The Evisceration of Democracy
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
The following article is by Manuel Valenzuela a social critic, commentator,and Internet essayist.
The beginning of the end of democracy as Americans know it began with that fatefully deceitful election in 2000. What has been the natural and inevitable progression the destructive forces of unhindered capitalism were blindly leading Americans towards has come to completion. It is the mixture of government with big business, the combination of state power with that of the Leviathan that is the U.S powerful corporate-government elites and oligarchs dancing a cheery waltz of free power mongering, forming one of the most dangerous forces to be initiated by man. It is called fascism, brought to the U.S. by the unpredictable winds of defeated ideology and trickery.
From now on, the U.S corporate-government elites's puppet masters will do everything in their capacity to control the reins of power. Democracy in the U.S. is being eroded not by the sands of time but by the expropriators of the electorate.
This guideline for deception that greed has brought onto the U.S shores is common practice in some of the Latin America countries that claim to be democratic but in reality have run U.S backed quasi-dictatorships for decades. It is here in the U.S where the ruling elite minority creating in the masses the impression that their vote counted in an election that is labeled "clean and democratic."
In the end, widespread fraud has been committed through media and government propaganda and old time tradition of stuffing and losing ballots. When it is all said and done, the powerful elites have their man at the helm and the illusion is created whereby the masses are made to believe that the person who received the most votes now has a national permission to lead. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. This phenomenon is prevalent at the local, state and national levels of governance. It is a fight for power, money and control, of huge importance to a ruling party of robber barons that can both continue plundering the U.S nation blind and running them like their own feudal property. American people are now seeing the reality of this in their country.
The power of the U.S corporate-government elites is made that much stronger by having a willing puppet sitting in the White House. This can be seen in the incredible amount of laws, appropriations, tax breaks, pork, corporate welfare, privatization of government services, legal indifference, regulations and decisions made by Bush since taking office in favor of those personalities comprising the various parts of the U.S corporate-government elites. These actions, by consequence, have only served to squander American rights and freedoms by abusing American worker rights and wages, civil liberties, pollution laws, social services, education and the like. The pressure has also been exerted on Americans by creating a sense of fear amongst the population that makes it known that if they do not agree to these changes, they will be labeled and attacked, as in fascist tyrannies, as being "unpatriotic," "treasonous," and "sympathetic to the terrorists." Or after all, as Bush's funny slogan "You are either with us or against us".
What American 2000 and 2004 elections manifest is the great lengths the U.S corporate-government elites; composed of corporations, the military-industrial complex and the oil/energy cartels, and having an ignorant army of foot soldiers called fundamentalist Christians. These elections simply have to be won, even by a pervasive fraud that disenfranchised voters.
In deceitful American elections, tens of thousands of the U.S eligible Afro-American voters were eliminated from the voting records, in essence denied the opportunity to cast a vote by covertly being labeled with a criminal record they did not have or deserve. The elimination of thousands of votes of the black people, in a state that was a virtual toss-up, assured Bush of victory, and the corporate-government elites the Presidency. And, since the votes were black, in destitute and indigent areas, no scandal would be brought to the public conscious by a restrained and corporate-friendly media. The planning for this defrauding of American democracy was extensive, premeditated and particular. It is the result of power gone insane, of the consequences of allowing capitalism to run uncontrolled, full of money and greed, to corrupt a system that in 220-year-old paper. The clandestine sabotage of American democracy had been set in motion.
The past two Presidential election in the U.S were of paramount importance to the corporate-government elites and the Bush's neocon friends and today American people can see why. The takeover of America has commenced; the fusion of corporate and government power is upon them. Democracy is being constricted; American freedoms and rights of speech, protest, assembly and open criticism are methodically being curtailed. Opposition is being silenced, protests squashed. The Bill of Rights and the U.S Constitution are slowly being burned into dark gray ash. Fascism is on the horizon, its black horse riding thunderously through the plains of ignorance, slashing open government treasure and releasing the winds of war in its thrust to empire. American people are living in dangerous times, and, if nothing is done soon, their destiny will be forever scarred by the whips of totalitarianism.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Hope Flocks
Hope Flocks
By Steve Weber
Posted April 25, 2008 | 01:56 PM (EST)
The Huffington Post reports that the media's only now turned away from Obama. But did you really think for one minute the MSM would let it be otherwise?
The obviousness with which the media has historically evaded stories about Armenia, the Holocaust, East Timor, Cambodia, Darfur, the oligarchic reign of George Bush and the groundswell of a possible Obama presidency shows its overall mission to divert its consumers from anything compelling them to think for themselves, to ponder their own existences which might ultimately obviate the need for a mainstream media itself. But since they are rarely given that option people mostly forget they should care, as long as they are fed manufactured versions of life. They need it like they've always needed the story of the risen Christ, et al.: without it, the bleak reality would be too much for animals so cursed with self awareness. Truth (i.e., mortality) is just too terrifying to face without hopes, even if they are patently false.
To the all-powerful data-disseminators, the education of the individual is important only as it reinforces tribal cohesion and the nature of our modern society seems to suggest that life be lived in the macro rather than microcosm; the essence, the complexity, the beauty of the individual is ultimately fleeting, ultimately subsumed. It is the dense, dull momentum of the mass that seems to matter, understood only when seen as if from a great height, the individual sparks obliterated by the distance supplied by our media masters. No, no, this is how you should think, this is how you should feel. And above all, buy this...
So citizen: inform thyself and free thyself.
But how to? By severing our addiction to the vast amount of info-teats we tickle every minute we would surely starve. Didn't we create from necessity an information network of umbilical cords tethering us to mother society because we began to feel the pangs of curiousness? A nation of disparate hermits fumbling around trying to gather data pertinent to their own individual existences would be as efficient as those old electric vibrating football games where the "players" shivered aimlessly across the metal field, almost never scoring except by sheer accident.
So we trusted. But after a while trusting the media was the same as trusting that Og the Big One Who Went Outside The Cave would return with an objective report. What choice was there? We were scared of mammoths and the moon. The unfortunate thing is those trustees eventually weighed personal profit with responsibility and the former won out.
What better exemplifies both the dream and the reality of democracy? It is proof that for the tribal leaders the part of the brain wherein the conscience stirs is tiny, if not in ounces then in ethical scope. They are the parts of the brain that evolved intact from the trogs who wielded the most threatening bludgeons. Like all animals, humans flock. They all have some idea of where they'd like to go but in the end the appointed leader sets the course. And if said leader leads them to warmth and security, very well. If, however, it guides them into the side of a rocky butte, the leader pulling up at the last moment to save itself while the rest dash themselves, well then really: what could be more natural? But the question remains: when we see that crash coming--and we do--why don't we pull up?
Because trusting ourselves rather than our appointed leaders is the most frightening prospect of all. We'd be stepping out into a void. We'd be letting go of mommy and daddy's hand. When Adam and Eve eats the apple, self-awareness results in banishment and knowledge is death.
It's not so much that I am a rabid Obamabot, as some might say between snickers. It is that I am a rabid Hope-bot. And hope seems to dwell inside a particular individual who expressed a sentiment not heard for some time and in a way that seemed to imply a chance at individual empowerment unseen and unheard for too long a period. In an environment where the tribal imperative seems to be 24-hour a day consumerism, it is the message of hope offered as an alternative to the dull inevitability embodied a blindly trusting and too easily led mass which inspires. As concepts they shouldn't be mutually exclusive. But as tales woven by the Mainstream Media, they are and forever shall be.
By Steve Weber
Posted April 25, 2008 | 01:56 PM (EST)
The Huffington Post reports that the media's only now turned away from Obama. But did you really think for one minute the MSM would let it be otherwise?
The obviousness with which the media has historically evaded stories about Armenia, the Holocaust, East Timor, Cambodia, Darfur, the oligarchic reign of George Bush and the groundswell of a possible Obama presidency shows its overall mission to divert its consumers from anything compelling them to think for themselves, to ponder their own existences which might ultimately obviate the need for a mainstream media itself. But since they are rarely given that option people mostly forget they should care, as long as they are fed manufactured versions of life. They need it like they've always needed the story of the risen Christ, et al.: without it, the bleak reality would be too much for animals so cursed with self awareness. Truth (i.e., mortality) is just too terrifying to face without hopes, even if they are patently false.
To the all-powerful data-disseminators, the education of the individual is important only as it reinforces tribal cohesion and the nature of our modern society seems to suggest that life be lived in the macro rather than microcosm; the essence, the complexity, the beauty of the individual is ultimately fleeting, ultimately subsumed. It is the dense, dull momentum of the mass that seems to matter, understood only when seen as if from a great height, the individual sparks obliterated by the distance supplied by our media masters. No, no, this is how you should think, this is how you should feel. And above all, buy this...
So citizen: inform thyself and free thyself.
But how to? By severing our addiction to the vast amount of info-teats we tickle every minute we would surely starve. Didn't we create from necessity an information network of umbilical cords tethering us to mother society because we began to feel the pangs of curiousness? A nation of disparate hermits fumbling around trying to gather data pertinent to their own individual existences would be as efficient as those old electric vibrating football games where the "players" shivered aimlessly across the metal field, almost never scoring except by sheer accident.
So we trusted. But after a while trusting the media was the same as trusting that Og the Big One Who Went Outside The Cave would return with an objective report. What choice was there? We were scared of mammoths and the moon. The unfortunate thing is those trustees eventually weighed personal profit with responsibility and the former won out.
What better exemplifies both the dream and the reality of democracy? It is proof that for the tribal leaders the part of the brain wherein the conscience stirs is tiny, if not in ounces then in ethical scope. They are the parts of the brain that evolved intact from the trogs who wielded the most threatening bludgeons. Like all animals, humans flock. They all have some idea of where they'd like to go but in the end the appointed leader sets the course. And if said leader leads them to warmth and security, very well. If, however, it guides them into the side of a rocky butte, the leader pulling up at the last moment to save itself while the rest dash themselves, well then really: what could be more natural? But the question remains: when we see that crash coming--and we do--why don't we pull up?
Because trusting ourselves rather than our appointed leaders is the most frightening prospect of all. We'd be stepping out into a void. We'd be letting go of mommy and daddy's hand. When Adam and Eve eats the apple, self-awareness results in banishment and knowledge is death.
It's not so much that I am a rabid Obamabot, as some might say between snickers. It is that I am a rabid Hope-bot. And hope seems to dwell inside a particular individual who expressed a sentiment not heard for some time and in a way that seemed to imply a chance at individual empowerment unseen and unheard for too long a period. In an environment where the tribal imperative seems to be 24-hour a day consumerism, it is the message of hope offered as an alternative to the dull inevitability embodied a blindly trusting and too easily led mass which inspires. As concepts they shouldn't be mutually exclusive. But as tales woven by the Mainstream Media, they are and forever shall be.
Friday, April 25, 2008
US Army Veteran Accused of Passing Classified Nuclear Secrets to Israel
From The Times April 24, 2008
US Army veteran accused of passing classified nuclear secrets to Israel
James Bone and Sheera Frenkel
The arrest of an octogenarian US Army veteran in a decades-old spying case has aroused suspicions that Israel maintained a wider espionage network in the US than ever acknowledged.
Ben-Ami Kadish, 84, who lives in a retirement community in New Jersey, was charged on Tuesday with leaking American secrets about nuclear arms, the Patriot missile defence system and the F15 fighter jet to Israel in the early 1980s.
Prosecutors said that Mr Kadish had confessed to allowing an Israeli diplomat to photograph more than 35 classified documents, from 1979 to 1985, while working as a mechanical engineer at the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The case alleges that a second Israeli spying operation was running alongside that of Jonathan Pollard, the US naval intelligence analyst arrested in 1985 and jailed for life for passing military secrets to the Jewish state.
Court papers say that Mr Kadish reported to the same handler as Pollard, a scientific attaché at the Israeli Consulate in New York who left the US after Pollard’s arrest.
The US-born Mr Kadish, who fought with the Jewish Haganah against British rule in Palestine, took small gifts and occasional dinners but no cash for the information he provided, court papers claim.
US Army veteran accused of passing classified nuclear secrets to Israel
James Bone and Sheera Frenkel
The arrest of an octogenarian US Army veteran in a decades-old spying case has aroused suspicions that Israel maintained a wider espionage network in the US than ever acknowledged.
Ben-Ami Kadish, 84, who lives in a retirement community in New Jersey, was charged on Tuesday with leaking American secrets about nuclear arms, the Patriot missile defence system and the F15 fighter jet to Israel in the early 1980s.
Prosecutors said that Mr Kadish had confessed to allowing an Israeli diplomat to photograph more than 35 classified documents, from 1979 to 1985, while working as a mechanical engineer at the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The case alleges that a second Israeli spying operation was running alongside that of Jonathan Pollard, the US naval intelligence analyst arrested in 1985 and jailed for life for passing military secrets to the Jewish state.
Court papers say that Mr Kadish reported to the same handler as Pollard, a scientific attaché at the Israeli Consulate in New York who left the US after Pollard’s arrest.
The US-born Mr Kadish, who fought with the Jewish Haganah against British rule in Palestine, took small gifts and occasional dinners but no cash for the information he provided, court papers claim.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
When Rationality Fails, Does Faith-Based Fascism Prevail?
Posted: 19 Apr 2008 02:09 PM CDT
It’s not difficult to argue that the alliance of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini was akin to two rival gangs uniting to bully the folks in the neighborhood. The long-standing constructs of thuggery remain intact today and the ransacking of Rome’s LGBT Center is proof positive that rational thought is often the victim of formative fascist ideations. The degree to which these perpetrators draw some of their justifications from faith-based dogma merits exploration.
From 365Gay.com:
(Rome) Rome police are searching for members of a mob of youths who burst into the city’s LGBT center, ransacking the building.
The attack on Mario Mieli Homosexual Cultural Circle occurred Thursday night while members were in the building.
As they attempted to confront the gang the youths yelled anti-gay and anti-Semitic slogans. As they ran off the gang yelled praises for Benito Mussolini, Italy’s wartime dictator.
“We fear that this situation is linked to the electoral climate,” the association said in a statement.
Rome is in the midst of a mayoral runoff between rightist and leftist candidates.
Earlier this week Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister when his rightwing coalition swept national elections.
Fascist and Nazi youth have stepped up their visibility since the election.
In the north of Italy this week police broke up what is described as a neo-Nazi gang arresting 16 people on charges of inciting discrimination, hatred and violence based on race, ethnicity and nationality.
Police said the gang had ties to skinhead and Neo-Nazi groups in Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
All too often the Catholic Church has given tacit legitimacy to such acts through encyclicals that condemn homosexuality and exhort its followers (especially politicians) to defend the family. The recent effort on the part of the Church to influence the elections in Spain highlight the willingness of the Vatican to scapegoat gays in an effort to reassert its relevance.
From The Times Online:
Spanish bishops waded into the election campaign […] when they effectively directed Spaniards to vote against the Government and in favour of the conservative Popular Party.
In a paper setting out the Church’s “moral guidance” for voters, the Episcopal Conference attacked the Government’s moves to legalise gay marriage, make divorce easier and remove religious education from the compulsory school curriculum.
Relations between the Church and the Left have been poisoned since the Civil War in the 1930s, when Communist and Anarchist irregulars burnt churches and killed thousands of priests. The Spanish Church strongly supported Franco’s Fascist dictatorship and some bishops were even pictured in stiff-armed salutes.
To understand the reticence of the Church to acknowledge its duplicity in promoting discrimination and persecution, one need only recall that it wasn’t until the year 2,000 that Pope John Paul II held his “Day of Pardon” mass. That historic mass, designed to atone for the misguided acts and omissions of the Church, followed its tardy and tepid apology in 1998 for remaining silent during the extermination of millions by the Nazis.
From The Guardian:
From the altar of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome he led Catholicism into unchartered territory by seeking forgiveness for sins committed against Jews, heretics, women, Gypsies and native peoples.
Fighting through trembles and slurrings caused by Parkinson’s disease, the Pope electrified ranks of cardinals and bishops by pleading for a future that would not repeat the mistakes. “Never again,” he said.
Centuries of hate and rivalry could not recur in the third millennium. “We forgive and we ask forgiveness. We are asking pardon for the divisions among Christians, for the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth, and for attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed towards followers of other religions.”
Defying warnings from some theologians that the unprecedented apology would undermine the church’s authority, the 79-year-old pontiff asked God to forgive the persecution of the Jews. “We are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood.”
Wearing the purple vestments of lenten mourning, the Pope sought pardon for seven categories of sin: general sins; sins in the service of truth; sins against Christian unity; against the Jews; against respect for love, peace and cultures; against the dignity of women and minorities; and against human rights.
There was no reference to homosexuals, who had asked to be included for suffering theocratic violence.
Ironically, even those of the Jewish faith…who have been highly critical of the Catholic Church’s behavior during the Holocaust…have participated in the vilification of gays. The controversy over World Pride Day being held in Jerusalem drew outrage and condemnation from within Israel as well as from the Vatican.
The fact that Pope Benedict XVI is just beginning to acknowledge and address the child molestation that has existed in the Church for decades simply places an exclamation mark on the hypocrisy that has typified its deference to silence in the face of adversity. Ever mindful of its need for power, the Catholic Church has all too often placated history’s hoodlums and participating in vilifying those most in need of protection.
How the Church can justify years of stonewalling victims of pedophile priests while simultaneously assailing the acts of consenting and loving adults is beyond comprehension. While summarily destroying the lives of thousands of children and protecting their own from prosecution, they have the audacity to hold homosexuals accountable for the decay of the family.
Given the Church’s stance, there is no doubt it will be a future Pope who will be forced to issue an apology for the victimization of gays. What remains to be seen is the degree to which the Church was a player in fomenting the fascist feelings that are beginning to emerge.
Perhaps I’m biased, but when I witness Pope Benedict XVI being idolized by throngs of followers at the new National’s stadium and I envision the same soon happening at Yankee Stadium, I can’t help but think about my visit to the Coliseum in Rome. Granted, there aren’t any lions or tigers being released from cages to devour the deviants at these Papal masses…but the alarming number of attacks on the LGBT community coupled with the track record of pedophile priests diddling while Rome turned its head have all the makings of another “Day of Pardon”.
As a matter of practicality, I struggle to see the merits of a monolithic ministry that makes the same mistakes over and over again. For all the assertions that the Pope is infallible, there are far more historical records indicating that he and his cohorts are run of the mill bullies who foster the fallacies of each new flavor of faith-based fascism.
Cross-posted at Thought Theater
Posted: 19 Apr 2008 02:09 PM CDT
It’s not difficult to argue that the alliance of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini was akin to two rival gangs uniting to bully the folks in the neighborhood. The long-standing constructs of thuggery remain intact today and the ransacking of Rome’s LGBT Center is proof positive that rational thought is often the victim of formative fascist ideations. The degree to which these perpetrators draw some of their justifications from faith-based dogma merits exploration.
From 365Gay.com:
(Rome) Rome police are searching for members of a mob of youths who burst into the city’s LGBT center, ransacking the building.
The attack on Mario Mieli Homosexual Cultural Circle occurred Thursday night while members were in the building.
As they attempted to confront the gang the youths yelled anti-gay and anti-Semitic slogans. As they ran off the gang yelled praises for Benito Mussolini, Italy’s wartime dictator.
“We fear that this situation is linked to the electoral climate,” the association said in a statement.
Rome is in the midst of a mayoral runoff between rightist and leftist candidates.
Earlier this week Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister when his rightwing coalition swept national elections.
Fascist and Nazi youth have stepped up their visibility since the election.
In the north of Italy this week police broke up what is described as a neo-Nazi gang arresting 16 people on charges of inciting discrimination, hatred and violence based on race, ethnicity and nationality.
Police said the gang had ties to skinhead and Neo-Nazi groups in Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
All too often the Catholic Church has given tacit legitimacy to such acts through encyclicals that condemn homosexuality and exhort its followers (especially politicians) to defend the family. The recent effort on the part of the Church to influence the elections in Spain highlight the willingness of the Vatican to scapegoat gays in an effort to reassert its relevance.
From The Times Online:
Spanish bishops waded into the election campaign […] when they effectively directed Spaniards to vote against the Government and in favour of the conservative Popular Party.
In a paper setting out the Church’s “moral guidance” for voters, the Episcopal Conference attacked the Government’s moves to legalise gay marriage, make divorce easier and remove religious education from the compulsory school curriculum.
Relations between the Church and the Left have been poisoned since the Civil War in the 1930s, when Communist and Anarchist irregulars burnt churches and killed thousands of priests. The Spanish Church strongly supported Franco’s Fascist dictatorship and some bishops were even pictured in stiff-armed salutes.
To understand the reticence of the Church to acknowledge its duplicity in promoting discrimination and persecution, one need only recall that it wasn’t until the year 2,000 that Pope John Paul II held his “Day of Pardon” mass. That historic mass, designed to atone for the misguided acts and omissions of the Church, followed its tardy and tepid apology in 1998 for remaining silent during the extermination of millions by the Nazis.
From The Guardian:
From the altar of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome he led Catholicism into unchartered territory by seeking forgiveness for sins committed against Jews, heretics, women, Gypsies and native peoples.
Fighting through trembles and slurrings caused by Parkinson’s disease, the Pope electrified ranks of cardinals and bishops by pleading for a future that would not repeat the mistakes. “Never again,” he said.
Centuries of hate and rivalry could not recur in the third millennium. “We forgive and we ask forgiveness. We are asking pardon for the divisions among Christians, for the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth, and for attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed towards followers of other religions.”
Defying warnings from some theologians that the unprecedented apology would undermine the church’s authority, the 79-year-old pontiff asked God to forgive the persecution of the Jews. “We are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood.”
Wearing the purple vestments of lenten mourning, the Pope sought pardon for seven categories of sin: general sins; sins in the service of truth; sins against Christian unity; against the Jews; against respect for love, peace and cultures; against the dignity of women and minorities; and against human rights.
There was no reference to homosexuals, who had asked to be included for suffering theocratic violence.
Ironically, even those of the Jewish faith…who have been highly critical of the Catholic Church’s behavior during the Holocaust…have participated in the vilification of gays. The controversy over World Pride Day being held in Jerusalem drew outrage and condemnation from within Israel as well as from the Vatican.
The fact that Pope Benedict XVI is just beginning to acknowledge and address the child molestation that has existed in the Church for decades simply places an exclamation mark on the hypocrisy that has typified its deference to silence in the face of adversity. Ever mindful of its need for power, the Catholic Church has all too often placated history’s hoodlums and participating in vilifying those most in need of protection.
How the Church can justify years of stonewalling victims of pedophile priests while simultaneously assailing the acts of consenting and loving adults is beyond comprehension. While summarily destroying the lives of thousands of children and protecting their own from prosecution, they have the audacity to hold homosexuals accountable for the decay of the family.
Given the Church’s stance, there is no doubt it will be a future Pope who will be forced to issue an apology for the victimization of gays. What remains to be seen is the degree to which the Church was a player in fomenting the fascist feelings that are beginning to emerge.
Perhaps I’m biased, but when I witness Pope Benedict XVI being idolized by throngs of followers at the new National’s stadium and I envision the same soon happening at Yankee Stadium, I can’t help but think about my visit to the Coliseum in Rome. Granted, there aren’t any lions or tigers being released from cages to devour the deviants at these Papal masses…but the alarming number of attacks on the LGBT community coupled with the track record of pedophile priests diddling while Rome turned its head have all the makings of another “Day of Pardon”.
As a matter of practicality, I struggle to see the merits of a monolithic ministry that makes the same mistakes over and over again. For all the assertions that the Pope is infallible, there are far more historical records indicating that he and his cohorts are run of the mill bullies who foster the fallacies of each new flavor of faith-based fascism.
Cross-posted at Thought Theater
Thursday, April 17, 2008
What are they dying for?
More Than 4000 American Soldiers Have Died - For This??
Posted: 16 Apr 2008 08:10 PM CDT All Spin Zone
Over the past month, fighting has intensified dramatically in Iraq. Even though the legacy media has mostly ignored the bloodshed in favor of polygamists in Texas or whatever verbal gaffe one of the Dem presidential nominees has made during the course of a news cycle, Iraq has remained largely out of the mainstream consciousness. Do you really think that the average American paid much attention to the testimony last week of Gen. David Petraeus or Ambassador Ryan Cocker? Think again.
But one thing we’ve been hearing over and over again (at least when someone in the administration actually ventures a public comment about Iraq) is that the Iraqi Army continues to improve and assume responsibility for security in various strategic areas in the country. We saw how well that worked out in Basra. Supreme Iraqi Commander Nouri al-Maliki was one mortar shell away from having his ass handed to him by Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. At least 1900 members of the Iraqi Army deserted in Basra and were subsequently fired (speaking as a former military guy, how do you “fire” a soldier, anyway?).
We haven’t been getting much news out of Baghdad’s Sadr City recently, but whatever news has actually been trickling out hasn’t been good. There’s basically a 24X7 lockdown in effect, and it’s been reported that a humanitarian crisis is developing - not that there hasn’t been one since, oh, about 2003. But I digress.
Today, the New York Times published a rather shocking report about an Iraqi Army unit that deserted its post in Sadr City in the middle of a firefight on Tuesday. They just quit, and withdrew. At least, that’s how the story is being portrayed in the legacy media. But what the NYT reported was a bit beyond “Iraqi unit deserted”. It clearly lays out the legacy that George W. Bush and his merry band of incompetents will be leaving to his successor.
“Every house in Sadr City probably has one of their sons in the Mahdi Army,” [Iraqi Army Major Sattar] observed when American soldiers visited his position on Monday. “So it is hard to convince people to believe in the Iraqi Army.”
When he arrived at the Americans’ position on Tuesday, the Iraqi officer reported that many of his soldiers had taken off their uniforms and deserted after other Iraqi Army commanders failed to send reinforcements during a gun battle with militias that he said had lasted several hours…
Maybe Maj. Sattar didn’t have the phone number of the local battalion headquarters? Or couldn’t send out smoke signals? Hmmm. More on communications issues in a bit.
Major Sattar calmly explained that he was leading the remainder of his 80-man company away from the fight [remember, there were already desertions]. As if to underscore the point, a convoy of Iraqi vehicles piled high with furniture was parked in front of the American position…
So, the Iraqi Army went furniture shopping, and then decided to blow out of town rather than guard their assigned territory? My bullshit detector also tells me that the pockets of the soldiers should have been searched for rolls of hard currency.
“You went through a whole battle and are now removing yourself?” Captain Veath asked incredulously. “Are any of your men dead?”
Major Sattar acknowledged that his unit had several wounded but none killed. But he and other Iraqi soldiers insisted that they were poorly equipped to battle the militias. Iraqi forces, they said, were short of ammunition, had only a few armored vehicles and were up against militia fighters they said were equipped and trained by the Iranians…
So, I guess that Major Sattar got up close and personal with some of the militia fighters - close enough to see bills of sale and training records from Iranian bad guys? Something is starting to smell rather robust about this whole incident.
“We are not afraid,” the major responded.
No, they got what they came for - payoffs and dry goods.
He also complained that he had no means to communicate directly with the American troops.
“That is an excuse, and you know it,” [U.S.] Captain Veath shot back. He argued that one of the major’s platoons was situated just 100 yards from some of the American Stryker vehicles and that the two sides had agreed that the Iraqis could send a runner over to the vehicles to ask for help if necessary…
$20 billion American taxpayer dollars spent training and outfitting the Iraqi Army, and the FUCKING RADIOS DON’T WORK? No one has a cell phone?? They have to resort to 490 BC Greco-Persian war era communications??? Bullets and mortar shells flying, and the best they can do from a communications standpoint is “send a runner” the length of a football field (and back) to receive orders and direction???? Oy, my aching wallet.
The Bush administration recently requested another $108 billion appropriation to continue this crap. It’s become crystal clear that the majority of the Iraqi army is in it for the paycheck only. There’s no other reasonable explanation. And as soon as the going gets hot, many of them simply up and quit the battle.
I’m sure that we’ll hear word in the next day or two that Major Sattar has either been summarily fired or executed, and that he and his squad were simply a poorly trained group of rouge elements within the Iraqi Army. In the heat of the battle, though, when you’re out-manned, out-gunned, and out-numbered, a good commander cuts his losses.
Or at least walks away alive with the spoils of war, such as Ikea shelving units, strapped to the top of his command vehicle.
Posted: 16 Apr 2008 08:10 PM CDT All Spin Zone
Over the past month, fighting has intensified dramatically in Iraq. Even though the legacy media has mostly ignored the bloodshed in favor of polygamists in Texas or whatever verbal gaffe one of the Dem presidential nominees has made during the course of a news cycle, Iraq has remained largely out of the mainstream consciousness. Do you really think that the average American paid much attention to the testimony last week of Gen. David Petraeus or Ambassador Ryan Cocker? Think again.
But one thing we’ve been hearing over and over again (at least when someone in the administration actually ventures a public comment about Iraq) is that the Iraqi Army continues to improve and assume responsibility for security in various strategic areas in the country. We saw how well that worked out in Basra. Supreme Iraqi Commander Nouri al-Maliki was one mortar shell away from having his ass handed to him by Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. At least 1900 members of the Iraqi Army deserted in Basra and were subsequently fired (speaking as a former military guy, how do you “fire” a soldier, anyway?).
We haven’t been getting much news out of Baghdad’s Sadr City recently, but whatever news has actually been trickling out hasn’t been good. There’s basically a 24X7 lockdown in effect, and it’s been reported that a humanitarian crisis is developing - not that there hasn’t been one since, oh, about 2003. But I digress.
Today, the New York Times published a rather shocking report about an Iraqi Army unit that deserted its post in Sadr City in the middle of a firefight on Tuesday. They just quit, and withdrew. At least, that’s how the story is being portrayed in the legacy media. But what the NYT reported was a bit beyond “Iraqi unit deserted”. It clearly lays out the legacy that George W. Bush and his merry band of incompetents will be leaving to his successor.
“Every house in Sadr City probably has one of their sons in the Mahdi Army,” [Iraqi Army Major Sattar] observed when American soldiers visited his position on Monday. “So it is hard to convince people to believe in the Iraqi Army.”
When he arrived at the Americans’ position on Tuesday, the Iraqi officer reported that many of his soldiers had taken off their uniforms and deserted after other Iraqi Army commanders failed to send reinforcements during a gun battle with militias that he said had lasted several hours…
Maybe Maj. Sattar didn’t have the phone number of the local battalion headquarters? Or couldn’t send out smoke signals? Hmmm. More on communications issues in a bit.
Major Sattar calmly explained that he was leading the remainder of his 80-man company away from the fight [remember, there were already desertions]. As if to underscore the point, a convoy of Iraqi vehicles piled high with furniture was parked in front of the American position…
So, the Iraqi Army went furniture shopping, and then decided to blow out of town rather than guard their assigned territory? My bullshit detector also tells me that the pockets of the soldiers should have been searched for rolls of hard currency.
“You went through a whole battle and are now removing yourself?” Captain Veath asked incredulously. “Are any of your men dead?”
Major Sattar acknowledged that his unit had several wounded but none killed. But he and other Iraqi soldiers insisted that they were poorly equipped to battle the militias. Iraqi forces, they said, were short of ammunition, had only a few armored vehicles and were up against militia fighters they said were equipped and trained by the Iranians…
So, I guess that Major Sattar got up close and personal with some of the militia fighters - close enough to see bills of sale and training records from Iranian bad guys? Something is starting to smell rather robust about this whole incident.
“We are not afraid,” the major responded.
No, they got what they came for - payoffs and dry goods.
He also complained that he had no means to communicate directly with the American troops.
“That is an excuse, and you know it,” [U.S.] Captain Veath shot back. He argued that one of the major’s platoons was situated just 100 yards from some of the American Stryker vehicles and that the two sides had agreed that the Iraqis could send a runner over to the vehicles to ask for help if necessary…
$20 billion American taxpayer dollars spent training and outfitting the Iraqi Army, and the FUCKING RADIOS DON’T WORK? No one has a cell phone?? They have to resort to 490 BC Greco-Persian war era communications??? Bullets and mortar shells flying, and the best they can do from a communications standpoint is “send a runner” the length of a football field (and back) to receive orders and direction???? Oy, my aching wallet.
The Bush administration recently requested another $108 billion appropriation to continue this crap. It’s become crystal clear that the majority of the Iraqi army is in it for the paycheck only. There’s no other reasonable explanation. And as soon as the going gets hot, many of them simply up and quit the battle.
I’m sure that we’ll hear word in the next day or two that Major Sattar has either been summarily fired or executed, and that he and his squad were simply a poorly trained group of rouge elements within the Iraqi Army. In the heat of the battle, though, when you’re out-manned, out-gunned, and out-numbered, a good commander cuts his losses.
Or at least walks away alive with the spoils of war, such as Ikea shelving units, strapped to the top of his command vehicle.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Palestinian cameraman killed in Israeli attack on central Gaza
www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-17 00:17:03
GAZA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A local cameraman working for Reuters Television was killed in an Israeli attack on central Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian witnesses and medics reported.
Witnesses said an Israeli artillery shell hit the white armored jeep of Faddel Ouda Shana'a in the neighborhood of Johr el-Deikeast of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
Medics at al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza Strip said Shana'a was killed in the shelling and his body was brought to the hospital.
Earlier, nine Palestinians were killed and 20 others wounded in an Israeli strike in the same area, according to Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian health ministry.
Hassanein said women and children were among the nine victims, adding that 20 more people were injured, five of them in critical conditions.
Palestinian residents said an Israeli helicopter fired at least four air-to-ground missiles at a mosque and two neighboring houses in Johr el-Deik neighborhood east of al-Bureij refugee camp.
The same neighborhood was stormed by several Israeli army tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers earlier in the day, and witnessed an exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers.
In northern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian militant was killed and five others were injured in two separate Israeli airstrike earlier on Wednesday.
In addition, four Islamic Hamas militants and three Israeli soldiers were killed during an Israeli ground operations near the borders between eastern Gaza and Israel early in the morning
GAZA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A local cameraman working for Reuters Television was killed in an Israeli attack on central Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian witnesses and medics reported.
Witnesses said an Israeli artillery shell hit the white armored jeep of Faddel Ouda Shana'a in the neighborhood of Johr el-Deikeast of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
Medics at al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza Strip said Shana'a was killed in the shelling and his body was brought to the hospital.
Earlier, nine Palestinians were killed and 20 others wounded in an Israeli strike in the same area, according to Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian health ministry.
Hassanein said women and children were among the nine victims, adding that 20 more people were injured, five of them in critical conditions.
Palestinian residents said an Israeli helicopter fired at least four air-to-ground missiles at a mosque and two neighboring houses in Johr el-Deik neighborhood east of al-Bureij refugee camp.
The same neighborhood was stormed by several Israeli army tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers earlier in the day, and witnessed an exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers.
In northern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian militant was killed and five others were injured in two separate Israeli airstrike earlier on Wednesday.
In addition, four Islamic Hamas militants and three Israeli soldiers were killed during an Israeli ground operations near the borders between eastern Gaza and Israel early in the morning
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Carter to meet with Hamas to promote peace
Carter Defends Plan to Meet Hamas to Promote Middle East Peace
By Matthew Benjamin
April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter defended his decision to meet with leaders of Hamas, saying the militant Palestinian group will need to be included in any peace agreement with Israel.
``I think someone should be meeting with Hamas to see what we can do to encourage them to be cooperative and to find out what their attitude is,'' Carter said on the ABC News program ``This Week.''
Carter's decision to meet with Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, was discouraged by the U.S. State Department last week.
The 83-year-old former president said he will also meet with Hamas's rival Fatah as well as with the Israelis, Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians and Saudis.
``If Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors,'' said Carter, ``Hamas will have to be included in the process.''
``I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views,'' to encourage them to halt attacks on Israelis and cooperate with Fatah ``and maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire,'' Carter said.
Carter said his broad mission in the Middle East is ``to promote peace in the region.'' He said ``you can't always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them.''
Carter added that he'll provide his findings to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Beijing Olympics
The former president also said the U.S. shouldn't boycott the Beijing Olympics this year over China's crackdown on unrest in Tibet. Carter led the U.S. boycott of the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan earlier that year.
``That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people,'' Carter said. ``They were threatening to go further south and take over other countries.''
Carter spoke with ABC from Nepal, where he is monitoring elections.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Benjamin in Washington at mbenjamin2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 13, 2008 11:21 EDT
By Matthew Benjamin
April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter defended his decision to meet with leaders of Hamas, saying the militant Palestinian group will need to be included in any peace agreement with Israel.
``I think someone should be meeting with Hamas to see what we can do to encourage them to be cooperative and to find out what their attitude is,'' Carter said on the ABC News program ``This Week.''
Carter's decision to meet with Hamas, which is labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, was discouraged by the U.S. State Department last week.
The 83-year-old former president said he will also meet with Hamas's rival Fatah as well as with the Israelis, Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians and Saudis.
``If Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors,'' said Carter, ``Hamas will have to be included in the process.''
``I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views,'' to encourage them to halt attacks on Israelis and cooperate with Fatah ``and maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire,'' Carter said.
Carter said his broad mission in the Middle East is ``to promote peace in the region.'' He said ``you can't always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them.''
Carter added that he'll provide his findings to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Beijing Olympics
The former president also said the U.S. shouldn't boycott the Beijing Olympics this year over China's crackdown on unrest in Tibet. Carter led the U.S. boycott of the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan earlier that year.
``That was a totally different experience in 1980, when the Soviet Union had brutally invaded and killed thousands and thousands of people,'' Carter said. ``They were threatening to go further south and take over other countries.''
Carter spoke with ABC from Nepal, where he is monitoring elections.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Benjamin in Washington at mbenjamin2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 13, 2008 11:21 EDT
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thoughts
The War in Iraq is not only not connected to Osama Bin Laden and 9/11 in any way, it is a planned path by US gov’t officials to invade Iran. As our leading Presidential Candidate John McCain says: Bomb.bomb. bomb. bomb bomb Iran-to the tune of Barbra Ann, the Beach Boys. Wake up, everyone! President Ahmadinejad of Iran made the comment that this large and powerful nation (the US) has over 100,000 troops in Iraq, and Iran is accused of interfering? Please, everyone,wake up and question everything we've been taught!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
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