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TechnoratiIt's Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran Time
The United States and Western "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" crowd -- hysteria running at fever pitch ahead of Thursday's multilateral nuclear talks in Geneva -- could do worse than have a word with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula actually talked to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad face-to-face for over an hour on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last week. He invited Ahmadinejad to visit Brazil in November. About the meeting, he went straight to the point, "What I wish for Iran is what I always wanted for Brazil -- a peaceful, civilian nuclear program."
Lula is an island of common sense in an ocean of hysteria. French President Nicolas Sarkozy publicly gave a December deadline for Iran not to make a "tragic mistake", as in provoking Armageddon. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini reiterated the Group of Eight was giving Iran only three more months.
United States President Barack Obama -- now running three wars (Iraq and the AfPak combo) -- demanded that Iran (which is not at war with anybody) demonstrate "its peaceful intentions or be held accountable to international standards and international law".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu announced to the UN, "the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fundamentalism and the weapons of mass destruction". Impervious to irony, Netanyahu obviously forgot that Iran -- like Iraq in 2003 - has no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Israel not only has WMDs, but still refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or allow its weapons to be inspected, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rushed to clarify. As for religious fundamentalism, Zionism is more than a match to Iran's Shi'itism.
As if this was not hysteria enough, leaks in Britain revealed that the head of M-I6 Sir John Scarlett and the head of Mossad Meir Dagan may have established that Saudi Arabia is ready to allow Israel to bomb Iran. The House of Saud remained mute. But not the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) -- which de facto controls Iran's missile program. They successfully tested long-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil solid-fuel missiles with a maximum range of 2,000 kilometers. Ergo, even more hysteria.
General Hoseyn Salami, commander of IRGC's air force, told the IRINN TV network that Iran had a firm "no first strike" policy in terms of a missile war with Israel, and defended the tests as linked to the approaching anniversary of the 1980 Iraqi attack on Iran -- the beginning of a horrible eight-year war that killed at least 250,000 Iranians. (The US, by the way, supported in that war a character who later personified the "new Hitler", Saddam Hussein.)
Now compare all this to the Western reaction to what's happening this Thursday in Beijing on China's National Day parade for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China; an array of two types of surface-to-surface conventional missiles, a new land-based cruise missile, surface-to-surface intermediate and long-range missiles that could carry nuclear warheads, and nuclear intercontinental missiles will all be shown off in an asphalt catwalk. Not a peep from the West. It's as if this was part of Beijing Fashion Week.
A non-secret secret
The all-out hysteria reaches ludicrous overtones when it comes to the disinformation campaign around the now iconic Iranian back-up nuclear enrichment plant, built at the base of a mountain inside an ultra-protected underground facility controlled by the IRGC some 30 kilometers northeast of the holy city of Qom. The plant was built with heavily reinforced concrete and is about the size of a football field, enough to hold 3,000 uranium-refining centrifuges.
The site was duly reported by Tehran in a letter to the IAEA, according to the rules this is done six months before a site becomes operational. Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, also the head of Iran's nuclear program, has stressed there was never anything "secret" about the plant; and justified its construction because of "threats" against Iran.
Ahmadinejad -- an engineer -- for his part stressed the plant would only be operational in 18 months. And it will be open to IAEA inspections according to a timetable already being discussed. This is the bottom line: if the IAEA inspects, there's no way the plant will churn out nuclear weapons.
From Tehran's point of view, this all makes sense; a back-up plant protected by the IRGC near Qom is a given after the George W Bush administration and Israel have repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran. Location is everything; imagine Israel bombing the outskirts of Qom. It's as if the Pentagon bombed the Vatican.
As for Washington, it might have known about this "secret" plant during the George W Bush administration -- as those usual suspects, "senior officials", confirmed to US corporate media. But that raises the question: why did Israel and the US not expose it when it was "secret", that is, still not reported to the IAEA?
Anyway, what remains excluded from the hysteria-saturated news cycle is that the new not-so-secret plant will not enrich uranium beyond 5% -- the suitable level in a civilian energy program. A nuclear weapon demands 90% enrichment. The plant will not produce uranium hexaflouride, or UF6, which is used for enrichment. The bottom line, once again; the Qom backup plant changes nothing in terms of Iran's nuclear program as recognized by the IAEA.
Talk first, bomb later
And that brings us back to Lula. Brazil, just like Iran, is a signatory of the NPT. Just like Iran, it is enriching uranium. Just like Iran, it does not allow unlimited, invasive IAEA inspections. And just like Iran, it has in the past kept some aspects of its nuclear technology "secret".
Brazil enriches uranium to less than 5%, as part of its $1 billion nuclear industry, which will invest on seven new atomic plants to diversify the country's consumption of oil and hydroelectric power. Brazil plans to start exporting enriched uranium before 2014. Brazilian centrifuges could be used to produce highly enriched uranium. But that's a matter of political will. The letter of the Brazilian constitution effectively forbids the building of nuclear weapons.
In Iran the situation is actually similar. Both the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have made it very clear that nuclear weapons are against Islam.
Obviously, the US State Department will always dismiss any comparisons between Tehran and Brasilia. After all, Brazil is a Western-style democracy and Iran is now, after the last presidential elections, a military dictatorship of the mullahtariat. Brazil may be a natural leader in South America, but it's not threatening anybody; while Iran, a regional leader, threatens Israel's "secret" nuclear hegemony in the Middle East. But in both Iran's and Brazil's case, the heart of the matter is the same: running a successful nuclear program is, above all, a question of national pride.
Sanctions cannot possibly work. And once again the current hysteria glaringly shows how, when it comes to Iran, double standards rule.
Washington was forced to admit sanctions did not work with the dictatorship in Myanmar. Now Washington wants to talk. Sanctions will not work on Iran either. It's ridiculous, for instance, to imagine Iraq joining a Western-enforced gasoline embargo on Iran. Besides, Persians are too proud and loaded with too much history to succumb to threats.
Israel, sundry Sunni Arab puppet rulers and dictators, the pathetic American right and the European right, these all fear Iran's regional clout and want to bring the regime down. The nuclear dossier could not be a more convenient cover story for regime change.
As much as the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat may be distasteful for the world and for a lot of Iranian citizens, the end does not justify the means. And the means won't lead to the desired end, as an attack on Iran will make the whole population rally behind the regime. Something is profoundly rotten in the so-called "international community" kingdom -- minus Russia and China, by the way -- when it lets global policy be determined by someone like Netanyahu.
Obama and Lula meet this Friday in Copenhagen to see whether Chicago or Rio will win the race to host the 2016 Olympic Summer Games. The chemistry between them is excellent. Obama could do worse than check up on Lula on his face-to-face meeting with Ahmadinejad.
But as it stands, it's more like the "international community" is being led in an Olympic race to bomb Iran.
36 Comments so far
Show Allhttp://counterpunch.org/fiyouzat09292007.html
September 29 / 30, 2007
An Anti-Imperialist Case Against a Nuclear Iran
Iran's Nuclear Program
By REZA FIYOUZAT
... an attack by the U.S. on Iranian military forces, without sending in any troops (the way Cambodia was destroyed mostly), is a likely scenario. This will naturally lead to increased intensification of the ongoing horrid nightmare not only for the Iranian people but the inhabitants of the whole region, for decades to come. The only winners will be the imperialists and their corporations, whichever local bullies survive this hell, and whatever local lackeys imperialists deem valuable as they do their business.
If, after a disastrous invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the ruling elites in the western countries are still talking openly about further military aggressions, this time against Iran, the western leftists have clearly had less than zero effect on the debates that matter most. ....
The Left currently has little impact on the actually existing political reality, so the only things we can bring to the political table are ideas: questions, critiques, persuasive explanations, occasional inspirations, maybe some good suggestions, and if we are spirited enough, some fun and delight; and in all these, we most definitely must stick to our principles. ....
Iran has access to a vast and endless alternative source of power: solar energy. The right engineers can do the rightful calculations, but I am sure cultivating solar panel farms can easily match (if not surpass) the energy needs that a horribly wasteful and waste-producing nuclear industry can never match. ....
A nuclear-free Iran not only removes a clear excuse for the imperialist posturing against Iran, in the long run it guarantees a life there free from toxic threats to the livelihoods of millions of people inhabiting the area in the vicinity of Bushehr's larger region, which includes not only Iranians, but people in all the Arab countries on the southern coast of the Gulf, plus its entire ecosystem; a life free from the potentiality of millions of cases of cancer, birth deformities, and the complete destruction of entire ways of life among the local peoples inhabiting the shores of the Persian-Arabian Gulf and the adjacent regions, and all points downstream.
In February 2007, just after Republican control of Congress ended, Zbigniew Brzezinski made an interesting speech to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warning against a US attack on Iran. He was National Security Adviser under Jimmy Carter, major player with the Trilateral Commission, and in 1997, wrote "The Grand Chessboard," a prediction that the next war would be in the oil fields around the Persian / Arabian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. He is not a pacifist. Nevertheless, he warned that there existed the possibility of a false flag attack blamed on Iran as the excuse to start a new war. While this would not be news if a peace group warned about this potential, for someone in the inner corridors of Washington power to state this, publicly, was earth shattering -- although something the major media chose to ignore.
Bottom line: the only way the US is going to attack is if the most extreme ultra right wing Doctor Strangelove faction takes over the government, the old guard of the foreign policy establishment stopped Cheney and Bush from doing this, they are probably also responsible for changing ostensible control of Congress and installing Obama and Biden. It's worth mentioning, too, that Brzezinski was an early supporter of Obama when (2007) it looked like Hillary had the nomination.
Unfortunately, the old guard didn't support impeachment of Cheney and Bush for merely threatening an attack on Iran - even though the threat by itself was a war crime.
You can read Brzezinski's warning about war on Iran archived at
http://www.oilempire.us/zbig.html
Maps of the oil fields matched against Iran's ethnic divisions (a key factor behind US war plans)
http://www.oilempire.us/iran.html
Most of Iran's oil is located in the province of Khuzestan, which is an Arab region of mostly Persian Iran. When Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 (with the help of the US), one of his goals was to separate Khuzestan from the rest of Iran. Some in the US military industrial complex have been advocating redrawing Middle East borders, using ethnic conflict to control the oil. Most of Iran does not have oil, it is mostly concentrated along the Persian / Arabian Gulf.
http://www.oilempire.us/new-map.html
the Empire's new Middle East map
It is particularly surreal given that Brzezinski helped create the "Rapid Deployment Force" during the Carter Administration. Previously, the only interventionary effort the US could do in the oil fields was to launch nuclear war, which served to deter the Soviet Union but would also destroy the oily treasures of the region. The RDF was renamed Central Command by Ronald Reagan, and it was CENTCOM that waged the 1991 Desert Storm war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Therefore, Brzezinski is one of the godfathers of the current wars.
-------
"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat."
-- "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives," by Zbigniew Brzezinski (1997), Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, National Security Advisor to President Carter and adviser to Presidents Reagan and Bush the First
Escobar is right to point out the hypocrisy but wrong about the technical aspect of so-called peaceful nuclear power.
An enrichment facility that can enrich to 5% U-235 can easily increase the concentration to 90% -- just run the gaseous uranium through the system more times. The only difficult obstacle to acquiring nuclear weapons is to get the required "fissile material" -- either Uranium 235 or Plutonium 239. It's easier to make a bomb with U-235 than Pu-239, that is why the Manhattan Project did not bother to test the Hiroshima weapon (Uranium) but did want a test of the Nagasaki weapon (plutonium).
During the Brazilian military dictatorship, Brazil's nuclear program was seeking nuclear weapons (and neighboring Argentina had the same goal). If it is true that Brazil's intentions are now 100% peaceful, that would be good, but any nuclear reactor generates ultrahazardous wastes that are lethal for many generations, regardless of the political philosophies of those run the reactors.
It is bizarre to see the US - the only country (so far) to drop nukes onto a city - criticize Iran's nuclear program. The original effort for an Iranian bomb started under the US backed Shah!
And the IAEA is correct to point out the biggest nuclear danger in the Middle East is Israel's considerable nuclear arsenal.
It's obvious that Iran wants a nuke of its own. When the US called it part of the so-called "Axis of Evil," the whole world saw that North Korea, which did have a nuke, didn't get invaded, but Iraq, which did not have a nuke, did get invaded. That's a powerful lesson for a country that feels militarily surrounded on all sides, under constant threat of attack from the US (and its proxy, Israel), has nuclear armed neighbors (Israel, Pakistan, Russia, US fleet in the Gulf) and most important, Iran probably wants a nuke to ensure that it maintains control of its vast oil and natural gas supplies as the oil age runs dry.
The US cannot attack iran without risking the destruction of the global economy. Iran's military is more powerful than post-Desert Storm Iraq (1991-2003) and has short range missiles that could quickly destroy Saudi oil facilities in revenge. If that happened, the US would not only be attacking Iran, it would also be attacking the economies of Western Europe, India, Japan and China, with unimaginable implications for global stability. That is why the powers that be here in the Oil Empire blocked Cheney and the other neo-cons from launching a war on Iran -- not for reasons of morality, but because it would escalate into global war, and the US isn't ready for that, yet.
Oh, please! Even Haaretz is reporting that this is another weapon of mass distraction by Israel to take the world's attention off the real problem: the UN's 66-page report written by Goldstone finding Israel guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and its recommendation to The Hague world criminal court for prosecution.
Iran's Nuclear Theater Meant to Divert Attention
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15459
Cries of 'hold me back' may lead Israel to strike Iran
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1117741.html
I am disturbed to read again of "peaceful" nukes as though they were somehow an alternative to nuclear arms. I am particularly disturbed to receive this implication from so astute a commentator as Escobar.
Of course the States and its pro-tem fellows have no more call to be telling Iran how to get energy than Iran has right to direct the United States.
Sad as it is, that does not go without saying: granted.
But to say Iran has a right to nuclear power decidedly distorts the nature of such decisions. Sadly, Iran has decided it must adopt an outdated technology, has decided that putting its people and its future generations in danger catastrophic accident and expose them to certain harm through the inevitable release of emissions is less objectionable than retaining a human-scale economy and working towards sustainable energy production and usage.
It's hard to blame Iran here. The hypocrisy of the US and its allies posturing over Iran's poor ambitions would choke a horse, but for Iran, there are more important matters at stake. With US and NATO forces at either border, it is between Russian gas and the southern seas, and between a lot of oil and most of Eastern and Southern Asia.
As the US tests next-gen crowd control weapons at the G20 and the Democrats find themselves unable to satisfy both their constituency and their corporate sponsors, Iranians must find themselves but a false-flag operation away from catastrophic war.
I must say, if they're not developing nuclear weapons, that must take a lot of faith.
As Bardamu says, Iran has US and NATO forces at either border. This is a real threat to Iran. They don't have to worry that the US and NATO may have nuclear weapons, they know they do - and that the United States has used such weapons against civilian population centers.
If they were developing nuclear weapons it would be perfectly understandable. THey are under threat of invasion and occupation because of the mentioned oil and gas that are in the region. The western nations that want that oil and gas bad enough to start a war to get it.
This was done in Iraq, while claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to us. Doesn't this latest claim that Iran is a threat ring any bells of warning of another preventive attack? Beats me how anyone can say that an attack is a defense against an attack, or can prevent an attack---but they do it over and over again. When will we ever learn?
First step in our learning process is to not vote for any representative who votes for more war, or bailouts to the banksters, or who will not vote for Medicare for All, Single Payer. We have to kick the corrupt out of Congress and attempt to elect people who have some ethics. It is not a matter or political party. It is a matter of getting elected officials who will vote as advised by their constitutents instead of voting to please their corporate donors.
Iran should go green. It's too bad the leadership isn't more enlightend. They have all the resources they need...oil that is, to convert with gusto to a eco-friendly economy. Thereby setting an example and telling the rest of petoleum consuming world that we don't need your conflict. Their sales of crude could then sustain their efforts for years to come. Because, hey, the rest of us don't want to give up the nipple. Too bad the leadership isn't more enlightend
"What I wish for Iran is what I always wanted for Brazil -- a peaceful, civilian nuclear program."
–(Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.)
Iran has the right to all the nuclear programs, "peaceful "or otherwise that it desires. That includes any missiles that can target the regnant exponent of state terror and mass murder, Israel and its obsequious puppet– the United States.
Given the track record of recent history whom would one rather trust to withhold 'first strike' capability, Iran or Israel? –(Jill Bains)
Iran has not waged offensive war for almost two centuries, although it is very good at defense.
Our own National Intelligence Estimate was that Iran had no nuclear weapons program. This was verified by other nation's intelligence reports.
Iran is signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and as such has been open to inspection by the UN. (Unlike another Middle Eastern country who has signed no treaties, permitted no inspections, has a large number of nuclear armed long range missiles, and has threatened the "Sampson Option" if it doesn't get its way)
For political reasons and the further enrichment of the MIC, any such negative findings are to be ignored or discarded in favor of a picture of Iran as an out of control nation, just itching to incinerate the world.
I can think of only two nations with that intention. The United States of America and the other nation, parenthesized above. Neither of them are interested in the truth, but only accelerated greed and power.
If we REALLY want to entrench the Islamic Revolution nuts as the future government of Iran, bombing is a great idea.
godistwaddle: Why are they "nuts?" Are they bombing anyone or threatening to bomb/invade anyone? And if Iran is nuts, what does that say about the U.S., Britain, and Israel????
I must have been overtired. Certainly, Iran had a right to overthrow the Shah, and if it took the Islamist movement to do it.... I do, however, as my nickname indicates, distrust ANY religious involvement in government and particularly a theocracy. I despise religionists of all sorts, but I agree with your conclusion: the U.S., Britain, and Israel are utterly mad, and have been since 1945.
Iran could be awfully nuts and way saner than the US, Britain, or Israel.
lingum: we, rather our government has been running down and lying about all the other countries of the world since the turn of the last century - its part of our control mechanism to kill economic development and democracy everywhere
there never was a russian empire - there never was a cold war - its all propaganda in the same way that we have now swapped the russians for the arabs - so long as we are at war - making money - we are happy
the "communist threat" was never more than a pile of shit lies - like the iraq war build up - to convince the sheeple to support rockefeller's war machine, world domination and their eugenics movement
we have been at war without a break for over 100 years - its what we do
and like the bank bailout its all a scam
i hope and pray one day enough people will wake up to our corrupt gopvernment and corporations so that - in a truly democratic and humane act - we can stand them down
they've ruined our lives enough...
Better, bomb NEVER! Set the example and eliminate our own nukes, NOW!!
The US is the engine of war. Accept it (or not).
somebody's gotta do it.
but don't ask Me why, it gets me MaD!
Hmmm
Three points about Iran: First they no longer sell their oil in dollars. Second; the "international" banking community does not control Iranian banks. Third; it is clear that Iran is NOT attempting to build a bomb. But if they had the bomb, it would end Irsael's imperialistic march to annex large portions of the Middle East. No wonder Israel wants to destroy Iran!
Has anyone in the US noticed that the Dems and the Repubs on tv are equally to blame for repeating the lie that the Iranian prez "denies" the holocaust? I've heard him interviewed twice in America and he has clearly done no such thing.
He asked "where did the holocaust take place? Who was responsible? Were the Palestinians to blame?"
Any real journalist should have the cognitive capacity to understand these rhetorical questions.
Dems and Repubs also equally perpetuate the lie that Iran "wants to throw Israel into the sea". I heard him say no such thing, and, credit to the US media, the Iranian prez got ample time to speak, unlike the last time he visited a US university and was insulted by the very head of the institution that hosted him.
I guess I'm saying, I don't see much amelioration in the shoddy work done by both the official US press and the main party spokesmen. They are still on the same page when it comes to the ongoing surge towards regime change in the Middle East.
Right, his point was never that there was no Holocaust ... it was that furthur research indicates that it had nothing to do with Palestine now... and I think he means Iran as well!
I agree with everything in the article except there will be no bomb bomb bombing ...Iran is lookin Good now.... their new openness can inspire a new peace movement.
This takes the hammer out of the lies and propaganda
The world still looks for a better world.
Castro says of Obama:
http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles
/2009/0923reflexionFidel.htm
The exact same tactics used to justify the attack on Iraq followed by all the mea culpa's.
Seeing how well that worked and how little in the way of Blowback there no conceivable reason the powers that be would not resort to the same again.
They may have to take more measures to ensure evidence "found" to support the claims even if they have to plant it themselves.
You're quite right. I'm still surprised that the usa under bush didn't 'find' such evidence after they invaded Iraq. It's an indication of the contempt that they have for the people of the usa and the rest of the world that they didn't even try to cover their arses with such a fig leaf...
I read two seperate stories on that.
Folk will remember when Rumsfeld indicated they knew exactly where these WMDS were? According to one report a Pentagon official TESTIFIED that a convoy of "evidence" to plant was enroute and was hit by a US airstrike before it got there.
Google Nelda Rogers on this the story was in the papers a few days then vanished.
Another report indicated that Brewsters Jennings In fact intercepted a shipment of WMDS from Turkey enroute to Iraq and this was to be planted as Evidence. In this story it was claimed this the real reason Valerie Plame was outed with the result that Brewsters Jennings was exposed as a CIA front.
Given all the lies spread about Iraq and its WMDS it is hard to know just what the real facts are. A common tactic is to feed misinformation to news sources that later proves not to be credible just to make ANY information suspect.
Excellent work! Actually mentions some of the provisions of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty! Looks at the actual rights and motivations of the countries involved! Real context! Real reporting!
And as such, discarded by US media as "biased," and only appearing here via Asia Times Online.
That the global economy is teetering on the edge of a precipice is very clear to all. Even those singing the siren song of "recovery" know better. The important thing for working people to realize is that there will be no such thing. The economic system is going to stop working all together and relatively soon. When it happens your bank will disappear and your currency will be worthless, your grocery store will become an empty shell, your gas station will run dry, your lights will go out, your cell phone will stop working. As Gore Vidal said in a recent interview, the military will run the US by that time.
The process of economic breakdown may involve a relatively slow devolution or unwinding. Or the system may succumb to a shot in the back of the head, some event that brings it down suddenly and with a bang. In the meantime, the present rulers of the economy are being sorely tempted to throw a hail Mary pass to save their bacon. For instance, no matter how reckless and insane, a war will be launched with an attack on Iran by the U.S. or its proxies in Israel. Such a war would conceal the systemic economic failure and allow for the rationing and repression they must rely on to function awhile longer.
The present public relations campaign touting “recovery” is a delaying device. It is meant to allow the men in charge time to prepare and position themselves as best they can for their own survival. We should understand what they know: there will be no economic recovery! There is simply no rational economic reason for one to occur.
The capitalist economic system is experiencing a completely natural life cycle. From the time of the collapse of feudalism and its birth in the Industrial Revolution, capitalism was always destined to become a dominant global force. Globalization will be a historic marker as the zenith of its existence. But globalization robbed the system of the only thing that kept its fatal internal contradictions at bay—-growth. Capitalism has conquered the planet, it has nowhere else to feed. The time of its death is now at hand.
pepe my dear boy
you waste your breath trying to tell the sheeple the truth
they have no education, are insenstive to each other never mind foreign countries, they watch too much tv, they eat gmo's making them along with the british the fattest and most unhealthy populace in the world, they have no health care, they can't control either their politicians, banks or wall street, they are the most "homeless"country in the west with tent cities popping up everywhere, including hollywood in california, they are the biggest debtor nation in the world,they hold in their prisons ONE HALF of ALL jailed persons in this world, their corporations don't pay taxes but reap the benefits of welfare handouts everyday, they are the most racist except for israel country in the world, 1/3 of them can't read or write, 1/3 of them think that the end times - jesus's return to earth for the rapture - will occur any day now, they listen to fat boy limbaugh the drug adicted impotent walrus of the radio and glen peckerhead the tammy fay of tv - boo hoo - man boo hoo, they allowed an idiot like sarah you betcha palin to run for the vice-presidency, they look forward to reading her book - which she didn' even write but that'a another story, they think torture is ok, they think 19 arab boys with boxcutters started the war on terror, they think the war on terroris real, they don't know their own countries' history and could care less, they are so deluded they think the world looks up to them, they like to attack small and defensless countries but they won't pick a fight with anyone who can fight back, their cia runs the drug trade in the world especially the cocaine and heroin, their cia shot their president on national tv thanks to a secret service standown and they don't care about that either, they allowed bush to steal two elections and do they care - yawn
pepe, these are people who are not about to be distracted by the facts - not after all this time
nice try though - they haven't got a clue what your talking about and couldn't find half these countries on a map, including their own if their fat asses depended on it
but they quiver in fear - they require "security" - they are pathetic and their over bloated christian army has been unable to subdue irregulars in either iraq or afghanistan even after 7 years of indiscriminate killing
as i say, they are pathetic
I think you're wrong about some things here
While I agree, Americans are a distracted, small minded and selfish lot not likely to notice what's right under their noses, it's not because the majority is "right wing" (whatever that means).
If you look at the polls - what Americans SAY they want - you'll see that they're mostly fairly progressive. A majority of Americans want the U.S. out of the wars and they don't want any new ones. 60% want single payer health care. A large majority say corporations have too much power, 70% think global warming is a threat, 4 out of ten say it is a "serious threat." They say Washington is not listening to the people, etc. and so on.
A big problem is that too many of us Americans have a serious critical thinking deficit. Getting from A to B without mass confusion is typical. Thank commercial tv for that and the silly and often destructive school systems. Just because kids and teachers are busy, busy, busy, doesn't mean kids are learning to think for themselves.
The powers that be and the media they own utilize mass psychological devices to confuse us, distort the issues - every manipulative tool is used to divide and direct We the People. They don't want us to figure things out on our own and together. It's time we started building bridges rather than deepening the canyons .... as difficult as that might be. We need to use our imaginations.
OK 'Lebeau'
"Your words are like a song on my heart"
however------------------
If you think you are going to 'get away' with 'stealing my words' ---you better think again.
Beautifully said---
You have it correct lebeau. When an airhead like the pistol packin mama from Alaska's book is number 1 on the N.Y. Times best seller list and she did not even write most of it, that is pathetic!
"pepe my dear boy... you waste your breath trying to tell the sheeple the truth"
Not true.
I found this article informative, it reinforces some worldviews I already have, and gives me more facts to strengthen any argument against the pro-war right.
Lebeau, although much of what you say is true, your "lets give up, it's not worth it" attitude is the real waste of breath. Americans might be more apathetic then the rest of the world, but that can (and is) changing.
upper: i didn't say give up or anything like that - i just described the vast majority of our fellow countrymen who are indeed ignorant and under the influence of their highly corrupted government, media and society in general
they deserve no better
I couldn't agree more which is the reason why in Bush, the US got exactly what they deserve. It was almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
" They deserve no better". Very true, but I just wish they didn't have to take the rest of us with them on the Titanic!
The United States has been trying to make up reasons for years to bomb or invade Iran. Because of Iran's steadfast compliance with IAEA rules and an open inspections policy, the US has found it hard to get its lies to become operational enough to stage some sort of preemptive attack.
Behind all this continual disinformation campaign by us against Iran, a nation which has attacked no one, is our desire to establish more military bases in a strategic part of the world, looking toward showing China and Russia who's boss. Not to mention corporate access to oil resources second in size to Iraq's.
Our nation remains a continual threat to world peace.
Throw in Israel and its paranoia, greed, etc. and you've got the complete picture.
"the US has found it hard to get its lies to become operational enough "
When all else fails, False FlAG!