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Obama Signs New Iran Sanctions Into Law
Move could intensify a brewing Gulf showdown
HONOLULU, Hawaii - US President Barack Obama Saturday signed into law tough new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and financial sector, in a move that could intensify a brewing Gulf showdown.
Iran began navy exercises on December 24 and are due to end them on Monday, January 2, 2012. On Saturday, US President Barack Obama signed into law a major defense bill including tough new sanctions against Iran. The law cuts off from the US financial system foreign firms that do business with Iran's central bank. (AFP Photo/Ali Mohammadi) The measures, meant to punish Iran for its nuclear program, were contained in a mammoth $662 billion defense bill, which Obama signed despite having reservations that it ties his hands on setting foreign policy.
The sanctions are meant to hit Iran's crucial oil sector and require foreign firms to make a choice between doing business with Tehran's financial sector and central bank or the mighty US economy and financial sector.
Foreign central banks which deal with the Iranian central bank on oil transactions could also face restrictions, sparking fears of damage to US ties with key nations such as Russia and China which trade with Iran.
Obama signed the bill in Hawaii where he is on vacation, at a time of rising tension with Tehran, which has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz -- through which more than a third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes.
The United States has warned it will "not tolerate" such an interruption.
In comments reported Saturday, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili warned that Iran would "give a resounding and many-pronged response to any threat" made against it.
But Jalili also said Iran was ready to rejoin EU-led talks with major powers on assuaging Western concerns over its nuclear program.
The White House held intense negotiations with Congress on the terms of the law's implementation, given concern that sanctions on Iran's central bank could spark chaos in the global financial system and hike the price of oil.
Obama said in a statement issued as he signed the bill that he was concerned the measure would interfere with his constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by tying his hands in dealings with foreign governments.
The bill, which passed with wide majorities in Congress, did reserve some wiggle room for Obama, granting him the power to grant 120-day waivers if he judges it to be in the national security interests of the United States.
Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote to Congress to express concern against an earlier, tougher sanctions measure along the same lines saying it could harm the US push with its partners to isolate Iran.
Geithner argued that foreign allies could resent the new US measures and make it less likely they would cooperate and the sanctions would have the "opposite effect" of their intended purpose of isolating Iran.
Senior US officials said Saturday that they would try to implement the new sanctions guidelines in a way that protected the global economy and US foreign policy priorities, in a way which would still inflict pain on Iran.
There are fears that increased sanctions on Iran's central bank could force the global price of oil to suddenly soar, and actually give Tehran a financial windfall on its existing oil sales.
Rising oil prices could also crimp the fragile economic recovery in the United States and inflict pain on American voters in gas stations -- at a time when Obama is running for reelection next year.
The Obama administration argues that it has imposed the toughest-ever sanctions on Iran by the United States and its allies and says the measures are now having a punishing impact on the Iranian economy and petroleum sector.
The West alleges Tehran is seeking to acquire a weapons capability under the guise of its nuclear research program. Iran denies any such ambition and says its work is only for civil energy and medical purposes.
In recent weeks, Iranian officials have insisted the country was ready to face new sanctions against the oil sector and central bank.
The Wall Street Journal reported this month that US and European officials were seeking assurances from major oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, that they would increase exports to the West and Asian nations if tighter sanctions on Tehran's energy exports are enforced.
128 Comments so far
Show AllBut apparently these same idiots are not concerned at all about the crash of the global finance system and the ten-fold increase in the price of oil that will result from the war they're about to start.
I also think that the damage the Iranians would be doing to themselves if they can't export oil any longer would pale in comparison to damage from all of the bombs and depleted uranium shells dropping on their heads.
We had that when Libya went offline. The world did take notice of course, but the price rises weren't that extraordinary compared to rises caused by speculators 18 months ago or there abouts.
To get really technical most Iranian oil goes to China and points east. It would hit them more than us initially, although we would be hit by the shadow of that cut off. AND oil is fungible, it can come from anywhere so a reduction in oil to them would cause them to buy in the open market.
Not many noticed, but for the first time in 62 years, we are a net exporter of petroleum products. The price of oil may well go down, if we don't elect some War bird jerk that wants to start another war.
There may very well be a war in the middle east, but its unlikely we will be involved unless Iran should actually try closing the Straits. (frankly I don't think they are that stupid or desperate yet) And that's not something anyone can fake.
Many seem to be missing the fact that we are going to ramp up energy production. Not sure if they don't want to face reality or that it just feels better to deny it. Obama is not going to stop the pipeline or much of anything else. And there is deep drilling going on in the Gulf as we speak.
I firmly believe 2012 is the time to start working on achievable results rather than wasting time protesting done deals.
Iran, China and Russia constitute no threat to us at all. China is the closest power to us and they are at about 20% parity, though they are building a blue water navy as fast ass they can. but they have no inclination to butt heads with us at all. As to the Iranians themselves, they are mostly united in confronting their own government (which we refused to help them do because we have cowardly idiots in charge)
If anyone should worry, I'd think it should be Russia worrying about China. And hopefully I believe with the right results in this election, we will start to downsize our "presence"
By the way while everyone was looking the other way we have transferred quite a lot of military power to the Asian venue which should tell everyone that even with Obama in charge (lucky us) things still proceed.
There is every evidence that the US is just begging for a retaliatory action on the part of Iran. or if it could only get away with faking another Gulf of Tonkin moment, to put their relationship with Iran on a real war footing.... The absence of the slightest mention of the Zionist's or Neocon's and their respective and duplicated ambitions and "road maps" to global fascism and slavery, is patently missing in the above article, as is an iota of justification for these new and heightened sanctions against Iran for its totally legitimate and open civilian nuclear program. Iran has every right to enrich nuclear fuel for its research and power reactors, despite what America and Israel say.
Hegemony of the US's fading empirical ambitions now rests on it throwing the world into just another and this time probably much worse, endless war of attrition that can only benefit the usurers, that same old 1 percent. The only tool left to this Godzilla of a hegemanaut, in more or less working condition in their bag of tricks is their military hammer which is already taken giant bites of human and material resources, all to be squandered, while unemployment spreads and people go homeless and die of preventable illnesses and education and infrastructure crumbles, in the supposedly wealthiest country in the world. All for what?
In many ways there is not much difference between this perspective and direction, and that of Germany in 1935. The dire state of global ecology and economy are much more precarious, and the prospect of a global war with modern weaponry is also too much of a horrendous prospect for any thinking human, but there again, that is not what runs the USA. The US is run by corporate interests, served by humans that are interchangeable, completely dispensable and those corporate interests are singularly serving the accumulation of capital wealth at any cost and without any moral or ethical compunctions. State corporatism is fascism.
Happy New Year......
It's about four hours to midnight and a New Year here in Calgary, Alberta - even earlier in Hawaii.
And it's already 2012 in Europe.
The New Year is thus not astronomical - it is, like so much else today - an artificial construct of society - divorced from the natural world.
The dogs of war appear to have been loosed, both sides desiring what Sam Huntington so aptly described:
"The Clash of Civilizations"
and primarily, that these are:
"particularly prevalent between Muslims and non-Muslims"
Further -
"It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."
-----------------I know that CD progressives tend to 'wish this wasn't so', to paraphrase Ian Tyson - but it would be hard to make any sense of all this in terms of anything else.
Particularly, Huntington points out that Christianity and Islam are:
- Missionary religions, seeking conversion of others
- Universal, "all-or-nothing" religions, in the sense that it is believed by both sides that only their faith is the correct one
- Teleological religions, that is, that their values and beliefs represent the goals of existence and purpose in human existence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash_of_Civilizations
---------------------I have had personal dealings with both civilizations and in particular, their fundamentalist factions.
I primarily post on environmental science here on CD - though one cannot any longer restrict oneself - or remain in the Ivory Tower - aptly named it is.
But science has this attribute - it is fearless in its insistence upon truth.
I can see truth in Huntington's argument - I see delusion, which is a major mental illness, whether it occurs in Christians or Muslims, in literally hundreds of millions of fundamentalists on both sides of the Great Divide -
And I see war coming - again.
~ Wishing it wasn't so ~
Manysummits
========PS
I tend to think people will understand what I say - and I know this is not always the case. So let me speak as clearly as I can:
President Obama professes to be Christian - therefore he is mentally ill.
Iran's President professes to be Muslim - therefore he is mentally ill.
If you are reading this, and you are religious in the traditional sense - you are therefore mentally ill - and you have the vote, and The Button
So just what are we celebrating this New Year's Eve - or this New Years Day - the triumph of mental illness?
===========You're deluded, at best; or at worse, a liar like Huntingdon.
It has nothing to do with culture, or clash of civilisations, otherwise, why is the US not at war with say, Saudi Arabia, but instead arming Saudi Arabia to the teeth?
The conflict in this case, and in most cases, has, and always been, about economic reasons, specifically the desire to for Iran's natural resources.
I can see lots of delusion in your desire to pretend otherwise.
In case my post wasn't clear, so let me speak as clearly as I can: you are mentally ill.
And BTW, most things in human society are cultural constructs, such as the new year. The very human concept of time, and place, are cultural constructs. That does not make them less useful to humans, of which you are one.
Yup - touched a nerve there - Rushdie touched the same nerve, and is still in hiding.
Maybe that was economic and political justice - what do you think?
No - never mind answering. As I have said - religion is a manifestation of major mental problems - which do carry over into all aspects of life, including politics, dystopic economics, and denial of all forms. They are right here on CD - and by the way - I have read Harris and Dawkins - for what it's worth - I find them mentally imbalanced also - being an atheist is no more tenable than being religious.
As long as you live - you will likely never understand the difference. Happy New Year
========"Religion also cannot be reduced to its fundamentalist claimants who enthrone nonsense, while ignoring the poetry of philosophy." (ceti)
Can't it? The fundamentalists claim it is your "philosophers" who have lost their way, as do Harris and Dawkins. I was born and raised Catholic, in Montreal, where the majority were also Roman Catholic. I am no longer Catholic or religious in conventional terms, but I have spent a good deal of time studying several religions, and metaphysics, as it were.
The founding principles upon which Christianity say, or Islam, or Mormonism or the Jewish faith are based are patently absurd, and their founding figures technically insane. The religions that followed, and their myriad variants, are a tribute to the span of cultural adaptability - and in some cases, common sense.
But the fundamental principles and figures remain intractably insane.
It is, as Emmylou sings, "a hard life wherever you go." There is more common sense and insight in her words than in all the rest of the Peoples of the Book combined, if I may be permitted a little exaggeration.
Perhaps I shouldn't have opened what everyone knows is this can of worms - that alone should tell you how alien is rational thought in the life of mankind.
In proselytizing on science, which I suppose I do, I am always struck by the pointless nature of my quest - there is in fact no audience - just millions of already committed believers.
I didn't really care before - so I kept to myself - and went into the mountains for seven years.
Now my son is seven - and all the crazies are burning down my planet - with me and Julie and Michael in it. It wasn't enough - your nuclear arsenal, was it? It wasn't enough for the Soviets either, or China, or India, or Pakistan, or Israel.The science of global warming is fundamentally simple, even if the details are not. The consensus view is unequivocal - and you just watched the very same crazies, with enough nuclear firepower in produce nuclear winter many times over, vote to take the matter under consideration.
In the meantime - let's attack Iran.
Same crazies - same intractability - no common sense or humanity to be found in our present hierarchies.
Before the Meltdown, I just want to let you know that you are in fact and in action - nuts.
========No, you aren't proselytising on science. Science is based first and foremost, on studying the material world, not mental masturbation. For example, in the real material, world, neither America, nor Britain, is not trying to start a war with Saudi Arabia. How does your mental masturbating about cultures and religion explain this?
Go on. Enlighten us, oh guru from the mountains. "The science of global warming is fundamentally simple, even if the details are not. The consensus view is unequivocal - and you just watched the very same crazies, with enough nuclear firepower in produce nuclear winter many times over, vote to take the matter under consideration."
IN the real material world, once multiple countries have acquired nuclear weapons, nuclear winter did not happen.
You're not a scientist. You're mental masturbater. Go back to your mountains. You're nuts.
Some quick thoughts on your thoughts on "The Clash of Civilizations": that is one book that I decided to skip reading, and I don't regret it, as I know enough about its contents and argument. I have no doubt that it would have some ideas that I may agree on, but I prefer a broader analysis that is more fundamental at the same time. Somehow, "more honest" also comes to mind, because this idea of a clash of civilizations has been dishonestly used by the power-hungry elite in their particular pursuits of power, by exploiting the public's fear and distrust of "the other". And this fear of the other is a psychological phenomenon, although with a basis in reality in some instances, especially when it involves the coveting of resources and land. So a broader, and at the same time more fundamental, approach would be to look at the extreme identification with certain ideas - which could be religion, nationalism (or tribalism) or some other ideology. Even identification with one's favorite sports team that is a commercial, corporate undertaking. Human beings in general seem to have this "need" to identify with something, and with devastating results over the millennia. I think the danger of such extreme identification has been pointed out by wise teachers from time to time, but with few takers, apparently. One such modern teacher (who passed away in 1986) was J. Krishnamurti. There's lots of material online (lectures in text, videos, etc.) and most public libraries would carry at least a few books by Krishnamurti. I always felt a sense of urgency on the need for a fundamental change whenever I read or listened to Krishnamurti. Check him out in the new year - I think the reading would be worth your time.
I agree with your characterization of fundamentalist religious fervor and the "need" to convert others. But that doesn't stop the Americans (and the British) and the Saudis from collaborating. And it was not exactly religious fervor that drove the conquests and colonization and the empires, although they never hesitated to make use of religious fervor if it helped in the recruiting of useful idiots to send to the frontlines. And religion was also a useful "silencer" of conscience to overcome any qualms some might have had about killing the natives and stealing their lands. But only for those who might have had these qualms in the first place.
I like to think that the New Year is more than just "an artificial construct of society", even though the number 2012 is most definitely an artificial construct. The date follows soon after the winter solstice. In the past, I used to "feel" like I had more time to reflect and to make some changes in the future (i.e., the "New Year", a useful personal construct, even if artificial otherwise). Lately I "feel" that time itself is speeding up. That may be due to all the anxiety over climate change, among other things. It helps to bring our attention again and again to the "now", as that is all we ever have, and even change has to happen in the now. So, along with J. Krishnamurti, I would also recommend "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, if you haven't read it already.
I know this is completely off-topic on an article about something so serious as a potential war. But this war, if and when it happens, would not be over any clash of civilizations. Iran can keep its civilization. All it has to do is turn over control of its resources to western corporations (they'll even get a "royalty" and other benefits) and allow unimpeded use of its territory and air space by the empire.
Yes - Happy New Year to you Alcyon!
When I read "The Clash of Civilizations" a long time ago - I wondered about Huntington's premises - as you suggest.
Wendell Berry warns repeatedly about oversimplification - and here he strikes gold.
So too here. At many levels, human beings can interact - "collaborate" was mentioned - yes, of course.
And it is not black and white - few things are - even black and white.
And so Huntington is often characterized - to save time reading the entire book - by Wendell Berry's "simplifications", i.e., a complex subject is reduced to "sound bites" - good against evil, in this case Christian Civilization against Muslim Civilization.
The best info I have on the denial industry - and on people in denial - say of climate change - but it can be anything that affects people directly - is that it is the self-identity of the people which is of paramount importance - often overriding rational thought and even self-preservation.
Again, we are attempting to reduce human feeling - human interactions on the Earth - in the Universe - to sound bites right here on this blog. It can't provide a full depiction of reality, just as a computer model cannot provide a complete or even satisfactory depiction of climate on Earth.
They are all models - these discussions.
But the real world is not a model - it is the real thing - by definition.
If I may indulge in a certain amount of unseemly bluntness - here on the cusp of a new year?
Saudi Arabia does not collaborate with the United States - not in any human way. A giant superpower, run by its military imperatives and nominally by representative government - deals expeditiously with a desert tribal sheikdom - and the terms are as follows - comply or be occupied - for real - and permanently.
You WILL sell us your oil - and you WILL buy billions and billions of US denominated dollars of military equipment which you neither need nor desire, and which you have no way to maintain. We will preserve your FACE - so you can continue to rule in your ancient way - that of a tribal sheikdom - and Muslim to the core.
Meanwhile, here in America, every President, every powerful Congressman or Senator, will profess a faith in God, preferably in Christianity - whether he or she believes it or not - or your chances for election and advancement are exactly zero. That is because at least half of the electorate is actually of the belief that Heaven and Hell exist, as does an ever-present God - and He is on our side - without doubt - let me say that again - without any doubt at all.
None of this Alcyon is conjecture on my part - it does not come from reading books - it is what I have experienced and know to be true.
And I'll venture that you know this as well as I - but your hope for humanity is perhaps higher than mine - for which I can only commend you - and hope that your faith is justified.
To a first approximation - all mankind is religious.
I suggest that this has played no small part in the course of history, still does, always will.
That the unscrupulous will take advantage of this natural propensity to religion and credulity in humankind I take as a given - again from personal experience - and extensive research.
But that does not negate the idea of "Homo religiousus", as Karen Armstrong I believe characterized our species.
Here, from Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" - to close the night:
"The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord."
---------------I do not argue that Huntington is all right - nor that he is all wrong.
If you have followed the thread of my thought, you will understand that what we speak of here is in itself a "simplification" of the incomprehensible - true human nature.
But I can state with conviction that it is not primarily economic motivation that is driving us again to war, this time with the real threat of a nuclear exchange - it is something akin (close to) a clash of civilizations (worldviews).
All the best - Mike
=======PS
Just found this Alcyon - on the CD thread "Urging Obama to Stop Rush to Iran War"
"Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President's Daily Brief and chaired National Intelligence Estimates. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/31
========Enjoy your posts and following the thread of your thinking. Your bluntness is right to the point and hard to disagree with at all. I suppose we will at some point go the way of Rome, but the very fact we have history at our backs as a guide will keep it from happening as all the books predict. However, if China, Russia, Brazil, Iran and others can coordinate to establish a powerful new currency to conduct transactions in for the world's commodities, the American War Machine will lose a lot of its punch. That would be welcome.
Hello rgardener98 !
I have never in my sixty-one years experienced a New Years like this one.
I even resorted to reading Ervin Laszlo's "Worldshift 2012", with introductions by Mikhail Gorbachev and Deepak Chopra. I found Mr. Gorbachev's opinions worth the price of the book - and while I hope we can OCCUPY a new form of consciousness, I have seen too much to jump too high just yet.
Yes - a substantial counter to the US should help. But with the weapons now available, and the "perfect storm" breaking overhead, one wonders - is there no other way?
Thanks for your comment - much appreciated.
Mike
===IOW, money. Money talks. All else, such as your long winded hot air, comes from the ass of a bull.
"But I can state with conviction that it is not primarily economic motivation that is driving us again to war, this time with the real threat of a nuclear exchange - it is something akin (close to) a clash of civilizations (worldviews)."
Yes, yes, for example, look at all the nuclear exchanges that have happened in the REAL, MATERIAL world that real scientists study.
You must be young - at least I hope so.
Depleted uranium is a form of nuclear war - and the ~ 440 nuclear power plants on Earth exist for one primary reason - to enable nuclear proliferation. The nuclear fuel cycle is toxic almost beyond belief from mining through to non-existent waste disposal and de-commissioning.
Try and not swear so much - it is pointless.
===========Not legally it is not. Sorry. Wishing something to be is not enough to make it a fact.
A legality, like the new year, is an artificial construct.
When a radio-nuclide enters the body, and emits as a point source - all bets are off - and it is the real thing - not an artificial concept.
I could direct you to a blizzard of information - but then, like global warming - blizzards are hard to see through - and often dangerous.
It is now "legal" in the United States of America, for the President to order my execution, without any oversight at all, without a trial, without evidence, without cause - and free, for now, of repercussions.
You too are similarly at risk, John Shade - but doubtless you find solace in the fact that it would all be legal.
Manysummits
=======You received a far grater dose of radiation on all those mountains (the carbon footprint of traveling to them all being huge) than you could ever receive from a commercial nuclear power plant, or particularly, from nuclear waste - the volume of which is tiny compared to other kinds of toxic industrial waste.
Nuclear power plants exist on earth becasue it is an incredible efficient and clean way way of generating electric power. A handful of uranium pellets contains the energy of a 100 rail cars of coal.
I am surprised at you pjd412 !
But then - that happens to me a lot these days.
If you are truly interested - I can point you in the right direction?
Manysummits
========Sure the completely preventable accident at Fukushima is serious and will be extremely costly. But, is there yet a single death attributed to the reactor meltdowns? Now, compare this to Bhopal. Surely, if nuclear power generation and the fuel cycle was so toxic, we would be seeing statistically higher cancer or other disease rates near nuclear facilities (like are seen around certain chemical or oil refinery facilities, or the US Steel coke facility near where I live. We see nothing like this.
The volume of fuel produced by nuclear power is tiny. Here is what the waste from 20 years of operations from one reactor - and most of the volume you see is the concrete and steel casks - not the waste itself.
http://www.maineyankee.com/images/upload/1-5-06isfsi1.jpg
The great threat of out time is catastrophic global warming, yet, the reality is that every nuclear power plant that is shut down get replaced by a coal-burning power plant. Now, every US left-environmentalist will say they don't like them either, yet I see very little opposition to coal power compared to the irrational hysteria over nuclear power.
pjd412
Since you haven't requested any information - I won't post any.
You know my feelings on global warming if you have read my posts - no disagreement there on this threat.
I have had many dealings and acquaintances with engineers - including climbing partnerships. I am a scientist. While it is truly often disingenuous to characterize entire groups (scientists - engineers for example), there is a large perceptual divide in how they see the world that is real.
I will offer once more to post a list of references on nuclear.
Manysummits
=======Well sure. Let's accept your proposition. DU is a nuclear weapon. And whom was DU used against? A country without a nuclear weapon, a country without the ability to retaliate.
IOW, your point about DU DISPROVES your assertion, not mine. If the other party had the ability to retaliate, DU would not have been used. Nuclear winter is LESS likely to happen with more nuclear weapons, compared with fewer. The ideal is none, Failing, more is better than less.
As for my swearing, I'm rude to people who are rude. When you resort to namecalling, even if that namecalling is not directed at me personally, you lose the right to complain when other people call you names back.
It is not at all off-topic that you brought up J. Krishnamurti, one of the great meta-physicists, psychologists, and life teachers to ever live. Because this thread, as I followed it, is about religious belief, nationalistic belief, and how these have always divided us and caused various "clashes of civilizations" (as just about any war is), the work of Krishnamurti is highly relevant. I, like you, encourage anyone to go back and open Krishnamurti's books of essays and recorded talks given all around the world.
Revisiting Krishnamurti's world view is especially needed at this time among the Americans, a very psychologically conditioned people, yet the propagandists are so smart about it that they have infused us with "individualism", thereby tricking us that we think for ourselves, while kept afraid of course. The psychological fact is that we are propagandized to the max -- everyday -- to believe in America's so-called manifest destiny (delivered to us straight from God, of course), that we're chosen for a special purpose and mission in the world (if so, they're failing at it miserably), to love and fear God (which has spread into the sad and dangerous spectacle of "belief" called evangelicalism), and of course to believe that we're the best and #1 in anything, and God-be-damned, it's supposed to be this way!!
Most Americans (I was born here, so I can't get out of it, I am one) have bought into this notion of uber-identification with our flag, we buy into the nationalistic crap fed to us that it's our God-given right to project power anywhere we feel doesn't live according to our "beliefs" -- this is the height of insane hubris and arrogance, and yet, it goes to the heart of the raison d'etre of our foreign policy. If we are really "chosen", are we being a good steward to the world when we spend more on the military than all other governments combined? Our armaments businesses have helped arm other governments to the teeth in service of our geopolitical strategy of world domination. Look at how we've armed Israel -- oh yes, they're "beliefs" say that they are also "chosen" The world is a far more dangerous place because we take sides against each other because of "beliefs".
Krishnamurti always imparted that inward spirituality and behaving outwardly in a truly compassionate way were the keys to humanity surviving. That dividing ourselves into Americans or Chinese, Jews, Christians or Muslims, was an ongoing recipe of disaster and disorder. Nothing's changed since he died. If anything, since 9/11, our generation's neo-con propagandistic moment, we barely take notice of the horrific violence we dish out onto the world -- conditioned as we are by our permanent warmongering government -- and it just multiplies and continues.
The question is are the American people sufficiently awake enough that they will not stand for another war? Is Empire going to bite off more than it can chew this time around?
When it comes to fomenting terror around the world and at home Al-Qaida has nothing on Empire U.S.