Neocons and the Truth: Bitter Enemies to the End
In a July, 2006 article in Rolling Stone — entitled “Iran: The Next War” — the superb journalist James Bamford detailed the shady activities of numerous neoconservatives inside and out of the U.S. Government to plan an attack on Iran. Bamford focused on the role played by Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute and National Review, who created and began implementing an attack scheme in coordination with the Pentagon’s then number-three official, Doug Feith, and Feith’s deputy, Larry Franklin (subsequently convicted of felonies for passing classified information to AIPAC).
A couple weeks after Bamford’s exposè was published, National Review enlisted former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy and talk show host Mark Levin jointly to author a defense of Ledeen and, more importantly, to savage Bamford for writing what they claimed was a pack of lies. The McCarthy/Levin article was entitled “Rolling Smear,” sub-headlined “James Bamford writes a fiction about our Michael Ledeen,” and accused Bamford of being “the latest in a growing crowd of hacks to smear our friend Michael Ledeen.”
McCarthy and Levin specifically attacked Bamford’s disclosure that Ledeen “had arranged a covert meeting in Rome with a group of Iranians [and Feith’s team] to discuss their clandestine help” in attacking Iran. Said McCarthy and Levin:
Bamford, to the contrary, wants to turn the meeting into a nefarious plot by Ledeen and the neocons to push the nation into war with Iran. Yet, anyone even vaguely familiar with Michael’s work knows that he has opposed military action against Iran — notwithstanding that he was years ahead of most experts in accurately portraying Iran’s role as the terror master at the center of the jihadist network.
So Bamford’s claim was “embarrassing” because “anyone even vaguely familiar with Michael’s work knows that he has opposed military action against Iran.” Got that?
Here’s Ledeen yesterday, writing in National Review’s Corner (h/t sysporg):
Time to Attack Iranian Terror Camps? [Michael Ledeen]
So says John Bolton, and he’s right. As you know, I have been proposing this for years. I always thought it was only a matter of time before we were compelled to take this action, which is a legitimate form of self-defense. And while we’re at it, we should do the same thing to the Syrian camps as well. It isn’t “sending a message,” it’s acting to protect our guys by fighting back in the proxy war the mullahs have been waging since 1979. Faster, please?
More amazingly, a mere two weeks before McCarthy and Levin wrote that “anyone even vaguely familiar with Michael’s work knows that he has opposed military action against Iran,” Ledeen himself wrote at The Corner that “I would insist that my soldiers have the right of ‘hot pursuit’ into Iran and Syria, and I would order my armed forces to attack the terrorist training camps in those countries.”
In late 2006, I wrote about virtually identical deceit from this same group, that time with regard to Iraq. On National Review in December of 2006, Ledeen — just as the Beltway establishment was finally turning against the war in Iraq and in the wake of a lengthy Vanity Fair article identifying the neocons who were to blame — claimed: “I opposed the military invasion of Iraq before it took place.”
In fact, Ledeen, throughout 2002 and 2003, had repeatedly and explicitly urged the invasion of Iraq in countless venues, including: The Wall St. Journal’s Op-Ed Page (”If we come to Baghdad, Damascus and Tehran as liberators, we can expect overwhelming popular support”); in an interview with David Horowitz’s Front Page (”Question #2: Okay, well if we are all so certain about the dire need to invade Iraq, then when do we do so? Ledeen: Yesterday.”); on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews (”if President Bush is to be faulted for anything in this so far, it’s that he’s taken much too long to get on with it, much too long”); and in National Review (calling for “the desperately-needed and long overdue war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the terror masters”).
That war-cheerleading neoconservatives of this strain are completely unbound by the truth is not news. Obviously, the war they unleashed in Iraq is the most compelling proof of that. But sometimes when the lying is so blatant, one can’t help but note it.
The same is true for the complete lack of accountability. Ledeen is a so-called “Freedom Scholar” at the revered and widely-cited American Enterprise Institute and a Contributing Editor at National Review. An intense email campaign over his Iraq comments to AEI and National Review’s Editor Rich Lowry demanding a retraction or some comment from them on Ledeen’s blatant falsehoods over his Iraq stance was simply ignored, as will be this episode concerning the article by McCarthy and Levin smearing Bamford due to Ledeen’s alleged opposition to attacking Iran.
This isn’t just a matter of documenting guilt with regard to what happened with Iraq. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius today became just the latest establishment spokesman to warn (or celebrate) that “judging from recent statements by administration officials, there is also a small, but growing, chance of conflict with Iran.”
The neoconservative war-lovers behind this effort have not changed, nor have their tactics. They realize, as many of them acknowledge, that they will have four more years in power if John McCain is elected. But they also realize that he may not be, and that their last hope for their long-desired attack on Iran lies in convincing the current administration to provoke one before its tenure ends. As much as one wishes it weren’t true, as much as the fixation on petty election issues might obscure it, the truly depraved extremist group that brought us the invasion of Iraq still exerts substantial influence and is quite busy trying to exert it.
UPDATE: It isn’t just the American neocons, but also the Israelis, who are escalating the “Attack Iran” campaign. The Jerusalem Post yesterday “reported” that “with Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year” (h/t quick strategy) and:
The new assessment moves up Israel’s forecasts on Teheran’s nuclear program by almost a full year — from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.
According to several commenters, the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. was on Fox News this morning making the same fear-mongering claim.
The principal tactic Israel-centric neocons have repeatedly used with Bush to induce him to attack Iran has been to tell him that history will judge him based on whether he permits Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. From The Weekly Standard’s Irwin Stelzer, writing about a 2007 White House luncheon with Bush, historian Andrew Roberts, and a group of necons:
The closing note was a more serious one. Roberts said that history would judge the president on whether he had prevented the nuclearization of the Middle East. If Iran gets the bomb, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other countries will follow. “That is why I am so pleased to be sitting here rather than in your chair, Mr. President.” There was no response, other than a serious frown and a nod.
Norman Podhoretz, when telling the President to bomb Iran, used the same tactic:
“I urged Bush to take action against the Iranian nuclear facilities and explained why I thought there was no alternative,” said Podhoretz, 77, in an interview with The Sunday Times. . . .
He also told Bush: “You have the awesome responsibility to prevent another holocaust. You’re the only one with the guts to do it.” . . . .
“The president has said several times that he will be in the historical dock if he allows Iran to get the bomb. He believes that if we wait for threats to fully materialise, we’ll have waited too long — something I agree with 100%,’ Podhoretz said.
And now, magically up pops these new reports from Israel warning that the deadline to stop Iran’s nuclear bomb is the end of the year — right before George Bush leaves office. Bush has less than eight months left to fulfill his history-mandated mission “to prevent another holocaust” by attacking Iran, or else “be in the historical dock if he allows Iran to get the bomb.” They’re as transparent as they are dishonest and bloodthirsty.
Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book “How Would a Patriot Act?,” a critique of the Bush administration’s use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, “A Tragic Legacy“, examines the Bush legacy.
© Salon.com
The need to fund the Iran invasion and occupation explains why the neocons continue to work hard to destroy successful domestic programs and increase the cost of food and energy.
Examples include the neocons ongoing efforts to erode support for social security and medicare, turning FHA into a dumping ground for bad mortgages, and keeping the Federal Reserve on an interest rate cutting binge that is triggering further increases in oil and food prices.
Gutting successful domestic
I still think Iran will be nuked mid-August.
Martial law declared soon after and Bush inaugurated for 3rd term, Jan 20. 2009.
Some of Hillary Clinton’s thugs are also pushing hard for this and they like Lieberman owe their first loyality to Israel. If these Israelis want to bomb Iran they should do it themselves and pay the consequences themselves.
Iran is the whole ballgame to the neo-cons. American/Israeli hegemony in the Middle East will be lost if Iran gets the nuke.
American wealthy interests in oil, finance, and war industries form a wall of support. Bush is too simple minded to see past these arguments and comprehend the new future paradigm of cooperation. Bush will unleash attacks on Iran and Iran will unleash attacks in Iraq and the United States. Once the attack begins those of us who actively oppose the war will be targeted for dissent and placed in KBR prison camps. At this point any pretense of American Democracy will have been removed and American Fascism will flower. American manhood has surrendered to beer, football, basketball, and baseball. Only mother nature will stand between Fascism and survival. Bombing Iran is an all or nothing gamble. Nothing will probably win.
curmudgeon99: I think your timing is a little off. I’m betting late October. That way everybody will be distracted with the election. The election may actually take place, but the outcome will not matter. Martial law will be declared while the votes are being counted. Viola! No inauguration on 1/20. Mission accomplished.
Of course, one fly in the ointment of these well laid plans could be the upcoming food riots. I’m predicting that the financial markets/economy hit the wall in the fall. The timing could be interesting.
Our president is desperate to keep secret what is most important to him. On a personal level his closet homosexuality leaves little time or energy for shifting ALL wealth and power to the richest .01%. That’s Cheney’s job.
Cheney’s goal is not world domination by the US, but by the richest, an international club.
False flag attack on the US right around the time of the Democratic convention. Ok, right after the convention since they plan on fomenting riots during the convention. All news agencies primed beforehand and immediately trot out pundits and proof that it was an Iranian attack. We declare war on Iran in September or October. Elections suspended as gas soars and rioting spreads.
There may be a push up in the Iran attack.
Iran just acknowledged that it’s oil production was beginning to slump due to loss of investment and trained personnel.
That will help drive he price of crude into the $150-$200/ bbl zone.
And oil at that price will DEFINITELY be an excuse to seize the remaining large supplies. But the US does not have the boots to put on the ground to hold it’s Air Force strike ‘gains’. So the option may be the old ‘If I can’t have it, no one can’ spoiler play. AND bomb Iran using nukes. Which will poison 8400 square miles of prime oil fields, and prevent Russia, China, India, and Japan from being able rush in and take advantage of the newly leaderless area.
And I have no doubt that the Bush Junta fascists have little care or concern for the citizens of California who will eventually be under the cloud of radioactive fallout.
And if you think Bush and his cronies will have made massive profits at $150-$200/bbl, wait until you see the killing (!) they will make when ALL oil is shut off from the Middle east, which is what will happen.
The relatively minor inconveniences we are experiencing now at present oil prices (and the impending shut down of the oil dependent society), will be NOTHING compared to the screaming, bloody crash that will come when the oil is blockaded to the Western countries (all of them) that stood by and did nothing while Bushco looted Iraq.
It’s all just Insane! What the hell is wrong with these people???
Just remember what Rumsfeld warned, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” We cannot wait for the aliens to had Iran a death ray, we must act to prevent them from attacking us in their flying saucers!
The day Israel agrees to submit to UN weapons inspectors we will find Iran much more accommodating.
These people are fucking insane. REALITY teaches very hard lessons. “Who consents, she guides: who refuses, she drags.”
The reality:
The closing note was a more serious one. Roberts said that history would judge the president on whether he had prevented the nuclearization of the Middle East. Since Israel has the bomb, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other countries will follow. “That is why I am so pleased to be sitting here rather than in your chair, Mr. President.” There was no response, other than a serious frown and a nod.
“American manhood has surrendered to beer, football, basketball, and baseball.”
Have you noticed how men are now being portrayed in the media? Commercials show men as stupid no nothings
whose children have far more intelligence and commonsense. MSM shows have strong women as the leaders leading submissive men subordinates. It almost seems like some kind of conspiracy.
check out the stuff online about Ahmadinejad’s “wipe Israel off the map” mistranslation. He never said it. He was quoting the Ayatollah who said “The Israeli regime” should be erased from the pages of history.”
Such nonsense would be akin to the media mistranslating the 1998 US Congress’ Iraqi regime-change policy against Saddam’s Baath party as: “in 1998 the US Congress passed legislation in favor of wiping Iraq off the map”.
To stop the impending genocide of the Iraqi people (Persians), the whole world might have to intervene and put economic sanctions on the USA.
If I am not mistaken we currently have a regime change policy for Iran, don’t we? Considering that our executive branch has already invaded and occupied one oil country neighbor of Iran’s, and the fact that W is considering bombing/invading Iran, shouldn’t the whole world start discussing America’s plan to murder all Persians?
I am growing weary of this BS. I can’t take it anymore.
Ready to move to another land.
Why is this story censored from the news?
I wrote a letter to my local paper including the exact quote from Farsi into English and they printed my letter but removed Ahmadinejad’s quote. I think there is a media blackout on anything Ahmadinejad says. Isn’t that a great policy for a free press? Our democratically elected officers are discussing nuclear war with a country over words their leader allegedly said and we are not even permitted to hear his side of it.
Why even have a press? There is no need for it.
Let the decider decide and we’ll just pray it all works out for the best…long live King W –the new crusader!
I agree with whoever said the martial law act might get used to give W a third term. What’s the difference if Billary or McSame get elected?
If Israel can have nukes, anyone can.
The neocrazies know that “We The (very little) People” won’t raise an eyebrow if “we” start wiping out millions of innocent A-rab ter’istsss - y’all don’t see the streets fillin’ with dem damn peacenikhippieanti’Mercanfaglovinflaghaters, do y’all?
We don killed and maimed a few million all-redy, see, and don no one seem to give a damn tootin, even after that dern truth stuff come out - like dat damn Downy Street Memo, and that 935 lies thingy, and that dern whole no WMDs anywhere fiasco. Sheeet, the whole kerntry now knows we been torturing all kinds of brownies and, lookadat - we don more powerful dan ever, shit Joe bob!
No sireee - we’all could prob’ly bomb goddamn San FranFagLand and gets us a buncha metals and crap, y’unerstan? Aint it just damn gerr-ate leadin the - cough, giggle - freedom world?
Maybe nuking Iran and Syria is the neocon way to stop global warming with a nuclear winter.
AEI- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research- aka- Neocon Stink Tank.
Among their “scholars” are PTSD deniers and minimizers.
Lets’s send the whole lot to the wars & occupations they are so supportive of to the front lines.
Cheney & Chalabi appeared before the AEI-sponsored event, I believe, prior to invasion.
Nietzsche May 8th, 2008 1:54 pm said —-
“Cheney’s goal is not world domination by the US, but by the richest, an international club.”
Yes, this is not only Cheney’s goal, but the desperate goal of the ruling-elite, global ‘corporatist Empire’ hiding behind the facade of this two-party ‘Vichy’ American government.
Quite simply, the ‘economics of empire’ — riches exploited from other geographic territories — does not work anymore, and scamming negative externalities is not sustainable either. But once started, a Ponzi can seldom be gracefully ended, and this gang is not interested in sustainability.
Like Hitler in his bunker, this gang is confronted not by allied armies, but by allied facts and realities of nature and the human nature of the evolving ‘multitude’ of moral and humanitarian working-class/living-class people throughout our world. Cheney and his like do not recognize, nor wish to survive in balance with such a cooperative multitude.
We can only hope that the resulting “Revolt of the Elites” (as Christopher Lasch so presciently called it) will end as hopefully for humanity as Hitler’s bunker denouement — with the minute elite of evil empire doing away with themselves — but before precipitating another holocaust.
GKL Said: Maybe nuking Iran and Syria is the neocon way to stop global warming with a nuclear winter.
Ha! That’s a very interesting way of looking at it.
It all depends how you define terrorist training camps. Double-think neo-cons imagine them to be Sh’ite families, since the terrorist training begins at birth, and is transmitted in mothers milk. Therefore the Arab family home must be bombarded by air strikes and missiles, to properly sterilize the infestation. Incubation places such as schools, religious institutions, universities, and whole governments elected by the infected people, must be obliterated.
After all, its the cultural thing that must be eradicated, the quaint notion that a people who derive their livelihood from the resources and land that they live on, have some kind of divine right to prevent American oil corporations and their military friends from stealing it. What a silly idea to think that they can stand and fight against a century of American buildup of weapons of mass destruction, screaming supersonic jets, cluster bombs, arrest and torture, and fight the US trillion dollar genocide budget, derived from American profits from stolen oil. Groups which have a strong cultural identity independent of the US must be targeted.
Why, they must be terrorists! Resistance is futile. Resistance is futile. Resistance is futility. But natural. Why can they not just go away and die? They end up being starved, crushed or dismembered, like the sad photos of dead little children pulled out of the rubble of Iraqi and Palestinian homes. The US fears failure, and so will continue to crush.
I assert that the Terrorists are no different from us, except perhaps in the way that they were managing to live on the planet consuming far fewer resources than the Average US citizen. It is a crime nowadays to be relatively defenceless, living close to natural means, and having large amounts of oil, other desired resource, beneath your national territory, and living on the same planet as a hungry Vampire. The crime is called Terrorism. The label is applied to a people or country indicating to other Vampire nations, is that the people are next in line for genocidal wipe out. Their culture will be made to cease to exist in the real economy, starting with sanctions, leading to depletion, weakening and invasion. The victims status is considered be like so many other non-domesticatable species of no economic value to the money masters. A cull is ordered.
Afterwards, following the successful application of the military corporate takeover formula, perfected in leading think tank laboratories in the US (American Enterprise Institute, Trademark), there is still no end to Vampire hunger and desires for more security and economic betterment, even as the human herd depletes the world. The winners can decide who will be the next target Terrorist group that US hegemony does not need, and its leaders can bask in glory and electoral splendor, having saved the nation once again. The potential list of Terror suspects is endless, and may never stop, unto extinction. Who is next to be cannibalized on life raft earth?
In the Bible’s telling of “The Book of Job,” the premise is that the thing most feared is drawn into being. The conservative element in all three religions (Muslim/Judaism/Christianity) is so bent on fear and “destroying other,” or “preventing other from allegedly destroying one’s own zone of security,” that it could be said they are enacting the dark lesson of this cautionary tale… in fact BRINGING IT (the thing most feared and ralled against) on! Heaven help us!
Our reasoning ability stems from our egos. It’s a wonderful asset, but it cannot make the claim for all that we are; nor can it explain the great mysteries. It’s scary to see too many of my intelligent friends on this site PRESUME that a war will occur. By BELIEVING this outcome you ARE adding mental energy to it.
We have not really experimented with attracting enough people to do DAILY prayer rituals, perhaps at 9 PM EVERY NIGHT… just for a few minutes with a candle lit. If enough people took a time-out from their usual activities and began to envision a SHIELD OF LIGHT around Iran (and Iraq, for that matter), perhaps we’d see unprecedented, illogical events take place. It could mean a mutiny within our own military; it could mean the dust storm to end all dust storms. I have no monopoly on defining the what if’s, but it’s counter productive to envision an escalation of war. Do we want to be right about that? Let’s stop feeding it… many atheists are in justifiable rebellion to the hypocrisy of the religions they were raised under; but our universe operates under LAWS. Ice freezes at 32 degrees, the seasons change (still!) with regularity; we age with every revolution of our earth around the sun, etc. There are PLANNED cycles… and I say this because we cannot begin to understand the complexity of this universe. Just because it doesn’t conform to our notions of logic, or how justice should play does not discount HIGHER intelligence on a SPIRITUAL scale.
In case my old friend Aymon (we have had our differences, but he is a deep thinking individual who in the past contributed much to this forum) is reading… I credit him with reminding me of the importance of LIGHT. LIGHT sees beyond the petty conflicts, the enraged “dance” of egos currently underway. EVERY time any one of us chooses love over anger, forgiveness and turning the other cheek over vengeance, we ADD to the Light. So let us add to that account, and not add the weight of our intellects to any probability of war, nuclear war, or great impossible suffering delivered upon yet another decent humane people!
Cast thy net(s) to the other side… it’s metaphysical!
Thanks amacd.
Siouxrose, I thought I was the only one who knew some of the stuff you say. Thanks, I feel less lonely.
I think some these comments are a little over the top. One night in the next few months will find the carrier battle group(s) quietly slipping through the straits OUT of the Gulf and sailing top speed AWAY from Iran.
The stealth bombers and their smart bombs and cruise missiles (whatever)will take out Natanz and other nuclear related facilities and disappear into the night. Iranian defenses won’t have anything to fire at.
Then the Navy returns to the Gulf and war is up to the Iranians. If they shoot so much as a bottle rocket at us, we let them have it. The Iranians will probably “blink” and it will all be over. Dubya will have his finest moment since Mission Accomplished.
NIETZSCHE: Thanks to the genetic division of the cosmic pie, the world will always have SOME Initiates, mystics and visionaries… persons in whom the inviolate Truths untouched by time are etched. It is THEIR responsibility to keep these ideas circulating no matter the darkness, deceptions or denunciations that follow.
I’ve hosted TV & radio shows, written for MANY magazines, but in the past 10 years I have barely had any forum in English. There is no question the gatekeepers want to maintain a policy of excluded alternatives, and yet it’s THE alternatives that would set mankind free… obviously the continual rehash of authoritarian thinking over the centuries has led to historical re-enactments of the many fighting for the crumbs graciously tossed by the few. CONSCIOUSNESS could alter the paradigm, and with the US leading the world to the veritable edge of THE abyss, it’s about the only resource we’ve really got going for us. Light a candle!
Consider it lit, souixrose.
I’ve just lit mine, Siouxrose.
http://bravenewfilms.org/watch/21943889/38133?utm_source=rgemail
“America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed.”
So says McCain’s spiritual advisor. (No, not Hagee.)
“It isn’t just the American neocons, but also the Israelis, who are escalating the “Attack Iran” campaign”
is there any difference between american neocons and the israelis? aren’t they always working for israel first and foremost?
Why do some people keep thinking Bush is going to declare martial law and go for a third term. Excuse me! He doesn’t even want a third term. He’s tired. He’s tired from saving us from the mean old terrorists. He’s tired of helping his rich cronies get richer. It’s time for old Bush to take a nap and then go cut some more brush at the ranch.
dudley
Bush didn’t sign all those directives for nothing….didn’t make all those plans….
It is a lot easier being a dictator than a president….don’t have to worry about any accountability or pesky checks and balances.
Question: Is that an inclusive statement, of US and Israeli instigators for aggression? I don’t see the difference, but want clarification of Glenn Greenwald’s assessment, not to put words in his mouth, out of respect.:
The neoconservative war-lovers behind this effort have not changed, nor have their tactics… It isn’t just the American neocons, but also the Israelis, who are escalating the “Attack Iran” campaign… They’re as transparent as they are dishonest and bloodthirsty.
Of course it must be remembered that all those instigating wars of aggression, regardless of their ideological reasons, have violated the Nuremberg Principles and are prima facia war criminals. Thus, the ‘neocons’ Ledeen and Podhoretz, and those in congress, the media, as well as the administration, are war criminals vis-a-vis Iraq and Afghanistan already. So, with presumed immunity and impunity, they are embolden completely, as is their co-conspirators among the Israelis, and global co-conspirators in the private sector.
The problem is not simply the individuals and power groups mentioned, it is systemic, it is about wielding power. Our best weapon is being on the side of the law, the constitution, and international treaties and laws. It is not a matter of “opinion” at all, or what happens at conventions and in the fall’s dubious election.
As we know, or should be now, the polls prove that we do not have representative government, and further it is not legitimate at all.
Therefore, we must withdraw our proxies from the fascist-imperialist cabal, and make Public Policy and Public Law, by direct popular vote on our own National Referendum, replacing completely the congress, executive, and equality guilty, judiciary! I am adamantly calling for Pure Democracy! We, the people can and must, abolish the imperial plutocracy!
Bill Mitchell
PureDemocracyWorld@Gmail.com
NOT GOING ALONG: I am with you, Bill… what we long for is some basis for redress, some viable “force” that can act in the INTEREST of global justice. It’s evident who stands on the firm ground of legal precedent. Remember, Bush and his handlers live by appearances, if they can create the APPEARANCE of legality through the legal opinions/theories they operate as THUS. I forget which neocon hubristically stated that from now on THEY would create THE reality. Indeed. Except that NONE of it is based on TRUE law or justice. These criminals have unraveled centuries of legal foundation, particularly with respect to Habeas Corpus. They are a cabal held together by deceit, a new version of “honor among theives.”
“THE SHELL GAME” new book. VVVerrry interesting.
We must remember that the future is pure, unknown, not predestined. Although serious damage has been done to the planet over the past few centuries, largely due to over-population and short-sighted agriculture and grazing, our earth still has the ability to regenerate fully, within a few millenia. We humans are learning our lessons. The so-called greater powers are at work in all spheres, and those energies which have brought life to this point will continue to function no matter what a bunch of scared old men decide about the use of nuclear weapons….it is primordial that our energies remain positive and joyful, no matter the depressing nature of the reports we are reading. We have chosen (or been chosen) to be those who keep our noses in the shit…somebody got ta do it…The trick for me is to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all!
Remember that all the “principles” in this farce have the same human antecedents as the rest of us, but have taken other roles. Cheney and Bush are only faces for the forces that have been engendered by the discovery of petroleum, nuclear energy, cheap steel, and all the rest. Greed is only the nasty side of Need. Say a prayer or a good wish to your enemies each day, for they too are somebody’s children. And learn how to grow food again, and how to talk with your neighbors.
The Neo-Cons are as malign a group that has ever befouled the American body politic since slave holders in the 19th Century. It is vital they that not be allowed to carry out any more of their agenda, which if it was a term paper, would’ve garnered at best a “C” and a comment of “What about the facts on the ground?” Of course, said neo-cons would’ve screamed “liberal bias in academia.”
Siouxrose,
If you haven’t already read it, Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth” really explores the kind of principles you mentioned. Thoughts are real things; everything that’s ever been made or accomplished, began as a thought. Physical matter consists of subatomic particles of energy. Material things consist of more densely packed energy particles. Thoughts are a lighter, higher frequency form of energy. Energy attracts energy, so it is not unreasonable to believe that negative thought patterns can result in negative consequences, while positive thoughts have positive outcomes.
Tolle believes that humanity, collectively, is dysfunctional. We have allowed the “ego” to take control of us and are rapidly reaching the point where we will have to evolve (spiritually) as a species or we will destroy ourselves. In these times of rising conflict and proliferating WMD, it seems increasingly likely that we are headed towards the latter.
My candle will be lit also. (It can’t hurt!)
Podhoretz sez to W: “You have the awesome responsibility to prevent another holocaust. You’re the only one with the guts to do it.”
Apparently, slaughtering hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people is the preferred method of preventing holocaust these days. Interesting mindset.
These guys have been running the show since before you or I were born. The lies have been hidden as far back as we can imagine, but truths are there for discoveries, if one cares to look and find. Some times Real American heros step up and become Heros all over again, to expose those lies. Thank GOD this is the case in this instance . Maybe if enough learn the truths we can stop thier next intended and desired war. Our enemies are not those they are pointing finger at. GOD’S people are not those that claim that prize and Kill for thier own greed. Learn some old but very important facts, truths and realities.
“Loss of the Liberty ”
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/18.html
The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty
HelenJean May 9th, 2008 6:50 pm
What more is reported, alleged, or documented on this psyop for a nuclear attack on Egypt and possible WWIII with the USSR? And, are the ‘neocons’ an extension of this diabolical criminal act to instigate wars of aggression?
‘……On first hearing of the Liberty attack by allegedly “unidentified aircraft,” the U.S. launched planes from the Sixth Fleet carriers, then located in the Mediterranean, off Crete, armed with nuclear weapons. They were headed for Cairo to retaliate. Only minutes before reaching their target, they were recalled. Why? The Israelis had failed to sink the Liberty!……
A Google search indicates that Common Dreams has been admirably responsible publishing articles on the USS Liberty. But, the hidden agenda of nuking Egypt is new to me, and I have read and attended lectures by survivors a few years ago. This is very disturbing and requires the utmost investigation and exposure, to prevent further intrigues and points the the strong provability 9/11 not only being an updated version of Operation Northwoods, but a dual conspiracy between the White House and rogue Israeli elements.
I think this is an issue Mr. Greenwald has the background as an investigative reporter and champion of freedom is capable to doing, and being listened to with his credibility and connections in the journalist profession.
“…same thing to the Syrian camps as well.”
That is something Israel would do, but we will not. The Republicans need a bad guy, an Evil Empire. Communism served that purpose and now Terrorism does.
If they had no bad guys, they could not rationalize their irrational defense department spending.
Ignoring the U.S.S. Kole and Al Qaida was just the beginning of creating the new enemy. They figure that they will get a lot of mileage out of this and they are not about to screw it up.