Is US on Brink of War with Iran?
FERNDALE- Scott Ritter, one of the former United Nations inspectors who didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, denounced the Bush administration for going to war with WMDs as the primary rationale in March 2003. 
Now he fears the United States is on the brink of war with Iran. Ritter points to a military buildup in the region, the so-called threats to the U.S. Navy from Iranian speed boats last week and a U.S. Senate resolution that labels elements of Iran as a terrorist organization.
“It’s like filling up a house with gasoline and flicking matches at the door,” Ritter said. “Sooner or later it will connect.”
Ritter spoke to the Daily Tribune via telephone Friday while on the road in Colorado. He and media critic Jeff Cohen were driving to meet with school and church groups in Boulder and Denver this weekend for U.S. Tour of Duty, a series of public forums aimed at starting a national dialogue about global engagement.
The tour will bring Ritter and Cohen, a former Detroit resident who refers to mainstream media as the “weapons of mass distraction,” to First United Methodist Church of Ferndale, 22331 Woodward Ave., from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26.
The local tour stop is sponsored by the Huntington Woods Peace, Citizenship and Education Project. Spokeswoman Linda Ashley said the church can hold 700 people and she urges area residents to attend.
“We think Iran and U.S. foreign policy is a real important topic,” Ashley said. “This is a unique forum that gives our community the chance to participate in a national discussion.”
Ritter said he will present factual data that the country is heading toward another military conflict in the Middle East.
“I draw heavily on the words of the Bush administration and people can draw their own conclusion,” he said.
To him, President George W. Bush has been waging a war of words with Iran for years. He points to the president saying “all options are on the table” regarding Iran and its alleged nuclear program in 2005 and then calling Iran “a threat to world peace” last week.
“The president isn’t talking about sending Condoleezza Rice to Iran as an option,” Ritter said. “We’re not on the path of peaceful resolution through diplomacy.”
His conclusion: “What’s really going on is a road map for global domination. The war in Iraq initiated a long-term strategy neo conservatives have been formulating to divide the world into spheres of influence and dominate them economically, militarily and diplomatically.”
Wouldn’t some savvy, headline hungry reporter be following the story if that were the case? Cohen says not if they work for corporate media.
A former on-air commentator and senior producer at MSNBC, Cohen was assigned to Phil Donohue’s show before it was canceled in February 2003. He says he obtained a memo criticizing Donohue for seeming to delight in presenting guests who were anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration’s motives.
“It’s because we practiced journalism and had opposing views that were terminated,” Cohen said.
After the show’s cancellation, Cohen said MSNBC issued ordered that every anti-war guest needed to be countered by two pro-war guests.
“That was their quota system to shift the debate for pro-invasion forces,” according to Cohen, who has a book out called “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.”
Where does he get his news? Cohen said his home page opens to www.commondreams.org, which bills itself as a news center for the “progressive community.”
“The good news in the realm of media is that amazing things are happening with independent journalists,” Cohen said. “They are filling a huge vacuum left by corporate media that practice jingoism when it comes to war and tabloidism in general.”
Cohen and Ritter scoffed at the USA Today headline in Friday’s edition proclaiming “75 percent of Baghdad secure.”
The article says data given by the military to the newspaper provides a clear snapshot of how security has improved in Baghdad since 30,000 additional American troops arrived in Iraq last year.
“The average citizen will say things are working, but the small print shows it’s a smoke and mirrors game,” Cohen said. “It’s really quieter in Baghdad because of ethnic cleansing, concrete walls, checkpoints and al-Sadr declared a cease fire. We haven’t defeated them or got them on our side. USA Today is a misrepresentation of reality.
© 2007 The Daily Tribune
here is one of the main reasons why the United States wants to attack Iran … which happens to be one of the main reasons why they attacked Iraq
“US Attack on Iran Imminent: Why the US wants to attack Iran”
http://www.chycho.com/?q=us_iran_attack
and here is what will happen if they are allowed to do this
“What an attack on Iran really means: Gwynne Dyer’s Secret”
http://www.chycho.com/?q=Gwynne_Dyer
and God help us if they use Nukes in this attack … only Americans can stop this mad government … i just hope they are waking up to the reality of what is happening
This came to me in a vision 2 years ago - what’s crazier - that I have visions or that this prophetic vision may soon come true?
5-16-2006
Watch now with horror people of the nation of the free, as your false prophets and politicians press hard for their crusade against the people of the nation of Iran.
For in their hearts speak the voices of darkness.
Woe. Woe to the people of the nation of the free.
In their righteous madness they shall seek to bring about their glorious “rapture” as they slaughter the innocent.
And they shall fulfill biblical prophecy as the false prophets who brought Armageddon to God’s beloved.
And their tortured souls shall weep at their complicity with the darkness and cry out for forgiveness.
Wow. We are in so much trouble as a nation. We have drifted so very far away from what we were meant to be as a nation…
Peace.
A planetary sister.
Even God can’t help us now.
There will be only one person to blame for this: Nancy Pelosi and the leadership of “her” Democratic Party.
Which is why I will be voting for Ron Paul on February 5th. No one from the Democratic Party deserves any of our votes and Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate (besides Kucinich) who is forcefully speaking out against this criminality, and look at what the corporately controlled MSM is doing to him:
http://people.ronpaul2008.com/campaign-updates/2008/01/19/fair-and-balanced/
I know there are many politically astute and brilliant people who read Common Dreams and per my previous comments,
I have completely changed my perspective on the whole situation. It happened when I was leaving a public hearing about a housing development and even though the room was packed with opposition to it, the Board of Supervisors in this county voted for the monstrosity anyway. On the way to the car, I realized, no one really cares about the people anymore on any level. We are being ignored. Like screaming to a deaf man. You can scream all you want.
This is true of course of our government now too whether it be ignoring the fact that 70% of the American public want Bush/Cheney gone or the contaminated products from China which are still being pumped into this country in spite of outcries from “consumers” (note consumers, not citizens).
The articles about pulling together, protesting, power to the people, etc make me sick to be honest. This only works in even a semi-operable democracy. What do you say when the people go ignored? I mean, even Nixon stepped down.
The anti-war groups don’t have a clue as they continue to
use protests, letter writing, blogs, etc as their tools. Well, get a clue. New game. New rules. Their response now is “we will blow you off now and nothing will happen to us and you will wear yourselves out. Works out great for us. Keep ignoring the public and they go away eventually.”
One strategy the Impeach groups are not using is to start a national campaign to demand Bush and Cheney RESIGN. This should be a national shaming effort. Billboards, commercials listing all their many crimes…get the American people to put pressure on them to step down. This would be the true litmus test if the ignore strategy is more powerful than a unified population. But I remain baffled that the ads demanding NOT impeachment but RESIGNATION are not all over every national newspaper. The American people may just corral around this. Then again, I am someone who thinks Nancy Pelosi should step down or be impeached. My fear is the Dems will lose in November because 70% of the American public is also disgusted with them. Their strategy to subvert our Constitution in the name of political strategy will backfire with serious and final consequences to our country–one they seem to care little about on the grand scale.
Assume all politicians are deaf. Assume this then start planning new strategies because as far as the people are concerned, they are now deaf to us.
This means they will not respond to cries to stop with the bombing of Iran or any country. My friends, we are out of the loop.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=7649
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nch43wy8Zb8&feature=related
“Is US on Brink of War with Iran?”
No.
The “Brink” got Pinked.
If you look at the map and listen to what the President says, this administration has been preparing for war with Iran for many years.
Their main goal is to completely transform the Middle East. Saudi Arabian terrorists and Iraqi weapons of mass destruction may be used as the temporary story line, but the overall strategy is to conquer the Middle East.
The idea is to replace the dictators and monarchies with open markets and democratic elections. This will allow more foreign investment into the region while also opening access to the vast oil resources.
The Bush strategy has also been badly implemented in a way that has caused a lot of death and destruction throughout the region. Another problem is that using military force to change other countries to be more beneficial to our own interests and value systems is a war crime according to international laws.
This is a classic example of how the corporate media’s obsession with “balance” and “fairness” keeps them from examining a story in detail. For example:
>His conclusion: “What’s really going on is a road map for global domination. The war in Iraq initiated a long-term strategy neo conservatives have been formulating to divide the world into spheres of influence and dominate them economically, militarily and diplomatically.”
Wouldn’t some savvy, headline hungry reporter be following the story if that were the case? Cohen says not if they work for corporate media.<
Before dismissing Cohen as a conspiracy theorist, Kavanaugh might have done a quick Google search and come up with this: The Project for the New American Century at http://www.newamericancentury.org/ where you find the following statements:
“Preserving the desirable strategic situation in which the United States now
finds itself requires a globally preeminent military capability both today and in the
future.”;
“Control the new “international commons” of space and “cyberspace,” and pave the way for the creation of a new military service – U.S. Space Forces – with the mission of space control.”;
An op-ed in the Weekly Standard entitled “How to Attack Iraq” from November 1998;
and other similar statements about the need for the U.S. to “dominate them (i.e, the rest of the world) economically, militarily and diplomatically.”
And just who are/were the members of the Project for the New American Century? Oh, just people like Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton, all of whom, coincidentally I’m sure, just happened to work for the Bush Administration! If it’s a conspiracy, it’s hiding in plain sight.
The corporate media’s role is not to inform the public in order for them to make intelligent decisions about national plicy. It’s main job is to lure eyeballs to advertisers, but it also serves as a keeper and protector of our national myths, chief of which is that the U.S. role in the world is always benevolent (execept for “mistakes,” like Vietnam). How fortunate we are that our brave journalists work so hard to keep these cherished myths alive and protect us from the conspiracy-mongers who only wish to destroy our faith in the God-bestowed glory of our country (and let’s not forget the majority of our fellow citizens, who enjoy these myths and would probably cling to them ferociously, regardless of the evidence presented to rebut them).
If McCain is the repugnican nominee, and Clinton the dimocratic, and there is some war skirmish with Iran around october–it will no doubt benefit McCain, or any republican other than Clinton.
Of course the US wants to transform the Middle East. Of course it wants to change the Middle East into an area where there are free markets and where it can get easy access to all that oil.
The irony of this is that this probably could have been done with patience, diplomacy and the US’s secret weapon ( a weapon so secret even the CIA doesn’t seem to be aware of it): tourism.
But George Bush and Co. fubared it.
TimeToMove, it’s time to read WAR IS A RACKET by Smedley Butler and IRON HEEL by Jack London and realize that America will always be on the brink of war with someone or something. War not only sells, it now runs the country. Think of Blackwater and Walmart while reading.
Hoa binh
Mr Scott Ritter has been doing his best for more than 6 years to make us buy into the official 9/11 fairytale of 19 Islamist hijackers armed with boxcutters who want to cut our throats because they hate our freedom bullshit. Can we ever believe a word of what he says as long as he sides with fearmongers?
“In April 2006, Iran said it shot down a U.S. surveillance drone flying over the country.”
“Teams of US commandos have been operating inside Iran since last summer, selecting suspected weapons sites for possible air strikes, The New Yorker reported Monday.”
Technically, the United States of America is at “war” with Iran already. So go out and buy something you can’t afford but might keep reality at bay another few minutes…
TimeToMove,
Yes, I was asking the same thing a few years ago and even got hundreds of folks at a peace rally in downtown Sarasota to chant “FOR THE GOOD OF ALL MANKIND BUSH AND CHENEY MUST RESIGN!”
My argument is that before impeachment even officially begins, if it does, they will have to resign in order to be eligible for a pardon.
US Constitution:
“The president has the power of pardon except in cases of impeachment”
The reason why Nixon cut out even before a trial in the Senate.
Also we can directly demand as citizens that they resign, since impeachment is the job of the House, so we are asking them to do it for us.
So they Go together and the demand for Resignation is the other side to the impeachment coin.
The peace movement tends to stick to one theme over and over and the answer to me was “‘what makes you think that they will resign?”
Well I don’t think they would resign unless they were close to impeachment first but that is no reason to not let the public and the War Criminals know that there are options.
When we say Impeach Bush/Cheney, it sounds too official of a demand.
Since they weren’t really elected in the first place, it sounds too nice of a way out for them.
I like both tactics for signs.
IMPEACH THE CREEPS!
and
FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANKIND, BUSH AND CHENEY MUST RESIGN!
Also, People all over the world hate them now and can relate to that simply because it is not “official” because non citizens have no official power to ask the US House Reps to do the right thing… since it is our constitution, that is our law on this matter.
I also like “HANG UM CUT UM DOWN AND HANG UM AGAIN!”
You all are free to use these for the cause of Justice.
Just make sure you smile for the FBI.
I like Scott Ritter very much, but I don’t think the US military would follow Bush into a real war with Iran.
Why?
Because they know Bush is waco and Russia and China would not stay out of that fight.
Bin Laden, if he is still alive, knows that this war and our world domination strategy is destroying our economy and our military so all he has to do is watch us beat ourselves.
According to the Prophecy
TimeToMove;
You are well aware, more than most, about the “absentee landlords” in any real sense of the meaning of the term, “representative government” and increasing disdain for the public by the politicians in power.
If the vast majority of the public prefers remaining on the losing end, very little can be done to save this country.
If the Russians and Chinese told our government that if we attack and invade Iran, they would not only come to Iran’s defense, but take out Israel as well. If they made a strong enough case, would the AIPAC Lobby restrain Bush/Cheney, or call the bluff and start World War Three?
Is the world supposed to be silent and let the bully terrorize weaker nations? Where and when is the line drawn?
Sorry peaceCoup but you slipped up here…
“The idea is to replace the dictators and monarchies with open markets and democratic elections. This will allow more foreign investment into the region while also opening access to the vast oil resources.”
The U.S. goes out of its way to keep dictators and monarchies in power. As having worked for a multi-national Corp before, I can tell you that these corporations would rather deal with absolute dictators than a finicky democracy. In fact what neo-Cons fear more than anything is democracy. Look at Hugo Chavez, Allende and Guzman (Guatemala 1954) for concrete examples!
But probably the best example of anti-democratic forces at work is here at home when the MSM excludes any candidate that threatens runaway corporate theft. Reuters (which is owned by Thomson Corporation as in Thomson Health Care) for example has shown that on their political website (http://www.reuters.com/news/politics) that they will now give daily updates to all of the Dem. and Rep. candidates. Bill Richardson, who dropped out, is included yet Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate from either party that is excluded. As for ABC, NBC and the others, the conspiracy of silence is deafening.
Finally “opening access” to resources such as Middle Eastern oil is misleading at best. The Big Oil companies want to PREVENT open access at every turn and instead have resorted to the military options to ensure “limited access”.
I wish people would stop thinking that the current White House Administration has any noble aspirations or fundamentally Libertarian ideas in their quest for quick profits and global hegemony.
Corporate control over Iranian and middle eastern oil to bring prosperity to US of I does not make any sense. There will be no tax benefits as all the big Oil corps are safely ensconced offshore, and pay zilch. The US of I will be charged at the world market rate, currently going through the roof. If the US of I public get no special treatment regards their opinions for anti-war, they will not get any special treatment for cheap oil.
Only people and nations with massive share holdings in Oil corporations are going to get benefit. (For example China and Japan). Plus large share holders in military corporations. Get them out of the country, or at least out of government, and hey, you are done! There are not that many of them. Hey look, there is no one left to promote the war! War forgone with least pain, if the benefiters and folly followers are disallowed from government. Form a internet antiwar-monger web site, with details on each, public donations, run anti war commercials. Run them out of office.
Time to move: Who chooses the county supervisors? Can they be removed? Are elections for county suupervisor popular?
Since 1492: I like your name. Understnding that war is a racket is paramount.
The good news is nobody will support the US. There is no trust when it comes to US foreign policy, arguments, PR spin, evidence etc. Not even Poland will go along with the US, the Security Council won’t even discuss this in earnest, no allies will be found (maybe a couple of African dictators would support it for a US passport and a millions on a Swiss bank account, but that’s about it). Maybe they work on a totally different strategy and it is not Iran they are working on. Maybe they want to create a situation which will generate fear in the US and drive the voters to God and the Republicans.
George Bush’s epitaph;
I Ran From Iraq, Into Hell
At least someone is addressing overpopulation.
shorter URL for audio link posted above:
http://www.singingmountain.org/alex-jones-interviews-tarpley-and-steele.mp3
KW: Bush going to hell
Bush believes he is not going to hell because he does God’s work. He will not be going to hell because hell, like the law, does not exist, except on earth, and only for the poor. George is rich .
The world’s superpower never tires of shopping for war, does it.
THE WARS ARE NOT ABOUT TERRORISM
The Bush Administration’s Curious Behavior
“Hours after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush told the world the United States would take the fight directly to the terrorists and the states that harbored them. Thus the Bush Administration’s “War on Terror” was born.
Less than a month later, on October 7, Mr. Bush launched a savage aerial bombardment of Afghanistan. He had the support of a shocked American citizenry and a sympathetic world, all of whom expected justice to be delivered soon to the terrorist Osama bin Laden and the harboring state embodied in the Taliban.
The incursion into Afghanistan was sold as the first action in the “War on Terror.” It was a brilliantly executed charade.
Flashback to October 12, 2000, a year earlier. The USS Cole, an American Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden, has suffered heavy damage from a terrorist attack, perpetrated by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.
Three weeks later officials of the Clinton Administration met with theTaliban in the Sheraton Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. To avoid a violent retaliation of furious bombing, the Taliban offered the unconditional surrender of Osama bin Laden.
Before the details of the transfer were completed, however, a Supreme Court ruling gave George W. Bush the White House, and the message was passed: the actual handover of bin Laden will be deferred until the Bush Administration is sworn in.
Once in office, the new Administration asked the Taliban to delay the handover of Osama bin Laden at least until February. As winter faded into spring, and spring into summer, the Administration demurred twice more.
Then Osama bin Laden struck again, on September 11, 2001.
On September 15, Taliban officials were flown in U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft to the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the deal was sweetened. The standing offer of surrendering Osama bin Laden was renewed, but now the Taliban would also oversee the closure of bin Laden’s bases and training camps.
This time the White House simply rejected the offer out of hand. It did so again when the offer was repeated several weeks later, and days after that President Bush ordered the violence to begin.
The invasion of Afghanistan was something vastly different than a quest to apprehend a terrorist.” — Richard Behan
Sources for this section:
1. “Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Hand bin Laden Over,” Guardian Unlimited (UK), October 14, 2001.
2. “Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Surrender bin Laden,” Andrew Buncombe, The Independent (UK), October 15, 2001.
3. “Dreamers and Idiots: Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in Iraq and Afghanistan,” George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), November 11, 2003.
4. “How Bush Was Offered bin Laden and Blew It,” Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, November 1, 2004.
5. “Did Bush try to stop bin Laden in his first eight months in office?” MSNBC Countdown, September 28, 2006.
@kw January 20th, 2008 4:47 pm
I truly hope you are right.
BUT
No country or media GENUINELY thought that Iraq was somehow a threat.
The masses may have believed it, but all who bothered to find out knew it was a crock of shit. All those in the security council played the diplomatic game, not wanting the consequences of falling out with the US. Follow the link to my home site to verify this. They were all playing the diplomatic game of being along side the U.S. Many countries like Australia have an Aemirican owned media.
I am concerned that they may just play the same diplomatic game of pretending to be very concerned about the “threat” posed by Iran - again.
@abbybwood January 20th, 2008 2:17 pm
“There will be only one person to blame for this: Nancy Pelosi and the leadership of “her” Democratic Party.”
GWB & co are probably the most to blame, but you are right. If Pelosi or Hillary were genuine, they would have impeached, and this new war would simply not happen. But then AIPAC wouldn’t direct campaign funds to them, would they.
@RAMSHEYI January 20th, 2008 3:06 pm
“Mr Scott Ritter has been doing his best for more than 6 years to make us buy into the official 9/11 fairytale of 19 Islamist hijackers armed with boxcutters who want to cut our throats because they hate our freedom bullshit.”
I dont think Scott Ritter tries to sell us the official 9/11, he just does not comment on it much because like me, he does not know the answer, whether it is true or not. I was suspicious from day 1 about the official narrarative, but try as I might, I am still confused and cant come to a decision.
But dont try to tell me that Scott Ritter is pushing war. He is not. He reported in 1996 that Saddam had not WMD since 1992. And he bravely came forth in 2002 and told everyone about it again. He is doing what little he can to try and stop the coming Iran war.
I’ve heard that George Bush, a self-described Christian man, told others that he was going to f*** bin Laden in the a**. I didn’t know Christian men talked in such vulgar terms, and I didn’t know George Bush was a homosexual. Well, you learn something new every day.
So the US wants to attack Iran? Bobby Fischer was right, the US deserves to have it’s head kicked in. Rest in Peace Bobby!!
“What’s really going on is a road map for global domination. The war in Iraq initiated a long-term strategy neo conservatives have been formulating to divide the world into spheres of influence and dominate them economically, militarily and diplomatically.” - Scott Ritter in the article.
That’s correct. The National Security Strategy of 2002 stated it plainly. Cf. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/national/nss-020920.pdf
What is now happening in the US military “overreach” is an example of the old Greek concept of Hubris: humans going against the gods - or in moderns terms: Natural law. One nation - or a clique derived from it - trying to literally rule the world is Hubris.
That attempt to rule the world is in breach of Natural law for the simple reason that the activity associated with the ruling of the world, called “consumerism”, overtaxes the Biosphere’s sustainability.
Without this consumerism all of US people drafted into passively supporting the world-rule wouldn’t be materially snug and smug enough to NOT say “Hey, wait a minute - isn’t that in total breach of Reciprocity, Equality and Justice, and all that fairness we need in order to survive in cooperation – and which the rulers claim to be following?”.
As always in cases of Hubris, the Natural laws (gods) eventually win - with tragedy for humans. Climate-extreming is out there to supply the necessary blowback. The sooner we get everyone to cooperate with harmonizing to our natural environment and life-premises, the smaller the tragedy.
Speaking of prophecies, I can remember that someone interpreted one of Nostradamus’ as saying that the West would find itself in an all out war with Islam and that this would eventually leave China free to begin its imperial ambitions. If the U.S. attacks Iran, the WWIII will begin. We will see other muslim countries erupting, including Pakistan. The conflict will spread to Europe, and once again, a lone superpower will rise: China.
Trying to predict the future using Nostradamus’s centuries is like trying to predict the future by using the Book of Revelation: they’re both so cloaked in metaphor that no one really knows what they mean, if anything.
But the Bush regime is sure doing it’s best to make the future a bad one. That’s something we do know. Maybe, though, if we try to make the future, instead of try to predict it, we can make it turn out all right.
Sad, very sad.
I will limit my participation as I realize that throwing good things on bad ones, doesn’t make the
bad ones good.
Through the repeated mental ingestion of the best movie of all times “The Secret”, things are
turning around, from subconsciousness to consciousness and from disbelief to understanding.
All this is putting more gasoline on the already bonfire size national ‘bush- fire’, choking us to
death. Spiritually and physically.
Well now relax for a moment.
Whatever one writes does not have to become true, ‘right’? It is the other way around. Most theories
that are based on the past and the present lack to mention the ability of the Universe to turn things
around at any given moment.
We don’t have to be afraid of bush cheney et al. Those are small vermin, put into place by a larger
power. This power only understands the language of profit. As long as the cash drawer opens and
more money flows into it, ‘their’ world is great.
The very moment bush et al become an obstacle to ‘their’ profit making puppet players, they are gone.
So to get back to “The Secret”, watch it a minimum of 20 times and realize that the only way into peace
and prosperity for all humans on this planet starts inside. The only way to get rid of bush et al and bring
them to justice is to rely entirely on the Universe and nothing else. If You have to call it ‘god’ I am kind of
sorry for You, as You obviously still believe that story. But with no god and a Universe that will ‘react’
to any and everything we better focus on the good times. Because most people on this planet want just
that. They want to feel good. If You feel good, do You go around kicking others?
My recommendation fore all this is simple:
Focus on what You want, not on what You don’t want.
War with Iran is off the table, more than impeachment. The US is owned and operated by Israel. But with-
out Middle East oil money, US will go down like a punctured floaty.
Then, if You really believe Your vote is counted the way it was cast, dream on.
Forget Elections. The Only Vote You Have Is At The Register.
My Bumpersticker.
Now I am going to fly some helicopter, over the Lava.
lillulu,
I didn’t know all the details of the Bush deal with the Taliban and then the double cross.
It is exactly the same deal his Daddy made with Iran, called the October
Surprise to hold the hostages so that Reagan would beat Carter.
Then they double crossed Iran just like the Taliban.
Obama must be clueless about history outside of Chicago.
He seems to buy into “actionable Intelligence”. Not a safe bet for anyone who knows the history of the CIA.
.
It is one thing to have a strategy of Global Domination and another thing to be able to accomplish it… and harder when your empire is bankrupt.
Politicians promise lots of things…
Since1492, I agree with you that everyone should read War is a Racket, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for people to read London’s Iron Heel, either.
But are you saying that because America has been at war with one country or another for a long time, we might as well give up trying to change that? I hope not.
Hoa binh
Ok, if we are going to dominate other countries, why are we transferring our wealth to them and not receiving the wealth of those we dominate. I mean, we got this basic element of global domination wrong?. That the cost to dominate should reap rewards that profit the dominator. Even Bush ain’t that dumb not to figure this out. Economics 101.
On the other hand, maybe we have sold our foreign policy, and the domination is reaping rewards to those whom we have sold it to? That makes a bit more sense. Who could we have sold it to? Of course, the bankers who control our own economy. But wait, they are having problems themselves, so they say.
So who controls our banks and government?. No one can say really, but some suggest the power rests with elements of Rothschild, Rockefeller and London interests who have Anglo-American and Zionist-American agents in the US that execute their orders. The US taxpayer essentially finances these globalists desire for world domination. They care nothing about money, they have enough, it is all about power, but since we are suckers, they are happy to take our money from us to finance their operations under the guise of peace and democracy.
Those you elect are happy to please the powers that be in return for personal reward and the promises of an elite role in the global government, even if it means acting against Americas sovereign interests. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.
No, the USA is not on brink of war with Iran, for lack of troops to send, and because this is election year.
What we are “on brink of” is every possible spin being spoken to us by Republicans about the “danger” for every moment from now through November.
Excellent point Daniel David - political psychops - just because they can…
Invade Iran with what? Our overextended military is already losing two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now Baby Caligula wants another one? If the American people allow this piece of human filth to go ahead with his delusional plans, then this country deserves everything it gets.
As most knowledgeable people realize that God is on the side of Israel and that is why US will go to war with Iran. It is only God’s work that they will be doing.
One saving grace might be that Bilderberg has refused to support an attack on Iran according to American Free Press. They basically told Dumbya he’s on his own.
Unfortunately, that arrogant, stubborn son of a bitch (literally) might just start a war for spite. Because, after all, no one tells Bab’s monster creation that he’s wrong.
I don’t care if the crazy christian zionists drool for the rapture, but can’t you fools leave the rest of us out of your madness? Hell, you’ve already lined your pockets with ALL our money.
It fits Alex Jones theories .
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261
On this eve of all eves please go to this link, listen, learn and realize it is NOW!
Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
4 April 1967
Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On April 4, 1967 at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City.
http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~sw/mlk/brksInc.htm
Hear the strength, care, confusion, a human needing hope trying to motivate but a few. We are there once again, maybe it might spark someone. Please hear that voice of Dr. King, now sshhh
I forgot this speech is not widely realized or offered, be kind and share it with all.
lillulu January 20th, 2008 7:01 pm
I’ve heard that George Bush, a self-described Christian man, told others that he was going to f*** bin Laden in the a**. I didn’t know Christian men talked in such vulgar terms, and I didn’t know George Bush was a homosexual. Well, you learn something new every day.
lillulu, do a google search using the terms “george bush victor ashe” without quotation marks and do some reading.
MiMiCs: We do get money from the countries we dominate. The problem is we’re not dominating as well as we used to and our latest attempts have been a major flop. We also spend too much.
MiMiCcS, you got it dead-on right. The facade of a democratic government is necessary to keep we the sheeple paying for the military and polices forces we’ve donated to the ruling elite.
Methinks we will probably get this report in full, here at Common Dreams in the near future (?) but for now…
…here’s a link to a new report on how Blair was a self-deluding oaf when he decided to go along with GW’s madness to ‘do’ Iraq.
see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2244183,00.html
UN Common Dreams, I don’t know about deluded, but I do now think that he (Tony Bliar) is evil and uncaring (about everything but his image and legacy). I still think the US would have acted without the UK, but I think that we added “credibility” to the rush to war. There was complacency and cowardice amongst a great many of our politicians, who rather than take the morally correct route, decided to be swayed by the lobbying (threatening and cajoling) within parliament. The truth of the matter is, that these elected politicians are either more concerned with their rise to the top, or are lacking in moral fibre. Why is it, that our third party (who still poll 18% of the vote) the Liberal Democrats, voted against the Iraq war, and have been consistent in their stance, do not get the backing from the electorate? I was a lifelong Labour voter until the Iraq war, and then I chose to vote Lib Dem, because they represented an independant, intelligent, informed view. Our “New” Labour party under Tony Bliar alligned itself with one of the most right wing administrations in US history - why?
I know that I am preaching to the converted, but why do the majority not realise that these politics will harm them. Are people so gullible that they will keep supporting regimes that are corrupt and evil? We are after all, supposed to be living in democracies and not dictatorships. We at least have the chance to change our lives, but throw away that chance every time we vote.
Kalia, what brainwashed rubbish. If anyone is the great Satan, it is Bush.
“Is US on Brink of War with Iran?”
No.
Iran, as governed and utilized, is as much a ‘controlled-Creature’ of US/Israeli Intel as Al Qaeda always has-been. We’d no-more ‘attack’ this phony-Enemy [on purpose, that is…sh-t-happens, of course!] than we would have intentionally-attacked the USSR during the ColdWar-I (Iran is lead-Figurehead/rationale/’excuse’ in our current ColdWar-II/GWofT, and too ‘useful’ to ‘expend-it-currently’).
Why do so-many ignore the historic/obvious Mossad/CIA/MI-6/ISI-fingerprints all-over Iran, it’s so-called ‘Islamic-Revolution’, it’s nuke-program, its Elections, etc.? Does anyone REALLY think that an American-Admiral would place even ONE carrier-group under SunBurn-vulnerability in that ‘bathtub’ if we didn’t absolutely-KNOW Iran was ‘one of ours’? [How many carriers did we ‘lose’ in our first ‘PearlHarbor’? DOH!]
Rob Roy, I hope and pray that Kalia’s comments were an attempt at sarcasm.
braithwa842,
Thank you for clarifications. But, you should agree that in order to stop a war we have to denounce false flag ops
like the recent one in the Strait of Hormuz. Mr Ritter is a knowledgeable person and he knows better and I can not lecture him on these banalities. However he does not have the courage to even ask for an honest investigation into what happened on that sinister day of 9/11. How do you justify the cowardice ? Doesn’t this obsequious attitude towards the Powers that be diminish his clout and credibility ?
I have just read that John Bolton, on a recent book signing trip to Tel Aviv, has tried to discredit the Intel report on Iran’s nuclear progress. He has referred to the people who compiled the report as members of the State department and not the intelligence community, and hinted that they do not know what they are talking about, and that Iran is carrying on with it’s attempts to build nuclear weapons.
Why is the World so full of these evil people, who would be so intent on attacking a country, who has not attacked anyone else in recent history?
Will the US attack Iran?
WAs the Pope a Nazi?
Having sent away much of our manufacturing base our elite have decided the way of the future is to control the resources of an area that is rich with them and yet are at this time still too weak to defend themselves. It’s like taking candy from a baby for these people.
Instead of just reconizing our situation for what it is and acting accordingly,[that would be hard work and using the resources we have wisely] they decided on the criminal route.
This whole mess is just a continuation of the process that brought this group of thugs to power. It worked for them here so now they want to try it over there. They got into power by murder, assassinations, terrorist events vote rigging control of the media etc. We must recognize who the enemy is first of all. It’s our own demented and stupid elite.
Well, we can see first hand how well the Cheif Moron’s plan for regime change worked in Iraq and Afghanistan both! So why would the idiot even consider another regime change? The only people who need a regime change are American’s. We need to get rid of the war-mongering nut in the White House!
The only way we can stop this war is for those that are in our military to refuse their orders. If you know anyone in the military get the message to them that orders to attack Iran will be illegal and unconstitutional (unless congress passes a declaration that is, which wouldn’t surprise me a bit).
Kalia’s comment is “Right on the-Money” in terms of the prevailing/most-Popular/held-Mythos that have driven Events in the ME/World recently (and several-thousands of years, prior).
Is this ‘News’, to others-here?
Where that ‘powerful’ Mythos falls-apart is in the ties/connections re: the neo-’Chosen-People’ (their manipulative/Zionistic ‘leaders’, actually) who used that selfsame famous-Mythos to ‘re-Found’ an Israel after an infamous sacrificial-Holocaust. But worldwide, Ashkenazic-jewry is simply ‘not’ the Jewry of the OT, nor the ‘Chosen’…they are instead the descendants of a Georgian-people who were ‘ordered’ by their screw-ball King to adopt this foreign ‘faith’/Tradition/Law in the late-700’s while about 900-miles N. of a non-Ersatz/non-Extant ‘Israel’, and have NO direct relationships/ties/’Claims’ to ‘the Holy Lands’, whatsoever. Sephardic-Jewry, who seldom left those-Lands and by-contrast largely prefer to ‘Wait for their Messiah’ — as spelled-out in their Book/Mythos in no uncertain-Terms/Covenant — were thus and henceforth fiercely discriminated-against by most of the incoming-Ashkenazim/Zionists (partly because they are ‘dark’ and ‘Arab-like’, and ‘fussy about relevant Facts/Faith’ — making them, like all Palestinians, “terrorist-problems” to be swept-aside, killed, or Marginalized by interloping ‘Euro-Trash’, which is how they view the Ashkenazim).
The above is not ‘opinion’, so please don’t “shoot the messenger” — you can Google all-stated, and rather easily…
X-ian Zionists are even LESS ‘well-read/informed’ than most of the current [and mostly-’innocent’!] 6-million Israelis (the Ashkenazim-immigrants are a vast-majority of 90% there — such Peoples/jewry also constituting more than 85% of total/modern world-Jewry, and are NOT part of any classic-’Diaspora’, either — unlike the Sephardim [the ‘real’ Chosen] who didn’t usually “wander far”).
[Most Iranian-Jews are Sephardim, btw — which explains ‘much’, perhaps, about why they are ‘happy’ where they are, rather than accepting the $60k-bribe that Israel offers them to immigrate — with American-funds, btw]
Anyway, trying to even define a ‘Jew’ is like trying to “herd cats” [or ‘Katz’]. Any Palestinian (for example) can become a ‘Jew’ in a couple-of-weeks, and thusly ‘inherit’ Israeli-citizenship&Rights, and the “full-support and Protection” of most American X-ians and ‘welfare’, subsequently. Jews are NOT a ‘race’, a ‘bloodline’, a Nationality, nor even a single-Creed/practice…it is instead a ’state of mind’, a ‘Faith’, and (in a best-case scenario) an Adherence to Laws/Traditions [although the latter HARDLY applies re: modern-Israel and many in-it!].
But, such a Mythos as grew from ‘the Book’ (and sits as some ‘precedent’/preface for X-ians AND Islamics, among-others) is apparently “the most accepted/compelling Story of all-Time”. Ergo, it was an obvious ’starting-point’ for all population-control/Propaganda used&fostered by the mostly-Secular and Machiavellian Zionist/Banker/neo-Libs&Cons/’Revolutionists’/Ideologues of the 19th-century, who peddled this Mythos and machinated most ‘world-events’ for profiteering post-Marx and throughout many of the Wars/Dispensationalism/Depressions/Shortages/Revolutions/Foundings ever since. Our very-Nations and modern-History itself (and certainly Israel’s and this GWofT-nonsense/profiteering) are, in fact, Grounded in that same abused-Mythos — so don’t ‘poo-poo’ what Kalia wrote here.
It is ‘your’ (and ‘my’) Opinions that are in the Minority, not hers…
Tumbleweed: But I don’t understand. All the alternatives to replace Bush are warmongers too! Unless you think Ron Paul has a chance. How realistic is that?
peace coup said
“The idea is to replace the dictators and monarchies with open markets and democratic elections. This will allow more foreign investment into the region while also opening access to the vast oil resources.”
Peace coup, you are delusional if you think they want to bring democracy, it is laughable, sorry.
As much as we may all desire a peacefull resolution to the current crisis of leadership the USA is languishing under, I think we may have to agree that there are two coming options to resolve this conflict.
1. Armed rebellion by a general uprising of the populace. Not bloody likely. The general population is cowardly, unwilling to risk their cushy, comfortable, predictable, SUV driving, TV watching lifestyles.
2. Collapse and anarchy after extensive resource depletion. Unfortunatly all TOO likely. As the oil runs out, and other vital resouces are depleted, the industries and corporations that depend on them will collapse, as will the world economy, followed shortly there after by technological Western civilisation.
So what are we left with?
Self sufficiency and low technology. Living off the grid, and living locally.
On the bright side, the environment will slowly improve as all the hydrocarbon dependant vehicles will have been abandoned.
Galen,
Solid post! Off the article’s subject but I want to pass some information on to you and others. I found this web site a little while ago
and it fits in with your comments.
www.newrules.org
I just read an article from it tittled;
The Hometown Advantage Reviving Locally Owned Business
Wal-Mart Depresses Wages, Study Finds
Boy, did it take me years to figure out the REAL country I was living in. Along with all the other baby boomers we thought America was the land of the free and home of the brave. Maybe, the first clue I should have picked up on in history class was all those broken Indian treaties…..!
Peaceman: I think that my comments were totally on the mark. The path that Bushco is treading is driven wholly by corporate profit. And the easiest way to generate said profits is war.
Bush has been banging the Iran war drum ever since it was openly aknowledged that the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq was an utter failure.
About a month ago it was announced, VERY sotto voce, that the world had passed peak oil production. Right now, demand for oil exceeds supply, even with OPEC pumping at capacity plus. And with China and India coming online as the next big consumers of oil and it’s derivatives, the depletion will only accelerate.
Which means Bushco will be even more desperate to obtain/control oil. Which means they have to seize the remaining large non-Saudi oil feild, which is in (say it with me) IRAN!
And before those of you out the jump on me about how the ‘massive’ Saudi Gwahler oil field is so stable, consider this.
The Gwahler oil field has been in production for three decades at least. It is constantly reported to hold 2.5 billion barrels in reserve, a number which has never changed. And the Saudis have been pumping sea water into said reserve for at least the past 5 years to keep production at present levels as the natural subterranian pressure drops. That pressure drop is the canary in the coal mine. It means the oil field is nearing exaustion. Why should this matter?
Well, would you buy a nearly empty soda? No? So why would you invade a country whose greatest resource is almost expended, and whose population live in poverty compared to the greatly resented US backed government?
As the recently fabricated ‘Straights of Hormuz’ incident shows, and the recent massive buildup of US naval power in the Persian gulf attests, the entire object of the US ‘War on Terror’ is nothing but window dressing as US goes about it’s imperial ambitions and colonises the remaining oil rich regions. to paraphrase: ‘It’s about the oil, stupid.’ And always has been.
I would be very surprised if the US does not attack Iran before the end of this year. And with this mornings stock market evaluations of the US economy and the chances of recession, along with Bush’s announcement (Too little, too late.), war with Iran is almost inevitable.
“Flashback to October 12, 2000, a year earlier. The USS Cole…
Three weeks later officials of the Clinton Administration met with theTaliban in the Sheraton Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. To avoid a violent retaliation of furious bombing, the Taliban offered the unconditional surrender of Osama bin Laden.”
It gets-worse: in early 2001, Mr. Army met with taliban and Paki-officials in Pakistan to inform the Taliban “bombing of your country would begin in October…regardless”. [This was intended to get-word-to and act as ‘casus-belli’/Timeline for so-called ‘disaffected radicals’ in Afghanistan]
The United States is no better than Pablo Escobar,and we know the end that he came to!
A quick quote for all those rapture-eager fools…
Amos 5:18-24 (English Standard Version)
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
Why would you have the day of the LORD?
It is darkness, and not light,
19 as if a man fled from a lion,
and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
and a serpent bit him.
20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light,
and gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Yes. Let justice roll down.
Don’t hate. Wake up now.
If I remeber correctly, didn’t the CIA station chief for the area meet with Osama binLaden after the USS Cole bombing, while Osamma was being given dialasys at a US military hospital?
Things that make you go ‘hmmmmm, I wonder…’?
Galen: “Collapse and anarchy after extensive resource depletion. Unfortunatly all TOO likely. As the oil runs out, and other vital resouces are depleted, the industries and corporations that depend on them will collapse, as will the world economy, followed shortly there after by technological Western civilisation.”
I don’t know how far we’ll go in that direction. But probably damn far enough that it is going to be extremely painful. When we’re all grovelling, trying to adjust to a lifestyle based on $300+/barrel oil, there will be mass unrest and a big spike in lawlessness and looting. How bad and dangerous that will be I don’t know. But people like me, stupidly commuting 30 miles one way to work, may have to relocate. I do hope some semblance of order (like schools and hospitals remaining open) persists.
What really pisses me off is the WILLFULL negligence at work. We saw this coming a decade ago, and hence California pushed for zero emission vehicles and began to set up an electric vehicle recharging grid, which would have been one of the few sensible things we could do to ease our transition to a non-fossil-fuel-based transportation system. This system COULD have been powered by mass solar arrays in CA deserts. Instead, due to corporate influences, the US lifeblood remains OIL. I believe this catastrophic dependence is INTENTIONAL. It’s not just about money and profits. Oil will still be needed for many industries (e.g., plastics) and to fuel transportation needs across the globe over the next 2-3 decades as a worldwide shift to cleaner fuels is implemented. Yes, there is a desire to extract more profits out of us more quickly, but I think there is a deeper level of malice here: the desire on the part of the elites to reduce the US — and other proud nations — to landless, cowardly, impoverished serfs. That is, they WANT for us to be hopelessly bound to a resource that they control, and that will soon be unavailable to us.
That our elected leaders have done NOTHING to strengthen US independence from oil — especially foreign oil — is CRIMINAL.
A few notes on Ron Paul. We can’t be purists. The common objective should be reducing corporate control of US foreign and domestic policy. Ron Paul will do this. He’s a strict Consitutionalist and wants to give power back to the States. Compare this to Bush’s executive order granting him control over each state’s contingent of National Guard. As well as Bush’s being able to incarcerate US citizens without due process for as long as he and Cheney say the nation is at war (reportedly for the next 100 years). Bush’s activities are UNCONSTITUTIONAL. And he’s doing this not because he or the neoconservatives he represents are dumb; quite the contrary. They have studied history and have a clear plan for our future. They WANT to destroy the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because it serves their stranglehold over the people, and facilitates US movement toward integration with Mexico and Canada based on the Euro model.
I personally have great difficulty with Alex Jones’ and Ron Paul’s stances on homosexuality and women’s right to choose. But we have to realize that, until a greater awakening is achieved, we have to share this country with the 20-30% of Americans who are conservative Christians. And when it comes time to do battle with evil/fascist forces, I’d much rather have Jones and Paul at my side than the faux-Christian-crypto-fascists like Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts. Jones and Paul have integrity, big time. It would be awesome if we saw Kucinich and Paul split off to form an independent ticket. One workaround regarding providing abortion services might be for Paul not to allow public funding, but for some of the US’s supposedly “liberal” billionaires to fund a couple of thousand private, extremely well run and well funded abortion and family planning clinics nationwide. Paul could save face by saying none of the fundamentalist taxpayers are paying for these services, but respecting individual’s right to self determination enough to allow it to happen privately. That is just an idea.
Here is Ron Paul’s page on foreign policy.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/war-and-foreign-policy/
“The only proper way to go to war, the only legal way to go to war, the only constitutional way to go to war is to declare the war, by the congress, not by the president. The people should be behind it.
The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies, the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. This war has cost more than 3,000 American lives, thousands of seriously wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars. We must have new leadership in the White House to ensure this never happens again.
Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. And now, there are new calls for a draft of our young men and women.
We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing America and bring the troops home. No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution.
Under no circumstances should the U.S. again go to war as the result of a resolution that comes from an unelected, foreign body, such as the United Nations.
Too often we give foreign aid and intervene on behalf of governments that are despised. Then, we become despised. Too often we have supported those who turn on us, like the Kosovars who aid Islamic terrorists, or the Afghan jihadists themselves, and their friend Osama bin Laden. We armed and trained them, and now we’re paying the price.
At the same time, we must not isolate ourselves. The generosity of the American people has been felt around the globe. Many have thanked God for it, in many languages. Let us have a strong America, conducting open trade, travel, communication, and diplomacy with other nations.”
re Galen 10:30am
“…collapse and anarchy…”
collapse and CHAOS, most likely; anarchy is NOT a synonym for chaos. anarchy, in which people are smart enough and moral enough to live harmoniously with each other and the earth without the need of government, is theoretically possible, but, like democracy, communism, christianity and some other big isms, has never been practiced in its pure form except by very small, unrepresentative groups.
sorry if this seems like nitpicking, but words matter. let’s all be careful with our definitions please.
One part of the legacy of the Reagan era was a change in our vocabulary. Workers used to be described as workers. The word “consumer” was substituted for worker during the Reagan years.
I recognized the strategy in that at the time and found it laughable. But they succeeded.
It is absurd, of course. Without workers and the work they perform, there would be nothing to consume. The only people who are fundamentally consumers are the bosses because they don’t produce anything.
Workers are fundamentally the producers of our society, and it is insulting to refer to them as consumers.
Hazmat: You are correct. Thank you.
And at this point I would think that anarchy is looking pretty damn good…
TimeToMove: Nancy Pelosi could perhaps get the House to impeach, but the action would stop at the Senate because of its 60-vote rule.
I wonder, however, if a serious, dramatically delivered (by a hundred or so Dems?) threat to impeach and to hold very public Committee hearings to build the case might convince Dick Cheney to resign rather than have his sins publicized to those voters who are still so besotted they might vote for a Republican again this year. Then, try the same thing on Bush.
“I would be very surprised if the US does not attack Iran before the end of this year. And with this mornings stock market evaluations of the US economy and the chances of recession, along with Bush’s announcement (Too little, too late.), war with Iran is almost inevitable.”
War with Iran is next-to Impossible, under current-conditions (and your reasoning/beliefs are quite-flawed, although exactly what this-Admin/these-Interests want you to ‘believe’).
In first-place, oil is not-’valuable’ (though the Lifeblood of nations&industry). It is nearly-Everywhere and in-abundance — and even old-Holes are filling-up from beneath, if ’slowly’. Peak-Oil, and all ’shortages/price-Scams’ since the (Rothschild-funded) JDR/StandardOil/Trusts back in the neo-Monopolistic mid-1800’s, is due only to ‘limiting production/refinement’ — NOT to slackening ‘Supply’ of crude [worth only about 0.60 per-barrel, today].
We are fighting ‘wars’ over it because we don’t want others to ‘have it’, or at-least not ‘cheaply’. [Saddam invaded Kuwait because they were selling Cheap (and stealing-his), and we ‘got’ Saddam so he-couldn’t ‘dump cheap-oil on markets’ and unseat Dollars as Payment]
Those who MAKE oil expensive/scarce (and those who profit with them — like all ME-despots) use this scarcity-Myth and monopolistic-Ploy to control the world’s economy and predetermine “who Develops and who-doesn’t”, while making a ton-of-Loot meantime.
We could care-less what Iran does with its Resources — as long as they don’t sell-Large in Euros/Won, or ever ’sell-Cheap’ in Quantity. We created modern-Iran in 1979 — just like we did in 1953. We Need it today to ‘justify’ all we intend to do AROUND it during the coming-Decades [just like we Need little-Israel]– and just like we Used the USSR (before they smartened-up’ and ‘got Paid’ in our oil-swindle by ‘downsizing’).
China and the 3rd-World are the real ‘wildcard/Prizes’…not “Oil” (oil just ‘lubes civilization’, and if the rest of humanity burned-it like we do, THEN there would be a REAL “Environmental Threat” to worry our heads over…and more Competition than we want right-now).
[You need to read more than ‘industry white-papers’ and Propaganda]
OK Just one more comment about the article..
One poster has said similarly, To be on the brink of war is always necessary for the profits of war to continue.. and necessary for the war economy.
When we buy into these scary threats we are doing what they want, but being human, our fear rules.
As has been revealed above about England… the minority party that predicted this disaster in Iraq did not gain any power from being correct in England.
The reason is a simple truth that all the rulers even in a so called democracy have to do is warn of a threat and the majority will follow and be afraid.
The same is true here in the USA.. Almost all progressives knew the truth and the lies from before the war but we are still pretty powerless even when the majority agrees because fear trumps everything.
We are the Brave actually because we understand the Game and so does much of the world.
Being on the brink usually means, so far, no war when there is a real nuclear threat that will wipe out all the wealthy rulers with the rest of us… but so far that has been luck as much as Mutually Assured Destruction.
If you are scared of the big one you are human and the New World Order takes advantage of our natural fears.
All those who think there will be a real war with Iran which would likely lead to the Big one raise your hands..
OK, if you are correct then we are all dead.
If you are wrong we will still live for a while longer, but with the global system we have, we will still always be on the Brink of war so that the Racket can continue…
Of course all it takes is a miscalculation with the nuclear powers aiming the missiles at each other to bring it on.
War criminals like Bush need to keep us scared… and the way he acts crazy is to his advantage to avoid impeachment. It would be natural to assume that many in congress want to wait him out and not back him into a corner with impeachment from the fear that he might be able to start the big one.
Do we have a challenge or what?
Now a word from Daniel about the need for a Democrat Government.
Good Day and Good Luck.
Galen,
I didn’t mean your remarks, I agreed with you. That’s why I said, “solid post!” Saying “off article” is terrible grammer, and the message I thought I was stating was about the website similar to the last few lines in your post. Do check it out and you’ll see what I was trying to say.
I also compliment your 11;38am comments about oil. Sorry for the mix-up.
MeAlsoToo: If war with Iran is impossible, why are there so many US aircraft carriers and their support ships clogging the Straights of Hormuz, and have been for the past six months? Those things cost millions of dollars to be just patroling for smugglers…
If peak oil is a myth promoted by oil indusrty insiders, why did they quietly announce last month that demand for oil had outstripped supply? Why, all of a sudden, are the US car makers so frantic to appear that they are adopting ‘green’ technologies just to boost their sales? Sales that are dropping like a rock.
I think that if anyone has bougt into propaganda, it’s you. What you suggest is to just live life as we have been, no worries. Abiotic oil has proven to be a falsehood. Oil that MAY be leaking into old reservoirs is probably just that. Leaking from the surrounding stone.
If oil is not ‘valuable’ as you put it, why did the US bother to fight Saddam at all, in Gulf War I or II? By your reasoning, lifeblood, REAL lifeblood has no worth, even though it is vital. Go donate five or six quarts and then tell me how you feel.
Oil is the substance that made the technological civilisation of the past century possible. That enabled the statistical blip that is western Society. Without it, we would still be using sails, steam amd horses.
hazmat,
Absolutely! Chaos would be the right word, not anarchy.
Small communities in pre 1936 Spain had self-sustaining anarchist communities. Of course the so-called aristocracy felt threatened by the very concept of a cooperative egalitarian society, and thus began ‘The Spanish Civil War.’
Perhaps the noun to use is ‘communalism?’ One for all and all for one!
My hero, Emma Goldman, was way ahead of her time.
RAMSHEYI January 21st, 2008 8:46 am
However he does not have the courage to even ask for an honest investigation into what happened on that sinister day of 9/11. How do you justify the cowardice ?
Personally I don’t believe the official 9-11 fairytale either. But I also think it unfair to call Scott Ridder a coward. Scott Ridder is no coward. Scott Ridder has done us a great service by exposing the Bush War Machine’s lies surrounding Iraq’s so-called WMD. Call me a fool, for me Scott Ridder is a hero. Thank you Mr. Ridder.
Please check this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8454935330734502646
Ha, I’ll bet you thought I was gone already.
Just a thought on Peak oil.
The demand for gas and oil keeps goin up but the oil companies can keep the price goin up even faster by not building new refineries to meet the demand.
I don’t think the US has had a new refinery in decades.
“Peak oil” could be an excuse to keep the main reason for the rising price of gas hidden.
Of course motor oil for our engine is refined too.
Jim Glover; Ask yourself this. If oil is so plentiful, and it takes five to ten years to bring a new refinery online, why have no new refineries been built in the past 25 years? Why were so many of the drilling platforms and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico allowed to be destroyed during Katrina, and have not been rebuilt?
As a note, M.King Hubbard, the father of Peak Oil theory, was a petrogeologist who worked for the oil companies. He knew of which he spoke. He acurately predicted the collapse of US domestic oil production, and predicted world oil depletion to happen between 2006 and 2012. Hmmmm.
Bush has been beating the war drums in the Gulf like crazy, trying to convice the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Bahrainis, et al. that Iran is their REAL enemy, not Israel.
First rule of Islam: I will defend my Muslim brother above all else.
Stupid fucking cross-eyed creep–he wants to go out with a bang.
Isuggest that US citizens be the one to TAKE him out–with or without a bang (after all, this isn’t Clinton in the Oval Office).
Oh, and by the by… the North Sea oil fields are playing out too. And the original oil fields of the Caucaus region of Russia hve been abandoned for decades. Kuwait was slant drilling into Iraqi oil fields (the trigger for Gulf War I) because their own reserves were tapped out!
Isuggest that US citizens be the one to TAKE him out–with or without a bang (after all, this isn’t Clinton in the Oval Office).
Careful Moonraven, remember it’s 1984 and big brother is listening. We are moving towards (if not already there) criminalizing thoughts not actions. I’m not joking. New provisions have been added to the Patriot Act. A word to the wise.
Galen,
I am no expert, but I have heard that new sources of oil are being discovered all over the world.
(not good for Global warming though)
I think you answered your question and more because if the oil companies haven’t built refineries in 25 years, than “Peak Oil” has been hidden for decades? how come the expert Mr Hubbard is just telling us recently?
You also answered your own question about the Oil Companies not even replacing the hurricane damaged ones… It is not that they can’t afford the investment… it is they keep the price up by not doing anything. How’s that for productivity and profit?
Anyway I don’t want to argue about it and you can have the last word. I just want to add that in the long run the higher the price of oil, the more incentive for Solar, Wind, Geothermal and other renewables… while growing corn for oil is bad for food prices… a way to starve the poor which is one of the New World Order solutions along with War for over population.
Cheney wants a war with Iran and Condi doesn’t. Let’s see who gets their wish.
Glover and Galen, you are both right. Much of the oil that is easily removable is gone and what is left is the oil that the ground only releases with more effort.
Jim Glover: Discoveries they may be. The may have been ‘discovered’ some time ago, but are now only becoming profitable to extract and exploit.
And M.K. Hubbart was telling us about Peak Oil decades ago. He was just treated like another loony by the MSM. It is only now, when we are under the shadow of the disaster that we are listening. And typiclly, we are listening to the warning too late.
And the oil companies have been buying up alternative energy companies like mad, and then sitting on th etechnology. Most of the bio-fuel companies are now owned by the oil companies. Which are in bed with the agribusiness corporations like Monsanto which depend on the petroleum derivatives to grow the GMO crops, which in turn need heavy diesel powered machinery to grow the crops in sufficient quantities to make a corporate level of profit, and the plants are then sold back to the bio-fuel companies, which drives up the cost of food even more. Round and round and round it goes.
Insanity.
It’s almost worth sitting back and watching the madness of King George as he attacks Iran, just because it will bring this whole house of cards crashing to the ground.
I don’t believe we’re on the brink of war with Iran, mainly because the only way American forces would be able to attack them would be by air and sea. Even the armchair strategist can see that American land forces are stretched to the breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan. A draft would be required to provide the necessary ground forces for any kind of remotely successful campaign against Iran.
Against the UK, Hitler found out that an air campaign would not bring the British down. Similarly, the U.S. Air Force was not able to pound North Vietnam into submission, either by B-52 aerial bombardment or by battleship off shore bombardment. The point is, air and naval forces cannot win a war by themselves. And without a draft, the U.S. Army is in no way a threat to Iran. It’s probably more the other way around. Although I respect Scott Ritter, I have to disagree with him on this.
North_coast: Thats why Bush wants to use nukes. As an opening salvo.
Do you begin to get a glimmer of how insane he is?
I really hope Galen is wrong about the nukes, although I have to admit the possibility has crossed my mind. On what he or she said earlier about self-sufficiency and living off the grid–this hits the mark, I think. It may seem unrelated to the article, but it may be the only means to an end we have left. Politicians don’t listen to what we say, as has been clearly demonstrated, but they can’t avoid being influenced by what we do–and don’t do. Two of the best PBS series ever, Connections and The Day the Universe Changed, both written and narrated by James Burke (and you can buy the books) show how changes in the way people live, driven by technology and scientific knowledge, have changed philosophical and political beliefs. What we can change, right now, is whether we fulfill the role we’ve been delegated by the corporate-controlled government of this country, to be dutiful consumers, worker bees, and cannon fodder every time they decide to wage another war of exploitation. I say, let’s not. Let’s not spend one penny more than we need to for survival. Let’s work for ourselves and each other, not for them. Let’s bring back barter, start our own factories. If enough people do it, it will bring the war machine grinding to a halt, and we won’t have to wait in vain forever for the politicians to do it. This isn’t pie-in-sky, by the way, people are beginning to do it.
Femme Fatale: That’s what a bunch of unemployed factory workers in Venezsuela did. The corporation that had abaondoned the factory freaked! Even tried to get the army to evict them. Hugo Chavez said….’No!’
The factory is still running. Chavez is still in power, even after three attempted coups, and one almost successful CIA abduction, despite the US MSM eforts to malign him.
[repost]
peaceman: “If the Russians and Chinese told our government that if we attack and invade Iran, they would not only come to Iran’s defense, but take out Israel as well. If they made a strong enough case, would the AIPAC Lobby restrain Bush/Cheney, or call the bluff and start World War Three?”
I’ve read that the Chinese are waiting out these final gasps of the American empire. Our economy is a house of cards, with all history showing that once the financial industry becomes the economic engine of a country it is doomed (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization). We don’t make anything real anymore (except military hardware and support). That is, give us 2-3 years more to secure this noose of debt around our collective neck (due to neocon looting of the treasury) and it’s OVER. Why waste time and money intervening in a problem that will burn itself out naturally?
All these years I’ve been a run-of-the-mill progressive, sitting at the knee of the likes of Nader, Moore, Hightower, Ivins, et al. But apart from this great bogeyman of “corporate greed” always intoned, the real answers, the grand connecting-of-the-dots, the deep reason for this collapse of idealism after the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr, and the elites’ sabotage of the McGovern candidacy in 1972, never was answered.
How can we fight something if we don’t know what it is we’re actually fighting? What we see now is the wholesale implementation of the neoconservative agenda, despite mass protest and dissatisfaction with the same. Why?
[censor]
There is a deeper intentionality at work here requiring elite collaboration among multinational corporate, security, and financial institutions for whom Cheney and Bush are just the public faces du jour. War consolidates wealth and power. US fiscal insolvency benefits those who wish to gut our middle class and soften it up for both the Amero currency and the US’s merging with Mexico and Canada (already well underway with advanced trade, military, and police policies). The elites (ie., the Bilderbergers and their kin) basically want a return to feudal society. A dumb, cowed, passive US populace is an essential part of their plan. The MSM have done everything in their power to assist them.
Do your own research on this, but I am already sold. The NAFTA highway is in, 9/11 was an inside job, and Murdoch is stirring anti-American sentiment abroad while fanning false patriotism in the US.
I just gave $100 to Ron Paul, for whom there is buzz of an assassination if he wins the nomination. I’ve given more to Kucinich, who the Democrats have done a better job of marginalizing. In the end, it will probably be McKinney and the Greens for me. These are the only ones who see through to the heart of the problem. And ladies, sorry about Paul’s anti-abortion stance. But IMO we can work on that with him, and that matter is small potatoes compared to his dedication to dismantling the US/multinational corporate fascist death/war machine.
Galen, who says “North_coast: Thats why Bush wants to use nukes. As an opening salvo. Do you begin to get a glimmer of how insane he is?”
Again, I don’t think this is possible either. Especially since the CIA assessment. If the United States used nuclear weapons first, we may as well kiss goodbye any further cooperation from any of our allies in Iraq or Afghanistan. Even Bush, as insane as he is, I think understands this. Besides, I don’t think the US military would even carry out such orders. Remember “mutually assured destruction”? This doctrine is still essentially what is the reality. I don’t believe the European Union, China, or even India would want to do any sort of business with us if we started a nuclear war with Iran.
North Coast: Bush has dismissed the CIA assesment out of hand, as he feels it does not reflect his view of reality.
As for using nukes, the US is still the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons as an act of aggresion. As for MAD, the old nuke boogy man, I am not sure that holds true anymore. Mores the pity. As I understand it, the Chinese nuclear missles take several days to ready, and are launched from exposed above ground facilities, and the Russian nukes are so ill-maintained that they may detonate their fuel loads on ignition.
As for no co-operation from other countries after a US pre-emptive nuclear attack…
WOW! What an astute observation! Couldn’t have forseen that one!
I’ve only made that self same comment about twenty times in the past four months.
Of course the US is on the brink of war with Iran. Bush has always gotten everything he wants, with only a whimper of opposition.
dcb
Very good points. Where do I start to answer? I’m certainly not an academic, as many who regularly or occasionally post on Common Dreams are, so if I’m all over the place, bear with me. Maybe starting with Iran, which the article is about.
I also think the Chinese are waiting for the final gasps of the American Empire, and who knows what will become of it. They have “mended” many of the differences after the “ideological split” in 1959, and have increased trade, and resumed military manuevers these past two years. In case you haven’t seen the web site, dcb, go to, www.globalresearch.ca and read the fine, high quality articles. You can also purchase books, dvd’s and cd’s as well. I can’t hold a candle to those scholars and investigative reporters. Better you read their work rather than me trying to explain it and not getting “their” point across properly.
China and Russia have a great deal of investments in Iran, which means $$$. They wouldn’t want to lose a good thing when they see it, and can they trust Uncle Sam if we did (or try to do) to Iran like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan? Remember the key word…hegemony. And ‘resource control’ (oil and natural gas) and military bases closer to Russia and China. None of us know for sure whether they would even come to the aid of Iran in the event of an American Blitzkreig. But one thing for sure, after a brief hiatus, the Russian energy company will honor their contract and complete the nuclear power plant in Iran, in spite of the anxiety attacks and melodramatic threats by the U.S. Government. Some of the European ‘lackeys’ in Europe: Merkel (Germany), Sargozy (France), Brown (UK), and I think an atoll or two in the South Pacific, have voiced strong condemnation and are calling for more sanctions against Iran. In reality, European nations are not worried about Iran as much as they are worried about the American bully, although Russia really doesn’t want Iran to have nukes. They are selling some fairly sophisticated weaponry to the Iranians who just want to defend their “homeland” just like everybody else does.
You hit the nail on the head, dcb, about our economy. The Bush/Cheney cabal can’t be blamed for it, either. If you have the time, please go to a good library and read or at least skim through the book, ‘Global Reach’ published in 1974 and written by Ronald Muller and Richard Barnett. It may be dated, but what they said then transpired already. many of our best minds in the scientific and engineering community work in what I refer to as the death, destruction, misery and suffering industry, aka the military-industrial-complex. Can you imagine if China, for some reason, said “we aren’t shipping anything to the USA for the time being” or something like that. Man, would our infrasturcture come to a halt! After decades of moving our industries abroad for the cheapest exploited labor we could find, it would take some time to re-tool before manufacturing began. Would the public panic? You saw how frightened they were after the ‘infamous’ 9/11 caper. Who knows?
After reducing the stockpile of strategic weapons, per the agreement with the United States, Russia, angry that the Bush Administration has reneged on the deal, have resumed weapons production (as self-defense from our coward-in-chief) as we continually bang the war drum. Quite Frankly, most of the world is angry at our government, not We The People, and alliances are forming around the planet. Russia and China and at last count, three of the ‘Stans’ (forgive my memory) have their version of Nato, and India may eventually join that group, and possibly Iran.
Back to trade. German industry has invested heavily in Russia and both countries are benefitting from this. Angela Merkel is angry over this because our government told her that Putin is a dictator and doesn’t have fair elections. The German business politely told her to “take a hike” and continue doing business with ‘the bear.’
Ah, dcb…now you are getting warmer. The asassinations you mentioned plus Malcolm X, as well as other leaders in other countries who would not play our game. I think we fight this invisable government by first arming ourselves with knowledge and research. We must look to alternative news reporting and read, read, and read more. Talk to people and listen and learn from folks with experience. In fact, on this marvelous Common Dreams web site, scroll way down and look to the left and right and if you have audio streaming on your computer, listen and/or watch some of the broadcasts.Go to FSTV..FreeSpeechTV for starters. On the left side are the radio programs. Click on to KPFA.ORG and hit the program guide at the top. (I’m a financial supporter) Listen to current and archive shows on that station…commercial free…you’ll learn a lot. Pick and choose.
I only use one finger to type, dcb, so this takes a lot of time and I hope my answer didn’t put you to sleep. My nickname is “get to the point” which for me isn’t an easy task
Check out the website and the mentioned shows. I’m learning things everyday. Peace and Harmony.
Galen,
since you told us that the new discoveries of oil were old ones, I had to google “new discovered oil”
Sorry, New means new.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=new+discovered+oil&spell=1
Galen…
You’ve pretty-much answered all your own questions — if you’d re-read my/your Comments, you’d know-that.
” If oil is not ‘valuable’ as you put it, why did the US bother to fight Saddam at all, in Gulf War I or II? By your reasoning, lifeblood, REAL lifeblood has no worth, even though it is vital. Go donate five or six quarts and then tell me how you feel.
Oil is the substance that made the technological civilisation of the past century possible. That enabled the statistical blip that is western Society. Without it, we would still be using sails, steam amd horses.”
I always Donate blood — because it SHOULD be ‘valueless’ (but certainly not Worthless). So, too, should Nations nationalize their precious Oil/Energy-Industries — this being the only Hope any Citizens, worldwide, have to avoid private-Greed gifting them with broadly-Propagandized pricing-Scams, Scarcity-myths, and ruinous-Policies — all driven by easily-avoidable Profiteering — just as ‘Defense’-Industries propagate War.
I’ve no insider-knowledge (although the Russki’s might?) regards abiotic-Oil. However, I have some inkling regards how plentiful Crude is (as readily-confirmed) beneath the ME/Caspian/Mexico/etc., and a better-than-average familiarity with historic-Patterns/Consumptions/Policies/Monopolies/’Games’ of this fraud-soaked ‘industry’ — and the Games/Scam are Legion! Studying JDR-alone (and his Backers) pretty-much will inform you, as well.
It’s our Economic-lifeblood these thieves have stolen, and used to buy whole Governments/Kingdoms/Peoples…
There is PLENTY of ‘oil’ for all current-needs and for dozens of years-more, and no ‘real’ threat to the overall-Environment by so-doing. ‘Neo-Libs/Cons’ alike and their ‘Realists’/Thinktanks/Organizations, (covert-and-overt) and the Interests they serve as lick-spittle Cohorts (while enriching themselves on the table-scraps of this Fraud) have successfully-conspired to deprive most of this ‘Blue Orb’ from their rightful-Inheritance and developing-Needs.