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TechnoratiWhere Are The Iraqis in The Iraq War?
Five years after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, mainstream media is once more making the topic an object of intense scrutiny. The costs and implications of the war are endlessly covered from all possible angles, with one notable exception -- the cost to the Iraqi people themselves.
Through all the special coverage and exclusive reports, very little is said about Iraqi casualties, who are either completely overlooked or hastily mentioned and whose numbers can only be guesstimated. Also conveniently ignored are the millions injured, internally and externally displaced, the victims of rape and kidnappings who will carry physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives.
We find ourselves stuck in a hopeless paradigm, where it feels necessary to empathise with the sensibilities of the aggressor so as not to sound "unpatriotic", while remaining blind to the untold anguish of the victims. Some actually feel the need to go so far as to blame the Iraqis for their own misfortune. Both Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have expressed their wish for Iraqis to take responsibility for the situation in their country, with the former saying, "we cannot win their civil war. There is no military solution."
It would have been helpful if Clinton had reached her astute conclusion before she voted for the Senate's 2002 resolution authorising President Bush to attack Iraq. For the sake of argument, let's overlook both Clinton's and Obama's repeated assertions that all options, including military ones, are on the table regarding how to "deal" with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons. But to go so far as blaming the ongoing war on the Iraqis' lack of accountability is a new low for these "antiwar" candidates.
Is it still a secret, five years on, that the war on Iraq was fought for strategic reasons, to maintain a floundering superpower's control over much of the world's energy supplies and to sustain the regional supremacy of Israel, the US's most costly ally anywhere?
Of course, there are those who prefer to imagine a world in which a well-intentioned superpower would fight with all of its might to enable another smaller, distant nation to enjoy the fruits of liberty, democracy and freedom. But it is nothing short of ridiculous to pretend that Iraqis are capable of controlling the parameters of the ranging conflict, that a puppet government whose election and operation is entirely under the command of the US military is capable of taking charge and assuming responsibilities.
Equally absurd is the insinuation that the civil war in Iraq is an exclusively Iraqi doing, and that the US military has not deliberately planted the seeds of divisions, hoping to reinterpret its role in Iraq from that of the occupier to that of the arbitrator, making sure the "good" guys prevail over the "bad".
The idea of the US making an immediate exit from Iraq or taking full financial and legal responsibility for the devastation and genocide -- yes, genocide -- that occurred in the last five years is simply unthinkable from the viewpoint of the corporate US media, which still relates to the war only in terms of American (and never Iraqi) losses.
There are very few commentators who are actually arguing that the reasons for war were entirely self-serving, without an iota of morality behind them. Would Bush employ the same logic he used to justify Saddam Hussein's execution -- suggesting this was warranted by the Iraqi president's violence against his own people -- when dealing with those responsible for the deaths of over a million Iraqis as a result of this war?
And indeed Iraqis are dying in numbers that never subside regardless of the media and official hype about the "surge". Just Foreign Policy says the number of dead Iraqis has surpassed one million, while a survey by the British polling agency ORB estimates the number at over 1.2 million. But the plight of Iraqis hardly ends at a death count, since those left behind endure untold suffering: soaring poverty, unemployment rates between 40-70 per cent (governmental estimates), total lack of security in major cities and, according to Oxfam International, four million in need of emergency aid.
"Baghdad has become the most dangerous city in the world, largely as a result of a US policy of pitting various Iraqi ethnic and sectarian groups against one another. Today, Baghdad is a city of walled-off Sunni and Shia ghettoes, divided by concrete walls erected by the US military," reports Dahr Jamail, one of the few courageous voices that honestly relayed the horrendous outcomes of the war.
Indeed, there seem to be no promising statistics coming out of Iraq. Even under the previous regime and the debilitating sanctions imposed by the US and the UN, Iraqis were much better off prior to the war. Now, Iraqis are relevant only as pawns of endless US government propaganda. From the viewpoint of Bush, McCain and Cheney, they are the victims of Al-Qaeda, which must be fought at all costs. From the viewpoint of Clinton and Obama, they need to fight their own wars and take responsibility for them, as if Iraqi "irresponsibility" is the main problem.
In yet another "surprise visit" to Iraq by a US official, Vice-President Dick Cheney declared that Iraq was a "successful endeavour". Considering the exorbitant contracts granted to selected corporations, the war has indeed succeeded in making a few already rich companies and individuals a lot richer.
Meanwhile, Shlomo Brom, a senior fellow at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies and former head of the Israeli army's Strategic Planning Division, sees things from a slightly different angle. "Any Iraq will be better than Iraq under Saddam, because the Iraq of Saddam had the ability to threaten Israel," he was quoted as saying in the Christian Science Monitor.
In considering such skewed logic, one can only hope that Cheney's successful experiment will end soon, and that Israel's desire for security is now sated. The people of Iraq cannot tolerate any more "success".
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
59 Comments so far
Show AllI wonder why we keep talking about the 4000 American dead in Iraq. They volunteered to go there, did they not? The Iraqis did not ask for what came to them. If the Iraqis had come to the U.S. and unleashed this kind of mayhem on us, would we be supporting their troops or counting their dead or calling their soldiers "heroes"? Somehow I think not.
VOXCLAMANTIS -- Being perceptually challenged (dis-abled to some) is more likely than being not, when we avoid the alignment with source energy (true for all but the wise few, who have mastered the art of allowing).
My Mom commented once that we're all just temporarily enabled, but I now believe that that duration can exceed whatever time we choose to spend upon (within) this wonderful universe of form.
I am pleased that your crisis is diminished into memory, and provides fresh insight for us as well.
Our amazing brain's neuro-plasticity is miraculous, to permit people w/o balance through their inner ear, to learn to use their tongues along with a sensor grid and S/W to re-program new areas of the brain to replace failed ones. I loved the blind guy learning to shoot baskets, using the tongue grid to "see" the world once again.
Namaste
namaste - Thanks for the link. Looks like a charming tale. Ironically, I had an analogous experience a few months ago (to wander hugely off- topic). I had a mini stroke, which gave me severe diplopia for twelve weeks, i.e. I went crosseyed and could not put the two halves of my binocular vision together into a stereo view. The world looked like cubist wallpaper. I could fix it by closing one eye, but still there was no depth perception. I had some prism glasses made to correct it, and I remember putting them on for the first time. It was like stepping through the looking glass into a newly three dimensional world. We take it for granted that we move from room to room and locate ourselves in voluminous space that opens up before us, but it is just an accident of perception.
SIOUXROSE & VOXCLAMANTIS -- There is a real beauty of a story, from 1899, that you can read here (copyright expired) Flatland, which is some times referred to as written by A. Square.
This delightful journey into imagination is still fresh and insightful, and well worth the time to read.
Namaste
siouxrose - I think I ran into that wonderful idea somewhere in P.D. Ouspenski many years ago. It was a riff about how to imagine four dimensions. A race of people live entirely on the surface of a glass of water, like water skippers. They can only see sideways. They have always wondered about a mysterious object that seems to move around them in circles, but they can not intuit what it is unless they pull their imaginations into the third dimension and see that the object is really a spring being lowered vertically into the water. I suppose our fear of higher perspectives is that they tend to require us to throw out all of our precious prior conceptions. Thanks for drawing the picture for us again.
gen·o·cide [jen-uh-sahyd]
–noun
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
[Origin: 1940–45; < Gk géno(s) race + -cide]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
US war in Iraq - War crime, yes. Genocide, no.
do you all just " Quite the appropriate response giving us an ethical sense of all that is in us and of us completes such an indescribable dare I say insurmountable albeit an illusion it may be eqated as visionary due to the fact we are so F$$Ked UP we do nada but kibbitz and never act which somewhere in those wannabe Elitist attitudes must eventually move your asses or continue in such a way that you do nothing but waste everyone that cares to try at minimum to do something which as you well know means they exceed your ceaseless blah blah for they no longer remain Complicit thereby you remain stagnate in all your yap yap, one good thing the name he had, Silence = Complicity ergo enemy of your enemy. Mine keeps going are my friend. Lazy and useless, yip yap
GHAWAR: Remember the story/book about persons who live in 2 dimensions who never even consider looking up? That reminds me of the world that is yet unimagined and our very different capacity to use collective resources.
The other analogy is true. I had a book idea that I shopped around to a variety of established NY literary agents. The big one said to me, "It's never been done." I went on a little reconaissance mission and found something similar to my idea, I figured I'd tell her to convince her of the viability. She did a 180 on me and said, "well, then, it's BEEN done!" Her response reminds me of a quote often shared by a CD poster that reminds us of what George Orwell said about the editors, the gatekeepers of what passes for ideas ALLOWED to enter the mainstream. So many are subsisting on the 2-D plane, when we are ready to move beyond 3-D!
The Iraq BushWar is now VIETNAM II, and here are parallels that indicate the simularities between Iraq and Vietnam:
***
FIRST:
Put a puppet in power in the country. To set the stage for the attack and then the occupation.
Our first puppet: actually Saddam himself, which is why he was killed so fast, before he could rat out his connections to the CIA and George Bush I, and about the Secret Reagan War on Iran via the proxy Iraq, and the Secret Carter War in Afghanistan that initiated a Russian invasion/defeat at the hands of the American CIA proxies, AlQuaeda and BinLaden (among other Islamic fanatic warlords). That's right, an American war against Russian troops, in the middle of the days of the nuclear standoff. Using the fundamentalist jihadists that America armed to the teeth. We're all just lucky this didn't go wrong. Oh yeah... it did.
But when Saddam went AWOL out of American control, even after his first ass-kicking under Bush the First, and after 9/11 gave the corrupt and vicious Neo-Con Bush Klan an excuse for damn-near anything (reference the book ARMED MADHOUSE about prior-to-9/11 plans for Saddam and his oil), Saddam was deliberately outed as the monster he always was, and a contract on his life was put out, i.e., the Second BushWar on Iraq. The bill in blood and treasure for this BushWar went to the American people... well, the lower classes anyway, so they had to be lied to. (Bush's base, the upper classes actually got tax breaks and deferrals... just like Vietnam, so, just as in Vietnam, they were already gung ho). But the common people might not go along with an offensive first-strike attack on a country that had not first attacked America.
So for an excuse, it was deemed a 'preventive' war... ludicrous on its face: a war being waged to prevent war being waged. Dat's some logic dere, dat is. This conundrum would not stop the Bush Crime Family, no siree, bob. Nor, with Americans howling for blood-vengeance (like the good Christians they say they are), did the Bushites need much in the way of rationale at the time. 'Preventive' War would be seen by the Bushites as the all-purpose excuse for ANY war, with WMD being the thing that was being prevented by the Iraq one. Only one problem here, the WMD didn't exist. But as Big Dick Cheney would say later, "So?"
Timing was everything. The Bushites had to get this show on the road before the American 9/11 bloodlust cooled down, and somebody important might have a question. Actually, tens of millions people did have a question anyway, but they were just easily-dismissed 'citizens' that 'did not understand' and were not important to the Deciders; just like the opinions of millions of employees/peons of corporations are not-at-all important to the decider/executives who are their masters in the corporate power-elite. And this is how the Bush Krew see themselves. But Public Relations still mattered to the wider world, and as America is still nominally a democracy, the Krew might lose momentum for their criminal plot. With the corporatized-MSM behind them however, Fat Chance.
'Preventive' war was Hitler's excuse too; to 'free' the German populations from the evils of living in Czechoslovakia and Poland, to prevent Commie Russia from invading Germany, and to lift the 'iron boot' of France from the necks of the Germans. All preventive, and meant to 'secure the German homeland' and bring the benefits of greater Germany to the unwashed, along with efficient German order to the world. He was the law-und-order candidate.
Plus, anyway, Hitler had to march his troops somewhere to grab stuff, as his government was going broke supporting his huge military buildup, a self-fulfilling situation - the more military expenditures to justify, the more likely war will happen.
Our next Iraqui puppet was supposed to be the convicted bank embezzler and penultimate con-man, Chalabi. Unhappily for this crazy crime scheme, no one in Iraq could stand him, or even knew him. And all his Iraq "intelligence" turned out to be flat-out lies (what did you expect from a known Con-man?). Then he turns out to be double-dealing the Americans to Iran, for his personal gain - what a Paragon of the NeoCon Rackets, what an Archtypal Neo-Con Free-Market Capitalist-Pirate! So much for the self-proclaimed business smarts of the Dubya Klan.
Next puppet is now Maliki, a sad sack that at least had some Shiite suport... Iranian-backed Shiite support (see again above comment on business smarts, etc.) However, he would not be bothersome, as his government would not really exist, but would pretend it did, to the approval of the Bush/Cheney cabal-boys. And he would have to travel everywhere in his own nation by armed convoy with decoys.
So, puppet government installed. CHECK.
***
SECOND:
Have some respected authoriy figure present the absurd bullshit needed to launch the war, so credibility can be attached pro hominem. This time, Colin Powell would do nicely, and he was a proven 'good soldier' who lied egregiously before about the Vietnam MyLai War Crime at the time, and tried to cover that incident up with another crock of shit (Vietnam All Over Again -even with the same cast of charlatans).
And now he lies again to start the Iraq War Crime, like the 'good soldier' he is. Every single thing in his UN speech turned out to be a lie! Just like the Gulf of Tonkin Incident has turned out to be.
Bullshit lauches War. CHECK!
***
THIRD:
Make sure that the local populations are made second-rate semi-citizens of their own country. Make sure they are terrorized by American troops, and by the anarchy that was created by the Americans. Make sure they are rounded up into Sunni and Shiite walled ghettos and Abu Graib-style facilities, or "if you will" Strategic Hamlets.
Civilians bear brunt of war, and are dehumanized, and herded into strategic ghettos. CHECK!
***
FOURTH:
The enemy(AKA the Iraquis, this time) becomes unmarked and unseen and could be anyone. Of any sex, of any age, attacking at any time. So the American field soldier is left with no clear idea of who the 'enemy' is. That means, all civilians could be the enemy and are treated as such, especially since the language and culture are high barriers to effective communication between soldiers and civilians. This means no hearts or minds are won in-country; quite the contrary, they have been lost en-masse. And American soldiers find themselves in a guerilla war just like Vietnam. Only drier.
Guerilla war started. CHECK!
***
FIFTH:
Reliance on air power to bust the 'enemy'. Thus guaranteeing that mostly civilians will be killed. The air war cannot be reported on easily, so it is advantageous in the propaganda campaign back home. But it creates extreme resentment among the local population. The fanilies of those killed will want vengeance, just as the Americans wanted vengeance after the destruction of 0/11.
Under-reported Air War against civilian populations. CHECK.
***
SIXTH:
Surreptitiously infiltrate neighboring country to destabilize it; Cambodia before, and in this case, Iran.
Destabilize region, and turn all of it into a war zone. CHECK!
***
SEVENTH:
Declare 'victories' and 'turning points' over and over again.
Phoney "surge is working" public relations crap for the MSM to suck on. CHECK!
***
EIGHTH:
Have Henry KISSINGER as one of your advisors! CHECK!
And have Kissingers's boy Paul Bremer of Kissinger Associates fuck up the country with the Kissinger Chile-Plan of Assassination, Mass Murder, Dictatorship, and then National Rape by Free-Market Buccanneers.
Kissinger as international war criminal. CHECK!
***
NINTH:
Hve a TET OFFENSIVE!
TET Version 2.0 is NOW UNDERWAY! CHECK!
***
TENTH:
Have it become apparent that the 'war' is unwinnable, and that it is now A CIVIL WAR created by Americans. And have the Americans be the ONLY foreigners in force in the country. And have no one question why Americans are fighting in another country's CIVIL WAR, like Vietnam.
Civil war made far worse by American military presence. CHECK!
***
ELEVENTH:
Have the Whole Fiasco be blamed on the American people's lack of 'will to win' or 'triumph of the will' and the 'peace-niks'. NOT on the war criminals that started it. Like Big Dick Cheney. And Dubya. And Rummy. And Condi. And Lie-berman. And the whole PNAC/Vulcans Klan. And Kissinger again. And the Bush Crime Family and their Klan. And the Republicans, the lot of them, but especially the lying propaganda toads Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly, Cavuto, Fox News, and on and on.
Blame and responsibility DENIED and off-loaded to those who are blameless and not responsible. CHECK!
***
TWELVTH
Impeach the President... whoops sorry, that is off the table this time. Instead we will have an economic collapse to distract people. So they won't care what it takes to get that oil!
In fact, even Nixon was not impeached for the war crimes he so definitely committed, along with Kissinger. So, CHECK!
***
I'm sure that there are innumerably more parallels. But I thing the above is more than enough evidence to declare that the Iraq BUSHWAR is VIETNAM All OVER AGAIN. Have Americans learned NOTHING?
And yet even now, McSAME could possibly be elected President? If McCain is elected, in place of the Stars on the American flag, we should insert the Skull-and-Cross-Bones (or if you are a Yalie like Dubya, that would be Skull-And-Bones).
Or else all American flags should be flown upside down from then on. Because the existence of this nation as a free nation would be in grave danger.
Reference the books, NEMESIS and BLOWBACK and THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE by Chalmers Johnson. He forcefully speaks the truth about the depraved power-mongers and war-industrialists now running this country... straight into Hell.
Out, stoopy stoops! Bring every American!
No phased withdrawal. Get em out as fast
as you can, dummies! And never mind honor.
You never had any anyway. It would help if you would explain to the world that you
not only have been very stupid all along, but you still ARE stupid, and you don't want to be quite as stupid tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, which is creeping into this petty place.
Don't worry about the 29 buildings of the embassy-- bowling alleys and casinos-- but not our problem. Let the people who are there (if still alive) figure it out.
And let those people not include A SINGLE AMERICAN.
There is a lot to admire about both Barack and Hillary. They are lacking, however, in the declarative department.
One or the other needs to declare that he or she will bring all the Americans out and not in a fiddle-faddle phasey-crazy way.
It is my speculation that if one would do this, the other would follow. But if neither does it I'm not inclined to vote for either. I argue that this is this most sensible, mature and sober viewpoint available.
"I always wonder where mankind would be if the same amount of energy that's been directed at all sorts of weapons was instead channeled into creative aspects of life and living" --Siouxrose March 30th, 2008 9:06 am
The people who voted for George Bush, and a lot of other people, are too dull to imagine what they are missing. I was thinking just yesterday how with $3 our yards would be gardens and our cities would be like arboretums. The people, educated and interested in the world, would be infinitely more palatable.
But maybe your vision is not the same as mine. It doesn't matter. With three trillion dollars you can paint any picture you like.
It's not merely the misery that the U.S. exports. It's our failure, unlike the great success story of our brave troops, to be all that we can be. Few of us appreciate how much we are missing.
It's hard to hand over the controls to Iraq when bush and cheney won't let anyone else behind the wheel.
SIOUXROSE -- Humankindred spirit is growing abundantly stronger and draws contrast from the dissolute dominion of our demons (egos rapacity unbounded).
It is the consonance of the very circle of life that allows this spiral of increasingly edged CHOICE, to be rung harmoniously for those willing to hear, to see and act appropriately.
We ARE our CHOICES that WE ALLOWED (Aligned upon our being & joyous feelings)
We ARE our ENVISIONED DREAMS of greatness ACHIEVED
Or, NOT D E C I D E ___ N O W
( & each moment, again … )
Namaste
NAMASTE: Thank you for your powerful response. I always wonder where mankind would be if the same amount of energy that's been directed at all sorts of weapons was instead channeled into creative aspects of life and living (not to mention transcending the artificial divides, those sticky ism divisions used to separate people over the centuries, a basis for acquired divisiveness that when "necessary" can spill over into war).
From Gordon Michael Scallion's ("Notes from the Cosmos") clairvoyant reckonings of civilization long ago on the planet Mars, to Edgar Cayce's warnings about bio-engineering and how its roots went back to the Atlanteans who misued it... I have always seen the dark direction these technologies are moving in, and the inevitable place they lead. It's just a shame that mankind repeats its errors, even the ones lodged so deep in the collective consciousness as to emerge merely as "fictional" writings and "fantasies."
Many same sun signs marry... but remember, the birth blueprint is a mirror of the planetary positions--the sky--at the moment of your birth. It's a mandala, like the heavens within, and each principle (planet) operates as a sort of dialog within your being. Just as the various gods/goddesses from the Ancient pantheon (myths) held certain antipathies and certain alliances, it is TRUE that some principles accord while others do not. Within the individual, these pulls on consciousness and behavior provide us with a basis for personal growth. It's always about overcoming our selfish impulses. On a collective level, these energetic patterns impact nations and help to determine their courses. I have explained what happens when too much allegiance is directed at Mars. On the personal level we get egos like Dick Cheney who could care-less about any other life form. On a national level, we get a military budget that cannibalizes all money away from far worthier investments. To the extent a society identifies with war as heroism, sports as macho grand conquests, self-interest over societal good will, ego over spirit, we see a great deal laid to waste. America is now the poster child for a world off course, a zone where the center cannot hold... it has laid its blessings down to the god of destruction, but lies and calls it a Christian nation. Maybe Jesus will show up to right the delusions. In one of my favorite book series, "The Wisdom and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East," there is a scene that took place (according to educated writers on a long trip through Asia) where the guardians of the 3 major religions did appear in spirit and were seen by all present to bring a necessary lesson.
With the wrong people now gaining the keys to brain waves and gene banks, one almost hopes Mother Nature will cleanse the slate... there is already so much broken, so much rendered radioactive, so much spoiled that all the lifetimes this great Earth can present to us in the form of a nurturing nest, might not be enough to satisfy the karmic tab of the ones running our beloved planet, and potentially humane societies into the ground. We have come to the close of the Age of martyrs and must learn to put down our arms and join hands if ever the circle of humanity is to rise again from the ashes of near destruction.
Great article, Mr. Baroud. We invaded Iraq without their asking us to, and now we think they aren't helping enough?
This Bush War will be a stain on our country forever.
Remember Vietnam. It was the American machine that was fighting the North Vietnamens and Viet Cong forces while most of the population supported them. Nixon's Vietnamization turned out to be a flop. At least Nixon was smart enough to cut his losses and get out. The next president should just get out of Iraq.
If the USA had not illegally invaded and occupied a sovereign nation in violation of all international and domestic law, there wowuld be no civil war in iraq today.
but at least bush got rid of Saddams torture chambers and rape rooms....and replaced them with his own.
I bet most iraqis look back on Saddams rapes and tortures with nostalgia
and hell, only a million dead civilians, and several million refugees...its not like they were AMERICAN or anything, so they dont really count.
GOD DAMN THE USA TO THE HELL IT HAS CREATED
D n G -- Like fried'ay night at the improv ?
The invasion of Irag was a crime. A crime against human life in Iraq and everywhere else. The death and destruction released on the Iraqi people, does in certain ways looks to be the work or works of one or more, very sick minds. It doesn't matter that the invaders are members of the International War Crimes Court or not. http://www.bushcommission.org/ This act in the play must end with the players being brought to justice before they depart this earth, not after. It is time to stop flying the flag of war. The revolution is over.
It's obvious the machine has been used on the Democrats in Congress. Democrats are forced to drink the Koolaid and listen to the music. It is a process whereby Dim's become Repugs, and Repug's become Fascists. Somebody needs to get a machine to a comedian quick.
NAMASTE: I just read the long article, interesting stuff. What human depravity can do with any and every resource is itself telling for sheer sadism alone.
Just as the iceberg only reveals about 10% of its own structure, it's purported that we humans use about 10% of our brains. So what goes on in the other 90% of unused "files"? Mystics believe we carry soul memory, and if that is so, it can explain how a mind like Tesla's senses that invisible essence so few understand.
Ted Turner sponsored a literary contest back in l990 that invited writers to submit visions of the future, a more hopeful future. I felt this work channeled through me in that my daughters were pretty young and I had to get them to school before 8 AM every day; yet as soon as I went to bed, it was like something else "knocked" and I had to get up and take down what felt to me like "automatic dictation." The book, like peering into all aspects of society in 2020 AD has recently been self-published; but of relevance to this article is I was given the vision of something I named a "telekinetic monitor," and it my rendering it was to be used for peaceful purposes to develop the mind. It involved a telepathic interplay between projected thoughts/thought forms and their visionary equivalents on the computer screen. The computer would function as the blank slate where one could meet their own issues and see potential outplays (and where each would ultimately lead) before "arriving" at any actual behavior and thus materializing/manifesting the results of those specific thoughts.
This technology could be of great use in educational settings... leave it to our military to prove the interface between the unconscious portions of the mind and any and every way to destroy individuals. It is possible only when large groups identify with a series of acceptable human values, and cast those who live for different expressions as bad, evil, worthy of being destroyed.
The experiment (I can never forget this one) that portrayed 61% of participants being willing to HARM another on a 3rd person's indication, this propensity to BE a sheep and follow someone else's orders... that may be the most chilling facet of the human psyche, particularly in times like ours when the sociopaths ARE at the wheel defining for too many, the global course.
SIOUXROSE -- I am impressed (again) with your tele-omni-presence of seeing the possible future, as a tool to aid our choices and decisions today.
We are functioning together (to my perception at least) as a meta-consciousness, where we both have our own foundations to the non-physical beingness, along with substantially different life experiences. Nonetheless, we merge into standing under this perpetual folly of humankind (to toast once again, the seeds of the garden of Eden)
I have a profound sense of dread with directed energy weapons, as I started in high energy physics (electron beam) research, and now retain an understanding of that coupled along with 3-decades of parallel work with high energy microwaves.
I'm certain that almost all of thge scientists and engineers involve feel similar as the man quoted within, saying (in part): John Norseen, a neuroscientist interested in Biofusion, the relationship between humans and computers, says, "If this research pans out you can begin to manipulate what someone is thinking even before they know it." Norseen says he is agnostic on the moral ramifications of this research. He feels that he is not a "mad" scientist - just a dedicated one. "The ethics don't concern me," he says, "but they should concern someone else."146
Hells Bells on wheels, the Gods of hell-fire are upon us
(with chrome wheels, too).
Namaste
P.S. I thought of you today while reading about (adult) Indigos, and how some believe that they are simultaneously influenced by all 12 houses - which might explain how my wife and I share the same sign.
KEM -- Dr. Nick Begich is the guy speaking on the videos, and he was also interviewed (p32) in the referenced full article above in my posing of March 29th, 2008 6:46 pm.
The potential (and actual) damages are far worse than I ever could have imagined, and the missing information and novel techniques of obfustication (avoidance of FOIA requests, via privatizing the research) are making it nearly impossible to discover what is really going on deep under the cover of the blackest of the CIA black Ops.
The same Dr. Nick Begich has been very successful in having the EU pass restrictions on potential Electo-Magnetic radiations (directed energy) human right violations, but no one in the USA govt is even faintly interested in having the public hearings that we need.
Everyone needs to git up to speed on this, or risk being on the receiving end of life-threatening supposed non-lethal tools & techniques.
Here's a NEWS FLASH (from article): 500,000 had been unwitting test subjects for military research on non-lethal weapons, including MKULTRA who claims among many victims, Ted Kaczinky, the Unabomber.
Namaste
Once we invade a country because of despotic dictator, then its Venezuela because Chavez doesn't agree with our aggression. Let's see we did Grenada, and Panama. Then after Venezuela, its on to Cuba. Once you cross the line and start wars and invade countries, it gets easier every time.
MORDECHAI
with all these abundant 'wankers' i'm surprised (and disappointed) they haven't 'wanked' themselves to death......................
There is plenty of blame to go around, beginning with the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Wolfowitz axis of evil and their congressional enablers and extending to the factions within Iraq, both govermental and civilian, who have perpetuated violence and human rights violations in pursuit of political power. There are also good guys around the world, including in Iraq, who have raised their voices and even risked (or lost) their lives to advance peace and the rule of law.
Edit please
I cannot do video's on my computer anymore ~NAMASTE~, got a glitch and haven't had it fixed yet.
This "ray gun" for croud control is scary stuff and I understand it can be used from long distances, perhaps even from a manned or un-manned, orbiting, silent aircraft. I was joking about the chrome wheels. But they would dress it up a bit, put some "fox" tails on the antennas too.
We watched a demostration of it's use on TV last week, a high ranking government official in the legal field wanted to see how it worked and had them ZAP her. They gave her a low dose which she found to be very uncomftorable. She then asked for a full dose which was delevered. She grabbed herself and fell over on her side and yelled to stop. Afterwards she laughed about it, but if it had been the real thing with a large group of legal protestors, I doubt if any would be laughing during the panic which would surely ensue.
Here's the full article: here
Namaste
Please read of the research on our govt's use of electromagnetic weapons and human rights
Rebelnow -- reflective return of the nastiness would not be practical, due to the use of complex phased-array beam steering methods at the source, as well as the extremely focused (but rapidly scanning) beam being only a fraction of a degree wide (accurate return would require something like arc-second targeting (where 1 deg = 60 arc-minutes = 3600 arc-seconds)
Rebelnow -- What you mention is a crude "Faraday cage", and would act as a shield to eliminate line-of-sight radiation. Tin foil hats are now back in vogue, but one really needs a full-surround helmet for full efficacy.
With wavelength being sub-millimeter, it acts much as FM radio when passing under a bridge (compared to AM radio's interruption from much longer wavelength), the beam can be focused to various distances and spread across a broad angle area.
I'm more worried about the types of modulation available to twist my perceptions and thinking, than just the heating impacts, as burning one's skin is at least something we have the ability to recognize.
What would happen if you held up a mirror made reflective metallic foil?
Neat shit there, look better with chrome wheels though.
KEM -- With proper programming, this will look just like Cinderella's pumpkin coach, with a dozen prancing horses and 2 coachmen and all the accouterments.
Chrome wheels hubs are easy to do, what is harder is making it disappear from the publics awareness, just like a stolen election.
Did you listen/watch the videos on the link (Angels don't play this HAARP)?
Namaste
Remember the anti-riot Heat ray Microwave Active Denial System = MADS, that looks like this:
The neoCONs so flatter the common American by stealing away their civil and constitutional rights, as thieves in the night might do (for something of real value).
Once we get over the assault of being violated,
we should ALL be so proud that our rights used to be something so valuable, worthy of nefarious theft.
It kind of reminds us of how far we've fallen
But then again, perhaps we haven't fallen down, but just stumbled for a while. Perhaps the govt's brain wave modulation experiments (purposeful pacification via programmed lethargy & matching propaganda) are warring thin on too many progressively minded thinkers ?
There aught to be a law that it's illegal to program the American's people's thinking, just for purely political and personal avarice and power manipulation. As if any control should be tolerated. Please see here for undeniable proof of govt's proven techniques to program people, like one might do to a computer with the proper software.
Remember the anti-riot Heat ray Microwave Active Denial System = MADS, that looks like this:
Those seals carry rabies.
The last Iraqi standing will be the father of the country. And America will move on to Venezula to fill up the Imperial Express which is actually in a rapid suicidal decline. But most Americans still believe our elected politicians are trying to build a better country. If they could see outside the box they would see America is the leader of an empire and that our politicians answer to corporate America, not the American people. The Constitution is being used to try and build an empire instead of country.
Hoa binh
America, a Christian nation? In name only. America loves war or at least those who profit from it do.
The balance of the nation must be brain-dead. Why else would its citizens watch their country's leaders doing the terrible things they're doing in the world yet do nothing?
300 million people are going to destroy our world and for what? So they can drive Hummers!
Sadly, my 'Epitaph for Mankind' rings true.
www.dangerouscreation.com
I just read an article in today's LA Times about a White House aide who resigned for "alleged wrongdoing" because he apparently "used grant monies improperly" at an earlier job.
I have news for the LA Times. The President and Vice President are guilty of the Supreme War Crime of War of Aggression. It has resulted in the deaths and maiming of millions of people.
Maybe that should be mentioned in the paper ahead of "using grant monies improperly" at a previous job by an aide.
Bush, Cheney and their crowd belong in solitary confinement for the rest of their lives in a maximum security prison.
The mantra of uncivilized barbarians engaged in endless religious civil war is a lie. As in Jugoslavia the US does it's best to set groups that have lived peaceably against each other but there is an active secular resistance in Iraq that we don't hear about because they want us OUT of their country.
...and they're coming to kill all of us?
I thought that America already died and it's rotting corps is poluting the world.
"Baghdad curfew extended indefinitely" - welcome to the Neo-American Century.
They're in submarines bought from Africa and they're coming to kill all of us.
This comment is exceptionally funny.
Mr. Baroud the night our fascist pig dictator announced the commencement of the first 21st century blitzkrieg - Shock and Awe - I felt I was falling off a precipice and I could not see the bottom towards which I was falling.
I was not thinking of American soldiers, but with every explosion flashing on the TV screen, of the Iraqis on the ground. So much death and destruction, so much suffering.
If I believed in God and divine retribution, I suppose I'd be expecting the complete annihilation of America at any moment.
Americans are superior in value to Iraqis. That is what the politicians, media and much of the public thinks.
Just like Canadians are current massacring 250 000 infant seals with spiked clubs.
Its the myth of supremacy what makes the world go round.
What's the problem? After all this great country was founded on pillars of (native American) genocide.
They're in submarines Saddam bought from "AFRICA" and they're coming to kill all of us.
It still bothers me when our "Christian" nation laments the deaths of 4000 of its citizens, but doesn't bother to mention the million or so (still unclear on the number since it seems to change study to study) Iraqis who have died and continue to die every day.
Bush, our born-again president, stands by his assertion that he is protecting us (a verifiable lie), but he seems to have forgotten that killing someone for your own safety is highly un-Christian. Jesus said that. Instead, according to the Bible, you should die first, not only for your brother, but for your enemy as well. Whew. Can you imagine America Ever being a Christian nation like it claims? Not likely. Therefore, let the Oil Wars continue since the "morals" party has abandoned its tenets.
I was discussing the current invasion and occupation of Iran, with someone I considered fairly centrist politically.. after expressing my views about it and the general direction the American Government was headed.. this centrist floored me by saying'' you sure must read some way out there ,(get this) RIGHT WING propaganda''....
/sigh..
as someone once said (wish i could recall who)
''NEVER underestimate the power of stupidity..it has moved the world''
If a nation, that one supposedly belongs to, acts in complete contradiction to your personal morals, is it still your nation? I am at home on this continent but very disturbed by the human beasts that squat here.
American voters will think.
That's the problem; American voters by the millions DON'T think. By the millions these poorly informed and uneducated people prove over and over again that the predominant human emotion is fear. Play on that fear, as George Wanker Bush and his thugs have proven for the last seven years, and you'll waltz into office. John Wanker McCain will win the presidency for precisely the same reason and through precisely the same methods. This nation has been going down the toilet since the assassination of John Kennedy: the Warren Commission, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Reagan, Beirut, Iran Contra, George Herbert Wanker Bush, Clinton, GATT, NAFTA and now the Criminal Moron and Supreme Punk, George Wanker Bush. There is no end to this parade of eye-popping, jaw-dropping stupidity.
What's happening in Iraq is the same that is happening in parts of Africa. The US empire is expanding, conveniently on top of the oil it needs to continue expanding. As for the Iraqis themselves, they will be divided and conquered. That's the standard method when you intend to use some of the survivors to help you rule. Our history is full of our imperial puppets.
Hoa binh
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17066/42/
Why would Americans care about how many Iraqis died (for whatever reasons)?
Like rest of the Americans, Hillary, Baraq, John, George, Dick, Donald and others are the benefactors of Iraq war, which apparently killed (and continue to kill) "Unknown" number of Iraqis.
American military killed (you may or may not like to call that "Genocide") over 5 million Vietnamese. That's just from the history books written by non-Americans. American voters are not gonna say something as bad as "Genocide" when American government must conduct wars abroad for national interests.
Then, why would Americans care about how many Vietnamese died (for whatever reasons)?
American voters are never gonna believe that American government ever committed "Genocide" in Japan by dropping nuclear bombs! That's just Communist propaganda, American voters will think.
Barack Obama has correctly summarized McCain's position on American forces remaining in Iraq: It's that 1) We can't start to leave because violence in Iraq is up (whenever that fits the latest news headline), or 2) We can't start to leave because violence in Iraq is down (whenever that fits the latest news headline.)
Heads we stay. Tails we stay. Progress we stay. Lack of progress we stay.
An immoral people cannot understand the logic of morality. We, as a people, have lost our moral compass. I am deeply, deeply ashamed and embarrassed.
Imperialism, war crimes and racism often go hand in hand.
The American mindset is egocentric, ethnocentric and delusional which makes it very difficult to understand the suffering of others.
The old American saying "that he only good Indian is a dead one" has a new ring to it: "the only good Muslim is a dead one."
We live in one crazy humongous hegemonic empire. As the apocalypse nears consider your options.