Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions. 
“I can’t confirm or deny whether such a program exists or whether the president signed it, but it would be consistent with an overall American approach trying to find ways to put pressure on the regime,” said Bruce Riedel, a recently retired CIA senior official who dealt with Iran and other countries in the region.
A National Security Council spokesperson, Gordon Johndroe, said, “The White House does not comment on intelligence matters.” A CIA spokesperson said, “As a matter of course, we do not comment on allegations of covert activity.”
The sources say the CIA developed the covert plan over the last year and received approval from White House officials and other officials in the intelligence community.
Officials say the covert plan is designed to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment program and end aid to insurgents in Iraq.
“There are some channels where the United States government may want to do things without its hand showing, and legally, therefore, the administration would, if it’s doing that, need an intelligence finding and would need to tell the Congress,” said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official.
Current and former intelligence officials say the approval of the covert action means the Bush administration, for the time being, has decided not to pursue a military option against Iran.
“Vice President Cheney helped to lead the side favoring a military strike,” said former CIA official Riedel, “but I think they have come to the conclusion that a military strike has more downsides than upsides.”
The covert action plan comes as U.S. officials have confirmed Iran had dramatically increased its ability to produce nuclear weapons material, at a pace that experts said would give them the ability to build a nuclear bomb in two years.
Riedel says economic pressure on Iran may be the most effective tool available to the CIA, particularly in going after secret accounts used to fund the nuclear program.
“The kind of dealings that the Iranian Revolution Guards are going to do, in terms of purchasing nuclear and missile components, are likely to be extremely secret, and you’re going to have to work very, very hard to find them, and that’s exactly the kind of thing the CIA’s nonproliferation center and others would be expert at trying to look into,” Riedel said.
Under the law, the CIA needs an official presidential finding to carry out such covert actions. The CIA is permitted to mount covert “collection” operations without a presidential finding.
“Presidential findings” are kept secret but reported to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other key congressional leaders.
The “nonlethal” aspect of the presidential finding means CIA officers may not use deadly force in carrying out the secret operations against Iran.
Still, some fear that even a nonlethal covert CIA program carries great risks.
“I think everybody in the region knows that there is a proxy war already afoot with the United States supporting anti-Iranian elements in the region as well as opposition groups within Iran,” said Vali Nasr, adjunct senior fellow for Mideast studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“And this covert action is now being escalated by the new U.S. directive, and that can very quickly lead to Iranian retaliation and a cycle of escalation can follow,” Nasr said.
Other “lethal” findings have authorized CIA covert actions against al Qaeda, terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
Also briefed on the CIA proposal, according to intelligence sources, were National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams.
“The entire plan has been blessed by Abrams, in particular,” said one intelligence source familiar with the plan. “And Hadley had to put his chop on it.”
Abrams’ last involvement with attempting to destabilize a foreign government led to criminal charges.
He pleaded guilty in October 1991 to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress about the Reagan administration’s ill-fated efforts to destabilize the Nicaraguan Sandinista government in Central America, known as the Iran-Contra affair. Abrams was later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush in December 1992.
In June 2001, Abrams was named by then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to head the National Security Council’s office for democracy, human rights and international operations. On Feb. 2, 2005, National Security Advisor Hadley appointed Abrams deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for global democracy strategy, one of the nation’s most senior national security positions.
As earlier reported on the Blotter on ABCNews.com, the United States has supported and encouraged an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, that has conducted deadly raids inside Iran from bases on the rugged Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan “tri-border region.”
U.S. officials deny any “direct funding” of Jundullah groups but say the leader of Jundullah was in regular contact with U.S. officials.
American intelligence sources say Jundullah has received money and weapons through the Afghanistan and Pakistan military and Pakistan’s intelligence service. Pakistan has officially denied any connection.
A report broadcast on Iranian TV last Sunday said Iranian authorities had captured 10 men crossing the border with $500,000 in cash along with “maps of sensitive areas” and “modern spy equipment.”
A senior Pakistani official told ABCNews.com the 10 men were members of Jundullah.
The leader of the Jundullah group, according to the Pakistani official, has been recruiting and training “hundreds of men” for “unspecified missions” across the border in Iran.
Copyright © 2007 ABCNews Internet Ventures
How much aggression can the world tolerate? As a renegade nation, the US should be sanctioned by the United Nations. I think an international boycott and severe sanctions including divestment campaigns may be needed to bring the US back into the community of civilized nations.
Wasn’t too long after Johnson started covert programs against North Vietnam (Operation 34A) that the “Tonkin Gulf Incident” took place escalating the war in Vietnam.
If Americans think were mired now in a war with no end in Iraq, just wait until they see what happens when Bush gets his war with Iran. The Iranians have a real army of millions of men, tanks, artillery, an Air Force and a Navy–including submarines. In addition, they have some of the most sophisticated missile systems in the world.
A war with Iran would make Iraq look like a sunny day in the park.
There’s a madman at the helm and nobody can do anything to stop him. The American Republic is dead.
I believe this so called surge in Iraq was just positioning troops to take on Iran. Does Bush think were all fools to believe anything he says!! Lies and deceit constantly come forth from his lips. So self righteous he can’t see the forest from the trees. He has so weakened our armed forces and caused untold misery for so many yet he and Blair puff around in the Rose garden and say they wouldn’t change a thing!! We must find a way to Impeach the Bastard!!
Bush has admitted that he doesn’t read except for headlines. And those who do not read history tend to repeat their mistakes. In 1953 as a result of the CIA coup in Iran, the democratic Prime Minister Mossadegh was ousted, and the venal Shah resumed power. When the Shah finally fled again as a result of the Islamic revolution, a group of university students overran the U.S Embassy because they feared, and rightly so, that the CIA might engage in another coup and bring the Shah back. The net result of the 1953 CIA coup was the coming into power of Mullahs. I hate to imagine what sort of devil would come into power this time, were CIA operations successful.
It will surprise me if this winds up working in the United States’ favor. This “covert operation” in Iran is reminiscent of when the United States supported the Taliban in Afghanistan to overthrow what was then the Northern Alliance in the 1980s. Look how that turned out…
I am sure the Iranian Government is familiar with how two-faced the United States is and will do the best they can to make sure that Jundullah does not take over their country. I wonder what the United States knows about them and why the United States trusts this rebel group? Will they wind up being a “terrorist” group in United States’ opinion someday? I don’t know - but clearly Jundullah would indeed be a terrorist group to the Iranian Government.
The United States Government once again fails to learn from past events.
Obviously the readers of this web site are generally anti-Bush on a number of issues, and lean to the left on the political spectrum. However, the American people elected this wing-nut president … twice! (OK, technically only once given the shady events in Florida).
I love the United States and the democratic freedoms it provides, but why the American people would elect Bush and his war-hawk cronies is simply baffling to me. And now it seems all anyone can do is complain about how damaging he is to the country and the rest of the world.
Bush showed his true colors immediately after he was elected by filling his cabinet with hordes of Bible-thumping war mongers. So why did the American people elect him again??
And if the public thinks Bush’s moves in Iraq, Iran et al. are a mistake, why are people not taking to the streets in massive protest?
The American people ARE the government as written in the Constitution, and this whack-job administration answers directly to them. Believe me, if everyone took to the streets and reminded the politicians who they work for, major change would happen quickly.
However, it seems that the majority of people must agree with Bush’s tactics since he continues to freely do whatever he wants.
Apathy will be the death of all great democracies.
I have a different take. For me, it was good news in that it indicated that Cheney has been contained for now. That means there are powerful forces at work behind the scenes that are directed toward preventing total catastrophe. And as more and more revelations come out regarding all the crimes and machinations of the Bush criminal gang over the past few years, especially those involving Cheney, Darth’s position is likely to weaken further.
Or maybe I have just been conditioned by all the bad news during the time of the Bush administration that I focus too much on the few silver linings I can find.
if that bothers you, take a look at Bush Anoints Himself as the Ensurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency
By Matthew Rothschild
The Progressive
the puzzle pieces are coming together.
I’ll tell you why.
The war machine is telling them how to analyze what they hear and it runs every media source they turn to; they don’t think for themselves. They think that they are hearing both sides, that’s where the problem lies.
We are taking to the streets-the only problem is only a few are taking to the streets!!! I agree with Dr. Spock lots of complaining. So someone tell me how do we get the protests that we saw back in the dog days of Vietnam! They were the start and we need to find a way to get this country to wake up and do something at this point ANYTHING WOULD HELP!! IT’S A FOREGONE CONCLUSION PELOSI AND REID ARE NOT THE ANSWER!!!
The US has engaged in state-sponsored terrorism for many years (Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Columbia, etc), and even has training camps for terrorists (School of the Americas in FL). When other countries do the same, the MSM draws them over the coals as sponsors of terrorists. When the US does it, it is to fight for “Freedom and Democracy”.
The native American Indian had it right: “White man speak with forked tongue”.
The congress - no matter the party - is not the answer. Congress is irrelevant in a dictatorship, and the current party in charge is spineless. Besides, everyone knows no one is going to take to the streets. The citizenry is busily glued to the tube waiting to see who wrapped their SUV around a pole, what new outrages have been perpetrated by entertainment and sports figures, and who wins on the Wheel of Fortune while they add to their fat.
Gsemel:
Just curious…what specifically do you think can be done at this point? Given that the obese and intellectually incurious in America are too lazy to stand up. What do the rest of us do?
The morons are still in charge.
Take to the Streets!?!
That’s so 1960’s.
This is a great tactic that worked well for civil rights, for the Vietnam war, for voters rights etc. etc. all or mostly 1960’s issues. Times have changed. And the governments of the world led by the U.S. have made it more and more difficult for “taking to the streets” to matter.
People think, oh if only we had a thousand more protesters or a hundred thousand more then we could change the mind of the government. Not so. It’s like arguing a baseball call and saying if only more players and maybe the fans in the stands would argue with us we could change the mind of the umpires. If you know sports, it doesn’t work that way. And besides most umpires are obstinate. We had protesters against the World Bank in S.F. we had protesters in Miami against the free trade convention. We had in some estimates millions of protesters in various U.S. cities against the start of the Iraq war and many more around the world. We had hundreds of thousands of protesters in New York when the RNC had the nerve to set their flags(convention) right in the middle of our camp.
I have much more but I’ll cut this post short. First of all the media is trained not to report protests any longer as it did in the 1960’s. And if it receives any coverage it’s gets just a blip at the end of programming and always show the protesters in a negative light. Second, they have FEMA and national guard troops with new training, not for rescuing Katrina victims, or bring food and shelter to the needy, but for qwelling public violence and disturbances. They have “freedom” cages already setup and waiting hoping and wishing we got just a little violent so that they could unleash their fury of so called non-lethal weapons on us peace loving citizens. If we don’t get violent they can send some paid shills to do violence and destruction and use this as a pretense for their excessive force. I can go on but let’s leave it there.
Jakesnake’s point is well put.
The way I see things..the only way to stop this nonsense is to stop the media.. and start our own educational lessons.
Just imagine.. a peaceful group of citizens standing outside CNN, FOXNEWS, ABC… and handing out “informative” booklets WITH FACTS on how these media misled people. We take the battle (of information) right on their doorstep. Now imagine this group of people growing.. more of them in bus/train stations, fairs, intersections, so on .. handing out more information.. The possibility is endless but the action is needed.
Knowledge is power and right now its in the Govt’s hands… Pass it on my friends.
Dubya has about a year and a half to make his next move - two or ist three carrier fleets in the Tonkin - oops - Persian Gulf, a long narrow body with one narrow exit. Bush and his neo-con sidekicks hang on in Iraq despite any demonstrations or letters to congressmen. During that 18 or so months what they need is an incident - preferably big so that bush becomes another Guliani writ large - minus popular ratings suddenly a hero after a terrible incident - my money is on the carrier fleet. First we Lebenon-ize Iraq with air strikes and Bush becomes a hero helping the Repblicans in 1980 elections. Unlike Iraq, Iran can retaliate economically and military. Their economic weapon is stopping all crude oil shipments folowed by sympathetic Venezuela finding necessity to shut down their well and refineries for repairs and the international oil markets go bonkers. Gasoline prices go to $10 dollars a gallon, Venezuela actually makes money and even after our “friends” the hooded monsters in Saudi Arabia turn on the oil spigots full force it take months before the international oil markets come back to normal. Price of gasoline is an issue that effects practically all U.S. citizens - right, left and center. If they all knew that there gasoline price is going to go to $10 a gallon when that first bomb hits Iran Bush and his Neo-con sidekicks would drop all thoughts of an Iran air war!
As I’ve written before on here several times, the effective form of protest of the future will involve technically capable protestors who can affect commerce-related traffic on the web the way the old protestors were able to affect traffic on the streets.
Lobby your reps to start a draft before its too late. This time make sure their kids go first with no school deferments.
Good!
Nothing really changes.
They will not attack Iran! Why you ask? Iran can fight back.As you can see they are already backing off some and reverting to their old stand-by the CIA and their bag of dirty tricks.
As it was said the post before mine..”Nothing really changes”.
Maybe they’ll play it like Iraq (or Tonkin). Rhetorical provocations, let them miscalculate (i.e. Iraq invading Kuwait), build-ups in the region, UN embargos, aerial bombing to knock out media, propaganda swap-in’s, false flag, years of crippling embargos to weaken resolve under a feel-good Democratic administration with basically a neocon foreign policy, then the real invasion & permanent occupation? And another series of gross miscalculations.
It’ll be really interesting to see how they get the average American on board with this one. A horrible event attributed to Iran (or some other random country) to justify the whole “action”?
Our neocons don’t seem to read much in the way of history: whether Spain, Italy, Germany, Soviet Union, etc. essentially all European empires of the previous century required too much blood and ended far earlier than their classical counterparts. The Neocon World Order is an anachronism with no place in the modern age.
The USA is an unbelieveably/horribly screwed up country.
A major collapse of our corrupt economic system would help a lot. Hmm maybe only our creator could send a couple of huge meteors to annihilate both Washington DC & Arlington (home of the Pentagon) at some time when most of the dirty rats are there and all the good folks are away.
Wishful thinking doesn’t help. It looks like we have have to keep on struggling, remaining aware that truly amazing progress has been made in the last 50 years, and that each success has taken lots of effort.
The people with vision and insight have always been the ones who have pushed for and made progress possible.
Don’t be dismayed, fight the good fight! To hell with all movements that use deception, violence, & greed to achieve their goals. They will eventually find their way into history books right next to the Nazis, KKK, and other enemies of the people.
The truth (about what’s going on)will set us free
(from supporting disgusting tyrants of both parties who are in power).
At least we can see what’s going on. Please support the only
level headed, genuine “PeaceMonger” who’s running for president.
It appears that he’s the only hope that we have:
http://kucinich.us/
Democrats and Clinton fans, please watch this 8 min talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zbu1o6W4sI
I disagree with you guys who say marching isn’t relevant tell that to MLK!! Yeah there were fire hoses and police dogs and white supremacists and getting arrested but that’s the price you pay sometimes. I know I sound so 60’s!!! Good!! Those people had balls!!! I’m not saying marching is everything but if enough people start and it grows to the ranks it did in the Vietnam era they’ll have to take notice. Anyway as Forrest Gump said,”I guess that’s all I got to say bout that”
So does this mean, according to Bush’s doctrine, that Iran is now free to attack the United States in any manner it chooses that is compatible with its resources and national security?
I mean if we can premptively attack Iraq on made up suspicions, then it follows that Iran can attack the U.S. with impunity from world opinion since the U.S. is clearly taking aggressive and provocative action against the Iranian Nation.
Does any one in the United States government have a brain to reason such logic? Are we all nationcentric idiots with a media, politicians and business leaders of the same calibre?
They want WWIII and they are hell bent on getting it! Welcome to the Bush Crime Family stage show! They need another attach here on the home front, bet they are up to a real surprise for all of us. This will blow up in our faces and anything that does happen we have asked for.
DrSpock
Dr Spock, wanted to make soem comments about why it seems we Americans allowed the Bush fiasco to ahppen- but this crappy comments function once again screwed up my post- back atchya’ later…
Dr Spock, I agree; it is baffling. However, I’m pretty sure the powers that be made sure that the most critical voting machines were all
rigged to vote republican no matter what the people voted. Still, it is mysterious that many obviously do continue to support the
man now that he has revealed himself to be an insane, evil psychopath… (I suspected it all along, but people thought I was paranoid!)
Hi again DrSpock,
What I wanted to say to you was that I have experienced your question before, while traveling outside the US- the world is pissed, and they want answers, so the unwary, traveling US citizens suddenly becomes the target for these questions.
It’s crazy, for an activist who has been against the Bush regime lies from day one, to have to answer to others over and over again, like some unpaid ambassador, about how our country got into such a mess- how “we” actually voted for Bush- AGAIN.
How did it happen? First of all, we don’t have a free media- how can voters make an informed decision when they are spoonfed lies through the media?
Secondly, we need major campaign reform, because it’s the fat cats with the money who get the exposure, and we all know their priorities are aligned with the money source.
And then of course it’s important that everyone know, in his first term, Bush authorized a program giving religious organizations lots and lots of $$$$, which must have meant a lot of votes, which is another classic example of why there should be complete seperation of Church and State.
Yes, our election system is totally fucked, so corrupt- and people don’t feel they have a voice in government, that the gov. is owned, etc.
Sadly, mainstream USA is like one vast pasture of unthinking sheep, many of whom blindly follow along with the status quo, because they think that in so doing they’ll be perceived as one of the “good people”, which then somehow actually will translate into their achieving the ever so elusive, carrot-before-the-horse, the “American Dream”, which we may as well re-label, “The American Myth”.
It has been through the brave activism of those peace activists who were willing to take a stand against a very corrupt (and scary, with their “terrorist” witch hunts and use of torture) administrative regime that any truth about their misdeeds was even discussed.
It wasn’t through the media that the Bush approval rating completely reversed- it was word-of-mouth activism, in the living and dining rooms, and outside of the homes, discourse between citizens that has provoked the real change happening now.
When we want to place blame for world problems, let’s not immediately place blame on the people of those countries- remember, it’s the leaders in charge who are screwing everything up, and with whom the blame lies for deceiving their country. And when you see the people wake up, and try to organize for positive change, how about supporting their efforts, instead of placing blame, which doesn’t help at all.
“Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran”
Did Bush authorize previous covert action against Iran?
Did the US Treasury pay for the previous covert action against Iran?
How many Americans are on the ground in Iran taking military action?
We know that for quite awhile the target marking of buildings and infrastructure has been going on from previous reports. What additional actions are now taking place in Iran?
How about this?
Since our “representatives” are not doing much, and are commonly perceived to be the lowest of sleaze who will never, ever listen to the American public…
Why don’t we get ballot measures across in every State, and every county, to this effect:
On every voter’s ballot there should be a choice for, “None of these candidates represent my interests.”
Start a movement, call it VoteChange, and say this:
We will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils.
We will no longer stand for voting only for millionaires.
We will no longer stand for a two party system of entrenched old white men.
Elections with dismal turnouts are unacceptable.
Etc.
We’ve got to get around to the root of the problem at some point. No matter how many letters we write, no matter that 70 per cent of the country is freaked out, nothing’s going to change until we get the little weasels out.
Dr Spock, the American people never technically elected Bush even once. Google Ohio 2004 Fitrakis and read what’s happening there. The new Secretary of State has sequestered the 2004 ballots instead of allowing the scheduled destruction of them. Bush is in office because he stole 2 elections. The Republicans would still be in power if they hadn’t underestimated the level of voter anger. And if we had fair elections, the Democrats would have their 2/3 majority.
mujibur, the citizens of the USSR knew they had a lying press, so they developed a system of dispensing information underground, called “samizdat”. They typed their own manuscripts of forbidden written work and news information and distributed it by hand. In their society, people could only trust their friends, but in so doing, they formed a nationwide network. And they, unlike Americans, knew that whatever they were being told by their news reporters was a pack of lies.
Sadly, Americans have taken our hard earned freedom for granted and aren’t even noticing that it’s disappearing.
“The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.” Oscar Wilde
The majority of the US budget is used for covert actions.. everywhere, not just Iran. Please research for yourselves about a US gov’t program called “Rex84″ aka Readiness Exercise 84 aka US concentration camps. They’re oh so fashionable these days.. and they’re just waiting to make a big comeback. They’re already built and staffed.. just not yet filled with people. Don T. Hutto detainee jail for ‘illegal aliens’ is one example, and it’s a privatized affair.. that’s just one facility that was funded by all those no-bid contracts that Cheney worked out for himself…
There’s so much more to get into.. but not enough time to get into it.
How covert can it be if we know about it? Something doesn’t quite add up here. And what could be worse than the Mullahs? The over-zealous counter-critics keeps rational thinking at bay. And by the way DrSpock, Bush and company stole the second election. But for Ohio and Florida, oh and the Supreme Court, they would not be in power today. But what exactly would John Kerry have done? About anything? While I agree that Bush needs to go asap, and the US involvement in Iraq come to a fast and quick end, let’s not lose our heads. Not all Americans are nationcentric idiots, (of course, you weren’t including yourself, were you Dillon?). And patriotism and Democrats are not mutually exclusive. So what do we do? How can we get rid of the blight in the Whitehouse? Hmmm…there were a couple of good suggestions, rally those who are fed up and do some serious marching (college students are great at that), get Congress to impeach (let your politicians know exactly how you feel whether they have supported your views or not), boycott things that aid and abet the war, stop using so much gas and make your trips as succinct as possible, there are a lot of things we can do, not the least of which is fix the voting problems in every state in the union. The power is in the people, at least in America, but usually they don’t know it because they are duped by shady, slick politicians. Oh, and you can go to Canada if you want, if they will take you. This is our country and it is still the best one on earth.
Taking to the streets, will ultimately, come to pass given the current indications of future actions by this administration and the followers of it’s creed. But, the action taken in the streets will be required to be a unique phenomena; actions required to turn this facist movement around will be both bloody and deadly. We have sealed our own fate when we didn’t push Gore to cause, in his words, a consitutional crisis, by challenging the supreme court. The citizens of this country have abdicated their responsibilities and the apathy will be paid for in blood if there is to be restoration of freedom in America. The democracy, the supreme experiment has failed, it has given way to the same murderous facist, imperialist, corportatist, military industrial complex leaning neo-political elitist thinking that has managed to over take most every westernalized government. There is but one answer as there was in 1798 France. Be armed and be well. To hell with the republic for, it does not stand.
There are several other ways this can play out. Perhaps it’ll implode from within, one among their coalition (Big Oil, Big Pharm, Big Ag, Big Box, Big Guns, Big God, etc.) doesn’t get what it wants. The other way is that the military can’t recruit enough people, the IRS cannot raise enough taxes because people are getting stretched thin already, etc. So they may need to resort to a draft, but they’ll need to work very quickly since opposition will galvanize.
The other failed aggressors in the 17th-20th centuries met their Waterloos from the outside. When aggressors go unchallenged from within, they inevitably meet their limits from without. The problem is that they take an awful lot of innocents along for the journey.
Shenonymous,
Your points are well taken and intelligently thought out, one problem though, they are completely naive. This line of thought is exactly what has delivered this country into the hands of zealots. We no longer have the ear of government, for government is absurdly and criminally corrupt. We are not talking about a simple dissatifaction with a specific premise that this administration and it’s supporters covet, we are talking about a mass movement by a group of powerful people designed on a “new world order”, one that has no place for dissent, where the rule of law has no bearing that corrupt politicians, ego-menical men of wealth feel that the world ought to evolve and revolve around the tenents of their beliefs and that any use of inhumane treatment of world citizens is justified in their undertaking. The Third Riecht is a joke in comparison to these individuals. They are not constrained to borders, ideals or the wills of any peoples. Wake up people before there is nothing left to fight for. The puzzle pieces are there all you have to do is be intelligent enough to put them together to see that this country has been sacrificed for a larger cause on part of these individuals. There is no doubt that events, much worse than we’re seeing in Irag and Afghanistan will come to pass soon and 9-11 will be a farce as they fucked that paln up too. Undoubtedly, more fear tactics will be implemented in the US to help bolster the robbery of democracy. Make no mistake, your ideals are valued but misplaced, we have past the point of depending upon civil engagement to solve this problem.
The U.S. government must be considered a fully corporatist fascist state. The federal government has been completely Privatixed for sole purpose of maximazation of profit of a few multi-national corporations (oil), the military-industrial complex, etc.
Domestically the iron heel is now destroying “immigrants” complete with concentration camps (detention centers) holding families and children in Texas.
The LA May 1st police attack is another sample of what is to come.
The Democratic Party, liberals, “progressives”, populists, are complict. “Ignorance is bliss”. They are complicit because they insist on remaining ignorant of the fact that REFORM IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE. The Democratic Party cannot be reformed. The politically conservative labor movement (business partner to capital), cannot be reformed.
The mass madia cannot be reformed. Critical analysis is forbidden.
WHAT TO DO NOW? First, find out WHY THESE THINGS ARE HAPPENING? For critical analysis read the World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org
Iran has always been on Bush and Cheney’s list, along with the plan to make a dictatorship of the USA.
I agree with the writer above who says we should institute the draft. That ought to bring out some action. You can’t count on the Democrats. We found that out yesterday.
We are on our last hurrah if a Daniel doesn’t come to judgment pretty durned soon — like next week.
Is it just me? Or is the majority of the American Public used to eating the Bull!*&@ we are being fed by this administration? Too many of us are too comfortable to get off our ass and do what is right. This country is spiraling downward out of control, and too many of us are willing to spill the blood of innocent people around the globe just to maintain the unimportant comforts we have been given. Why is the public more concerned with who wins on American Idol, or what’s going to happen to Jack Bauer than the fact we are travelling down a road to the next world war? The people who live in the Middle East are just like you and me, they have families, friends and rights as human beings. I for one am tired of watching this country support terrorist groups (Hussein 80’s,Al Quida 80’s and Jundollah present) and Horde WMD’s just so we can kill others for those exact reasons. I believe in peaceful change but I am also a realist. We all need to remember that the people have the power in this country, not the government! We have let this administration convince us otherwise for too long. Do what is right. Power to the people!
Been there! Done that! Mossadegh in Iran in 1953. Not to mention thirteen other governmental overthrows, including Iraq, since Hawaii in 1890(?).
Read Stephen Kinzer’s “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq” and “All the Shah’s Men”.
These overthrows for business interests and exaggerated fear of our enemies were immoral and, in the long run, made us less safe. Our arrogant and hypocritical actions have been carried out by both Republican and Democratic administrations.
“Failure to learn this history dooms us to repeat it.” When will we ever learn?
Check out Romney’s condemnation of ABC’s disclosure of this alleged plan. Another cluless politician.
Although Eisenhower’s actions belied the words in his farewell address, we should all heed his admonitions.
Only in The U S you say,,eh.
Something smells like counter intelligence. This story came from ABC, Murdock’s lapdog. They are very neocon.
Why would Murdock authorize his news station to leak a secret story with anonomous sources about his dear Bush adminstration?
I think it is to distract from something else. What is the big story about to break?
“I have also decided to pardon five other individuals for their conduct related to the Iran-Contra affair: Elliott Abrams, Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, Clair George, and Robert McFarlane. First, the common denominator of their motivation–whether their actions were right or wrong–was patriotism. Second, they did not profit or seek to profit from their conduct. Third, each has a record of long and distinguished service to this country. And finally, all five have already paid a price–in depleted savings, lost careers, anguished families–grossly disproportionate to any misdeeds or errors of judgment they may have committed.”–Proclamation 6518, Grant of Executive Clemency, December 24, 1992 (George H.W. Bush).
That’s some “lost career” Abrams has. I wonder what his savings account looks like today?
Bill Baggins, what do you think the big story about to break is? It wouldn’t have anything to do with Monica Goodling’s testimony or Alberto Gonzales’ breakin of Ashcroft’s sickbed would it? Or the fact that the call to Ashcroft’s hospital room from the White House drew a No Response from the President (not daring to get caught in a baldfaced lie with the whole world closely watching this time). Things are heating up in Never-Never land.
I don’t mean to nitpick but if he’s announced it and I’m reading about it here, exactly how “covert” can it be?
Don’t place blame on Bush. The responsible parties are those who helped him steal two elections by voting for thes unqualified and manipulated president who has a secret agenda.
This must be some kind of new covert propaganda…
This goverment has been taken over and there’s nothing we can do about it.Doesn’t it really seem that way to you?Look around you and count the number of people oh care about whats happening in this goverment,thats what really scares me.They have a free rain and they know it.Everyone is going to wake up very soon and say (what happened)?To late.
Ronald, I’m afraid you’re right. My friends are informed and involved, but most of the people (strangers) I talk with don’t know what’s going on, never heard of Dennis Kucinich, and don’t really care. They dislike the Republicans even more than the Democrats (for now), but they are apathetic. And most of them don’t vote. I think TV turns people into zombies. Well, I guess if all people want to do is work, go home and watch TV and drink beer and keep their mouths shut, they won’t notice or care that they’ve become corporate slaves in a dictatorship. I hope our young people aren’t as numb. They are the ones that will be stuck with this corporate pigsty and forced into being cannon fodder.
Rediculous. Are liberals supposedly incapable of critical reading, and logical thought?
Firstly, this story is full of inuendo, unrevealed sources, wild speculation, and a collection of other odd news items. Nothing new, are very little facts. I may sympathise, but it could just as easily have been written by someone who never interviewed a single person at all, but sat at home, compiled together a few news reports, and added not a few measures of wild speculation. Sadly, it wouldn’t be the first time, either.
Secondly, and this is what really irritates me, is the fact that the war in Iraq was won (the Iraqi military was shattered), but then immediately lost again: After WWII, there were over 1 million allied troops (Soviet, Canada, British, French and American) occupying Germany. What in God’s name convinced Bush that it would suffice with 150,000 men in Iraq?
This is the real reason Bush administration won’t invade Iran. There is no nation today that can field an army capable of winning a war against USA. But after winning its war, America can’t afford to (or rather, isn’t willing to adequately) police the peace. Iran as a nation has three times the population of Iraq. 70 million.
This present “surge” in Iraq, will fail, because, in comparison to what is needed to restore law and order, it is a “trickle”.
Rick May 23rd, 2007 1:24 pm,
“They will not attack Iran! Why you ask? Iran can fight back”
They’re not looking to fight in the standard “invade and occupy” sense. What they want to do is to use a combination of air strikes and cruise missile attacks to knock out Iran’s military installations, nuclear infrastructure and other high priority targets; the idea being to sow great instability in the hopes that some other power base (an intimidated military, the US’s proxy army du jour, etc.) will either take power or significantly weaken the hold of the mullahs. Well, that’s the plan, anyways. Neocon wet dreams have a way of drying up quickly once the waking hours of reality set in.
In the event of an imminent attack from the US, Iran would be in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation. If they sit back and wait for the US to draw first blood, they’ll be easily crippled by American air power. If they do what’s in their strategic best interest and hit the US forces in the region with everything they’ve got in a preemptive strike…well, I think we all know how that would play out in the US political, military and media spheres. “Full scale war frenzy” is an understated way to characterize the likely response. The psychopaths in power would be in seventh heaven.
i agree with everything shenonymous has said. and mostly with the rest of you guys. as a non american i can see the wood from the trees. and to me it does seem (and with most other countries too) that the american nation is too wrapped up in gadgets, tv, guns, fast food and taking people to court. and really we only have advertising and media to blame for this state of affairs. and right, only people with money get noticed in campaigns. so unless the majority of people wake up to what is going on, then nothing will change and the world will sink into even deeper despair and destruction. and i can’t think of a single thing that will motivate them. sheep, how do you motivate sheep?
The sources spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject?? Give me a break,dude!!!!
katsteevns, so why were they revealing this info anyway? it must be classified surely? what did they gain by this. and when is your next album coming out?
I guess this is what Bush/Cheney (let’s not forget the evil one - Dubya couldn’t think of all this stuff by himself)have already done to America immediately after taking office in 2000. That is, issuing a “non-lethal presidential finding” and then proceeding with a “camapign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation” against our own country. I’d say it’s been pretty successful, given that most folks still think that the 3 WTC buildings were attacked by Islamists and fell of their own accord; that Saddam/Iraq had anything to do with 9/11; that the Patriot Act helps to keep us safe and secure; that free trade is good for all of us; etc. etc. WAKE UP!!! Wake up, before the next “terrorist attack” is used to allow Bush to implement his emergency powers to “ensure the continuity of our constitutional government.” People, since our “representatives” in the House and Senate are only represnting their own selfish interests (by and large), we must act as responsible citizens or we do not deserve to keep what freedom and prosperity we have remaining. Perhaps a national strike, or a boycott of unnecessary goods (everything but food and medicine) for a week or so. Or, maybe we should call for a new Constitutional convention - we have the power to take back the government that is ordained to be of, by and for the People!
coco, I am intrigued by your question: “How do you motivate sheep?” (Or sheeple, in this case…)
Having spent a little time with sheep, I can tell you that they are certainly motivated by food (witness the obesity epidemic…) and
also by coyotes. They will also follow a chosen leader, (the “judas” goat) even to a certain death. Fortunately, a well trained sheepdog
can also motivate them to do all kinds of things. But we must keep in mind that they are essentially herd animals, looking for someone
to lead them around so that they can feel safe. I think that this might be the key to motivating them.
How many more wars is that ‘nut’ going to start before the American people get fed up with his ambitions? He already has two going that he is losing. I think he is losing them personally by sheer incompetence. He lets the conservative greed machine run things with no one allowed to ask question about how money is being spent or wasted (which ever way you want to say it). He won’t keep the kind of people around him who know what the f…they are doing. He has to always have ‘yes’ people around to stroke his over-inflated ego. He won’t let the few competent people there are do their jobs. It’s sickening. We can’t afford the two wars he has already started. What are we going to do when he starts one with Iran????? I don’t like the connotations that open revolt have attached to them. So, many times those who revolt only wind up with something far worse (I can’t imagine someone worse than Bush). But, somehow we are going to have to get this nut out of office before he destroys us as a nation! And I mean before January of 2009. I have the feeling it’s going to be to late by then. He is going to have such a mess no one can figure it out. It’s going to take decades to get the mess he has made out of our government cleared up.
If you see a group of men dressed in white coveralls depositing extension ladders, drop cloths, paint cans and scaffolding next to a house with peeling paint, it would appear a safe bet that they intend to paint that house at some point in the not too distant future.
If you see a gathering of aircraft carriers, laden with scores of fully loaded fighter jets and attack helicopters, and carrying thousands of combat ready troops, to the shores of a foreign country, while the owner of the carriers has agents inside that country fomenting violence, and that country’s ever-hostile and self-absorbed neighbor regularly dictates non-negotiable orders to the owner of the aircraft carriers, then common sense would equally suggest that the spilling of blood is as likely as the spilling of paint.
Perhaps Iran should take a stand against the US military presence, battleships and you name it, parked outside their country. They could approach the United Nations, and China especially. The fact that Iran wants to trade in euros instead of dollars, just like Iraq did before attacked should be noted. China could help rein in the US, because frankly the US bombing the fuck out of Iran would not help them any. China has a lot of power, in trade and US debt, and could well influence an outcome between the US and Iran.
On the home front, it’s time to shut the country down this summer, while the National guard is away. Store up your food and get ready for the battle.
nocall4it, I’m afraid of your conclusion but you might be right. There are several peaceful ways to change what is clearly broken(our democracy), but the powers that be, let’s call them the New World Order have blocked all those avenues. Not overtly but in a way that it appears to still be viable like voting, calling congress, emailing senators, blocking some streets in protest, but we know the powers laugh at all these methods.
France’s 1789 through 1799 was a bloody social and politcal change for that nation. Although I believe that is a last viable resort for change in this country, I don’t subscribe to it. However, I’m afraid there are many ready and waiting with there weapons for a revolution. Well, the NWO machinations are ready too. It would be another dark mark in our sorry history.
“how do you motivate sheep?”
You make them lawmakers. Check out Mike Gravel’s site.
i’m suspicious of this abc story too, by sy hersh and others have been saying similar things for a while. don’t forget there are more than a few people in the military/intelligence world who think w. should spend the rest of his days in a looney bin.
Oh,,Yes..let’s be all sensitive about the subject even after they start carpet bombing with the phosphorus….Making Iran into just another Iraq is ok,,who cares anyway…right? No one will do anything to stop it,,so let’s be sensitive about it so we don’t lose our jobs and our status….A few million dead Iranians isn’t worth exposing ones identity over,right?..Nuke ‘em ’til they glow!,right?
…
Y’know, our president is a Global Effin’ Bully, and I really wish he’d keep his durned mouth shut before he gets us into another war. Where are we going to get troops if he gets us into deep doo-doo with Iran? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT MAN? Is this Cheney’s doing? Does he want the USA annihilated before he leaves office? Is that what his desire is for his legacy in tomorrow’s history books?
I swear, I don’t understand why we have not gone to Washington by the millions, in person, and thrown over this administration. We have the right to do that, but no one seems to want to try. (the text below is from the United States Declaration of Independence. I cut it off just after the start of the indictments of King George; I might add that the Bush administration is guilty of many of the same acts as King George - the one from Merry Olde England. One King George is very much like the other… )
**********************************************
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
(etc…..)
**********************************************
End of rant, temporarily…
~im~
In response to drspock and dougrambo, I, for one, am a Christian, not a Neo-con. I for one, did not vote for this Bush,nor the first one. I, for one, did not vote for Nixon. I for one, smelled my share of tear gas in the 70’s, and never voted for a Republican presidential candidate. I, for one, am not alone, and there are millions of us. I, for one, feel raped by this administration - and I know I am not alone. But I am nearing 70 years of age, have no car, and little cash to spare. I ask you, what are the voters who are 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 doing these days? Where are they marching?
~im~
Amitola, go to Mike Gravel’s website and click on nationalinitiative. If you are a registered voter you can register to force a citizen initiated constitutional convention. Our founders were pretty thorough and smart about how democracy can be lost, and how the citizens can protect our democracy. But we have to do the work.
I don’t know where Bush is going on Iran. His MO is to “Shock and Awe”, then invade, but he doesn’t have the troops, and Iran won’t be submissive. I don’t know what will happen but it will be ugly. It’s frustrating that those in a position to put the brakes on him won’t do it. Almost 50 years ago my falther said WWIII will begin in the Middle East. It didn’t occur to me that WE would be the ones to start it.
llof Musich -
Thanks for reminding us of the power we really have, and who gave it to us in the first place. May any gods there be bless Thomas Jefferson.
I too have been around awhile, and my best hope right now is to push for impeachment and support Rep. Kucinich’s resolution for impeachment of Cheney (first things first) and then of Bush.
We did it with Nixon and they did it with Clinton, and look! We lived through it both times! And anyway, now it’s our turn again.
I appreciate and share all the anti-Bush views, but it seems nobody here has expressed much concern about what’s wrong with Iran and why the Bush admin. is finding it necessary to destabilize the Iranian government. I don’t want to see this covert action escalate into a war with Iran, but on the other hand there are many very serious human rights problems and a lack of democracy in Iran. The world would not be a better place if Iran had nuclear weapons. For example, in Iran, women are often treated as second-class citizens, non-Muslims are often persona non grata, and outed gays are often either in prison, or soon to be hanged. And let’s not forget that Ahmenidijad has talked of wiping out Israel. Even if you have anger and antipathy towards Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, that doesn’t justify supporting such a notion. No race or nation deserves that, whether it be Iran, Iraq or Israel. If you care about the people of Iran what would you suggest the rest of the world do? Just ignore the problem and hope it goes away? What can be done that would be acceptable to the political left? I would rather see the US government undertake a massive propoganda campaign directed at the Iranian people (as it already has) than see tanks roll in and thousands of innocent Iranian civilians killed. The Iranian government has been backed into a corner by the US, but they haven’t done themselves any favors in the world court of opinion by continuing with their nuclear ambitions, or by imprisoning innocent intellectuals and academics. If you had a choice between full-out war with Iran or non-lethal covert action to destabilize its despotic, dictatorial government, what would you choose? I’d be interested in other views on how to solve this problem peacefully, keeping in mind that the people in power on all sides are not peaceful by nature.
If the Iranians truly want peace, they know what is required–becoming a de facto client of US Inc. We offered them this under the Shah, and we are willing to do it again under his son Shah II. The choice is their’s to make. This is not a Bush position, but a UNITED STATES OF AMERICAposition.
jon
Connecting the dots: from human behaviors to ecosystem decline http://StudentsForTheEarth.org
To Pont_du_Gard:
>
Why is it up to us to decide what’s wrong with (or bush to “find it necessary to destabilize” Iran?
>
No one does, obviously. The easy answer is “who are we to point that out” since as Ahmadinejad rightly points out, we have serious human rights violations right here, not to mention a complete lack of democracy. That “the world would be a better place” line sounds awful familiar, but if you were in Irak right now, you would have to agree that the world WAS a better place with Saddam (independently of my own judgment that he was as much scum as bush, in every way) - history and a perfunctory search for answers for those questions would prove that the US itself sowed the seeds for that. And, what else has been proven if not the best way to deter an American invasion is to HAVE nuclear weapons? - it has not been proven Iran has them, yet. But if the did, it would be hard to blame them. In every point, bush has provided the rationale for Iran to better arm themselves.
>
This is true, mostly, but you can’t honestly say things are so hot over here for any of the same categories of people. In any event, Iranians themselves chose and have freely elected the government they have. The really scary part for me is not Iran having nuclear weapons, but the way our nation is becoming a western version of Iran!
> Which has been disproven more than once. The guy did not say that, that was an intentional mistranslation for the purposes of the propaganda ministry, you can find more than one reference to that here in Common Dreams.
>
Because the propaganda campaign against Irak turned out so much nicer? - come on…. tanks may not roll in, stretched as the Army is. But with cruise missiles and naval aviation from that nice little battle group (Not not mention the neocon infatuation with airpower) it will be all bombardment, all the time.
>
I hate to answer your questions with more questions, but the real issue is I’d rather destabilize (pipe dream, I know) our own despotic, dictatorial government, that would be my choice. If I can, I’ll let you guys know how soon I get a visit from Big Brother for the comments above. The fact is, sadly, given their record, do you HONESTLY believe they will stop at “destabilizing”? - you don’t destabilize for the fun of it, war is the end result. It was the democrats turn to rise to the occasion and prevent a new catastrophe. bush is newly emboldened and he won’t stop now. I wish I had better hopes for the future, if nothing else I wanted to leave a slightly better world for my kids.
WHY DO THEY HATE US SO MUCH?? (the all-time most audacious question asked by supremacist xenophobic Yanks and their Fascist allies)
——————————————————————————–
Read that question w/ some whining noise added to it for fun!!!
This is a response from a world citizen to the all-time most naive question I have heard/read so much from the so-called analysts, writers, politicians, and hands of IMPERIALISM in your dishonest media.
In your undying, never-ending hatred for Iran and drowned in an ocean of narcissism, you simply have forgotten, or yet better, chosen to forget, the crimes, inhumane policies, arrogant attitudes, and pain inflicted by you “patriotic” psychos on many a nation, including Persians.
Well, the Northern Christian hypocrisy and self-love on one side; its harsh animosity and blood thirst for Iran is something else. It was evident in your clownish, arrogant President’s speeches and now it’s epitomized by the most blatantly hateful, Nazi pieces of propaganda which Goebbels himself would love you for ), there it comes, suck it and swallow it w/ AMERICAN (w/ a thick R the way you like it) pride and xenophobia.
By what I have read from the likes of you in your very “OBJECTIVE” media (no shortage in the ” objective, informed, and bright” nation of yours), you completely epitomize what the monstrous Northern Christian imperialism means to billions of impoverished, victimized, oppressed masses of the world and what it has done for the past several centuries only in order to secure its own filthy interests derived from your selfish, self-indulged, self-centered, egotistic, materialist, and Calvinist lifestyles and worldviews. If and only if you were interested in the truth and facts, you could easily find the answer by reviewing your friends’ list and also crimes’ list for decades or centuries (for those Euro liberals!!). It doesn’t take a genius, does it?
YOU are the epitome of unfairness, injustice, governmental terrorism and bigotry. These are some of the crimes against humanity committed by your patriotic asses all over the planet (the list would be only too long but I mention a few here):
U.S. sponsored coup against democracy in Guatemala in 1954 which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Guatemalan peasants by U.S. installed dictatorships over the course of four decades.
U.S. overthrew the governments of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and helped to murder 3,000 people.
1973, the U.S. sponsored a coup in Chile against he democratic government of Salvador Allende and helped to murder another 30,000 people.
1965 the U.S. sponsored a coup in Indonesia that resulted in the murder of over 800,000 people, and the subsequent slaughter in 1975 of over 250,000 innocent people in East Timor by the Indonesian regime with the direct complicity of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
U.S. sponsored terrorist contra war (the World Court declared the U.S. government a war criminal in 1984 for the mining of the harbours) against Nicaragua in the 1980s which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people (or as the U.S. government used to call them before the term “collateral damage” was invented–”soft targets”).
U.S. war against the people of El Salvador in the 1980s, which
resulted in the brutal deaths of over 80,000 people, or “soft targets”.
U.S. sponsored terror war against the peoples of southern Africa (especially Angola) that began in the 1970’s and resulted in the deaths and mutilations of over 1,000,000.
U.S. invaded Panama over the Christmas season of 1989 and killed over 5,000 in an attempt to capture George H. Bush’s CIA partner, now turned enemy, Manual Noriega.
U.S. sponsored a brutal coup that resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Iranians from 1952-1978.
This doesn’t even mention the crimes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Bay of Pigs and before that the support for and direct involvement w/ Batista’s regime in Cuba, the 8-year war against Iran -including chemical weapons usage- by (the former friend!!) Saddam, death squads in Central America, the 5 decades of Israeli crimes in Palestine and Lebanon (the veto policy), the “missing” in Argentina, and of course the “silent coup” in Algeria in 91 (w/ deceitful cooperation from the French bastards) that stopped the FIS from winning the elections thus plunging the country into a civil war for years…………….
We can never forget your crimes or undying sense of self-love and ego that make the Yankees and their NATO/G7 lovers the most detested nations on this planet, perhaps galaxy.
Now kill as many innocent people as you want. LAUNCH, LAUNCH as a bastard called JAMES WOODS declared on JAY LENO. Brag about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Beirut bombings. Brag about killing of the innocent family members of Kaddafi, all the countries’ leaders and revolutionaries who had the guts to say no to your Fascist Empire.
It matters not. The U.S. (and the British disgusting colonialism) will go where the Romans, German Nazis, Mongols, and the rest of the arrogant sorry excuses for humanity went. Now celebrate killing Moslems, Nationalists, and Leftists (not to mention nuns and priests), etc. in your never-ending fire of hatred, supremacy and ego.
Unlike many other foreigners, I am not simplistic enough to think you are just the minority and the “rest” are simply decent, nice, culture-loving individuals. The fact is it’s filth like you that votes for the criminals you call leaders (Reagan and Bushes, Blair, Merkel, Harper and Howard come to mind immediately). Also I don’t think, despite the popular belief, you are ignorant or just stupid; I think you know enough and simply choose to ignore because you are the most selfish, inhumane, robotic bastards this planet has seen for a long time. Your sense of “SELECTIVE MEMORY and JUDGMENT” is proof enough.
I think legendary Orwell got it right in this passage from Nineteen Eighty-Four, an account of the ultimate supremacist empire:
“And in the general hardening of outlook that set in . . . practices which had been long abandoned - imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations - not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.”
As a reaction to your actions, our (the South) hatred for you could only be compared to the feelings we have against Serbs, Nazis, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Criminal.
THE NEW ROME WILL FALL…… AND ITS FOLLOWERS, FRIENDS, ALLIES AND APOLOGISTS….. WE’LL MAKE SURE OF THAT. DEATH TO THE U.S. and EU!!!
The very belief that ‘nothing ever changes’ is a victim’s wail and a declaration of impotence that empowers our political oppressors with its helpless pessimism.
Assigning grandiose evil powers to the Georgian cabal is the hysteria of frightened children who confuse monstrous shadows with the malicious mediocrities who cast them. Mythologizing these crypto-fascists only inflates the image they hope to create in order to cow their opposition into collapse back into complacent comfort and televised circuses.
People like Bush deserve our contempt, not our fear.
Deriding non-violent protest as passé, handily overlooks the evidence of its immense effect throughout modern history. With Gandhi in the lead, it defeated the might of the British empire.
With M.L.King in the lead it defeated the American white power structure, not totally, no, but it smashed many of the chains that bound African Americans to a lowly status. It still possesses enormous transmutive power. But only IF we are willing to pay all that it will cost us as individuals.
Anyone who is mystified by the massive support that inflicted Bush2, His Lowness, upon us, enabling Republican political chicanery to inflate what was there into an apparent majority, has not spent sufficient enough time with average Americans. They are fat, complacent and fond of their own stupidity.
Our election system has in now way failed us; it is WE who have failed IT. Our system works fine, but only if people turn off the TV and VOTE. Among Western democracies, the number of the electorate who don’t bother to exercise their franchise is a shame that undermines our Republic. This slavish stance is rationalized by those chant the self-fulfilling prophecy of individual powerlessness. This is a lie. In a democracy, the individual has enormous power, but only if they use it.
Giving up on the Democrats because they haven’t halted the juggernaut after six month’s in power is a display of the need for instant gratification that so afflicts our culture. If it can’t be achieved TODAY, well, shucks, that makes it IMPOSSIBLE! That means they don’t CARE. B.S. Great changes in a democratic political system require much time and effort. Yes, that sucks. But that’s the way it is. Those who are pinched by this would do well to apply themselves to electoral reform and elimination of media influence in national campaigns.
If you do not labor for change you have no right to complain.
What apologist coined the term ‘NeoCon’? They are, quite simply, old-fashioned fascists. They play by rules set forth clearly by Joseph Goebbels in Germany during the Nazi rise to power. Free and open debate are anathema to their agenda. All they know or wish to know is control.
Abe Lincoln, who knew a bit about war and the snakepit of politics, when he reinstated the militarily timid, officious George McClellan as head of the Union armies, he said, ‘We must use the tools we have.’ As it was then, so it is now. Ours is a slow and cumbersome political system. That is the price of individual liberty and representative government. It calls on patriots for forebearance and resolve, not hyterical ranting about impending doom.
Any who think a resort to violence is preferable, simply because revolution moves at a more precipitate pace, needs to more thoughtfully consider all its other implications: they might recall the direct aftermath of the glorious French Revolution; it was called simply, ‘The Terror’. It takes zealots to run a violent overthrow of the status quo, men unencumbered by the painstaking civilities of the democratic process, but zealots do not for good governance make.
French zealots proceeded to murder other Frenchmen in droves. Not just aristocrats, but ANYONE who tow their political line. They became the NEW dictator of how life should be and who was allowed to live it. Is that to be preferred? With no recourse to the rule of law, since law has been disavowed. That makes for the definition of cultural madness. Anyone who thinks that preferable, claiming that we labor beneath a dictator’s heel, needs to try life under REAL dictators, like the Arabian sheiks with their ‘pure’ Islamic system of jurisprudence in which adulterors (oops, only FEMALE adulterors) are stoned to death … by men. Hey! Now there’s a better way! Wakeup. Go get a taste of how true tyranny tastes.
Trying contributing to a forum like this in China, but be sure to travel light if you do, because Big Brother isn’t just watching there, HE is coming to visit, and you’ll be leaving with HIM to points unknown.
I find it distressing to hear people of apparent intelligence carrying on about how we must look to the NRA for political guidance because the Blue Meanies now ordain all things here and, by extension, everywhere else. This is the Chicken Little response to trying times. Prior to 1776, the British crown responded to all disagreement with brute force, not sound bites tailored by political pimps like Karl Rove. Those who truly love this country and all that makes it great should defend to their final breath the Consitution and the Bill of Rights, along with our Declaration of Independence, not throw up their hands in despair at opposition our Founding Fathers would have laughed out of contenance. We have, as a population become so bloated and averse to the sweat and mire mandated to keep our democracy afloat, that many of us no longer appear equal to the task for which countless thousands have died, often in prison camps, in foreign foxholes, and while marching into emplaced enemy guns. We should feel ashamed to wax impotent in the face of hordes of mendacious, manipulative merchants to offer no more that their vileness as ammunition against us.
It was cool-headed reason coupled with self-sacrificing courage the defeated the legions of the British then. This current alarmish overestimates the opposition. The call to abandon reason contradicts the very system of governance our progenitors devised as a bulwark against futures tyrannies, both external and internal. We have only to USE it as it was designed.
Finally, the equation of illegal immigrant detention centers with true concentration camps bespeaks a total ignorance of recent history. And it entails a casual insult to the millions of Jews, gypsies, political undesireable, homsexuals, Communist cadres, et al, who were murdered in them, and by no accident. Murder was their purpose … not injustice.
Making this invidious equation makes for fine alarmist rhetoric, going straight for the brains stem and bypassing the bothersome cerebrum, getting its audience high on adrenaline, the better to gnash one’s teeth frantically … and do nothing.
What are country needs now, what it has always needed in its times of peril, is cool calculation and hot-blooded dedication to victory against any force that would subvert its promise of liberty and justice for all. I repeat, ALL.
Thank you leomanBK, keeping a cool head is imperative. This blog has brought out some venal comments, a call to insanity as well. Perhaps there are too many who do not have real critical thinking skills? The reactive usually have a negative effect. While it is necessary to counter the oppressors, we can only make true human progress using a more rational mind than with a raw emotional violent response. The battle is not stratightforward. It is at least two-pronged. The fight is against what is rightly called fascist tactics (but we must not become fascists ourselves!), and the fight is against complacency of the hoi polloi (to keep with the metaphor of the French revolution, but then they erupted into a violent mob to no credit at all). There have been some very insightful comments above and I expect more to come, as well as from the shreekers. But whatever, the dialogue needs to keep going. A right-minded answer will arise from the babble.
No violence, please. Just remember that school bully who tortured you, than claimed innocence when the teacher turned around just in time to see you to hit him (or her)back. And that’s what some of these people are–bullies–and that’s not name-calling, but truth-telling. Tell the truth as you know it deep down. Stand against those who lie and spin the truth you know in your gut, but forget about violence. It just won’t work because violence is what they expect and the only thing to which they will ever give a straight answer. By the way, say “Peace” and make the peace sign to all this Memorial Day. Those actions might piss some people off, but you never know what might happen to the other who experience them. Peace to all.