The term “revolving door” describes a cunning device whereby government employees elected or appointed move from their jobs to private jobs for much higher salaries in industries or lobbying firms that are receiving favors from the very same Congressional representatives. It can be plainly a conflict of interest but is usually ignored. The cycling of jobs is a very important asset of the lobbying industry.
Before getting into the dizzying complexities of lobbying in Washington, let’s look as an example at the case of Dennis Hastert, the former Republican Speaker of the House. It is by now a well known fact revealed by the whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI Turkish-American translator, that Dennis Hastert while Speaker had received tens of thousands of dollars in bribes for favors to the lobbying firm representing Turkey. He received the money in payment for his support of a Turkish oil and gas pipeline that was to run from Baku to the Mediterranean. He did other favors for Turkey and eventually when he left Congress, he joined in June 2008 the lobbying firm of Dickstein and Shapiro that represented Turkey in Congress. Salaries usually jump from 150,000 annually to 100,000 monthly for those who go through the revolving door. Quite an incentive, eh? It’s somewhat mindful of Alice in Wonderland. Except unlike Matrix it is real.
A word about Turkey. Most of us know very little about the role of Turkey. There are many lobbying machines that are on the Turkish payroll and they manage to keep the Turkey influence invisible. However, Turkey plays a central role in areas of terrorism, money laundering, black marketing of arms sales, nuclear secrets and manufacturing and sale of narcotics. It operates inside criminal networks with ostensible legitimate fronts and has links to our military and political machines. Turkey is a major customer of the US for military hardware, technology and weapons. It is very active in criminal networks that transport narcotics from Afghanistan through Central Asia to Turkey. The poppies are processed in Turkey then transported through the Balkans to Europe and America. Money laundering is done through its own banks or banks in Cyprus. High ranking US government employees sell nuclear secrets to Turkey and Pakistan which are then passed on to A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani black marketeer of nuclear secrets. He in turn with the approval of Pakistan government officials helps Iran and North Korea to start their nuclear programs. Pakistan, of course, gets its cut.
There is a link between terrorism and organized crime. Narcotics trafficking and black marketing of arms sales supports terrorism financially. Funds are used to buy arms and train terrorists.
Public service and influence peddling have crossed to such a degree that the revolving door is wide open and proliferating. Political and federal employees leave office for the “insider game” of lobbying and advising private interests how to gain advantage from federal officers. Influence peddling has become a multi-billion dollar industry annually. Today 32 former US Senators and 250 ex-Congressmen now lobby Congress for private interests. Unelected individuals who work for powerful committees in Congress go through the revolving door multiple times to work for lobbying firms. It’s a dizzying merry-go-round in that many cycle back and forth. As a result, House and Senate appropriations committees dole out billions in pork (earmarks).
Let’s look at one other example. William Cohen, former Secty of Defense under Clinton, after leaving the US government, set up his own lobbying company, called the Cohen Group. It represents the largest defense companies in the business, e.g. Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Cohen’s company is an active member of the American Turkish Council (ATC). Lockheed Martin is on the board of ATC and its biggest paying client. The Cohen Group also is very active in India and has just opened in China.
Laws to control lobbyists are full of loopholes so that the Cohen Group is not registered and is able to say that Turkey is not a “direct client”. Cohen claims he is not getting paid directly by the government of Turkey, according to his spin machine. But somehow money does pass between them. Money laundering is very useful. And the corrupt Turks are experts.
Lewis Black, the standup comic, once said: I wake up everyday thinking that it can’t get any worse and it does.
References:
Edmonds, Sibel. justacitizen.com
Wikipedia
Zwicker,Barrie. Towers of Deception. 2006.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
False Flags
Historically “false flag operations” originated in the Navy. A ship flying a flag that is not its true nationality is a false flag. It was done to fool the enemy but the rules of warfare at sea required that a true national flag be displayed before the battle.
In modern times a false flag operation has nothing to do with a flying flag but rather is employed by governments to rally the population in support of a war or a coup that the duplicitous rulers want. The whole point is to deceive the public into supporting a military conflict for the profit of the corporatists. The operation is launched by the power brokers behind the scenes by people none of us even know. They are the “invisible government”, the true rulers of our country. And they don’t give a damn how many military personnel or civilians lose their lives as long as the operation from their point of view is successful.
So let’s now consider a few false flag operations that hoodwinked the American public into passionately supporting wars.
We are all familiar with the Tonkin Gulf incident. The main stream media played an important role in reporting an attack by North Viet Nam torpedo boats against an American destroyer, the Maddin. That was supposedly the first attack. A second attack was later reported. By this time the American public was fuming. Johnson on television asked the American public to support a war against North Vietnam. The infamous Tonkin Gulf resolution got Congressional approval and became the basis for a war that killed 58000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese. However, years later it became known that Johnson was lying and knew he was lying because the attacks never took place. And for further corroboration the former Managing Editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, was reported in a public speech 20 years later as saying that the Tonkin Gulf fraud “was one of the big lies that changed history.” There were no facts to support the resolution. The basis for the resolution was simply lies.
The USS Liberty, a technical research ship, was on a mission for the National Security Agency (NSA). Her role was to collect foreign communications and electronic emissions in the interest of National Defense. She was sent to the Mediterranean in 1967 during the six day war between Israel and Egypt. Although she was a “spy” ship, she was not sent to the war zone for that purpose. On June 8 she was attacked by Israeli forces. 34 sailors were killed and 170 were injured. The ship was severely damaged with a huge hole amidships. She stayed afloat, however, and was taken to Malta for repairs.
The USS Liberty was in neutral waters and was attacked by Israeli jet fighters and torpedo boats. The Israeli government claimed that the attack was in error. They stated that the US had not informed them of any US ships in the area. They also said that they “misidentified” the ship and thought it was an Egyptian cargo ship. According to crew members the attack was intentional and no way could it be misidentified. It was flying an American flag. It did not look like any Egyptian ship and the jet fighters flew over the ship numerous times at low altitudes.
Despite the presence of a flag this was a “false flag operation” that went wrong. The ship was sent onto these waters for a devious purpose. It was President Johnson’s intention that the ship be sunk, all lives be lost and the attack be blamed on Egypt. Then the US would attack Egypt giving military support to Israel, our ally. At the time Johnson was reported to have said that he did not care if the ship was sunk and all hands lost. He was not going to embarrass his ally, Israel. The powerful Israeli Lobby represented money and votes for the Democratic party.
Since the ship didn’t sink and 170 sailors survived, the Israeli Defense Command had to claim it was all a mistake. The attack was so vicious it was quite apparent that the intention was to totally destroy the ship and everyone on it. At the time it was generally believed that Johnson had made a secret deal behind the scenes with the Israelis to back them militarily in their war with Egypt. We were allies in the cold war against the Soviet Union. The invisible government at work.
In 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait stating that the Kuwaitis were slant drilling into Iraq’s oil fields. Bush Sr. wanted to go to war immediately. But the American public was not so sure. They were split on the topic. So Washington introduced a false flag operation.
The “invisible government” some how found a 15 yr. old girl to testify before a Congressional Committee. She claimed that when she was present in a Kuwaiti hospital she saw armed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators and leave them on the cold floor to die. As she said this she produced a few crocodilian tears.
Immediately the American public moved by this monstrous offense fanatically supported the war. Operation desert Storm was responsible for the deaths of 135,000 Iraqis and an additional 1 million died because of sanctions applied for ten years.
So what was the truth? Not one baby died. Incubator baby deaths were a bald faced lie. The girl who testified was the Kuwaiti Ambassador’s daughter. She was tutored by a huge public relations firm to speak the lines written for her and to produce the tears. Good acting job. So again the American public was deceived into supporting another war planned by the ruling elite. Bush Sr. and others repeated the lie over and over again. Fraud and false documents were presented by the main stream media to the American people in support of this monstrous lie.
There are 500 members of the Scholars for 9/11/Truth and Justice. The members are architects, physicists, chemists and engineers. Many take issue with the 9/11 Commission Report. 9/11 family members, a number of whom pressured Congress for several years to initiate an independent investigation, were very disappointed with the Commission’s conclusions. They felt that a number of questions that they presented to Congress and the Commission were not answered. Also, according to the family members, the National Institute of Safety and Technology (NIST) Report that preceded the 9/11 Commission Report was biased toward a foregone conclusion, ignored well known facts and became essentially a whitewash. The Scholars for Truth and Justice and family members take issue with the label of “conspiracy theorists” used against them “to discredit the skeptics”. They believe that the attack was a possible “false flag operation” perpetrated by the “invisible government” and the collapse of the buildings shown on film resembled footage of controlled or explosive demolition. But it is very difficult to prove and therefore it is extremely controversial. However, according to the whistleblower, Kevin Ryan, a knowledgeable chemist who worked on the steel that went into the supports, insists that the fire was not hot enough to melt the supports and certainly not in a maximum of 45 minutes. There are examples of fires in building towers all over the world that burned for a maximum of 18 hours and the buildings did not collapse. Building 7 which was not hit by the planes was left standing. It was decided by the Fire Chief and the leasing agent to demolish the building. The same afternoon the building collapsed. There was no appreciable damage to the building and no fire. What made Building 7 collapse? Some people believe it was explosives that had to be applied to the building several weeks beforehand.
Did the Washington power elite need a “New Pearl Harbor” to take us to war?
References:
Bamford, James. Body of Secrets. 2002.
Zwicker, Barrie. Towers of Deception.2006.
Wikipedia.
In modern times a false flag operation has nothing to do with a flying flag but rather is employed by governments to rally the population in support of a war or a coup that the duplicitous rulers want. The whole point is to deceive the public into supporting a military conflict for the profit of the corporatists. The operation is launched by the power brokers behind the scenes by people none of us even know. They are the “invisible government”, the true rulers of our country. And they don’t give a damn how many military personnel or civilians lose their lives as long as the operation from their point of view is successful.
So let’s now consider a few false flag operations that hoodwinked the American public into passionately supporting wars.
We are all familiar with the Tonkin Gulf incident. The main stream media played an important role in reporting an attack by North Viet Nam torpedo boats against an American destroyer, the Maddin. That was supposedly the first attack. A second attack was later reported. By this time the American public was fuming. Johnson on television asked the American public to support a war against North Vietnam. The infamous Tonkin Gulf resolution got Congressional approval and became the basis for a war that killed 58000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese. However, years later it became known that Johnson was lying and knew he was lying because the attacks never took place. And for further corroboration the former Managing Editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, was reported in a public speech 20 years later as saying that the Tonkin Gulf fraud “was one of the big lies that changed history.” There were no facts to support the resolution. The basis for the resolution was simply lies.
The USS Liberty, a technical research ship, was on a mission for the National Security Agency (NSA). Her role was to collect foreign communications and electronic emissions in the interest of National Defense. She was sent to the Mediterranean in 1967 during the six day war between Israel and Egypt. Although she was a “spy” ship, she was not sent to the war zone for that purpose. On June 8 she was attacked by Israeli forces. 34 sailors were killed and 170 were injured. The ship was severely damaged with a huge hole amidships. She stayed afloat, however, and was taken to Malta for repairs.
The USS Liberty was in neutral waters and was attacked by Israeli jet fighters and torpedo boats. The Israeli government claimed that the attack was in error. They stated that the US had not informed them of any US ships in the area. They also said that they “misidentified” the ship and thought it was an Egyptian cargo ship. According to crew members the attack was intentional and no way could it be misidentified. It was flying an American flag. It did not look like any Egyptian ship and the jet fighters flew over the ship numerous times at low altitudes.
Despite the presence of a flag this was a “false flag operation” that went wrong. The ship was sent onto these waters for a devious purpose. It was President Johnson’s intention that the ship be sunk, all lives be lost and the attack be blamed on Egypt. Then the US would attack Egypt giving military support to Israel, our ally. At the time Johnson was reported to have said that he did not care if the ship was sunk and all hands lost. He was not going to embarrass his ally, Israel. The powerful Israeli Lobby represented money and votes for the Democratic party.
Since the ship didn’t sink and 170 sailors survived, the Israeli Defense Command had to claim it was all a mistake. The attack was so vicious it was quite apparent that the intention was to totally destroy the ship and everyone on it. At the time it was generally believed that Johnson had made a secret deal behind the scenes with the Israelis to back them militarily in their war with Egypt. We were allies in the cold war against the Soviet Union. The invisible government at work.
In 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait stating that the Kuwaitis were slant drilling into Iraq’s oil fields. Bush Sr. wanted to go to war immediately. But the American public was not so sure. They were split on the topic. So Washington introduced a false flag operation.
The “invisible government” some how found a 15 yr. old girl to testify before a Congressional Committee. She claimed that when she was present in a Kuwaiti hospital she saw armed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators and leave them on the cold floor to die. As she said this she produced a few crocodilian tears.
Immediately the American public moved by this monstrous offense fanatically supported the war. Operation desert Storm was responsible for the deaths of 135,000 Iraqis and an additional 1 million died because of sanctions applied for ten years.
So what was the truth? Not one baby died. Incubator baby deaths were a bald faced lie. The girl who testified was the Kuwaiti Ambassador’s daughter. She was tutored by a huge public relations firm to speak the lines written for her and to produce the tears. Good acting job. So again the American public was deceived into supporting another war planned by the ruling elite. Bush Sr. and others repeated the lie over and over again. Fraud and false documents were presented by the main stream media to the American people in support of this monstrous lie.
There are 500 members of the Scholars for 9/11/Truth and Justice. The members are architects, physicists, chemists and engineers. Many take issue with the 9/11 Commission Report. 9/11 family members, a number of whom pressured Congress for several years to initiate an independent investigation, were very disappointed with the Commission’s conclusions. They felt that a number of questions that they presented to Congress and the Commission were not answered. Also, according to the family members, the National Institute of Safety and Technology (NIST) Report that preceded the 9/11 Commission Report was biased toward a foregone conclusion, ignored well known facts and became essentially a whitewash. The Scholars for Truth and Justice and family members take issue with the label of “conspiracy theorists” used against them “to discredit the skeptics”. They believe that the attack was a possible “false flag operation” perpetrated by the “invisible government” and the collapse of the buildings shown on film resembled footage of controlled or explosive demolition. But it is very difficult to prove and therefore it is extremely controversial. However, according to the whistleblower, Kevin Ryan, a knowledgeable chemist who worked on the steel that went into the supports, insists that the fire was not hot enough to melt the supports and certainly not in a maximum of 45 minutes. There are examples of fires in building towers all over the world that burned for a maximum of 18 hours and the buildings did not collapse. Building 7 which was not hit by the planes was left standing. It was decided by the Fire Chief and the leasing agent to demolish the building. The same afternoon the building collapsed. There was no appreciable damage to the building and no fire. What made Building 7 collapse? Some people believe it was explosives that had to be applied to the building several weeks beforehand.
Did the Washington power elite need a “New Pearl Harbor” to take us to war?
References:
Bamford, James. Body of Secrets. 2002.
Zwicker, Barrie. Towers of Deception.2006.
Wikipedia.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Does Your Vote Count?
Your vote counts only if it is counted. Let’s look at the deviousness that occurs in the polling place. In 2004, according to the exit polls in Ohio and televised on CNN at 1 A.M., among men voters Kerry defeated Bush 51% to 49% and among women Kerry defeated Bush 53% to 47%. As the voters leave the polls, when asked, they indicate who they have voted for. There is not much chance that the voter had a memory loss. So the next morning you wake up and the results are just the opposite by the same percentages, i.e. Bush defeats Kerry. Now how could that possibly happen? It’s simple. You cast your ballot for your candidate and it is not counted. In every state uncounted ballots go down the toilet. In the case of Ohio the number was 153,237. Nationwide the official number was 1,855,827. But if you include the under reporting of the no-count vote it goes as high as 3,000,380.
So what ballots go uncounted? Let’s start with the “provisional ballot”. This was invented in the 2004 election because too many voters were refused the right to vote. So now if the voter’s name is missing from the rolls, the voter will be given a provisional ballot that would be counted after the polls closed and the identity of the voter is checked. Well, it was a great idea that was supported by the black caucus in Congress because so many black voters were left out. But what happened? A large number of provisional ballots were not counted and at least half were black voters. There were approximately 3 million provisional ballots of which 1 million were trashed and never counted.
And then there are the machines. Bad machines do not record your vote. If you don’t punch the card hard enough, the machine can’t read it. The Election Commission counted 1 million votes lost in this manner.
Many more voters are using absentee ballots today. Over a half million are rejected for some minor technical reason. So if you vote absentee, you may not be voting at all.
Another trick is the assumption that most black voters are “felons” and felons lose their right to vote. But for many there only crime is their skin color.
Next is the elimination of polling stations so that the lines become so long that people won’t wait to vote.
Lastly one more bit of chicanery we should be aware of. Voters reported in 2004 that when they punched the card for Kerry, the vote went to Bush and his name would appear on the machine. This is known as “vote switching”.
And this is the way the 2000 and 2004 elections were won by the Republicans despite the fact that the Democrats had more votes than their opponents. So what is going to happen in 2008? At the moment it looks as though it may be another close vote.
Reference: Palast, Greg. Armed Madhouse. 2007.
So what ballots go uncounted? Let’s start with the “provisional ballot”. This was invented in the 2004 election because too many voters were refused the right to vote. So now if the voter’s name is missing from the rolls, the voter will be given a provisional ballot that would be counted after the polls closed and the identity of the voter is checked. Well, it was a great idea that was supported by the black caucus in Congress because so many black voters were left out. But what happened? A large number of provisional ballots were not counted and at least half were black voters. There were approximately 3 million provisional ballots of which 1 million were trashed and never counted.
And then there are the machines. Bad machines do not record your vote. If you don’t punch the card hard enough, the machine can’t read it. The Election Commission counted 1 million votes lost in this manner.
Many more voters are using absentee ballots today. Over a half million are rejected for some minor technical reason. So if you vote absentee, you may not be voting at all.
Another trick is the assumption that most black voters are “felons” and felons lose their right to vote. But for many there only crime is their skin color.
Next is the elimination of polling stations so that the lines become so long that people won’t wait to vote.
Lastly one more bit of chicanery we should be aware of. Voters reported in 2004 that when they punched the card for Kerry, the vote went to Bush and his name would appear on the machine. This is known as “vote switching”.
And this is the way the 2000 and 2004 elections were won by the Republicans despite the fact that the Democrats had more votes than their opponents. So what is going to happen in 2008? At the moment it looks as though it may be another close vote.
Reference: Palast, Greg. Armed Madhouse. 2007.
The Food Crisis
Food prices are going up because the giant corporations have global control of commodities and resources. Seed, fertilizer and even water are controlled by Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Mosaic and Monsanto. The shortages in seed and fertilizer are artificially created by the huge agricultural corporations in order to run up the prices. For example, the third quarter profits of ADM jumped 42%. New income from storage and transportation of wheat, corn and soybeans has risen seven-fold. The fertilizer companies, such as Potash Corporation, have seen the rise in its stock price from $70 to $238. Mosaic also a fertilizer and feed producer has seen its stock go from $32 to $159. Monsanto profits jumped 45%. So do you wonder why food costs are up?
Furthermore, their intention is even to privatize the water supplies or possibly patent the water as Monsanto has done with seed. The farmer will no longer own the well under his farm. Also, rising oil prices are directly linked to the rise in food prices because fossil fuel is used in the production of chemical fertilizer. Third world countries are facing a starvation crisis because of food shortages and rising prices created by the profiteering of the huge agricultural corporations. The corporations blame the shortages on countries like China and India that for the first time have increased their food consumption. Increased income from manufacturing has improved the life style of the middle class. The corporations obviously are making obscene profits from the increased consumption.
To make matters even worse, the production of ethanol has tripled in the last several years promoted by the corporatists. The resultant increase of food prices has created a scarcity of food for the poor. Nearly all US corn production has gone into the making of ethanol. This has caused a severe shortage of grains and it is the poor who suffer. In the US it is not just the poor who are feeling the pressure. The middle class consumer is not spending as in the past; for example: restaurants that have been in business for many years are declaring bankruptcy. Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy act is the end.
One more point. ADM has a history of price fixing and their profiteering is causing global tragedy. Corporate spin covers their double-dealing.
Reference: commondreams.org
Furthermore, their intention is even to privatize the water supplies or possibly patent the water as Monsanto has done with seed. The farmer will no longer own the well under his farm. Also, rising oil prices are directly linked to the rise in food prices because fossil fuel is used in the production of chemical fertilizer. Third world countries are facing a starvation crisis because of food shortages and rising prices created by the profiteering of the huge agricultural corporations. The corporations blame the shortages on countries like China and India that for the first time have increased their food consumption. Increased income from manufacturing has improved the life style of the middle class. The corporations obviously are making obscene profits from the increased consumption.
To make matters even worse, the production of ethanol has tripled in the last several years promoted by the corporatists. The resultant increase of food prices has created a scarcity of food for the poor. Nearly all US corn production has gone into the making of ethanol. This has caused a severe shortage of grains and it is the poor who suffer. In the US it is not just the poor who are feeling the pressure. The middle class consumer is not spending as in the past; for example: restaurants that have been in business for many years are declaring bankruptcy. Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy act is the end.
One more point. ADM has a history of price fixing and their profiteering is causing global tragedy. Corporate spin covers their double-dealing.
Reference: commondreams.org
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Struggle For Justice
This is the tragic chronicle of how democracy was destroyed in Chile in the early 70’s by Kissinger, Nixon, the CIA and the corporatists, viz. IT & T and the copper mining companies owned by Anaconda and Kennecott.
But first in 1970 Salvador Allende, as head of the Popular Unity party, was elected President of Chile. Chile had been a democracy for 30 years and Allende, who was a democratic socialist, believed in the ballot box as the road to power rather than armed revolution. A significant plank in his platform was the nationalization of the phone company and the copper mines as well as a number of other well known companies. We have here an excellent example of the power of private corporations because as soon as it became clear that Allende had won the election, the private investors both in Chile and America began a concerted campaign to subvert and undermine Allende’s government.
Nixon became apoplectic when he was told that Allende had won. The CIA had been assigned the job of stopping him but had failed. Nixon’s instruction to Helms, the head of the CIA, was to do anything that caused the collapse of the Chilean economy. His expression was “make the economy scream”. It sounded a little like present day torture. In the meantime the US would stop lending money to the Chilean government and buying from Chile. Also the CIA funded mass anti-government strikes to no avail. Milton Friedman’s “Chicago Boys” had an economic project in Chile opposed to Allende and in favor of continuing privatization of the important industries. But the public had moved so far in favor of Allende that the “Chicago Boys’” project was dead on arrival.
Before Allende was elected Kissinger made two statements both of which were hypocritically arrogant and ignored Chile’s sovereignty. First and I quote: “The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves regarding Chile’s government.” Second: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist (sic) due to the irresponsibility of its people.” Kissinger took considerable bashing for these statements as patronizing and disparaging. His egomania, as resistant as Kevlar, prevented any attacks from making an impression.
Despite all the assaults against Allende in the three years that he managed to stay in power, he gained more support than the number that elected him in 1970.
But Nixon and Kissinger persisted in pressing for a coup and assigned the CIA chief of covert operations to push for a coup. It became the official policy of the US government (USG).During the three years that Allende was in office, the USG with the help of the incompetent CIA created havoc in the economy of Chile. But Allende managed through it all to become more popular. When the coup finally occurred in 1973 led by Pinochet, Allende was surrounded by the military and died either by his own hand or was killed. The official explanation was suicide. And that was the end of any semblance of democracy in Chile for 17 years.
Pinochet murdered, tortured or imprisoned any opposition to the military dictatorship. His repression was called the “Caravan of Death”. That was the CIA contribution to the Chilean people. Do you still wonder why we are hated? They have not forgotten. We were responsible for the death of the Chilean military commander in 1970 who refused to lead a coup against the legal government because he supported the Chilean constitution. Since he stood in the way, he was ambushed and fatally shot multiple times. His son today is still trying to seek justice in the courts for the murder of his father. Sometime after the coup a personal friend of Allende’s and his Ambassador to the US was killed by a car bomb in Washington D.C., 14 blocks from the White House. The bombing was planned by Pinochet and carried out by a paid CIA agent who was a Chilean national.
In 1975 the military intelligence leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay met with the Chilean secret police to plan “Operation Condor”. Kissinger was aware of the plan. The members used assassination and covert intelligence to eliminate left of center opposition. The operation was intended to liquidate all dissidents in the so-called “Southern Cone” of South America. Its members were all right wing military dictatorships similar to Pinochet’s”. The USG provided support through consultation with both Nixon and Kissinger (Secty of State). Operation Condor organized the “death squads” that traveled throughout the country torturing and assassinating all who opposed the right wing governments. In Argentina alone 30,000 persons were tortured and murdered or just disappeared.
Kissinger as Secretary of State maintained diplomatic relations with the Southern Cone governments. He encouraged the atrocities committed by Argentina and Chile. In recent years he has been asked to answer questions by France, Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Chile regarding human rights abuses. He has refused. His personal papers are inaccessible until his death.
References:
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. 2007
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. 2007
Wikipedia
But first in 1970 Salvador Allende, as head of the Popular Unity party, was elected President of Chile. Chile had been a democracy for 30 years and Allende, who was a democratic socialist, believed in the ballot box as the road to power rather than armed revolution. A significant plank in his platform was the nationalization of the phone company and the copper mines as well as a number of other well known companies. We have here an excellent example of the power of private corporations because as soon as it became clear that Allende had won the election, the private investors both in Chile and America began a concerted campaign to subvert and undermine Allende’s government.
Nixon became apoplectic when he was told that Allende had won. The CIA had been assigned the job of stopping him but had failed. Nixon’s instruction to Helms, the head of the CIA, was to do anything that caused the collapse of the Chilean economy. His expression was “make the economy scream”. It sounded a little like present day torture. In the meantime the US would stop lending money to the Chilean government and buying from Chile. Also the CIA funded mass anti-government strikes to no avail. Milton Friedman’s “Chicago Boys” had an economic project in Chile opposed to Allende and in favor of continuing privatization of the important industries. But the public had moved so far in favor of Allende that the “Chicago Boys’” project was dead on arrival.
Before Allende was elected Kissinger made two statements both of which were hypocritically arrogant and ignored Chile’s sovereignty. First and I quote: “The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves regarding Chile’s government.” Second: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist (sic) due to the irresponsibility of its people.” Kissinger took considerable bashing for these statements as patronizing and disparaging. His egomania, as resistant as Kevlar, prevented any attacks from making an impression.
Despite all the assaults against Allende in the three years that he managed to stay in power, he gained more support than the number that elected him in 1970.
But Nixon and Kissinger persisted in pressing for a coup and assigned the CIA chief of covert operations to push for a coup. It became the official policy of the US government (USG).During the three years that Allende was in office, the USG with the help of the incompetent CIA created havoc in the economy of Chile. But Allende managed through it all to become more popular. When the coup finally occurred in 1973 led by Pinochet, Allende was surrounded by the military and died either by his own hand or was killed. The official explanation was suicide. And that was the end of any semblance of democracy in Chile for 17 years.
Pinochet murdered, tortured or imprisoned any opposition to the military dictatorship. His repression was called the “Caravan of Death”. That was the CIA contribution to the Chilean people. Do you still wonder why we are hated? They have not forgotten. We were responsible for the death of the Chilean military commander in 1970 who refused to lead a coup against the legal government because he supported the Chilean constitution. Since he stood in the way, he was ambushed and fatally shot multiple times. His son today is still trying to seek justice in the courts for the murder of his father. Sometime after the coup a personal friend of Allende’s and his Ambassador to the US was killed by a car bomb in Washington D.C., 14 blocks from the White House. The bombing was planned by Pinochet and carried out by a paid CIA agent who was a Chilean national.
In 1975 the military intelligence leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay met with the Chilean secret police to plan “Operation Condor”. Kissinger was aware of the plan. The members used assassination and covert intelligence to eliminate left of center opposition. The operation was intended to liquidate all dissidents in the so-called “Southern Cone” of South America. Its members were all right wing military dictatorships similar to Pinochet’s”. The USG provided support through consultation with both Nixon and Kissinger (Secty of State). Operation Condor organized the “death squads” that traveled throughout the country torturing and assassinating all who opposed the right wing governments. In Argentina alone 30,000 persons were tortured and murdered or just disappeared.
Kissinger as Secretary of State maintained diplomatic relations with the Southern Cone governments. He encouraged the atrocities committed by Argentina and Chile. In recent years he has been asked to answer questions by France, Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Chile regarding human rights abuses. He has refused. His personal papers are inaccessible until his death.
References:
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. 2007
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. 2007
Wikipedia
Bloodbath
A perceptive observer once characterized the world as a slaughterhouse. And if you think that is a cynical overstatement, let’s look at the carnage of the 20th century, the worst bloodletting in history. The First World War destroyed the lives of 10 million people and the Second World War, which was the result of the first, destroyed the lives of 50 million.
Most of us poor and middle class are deluded into thinking that we live in a democracy and, on the other hand, the rich chronically fear that we might get it. It’s the people in power who make the decisions, pile up the profits and take us to war. The power brokers and corporatists run the show. You may vote but you are powerless. We recently voted to get out of Iraq. You went to the polls and exercised your so-called democratic right to vote to get out of Iraq. Did it happen? The people in power instead did the opposite. They sent more troops and kept the troops already there longer, as the suicides increased and more families were broken. Political campaigns in this country are bullshit on a grand scale.
George Carlin (RIP) may have been right – Why vote? If you don’t vote for a candidate who wins and he does something stupid, you can always look innocent and say, I didn’t vote for him. However, if you do vote for him and he does something stupid—Well, Ralph, you voted for him. So whether you vote or not, you’re screwed.
Let’s now consider how real power handles war. But first, real power no longer resides with governments but rather with private corporations, corrupt, mafia-style private interests. That’s why your vote doesn’t mean much. And the secret powerful few use the politicians as a front to lie and spin us into war. Why? Because war is profitable. It makes the rich richer while the poor die. The tragedy is that the poor believe the spin. It’s good to die for your country. Yeah, right.
In almost every case the paranoia of the Executive Branch and the State Department forced them, for example, to invade the following countries: Dominican Republic (Johnson), Grenada (Reagan), Panama (Bush, Sr.). The fear of popular revolt, land redistribution and assistance to the poor was basic to the decision to send the marines. The successful Cuban revolution frightened the very rich corporatists into believing they might lose their investments. But the excuse for invading in every case was the lie: protection of American lives and in every case there was no danger to American lives.
As for Noriega in Panama, he was a paid CIA agent and a well known drug trafficker, but now he was refusing to support the Nicaraguan contras with drug money and arms. So we had to invade to “protect American lives”. The lives that were lost were innocent Panamanians in very large numbers. And to this day the anniversary of the invasion is remembered as a day of mourning. Do you wonder why they hate us?
References:
Keegan, John. The First World War. 2000.
Solomon, Norman. War Made Easy. 2005.
Most of us poor and middle class are deluded into thinking that we live in a democracy and, on the other hand, the rich chronically fear that we might get it. It’s the people in power who make the decisions, pile up the profits and take us to war. The power brokers and corporatists run the show. You may vote but you are powerless. We recently voted to get out of Iraq. You went to the polls and exercised your so-called democratic right to vote to get out of Iraq. Did it happen? The people in power instead did the opposite. They sent more troops and kept the troops already there longer, as the suicides increased and more families were broken. Political campaigns in this country are bullshit on a grand scale.
George Carlin (RIP) may have been right – Why vote? If you don’t vote for a candidate who wins and he does something stupid, you can always look innocent and say, I didn’t vote for him. However, if you do vote for him and he does something stupid—Well, Ralph, you voted for him. So whether you vote or not, you’re screwed.
Let’s now consider how real power handles war. But first, real power no longer resides with governments but rather with private corporations, corrupt, mafia-style private interests. That’s why your vote doesn’t mean much. And the secret powerful few use the politicians as a front to lie and spin us into war. Why? Because war is profitable. It makes the rich richer while the poor die. The tragedy is that the poor believe the spin. It’s good to die for your country. Yeah, right.
In almost every case the paranoia of the Executive Branch and the State Department forced them, for example, to invade the following countries: Dominican Republic (Johnson), Grenada (Reagan), Panama (Bush, Sr.). The fear of popular revolt, land redistribution and assistance to the poor was basic to the decision to send the marines. The successful Cuban revolution frightened the very rich corporatists into believing they might lose their investments. But the excuse for invading in every case was the lie: protection of American lives and in every case there was no danger to American lives.
As for Noriega in Panama, he was a paid CIA agent and a well known drug trafficker, but now he was refusing to support the Nicaraguan contras with drug money and arms. So we had to invade to “protect American lives”. The lives that were lost were innocent Panamanians in very large numbers. And to this day the anniversary of the invasion is remembered as a day of mourning. Do you wonder why they hate us?
References:
Keegan, John. The First World War. 2000.
Solomon, Norman. War Made Easy. 2005.
He Makes War Gladly
Henry Kissinger began his career of human rights abuse in 1968 as a Nixon emissary before Nixon’s election. Johnson who was still President had decided not to run again and Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee. Nixon won the election and Humphrey was out of the picture. During the election campaign Johnson’s emissaries were involved in the Vietnam peace negotiations in Paris. Nixon and his team had decided to subvert the negotiations by spinning the South Vietnamese into believing that they would get a better deal from the Republicans and so right before the election they pulled out of the conference. Thus was Humphrey’s peace plank splintered. Nixon won. As it turned out the war lasted another 4 years and the Vietnamese did not get any better deal than what the Democrats had offered.
The duplicitous Dr. Kissinger made himself welcome on the Johnson negotiating team and was secretly passing information to Nixon and his coterie. Thus they were able to keep the pressure on the South Vietnamese team by staying one step ahead. This may sound incredible but it has all been documented. The tragedy, of course, was that 20,000 more Americans died as well as thousands more of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.
The secretive Kissinger became Nixon’s National Security Advisor and he alone benefited from all the killing. Nixon, on the other hand, was secretly and illegally, as a private citizen, (he had not been elected as yet), interfering in Executive branch negotiations with the Vietnamese through Kissinger’s presence on the team. So we had Kissinger “leaking” information from the negotiations to Nixon and in effect “playing both ends against the middle”. If Humphrey had won, Kissinger would have been hired as Humphrey’s National Security Advisor.
But the whole point of the duplicity was to defeat Humphrey and elect Nixon by means of an illegal “private foreign policy”. Kissinger played the unscrupulous role of slyly assisting Nixon in getting elected. Nixon had a history of mental illness not widely known. He showed intermittent symptoms of paranoid psychosis and he believed that Jews were plotting against him. Nixon and Kissinger made an infamous team. Nixon was treacherous and Kissinger colluded in mass murder, making him potentially guilty of war crimes.
References:
Heller, Joseph. Good As Gold. 1976
Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. 2001.
The duplicitous Dr. Kissinger made himself welcome on the Johnson negotiating team and was secretly passing information to Nixon and his coterie. Thus they were able to keep the pressure on the South Vietnamese team by staying one step ahead. This may sound incredible but it has all been documented. The tragedy, of course, was that 20,000 more Americans died as well as thousands more of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians.
The secretive Kissinger became Nixon’s National Security Advisor and he alone benefited from all the killing. Nixon, on the other hand, was secretly and illegally, as a private citizen, (he had not been elected as yet), interfering in Executive branch negotiations with the Vietnamese through Kissinger’s presence on the team. So we had Kissinger “leaking” information from the negotiations to Nixon and in effect “playing both ends against the middle”. If Humphrey had won, Kissinger would have been hired as Humphrey’s National Security Advisor.
But the whole point of the duplicity was to defeat Humphrey and elect Nixon by means of an illegal “private foreign policy”. Kissinger played the unscrupulous role of slyly assisting Nixon in getting elected. Nixon had a history of mental illness not widely known. He showed intermittent symptoms of paranoid psychosis and he believed that Jews were plotting against him. Nixon and Kissinger made an infamous team. Nixon was treacherous and Kissinger colluded in mass murder, making him potentially guilty of war crimes.
References:
Heller, Joseph. Good As Gold. 1976
Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. 2001.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Second Rate [Part 1 of 2]
It is often said of the CIA that there are two words that aptly describe it: mendacity and mediocrity. And this is from the time Harry Truman initiated the agency to the present. It has never gotten any better.
If you are an incompetent liar in intelligence work, you can create a crisis and failure. If you have no patience for espionage (it takes too long for results) or dissimulation then an agent has to rely on covert operations e.g. military coups, assassinations, surveillance of dissidents or secret interventions in internal affairs of governments. Many CIA covert operations were essentially failures because of incompetence or inexperience resulting sometimes in the death of 100 to 1000 innocent individuals. CIA operatives who worked in the Middle East and knew no Arabic and had no familiarity with the culture discovered over time that the Moslems were very effective liars, much better at it than the CIA. After all, the Moslems had been lying to each other for centuries. To them “deception was the essence of survival”. In fact there is an actual Arabic word derived from Islamic texts. It is “taqiya” and it means “the necessary lie” or the lie to get what you want. The Shiites habitually lied to the Sunnis in order to survive. But when the CIA operative lied, for example, to an individual Moslem who was a likely candidate for a source of information, the CIA agent frequently was caught in his lies and his potential informer ended up dead. Moslem surveillance was so good that the agent had no clue as to how he was found out. The Moslem agents knew that the informer had been recruited by the Americans and so they killed him. And what was the lie that got him murdered? The CIA agent promised to bring him to the US, give him money and a safe place to live. The informer believed the promises because that was his dream.
In 1967 a Greek junta known as “the colonels” seized power in Greece led by a Greek undercover CIA agent recruited 20 years before by Allen Dulles, former head of the CIA.
The “colonels” and their friends had been slipping hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Nixon campaign as a gift. The money came through the Greek intelligence service which was linked to the CIA. The colonels were well known fascists, i.e. the classic fascists- Mussolini style. The trains ran on time. So here we have a bunch of fascist militants paying off the Nixon administration and at the same time planning a coup that the CIA knew nothing about despite their close relationship. In short, they had been conned by the colonels. To top it off the US sold military hardware to the junta and the CIA justified the sales with the laughable lie that it would return democracy to Greece. The CIA would not allow anything critical to be said about the junta. It was a well known fact that the junta tortured its enemies and when the question of human rights was raised, the CIA denied it by belittling the protestors.
At this point the colonels decided they would overthrow the leader of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, whom they hated. The US warned them not to do this because if they attacked, the Turks, who were only 40 miles off the coast of the island, would invade. And that was not in the plan. The colonels ignored our warning and attacked anyway. The end result was a war between the Turks and the Greeks who were both “trained and armed” by the US. The slaughter was horrendous and once again the CIA failed to warn Washington that the war was about to begin because of inept intelligence. The horror of maintaining an intimate relationship with a repressive dictatorship is readily apparent. Something we tend to do all over the world because it is good for business. In the end a popular uprising deposed the junta. However, the American Embassy was surrounded and the American Ambassador was fatally shot. Later a new CIA station chief was brought in and he also was assassinated. With this kind of history is it any wonder why we are hated throughout the world? Obviously it is not a wise choice to allow the CIA a free hand in foreign policy.
References:
Ignatius, David. Body of Lies. W.W. Norton, 2007.
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. Doubleday, 2007.
Wikipedia
If you are an incompetent liar in intelligence work, you can create a crisis and failure. If you have no patience for espionage (it takes too long for results) or dissimulation then an agent has to rely on covert operations e.g. military coups, assassinations, surveillance of dissidents or secret interventions in internal affairs of governments. Many CIA covert operations were essentially failures because of incompetence or inexperience resulting sometimes in the death of 100 to 1000 innocent individuals. CIA operatives who worked in the Middle East and knew no Arabic and had no familiarity with the culture discovered over time that the Moslems were very effective liars, much better at it than the CIA. After all, the Moslems had been lying to each other for centuries. To them “deception was the essence of survival”. In fact there is an actual Arabic word derived from Islamic texts. It is “taqiya” and it means “the necessary lie” or the lie to get what you want. The Shiites habitually lied to the Sunnis in order to survive. But when the CIA operative lied, for example, to an individual Moslem who was a likely candidate for a source of information, the CIA agent frequently was caught in his lies and his potential informer ended up dead. Moslem surveillance was so good that the agent had no clue as to how he was found out. The Moslem agents knew that the informer had been recruited by the Americans and so they killed him. And what was the lie that got him murdered? The CIA agent promised to bring him to the US, give him money and a safe place to live. The informer believed the promises because that was his dream.
In 1967 a Greek junta known as “the colonels” seized power in Greece led by a Greek undercover CIA agent recruited 20 years before by Allen Dulles, former head of the CIA.
The “colonels” and their friends had been slipping hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Nixon campaign as a gift. The money came through the Greek intelligence service which was linked to the CIA. The colonels were well known fascists, i.e. the classic fascists- Mussolini style. The trains ran on time. So here we have a bunch of fascist militants paying off the Nixon administration and at the same time planning a coup that the CIA knew nothing about despite their close relationship. In short, they had been conned by the colonels. To top it off the US sold military hardware to the junta and the CIA justified the sales with the laughable lie that it would return democracy to Greece. The CIA would not allow anything critical to be said about the junta. It was a well known fact that the junta tortured its enemies and when the question of human rights was raised, the CIA denied it by belittling the protestors.
At this point the colonels decided they would overthrow the leader of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, whom they hated. The US warned them not to do this because if they attacked, the Turks, who were only 40 miles off the coast of the island, would invade. And that was not in the plan. The colonels ignored our warning and attacked anyway. The end result was a war between the Turks and the Greeks who were both “trained and armed” by the US. The slaughter was horrendous and once again the CIA failed to warn Washington that the war was about to begin because of inept intelligence. The horror of maintaining an intimate relationship with a repressive dictatorship is readily apparent. Something we tend to do all over the world because it is good for business. In the end a popular uprising deposed the junta. However, the American Embassy was surrounded and the American Ambassador was fatally shot. Later a new CIA station chief was brought in and he also was assassinated. With this kind of history is it any wonder why we are hated throughout the world? Obviously it is not a wise choice to allow the CIA a free hand in foreign policy.
References:
Ignatius, David. Body of Lies. W.W. Norton, 2007.
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. Doubleday, 2007.
Wikipedia
Korean War and the CIA [part 2 of 2]
The Korean War was the first major conflict of the cold war. It started on June 25, 1950. It was known as a Korean police action in order to avoid the need for congressional approval. North Korea had invaded the South and Truman was preparing to meet with Douglas McArthur. Truman expected useful CIA intelligence on Korea. Specifically he wanted to know whether the Chinese would cross the border. McArthur assured him that they would not. As it turned out the CIA was once again of no help because it knew nothing at all about China. What American spies we had in China at the time of Mao’s victory over Chiang Kai-shek had all left the country in a hurry. Furthermore, McArthur hated the CIA and kept its operatives out of the Far East wherever possible. The CIA had a weak group of agents left over from WWII. Its research was poor and its bulletins to the President were valueless. Its allies were Syngman Rhee and Chiang Kai-shek both of whom produced intelligence that was worthless and corruption was rampant. No information was reliable. It became apparent that the intelligence agency of the strongest country in the world was conned and deceived by crooks and foes. Exiles were once again faking intelligence for pro fit and the CIA was the patsy.
When the President traveled to Wake Island to meet McArthur the CIA headquarters assured him that the Chinese did not intend to intervene. And this was despite the warning of their Tokyo station chief that the Chinese had 300,000 troops mobilized on the border. Taiwan told headquarters the same thing. The warnings were ignored. After the American troops were attacked on the border, the CIA still insisted that a major intervention was not likely. Finally when the Chinese did invade we were so surprised and unprepared that the Chinese pushed our forces down the entire southern peninsula to the sea. Eventually we were able to force them out of the South and the conflict became a trench war until it ended on July 27, 1953. However, there were horrendous casualties on both sides. Also the agency engaged in paramilitary operations which were for the most part failures and were responsible for many more lives lost.
The CIA recruited Chinese and Korean agents and dropped them behind the lines in North Korea where they disappeared—never to be heard from. They were sent to gain intelligence or give support to resistance movements that did not exist. In short, they were suicidal assignments. The money and lives lost was way disproportional to what was gained. In fact there are those who say nothing was gained and this kind of irresponsibility continued on into the 1960’s. The CIA just kept sending agents to their death for no damn reason.
Years later, the final conclusion was that all the “secret” information collected during the war was pure fiction produced by Chinese and North Korean intelligence agents and passed on to the administration. In fact, even worse the paramilitary operations had been sold out from the very beginning. Treachery and deceit was rampant and headquarters did not have a clue.
References:
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. Doubleday, 2007
Wikipedia
When the President traveled to Wake Island to meet McArthur the CIA headquarters assured him that the Chinese did not intend to intervene. And this was despite the warning of their Tokyo station chief that the Chinese had 300,000 troops mobilized on the border. Taiwan told headquarters the same thing. The warnings were ignored. After the American troops were attacked on the border, the CIA still insisted that a major intervention was not likely. Finally when the Chinese did invade we were so surprised and unprepared that the Chinese pushed our forces down the entire southern peninsula to the sea. Eventually we were able to force them out of the South and the conflict became a trench war until it ended on July 27, 1953. However, there were horrendous casualties on both sides. Also the agency engaged in paramilitary operations which were for the most part failures and were responsible for many more lives lost.
The CIA recruited Chinese and Korean agents and dropped them behind the lines in North Korea where they disappeared—never to be heard from. They were sent to gain intelligence or give support to resistance movements that did not exist. In short, they were suicidal assignments. The money and lives lost was way disproportional to what was gained. In fact there are those who say nothing was gained and this kind of irresponsibility continued on into the 1960’s. The CIA just kept sending agents to their death for no damn reason.
Years later, the final conclusion was that all the “secret” information collected during the war was pure fiction produced by Chinese and North Korean intelligence agents and passed on to the administration. In fact, even worse the paramilitary operations had been sold out from the very beginning. Treachery and deceit was rampant and headquarters did not have a clue.
References:
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. Doubleday, 2007
Wikipedia
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Democracy Canceled
[This is Part 2 of a 2 part essay: see Chicago School for Part 1]
No one in the Bush administration anticipated that the application of Milton Friedman ‘s basic principles would cause the “violent backlash” that occurred. It was assumed that after “shock and awe” the population would be so frazzled that they would happily accept the privatization of their economy. But amazingly, instead the Iraqis shocked Washington by insisting that they wanted a voice in any changes in the economy. So what did they do immediately after the invasion? They voluntarily held elections on their own in every municipality in Iraq. Didn’t Bush tell them that they were to become “the democratic state” of the Middle East? So when Paul Bremer, who had previously run a private counter-terrorist company, arrived and saw what was happening, he within the first two weeks canceled all the elections. He further canceled any election of delegates to a constituent assembly which would, if allowed, vote for members of an executive council. He realized quickly that any such election would put Iraqis in power over whom we had no control. Instead he would appoint the delegates and the executive council. In addition Bremer and his committee would appoint the local leaders as well.
Obviously if the Iraqis were allowed freely to vote for their own representatives, we would be giving up control of the oil, establishment of military bases and corporate investment. And certainly the Iraqis did not intend to give up the nationalization of their resources. So what happened? Violent uprisings across the country occurred. Despite our lying promises, the trusting Iraqis believed every word. In the end we denied them their democratic rights because those rights would negate the real purpose of the invasion. Interestingly enough, a poll that was taken in 2003 after the invasion indicated that 49% of Iraqis would vote for a political party that promised an increase of government jobs and only 4.6% would support a political party that promised more “private” jobs. This poll may have had something to do with Bremer’s decision to cancel all elections.
And so the ebb and flow of forceful resistance has continued for the past five years. In order to combat the resistance, because Rumsfeld refused to increase our forces, we had to hire private security firms to protect our VIPs and our contractors. So here we are privatizing our army. Over time the mercenaries were involved in “street combat”. In the first year there were only 10,000 private fighters but three years later it had increased to 48,000.And these guys were fighting side by side with the regular army. They came from all over the world. Some had actually been in our army but after discharge joined the private army because the pay was significantly better. Blackwater became well known as a security firm and private army and got into serious trouble for killing too many civilians. Blackwater is a neoconservative right wing organization. It has given large amounts of money to the Republican Party.
Reference:
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. N.Y. Holt, 2007
The Chicago School
[This is Part 1 of a 2 part essay: see Democracy Canceled for Part 2]
It was Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize economist, who instructed President Reagan in the “trickle down theory” of economics. But “Uncle Miltie’s” Chicago School of economics was more complex than that. He made it simple for Reagan. The pixie-like Friedman believed in three basic tenets: privatization, government deregulation and cuts in public spending. These basic principles were applied at a time of crisis or catastrophe when the destruction of the infrastructure left a clean slate ready for a free market economy whether caused by military invasion or a hurricane. Then the corporate investor who is waiting at the border invades the nation or the state applies the three tenets and rebuilds the infrastructure for profit. The neoconservatives call this “a free market democracy”. But what is it really? The wealthy corporations and the rich politicians merge and buy up what is left of the infrastructure with public money, reconstruct it and operate it for profit. In Iraq the desirable resources were the electric grids, and the water system but most importantly the oil. The intention is to privatize all of this. However, the corporatists have not been successful in Iraq as yet because of too much violent opposition by Iraqis and corruption by Bechtel, Halliburton and Carlyle.
On the other hand, in New Orleans after Katrina the neocons saw this as an opportunity to do away with the public school system. As a result, today there are only four public schools in New Orleans but there are thirty charter schools. Very little else has been done and the charter schools are operated for profit. The poor cannot afford to send their kids there and the public schools are inadequate.
You see, in the case of Iraq nothing can be privatized, even remotely, until the violence is under control. No corporatist will invest money in an unstable country. So then the dream, and it is only a dream, of a “free market democracy” cannot be realized. And this is why Bush’s neoconservative plan of a so-called “democracy” spread throughout the Middle East is plainly delusional.
One last point, many analysts have said that the invasion was a success and the occupation was a failure. Not so. That was the plan: utter destruction in order to provide a clean slate for privatization. But so far the Iraqis haven’t let it happen.
Reference:
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. N.Y. Henry Holt. 2007.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Forgotten War
The war in Iraq has been pushed off the front pages by the presidential campaign. There has not been much discussion lately about Iraq except to report briefly that there is some “good news” coming out of Iraq and if that is so some people might just think that “victory” over this devastated land is possible.
Recently a Congressman from my district returned from Iraq ecstatic about the progress being made in that country. He was pictured in the local paper decked out in full body armor and surrounded by U.S. security troops. And what did he say? This didn’t look like a war to him. He could walk around town surrounded by his entourage and the violence was less compared to his previous visit. Two days later five U.S. soldiers were killed and three severely wounded by a bomb directed to them in the heart of the shopping district in Baghdad. A day later just a short distance out of town three more soldiers were killed not to mention the injured. That’s eight deaths in a little more than 48 hours.
Four thousand troops killed, sixty thousand injured, some permanently, not counting the mental health patients suffering from PTSD who return to the U.S. and kill themselves and their families. 1.3 million Iraqis killed, 2.5 million refugees now trying to survive in Jordan and Syria. These two countries cannot continue to support these people with very little space and money. No one else is contributing to their support. Both Jordan and Syria cannot accept anymore refugees and will eventually have to ask them to leave. Where will they go?
If the violence in Iraq has decreased, it must be because there are not that many left to kill.
A permanent decrease in violence could occur if the occupying forces would withdraw. It is the general belief among most Iraqis that the cause of the violence between sectarian and ethnic groups is the occupation of their country by U.S. troops. Reconciliation could occur if the invaders would leave. The official position now for the original invasion was to protect the world from terror. But instead terror has increased 7-fold according to some terrorist specialists.
As for reconstruction of Iraq, Gen. Petraeus claims that the Iraqi government has greatly increased spending on reconstruction. Good news, right? But when the Government Accountability Office examined the facts, they found that the figure was actually one-sixth of that reported by Petraeus and further was a fifty per cent decline when compared to the previous year. Should we praise our government for militarily destroying the infra-structure of a country and then proceeding to reconstruct it for profit? Practically all the no-bid contracts go to Halliburton, a company linked to Vice-President Cheney, not to mention the reported corruption involved in the process.
What is the clincher? Bush plays his trump card once again, another signing statement. This time he is refusing to implement the provisions of a Congressional law that prohibits him from spending tax payer money on permanent military bases in Iraq or control of Iraqi oil.
Last week Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, testified before Congress that the administration had no plans for permanent bases in Iraq, ignoring the fact that four huge bases were already built. No Congressman challenged his statement. The poor people of Honduras will always remember Negroponte, who as Ambassador to Honduras under Reagan, constantly denied the horrific crimes of the Chief of the Honduras armed forces so that financial aid to the military would continue. (Reagan’s policy) It was called bringing democracy to the people of Honduras. Where have we heard that before? Mendacity in government is our watchword.
Reference:
Znet
Recently a Congressman from my district returned from Iraq ecstatic about the progress being made in that country. He was pictured in the local paper decked out in full body armor and surrounded by U.S. security troops. And what did he say? This didn’t look like a war to him. He could walk around town surrounded by his entourage and the violence was less compared to his previous visit. Two days later five U.S. soldiers were killed and three severely wounded by a bomb directed to them in the heart of the shopping district in Baghdad. A day later just a short distance out of town three more soldiers were killed not to mention the injured. That’s eight deaths in a little more than 48 hours.
Four thousand troops killed, sixty thousand injured, some permanently, not counting the mental health patients suffering from PTSD who return to the U.S. and kill themselves and their families. 1.3 million Iraqis killed, 2.5 million refugees now trying to survive in Jordan and Syria. These two countries cannot continue to support these people with very little space and money. No one else is contributing to their support. Both Jordan and Syria cannot accept anymore refugees and will eventually have to ask them to leave. Where will they go?
If the violence in Iraq has decreased, it must be because there are not that many left to kill.
A permanent decrease in violence could occur if the occupying forces would withdraw. It is the general belief among most Iraqis that the cause of the violence between sectarian and ethnic groups is the occupation of their country by U.S. troops. Reconciliation could occur if the invaders would leave. The official position now for the original invasion was to protect the world from terror. But instead terror has increased 7-fold according to some terrorist specialists.
As for reconstruction of Iraq, Gen. Petraeus claims that the Iraqi government has greatly increased spending on reconstruction. Good news, right? But when the Government Accountability Office examined the facts, they found that the figure was actually one-sixth of that reported by Petraeus and further was a fifty per cent decline when compared to the previous year. Should we praise our government for militarily destroying the infra-structure of a country and then proceeding to reconstruct it for profit? Practically all the no-bid contracts go to Halliburton, a company linked to Vice-President Cheney, not to mention the reported corruption involved in the process.
What is the clincher? Bush plays his trump card once again, another signing statement. This time he is refusing to implement the provisions of a Congressional law that prohibits him from spending tax payer money on permanent military bases in Iraq or control of Iraqi oil.
Last week Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, testified before Congress that the administration had no plans for permanent bases in Iraq, ignoring the fact that four huge bases were already built. No Congressman challenged his statement. The poor people of Honduras will always remember Negroponte, who as Ambassador to Honduras under Reagan, constantly denied the horrific crimes of the Chief of the Honduras armed forces so that financial aid to the military would continue. (Reagan’s policy) It was called bringing democracy to the people of Honduras. Where have we heard that before? Mendacity in government is our watchword.
Reference:
Znet
Monday, February 25, 2008
Iraq and Greenhouse Gases
Now what would Iraq have to do with global warming? Good question. Very few of our leaders have been willing to say that the war in Iraq is about oil. But recently a major exception was Alan Greenspan now retired from the Federal Reserve Bank. In his new book of memoirs, The Age of Turbulence, he flatly states that the “Iraq war is largely about oil.” He said that it might be politically incorrect to say it but it nevertheless was true.
A primary goal of U.S. foreign policy has been for decades the control of Middle Eastern oil. The invasion of Iraq and the unseating of Saddam Hussein finally gave Washington the opportunity to plant its feet firmly in the oil deposits of Iraq and with the intention of remaining there permanently. After all, we are the largest user of a non-renewable source of energy, i.e. oil and therefore the largest producer of “greenhouse” gas emissions. Thus we make overwhelmingly the largest contribution to global warming.
So in order to support our need for oil as a source of energy we chose military force to seize that energy and control its use indefinitely.
Now we all are aware of the negative impact of that war in terms of death, permanent disability and destruction. But what is the impact of the war on global warming? Believe it or not, the war in and of itself is producing huge amounts of greenhouse emissions. How is this so? Aircraft, motorized vehicles and naval vessels, to name just a few, all necessary to military operations use 3 million gallons of oil per day. This is, according to one estimate,16 times more than that used in WW II.
Now let’s look at the cost. The latest figure is over $600 billion for the war but does not include medical supervision of the wounded and mental health patients. We are not paying for the war through increased taxes but rather by borrowing to pay and running up a huge debt for the future. It is further estimated that the war will cost this country over $2 trillion. On the other hand, this administration has appropriated only $1.5 billion to deal with the problem of global warming. This is totally inadequate to develop replaceable fuels. As long as this war continues there is no way that funds will be available to replace petroleum as a source of energy.
A primary goal of U.S. foreign policy has been for decades the control of Middle Eastern oil. The invasion of Iraq and the unseating of Saddam Hussein finally gave Washington the opportunity to plant its feet firmly in the oil deposits of Iraq and with the intention of remaining there permanently. After all, we are the largest user of a non-renewable source of energy, i.e. oil and therefore the largest producer of “greenhouse” gas emissions. Thus we make overwhelmingly the largest contribution to global warming.
So in order to support our need for oil as a source of energy we chose military force to seize that energy and control its use indefinitely.
Now we all are aware of the negative impact of that war in terms of death, permanent disability and destruction. But what is the impact of the war on global warming? Believe it or not, the war in and of itself is producing huge amounts of greenhouse emissions. How is this so? Aircraft, motorized vehicles and naval vessels, to name just a few, all necessary to military operations use 3 million gallons of oil per day. This is, according to one estimate,16 times more than that used in WW II.
Now let’s look at the cost. The latest figure is over $600 billion for the war but does not include medical supervision of the wounded and mental health patients. We are not paying for the war through increased taxes but rather by borrowing to pay and running up a huge debt for the future. It is further estimated that the war will cost this country over $2 trillion. On the other hand, this administration has appropriated only $1.5 billion to deal with the problem of global warming. This is totally inadequate to develop replaceable fuels. As long as this war continues there is no way that funds will be available to replace petroleum as a source of energy.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Endless Chatter
We hear endless chatter about “exit strategy” called by some devious personalities as “precipitous withdrawal.” But no one has the courage to ask why we are building huge military bases in four different locations of Iraq if we are planning to leave? Well, we are told they are not permanent rather they are “enduring bases.” The truth, of course, is we are not really leaving. Bush and Cheney have no intention of leaving. We cannot give up our authority over Iraq and lose control over the 2nd largest oil deposit in the world. That’s it in a nutshell. We are not there to bring liberal democracy to the Middle East. That’s window dressing. We are there for one reason only—the oil. And we “ain’t” leaving. Probably never—ever. Talking exit strategy is plain unadulterated B.S. Oh, we might take a few troops out but we will leave at least 50,000 or more and they will live in there “self-contained” military bases with more amenities and conveniences than at home.
In order to move any troops at all requires that the client state be stable and does what it is told. A free election alone is not democracy. But real popular democracy is too dangerous. Once the occupier has control then withdrawal of some sort is possible but the fully manned military bases remain.
Further, in order to gain stability, we need to restore Iraqi civil society and reconstruct the economy. We need to stop privatization for the benefit of outside investors. The Iraqi Oil Law which gives control of oil and royalties to foreign oil companies must not be implemented. The General Assembly of the UN is the body that might be able to apply these principles along with the Iraqis participating in the reconstruction.
Since the odds are very long indeed for our pulling out, we don’t need to worry about a blood bath. Nevertheless, the Iraqis maintain there is already a blood bath and if it worsened, they intend to handle it. 80% of the Iraqis want us out and they are going to do everything possible to achieve that goal however long it takes.
Reference:
Znet
In order to move any troops at all requires that the client state be stable and does what it is told. A free election alone is not democracy. But real popular democracy is too dangerous. Once the occupier has control then withdrawal of some sort is possible but the fully manned military bases remain.
Further, in order to gain stability, we need to restore Iraqi civil society and reconstruct the economy. We need to stop privatization for the benefit of outside investors. The Iraqi Oil Law which gives control of oil and royalties to foreign oil companies must not be implemented. The General Assembly of the UN is the body that might be able to apply these principles along with the Iraqis participating in the reconstruction.
Since the odds are very long indeed for our pulling out, we don’t need to worry about a blood bath. Nevertheless, the Iraqis maintain there is already a blood bath and if it worsened, they intend to handle it. 80% of the Iraqis want us out and they are going to do everything possible to achieve that goal however long it takes.
Reference:
Znet
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Paradigm of Democracy
As we all know WWI was the death knell of the antediluvian monarchies of Europe. And in the case of Germany out of its defeat came a golden experiment in democracy. There were, of course, many problems in the beginning. The Weimar Republic was a socialist democracy that the left wing communists wanted to destroy. There were bloody battles on the streets of Berlin. The onerous reparations placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles almost destroyed the economy. We all know about the hyperinflation. Paper money was worthless and was used to burn in home stoves for warmth. Eventually the left wing leaders were assassinated and the reparations were reduced to a level that Germany could handle. Chancellor Stresseman who took over the leadership was able to develop a functioning economy and government that became known as the golden age of the Weimar Republic (1924-1929).There are Jewish historians still alive today who recall that period as closely comparable to the Italian Renaissance. The extraordinary production in the fields of science, philosophy, psychology, painting and architecture happened no where else in Europe.
So what in the world happened? Why did the grand experiment plunge into barbarism?
By 1930 Hitler and his Nazi thugs had arrived on the scene and introduced their propaganda techniques to win support for their political party. Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, crowed that he would use American advertising techniques to sell National Socialism to the people of Germany in the same way that American business sold toothpaste, candy and drugs. Symbols and political slogans repeated over and over whether true or not will sell products or ideology. It worked in Germany and it is working in the US. It destroyed the Weimar Republic and the Bush administration is very effectively destroying our American democracy. If Bush and Cheney are not stopped before the end of 2008, the American Constitution will be a shambles.
Unfortunately, so far I do not see any evidence of articles of impeachment for Bush and Cheney.
Reference: Chomsky, Noam. Failed States. 2006.
So what in the world happened? Why did the grand experiment plunge into barbarism?
By 1930 Hitler and his Nazi thugs had arrived on the scene and introduced their propaganda techniques to win support for their political party. Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, crowed that he would use American advertising techniques to sell National Socialism to the people of Germany in the same way that American business sold toothpaste, candy and drugs. Symbols and political slogans repeated over and over whether true or not will sell products or ideology. It worked in Germany and it is working in the US. It destroyed the Weimar Republic and the Bush administration is very effectively destroying our American democracy. If Bush and Cheney are not stopped before the end of 2008, the American Constitution will be a shambles.
Unfortunately, so far I do not see any evidence of articles of impeachment for Bush and Cheney.
Reference: Chomsky, Noam. Failed States. 2006.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
The Circus Is Back
The circus is back in town but the clowns haven’t changed. The other night on Jon Stewart’s show a 3 month old tape of Tony Snow, the administration press secretary, was viewed in which he stated emphatically that the lawyers in the justice department had been fired for incompetence. At a recent press conference a reporter asked a question regarding those lawyers and prefaced it with Tony Snow’s statement that they had been fired for incompetence. Snow immediately interrupted and said that we had never said that those lawyers were fired for incompetence. Jon Stewart then ran the two tapes side by side. Who are you going to believe? Tony Snow or Tony Snow? Which one is lying?
Now let’s look at a sad viewer of an unfunny circus. A retired NYC cop lost a son in 9/11. He was told at the time by his President that the Iraqis were responsible for the disaster. Being old fashioned (as he says) the cop accepted everything his President told him because he (the cop) believed that his President “walked on water.” So if the Iraqis destroyed those buildings and killed thousands of people and his son then, let’s go get them. Then another thought occurred to him. He would like to have his son’s name put on one of the “smart bombs” that our Air Force was dropping on Iraq. After much hassle he managed to get it done and the Defense Department sent him a picture of the bomb with his son’s name on it with the date that it was dropped.
Despite that it wasn’t true over half the country believed that it was the Iraqis who destroyed the towers. All the soldiers fighting in Iraq believed it. Sometime afterward the President is shown on a video tape saying that he never said that Iraqis were responsible for 9/11.When the cop heard this, he went into shock. He could not believe it. When the realization that his President had lied, hit him, he was dumfounded. When asked if he was sorry that his son’s name was on a bomb, he was unable to reply. He was just bewildered.
During the invasion of Iraq some 50 or more “smart bombs” were dropped none of which hit their military targets. They did destroy homes and people but no soldiers. The mainstream press did not report this. Rumsfeld and the Defense Department steadily maintained that the “smart bomb” does not cause “collateral” damage. As an American that’s all you need to know.
Now let’s look at a sad viewer of an unfunny circus. A retired NYC cop lost a son in 9/11. He was told at the time by his President that the Iraqis were responsible for the disaster. Being old fashioned (as he says) the cop accepted everything his President told him because he (the cop) believed that his President “walked on water.” So if the Iraqis destroyed those buildings and killed thousands of people and his son then, let’s go get them. Then another thought occurred to him. He would like to have his son’s name put on one of the “smart bombs” that our Air Force was dropping on Iraq. After much hassle he managed to get it done and the Defense Department sent him a picture of the bomb with his son’s name on it with the date that it was dropped.
Despite that it wasn’t true over half the country believed that it was the Iraqis who destroyed the towers. All the soldiers fighting in Iraq believed it. Sometime afterward the President is shown on a video tape saying that he never said that Iraqis were responsible for 9/11.When the cop heard this, he went into shock. He could not believe it. When the realization that his President had lied, hit him, he was dumfounded. When asked if he was sorry that his son’s name was on a bomb, he was unable to reply. He was just bewildered.
During the invasion of Iraq some 50 or more “smart bombs” were dropped none of which hit their military targets. They did destroy homes and people but no soldiers. The mainstream press did not report this. Rumsfeld and the Defense Department steadily maintained that the “smart bomb” does not cause “collateral” damage. As an American that’s all you need to know.
Monday, March 19, 2007
King George the Second
In one of her last columns before her death, Molly Ivins in answer to King George’s claim that he was the “decider” pointed out that "no, George, we are the deciders , the people and the Congress elected by the people". It happens now that only 36% of the people support his policies. So who are the 36% who applaud him so enthusiastically? They are in large part men and women of the New York Stock Exchange. When he visited the exchange recently, the reception was over whelming. These are his champions. These are the leaders of mega-corporations and world finance whose profits have gone through the ceiling since this administration has been in office. And they were showing their gratitude. George has made them richer than ever. The petroleum industry which is tied firmly to the administration has had unbelievable profits this past year. For example, Exxon-Mobil had a profit of $35.9 billion, breaking all records in our history. Chevron topped out 3 years in a row. Conoco Phillips broke all records. Shell increased its profit to $25 billion. Boeing has reached new heights earned from the production of military aircraft and other hardware. And as long as this administration relies on war rather than diplomacy to implement its foreign policy, the military budget will continue to grow and the petroleum and military industries will continue to profit shamefully. Obviously wars are great for the families who don’t have to fight them and the rich continue to get richer. Note that the top 1% of income earners own 35% of the wealth of the country, but the lower half (50%) own only 2.5% of the wealth. And the gap gets wider.
Reference:
Znet
Reference:
Znet
Friday, January 26, 2007
Breaking News
If you watch CNN and your attention is captured by “breaking news”, here is the latest but you won’t see or hear it on CNN. Not yet, anyway. A number of states are seriously considering passing a resolution to impeach both Bush and Cheney and to send that petition to the House of Representatives to begin the proceedings. According to the House Rules all it takes is one state to petition Congress and one representative to accept receipt of the petition, then impeachment begins. The state that may be the first to do this is New Mexico which has the strongest popular backing.
A number of states have introduced resolutions to impeach but have not as yet passed them. Many cities have actually passed resolutions already but they cannot petition Congress.
There appears to be a growing popular movement to impeach and as long as the President continues to nullify the laws of Congress with his “signing statements” the movement to impeach will grow even stronger. In addition the Iraq war has been so successful that Bush is seriously considering starting a war with Iran and Syria without Congressional approval. He has tossed into the waste basket the Baker-Hamilton study that certainly offered a series of proposals that had a better chance of success than Bush’s “troop surge”.
Well it has been unusually cold in Albuquerque this winter but it has not cooled off the popular movement against Bush.
Reference:
Znet.
A number of states have introduced resolutions to impeach but have not as yet passed them. Many cities have actually passed resolutions already but they cannot petition Congress.
There appears to be a growing popular movement to impeach and as long as the President continues to nullify the laws of Congress with his “signing statements” the movement to impeach will grow even stronger. In addition the Iraq war has been so successful that Bush is seriously considering starting a war with Iran and Syria without Congressional approval. He has tossed into the waste basket the Baker-Hamilton study that certainly offered a series of proposals that had a better chance of success than Bush’s “troop surge”.
Well it has been unusually cold in Albuquerque this winter but it has not cooled off the popular movement against Bush.
Reference:
Znet.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Same Circus
When you consider the delusional and incompetent leadership that made decisions in Europe prior to WWI and compare it to the delusional and incompetent leadership in Washington today, we can only say that it is the same circus, just different clowns.
In 1900 the monarchs of Europe were the clowns. The insane regimes of Germany and Russia were lead by autocratic airheads who had tunnel vision, were duplicitous and just plain stupid. German megalomania was verbalized by the Kaiser who was essentially a blowhard with a temperament and uncontrolled anger. His personal need to expand German influence was the central focus of his ideology. (Hitler’s aims were similar but his mantra was “living space”.) Add to this a sizeable helping of religious puffery to the extent that the Kaiser believed, as does Bush, that he too spoke for God.
Leaders of the French Republic were not much better. For example, at the battle of the Marne, Marshall Foch was loudly calling “attack, attack” when actually retreat was indicated. When asked why he called for attack, he didn’t really know except that his men were there, he had the will, and God was present. These were soldiers on the ground attacking automatic machine gun emplacements. And, of course, huge numbers of men were needlessly lost on that day. [1]
It is mindful of the 1850’s when Britain was fighting the Russians and the famous cavalry unit known as the Light Brigade was ordered to make a frontal assault on Russian heavy artillery emplacements. In a situation like this the usual attack would have been from the flanks but because of the geography this was not possible. The British should have retreated but instead were defeated. As a result, they lost in essence the whole Brigade. The commanding generals blamed each other. No one was willing to take responsibility.
As for WWI the Kaiser wanted Belgium as an ally. King Leopold, however, refused. The Kaiser’s reply was that “anyone not with me is against me.” Now where have we heard that before? It was Bush’s favorite mantra when he was trying to put together a coalition to invade Iraq. Both Bush and the Kaiser confused themselves with God. In fact the Kaiser deluded himself into believing that the Germans were “the chosen people”. Sound familiar?
We can learn a great deal from history but we tend conveniently to forget the lessons and the country suffers.
[1] Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. Random House, 1962
In 1900 the monarchs of Europe were the clowns. The insane regimes of Germany and Russia were lead by autocratic airheads who had tunnel vision, were duplicitous and just plain stupid. German megalomania was verbalized by the Kaiser who was essentially a blowhard with a temperament and uncontrolled anger. His personal need to expand German influence was the central focus of his ideology. (Hitler’s aims were similar but his mantra was “living space”.) Add to this a sizeable helping of religious puffery to the extent that the Kaiser believed, as does Bush, that he too spoke for God.
Leaders of the French Republic were not much better. For example, at the battle of the Marne, Marshall Foch was loudly calling “attack, attack” when actually retreat was indicated. When asked why he called for attack, he didn’t really know except that his men were there, he had the will, and God was present. These were soldiers on the ground attacking automatic machine gun emplacements. And, of course, huge numbers of men were needlessly lost on that day. [1]
It is mindful of the 1850’s when Britain was fighting the Russians and the famous cavalry unit known as the Light Brigade was ordered to make a frontal assault on Russian heavy artillery emplacements. In a situation like this the usual attack would have been from the flanks but because of the geography this was not possible. The British should have retreated but instead were defeated. As a result, they lost in essence the whole Brigade. The commanding generals blamed each other. No one was willing to take responsibility.
As for WWI the Kaiser wanted Belgium as an ally. King Leopold, however, refused. The Kaiser’s reply was that “anyone not with me is against me.” Now where have we heard that before? It was Bush’s favorite mantra when he was trying to put together a coalition to invade Iraq. Both Bush and the Kaiser confused themselves with God. In fact the Kaiser deluded himself into believing that the Germans were “the chosen people”. Sound familiar?
We can learn a great deal from history but we tend conveniently to forget the lessons and the country suffers.
[1] Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. Random House, 1962
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Get Over It
When Bush was told that Hezbollah had attacked Israel, his immediate reaction was to announce that a phone call telling Iran to “cut that sh-t out” would take care of the problem. In short, whatever the cause of the conflict, just get over it. It’s mindful of how people dealt with mental illness before the advent of drugs. The mentally ill person was told by their families as well as some physicians to just get over it. The present administration believes that the answer to all the problems in the Middle East is “democracy”. Encourage free elections and the masses will vote in a parliamentarian government with a cooperative leader who will deal with the U.S. and Israel in an acceptable and peaceful manner. This fantasy is also the proposal of the think tanks in Washington as well as everybody else in Foggy Bottom. As we know, in Iraq we are forcing a false “democracy” on the country at the point of a gun. When Bush proposed more democracy for Russia, Putin cleverly replied that he certainly would not want the Iraqi version.
So what happens in the Middle East when the people are given the vote? In Iraq because of our presence there is now a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shias. However, in the Palestine authority Hamas, the Islamic party, won the election and is now in control of the government. In Lebanon Hezbollah now has 14 seats in the Lebanon parliament. None of this makes Washington very happy. Obviously give these countries “democracy” and they will vote for an Islamic state. On the other hand, the remaining countries in the Middle East except for Israel are autocracies. Our dependable allies in the region still remain Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, all autocracies. So the belief that “democracy” would be the cure-all is in reality a tooth fairy’s delusion. To give any of these autocratic countries the vote would undoubtedly place in power a hostile Islamic government, assuming that the present power brokers would even consider such a change. And the democracy that we would implant would be a myth. (See Iraq and Afghanistan) It would be a puppet government controlled by Washington. Keep in mind that the last thing Saudi Arabia would want is a popular vote. That would be the end of the monarchy. The powerful people who run that country want Saudi Arabia to remain just as it is so that they may use the money gained from oil in any despicable way that they see fit.
One comment on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that appears to have ended: It was Israel’s intention by hitting the civilian populations very hard to turn them against Hezbollah and Hamas. But instead of destroying these authorities they have gained overwhelming support to the extent that 80% of the people polled endorsed both parties. Israel’s extreme violence has caused a severe blowback.
References:
Baer, Robert. Sleeping With The Devil, Crown, 2003
Wall Street Journal. 8/8/06. Mixed Message
So what happens in the Middle East when the people are given the vote? In Iraq because of our presence there is now a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shias. However, in the Palestine authority Hamas, the Islamic party, won the election and is now in control of the government. In Lebanon Hezbollah now has 14 seats in the Lebanon parliament. None of this makes Washington very happy. Obviously give these countries “democracy” and they will vote for an Islamic state. On the other hand, the remaining countries in the Middle East except for Israel are autocracies. Our dependable allies in the region still remain Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, all autocracies. So the belief that “democracy” would be the cure-all is in reality a tooth fairy’s delusion. To give any of these autocratic countries the vote would undoubtedly place in power a hostile Islamic government, assuming that the present power brokers would even consider such a change. And the democracy that we would implant would be a myth. (See Iraq and Afghanistan) It would be a puppet government controlled by Washington. Keep in mind that the last thing Saudi Arabia would want is a popular vote. That would be the end of the monarchy. The powerful people who run that country want Saudi Arabia to remain just as it is so that they may use the money gained from oil in any despicable way that they see fit.
One comment on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that appears to have ended: It was Israel’s intention by hitting the civilian populations very hard to turn them against Hezbollah and Hamas. But instead of destroying these authorities they have gained overwhelming support to the extent that 80% of the people polled endorsed both parties. Israel’s extreme violence has caused a severe blowback.
References:
Baer, Robert. Sleeping With The Devil, Crown, 2003
Wall Street Journal. 8/8/06. Mixed Message
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