THOUGHTS ON TODAY'S WARS

Amongst the most important casualties of September 11 are respect for truth and American liberty. Propaganda has replaced deliberation based on objective assessment of fact. The resurrection of the Star Chamber has made moot the legal protections of liberty. The US invasion of Iraq was based on the deliberate suppression of fact. The invasion was not the result of mistaken intelligence. It was based on deliberately concocted "intelligence" designed to deceive the US Congress, the American public, and the United Nations. It was based also on one of the most massive frauds perpetrated on this planet, 911. That was the red flag operation of all red flag operations. It took an eternity for people to realize binLaden was a CIA operative.

In an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC News, General Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State at the time of the invasion, expressed dismay that he was the one who took the false information to the UN and presented it to the world. He said that the weapons of mass destruction speech, is a "blot" on his record. The full extent of the deception was made clear by the leaked top secret "Downing Street Memos." For a short while, a few years ago I had entertained the idea Powell was a good man. Now, with such blatant lies, such a pose of innocence is just another mark against him. But, not surprisingly, he is part of the 13 bloodlines as are Bush, Gore, the Royals, etc etc etc.

Four years and counting after the March 2003 invasion, the US Congress and the American people still have not been told the reason Iraq was invaded. The US is bogged down in an expensive and deadly combat, and no one outside the small circle of men of questionable allegiance and ethics who orchestrated the war knows the reason why. Many guesses are rendered ~ oil, removal of Israel’s enemy ~ but neither the Bush nor Blair administrations have disclosed their real agenda, which is still cloaked with the WMD deception. In truth it is the old Colonialism of old Britain that has never died; they want to conquer and rule the part of the world that fought them so successfully, the Muslim world. They need a base of operations and Iraq fits the bill. How else can they be close enough to fight Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and all the rest on their list? Don't expect changes with when Blair steps down. Brown is basically "a new PM for a new war", the one to come with Iran.

This itself is powerful indication that American democracy is dead. With the exception of rightwing talk radio, everyone in America now knows that the invasion of Iraq was based on false information. Yet, 40 percent of the public and both political parties in Congress still support the ongoing war. But then, now the Democrats are as committed to war as the Republicans. At least now they are PUBLIC about it instead of even more deception. There are so many lies, half truths, mistruths, red flags, and theories it is hard to get a grip on the truth of it all. But, it can be done. Problem is now we are truly at the point where survival is more important than knowing who is responsible for what.

The CIA has issued a report that the war is working only for terrorists. The unprovoked American aggression against Iraq, the horrors perpetrated against Muslims in Abu Ghraib prison, and the slaughter and mistreatment of Iraqi noncombatants, have radicalized the Muslim world. The chaos created in Iraq by the US military has provided al Qaeda with superb training grounds for insurgency and terrorism. Despite overwhelming evidence that the "war on terror" is in fact a war for terror, Republicans bots still cheer when Bush says we have to "fight them over there" so they don’t come "over here."

Heck, American press still tells Americans that bin Laden is alive and dangerous when all around the world it is well known that he is dead! Very dead. If fact played any role in the decision to continue with this war, the US would not be spending hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars to provide recruits and training for al Qaeda, to send over thousands of private mercenaries to fight in Iraq, to radicalize Muslims, and to destroy trust in the United States both abroad and among its own citizens.

American casualties (dead and wounded) of this gratuitous war are now approximately 40,000. Mercenaries are not included in such statistics. In July, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said the war might continue for 12 years. US casualties from such protracted combat would eat away US troop strength. Considering the well-publicized recruitment problems, America would require a draft or foreign mercenaries in order to continue a ground war. Like the over-extended Roman Empire, the US would have to deplete its remaining wealth to pay mercenaries. Only they use American mercenaries, from such companies as Blackwater, DynCorp, and other scum.

The US is hiring mercenaries from Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen paying them up to US$4000 a month to guard oil wells last month. Last month Blackwater flew in 60 former commandos from Santiago to a training camp in North Carolina. Many of them had trained under Pinochet. The South American connection cannot be ignored.

Iraq was just the first step in the corporate takeover of the Middle East. As soon as Halliburton is ensconced in Dubai, Bush is going to start pulling the troops and outsourcing Iraq "security" to Halliburton mercenaries with the funds in the black ops budget so they can't be traced. Dick Cheney will be returning to Halliburton when he leaves office. He'll spend a token period at the Texas office for appearance's sake then transfer to the home office in Dubai. At that point Halliburton will begin the South American Phase of it's take over of the world oil supply. Following upon that will be the new terrorist wave in industrialized countries ~aimed at alternative energy production facilities.

Dead and wounded Americans are too high a price to pay for a war based on deception. This alone is reason to end the war, if necessary by impeaching Bush and Cheney and arresting the neoconservatives for treason. But we all know what pussies Americans have become when it comes to standing up to their government. But, speak out and you are both ostracized and your name jotted somewhere by someone. Most Americansy don’t even know they are sleeping! Naked aggression is a war crime under the Nuremberg standard, and neoconservatives have brought this shame to America.

There is an even greater cost of the war ~ the legal system that protects liberty, a human achievement for which countless numbers of people gave their lives over the centuries. The Bush administration used September 11 to whip up fear and hysteria and to employ these weapons against American liberty. The Orwellian-named Patriot Act has destroyed habeas corpus. The executive branch has gained the unaccountable power to detain American citizens on mere suspicion or accusation, without evidence, and to hold Americans indefinitely without a trial.

Foolishly, many Americans believe this power can only be used against terrorists. Americans don’t realize that the government can declare anyone to be a terrorist suspect. As no evidence is required, it is entirely up to the government to decide who is a terrorist. Thus, the power is unaccountable. Unaccountable power is the source of tyranny. And Bush declared himself Dictator in case of emergency. Not so hard to manufacture another emergency. Scare people so badly that they begin to think favourably of accepting martial law and the microchip.

The English-speaking world has not seen such power since the 16th and 17th centuries when the Court of Star Chamber became a political weapon used against the king’s opponents and to circumvent Parliament. The Star Chamber dispensed with juries, permitted hearsay evidence, and became so reviled that "Star Chamber" became a byword for injustice. It was abolished in 1641. In obedience to the Bush regime’s demands, the US Congress resurrected it with the Patriot Act. Can anything be more Orwellian than identifying patriotism with the abolition of habeas corpus?

Historians are quick to note that the Star Chamber was mild compared to Gitmo, to the US practice of sending detainees abroad to be tortured, and to the justice (sic) regime being run by Attorney General "Torture" Gonzales and his predecessor, "Draped Justice" Ashcroft, who went so far as to say that opposition to the Patriot Act was itself the mark of a terrorist. Remember also that before these wars, America was searching out locations around the world where they could hold and torture people without breaking any international laws. That is how they found Guantanamo and why they hire various Middle Eastern countries to do turn a blind eye their activities or do it themselves for fees and favours. Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Libya also help the Bush cabal.

The time-honored attorney-client privilege is another casualty of the imaginary, fabricated “war on terror. Nick Rockefeller spoke to Aaron Russo about the creation of this “war” and this “terrorist” and was laughing about soldiers and people looking for what did not exist. He also spoke a wee bit on why this was being done. Taking their cue from the restrictions placed on lawyers representing Stalin’s victims in the 1930s show trials, Justice Department officials seek to limit attorneys’ representing terrorist suspects to procedural niceties. Lynn Stewart, attorney for Omar Abdel Rahman, was handed a letter by a Justice Department prosecutor instructing her how to represent her client. When she did what every good lawyer would do and represented her client aggressively, she was arrested, indicted and convicted.

Many conservative lawyers have turned a blind eye, because Stewart is regarded as a leftwing lawyer whom they dislike. Only a few civil libertarians, such as Harvey Silverglate, have pointed out that prosecutors cannot create felonies by writing letters to attorneys. Stewart was convicted for violating a prosecutor’s letter ~ technically, a Special Administrative Measure. This should make it obvious even to the blind that American democracy has lost all control over law.

Federal officials have sensed the sea change in American law: arbitrary actions and assertions by federal officials are taking the place of statutory legislation. We saw an example recently when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that news media covering the New Orleans hurricane story were prohibited from taking pictures of the bodies of inhabitants drowned when the levees failed. Nowhere is FEMA given authority to override the First Amendment. Yet, FEMA officials saw no reason not to issue its decree. Rome had one Caesar. America has them throughout the executive branch.

We see the same exercise of arbitrary authority in break-ins by police into New Orleans homes in order to confiscate legally owned firearms. No authority exists for these violations of the Second Amendment. No authority exists for the forceful removal of residents from non-damaged homes. Tyrannical precedents are being established by these fantastic abuses of government authority.

In the US today nothing stands in the way of the arbitrary exercise of power by government. Federal courts have acquiesced in unconstitutional detention policies. There is no opposition party, and there is no media, merely huge conglomerates or collections of federal broadcasting licenses, the owners of which are afraid to displease the government.

The collapse of the institutions that confine government to law and bind it with the Constitution was sudden. Clinton was impeached by the House for lying about a sexual affair. If we go back to the 1970s, President Richard Nixon had the decency to resign when it came to light that he had lied about when he first learned of a minor burglary. Bush’s failures are far more serious and numerous; yet, Bush has escaped accountability. To even think such a thing is considered treasonous. Many stars who have taken political stands on American matters have found themselves almost retired although the Dixie Chicks managed to come out ahead.

Polls show that a majority of Americans have lost confidence in the Iraq war and believe Bush did a poor job responding to flooded New Orleans. Many Americans hoped that these two massive failures might put Bush into the box of responsible behavior from which September 11 allowed him to escape. However, there is no indication that the Bush administration sees any constraints placed on its behavior by these failures. In fact, if nothing else, its arrogance coupled with its corporate and military aggression have only seemed to inflate its ego and enhance its powers for evil. Abu Ghraib and many other hellholes are not the work of decent nations with decent motives.

The identical cronyism and corrupt government contract practices, by which taxpayers’ money is used to reward political contributors, so evident in Iraq, as it was also evident in New Orleans. Despite having been fought to a stalemate by a few thousand insurgents in Iraq, the Bush administration continues to issue thunderous threats to Syria and Iran. And of course it is still mired in Afghanistan along with Canada and several other nations. And you wonder why Bush courts the NAU. It is for all those fine young Mexican bodies, weapons of war eager to prove their allegiance to their new homeland.

Now that the war in Iraq has established that US ground forces cannot easily prevail against insurgency, the Bush administration is bringing new military threats to the fore. The neocon orchestrated "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" abandons the established doctrine that nuclear weapons are last-resort options. The Bush administration is so enamored of coercion that it is birthing the doctrine of preemptive nuclear attack. US war doctrine is being altered to eliminate the need for a large invasion force and to use "preventive nuclear strikes" in its place.

Is this the face that the American people want to present to the world? It is hard to imagine a greater risk to America than to put the entire world on notice that every country risks being nuked based on mere suspicion. By making nuclear war permissible, the Bush administration is crossing the line that divides civilized people from barbarians. America is the only government that has ever used this weapon in war, as they did in Japan. The United States is starting to acquire the image of Nazi Germany.

Knowledgeable people should have no trouble drawing up their own list of elements common to both the Bush and Hitler regimes: the use of extraordinary lies to justify military aggression; reliance on coercion and threats in place of diplomacy; total belief in the virtue and righteousness of one’s cause; the equating of factual objections or "reality-based" analysis to treason; the redirection of patriotism from country to leader; the belief that defeat resides in debate and a weakening of will; refuge in delusion and denial when promised results don’t materialize.

The neoconservatives are not at all conservative; there is nothing conservative about them. They are committed to the use of coercion to impose their agenda. Their attitude is merciless toward anyone in their way, whether fellow citizen or foreigner. "You are with us or against us." For those on the receiving end, the Nazi mentality is not a pretty thing. The Bush administration has abandoned American principles. It is a Nazi regime. Woe to its citizens and the rest of the world.