamers never entertain that idea for balancing the budget.”.

Democrats control all 3 branches of the government why haven’t they cut off funding? Weren’t they solidly behind Bush War II also? If you check the records I do believe you’ll find that much of the funding for all those 3rd world dictators was provided by democrat houses and senates.

Arraya,

-

Typical liberal self-flagellation and self-loathing. Blame America above all else!

gywm - Don’t spin this around on me for pointing out the USs perversions as
some sort of of mental condition I have.  This is the same sort of nonsense that
Jewish critics of Israel get—the self-hating jew.

I know you have a lot invested in the Muslim threat.  Sorry to say, you are just a
useful idiot for power-hungry madmen.  Manipulated by our own ethic biases -
one of the oldest tricks in the book to get people to accept atrocities

Empires always commit suicide —as we are all watching now, the final empire
do so. and it IS a big, stupid, evil, and perverted leviathan with one foot in the
grave anyway…it’s coughing up blood and bits of lung tissue as it stands.  So
relax, pull up a chair and get some popcorn.  It’s going to be a good show.

Arraya, - “Well one thing is for sure.  Our aggressions in the ME has catalyzed a metastasis
of terrorism and anti-american sentiment.”

-

Typical liberal self-flagellation and self-loathing. Blame America above all else!

Good grief.

It isn’t two wars. It’s all one war. The US has been continuously “at war” for 300 years. We currently spend more on our military than the next 30 most powerful countries on earth put together. Let’s take a break. Why don’t we try going five years without a war…or without funding some third world dictator to murder labor organizers? Funny how the Fiscal Conservatives and Tea Party tax screamers never entertain that idea for balancing the budget.

nemesis2010 disbelief will not stop the wrath
from coming, it will however put you in it’s dust pile!

By lastdaywatchers, September 1 at 9:24 pm

Sorry My bad again, here is the unbroken link to the
100 accuracy of what is about to happen next in
the Middle East Slide Show Synopsis”testing’

Ahhhhhh geezeus. GTFO with all that Crister apocalyptic crap. Things aren’t bad enough now you want to throw in more crazy Jew mythology into the mix. Haven’t you people caused enough problems with your born-again Shrub and Armageddon death wish? Horses don’t fly and Jews don’t rise from the dead. Grow up!

—————————————————

What the republicans’ conjoined twin brothers would rather everyone not remember.

President Clinton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps9j22G9HLE&feature=related

Al Gore on Bush 41:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JE48XHKG64&feature=related

Democrats on Iraq:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=N5p-qIq32m8&gl=US

Democrats debate themselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yd2pql5heg&feature=related

Democrats on Iraq’s WMD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i87cZ3Og6ts&feature=related

The democrats have controlled the Congress for several years now and also the White House for almost one year. Can you provide us with evidence of the Democrats voting to cease funding of the war?

—————————————————

By grandpaw, September 1 at 10:48 pm

”I think that many people way oversimplify the business of getting out of Iraq.  I expect they are not unlike the people who thought we should abandon Afghanistan so as to make room for al Queda and the return of the Taliban.
I’d like to see an end to the war, but to me many of the posters show the same kind of naiviete that those who rushed up into Iraq showed.  “It’s all so simple”.

You hit the nail on the head grandpaw; just a bunch of simpletons parroting their respective party’s KISS talking points.

Ron Kovic - Remember “The Picture of Dorian Gray,”
the story of a throughly dissolute human being whose
face never changed, remaining young, smooth and
unaffected by the life he led at the same time as the
painting of him daily showed more and more the
ravages of his dissolution to the point where it was
grotesque.

I suspect that if America was to look at herself in
your ‘mirror’ the image coming back to her would be
grotesque.

I agree with those who argue that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were motivated by self-interest and the desire to dominate.  But I don’t know to what extent they are also arguing for an isolationist position.  If so, I disagree with that aspect of the argument.  I do think a nation, that is, a group of human beings, that is able has a moral obligation to help nations, that is, peoples, human beings, in need of help.  How to provide that help is no easy question to answer.  Certainly, the thousands of people who go to impoverished and uneducated, and miseducated, places to try to provide food, education and sustenance have the right motivation, even though it often looks like their efforts pay little dividends. 

Many things are simple to talk about, and post about.  Especially if only one side of the equation is being considered.  The destruction of so many human lives in Iraq and Afghanistan by war is one side of the equation.  Simple to deal with that one:  just quit killing people.  The other side of the equation is the dire need of the people for help.  No simple answer there, so most people pretend that that side just does not exist.  I think that is one problem with most protest movements.  People band together in anger to deal with the easy side of the equation and ignore the difficult side.  How can we use our wealth and power to help those in need?  I am not sure that there is more than a mere handful of people who can suppress the ego’s need for personal power when helping others.

Well one thing is for sure.  Our aggressions in the ME has catalyzed a metastasis
of terrorism and anti-american sentiment.

That is the brilliance of the war on terror, our interventions ***cause***
reactionary groups to from.  The CIA calls this “Blowback”.  Propagandist call this “hating us for our freedoms”

Because, it is not really a war.  It’s an occupation and subsequent setting up of
puppet governments and control over perceived essential geopolitical necessary
pieces of real estate to maintain global dominance.

So what we have are the actions and the reactions to cause indefinite Middle
East interventions.  Which is why Cheney says it’s a war “that will not end in our
lifetimes”

Some of the empires before the time of Christ simply conquered in the name of
glory without feeling need to come up with any justification, because it used to
be thought in most places that “might made right” ...... any moral rules against
violence were generally within a tribe or kingdom concerning the other
members, people of other tribes were fair game unless there was some sort of
understanding otherwise.

But with the advent of the major religions that eventually took over most parts
of the world, many nations began to believe that “might makes right” was the
old order of things, now God wanted them to be peaceful unless attacked.

It became necessary to manufacture a “casus belli” as the Romans called it, a
pretext or excuse for war.  Note that the Romans didn’t need that in the
earliest days of their republic, they just went out and conquered as they pleased
for the glory of Rome !

Nowadays it’s such a set notion in all people that one shouldn’t start a war
without just cause, that propagandists everywhere are kept gainfully employed
coming up with such excuses.

This understanding, that most people don’t want to conquer for the sake of
conquering is well understood amongst top policy experts.
Brezinski indicates the need for a psychological pretext for imperial aims in The Grand Chessboard.  Where he lays out the need to dominate the ME and Central Asia and explains the psychological conditioning needed for the public to support such things.

“Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural
society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy
issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived
direct external threat.” 
—“The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic
Imperatives,” by Zbigniew Brzezinski (1997),

And later the PNAC crew understood that “New Pearl Harbor” was necessary to
garner support for Middle East aggressions.

“While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate
justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf
transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein ...
“the process of [military] transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change,
is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -
like a new Pearl Harbor ...
signed by Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush, Richard
Perle, Scooter Libby, et al.

So let’s just be honest—We are not in the middle east to root out terrorism - We are there for the reason as old as civilization itself - Domination and Control. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS6v0rK5W2Q

Amerikan blind ignorance tempered by thick as a brick stupidity is alive and well.  Of course the illegal invasion of Iraq was an act of egregious imperialism by a country whose greedy consumption of the globe’s resources has blinded it to the reality that amerikans have no more right to anything than any other human.  However singling out this particular war crime as if it were the exception rather than sadly typical of a nation which has had on average 1.4 armed invasions of sovereign nations per year since the end of it’s own civil war continues the misapprehension by most amerikans that they have been a ‘force for good’ in the world when in fact they have rapaciously invaded nearly every nation in Latin America, bombed the bejeesus out of South East Asia, raped and pillaged from Beirut to Oman and assassinated popular leaders from Leopoldville to Lagos in a disgustingly egocentric effort to oppress anyone who has something amerika’s elite want.
ordinary amerikans strive to keep themselves ignorant of their own nation’s excesses so reward the rapists and killers with deceitful epithets such as “our boys” or “hero”.
Any attempt to bring the war criminals to justice is stymied by amerika agreeing with North Korea in refusing to sign up to an international war crimes treaty.
Just about everyone else has joined.
More than one million Iraqis were killed as a direct result of amerika’s invasion of Iraq.  Yet we are told by amerikans that not only did “their boys” do a good job they are “heroes”.

All amerikans can say about that horror is a weak attempt to attack the method used to collect that appalling statistic, an attack which rings hollow since the methodology is the exact same as that used by amerika against ‘enemies’ (ie anyone who has something amerika wants) prior to inavding them, or poisoning leaders, sending a remote controlled ‘drone’into a family home or any of the other barbaric methods they use to steal what isn’t theirs.
Meanwhile like medieval parasiteic priest trying to justify the superstition that enabled their theft from the people by arguing how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, amerikans ‘debate’ around and around diversions like whether sSaddam Hussein wasa good leader or not.  That is irrelevant, whatever system other countries have is no business but their own, until they attack someone else.
Kuwait had been a province of Iraq until USuk decided otherwise.  Not good enough reason to justify invasion.  The amerikan mainland has never been under attack - national security has never been in danger since 1776.  yet the litany of amerikan atrocities is unabated.

How many amerikans know Pearl Harbour was the direct result of an amerikan naval blockade of Japan aimed at preventing its products competing with amerika’s?  Or that 911 was launched by a motley crew of bourgois kids from amerika’s ‘allies’ justifiably angry at the endless slaughter and oppression amerika has been inflicting in their homelands to ensure they can steal all the resources?

There was no state behind the WTC action, and not even a cohesive non-state actor, just angry humans who couldn’t take it any more.

Some good news at last! One or the other this is a step
forward. In such politicized society as American
there’d be lots of criticizing now but that does not
belittle the value of this step. Step aside from the
Bush-era [URL=http://eastwest-review.com/article/pax-
americana-multipolaris]Pax Americana[/URL] at last. In
my eyes Obama just gained some extra points of respect.

By Go Right Young Man, September 1 at 10:39 pm Link to this comment

FRTothus, - “Go Right Young Man perhaps would have us forget that the US government armed and supported this “mass murderer atop one of the oil-richest states in the world” for its own narrow and cynical ends.

We disagree.  I believe your view of events is meaningless hyperbole trusted by roughly 8% of the American public (Left leaning of course). 

There is no need for me to hope people forget contemporary Iraqi/American history.  The things you believe in have already been long dismissed out of hand by 92% of the public.

Yup, only 1 in 10 really know whats going on!

grandpaw:  Here’s the site for the Bill Moyers program with Greg Mortensen

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01152010/watch2.html

For a time, when I learned Mortensen was working with the military, I grew suspicious of his intentions.  However, Moyers questions him in some detail on what he has done for and with the military. He says he has never taken any government money for any of the schools; they have all been built with private funding,  On the face of things, I believe that he is completely sincere and honest and is going a lot not only to help the Afghan people in some of the most remote areas, but to educate our woefully ignorant soldiers there.  He works with the elders in areas where the Taliban are strong. He seems uniquely qualified to interface with people from very different cultures, having been born and raised in Africa.  He climbs mountains in more ways than one. Thanks for pointing me toward reviewing his career in more detail.  I had read “Three Cups of Tea” when it came out.

The simple thing is the USA in all pomposity believes it can change an ass backward country into it’s own image! An, image so self righteous it seems almost like some kind of blind religion. 

For me the lives that would still exist, the money which would not have been wasted and the results as they are now show the results….. all just that, .......  wasted!

Maybe if the USA goes into Iran, it will be like the three bears…. just right.  I can fantasize as well as the so called great leaders of our nation. So Saddam Hussein was an ass, but the world is full of asses and the ass Saddam kept Iran and Iraqi busy with their collective hate for each other, what a stupid decision to make up crap and attack Iraq, like many stupid decisions, maybe I see Vietnam?

Yes, It all seems so simple!

I think that many people way oversimplify the business of getting out of Iraq.  I expect they are not unlike the people who thought we should abandon Afghanistan so as to make room for al Queda and the return of the Taliban. I believe that there are thousands of foreigners in Afghanistan like Greg Mortenson who have given their lives to improve the lot of Afghans.  I’m not at all sure we would do the right thing to tell them to just pack up and leave behind all that they have accomplished. I’d like to see an end to the war, but to me many of the posters show the same kind of naiviete that those who rushed up into Iraq showed.  “It’s all so simple”.

FRTothus, - “Go Right Young Man perhaps would have us forget that the US government armed and supported this “mass murderer atop one of the oil-richest states in the world” for its own narrow and cynical ends.

-

We disagree.  I believe your view of events is meaningless hyperbole trusted by roughly 8% of the American public (Left leaning of course). 

There is no need for me to hope people forget contemporary Iraqi/American history.  The things you believe in have already been long dismissed out of hand by 92% of the public.

You appear to assume most people are ignorant or blind.  I do not.

A few added thoughts: a) Obama warns against “open-ended wars,” as if they are almost animate things. But wars end, not when they reach a rational, previously agreed-upon expiration date, but usually when tough, specific wartime choices are made that lead to victory or end in defeat. One party must decide – for good or bad reasons – that it doesn’t want to fight to win, or simply doesn’t believe it has the resources for victory. To say that “open-ended wars” are undesirable is a banality that offers no guidance for these real-life choices. A better truism is that America should not fight wars it does not intend to win.

b) “Turning a page” is no more wise than promising a withdrawal target date. If Anbar breaks out tomorrow in violence, surely we will turn back a page to offer at least air support, if not more, to Iraqi forces. The terrorists know that as well as we do.

c) I am struck how the text of the president’s speech, if put into the mouth of George W. Bush, would be roundly derided by anti-war majorities in the Congress. But Obama knows that, historically, wartime Democratic presidents — Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Clinton — are given greater leeway in matters of war, based on the supposition that, unlike conservatives, liberals go to war reluctantly and only when it is forced upon them. We already saw that with the sudden deafening silence on Obama’s Guantanamo, renditions, tribunals, Predators, escalation in Afghanistan, etc. So this is all old hat.

d) So was Iraq worth the cost? And could Obama have cited anything positive other than banalities? In some sense, that was asked post facto of every war — whether it was the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, WWI, Korea, or Vietnam. The truth about Iraq is that, for all the tragedy and the loss, the U.S. military performed a miracle. After nearly seven years, a constitutional government endures in that country. It is too often forgotten that all 23 of the writs for war passed by the Congress in 2002 — from enforcing the Gulf I resolutions and stopping the destruction of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs, to preventing the Iraqi state promotion of terrorism, ending suicide bounties on the West Bank, and stopping Iraq from invading or attacking neighbors or trying to acquire WMD — were met and satisfied by the U.S. military. It is also too often forgotten that, as a result, Libya gave up its WMD program; Dr. Khan’s nuclear franchise was shut down; Syria left Lebanon; and American troops in Saudi Arabia, put there as protection against Saddam, were withdrawn. Perhaps a peep about some of that—especially the idea that in an oil-short world, Saddam Hussein might have been more or less free to do what he pleased again in Iraq. (The verdict is out on Iran; playing a genocidal Hussein regime against it was morally bankrupt. Currently, Shiites participating in consensual government could be as destabilizing to Iran in the long run as Iranian terrorists are to Iraq in the short run.)

Furthermore, the destruction of al-Qaeda in Iraq helped to discredit the entire idea of radical Sunni Islamic terrorists, and the loss of thousands of foreign radical Islamists in Iraq had a positive effect on U.S. security — despite the fallacy that we created them out of thin air by being in Iraq. Kurdistan was, prior to 2003, faced with the continual threat of genocidal attacks by Saddam Hussein; today it is a booming economy. All that would have been impossible without U.S. intervention.

What do you think, Bob?  Maybe some of the above was what President Obama meant by a “remarkable chapter,” or what Vice President Biden meant were his administration’s “greatest achievements”?

Sorry My bad again, here is the unbroken link to the
100 accuracy of what is about to happen next in
the Middle East Slide Show Synopsis

http://tinyurl.com/35dqzto

My bad, here is the unbroken link to the 100
accuracy of what is about to happen next in the
Middle East Slide Show Synopsis
http://lastdaywatchers.blogspot.com/2007_11_26_archive.
html

Go Right Young Man perhaps would have us forget that
the US government armed and supported this “mass
murderer atop one of the oil-richest states in the
world” for its own narrow and cynical ends.  He would
have us forget that it was we who supplied him with
chemical and biological weapons, we who supported him
in his massacres, we who looked on approvingly on his
mini-me police state, we who encouraged his war with
Iran, we who gave him the go-ahead to invade Kuwait
(April Gilspie, US Dept of State Under Sec.) for
their slant-drilling theft of Iraqi oil, and we who
then double-crossed him while pretending to take the
high road in expelling him.  It is the US that
regularly blackmails the UN when it doesn’t serve US
corporate ends.  It is the US that bugs the UN,
denies access to those we arbitrarily single out as
terrorists, bullies diplomats and parades lies before
the General Assembly, we who perpetually veto any
resolution that might bring peace to the Middle East,
we who ignore World Court decisions, we who run
torture chambers and taught Saddam (and others) a
thing or two about how to do torture “right”.  It is
the US that operates the world’s terror network, runs
a terrorist school at Fort Benning, trains the
invaded countries’ officer corps the latest torture
techniques, having perfected them ourselves.  It is
we who foment conflict worldwide on a scale that is
way out of whatever Saddam might have aspired.  It is
the US that regularly ignores the law it so strictly
holds others to when it serves the dictates of US
investors, subverts election when their man can’t
garner the votes.  It is the US that imposed
sanctions and a no-fly zone that predictably resulted
in the deaths of thousands, mostly children, in Iraq,
just as it has done in earlier wars.  It was the US
that trained, funded and protected Al Qaeda and Bin
Laden, that now infamous boogie-man CIA asset.
Odd how squeamish the supporters of imperial
privilege become when it comes to death by beheading,
and how silent they are when it comes to the much
larger massacres for which we bear direct
responsibility, our own participation in the same
crimes for which Nazis were once hung, the same
terrorism, the same rationales, only on a much
grander scale.  Those we’ve killed in their thousands
and millions with our cluster bombs and depleted
uranium and targeting of pharmaceutical plants and
hospitals and dams and sewage treatment systems and
in our own prison camps and torture chambers in our
endless invasions, those killed by our own thugs and
US-installed tin-pot dictators given official US
sanction to kill on our behalf which overwhelms the
retail terror of petty tyrants. It is the US that
uses atomic weapons and provides the world with its
WMDs, targeted Japanese civilians, targeted French
civilians, targeted the anti-Nazi Resistance (see
Operation Gladio) and put the Nazis back in power all
over Europe and integrated the SS into our own
National Security State (see Operation Paperclip).

Are the people of Iraq better off?  Not at all. 
Would they have been better off had the US not
invaded?  Quite probably.  Would they have been
better off if the US had not crushed their efforts
toward democracy and installed a dictator?  Likely. 
Would they have been better off if the US had minded
its own business?  Absolutely.

And so we killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq
alone… to give them the vote?  Don’t make me laugh. 
For women’s rights?  Do you mean to suggest that Bush  
was on some kind of feminist mission? To “save” the
Kurds?  As if the US does humanitarianism if it can’t
make a buck exploiting the poor.

There is no justification for what the US did, and no
amount of fundamentalist Judao-Christian propaganda
or imperial equivocation will ever change that. 
Ever.

It’s no fun to criticize Obama ... he’s like the tar baby ... it’s only marginally more interesting to criticize Scheer ... let’s see how many sentences we have to read to get to the charade .... here’s the sentence ...

“The lies that empowered George W. Bush to invade Iraq represent an enduring stain on the reputation of American democracy.”

This is Scheer idiocy !  The ‘lies’ were a charade, no one believed them, no one was meant to believe them, they were part of the show for the populace, which had no say whatever in the decision to invade Iraq, but there had to be the appearance of ‘persuading’ them.  Now Bush is the whipping boy, the only thing Bush was ever interested in invading was the girl’s dorm, the neocons that engineered the invasion are still in the White House, they have different names, but they’re there.  Their lackeys still fill the Senate and House.  Obama is an affirmative action President who does what he is told. 

Scheer’s superficial and partisan ‘analysis’ is part of the scam.  A diversion, to co-opt the idealistic remnants of the ‘left’.

There may be a lot to regret about the past policy of the United States in the Middle East, but the removal of Saddam Hussein and the effort to birth democracy in his place is surely not one of them.

First, there is no longer a mass murderer atop one of the oil-richest states in the world. Imagine what Iraq would now look like with $70 a barrel oil, a $50 billion unchecked and ongoing Oil-for-Food U.N. scandal, the 19th year of no-fly zones, a punitative U.N. embargo on the Iraqi people — all perverted by Russian arms sales, European oil concessions, and frenzied Chinese efforts to get energy contracts from Saddam.

The Kurds would remain in perpetual danger. The Shiites would simply be harvested yearly, in quiet, by Saddam’s police state. The Marsh Arabs would by now have been forgotten in their toxic dust-blown desert. Perhaps Saddam would have upped his $35.000 cash pay-outs for homicide bombers on the West Bank.

Mohammar Khaddafi would be running his centrifuges and adding to his chemical weapons depots. Syria would still be in Lebanon. Washington would probably have ceased pressuring Egypt and the Gulf States to enact reform. Dr. Khan’s nuclear mail-order house would be in high gear. We would still be hearing of a “militant wing” of Hamas, rather than watching a democratically elected terrorist clique reveal its true creed to the world.

Saddam’s police state was wounded, but would have recovered, given high oil prices, Chinese and Russian perfidy, and Western exhaustion with enforcement of U.N. sanctions. Moreover, the American military took the war against radical Islam right to its heart in the ancient caliphate. It has not only killed thousands of jihadists, but dismantled the hierarchy of al Qaeda and its networks, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Critics say that we “took our eye off the ball” by going to Iraq and purportedly leaving bin Laden alone in the Hindu Kush. But more likely, al Qaeda took its eye off the American homeland as the promised theater of operations once American ground troops began dealing with Islamic terrorists in Iraq.

Some believe that the odyssey of jihadists to Iraq means we created terrorists, but again, it is far more likely, as al Qaeda communiqués attest, that we drew those with such propensities into Iraq. Once there, they have finally shown the world that they hate democracy, but love to kill and behead — and that has brought a great deal of moral clarity to the struggle. After Iraq, the reputation of bin Laden and radical Islam has not been enhanced as alleged, but has plummeted. For all the propaganda on al Jazeera, the chattering classes in the Arab coffeehouses still watch Americans fighting to give Arabs the vote, and radical Islamists in turn beheading men and women to stop it.

On Sept. 11, 2001 there were nine nations openly harboring and/or aiding radical Islamist enemies of anyone not subscribing to their brand of Islam.  Today there are only two.

Yes, there may be a lot to regret about the past policy of the United States in the Middle East, but the removal of Saddam Hussein is surely not one of them.

Mr. Barrack Obama,

  I saw somewhere, can’t remember when or where:

Obama Eases Restrictions of Arms Sales to Narrow Trade
Deficit

enough was said of your bullshit speech,

but you neither brought CHANGE OR HOPE to America and
we really needed it.

I annoint you as HOLLOW MAN…........................
no substance.  Just what the world needed, more arms
distrubuted everywhere, of course our troops, get to
battle against weapons their brothers manufactured.
Helps ur perpetual war.

Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, maybe Iran, maybe Pakistan, maybe etc., etc., just
mind boggling.

Mind-numbing, a vent for diffuse energies that have not yet found any focus for constructive action.

What prole and Arraya said.

This analysis by Mr Scheer is so correct, again
confirming what the May 15th Prophecy has been
saying all along

Because it is the straight truth of God Word, so
whenever a man is being honest with himself and to
others, thereby the true realties on the ground will
reflect & mirror to the 100% accuracy to it’s truth  

The comment by SoTexGuy is spot on, I’m with
you

jphinton you are right that the love of money
is the root of all evil

MarkBiskeborn I feel you!

Leefeller not funny!

balkas I don’t get it?

Arraya you have a excellent point!

FRTothus See what I said to jphinton

thebeerdoctor You had a few didn’t you?

And for the rest of you, if y’all want to know with
100% accuracy what is about to happen next in
the Middle East view this Slide Show Synopsis
http://lastdaywatchers.blogspot.com/2010/07/blog-
post.html

“The carnage is not yet complete, and”…Robert Scheer’s…”attempt to put the best face on the ignominious U.S. occupation of Iraq will not hide what he and the rest of the world well know.” “The lies that empowered George W. Bush to invade Iraq represent an enduring”…trend throughout Amerikan foreign policy that started long before the black day that Geoge W. was ever born. This is not anything so trivial as “a stain on the reputation of American democracy.” “Our much-vaunted system of checks and balances” is itself a lie that enabled “the mendacity of the president who acted like a king and got away with it”...exactly as the system intended. “It is utter nonsense for”… Scheer to once again try and exonerate the duplicitous Obama.. ”who in the past has made clear his belief that the Bush administration’s case for this war was”...acceptable, voting in favor of every single funding bill for it during his brief undistinguished stint in the miserable Senate that let Bush get away with it all.
  “We paid a huge price simply to assuage the arrogance of a president that was unfettered by the restraints of common sense expected in a functioning democracy”…but the Iraqi people have paid and continue to pay an incalculable price for the genocidal crimes of the arrogant Bush and his less arrogant but equally criminal predecessor and successor in the presidential palace. “Particularly shameful was the betrayal by the Congress and the mass media of the obligations to challenge a president who exploited post-9/11 fears to go to war with a nation that had nothing whatsoever to do with that attack”…a Congress which included several members of the current White House gang. “With hundreds of thousands of [uncounted] Iraqis dead and maimed” and 4,287 Americans dead and 30,182 wounded.. “and at a cost of $3 trillion to American taxpayers”…and no reliable estimate on the astronomical economic costs to Iraqis…”the U.S. imperial adventure in Iraq has left that country in a horrible mess, controlled by a corrupt and deeply divided elite that shows no serious inclination to effectively govern”…and the U.S. also controlled by a corrupt and deeply divisive elite that shows no serious inclination to reform.
  “Remember when most of the once respected mass media”…no, do you?  When was the mass media ever respected and why? It’s been buying this same propaganda routine for ages; what happened to the “respected” mass media in Vietnam or Palestine? “Nor did the invasion even make more secure our access to Mideast oil”…which was never ours to begin with, so why should it? Scheer should be a press agent for ExxonMobil like most of the rest of the “respected” mass media!
  “What a joke we have made of the ideal of representative democracy”…when war criminals worse than Saddam like Clinton and Bush and Obama can escape his fate and go right on killing and maiming in Afghanistan and elsewhere. ”Obama deserves [no] credit for extracting this country from a war in Iraq that he”…voted to fund and in which he continues to maintain large levels of occupation troops; and “it is mind-numbing that in his nation-building [sic] efforts in Afghanistan he is now repeating the same”… pre-meditated crimes that were made in Iraq. And it is “mind-numbing” that a card-carrying member of the “once respected mass media” like Scheer should once again write it off simply as unintended “errors” instead of the willful crimes of empire.

This is Sheer at his best.. kudos to him.

I watched our President’s address. I was not uplifted or gladdened. The way he gave homage to the criminal administration of his predecessor made me nauseous. There was a lot of nonsense to it as well.

Something big was missing from that address too.. in all the talk about sacrifice and the bloody costs of Bush’s war.. did Obama make note of what happened to the people of Iraq? The hundreds of thousands killed.. those disappeared, tortured, maimed, incarcerated? The millions displaced by the war and devastation of their country? I don’t think he made any reference to that at all..

And Obama wants to stand tall and honor our troops. Bully! He dishonors their service and sacrifice by allowing the crimes.. torture, corruption, lies.. of Cheney, Rumsfeld and so many more to go unpunished.. even unexplored!

I absolutely despise the Republicans, what they did during the Bush years and what they are doing now tearing America apart with their lying and inflammatory politics..

But I am coming to hate Obama for his utter lack of action or leadership on most everything he swore he would do in return for my vote.

Adios!

War is about money, pure and simple. Iraq, Afghanistan, War on Terror, War on Drugs… War is profitable, especially for the privateers that hold no national allegiance or fealty to the US, or the world.

War starts in boardrooms and is directed by mercenaries in Armani suits. Only dollars make sense to the psychopathic profiteers whose ethics are encoded in the decimal places on a spreadsheet.

Morality is reduced to acceptable losses, expenditures, debt instruments of mass destruction, collateral damage and hostile takeovers.

Predator drones are the CEOs, CFOs, COO,s and all other combinations of Cs and Os that mindlessly without any human consideration except to mitigate liability, remotely execute their corporate strategies of lies, obfuscation, death, destruction and maximized profit.

Our service men and women are pawns on the corporate chess board that are moved to secure more oil, more mineral resources and create more weapons and equipment, that keep the corporate coffers full, while the coffins of the fallen are filled.

The lands that we invade and the people that are murdered by the stroke of a pen, are marginalized and dehumanized by a signature on a check to pay for atrocities that cannot be bought. More than 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, their families, their livelihood, and their country so that we could free them from their oil. The Iraqi people are not even a consideration for the tally of the consequences of war.

More than 4500 American service men and women were killed and 30,000-40,000 wounded, forever scarred by corporate greed in Iraq and the numbers continue to rise in Afghanistan. The American people are stained with the blood of our aggression and greed. Trillions spent on death, while our own people die from lack of healthcare. The American Government is complicit in the death and suffering of its own citizens for the sake of corporate profit and greed.

Terrorism does not stem from caves in some remote mountains by fanatical jihadists, but in the vaults of a malignant military industrial complex of boardrooms, legislatures, golf courses and fundraising galas.  The jihad is at home. The corporate jihadists run our banks, our halls of government, our corporations and the military industrial complex.

When we follow the money we just end up in hell.

I am so happy Obama is working night and days to protect me from all the terrors of the world, such as an airplane flying into the bridge, which I now live under, well….. since I lost my job and home.

Damn, am I lucky I do not work at a place like Goldman Slacks, can you imagine how unsafe it is working in one of those big fancy buildings.

If I could do it over again, I would vote for Palin and MaCain just to see if things would be even better than they are now, at least McCain had a secretive plan on how to end the wars, because he told us so!

So, people still, tho tacitly,lead some people to a cnclusion that the aggressions by US wld be ok if they would be based on ‘truth’, or truth 1, the amercan one.
Stiil others justify murder of people on the fact that they were murdering one another or by s’meone else or on thousand and one reasons.
No single justifacation would ever do. Just posit the usual wishful thinking, while drinking beer and watching games. tnx

I applaud your untiring efforts to expose the truth.
But in this case? I think you’re picking on the wrong
guy.

In the sense, that the President is just a spokesperson for empire,  you’re
correct.  He does not have serious decision making abilities.  In the sense that
he is commander and chief,  you’re incorrect because he is just a silver tounged
bait and switch to progressives, pretty much following the same economic and
foreign policy objectives(which are intimately related).  There is only so much
lipstick you can put on a pig.  The American empire and global capitalism is in
it’s terminal stage and until we abandon it’s logic, which Obama fully embraces,
conditions will worsen—for the all average citizens of the planet. 

Obama is the good cop until the empire needs a bad cop to achieve it’s imperial
aims.

With President Obama continuing with his anti-Iranian rhetoric, does the American system not contain any
semblance of diplomacy following on to these
devastating wars which have produced such a shocking
loss of life, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan?
There is no talk of going into Myanmar(Burma) and
removing those despots running this Country, in
contravention of the democratic wishes, made through
the ballot box, by the indigent population; why not
then, as these were the reasons offered for getting
rid of dictators and “unpleasant individuals”, such
as Saddam Hussein, by our dear ex-leader, Tony Blair?
This was the excuse being put forward for such
actions having been taken, at that time following the
failure to find weapons of “mass destruction”, by our
benign democracies such as America and the UK, and
why the UN was by-passed to enable these ‘very
necessary’ actions to proceed.

Perhaps you are too negative in your outlook for the
future. All you say is true, yet there is hope for
Iraq as an independent and relatively democratic (by
Middle East standards) Islamic power.

There would have been growing pains in any event for
Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest to join us
in the 21st century. We have made some friends there,
after all. If not our government, certainly many of
our medics, soldiers and journalists have acted in
manners reflecting humanitarian ideals.

Maybe we should hold our generals (rather than the
president) accountable for much of the carnage. They
should know better after Viet Nam and Korea, but they
wanted a war, any war, to win promotions, and wield
power. They are celebrated as heroes and celebrities
in the press.

Gen. Petraeus especially, has manipulated the press
to push for war. He often gives statements directly
contradicting the president just hours after a White
House briefing. He should be fired, and the rest
demoted for incompetence.

CEO’s of large corporations (and the boards who
support/control them) have similar immunity. They
bribe politicians and foreign governments at will.
Having sold out American workers by moving their
factories overseas, they are unconcerned with the
fate of the USA as long as they can still use
American forces to protect their tax-free operations
abroad.

They bought up the mainstream news outlets to control
the spin on their actions. No one holds these people accountable. If they are caught in some particularly
public fiasco, they simply negotiate a fine. Now,
having convinced George W. to hand over the Supreme
Court to Chief Justice Roberts, they have gotten
corporations the rights to act as citizens, but enjoy
freedom from accountability for the actions of the
directors of said corporations. Under Robert’s
machinations, all of the protections for individual
rights are under attack.

In a democracy, it is OUR responsibility to hold the
government (and those who abuse it for their own
profit) feet to the fire by exposing their perfidy.
If the majority of citizens (as the polls seem to
show) are content with the sale of our government to
the highest bidder (as the removal of campaign
restrictions allow) the president IS OBLIGATED to do
as they bid, right or wrong.

I applaud your untiring efforts to expose the truth.
But in this case? I think you’re picking on the wrong
guy.

When will they tell where the “Weapons of Mass Destruction are hidden!!!!!
Why can’t we charge the last administration with the crime of “Lying” and “Murder” of innocent civilians.

Why can’t we pass an amendment to the constitution to charge all officials that usurp the constitution they swore to uphold. WHY?

Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, and most of all the Drug War they are all lies. 

Did you know that more Americans Died in the ongoing phony Drug War than all those phony wars!
Let’s stop the insanity now!!!!!

“The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in
the hands of its people.”

The US paid a huge price to enrich the military-security complex, set up a puppet
government that could collapse at any time and secure global hegemonic control
over the earth’s dwindling energy reserves.

All hail the empire!!

War pays handsomely.  The invasion of Iraq proved a
bonanza.  The difficulty Mr Sheer and others have
with official pronouncements is that they believe
them.  Even if we discount the whopper that someone
else besides our own intelligence networks pulled off
9/11 to jump-start (to “Pearl Harbor”) the war, there
is still the mistaken belief that this was about
establishing democracy or reducing a (practically
non-existent) threat (of whatever would scare the
American people) harmless. US official were pretty
sure Saddam had WMDs because after all, we provided
them to him - we had the receipts!  The actual goals
were something else entirely, and not all that
difficult to determine, either.
Let us suppose that 9/11 WAS an inside job, a false
flag operation using Arab dupes, included Israeli
agents, run through Cheney’s Pentagon, under cover of
a military exercise (just as London’s 7/7 was) as the
evidence indicates.  Let us also suppose that the
elites firmly believe that War is the health of the
State, and that they understand that the US dollar,
and indeed their massive fortunes, are dependent on
maintaining the disparity, and controlling all the
resources.  Control is what’s key. And it’s not the
oil, per se.  Oil is useless; it must be refined.
Control the refineries, and you control the oil. 
Control the oil, and you control the value of the US
dollar, based as it is on oil. This is why the US
supports OPEC. The price and/or scarcity of oil is
what gives the dollar its trading value. The goal was
not to pump Iraqi oil, but to shut off the tap,
create scarcity to increase the value of the dollar. 
The US supports the military dictatorship in Saudi
Arabia since FDR made that little “agreement” with
the “royal family” to sell in dollars only, and
anyone who strays (Saddam, eg) gets punished.  An
ancillary benefit is the re-enforcement of the US as
Global Dictator, providing demonstrations of
arbitrary and brutal violence everyone to deter
competitors and keep the already-coerced quiet.  This
is of course why the smaller the outrage, the weaker
the target, the more brutal the response.  Notice how
the US disarmed and inspected Iraq for years before
our chicken-shit troops dared enter.  Stirring up
instability and violence is good for business,
especially when the market in weapons is a primary
interest.  “Illegal” drugs are also very profitable. 
Afghanistan’s Taliban eradicated the poppies,
considered them an abomination, which is why they
were the designated enemy.
The US foments conflict, enforces its rule of, by and
for the elites and top-down rule with fine words and
sometimes stirring speeches, but always with stunning
brutality.
The US IS engaged in a war of civilization.  It is
destroying the oldest one on earth by supporting the
most radical elements within it (a long US practice)
to deter independence from US control.
The real threat to the State, which is to say the
elite, is independence and democracy, both here and
abroad.  If we are independent, we cannot be
exploited as they wish, and if we are democratic,
then personal wealth is removed as an influence in
public decisions. (This is why corporations and the
“unitary executive” are the preferred method of rule. 
It is my-way-or-the-highway, top-down rule.) Neither
condition is acceptable to the Aristocracy of
Capital, and anything that utters from their mouths
is better understood as a deception.
This US/Anglo capitalist War of Terror on the cradle
of humanity and indigenous people is far from over.

My non-political family members who saw President Obama interrupt their normal television programs, remarked that President Obama appeared now as shifty eyed as former President Bush, insincerely talking out of both sides of his mouth. Take this gem:   

“Going forward, a transitional force of US troops will remain in Iraq with a different mission: advising and assisting Iraq’s security forces; supporting Iraqi troops in targeted counter terrorism missions; and protecting our civilians.”

Let’s see, that “transitional force” is 50 thousand troops. The “advising and assisting Iraq’s security forces”, well in my long youth, there was a President named Nixon in another war, and that transition was called “Vietnamization”.
Then there is that “supporting Iraqi troops in targeted counter terrorism missions”. Do you have to go to to the Wikileaks sweb site to consider the possibilities of that dubious declaration; especially when combined with “protecting our civilians”, which makes you wonder who those people are, private contractors? diplomats who drew a lousy assignment post?
But then there is the jewel imperial crown:

“As long as I am President, we will maintain the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.”

Which clearly shows that BHO proudly continues the war is peace policy, laid down by President Truman, who established the locked-down national security state, and has been continued by every president ever since. Military industries fear not! The President reassures you.

Billions of dollars, thousands upon thousands of
American widows, widowers, mourning parents and
children later and we get this? Of course every
thinking, rational adult knew this is where this
would end.

How much longer will the American people tolerate
this charade of an elected and representative
government being by and for the people?

It is truly time to turn our backs on this corporate
kleptocracy and treat the government as being as irrelevant as it has become.

Not only is Obama continuing the bloodshed in Afghanistan, he hasn’t exactly ended US imperial operations in Iraq. 50,000 troops, a Vatican-size embassy, bases, an increase in mercenaries, Americans better not be shocked when Iraq finally explodes and becomes the next Islamic Republic led by Muqtada al-Sadr.