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The Silence of the Bombs
Three years have passed since most Americans came to the conclusion that the Iraq war was a "mistake." Reporting the results of a Gallup poll in June 2004, USA Today declared: "It is the first time since Vietnam that a majority of Americans has called a major deployment of U.S. forces a mistake." And public opinion continued to move in an antiwar direction. But such trends easily coexist with a war effort becoming even more horrific.
In Washington, over the past 25 years, top masters of war have preened themselves in the glow of victory after military triumphs in Grenada, Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. During that time, with the exception of the current war in Iraq, the Pentagon's major aggressive ventures have been cast in a light of virtue rewarded -- in sync with the implicit belief that American might makes right.
"The problem after a war is with the victor," longtime peace activist A. J. Muste observed several decades ago. "He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay."
The present situation has a different twist along the same lines. The Iraq war drags on, the United States is certainly not the victor -- and the U.S. president, a fervent believer in war and violence, still has a lot to prove.
Faith that American might makes right is apt to be especially devout among those who command the world's most powerful military -- and have the option of trying to overcome wartime obstacles by unleashing even more lethal violence.
These days, there's a lot of talk about seeking a political solution in Iraq -- but the Bush administration and the military leaders who answer to the commander in chief are fundamentally engaged in a very different sort of project. Looking ahead, from the White House, the key goal is to seem to be winding down the U.S. war effort while actually reconfiguring massive violence to make it more effective.
Two sets of figures have paramount importance in mainline U.S. media and politics -- the number of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and the number of them dying there. Often taking cues from news media and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, antiwar groups have tended to buy into the formula, emphasizing those numbers and denouncing them as intolerably high.
Meanwhile, the Iraqis killed by Americans don't become much of an issue in the realms of U.S. media and politics. News coverage provides the latest tallies of Iraqis who die from "sectarian violence" and "terrorist attacks," but the reportage rarely discusses how the U.S. occupation has been an ascending catalyst for that carnage. It's even more rare for the coverage to focus on the magnitude of Iraqi deaths that are direct results of American firepower.
In the United States, many advocates of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq have focused on what the war has been doing to Americans. This approach may seem like political pragmatism and tactical wisdom, but in the long run it's likely to play into the hands of White House strategists who will try to regain domestic political ground by reducing American losses while boosting the use of high-tech weaponry against Iraqi people.
Every night, I receive an email bulletin that's called "U.S. Air Force Print News." It's one of countless ways the Pentagon does continual outreach to journalists with messages that encourage favorable coverage of what the military is doing. Those messages are filled with stories about the bravery, compassion and towering stature of -- in the words of retired Gen. Colin Powell a decade ago -- "those wonderful men and women who do such a great job."
But journalists receive just a trickle of limited information about the bombing runs undertaken by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. The official sources have very little to say about what happens to people at the other end of the bombs. And, overall, U.S. media outlets don't add much information about the human consequences.
In late May, an important challenge to those media patterns appeared on the website TomDispatch.com (and, in shorter form, in The Nation magazine). The in-depth article -- titled "Did the U.S. Lie about Cluster Bomb Use in Iraq?" -- went beyond probing the Pentagon's extensive use of barbaric cluster bombs in Iraq since the spring of 2003. The piece, by journalist Nick Turse, also shined a bright light on fundamental aspects of a U.S. air war that has seldom seen any light of day in big American media outlets.
"Unfortunately, thanks to an utter lack of coverage by the mainstream media, what we don't know about the air war in Iraq so far outweighs what we do know that anything but the most minimal picture of the nature of destruction from the air in that country simply can't be painted," Turse writes.
The article raises a key question: "Does the U.S. military keep the numbers of rockets and cannon rounds fired from its planes and helicopters secret because more Iraqi civilians have died due to their use than any other type of weaponry?"
Turse, an associate editor and research director of TomDispatch.com, has written for daily newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. His article pulls no punches about the press as he assesses huge gaps in media coverage of the Iraq air war funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Sadly, he observes, "media reports on the air war are so sparse, with reporting confined largely to reprinting U.S. military handouts and announcements of air strikes, that much of the air war in Iraq remains unknown -- although the very fact of an occupying power regularly conducting air strikes in and near population centers should have raised a question or two."
The available evidence is strong that the U.S. air war is escalating -- with a surge of resulting casualties among Iraqi civilians. Their suffering and their deaths get very little coverage in the U.S. news media. "Since the Bush administration's invasion, the American air war has been given remarkably short shrift in the media," Turse writes. And he cites "indications that the air war has taken an especially grievous toll on Iraqi children."
The combination of deceptive officials in the U.S. government and an evasive U.S. press has been a disaster for the flow of information to the American public. "With the military unwilling to tell the truth -- or say anything at all, in most cases -- and unable to provide the stability necessary for [non-governmental organizations] to operate, it falls to the mainstream media, even at this late stage of the conflict, to begin ferreting out substantive information on the air war," Turse points out. "It seems, however, that until reporters begin bypassing official U.S. military pronouncements and locating Iraqi sources, we will remain largely in the dark with little knowledge of what can only be described as the secret U.S. air war in Iraq."
As the summer of 2007 gets underway, the demand to "bring the troops home" is necessary but insufficient. The numbers of Americans fighting and dying in Iraq are not a reliable measure of U.S. culpability in the continuing slaughter. The new documentary film "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," based on Norman Solomon's book of the same title, is being released directly to DVD in mid-June. For information about the full-length movie, produced by the Media Education Foundation and narrated by Sean Penn, go to: www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org
45 Comments so far
Show AllThe US after Vietnam has opted for what Emmanuel Todd termed micro militarism to insure that the Powell doctrine can be applied fully: engage in a small limited conflict with supreme force to scare your enemies and foes and achieve political leverage. The VP stated that Iraq is "doable" as another manifestation of this micromilitarism. Well it did not turn out to be the case. Moreover, modern Western societies have put a premium on maximum education for their children hence the desire to have fewer babies so as to insure maximum potential. In that context, large armed forces and large casualties will be less and less tolerated and therefore conflicts cannot last long. In essence my comment follows exactly the perception that the militant islamists know: the West does not have what it takes for a long drawn out conflict. However, the US and the West have all the patience and the resources to continue to control vast areas of raw materials, transportation hubs, and know how by installing friendly regimes around the globe. This policy is now coming to an end as the price to be paid for this continues to rise. I see in the current leadership in the world a very similar trend to the follies that preceded the guns of August that started WWI especially as the world is once again multipolar as it was at the end of the 19th century.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, the lowest form of life which can still be considered human, has just declared that we must be prepared to attack Iran because, he claims, Iran harbors a training facility for Iraqi terrorists responsible, "according to some estimates", for the deaths of "as many as 200 American soldiers". Aside from this pronoucement being a pack of WMD-type lies, the fact that neocons like Lieberman continue to happily press us into illegal war after ilegal war, without the slightest concern that they might be tried, convicted and hanged for treason, makes one wonder whether anything short or insurrection can arrest the vileness of this breed.
Throughout human history, when members of the ruling elite were free to rape and plunder and murder with impunity, no happy ending ever ensued. It cannot be any different for a society which stands idly by as sewage like Lieberman beat the drums for the slaughter of yet another country full of innocent people. How these neocons love a holocaust!
As a society, we must revisit the issue of treason as it relates to leading a country into an illegal and unnecessary war through deliberate deception, or an otherwise pointless war for the benefit of a foreign country, in the case of Lieberman, Israel, of course. These charges extend, by logic, to all co-conspirators in the media, who know perfectly well when the public is being gamed.
We know war they know occupation.
When children flock around our soldiers as they patrol neighborhoods in full flack gear it says something.
Neighborhoods offer tea in tradition and the children speak compliments in English. But, something is happening here; our "enemy" is learning how we think and feel. Something we have not done in return.
"Know Your Enemy" is the key to winning a fight, and if we weren't so arrogant we might find that they are a lot smarter than propaganda has led us to believe. They are also real people who love their family and their way of life and will seek the best way to hold on to what they have.
Main Stream Media has put a subhuman face on anyone standing in our way of occupation and the truth is they are better at resisting occupation than we are at occupying.
You don't win friends this way and we need to be friends if we want Iraq and Afghanistan to become part of the American Empire (AE).
There is virtually no TV or visual coverage of any kind showing us what's going on over there. Compare that to Vietnam, where there were hundreds of photographers. The war is silent and we're blinded by the corporate and complicit media.
More than anything else, the US reliance on militarism and violence indicates that US culture and society suffers from an acute and chronic lack of practical knowledge of life. And this lack exists despite—or perhaps because of—the nation's wealth.
Animals behave according to the law of the jungle; they have not much choice.
Whether or not people consider the world a jungle and act accordingly depends on their level of knowledge, which is strongly connected with what they experience in their own lives.
If the inner life of the people of the nation is torn and conflicted and without a strong foundation of peace, then the nation's actions will reflect that.
While we would be quick, most of us, to separate two children involved in a silly brawl, we fail to think enough about it when the nation's leadership tries to sell another war with emotional appeals loaded with the appropriate buzzwords.
Life does not have to be this way. Education is the missing ingredient. Real knowledge of life is available in this age. It is fairer to ourselves and the world, and certainly to God, that we grow in peace and knowledge, and create a government which nourishes and supports life.
www.tm.org
www.uspeacegovernment.org
IRAQ: Irrevocably Regressed American Quandary
The American people believed when President Bush told them that the
shores of the United States will be safe once the ruthless dictator Saddam
Hussein was removed. They helped him create the mushroom cloud of fear
over their heads and gave him extraordinary powers to embark upon an illconceived
war plan that not only got out of hand and turned a sovereign
country into a mammoth graveyard for its own citizens, but also fed well to
the insatiable dislike for the already suspect American foreign policy in the
Middle East. Consequently, in the past four years, Iraq has truly
become IRAQ: Irrevocably Regressed American Quandary.
Occupation creates resistance. The world history is replete with incidents
where the more violently a given power behaves, the more diverse and
effective the resistance becomes. This is particularly true in the case of
occupation. And the more violent the occupation, the further catalyzed is the
resistance. There is no teacher greater than history, since it speaks
eloquently, effectively and above all, truthfully. We can all relate to the
examples ranging from the American war of independence against the
British, to that of Algeria against the French, the resistance of pajama-clad
Vietnamese against the US and not very long ago, that of the poppygrowing
Afghans against mighty Soviet Republic.
The retaliation on the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq against our
troops is mainly due to this occupation and only marginally due to 'they
hate us' syndrome. Let's not forget the words of the founding fathers of
America: All men are created equal, which means no occupation lasts for
ever. We love our freedom dearly; it turns out, others do too – even the
people under years of occupation. It also turns out that this is a fundamental
right God-given to everyone of us, a right that transcends land, race and
religion all. But let the Iraqis seek and find that prized freedom for
themselves.
As conscious Americans, we must ask ourselves: is the meaningless pursuit
of a shallow glory that is written in the blood of our fine young men and
women and that of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, really worth it?
Why? Because first, the very innocence, honor and security that was mauled
on 9/11 on American soil is being victimized and tormented even today,
albeit in a land thousands of miles away. And second, only foolish draw
lines in the blood.
Mr. Solomon is exactly correct when he ends with, "The numbers of Americans fighting and dying in Iraq are not a reliable measure of U.S. culpability in the continuing slaughter". To fully understand our culpability we Americans need to understand what is happening in Iraq. But the government isn't telling us the truth, and our media isn't reporting all of the story. So one way to understand what is going on in Iraq today is to listen to the veterans themselves.
During WW2 most Americans went to war with their troops. They rationed at home and work so the front-line troops could have what they needed. People kept up support by selling and buying war bonds. The theaters all show weekly reports from the war. People could follow the progress. But since WW2 our government has tried to prosecute war without the direct involvement of the American people. Not just the decision to go to war, but the actual fighting of the war. This is a huge mistake. Americans are not asked to contribute anything to the war effort. In fact we are encouraged to forget about the war. You can imagine the impact this has on returning soldiers. But the worst part of it all is that society is denied the wisdom that these vets hold in their experience. For it's that wisdom that can finally put an end to the stupidity of war.
Hoa binh
What are soldiers saying? We should close bases around the world and bring the troops home!
I'm not kidding, it's true.
bandido
the risk is that, with the right propaganda tools, even showing the worst effects of war to a gullible audience renders them numb and clamoring for venues of escapist diversion.
images of warfare (or occupation), themselves do not have the power to change public opinion. they must be accompanied by vigorous pursuit of factual information. this isn't likely to happen.
We should listen to the dissenting voices in the US military who have come to the conclusion that running a foreign military empire is a very bad idea. It creates tremendous resentment and anger all around the world, which results in events such as the september 11 suicide hijackings that took place in Washington and New York.
The Vietnam analogy can be taken one step further - Nixon and Kissinger decided on the secret bombing campaign against Cambodia and Laos for the very same reasons - there was growing popular opposition to the war, and so they embarked on a secret air war. Numerous reports, including this one, indicate that the same thing is going on in Iraq today.
Republican senators like Joe Lieberman are now calling for a bombing campaign against Iran. One again, the 'we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud' notion is being rolled out to justify such an action, with all levels of Bush's Administration participating in the propaganda campaign, from Lieberman to FBI director Robert Mueller.
Meanwhile, on Sunday the Israeli air force carried out military drills with US pilots, according to Reuters. The one undiscussed issue here is Israel's refusal to publicly acknowledge that it has a nuclear arsenal of well over 100 weapons.
The Israeli nuclear issue needs to be brought up. They should agree to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The same is true for India and Pakistan. It is critically important that all of the world's nuclear powers agree to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and agree to transparent inspections of their nuclear programs. If the Bush Administration was really concerned about nuclear weapons falling into private hands, that's what they'd be pushing for.
FD32-my friend! Sorry I was so quick to criticize you on a Nader article ("and he is Lebanese") a month or so ago. I know now it was just a parody of the standard bias we keep hearing.
I won't be so quick to react next time!
NMBill,
Apology accepted and sensitivity perfectly understood.
fd32: While I lament that the 2004 election was stolen, I'm really glad that Mr. Gore didn't win that election - I mean, with Lieberman as his VP. I tend to subscribe to the notion that given his all-the-time-going-to-war syndrome-for any-reason-under-the-sun, we would have had another Kennedy-like assassination in this country to deal with, so that the US could be annexed along with Gaza and West Bank and duck-taped to Israel, with one exception: They would have called it North Jerusalem.
"Looking ahead, from the White House, the key goal is to seem to be winding down the U.S. war effort while actually reconfiguring massive violence to make it more effective."
And the PR campaign is focused on keeping the masses confused: talking about troop "reductions" and "redeployments" and "withdraw" based on... the Korean model? (Not to be confused with the El Salvador option.)
To: Senator Edward Kennedy
Subject: The impending war against Iraq
Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 12:43 PM
Dear Sir:
Although I am a resident of Ohio, I am contacting you because you have proven to be a man of honor and reason and a powerful force in the U.S. Senate. I am strongly opposed to the impending war in the Middle East, and have already expressed these views to the senators from Ohio, but I believe that if anybody can mobilize opposition to this impending disaster, it may be you. I listened to your comments prior to the non-debate concerning the Resolution to authorize the use of force, and I agree that the real consequences of this conflict were not addressed at all.
This conflict is worse than folly. I believe that at the very least: the situation in the Middle East will be much worse and not better; world opinion will solidify against Americans and American policies; terrorist organizations and activities will be strengthened, not weakened; we will be bankrupted into the unforeseeable future. At the worst, this act of aggression will plunge humanity into global conflict the likes of which previous human experience will not have prepared us. Lest these concerns seem selfish and self-centered, I do not wish to see American sons and daughters slaughter innocent civilians from the safety of our high-tech weaponry, and all for the true purpose of expanding the corporate oligarchy.
Now is not the time to remain silent for the purpose of political expediency. While representative democracy still exists between these shores it is time to reign in a chief executive and his cabal who are apparently in the throes of a consuming blood-lust. I have considered myself and have voted Democrat all of my life (I'm 50 years old), and I must say that I am disgusted that most of the elected Democrats in Washington have been struck mute on this issue. No reasonable person who is fully contemplating the consequences of what is about to happen could come to the conclusion that any good is going to come from this. I believe, despite the gaudy and superficial manifestations of popular American culture, that this country is populated by reasonable people, and our elected representatives should consider the consequences of remaining mute and cowardly as George II leads us into a national disgrace and disaster.
History, if indeed there be anyone left to record it, will justly lay the blame for this catastrophe at our feet. Please sir, I implore you, do everything in your power to stop this from happening.
A sincere Veteran, American, and a Human Being,
Vince Lawrence
Mr. Soloman I know of course that you are aware that many opposed the launching of this disaster. In my own little life and sphere I was ridiculed, ignored, and then villified. I am now looked upon with contempt merely for being prescient and correct. Though there are some Americans now in Iraq that I coached as young soccer players their parents won't speak to me or acknowledge me in public because I opposed this war. So it goes.
I have many nights now when the wife and son are asleep and the house is dark that I just sit and cry for all the senseless destruction of our nation. The Bible tells the story (I'm not a Christian) of the forty days and forty nights of Jesus temptation in the wilderness. My trial is now going on 35 years as I feel myself being pushed to thoughts of violence, revenge, and dissolution. What would I feel if I were an Iraqi?
If I believed in a god, which I do not, I would pray for strength and wisdom. I also wonder lately if I would have the courage to end my own life rather than succumb to these tortured thoughts. I love my children so deeply that I wish I had not brought them into this world. I have known much happiness and joy in my life so I guess the piper must be paid. They say it is always darkest before the dawn, but I have lost faith that we can cajole a new and hopeful sunrise up from the horizon.
Tbe barbarity of the U.S. war against Iraq is not an isolated phenomenon. In fact the U.S. has been responsible for an extimated 20 to 30 million deaths in the world since WWII>
Vince Lawrence: Please don't do that to your kids, (commit suicide) _nor_ to yourself Good Sir!
(Part of) my work, is as a therapist, and I work both with the suicidal, as well as those who've been on the 'receiving end' --the children and 'significant others' of those who've killed themselves.
Those who the suicides leave behind, are much like victims of rape and sexual abuse, they are deeply scarred for life, often full of irrational guilts, angst, and all sorts, (and quite often kids of suicidal parents end up copying their dead parent...)
A reasonable guide to what horrors occur in the 'hereafter' [for suicides], -albeit within a fictional format, -is Robin Williams' film "What Dreams May Come" -maybe check it out?
+++++++++++++++++++++
By all means be angry if you wish Vince, -even very angry! but it is, I promise you, -both possible and feasable to turn all this 'emotional mush' you're experiencing into a contructive force for good...
Use your innate talents, -and *all* that prior experience, and turn it into a powerful means of evoking change. You are not nothing, you are not 'no one' and you are not alone, you have a voice and good intelligence, so help us out here? -we who are striving for the same aim as you?
And recall, that if you've had mud slung at you, that puts you in the same (major!) league as the saints, et al! :)They all got put-downs, and all sorts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You say you have no spiritual base to your life in Christianity. Fine, but 'oranges aren't the only fruit' ~ maybe you've been looking for apples under the pear tree? Maybe try another?
Spirituality, (having a sound spiritual base to work from), doesn't need to be done via mainstream religions.
For me, personally, spirituality is obtained via no outer clothing at all, it's just naked little me and my heart's natural response to the universe, -aided and abetted by the various great, wise, good teachers I've happened upon...
Stick around mate, we need you. (**And so do your family!**)
____________________
Hey Vince, a thought occurs:
Wanna do some good in the world and turn all your experience into real benefit?
How about training in some counselling mode, and then setting up a facility for returned soldiers who need someone who's been through all the crap and who are now desperate for support? Is that a good enough reason to stay?
-from a fellow striver in the UK
Despite all that happens, this country remains Blessed because there are folks like Mr. Vince!
You are a torch-bearer, Sir!
Keep the light coming and darkness of heart and soul fade...
A tear shed in retrospect is far more valuable than millions of heroic acts on the frontline.
Be there for your family.....
if only iraq could develop the "pakistani defense system". it protects bin laden. some mysterious force at the pakistan border repels our efforts to pursue him. even the u. s. should think of installing such a system, because if it's strong enough to stop the largest military in the world, surely it's worth developing ourselves.
jerrys observes:
if only iraq could develop the "pakistani defense system". it protects bin laden. some mysterious force at the pakistan border repels our efforts to pursue him.
******************
It's called an operational nuclear arsenal under Islamic control and it also explains why Iran is pursuing the same goal. Wouldn't you if someone had just conquered Canada and mexico and started making beligerant gestures toward your country?
A few have posted that education would turn America from violence, but this fails to address the degree to which America is so seeped and soaked in violence as to make it a fabric of our culture. Sports and the idealization of brute force, the uniforms become a conditioning device that extends into men in uniform performing for the armed services, that greatest of all team sports where again, "victory" is the sought after goal. I remember reading a poll where upwards of 40% of Americans think about 3000=4000 Iraqis have died in this war? Can you imagine the ignorance? Note, too, how this number neatly configures with the 911 disaster almost to make it "even" in small minds. I suppose those who place credence in these low numbers (apart from having no conception of the air war underway and what percentage of its casualties ALWAYS turn out to be civilians, a great many children) are the same ones who believe Saddam was behind 911, and/or that Bush was right, there were WMD in Iraq. Ike: Lieberman is a democrat by name, or independent when the ends justify his means. And the posting suggesting were he Gore's V.P may have boded ill for Gore makes sense given this blood thirsty cabal that passes for American political sages today. America has gotten away with massive aggression a long time, and the prayers of those who ask for justice are going to be answered. How, I am not sure; but the boomerang of karma will not grand this nation of hubris grace much longer.
poet -
point taken.......with israeli aggressors armed with these same weapons, shouldn't iraq, iran, syria, et al do the same.......it's a circular argument
Vince : I was moved by your letter. The myth of Cassandra is that she's perceptually equipped to see the direction of future events, but by the time anyone cares to listen, it's too late. Society has a tendency to slay the message bearers of unwelcome facts. Many on this site share your pain and angst... but we find ways to keep up the fight for Light, Truth, and Justice, and in small ways LIFE in turn sustains us and renews our spirits. Two days ago I was driving and out popped a rainbow so fierce in the radiance of its colors that a second one formed. It was so marvelous there roadside, that I had to pull over to just take it in... there ARE miracles all around us, and they exist to feed our souls in times of testing such as this one.
Note that some people are happy -- a LOT of money has been made. My theory is that this is what it's all about, not to even mention "the oil"
All Too Relevant Quote: How is the World Ruled, & and; how do wars start?---
Diplomats tell lies to journalists & then believe what they read.
(Karl Kraus, Austrian Press,1874-1936)
Even with our limited information on this war, it is all to evident that our legislators tragically erred when they allowed this unlearned and opportunistic administration to embark on and perpetuate this ill conceived war, which has left thousands dead and permanently maimed while a few of their supporters have reaped unprecedented profits. Those who voted for this arrogant and theocratic president , especially those who voted twice must share blame.
The weapons inspectors were there and we had contained Saddam. The resulting "civil war" and chaos had been predicted by many informed experts, and should have been obvious--but their advice was ignored. One can only imagine the extent of disaster if Saddam had unleashed some biological, chemical, or primitive nuclear weapons on our troops during the invasion.
The establishment of this renegade mercenary force (unprecedented in our republic) is only one example of this administration's efforts to jeopardize or democracy. Given the severity of this threat, the only option left now is for Americans to force congress to seize the war powers from the president, even if this means removal from office; and then pursue a logical conclusion to this horrific misadventure. This would include recognition of the recent advisory commissions recommendations (which were ignored), dismantling the mercenary force even if this means reinstatement of the draft, and curbing and punishing the profiteers.
This administrations opposition to energy conservation and global warming mitigation must be reversed in order to reduce our dependance on their oil--and regain some worldwide trust lost from their disastrous policies and arrogance.
Brilliant stuff. Smart people. Great Arguments. Great Analysis.
If C-Ds had allowed comments back in '03 I'll bet the same arguments would have been posted then, even before the war.
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Go ahead, say it outloud - "I'm going to turn my face away and do NOTHING." Now you're truly an American, so you can say anything you like. Post Away!
Dear Cindy Shehan:
If you are reading this
Please start a centre called the "Cassey Sanctaury for the Bereaved Righteous of America"
For the righteous such as Vince needs all the community support he can get. Hug him and his angelic children,for little chldren are guileless and by defiinition shinning little lights sent to us to remember the Highest Light.
Good people here, let us start this ball rolling with contributions for such a centre. Common Deams, please coordinate this effort as the righteous and decent good folk of America come in from the darkness and cold of the Bush Darknes.
I will contribute $1000 to start the ball rolling. Common Dreams, Code Pink, anybody with an established organization please help if Cindy is too tired.
"Blessed are the meciful for they shall recive mercy"
Aymon
Nukes coming soon...
hey, luckylefty, do a little thought experiment. Put yourself in Bejing in a cozy little one room apartment with a crapper down the hall. Give yourself an internet connection and go on-line. Express your feeble little notions about democracy and post them somewhere the censors can read them. Sit back and wait for the door to be flung open.
then open your eyes and recognize where you are.
you may be grateful you can read an insightful article critical of the US Military and then express yourself honestly without fear of reprisal.
thinking is DOING, friend.
the day may come when it won't be permitted.
then you'll regret you didn't do it when you had the chance.
I am glad, though saddened even more, to hear someone so heartsick as I myself am, at the current hole we seem to be in.
But I agree that we cannot, cannot, become incapacitated by this despair.
We must, we must, agree on some very important principles. And alas, I don't mean some light visualizations. But ...
The article containing the words of a 97 year old woman, Granny Haddock, is the greatest tonight. And she is right on. Public financing of elections is the most important bedrock that we can begin to lay down ... for the future of our country, for the future of the world.
How do we visualize that into reality?
Vince:
Imagine
ken
Thanks to those who posted kind words and encouragement to my dark post. Rest assured that my children are safe and that I am not going to remove them from harm by harming them. The thought that I expressed comes the closest to expressing what I feel. I posted those thoughts to try to rid myself of them. My marriage has remained strong for 27 years because of the openness between my wife and I and by expressing those thoughts openly I hoped to keep the bond strong between myself and the collective.
lukylefty: What are YOU going to do about it? ???
Before the invasion I wrote letters to all my elected representatives, to my local newspaper, marched in Washington on a cold January day, and made myself such an uncompromising nuisance to friends and family that I was practically shunned. What did it accomplish? NOTHING. As the debacle unfolded I continued to write my U.S. Representative, Ted Strickland, and received a personal response that in essence said that we must do nothing to further expose our brave troops or deter their resolve to complete their mission. What a ####### fool! Now he's our governor and intent on pleasing all of the people all of the time.
If I could see a clear path I would follow it, but I can't see it. The Bushes of this world have us in a Catch-22. If we continue to pursue a course of "lawful" non-violent protest and dissent they will continue to ignore us and if instead we rise up in violent resistance we will justify what they have been longing to do for some time - eliminate us. It is hard to believe that the majority of Americans that have no qualms about murder on a grand scale (the Iraq war) but will participate in a farcical boycott when their pocketbooks are pinched would rise up and join us.
I've heard it expressed here that because our military and our mercenaries are so bogged down in Iraq that an insurrection could succeed here. Wishful thinking. Those same Americans that will only get off their fat asses to protest gas prices will load their guns and make sure that "those America haters" get what they deserve.
So I ask you again: What are YOU going to do about it? I'm dying by degrees to know. Honestly, sincerely, and desperately, I'd like to know. If it has merit and a chance of success I'll be with you, but if it is a fool's quest don't look for me to cover your flank. Peace marches didn't work. Exposure of the lies and deceit had no effect. An election rejection has only exposed more clearly that the opposition party is only a slightly different strain of the same disease. Lobbying this cancer with reasoned words is like attempting to treat a viral infection with antibiotics. An abysmal military failure has only prompted the militarily minded to suggest that we just aren't being violent enough.
It is not that those of us that vehemently oppose this war lack conviction and resolve, it is that there are too damn few of us. Be patient? I imagine an Iraqi mother telling her children as the jet engines shriek above them "Hush and be patient, the bombs are so large that you won't feel a thing."
vince - my two cents
like many posting here, i've been on this journey for most of my life, starting in high school in the late sixties during viet nam. the realization that not only could i no longer trust what elected officials were saying, i could, for all practical purposes actually assume the opposite of what they said, began a serious case of cynicism for me. i began to realize that those of us born here in the u.s. are both blessed and cursed. we are blessed with alternatives, with options - not all of us, to be sure, and certainly not enough of us. but what we can do with what we have is enormous, compared to many other places on the planet.
and we are cursed if we mistakenly begin to feel "entitled" and allow this abundance to accumulate, turning stagnant and poisonous - growing fat and lazy and ignorant of the plight of the less forturnate. there is so much to do, to do right by those who have been wronged by the powers that be, and even moreso by the countless mesmerized "beneficiaries" of all the rape and plunder. it seems entirely possible to literally shrink into an insignificant grain of sand on an endless beach of desperately suffering humanity.
i'm sure many others have felt this sense of anguish over ineffectual marches, letters to editors, petitions, blogs, financial contributions, meditations...all of which have appeared to be to no avail lately.
but i have to tell you something that i've discovered along the way. every action - every thought even - with pure motive, with deep empathy and compassion, with a sense of connectedness to the whole of creation, carries forth a ripple of healing power, in ever-greater measure depending upon the degree to which you sense this purpose in your life, and become more consciously commited to its unfolding.
you may never lose the feeling of anguish, but it may, in fact, become balanced by the awareness that there really is a community of spirit, and that all have access to it. "what is the consolation if we humans succeed only in increasing the level of suffering, to say nothing of the very real possibility of destroying the planet?"
only this: one of the great mysteries of life is how we each progress in consciousness at our own rate - that some seem to be literally lifetimes more or less advanced. so it is not up to any one of us to generate a sudden massive shift in awareness, such that wars cease, starvation is alleviated, injustice is eradicated in one sweeping event. the pay-off is not in the results of our work. it is in the process of doing it. we just need to keep at it. results are inevitable. you may never know for sure if anyone in some remote corner of the world, or in your own neighborhood, has benefited by your labors. but it is certain that someone, if not a great many, have been. so go deep to cultivate this quality inside you which nurtures and heals. see it as your very essense. because, in fact, it is.
seems in a way like such a small thing. but that grain of sand is a universe, if you would expand your vision!
Hi to Vince and Born2bwild (and greets to others),
First off: Born2bwild:::
Wow!! We have a real-life poet, guru and visionary among us! :) -- I am genuinely knocked-out by your metaphysical insights Born2b! How can we get you into high office, ASAP? ;)
I loved what you write about the effects of action, and us often not realising the unseen effects of our thoughtful actions and words, -- I accord completely with that wisdom, it mirrors the old phrase, (at first sight, seemingly nonsensical?), 'A butterfly flapping it's wings in China may cause and earthquake in..." (-name your country.)
And you are entirely correct when you point out that by continually acting in a _positive_ way, we not only enhance and augment our own personal energy, but we affect others in a positive way too, - as in the analogy of a snowball, which gathers like-substance to itself as it moves along at ground level...
~ Or as with a wave, which, as it moves through a body of water, adds and affects similar molecules of water (and in our case, then becomes a greater force for good in the world!)
One simple example is this website, (for which I thank the gods!) :) We can know that for every person who posts a response here, there are maybe ten or twenty other folk who read, but do not reply.
What effect do we have upon their consciousness?
If we have posted something which has truth and vision and light in it, then we have just affected twenty human minds, and they in turn will, -one way or another, then go on to affect another twenty minds.
I'll leave Siouxrose to do the math (-I'm rubbish at numbers! ) ;) –but you can work it out, -very quickly an exponential rise in affects has created a large transformation of thought...
Does that matter?
Well yes, -I believe it does, because what we *think*, becomes what we *do*, and if what we do is erring on the Lighted side of things, we are, -actually-, changing the world!
I hope all that makes sense? ;)
+++++++++++++
[As a footnote, consider that this even affects the so-called 'enemy', in that, sites which are filled with Lighted, active souls who are committed to trying to turn dust into diamonds, such as this Common Dreams site, are very much monitored by low grade 'spooks' who have been ordered to keep an eye on us lot:
{{ Hello to you Mr Government Spooky-spy!! }}
And, as they sit at their boring desks, in boring buildings, in their boring jobs, they get to read what we write.
And... they are just human beings like all of us here, and they often secretly harbour thoughts which are not strictly 'FBI Policy' (etc), -so, if we present cogent, rational, non-violent alternatives to the tragic messes that their government is very obviously making, LO!! suddenly we have friends even in 'low places'!]
:)))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vince: thanks for the update.
One of my first thoughts upon reading your reply was to realise that many of us have travelled that exact same road, -of trying to 'do things by the book' and seemingly getting nowhere, - when the 'powers that be' ignore our every word and action.
Or do they? Either way, we can then often fall into a despairing state, and believe all our strenuous efforts have come to naught. :(
But necessity is the father and mother of invention! If we don't succeed in one way, we, the active, live-minded, creative folk then are obliged to come up with new answers to solve current ills.
In the 1970's it was apparent how some activists got so fed up with 'peaceful protest' seemingly failing, that they formed more violent groups (who here remembers the Red Army Faction, the Weathermen, the Angry Brigade, and even John Lennon, -pictured wearing a Che Guevara beret and brandishing a rifle?)
For my part, I feel that such violent reactions, -whilst understandable, are still 'thinking within the box'.
And so our [collective] challenge is to come up with thoughts that are outside the parameters of any prior boxes.
As a few here have pointed out, if we merely try to 'play their game' and respond to 'govern-mental madness' with little pointed sticks, home-made explosives or even hijacked aeroplanes, we will simply get dumped on, -the official bullies are experts at military manoeuvres! so why break our valuable Lighted selves on their dark wheel? –when we could be undermining the very drivers of current official madness by other, subtler, and wiser means...
In my work with people, I recognise that humans, no matter who or what, have fundamental similarities. Yes it's true, that some folks really seem very outré in their thinking, (as in very brainwashed right-wingers, neocons, etc,) -to the point that some are really a bit of a 'lost cause', but most others are not quite so possessed by dark energies / entities, and are amenable to a change of perspective, __IF__ they are approached in the appropriate way.
Simply to ostracise these folk and challenge them head-on, (with violent speech etc), is not gonna get through, but appeal to their nascent humane qualities, with **patience** and care, and we are then often surprised at the *awakening* that can occur in that person's consciousness!
So our task is to keep researching how best to use our creative thinking -and then actions, in a way that is effective and which undermines the gibberish propounded by the mass / mess media, and we have the tools to do that, [think: Internet, -for one!]
As said above, our movement is like a snowball, we gather slowly (but surely), as we move among those who've not yet awakened to important realisations about the world they live in, -- because they are still stupefied and stunned by the impact bourgeois, mediocre culture has had upon their minds.
Patience and fiery creativity are our prime tools, ~ lets carry on wielding them, and turn extant morbid graveyards of dulled consciousness, into brilliant blossoming gardens!
Write on! :)
War is peace.
Sang Ze:
Go back to sleep, man!
I think it's time we took it to another level.
Nothing is working. Peaceful revolution is not working.
I think we ought to do as the Indian nationals do when they're fed up. Strike. Refuse to go along with this country in its day to day operations. Refuse to take part in this democratic charade.
Other than Kucinich, there is not a one of our leaders who does not have his/her hand out, and is way too ready to compromise their principles. There is not a one of them that would stand ready to reform our election system.
We need:
1. Publicly funded elections
2. Referendums (when things go bad, and we need to throw the bums out)
Let's organize a strike to bring this country to its knees. Our elected representatives can't even muster a vote of no confidence in Gonzales. They are totally worthless, totally beholden to their financial backers.
many poster on C-D are fed up with and cynical about the US public, and with good cause. but there's a reason the MSM never tells us how many iraqis have been killed, and they only rarely mention the number of refugees created. it's like crime reporting on the local news: you get sensationalized stories of a bombing in iraq or a hometown murder, but no deeper analysis, no broader coverage. the MSM is very effective at the selective coverage of violence to manipulate the public.
one simple thing you can do in whatever context the iraq comes up for discussion is ask this question:
HOW MANY IRAQIS HAVE BEEN KILLED? HOW MANY DISPLACED? AND WHY WON'T THE MSM TELL YOU THESE FACTS?
a tidal wave of ignorance is washing over this land, cultivated by war's enablers in the MSM. Americans might be more willing to take on their gov't if they really knew the consequences of our actions in iraq. how can you be sure they don't care if they don't know?
closing bases- good idea! I just saw on documentary-TV ( great satellite dish channel) a documentary from 2005 published by the Australians "Toxic Avengers"which documents the US military base being set up in Australia and also give the history of Subic Bay and Clark Air Force base both in Phillipines. I believe they quoted that there are 200 bases.
The story is that the bases in the Phillipines were totally poisoned with chemicals used to service the airplanes and the place was the worst superfund cleanup when US left and they never cleaned up. The military bases were finally let go because of another more visible problem: Philipino girls were resorting to prostitution in huge numbers. People were getting fed up with Americans for that.
Only after they left, did they realize that those who moved into the Clark base got cancer- I am not talking about old people getting cancer- that is possibly natural- but many children deformed.
Deformed children and prostitute girls- that is fodder for suicide bombers to be born. We need to throttle down the military money which creates the epicenter for terrorism right in their dumb military bases.
Born2bwild: Thank you for your eloquence in flapping those proverbial butterfly wings. We all needed that dose of positive infusion, and what you share is very true. One lit candle can put out darkness.
Metamorph: As per base closings, off the cost of Puerto Rico the US navy did some kick ass chemical testing, and eventually the cancer rates became so high that the local people of the island called Vieques protested (some US politician, I forget, was it Jessie Jackson? got involved) and the navy gave up this island. It's true the residue of dangerous detritus is not easily erased, nor the lives healed that have gone bust with cancer from the toxic exposures; but Vieques DID set a precedent. Of course the US military footprint with over 750 bases worldwide is enormous, a Goliath that will require many good Davids with accurate aim to take down. I still feel this Iraqi thing is going to represent the karmic equivalent of imperial overreach, the great warrior falling on his own sword, the nation's assets depleted and no "allies-friends" willing to play banker/broker and make loans. The Oriental mind is prepared to look ahead many moves on the global chessboard, whereas US short attention span theater, aided and abetted by the greed of immediate appetite fulfillment is such that quarterly profits are about as long-range as these baboons can conceptualize. (Sure, I know about "The Project for a New American Century" and how it's also proceeded, move by move on the global board... a few of these heavyweights do have a long-range plan, no doubt aided by the dark side. Truthout just posted something about the Christianization of the US military, and I encourage commondreams readers to check it out... this "religifying" the war to give the unfortunate soldiers a sense they are fulfilling a divine mandate is as dangerous as it is preposterous. That's one reason why the books on atheism and the commondreams article "The New Atheists" received close to 100 postings!
UN-common-dreams,
Nice essay, but those who visit sites like this might want to remember what Goebbels had to say about "intellectuals":
"There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted."
Goebbels felt that the intellectuals could be made irrelevant if the masses were well-controlled. The Bush administration and most US propagandists appear to hold a similar perspective.
As long as the numbers visiting web sites like this one remain small, they constitute no threat. But what happens when the numbers grow? How much time does the MSM spend discrediting what are generally perceived to be unelectable candidates? How quickly did the MSM begin to discredit Edwards, an apparently "electable" candidate, when he moved to the left?
Vince wrote about Iraqis plight with empathy. Something not everybody has; and it is the only way to get past your own skin. Yea, I know how you are feeling, that's what's cool about it; we CAN feel. When we can get others to feel they will feel like crying too.
About the ripple effect; we are bouncing ideas back and forth in this room while we are checker boarded around the world. Think about that! Don't let anybody kid you that WE are not doing our part here. Protesters at the G-8, CODE PINK, ANSWER; they are doing their part.
For questioning authority in the local Community News Forum, my community hit me pretty hard from 99 to 2002. Because I treated them with respect when they wouldn't even look me in the eyes, Republicans now again accept me even though my ideas haven't changed.
When this thing starts rolling the masses will participate and they need to understand what we are talking about here. Violence only plays into the hands of the authorities.
We are the thinkers, along with people elsewhere on the Internet. When it comes time for ideas we have been there, we will play a big part to make sure:
"WE DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN".
Because a movement needs guidance; something the masses are clueless about. Yea Vince we need you too.
NMBill
not all of us can be on the front lines all the time. just ask cindy sheehan. when we're not, we can give our support to those who are. in addition, we can build bridges, as you have done, with those who think/feel differently. and even when that is too much to muster for whatever reason, we can just take it all in, and replenish the "magical mystery tour" that is our lives. never a dull moment.
Again I want to thank everyone who has offered kind words of encouragement as I try, like all honest human beings, to find my way in this world. I don't like to submit long posts, but my facility with words does not often construct gems of enlightenment and understanding in one short paragraph.
Believe me when I tell you that I do understand that actions taken from the heart that seem to go unnoticed may have effects that we are unaware of. If I thought otherwise I would not write, argue, or march.
Knowledge is like a jigsaw puzzle. When you first dump it out on the table and turn all the pieces right side up it may take you quite some time to get those first two pieces to fit together, but with every piece fitted to its mate your progress accelerates and you begin to see not only what you have, but also what you are missing. This is as true for individuals as it is for us as a species. Now, at this point in my life, everything teaches me, from the inconsequential to the momentous. What many see as a jumble of nonsense and confusion, I understand, though am unwilling to accept as inevitable.
My youngest is recovering from strep throat right now. This, from the mandatory paperwork accompanying the antibiotic: "Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because the benefit to you is greater than the risk of the side effects." Doctor Bush erred in his prescription for the disease of Sadam Hussein. Yes, Sadam was a brutal thug, but the situation for Iraqis is now much worse than under his rule. Add to this the ladling of new volumes of hatred and resentment into an already large ocean of historical anger as home, family, and hope are destroyed and we can see that Doctor Bush is indeed a quack. If I should find myself dying in a pool of blood as the result of an act of revenge by some angry Iraqi, I hope I will have the strength to forgive him.
Though only middle-aged I abandoned my profession, unwilling any longer to be a cog in the machinery of mindless consumerism. My wife is the bread-winner and I cook, clean, and nurture my boys. I have no need to prove my manhood as I've jumped out of planes, worked the high steel, and been responsible for decisions that, if wrong, could have lost millions of dollars in a matter of hours. But "dropping out" was only moving from one side of the scale to the other.
Most everything of merit accomplished by mankind in our short history has been the result of many acting as one with a commonality of purpose and understanding. Traditional belief systems, rooted as they are in superstition and fear can no longer inform us and guide us. A new articulation of purpose is needed. Below is the opening of something I have been working on for the past seven years.
IN THE BEGINNING …
The question, and it has always been just one question, is, why ? It is an alone thing every one of us asks ourselves, and that which we all ask together. Death puts the universality to the question. Why this, then oblivion? How, why, do I end ?
At this point in human time the question is to us as pressing and pervasive as it ever was. No tool we have yet devised nor angle of attack applied to the question has yielded a definitive answer. Secular rational reasoning has not forever disproved the possibility of a "creator" or "a higher other". Religious or faith-based thought has likewise never proved the existence of the human soul or a benign creator nor even the necessity of either idea. Human inquisitiveness is alive with vitality on the edges of our understanding of the cosmos and of living things, and we are being showered with bits of new realizations that, at turns support then deny both those opposing views of existence.
And in the midst of this mounting philosophic brouhaha, we are becoming. Well, we are becoming large, certainly. One result of this is that we are also becoming- and I really resist using this word, but I can't summon another more generic one- connected. Economically, environmentally, biologically, as well as in real-time communications, we are all feeling our connectedness. With a sense of alarm we realize that our size amplifies our potential to do great harm, either maliciously or by unforeseen consequences of well-intentioned but ill-planned actions.
How we get from here to where we are going next will be forever bound with our answer to the first question- why ? The question needs a new answer, an answer that speaks not to what possibly is unknowable, but to that mix of being and becoming that we call
NOW
- Justaman
vince
i scrolled back in the hope there was a "final" thought of yours. i'm glad i did. i have a "last word" or two for you.
your meta-question, the one for the ages, to me has no answer - at least one that the human mind can wrap itself around. the question itself is the answer. merely allowing oneself to be guided into the position to ask it is somehow sufficient to fulfill its purpose. as a corollary, a very simple follow-up might be (in all seriousness) why not? i mean, who are we to say what is or what should be? divine justice, so to speak, will see to it that the ledger is balanced, and that our lives have something to do with that.
so i hope all is well with the family by now. i look forward to meeting up in future threads.