A Crossroad in Time.

August, 2004,  Tony van Renterghem.  WW-II Veteran For Peace.

We, as a nation and as individuals, stand at a crossroad in time, where we,  like our founding fathers in 1776, have to decide whether we intend to follow their example and opt for the ideals upon which our nation was founded, or succumb without a struggle to the corporate greed, power and corruption of the very wealthy, their control of the media, and their brazen efforts at even controlling the tallying of our vote.  Are we going to be a free and righteous nation, setting an example to the family of mankind, trying to make an honest living and practicing  the Golden Rule, as our founding fathers had hoped?  Or will we allow ourselves to become  ignorant slaves of an elite who believe they are superior beings, above International Law, pretending that it is our Nation’s “Manifest Destiny” to rule by force and war as the bullies of this world, practicing  neo-colonial policies and slave- and child labor, to exploit other nations’ resources?

From being an admired example of Freedom, we have become the world’s most-hated Nation.  Is that really the future you want for your children and for yourself; exhausted, ignorant, lethargic, fat, bloated, mal-fed boob-tube-watchers, addicts fed inane, mind-rotting, violent “shows” and mendacious non-information?  Time to wake up and say “I won’t take it any longer!”  The first small step is taking the trouble to become informed.

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A  REVIEW  OF  OUR PRESENT  SITUATION (August 2004)

IRAQ; leave now,  or face defeat and dishonor.

The reasons why we have to :

The present situation resembles a chess game in which we are check-mated. We must accept the fact that, like Vietnam, we cannot win (without using politically-suicidal mass bombing and cruel mass “collateral“ death ) but, we can still withdraw with some honor, if we are willing to give up our obvious oil grab and corporate piracy.  If not, we will suffer ignominious defeat at an enormous cost, both financially and in human lives --ours and theirs-- while whatever little bit of international goodwill and prestige still exists will be lost irrevocably.  We must stop our efforts to achieve this resurgence of 19th century Manifest Destiny and Imperial Colonialism.

Throughout history, Empires have existed whose wealthy citizens lived in luxury off the labor of slaves captured in war and of the goods robbed from the occupied lands. Theories like Manifest Destiny, White Supremacy, or God-Given Rights of Ownership & Supremacy, flourished hand-in-hand with slavery. These theories were refined adding a concept of “benevolent” Colonialism where the governing elite pretended that they, “being more civilized, more clever and Christian,” would help to relieve these occupied regions, not only from their wealth and free labor, but from their Pagan “Sin”!  It took two deadly, brutal, greedy world wars in which the world fought over these colonies and, in so doing, almost destroyed itself and its own economies, except, of course, for the war profiteers who made billions.   Oddly, the countries involved were so weakened militarily that most of the colonies shook off their yokes and succeeded in becoming independent from their rulers. 

Or so they thought, for a new and better rip-off system evolved, the multi-national corporation, which forms a State outside of the Nation. Many discovered that by forming a multi-national, military-industrial complex they could act independently and even create their own war situations, which, along with government-sponsored drug dealing, reaped huge, unsupervised drug and war profits.  The British had first done this in the early 1800’s in their Opium Wars against China, when the latter, trying to prevent the growing drug addiction, “dared” to forbid the British’s lucrative import of opium.  The British  won the war and resumed their official drug dealing, causing terrible addiction and misery in China.  During  the Vietnam war and Nixon’s unauthorized military actions in Cambodia and Laos, these actions were financed by the CIA dealing in drugs that were shipped to the U.S. in body bags and sold there. The same happened during the Iran Contra scandal, when Special Ops flew weapons to the Contras and safely flew back with full loads of drugs to finance their illegal operations, while simultaneously enriching themselves; no questions asked. 

The present wars are not just for control of oil.  Nothing is more lucrative for a small “in” group than starting and operating a war and reaping the war profits.  The Bush family has made their fortune with same, ever since Sam Bush and Remington Arms sold weapons to both sides in World War-I.  Later, in the 1930’s, his son, Prescott Bush, together with his father in law invested in financing and arming Adolf Hitlers’ Nazi party, along with Hitler’s USA attorney, Allan Dulles, and Nazi banker, Fritz Thijssen. This became so bad that, after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt impounded their company under the “Trading With the Enemy” laws!  Today’s Iraq wars have been no less lucrative for the Bush/Cheney clans and their close associates and friends at the Enron, Halliburton and Bechtel corporations.

The lesson we have to accept is that we as Americans and our British Allies are not (and never were) superior beings, but  are equal to all others; not only in God’s eye, but in the harsh reality of life.  (Do not, however, expect agreement or much help from the media, or representatives; war-profiteering is far too lucrative for the elite and those who, in order to see themselves as superior beings, are willing to be their slaves.)

To survive we must learn to respect the rest of mankind, we must relate and share,... on an equal basis, in peace and in harmony with the rest of the world and with our environment... rather than continue to be exploiters.  We must become a social democracy instead of a phony democracy.  The present Iraq catastrophe is the result of the interaction of a great many elements, but is mainly rooted in our greedy, arrogant, ignorant, racist and paternalistic assumptions, aggravated by the stupid, selfish errors and under-estimations on the part of our administration and its equally incompetent “can do” neo-con Secretary of Defense.

Other elements and problems were: Major military/strategic errors,

Lack of proper logistical planning and of topographic/climatic awareness.

Politics motivated by  Greed, Power & “Prestige.” 

Our Tweedle-Dee or Tweedle-Dum  two-party system.  

Torture, atrocities, a cult of violence, and  negative military training.

Under-estimated budgets;  to force the hand of Congress.

Morality is no longer in our dictionary!

Ignorance and Armageddon; The neo-con theocracy:  of the Chosen Ones and of their Domination Theology.  

The looming US Economic Disaster, dollar melt-down and Inflation.

Created poverty, fear, drug-like apathy and the dumbing down of our people.

Federal billionaire drug pushers and the War Profiteers.

Full Media control is achieved, with  cowardly, over-paid, talking heads.

The media-created “Red” fear, or why “social care is evil.”

FEAR and Orwell’s Ultimate Fascist Police State.

Paul Wellstone’s death,  or, where murder is a political tool.

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MILITARY-STRATEGIC   PLANNING ERRORS

The Neo-con self-styled “strategists” under Rumsfeld and Bush  repeated every strategic mistake made by other Imperial dictators, such as Napoleon, Hitler and Alexander the Great. Motivated and guided by war profits, oil greed, dreams of Imperial power and grandeur, and by their Corporate World Monopoly, they amateurishly planned this  war on the other side of the world with insufficient knowledge of the topography and weather patterns,  on a target some 450 miles inland through arid deserts, scourged by fierce sandstorms, often making air support difficult, and, in summer and fall, with broiling 125^o heat (140^o inside tanks!).  The lines of communication were long and vulnerable, all water, gas, food, and ammunition having to be trucked or flown in. 

Bush even flirted with a war on two fronts, causing North Korea to happily thumb its atomic nose at the U.S., while the Japanese, realizing that they can no longer rely on the U.S., now have plans to build up their own defense system, starting with an observation satellite over N. Korea.  Bush hemmed, hawed and wasted time, hoping for UN approval but not getting it, then acted unilaterally, starting too late, at the beginning of the hot, dust storm season.  In the North, as was to be expected, our Muslim Turkish “Allies” refused to help or allow us through to attack Northern Iraq from their borders, in fear of a Kurdish reaction.  On the road to Baghdad, the Iraqi forces retreated as rapidly as did the Russians when attacked by Napoleon and later by Hitler, leaving us over-extended, with huge, logistical supply problems, while  the Iraqi army dug in close to Baghdad and their bases. The heat and dust were so awful that, had it lasted even two more days with no air support, our troops would have been  completely out of water, fuel, food and... ammunition.  Meaning: only two more days and our troops, without ammunition and sitting inside unmovable tanks, would have been slaughtered!  Our troops made it by the skin of their teeth, aided by Baghdad “Shock and Awe” bombings (with high collateral damage) while the Iraqi army vanished, to fight on successfully as guerillas, downing our low-flying helicopters and killing a, psychologically demoralizing, steady minimum of two or more of our soldiers each day,  while remaining in virtual control of the areas surrounding Baghdad.

We “had” Baghdad, but it was rather like having a large, hungry alligator by the tail, an alligator we had to feed and pretend to like!  We also “had” their oil, but due to constant sabotage and guerilla attacks we can’t get it out at a low enough cost to sell, since the security and insurance costs are up to such a degree that the price is no longer competitive!

Meanwhile, the neo-cons were finally forced to admit that they never did have enough troops to police all of Iraq plus our long supply lines (surprise, surprise). The  U.S. Forces keep suffering from constant guerilla attacks and have gotten to hate the Iraqi Freedom Fighters as well as the population in general, while the Iraqis hate us more and more, uniting Shiite and Sunnite (an ancient conflict blown up out of proportion, used by us, on a divide & rule basis).  More troops were needed, but only inadequately-trained Reserves and National Guard Units were available,  and at a price (note: National Security and the fire fighting resources in the American West suffer from a severe lack of manpower due to the fact that so many of the National Guard are in Iraq.) 

As was to be expected, our efforts to involve NATO were rejected since the main purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is to assist each other if attacked, and we were the invaders of Iraq, not the other way around.  Add to that our much-vaunted reasons for a preemptive, post 9-11, “defensive” invasion turning out to be based on lie after lie!

Guerilla attacks and suicide bombings have grown worse, better-organized, and more sophisticated with a seemingly endless supply of weapons, explosives and ammunition.  Since much of this was centered around Fallujah, the White House, with much bravado, ordered the Marines to “take and clean out” this town of 350,000.  A cute order to give, but the Marine command was only too aware of the similarities between Fallujah and Stalingrad, plus the fact that we could not bomb it off the map “with Shock and Awe,” without uniting the entire Arab world against us.  So, they limited themselves to some fiercely-resisted, costly, exploratory attacks. They soon realized that their Stalingrad prediction was about to come true and, not being able to rely on a steady supply of ammunition, fuel etc., they unilaterally terminated their offensive (in fact it was a kind of high level officers’ mutiny), and then came up with the bizarre solution of letting the town have its own military-police force under one of Saddam’s old generals, using the American-trained police who had joined the militia, and the militia themselves!!  Thus, de facto, they returned the town to the Iraqi Freedom Fighters, in exchange for a truce and being able to quietly withdraw out of the area.  Give it to the Marines, they were the first to recognize the one and only strategic solution for the war in Iraq; give  back the country to their military, get out of Iraq, and screw Rumsfeld, the oil interests, the politicians, Halliburton, Bechtel and all the other war-profiteers. It worked for a while, but greatly displeased the higher command’s neo-con masters. 

After having in vain tried to reach a similar agreement in Najaf, the troops were ordered to capture al-Sadr dead or alive and destroy his militia. They too, however,  are coming to realize that they may lack the military strength to do so and that, again, without heavy population bombing and destroying Holy Mosques,  the Iraqi Freedom Fighters might defeat them.  Worn-out weapons, vehicles and morale are starting to fall apart.  It is time for our forces to come home and return the National Guard to its prime duty, the much-needed protection of the United States’ mainland.  If not done,  resentment will build up to such an extent that mutiny may become an unfortunate, but distinct, possibility. 

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LACK OF LOGISTIC PLANNING and of topographic/climatic awareness.

As mentioned above, in spite of repeated warnings by many generals, the neo-con strategists grossly underestimated the complex, costly logistics of the Iraq war.  Relying on a fast, “Blitzkrieg” sweep to Baghdad, “where the population would welcome them with open arms and flowers” (sic), we, at first, somehow managed to, at great cost, keep our forces supplied, but the ever-increasing and improving guerilla tactics of attacking and destroying supply convoys had not been foreseen, nor had we counted on the heavy losses of vehicles and helicopters, to which had to be added the long duration of the conflict, with the  resulting extreme wear and tear of all weaponry, aircraft and vehicles, including tanks.  This combination of heavy usage of the remaining vehicles,  lack of replacement parts, bad roads and constant dust storms with temperatures of 120^o (140^o inside tanks), has led to a situation in which most of our vehicles and many of our aircraft now are in dire need of replacement or major overhaul.  At this moment, however, such replacement is not easily available.  The same goes for much of our weaponry, and for shortages of fuel, munitions and bombs.  We have used up much of our reserves, both in manpower and equipment and would have trouble rapidly fielding and equipping another force if needed, since it would, at best, take long periods of training and come at a prohibitive cost. Worldwide it has left us in a highly vulnerable position.

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Torture, atrocities, negative military training & racism.

Our mistreatment, interrogation  and torture of Iraqi prisoners and our ignoring of the Geneva Convention is now known to have been sanctioned by the White House.  Some of this was farmed out to private investigating companies and, guess whose names crop up here?  The old, criminally- convicted (but pardoned by then president papa Bush!) the Iran Contra  boys Ollie North and Poindexter!   Many Americans have been deeply shocked and surprised  by these atrocities.  They should not be.  Sadly, such situations are not new to our American culture and seem to occur on a regular basis in many of our own prisons.  Few people, for instance, are aware that the use of rape of male & female prisoners by other inmates or even guards is not uncommon as a form of punishment in our prison system.

In the civilized Western World our Anglo-Saxon culture is seen as far more violent and brutal than that of other nations.  Our TV and movies constantly show graphic killings and violence;  and, unlike their German, French and Russian equivalents, even our kiddie cartoons can seem extremely violent. Pedophilic rape by priests and ministers, and--as part of violent hazing--by older students in English Colleges occurs frequently and is just as frequently overlooked, even condoned.  Sex, crime, sadism, racism seem closely connected and, oddly, related to very puritanical attitudes about normal, healthy sex and nudity.  Although our TV and advertising do all they can to titillate sexually, you will, for instance, never see a woman breast-feeding her child or casually sunbathing topless, as you would almost anywhere in Europe, while popular shows like “Fear Factor” regularly feature what look like sadistic and/or pain-causing stunts with scantily-clad young women.  Our “win-at-all-cost” show-sports like hockey and football, have some coaches teaching and encouraging  how to eliminate opponents by causing severe bodily harm, while violent fights, or bloody car race crashes,  draw far more viewers than good sportsmanship.

This violent streak is reflected in our American military training, in “Kill, Kill, Kill” cadences, in demeaning treatment of recruits, in teaching blind obedience rather than thinking, and by instilling hate toward the race and nationality of the opponent as with “Yellow Gooks” in Vietnam. Add to this   military lack of imaginative thinking and insufficient awareness of the psychology of the opponent, (as, for instance, surprise at why the Iraqis are not delighted to have us as an occupying army, after years of deadly sanctions and Shock and Awe bombings that left thousands of casualties of their civilian loved ones).  Handing out candy to surviving kids after you’ve killed their parents can hardly be expected to win their hearts and minds. 

Our insular attitudes and our population’s poor general education, without any kind of objective study of our past and present history, let alone of world history, only help to perpetuate such false concepts as that we are the smartest, the best, the most advanced,  the freest, strongest, richest, most moral  democracy in the world, conversely giving us the right to be the world cop and to control everyone else’s lives.  As a result, we fail to understand the hate of other nations who see us as the most decadent, greediest, racist nation in the world; or else think our streets are still paved in gold.  Such mutual hate and ignorance is a root cause of atrocities.

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Irresponsible and purposely (?) under-estimated budgets or

Operating like B-movie producers,  Rumsfeld and his fellow neo-con amateur strategists consistently underestimated the cost of the war; or may have done so purposely to get actions started that otherwise would have been vetoed, figuring that Congress would have to keep dishing out to “support our troops.”  There was no planning whatsoever in the event Iraq  would not  “play dead” but start a strong guerilla action, even if its military had to surrender.  No thought was given to the economic repercussions of a long, extended, expensive  war of occupation undermined by sabotage.

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A NEO-CON THEOCRACY; Chosen Ones; and Domination Theology

Bush, his Junta and the other neo-cons affect great religiosity, regularly invoking God’s name one moment and, we’ve been told, using every expletive in the book when things don’t go as they want it to. Theologically  they supposedly adhere to a bizarre “Domination” cult derived from “predestination,” in which you can do just about anything you want to do, good or bad, since you’re a Chosen One and your future has been predestined by God.  You do not have to care for your fellow man, because that is God’s task and you are born to dominate as part of Manifest Destiny, the convenient theory that God has destined us (white Anglo-Saxons, that is) to control whatever is in fashion at the moment; anything from the Americas to the Middle East. 

It was very popular with South African Apartheid, other White Supremacists and old-time slave-trading colonial Calvinist missionaries.  It seems to allow so-called Patriots like Attorney General Ashcroft to keep Americans in jail, incommunicado, and without benefit of counsel or court hearings for as long as he pleases. For those of us who do not believe according to the Gospel of Bush/Ashcroft, they are evil blasphemers.  They are anxious to see the State of Israel with the rebuilding of the Temple and the coming of Armageddon, followed by the destruction of all ( including the Jews!), when according to those chosen  “Christians,”  God will allow only the pre-destined to survive and witness the second coming of Christ.

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What about Morality? Does anyone remember what it was?

How typical that this once simple term seems to have vanished from our American dictionary.  What once was described as righteousness; knowing right from wrong --and acting accordingly-- having character, being honest, self-disciplined and of good repute and caring for one’s fellow man,  now seems to have slipped to only referring to chaste behavior, particularly in its antonym, immoral as un-chaste and vice.  Our political world is obviously the last place to look for morality of any kind, what with its brazen lobbyists, pork-barrel legislation and payola. But not so long ago we still had some presidents of character and compassion such as Harry Truman or Eisenhower where the buck stopped there and whom we could trust most of the time.  Ever since Richard Nixon, however, lying has become  the White House norm.  Even so, the present arrogant ignorance and lies of our un-elected “president” remain unmatched by any of his predecessors.

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POLITICS: Motivated by Lies, Greed,  Power, lust for $$  & “Respect”.

Most of us felt exhausted after a week of nauseating funereal over-exposure and blatant media mind control with credibility-defying political and historical revisionism, (produced by the old-con Reagan gang and financed by the neo-con Bush-ite drug/war-profit gang).  In true Ronnie/Nancy B-movie-style, every conceivable “patriotic,” sepulchral device was exploited and numbingly repeated, in the hope of twisting our boob-tube generation into actually believing that the medium was the message and that Ronald Reagan had just been a charming, benevolent bon-vivant, instead of the crafty, draft-dodging, back-slapping, snake-oil salesman we’d found out he was.  There was even a star performance by Mad-Hattered, dottery Lady Margaret Thatcher, giving her Anglo-Saxon-Old-Boy-Establishment’s benediction to her former Washington stooge.  Fortunately, it was just another bit of bad TV docu-drama propaganda.

In the hardnosed world of politics, there is only one kind of politics and that is what Europeans call “Reaal Politik.”  All the rest is window dressing to confuse voters.  Let’s face the facts:  when the U.S. invaded Iraq they found no WMDs, nor were there atomic installations, warheads, or drones that could even vaguely have reached our shores ( in 45 minutes!), it was all bullshit.  Bush knew it and so did any halfway informed journalist or European diplomat.  Nor did Bin Laden’s fundamentalist terrorists, at that time, have any involvement with Saddam or his socialist Baath party; they hated each other, and if you believe Bush invaded Iraq  just to “Free the Iraqi People from their cruel Dictator,” then you might as well stop reading and start believing in the tooth fairy!  Bush and the neo-cons who handle him don’t give one flying f**k about the Iraqi people, or they would not initially have set up and armed Saddam as their stooge in Iraq.  No one, except for us gullible Americans,  ever believed any of this.  

Bush and his oil friends invaded Afghanistan and Iraq for one reason only: to gain access and monopolize the oil of the Middle East and the Caspian sea area, and to keep these area under their control.  Many decades earlier the British set the style for such colonial exploitation and oil control.  Buy off a local Sultan, Prince, King or Dictator, put him in power, protect him and make him and his family insanely rich and powerful... in exchange for which this loyal vassal sells out all of his country’s oil and his people’s slave labor to the oppressor.   This sample of white-Anglo-Saxon “Manifest Destiny” is not just some particular bit of Republican villainy; they have, for years, played “good cop - bad cop,” working  hand-in-hand with the Democrats to mutually enrich the same oil barons and war profiteers who back both parties.  Which leads to the next, hard question. 

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Tweedle-Dee or Tweedle-Dum? Two-party politics today.

Do we vote Republican or Democrat?  (Much of the comment in these pages is  from Mark Hand’s “It’s Time to Get Over it” 02-09-2004. Mark is editor of Press Action)

It is amazing how the American public has been brainwashed in its schools and by the media into believing in the existence of a competing Two Party System, without realizing that nowadays both parties are (quite openly) funded and controlled by the same Military-Industrial Puppet Masters which general/president Dwight Eisenhower warned us about in 1953.  It is particularly amazing because outside of the U. S., few are fooled by our electoral, media-controlled puppet show, no more than we used to be fooled by the old Soviet Union’s “one candidate” election game!

Ours is a naively simple system: the Big Boys just go after the largest voting block of the moment, let’s say the Fundamentalist “Christian” block, then get them all excited about abortion, gay marriage or taking the “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance, (none of which Big Business gives another  flying f**ck about), and build it up in the media --which they control completely.  All those folks then happily decide to vote Republican, and when told National Security is in danger, will patriotically endorse the next foreign war or oil-grab to grossly enrich our oil- & war-profiteers.

If, however, by the next election the Republican nominee has screwed up as badly as George W. and his neo-cons --so that only total loonies will vote for him-- a less lunatic, but conservative, “Democratic” candidate is fielded, who then will investigate everything his/her predecessor screwed up on. He/she will be less inclined to rape the environment or the Constitution,  will offer more women’s rights, or a female/black senator, leave women’s reproductive rights be, let the gays do their thing, maybe offer to improve Health Care and “save” Medicare, or promise to raise the taxes of the rich (while, of course, leaving their huge, convenient loopholes intact!),  increase our troops to save democracy in Iraq and: lo-and behold, we’ll vote Democrat.  Being obedient “patriotic” Democrats, we’ll, of course, also back the next cold or hot war in order to protect our National Security and to keep padding the pockets of our Military Industrial friends.

As the lesser of two evils we, of course, have no choice but to vote Democrat. (But do beware, don’t try to change the System or your small plane just might crash as mysteriously as did Paul Wellstone’s. ) 

Also beware that, if the worst comes to the worst, and should Bush seem to lose, some insane neo-cons might decide upon a Latin-American kind of coup with a ruling Junta, particularly since they stand a good chance of, otherwise, being charged with international war crimes!  I do not, however, believe the American military will accept that;  they, then, might just try a coup of their own.  One way or another, these are interesting times we live in and with the amount of nuts around we might even end up with a Civil war of sorts and/or national bankrupcy.

Okay, so we ditch Baby Bush, his neo-con nuts and their Partnership for a New American Century (PNAC)  for John Kerry; what do we end up with then? The very personable John Edwards and Kerry, but also  “Progressive internationalism,” courtesy of the Neo-Dems’ Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) who in fall of 2003 joined other tough Democrats to unveil  their Progressive Internationalism:  A  Democratic National Security Strategy; a 19-page manifesto which calls for: “The bold exercise of American power, not to dominate (?) but to shape alliances and international institutions sharing a common commitment to liberal values”. ( Minus the word “liberal,”  wasn’t that exactly what Bush’s neo-cons wanted?)   It praises the Democratic party’s “muscular internationalism,” while they “aim to rebuild the moral foundation of U. S. global leadership by harnessing America’s awesome power...etc.”  They admire America’s victories in two world wars and its democratic alliances such as NATO which triumphed in the lucrative Cold War. 

Kerry, at one time, co-founded the pro-peace Vietnam Veterans Against the War, then switched over to help form the "the war was okay" Vietnam Veterans of America; he now has seen it fit to formally state that even without WMDs he would have voted for attacking Iraq!  So, what about World Peace and getting out of Iraq? The equality between people, races and nations?

All this confuses liberal voters and it desperately needs retracting by Kerry!

Like Bush, Kerry seems to dislike France’s opposition to the U. S. invasion of Iraq.  In his campaign book, “A Call to Service; My Vision for A Better America” on  page 51 he writes: “I hope Jacques Chirac has ceased his foolish rebellion against the very idea of  the Atlantic Alliance.  America has always(?) shown magnanimity in victory, and should meet repentant Europeans halfway, not ratchet up the badgering unilateralism that fed European fears in the first place.” Excuse me, John. I may have to end up voting for you, but that’s a patronizing, arrogant piece of crap!  What are Europeans supposed to “repent” about, to us “magnanimous” Americans!?  That they refused to believe Bush’s lies about WMDs, trans-Atlantic and atomic rockets or Iraqi “connections” with 9-11?  That they recognized it as the neo-colonial oil grab of Iraq it was?  And what “fears”?  That this strategic and political abortion would only lead to the awful disaster it turned out to be; all purely intended to achieve U. S. oil monopoly and to benefit military-industrial war profiteers like Bechtel, Halliburton and the Bush/Cheney clans?  Damn right that Chirac and other Europeans refused to participate in this illegal invasion and that Chirac fearlessly stood up to Bush and the Senate.  (Remember how presidential candidate, Congressman Dennis Kucinich was the only one who voted against the Iraq invasion, and later submitted the only clearly worked-out plan on how to get out?)

On page 42 of Kerry’s book, talking about the Vietnam fiasco, he accuses anti-war movements as, “those who dismissed our country as the villain in the drama.” (Weren’t we?  Had Vietnam invaded America?  Had not the United States invaded, bombed, Mylai-ed and Agent-Oranged Vietnam and,  against Congressional orders, bombed Cambodia and Laos? What about Kerry’s 1971 book,“The New Soldier” Collier Books, NY?  But the last page of Kerry’s recent campaign book is the most unsettling and should be read by  “Anybody-but-Bush” voters.  In this passage, Kerry justifies the millions  killed in the 20th century by U. S. Forces and their allies, then suggests that concern over our war crimes in Vietnam is no longer necessary, and dismisses the anti-war movement as the work of know-nothings! Sadly, Senator John Kerry and the neo-Dems  of “Progressive Internationalism” here sound about as gung-ho about  imperial military intervention as do Bush’s fundamentalist, neo-cons. 

 John Kerry needs to clearly disassociate himself from these Neo-Dems,  and admit that the Iraq war is a mistake and that we should get out asap (returning the oil, the stolen gold and the “privatized” enterprises to Iraq as Kucinich advises?).  Then, more progressive Democrats might take a chance with him, ignore that his charming wife (until very recently a registered Republican) is a mega-millionaire, admittedly a close personal friend of the senior Bushes, or why John also belonged to Dubya’s bizarre, elitist “Skull & Crossbone” club of very ill-repute.  Oh, if only John K. had the courage to leave the millionaires’ club and move even a little bit left of center, nearer to our Democratic roots, where a love for peace and a huge vote awaits him!  Until then “anybody-but-Bush” may not be enough for many and SOMEONE ELSE may sound better,  in which case the Kerry campaign will have blown it for all of us!  So I suggest to wait till the very last minute to decide who to vote for.   A lot  may happen between now and November!

A New American Left 

Wake up America, what’s happened to us?   How did we allow an evil, neo-con partnership of controlled media, a pseudo “Christian” elitist theocracy, international war-profiteers, financial swindlers and drug dealers,  to dope and brainwash us so?   How did they, with Orwellian malice,  force both parties to so twist the most noble thoughts of mankind;  thoughts of  love and care for their fellow humans,  and concern for the stewardship of our earth?  Twisting them into ridicule, presenting them as undesirable, or even subversive (!?) actions and thoughts... substituting them with violence, hate, greed, oppression, selfishness and exploitation?  Like a malignant cancer, they tried to corrupt our caring and freedom-loving meanings of terms such as;

    “Peace”(the state of freedom from civil disturbance or war),

    “Pacifist“(opposed to war as a solution to disputes,  offering arbitration as an alternative),

    “Welfare “ (Government concern and action to supply the minimal needs of the poor and    

                elderly, as well as of the population in general, including their health and medical needs)

    “Social Democracy”(achieving social reform through peaceful democratic means)

    “Humanist” (one centered upon human ideals),

    “Liberal”(generous, free, broadminded, independent in opinion),

    “Progressive” (striving for progress, particularly in politics and social concerns),

    “Environmentalist” (one who cares for and tries to have us live in harmony rather than in conflict with our earth and nature, 

          being aware that without  such a symbiotic relationship mankind will destroy itself)

    “Feminist”(one who believes women should have political, economic and social rights equal to those of men)

The intention of bettering our existence and that of average and poor Americans, instead of refunding tax dollars to billionaires, is not wrong or sinful, it is what America should be about, it is what Christianity, presumably, is about.

The time has now come to wake up from our media-induced lethargy and to proudly bear those vilified  labels of “ Peace”, “Liberal”, “Humanist”, “Progressive”, “Environmentalist”, “Social Democrat”, “Feminist” and  similar labels which stand for the care, health and “Welfare” of  people and of our World.

We are the Old and the New American Left;

We are the children of the American Revolution, who demand the return of our Constitutional Rights for all Americans, our Bill of Rights, our separation of Church and State, our Women’s Rights, Teddy Roosevelt’s love for our environment,  Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Social Security,  Harry  Truman’s “the buck stops here!”, his firing of McArthur and his simple funeral.   Return to us our Unions, Martin Luther King’s Dream of a Rainbow Coalition, an educational system which allows our children  to study un-revised, real American and world History, then and NOW, and to know, for instance, how our (Republican!) president Dwight D. Eisenhower first warned us against the  danger of the growing power of a Military-Industrial-Complex.

We refuse to be ignored, lied to, passed by and cheated; we refuse to be made into poverty-induced cannon fodder, to be cheated out of our jobs, our Social Security, our hard-earned Health Insurances, Pensions, Unions and over-time...   and, above all, out of our Vote, stolen by rigged,  black boxes!

Last not least,  let us listen carefully to what that a carpenter from Nazarethonce taught us; on how to treat our fellow-men and women, our neighbors, our enemies, our poor and our sick!

Let us realize the old American Dream:  to live in Freedom, Equality and Peace, as part of the greater Brotherhood of Mankind,  with respect for, and in harmony with, our one and only Earth.  Amen.

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