|
|||||||||
Posted April 18, 2003
Regarding "The Harder They Fall" by Alan Bock:
Totalitarian regimes and fascist regimes are not stable unlike democracies. This is true of oligarchies such as America. The description of "ruling through fear" certainly describes America today. Whenever peace manages to crawl out of the rubble, Bush's popularity plummets. Whenever anyone, especially that pesky bin Laden, member of a tribe of bin Ladens who are very close friends of the Bush clan, crawls out from under the rocks to attack us, Bush's ratings go way up as frightened people rush to him for "protection."
What a racket! So Mafioso!
Once again, peace threatens to break out and Bush rushes to war again, making one threat after another. Simultaneously, he has his coconspirators talk about peace and how they will not allow Bush to go to war again. Powell used to be the flack man who ran around lying about how Bush and he really wanted peace and cooperation but he can't do this anymore since no one believes him so he threw off his mask and is now a war monger 100% of the time. Tony Blair, who must be getting some very substantial bribes, is playing the the Powell role around the world, just like the last imperial adventure. "We have no plans for more wars" and "we will have UN input in running the countries we conquer" are pure lies and Blair knows he is lying. He also knows he has only a few more months of credibility left and then he and Bush will have to find another person to play the role of full time liar.
Justin Raimondo isn't nearly as naive as Mr. Bock. He knows the enemy is Bush and Bush's hidden elite fascists.
Bush rules by fear alone. Only a section of America worships him and they are all millennialists praying for World War III or military Praetorian Guards who want to beat up countries disarmed by the UN. Since stealing the Presidency, this corrupt ruler cannot go freely about America. All communities he visits is wiped clean of all dissent. Even Michael Moore, a best selling author and academy award winner, cannot be allowed to go to the Press Club dinner Bush goes to because Bush is too cowardly to have another shining light in the room! Talk about Kim Sung Il! So Fleischer is warning the press to not invite someone because he "might say or do something"! Amazing. Bush can't even take the heat of an old lady, Helen Thomas, asking pert questions.
This man, Bush, is surrounded by "yes" men. Over one weekend of our war against a disarmed nation, questions were raised about the delusionary thinking about the "cakewalk" promised to all of us. So when Bush was told that he must wait for reinforcements before taking Baghdad, he instead ordered the Marines into the city without preparation. The commander refused and was arrested and his replacement then rushed deep into the city where he was shot in the head when he posed for propaganda photos. The press was so cowed by Bush, they refused to report the arrest for three days and the death for four days and even today, reluctantly reveal it was the commander who was shot in the head.
I knew within three hours what happened thanks to the Russian site, Iraqwar.ru, where the Russian embassy revealed intercepted conversations of our inept military.
Indeed, this war reveals our many weaknesses as a military. Much of it is plain hubris. Some is very malignant. For example, the rank killing and targeting of outside media is astonishing and horrible and typical of tyrant regimes like Saddam's which Bush's regime resembles more and more each day.
A warning:
the buildup to World War III will be gradual, on minor war of the major
American power vs one tiny disarmed nation after another until the coalition
against American imperialism is ready and they will strike back. And World
War III will officially last about two days. The end of which, many major
cities will lie in nuclear ruins. Certainly, no American city will remain
intact. Think of it. This is our future.
~ Elaine Supkis, Berlin, New York
Alan Bock replies:
Well, I might not put it so strongly, and I certainly don't know our future. But I wouldn't deny at all that many of my observations about totalitarian regimes and their insulation from ordinary life apply to the United States as well.
Justin Picture
The picture of Justin Raimondo used on his page makes him look like a hungover thug – is this really the picture you want of this guy?
Justin Raimondo replies:
That picture rocks. What did you expect – a dweeb in a bowtie?
Regarding "My Bloody 1040" by Matthew Barganier:
Tough article on tax day. I would like to add that in matters of taxation, citizens of The Empire forfeit Constitutional rights under their Fifth Amendment: "... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". Stop paying the war tax, and soon heavily armed IRS agents start seizing property.
Great article Matt. But you don't have to pay for this evil. Simply file a new W-4 and increase your allowances to the point where you owe money at the end of the year. Then you can simply refuse to pay.
~ Bob Runyan, Loma Rica, California
Regarding "Phase Two Begins" Justin Raimondo:
Great Job again Justin:
I really look forward to your columns and enjoy reading your site daily. It helps keep my sanity. Because I am really scared of the way Americans are being fooled and lied to so brazenly. They are blinded by patriotism and don't ask ANY questions at all. It is really really scary. I knew that if this ended quickly then they would become even more arrogant. Now they are full of themselves, I saw the President on the news Sunday evening and he was literally grinning ear to ear.
What kind of trouble are these people (Neocons) getting us into?
(I would like to send a donation, but thanks to Pres. Bush great economic plan I was laid-off 3 months ago!)
"The Americans were driven out of Beirut by Hizbollah on October 23, 1983, when hundreds of American Marines were killed in a suicide bomber attack on their barracks."
Well, by then Hizbollah did not exist as a political organization, it is of course quite possible that the group which executed the attack joined Hizbollah when it was formed some months later, but that is only a possibility.
I want to tell you also that although the US identified a man with name Moghniyah (the supposed head of the Hizbollah external operations section, although it seems that this supposed external operations sections has no work to do since we do not hear of external operations executed by Hizbollah) as the man responsible for the bombing (it is surely an easy guess than a real identification) it could not identify until now the bomber himself, which makes the initial identification of the mastermind really dubious.
I want to remind you also that the US was not on a charity operation in Lebanon then, the US was participating in a civil sectarian war then on the side of the Christians against the Druzes , another religious sect.
I was in Beirut then, and the US were bombing the Druze villages in the mountains overlooking Beirut with huge bombs flying from a ship named New Jersey. The building in which I lived trembled due to the bombing , and my family were afraid the building will collapse, that we got out of it and the bombing was in the mountains some 20-30 kilometers from our home.
Curiously enough the civil war between the Druzes and Christians in which the US participated, began when Israel occupied the southern Lebanese mountain (Sharon, same Sharon was then minister of defence).
Of course the Lebanese civil war began some eight years before, but the Christians did not have a war against the Druzes until then, and curiously, the Druzes and the Christians were both allies of Israel (it is like conservatives and liberals friends of Israel), although one cannot say for sure that Israel armed both parties, yet Israel surely allowed arms to flow freely for both parties, and more than that Israel used to carry the warring factions from one village to another with there arms, so that both parties needed Israel and were at its mercy and needed that they must please Israel, or else Israel would enable the other party to massacre the other if Israel was not pleased, a lot of massacres happened to both parties I can assure you, and Israel washed its hands from the blood of the innocent (the good old divide and rule formula, nothing new or ingenious).
Israel has until now very good relations with the Druzes both inside Israel and in Lebanon , It had very good relations with the Druzes of South Lebanon when it built the so called South Lebanon Army to help to do the dirty work during the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon which ended after 24 years. The Druzes as allies of Israel did not participate in the resistance of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
So let us make a summary of all that:
Israel is the ally of US, Christians and Druzes Druzes are enemies of Christians and need Israel's help. Christians are enemies of Druzes and need Israel's help. The US is friend of Israel and enemy of Druzes who are the the friends of Israel. The US is the friend of Israel and friend of the Christians who are the enemies of the Druzes who are the friends of Israel. And so the story ends and they hated each other ever after.
As always, thanks for the cogent read. I have long thought (since about 10/11) that the 'War on Terror' is – quite simply – the Palestine-Israel conflict writ large on the world stage. Today you used the exact words I've used for a while – 'writ large' – which made me feel less lonely in my opinion.
I am filled with anger by it. Having lived though apartheid South Africa – where people of different colours and persuasions fought, debated their problems and negotiated peace without exporting their conflict to the larger world – I resent the Zionists for exporting their problems. For making their problems our problems. I resent the US for its paucity of intelligence in this regard. Good people of America – one by one, you wield the power to stop this and eject the hijackers from your government – just as millions of individuals brought down the Apartheid government in my country. You can do it.
~ Margaret Vidal, Johannesburg, South Africa
Regarding "Has America Gone Commie?" by Christopher Deliso:
From the sounds of your commentary I could swear you are suggesting things could be quite different if the Democrats were in control, eh? But then you couldn't be suggesting such a thing could you? After all, the Democrats are the party of oligarchs and cronies that started the demise of American freedom. Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and of course, Jimmy Carter, and William Jefferson Clinton.
All of these men gave us such things as World War I, the League of Nations, the graduated income tax, the stacking of courts, conscription, interventionist policies, partnerships and alliances with communist dictatorships (i.e. Joseph Stalin) Social Security, unions (government-protected monopolies) – no cronyism there – the Federal Reserve, the Banking Act of 1913, the illegalization of certain plants, the unconstitutional practice of issuing Executive Orders, (shall I go on?). No, I am sure I have given you plenty to consider, but I sincerely doubt you will admit your coloring of history is anything but factual. ... After all, you can't even bring yourself to admit the president cannot pass a tax cut no matter how much he wants it. Just ask Tom Daschle, he's the one who arranged to undercut Bush's pledge to cut taxes most recently. And last time I looked, Daschle was a Democrat too.
A friend of mine sent me this link. While in general I think I agree with what you have stated I would make a request of you. Try common English. I have the feeling you are impressed with three dollar words as it was an academic that sent this link to me and by the way you use the words. When I need to run to a dictionary 4 – 5 times in an article I fear that it makes me feel rather stupid, this leads to my being resentful of the article in general. Frankly while I am sure you have some very good points and on the surface they sound founded in fact, I did not finish reading the article as I got tired of trying to figure out just what the hell you were saying.
I am also not likely to find out if what you said is founded in facts. So I for one, have been lost to your musings. I shall not be swayed by your learned point of view as you seem to have gone out of your way to alienate the likes of myself.
I know you are sitting there right now looking down your nose at this memo thinking to yourself 'what kind of uncouth, uneducated guy is this anyway?' Well to vindicate you sir, I am in fact rather uneducated. The bottom line though is that you can alienate people by using language like this just as quickly as using vulgar language. Granted a different class of people perhaps. I would like to see your article republish but this time in English and perhaps in a more mainstream location as I think you have brought up some very good points that a lot of people do not fully understand. Thank you for your time.
Regarding "How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War" by Michael Lind:
Thank you for such an informative article. I am a combat veteran of the Persian Gulf War I, and now a lawyer in a solo practice. I've been watching over the past five or so years as Israel's foreign policy has become our foreign policy. I've also watched in complete disbelief how are current government has come to disregard the opinions of 725 million Europeans and a billion Arabs all for a country the size of New Jersey. Our foreign policy has forced us to live like the citizens of Israel – in fear of terrorist acts. My grandparents from my mother and father's sides immigrated from Italy and Sicily. I wish the citizens of those country's well, but I would never ask a U.S. citizen to drain their blood on foreign soil for the interests of those countries.
I hope that you can bring your message to the public, and ensure that the public understands it.
US Marine Against (Canadian) Interventionism
I'm a Private First Class in the United States Marine Corps., and all I can think of to say is what the hell? We got Canadians who want to tell us how to run our country, and people who want to mock our armed services with their "island of war."
Joining the military, any branch, requires a lot of sacrifice, and I'll be damned if I'll let anyone take all that I and all of my brothers in arms and try to make us look bad. What do you think we are doing over there, we are protecting the united states. I'm an NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) defense specialist, I know what nerve agents, blister agents, blood agents and choking agents can do, and so do the Kurds in Iraq, and so would many more people if evil nations were allowed to exist. Things have to change, I'm sorry if war scares you, but you can't be so small-minded, we aren't there to kill people, we are there to change things for the better for the Iraqi people and in turn for ourselves.
Will the Real Internet Please Stand Up
You guys have to have one of the very best sites on the Web.
For the last few years, I would occasionally bounce over to Antiwar.com for a different perspective. However, since the Iraq debacle began, you guys have really outdone yourselves and I have become totally hooked.
I cannot imagine how much digging and reading you have to do to put together your daily news links and lists of sources. Those links are always comprehensive and provocative.
Antiwar.com is just a tremendous accomplishment and really proves the value of the Internet. I promise to become a cash contributor in the near future. Thanks for the good work.
Regarding "From Baghdad to Damascus?" (Le Monde):
The good news about Syria coming into the "Axis of Evil" is the debate now includes Israel. Something that the Neocons have tried hard to avoid. The Neocon's ties to Israel are not openly debated in the press, and if fact have been downplayed and "thinly veiled." The Neocons see an "opportunity" to take on Syria, but unfortunately for them the groundwork hasn't been laid, and Syria has been an ally of the US, but not Israel. And with Sharon publicly calling for an invasion of Syria, people are starting to wonder what is driving our middle east policy, the eradication of terrorism or Israel. The Neocons just might have "overplayed" their hand.
~ Susan Baker, Los Angeles, California
Comic Book Villains
It's amazing to see the proliferation of propaganda with the Iraq war. Look at the created names we have now: "Chemical Ali" and "Dr. Germ." Sounds like something out of an X-Men comic strip. I can't wait for the name they come up for with Assad! I guess I'll just have to wait for the next year's issue.
Counterattack for Peace
It appears that the American political scene operates by swings and counter-swings and by backlashes. The most recent example was the huge switch from complacency about terrorist attacks inside the US to some bending of civil rights and a jingoist attitude and revenge against Arab nations. Syria and Iran and North Korea and Columbia are next on the list. We have a wildly popular President who can ignore Congress and the Constitution, as well as the United Nations. Most Democrats are quivering. What to do?
One approach might be to foment, as soon as it could be well-planned, an underground swelling of support for a Constitutional Amendment to make George Bush President for Life, or at least throw out any limitation on terms of office. His supporters would become eager to promote this, once they heard about it. After the pressure to accomplish this would mount, an opposition force would automatically form and become just as vehement in upholding the original concepts of our Constitution. Maybe Bush would even lose the next election! If this sounds a bit like Dialectic, so be it; but please recall Newton's Third Law.
Economic War
About this Iraq issue. This is not just a physical war, it is an economic war against all OPEC countries. What the big boys on capital hill are trying to do is simple to explain. Iraq has the 2nd largest oil reserve on earth. OPEC controls the price of oil by what they agree to produce in barrels of oil per year. Now what would happen to oil prices if Iraq started producing oil as a nonmember of OPEC with the 2nd largest oil reserves on earth?
The USA can then control the price of the most precious commodity on earth. Oil prices will decrease dramatically as oil supplies increase worldwide. Why increase oil production? USA is under the premise that they have been slighted by the OPEC countries. That the money the OPEC countries made by selling oil to the USA, some of it has been siphoned off to terrorist organizations that are hostile to the USA.
This is a sort of "punishment" for the OPEC countries for these slights and in the long term to loosen OPEC's grip on the world oil supply and but USA in control the price of a barrel of oil.
Pure economics and greed. In a few years the OPEC countries will have a much thinner bank roll to play with and terrorist as well. In the end it will lead to more animosity toward the USA.
Hell they don't care they are probably investing in oil futures right now!
Regarding Ed Wong's letter posted April 15:
Thank you for your information, Mr. Wong. I did not know that Saddam cut limbs off children, burned them and killed their parents. How terrible. He was a sick man.
I have to admit that I am rather ignorant about Saddam's crimes against civilians. I have done a thorough study of Stalinism. I wish someone with real expertise on Saddam's crimes would recommend some books or literature on this issue. I really want to learn the facts.
Did the average Iraqi live in fear of midnight arrest and prison camp for no reason? Did Saddam randomly have people arrested? Were there large concentration camps, or gulags full of millions of men and women such as in Germany and Russia? Were people free to live where they wanted (as economics dictated), or did the government assign housing to them? Did people have to carry internal passports and show them to the militia on demand? Did the government force people to work in certain places, or could they choose where to work? Were all enterprises government owned, or was there private property? Did people have to go on a list and wait to buy a car, or could they do so if they had the funds?
Could people travel abroad if they had the resources? Were women forced to wear scarves or chadors? Were people forced to attend religious services under threat of arrest? Were children taken away from their parents and put in government institutions? Could people have telephones and could they call abroad? Did people get arrested for telling a joke about Saddam? Were people afraid to talk to their families and friends about anything remotely political? Who were the people who were gassed? What were the circumstances? How many villages was this done to? Were all private firearms confiscated? How many men, women and children were killed on Saddam's orders during his time in power? Why did he go to war against Iran? Why didn't Saddam use his WMDs when he had nothing more to lose?
And there are many, many more questions. It would be enlightening to many of us to learn more. Any recommendations?
Eric Garris Replies
Whatever happened to Christine Stone? Does she still write (elsewhere on the Internet.)?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Managing Editor Eric Garris replies:
She is with the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, and writes for them all the time. However, many of their articles have no byline.
Sorry to bug you so much but has the US declared war officially, i.e., in a constitutional manner with a vote by Congress on Iraq? I can't find anything like that on the Internet.
Eric Garris replies:
No such vote was taken. The last time that Congress declared war legally under the Constitution was in 1941.
I was amazed and disappointed when on your website on Today's Highlights, you printed the article "Please, No More Made-in-the-USA Monsters" by David Hackworth, from worldnetdaily.com.
Joseph Farah is the CEO of the WorldNet daily. Mr. Farah is a well known darling of the religious right, the Neo-Cons, and a frequent flyer to Tel Aviv! I suggest you check the credential of the person(s) who recommended an article with link to Mr. Farah's website on the Antiwar.com site!
Eric Garris replies:
Joe Farah didn't write the article. David Hackworth did.
Did you have any problem with the article? Do you have anything bad to say about the author? The fact that such an antiwar piece appeared on a conservative site and written by a conservative military man gives it far more weight than if it had been written by a Robert Scheer or Alexander Cockburn. The antiwar message needs to be heard by the widest possible audience, so I am very gratified when WorldNetDaily or other non-typical sources run such great pieces.
I am also pretty amazed when leftists resort to McCarthyism to attack who they don't like, while carefully avoiding addressing the substance of the article.
I wonder if any of you hypertarians would be willing to explain to me why, when attempting to use the "Print This" facility for Justin Raimondo's latest column my Norton Firewall informs me that something is requesting MY BANK ACCOUNT NUMBERS.
When I block this request, I am presented not with the printable version of the article, but with something vaguely referencing the wonders of "Clickability Inc."
Look –
I have not been presented with some boilerplate upon entering the Antiwar.com website requesting me to wave my "privacy".
I do not need any more junk email.
I do NOT need my bank account numbers unknowingly zapped across the cybersphere.
Other websites have requested SUB ROSA and also without acknowledgment not only my email address but even my SS#!
I am trying to educate myself about what is happening in this country via the web but feel like I'm being watched from EVERY quarter. That in effect a great deal of what I read is or can be tracked. Even in places I thought unlikely.
For Christ's sake, whatever happened to anonymous web-surfing? And I don't mean for pederasts, embezzlers and terrorists.
(Don't blame it on Clickability: surely you can find some other way of making your material printable!)
Eric Garris replies:
Regarding your concern on the Clickability functions, here is what our rep there says (let me know if you need to contact them, I would be happy to put you in touch):
This is not possible. Our service is 100% free to the users. As you know, it is subsidized for them by publishers such as yourself.
I have had one or two complaints like this in the past. In each case, the user had recently installed firewall or privacy software which checked for some (but not all) of the digits in their credit card. In at least one place, our code generates a random number to ensure cache busting. There is also a code within the button.js file which is a series of 0's and 1's which indicates to our server which tools you have active, e.g., SAVE THIS, EMAIL THIS, etc. As an example, I just clicked the EMAIL THIS button o the home page of Antiwar.com and the url for the EMAIL THIS popup was http://antiwar.emailthis.clickabili ty.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=create and fb=Y and url=http%3A//www.antiwar.com/ and amp;title=Antiwar.com and random=0.5356132615965933 and partnerID=13 and expire =
It is possible that the random number that is generated might match some of the credit card numbers they entered into their protection software.
Who's Next?
The current escalation of rhetoric and veiled threats against Syria is very strong circumstantial evidence that charges against the current administration regarding intentions in the Middle East are in fact correct.
I expect to see reports here at antiwar.com very soon about a new propaganda campaign orchestrated by the PR department of the Pentagon, Fox News, targeting Syria. They've dropped any pretense of concern over the nonexistent"weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, and focus is shifting to the next target.
If this is not a wake-up call for the Middle East, Europe and the rest of the world to present a united front and take action to stop Hitler, er, Bush from swallowing the next country, then the world deserves to be conquered. As Robert Heinlein so eloquently put it, stupidity is the only capital crime.
Here in America, we need to take decisive action as well. I would hope that the movers and shakers of the various political parties put together a similar united front to ensure that Bush joins his father as a one-term wonder. Impeachment, however desirable, is not an option with a Republican-controlled Congress.
With luck and hard work, maybe in 2004 we can send the war mongers packing, then turn our energies toward ensuring that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, et. al. are sent to the Hague for trial as the criminals that they are.
The question to be answered here in the US is the same: are the majority to stupid or willfully ignorant to save our own freedom? The results to date are not encouraging.
~ Carter Mitchell, Gurnee, Illinois
American Pride
It's difficult to feel any kind of "American Pride" these days, considering our actions in Iraq. I think it's beyond just being "The Ugly American" anymore, now I think the world thinks we are a monstrous, nonthinking bunch. The world is seeing pictures that our own media is not allowed to show the American people, "pictures of dismembered civilians," many which are children that have been bombed by "We Americans". Who is to dispute their view of Americans now? By looking and listening to our American President, the world thinks we are all like him, and that's not flattering to me!
Any real patriotic American would be concerned about our place in the world, but today we have a group in power, and a mindless group supporting them, who think it's fine to have the image of a "Bully." And what's funny about that, "They think they are the patriots!" But I'm not laughing!
War Crimes Trials
I read that the Bush Regime is going to establish its own "Victor Tribunals" in order to try accused Iraqi War Criminals. This said, will the Bush Regime – from Bush to Cheney to Rumsfeld and Powell and Wolfowitz and Perle and Feith, et al – also be charged with war crimes for the
1.) Illegal invasion of a country using preemptive attacks.
2.) Illegal use of Depleted Uranium and Cluster Bombs which wreak havoc on civilian populations which an invading force is meant to protect according to the Geneva Conventions.
3.) Allowing the unrestrained looting and destruction of buildings and museums and consulates, etc., in Baghdad and other cities; again in contravention to the Geneva Conventions.
Who will bring these charges to the International Court?
Fanaticism
I certainly agree with most of Raimondo's logic. Particularly when he states: "Fanaticism is inherently dangerous, and violent: religious fanatics are the worst. This accounts for the ferocity – there's that word again!"
But I do agree with some of the commentators in that Justin might be overlooking the fact that we have a growing mass of fanatics here at home in the US. As for his statement: "But I challenge anyone to come up with an American equivalent of suicide bombers." Learn about Lt. Col. James Doolittle:
"Each of his pilots had been briefed on specific military targets: steel plants, aircraft factories, and power stations. In the event that his plane was damaged, the colonel had told his men he was going to 'dive in, full throttle, into any target I can find where the crash will do the most good.'
"Such suicidal courage was to prove unnecessary two hours later when Doolittle's bomber raced in low over Tokyo Bay."
Pacific War 1941-1945, page 234 – author – John Costello
I don't know what I would do without Antiwar.com during this dire period, so keep up the good work.
~ Kenneth Smith Anchorage, Alaska